Reviews by nirutam2

Dangit deleted my review by pressing the wrong button, too lazy to go rewrite it. Good collections of songs minus the Indian one. Don't really think of it as a coherent album but also don't really care.

This was nuts, mostly in a good way. It felt like a campier version of "A Wizard, A True Star." And I felt like that campy attitude may have influenced many more people than Todd did. For me it made it less moving emotionally. And of course the title and cover image are just embarrassing. Still, I'm glad I encountered it. It's the sort of music I hoped to discover through this project... it's on the family tree of stuff I knew and yet I had never heard of them. I'll have to check out the documentary everyone keeps talking about.

An important album in my life, yet at some point I had heard it enough times, even “California Stars.” I am more likely to reach for other artists who have expanded on Woody’s ideas or Woody himself.

Canonical New Wave I hadn’t previously heard in album form, just happy to be here for it.

Could have sworn I already wrote this review. Every phase of life comes with a favorite Dylan album, but this has been my fav for a long time and I don't see that changing any time soon. It's the weird and wonderful essence of Dylan breaking down every aspect of what a song is then putting them back together in ways that only make sense to him. It's traditional and electric, erudite and obtuse, personal yet also not about anything in particular. I feel like I always hear something new in it. There's lots of Dylan I've gotten sick of over the years, but never ever Blonde on Blonde.

When I was a kid the edgy thing to do was to say you liked The Kinks more than The Beatles. I'm not sure anyone ever really meant it, but at the same time you can see why people would take that stance. It doesn't feel like The Kinks will ever be somebody's dad's music, there is something about them that is more inherently weird and disruptive. I think that's true even in the English country gentlemen schtick, even though that's not my favorite aspect of them. It's why this particularly album ends up as a three to me. I gave "Face to Face" a 4... honestly might have to listen to all the major albums to know what I think of each of them.

I haven’t seen the movie. I imagine this band coming from the same brain space that led Brian Eno to create ambient, which generally means I enjoy them. Not sure I’d replay this particular album though.

I always had the impression this band was too cool for me to listen to. Listening kind of confirmed that experience because I felt their influence on a dozen different things I like but also couldn't quite concentrate on anything. In situations like this where I am glad I listened but have no idea what I personally think I usually give a 3, but perhaps I will come back and change my mind later.

Geez, this dude. His scandals certainly took him down a notch for me -- no one is allowed to mess with Phoebe Bridgers. But encountering this made me remember how much it affected me the first time around. I can't say I hear something that makes me say, "Yes I know he's terrible but you must listen to this." Same kind of flat feeling I had listening to Kanye, just don't want to think about him at all.

I came to San Quentin before Folsom and preferred it for a long time. Love the medleys especially. I think any appraisal of these albums is as much about Johnny's social stance as it is about the music. I gave Folsom a 5 for that reason but will just give this one a 4 because he had done it already.

Along with Frank Sinatra, this is the person who I think of when I hear the word "entertainer." Just such raw presence and charisma. The musical style doesn't necessarily do it for me but his persona makes it impossible to give it less than a 4.

Expected to hate it but enjoyed it pretty well. If I had heard this album in high school and had no idea the Smiths existed I might have thought too it as really cool and provocative. Now it just seems like Morrissey being Morrissey and this is on the occasions when he did it well.

There's clearly a lot to love here, but Yoshimi is my Flaming Lips album and my perception of this suffers somewhat as a result.

Just amazed at how much these guys continue to shape our idea of what's cool.

Essential album for me, surprised I forgot to put it on my top 100 when we did that exercise. I get that in some ways it embodies the 2000s indie aesthetic so fully that it almost parodies itself. But I'm still into that aesthetic. I like cryptic stories and melodic departures that don't quite add up to a concept yet still have an undeniable through line. To me the through line is feeling invisible and unknown even in the midst of a group of people, a web of relationships. There is so much warmth and familiarity in the music but also a hollowness at the heart of it that I think can only be there on purpose. "Seeing other people or at least that's what we say we are doing" conveys that in several ways. Not sure this review is coherent at all.

I was too young to be a real Cure fan and too old to be an emo kid but could have easily fallen into either scene. I like that this album never gives you a pop hook to find your way out of the sadness.

This one confused me. One the one hand, you can see the talent and sincerity in the songwriting. And I learned a bit more about the guy and his story, which is compelling. But the production of the era feels artificial to me, so it never really made a personal connection in the end.

Love the electric organ but have trouble connecting when it’s center stage.

Never heard these folks before and liked it a whole bunch. Punk rock with a sax. I’m not handing out fives as freely as I did before but will return to this one to consider.

Deep Purple is such a mood, and it’s a mood I’m often into, but they never speak to my soul the way that Zep does.