Reviews by nofaithmed11

It's all fine, but I never care to listen to it ever again.

3/5

What a voice, what a band, what a performer.

4/5

I’ll give it this: even though I still don’t think it sounds very good at all, I do think it sounds *slightly* better than most of the other hard rock/hair metal from this era that I don’t care for. The drums are the only instrument consistently drowning in reverb, which I appreciate. I just don’t have anything positive to say after that, though. This music isn’t fun or badass to me, and Axl Rose is absolutely in the running for my least favorite front-person of all time. Every now and then, an intro to one of these songs will almost resemble a 70’s Aerosmith or AC/DC song that I can kind of dig, and then…he sings, and it’s ruined. I can’t stand the sound, nor the attitude, of his voice, and that’s not taking his dreadful lyrics into account. Every pinch harmonic and pick slide makes me roll my eyes. If I could never hear “Welcome to the Jungle” and *especially* “Paradise City” ever again, I’d be a happy man.

2/5

"Must hear before you die?" Why?? So I can know what the 362nd best album of 1979 sounds like? Stupid and erroneous. Excited to never listen to this again.

EDIT: Wow, this is an embarrassing mea culpa to have to give, especially since this review has received quite a number of likes. But I've relistened, and I must say, it's been a hot minute since an album rose this much in estimation for me on one listen. This time around, I was much more drawn into it. It's still not my favorite-sounding album by any means, and there are moments where Sylvian's vocals irk me just the slightest, but in almost every song, I found myself really digging every member's individual performances. Really interesting instrumental choices and arrangements. I'm all the way up to a low 3 stars now, but it could genuinely continue to grow on me yet. I guess that's the beauty of it all, right?

3/5

My favorite album of all-time. Not a wasted second or note. The grin across my face when this popped up as my album of the day says it all. True perfection, one that will always inspire me and provide me endless happiness.

5+/5

Always better than I remember it being.

4.5/5

The second half of this record is absolutely loaded, but the opening title track is just otherworldly good. The dynamics are incredible, it’s so subtly melodic amidst the tension and primal nature of it, and those background vocals are perfectly gnarly. I also do think “Missed” makes for an interesting second track, with its odd time signature goodness and solid guitar work.

The experimentalism of “Man-Sized Sextet” is just effortlessly cool, as is the cover of “Highway 61 Revisited”, one of my favorite Dylan covers out there. PJ shines on guitar throughout the whole record, especially on the punky blast of “50ft Queenie” and the slide guitar textures of “Dry”. “Snake” is a sub-2 minute burst of intensity that perfectly sets up the ruthless closer “Ecstasy”. Although these most recent re-listens of Dry helped raise it in my estimations, I do still slightly prefer this killer sophomore effort. Riding along at a very strong 4 stars.

4/5

Just not sure if I’m fully ready for this. Some great melodies in there.

3/5

A bit one-note, but still very cool.

3.5/5

Almost convinced me with the first song, but the more it continued, the more it wasn’t something I enjoyed at all.

1/5

Incredible voice and some great songs. A bit by the numbers for me musically sometimes, but room to rise in my estimations.

3.5/5

I like Snoop fine enough as a sideman or secondary artist, but I personally don't think his delivery lends the best to a full album experience, especially since few of the guests really elevate the material. I also think that, with the exception of three or four songs, Dre's production here is a bit stagnant compared to The Chronic. My biggest gripe with this album, however, is that the humor and sexism have really not aged well. I know some people have had this complaint about other old-school hip-hop albums we've gotten, but I find this to be much more egregious than something like N.W.A, personally.

2.5/5

Not my favorite Creedence, but still very good.

3.5/5

Liked this way more than I expected to. Was never a fan of theirs, did not like these singles when they came out, but damn, I’m happy I went back to it. What a killer 5-song opening stretch.

4/5

Cool stuff. Again, I question how essential this is, but cool stuff.

3.5/5

Honestly? Some stuff I really like. But a lot of other stuff that hasn’t aged so well.

3/5

He's a great writer. And it all SOUNDS great. But even before I knew how much of a tool he was, there was always somewhat of a disconnect. He never resonated with me. I recognized the quality, but it didn't speak to me. It still doesn't.

I do my best to separate the art from the artist, but I can't pretend I'm not turned off by Ryan right now. And it definitely isn't helping me connect with this any more at the moment. A very generous...

3.5/5

Holy shit, what a discovery! Great production! Excellent samples, really cool energy. I didn’t know what to expect out of Latifah’s music, but this is one of my favorite surprises so far!

4/5

Nice. Borders on too nice. But overall good playing and writing.

3.5/5

Janis sounds amazing, and it’s a gigantic step up from the debut.

4/5