Reviews by ohlessergod

In Your Eyes is an amazing song. I guess I'm a bit lukewarm on the rest of the album. The Kate Bush song is ok (thankfully he couldn't get Dolly Parton like he originally wanted). I do like This Is The Picture with Laurie Anderson. I find the lyrics to Sledgehammer odd. But I do generally enjoy the 80's sound.

Route 66 is famous as hell but I can't say I had really heard the rest. Walking the Dog was fun. I didn't enjoy the majority of this album. R&B isn't my favorite genre and the Stones were in full R&B mode here.

I thought Funeral was my favorite Arcade Fire album and only remembered liking a few songs from Neon Bible. But listening again I realize the entire album is good. Unfortunately, when I listen to the Arcade Fire now I can't help but think of the accusations made against Win Butler. I guess they ended up not going anywhere, but it does linger in the minds of the fans because he didn't deny it, but merely said it was consensual. There's no way to prove it either way, but when multiple people come forward saying the same thing happened... It is hard not to think it might be true and this person may have done something wrong. And then I have to wonder why bands that I enjoy keep getting accusations made against them? Brand New for example. How can I listen to Brand New without thinking about the accusations against Jesse Lacey. Maybe the shit these artists do makes for good creative fodder which is really fucked up, but I'm just theorizing here. Anyway, I have a hard time separating the artist's personal life from the art they create, but if I really objectively do separate those two things the art does stand up on its own.

I had definitely never heard of Cornershop or this album (although maybe I had heard Brimful of Asha somewhere). But I found this album from 1997 refreshing. It sounds like it was made yesterday. The fusion of indie rock with Indian sitar is super unique. I enjoyed this one a lot.

I admittedly only knew Birthday by The Sugarcubes going into this and I worried it was maybe their only good song. I was so wrong. This album is great. Björk is a very hit or miss artist. You either love her style or hate it. My favorite part of any Björk song is when she growls. The growls pull you out of her pristine vocals and let you know there is a lion inside this woman. I thoroughly enjoyed this album and almost wish Björk had never gone solo because Einar does a great job on vocals too. They seemed to have a good chemistry. Maybe someday they will collaborate musically again.

I used to think Radiohead was too slow and sad for my taste so I shunned them. Then they came to play in my city and I got tickets mostly because there is a lot of hype surrounding them and they do not come here very often. I decided I would listen to their discography before the show. I ended up finding at least something off of every album that I enjoyed. And then I saw them live. My seats were so far from the stage that they looked like ants, but the music and the energy and the lighting all contributed to an amazing experience I will never forget. Sure I didn't see Thom's wonky eye up close but the music sounded amazing and that's what I was there to discover. This album was probably my least favorite of their discography, but I couldn't tell you why. It just didn't excite me as much as the others. But upon listening to it again, I've found myself enjoying almost every song. I need to read the lyrics because old mumble mouth just mumbles right along through this one too, but musically this is a beautiful album. I like the political stance as well even if it does seem out of place for Radiohead. It was definitely the right time to protest what was happening in global politics. Radiohead is a slow burn. One definitely needs multiple listens to digest this music, and I've found those types of bands and albums my favorite.

With 6 songs I liked I'm giving this 4 stars even though there were 7 other songs that I was indifferent to. My faves include: The Beat, the commercialized Pump It Up, (I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea, Lip Service, Living in Paradise, and Lipstick Vogue. There's a lot of energy here and even in my driving listen I picked up on the mysogyny talked about by the many reviewers in the Wikipedia article for this album. But then you also learn that The Rolling Stones Aftermath was a major influence on this album and you understand. It's art. It doesn't mean that Elvis Costello wants to be a woman-hater. Anyway, there's a lot of good stuff here and then some other stuff that's just kind of here, but the good stuff is really good stuff hence the 4 stats.

Fuck me. Please don't make me listen to this. I will give it a shot, but fuck me really?

OK, I will admit Hello is a good song. It's catchy. She actually sounds good. She doesn't belt like she wants to be Amy Winehouse. But aside from the very first song, I found the rest boring and not my type of music at all. This album sold tons of copies and people go apeshit over Adele for some reason as if she is Pavarotti or something. But I don't see the hype. I'm gonna go for two stars just because I did get Hello stuck in my head over the weekend, but the rest of the album is narcissistic pandering to the masses.

I don't believe I've ever heard of The 13th Floor Elevators before this so I went in blind. Obviously, the name of the album and the cover art gave away the psychedelic experience I was about to have (while driving to and from work...). And what a groovy time it was man. Roller Coaster, Splash 1, Don't Fall Down, and You Don't Know were my favorites. I think by the time I got to You Don't Know I started to really hear a strange instrument. It was like a vibration of some kind with a rhythm. Upon looking up the Wikipedia page for the album I saw that one of the band members played an "Electric jug." I needed to know more and honestly the electric jug presence on the internet is very low. But this lead me to Tommy Hall's Wikipedia page where I find out he is now a registered republican and never wants to play the electric jug again. Anyway, the electric jug was cool on one track but by the end of the album I was kind of getting annoyed by it. So no wonder it never took off. We could have had Taylor Swift backed by electric jug. We could have had emo bands of the early 2000's moping over an electric jug sound. But luckily for all of us the Boomers in the 60's decided the electric jug just wasn't meant to become the most popular instrument. Best thing they ever did. Thanks Boomers.

Oh Nico. Why do you sound like you've smoked a thousand cigarettes and like you're faking your German accent? I like that your Wikipedia page mentions a quote from a music reviewer saying your voice "sounds like a cello getting up in the morning." Highly accurate description. What did Andy Warhol hear in your voice? How the fuck were you friends with Jim Morrison? I guess you get a lot of opportunities when you're a beautiful woman and nobody really cares that you sound like a cheese grater attempting to shred melted Muenster (get it? Cause she's German...and because I wasn't sure if Muenster cheese was actually from Germany and looked it up, now I know it is an American cheese made by German immigrants to be similar to Munster cheese which originated in France).

Anyway enough about Nico because she actually isn't featured heavily on this album. She doesn't even ruin the songs she sings. She lends a strangeness to the album and after having heard her songs a few times, one might even start to enjoy them and find comfort in them. Here I go again writing about Nico.

Ok, the rest of the album isn't bad. I enjoyed Sunday Morning, I'm Waiting for the Man, the titular Venus in Furs, Heroin, and even the Nico lead I'll be Your Mirror. It's a strange album with strange singers and strange musicians and strange banana pop art that sounds kind of basic but in a good way.

Too bluesy. They stole too much. Whole Lotta Love is damn catchy though.

This didn't really wow me. Everyone knows Bang a Gong (Get It On) but it's another song that has slowly been so overplayed that it no longer excites. I was excited to hear the rest of the album but it too didn't excite me all that much. I did like Cosmic Dancer's bizarre love of dancing and Life's a Gas and Rip Off. The rest just kind of played. Maybe you need to hear the entire album played as much as Bang a Gong to appreciate it. Or would that make you hate it?

I love Miles Davis, but this album sounds mediocre until you read about it and find out all the planning that must have gone into who would play what when. It was very much a background album for me while driving. Nothing wrong with it except for how standard it sounds. Miles usually wows me, but Birth of The Cool doesn't wow me all that much. It's fine. It's great for background music, but otherwise it sounds pretty standard for jazz.

I'm not sure this one is fully for me. There were a few songs I was able to enjoy without fully knowing the lyrics but rap in a language you aren't fluent in is always difficult. I mean it's my fault for not being fluent in French. Again, some songs were likable without knowing the lyrics but generally it didn't wow me. Maybe one day I will read through the lyrics in English and appreciate it more.

This is debatably my favorite album and it may be my favorite album out of 1001 Albums. When every song is perfect and catchy and stuck in your head for days, that's a perfect album and Surfer Rosa is that album. I heard about The Pixies from Kurt Cobain and liked them as soon as I heard them. Around that time I think they were still disbanded. In college I saw Frank Black on his solo tour with his backup band. It was Halloween and he got locked inside his tour bus but the crowd patiently waited and then he came out with a mask on and played solo acoustic versions of quite a few Pixies songs. The crowd exploded. Frank's solo music is not bad but can't begin to approach the original Pixies. They reunited with Kim for a tour but I think the closest they came to me was Chicago and I couldn't go (that may have been high school). She again left the band and I missed my chance to see the original lineup. I dated a woman and wanted to take her to see the Pixies. We went to the show and things were going well but she walked outside through doors that had no re-entry on them. I left too missing half the show. I get outside and she tells me we should just be friends. And so she ruined the Pixies for me temporarily. But then j realize they are coming to Cleveland in a month and I grab tickets and my best friend and I say "I'm going to see the full show in Cleveland damnit." So we ride to Cleveland listening to the Pixies for most of the ride. And we see the Pixies and they are amazing. Joey Santiago is playing his guitar with a drumstick and frank is having a good time, only getting pissed off here and there but he doesn't throw a tantrum. Great show. I meet another woman and she's the love of my life. And the Pixies return. I have to go. And we get her niece tickets for her birthday along with Head Carrier on vinyl. We go to the show and it's fine. Not as much energy as the last show I had seen but nothing wrong. Anyway, I tell people I've seen the Pixies two and a half times because of the one show I partially missed. And Surfer Rosa is an amazing album. Some of their more recent music has been good but I'm not sure it will stand the test of time like this album and other albums from their original lineup have. Kim Deal was an integral piece of the Pixies puzzle. Paz was spunky and filled in nicely but her politics got her kicked out. I have not seen the new lineup, but I think it's interesting the revolving door of female bassists they've had. And numerous other bands like the Smashing Pumpkins have had issues with male/female band dynamics. All of that to say I love this album and always will.

Yep, sounds like 90's electronica. But I do love some 90's electronica. I don't know that this fully wowed me and I found it hard to dance to maybe because the beat was often subtle, but I generally enjoyed this and it was not something that I'd ever heard of. For some reason the cover seems familiar. Maybe I've seen it on vinyl at a record shop and had no idea what it was. Glad to have checked it out.

Chain of Fools and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman are the two songs that made it from this album. You Make Me Feel has been ruined by commercials. The rest of the album was mostly background noise for me. Nothing really stood out. Aretha's definitely got a voice, but this isn't for me.

Four stars for Four Women, which is an amazing song and actually coincidentally makes me think of my wife with some of the names mentioned in the song. She said it made her cry. It is an emotional song and the album on the whole has a lot of emotion behind it. Four Women had the best musical accompaniment. The jazzy sound is slow and moody in most songs. It's not something I think I will revisit as a whole that often, but I appreciated having the chance to listen to it.

Every song on this album is filled with burning rage just like the band's and album's name. My only minor gripe with this album is that it begins to sound repetitive as a whole, but because every song contains the same energy and little flourishes get sprinkled in, I can still give it 5 stars. I'm not sure I will listen to the album as a whole again, but I liked every song individually because every song has something special and the energy is amazing. We need this kind of energy in politics today. I cringe when people who swing to the right-wing listen to this and think it speaks to them. I cringe because punk rock sometimes confuses these people into thinking this music is for them and then they steal it and it becomes difficult for left-wing liberals to even listen to, but I don't give a fuck. I like it and I understand the message and I will rage against the right-wing machine who is killing in the name and FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME. Right-wing fascists fuck off. Rage is for lefties. Rage is for the people, not the people creating the machine. You have no right to rage against the machine if you are supporting it and helping it grow. You have every right to rage against the machine if you are an unwilling participant in the machine, a slave to the man who put you there. I admit I am a straight cisgender white male and thus I am public enemy number one. My kind has destroyed society as we know it. But please understand there are those of us who are on the side of those who have been buried by society and care for and want to fight alongside those who are frequently disenfranchised. Fuck the machine. Destroy the machine. Break down the walls that keep us locked in our cells. Music like this can inspire these emotions in the right people who will use it to try to make our society better and inclusive for everyone.

Not my favorite Joni Mitchell album, but I need to read the lyrics sometime. It's got a weird stream of consciousness thing going on, almost like she's rapping more than singing. Can you imagine Joni Mitchell rapping her lyrics? "Between the forceps and the stone." These songs seemed much moodier than other Joni Mitchell songs I've heard. And apparently she was kicking her cocaine addiction around this time. Apparently she was also sleeping around a lot. Wild woman Joni Mitchell. I'm not sure how to describe the first few songs other than stream of consciousness singing, and they give me major Sun Kil Moon vibes (but now I feel like Joni and Mark Kozelek may have been the same type of person at one time...). Conflicted a bit on this one but I think the lyricism saved it. Need to try it again someday and I'm sure I will. Can't digest Joni all at once.