Reviews by ohlessergod

I do appreciate Kate's voice and lyrics and the music is very unique, but Kate is not music you listen to lightly. Kate is classical literature that you struggle to understand in a good way. She's hard to decipher. I listened to this mostly in my car without access to lyrics and felt like I only caught words here and there. Come home, read the lyrics, and find out one of the only songs I liked was about accidentally dancing with Hitler. I would like to come back to this one and devote more time to it. It's pretty heavy.

The prison albums are cool to listen to every now and then and are generally recorded well, but all the stage banter prevents repeat listens. Still has any other artist had the guts to play for a crowd as rough as a bunch of men in prison? Who could? Only Johnny Cash had those balls. Those were his people. And despite their shortcomings he brought them a little bit of rebellious joy. These albums actually may have been better as movies so you could see the crowd interact. While it isn't something I'm going to necessarily pull up for repeat listens on a whim, the concept was unique enough to warrant a good rating and they actually sound decent. It's fun to transport yourself to a prison full of rough and rowdy cooped up men getting an hour of entertainment from one of the roughest country music singers in the middle of your years of imprisonment.

I'm happy that Neil Young read my review of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and decided to put his music back on Spotify. I didn't know it was because of Joe Rogan and now I respect him more. I thought he just wanted to get paid more from Spotify. Anyway, I can listen to this on Spotify now!

Neil Young has one of the most unique male singing voices. It sometimes sounds like he's putting it on, like it could be a joke, but he's dead serious. Of course he comes from a musical time in which it was fashionable for men to sing falsetto. Anyway it's in full force on this album and I actually love it. Damn Southern Man... I wish the lyrics to this were different because it's a damn good song! Not that I don't like the lyrics, but I almost wish this one had lyrics that I wanted to sing along with. The message is strong though and the music is great. The guitar solos in this song are delicious. Till the morning comessssssss flugelhorn solo.

I've been wondering when/if we would get some Police on here. I can see this one being a bit divisive as The Police can sometimes make me sing along or roll my eyes with their occasional fake reggae. The only song on this album I instantly know I've heard is Every Breath You Take, the sweetest sounding song about a stalker you'll ever hear. A song that has confused many into thinking it is a pretty love song, but at its heart is about stalking someone. It's actually interesting to have achieved this level of confusion in a single song, arguably their greatest hit. Don't get me wrong though... it deserves its status. Catchy, pretty, light, dark all at the same time. So this album isn't that bad! In fact there are two songs that made me say... Wait... This is The Police? The two songs are Mother and Murder by Numbers. What the fuck are these songs? Mother is some weird Pink Floyd/Beatles shit where this screaming voice complains about his mother calling him and all his girlfriends turning into his mother. And then Murder by Numbers describes how to become a famous serial killer. This album has some baggage but it makes it so much better than the standard world pop that it might first seem to be.

Nick Drake is an artist I have heard here and there but have yet to really sit and listen to. I always enjoy hearing his soft smooth songs. I've never listened to this whole album but I love One of These Things First. Hazey Jane II is a cool song. The trumpet is strange for a Nick Drake song. The song itself is strange for a Nick Drake song but damn I bet you could put his voice and lyrics against any form of music and it would elevate it. At the Chime of a City Clock... Wow. How depressing in the best way. Beautiful. One of These Things First is probably the hit everyone hears. The lyrics are so symbolic in this song, but simple enough to easily apply meaning. I even enjoyed the instrumental compositions. Interesting to note that John Cale of The Velvet Underground played on this with members of Fairport Convention. I was sad to learn that Nick Drake overdosed on anti-depressants and died at 26. His music and voice seems so much more mature than that. Maybe he felt older than he was. This is a beautiful album and Drake's voice, lyrics, and compositions have stood the test of time and managed to resonate with generations of people who weren't even alive when he was. He might have hated that, though. Who knows.

I've never listened to The Beta Band. Not bad! Like a precursor to Alt-J. Pretty minimal folkpoptronica.

I had never heard this before and I enjoyed most of it. Seems much different than other Velvet Underground albums. Simpler maybe? I kind of liked that. It isn't pretentious. I could do without the Jesus song. I'm not sure whether to like The Murder Mystery or not. I can't tell if I would ever want to listen to it again, but it was interesting once. I generally found this album... interesting.

Woof. This is either not my music entirely or I wasn't in the mood. I don't mind Up On Cripple Creek, but I wouldn't say I love it. It's fine. But the rest of this did nothing for me.

I looked up why Steely Dan is named Steely Dan not too long ago and it was the name of a vibrator in Naked Lunch. When I think of Steely Dan's music I don't associate it with Naked Lunch or vibrators but after listening to this album maybe I should. Steely Dan is superficially just good 70's pop music but there is a layer of weirdness and depth in there that you don't notice until you really listen to them. Do It Again, Dirty Work, Only a Fool Would Say That, and Reelin In The Years are the highlights. I'd definitely revisit the rest of the album too as the underlying themes are less superficial than the music sounds.

I know there is a lot of Pink Floyd I haven't listened to and The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is one I know I need to listen to. What a cool name for an album.

So not my favorite Pink Floyd album but it was cool to hear for the first time. Next time I'd like to be on LSD and really get into the Syd Barrett mindset. Also cool to learn this was produced at Abbey Road at the same time The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper. I heard a lot of similarity to the Beatles here so who (or what) influenced who? Maybe Syd and John were taking LSD together. Who knows. Cool album but I probably won't listen again sober.

Just reading about how this was recorded has me intrigued and I know very little about the Cowboy Junkies' music. Oh fuck... Harmonica? I like the sound of this so far even though Misguided Angel is not something I would probably listen to again. She has a beautiful voice. One of those 80's/90's female fronted band voices. Oh this bass in Blue Moon Revisited. This is a good one. Half cover, half original. Goddamn. She has a great voice. I understand the church recording session now. The acoustics are amazing on this. Lost a little interest in the middle but sonically this album sounds really good and I could see myself returning to some of these songs.

It turns out when you take the repetitive lyrics out of the blues and play them electronically, they seem to actually be a little more interesting. There are no sappy lyrics here, just stripped down blues riffs and covers that make heavy use of an organ. Organs aren't my favorite instrument sound. They remind me of church. But they kind of lend a smoothness and electronic sound to this album that I enjoy. As suspected Booker T. Played organ in church growing up. But it almost sounds a bit sacreligious here as if he's rebelling against the normal church organ sound. It also felt a bit jazzy at times with flair added to sections to spice them up a bit. I generally liked this album even though it's not music I would typically listen to.

Another artist I am familiar with but haven't taken the time to listen to everything they've released. I have found in the past that the Stones are about 50/50 with me. Sometimes I find something by them I really love and other times they just annoy. It's rare that I listen to them in whole album chunks though so let's see how Sticky Fingers does. I know the vinyl sleeve for this album had a working zipper that revealed a piece of underwear. I will keep that concept in mind as I listen to see if thematically the music is about taking a man's pants off. And why would the man have sticky fingers? Let's find out!

Ok, so we start with a little interracial sex. Absolutely nothing wrong with that but the way it has been lyricized here is very cringey. I could see this offending some people and is most likely the Stone's MO with the song and the album art in general. They are ushering in a new age of rock and roll and it's going to be right there in your face and they don't give a shit how you feel about it! Musically, I actually kind of found this song pretty catchy. Same with Sway. They introduce the album being about sex and drugs and rock and roll mannnnn. But hold on... The Stones have a softer side... Oh but it's a beautiful lullaby that might be about a heroine overdose? But damn it, it's not bad and has solidified itself in pop culture. I honestly don't think I even had a clue this was a Stone's song. OK another sex drugs and rock and roll song next. Starting to see a pattern, but it's interesting and varied enough that I actually am enjoying it. I enjoyed almost every song on this album, which I honestly didn't expect because I have been so iffy on the Stones in the past. But I would say this may be one of their best albums. Despite the majority of the songs relating to drugs, the music itself is really good and I would definitely listen to most of these songs again and feel that a second listen might even solidify this as a 5 star album.

Elvis Costello is one of those artists I like to grab out of a candy bowl and savor every now and then. I don't want to consume his material all at once because it's so vast and I don't want to get to a point where I have heard everything. I'm strange. I do this especially with artists who have passed and aren't still making music but Elvis is still alive and well and actually made a decent album back in 2020. And now I see he made an album in 2022 that I hadn't even heard of. Anyway, all that to say I have never heard this album but I'm looking forward to it like unwrapping a new piece of candy.

So... This candy was not as good as I'd hoped. I could see it being a piece of candy I might try again, but the first try did not wow me. I liked Shabby Doll and The Loved Ones, but the rest just didn't do it for me in one listen. I also like when Elvis Costello sounds a bit more dark and brooding and this album has very little of that sound. Thematically this album can be heavy and somewhat dark, but I didn't feel like the music itself matched the lyrics. It felt a little like Elvis was trying to take some lyrics he wrote and slap them against some music and when I read about how this was recorded... I mean it sounds like there was a lot of experimentation in the studio. For me, it mostly didn't work that well, but maybe it's a grower album.

A guy I work with introduced me to John Prine and I fell in love with this album. I'm not the biggest country music fan, but John Prine leans heavily toward the folk side of country. He's also on the classic side of country which helps too. Illegal Smile is a great song touting the harmless effects of marijuana use. And I just learned that isn't what it was supposed to be about at all! John apparently said in an interview once that it was really supposed to be about how when he was a child he found himself smiling at things people normally didn't smile at. I can relate to that. Finding humor in all the darkness is my forte and it's John Prine's as well. Spanish Pipedream lets you know John Prine isn't normal country, he's hippie country. Hello I There is one of the saddest songs ever written. Wandering through a boring life of work that leads to potentially just losing your mind and then dying. What an American Dream. This song is followed by Sam Stone, another depressing song. But the way John weaves the tales isn't inherently sad, it's honestly got a bit of humor in it, which I think makes them even better. Who wants to cry about Daddy putting all his money in his arms? But if you can kind of get an illegal smile from hearing these lyrics, John knows he did his job. Want another illegal smile? How about a song about a woman getting raped by a dog? Is it an actual dog or is he just calling men dogs? Who knows, but if those lyrics make you snicker... you're going to jail. And all those gods are the same... yep jail. The majority of these are well thought out catchy tunes with just a few in the second half that don't capture my attention as well. The lyrics are both funny and sarcastic and dark all at the same time and the music has a country twang but leans to folk and the album just gives me illegal smiles left and right.

Welcome to New York... OK thanks, but no thanks. Blank Space is a catchy hit but when I actually read the lyrics it sounds like Taylor Swift is the biggest player and isn't afraid to dump your ass. Style is so obviously about Harry Styles that I knew that and didn't even know she and Harry dated but, girl, it reads like a 16 year old's break up poem (no wonder the tweens are infatuated with her - she speaks to them like she is still one of them). Out of the Woods - another breakup song. "You were lookin at mayyyyyyyyy." All You Had To Do Was Stay - oh good another breakup song. I'm starting to think I would need to be a teenager going through a breakup to like this album. Stay! Stay! Stay! Stay! Ok now that you're broken up with... Just shake it off. This song, Blank Space, and Bad Blood are the hits off this album for good reason. They're catchy AF. Nothing too unique really. Actually they're very standard pop songs. Soooo formulaic. Instant moneymakers. I Wish You Would - oh good... another breakup song! Bad Blood - fuck now I'm a Swifty. Band-aids DON'T fix bullet holes! I was hoping there would be more breakup songs on this album. Poor Taylor must have gone through some shit. It makes me sad she is two years younger than me and about 1.1 billion dollars richer than me all because she got broken up with a lot - worth it I suspect. Wildest Dreams - breakup song but fuck it's good. It's giving Lana Del Rey. How You Get The Girl - you don't want this one... it only ends in heartbreak apparently with this one. Am I ever going to listen to this entire album again? Absolutely not. Am I ever going to hear the major hits and kind of like them... Yes. I can't give this one star because of that so two it is.

Ooo an album/group I know almost nothing about! I've heard the name, I've heard of Cut Chemist, but I don't know that I ever fully listened to a Jurassic 5 album. My god this is 22 years old. In 2002, emo was about to blow up and take over my ears so I must have missed this.

I don't like Chali 2na's voice. It's too much like a radio announcer? It sounds too polished and I think maybe the album in general sounds that way. It was also kind of preachy after awhile. Like it wanted me to be a better person but it was also like look how nice we can rap! I think there were maybe 2 fucks on the whole album? While I appreciate their messages in general, it felt a little too much like Schoolhouse Rock. Not sure how else to describe it. It generally didn't do it for me and that's I guess why I never listened to them much.

I am just not that into the blues. The repetition kills me. I see the merit in this album, but it just didn't do it for me. And there is a lot of harmonica on this album and it may be at its most annoying here because it seems to mostly only make one sound where it vibrates on one note for the entire song. It is actually kind of interesting this way but still mostly annoying to me. I feel so good I feel like balling the jack? I put a tiger in your tank? What is Muddy talking about? And the people love the mojo song so much that muddy plays it twice? Goodbye Newport Blues kind of hits weird right now because there was a shooting at Newport on the Levee last night and people were running and hiding and families were just trying to listen to music and eat dinner and it's almost not safe to leave your house anymore. I wasn't there but I didn't like reading about it because it seems like one of those places that should be immune to this sort of thing. Unfortunately this song failed to elicit much emotion from me. I'll give this two stars though because Muddy vibrates his mouth sometimes while singing and it makes me laugh.

I don't care what anyone says about Billy Corgan or The Smashing Pumpkins, this is a masterpiece of modern alt rock. There aren't many 2 hour albums I can say I've enjoyed as much as this. It's very raw and intelligent and catchy as fuck and Billy has possibly the most unique male voice on this list, which yet again has played into the inclusion of this album. The lyrics aren't pretentious in any way and almost read like teenage poetry but teenage poetry is sometimes the best kind of poetry and for catchy music like this simplicity just works. But it isn't just catchy, it's abrasive and loud and quiet and soothing and it has a gamut of feelings and sounds that other albums can only hope to achieve. It deserves its rightful place on this list because it is a masterpiece.

The Flaming Lips are one of the strangest bands I've ever listened to. They sound fairly normal on one hand but then they do or say something out of left field and somehow it works. I think this album was the start of their more saccharine poppy sound. Had I not known they had darker more rock heavy previous albums, albums like this would probably be higher rated and more easily accepted. Once you've heard the dark side of The Flaming Lips, it kind of pushes the second half of their career back a bit. Wayne has a voice and I'm starting to realize through everything we've listened to already on 1001 that having a unique voice gets you everywhere.