Reviews by pageantree

I'm not a huge country music fan, but this album was excellent. It's acoustic-based, gentle, and meloncholic. The music has a very folk feel to it because of its sound with dark undertones and its simplicity. My favorite track was "April the 14th, Pt. 1", but the majority of the songs were beautiful and the storytelling was amazing. "I Dream a Highway" sounded so cozy and eerie, especially.

This album is a mixture of country and folk music. Besides a couple faster-paced, more blues-influenced songs, the majority of the album is acoustic, subdued, and meloncholic, which makes the emotional content of the lyrics shine through. I'm not so much into country music (banjo and harmonica especially takes me out of it), but I enjoyed the ballads (such as "Oh My Sweet Carolina") and the more heavily folk songs ("My Winding Wheel"). "Bartering Lines" was good, too. The female vocals on some of the songs were also a nice touch.

I liked this album. It's a double album that packs a lot of different music styles onto a pop/rock base (blues and country for starters). The piano parts add theatricality, drama, and beauty; the lyrics are wonderful examples of storytelling. My favorite songs were the opening tracks, "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding", and of course the grand "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". Additionally, all of the songs were groovy and had plenty of melody going on.

This album was bluesy and country-tinged rock music. The guitars were good, too.

I've previously listened to Beck's "Sea Change", a more mellow, country-tinged album that he does well. This album is more energetic and weird, but there are a couple of acoustic songs (that are amazing) that foreshadow "Sea Change" ("Jack-Ass", "Ramshackle"). The rest of the songs have catchy beats and lots of sounds and the intricate wordplay Beck is known for. Good listen, could definitely listen again.

I liked the last Stevie Wonder album I was given, "Innervisions". The music style here is a progressive soul. I love Wonder's passionate voice and piano playing, it gives me chills sometimes. This album was more serious-sounding than the previous (though there were catchy and funky songs too). Highlights for me were "Too Shy To Say" (I liked the octave changes in the verses) and "They Won't Go When I Go" (so darkly beautiful).

This is rock music with a lot of fuzz, noise, and distortion in the guitars. It also sounds dreamy and transcendent. "To Here Knows When" was a bit too fuzzy and noisy for me, but I liked "When You Sleep" and "I Only Said". The album is not bad, but I felt like it did run together. Maybe it just needs more listens because I do like fuzzy guitars (like from Smashing Pumpkins).

I had a Bob Marley & The Wailers album somewhat recently, and though I tire of constant repetitive reggae beats, I liked how that album mixed in rock n roll and other influences. Being this is a Wailers side project, I was pleased to hear much of the same elements in this album. The songs are catchy (and the reggae elements aren't overpowering) and I liked the guitars that were used. "Till Your Well Runs Dry" was quite good, especially in the non-reggae verses.

Several of the songs on this album I think I've heard on the radio before (makes sense for classic rock songs). The music is bluesy and I get some hair metal but mostly Led Zeppelin vibes from it (no wonder, it being on Zeppelin's record label). "Ready For Love" was one of those familiar-sounding songs, and I loved the piano solo/parts in it. Everything else on the album was pretty okay too, not too meandering and I could tell the musicianship was good.

This album is a lot more disco and dance-influenced than Talking Heads' previous, debut album (which I've already gotten). "The Big Country" sounded familiar to me, and it was the best song to me as well as a good closer. While the other songs were catchy and fun, the debut album just seems better to me.

This album was definitely weird (mostly psychedelic, some rock and electronic elements). There was a lot going on, and it was very eerie and unsettling for the most part. I guess I liked that part of it, the mystery and unease of it all. For example, "The American Metaphysical Circus" started off kind of cheesy with a circus-style instrumental, but then the vocals kicked in and they were dark (it was probably my favorite part of the whole album). I would say the music was interesting and unique and is another level of psychedelia.

The mix of reggae and rock music was interesting but also good. It's hard not to notice the drums at the forefront of the songs (so technical and precise, and I've heard drums this style in later music as well). I believe I already knew of "Message In A Bottle" but the title track was excellent as well.

This was a southern, bluesy style live rock album. The songs are mostly instrumental and there's lots of improvised jamming. It wasn't super meandering, I thought it was nice to listen to. My favorite song (and the one with the jamming I enjoyed the most) was "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed".

I like "Tom's Diner", and this meloncholic, mostly acoustic album was more of the same vibe. Vega has a smooth voice and the melodies in many of the songs add a pop quality. Additionally, the album doesn't overstay its welcome and it sounds like it's from the 90s somehow, so overall I liked it a lot.

A very rolicking blues album. Muddy Waters has a booming voice and everyone seems to have a lot of fun performing. Though I understand blues' significance in music culture, I'm not a fan of this super-repetitive version.

Michael Jackson is, admittedly, iconic, especially when this album is involved. This is the third majorly popular/acclaimed album I've gotten in a row, so I'm trying to analyze the music itself without letting the sensationalism get in the way. I don't typically like 80s pop albums, but this was a lot better than the usual overly synth-y, drum machine selections.

The hits (of course I've heard those already; when I was in chorus back in school one of our shows was Thriller-themed), are catchy and 5/5 (especially "Beat It" and my personal favorite "Billie Jean"). "Beat It" incorporates rock elements and "Billie Jean" brings in a darker, more mysterious sound. There are some ballads that I didn't think were as good but still not bad, and a light-hearted cameo by Paul McCartney in "The Girl Is Mine". Overall, this was a decent album (coming from someone who doesn't usually listen to a lot of pop regularly).

Prog rock continues to be a genre that I'm unsure of. On the one hand, I'm not against mostly instrumental songs, and it's even okay when they're long sometimes. I guess I just can't say that I love it like everyone else seems to. This album has good instrumentation that borders on beautiful at times. I'm already familiar with the Foo Fighters cover of "Have A Cigar", which I've decided I like better than the original because it's more hard-hitting and straightforward and less spaced-out (also the original seems to end kind of abruptly). The best songs were the ones that were the longest and seemed to have the most care put into them (both of the "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" tracks). Certainly, it's an album that requires multiple listens, I think.

I do already like a lot of Britney Spears songs (mostly her later stuff, like "Toxic" and many of the songs on her "Blackout" album, but never a full album). This, her debut, is full of ballads, manufactured beats, and bubblegum pop. Lyrically (and I could tell this about the song titles straight off, too), the songs are about wanting to make someone else happy and pining after romantic relationships. I understand this album changed the pop landscape at the time, but I find it juvenile at my current age (32). I was a young child when this came out, like 5, so this wasn't music that defined my childhood, because I was still listening to what my parents were listening to (Nirvana and 80s stuff, for example). I did like "The Beat Goes On".

This was psychedelic and long, all right. You know, I could confidently describe this as medieval-sounding sea shanties. It certainly has its charm, but that's all I can say for it.

Funk music is always a fun time. Some of the songs have repetitive elements and are long, but they're meant to be catchy and danceable. In addition, there were so many random sound effects and bits of dialogue. And the guitar solos in a few of the songs were meandering but pretty amazing, along with the other guitar work in general. I really liked the live instrumental track "Maggot Brain".