Reviews by prometheus

I'm quite fond of The Stooges, MC5 and even The Velvet Underground when it comes to American proto-punk,as they call it, but something about this just doesn't grab me the same way. Perhaps it's the childish humour that rubs me the wrong way. Well, it's fine anyway.

Generally I've never really gotten into the early punk stuff all that much. I either prefer the more experimental fields of post-punk or some proper hardcore punk (preferably Finnish or Japanese) but this was actually really good. I'm in a good mood today so hey, let's make it a full five starts, why not.

It's not really all that bad but I can't get rid of the feeling, that it'd be essential to at least see the movie once before you listen this album. And since I haven't seen it, I feel like just listening to this is severely lacking something from the overall experience.

Your standard modern indie affair with emasculated vocals and whatnot. Meh.

A lot of people call this elevator music in the reviews but hey, who says elevator music can't be great? I liked this quite a bit.

Trout Mask Replica is obviously the album everyone ever talks about. And I rightfully so, even though I personally think it's still a tad overrated, and compared to it, this is pretty basic stuff. Not bad by any means, but nothing I'd really want to come back to either.

Queen albums I've had so far have basically all had a couple of pretty good hard rock songs and a lot of piano-driven songs and high-pitched singing that I simply cannot tolerate at all. The A-side here was actually quite a pleasant surprise since most of it was... quite good? Well, sadly the B-side is more of the kind of Queen that, like said, just can't get my head around to tolerate. I don't know what it is particularly with piano-driven rock songs like these that's rubbing me the wrong way. Same issue with Elton John too.

So yeah, half of this album is pretty good, but I guess it's clear that Queen in general just aren't for me. At least Ogre Battle inspired the strategic RPG series of the same name, if anything.

I remember this album and particularly Charlie Big Potato and its surreal video being pushed heavily on MTV Nordic back when this came out. Looking back, it's quite bizarre to imagine the amount of money labels would put into something that, by today's standard, isn't really mainstream in the slightest. Or perhaps they do? I really have no idea what's going on in the mainstream these days.

Anyway, someone in the reviews said this album sounds "perfect" and I can agree with that, and their viewpoint on it too. Meaning that, despite being seemingly perfect – not a single unwanted note or sound on the album, everything being exactly as polished as it should be – that's actually what makes the album more dull and boring. Overproduced might be a better, if not a bit misleading word for it. There has to be some cool gimmick or little trick in every song and every single part they could possibly ram on in. The kind of thing you'd think would make the album more interesting (and some "objective" reviewer rejoice, no doubt), but is mostly just tiring to me.

Everything is very compressed in the mix; couldn't get a snare and bass drum sounding more "millennium" even if you tried. Like said, it sounds perfect in a way, but really not at all at the same time, if you know what I mean. The songs themselves are perfectly fine, even good but I wish I could hear a bit more natural or less polished versions of these songs.

Yeah, can't really hate it, just far too overproduced to my taste. Still, 3/5.

If there are any genres where, I think, Yanks excel above others, they’re noise rock and sludge metal. This is no exception. Great dissonant, chaotic noise rock that, to me, leans a bit too much to the math rock side of things instead of the more noisy stuff. I’d personally loosen up that snare drum a bit too.

Anyway, this was quite good, indeed.

Steve Albini's production is, as per usual, about as good as they could possibly come. Music, well, it's still good but I just can't get into any of the bands labeled grunge. Nirvana is perhaps the best of them and they're still, well, perfectly fine at best.

There’s a reason why the ”electric jug” never became a stable instument even within the paychedelic rock scene.

To be fair, I don’t hate it as much as some people do, but I do find it thoroughly unnecessary.

Anyway, it’s a pretty good record. Fsr better than most other psychedelic rock from the same period. Still not something I’d really listen to regularly though.

It was perfectly fine. Nothing more, nothing less.

The kind of a band name and album cover I would’ve never given even a thought had it not been due to this list forcing me. And am I glad it did, because this is wonderful. Great songs and most of all, absolutely amazing production. Love the guitar tone on this album so much. Was thinking of four stars ar first, but I had to give it another listen and fucking hell, let’s make it five, why not. Been getting a lot of shite on this list lately so this was quite a pleasant surprise.

That was actually pretty decent. Way too long of an album though.

The beats are decent and I do like the British accent. Didn't listen to the lyrics. Didn't annoy me. Two stars.

Again, even at 39 I feel like I'm far too young to really "get" this album or even the music of this time period in general properly. It's very easy listening and non-offensive, albeit very samey throughout the album.

Anyway, I wasn't annoyed by this and this is basically the best this kind of music gets, so eh, I guess it's all right?

I guess I'm meant to give this a higher rating in the light of Parton's death yesterday. Well, too bad; this is about as country as they come and country, to me, is intolerable, so sadly there won't be any sympathy points given, sorry.

Whenever I see some discussions about more or less any American alternative band, there's always some yank praising them as the greatest thing ever, them being unreal live at this and that date in this and that city and whatnot. Then you actually listen to their material and it's some shite like this. According to Wikipedia, their first album was more akin to noise rock, which I probably would've been a lot more into, but this was one of those albums on this list that actually made me upset. Just intolerable. Never trust a yank when it comes to music.

Not once have I ever seen or heard anyone in my country talk about, let alone listen to Beck. I feel like not many outside of the yankosphere do. And I honestly don't really get why he's on this list as much as he is.

I really feel there’s a certain threshold year for understanding music and the enviroment around it. For me it’s somewhere around the mid-60s. I simply feel that any music made before that date is from such a different cultural enviroment and standpoint that it’s simply impossible for me to really grasp. This album is no exception. It’s not ”bad”, it’s just that I’m too far removed from the era it originally came out in that I’m unable to properly understand it. Not sure if I can properly put it into words even, but maybe you’ll get the idea. I really don’t know to review this, so I’ll just go with two stars.