Reviews by rhymingnonsensically

This was a really fun mash-up of a lot of genres I didn't expect to find here. Yes it's punk but there was plenty of early punk and electronic music on the front end and Os Mutantes on the back end. Bonus points for the album cover from Spongebob Squarepants. Really liked the electronic touches that seemed more in place in the late 70s/early 80s than the late 90s. Probably a 3.5

Sir Paul McCartney, king of the toe tappers and definitely my cuppa tea. Front half is definitely better than the back half, I thought we had another Fiver on our hands.

Kind of weird hear the Beach Boys doing the socially conscious album. Student Demonstration Time is a hilariously terrible song but Disney Girls and Surf's Up are outstanding. The Tree Song is honestly one of the weirdest songs I think I've heard.

This is a very good album by itself and an outstanding one when put in the context of Bruce's overall output. Used Cars and Open All Night could be dressed up and put on the River, Darkness on the Edge of Town, or Born in the USA. The rest could only exist in this album. You can get a desperate sort of hopefulness in songs like Thunder Road, Born to Run, or Badlands or the romantic tragedy of Jungleland or a lot of the Wild, the Innocent, the E Street Shuffle. You can get the blue collar "you think you're better than me" on a lot of Born in the USA and the River. But here those dreams and hopes are curdled and the universe has folded in on itself. We ran away with Wendy but now I'm sitting in my car staring at the radio towers going insane listening to Rush Limbaugh precursors at 2am wondering what the fuck happened to my life. Maybe we drove out of town with Mary but now I'm on trial for murdering four people and headed to the electric chair. All of that is what makes the closing song such a fucking heater. Bruce has taken us into the minds of some extremely isolated and hopeless people, explored his own fucked up relationship with his Dad, drops some images of dead dogs on the highway and lets the listener decide if he's being completely earnest or tongue in cheek when he says people find some reason to believe.

The more things change the more they stay the same, yeah?

This is just about everything I want out of an 80s style pop album. Really just need this overlaid with some footage of people tearing down the Berlin Wall. Can't believe the Americans never used these guys for a needle drop. There's a really fine line to walk with this kind of music between transcendent and so boring and/or grating you want to rip your ears off and these guys fucking nail it. I'd go five but the last two songs are just ok compared with the rest of the album. Came back and listened to it a second and third time. Have never listened to this before. Verdict: This is a brilliant album. FIVE. Editing this for a third time to reiterate that this went from never having heard of it on Monday to top 5 album all time on Wednesday. I cannot stop listening to this

Pretty good

The British really had quite the dalliance with reggae and ska in the late 70s and 80s. I'm here for the Randy Newman cover. Also here for portraying Mrs. Thatcher as Madam Medusa. Somewhere between a 2.5 and a 3, there's not a ton to hate but we aren't really reaching the mountaintop either.

As others have pointed out there's a lot of fun mid-60s rock and roll through a noisy 90s kaleidoscope, outside of the opener, Striped White Jets and ex-supermodel I thoroughly enjoyed this. With this type of music short punchy songs are better and obviously that's here in spades.

I have a weakness for Celtic music and New Wave so combining them as skillfully as these guys do has my knees knockin' and brow wet.

I think is in the Rage Against the Machine lane. I recognize the quality and I think I liked this more than It Takes a Nation but it's just not for me at my present stage of life. I am afraid of the black planet.

This is a time and place album, I probably listened to this thing a hundred times the fall of 2020. It was a calming presence at a weird time to be alive

Finally, an artist known for inspiring reasonable opinions among those who love or hate her music. My biggest gripe with Taylor-mania is that her lyrics seem more intent on laying easter eggs for her fans to try and figure out instead of trying to write a good song. Finding your way to the universal from the specific is what great songwriters do but with Taylor the specific usually remains the specific which leads her to a lot of non-sequiturs. That being said, and in fairness to 1989, I think a lot of that comes from her later work as she moves from Taylor Swift the Musician and into Taylor Swift the Media Institution and an American Princess Diana worth more than the GDP of Samoa. The album itself is about as good a pop record as you'll find for the 2010s even if it is slightly overcooked.

This was shockingly good, the perfect balance of forward facing (for 1991) while firmly rooted in the rock of the 1970s. I can hop on this bandwagon.

Borrowed Tune is an outstanding song and the rest is the generic Neil Young we've all been told is some of the best music of all times.

They really are one of our premier pure rock bands. Energy! Violence! Sex! Toe Tappers! "She liked it medium rare" made me laugh. Look out Prince, there's a new horniest m-fer on the block. I don't think there are enough heights here to get to a 4 but there isn't a lot to complain about either. 3.5

On the one hand, rock and roll peaked with the song Layla. On the other hand, I could probably cut this album in half and end up with a better album--not everything needs to be a double album and in a way we get a very appropriate album title. There are some other outstanding songs here (I Looked Away, Keep on Growing) surrounded by an unfortunate amount of filler (Nobody Knows, Key to the Highway). 3.5 if I've ever seen one.

God blessed Texas

I think this is perfect example of the hippie aesthetic, fundamentally talentless musicians guided by misunderstood eastern spiritualties skipping around a maypole that somehow comes together to be vastly more than the sum of its parts. Sometimes you just get an 83 win world series team, it makes no sense.

I was at a party with a friend from my schooldays named Donald once and he just kept singing Sixteen over and over again until he disappeared into the night. Wonder whatever happened to him.