ron_penis

this is the only album of the new batch that really deserves to have been included imo. regardless of whether you think that it or Charli are good, if 20 years from now you want to trace the history of popular music and the waves of trends etc, this will be unavoidable. we're still feeling the effects of its influence and probably will for at least another year or two, even if it's not the most revolutionary or innovative album of all time or whatever. plus i think it fuckin rocks

i love Charli and i do quite enjoy this album but I don't think i can quite cosign its inclusion in the book. I'm already pretty against artist repeats except in specific circumstances, where they had a significant style shift or their greatest album isn't their most influential, etc but I don't think there's much justification for adding two Charli albums, especially in a batch of just 13. am i still going to give it a 5? well yeah obviously Dying for You is fucking banger and the decision to bring John Cale into the silly pop movie soundtrack album is so cool and the end result is really arresting, i just think in a perfect world this spot would have gone to someone else (plus Music, Fashion, Film is better if we really need a 2026 Charli album but i accept that the book came out before that album (although you gotta give it up for her putting out both of these great albums within 6 months of each other))

naturally, Robert Dimery would never miss an opportunity to subject his readers to a SEVENTH rolling stones album. even ignoring the practically unjustifiable insistence on hogging up yet another slot with this one stupid band, there's too much of this shit in the book from other bands; there's too much of this shit in the world, period. beyond that, we've all heard versions of this sort of thing that are just flat out better anyway, and i can't even imagine what the reasoning behind its inclusion is: that it was the first 'good' stones album in a while? who gives a fuck? i could rattle off like 10 rock albums that beat this in quality and/or influence from the last 5 years, but Mick gets another album in just because they stopped completely eating shit in the studio and managed to turn in an album that's corny, trite and boring rather than simply awful?

highlights include some nice contributions from musicians that aren't in the band, lowlights include Mick Jagger's awful performance as some kind of sexy rock 'n' roll baby on Mess It Up, and Sweet Sounds of Heaven, which i think I'm supposed to read as an epic, grandiose, sprawling conclusion but is just a tortured, never-ending, meandering slog complete with a Lady Gaga vocal performance that feels like she's making fun of the band. thank god Fetch the Bolt Cutters got cut for this

another album that i can see from my last.fm that i listened to on release and promptly forgot about! it made a little more of an impression on me this time around but it's pretty easy for me to see why i had that experience originally; it comes out of the gate pretty hot but it's pretty one-note for the duration, and that one note is not enough to my tastes to keep me engaged. pretty good, but there aren't enough change ups and surprises to keep me coming back long term

it's not bad but when i start thinking an album seems kind of familiar, and check my last.fm to see that I have in fact already listened to it and completely jettisoned it from my brain afterwards, well, it's not usually a good sign,