Reviews by ron_penis

one of the standard bearers of the dark age of mainstream music. squeaky clean and totally vacuous production, no subtlety whatsoever, any emotion feels purely artificial, and to top it off i simply just don't like Brandon flowers' voice and overblown, melodramatic delivery. i did like it in high school so revisiting it was kind of fun for that reason, but I definitely won't be listening of my own free will ever again

production is very sterile and inhuman to me, the drum machines make me want to die, cheesy and not in a fun way. bad indeed

cannot bring myself to care

leads off with a song that made me think this might be good, but no such luck. ranges from numbers for a musical I'd never want to see to songs that were somehow written with the hope they'd eventually be included in an awful indie movie from 2005. none of the instruments are played with any recognizable emotion, and cocker's voice is better suited to hosting a children's tv show. hard pass

can't resist anything by joni Mitchell, the voice, the complexity of the music, the lyricism. she's got the goods

bit of a genuine classic innit

on the one hand, pretty innovative and impressive for 1970. on the other hand, I'd pay good money to never hear ian gillan sing again

i used to love this album, but now, I don't know. maybe it aged poorly or maybe my sensibilities have changed in a way to misalign me from it. still plenty of highlights but it verges on plain ol' annoying too much to me now

one of my favorite albums of all time, words can hardly do it justice, or at least not my words

kinda feel like a chump giving every Beatles album a 5 but sometimes you just gotta give it up for the boys

objectively good by nearly any measure but i just don't like piano so let's compromise on a 3

stone cold classic

1001 talking heads albums to listen to before you die

i just so happen to have been listening to taylor swift's discography for the first time, so i feel like I'm in a uniquely good position to speak on this album. as the wizened geniuses in the top reviews so bravely point out, taylor swift is a pop musician. hopefully by the time they finish this list they'll have slightly more open minds and maybe have lightened up like 10%. so of course while I'd love to disagree with them, this just isn't that good even as a taylor swift album. coming off the heels of lover and folklore, her two best albums up to this point, this is a huge downgrade. pretty bland, and mostly just feels like a poor imitation of folklore, but more national-y, which to me is not a good thing. it's too scientifically engineered by pop scientists to ever slip into bad, and it has its moments, but it's pretty much the definition of average, and thus, it gets a big ol' 3

not the epitome, but still public enemy

I'm sure seeing this live would be amazing but taken this way it just feels kind of overwrought and musical theatery. There's plenty of good here but when standard bearer for a Pink Floyd album is Dark Side of the Moon I can't give it better than a 4

never really been one for electronic music but even i gotta give it up for the boys

was never a huge Bowie fan in addition to thinking he was kind of a creep, so this never really had any emotional resonance for me as his "goodbye" or whatever but the actual music is objectively pretty good and interesting

billie joe's voice has always been nails on a chalkboard to me, but the music is well enough executed, saving it from a 1

make some cuts, get this down below 35 minutes, and you'll have a solid 2/5 album