Reviews by scribeben

Lovely psychedelic jazz-fusion which even gave me Coltrane vibes at points. The only thing keeping it from 5 stars for me is the extremely poor vocal performance on (ironically) the third track.

This record strikes me as Aguilera really wanting to be Amy Winehouse. Hell of a voice though. The songs on disc 2 are way more memorable than the ones on disc 1.

Bon Scott is clearly a more charismatic and dynamic singer than Brian Johnson, however the music is pretty much the same for both versions of AC/DC.

I enjoy the idea of the Dead Kennedys more than I enjoy actually listening to the Dead Kennedys. But there is the occasional fun guitar work and the politics are on point.

More musically interesting than the typical hipster slag.

These dudes really couldn’t accept that the 80s were over. Quite insufferable. Sad how this will tank the overall’91 average.

Oh hell yeah!!!!

Some of the music is hokey by today’s metal standards, particularly the bizarrely patriotic tracks. But Halford is indisputably one of the most badass singers of all time and it’s incredible how he was able to pitch these songs that are clearly about gay sex over the heads of two decades of homophobic metalheads.

More brit-pop slop and this is worse than most. “Pull Together” has some kinda cool elements at least.

The first time I listened to this was in high school and it was one of the first times I tripped on acid. I was vibing to it until I read in the liner notes that Pete Townsend actually wrote it as a criticism of the counter culture’s psychedelic drug use! Listening to it now I still appreciate the grandeur of the idea and think a lot of the compositional elements are impressive with a few decent tunes. “Christmas” for instance is kind of a banger.

Sad crooner stuff. Not crazy about it for the most part. Check out Mark Lanegan’s rendition of “Lonely Street”, though.

Relatable, articulate country/folk. I enjoyed this a lot.

The beats are cool but there’s something about this dude that just doesn’t vibe with me and I don’t think it’s just because of his public persona. There’s just a cold, crassness to him that I think would feel sociopathic even if I didn’t know he was actually that. His sexual lyrics especially lend credence to that for me. Most rappers are misogynistic but there’s something particularly cringey about Kanye’s brand of it. Perhaps if he cared more about his college classes and less about partying and getting lad he’d know it wasn’t 300 Romans, but rather Spartans who fought the Persians. (Not that he doesn’t have a point about the College grift).

As hard as blues rock gets. Some of this has been spoiled for me by commercials but I can still sense the greatness that would have come across hearing this when it first dropped.

This is actually my least favorite of Pavement’s full lengths but I understand its inclusion here as it’s the closest they ever got to mainstream success. Regardless, it’s still a lovely record.

“Out on my skateboard
The night is just humming
The gum smacks are the pulse
I’ll follow if my Walkman fades
Well I got absolutely no one, no one but myself to blame”

No lyric makes me more nostalgic for the 90s.

I agree it’s better than Sticky Fingers.

This is the real authentic unadulterated deal. I wonder what the Jamaican mix sounded like?

More wistful existentialist balladry.

Another gorgeous ethereal album from these folks.

I loved this record freshman year of high school and had outgrown it by sophomore year. I’m pretty sure the Beastie Boys felt the same way about it. I still know all the lyrics from “Paul Revere” and a couple other songs. The Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin samples still hit and “No Sleep Til Brooklyn” and “Fight For Your Right” remain eternally iconic anthems. Some of the deeper cuts are fun too. Not gonna lie, I enjoyed revisiting it way more than I expected.