scritters

Pre Listen:
I've only ever listened to Supertramp's "Breakfast in America" album before, and I quite liked it. Expecting a similar level of quality music here, so higher expectations than usual.

Notable Tracks:
Bloody Well Right - Favorite track. I love the oomph of the vocals; they do the fun lyrics justice. A Fun song.
Rudy - Another highlight and probably would've been my favorite had it been trimmed a bit. It's just got a few unnecessary parts that don't really do anything other than pad it's runtime.

Post Listen:
Cool album, I enjoyed it. It gave me Pink Floyd vibes, specifically Dark Side of the Moon.

Just like Breakfast in America, this album's lyrics, instrumentation, and overall presentation were quite good. I played this one during a lengthier drive home, and consistently the album interrupted conversations over it, because the songs just had several "woah" moments. I'd like to listen to this one again sometime, and may edit my review, because I think there was more going on under the hood that I didn't get to appreciate through a first-time listen. That said, there was a lot of padding I felt on several songs. It's a shorter album with only 8 tracks, but even then, I think it could've been cleaned up a bit more to perfection.

Very cool, very nice. 4/5

Pre Listen:
I've heard of Fats Domino before, but I'm struggling to remember any of his songs. I feel like I've heard at least one before, as I used to *really* be in to songs from this decade. Higher than usual expectations.

Notable Tracks:
Honey Chile | Poor, Poor Me - Tied for my least favorite songs. Boring instrumentation paired with unforgivingly repetitive vocals and lyrics.
The Fat Man's Hop - Favorite track. The instrumentals are the highlight of this album, and it's always a joy seeing them get a song to call their own.

Post Listen:
So I didn't recognize any of his songs, but his voice sounds so familiar. I still think I've heard him before, but I'm still just not sure.

Album was ok. I liked Domino's voice mostly, it was a little one-note, but it was a good note, so it's alright. The instrumental works were the highlight, as with many albums from this time. Classic rock and jazz fusions, when such fusions were just sort of the norm, have such a golden sound to them. What dragged a lot of the album down for me however was the lyrical work, it was painfully repetitive through the album. I'm not a fan of blues to begin with, so when you pair blues-styled lyrics with a one-note singer, and make the lyrics as repetitive as possible, it became old incredibly fast. 7 out of 12 of the songs on here blend together horribly.

I think I figured out why Domino can't please his woman. It's probably because all he does is missionary and doesn't see the joyous freedom beyond simple yet comforting repetition. 3/5

Pre Listen:
This is going to be the longest pre-listen preamble I've done on here to date, but to cut out the fat: Yes I've heard this album before, yes I like it, and yes I'm heavily biased towards Johnny Cash.

This album came on my list just a few days after I let my cat go, after she had a somewhat lengthy battle with cancer. I took a brief break from this project during it, as I felt reviewing any song whilst feeling gloomy about everything probably wouldn't result in the fairest of ratings. Upon my return, seeing this album assigned shook me up.

My cat was weird. She absolutely hated car rides, and we tried a ton of things to try and make them easier for her. Nothing eased her anxiety, not medication, not being in a darkened carrier, not being allowed to walk around the car, nothing. That is, until one day, a Johnny Cash song played on my playlist during a car ride. For some odd reason, the song enraptured our cat, she curled up on my wife's lap, and for the first time ever, seemed relatively calmed. From that point on, during car rides, if she became too anxious, we'd play Johnny Cash for her. Through some experimentation we found it wasn't the Western-styled genre, it wasn't male singers with low-register vocals, it *had* to be Johnny Cash, otherwise she'd go back to freaking out.

After learning all this, we've gone through Johnny Cash's entire discography probably 3 times over, through the years and car rides with her. It got pretty damn old after a while, but I wish I could've listened to this one with her just one last time. Miss and love you Mowmow. Rest easy kitty.

Notable Tracks:
Folsom Prison Blues - Classic song, love it. Why did he shoot that man? Was it really just to watch him die? We may never know.
Cocaine Blues - Yet another classic one, love it as well. Cash is one of the few singers out there I enjoy hearing the blues from, most others just don't have the experience or soul to make it work.
Dirty Old Egg-Suckin' Dog - My wife and I joke that it's songs like this one is reason why our cat loved Cash so much. Very relatable, to a cat methinks.

Post Listen:
I think I've said enough about ol' Johnny at this point, and what hasn't been said about him anyways?

His voice is golden. He sings from experience. His lyrics can be both hard-hitting and funny. He's a man of great talent and respect. I normally don't even like the genre he sings, or live albums. This story behind this live audience is really neat though, and they had some really great moments that *did* add to the album.

Great album overall, but I do think Cash has better works out there. 4/5

Pre Listen:
The man who.... did what? Sold the world? Album cover looks painfully modern and bland. Never heard of this "Travis" guy though, so idk, lower expectations, I guess.

Notable Tracks:
Writing To Reach You - "What's a Wonderwall anyways?" lol. Yeah, fuck that song. Good call-out.
Why Does it Always Rain on Me? - Least favorite song. My god it's so repetitive, so self-pitying, so bland. The vocalist's whiney, breathy singing is at its worst here.
Slide Show - Shitty way to end an album. One of those songs that really should've just been split into two songs. The 2 minutes of silence is so stupid. What's worse, the 2nd part of this song probably would've been my favorite track, had it been its own thing. The sound is the best there.

Post Listen:
Bland ass music, as expected. Yet more UK slop propaganda, that really has no right to be on this list.

Starting with the vocalist, I thought he was alright at first, but after a few songs you realize he's sort of a 1-trick pony. His singing sounds almost the same from track to track, constantly whiney, very breathy sound. He's got this wacky "blah blah blah BLAH blah blah BLAH blah BLAH" way of singing. It's almost like if Bob Dylan stopped slurring his speech, removed all creativity from his lyrics, but kept the random bursts in his vocals. The lyrics aren't any better, extremely self-pitying and boring. My eyes almost rolled out of my skull when I heard the unironic "I'm not like other boys" segment. The instrumental work is passable, but no more than that. Solid background music type quality.

Who the fuck is Travis, and why is your band named after him? 2/5

Pre Listen:
Another one I've never heard of. Been getting a lot of albums in my blind spots lately. No expectations.

Notable Tracks:
Cloud Nine - Very strong start to an album. Major highlight.
I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Another cover of this absolute classic. I dig it, this one's a lot funkier than others. Very unique.
Runaway Child - Somewhat my least favorite song, if only because of the wailing child midway through. I get it, contextually it makes sense, doesn't mean they had to include it. Rest of the song was a joy to listen to however.
Hey Girl - Classic! I knew this one beforehand, didn't know it'd be on this album. Favorite track!

Post Listen:
Super sick album, loved the soul and funk of it all.

Didn't really dislike a single song. Each one had so much feeling to it. Every vocalist, every person on an instrument, they all worked together so well to create such a groovy little album. Other than the odd choice mentioned on that one song listed above, I couldn't find any issue with any other track.

I want this one on Vinyl. It would make an excellent addition to my collection and could elevate most good vibes to perfection. 5/5