Reviews by similartie

Papa Was a Rolling Stone is, IMO, one of the greatest recordings ever. The other track that stands out is The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. It’s a fine rendition, but mostly I just have a soft spot for the song itself. The rest of the album is not super memorable, but good enough.

The first half was relatively harmless but then wow, look out, because the back half was terrible. I don't really know who Paul Weller is and at this point I'm afraid to ask.

As the kids like to say, this album SLAPS.

I like the idea of this album more than the actual album, but it's still pretty good. And I like the Apple Jam part at the end.

It's been a while since I listened to this one, but what more could you possibly want from a roots-rock record? Eight tracks, nothing too flashy, just make it count.

When I was a senior in high school I started dating possibly the most beautiful and smartest girl in the entire school. Her favorite artist was Alanis Morissette. One day she wanted to hang out after school, like we usually did, and I told her I couldn't because I had to go visit my grandparents. She was very disappointed; I'm not sure why — as I mentioned, we hung out almost every day, young and in love.

The thing is, I lied. I wasn't going to see my grandparents. What I *was* doing was taking the train into the city to purchase concert tickets from a store-front scalping operation, for the Alanis Morrissette concert. I don't think I had ever even been into the city by myself. The round-trip must have been at least 3 hours. I probably printed out directions from the train station to the store on MapQuest and I'm pretty sure I paid with a written check. On the way back, my heart was aflutter, as I felt like I had just climbed a mountain in the name of love.

My girlfriend moped around for a couple days after that, still sore about me leaving her boyfriendless that afternoon. I don't remember when I gave her the tickets, maybe for her birthday. I didn't really want to go to the concert myself. It was just assumed that she would go with her best friend, Lizzie. On the night of the concert, I drove them down there and if I recall correctly, I took them to the McDonalds drive-thru to get food before the show. I dropped them off at the venue and picked them up again when it was over. I have no memory of what I did while the show was going on. They were so happy. I was so happy.

The curse of middle-age is that nothing remotely like this will ever happen to me again.

Session pianist Paul Griffin is really doing a lot of heavy lifting on the title track. The rest of the album feels unrelated to that first song. It's well-produced but (and I had to scroll through the reviews to find the word I was looking for) a bit mawkish. McLean lacks the cachet of even a relatively minor figure like Duster Bennett or John Sebastian.

Kinda wish the whole thing was instrumental.

Eh, this doesn't strike me as either good or bad.

Eh, this doesn't strike me as either good or bad.

The first time I heard this type of music, I was fascinated and entranced (it was Boubacar Traore). I haven't found lasting appeal, though. It was a nice listen, but I can't quite grant four stars.

It's impossible to separate this album from its historical importance; however, historical importance is not something I generally think about when judging whether or not an album is enjoyable to listen to. So, I take this exactly as I would any other album, at face value.

The next thing I have to say is that although I love the Beatles and many of their songs, I'm not sure any of their albums would be in my top 100. Although I've never broken it down to "John" songs and "Paul" songs (and George songs and Ringo songs), I suspect it's because I don't like the unabashedly poppy songwriting of Paul McCartney (although he is a great player). I don't take any joy in pitting the members against each other; after all, it takes all four to make the final product and they all ostensibly agreed as to what the band's output would sound like. But it must be said.

Now, with all of that out of the way, the album. I don't normally go song by song, but— in my opinion, the following songs are good but nothing special: Getting Better, Fixing a Hole, She's Leaving Home, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!, and Lovely Rita. The rest of the songs are all great (good job, lads) and Within You Without You is easily my favorite track on the album. Cheers and good night.

Mellow and jammy, but that's not enough for me. If I walked by someone's garage and heard a few minutes of some dudes playing this stuff I'd think good for them but they're not going to make it as a band.

If they are 100% serious about this, it’s a one. If they’re taking the piss, then it’s a two.

Waiter, there's a fly in my soup.

This album is about half okay stuff that hasn't aged well and half classic Stones. Very much a transitional album for them. I don't take the "misogyny" stuff too seriously given the time period and the fact that they were certainly heavily inspired by the attitudes of the American blues and soul records that they listened to and learned from. Also, not every songwriter is writing from the perspective of their own personal beliefs and experiences. Was Mick also literally the devil in Sympathy for the Devil?

Honestly, I could just listen to Black Steel twelve times in a row.

I wanted to listen to this album at work, but unfortunately I had forgotten my headphones at home. Then I remembered I had a set of cheap wireless earbuds that I pretty much only use for traveling. I was seriously about to give this album a one because of how terrible it sounded. Like a bunch of drunk assholes playing on kids instruments from Walmart. Well, the earbuds ran out of batteries about two thirds of the way through so I just gave up. When I got home, I played it through my good headphones and it's like listening to a completely different album. So, let that be a lesson to everyone: LISTEN TO MUSIC ON GOOD EQUIPMENT!

P.S. I threw the earbuds in the trash
P.P.S. I still don't particularly like punk music

The marriage of indie rock and dance music is an unholy one. This album kind of reminds me of the worst parts of both. Someone Great is a good song, but the rest of this I would actively avoid listening to again.

Like most of the electronica albums I've heard on here, it starts out okay but by the end I've had quite enough.