Reviews by similartie

It can be hard to rate the Beatles because their best songs set the bar incredibly high, and at the same time they had no qualms about including throwaway songs on their albums either (mostly due to the very short timeframes they were working with). And then of course there is the practice of not including the singles on the album. Replace Run For Your Life with Daytripper and that might be your fifth star. So, yes, it is a classic, but not a stone cold killer album.

I like that Radiohead continued in a progressive direction after OK Computer. This is an important album for the band and for popular music at the turn of the millennium. It’s a little uneven with several songs obviously standing out among the others, but you have to take the album as a whole and not track by track.

The playing is pretty tight and it seems like they had a vision. Good for them.

Pure camp. I hated it.

The only compelling thing about this album is the harmonized vocals and that’s only because they make Staley’s vocal affectations slightly less annoying. Hard to believe this stuff was so mainstream in the 90s. If this were released today it would be a niche thing wallowing in obscurity.

Not great. Not terrible.

Very abrasive. It's like shaving in the dark with a crusty old razor and a grotesque, sweaty man keeps accidentally bumping your elbow.

Some decent grooves, but not much of a Wow factor to be found. The hit track Super Rich Kids is pretty good, but not much else on the album is memorable, (or it is memorable for the wrong reasons). They tried it with the sparse production, but they just couldn't help themselves. Just barely three stars.

I think I'm becoming immune to hard rock riffage, pounding drums, aggressive guitar onslaughts, wild solos, etc. from doing this project.

But I cannot forgive the ridiculous vocals and lyrics.

This falls under the category of objectively damn good, but subjectively I'd rather be listening to something else. I will give extra credit for being a live performance though; those don't always translate on record.

I hate to be a Grinch, but I'm going to go against the prevailing wisdom: the Wall of Sound kinda sucks. Especially for background music, which Christmas music almost always is. It sounds like a Wall of Mush.

The performances were good, but as for listenability it's a bit disappointing.

One of my favorite Neil Young albums. This is just right in my wheelhouse. Downtempo folk rock with stretched out psych-ish jams. I can listen to this one over and over again.

Back when I was growing up, The Doors were one of those bands that our Boomer parents told us was great. And classic rock was great. And we listened to these things and we bought the Morrison posters and put them up on on the walls next to the Bob Marley posters, in our dorms. Oliver Stone made a movie.

That golden aura has faded and it's easier to see the Doors at face value now. This album really isn't anything special. Off to the dustbin of history then.

Solid album. Love the low-key horns and the subtle guitar passages.

The music is pretty good but the “punk” vocals are terrible.

Great album, but a little uneven and some of the production touches have not aged well.

When the formula works, it works.

I'm not going to get too deep into the weeds on this one, but it's not one of my favorite Stones albums. Beggars Banquet, on the other hand, is one of my favorite albums of all time. The highs here are just not as high and the lows drift into 70s-sleaze rock. I just can't do it anymore.

I was fully prepared to give this album a three-star and move on with my life, but I listened to it again with headphones on and the volume up and I have to give credit where credit is due— this album is actually pretty good.

It's very 90s-alternative-but-what-is-it-the-alternative-to type of music. Mainstream and accessible, sure, but I don't necessarily think that means it's boring and middlebrow.

And tbh, it takes a bit of adroitness to pull off a towering, anthemic song like "Bitter Sweet Symphony." Not many bands can do that.

They say you have your whole life to create your first album and only four years to create your second album. I guess the expectations for Lorde were probably unreasonably high after the absolute smash hit that was "Royals," but c'mon. I think people were really interested to see what she would have to say as she gained experience of the world and to see if she would create Great Art. Spoiler alert: she made a fairly limp and unimpressive pop album.

This album is about 10% psych/garage rock and 90% hard rock/proto-metal. The longer, trippier sequences I could tolerate. I can't stand the wanking and the riffing and the vocals.