Reviews by smith__2112

Bowie is like the one white man who can do soul

The Rolling Stones’ best album. It doesn’t have any of their big hits, but it has some of their best songs because they play with different sounds and styles. One of the big criticisms of the Rolling Stones is they just followed others and never really did anything new; Exile on Main Street is the one time it felt like they tried to be original

The backing instrumentals are pretty interesting but I just don’t care for Erykah Badu’s singing. It’s pretty monotonous throughout. 90s/00s soul has never appealed to me. I can only appreciate this so much before getting a bit bored

I’ve listened to every Neil Young album (studio and live). It’s hard to pick a favorite but Harvest is a strong contender. It was the first album of his I heard and the one I’ve listened to the most. Just a perfect laid back vibe. It makes me want to be a stoner in California in the 70s

I’ve listened to a fair amount of Simon and Garfunkel but the only two songs I’ve heard from Bookends are America and Mrs. Robinson. I get it because the rest of the album isn’t really filled with hits. Although the other songs are absolutely beautiful. Paul Simon has a way of evoking vivid images and deep emotions in only a line or two. Very good album, except for Voices of Old People. That was a pretty weird one

I always assumed Gary Numan was just a one hit wonder, but this was a pleasant surprise of an album. Solid all the way through. Although Cars still clears every other song here by a lot

Debbie Harry leads her harem of men to make some great classic rock

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an indie band I just never bothered with too much before. I liked Heads will Roll but didn’t go any deeper into their discography. I think the reason why is that they released their album Mosquito right about the time I was getting into more indie/alt stuff and that album has one of the worst album covers of all time so I basically avoided them entirely. Anyway this album has an ok cover and is actually pretty decent overall

https://youtube.com/watch?v=waGN1kBVh9Y&si=j_2lf00Mt23BXT-B&t=2m12s

I recognized the name Supergrass but have never actually listened to them before. This is perfectly fine serviceable britpop, but I can’t for the life of me picture a scenario where I would choose to listen to them over one of the bigger britpop bands like Oasis, Blur, or Pulp

I have some reviews here where I acknowledge that an album just isn’t for me. It’s not something I’d regularly listen to. So even if I try to appreciate the album for what it is, it can still get a low rating because I just didn’t enjoy listening to it.

I feel like that’s still a fair way to approach these ratings because some music that isn’t for me can still win me over. Ctrl by SZA is an example of that. Based on the other reviews I thought I was really going to dislike it, but it won me over in the first song. It’s an almost hypnotic album and SZA’s singing is really damn amazing. The entire thing just works so well

I always assumed Tom Petty was a Greatest Hits artist. If you’ve heard his bigger songs then you’ve got it. But this was pretty delightful from beginning to end. Not a bad song on the whole album

Big Star is a major “what if?” in the history of rock. They put out two very good power pop albums and then one really emotional downer album that reflected Alex Chilton’s personal decline. Would they have ever made it big if they kept turning out more pop oriented records? Maybe not. Maybe they only had those two in them anyway. They’re still great fun to listen to, and Third is fantastic if you’re in the right mindset for it. Oh well, Big Star is a solid cult act worthy of discovery by music nerds

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is one of those albums I discovered at a pretty formative time so it’s a personal favorite. I remember listening to it on youtube late at night, and some of these songs really hit different at the right time. Something like I am Trying to Break Your Heart or Radio Cure are just devastating when you’re alone in the dark with nothing else but the music and your thoughts

This was a reminder that I really need to listen to more New Order. I hadn’t heard a single song from this album before, but they were all great. Feel like I’m potentially missing out on a lot from them

Yes, Roundabout is genuinely fun and the rest of the album is interesting enough to make a listen through decent. Probably don’t need to hear it again though and I know there are two more Yes albums on the list and I fear they won’t be as palatable as Fragile

I understand that some music on this list isn’t going to be for me, but damn this album was rough. I can enjoy some country, but this crooning one note stuff is bad. I try to give every album an honest try, but I ended up skipping most of these songs after about a minute. BUT THEN the last song is actually really good?!? What the hell? How did this one good track manage to sneak on to the end of this album? It’s the only thing that saved it from being a one star

So the revolutionary meaning is pretty lost when you don’t speak the language. A very interesting album to listen to, but I really only found myself enjoying about half of it

Real men sit down and listen when Kate Bush begins to sing ethereally about, well whatever she’s singing about

Man, country music used to be good. We had songs actually about the working class, anti war songs, ones mocking superficial patriotism. RIP to John Prine, a songwriting legend