Reviews by socksonfire

I've been on the record shitting on reggae, which probably hasn't been an entirely complete account of my feelings. Throw on Exodus and I'm jamming hard just like everyone else. There's lots of reggae I definitely roll with. I think my issue is that when it isn't good, it's terrible. Not terrible in a "that's giving me a headache" kind of way. Terrible in a drab, monotonous, soul-sucking kind of way. Then as my soul gets sucked I get a headache.

So, all that aside, UB40 is walking a bit of a middle ground, probably by pushing the beat a little faster, giving it that more pop-ska angle. Some undeniably solid tracks in here. Just too much dodgy filler, which is exacerbated by the unnecessary length of it all. Still, I can hang out with this album occasionally. But not too often, lest it give me a headache.

sheesh, two Nick Drake albums in the course of a month after a lifetime of not really knowing anything about him. I psychically recoil when artists misspell their song or album titles just to make them cuter, an ironic position for a Prince fan to take I do acknowledge.

But while Nick Drake would be the last person I'd want to invite to one of my dinner parties, I kind of love his music. To say stuff produced before I was born (and before a million other singer-songwriter types have basically done the exact same thing a million times) is "refreshing" may seem out of touch, but that's exactly how his albums make me feel.

As a rule, 60’s-70’s folksy poets fit horribly into the 80’s aesthetic. Horribly. The excellently-initialled LC seemed to transcend that a bit, I believe by hopscotching over the 80’s mindset and going directly into the 90’s mindset. So in spite of the synthesizers and other bloops, I’m Your Man feels like an early 90’s record to me.

Of course, this isn't the hot take I may have once thought it was. One of the coolest aspects of this whole project has been learning how trends germinate and evolve over time, and I've heard to just how wide an extent the music that exploded in the early '90s was being pioneered all through the '80s and earlier by a few brave souls.

So in summary: A grand spin!

Here I was having a solid nearly 4-star time listening to a gentle bonkers albums, when suddenly an interminable drag of a last song hit. I'm now rounding up to a generous cheerleading 3-star review.

Have you ever come across a band where you think “if these guys played a party, that party would be bad.”? I checked my watch a few times. Too many times. Didn’t descend into the depths of phone-devouring hate.

The early ‘90’s was really branching out all over. A lot of good music. Or was I just freshly graduated high school and looking for purpose? Either way, awesome album that reminds me heavily of basement parties.

I don’t recall The Libertines being on major rotation in Canada, so I’m pretty unfamiliar give or take a track here or there. I also can’t fully place them in the early aughts “bands like this” pantheon.

All in all a pretty entertaining rip.

I listen to this record with great fondness, though it still doesn’t quite fully land. It’s a great little lofi classic in basically every way, but Malknus singing style just doesn’t hook me as hard as I otherwise wish it would.

It’s still funny how such a caustic downer of a set of songs, almost entirely on the back of willful misinterpretation, became one of the iconic albums on the 80’s. Of course, a correct interpretation actually makes the album even better, so dumbasses can suck it.

Hard to trust this review given I spun this very late at night after a birthday thing and I was in a mood to enjoy, but I was pulled into a very deeply immersed state where every track reeled me in slowly and seemed to keep layering on more and more engaging elements. All in all, an awesome listening experience. If I listen again and come to a radically different conclusion I may update this rating later.

Gets my heartbeat going.

Pretty boring. When I hear “prog rock” this is what I worry it will be.

Best known to me as Peacemaker’s favourite band, something along the Motley Crüe line, I fully expected to hate this record. Seemingly, I did not mind it much at all. I must be a great mood today! And Hanoi Rocks reaps the reward of my magnanimity. Their reward is stars. Lots and lots of delicious, probably undeserved, stars.

While not being any level of fan of any of these three women, I certainly bear none of them any ill will. I found the entire endeavour charming as all get out. No fuss or tussle, just some good old fashioned country music, well-executed.

Dolly’s passing this week put me in a very giving state of mind. If I didn’t know this website’s intentions are as pure as the driving snow, I’d suspect 1001 albums of trying to juice this album’s numbers.

Hm. The allmusic write up cites both 1-star dogshitters Korn and Marilyn Manson as foundational. I agree, but also credit this as being way more enjoyable than either of those wet farts.
I guess I do grade some things on a curve.

This is a beautiful album. It makes me pull out my guitar and start strumming. Really, the guitar work alone is nifty as f’ck. Like most Dylan, this music gives you more the more you listen.

Rat-a-tat my dad knocked on 15-yr-old me’s room. I was dating a 14-yr old New Kids on the Block superfan, and we had The Monkees were playing on my stereo. My dad, full of wisdom, said “you know, The Monkees were the New Kids on the Block of their time.” This is correct.

While I’ve made some hay on here talking about the greatness of albums that are reassessed as masterpieces over time after flopping, the world reassessing the Monkees as some kinds of unsung geniuses over the last decade had been an all-time BAD TAKE by the world.

Somehow The Monkees make the idea of valuing music seem trite and shallow and silly. Maybe it’s good for taking down my own pretention a notch or two. Never a bad thing. But this music sucks.

Now, I am admittedly dumb. I once mixed up Marianne Faithful and Martha Wainwright for a ratings story, though the jury is still out whether the mix-up or the policing of the mix-up is the worser crime. In the end, the one doesn’t really work without the other, so they are joint essential reading for the book.

Another winning example of my dumbness is me imagining that Nick Drake is the same person as Nick Lowe, even though I like Nick Lowe a lot. When this album was not 80’s pop rock my brain was briefly paralyzed. But before long I was distracted by what I was actually hearing. The unique heavy picking style and the breathy singing style reminded me of how someone sings when their guitar playing is taking up 95% of their concentration (basically exactly how I sing when I’m playing an instrument, sort of high and muttered under my breath…). Almost all the songs sounded maddeningly familiar, even though I remain confident I’ve never heard any of them before.

Who is Nick Drake? Is he a mad melody stealer of the first order? Or is he just that influential that his melodies have become public domain and now live rent-free on the edges on my brain?

After some research, I had to conclude he was a leader not a follower, and the melodies are public domain.

I’ve been on holiday with my family, so not really listening to albums much the last week or so. When I broke away from the fam for a walkabout and a couple sunny beers, catching up on albums was a pleasure. This album fell into the middle of it all as the clear standout for the day.

From my limited knowledge and the cover, I fully expected this to land into a vague bucket of pop R&B I think of as “music I dig but my project-partner’s non-project partner hates.” But it was a lot better than that in the end. A nice comfortable listen that made me want to read a book on the porch. I shouldn’t judge things in advance like that.

At one pint during listening my finger accidentally hit a random song to play, and it took me 4 full minutes to figure out which song I had been on before the fingerslip. This is perhaps not a cardinal sin for a first-time listen of any album, but still, while I enjoyed this album and simultaneously knew for a fact that I would forget I’d ever heard it in about 10 days.

A big big plus going for it though: I’ve been looking for a way to work the word “fingerslip” into polite conversation for years. Thank you , Fugazi.