Reviews by socksonfire

A past workmate named Shoes really liked this band. Many times he advocated for them. But the guy could never seem to get laid at the time, so it was hard to rate his recommendations. Seems he’s sorted that bit out, so I’m sure Drive-by-Truckers weren’t the problem. There’s something very comforting about straightforward guitar-driven Southern rock’n’roll. It reminded me very fondly of the Beat Farmers. This album might rate higher over time.

Ahh, an entire album that explores the Tom Tom musical cul de sac that brought Stop Making Sense to a screeching halt for 10 minutes. I love the talking heads, so the members get a lot of grace. In this case, every song feels mires in molasses, every musical choice feels like the most boring one that could be made. Listening today gave a feeling inside akin to road rage: GO FASTER! DO SOMETHING! BE BETTER! I honestly don’t know how the musicians endured playing these songs.

Delivering this rating gives me no pleasure.

These rotten kids better stay off my lawn.

Somehow I must have just plain missed this assignment. Something about the whole vibe; the band name combined with the album name combined with the album cover, got me vaguely excited to press play. So when is just sounded like a version of CAKE from an alternate dimension, yes, I was let down. But I didn’t hate it. I am probably rating it the same as I would if it was the CAKE from our dimension.

I was digging this thing pretty hard. That it represents the LSD-fueled halcyon days before this band imploded into bad trips, asylums for the criminally insane, attempted prison breaks, and murder certainly adds to the listening experience.

There are a small handful of acts over the history of recorded music that you could argue influenced the musical zeitgeist in a real and meaningful way. The Beatleses and the Madonnas of the world. Where the general trajectory of the mass is actually adjusted because of their work. I would argue: The White Stripes belong on that list. This isn't about quality, but about influence. I look back at the Stripes as spearheading a stripped-down do-it-yourselfness that has enabled and inspired a sea of amateur artists to try at a time when the democratization of music was just starting to glimmer in the online multiverse. Of course most of those average tryers both failed and sucked. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

As to quality, The White Stripes were adventurous and the mileage over their career varies accordingly, but they did have a zenith, and White Blood Cells/Elephant was it. It helps that the lyrics on this album are bonkers. Love this album and it rocked my house real loud after work today.

ahhhh...my project partner's reviews are just the best, aren't they? This whole 36-minute-long part of the project has been a delight.

This 10-step psychological process has happened to me a few times now during this project:
1) Album of the day fills me with dread.
2) I don't want to listen to it.
3) I imagine the only upside to listening will be the satisfaction of giving it one star and a scathing review.
4) I put off listening for several days.
5) I finally press play, but my finger hovers over the play button for a few seconds first while I consider my options.
6) I spend most of the first song a bit unhappy, but I distract myself by musing over the wisdom of including a first track that makes the listener need to go to the bathroom.
7) By track 2 I'm kind of into it.
8) Half-way though the album I'm enjoying it greatly, and that enjoyment persists to the end.
9) I rethink the quality of my own personality.
10) I happily reward the album with 4-stars, because let's be honest, it wasn't THAT good.

Two straight edges walk into a bar and never meet. *rimshot*.

MJ has generally fared poorly in the reflected light of my fandom of other, far better artists, but has some fun tracks, no doubt. I’m generally team-Thriller though. Off the Wall peaks in the first five minutes, rarely a good sign.

Back in 2009 I was plunged back into the dating pool. It took me a good year to reset the skill set, and as a part of all that I figured I should join plenty of fish, the dating app that seemed to make the most sense at the time. There were some patterns in the profiles. For example, every single woman in North America included Kings of Leon as one of their “likes”.

I tried to educate myself on the matter, of course I did. I learned that I hated Kings of Leon. The studio albums sound like the most boring set at any festiva., Turned out this opinion is not a particular deal-breaker when it comes to sex .

Sometimes one track just outshines everything else so much that even excellent music can be rendered pedestrian-sounding. Zombie is a 5-star all time track. I got a very solid 4-star feeling from the rest.

An object lesson in being epic and stripped down at the same time. Warm and bleak. The musical progressions are uber-basic, and performance imperfections are all over the place, yet it feels human and complex and still weirdly perfect. One of the boss's best. Fortunately for the future generations, with the right coaching AI can replicate all this warm human imperfection.

I've long described myself as "not liking Jane's Addiction". This was based on couple festival gigs and occasional social listening, and certainly enhanced by some recursive re-devaluation as they paved the way for a slew of atrocious bands afterwards. I'm talking the worst legacy of inspiring terrible bands.
As I listened to Nothing's Shocking, though, I really felt like it was an absorbing album experience. Pulling any track onto a setlist would be mediocre at best. But the tracks all together in order work quite well.

After writing the last paragraph I tried to recall whether we'd listened to a JA album before. Answer: YES. About 170 albums ago we listened to Ritual De Lo Habitual and wouldn't you know, I said almost the exact same thing: album plays better as a whole. Seems like a skill that's maybe more common outside of the popular music genres. I'll give them some flowers for it. I think this one is a bit better than that one, but close call.

Interesting trivia that the cover art is actually a sculpture made by Perry Farrell. It fooled me.

Not too often an album makes me raise my eyebrows and mutter "whoa" under my breath. I'm obsessed.

PS: 10-tracks. No more. No less. 37 minutes. Objectively perfect.

I dutifully listened to this from beginning to end, probably at least partially in response to my project partner's absolutely incredible output in the past few days. I've heard it said that three kids is the easiest number to parent, but this is ridiculous (and provides me regular delightful happy moments when i get to see a new red number next my notifications every time I open this website).

One thing about kanye you can't deny: he never really hid the kind of person that he is. So tainted with excrement that there honestly isn't really much this album can do to eliminate the odour.

When the challenge arose to make a single setlist out of five full albums, HeadHunters was on my (very) shortlist. Ultimately it didn’t make it on due to being too obvious. The hottest DJ of my late 90s club days played Chameleon all the time and, against any conceivable trend, would pack the dance floor. Sigh…that DJ was very beautiful, and sometimes she would buy me drinks, but I was never single.

Aside from a mild boyhood crush spiced by the knowledge that Liz Phair would annihilate me, her music teassures me with the vague impression that I’ve been better off without her. Still, kind of good album.

Would you call it country pop? I don’t know, but I appreciated the laid back music, even if it wasn’t really imprinting on my memory much.

Never listened to Nas before today, except through ignorant cultural osmosis maybe. Still there’s something both familiar and comforting about his voice and flow style. It wasn’t enough to trigger any kind of aggressive dive down the rabbit hole, but I’m definitely open to take in more as it comes.