Reviews by somelocalloser

The one thing about this I didn’t like so much was that every song had a similar beat. Things got a bit long in the tooth. But I get how good Latifah is.

Rod Stewart rightfully gets dragged for his solo work. But his voice with the Faces is just so spot on.

That being said - based on what these songs are about, how none of these dudes got #MeTooed is beyond me.

Maybe my favorite record to come out of the CBGB crowd. Post(ish) Punk Art Rock at its finest.

I love the Chuck D/Flava Flav combo.

This is not my cup of tea. I will say one thing this band has going for them is that at least on this record they weren’t afraid to get a little weird.

Compare that with other roots revival bands from the early aughts - I’m looking at you Band of (Fucking) Horses - and it at least feels like they were trying to break new ground.

The album that makes you think “if I was a gay man in the UK in 80s this would have been my jam!”

Everyone knows Come On Eileen which you can’t help skanking to. I guess what surprised me most about this was how it sounded more like a Third Wave Ska record versus the Two-Tone Era it belongs to.

MIA’s current politics suck. This album was fun regardless. The amalgamation of world influences is pretty awesome.

Innocuous Krautrock. I’m wondering what drug one would need to be on to like really really love this.

Easily the defining record of my early 20s. After the darkness of the early aughts to have an album come along and be so joyful was a shock to the system.

What’s that?

Oh yeah, it’s the sound of every Xennial scream singing “Lies! Lies!”

Can a record that features Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts be a 5? Does Idiot Wind make everything better?

I don’t know. But I do know that at age 43 it IS a wonder that I can even feed myself.

Maybe everything that was wrong with late 60s rock?

I feel like an angsty teen listening to this - and I like it!

My hot take is that this is the most solid and best Boss record. Sure Born to Run has the great American rock and roll song - but it can be up and down.

Now Darkness is legit banger after banger. Not a missable track on it. And in the year of our Lord and Personal Cheeto Donald Trump 2026, Badlands has never been so relevant.

I could only listen to this on YouTube on my phone and it would stop anytime I used a different app. My friends - it is not good enough to deal with that bullshit.

These dudes sound like a sober Hold Steady and it’s a snooze fest.

Who knew I needed a 17 minute song about Lou Reed’s ding dong getting sucked?

But seriously folks -I don’t know where I rank this in VU discography but do know that I like it.

This got long in the tooth. The songs started to blur together by the halfway point. Now - these weren’t bad, just very samey.

The whole vibe of this is just so good. I wish when I was 23 I was this cool.

The high points of this for me is when Björk sings lead and the Sugarcubes sound like an Icelandic Cocteau Twins.

This made me feel unconnected.