Reviews by soundowl

(10/10)

holy shit this album RIPS

(Strong 7/10)

A solid record, containing some great songs from this iconic duo. Funny enough I prefer the Bangle's version of "Hazy Winter" lol, but "Mrs Robinson" and "America" are great tunes also. I also wish that old person track wasn't there. That was bizarre. Eh, still a good one!

(10/10)

Arguably Yes's best album, it's beyond perfect.

(Light 8/10)

Very good mixture of country folk and rock with excellent songwriting and some of Neil's best songs.

(Decent to Strong 8/10)

I've always loved The B-52's and their debut is a fantastic statement. Whether it's Fred's campy vocals or the impressive vocal chops of Strickland and Pierson, or Ricky's fantastic guitars, there's always something to hone in on here. The opening salvo of "52 Girls" to "Rock Lobster" is incredible. The dance-punk energy and the zany lyrics really put a smile on my face. The deeper cuts of the album are also matched with the same energy and bravado, even if by the time the closing track "Downtown" comes on you feel like you need a break. The length of the record is pretty perfect though, it's all killer no filler and invites you to "Dance This Mess Around" (all 16 dances!?). Love it <3

(decent 6/10)

Starts off surprisingly strong, the heavier instrumentals really benefit Morissey's vocals on this record, and the bass is pleasantly trebly and audible giving it that early 90's alt rock edge that I love from this period. After the mid-point though it devolves into the usual self-loathing that a narcissist like Moz employs to garner sympathy from their peers and the closing track "Tomorrow" is just the icing on the cake for that (the tune itself is still alright though). Probably not the worst Morissey solo album I've heard but not one I'll actively seek out either.

(Strong 7/10)

This album is greatly enjoyable but has a few things going against it that make it a bit of a grower: that it has 3 HUGE singles that outshine the rest of the record, and that those 3 singles are stylistically polarizing from the main core sound of the album.

"Time to Pretend", "Electric Feel" and "Kids" are indietronica, heavily synth-based millennial jams that evoke feelings of nostalgia and youthful disenfranchisement that deeply resonate with lots of millennials that are forced to grow up past the golden age of youth and participate in the doomed adult world (also touched on in the song "The Youth"). These anthems have earned their place in the annals of millennial nostalgia-core, but also simultaneously alienate the listener from the kind of music that MGMT really desired to create.

This is a psychedelic rock and pop album similar to the likes of AnCo and latter-half career Tame Impala. Lots of swirling and unorthodox instrumentals with acoustic and electric guitars, synths and reverby vocals. It's a trippy and watery sound that I wasn't prepared for when I bought this CD years ago. Over time the music has really grown on me outside of the singles. "Weekend Wars" should honestly appear later in the track listing, coming right after the opener it's like a sudden mood switch that hits like a whip to the face. The sudden shift from electronics-heavy and spacey "Time to Pretend" to this more organic track is kind of wonky. The song is great though, it evolves into this great indie rock jam that isn't all to different from what bands like Foster The People would go on to take inspiration from. "4th Dimensional Transition" is a desert-flavored jam that really leans into the Neo-Psychedelia and Eastern Indian influences of the music, "Of Moons, Birds and Monsters" doesn't have a hook to speak of, but the instrumental is super interesting as it evolves from an alt rock jam to a psych rock one with a really neat guitar lead that plays out the song.

The ending of the record is admittedly not super strong, "The Handshake" is rather forgettable and "Future Reflections" feels sonically out of place as the closing track, though I do suppose thematically it does tie up the album's themes of nostalgia and youthful restlessness pretty nicely. To circle back to my original statement, this record probably could've done with a better track placement for the main singles to better balance out the dopamine hits as you work through the song order. It would also improve the balance as well with how the sound palettes are interacted with. Maybe have "Time to Pretend" as the final song and have "Weekend Wars" as the first song, and then have "Kids" right in the middle where it's at and have "Electric Feel" play after "4th Dimension" and then just cut out "pieces of what", easily my least favorite song on the record lol.

So yeah, all in all, a pretty good record but knowing where MGMT was headed after this one, hearing the majority of this album be Psychedelia, "Congratulations" is really no surprise if you've been paying attention. This album was just the steppingstone to what MGMT would evolve into.

(10/10)

An incredible alt rock album that combines punk and power pop sensibilities in a way that's fresh and exciting <3

(Light 8/10)

A very nice folk pop album, it's got the all time classic "Me and Julio", and sees Paul playing around with different and eclectic style of music such as on the song "Mother and Child Reunion" and then dipping his toes into the blues on "Hobo's Blues". It's clear that without Art holding him back, he's able to fully bloom as a songwriter.

(Solid 9/10)

Yeah, stellar album! Duh!
The concept is compelling, the storytelling is masterful, the intentionality with the production and features list is impressive, and even more in my opinion is the ability to keep a listener enthralled for 68 minutes and not even realize that the same song has been playing for 12 minutes. This album is DEEP. There's so much awesome stuff to dig into. I think this album is pretty much on par with TPAB in terms of musicality and concept. While TPAB wins out for me in terms of overall maturity and growth as a musician and artist, this album is still really really fucking good. Even the weaker songs are still really great (also funny as hell now seeing Drake on a feature.. lmao). Yeah, this one is absolutely amazing.

(Light to decent 6/10)

Okay... maybe I'm just not into this right now, but I really don't know how to feel about this overall.

Musically, it's very minimalistic with very light synths and bass, the drum machine is very low in the mix like a rapid but faint heartbeat. There's organ sometimes (which actually takes me out of the music), and the vocals.. I think this is where it's losing me. On songs like "Frankie Teardrop" the vocals are incredibly potent. The hushed and frantic narration, the sudden shrieks that sound like they're coming from the depths of hell, it's a frightening track both in sound and subject matter. Definitely the album's highlight, although I don't know if I would willingly put it back on.

The vocals on the rest of the album are very Lou Reed-esque, with a subtle and uncomfortable closeness to the ear that really gets under your skin. The song "girl" is probably the most uncomfortable song for this reason. If the instrumental was more funky this would be Porn groove lol.

So yeah idk, I found the walking surf riff of "johnny" to clash with the mood of the record thus far, and I found songs like "rockin usa" and "che" to be kind of underwhelming. "Ghost Rider" was cool, but very short and the song didn't end up evolving into anything more than it's basic foundation. I would've liked it to build up into something.

Yeah it's quite apparent this album was very influential for a lot of reasons, I think maybe I'm not personally in a dark enough headspace to fully grasp this, but thinking about it, it's the same reason I don't really enjoy Lingua Ignota records really. The unsettling and dark despair is only so effective, and eventually it becomes a conundrum with "do I even WANT to seek this out to listen to it?" It's not like I found catharsis in this music either. So yeah really all I can chalk this up to is: This is not hitting right now, and I'm not sure when it will.

(Light to Solid 8/10)

A very fun debut LP! It's got a great blend of punk attitude with pop sensibilities. The musicianship is tasteful and proficient and Chrissie Hynde is a phenomenal frontwoman who stands out wonderfully, especially for the time. I don't have too much to say outside of this just being a great time.

(10/10)

It's arguably one of the best vocalists of all time singing old-timey feel good music! Just throw it on shuffle and let your cares melt away

(10/10)

It's a weird kind of funky but also kind of dark record that starts really energetic and enthusiastic, but devolves into a rather stark and bleak experience that feels like peeling back the layers of society and seeing the true dark within. Groovy!

(Solid 7/10)

Pretty good! I didn't realize Richard Thompson was on this, so naturally the guitar playing is really good. The Fiddle that's utilized here is also really good as well. I think what holds me back overall is that sometimes the traditional folk tunes aren't as interesting to me as the actual arrangements are, but even still I had a good time with this one.

(Solid 8/10)

While Thriller was a hit-making-chart-topping-mainstream-monster of a record, it's actual listening experience as an album was not as good to me. Bad figures this out while simultaneously delivering on monster hits. It's got dynamic range from song to song, melodies and hooks that stay with you for decades, and Michael still proves he's locked in as a cultural zeitgeist with iconic looks and music videos galore. The forward thinking production on tracks like "Smooth Criminal" and the title track just further establish this album as a worthy successor to his previous effort. In fact I would dare to say that this album tops Thriller altogether.
it's not Bad at all.

(Strong 8/10 to a light 9/10)

Honestly this album is essential listening for 90's radio-ready alt rock and pop period. Alanis brought something to the table that was open and soul baring to an industry that was all too eager to exploit. She killed it of course.

(Strong 7/10)

Speaking purely from how much I enjoyed this record, it's very good. A few songs didn't wow me as much but it's short and sweet, and the musicianship is pretty stellar. Jazz-trained indie rockers that also draw from psychedelic rock, there's really neat stuff that happens here.

Now...

My main beef that I wanted to share here on this site is my formulated opinion on the 1001 albums project. I'm only a couple hundred albums in, using the generator mainly to shuffle my listening experience. I also own two editions of the book. The 2016 one and the 2021 one. I foolishly paid 100 dollars for the newest one thinking it would be an overhaul when in reality they only replaced 5 albums with newer ones. So that felt like a scam. My other main gripe is the amount of (or lack thereof in this case) attention that the new millennium gets in comparison to the modern 20th century decades. The 60's through the 90's touch on obviously great and important albums in music history that would be required listening, but then you get a TON of filler. Like I seriously did not need to hear Paul Revere or The Electric Prunes before I died. The fact that so much of those decades are just filled with kitschy one-offs but the 2000's-2010's don't have MADVILLAINY or DEATH GRIPS or KGLW or hell ANY METAL MORE EXTREME THAN MASTER OF PUPPETS is BEWILDERING to me. The total focus on western/euro-centric music is also very disappointing. Like, they do TRY a LITTLE BIT with sprinkling some Hindustani music, Sufi Music, Hispanic and Latin music here and there, but East Asian music is hardly explored at all, African music hardly gets touched on (aside from the stuff that Paul Simon and David Byrne were hyping up), and it just feels like the potential for a book like this to seriously expand one's music taste was squandered (like the Louvin Brothers weren't THAT important were they??).

I say all this, because listening to White Denim today made me realize that the mission statement of the author and the editor was largely ignored and this became a collection of personal staff picks with some Western Culturally Important albums sprinkled in. This album is good, but it's not really anything new or boundary pushing or reinventing a worn-out genre. Music from the past 20 years is full of creative and dynamic and inspiring music, and Robert Dimery kinda just glosses over it without really taking it seriously. If the author dared to consider more extreme versions of metal, more electronic music, more underground Rap and Hip Hop, or even PUNK and EMO, you could EASILY fill out the past 20 years to a sizeable chunk that gives it the proper amount of time and dedication it deserves to have.

I think if Dimery wants to wait a few more years just to sprinkle a few more albums in and charge his readers 100 more dollars, he should instead start over, cut down the filler, keep it as NECESSARY as POSSIBLE with as much objective picks as you can. For when new music comes out that you feel needs mentioned, just release a new book for like the past ten years titled: "101 more albums from the past decade you must listen to before you die: A supplemental entry by Robert Dimery". Like, idk I think music fans who find this project interesting would probably appreciate that better, or at least I know I would.

So yeah, all that to say, this album is good! Just uh.... idk not "sitting on my death bed so glad I heard this album in my lifespan" good.

(Strong 7/10)

A great album is hidden amongst the vast quantity of material here. It starts off incredibly strong with a string of hits that are amongst him and Taupin's best, and then the rest of the record is a bit of a hodgepodge of great song ideas mixed with awkward writing and a handful of pastiche to go along with it. I think if this record were trimmed down more and the tracks rearranged, this record would be phenomenal. Sadly, that seems to be how it goes with the Elton John records I've heard thus far. His best albums to me always seem to be his greatest hits records. That being said, the only song I really didn't care for was "Jamaican Jerk-Off", everything else was pretty good or amazing.

(Strong 7/10)

A concept record that satirizes hippie culture and mocks conservative political stances and even crticizes the kent state shooting. It's quite an amazing thing to come out at this time, and also for it to be as well-loved as it was.

I think conceptually the album succeeds where some of the music kind of gets lost in the absurdity. The sound collage and music concréte that separates some of the tracks gets a bit too silly and off putting for me, but honestly that's Zappa for you. I think there's other stuff from him I enjoy better overall, but this one is pretty solid.