Reviews by stade

There is nothing I need less of in my life than "cowpunk". That's not to say I instantly hated the album, if anything the novelty of these two genres coming together was well-executed and sort of cool to hear.
But what's up with punk singers always putting as little effort as possible to sing well? The lead guy here sounds straight sloshed the whole time. It's so frequent in these punk entries that it might as well be a staple for the genre, and the appeal totally eludes me. Yet another reason Mekons will not make it to my rotation anytime soon.

I only knew the first two tracks on here beforehand, which in-context make for an awesome, explosive opening. Love it!

My main problem with Metallica is that their weaker songs tend to blur together and sound almost formulaic. On this one, the whole middle stretch (particularly Disposable Heroes) sounds indistinguishable in composition from numerous songs in their catalog. It's never *bad*, just kind of forgettable.

Even then, their godly guitar shreds are fully on display the whole time, and the album picks right back up on Leper Messiah. Orion might genuinely be a new highlight for me in their discography, and Damage, Inc. is a pretty sick closer.

All in all I can't deny it's a classic!

Standouts: Battery • Master of Puppets • Leper Messiah • Orion • Damage, Inc.

Run-of-the-mill indie rock, I'm not really a fan but it's pleasant enough, they experiment with a large instrumental variety which is pretty cool. I thought it sounded like a chiller, early Gorillaz at some points. I enjoyed the more animated moments such as Red Dress, where you can actually see the funky Prince influence. Overall though I just don't think there's much calling to me for future listens. I'm certain that there were more influential records than this in 2008!

Standouts: Halfway Home • Crying • Family Tree • Red Dress

Credit where credit's due, there's genuinely nobody else who could make this album. The one-of-a-kind artist allegations are true.
A common theme for the Bowie albums we've gotten is that there'll be one or two songs that absolutely blow my mind, while the rest is.... enjoyable.
This is true once again for Ziggy Stardust, which is mildly disappointing because I expected so much more from a record this iconic. Still lots to love about it, but far from my fave Bowie experience to date!

Standouts: Five Years • Moonage Daydream

....ehhh..? I didn't hate it but it's not for me.

Standout: The Denial Twist • I'm Lonely (But Ain't That Lonely Yet)

This is an album where, just... everything clicks. The instrumentation is rich and varied. The songs are fun, immediately catchy, and varied in style from one to another. The sequencing is on point, with seamless transitions making the full listen feel cohesive, and the lovely closing track wrapping everything up nicely. And of course, Nina Persson's voice is absolutely angelic!!

Now, all of that's just me clinically listing off points I enjoyed about the album, but I really can't accurately convey how their softly sung cover of Iron Man made me feel. I read about it beforehand and thought it sounded ridiculous on paper, but in reality it showcases all of the band's strengths while genuinely doing justice to Black Sabbath original (which I also love!). From that point and for the rest of the album, I had a big ol' grin on my face; I was 100% sold on their sound, and it took First Band On The Moon from a strong 4 to a 5 in my eyes.

Sidenote, this genuinely sounds like some of the Japanese pop/rock I love. It's no surprise the band found a strong audience over there, according to the book!

Standouts: Your New Cuckoo • Heartbreaker • Never Recover • Lovefool • Losers • Iron Man • Choke

Heartbreaking: some of this sounds *really* good. It's way diluted down by the runtime though, and knowing what I know now about Ryan Adams makes it much less tempting to revisit.

Standouts: New York, New York • Firecracker • Nobody Girl

Very interesting concept with some ideas that sound way ahead of their time. They're also somehow the first Beatles "soundalike" I've heard that actually manages to pull it off, all while adding their own unique twist.

I'd be quite tempted to come back to it in the future, since I couldn't catch everything they were trying to do on one listen. For today, I was engaged the whole way through with a couple of fantastic songs standing out. It's almost a 4!

Standouts: She Says Good Morning • Balloon Burning • Defecting Grey • Mr Evasion

I really wanted to like this more. In usual Radiohead fashion, the production is lush and begging for multiple revisits to truly dig into it, but simultaneously there really wasn't anything blowing me away or having me itching to listen again. Eh. To their credit I do greatly appreciate how much each of their releases reinvents their sound in an unique way.

For now I'm glad to know Hail To the Thief exists, and I'll keep it in mind next time I'm in the mood for this specific sound.

Standouts: Where I End and You Begin • There, There • A Punch Up at a Wedding • A Wolf At the Door

Sacré bon flow! Mon premier réflexe était de comparer le style avec la Low End Theory, mais en vrai le seul lien entre les deux est l'année de sortie; MC Solaar se démarque par sa propre identité avec un style tout aussi jazzy et funky que Tribe.

Cela dit, même s’il y a ici des morceaux très solides, je trouve qu’il n’arrive pas tout à fait à porter seul un album de 52 minutes -- l'écoute se fait assez longue rendue aux dernières chansons.

Très belle découverte quand même! Je tiens à réécouter!

Morceaux préférés: Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo • Victime de la mode

That there's an acoustic half and an electric half makes this Neil's most *musically* interesting album we've had for sure, but ultimately the meat of his songs is in the stories told, and that side still fails to make much of an impression on me.

To its credit the songwriting is undeniably good, and this is the first time I feel somewhat positively towards Neil Young's music.

Standouts: My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue) • Pocahontas • Powderfinger

Funky time signatures! I'm afraid Rush's echo-y, 80s arena rock sound still does not do it for me. Admittedly YYZ is pretty damn good nonetheless.

Standout: YYZ

🗣️ OWWW!! 🗣️
Delightfully fun and soulful. The crowd going insane for James Brown adds tons of charm to the record!

I'm so mad that they're being annoying on purpose, because critiquing it feels pointless from the start. It's anti-music. It goes completely against everything I look for in music.

As it played, I honestly and truly tried to self-reflect, to understand why someone would enjoy this, what value this constant abrasiveness has, what they were attempting to say with their art (not like THIS IS RELIGION THIS IS RELIGION THIS IS RELIGION is very subtle)..... All of this, as John Lydon on the cover art kept annoyingly staring me down, taunting me with his bad music.

But then, when the artist straight up tells you "we only wanted to finish the record with a minimal amount of effort which we are doing successfullyyyy 🤪🤪🤪" (Fodderstompf), what's even left to analyze? It's clear contempt is its whole purpose, and I don't see that as interesting or much worth engaging with at all.

it's straight up Metallica in 1.5x lmao

I've never seen a band so carried by one member. I noticed a pattern about 5 tracks into the album: it seems to alternate between great and not good with every song. It led to me checking every song credits to ultimately witness a phenomenon where, anytime Stevie Nicks is on the mic, the band pulls together to sound like heaven; by contrast, any Lindsey Buckingham writing credit is just some bs (title track excluded).

In essence I loved.... half of this album! Though the length is pretty intimidating for any future revisits.

Standouts: Over&Over • Think About Me • Sara • Storms • Sisters of the Moon • Angel • Brown Eyes • Honey Hi • Tusk

I suppose I'm a fan of longform instrumental wankery, this was freakin awesome (even counting the grunting prog rock demon in pt. 2)
My only real critique is that, for a two-part piece, there really isn't much cohesion as a whole. Mike Oldfield really just travels from musical idea to idea. Also not a fan of the last two tracks; Viv Stanshall's drunken 3am rambling in the final moments of the album really breaks the instrumental magic that had been built for the past 50 minutes. I choose to forgive this choice though, because Viv also delivers the HARDEST title drop of the 70s at the end of Tubular Bells Pt. 1.

Standouts: Tubular Bells Pt. 1 • Tubular Bells Pt. 2

I'm afraid the hype is completely justified here.

I've been getting slowly eased into The Beatles by this challenge, but it wasn't until our third album entry of theirs, Rubber Soul, that I truly started believing. To me that was the band at their best, just pure great songwriting on display with little experimental weirdness or psychedelia (which admittedly didn't really work for me on Revolver and Sgt Pepper).

Abbey Road takes everything I loved about Rubber Soul, and infuses it with all the experience and maturity they gained in the four years between both albums. I like to jokingly say that music got good in 1970, but hearing the GOATs of the 60s transitioning those same songwriting chops into a spiritually 70s sound is every bit as good as I could've imagined. Even the goofy and off-beat songs here are a joy to listen to!

I never thought I'd give a 5 to a Beatles album - nevermind two - but I can't deny how peam this is.

Standouts: Come Together • Something • Oh! Darling • Octopus's Garden • I Want You (She's So Heavy) • Here Comes The Sun • Carry That Weight • The End

I find dense folk albums to be quite challenging listens when they come up, as they demand my full attention to really keep up with them, on top of having a sound I don't much care for. Nevertheless, Bob Dylan is an important figure, so I decided to give his album a fairer shot than I usually would, and found the experience way more enjoyable than I imagined. There are some beautiful melodies on here! I loved him straight up rapping with a great flow on track 1! Also a big fan of the crazy shit going on in Bob Dylan's 115th Dream!

Admittedly the album's longer tracks on the back half kind of lost me as they dragged on far more than I liked (even Mr. Tambourine Man, as catchy as it is). The closer totally saves it from being a dud, however.

Good album!

Standouts: Subterranean Homesick Blues • She Belongs to Me • On the Road Again • Bob Dylan's 115th Dream • It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Yessir, that was definitely a Christmas album. A pretty fun listen to be fair! But I know that there is Christmas music out there that's more than that -- music that I'd actually seek out for the occasion -- and this isn't it.

Standouts: A Marshmallow World • Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)