Reviews by stade

Ahhh, 60s rock, my bane on this challenge.
It's a pretty chill listen, I didn't hate it, but as usual even the best of this era is just kind of underwhelming to me. I enjoyed a lot of guitar passages and drumming here. The singing did kinda nothing for me.

I was dreading a death metal listen, and my first reaction WAS to hate it... But my constant headbanging proved otherwise. This is fuckin awesome actually, kickass drums and guitar shredding nonstop. It's just shy of a 4 because I don't think it's entering the rotation, but I'm certainly more open to this genre now. Slipknot could never.

Standouts: Dead Embryonic Cells • Desperate Cry • Altered State

Not quite what I expected from R.E.M. Their material does mostly sound like their hits but without any sauce -- ending up as mostly bland, uninspired rock with a few mild acoustic cuts I didn’t care for.

To his credit, Michael Stipe’s voice keeps the band recognizable, but he barely ever changes it up, and by the end of the album his delivery really starts to grate.

Standout: Stand

I dove into Fear of Music right after giving Remain In Light a 5 on first listen. Still riding that high, I was excited for more Talking Heads! This one sadly underwhelmed me though? All the pieces are there, they're still doing weird and funky jams, but it feels like the truly memorable moments are few and far between. A lot of the grooves kind of blend together.

Still a decently fun listen, but it doesn't reach the highs the other Eno albums did.

Standouts: Air • Heaven

Wonderfully weird. The rhythms here kind of blew my mind?? They have a way of digging into your ear with one groove and leave you headbopping, wanting more after 6 minutes. The back half is more spacey and meditative, a big departure from the rest of the album to be sure but I appreciate the variety in moods.
It's the front half that carries this straight to 5 though, the energy is just so gooooooood!!

Shoutout to Tina Weymouth, I had to look her up because these basslines are absolutely bangin.

Standouts: Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) • Crosseyed and Painless • The Great Curve • Listening Wind

Still don't really get Neil Young. I like the mood set by the stripped-down instrumentation and harmonica parts, I'd say it's fairly pleasant, but that's not even the point or focus of this album as I understand it.

People describe the songs on here as powerful and devastating, and I just can't relate.
It could be that I'm just not used to engaging with folk music this personal. I think back to Springsteen's Nebraska, though, and that one hit me pretty hard on several occasions. By contrast, this one failed to grab me in any meaningful way.

Standouts: Mellow My Mind • Roll Another Number (For The Road) • Albuquerque

I see the themes of nostalgia, of growing up in the decade they did -- and truthfully, the experiences told are human and relatable. But the music really doesn’t do a very good job of supporting it.
It breaks my heart to be hating on a Montreal band, but the whole album feels bland, forgettable, and at times a little whiny. Perhaps such tortured songwriting can only come from someone who’s experienced the suburbs of Longueuil. Nevertheless, outside of Modern Man's time signature, and The Sprawl II's synthy production, not much managed to stand out to me in this hour of 2010 indie rock.

Standouts: Modern Man • The Sprawl II

Pretty cool that they sound so 80s but in their own unique style. I was excited to hear more stuff on the level of Hungry Like The Wolf, but I guess nothing really blew me away like that. The Chauffeur was pretty damn fun though!

Standouts: Hungry Like The Wolf • New Religion • The Chauffeur

60slop, O
60slop

Standouts: Expecting to Fly • Good Time Boy

Incredibly imaginative beats and flows on this one, I guess I had never been properly introduced to Southern Hip Hop’s game. Agreed that the runtime might make a full future listen a bit daunting, but track for track, just about the whole thing made it into Liked Songs, so....

”Damn CeeLo, what can't you do??
Fuck arouuund 🤪🥁🥁"

Standouts: The Art of Noise • Living Again • I’ll Be Around • The One • My Kind Of People • Childz Play • I Am Selling Soul • All Day Love Affair • Glockappella • Let’s Stay Together • Die Trying

I’ve had bad experiences with the noisier entries on the list, so I dove into this one fully expecting to detest it. Turns out, I actually kind of love it???

I think the key difference is that this is basically a math rock album in disguise. Beneath all the oppressive instrumentation, there’s these meticulous rhythms that you can really latch onto as the noise washes over you. It's much easier to appreciate the chaos when it actually feels purposeful. An excellent pull!

Standouts: 2 Towers • On Fire • Wonderful Rainbow • 30,000 Monkies

I imagine this record sounds awesome to fans of reverb and mellowed-out vibes. To me this all sounds fine overall with only a couple of really great tracks, but I wouldn't see myself returning to it in full. Not bad though!

Standouts: She Bangs The Drums • Shoot You Down • I Am the Ressurrection

Man, I’m not enough of a Fantasy fan for this. It feels like pesky gnomes and goblins are trying to enchant me with kazoos and sploing instruments for 49 minutes.

I recognize that there’s more artistic merit to the record than the haters give it credit for… but that also goes for any 1-star rating given on this list, and I can say with certainty that this goes straight to the bottom from a personal enjoyment point of view.

Standout: Three Is a Green Crown

Another one of those albums that's actually pretty good but fails to stand out as a whole. With that said, I do love their energy, and these highlights are definite bangers.

Standouts: In The Crowd • The Place I Love • 'A' Bomb In Wardour Street • Down In The Tube Station At Midnight

These guitar riffs are an absolute treat, this guy manages to shred for the whole album without ever feeling too flashy or stealing the spotlight.
In fact, the whole band feels perfectly locked in, in a way that I can only compare to Steely Dan's Aja. I'm sure there's a more technical way to explain it..... All I know is that it makes for Groovy Jams all around 🎸

Standouts : Down To The Waterline • Sultans Of Swing • In The Gallery • Wild West End • Lions

A few songs on this are incredible, and had me FLOATING on vibes. The rest of the album, although it's pretty good too, does sound a bit dated at times and doesn't quite scratch the itch of what I'm looking for in synthpop.

That's not a knock on these guys -- they were making the synthetizer SING for the time -- but it's not an album I think I'll revisit much. To me they're a lot like Kraftwerk in that regard.

Standouts: Being Boring • How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? • My October Symphony

They're really good at what they do, a sort of dark and moody flavour of Rock that's reminiscent of Radiohead. To me it all felt a bit one-note by final few tracks, though none of it's bad by any stretch.

Maybe I'll try listening on a night walk and see if my opinion changes -- this does seem like a very good album for such a mood.

Standouts: Sea Song • Catch The Sun

Side 1: I'm grooving. The transitions between songs are crazy good.
Side 2: Sneaky switch into Country, but it's really not too bad.
Side 3: Back to grooving and there's some cool space synth action happening.
Side 4: Grooving harder -- they are playing their ass off and completely win me over with Treasure - Take One. I'm a sucker for longer instrumental joints.

I do see the vision behind the 4-side concept, and I think it's part of why even the Country one worked for me. There's a real sense of progression throughout these parts, with each of their respective sounds evolving and merging together towards the end.

Although I'm unsure of how often I'll come back to it, there's so much cool stuff happening that I can't help but bump it up to 4. Unexpectedly great.

Standouts: Jet Set (Sigh) • How Far • Move Around • Right Now • Treasure - Take One

Lots of elements to like here, but they don't quite add up to a very memorable album in my opinion. It just coasts as a decent 3 the whole way through.

I will say that I'm starting to appreciate how unique Bowie's songwriting is, there's truly nobody who sounds quite like him. This one just doesn't reach the same highs Low and Station to Station do.

Standout: Drive-In Saturday

Yeah this bangs. Always a fan of a band that lets their bassist shine every once in a while.

Standout: Been Caught Stealing