Reviews by stade

The king of pop for a reason. Even if later projects like Thriller are more cinematic and polished, this remains his most consistent album to me. There is simply not a single bad song in sight!!

Is there something super dated about the word "boogie" being sung unironically? Absolutely, but this record earns it because it never fails to MAKE you boogie. That's a 5 in my eyes: just great-ass music, an escape into good vibes.

Standouts: Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough • Rock with You • Workin' Day and Night • Get on the Floor • Girlfriend • It's the Falling in Love • Burn This Disco Out

I checked the wiki hoping to get some context for this album's inclusion, and what I found might be the most hilariously non-descriptive write-up I've ever read. It simply calls California: "the band's definitive statement".
....Definitive statement of what??!! Because I swear I might as well have been listening to brown noise with how little stood out.

Pretty decent 80s sound, enjoyable but nothing too mindblowing.

Standouts: Perfect Skin • Speedboat • Patience • Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?

You know, I was never a fan of the horrorcore angle, but I've come to appreciate the Slim Shady persona as a way to deliver unhinged rhymes that wouldn't otherwise exist in the English language. He's clearly always been crazy talented, and combined with Dre's golden touch production of the era, I can see how he made it big with this one (though I kind of prefer the more refined MMLP).

Unfortunately, over the years, that same shock value has made him an easy idol for the worst people you know. By way of the butterfly effect, Eminem gave us Tom MacDonald, and there is no music that is worth that price.

Standouts: My Name Is • Guilty Conscience • If I Had • Rock Bottom

A hiphop record that remains unmatched to this day, every single element of it is executed so goddamn perfectly.
Kendrick's pen game is obviously excellent, and the narratives and themes are nothing short of brilliant -- but to me it's the instrumental side that truly elevates TPAB far beyond any other hiphop record I know of. That 'For Free? Interlude' is such a target for hate is wild to me, because musically that's some of the most impressive fusions of jazz and rap I've ever heard.

Narratively, the jazz, funk and soul arrangements are more than backing tracks, and serve to tell a story just as much as the lyrics do. The most powerful example to me is in the final moments of Mortal Man, where the beautiful backing part accompanying the discussion with Tupac swells and abruptly cuts off with Kendrick's final "...Pac?"

I've been listening to this album for 10 years now and I'm still finding new details and meanings on every listen. I appreciate that Kendrick has gone in different directions since, but to me this is still his magnum opus and one of hiphop's most important albums.

In short,
🐐

Standouts: Wesley's Theory • For Free? Interlude • These Walls • u • For Sale? Interlude • Momma • Complexion (A Zulu Love) • i • Mortal Man

I never would've expected Willie Colón to show up on this list, but he's SUCH a deserving candidate. "Best-selling salsa record" is no joke! His songs are still getting played at latino functions half a century later, despite it being more of a "conscious salsa". You just can't help but dance to these thoughtful narratives and social commentary.

To that point, Pedro Navaja -- a catchy tale about street violence in New York -- was a staple of my years growing up, and it’s awesome hearing it here in its original context, within an album that manages to maintain the same level of brilliance the whole way through. Hearing him call to every Latin American country at the end of the first song was a very special kind of hype -- both thematically fitting and especially powerful given the rarity of hispanic entries in this English-dominated list.

Overall, it's a stellar piece of music with enduring cultural relevance and deep personal meaning to me. This is as strong a 5 as I can give.

Standouts: Plástico • Pedro Navajas • Ojos • Dime

The whole thing just kinda puts you to sleep, doesn't it?
I can't hate it too much, Nanci's voice is actually quite pleasant. It’s appalling, though, that Montreal’s first mention on this list comes in a song about how much she would rather be in the US than here. Heartbreaking.

Consistently fun with some TIGHT grooves, and just the right amount of weird in the vocals to match the funk of the band. As a first time Talking Heads listener, I can say that there was not a single miss on this one. Great stuff!

Also surprised to see Brian Eno here doing songs about buildings and food? I thought he only made music for airports 🤔

Standouts: Found a Job • Artists Only • I'm Not In Love • Stay Hungry

Pleasant listening with some nice instrumentals, aaaand that's about it. I struggle to say much more about it.

Standouts: Slow Motion • I Wish

60slop and some jugs

Standouts: Roller Coaster • Reverberation

I can tell there's some heartfelt material here, but outside of some nice instrumental passages the record feels very bland overall.

Unluckily for Van Morrison, it also happened to show up on this list right after Court and Spark -- where by pure RNG, Joni Mitchell mogs this man with more variety, sharper instrumentals, harder cover art, and infinitely more charisma as a folk/rock singer-songwriter with jazz inflections. I have no clue why Moondance is the one with the higher rating, because this really ain't it.

Standout: Crazy Love

I have been Jonipilled!!!! Who knew having vodka at 3 years old could make you such a genius

Standouts: Help Me • Car on a Hill • Down to You • Trouble Child • Twisted

I'm not a fan of shoegaze or its adjacent genres, but the production on Psychocandy feels particularly harsh and sloppy.

For most of the album I was willing to set that aside and give it a 2 for innovation and creative merit, but it truly managed break me in its final minutes with 'It's So Hard', with distortion clipping into oblivion and incoherent rambling vocals that would make Mark E. Smith proud. It's as if The Fall discovered reverb and feedback noise, and I mean that in the most insulting way possible.

To its credit, this band did make me see My Bloody Valentine's Loveless in a new light -- I still don’t “get” it, but it sounds like heaven compared to this bullshit.

Ambient music relies very heavily on the setting you listen in, which makes it a bit tricky to review. It’s not ideal for full, attentive listening, but it's also very easy for any distraction to break the atmosphere it’s creating. If you can strike the right balance and give it the space it needs, though, Music for Airports offers some gorgeous soundscapes to completely sink into. I could imagine this pairing well with a chill Minecraft session, or some fully locked-in solo office work.

Looking forward to keeping this in rotation!

Standouts: 1/1 • 1/2

What an absolutely stunning performance. I was constantly floored by how much depth and variety Keith Jarrett can achieve on improvisation alone, under a heap of shitty circumstances, for an entire 66 minutes.
Bravo Mr. Jarrett!!!

A fairly enjoyable album from the 60s? Crazy! Very fun piano and organ parts on this one, which give it an almost jazzy feel. I had a good time.

Standout: Lonesome Suzie

I can actually see the vision here? The instrumentals are fire and perfectly match her dramatic delivery and storytelling. Birdland and Land:Horses were certainly unique experiences, feeling almost like full-on theatre plays.

..Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of theatre, and nothing was particularly engaging outside of that novelty.

Standout: Free Money

For every good idea this band has, they somehow have an equally annoying part to balance it out. Tell Her Tonight achieves the perfect split of great and awful within a single song!
My takeaway is that Franz Ferdinand is best enjoyed in moderation. They have some excellent songs, but as an album it gets old real fast.

Standouts: Take Me Out • Auf Asche • This fffire - New Version (technically not on the album, but it's way better than the original)

One of those albums where you really have to pay attention to the lyrics to appreciate it. I don't really care for this flavor of stripped-down acoustic folk, but the storytelling is just something else with Bruce. Even with just two listens I kept finding little lyrical callbacks and connections between the stories that felt pretty rewarding.

Musically, I want to point out how he makes the harmonica SING whenever he pulls it out.

Standout: Johnny 99 • Used Cars • My Father's House

I've always liked Common! On this album he finds himself with some BEAUTIFUL production, on top of his usual flavor of conscious rap. He tends to opt for a more peaceful attitude, and that never stopped him from having good rhymes!
..Wait, what was that slur just now?

Standouts: Cold Blooded • The Light • Funky For You • The 6th Sense