Reviews by stevey_

This album starts pretty mundane but really got going by the end. I didn't expect all of that.

I really liked "This Is Fats Domino" by Fats Domino, but this record is even more fun. A lot of these songs have been covered in more modern times (David Lee Roth, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, etc.) so I already knew a few, and I watched the Jungle Book a lot as a kid so I already knew the voice.

I'll never not give credit to pioneers like Siouxsie.

Disco didn't die in 1979, it hadn't even hit it's stride yet.

I didn't hate it, but I don't know that I'll come back to it.

I generally don’t like live albums but it was easy for me to forget this was live. MC5 is one of those bands that I should like but never get around to listening to, and when I do I don’t feel like I’m ever left with much of an impression. That’s kinda my takeaway here too; I liked it but I already can’t tell you anything about it. I want to like it though!

A little boring, but in the right mood I could see this being exactly perfect. Just enough country for me not to loathe it for being too singer-songwriter-y.

Spotify doesn't let you hear the full album, and that's fine.

Acoustic punk is kind of a fun genre that is really good when it's good, but I'm sure there is a lot of bad versions that I'm glad I've never heard. This record is much more the former, even though the vocals feel like they're often in a different key.

A while back, I started my own ‘greatest albums if all time’ playlist and this is already on it. It’s frustrating that I was 30+ years late to the PJ Harvey bandwagon, but I’m glad I got here eventually.

I'm fortunate that this list gave me PJ Harvey's first album, Dry, first and let me start at the beginning. I've since also reviewed Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, but I try not to compare albums to the artist's later works when possible. Compared to Dry, this record shows some remarkable growth and a much more focused sound. That's kind of a weird thing to say about an album that Steve Albini was brought in to produce, but it's true. Where Dry felt very DIY and raw, Rid Of Me has about as much polish as you would put on a grunge record in 1992/1993. The little bits of cowpunk twang have been omitted - or at least they're now running through a fuzz pedal so they don't twang like they used to (see "Ecstasy"). Dry was gritty because the recording equipment probably wasn't good but this feels gritty because they CHOSE to make it feel that way, it doesn't feel like you're hearing the recording equipment or the process at all (if that makes any sense), just a band playing themselves into grunge history. That all sounds like I'm giving reasons why this record is better than Dry, and I'm actually not sure I feel that way. Both albums are amazing in different ways and I don't know if I could pick one over the other. That said, Dry had some unrealized potential (mostly in the recording) and I gave it 4 stars for that. This album doesn't suffer thesame problem (at least by comparison) so I'm going to rate it higher. I think it's a case of two 4.5 star records being rounded differently.

required postscript: I love to talk about how this album was recorded by Steve Albini in the same remote Minnesota studio - in the same winter(!) - as Nirvana’s In Utero. This one was recorded first and, for my money, it's the better of the two albums. I don’t think anyone gets as excited as I do about this incredibly niche fun fact, but I also don’t think I know anyone who rates Polly Jean as highly as I do. Some day I'll make a pilgrimage up to Cannon Falls so I can see Pachyderm Studio for myself.

I've always thought that the only band I cared about less than Metallica is Megadeth, but today I wonder if it's actually a tie. I'm not sure if that's downgrading Metallica or upgrading Megadeth - I won't overthink it. In truth, the real answer is that I'm just apathetic to Thrash as a genre.
If I could give half stars, I'd be tempted to give this a 3.5 but rules are rules.

Much like yesterday's Peter Frampton album, but obviously for very different reasons, I struggle to separate my thoughts about the music and the band's personal(?) legacy. There's some all-time classics on this record, but it's tough to endorse this with my whole chest.

I feel like Peter Frampton was the Dave Matthews of the 70s. Or maybe John Mayer is better comparison? Sure, he's very talented but he's also very very lame. It's hard to reconcile my feelings for those two things, especially as a lifelong guitar player, and give this a rating I can feel totally good about.

Dylan can’t sing and that makes his records a bit difficult to endure. BUT his vocal style is exactly the kind of thing you need when you can’t hear yourself shouting over a band on stage at a festival that only gives you the bare minimum of level adjustments. You can hear the difference between how he sings with a full band and how he sings on pared down acoustic tracks. His voice isn’t particularly good in either scenario, but it’s not because he isn’t trying. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that it works better in a live setting, and also some credit for keeping the recordings as authentic to that live sound as possible.
I’ve never been a “lyrics person” (probably something to do with my autism) so the gibberish kinda goes over my head while I focus on the instrumentation. Again, his voice presents some struggles with its out of tune melodies, and the harmonica is a little overpowering from time to time. But overall, the songs on this record are pretty good and a little remastering to tame those rough spots could yield a real all-timer here. Can’t wait for the next 4?5? Dylan records in the project

The cover art is obviously two people playing flutes, which makes sense because this is an album of music. It also kinda looks like two people sucking their own dicks, which also makes sense because this album sucks dicks.

Ok, that’s mean. I listened to this album 3 times and still don’t have much of anything to say about it. It’s fine. It’s like the definition of fine. One of the top reviews talks about how much he loved the Beatles until he discovered XTC, and that makes total sense. This is Miracle Whip to the Beatles Mayonnaise. That little bit of extra tanginess is from New Wave, but it only goes so far. This feels like a prototype for the extremely nostalgic Brit rock we get in the 90s and all the bands desperate to recapture the magic of late 60s psych pop rock.

I saw a couple reviews about how this record introduced a new generation of people to country and bluegrass, but is that really true? I can’t imagine this was the kind of radio crossover sensation that reached out to “meet people where they are” like that. And who’s spending their 1972 money on a double album they don’t know anything about?

Anyways, this is an impenetrable amount of bluegrass. It's basically a full playlist and feels like the second longest record I've had to listen to for this record, just behind that six hour Ella Fitzgerald sings the Gershwin Songbook epic. In the non-vinyl world, this works as background music for a day when you want this kind of background music. If I had this on vinyl, every record flip would feel like an opportunity to choose something better to play.

Beautiful.

Another record that immediately takes me back to watching TRL when I got home from middle school in 98-00. It feels like the singles from "Ray Of Light" just ended and then "Music" showed right up to hold Madonna's place on the countdown.

I wasn't prepared for some of the aggressive autotune on this album. I know that was kinda in vogue (see what I did there?) at the time, but this feels a lot more garish than I like to remember it. What a time.

I'm also not convinced this one NEEDS a spot on the list... It kinda feels like
1.) Madonna has been so broadly influential that Mr. Dimery felt that she should have several records on the list, even if they aren't specifically important on their own.
2.) There was some recency bias when the original list was made that compelled him (and/or the critics who helped him) to favor "Ray Of Light" and "Music". I'm not convinced they're her best, but I've also not listened through her whole discography.

A classic from the ‘Scare Mainstream White America’ catalog.

This feels like a record you need to listen to with context because without it, I don’t think the music stands out very much.