Reviews by stevey_

I'm not a Metallica fan, but I can appreciate their contribution to the Metal(TM) genre. I knew I'd eventually have to listen to some Metallica albums for this project, so here we go...

A lot of this album feels like it's sticking to bread & butter metal - a wall of crunchy guitars and drums with some lyrics shouted over the top. That's fine, I don't have a ton to say about that. Where the album gets interesting is the moments like "...And Justice For All", "One", "To Live Is To Die", and "Dyers Eve" where they weave some classical guitar interludes into the standard metal structures. I don't know Metallica intimately enough to know if this was new for this album or not, but this being their first album nominated for a Grammy suggests it probably was. I do appreciate the irony of them losing to Jethro Tull; after listening to this, I feel like the two aren't as far apart as I would have thought.
A lot of the guitar solos sound like recycled Van Halen solos, but maybe that's all part of the design. This feels like a bid to bring Metal closer to the mainstream, and I think that's exactly what it did. A quick look at Metallica's history of award nominations doesn't show anything before this album and a lot from here forward. This was Metallica's big crossover moment, and that's not nothing.
Overall, I don't think I need to spend more time with this album, but I'm not as annoyed as I thought I would be to listen through it.

I initially groaned at this because I forget Garbage and Hole are different bands. Had I managed to mentally uncouple these bands sooner, I might have been a Garbage fan in highschool.
My first impression is that Garbage leaned way more Industrial than I thought. The very machine-eque drumming and/or drum machine(?), really surprised me as I was expecting straight Grunge. The hits ("Only Happy When It Rains" & "Stupid Girl") do skew a little more 'mainstream' alt-rock, so maybe that's what lead me astray. Overall, this was an interesting listen for me and I’m sorry I missed it the first time around.

"Queer": feels very proto-Fiona Apple.
"Only Happy When It Rains": after "Queer", this really ramps the album back up to the heavier side. Hearing this in context makes it feel less Pop.
"As Heaven Is Wide": this is when I noticed the industrial influence. It also reminded me of future metal/industrial acts, like Orgy and Powerman 5000. Not sure I can fully defend that, but something got my mind there.
"Not My Idea": this is proto-CSS. I know that's an obscure band reference, but I'm going to call it out as proof of influence.
"Stupid Girl": If you can listen past the bubblegum, the breakdowns remind me of something straight off of a KMFDM album.

It only makes sense that Black Sabbath would be pushed the day after Ozzy's death is announced. I appreciate the timeliness, but I will resist to use this review to eulogize Ozzy.
I'm not sure this is the definitive Black Sabbath album, but I do understand why it's on the list. It's clear that Sabbath was writing the rules for metal with every recording, and Vol. 4 is the first time they took the reins and produced an album themselves (cocaine definitely helped). I'm sure this has been studied closely by innumerable aspiring rock'n'rollers and they've all taken away different pieces.

"Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener": A fun classic rock riff to start the album, but it quickly transitions to very recognizable Sabbath. The guitar solo in the last few minutes is unexpected and feels like early roots for the 'widdly-widdly-wah' guitar solos that were everywhere in the late 70s and 80s.
"Changes": A classic. Kinda crazy that they would put this so far forward in the album; they certainly didn't play it this early at concerts.
"Supernaut": The guitar tone feels like the missing link between the squawky overdrive of classic Classic Rock(TM) and the clean distortion of later Heavy Metal(TM). I'm sure there aren't major tone changes compared to the rest of the album, but it's front & center here and hard to miss. Impressively modern compared to the compressed/buzzy tone on Paranoid or Master of Reality, but that could just be better studio production or later remastering.
"Snowblind": Another classic that's launched 1000 garage bands.
"Laguna Sunrise": A string section and an acoustic guitar? I like this more than "FX" but it's hard to hear it as anything but filler. It makes sense why "Changes" was so far forward now; you wouldn't want that and this to be too close together. This definitely gave Ozzy a minute to go backstage and "freshen up" on the tour.

I knew nothing about Slint before today, however, there are countless bands still making music that sounds like this and I've seen many of them over the years in small bars and DIY spaces.
I wish I had found this when I was younger. I think the hardest part of trying to make music as a teenager was figuring out where the music in my head fit into the broader music landscape, and that challenge drove me to force different styles on myself so I could fit in better. I'm not sure I even knew post-rock was a thing at the time, which is pretty unfortunate. This feels much closer to the music I would have made naturally than the metal-based music I ended up trying to make. My blues roots gave me a love for jamming and letting the groove slowly build, but my only point of reference for that type of music was classic rock and actual jam bands (Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Phish, etc) and that wasn't a sound I was interested in creating. Realizing there was a whole genre where people did that with heavier distortion would have been a revelation for me, and would have helped me share that vision with potential band mates. Sadly, the 2005 reunion was just barely too late for me to notice; one or two years earlier might have changed my life. Or not, who knows.
"Breadcrumb Trail"
"Washer" (even if the vocals aren't quite in key)
"Good Morning, Captain"

A good friend in highschool was a Beck fan, so I know a lot of these songs from our late night cruises in the suburbs. Unfortunately, Beck was a little too avant-garde for me at that time(I was more of a metalhead) and I never made an effort to dig in beyond what I heard in that Volvo. Twenty something years later, I regret that. If Beck wasn’t ahead of his time in a popular sense, he certainly was for me personally.

I enjoyed this. Maybe that’s not a surprise since I’ve previously rated Neil Young, Cowboy Junkies, and Eels favorably. It’s certainly not an album for everyone, but it works for me.

“Overture” was not a very promising start, but things got easier once they dialed back the synth strings.
"(Well)Dusted", "X-Tra Wide", and "Shiver" were my standouts

A lot of this album feels like game show demo music. The rest of it manages to feel like every 80s new wave trope rolled together, and it was still only 1982! I don’t know if that says something about how influential this album was, or my perception of pop music in the 80s. I’m not sure I buy the argument that this album had a meaningful influence on the later development of electric music.

“Arrogance Gave Him Up” - 100% game show music.
“No” - title sums up my thoughts.
“Gloomy Sunday” - objectively the least good song about Sunday to come out of the 80s.
“Club Country” - sounds like someone doing karaoke of this song, but that’s just the song.
“18 Carat Love Affair” - another theme song for a show that didn’t exist.

Before I even pressed play, I wanted to like this album and confirm my alt/punk bonafides. For the most part, I did like it, but I guess I didn’t love it. I guess I’m not as cool as I had hoped.
“Where Is My Mind?” - there’s a reason this has 1Billion Spotify listens. It’s an anthem, but it’s an outlier on this album; I kinda hate when the one non-representative song gets pulled to be the single. Also slightly frustrating because “if you can do THIS, why are you spending so much time doing THAT?”. The inclusion of this song makes the rest of the album (especially the tracks after it) sound worse.
“Vamos (Surfer Rosa)” - you can’t make me listen to this whole track. I tried twice and it can’t be done; the guitar solo is insufferable.

This was a surprise. I'm sure I've heard a few of these songs nestled into a TV show here or there, but I couldn't have told you anything about Cowboy Junkies before today. Now I know they are the foundation of any David Lynch (or David Lynch inspired) project’s soundtrack. It's not music that you'd sit and watch... If they were playing any venue larger than a bar, I don't think I'd go. But as sad background music (especially for drinking), you could do a lot worse. I could easily see myself listening to this on a quiet Saturday morning/evening at home, or while cooking dinner after a long day.

Oh boy, this really drags me back to the old Carson Daly TRL days. This feels very much like a tale of two albums; one part late 90s Pop/R&B, one part Adult Contemporary. I'm not sure I love the former, but definitely don't care for the latter. If this album didn't start the trend of stretching every high note into a full scale just to flex your vocal skills, it was certainly on the front end. Almost 30 years later, pop music hasn't recovered.

This album sounds how the cover looks. Like someone attempting to mimic Picasso but gets nervous that audience won't get it if it's too abstract. Or maybe it's like the adult jokes in Disney movies and I'm just not smart enough to know there are things going over my head. I'm sure there's some real art here because I've read a few extremely nerdy reviews that say so, but I can't find it.
I feel like it would be more accurate to call them Elvis Costello and the Distractions. Elvis's voice is passable when he's shouting over a cacophony of noise, but as soon as then slow the tempo down and pare back the instruments, his voice is kinda bad. "Almost Blue" really hurt me. I didn't really love "Little Savage", "Boy With A Problem", or "Town Cryer" either, but otherwise was able to bop my head and go along with the circus.

I assume the title is an allusion to the band members who bailed right before the album was recorded?
I’m not going to spend too much time debating post-Beatles McCartney vs Lennon projects. Music isn’t zero-sum and there’s room for both to be appreciated for what they are. In this case, we’re appreciating a pretty lightweight offering. This probably isn’t a record I’d seek out, but I think I’d play it occasionally if I had a copy. It’s a sunny Saturday morning kinda record… not the kind you deep clean the house to, but the kind you put on while you get ready for a day out.
“Band On The Run” & “Jet” put the hits right up front so you can listen before you get too distracted.
“Let Me Roll It” breaks the vibe just enough to remind you that you’re gonna have to flip the record in a minute (well played, Paul).
“Mamunia” restarts the vibe sesh on side2 just long enough for you to go back to whatever you were doing.
“Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” is one last banger to go out on. Kinda like an ‘NPR Driveway Moment’ where you stand there and let it finish playing before you move onto your next thing.

Or, just stream it on your phone and don’t worry about all that. Idk.

As a vibe, I enjoyed this album; especially once the day turned overcast and rainy. But in my second listen, I started to have issues with the component pieces.
Much of this sounds like things I used to do in FL Studio back when I was tinkering with elmy own electronic music. Obviously there’s some extra parts and polishing here that I never mastered, but the basic melodies and drum parts aren’t that much more advanced. Beyond that, I kind of wish I didn’t know English very well and could just treat the vocals like another instrument on this record. I don’t think the lyrics are very good, and part of me wonders what if Fever Ray actually speaks English. Somehow, both of these things work well enough together to make pretty acceptable background music. Not high praise, I know, but I’m working with what I’m given.

This project is missing an editor. I don’t feel like I needed any of this, so a double album is… a lot. This is basically two single albums packaged together: one album where she covers standards over hip-hop beats, and one album of originals where she’s backed by a swing band, orchestra, and/or choir. See what she did there?
Call-outs:
“Thank You (Dedicated To Fans…)” is sprinkled with audio clips of her fans praising her and feels more self-indulgent than humble.
“Candyman” is like a swing version of Britney Spears’s “Soda Pop” but somehow even worse.
Is “The Right Man” about her new husband or her daddy issues? Both? That’s neat.

I can appreciate that Elliott Smith, and likely this album, were hugely influential for a generation of disaffected "art kids" and countless early-00's emo bands. This album feels like a collection of that one slow acoustic song that every rock band has towards the back of their album. Like a Cap'n Crunch's OOPS! All Berries(R) of acoustic proto-emo, minus the sugar.

If someone gave me a burned copy of this in highschool, I'm sure it would have resonated and frequently been in the 3Disk CD player next to my homework desk. Instead, the longest running rotation I can remember was: Jimmy Eat World's Clarity, Beulah's The Coast Is Never Clear, and Pete Yorn's Music For The Morning After... All considerably less depressing than this, which was probably for the best. Unlike I was in highschool, I'm not in a place in my life where I can fully embrace ES anymore. I don't think I'd revisit this album but I don't regret listening to it and I hope Elliott rests in peace.

Mathematically it's impossible for Mac Miller to have fronted this band, but if you told me this was released in 2016, you could have convinced me.
I think I would have loved this album had I found it in middle school; it's the right amount of catchy pop/rock mixed with a pre-teen level of edginess that would have really scratched my brain in the late 90s. Maybe I'll pretend that happened and I'll retroactively start including this in my pantheon of formative classics. Delving into the rest of their catalog has also been fun, I'm sad it took so long for me to find this band.

I had no idea what to expect here, but it certainly wasn't what I got. I had to listen to this a few times to decide what I really thought about it (I kinda like when that happens). Ultimately, it feels like two different albums shuffled together; one part is straightforward brit-pop, and the other is experimental electronic music. I actually like parts, but the constant juxtaposition makes it difficult to get into. The only way this really makes sense to me is as the soundtrack to a movie I'm, unfortunately, not watching. I know that's the idea behind "Kowalski", but I feel like it applies to the whole album.
Call-outs:
"Star" - sounds like it had direct influence on future Gorillaz recordings.
"Medication" - if you told me this was a Rolling Stones cover, I'd believe you.

I didn’t dislike it enough to take away stars, but I don’t like it enough to give it extras; so this gets a baseline score.

Bon Scott died of alcohol poisoning, because of course he did. AC/DC is high art for people who have to worry about things like that - people who answer the question ‘what’s your favorite kind of music?’ with “Loud!”
Verses be damned, the only thing that matters is that the chorus is simple and repetitive enough that you can start singing along the first time through. If that’s the kind of music you want, AC/DC is absolutely your kinda band. This is not a band for anyone interested in reading lyrics or thinking about themes; this whiskey is for shooting, not for sipping.
I truly don't know if I mean all of that in a good way or a bad way, and I guess that's the genius of AC/DC.

This was exactly the kind of thing I needed to start an overcast Monday. This was fun and an easy listen, while still feeling a little edgy (see track two). Plenty of hits on this one, so I’m sure a lot of white people bought this and got a little bit of a surprise when they dropped the needle. Ya love to see it. This isn’t a genre I spend a lot of time with, but if I had this record, I think I’d play it semi-regularly.

If you can put aside your feelings about Morrissey as a person, I think this album can help you just hate him as a musician too.
You couldn’t even parody this album because Morrissey is cartoonishly self loathing and whiney in a way that doesn’t feel humble, it just feels like the melodic pouting of a narcissist. It feels shockingly self-aware, but I can’t decide if he is or not. If he wasn’t already a rich, famous, middle-aged white man, I can’t imagine this album ever seeing the light of day.
But alas, here it is ruining my otherwise nice Sunday. To adapt a phrase from my grandma (and Lucille Ball): “If that’s the kind of album you wanted, you sure got a good one.”