Reviews by suspiciousnumber

I have shit on so many live albums on this list, and I pretty much always come away from them feeling like I'm missing something by listening to the live recording. This album is the true exception. I've loved this album forever. Just an incredible recording that shows how amazing this band was live. Banger after banger after banger after banger.

5/5

Reflecting back on the 90s a generation later provides some weird results. Like, if you told me that Weezer's first album featured some of the heaviest distortion I've ever heard, I'd be sure you were wrong, but the overdrive is fucking strong with this one. I think this album aged pretty well overall. I've never been the biggest fan of this group, but I also can't deny that the album is well-executed and fits perfectly well into the time when it was created

4/5

I don't usually love live albums, and I would be hard pressed to describe myself as loving this one, but I have a hard time finding fault with it at the same time. The recording quality is really solid. The vocals could be better. It's really interesting to listen to a group that had so many different eras in their career play a show that spans their career. It's far more interesting with Pink Floyd that with most bands, which I think is why I looked on this album relatively favorably. It feels like a nice retrospective, rather than making me feel like I missed out by not being there

4/5

I've always had the weirdest relationship with this band, because I used to talk endless shit about them because it annoyed Ko(backwards r)n fans. Overall, I think this album is an interesting work for 1994, and I don't want to hang what nu metal became on this album. I think the followup album was better, but this album lays some good groundwork for that album. I don't think I'll ever love this band, but my god their music has aged better than so many of their contemporaries

Also, I forgot this motherfucker plays the bagpipes. I wish they would have used that more, especially since it would have reduced the amount he was singing, but it's awesome to have the pipe accompaniment to Shoots and Ladders.

I am going to say that I hate the fucking cover of this album, though. I understand that they were trying to be edgy, but that line between edgy and creepy can be pretty thin, and I think they missed their mark here

4/5

This album just made no impression on me. I didn't dislike it, but I barely noticed when it was playing. I'll toss it 3 stars because there was nothing I objected to about it, but if I could give it 2.5 grey rocks, I would

3/5

As has become a tradition for the pop star-driven albums that I get on this list, I liked this one more than I thought it would. The music feels pretty familiar now, but this level of synth pop was less prevalent in 2015. Overall, it's a really solid pop album. I wish the lyrics were a bit more interesting, but this one is a really pleasant listen overall

4/5

I'm always a little nervous when I get a prog album, but this was a pleasant one to sit and work to. It was interesting enough without being distracting

4/5

This one didn't make much of an impression on me. The vocals and music are nice enough, but I didn't ever find myself getting into it

3/5

I didn't write any notes about this while I was listening because I never knew what to say at any point. I love it, though. It's part classical and part ambient with lots of unusual instruments thrown in for good measure. The vocals sound like folk music, and fit perfectly. I'm buying this shit

5/5

I approached the words "Progressive Folk" with intense dread. No offense to either genre, but I don't really connect with folk, and I don't really connect with prog rock either. However, whatever this is, it works for me. It reminds me of Godspeed You Black Emperor at times with how darkly ambient it can be before swelling back into a song

4/5

I like this better than most folk music, since folk music isn't particularly my thing, and he brings a pretty interesting approach. Overall, though, I didn't really get into this album. Not a bad album by any means, I just wasn't feeling it

3/5

Mr. Bungle is one of those bands that I never really go wild for, but I like everything of theirs that I hear. Mike Patton's voice is really the glue that holds this band together, and what a voice it is. Overall, just a cool album that gives something very different on each track, but doesn't feel jarring as you go from song to song.

4/5

Reading about this, I thought this was a stupid idea, but I suppose there's a reason why I actually listen to these albums rather that voting based on the wikipedia page. I don't even know why this works, but it does. It feels so out of time and yet it keeps bringing you back to that morning. For those of us old enough to remember 9/11, that even has a kind of power that this album taps into in a way that manages not to feel cynical. I wouldn't have thought that possible, since no event has been treated with more cynicism in human history than 9/11. I can't explain it, but it is done just right

4/5

This was pretty much the album where Tool and I parted ways. It's not a bad album in any way. It's Tool, of course it's good. The problem is that I found their earlier work much more engrossing and fun to listen to, while their later work just doesn't do as much for me. I don't dislike this at all, the problem is much more that I loved Aenima and that era so much that it was just difficult for me to follow Tool on their journey. Still, I can't give it a bad grade because I liked their older albums. This album just marked the point at which I stopped feeling like I needed to rush out and get their albums when they appear. once a decade

4/5 despite all my complaining

I was skeptical of a talking heads without David Byrne, but if he can't be bothered to make another Talking Heads album, I guess the rest of the band will. I don't think it sounds particularly like a Talking Heads album, so it was easy for me not to make those comparisons. On it's own, it's a great album for 1996 that manages to do it's own thing really well

4/5

This album just really didn't make much of an impression on me. I put it on and listened to the whole thing, and didn't even really notice when it ended. Not bad, by any means, but it certainly didn't hold me interest well either

3/5

I wasn't familiar with this album at all before today, but it hooked me fast. Music is solid, and her lyrics are good (to the extent I was able to absorb them on one listen). This one went by too quickly!

4/5

I wasn't terribly excited about this, since I'm not much for blues and Shepherd's previous work didn't leave much of an impression on me. This, however, is a really cool idea and I think he did a great job with it. It gives you a high quality recording to help introduce a new generation to the classic era of the blues. I think it would have been easy to do this cynically or poorly, but Shepherd does a good job keeping the light on the blues greats while making the music interesting

4/5

It's my favorite Christmas album! Vince Guaraldi is such an incredible piano player, and he gives this album such a distinctive feel. If nothing else. Linus and Lucy is a bop and a half

4/5

I've listened to this a couple of times now, and I never take any notes on the album, but I at least remember liking it the second time. I fear my brain has reached the end of its usefulness and I will fade slowly into the void of senility

4/5