Reviews by suspiciousnumber

This is another one of those albums that is fine, but also very much not for me. The music is good. I don't love his voice, but I wouldn't consider it a distinct negative either. I just didn't really get into the songs at all

3/5

I can't say that I was expecting to review a modern day Cure album today, but what the hell. These sad fuckers really know how to write a song. It's always nice to see a band that was on a hiatus from releasing new work for a long time come back with something substantial. Robert Smith's voice has held up well over the decades.

My computer needs to restart, and I'm going to lose this review, so go ahead and take 4 stars, The Cure. You earned it, and I hope it helps you to stop crying so intensely

4/5

This album feels like one I shouldn't enjoy that much. I don't particularly enjoy a lot of the individual musical choices they made here. And yet, I kept finding myself enjoying it in spite of myself. It's just one of those things that ends up being greater than the sum of its parts because its incredibly well executed. Also, I'm a sucker for harmonies, and they use them to incredible effect here

4/5

I was really hoping that listening to this album would unravel the mystery of Jimmy Buffett's popularity. It's extremely standard yacht rock, so there's not a lot of help there. His voice is fine, the music is fine, but, in my opinion, it never gets better than that.

I think, in the end, the real cheeseburger in paradise was the alcoholic friends we made along the way. Maybe the issue here is that I can't really drink in the sun because it gives me migraines. Consequently, there's no real way for me to access the Parrothead in their native environment and have the true Jimmy Buffett experience

2/5 I think I'd rather listen to a Warren Buffett album

So all the Joe Cocker songs that I know come from what was effectively a thrown-together cover band that had very little time together before the tour this was recorded on? Why does this sound better than most live albums, then? I think the choir backing him pulls a lot of weigh on this album, since it allows him to wander around a bit and bring more emotion to the album. I don't know why it works, but I can't deny that it works

4/5

I don't really need to listen to this one to review it, but I will anyway. It's a fun album, and it fucking bangs in the first half. Just great song after great song, with a lot of variety. However, it really falls off on the second half of the album. You can pretty much give up on the album after Nugget. I have a hard time giving this album less than a 4, since it's got such a distinctive feel, and it really shows off the band's songwriting. However, it's rare for me to give an album that feels uneven such a high score. What can I say, I'm a sucker for desserts

4/5

I listened to Beautiful Freak by the Eels long ago on this list, and I was surprised when I looked back at my review that I didn't particularly like it. This album hit just right for me. I think they matured a lot as a band in the intervening years. This album has a very 90s feel to it, but it very much feels like its own thing. The production on the album, especially on his voice, is great. It rings through, dusky and clear on every song. The music is very fun and doesn't ever get samey.

4/5

This album is sort of what I imagine Randy Newman's albums would sound like if I didn't hate him so much.

In all seriousness, this is a collection of narrative sounds, and the music is pretty cool and relatively variable. It was easy to get wrapped up in it. I didn't particularly pay attention to the stories, but the music helped give you the idea. Really well executed overall

4/5

Wow, British rap from the early 2000s? Let me clear off a special place for this album so I can give it the respect it deserves

<opens trash can lid and shoves album in there until I hear several snaps>

It's not bad, but it's hard for me to get excited about something like this knowing all the cool shit that was happening in rap in the US at this time. I refuse to grade the UK on a curve with regard to this stuff, since they figured out how to do rock and roll better than us incredibly fast. Rap is apparently going to take a couple more decades. His flow isn't bad, but the music is uninspiring and I found myself getting bored with this immediately

2/5

This was a cool EP. It goes by really fast, and it's kind of hard to wrap your head around while it's playing, but it was certainly interesting and different

4/5

When I first started listening to this, I though it was made in like 2005 for some reason. While I was listening to it, I was like "This is really cool, but it sounds like a lot of other things that came before it"

Looking up and seeing that it came out in 1995 put it in a much different light. It definitely has a lot of aspects that place it as a mid-90s album (I just love when they put a fuzz pedal on a guitar, then decide that it's not enough distortion, so they throw an overdrive pedal on top of it), but it also feels like they were peeking ahead a bit to the next decade of pop rock. I shouldn't be surprised at this point. Scottish pop rock bands always produce such finely crafted albums

4/5

God bless Scottish indie pop. It somehow always comes out sounding like more than the sum of its parts. This band sounds like so many other bands throughout this album, but it never sounds like a single other band, if that makes sense. Sometimes there's hints of Flaming Lips or Oasis, but they never come out sounding like they are doing an impression of those bands. The effect is an album that feels very familiar, but is completely it's own thing

4/5 I'm willing to donate money at this point to make sure that every Scottish child that wants an electric guitar is provided one. It's one way to guarantee a better future

I was mostly familiar with this album through it's dancey mega hit, which gave me a different impression of this band than the rest of the album. It's definitely a bit more slow and subdued in places than I would have thought. The variability in the music also made it a bit harder to rate this one than I initially thought. I enjoyed most of the songs, but there were times when I felt like the album sagged a bit. Still, good overall

4/5

As a veteran of the ska/big band wars of the 1990s who was largely passed over by the 2000s pop punk thing, this was an interesting listen. It definitely has a tighter and more orchestrated feel than something like Reel Big Fish. The 90s bands felt a little looser, like they weren't taking it as seriously. That was fun, but I like this by contrast because it is informed by all the emo stuff that was happening leading up to this.

Ska isn't particularly my genre now, but it's fun. This album has pretty great range in terms of its sound. Given what the album is trying to accomplish, I think they did a great job

4/5

This album was a pretty fun listen, but it was hard to tell why it was particularly significant. It's interesting rock music for 1991, but it doesn't particularly feel like they are pushing the envelope

3/5

The irresistible force meets the immovable object. Bruce Springsteen's elite track record of albums that I like on this list collides with my personal track record of hating live albums. My ambivalence about the E street band hangs tenuously in the balance...

It's fine. I guess it's fine. Sound quality is good, at least

3/5

I'll be honest, I didn't really get this album. It never really grabbed my attention, and just sort of played in the background until I turned it off. Music was fine, vocals were fine, but I didn't really get why it was significant

3/5

She's so delightfully weird, how can you not like this album? It reminds me a lot of the vibe of Cyndi Lauper's She So Unusual. Just incredibly well-crafted pop songs with great music underneath them that keeps you nodding your head while keeping the focus on the vocalist

4/5

I'm not sure that this is a particularly significant album musically, but it's fun Riot Grrl style punk, and it was worth a listen just for that. Music is solid throughout. Her voice is nothing to write home about, but she's compelling as a vocalist anyway

4/5

Both my 8 year old daughter and I agree that this is cool and weird, so there's really not much else to debate here. I really love how many different directions the metal genre can go in and still feel like metal. This feels like it's out on the far fringes of the genre, reaching out into other lands, but it's still metal, and it's really good

4/5