Reviews by suspiciousnumber

This is an album that I've heard was really good for a long time, but have never sat down and listened to. It's as good as advertised. He goes through a lot of different styles, but he's at his best when he's mellow and sweet. Without you is a notable highlight, but the whole album is great. Well crafted songs with great production and a lot of heart

4/5

I'm not sure what I was expecting with this album, but it certainly wasn't what I got. I really enjoyed this album. It's so noisy and irreverent, which fits really well with the blues. It's fun the whole way through, but also well-constructed enough that you can take it seriously

4/5

Guitars and synthesizers are a match made in heaven. The fact that New Order existed as a rock band for so long before becoming an electronic band really gives their sound a feeling that few other synthesizer groups have. This album gets pitched as their full transition into the electronic side, but the song Sunrise is still firmly a rock song, and I felt like a lot of the later half of the album was like that. Really well done with great production. It sounds like the year in which it was made, but that is one of those albums that helps explain why this era sounded like this 4/5

This is a band I've been interested in listening to for a while. I know it has a huge cult following but never really pushed through into mainstream consciousness. I can see why people like it so much. The music is all well executed, the vocals are great, and the songs are varied enough. It definitely sounds like a 70s bluesy rock album, but it's pretty early in the 70s and feels like it influenced other bands

4/5

I didn't know what grindcore was before this album, and I still don't, but this was pretty interesting overall. The weird setup for the album, with essentially different bands making the two sides of the album, is unique in my experience. Weirdly, I'm not sure that I heard a huge difference between the punk and metal halves of the album, but TBF I'm also a cretin

3/5

The sound of this album reminded me a bit of Haircut 100, which was one of the early items that I got on this list. Unfortunately, this album feels a lot more generic than that one did. It's fine and fun in its way, but it was harmed by making me think of albums that I actually enjoyed

3/5

I generally don't like live albums, but there are exceptions and this is one of them. It captures the energy of Motorhead really well, and it sounds great. You'd think they would back themselves into a corner by starting off with Ace of Spades, but the album is so consistently good, I never worried about it

4/5

This isn't my favorite Bjork album, but like every Bjork album I've heard, it's great and singular and beautiful and weird

4/5

It's interesting to get this album so soon after Steve Albini's death. I enjoyed Songs About Fucking a lot, so it I was excited for this one, and it doesn't disappoint. This album does not sound like it was made in 1986. The production is really good overall, which is not a surprise for Steve Albini, but is a surprise for a mid-80s punk album. This is one that I want to pick up on vinyl

4/5

I'm really up and down on The Who, based on the albums that I've gotten on this list. I really enjoyed this album overall, though, much more so than the previous albums that I've gotten here. Baba O'Riley is a kickass early synth song, and it keeps going from there. It's not one that you have to listen to super actively, but it's fun music with a lot of diversity of sound

4/5

I enjoyed this album way more than I thought I was going to. Rap from this era doesn't often hold up well, but this album is really solid. Lots of club hits, but the rest of the songs don't fall off very hard. I did accidentally listen to a censored version of the album, but that honestly didn't end up impacting my enjoyment much. Really solid rhymes, and the music doesn't sound very dated either

4/5

This was a fun album overall. Lots of familiar samples in here, which is very reasonable for this period. It also clearly had an influence on the sample-based dance music that came after it

4/5

This is a fun album overall, and Sultans of Swing is an all-timer. On the other hand, I don't really get what puts it on this list. There was so much more interesting stuff happening in 1978 than Dire Straits

3/5

It's interesting to me that this album gets labelled as folk rock, since it feels so much different than other folk music to me. It does, however, sound like songs that you would sing on a ship from time to time, so maybe that makes it folk. Really cool album overall with good production.

4/5

I don't know what the hell this is, and I don't really care for it, but I can't deny that she's doing the shit out of whatever it is

3/5

I've tried to listen to this album twice in two days, and I just keep getting distracted, and its fine, but I also need to move on with my life so let's just say 3 stars and forget all about it. It's fine

3/5

I thought this album was cool, but didn't really understand why it was significant relative to other albums that came out in this period/subgenre. Overall, a fun listen, though

3/5

I've tried to listen to this album twice in two days, and I just keep getting distracted, and its fine, but I also need to move on with my life so let's just say 3 stars and forget all about it. It's fine

3/5

This music is okay, but it's not good enough to justify a band name that makes me feel antisemitic to say out loud. It's calm and pleasant, but there's not a huge amount here, given that this band has two members of Pavement in it

3/5

I feel like I've gotten a bunch of albums that I don't really know what to think of lately, which could be an interesting coincidence, might be a sign that I'm slipping back into clinical depression, or it might indicate that, while the list has made it easier for me to contextualize a lot of albums, there are certain time periods and genres that I struggle with placing into meaningful context.

This is one such album. It sounds good, but very much of its time, and I don't particularly like its time when it comes to rock music. Is this another uninspiring Brit pop album crammed into this list at the insistence of the author? Should I go back on Prozac? The world may never know.

Anyway, this album is fine: 3/5 stars