Reviews by suspiciousnumber

Dexys Midnight Runners is one of those bands that seems like a quirky one-hit wonder at first blush, but has a very interesting history. This album is the followup to the album that birthed their smash hit Come On Eileen. Most of the band had left, and this album ends up being a much more subdued synthy album. It's well worth the listen

4/5

This album was pretty cool overall. It sounds very much of its time, but it is also interesting relative to plenty of the alt-rock coming out in 1994. Nice and heavy guitars with tons of distortion, as was the style at the time

4/5

Look y'all, I don't know how to admit to the world that I don't really get The White Stripes. They have some songs that I like, and I can't say that I dislike their music, but every time I listen to them, I just don't understand why everyone has been telling me how great they are. That's not their fault, but it's also not mine, and I hope that this is the last of their albums on this list, and I'm sorry

3/5

God damn, if you want to sell me on an album before I even listen to it, tell me that the influences for the album were "krautrock, surf rock, doo wop and the film soundtracks of John Carpenter" because all of that shit is awesome. However, I wouldn't say that those influences were super obvious in this album, apart from perhaps Krautrock, and even that is really relying on the hugely varied nature of that genre. This isn't a bad album, but any means, it's just not the version of Marry, Fuck, Kill with Neu, the Ventures, and the Shangri-Las that I was hoping from the description.

Portishead has always been a bit dower for me, and I liked their trip-hop stuff better, but still this album deserves credit for trying to do something different and expand their horizons. Overall it is well-executed, but it could have really used a shit-load more doo-wop

3/5

Adele has a hell of a voice, and she writes a great song too. This album starts off with a blast with Rolling In the Deep, but it keeps up the energy well

4/5

This album was pretty cool, although I feel like I have far less of an idea of what New Wave music is than I did a couple of years ago. Still, regardless of the genre, the harmonies are great, and they have very fun songs. The album flew by really fast, and I was kinda sad when it was done

4/5

I got this album the same Christmas that I got Nevermind by Nirvana. This album was my favorite at first, before Nirvana completely subsumed my adolescent mind. It's fun revisiting an album that I have such a long history with. This album holds up really well. The production is excellent, and you really have to give Green Day credit for knowing how to write a great pop song

4/5

This album is fine, but I don't understand why it's here. It's a compilation for one, which is fine in some instances, but there are tons of DnB albums, so it's not like this was bringing together music that you couldn't hear elsewhere. It's fine as an entry point into the genre, but that is not the purpose of this list

2/5

Hot Chip makes fun music, but I'm not sure that I would have put this album on this list. I don't know that this album was all that innovative for 2012. Perhaps that's because I spent the whole time I was listening to it writing emails to shitheads at work. Still, it's a toe-tapper

3/5

Despite the fact that I don't really enjoy country music (largely because of the horrors of modern pop country), I'm always happy to get a country album on here because they are usually pretty good. I didn't particularly vibe with this one, but still it's a good piece of country music history

3/5

This album is tough because I really want to like it, and at times I really do. However, I loved Pavement's first album so much, and this one just doesn't hit me the same, and it never has. It has some awesome Pavement songs, though, and that's worth something

4/5

This is a really cool album that was made much earlier than I would have expected, given the sound. It's noisy and abrasive, but all the songs have this incredible energy, and they flow from one to the next well. Really cool album that didn't get the recognition it deserved in its time

4/5

This album is cool, but it's hard for me to get over her voice. It just doesn't gel with me, and I found this album hard to get through as a result

3/5

This is an album I've been aware of for several decades, and I've heard most of the songs on this album, but I've never actually listened to it until now. I can understand why this album was so big in its heyday. It's a bunch of songs about young love, but written from the perspective of someone looking back on those days. The music is big and features a lot of instruments, which matches Meat Loaf's powerful voice well. The album really comes together as more than the sum of its parts. It's reputation is well deserved

4/5

Paul Simon is one of those musicians who always seems to come out looking well when I get his albums on this list. This album is certainly no exception, since some folks consider this to be his masterpiece. I won't weigh in on that issue, but this album is incredible. It treats its African influences so lovingly, and it introduced Ladysmith Black Mambazo to the world. Every song on this album is good, and it all fits together so well, despite bringing in a really diverse array of musicians and styles

5/5

Look, I'll be honest. I don't want to listen to another Christina Aguilera album, nor do I want to listen to another pop icon album from the early 2000s. I just feel like this genre is over-represented on this list, and this was a particularly bad era for pop music.

This album is fine. It's a Christina Aguilera album, and she has an incredible voice and has the level of production and song crafting that you expect from this type of prominent pop album. I don't know that there is anything else to say about it

3/5

I've been listening to this album for a while, but I watched a YouTube doc on Aphex Twin in the last year that did a lot to help me understand the significance of this album. It really is one of those foundational works that helps change the direction of a genre. I don't like the label Intelligent Dance Music, but I do like a lot of the music that has been released under that moniker. This album is the genesis of that movement, and an excellent work in its own right

5/5

It's sort of interesting that this album is pitched as a concept album about social issues, but all the hits are more traditional love songs. This isn't meant as a criticism, Jackson absolutely addresses the social issues she is interested in. It's just kinda funny that like ever single fun love song on this album was a fucking gigantic hit. I'm honestly surprised that this album doesn't get talked about more, given how well it's held up. I think that some of the negative attention to Michael Jackson stuck on Janet, and of course there was that time when she accidentally showed America her bare breast, and we all decided that we were furious about this for reasons that I've never understood. Hell, she's almost 58 years old, and I would still pay good money to see one of the girls again. I digress. This is a good album, and I will fight anyone who talks shit on Janet Jackson's breasts

4/5

I had never heard of this album before listening to it, but I gotta say I really enjoyed it. It's not particularly my type of music, but the songs are excellent and varied, and the vocals are on point

4/5

What can you say about this album that hasn't been said before. Every song is good at a minimum. They are all so sweet and soulful. The lyrics are simple, but not trite, and the music underscores them perfectly. This is not the type of album that I usually go for, but it's hard not to when an album is this perfectly executed

5/5