Reviews by suspiciousnumber

The Slits are one of the many, many cool female rock groups that slipped through the cracks while their more mediocre male counterparts got all the credit. I've had to hear about the Sex Pistols for my entire life, despite the fact that they were nothing special compared to a lot of their contemporaries, and yet I never hear about the Slits. Shout out to the No Dogs in Space podcast for introducing me to this group and their history

As far as the music goes, it's really cool to see how fast punk groups shifted to post-punk and started exploring other genres. The Reggae influence on this album is clear from the first song, but you can also hear psychedelic influences among others, on top of the punk music that the band coalesced around.

4/5

Well, this album suffers a lot from appearing on this list less than a week since Are You Experienced. Whereas that album is a firecracker that really shows off what Jimi can do, this album feels much more subdued in a way that doesn't really benefit the album. Hendrix's real strength appears in the restrained chaos that is his guitar playing. This album just features far fewer moments that really feature his guitar playing. It definitely has some good songs, but it never reaches the heights of Are You Experienced?

3/5

This album is really not my type of music, and I found it quite dull. I could see why people would like this. There are lots of other albums that it sounds like, but it also predates a lot of those albums, so it deserves credit for that. To me, this is basically what Leonard Cohen would sound like if he wasn't as good a poet and had less interesting backing music

3/5 I think he deserves some credit for taking some chances and experimenting in these songs, but at the same time I was bored the entire time I was listening to this album

I have kind of a weird relationship with this album, since I've owned it on vinyl for more than 15 years, but I can't remember the last time I bothered to listen to it. I just never feel like I'm in the mood for Jimi Hendrix.

And yet, right from the first song, I remember why I bought this album. I just feels like Jimi has a different dimension to his guitar playing. It feels chaotic yet effortlessly controlled at the same time. This album runs deep with great songs too, with all but a couple of his biggest hits being represented here. Definitely a nice album to revisit once in a while

4/5

You know, it had been a while since I'd gotten an album that was clearly only on this list because it was British, but I remedied that today. This album is the very definition of nothing special. The music is fine, if not a bit outdated. The lyrics are pedestrian. I haven't gotten a single Kendrick Lamar album on here, but somehow my bones could not be laid to rest without listening to this album. Crime Riddim legit has a minute and a half skit at the end of it, despite the fact that the song is 4.5 minutes to begin with.

Seriously, a lot of this is sonically indistinguishable from the songs put out by QAnon rappers. They're talking about different things, but it's equally bland, and the beats are exactly the same. I hate this. I hate everything about this. This is the worst album I've heard on here since I got that Limp Bizkit album. The history of hip-hop runs deep with great albums, but somehow I got stuck listening to this one. At least until I gave up and listened to something good

1/5

This is one of those albums that I just loved as soon as I heard it. It starts with the avalanche of sound, and there's so much texture and richness to it. Usually I focus a lot on the vocals for rock music, but I have no idea what they're saying, and it doesn't feel like it matters. It just blends in with the wall of sound that you're constantly swimming through with this album. It's by far my favorite shoegaze album, and you can just hear the impact that this album had on tons of bands that came after them, especially groups like the Smashing Pumpkins

5/5 I wish that the low end of the audio was just a bit cleaner, but that's really the only thing that I have to criticize this album about

Super solid album, and a great album for folks who are interested in jazz and looking for an easy entry point

This album seems like a nice bridge between the Velvet Underground and all of the alternative rock artists that came of age in the 1980s. This makes sense, given that a member of the Velvet Underground produced much of the album The Modern Lovers and especially Jonathan Richman, have a weird sensibility to them, but it works with their happy-go-lucky musical style. The first song, Road Runner, is an absolute classic.

4/5 The production could be a little cleaner, but I can't really hold that against them, since a lot of the album was recorded as demos

This is another album that I was introduced to by the No Dogs in Space podcast, and if you like this album, I would recommend checking out their series on Joy Division. This is one of those albums that seems weird at first, but gets more comfortable the more that you experience it, at least in my experience. It's an absolutely revolutionary album for 1979, and is one of the many great albums that marks the close of that decade. The slow fusion of punk rock and electronica that occurs through out this album is so interesting. The drumming sounds like a drum machine at so many points. The raw emotionality of the lyrics bring real depth to the album, and provide the perfect compliment to the music

5/5, an absolutely iconic album in so many ways

I honestly don't have a lot to say about this album, but it's very good, and feels very mature for 1993. I would have thought it was made a few years later. The album is very consistent and features a variety of different musical styles. Very much worth the listen

4/5

This is such a fun album. It manages to be upbeat and silly while also being subversive and politically relevant. For example. My Metro Card seems like a silly song about public transportation, but becomes a song about how Rudy Giuliani's policies were affecting New York. The harmonies are great and help make the album feel really dense with music without feeling suffocating. This is one of those albums that you could drop today and it would still feel fresh and relevant

5/5

I remember when people were pitching Coldplay to me as a lighter version of Radiohead. Those people are liars, and we are not longer friends. I think that they might have been confused by the fact that the singer is really handsome.

It is now day 2 of me trying to listen to this album. I got 2.5 songs in the first time before I turned it off. It's not even bad, it's just dull. Don't worry, I figured out that if I just bury myself in trying to sort my email inbox, I can sort of time travel through the rest of this album. It's not very good, so far as I can tell

2/5

I think it's safe to say that this album marks the end of the classic thrash metal era of Metallica albums. This album doesn't reach the heights of Master of Puppets in my opinion, but it's still pretty good overall. It would be better if you could hear the goddamn bass in the mix, but apparently Lars needed to place his mediocre drumming prominently in a way that obscured their new bassist's skill. It definitely leaves the album feeling kinda empty at times.

I'm not sure that people would remember this album nearly as fondly if One weren't on the album. That track sounds like the old Metallica. A lot of the others sound a bit generic to me.

3/5

This is an album that I owned when I was younger, but it's one that I remember skipping a lot of songs on so that I could get to the good tracks. Now I can remember why. This album is very repetitive. I don't know that I would say that it's a bad album. It certainly has its highlights. Unfortunately, listening to so many albums on this list has introduced me to a lot of music that sounds substantially similar to RHCP, which makes them feel much less revolutionary than I thought they were when I was younger. Now, this album feels very uninspired, and I still have 6 more songs to get through before I get to hear Give It Away.

I have been listening to this album for 5 hours, and I'm only on song number 7. Is this album the secret to time travel?

3/5, with a handful of songs doing all of the work, since most of the songs on this album are so boring that I can't be bothered to look up their names to talk about them

Everywhere I look, I see Brian Eno helping to produce incredible albums. It's neat to find out that he had a big influence on the sound of the Talking Heads and their use of polyrhythms. This isn't my favorite Talking Heads album, but it's definitely great

4/5

This is kind of a strange album, in that it's genre is somewhat hard to place. It bears some similarity to Pelican West by Haircut One Hundred, especially when the horns/sax are playing, but it also feels like a post-punk album at times. There are a lot of different moods here, but it's really good overall. Great music with interesting lyrics and a great voice. I would not be surprised to find out that this album influenced a lot of 80s artists because it feels like the sounds on this album are all over the place in the 80s, but I don't remember hearing a lot of stuff like this that came out earlier than this album

4/5

One year during high school, on the fourth of July, a bunch of my friends were hanging out. My friend Andy decided, for reasons that I have since forgotten, that we would listen to American Pie. On repeat. For hours. The funny thing about this song is that it's long enough that you can keep it going for a few hours without getting too sick of it. We continued on way past that point, to the point where I fucking hated this song and Don McLean. We kept listening. Eventually my loathing of the song gave way to pure affection, and that's where I've been ever since. I still know all the words.

Unfortunately, American Pie is the only thing that's really worth talking about on this album. It's fine, but uninteresting. Sort of like if they put that ChumbaWumba album on this list

3/5, with one song doing all of the work, just like every group project I did in school

The White Stripes are one of those bands that I've always thought I should be into, but I've never really liked more than a select few of their songs. After listening to the full album, I think I understand them better. I really like the chunky guitar tones throughout the album, and they put out a lot of sound for just two musicians, and the lyrical style complements the music well. I wish that more of the songs on the album had the sort of bouncy feel of Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, but overall it's a good album

4/5

I was introduced to this band/album by the podcast No Dogs in Space, and if you liked this album, I'd really recommend their series on the Damned.

This is such a fun album. It's still full-on early punk in terms of the majority of its sound, but other influences are clearly creeping in, especially as the album goes on. In that sense, the album seems like a harbinger of the post punk movement. Overall, it just a lot of fun. Very high energy, pretty lighthearted songs that still manage to be subversive. It flies by too

4/5

Goddamn I love me some Brian Eno. That's been one of the real surprises as I've encountered the albums on this list is how often he shows up in various roles, and how much I like what he does. It helps that I really enjoy ambient music.

Another Green World is not my favorite Eno album, but it's great just like all of the others. He runs through a diverse set of styles, but it always sounds like him, and it's good throughout

It's so weird that there was so much great music made during the 1970s, and yet all I ever heard on the radio growing up was Zeppelin and Foghat. I'd file a class action lawsuit if anyone other than me seemed to care

4/5