Reviews by suspiciousnumber

This is one of those albums that feels like it's from a different time than the year that it was made, though I'm not sure exactly when that time was. The style of music on this album is pretty fascinating. You have songs that are very heavy metal influenced, then you have songs like Glamour Boys that are essentially new wave songs. I really wish that this album would have spawned more of a musical movement, though it's influence can definitely be seen in bands like RHCP and Faith No More. I knew the song Cult of Personality before listening to this, but I was really surprised how consistently good the album was after that opener. I think I might try and pick this one up

4/5

My favorite part about this album is that it has Bittersweet Symphony on it. My least favorite part of the album was listening to the rest of the album afterwards. It's fine as an album, but it's another Brit pop album that feels like nothing special to me

3/5

Musically, this album builds on the type of slow, churning guitar rock of the Melvins with a bit of Soundgarden mixed in to liven things up. It fuckin really works. I like this album a lot more than I thought I was going to

4/5

I honestly wasn't expecting much from this album, but there is something about it. It's clearly an alternative rock album, but I would have guessed that it was made a few years later because there were a lot of albums that sound like this around 1995ish. For 1992, this album feels like it has a very mature style of alternative rock.

The album flies by pretty fast, with lots of short songs. They have a great pop feel to them, and the combination of acoustic and electric guitars gives the album a very rich sound. The production is also excellent. The album has a very clean feel

4/5, sort of an underrated gem from the early alternative rock era

It is wild that this album shared the top 5 with albums by Neil Young and David Crosby/Graham Nash. This album didn't make a huge impression on me, but I thought it was good overall. There's a lot of variety to the music, which keeps it really interesting. Some of it is more like CSNY, and some of it is more straightforward blues, but it's all really well done

4/5

I do love the serendipity of moments like this. I just read Dilla Time by Dan Charnas, which gave a lot of background on the making of this album and the influence of J Dilla on the musicians and producers involved (Dilla produced or played bass on multiple tracks). It doesn't change my enjoyment of the music all that much, but it's neat to have gotten a peak behind the scenes before listening to the album

I don't go in for a lot of soul, but I enjoyed this album. The music is stellar, and Badu's voice is beautiful and supple. It's consistently good all the way through

4/5

The Beetles, huh? Well, I guess you get into all kinds of obscure music on a list like this

I think I might like Rubber Soul better than this album, but this album definitely steps into a world of music that is beyond anything that they achieve on Rubber Soul. It feels like they're searching for something with this album that they ultimately find on Sgt Pepper's.

Looking at this album in isolation, it is a powerhouse of great songs. Even the songs that I don't love (like Love You To) are interesting and well executed.

5/5 I think these scruffy lads might just make it in the music industry

This is one of the better Rolling Stones albums that I've listened to, and I understand why people hold it up as their best album. However, from this era I like Sticky Fingers a lot more. It just feels so much more focused and concise than this album. On the other hand, it took the world a while to come around to this album, so maybe I just need to listen to it a bit more to really get it

4/5

Don't need to listen to this one to rate it, but I will anyway because this album kicks ass. This album marks a clear transition point for the band where they ceased to be the band that they were on their first album and started becoming the band that would produce OK Computer. They definitely aren't quite there yet on this album, but it's stellar in its own right. It's cool hearing 90s style guitars with the more experimental music that Radiohead stated doing here. With nearly any other band, this album would be considered part of their run of great albums, but OK Computer, Kid A, and Amnesiac all leave this album behind in the dust. That's sort of the tragedy of this album. It's incredible in its own right, and it should be talked about as one of the best rock albums of the 90s, but it's completely overshadowed by Radiohead's later work

5/5

You know, I don't know what they are saying in this music, nor do I really have much of an idea of how to describe it. It's really cool, though, how music can be so unfamiliar in terms of its language, structure, and instruments, and yet be so accessible. It's just a great listen, and Khan has an incredible voice

4/5

This really is just an incredibly beautiful album. I'm not usually big on folk music, but some albums are just undeniable. It's soft and elegant, and suffused with exquisite vocals. The music is overall simple and driven by acoustic guitar, but it complements the vocals perfectly

5/5

I'm not sure what it is about this album, but I found it very dull. There were occasional parts that I liked, but most of the time it felt like there was nothing happening. It's the album equivalent of eating plain oatmeal much of the time. The sound quality on the album is also a bit poor, though that may result from the copy I was listening to on Youtube

2/5, but it's the best album I've given 2 stars to, if that helps

This is another album that had a massive impact on my life. It's far darker and grittier than Nevermind, but also still maintains that pop sheen that made Nirvana popular. I don't really know what to say about it other than that it's great, but also represents the high water mark for the music era that most shaped my taste in music

5/5

This is just a really cool album. Very chill and relaxed instrumentals on most songs, but with some nice vocals when they appear. It's a pretty quick listen as well. I'd never heard of this album previously. It's very interesting that it is an early album with regard to the use of drum machines. I didn't even notice. The drums fit into the music very well and don't sound too clunky the way a lot of early drum machine stuff does. It's very tasteful work

4/5

I don't particularly love reggae music, but I also don't mind it (what a useful sentence I just wrote). It tends to just fade into the background for me. This is certainly a provocative album because it was the first time I heard someone advocate for the legalization of cannabis. That sentiment makes up a small part of the album, but it's significant for its cultural impact. Apart from that, the music is good, but not great

3/5

I never really look forward to listening to Slipknot, but I'll be damned if they are not interesting as a band. I do wish they would do more melodic stuff like Wait and Bleed rather than all of the atonal screaming. However, it's really neat to listen to their albums and pick out all of the different musical styles that influencing them. The second song on this album starts with a drum n' bass beat, then proceeds to show that this style of beat fits just fine in metal music. There's clearly a lot of different metal influences in their music, but hip-hop is also influencing their style. The prominence of percussion in their music also makes it compelling to listen to. It's one of those weird situations where, superficially this seems like music I shouldn't enjoy, but there's enough craftsmanship and cool stylistic choices that I find it really compelling as an album, even though there aren't many individual songs that I like on their own

4/5 Iowa represent

It's pretty wild that an artist in her 50s decides, on her 19th album, that she wants to start recording her own music rather than doing covers as she had for her entire career. I liked this album. Country is not particularly my genre, but she also does an idiosyncratic version of country that I find more interesting to listen to than most country music. It's not something that I see myself coming back to, but it's good overall

3/5

This album is such a fucking powerhouse. The first 5 songs on this album were legitimate hits. They all have that characteristic Boston sound with the soaring guitars that drown out everything else at times. It's a really incredible testament to the vision of Tom Scholz who did the writing and most of the instruments on the album. The vocals on the album are stellar, with lots of great harmonies. Really an underrated band

4/5

Reading the backstory on this album makes it very poignant. The bassist died shortly after the recording, and the songs that made this album were chosen to feature him. The bass is certainly ever-present in this album, serving, as it always does in these trios, as the glue that holds the piano and the drums together while each of them pursue their own ends.

The album is beautiful. I like Bill Evans's work with Miles Davis better, but he put an incredible solo trio together, and the quality that they were able to produce is on full display here

4/5

I don't know a lot about Cuban music, nor is it easy for me to put this album into context of other albums that I know, but I know that I like it. It's a much more contemplative version of cuban music that I am used to, as what I've heard before is really lively dance music.

4/5 I don't have much to say about it, but it's sure as hell worth a listen