Reviews by suspiciousnumber

It's the craziest thing, but I woke up this morning hoping that I would get to listen to a dour Bee Gees album about the loss of a fictional ship in the 19th century. I am, of course, being sarcastic, as I could never want that, and I don't see how anyone else could want that either. '

The thing that has surprised me about the two Bee Gees albums that I've gotten on this list (both from their 60s albums) is the joylessness of the music put out by this group I always associated with upbeat disco music. I would describe their music as being similar to the feeling of standing at the jukebox at a bar on a busy night and reaching into your pocket looking for a few quarters so you can listen to your favorite song, but instead you find that your pocket is full of cold oatmeal. Like, sure it's disappointing, but in a very intriguing way.

Okay, I was kind of joking before, but this album really is very dull. On lots of songs I can hear the influences on the song, but I can't figure out why they wanted to make the song in the first place. It really feels like they're not trying very hard to make the album interesting. I'm only halfway through at this point, and I don't foresee a future in which I get all the way through all of these songs. I'm honestly glad that this ship was lost. The only problem is that the master tapes for this album weren't on it

2/5

One of the things that listening to albums on this list has given me a better appreciation for is the history of electronic music. I think I would not have enjoyed this album nearly so much a year or two ago, but the significance of what Kraftwerk was doing in this period is much clearer to me now. I didn't like this album as much as Man-Machine, which leans a little more towards the pop music side of electronic music, but this album is really cool. It develops very slowly but methodically. The first song is the real treasure here, but the entire album is good. Absolutely iconic down to the cover art

4/5

One of the most improbable things that I've learned while listening to albums from this list is that I am apparently a Bruce Springsteen fan. Don't get me wrong, he always seemed like a cool, hardworking guy, but knowing him from his hit songs provided me with a much different perspective on him. This is the fifth album (Darkness on the Edge of Town, Born in the USA, the Rising, Born to Run) of his that I've reviewed, and the only one I didn't really like was Born to Run. The others were fantastic.

This album is my favorite so far. It feels so personal and intimate, and I'm glad that he didn't go through with rerecording the songs with the E street band as he originally intended. It's an album so stark in terms of its outlook on the future that it, that it could have been released today. The song State Trooper shows a notable influence from the band Suicide, which was a cool nod (I know that Springsteen has covered their songs live) and also shows just how far-ranging Springsteens influences are

4/5

I was pretty predisposed to dislike this album, since I didn't like The Who Sells Out, the previous album by them that I got on this list. However, I feel like the charm of The Who is much more clearly on display here on their first album that was lost on some of their later albums after they started falling in love with the smell of their own farts (looking at you, Pete Townsend). In terms of early garage rock, this is certainly the most popular album that has that lofi sound. It brings a lot of charm to the album. The drums are never miked properly to show Keith Moons power as a drummer, but the slightly tinny distortion on them works with the rest of the style of the album. The vocal harmonies on songs like The Kids Are Alright shows their range as musicians, where a lot of other garage rock acts relied mostly on the lead singer and opted for simpler vocals. This album moves past very quickly, since it's only 36 minutes long. It begins to drag a bit in the second half when The Who inexplicably decide that they're a blues band, but by that point you've already got your money's worth

4/5

This is certainly not my favorite Beach Boys record, but it's got a lot of great songs on it. Adding more orchestral instruments definitely does a lot to make the Beach Boys' sound more interesting, and it did a lot to showcase what Brian Wilson could do as a songwriter

4/5

This album is both fascinating in concept and very well executed. This is what I come to this list for, albums that I've never heard of that expose me to cool new musical ideas.

Yesterday, my album of the day was a Limp Bizkit album that I think was called "Buttholes and Hot Dog Water" and it was the worst goddamned thing I've ever heard in my life. This album was a tremendous palate cleanser after that, and it helped give me the will to go on living after hearing two different versions of the song Rollin' on the same album.

Lots of cool bits of music on this album interspersed with sound effects and ambient music. I think it would be easy to fuck up this concept, but Adamson did a great job with it. Considering that this was made in 1989, I would describe this as a real achievement, and I'm surprised that it's not more well-known. I guess everyone was too busy listening to Whitesnake to care

4/5

No.

I refuse.

You've made me listen to a Korn album and a Marilyn Manson album, and there were ways that I could reasonable criticize those albums, but I refuse to believe that any human being could be so brain damaged as to think that Limp Bizkit deserves to be represented on this list. What could I possibly be meant to take away from this other than the idea that rock music was a crucifying hellscape in the early 2000s?

Jesus.

I'm on the second song, and it's not just that I want to turn the album off, I'm losing the will to keep going. It's like Fred Durst just found out about NIN and the word fuck at the same time. Like, how did he think that anyone would find this interesting?

What is the point of any of this? Fred Durst might be the worst lyricist I've ever heard. All of his songs are just a word salad put together from South Park episodes. Every song has basically the same sound and structure. Most of his choruses seem to be lyrics stolen from other songs in a way that suggests that Durst doesn't really get any of the music that he likes.

I genuinely have nothing positive to say about this. This album should have been buried in the desert next to old copies of ET on Atari. It's really shocking the extent to which even the best elements of this album are mediocre. I'm genuinely angry that I wasted my time listening to this

1/5

This album seemed like a bit of a weird one for this list. I understand the Fela Kuti albums on the list because they were groundbreaking, both politically and musically. This, on the other hand, sounds like pretty normal afrobeat. The Wikipedia page was not much help, as it just explained that this album introduced afrobeat to a wider audience, but doesn't explain how/why. Overall, I don't love the production of this album. The bass guitar has that muzak tone present on lots of albums in the late 70s/early 80s. Overall it's fine, but not particularly interesting, especially when contrasted with Zombie, the Fela Kuti album I got previously on this list

3/5

This is one of those albums that took me a long time to get to, despite the fact that it's cover is pretty iconic, and as a result I was aware of it for a long time. The first thing that's striking about this album is the absolute angelic quality of his voice. I think that he could have been a more successful artist if he didn't want to do interesting things with the music. Luckily for us, he was interested in putting effort into the music. He seems to always keep a light touch with the instrumentals; they come off as very quiet in the mix. This helps feature his voice, but it also gives the album a cool stripped-down quality

4/5

It's interesting that Patti Smith was among the first, if not the first person from the New York punk scene to put out a successful album. It's easy to see how her style was influenced by the other bands in the scene, despite the fact that it would be hard to label this album as punk now. It has a really cool stripped down style that compliments her lyrics and vocals well. Having John Cale from the Velvet Underground certainly helps the album, as the production is excellent. The album flies by pretty fast. It doesn't feel like there is any filler in the album.

4/5

I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately, but honestly this album was better than I thought it would be. For a pop album, it's very moody and introspective. The electronic music is not groundbreaking for the period, but it's also revolutionary compared to where pop was at when this album was released. The songs are consistently good, and I never felt like this album was pandering. The production is excellent and each song seems to flow into the next in a way that makes it really easy to put on and just listen to

4/5

This album was somewhat less interesting than I hoped, but it also comes from that period when electronic music was just on the cusp of technological advances that would make it a lot more interesting. Overall the album is good, with a lot of fun disco-style beats matched to more modern electronic instruments. In some ways it reminds me of the Jamiroqaui album I got on this list, but less mature because of the earlier era. It seems like this album crawled so that Jamiroquai could walk on moving sidewalks. Worth a listen despite the fact that it is a bit dated

4/5

It feels strange that I've never listened to this album before, but I've always stuck to London Calling with the Clash. Compared to that, this album feels much less mature, but a lot of the elements that make London Calling great are starting to emerge here.

This is a more straight-ahead punk album than LC, which drew on a broader array of influences. Still, these were the early years of punk, and this was a landmark album in that genre, even though it was overshadowed somewhat by the works of bands like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. I would certainly call this album better than Nevermind the Bollocks, which is a fun album but feels even less mature than this, though The Ramones self-titled album is the best of the three (despite the fact that this album has much more variation in song construction than The Ramones).

This is classic bored youth punk and was critical in helping define the genre

4/5

I liked this album. I think I liked the other PJ Harvey album recommended on this list better, but this had a similar style

4/5

This album starts out incredibly strong, with three great songs that were all hits to a greater or lesser extent. It slows down after that, but it's still pretty good overall, if a bit less toe-tapping. Very much an album of its time, and I'm not sure how ground-breaking it is, but its still a good album that is well worth a listen

4/5

Starting out listening to this album, I really thought I was going to get bored of it as it went on, but it stayed really interesting. It mixes in a lot of different instrumental styles. This is one I could see myself buying

4/5

This album starts out really strong. It's a postpunk album with some electronic elements that were very surprising given when it was made. The album tends overall to get less interesting as it goes, which is a bit of a disappointment. It feels a bit like they started to run out of ideas. It's a bit of a bummer, but this album is worth it just for the first half

4/5

I'm not gonna lie, this album was hard to give a crap about. It's fine, but I didn't find anything interesting about it. I could see why people would like it, but I just kept waiting for it to be over so I could listen to something a bit more stimulating

3/5

This album was more interesting than I thought it would be. I was not very enamored of popular music in the early 2000s, so I never listened to a lot of bands like the Killers and the Strokes. While I don't think this is a band I'm going to be returning to often, it's cool to hear how postpunk influenced the generation that grew up listening to it. This all sounds a bit dated now, but it was also certainly different from what came before it

4/5

David Byrne is a national treasure, and so are his big suits, and so is Brian Eno. It's easy to see how a collaboration from these two could go incredibly right or horribly wrong, since they are both incredible visionaries. This album isn't as pleasant to listen to as a lot of stuff made by these two in their previous solo/group work, but it is really cool. The use of heavy sampling to compose an album makes this album highly significant, but more than that, it's good. The music is as diverse, global, and polyrhythmic as you might expect from David Byrne, and not quite as ambient and electronic as you might expect from Brian Eno. Definitely well worth a listen

4/5