Reviews by suspiciousnumber

This album is what David Bowie would sound like if he was too lazy to make good music. It's fine for what it is, but it's also another britpop album that doesn't seem particularly suited for a list like this. It's an album from the tail end of the 90s that doesn't sound all that much different from a lot of other albums that came out in the 90s. The harmonies are good, but most of the music and the lyrics unimpressive. On the other hand, I'm really excited for this album to be over soon

2/5

I tend to have the same issue with all Sonic Youth albums, which is that I enjoy them okay, but I never feel compelled to listen to them again. I've seen them live twice, and loved them both times, so the issue seems to be more with how their sound translates to a recorded medium. This album I liked a little more than the others I've listened to. It feels like it has a distinctive Pixies influence that works well with their style. The songs also feel more structured and less noise-based, which I think helps it translate to a recording better

4/5

In general, I'm not a huge fan of music that focuses around a single vocalist, but having said that I love Sarah Vaughn's voice. She has great control and range. I especially enjoyed How High the Moon, where she declares in the second line that she doesn't know the words, and then scats beautifully through the rest of the song. Who needs lyrics when you're the queen?

4/5

This is an easy one. This is one of my absolute favorite albums of all time, maybe even top 5. Every single song is good, and several of them are great. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart is the perfect first song for this album, and it just keeps going from there. The album is sad and sweet, but also revels in some happy moments, like War on War and Heavy Metal Drummer. I'd also recommend the documentary about the making of this album if you can find it (titled: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart)

5/5

This is one of those albums that everyone seems to love that, historically at least, I just don't "get." This listen gave me more of an appreciation for the album, as I got into more of a groove with it and was able to enjoy the overall structure of the album and the songs contained within.

It's still not my favorite Pink Floyd album (I'm partial to Animals). I think it would have been better as a single album, which is something I say about almost every double album. It sags in places, and often these sags occur just as I'm getting into the album. For instance, I really like Young Lust, and it feels like the album is building to something at that point, but then it comes to a total halt with One Of My Turns.

This album feels really self indulgent on the part of Roger Waters. When the album becomes less about his personal feelings and more universal, it gets really good. There's too many good songs on here to give it anything less than 4/5, but I also find it frustrating that this album could be among my favorite Pink Floyd albums if it had fewer songs and was more focused. This album with half of the songs would be amazing

4/5

4/5

I really dislike this band. People seem to love them for reasons that are entirely unclear to me. They are fine. Their music is fine. Their lyrics are fine. That's it. There are a thousand bands that deserved the radio airplay that the Eagles got more than the Eagles did, and that's what bothers me about this band.

This album starts off with Take It Easy, which is an okay song, and then it gets progressively stupider from there. Chug All Night sounds like a song I would write and play for my friends as a stupid joke. Most of Us Are Sad is so on-the-nose that it knocked my glasses off my face. Every song after that is essentially indistinguishable to me because the Eagles are hacks. Peaceful, Easy Feeling is an okay song, I guess because it's basically Take It Easy without the banjo. Fuck the Eagles, I'm out

2/5

As I noted in my review for Goo (weird that I got two Sonic Youth albums in the same week), I've loved seeing Sonic Youth live, but never really gotten into their albums. I think this album actually captures them pretty well compared to a lot of the other SY albums that I've heard. It makes sense why this album is so highly regarded within their catalogue. It feels a lot more like the energy that they bring to live shows than most of their albums, which feel a bit flat to me.

This album holds up pretty well. It has some great songs on it, all of which still work pretty well today. Some of the music is a bit dated because of the equipment that was used in the recording, but overall it's a charming record. I wouldn't put George Michael as one of the top acts of the 80s the way his album sales would suggest, but he was an excellent song writer. It's kind of crazy that some of his biggest hits were released as singles before this album came out and didn't appear on the album

4/5

Fela Kuti's brand of afrobeat music is interesting to me, in that all of the albums of his that I've heard sound very similar to my ears, but still I like what he produces. The background information about this album is fascinating, as it is likely one of the most politically significant albums of all time. Kuti treated his music as a force for social and political change, and this album was certainly received that way, both by his fans and his enemies in the Nigerian government.

4/5

Generally, when an English band from the 90s-00s that I haven't heard of before shows up on this list, it turns out to be a baffling selection for this list, as most of these albums would better to have been saved until after I died. The living version of me certainly didn't enjoy them.

This album was a notable exception. It's distinctive, I can't think of anything else that sounds like this from the mid-90s. The music is cool, and the lead singer has a great voice. Definitely worth a listen while I yet live

4/5

For the love of god, WHY? Why, out of all the great music made in the late 60s is this fucking album on this list

Okay kids, it's story time.

One time, when I was in high school, My friends and I got ahold of some weed from a dealer who was not esteemed either for his intelligence or for his scruples. A bunch of us gathered at my friend's house and got stoned. No big deal.

Except this weed was laced with PCP, and rather than getting stoned and sitting on the couch laughing, we went to the fucking moon. I don't have a lot of memories of that night, apart from the fact that I was involuntarily walking around with my arms in front of me like a T-rex, and I kept opening sodas, taking one drink, and setting them down and losing them forever.

Why does this story matter now?

Someone put on this album, side 2, and my friend Johnny and I did an interpretive dance to all of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. He was spinning in place and I was dancing around him in the opposite direction. At the time it was a beautiful expression of the power of the music that we transmuted into physical movements as we became the song.

Somehow I think it would have looked a lot stupider to an outside observer who wasn't on drugs. It's a funny memory, though, and I tend to forget all about it until I am reminded that this album exists.

Anyway, this album is really boring and people mostly remember it for the interminable song that takes up the entire second half of the album. It just keeps fucking going without much purpose other than to exists for as long as it can. In some ways it's a perfect metaphor for the perpetual struggle of living things to continue to exist, moment by moment, despite the fact that we will all eventually fail and be returned to the earth

Or anyway it would be a perfect metaphor if this album was less fucking boring

3/5

There's been a few times on this list when I encountered an album made at the end of an artist's life that serves as a kind of goodbye message to the people who loved their music. This album is a bit strange among those, since it's largely a cover album, but god damn what an exit. He did definitive versions of some of these songs, especially Hurt. Not every song on this album is amazing like that, but they're all good. His voice held up to the very end, and for that we can be grateful

4/5

I liked this album a lot, though it doesn't feel nearly as coherent nor as striking as the Shaft OST album. Setting that comparison aside, this is quality Isaac Hayes. His compositions are big, filling up the speakers with both electric and orchestral instruments. He brings the funk on this album too. It also feels more personal than the Shaft OST as well, it's much more about emotion and struggle.

4/5

I feel about this album the way that I feel about essentially every Bob Marley album except Natty Dread (which is far and away my favorite). It's good but not ultimately that interesting. I think that this album is better than most, but it still feels like background music a lot of the time

3/5

I can't say that this album made much of an impression on me either way. It was fine, but it was hard to understand why its significant. I don't know that the music is particularly advanced for 1993, though it definitely doesn't sound dated for the time either. The Indian influence on the album is cool. Overall there's not a lot that I can say. It works fine as background music, but there isn't a lot else to recommend it, and the Wikipedia page was not particularly enlightening either

3/5

The peak of Wu-Tang shone brighter than the sun in the mid-90s. The fact that multiple albums were lost when Rza's studio flooded likely means that there were more albums of this level of quality that the world never got to hear. Can't spend your time thinking about might-have-beens, though.

Built for Cuban Linx is one of those albums that I had heard about for a long time before I listened to it. On it's face it seemed like a strange thing. Raekwon didn't go on to the level of success that other member of the clan did, so it was hard to believe that one of the best solo albums came from an artist who isn't in the top 5 most highly regarded members of the original Wu-Tang clan.

When you put this album on, it seems baffling that Raekwon didn't manage to break through to the main stream. So much of what made 36 Chambers great is here, the samples that only seem to work through a form of alchemy, the lyrical storytelling, tracks filled with different voices that come together in a powerful way. Cuban Linx is incredible, right from the first song. I'm not in love with the skits between the songs, but that's how things were back then, and it does work well with the cinematic approach to the lyrics.

5/5 An absolute classic

I can't say that I've listened to much dream pop before this, but I found this album really pleasant. It doesn't particularly grab you and draw you in, but the music is all very pleasant and flows well from song to song. They work really well together as a duo and both members of the band have good voices. It's not an album that I would describe as spectacular, but its very pleasant to tap your foot to as you listen to it, and the world could use plenty of that at the moment

4/5

I saw Love in Vain on the tracklist and prayed to the gods above that it was not yet another shitty Robert Johnson cover (see Eric Clapton's cover of They Are Red Hot if you want another example), but of course I was disappointed. Leave the man to his eternal sleep and stop robbing his grave for christssakes.

Overall, I would describe this album as a fairly forgettable collection of blues rock songs that are bookended by the stellar songs Gimme Shelter and You Can't Always Get What You Want. It's sort of a pain in the ass that I have to get through the entire album to hear the only two songs that I care about, but that's the way it goes sometimes

3/5

Please collect all of the electronic disco/funk music you can find and inject it directly into my veins. I don't get to listen to a lot of fun dance music on this list, and I fucking love this stuff. The fact that this album came out in 1993 is crazy. It sounds almost too advanced for that period, though electronic music was making rapid advancements during that period in particular.

Anyway, it's hard to type when my feet are tapping and my head is bopping, so I'm just going to give this 4 stars and get back to enjoying it

This album was an interesting listen. I remember when it came out it was compared negatively to Stankonia, which is fair because it's not as good as Stankonia, but this album still contains tons of high quality Outkast material.

4/5