Reviews by suspiciousnumber

This album is a bit tough for me to judge, and I think I'm going to have to come back to it for future listens to truly give a solid review on it. On this listen, it didn't feel like there was a huge amount going on here. I like each song, but they also kind of flow by without there being much for me to say specifically about them. What's Going On made much more of an impression on me at first listen.

I think this might be a case where lots of works that came after Let's Get It On incorporated this sound and approach, and as a consequence it doesn't sound as revolutionary as it is. I certainly can't say that it sounds like works that came before it, and the Wikipedia entry seems to confirm this. I feel like there's a lot here, but it's not something that I'm going to be able to articulate after a single listen

4/5

I think that metal groups in the 90s and 00s had a harder challenge in front of them then is generally recognized. They had to produce music that definitively sounded like metal without continuing to works that were substantially similar to what came before. I like metal, but it's sound can be restrictive. Bands like System of a Down did a great job of walking that line. I don't like this album as much as Toxicity, but still, you can clearly hear the innovation of their sound here. In a genre where it can be hard to stand out even with very talented musicians, SoaD manages to be instantly recognizable.

That being said, this album still sags in places. Their song writing would improve in future works, but it's not quite there yet on this work

3/5

This album is okay. I'm not a big prog rock guy, though luckily this album is not as slow and ponderous as many prog rock albums (and I'm sure that plenty of folks would argue that this is not prog rock, and that is certainly a supportable position). Parts of this is really good, and other parts are trying to be epic in a way that I find really uninspiring. I like the approach that Muse employed for this album, I'm just not super into the execution

3/5

This album is an okay listen. The production is good. The first few songs are really solid, but it starts to fall off after that. Moreover, it's hard to understand why this album is on the list. I haven't seen many alternative rock albums here, so it's always sort of baffling when I get an album that I would consider to be a minor work of that era. It's not bad, but there are so many more deserving albums that I'm not sure made this list

3/5

I really love listening to early metal, which I would not have predicted even a few years ago. This album has a lot of the elements of what will come in the future for metal embedded in it, but it also has a lot of elements of 70s rock in it. It feels like a very transitional album, one that clarifies the roots of the metal genre

4/5

I was a bit skeptical about this album when it first popped up, but honestly sometimes I do feel like a freak on a leash

Much of what I said about Antichrist Superstar applies here. The music for this album is actually pretty cool, and I wonder what this album would sound like if you removed the sensitive boi lyrics and left just the instrumentals. I like Korn's lyrics far better than Manson's, but to be fair I like reading the ingredients in a shampoo bottle better than Marilyn Manson's lyrics.

The production on this album is really clean, which makes it easy to listen to. I understand better now why people liked it so much in the 90s than I did then. Honestly, I was kind of digging it minus the childishness of the lyrics. Then All in the Family brings the album to a grinding fucking halt. The combination of homophobia and bad rapping is absolutely crucifying. Traditionally, rappers make diss tracks about other rappers, rather than inviting those rappers on the album to diss them back, but I guess Korn's approach to shitting on themselves works too. Unfortunately, it also drops this album's rating to 2/5 because I had to sit through it

2/5

2/5

For some reason I keep losing my notes that I make while actually listening to this album. However, if you've been listening to albums from this list for a while, you've already heard this album in one form or another. It's a Britpop album from the 90s-00s that is not interesting or original and has no business being on this list. Many albums on this list I don't like, but I understand why they were included. Other albums, like this, are clearly just here because the author of the list was a fan during their youth. It's something we would all fall victim to if we tried to compile a list of 1000 great albums, and yet I still choose to be shitty about it anyway because I am an anonymous stranger on the internet.

Fuck you, Manic Street Preachers

2/5

I always feel like I should like Frank Zappa, and then I always just think he's kinda okay when I listen to him. He's a skilled musician and composer, and he surrounds himself will great people, but I always feel like he's just a bit...much.

3/5

I lost my reivew from yesterday. Queen II is good Queen, but their sound has not fully matured yet compared to where it will be on A Night at the Opera

3/5

I like Leonard Cohen more than I thought I would before I'd listened to him. However, this is not his best work. His voice sounds a bit thin here, and it hurts the overall feeling of the album. The beauty of his poetry is still here, but it just doesn't sound as good

3/5

Funky Stevie Wonder is just the absolute best. He covers so much depth and harshness about the world while still managing to get you toes tapping. I don't like this album as much as Songs In the Key of Life, but it is still one of his best works from his most fruitful period

4/5

So....I don't really like prog rock. There are definitely good things about the genre, but a lot of it, for me, feels like forgettable stretches broken up by the occasional bit of good music. There wasn't anything I specifically disliked about this album, but it was also hard to get too invested in it because of how slowly developing it is.

Also, Jesus Christ this album just keeps going, doesn't it? Like, I'm 37 minutes in and there is still one hell of a lot of album left.

3/5

I thought this album was cool, but it didn't ultimately keep my interest all that well

I always get excited when very recent albums show up on this list, since they have been universally good in my experience (the opposite of the phenomenon is when I see any Britpop album from the 90s or 00s).

This album was cool, but didn't blow my mind. It was pleasant enough playing in the background, but it didn't come to my attention very often as it was playing. It's a well-crafted album, but it didn't seem particularly groundbreaking in any way that was clear to me. Definitely worth a listen, though I'm not terribly sure why it was included on this list
4/5

There wasn't a huge amount to this one, but it's good enough. Cathy's Clown is a banger. The harmonies are excellent, but this comes from that tweener era of rock where the genre doesn't feel full developed in a lot of ways

3/5

We have arrived at yet another Brit Pop album from the 90s/00s that seems to have no other purpose on this list than the author's familiarity and affection for the genre. I always find these inclusions particularly galling because I've encountered so many incredible lesser-known albums through this list, yet I'm also being forced to listen to innocuous bullshit like this. It's not bad, but it's certainly not ground-breaking, genre-defining, finely-crafted, or, for that matter, enjoyable to listen to.

But at least I know that Robbie Williams is loving angels instead now. I can't think where my life would be without that bit of eternal wisdom, whatever the fuck it means

2/5

This album is a fun throwback to the 90s. The musical part of it is really good and contains a lot of interesting elements for the time in which it was made, especially the samples used on a few tracks. The lyrics are...I think too obvious is the word I'm looking for. There's very little craft to them, and it made the album hard to get into

3/5

This was a cool album. I've been meaning to listen to Gil Scott Heron for a long time. The music is cool, if not a bit subdued in order to give more focus to his lyrics. My favorite track was the last one, which was pretty funny while also making a lot of good points. I'd like to come back to this album when I've got more time to focus on what he's saying

4/5

What the fuck is this shit? After all of the stellar work Metallica did in the 80s, and all of the completely forgettable work that they did afterwards, it's kind of surprising to see an album on here from the very tail end of the millennium. I like the idea of mixing classical and heavy metal music together, since I think the genres have more in common than they are generally given credit for.

This album feels mostly like a Metallica concert with a symphony mixed under it. The band's instruments aren't so much integrated into the symphony as they are yelling over it like a drunk guy at a party. James Hetfield's voice has lost a lot of its power, which is unfortunate because it is front and center when it could be strengthened by instruments that compliment his sound. It's hard to tell if this album is just poorly executed or a cynical attempt to make Metallica relevant again after their many poor decisions in the 90s. There's nothing that frustrates me more than a good idea that fails because of laziness on the part of content creators. Even the fucking name of the album is lazy. I'm on the third song and I already want this to be over so badly. There are 17 more songs on this fucking album. I honestly think it would work better to play a Slayer album at the same time as a Beethoven symphony. At least that way when it didn't work I could comfort myself with the fact that it was never intended to

2/5

What am I supposed to do with this shit? I try so hard not to let an artist's personal life effect how I review their albums, but it's so hard not to think about it with Michael Jackson. Similar to how I had to Marilyn Manson's many allegations of domestic abuse, I'll soldier on.

Obviously this album is incredible. It's not just that every song is good, virtually every song was a huge hit. This album begins with Wanna Be Startin Something, and that is one of the MINOR hits on this album. Any other album, that would be one of the most notable tracts, but by the time you get through Thriller, Beat It, and Billie Jean you forget all about it. This is unquestionably Quincy Jones's best work, and it's sad that so much of that is tainted by Micheal being a fucking pedophile

It's a 5/5 album. It would be a lot easier to enjoy this album if Michael hadn't been everything that he was. but what can you do?