Reviews by syrinx

I didn't ever really get into The Jesus and Mary Chain until recently. Maybe not until starting this list, I don't quite remember. But they're definitely right up my alley. Dark and vibey, good lyrics, interesting music. What's not to like?
I do like this album a bit better than Physchocandy which I found to be produced a little unevenly. This record is much better produced and recorded and is just better to listen to all around. You can really hear the influence this record had on indie bands to come in the 90s, even some of the grunge bands seem to have borrowed from this a bit. 4/5

I had never actually hear this album before which is weird. I learned today that I am definitely not a Joni Mitchell fan. Like at all. This is so not for me. I can appreciate that the lyrics are good, but I don't particularly care for her voice or the overall style. No judgement for those that like Joni Mitchell, it's just not music that I want to listen to. I can't really fault it for personal taste, I would actually turn this off if it came on randomly, but since this is my personal rating it's getting a 2/5.

I love this album. I've listened to this so many times I'm surprised the grooves are still on the record. It's not Kind of Blue, it's less engaging than that but it's more of a 'play in the background' kind of album. It's super short, loses points for that but that may have been a result of the limitations of the time. I mean Miles Davis is one of the best ever, and he's definitely done better than this record. But still, even Miles Davis's run of the mill record is better than most. 4/5

I always struggle a bit with these albums that have like 20+ songs that are mostly under 3 minutes. That seems like such an odd choice to make when writing an album. Part of the problem with these kinds of albums is that it's hard to write 20+ distinct sounding songs in a short time for one record. This album definitely fell prey to that trap. I found myself kind of checking out about halfway through. It's fine, nothing remarkable or terrible to report. He should stick with the Pixies. 2.5/5

I feel like the whole Krautrock genre is hit or miss. One song in and I'm pleased to say this one looks like something I'm going to enjoy. I don't know what it is about this album but it is unmistakably European. Or maybe just 'not American' would be the better term. I really like how experimental it is at the same time as being fairly structured. It's kind of like what a jam band should be. There are a lot of complaints in the reviews for this album about how long the songs are, I don't agree. I don't mind a 15+ minute song if it's done well. Halleluwah is a great example - 18 and a half minutes and it goes through a couple different movements. The playing is good, the groove is good. What's not to like?
Moving into the second record, it definitely gets weirder and more experimental but I still kind of like it. I feel like this is what that damn Trout Mask Replica album was trying to do and failing. People think that album is genius, sorry, it's not. This isn't really genius either, but it's better. If the whole album was like the first record, this would be a 5/5 for sure. The second record is still good and I like it, weird though it is, but I can't see it as something I would listen to often. It falls off for me about halfway through Peking O but then picks back up with Bring Me Coffee or Tea. So 3.5/5 for this one, rounding up.

It's weird to me that all the Bee Gees albums on this list (so far) are not what they are known for at all. I mean it's weird that there are multiple Bee Gees albums on this list anyway...
If you played this for me I would never have guessed it was the Bee Gees. It just kind of sounds like the generic sort of folksy soft rock that came out of the 60s. This could be like The Moody Blues or maybe America. It's aggressively bland. As much as I hate to say it, it's probably better that the Bee Gees switched to disco and that's probably how they should be remembered. 2/5

I don't exactly remember when I first heard this album, but I think it was after I heard What's The Story. While the latter is a much better record, this one is still pretty solid. I was only ever a casual Oasis fan though, I think I owned an album or two of theirs at some point. I remember around the time this came out people were talking about a British Invasion Part 2, and I suppose that is true to some degree. Certainly this album kicked off a huge influx of Brit pop bands into the mainstream, at least here in the US.
This is a decent record that holds up surprisingly well. I feel like you could have told me this album came out any time post 2000 and I wouldn't have had reason to not believe you. Great guitar work and wonderful sounding guitars. Simple but effective drums and bass. I dig it. I don't know that I would really seek this one out, but I might play it now and again if I happened to find it somewhere. 3/5

I mean Frank Sinatra had one of the best voices of all time, so this is great just for that reason alone. His music isn't really something that I'd listen to very often but every time I hear Sinatra, I'm glad to be listening. This album is good, but I think this is one of the rare occasions where there should have been just one Sinatra album on this list, and it should have been a double length best-of. The problem with this album is that, even though the songs are great, none of them really stand out from the rest. They do all kind of blend together as others have said. But to his credit, I listened to Sinatra for a while after this album was over so he gets points for that. 3.5/5 and will round up to a 4.

When I was in college about ten years after this album came out there was a dude on campus that everyone knew as "Techno Guy" who would sit outside the student union building all day blasting loud techno from a giant boom box and doing these weird sort of robotic dances. He also wore a newsie hat and I don't know if he ever went to class because he was always there. I'm pretty sure this was one of his go to album. And like Techno Guy, this album was sort of interesting for about two minutes then just got annoying and I wanted it to go away. I will say that this album isn't nearly as bad as a lot of the electronic music that's out there. So an extra star for that I guess. 2/5

Another that I had never heard of. Three songs in and I'm not really impressed. It's ok. Kind of slow and moody. A lot of people comparing them to Radiohead and I suppose I see that, though I don't really agree. I feel like I might struggle to stay awake for the whole 47 minutes of this album. There are some cool and good sounding guitar parts. Or maybe just meh guitar parts that come out of nowhere in otherwise boring music? I might have heard Why Does It Always Rain On Me before? That sounds like it was probably in a movie soundtrack at some point. I was glad when it ended, I needed something a little more interesting. Sometimes boring is worse than bad. I would be interested to hear their first album since it was apparently more of a rock album than this was. But listening to this didn't make me want to play that one right away afterwards. 2/5

"Hey guys - what if we mixed the pretentiousness of Radiohead with the blandness of Coldplay?"
"Yeah that sounds good but let's change it just a little so we don't get in trouble..."
Pretty sure that's how Muse got started. I mean the songs are decent I guess. I don't really have any complaints but I also don't have any praise to give. Supermassive Black Hole was sooo overplayed and I can't really stand it now. And to me, that's the mark of a bad song. And I don't like the way Matt Bellamy sings. Not like the tone of his voice but they way he sings the words is irritating. Like he stretches out the sounds in a way that is off putting. Hard to explain.
Well, 2.5/5 on this one and I fail to see why it is on this list. Gonna round down.

I don't think I've ever actually heard this whole album. I mean I know a few of the songs from it, but to the best of my memory, I've never played the whole thing.
I've always felt like Clapton was super overrated as a guitar player (and as a human too I suppose but that's a different conversation...) and never really got they hype. I mean he's good, yes. But there were so many people who did it better than him.
Layla is a great song, there's no denying that. I've always like Bell Bottom Blues too. I mean I feel like those are the two songs from this album everyone is going to know. A few others I've heard a bunch of times by a bunch of different artists. The cover of Little Wing is just terrible.
The rest of it is...fine. No real complaints it's just exactly what you would expect from a Clapton album. I think this album is on her solely because of Layla, outside of that, there isn't really anything that you couldn't hear from a local band at any number of bars in any city in the US. It's a decent album, but not one I would ever play again. 3/5

I'm always a little conflicted about R.E.M. because I sort of like some of their music but it is a tad too generic for me. Like they are sort of 'standard 80s alt' no matter what they do. All of their records are really dated sounding regardless of when they were released. This record is no exception - straight down the middle for 80s alt/indie. They've always been a little thin sounding for me with the jangly guitars and Michael Stipe's high voice. I do really like the bass on this record, the tone is fantastic and the bass parts are really good, I wish it had been upped in the mix a little. 2.5/5 but going to round down because there isn't really anything here that makes me want to round up.

This album doesn't feel quite finished to me. Like it could be a good demo or a sort of proof of concept type thing but it's not a fully fleshed out record. I like the style and where it's heading but it needs more. I think it's because there are no drums and little bass. I mean you can certainly make a record without those things but this was not a successful attempt. It ends up sounding thin and unpolished and empty. I found myself sort of tuning it out a bit. It's a shame because I feel like the lyrics are actually really good and the music has a lot of potential, it just wasn't executed properly. 2.5/5 and I'll round up because I think this could have been a great album.

I hate when an album isn't on Spotify, that usually turns me off a bit. But damn, once this started playing on YouTube I was sold. I'm a sucker for a female-led punk/post punk band and I had heard a few songs of theirs, which I really enjoyed, so this was a much-welcomed treat. It's not mind-blowing in any sense, but it's got all the parts - great vocals, great instrumentation, decent production, interesting songs. I would definitely pick up any record of theirs I stumbled across at the record store based on listening to this one.
I particularly enjoyed Vicky's Box, Hate My Way, and Soul Soldier. For a rating, I'd give it a solid 4.5 and I'm gonna round up despite not having the album available on Spotify. I'll definitely be listening to more from them.

A straight-ahead rocker. Dead Kennedys might be a 'love them or hate them' band, I suppose that whole genre is kind of the same. I love this album. It's not perfect by any means but if it were perfect it wouldn't really be a punk album, would it? Yes, it's repetitive. No, the vocals are not fantastic (relative to other genres I suppose...). Yes, the music is simple. But it's a really raw and strong record and that’s all it is trying to be. Great political and social commentary. Like it or not, I think they nailed what they were trying to accomplish with this one. 4/5

Ok, I don't think I've ever heard a whole Coldplay album before. I remember hearing a few of these songs when they came out but I can't remember one time I ever played Coldplay on purpose. I had 0 liked songs from them on Spotify and, spoiler, that didn't change today. I know they get a lot of hate in a Nickelback-esque sort of way but I don't really have any feelings about that one way or another. Three songs in, I'm ready to move on. The music isn't bad, it's just...blah. Chris Martin sort of seems like he wants to be Thom Yorke and wanting to be Thom Yorke is never a good thing. I have nothing to base this on and I could be completely wrong, but just by listening to this album, I feel like Chris Martin is the kind of guy who if you asked him 'what's the best song ever written?', wouldn't hesitate to name a song from one of his own records. Thom Yorke would do the same. I mean the vocals here aren't bad, but it's like someone asked a semi-capable AI to generate a 'generic white guy' sounding vocalist. It would totally be Chris Martin.
As for the rest of the band, I can't really comment, there was nothing of note except I remember thinking one of the bass lines was kind of cool. And that indifference, to me, is worse a lot of the time than music I can say something negative about.
So, Coldplay? 2/5 and I hope this was a one and done for this list.

Dear god this is awful. I can't really get on with country music at the best of times and this is truly unbearable. I enjoy a few older country artists - Johnny Cash, the occasional Willie Nelson - but this is just so cheesy and twangy and I can't stand it. I don't get the appeal for this kind of music at all. The best thing about this album is that it's only 32 minutes long. 1/5

This is such a great album. Not my favorite from the Beatles but probably top 3. It's got the weirdness that marked some of their later records, it's got super memorable songs, sitar, Ringo sings a song. Even still, rating is kind of tough, it's at least a solid 4, not sure if it quite reaches 5 for me. This is another example of why this list needs ratings out of 10 instead of 5. Is it a 5 star album? Yeah probably but I don't think it quite makes it for me. 4.5/5 but rounding down.

An album that begins with one of the best songs Led Zeppelin did has to be great. Obviously this one is. I know there was some controversy when this came out about it being too different than the first two Zeppelin records but I don't see that as a bad thing. As great as the first two records are, this one is right up there. I think I actually like this one a bit better than their first album. Nothing else to say about it, its Zeppelin so you know it's going to be better than 90% of records on this list. That's the Way is sort of a slow spot for me, but I'm still giving this one 4.5/5