Reviews by syrinx

I've never really decided if I like Bob Dylan or not. Sometimes his music seems great and others it just grates on your brain. Like, dude enough with the poorly played harmonica already. And he's always hailed as like this poetic/lyrical genius but honestly I don't see that. I mean his lyrics are good but I don't really see that he's so much better than any number of other people in his same genre.
As for this album, it does belong on this list though it isn't really one I would play again. But that could be said about anything by Bob Dylan really. I'm just not really a fan at all I guess. 2/5 for me on this.

And as an aside, I'm confused by the choice of the cover photo. I would imagine that conversation went something like this:
Bob Dylan: here's my new album (plays harmonica for a few seconds) all recorded and ready for approval (more harmonica)
Record Exec: the songs are fine but you can't use this photo for the cover, it's all blurry and out of focus.
BD: yeah well so is my voice, it'll be fine (harmonica) unless you want to pay for another photo shoot (harmonica)
RE: yeah it's probably fine.

I mean Sympathy For The Devil is a great song. The rest is pretty much just standard/generic-sounding Rolling Stones. It's not bad, played well, fun to listen to, but I can't imagine that anyone would really care about this album if it wasn't the Stones. I would guess that this album is on this list just because of the opening song but I feel like surely there was another record that could have been included in place of this one. 2.5/5, will round up for the guitar solo on Sympathy For The Devil which has to be the coolest guitar solo with the worst sounding guitar tone of all time.

Embarrassing confession: I had never listened to this album before. So far, probably the most famous album from this list I had never heard. God damn was I missing out. This album is such a perfect bridge of punk, post punk, new wave, and moody 80s alt. That’s like exactly one of my musical personalities. It’s just brilliant and was way ahead of its time. And not only was the record simply fantastic, it was exactly the right record for the headspace I was in when I played it. You can’t really ask for more than that. One of my favorite new-to-me (ashamedly) records on this list so far. 5/5

Ok so my thoughts on the Red Hot Chili Peppers have always been 1.) Flea is an absolute monster of a bass player. Like one of the best ever. 2.) Individually, Flea, Chad Smith, and whatever guitar player they have at the time are amazing players but for some reason when you put them together it's always a little lackluster. and 3.) While I respect the uniqueness of the vocals, Anthony Kiedis just isn't for me. Instrumentally, all of their albums are fairly decent and have some good grooves on them. Throw in the vocals and usually banal lyrics and you've lost me.
This album pretty much ticks all of those boxes. And good god the sound on this album is terrible. Especially on the vocals, there's a weird quality about the vocals that just doesn't fit at all with the rest of the music. Like the highs on the vocals are turned all the way up and the bass on the instruments was boosted and it’s all just out of balance. The vocals and instruments are fighting each other the whole record.
I can see the commercial appeal of this album though - it's pretty safe for most listeners. Like you aren't going to get a ton of people who just absolutely hate it. There are a couple of songs that are decent but it really does seem like an album they made by reworking discarded songs to sound more coherent when stuck together as an album. A little too safe and uninteresting for me. 2/5

Super weird and experimental, for the time at least. I love the early stages of glam you can hear in this. This one is definitely not for everyone but I loved it. I'm not sure any specific song individually would be one that I would play just to hear it, but the album as a whole is great and I will definitely keep an eye out for it in the record store. 4/5

This album was inescapable back when it came out. I probably haven't listened to the whole thing since then. Mr. Brightside is still pretty much played all the time. It's a good song and as many times as I've heard it I don't cringe when it comes on so that's a good thing I guess. Outside of that song, I like Somebody Told Me and Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine. The rest is pretty forgettable, it really fades away toward the end. Not bad, but nothing that would make me want to buy this album to listen to over and over.
I get the hate for Brandon Flowers' voice. I heard someone say one time that he sounds like young Jerry Seinfeld trying to be a singer and that sort of ruined the whole band for me because that's pretty much all I hear now. 3/5

The thing about Bruce Springsteen to me is that his music just isn't what I want to listen to. I get the appeal it has for a lot of people but there's just something about the sound of all his records I don't like. Maybe there's too much in there with horns and keys and backup vocals. And on this album in particular there is so much reverb that much of it sounds cave-like. Springsteen seems like he would be a super awesome dude to hang out with and I appreciate his politics and the good that he does in the world. His music is just not for me. I mean there are some songs that I like on this album but if I never heard them again I don't feel like I would be any worse off. 3/5

I love Brian Eno's work in general but have a great appreciation for his production work. Especially the stuff he did with David Bowie. But this album seems a little mechanical or something to me. Like it doesn't have the normal humanness to it if that makes sense. It's sort of sterile. While I still like it, I don't think this is what I would have chosen to represent Brian Eno on a list like this. 3/5

I like this album, although I don't think I'd really make a point to listen to it much. A good album to throw on in the background for a chill cocktail party. I feel like this album might be a bit overrated, it's not spectacular but it's certainly enjoyable. I don't really find myself focusing on it much though, just sort of letting it pass in the background. Inner City Blues is probably my favorite from this record, I've always really loved that song (that bass!). All in all a solid album but maybe not one I like as much as everyone says I should. 3/5

There were a couple songs I really liked on this record but mostly it is just overbearingly generic 90s British alt-pop. If you had told me this was an early album from Oasis or Blur before they really found their individual sound, I wouldn't have any reason to doubt it. I feel like they were trying so hard to appeal to everyone that they made an incredibly bland album.
Bland though it is, it isn't bad. It's well played and recorded and I would think that it might show some promise of growth afterwards if they just stopped trying to appeal to everybody. I would be more hopeful had this been their first or second record instead of their fifth though. 2.5/5 rounding up because I didn’t dislike any of it.

Loved this album. Great African jazz and I wish this list had more of this kind of thing. I know it's not for everyone, but the musicianship, energy, and passion in this album is undeniable. 5/5

I mean it's Aretha Franklin, it's gonna be great. Although it's not exactly my favorite genre of music, I always appreciate someone with this kind of ability. Great voice, great musicians, great sound. I feel like this is one of the records that, regardless of your musical taste, everyone will appreciate. 4/5

For as much as this guy said he made the best album ever recorded, I have to say that I am a little disappointed. That might not be the right word, underwhelmed might be better. First, this album just screams 80s pop and to me that alone disqualifies it from being called the best album ever. I get the comparisons to Prince but there really is no comparison there, this guy will never be Prince.
I listened to this whole album and don't think I added any of the songs to my liked songs on Spotify. I didn't dislike any of it really, just nothing stood out. I would be interested to hear more from him, but I suspect he kind of got stuck making the same record over and over. It's fine, middle of the road for the genre. 2.25/5

This is a pretty good straightforward rocker. Sort of hard to date by listening - at times it sounds like 90s, sometimes like 70s, sometimes 80s. It's pretty standard as far as the music goes. I don't really dig the vocals so much but they aren't terrible. Tempo is pretty much the same all the way through which isn't really my favorite thing. Lyrics are pretty bad.
Overall not a horrible album but probably a one and done for me. 2.5/5 rounding up because I actually do like some of the songs and it was well-played.

I had never heard this album before though I think I may have heard Everything But The Girl a couple times randomly in the past. This album was not really as strong as others from the sort of mid-90s trip hop/drum and bass genre. It was fine but it was just sort of background music. I didn't hate it, listened to it while working and it was totally fine for that. Nothing in the music really distracted me from whatever else I was doing, it was just kind of playing in the background and was certainly serviceable for that purpose. I wasn't excited to get play this one again but neither was I really itching for it to be over. 2.5/5

Fleet Foxes are one of the bands that I just never got around to listening to for some reason. I have a lot of friends who love them, so I was excited to see this pop up this morning. I didn’t really know what to expect from this one...
I remember reading a tweet or something celebrating the mercifully short-lived reign and welcome death of 'stomp-clap-hey' bands from the early 2000s and couldn't agree more. Fleet Foxes are definitely a stop-clap-hey band. This record is anyway. And while it isn't really to my taste, I do like this maybe a little better than some of the other bands that sounded just like this for a few years. Nothing about this really stood out for me except that it was recorded and produced very well. It sounds great. But I mean if that's the best compliment you can give, that's not exactly high praise for an album. I appreciate the musicianship, I just don't really like the music. I'm not sure I would really seek this particular album out to listen to it again, although I might listen to some of their other things. Maybe listen to some of their more recent records to see how (if?) they grew as a band and what kind of sound they have now. I'd be a little disappointed if it was more of the same but I suspect, as is the case with most of these 2000s indie folk bands, it probably is. 2.5/5 and I guess I’ll round up because rounding down doesn’t really seem fair.

I hate this album. It's super lame. I mean the whole sound of it is just so cheesy and dated. The musicianship is solid but this genre just does nothing for me. The vocals are mostly lauded but I find them to be so stereotypical for this genre and time period. Not every song needs everyone in the band to sing all at the same time. The saving grace was Neil Young's contributions and the songs where his vocals are (mostly) solo are the best. But even then, the chorus rolls around and we have a sing-along again. CS&N were so much worse without him, so this album has that going for it I guess. There are some excellent guitar parts (mostly thanks to Neil Young) but that's not really enough to keep it from just being uninteresting. I feel like all the boomers that love this album love it purely for nostalgic reasons, and that's valid (for them) I guess - I'm sure there are plenty of records I like just for the nostalgia. But listening to this record 54 years later, it doesn't have anything that would make me ever want to put it on again. 2.25/5 rounding down.

I've never been a big country fan, especially not modern pop country. It's awful. I do appreciate some of the older stuff and Willie Nelson is in that camp for sure. He has such a great and distinctive voice and guitar sound. So I was actually a little excited that this one came up today.
I had heard a couple of the individual songs from this record so I kind of knew what to expect with the full album and I didn't really anticipate getting into it that much. But most of this album I really liked a lot more than I expected. Stardust, Georgia On My Mind, Blue Skies, Midnight In Vermont are all fantastic. Unchained Melody is one of the worst covers I've ever heard. It's sooo bad. It just doesn't work at all the way it was arranged and played. Outside of that though, this is a great record that I would definitely buy and throw on in the evening to relax with a cocktail or neat whisky. 3.75/5

Ugh what's worse than stereotypical, misogynistic, repetitive hip hop? Stereotypical, misogynistic, repetitive hip hop that's absolutely laden with Auto-Tune. And poorly done Auto-Tune at that. I honestly don't get the appeal of this at all. Call it genius all you want, I politely disagree. This is bad music. 1/5

I've always really loved this album. It's very different from most of the rest of his work but I think it really paints a great picture of his headspace living in France and Berlin with Iggy Pop. What a weird time that must have been. Sound and Vision is probably the best track but I also really like Breaking Glass, that song doesn't ever get the praise it deserves. I particularly like the live version from the Reality Tour album. What in the World is great too. All the songs are great, really. And I love the second side being mostly instrumental. It's beautiful and soulful and experimental and wonderful.
Brilliant album, though I wouldn't consider it one of Bowie's top 5. But I love it and will listen to this over and over again for life. 5/5