Reviews by theblanderman

A pretty lackluster and plain album. Pleasant enough while it's on but few tracks to keep me engaged nor coming back. 2.5/5 -> 3/5

What an interesting, creative and beautiful album. Thus is exactly why I follow this list, to find albums like this. Her voice is gorgeous. 5/5

After the second listen, I was generally pretty indifferent to this album. Some songs were great and really interesting (the Funny Bird) and others were really not for me. 3/5

Not a bad record. Of course shining star is a classic, and I really liked Africano and See the Light, but many of the others didn't hold my attention. Still, good overall. 3/5

I'm finding out more and more that Tom Waits is a talented musician that I enjoy. This is probably the album of his I've liked the least so far. While generally it was a pleasant experience, many of the stripped back songs were more forgettable. Dirt in the Ground is great. 3.4/5 - 3/5

This is like if your friends dad's band accidentally made a one hit wonder. It felt much longer than it's runtime, due to the songs being repetitive, and preachy yet empty lyrics. It's only saving grace was some of "Failure" and the tail end of the last song "Looking Glass". 1.5/5 - 2/5

Listen, I like 70s English prog as much as the next red blooded American millennial, but a live version of these toothless, diddling, prententious, go nowhere jamfests which crescendos in an encore of a bad organ rendition of the Nutcracker is NOT one of the albums you need to hear in your lifetime. 1/5

The songs on this album generally fit into 3 categories for me:
Perfect/Great ("Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding", "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road")
Good ("Candle in the Wind", "Social Disease" "Harmony", "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting")
Meh ("Bennie and the Jets", "This Song Has No Title", "Grey Seal", "Jamaica Jerk-Off", "I've Seen That Movie Too"
"Sweet Painted Lady", "The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34)", "Dirty Little Girl", "All the Girls Love Alice", "Your Sister Can't Twist (but She Can Rock 'n Roll)", "Roy Rogers"

While the sheer volume of meh songs should edge this toward a 2, the great singles (especially the opener funeral for a friend) makes the album well worth it, imo. 3/5

Far too long for the type of content presented here. Not bad in the beginning but by the end I wasn't impressed. 2/5

Another dark and mystifying album from Tom Waits. It left we wanting a bit more than Rain Dogs, but was still very impressed. 4/5

I feel like this could be better described as "mild" company - nothing to standout of horrible. 3/5

Better than I expected from supergrass/a post punk album in general. 3/5

I kind of assumed that this was Blur's debut album considering how messy and all over the place it was. Damon Albarn went on to do much more interesting stuff with Gorillaz. 2/5

I'm split on JD - I think the music is pretty interesting but I find the lyrics and vocals to generally be lackluster and uninteresting. I think I'll round up because some songs on the second half of the album were pretty good, including Heart and Soul and Decades. 2.7/5 - 3/5

Pretty mediocre outside of the song 9lb hammer. 2.4/5 - 2/5

That was wild. Went from the tron soundtrack, to the napolean dynamite soundtrack, and ended with a whatever the hell Frankie teardrop is. I kinda dug it. 4/5

Really not a standout album. Pretty standard other than that wailing saxophone. 2/5

The original version of this album was so short - every tack was a bop. It was a good call adding in some of the later songs. Impressive early grunge. 4/5

On first listen I was absolutely floored by this album. It was a great, experimental, rock, gospel type of crossover. On subsequent listens I realized that the second half of the album (Poppy onward) is really just OK. Came out on top though. 3.8/5 - 4/5

This hasn't aged particularly well - it's a modicum better than several of its contemporaries. 2/5