Reviews by thelofistorm

I guess I can’t be too mad at what I get when this is the kinda gold I’m getting. So as far as I can tell this is like proto-britpop, which does put it in perspective in a way I really appreciate. This album has a lot of awesome things going for it, really psychedelic and dynamic, with tons of great songs. Songs like “Bad Bad Man,” “Made of Stone,” “I Am The Resurrection,” or my personal favorite, “Sugar Spun Sister,” all blow me away. Great vocals too, and awesome sequencing!! The sad thing about this whole ordeal is shortly after writing this I stopped caring about it, because really, it doesn’t have enough real memorability. Like all the shit I said is still true but it’s just not conspicuous enough to me anymore. I’m sorry dawg, it fell off in my head a bit. Lol. I mean it doesn’t have too much personality now does it? And like… there’s some duds on here. And also like why do half the songs not really have a point? I feel like I’m looking at all this shit and only some of it makes actual sense. Whatever man.
5.1/10

Punk!! Actual punk!! I don’t talk about this much on the account where I REVIEW music, but I’m a punk artist! Sort of. I’m like mostly folk but I’m in the punk scene in my city so it’s hard not to err on the side of folk punk. Whatever I don’t like talking about it on my review account but yeah. Anyway this album's really interesting, especially in the context of how hateable every member of this band is, as far as I can recall. I haven't looked into it so don't quote me on that but you know what I mean. Johnny Rotten is a trumper. That I know for sure. He also sucks at singing, though you can hear the beginnings of a Jello Biafra there, and he actually does get something going on songs like "Holidays in the Sun," or "Liar," or a couple of the other big songs on here. The music is good, and it reaches true greatness at its uncontested height of "Anarchy in the UK." The biggest problem is... it just gets super repetitive very quickly, and you can really tell that everyone in the band's really only kinda into it. Like, Johnny's vocals are kind of annoying after a while, and outside of the explicitly political numbers there's not a lot of interest there for me. It's good. But I won't go back to much, and I certainly won't go back for the experience of the album as a whole.
7.7/10

Beautiful. Positively so. This is what I want from an album on this website. It’s colorful, lush, sensitive, kind, and very aware. Arthur Lee is a spectacular vocalist, and kind of a genius, especially on songs such as “A House Is Not A Motel,” which has some of the best lyrics of the sixties. And though his accent doesn’t shine through much, when it does on songs like “Old Man” it elevates the experience. The lyrics really bring a conscious, nuanced perspective on the world that you don’t see super often in this time period. I rarely relate to albums from before the 70s, but this is an easy exception, just because of how well written it is. And the instrumentation… the strings, and the guitar, and the exceptional drum work too. Overall this is damn near perfect, and might go up to a 10 after future listens. It’s just so good.
9.7/10

Don't have too much to say about this one. It's boring. Kinda annoying. Nothing sticks and I don't want to listen to it anymore. Wouldn't recommend. Sorry yawl.
4.0/10

OH SHIT! BIG DAWG *JUST DIED!!* And left behind a very complicated legacy of sexually assaulting several individuals (I won't get into that though because I don't feel obligated to, and I don't particularly want to either), in between all that "z-z-z"-ing. But anyway this jawn's pretty dope. Very high energy, earlier-era hip-hop that I like a lot, and obviously INCREDIBLY influential. Like, you can hear callbacks to Bambaataa in a lotta places, such as the outro on one of the songs on Things Fall Apart by The Roots, or the intro to one of the songs on Labor Days by Aesop Rock, both making use of the iconic "z-z-z-z-z" ad-lib on Planet Rock. And even with the quality of some of the songs, that is the real draw here. All these songs have a hand in creating the foundation of so many parts of hip-hop. You can hear Beastie Boys in here, you can hear NWA in here, you can hear OutKast in here, pretty much any high-energy hip hop song can be traced back in some way to this album. And the songs are solid too. Obviously "Planet Rock" is a classic, but "Searching For The Perfect Beat" ain't too bad and "Frantic Situation" is a banger too. Overall it's not anything special without context, but I added an extra 0.5 for how much history and influence it has (I almost added one whole point! But that would be excessive). Pretty cool album.
8.3/10

I swear to glorious HaShem, why are all of these tracklists wacked the fuck out on spotify?? Again nothing a little queueing won't fix, but it's so weird. Like the tracklist is right there, ON THE COVER, how's you gonna mess that up???? Whatever. This album definitely isn't "rock 'n soul," but it's pretty good. Mr. Burke's voice is lovely, and it has a good range between of a buttery, soulful, middle ground, a wild, howling higher register, and a deep, romantic lower register. It's a good vessel for these songs. The entire album itself, in terms of instrumentation and musicality, is quite pleasant too; its best moments are just straight-forward southern soul, such as "If You Need Me," or "Can't Nobody Love You." Many of the songs end up sounding much more pop-soaked, such as "Cry To Me," or "Hard Ain't It Hard." It's a very consistent and easygoing listening experience. The background singers, though they get old somewhat quickly, are still pretty pleasant all around. What ends up really holding it back, frankly, is that none of it is really, truly, GREAT. Even if there are some really cool songs here, I can't really say that I'll come back to any of these songs, genuinely, even if it's enjoyable.
7.2/10

I know you’re supposed to like get a super legendary album every day on this site, but this is actually the first time I’ve gotten 3 absolutely insane albums in a row. So that’s fun! And this album’s awesome. Just some really great psych rock with some occasional insanity, most notably the closing track which DOES blow everything else out of the water. “Light my fire,” while a little overrated, does indeed astound, as does “Break On Through (To The Other Side).” The rest of the album is really awesome, very easygoing psych rock, which I enjoy and appreciate greatly. Overall an enjoyable affair, and an appreciated one for today’s listening experience.
9.1/10

I’ve been waiting a LOOOOOOOONG time to get this album. In fact I’m really glad I got it because I could’ve gotten it 3 years from now, but instead I get it today. I think I specifically mentioned this album in a past review too. I never loved joy division, I thought unknown pleasures was a polite 8.5/10, but I thought the instrumentation was immaculate throughout. This though… just from the first song it’s something else. I’m sorry but I really don’t get the “tortured soul of Ian Curtis” vibes on unknown pleasures. He’s not the best vocalist on that album and that’s not even crazy to say. But HERE… “Atrocity Exhibition” is such a perfectly depressive, self-destructive opener. It literally sounds like the song is destroying itself. And then “Isolation” is surprisingly really really awesome! Like an off-kilter, darkwave synthpop song, and I really love it! The next song, “Passover,” is much more normal of a song compared to the previous, but it’s still incredible, with those incredible guitars and drums. The song after that, “Colony,” is great too, with a great performance from Curtis, and a great outro. “A Means To An End” is also beautiful, with a great introductory moment with these weird sound effects… one of the best parts about this album is that it really embodies a feeling that I more and more realize is timeless: standing in a dark incredibly cold man-made room. The coldness of this album isn’t natural, not like that of, say, The Glow Pt. II or Paysage D’Hiver. It’s not wintry. It’s a small, dark, 50-year-old basement that feels like it’s 30° fahrenheit. Or something like that, I don’t know. Anyway, the looming vocals of “Heart and Soul” combined with the occasional guitar strums make it a really great song. “The Eternal” is great as well with its slow, building instrumental. Great stuff. And “Decades,” the closer, has more of that synthy stuff from track 2!! Really great.

This album is so cold, and dark, and sad. As a whole it’s astounding, it’s really something else. R.I.P. Ian Curtis yo.
10/10

Of course the best Frank Zappa album is the one where you see as little of him as possible. Or like most notable, or most well-known Zappa album? Something like that. What I'm trying to say is this album is awesome, but I didn't expect it from the guy who made "WHO ARE THE BRAIN POLICE???" and that kinda makes it more awesome. So just to start off, "Peaches en Regalia" is a fucking revelation. Not even 4 minutes but so much energy and life packed in. It's so uncharacteristically lush for Zappa, and so so SOOO beautiful. I saw somewhere that it's supposed to be a "movie for your ears" and damn if it doesn't sound like it. Every like 15 seconds something completely new turns up and it's astounding to hear. The saxophones, the flutes, the strings, it's all so pretty! "Willie the Pimp," while a much different song, is quite similar in its excellence: it just keeps changing slightly as it goes on and on and on.... the fiddle is also a really great touch. It gets so crazy near the end to the point where it begins to become almost like a really drunken, bluesy krautrock song. "Son of Mr. Green Genes," while great, is much less of an outright revelation than the first two songs, and more of a regular, everyday 8-minute jazz fusion track. Same with "Little Umbrellas," though that's only 3 minutes. "The Gumbo Variations," though... another insane song! I still can't believe how long this song goes on and still manages to be interesting. It's so incredibly layered! 13 minutes and not a dull fucking second! And then the last song functions sort of the same way that "Sunday" from Nick Drakes Bryter Layter functions, a nice little instrumental outro.

So basically how this album functions for me is that it has 3 songs that blow everything else of the water, with the slightest bit of dead space, and a lovely little outro. Very beautiful!
9.6/10

You have no idea how ready I was for this to be an awful gospel album. LOL

It turned out instead to be a pretty awesome industrial rock album! Is it super incredible by any means? Not really, but in any case it's certainly good. "N.W.O." Is a great opener, "Just One Fix" follows it up very nicely, and even though "TV II" kinda sucks, it sure doesn't kill the momentum. "Hero" isn't as good as it wants to be, but it has some nice moments and gimmicks here and there that make it maintain as a very cool song. And then to close off the A-side we get the satirical, heavy, rockabilly-type "Jesus Built My Hot Rod," which is awesome and absolutely hilarious. Opening up the B-side we have the 8-minute epic "Scarecrow," which just hammers down on you for 8 straight minutes in a really good way. And then the title track's actually super lame. But it's fine because it's also really groovy and jammy. And then "Corrosion" comes in and it's easily the best song on the album! And then we get the outro which is kinda whatever. This album's good, but it's really really fucking lame sometimes, which is a huge problem because it makes it a lot harder to take seriously, which is a hugely bad thing, because this album REALLY takes itself seriously. In the immortal words of The Roots, "Y'all ain't sayin' nothin' new!!" And they really really think they are. Thankfully though the vocals are mixed low enough to the point where you can't really tell what they're saying and the grooves are fucking awesome. So whatever man.
8.0/10

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Wooooooooo!!! Okay. Mothers of invention. Dope shit.

So, I think this band's awesome. I also think it's thoroughly hilarious that the same people who threw "Rumours" (great album but that's besides the point) at the top album of all time spot have to listen to this. Sheesh, it really is a beautiful world. Almost 5,000 1-star ratings on this. It really makes you smile. It also has merit though!! Really great satire, and some genuinely good tunes too (see: "Who Needs The Peace Corps," "Absolutely Free," "Lonely Little Girl," "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance," "Mother People"). The concept of satirizing everything popular and stupid at the time is pretty solid too, especially in the cases of songs like "Flower Punk," or, again, "Who Needs The Peace Corps." Overall quite the masterpiece of satire, would listen again!
9.2/10

Jazz!!! Yes!!!!

I’m fine with anything jazzy so this is a huge win. And this… this is just bursting with life. Obviously you can always count on jazz to be full of life in just the way you want, but this really is sooooo good. The tones on the horns... the mixing on the drums... and even though there's no long songs, each song leaves some kind of lasting impression, with the impressive use of dynamics, arrangements, and the big band style. The afro-cubano style adds a really wonderful extra aspect to the album, and the album's frequent use of intense volume is really beautiful. Only real complaints is the fact that it gets old kinda quickly, and some of the tones CAN get a LITTLE BIT rough on the ears.
8.9/10

Hahahaha. Okay. Nice.

So, I know way too many people who just outright hate Steely Dan, but this album's actually so awesome! I tend to really hate progressive rock (as you may know if you read my recent review of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's "Pictures at an Exhibition"), but the touches of the genre displayed here are some of the best examples of it that I've ever heard! The best way I can describe it is that it feels like looking at "decalcomania" by Magritte. It's so weird and abstract, but it still conjures up ideas and concepts in your head that make sense to you, so you don't quite notice how surreal it is. There's a quote that I found doing some research on this album that says "they wrote complex, mysterious songs disguised as catchy pop tunes," and that's exactly what happens here. It feels like you're listening to Fleetwood Mac, but when you listen closer, the aesthetic is closer to that of This Heat's self-titled, or Alvvays's. It sounds like... this is going to be a stretch but look up "Otto: a palindrama." That's what this sounds like. Weird, tropical, completely nonsensical at times, and perhaps even childlike in a way, but incredibly beautiful and weirdly potent. "Deacon Blues" especially is a good example of this trend, with its jazzy chords and long sax breaks, and that beautifully written last verse ("I cried when I wrote this song... sue me if I play too long!") and the perfection of its arrangement... the biggest ask when someone creates a super long song, which this album has two of, is this: "what meaning shall we assign to this abnormal use of your time?" And that's what this entire album is, really: it's a bunch of vaguely sentimental, surreal nonsense that's so beautiful that it demands you to assign genuine meaning to it. I assign a lot of meaning to it, and I adore it.
10/10

Well, it’s garagey and it’s 27 minutes… sure!

I should’ve guessed that this was an American band… seeing that they’re called “Paul revere…” but they sound so British! And that is absolutely to a fault! They seem to be some sort of Herman’s hermits types, super huge in their time, but no one remembers them now because what is there to remember? I mean, “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” is pretty awesome, and “There She Goes” is very pleasant, but for every stroke of interest there’s a song that just feels… eh. This album also really doesn’t do that much novel stuff anyway, to the point where it makes one wonder why it’s seen as something seminal. However, even though I don’t intend to return to this much, the garage elements end up cutting through some of the more elementary parts of the music and lyrics to the point where I can say it’s at least not bad.
6.9/10

What!? Hm. Well, I guess this is somewhat fitting, I just had an Arabic presentation. It was on how to make shakshuka. It was incredible and I did very well (for like one of the first times ever I actually understood what I was reading, which was really nice). But this is 78 minutes so why should I listen to it??? Well I do this every day. I’ll listen to some of it.

Well I listened to a couple of songs and it’s really boring. I love this style of singing, but I much prefer it when it’s chanted, say, in the Qur’an or something similar. Not bad but not really my thing. However there are some good songs! “C’est la nuit” is quite nice, and there’s a lovely cover of Lennon’s “Imagine,” but like really at the end of the day it’s a 78-minute album with not much structure or complex artistic intent. It’s just not very interesting.
6.1/10

YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I put this off because I knew I’d get it on here eventually and now I got it!! And I’m just like sooooo excited omg.

Well, I’ve now finished it and I can confidently say that it’s one of the best albums I’ve ever heard. Every single moment is just absolutely incredible, Courtney Love is one of the best vocalists for this genre, and just… it’s all so insane and raw. The vocals especially, and the way that they break, and the way that Love obviously does not care, adds a surprising amount to the album’s quality.The guitars are incredible, the lyrics are spectacular… everything about this album blows me away. I’ll be listening to this one a lot.
10/10

Awwwwwww, WHAT? Symphonic prog???? Ewwwwww!!!! I jest of course. I don’t like prog in general very much but this is only 38 minutes so maybe it’ll be alright! Let’s see. Well, I wasn't incorrect about how much I would like it, that's for sure. Thank fuck this is only 38 minutes, it would be downright torturous were it any longer. Well maybe not torturous, because the big sin here is that it's really fucking boring. The entire first side is really just not anything very good at all. Nothing awful, but just so boring and detestable. Obviously I really don't love this type of music, and easily the best thing that this album ever did for the world was supply the excellent sample for "Katz" off of Lice, which to this day is probably my favorite EP of all time (Solace by Dar Qness is close behind though). The sample play for 10 seconds from 50 seconds into "The Curse of Baba Yaga" to the 1 minute-mark. That REALLY threw me for a loop though, wow. I like froze for a whole 5 seconds and then paused the song and then went to whosampled and realized. Anyway so most of this album is more or less worthless until it gets to the Baba Yaga part in which it's kinda interesting for like 3 songs... I'd like it a lot more if the guy didn't sing, but whatever. I don't dislike "The Great Gates of Kiev," in fact it's pretty good! I like the places where it goes, and it's... y'know it's an acceptable prog rock song! I honestly also like the outro with the super feedback-ey guitars and stuff. And then the transition back to the actual song... my man can't sing, but it's fine because the song's still dope. Then it goes into some bullshit about “death is life” though and then it goes into a prog version of… nutcracker… I… the only good this album ever did for the world of music was that Katz sample and that’s it. Sorry, not my thing.
4.5/10

Weird artsy glam pop rock? Sure. I've seen this album around, can't say I'm not excited. Having now listened to it, I must say that I was incredibly spot-on. "Weird Artsy Glam Pop Rock." The only way that I could possibly make it more accurate is if I added "Prog" in front of "Pop." "Weird Artsy Glam Prog Pop Rock." Yeah. The falsettos are nice, even if they're not my thing personally, and the songs are VERY good. Very colorful, glammy, layered, and not infrequently revelatory, especially in the case of the opener. My personal problems are just that maybe... it's TOO consistent? Nothing especially stands out, it all sounds the same. Also, I'm just not the biggest fan of this specific strain of music, even if I'll still champion the merit I find in it. Some general standouts are as follows: "This Town Isn't Big Enough..." is a masterful song, as is "Talent Is an Asset" (weird-ass capitalization on that song, by the way). Even when it gets to the end and I can't quite tell every song apart from each other, I still come out of this listen liking it a lot!
8.9/10

what is this. I'm not displeased but why did it have to be 58 minutes? Whatever. Very pleasant but very background. Some standouts, I like all the songs enough, just very indistinct. It was very vibey though! There was a house song somewhere in there that I really loved. I think it was called "
Tríptico." The album had some very interesting textures too, especially on that particular song. The more I listened to it, in fact, the more I started to fall into the textures of the album, and I began to really enjoy myself! Sadly I couldn't love it, just because of how long it is. I like it a lot though!
7.2/10

WOOOOOO!!!!! Obviously I’ve heard this before. I own this on vinyl. All this to say I'm glad to get an album of such obvious quality today. So the album itself! Starting off with one of the best a-sides ever, including such classics as "Moonage Daydream," "Five Years," and most obviously, "Starman," and finishing with maybe the best closer ever in "Rock n Roll Suicide." Ridiculously consistent and well-produced as well, I mean... y'all have seen the score. One thing I did want to really understand for myself though is the story that the album goes through, so that I could truly understand the entire work. So, what seems to happen is, Ziggy Stardust comes to Earth as a messenger, after people find out that Earth is "really dying." So Ziggy becomes accustomed to Earth, and Earth responds with adoration and fame. The first disc ends with "It Ain't Easy," which as a cover, demonstrates the comfort Ziggy has attained on Earth, and in his newfound fame. Side B opens with proof of Ziggy's fame, and then goes on to demonstrate the way that fame is now increasingly important to him, and the Spiders urge Ziggy to, uhh, y'know, "hang onto himself." In response, Ziggy pretty much fires all of them and lashes out against them. This represents Ziggy's fall, and as the final song comes in, both Ziggy and the world are completely doomed: Ziggy's ego was too much to genuinely help him or those around him, and then I'm pretty sure the world ends. Which yeah that's what I'm talking about!! This album is incredible. I didn't realize how incredible it really was until today, but it deserves all the praise it gets.
10/10