Reviews by thelofistorm

You know what I hate? Gentrification. Colonization. Cultural appropriation. Every negative thing that people ever say about this album. But you know what I love? Graceland by Paul Simon. I mean I’m Jewish and Paul Simon’s Jewish so that might be it? The big thing though is just that Paul Simon the singer-songwriter is probably the most appealing singer-songwriter I know of, at least for me. Abstract, but cohesive and flowery, and very enjoyable. This is pretty cool outside of that too though, just as a fusion of the elements it tries to fuse, though even saying that it's more like a doorway to all the bad fusions of these genres, which I don't appreciate as much. There's not a bad song here though, so that's saying something. Something else? This is some of Paul's best writing. I mean have you heard the lyrics in the title track? How immersive and reflective they are? Or the absolute abundance of one-liners on this thing? "Don't cry, baby, don't cry." "Who'm I to blow against the wind?" "I can call you Eddy, and you can call me Al!" And the production and playing is a whole other thing. How sweeping and momentous the title track's instrumental is? The overpowering horns on "Call Me Al"? That jangly guitar near the beginning of "Diamonds on..."? There's so so much to like about this album, and I'm so glad to have heard it today! It was just what I needed on a day like this.
10/10

I’m not finishing this, I’ve decided. This is so boring and annoying. This bitch is not a poet. He is not a singer. He is not even a competent personality. It is preposterous that I should have to listen to drivel like this during international women’s day. I’ma go listen to Lily Allen.
3.1/10

YES, BABY!!! I’ve wanted to listen to this one for a LONG time, and in fact started to last year, but never ended up making it very far for some reason. Anyway super glad I got this one because we all know it’s absolutely awesome. The first three tracks are some of the better tracks of all time, and fast car is nothing short of perfect. Some other highlights present are the striking a capella break track behind the wall, why?, for my lover, if not now…, and for you. Chapman brings a very existential, somber air to the whole album, and I absolutely adore it.
9.3/10

I wish I’d gotten wildflower. I still actually have to listen to that but you wreck me is one of the best songs ever. Also it’s such a beautifully dreary day out and this website gives me some random sunny rock album???? Guys!!! Why!!! That being said this is a pretty good album. I love breakdown obviously, and American girl is excellent. There are some other noteworthy cuts too, like the pretty fun opener, the very nice hometown blues, wild one forever, which has a great performance from Tom… honestly most of these songs are really great. There’s no real problem, it does exactly what it’s going for, it just happens to be incredibly derivative and not very influential. It’s just your good ol’ run of the mill -very great album- ya know? It’s very very good, very very great even, even though it doesn’t technically reach the peak of an album that should be remembered reaches.
8.9/10

My goodness, this site is a joke. Not RYM, which I'll be posting this review to on Saturday the 7th, but the 1001albumsgenerator site. I love the function, but the fact that this is rated at a 3.66 over Brilliant Corners, Blue, Sea Change, Funeral... IN A SILENT WAY FOR FUCK'S SAKE??? I mean, okay. It's not bad at all. It's just really... like we've all heard little child, right?? We've all heard roll over beethoven, right??? These are bad songs! And even the album's more undeniably spectacular cuts (All My Loving, Hold Me Tight, You Really Got A Hold On Me) are still obviously indebted to their influences. There's a lot of energy here, and SO much personality, but nowhere near enough actual quality to back any of that up! Like there is NO justification for little child and we all know it. Roll over beethoven is one of the dullest, most nothing tracks ever. Everything else is pretty passable but when I say that, keep in mind that sooooo much of this is ripped straight from better (almost always Black) artists. Y'all it's alright but please.
7.3/10

Soooooooooo it’s a metal album. I don’t really do metal in general, but I’m not against it. I’m just more of a punk gal than a metal gal, ya know? So when I hear “666 hahahahahaha!!!!” I’m like “WEAK!!! YOU SOUND LIKE PROTO-RITES OF SPRING BITCH!!!” Which they are and they do. But it’s more than that. There are some great songs and performances here, especially the closer, but to be honest the closer is the only one that really rises above “very cool but not interesting enough to be my thing.” Because the closer is incredible!! It’s one of the most impressive musical experiences I’ve ever heard, and it’s honestly probably the only song from here I’ll readily return to. Seven minutes of pure insanity. But it’s not the only really great one here!! 22 acacia avenue is pretty awesome, run to the hills is great, invaders is very good too. I like this album a whole lot.
9.0/10

Incredible album. Just the album cover alone is cause for you to really take in everything about this album, and it has the songs to back it up. Billy Jack, Jesus, Hard Times, and my personal favorite, Blue Monday People, are all incredible examples of the type of political, soulful mastery across this album.
9.3/10

Eh. It mostly feels like African-tinged commercial music. Which like sure. Some of the songs are pretty good. It just doesn’t really reach me. None of the songs really stick out, even the pretty great second song is just a little too bland to love. Like, believe me, I don’t speak this language, but that is NOT the problem. If this was good the language barrier wouldn’t matter. Eve when they kinda lock in toward the end, it’s just too bland and unimpressive to give a passing score.
5.3/10

Blur!!! Always hated them because of how they treated nardwuar (same reason as to why I never ended up listening to sonic youth all that much), but I always knew deep inside of me… they’re pretty great. And in this case, “pretty great” means Oasis if they were lo-fi. I mean that is literally what this is. Pavement but Oasis. Oasis but with slacker/post-hardcore influences rather than shoegaze influences. It’s weird and not necessarily bad, but even… even that “pretty great” that I talked about earlier has an asterisk already, that being that I really will only return to Beetlebum, or maybe you’re so great (song 2 is great but like it’s not entirely my thing lmao) much of this album is, while intriguing, much less capable than it wants you to think, especially in songs such as theme from Retro, or Country Sad Ballad Man, which even as I enjoy that song, I must admit a lack of genuine merit all the way through. Not to mention the closer is a dubious host for any easily detectable reasons to like this album. Basically what I’m saying is you CAN like it and I’d agree with you, but… you can also dislike it and… I’d agree with you.
7.0/10

Now THIS is the typa shit I wanna get recommended!! I tried to listen to this album before, so to know now that I HAVE to, it’s nice. But enough talking about stuff that don’t matter. This album is pretty great. Tom Verlaine is a very interesting frontman, and that’s not all necessarily good interesting, but he really gets the job done, and he also plays some great passages as a musician. See No Evil is a wonderful little song, the title track is absolutely astonishing, and the b-side is just some great old art rock. I’m not necessarily interested in returning to this one, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say it was one of the better albums I’ve ever heard.
8.7/10

Well, I honesty don’t know how to feel about getting this recommended to me; I have this one on vinyl, and adore it to pieces, and I’ll get to that in a second, but I would hope to get more new albums in a second. Like wouldn’t it be so cool to get like a kinks album recommended? The typa stuff I wouldn’t normally listen to. This… I’ve already heard. Whatever though. I got like more than 900 albums still to go. Something like 986 I wanna say? One day at a time. But anyway this album is flawless. Shhh/peaceful is one of the most masterful pieces of jazz I’ve ever heard in my life, what with the way the guitars and organ interact in the track pan… I fell in love with music production because of that. And in a silent way is one of the most beautiful pieces of ambient-jazz type music I’ve ever, and probably single-handedly invented nu jazz. And it’s about that time… I mean have you heard that trumpet riff at around 13 minutes in?? It takes a titan to do something like that. And that’s what Miles Davis was, a titan. Uhh I don’t really got much more to say. This is like maybe the best jazz album ever though so it’s got that going for it
10/10

I mean is anyone actually surprised that I loved this album? I was halfway raised on like Ani Difranco and Sufjan Stevens, two artists who obviously found this album very impactful. Either way though Joni absolutely came through with some beautiful music here. There's not a bad song, and every single one individual feels like the basis for someone to start their own musical career. The songwriting is probably the platonic ideal for 1970s singer-songwriter material, like this and like on the beach really do come the closest from most anything from that decade to transcending the time period they were created in. Overall, I really really enjoyed every single song, especially All I Want, My Old Man, Carey, California, This Flight Tonight, River, and The Last Time I Saw Richard (though every song here is a clear favorite off of the album). I love the folk pop touch Mitchell adds across this whole project, it really gives it both a sense of heightened variety, but also a lot of sustained consistency. Mitchell's voice is also outright beautiful, and while that's not necessarily something that always matters (just look at the 10/10 rating I gave to Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train and Other Folksongs," which for all of its endless merit and influence, doesn't necessarily have the most beautiful vocals), it absolutely contributes to the atmosphere here, in the same way that something like some of Joan Baez's early works might lend to. The difference between a classic Baez recording and this is that this has better lyrics, more dynamic playing, and is just significantly more interesting than, say, the original "Joan Baez" from 1960, due to the variety in the musicality, lyrics, and instruments used. Overall this album does a pretty awesome job in proving that it is worth listening to!! It's a near-perfect album and I definitely will be listening again.
9.5/10

Imagine listening to an a-ha song other than Take On Me. Like I know people also like the sun always shines on TV but actually shut up. Who cares about this album?? Well... It's obviously not worthless. The synth tones are really quite incredible across the whole project, and Morton Harket is an exemplary performer. Take On Me is also the first song, so I'll talk a little bit more about it. Take On Me is a perfect song. We all know it. It has infinite value and worth as a song and piece of art, as well as a Pop culture moment, and even has a simply legendary music video to its name as well. It's one of the best songs anyone will ever hear. And then the other songs on side 1 are pretty great too!! This brand of synthpop will never truly be my thing, I actually happen to really despise the 80s aesthetic as a whole, unless the songs are actually really great, but this is respectable for sure. Train of Thought has an incredible Harket performance, the title track feels like the lite version of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," which really isn't necessarily a bad thing. The Blue Sky isn't too bad either, and I adore the synths and vocals on Living A Boy's Adventure Tale, even if the falsetto at the end is a little bit grating at times. Side 2 starts with another pretty awesome song, that being The Sun Always Shines on TV, which, well, it’s no Take On Me, but it’s still an absolutely breathtaking song. A driving instrumental, some of the best vocals on the album (and that’s REALLY saying something for this album) and just a great song all around. And that quality (despite the comparatively dismal track ratings on rateyourmusic.com) keeps up across the second side too. The only real objection I have is I Dream Myself Alive, which has some drum tones that are a little bit more disagreeable than on the rest of the album, but it's not necessarily bad or anything. This is a pretty fun album, and even though I definitely wouldn't buy it, I would recommend it! I got a good deal out of this, even if it's not my preferred style of music.
8.0/10

Really disappointing. I wasn't expecting an incredible masterpiece, but really?? This is barely even acceptable. If not for the superb closing 6-track run (superb other than the last song which is kinda annoying) this would be like a 5.8. Even with that being said, please don't let anyone tell you this is anything other than a very inconsistent, kinda taxing, vaguely enjoyable album. It still gets a passing grade, don't get me wrong, but LAWD. First of all, Seven Nation Army is kind of a shit song. It's not powerful, it's not cool, it's annoying, it's only really good for 9-year-olds to scream and spit into microphones at School of Rock. It also gets immediately overtaken by Black Math, which is a much more frenzied and insane song that I like a lot better. That being said, the entire first half of the album is pretty bad. No Home is boring, Cold Cold Night is kind of fun if not unimpressive, Mother's Heart is just awful other than that awesome guitar solo, and Pocket is just kind of embarrassing. I ain't gonna hold you though, I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself... is incredible. Love it.
After that, opening up the second half, we have a song that I just cannot stand, and also that I kind of like, that being Ball and Biscuit. It's so annoyingly devoid of any genuine effort that I hate it, but it also has some pretty cool moments, so I like it. It did happen to be the song that made me start disliking the album. Too bad it's just the longest one here. Thankfully we get a 5-track run of incredible songs after that, just banger on banger. I love every song after Ball, except for the last song, which is kind of annoying. This album is a very irritating experience that just happens to have a few really great songs that keep it from totally sucking. It is a major deficit, however, to my ultimate opinion of The White Stripes as a band. Maybe I should listen to White Blood Cells instead, I have that in a logic somewhere.
6.6/10

Oh wow!! The Beck breakup album!! Haha, I did NOT expect to get this one. Or to ever even listen to this one actually. But now that I am and I have… this is a real doozy. Because it’s obviously very breakup-ey but… none of the emotions are actually that big. Much of the album’s merit comes from its attitude of crushing resignation. Beck doesn’t sound devastated, or distraught, he just sounds broken. There’s no passion behind his emotion, it’s all replaced with a bitter surrender. Just listen to the lyrics: “I don’t even try” “it’s only you I’m losing, guess I’m doing fine” “I’m done fighting for a lost cause” “there’s no other ending,” I could go on. Furthermore, listen to the chord progressions, they’re all formulaic… to a weird amount. “Golden Age,” the clear stand out, is a simple 1-2-4, and the rest of the album follows suit. Even Round the Bend, a song noted to sound much like Nick Drake’s River Man, one of his most famously complex songs, reads as a pale imitation in its much hollower, less dynamic chords and arrangements, but that’s sort of what makes it work. He doesn’t even try. He shoehorns the occasional psychedelic touch here and there, but it only ever serves to push the listener into more of an inattentive stupor, as they become the music, and feel nothing but the reluctant acceptance of a bleak personal status quo. Even when the music crescendos, in songs like Sunday Sun, or Lonesome Tears, it never feels like the crescendo of Beck’s emotion, but the weight of the situation itself bearing down on him. Even on the cover, it feels like he’s just looking into the distance, baffled by his own circumstance, a sentiment that feels like it lingers on the closer, where Beck just sounds bewildered at everything in his life. It occurs after the 5 stages of grief, as a mumbling, exhausted acceptance period, in which Beck accepts that his life is fundamentally worse following his breakup. It’s an incredibly original, beautiful, and masterfully made work that I will definitely return to frequently.
9.6/10

And here we get to a classic example of an album I already know intimately getting generated for me on the 1001 albums generator. I love this album dearly already, to the point in which I own it on CD and have listened to it many times both on CD and on Spotify. All this to say, it is an incredible album. From the opener all the way to the closer, this album is a beautiful, masterful suburban art piece of longing, love, loneliness, and growing up. Not a bad song on here, and not even a single song that isn’t incredible. The opening 5 songs are the perfect introduction to the album, going through flavors of art rock, PPR, and indie pop all while maintaining the indie rock center, anchored by Win Butler’s incredible, emotional lead vocals (fuck that guy but he’s a great frontman). After that is an assortment of different songs, each nothing short of breathtaking, ending on one of the most beautiful and emotional songs of the 00s, that being “In The Backseat.” This album is spectacular in every single aspect.
10/10

I was already highly familiar with the biggest song off of this album, Two Weeks, an indie masterpiece in every right, and while it is definitely the best song here no question, the rest of the album is pretty awesome too! A really great collection of really beautiful, psych-tinged indie songs, with some really awesome highs!! It’s certainly not a masterpiece by any extent of the word, and is actually a great example of how an album with 10/10 level track ratings can end up an 8, as it’s a bit too long, not the best sequenced, kinda samey at the end of the day, and doesn’t really add up to anything greater as an experience, but it’s still an awesome album that has highlight on top of highlight. Lovely album!
8.0/10

Finally something other than white guy rock!!! And it’s incredible too!! I think I’m just doomed to give way too many jazz records really high scores, but… like. Just listen to that piano solo on the title track - my jaw dropped. Or the glockenspiel on track 3, which I initially wasn’t too crazy about, really grew on me by the time the song ended, because of how dynamic the song itself became. I love the piano solo of I Surrender, Dear, just because of how much it highlights the absolute beauty of the piano as an instrument, with those incredible tone clusters, and dynamic melodies… it’s one of my favorite songs on the album. And that absolute triumphant, bombastic closer! Perfection!!! All in all, this is some of the most incredible, innovative hard bop that I’ve heard ever. The use of the different instruments is masterful, and the album is both a masterpiece and a masterclass in jazz. What an absolute delight of an album. So so sooo good.
9.8/10

Pretty great but suffers from a serious lack of personality. See, I thought this was pretty great, especially the first side. However, as it went on, I just started to realize that this album really isn’t… great. See, every good album has something good about it, and that’s what this album really is, good! But every great album has something interesting about it, and this album lacks anything truly interesting that sets it apart from any other glam stuff from around that time. Some of the best glam had already come out by the time that this came out, just look at New York Dolls. Every great album has something interesting about it, and every interesting quality comes from personality. This just does not have that.
7.4/10

Linkin Park’s debut is kind of like the better parts of RHCP’s catelogue and the worse parts of Cage’s catelogue if you smashed them together. Songs like In The End, Points of Authority, Papercut, et cetera are all great examples of this album’s greatness, and its high points. Additionally, the very apparent Eminem influence (at least it sounds like Em’s brand of rapping, I’d have to check whether he was a direct influence though) combine with the very consistent production provides this album’s greatest strength: its consistency. The entire experience feels very cohesive, and even when it’s not great it still feels like it adds to the larger album experience. I really did not expect to like this very much but I honestly really quite like it!!! I will definitely return to this.
8.2/10.