Reviews by thelofistorm

Like the Talking Heads, but generally more turgid and less inventive. “Synchronicity I” is a fabulous kick in the face, and it made me really optimistic for the rest of the album, but “Walking In Your Footsteps” really kills the momentum. “O My G-d” is a really nice number, and kinda brings the vibe back, but then you have a double punch of just okay artsy experiments that, while I don’t dislike, certainly do not impress in any way shape or form. “Synchronicity II” brings it back, and is an incredible song. In fact it’s the best song on the A-side. And even better - opening up the B-side is “Every Step You Take,” which is THE song!! A melancholic, jilted, obsessive, incredible classic of a rock song, and the best song The Police have to offer by a long shot. “King of Pain” is up there too, with a great hook and really great verses (the repeated backing vocals of “that’s my soul up there” are really effective in the song’s execution in my opinion), with a great vocal performance from Sting. As the album winds down, there’s some forgettability in some of the songs, especially the incredibly unimpressive closer, but overall it’s fine. I enjoyed this album mostly, even if it had a couple of unabashedly bad moments.
7.1/10

This always struck me as such an interesting album to become THE jazz album. Like, 4.05 on a website that generally hates jazz. It’s incredible, but come on. THIS blew you away and Brilliant Corners didn’t? It’s not even the best Miles Davis album! It’s not even top 3! The top 3 is Jack Johnson, Get Up With It, and In A Silent Way! It’s only top 4 because the last track of Bitches Brew is an obvious disappointment. Anyway, enough disparagement of this album and let’s talk about why it’s also one of the best albums ever made.

Kind of Blue by Miles Davis is a jazz album, and it’s kind of THE jazz album. Not in the sense that it’s the most popular, or the most influential, though I’m pretty sure it’s at least one of those, but because it gives you the perfect introduction to the path to being a true jazz fan. You can’t listen to Coleman first in the same way you can’t study Pollock before you study Picasso. And Kind of Blue is like Davis’s version of the Blue Period - incredible, emotional, influential, yet very conventional, especially compared to both artists’ later work. “Get Up With It,” as was aforementioned, would be like Davis’s “Guernica,” violent and all-encompassing, scary even. But the songs. What do the songs do? Well, they do a lot of things. “So What” is a standard whose level of icon is matched only by that of “Giant Steps” or “Girl From Ipanema.” Each solo is incredible, and the sequencing of the solos is executed very well, particularly with the transition from the trumpet to the saxophone solo, not just because it is a hand off from one essential jazz deity to the next, but the contrasting timbres and general vibes of each instrument give the saxophone solo an incredible amount of panache, panache that the instantly recognizable trumpet solo does not need; it’s the first trumpet solo of the first song of KIND OF BLUE BY MILES DAVIS. It doesn’t need shit to be iconic. Anyway, “Freddie Freeloader” is stunning, such an interesting musical refrain, and the first piano solo of the album. “Blue in Green” is both dazzlingly and startlingly peaceful, a mesmerizing number with one of the best trumpet solos of the whole album. Opening up the B-side, however, is the best song on this album in my opinion. When you get to a point in musical obsession, “All Blues” is one of the best things to listen to, because the intrigue of the modal changes, the texture of the piano, the use of the brass, the eleven minutes it lasts… it’s basically a better version of your average prog-rock song, except for it’s better than most prog songs anyway. It’s an attractive, attractive piece. Closing the album out is the sentimental-sounding, nocturnal “Flamenco Sketches,” centering around the gentle notes of the bass, and expanding via the ginger playing of the drums and the outstanding piano playing. Its yearning, and its emotionality make it a truly astounding closer.

Well, the album changed music forever, didn’t it? Though other albums are comparable to it in quality, few achieve the level of pure resounding icon that this album does. And few artists ever will achieve something a fraction as great as this monolith of music.
9.8/10

Higher lows but lower highs than Cloud Nine. There’s nothing so bad as that album’s rendition of “Heard It Through The Grapevine,” but this album’s best song, the legendary “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” is nowhere near the level of Cloud Nine’s “Runaway Child, Running Wild,” which is in my opinion is The Temptations’ best song. Also, the ballads on the B-side are in general MUCH worse than on Cloud Nine, and generally this album is pretty unimpressive.
6.7/10

MORE BRITPOP??? I’m not even saying this album is bad yet, as of writing this first section I haven’t listened to it, but come the fuck on. There’s only so much good Britpop can produce. And yesterday’s VERY Britpop-adjacent album sucked ass. Thankfully, opener “Introducing the Band” does a great job of telling you that this is actually gonna be pretty great. Good lyrics, alright instrumentation, interesting vibe. Then “We Are The Pigs” comes in and burns down the barn. Those horns… that bassline… those drums… the vocals… it’s great. “Heroine” is so well written musically; catchy, sharp, incredible guitar tones and vocals, it’s all so good. For most of this album’s runtime in fact, it surprisingly does not let up in its awesomeness. Even in the later parts, where I should be getting tired, songs like “Hollywood Lie,” “The 2 Of Us,” and “The Asphalt World” keep it from being bad! Even though “Still Life” gets to a point of cheesiness what with its bombast and theatricality and all… the line “there by the window, quietly killed for you” keeps it from ruining the rest of the album. It’s kind of crazy… even though I was so pissed to get yet another Britpop joint, this might be my favorite one yet.
10/10

Color me unimpressed. I don’t at all enjoy this site’s opinion on plenty of albums (AC/DC’s “Back In Black” is much to high for the trash it is, whereas “Third” by Soft Machine is much too low, for no reason other than it being too weird for much of this site’s user base), but I agree with this site’s low score here. It’s doing Pulp but without the class commentary, or any of the wit. The vocals are mediocre and not at all stimulating, the songs seldom hold water, and the production SUCKS. The strings are weirdly mixed, and they sound so cheap. Songs that have good bones, such as “In & Out of Paris & London” are ruined by these things, yet most of these songs don’t even HAVE good bones. “Charge” has its moments, but sucks. “Middle Class Heroes” is an example of a song that is bad from the top down. But it is all bad. It’s bad. It’s bad.
3.3/10

Listened to this for the first time two years ago, when one of my now-best friends professed his love for this band, and this album especially. The man has good music taste, what can I say. “Take Me Out” is handily one of the best songs of the 21st century, and the rest of the first side is up there too. “Jacqueline” is a crazy fucking opener, really gives you the right impression of what the album’s going to sound like. It’s aggressive yet catchy, punk-adjacent but nowhere near abrasive. “The Dark Of The Matinée” is the other heavy hitter on the album in my opinion, attractive and charismatic. “This Fire” is the most insane moment in the album, I mean obviously it would be with the “fire” metaphor. Generally, the only real objection I have is “Cheating On You,” which is a pretty unremarkable song to be so far into the album, and “Michael” is a kinda weird song to hear, just the term “beautiful dance-whore.” Overall it’s a wonderful album though.
9.0/10

Never listened to this guy, partially because he’s a fucking pussy and partially because I started this before I could. I always knew he was noteworthy though. Anyway, this album! It’s a bunch of ballads about murder. Which is really a nice concept frankly. A lot of these songs are really great, especially on the first half. “Song of Joy” is fantastic, “Where The Wild Roses Grow” is astonishing, “The Curse Of Millhaven” (which is probably my favorite, either that or “Song of Joy”) is incredible. Sadly it falls apart right at the end, with “O’Malley’s Bar” being an excellent example of how not to do a 14-minute song about a massacre, and “Death Is Not The End” really drives home how much Mr. Cave is ripping Michael Gira off, with a straight pull from “Blind” (which is overrated as shit anyway). I don’t know. This could’ve, and should’ve, been way better than it was.
6.9/10

A live French singer-songwriter album. Interesting. Jacques Brel has a wonderful, passionate voice, and it’s fairly short, thankfully. I do not understand anything he is saying, but that is fine, because his fantastic voice travels through the language barrier, especially on the dramatic, incredible opener “Amsterdam.” Following that, it sinks to a spot just above mediocrity, which it hovers at for the albums’s remaining time. There are no highlights other than that song. It’s pretty good though, and that song is fucking insane.
7.2/10

2 whole discs of material, 25 songs, just shy of 90 minutes. It’s no monument of the art, and certainly not perfect, but Rundgren’s voice is wonderful, and he has an obvious talent for songwriting and musicianship, as well as the fact that it does have its unmistakeable highlights, most notably “I Saw The Light,” a shining example of what a good artist can do with a phenomenal tune and good lyrics, and easily the best song on the album. “It Takes Two To Tango (For The Girls),” “Breathless,” “Dust In The Wind,” and “Hello, It’s Me” are all obvious highlights, too. But FUCKING SHIT, this album is long. By the time you get to the end you’re just like, what the fuck man? Why was this so long? There’s no concept. All of the songs are either pretty cool pop rock or uninteresting hard rock. Again, not bad. Not perfect. Whatever.
7.6/10

On one hand, “Changes” is a classic rock song for the fucking history books. So is “Oh! You Pretty Things,” and “Life On Mars” is life-defining, heartwrenching, one of the best songs ever written. On the other hand, “Kooks” actively kinda sucks, as does “Fill Your Heart.” Also, a lot of these songs don’t add up to nearly as much as the general reception would imply, many of them count more toward what I feel is a presence of dead weight in this album. It’s not that it’s bad, not at all, just… very overrated.
6.6/10

This shouldn’t be on here. This reeeeeeeeally shouldn’t be on here. Not the first time I’ve thought that about an album I was given, won’t be the last, but just had to say it. “Urban Hymns” gets a pass because “Bitter Sweet Symphony” is not only awesome but one of the most popular songs ever. But no one cares about this. And also, it doesn’t deserve to be cared about! It’s certainly a crucial moment in the band’s trajectory, but Jesus, who cares about this band? This album would be respectable if it were half its length, but it’s just so long! Also, a bigger, more notable problem present here is the lyrical content. The musicality itself is fine. It’s really nothing special, which is a strike against it frankly, when it’s gonna be this long. But the lyrics are really just so unoriginal, and the only genuinely enjoyable work here is the most sincere stuff, which even then doesn’t reach any type of notable peak. Unremarkable for one whole hour.
4.3/10

A really interesting album, I guess. Has a couple of really nice folksy gems, most notably “My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue),” “Thrasher,” and “Pocahontas,” and also sports some insane fucking rock numbers, those being “Powderfinger” and “Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black).” All the songs I just listed are among the best of all time, and the sequencing is PERFECT, going from this folk vibe to this incredibly noisy, almost grungy vibe across the album, which probably symbolizes… something. Sadly, the songs that I didn’t mention are… just okay. “Ride My Llama” is SUUPER underwhelming, and so is “Welfare Mothers.” “Sail Away” and “Sedan Delivery” are on the other hand pretty good, but unmemorable, and only seem to exist to fill time in the album.

So, while this album has some incredible songs on it, it also has some lesser songs on it. It is still an amazing album, but it could have been much better.
9.2/10

Nick Drake is one of my all time favorites. “Pink Moon,” the final album he released, is one of my personal favorite albums ever made. I own it on CD. I own it on vinyl. It’s helped me get through a lot. It’s one of the most beautiful albums ever made. But he made two other albums, and they’re also both incredible. My other favorite of his is “Bryter Layter,” which I have luckily gotten today as my album to listen to. Joe Boyd, the producer for this album, has been quoted saying that it is the only album he has produced that he wouldn’t change a thing about. It took almost two years to record and release. And it is perfect.

Some standout tracks along its listing are “Hazey Jane” parts II and I, “At The Chime Of A City Clock,” “One Of These Things First,” “Poor Boy,” and the fantastic “Northern Sky.” But where did Nick Drake change from his first album here? His debut, the fantastic “Five Leaves Left,” was released when he was just 21 years old, having recently dropped out of college to pursue a music career. Unlike many others who do the same however, his debut was a vaguely psychedelic, vaguely jazzy take on the British chamber folk of the day, with nature-informed aesthetics and lush arrangements by (I believe his name is) Robert Kirby, who I believe would go on to arrange some of this album’s songs as well. That is a separate album for a separate day, but there were key growths between that album and this one. See, on “Five Leaves Left,” the lyricism was confined mostly to the internal world and thoughts of Nick Drake himself. On the contrary, many of these songs either embody a person completely other than who Drake is (“Poor Boy”), contains musings about people other than Drake (“Hazey Jane I” and “Northern Sky”), or similar musings about the world around him (“At The Chime Of A City Clock”). It also features slicker, cleaner, and more pop-oriented production than its predecessor; unlike the unquestionably chamber folk songs produced on “Five Leaves Left,” “Bryter Layter” is a folk album that is also arguably a pop or even a rock album at times, with songs such as “Hazey Jane II” erring on the side of unabashed rock, and several others being disputedly rock songs as well. It also features three instrumentals, a quick little opener, an orchestral easy listening number, and a closer. All three add this sort of atmospheric vibe to the album, especially in the strings, which feel like the night washing over you in the middle of a less crowded part of a big city. They add a surprising amount.

This album’s biggest strengths, however, are its individual best songs. “Hazey Jane II,” the spiritual opener after the elegant instrumental introduction, is a folk-rock song that to this day has probably the best individual lyrics that Nick Drake ever wrote, at least in my opinion. The hurried delivery, the descriptive imagery, the chorus, and of course the last verse, ending with one of the best lines Drake ever wrote, that being “If songs were lines in a conversation / the situation would be fine.” It’s an incredible experience that takes you into Drake’s mind, and allows you to really feel his anxiety and self-awareness. The other best song on here is the spiritual closer, “Northern Sky,” the last song before the instrumental outro, “Sunday.” It’s generally considered the best song on the album by a considerable margin, and for good reason; it features an incredible, subdued vocal performance from Drake, and some of his best lyrics. It was also, notably, arranged by the one and only John Cale, the brainchild behind The Velvet Underground’s experimental kick in the first half of its original late sixties early seventies run. “Northern Sky” is not experimental at all, however, and is instead one of the most beautiful songs of the 1970s, with these really lovely glockenspiels, an outstanding piano performance, and wonderful drums. It’s a song that really benefits just as much, if not more, from the excellent production, arrangement, and recording as it does from the songwriting and vocals.

This album represents spectacular growth for Drake just as much as it represents a landmark moment in music history in its own right, just for its incredibly high quality. Urban, nocturnal, introspective, and absolutely beautiful, this is one of the best albums of all time, and to me it is indeed perfect.
10/10

I hate beat music but I love The Who. I also love “The Kids Are Alright” and “My Generation.” The former is probably the best stereotypically “beat” song of all time, super nice and melodic and kinda interesting. And the latter is real great too, just a good ol’ early punk-sounding song. The rest of the songs here… uhhh…. Some thoughts. Nice Bob Dylan impression on “Much Too Much,” Townshend. The vocals on “Please Please Please” are some of the wimpiest “rhythm and blues” I have ever heard. It’s pathetic. “It’s Not True” is pleasant enough. “I’m A Man” falls into the same problem as “Please Please Please” except the instrumentation is pretty good. This album… it’s okay. The lows really drag it down though.
6.1/10

Interesting one today. A bit long, but really good. I especially loved the heaviness of the drums here, it added a lot to the album as a larger experience. “Smack My Bitch Up” was a song I was already vaguely familiar with (we all know why), but the rest of the songs I was listening to for the first time. I can’t say I love the vocalist here, but his voice certainly fits the bombastic sound of the album. It’s at times aggressive, in-your-face, fast, and big. Pretty much every song is awesome, save for “Serial Thrilla” and “Mindfields,” neither of which I especially cared for. That being said it’s awesome, it’s iconic, and it has a lot of songs that are really worth listening to.
8.5/10

An album that really picks up 4 songs in, but it REALLY picks up. The first 3 songs are fine, but nothing special, really. “Mind” is pretty fucking great, but… I don’t know, I still don’t love where it’s sequenced. “Cities,” though… it’s a fucking barn-burner. So is “Life During Wartime.” It’s a 1-2 punch of actually awesome songs after a pretty disappointing start. “Cities” in particular really spoke to me, talking about the craziness of cities, talking about the circumstance of them, and the album as a whole has some outstanding lyrics (“burned all my notebooks… what good are notebooks!?”) on it. “Memories Can’t Wait” is another great one, with more great lyrics, and an awesome vocal performance from Byrne. I didn’t expect to find a commercial sounding song on here, that being “Heaven,” but that was pretty awesome too! I can’t actually tell if “Animals” is a metaphor or not, but that’s not the point because at the end of the day it’s fucking awesome. That’s kind of this whole album, actually. There’s stuff I like, there’s stuff I question, and the sequencing is weird, but at the end of the day it’s fucking awesome.
9.1/10

Well, I adored their previous album. I really didn’t expect to like this, but fuck, these guys are just incapable of missing. Hell! They made the phrase “infect me with your love” sound cool! How the fuck do you do that? Matt Johnson’s vocals are once again incredible, with that rough, gritty texture and incredible passion (the way he sings “I was trying so hard to BE myself I was turning into SOMEBODY ELSE”), and it turns these otherwise pretty boring pop tunes into something truly special, in a way only this band could. Songs like “Out Of The Blue (Into The Fire)” and the title track are especially good. It’s not on the same level as the debut, and it’s not perfect, but damn if it isn’t good.
8.4/10

Buzzcocks… there’s a joke there. Buzzy cocks. Hahaha. Idk man. Like a vibrator on a cock. Or like… no probably the best joke there is vibrator on a cock. Whatever. This album is ridiculously boring. Save for the closer, which is hilariously good in comparison to everything else here, this is a really boring standard punk album that’s not emotional enough to cut deep, not heavy enough to be interesting, and not original enough to be worth my time.
6.4/10

Take 2, baby!! I was completely and totally unimpressed by the self-titled Bpack Sabbath joint, and haven’t listened to much of anything else by them, so now I see this, a pretty lauded album, with some pretty interesting aspects, and I’m hoping that it’s gonna be good. Let’s see.

It is. It’s so much better. It’s so much fucking better. It’s incredible. Holy fuck. The first song alone beats out everything on their debut. Instead of this weird slow occult shit, they just pull up with these insane fucking guitars and riffs. A few TRUE masterpieces are scattered throughout the album (“Wheels of Confusion,” “Supernaut,” “Snowblind,” and “Under the Sun” are the main 4), and the rest are either rock tracks following suit, or genre experiments that add this nuanced feel of darkness to the album, that a lot of other metal joints simply don’t have, the best example of this being, of course, “Changes.” Everything slots together unbelievably well, and it makes a fucking spectacular musical experience.
10/10

More Britpop??? I thought these brothers were post punk??? What the fuck??? Anyway this is boring as SHIT dude. I cannot stand these guys. The playing is uninspired, the vocals are annoying, and the topics that the vocals harp on feel more pretentious than radical, especially since they’re using the vehicle of… Britpop. Also, this is corny! People, they’ve got a song called “Enola/Alone!” Can you fucking believe it? There are some okay melodies in there, some okay songs, that much I can confidently say. But it’s still really annoying. Real bad. Do not recommend.
4.8/10