Reviews by therealab

Second try at this one. New Wave sucks. 80s music is the worst. Gothic Rock...another genre I can confirm I am not a fan of. This is like a creepier Cure. Maybe the best thing that can be said about this album is that it was not long.

Karen Carpenter has a lovely voice. This is the softest album I've ever heard. This might be the first Easy Listening album. Their Reason to Believe is decent. I can only picture Rick Moranis singing Close to You in Parenthood or Marge getting the custom doorbell chime and screwing up the lyrics. This is like their greatest hits album. We've Only Just Begun, (They Long to Be) Close to You and I'll Never Fall In Love Again are the songs I most associate with them. Mr. Guder is the Easy Listening Mr. Dobalina. Come on Dick, Karen is the star here. Another Song is like the theme to knock off Bond 70s spy thriller. Ron Burgundy approves of the flute.

This album only came out in 2026. This book is going to turn into the Guinness Book of World Records, where almost nothing changes year to year but they still issue one with a few new records in it. Africa is a mess. I like this more than I thought I was going to. A Foreshadowing is the best song so far. Little by Little is another really good song. This album is why you don't judge a book by its cover. I wonder if Iron & Wine or Bon Iver or any of the other indie folk bands made the cut on the latest list. Or the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Where the mountain meets the see sounds like a Bon Iver cover. I liked this though, not sure it's one of the 1,001 albums I need to hear before I die, but I like it.

The Pixies and Sonic Youth listened to the opening track and decided to make albums. Every cover of Helter Skelter feels like it is trading on Charles Manson's insanity and something just feels wrong about that. This feels like mid-80s indie rock five years before that was a thing. A lot of bands that came after them sound an awful lot like them. There's a Talking Heads vibe on some of the songs. Why do all these bands have a really long song to close their albums?

From the first few notes of Welcome to the Jungle, you know you're about to hear something awesome. It is the greatest lead song off a debut album of all time. It's a great song on a great album and was a massive hit. Plus, as I tell my son, if you listen to it before a game or lifting weights, it is scientifically proven to improve your performance by 11%. If GNR gets lumped in with "hair bands", they are head and shoulders (wink) better than the rest of their contemporaries. Paradise City is a jam. Sweet Child O' Mine rocks. The album tracks aren't as good as the singles but that's like saying you nieces and nephews aren't as cute as your own kids. These dudes love drugs and women...maybe in that order? Some of their songs make me think this is like Van Halen if they were into heroin instead of cocaine. Rocket Queen is the best album track and a great finish.

A British album with reggae/ska influences? Couldn't be! Ben Harper would have been a better choice than this. Your Love Gets Sweeter is the best song on the album. Immediately followed by the worst, Supreme | Preme. I don't love this album, there are some interesting songs...but I probably wouldn't listen to it again.

The Girl From Ipanema is a great song...although I am hesitant to put it in list of best debut album first tracks because jazz collaborations aren't quite the same as bands or solo artists. Desafinado is on the Getz/Byrd album too. It's a good song, I prefer the instrumental version. I don't know what it is but the jazz/samba combo gets me...Getz and Gilberto or Sinatra and Jobim, it just works. This is the soundtrack to a Woody Allen movie set in Brazil.

This has the feeling of every other band from the UK that was trying to be Oasis in the mid-to-late 90s. It's now made a hard turn into really alternative rock. Enough with the fucking doorbells. This veers into a weird instrumental/techno direction that is much less like music and more like random noises over a bassline. Trainspotting is probably my favorite song on the album.

The lead track is working for me, even the Jarvis Cocker spoken word poem about coercing someone into sex. Something Wicked This Way Comes is like Nightmares on Wax or RJD2. There's kind of a Portishead feel to it. Anyway, I'm liking it so far. It's Business As Usual is more like a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song, which makes sense...but the spoken parts of all the songs feels like a gimmick that's going to wear thin very quickly. It's hard to know exactly what to make of this album. I don't dislike the jazzy songs, but it is not where I thought this was going when I started listening. This is another contender for alternate working music for Mad Men. Vermillion Kisses has lost me. This is just Weird Story Hour with some music behind it...it's like those stories on tape from the 80s for narcissistic adults. The Big Bamboozle sounds like something from a Bond soundtrack. Sometimes the movie dialogue works, sometimes it doesn't...this is actually one where it doesn't feel totally inappropriate.

I don't need the thematic explanation...either do it with the music or don't do it. Timbaland hit his apex working with Missy. A lot of guest spots on this album, not complaining. Method Man, Ludacris and Jay-Z is a pretty strong late 90s lineup of MCs. Work It has always been one of my least favorite rap songs that was a hit, the backwards talking is dumb. Rappers love to do the retrospective hip hop shout out song. Back in the Day is not my favorite one though. Hearing Pussycat for the first time is when Nicki Minaj, Cardi B and Meghan Thee Stallion realized what they wanted to do with their lives. This album is not bad. The song with Beyonce is a highlight. The number of times she says "This is another Missy Elliott exclusive" makes DJ Khaled seem restrained. The back half of the album is the better half. The exclusive thing is super annoying. The sad song about Aaliyah and Left Eye is corny as hell. Nice little chat at the very end, CDs were super stupid.

I love Bob Dylan, I love folk Dylan, I love electric Dylan, I love young Dylan, I love old Dylan. It's hard to be unbiased. If you don't believe the man is a deserving Nobel Prize winner, listen to Blowin' in the Wind and tell me he isn't a poet with a guitar. Sometimes there's a man. I won't say a hero, because, what's a hero? But sometimes, there's a man. And I'm talking about Bob Dylan here. Sometimes, there's a man, and well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. Girl from the North Country is such a beautiful song, and his duet with Johnny Cash on Nashville Skyline just goes to show how versatile his songs are. Maybe it's more of a commentary on how great songs transcend genre. This album is incredible, Masters of War is terrific. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall is a beautiful song, I love it. It's in the running for the best Bob Dylan song and that's saying something. The quality of his lyrics is unparalleled, he's like a modern day Shakespeare. This album has so many great songs, and this is effectively the debut of him as a songwriter. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right is another historically great song. Corrina, Corrina is another great song. I've listened to this album so many times, but this is maybe the most I've thought about it while I was listening to it and it is blowing my mind. A great Bob Dylan album which puts it in the running for one of the greatest albums of all time.

There's a lot of hip hop that got left off this list to make room for this. Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children is my least favorite De La Soul song ever. The baby talk is one of the worst parts of any of the albums I've heard so far. Nina Sky loves Come into My House. There's a little bit of an overstuffed sound that was popular from some early hip hop. It's like DJs thought if they crammed enough sound into a song it would have something for everyone. Latifah's Law is like that and still my favorite song so far. I believe that Queen Latifah is the greatest female battle rapper in history. 80s/90s rappers loved moving into sitcom roles. Queen Latifah, LL Cool J and, king of cheesy rap, the Fresh Prince. Monie Love really puts Queen Latifah's skill in perspective because she sucks. There are so many more deserving hip hop albums.

A double album, we are not off to a great start. Rocks Off is great classic Stones though. Shake Your Hips is a classic blues song...I prefer ZZ Top's La Grange though. Tumbling Dice is the hit and one of the best Rolling Stones songs. You got to roll me. Sweet Virginia is another great album cut. The Rolling Stones might have the best album tracks of any band ever. I know that's a function of the era, FM Radio playing entire album sides rather than just singles. Loving Cup is another great song. Maybe it's not double albums that are the problem, maybe it's the bands doing them so far. Happy isn't my favorite song and it was the other single. Gospel Stones is not my favorite. Shine a Light is amazing.

This is twee pop...very little that can be described as twee is good. Some Wes Anderson movies might be the exception? I kind of like this, a pleasant pop folk duo. Subtle Don't Look Back reference. Mayfly is the best song so far. There's nothing about this album to get me really excited either way. Quickly superseded by Judy and the Dream of Horses as a strong closer.

Not available on Spotify...not a good sign. David Lee Roth must love this album. I don't like the lyrics or vocals, but the music is cool. They are kind of losing me with the crazy organ parts, it makes them sound like a low-rent Doors cover band. I Hate You has a definite White Stripes feel. I'm kind of ambivalent, it has its moments and its misses.

The dreamy backing track is starting to annoy now where at first it seemed kind of interesting. The falsetto vocals are going to wear me out pretty quickly. These guys are British contemporaries of TV On The Radio. British bands and ska...a tale as old as the 1960s. The Beach Boys used the theremin on Pet Sounds and it seemed like an organic decision. The instrumentation on this album seems more like an affectation. This is agreeable enough...the kind of thing you might ask about if it was on in the background at a party, but not enough to remember the band name once you'd been told. This feels like the soundtrack to an indie movie. Not loving Zia as just a long instrumental. It's not bad...it is also not good. DeVotchKa and these guys probably get along great, contemporaries. I didn't realize these were the Chicken Payback guys until the Because You Listened To...songs started. I do like that song.

I think this is my favorite Beatles era, middle period Beatles. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) has grown on me. I love Nowhere Man too. I bet this was David Bowie's favorite album in 1965. Ringo isn't the lead singer often, but I generally like the songs he is the lead singer. In My Life is one of the best Beatles songs. I just can't get into the Beatles. They are very hit or miss for me. Run for Your Life is creepy as shit.

French rap...this promises to be a unique listen. I believe this is the album that my hosts at my college preview weekend played for me. If it gives you any indication of what that was like for me, also understand that the 18 year old high school senior used his fake ID to buy these fellows beer. They then proceeded to leave their door open and their RA cited them for drinking. Good times. This sucks just as bad as I thought it would. Armand est mort was better the first time as Inner City Blues. Of course a French rapper has to have a snooty jazz interlude on a nearly hour-long album. La musique adoucit les moeurs is the best track on the album...and some English! Not something I would listen to again, but not the worst thing I've ever heard.

I can't tell what I think of this. I'm leaning towards not loving it. The longer it goes, the more I feel that way. I bet Nick Cave loves this album. I still don't know. It's hard to get a read on this. Iron and Wine loves this album too. I'd Rather Be The Devil (Devil Got My Woman) is the best track on the album. INXS probably loved it.

I was listening to less rap by the time this album came out but I should have. It's good. The combination of Dre and Eminem was unstoppable for five years. There were several hits off this album, none bigger than In Da Club, good song. This feels like a last stand of a particular kind of rap music. From the first notes you can tell Dre produced If I Can't, the piano on his turn of the century albums is like a fingerprint. 50 and I both agree, Ja Rule sucks. 50 is a P.I.M.P. Chelsea Handler knows. You don't hear a lot of steel drum in hip hop. 21 Questions is another great song, my favorite off the album. I love you like a fat kid loves cake is a terrific line to work into a rap song. RIP Nate Dogg. This song reminds me of the WacArnold's skit from Chapelle Show...no, no one will love you when you're down and out...also Derek and the Dominos. I always thought Wanksta was overrated.