Reviews by therealab

Barry Gordy was so lazy. All these Motown groups and artists just ran through the same songs over and over again. Marvin Gaye killed I Heard It Through the Grapevine...this version pales in comparison. This album is better than I anticipated. Eddie Kendricks' voice is annoying as hell, he's the Soul Music Frankie Valli. I think I'm just not a fan of Motown soul. It feels over produced or too formulaic or something.

There are too many Baby Boomer music critics. Dr. John is a one-hit wonder novelty at worst and a niche act at best. Professor Longhair would like a word about who belongs in this list representing the New Orleans sound. This is just psychedelic music from New Orleans in Creole, homegrown World music. I wish this had Right Place Wrong Time on it. I'm counting the minutes until this album is over which is bad for a 33 minute effort. Of course it ends with an almost 8 minute song.

Lust for Life was a big hit...and a way to sell Carnival cruises. Sell out or no, it's a good song. Sixteen is like the Pixies or Dinosaur Jr. ten years before either of them made it big. The Passenger is great. This album is really good. A lot of alternative rock from the late 80s and 90s owes a lot to Iggy Pop and the Stooges. And Iggy Pop clearly owes David Bowie something which is never more clear than on Tonight. Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground too. He kind of sounds like Lou Reed. Fall In Love With Me is another great song, a lot of good album tracks here.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. It sounds very much like the Smiths, almost to the point of repetitiveness, but also is very different from some of their other albums. The lyrics from Girlfriend in a Coma are so stupid. The album has it's own sound I guess, but everything sounds too much the same within it.

One minute of train noises to start a 10 minute first song...not an auspicious beginning. I get it, Station to Station so let's have some train noises. It improves rapidly though, even with more train noises. Golden Years is one of my favorite Bowie songs. Stay is good too, it's a good funk rock album. His Wild Is the Wind suffers by comparison to Nina Simone's. It's growing on me too though. The whole album is kind of a slow build, song by song.

The lead singer's voice reminds me of something I can't place. I'm liking the first song so far though. I'm really liking this album. The back half of the album isn't as good as the first half. It's not awful, but worse. The back half, particularly I Don't Like You Anymore and In My Room, sounds like the soundtrack to the Haunted Mansion with slightly creepy organ music, Psycho-esque violins and the vocals. Kind of a Paolo Nutini vibe to this, same time frame. Time Has Come Again is a good song to end the album on.

Enough with the chimes and the steel drum or marimba or whatever. This is going to be a long album. Avant-garde anything is already hard to tolerate and this is more than an hour for eight songs. It can not be said enough, prog rock sucks. This straight up sucks. A 13 minute wordless experimental piece that is continued later is not a good start. These guys must have gotten along great with Pink Floyd. This feels like a never ending procession of psychedelic nonsense music. Les Claypool heard this album and Primus was born. And now some random screeching noises to end the song. This album went out like it came in, terrible.

Tom Waits has five albums on this list...that it not a reasonable number. I like this one better than the other two I've heard so far. He does love ambient restaurant noise on his albums. Saving All My Love For You is sweet. Jersey Girl too. There's something great about his love songs. This is definitely the best Tom Waits album so far but there's a reason he's more popular with critics than the general population.

I love Bob Dylan and think I hate folk music. There's borrowing from older musical styles, and there's copying a type of music that died out half a millennium ago to appear "creative" or "authentic". This is like the music Hobbits listen to except they aren't real. Wes Anderson loves these dorks. The lead singer sounds like Nico. This is like a gag album. I hope Dynamite Hack or Right Said Fred made the list too. Robert Wyatt probably loves these goofballs too. I bet you could play this over the video for Safety Dance and it would feel like it made sense. Have to love the random water sounds behind all the wizard lyrics on The Water Song. It definitely feels like Led Zeppelin liked this band. The Indian influenced songs are much better than the English ballads. This is insufferable. I spoke too soon on the sitar music.

Bob Marley makes protest music for people who want to chill. I guess that (and his love of weed) explains his popularity amongst white teenagers....I was there once. Every reggae act after him feels like a cover band. This is a good album though. Stop That Train is a great album cut. Some of these songs are hard to tell apart. Baby We've Got A Date (Rock It Baby) has very similar music to Stir It Up. Stir It Up is this album's hit and deservedly so...great music, great lyrics. It's like the Jamaican Sexual Healing.

Looking at the track list, I think this is my favorite Steely Dan album. And Dirty Work is definitely my favorite Steely Dan song. Reelin' In the Years suuuuuucks. This is the worst Steely Dan song. This album is all over the place. I am neither reelin' in the years nor gathering up the time. I don't understand how this got so popular. One great song, one good song and total garbage other than that.

Common is good, great lyrics, a storyteller. I love Like Water for Chocolate. I liked hip hop better when every producer didn't have to put themselves all over everything they touched. There's a lot of Kanye on this album. The sample on Testify gets annoying really quick. He's definitely underrated as a rapper. I like Kanye and him as a guest MC is a good addition. I could do without the John Legend guest spot. I get it, the album title is Be.

I'm not the biggest Tom Petty fan and Breakdown is one of my least favorite songs. This is folksy in the not good way. This is all building to something, it's not terrible but it's hard to believe this album was their big break. Strangered in the Night is one of the songs that you can hear the Southern Rock label being earned. I like artists that don't have great voices but there is something specific about Tom Petty's voice that grates on the ear. Mystery Man is another song clearly influenced by the Allmans and Skynyrd. And this is what the wait was for....American Girl to close the album. Great song.

I get why people might not like Radiohead. I like them, but I get it. When I am king/You will be first against the wall, I've always loved that line. I hate to say this, and it's probably because I've listened to more Steely Dan in this project than anyone should ever have to, but there's definitely something reminiscent of some Steely Dan. Now I feel terrible. Coldplay heard this album and toned down the weirdness...the result was A Rush of Blood to the Head. This album is the working soundtrack for all Zach Braff's films. Karma Police, great song. No Surprises is an all-time great song. What a beautiful song and a great video too.

Brazilian electronic music....what's not to love! Why are there so many Brazilian acts in this list? This sounds like someone put words to the opening notes of the Pee Wee's Playhouse theme song. Electronica is not a genre that I appreciate. The traditional Brazilian samba bits are the best part of the album...makes me envision Carnival. This cannot end soon enough. This is the music of a hipster churrascaria or a nightclub in a mixed income neighborhood or the soundtrack to a Brazilian neo-noir thriller. No one in Brazil could have been asking for this...to paraphrase Hank Hill, they aren't making electronica better, they're making samba worse. Abraco hits like a car alarm with some backwards singing interludes. It continues to get worse from beginning to end.

More New Wave music...this one is like the forerunner of EDM. Thirty seconds in and it feels like an assault on my ears. This is like the poor man's The Cure. The 80s were a dark time. This is like a greatest hits of terrible New Wave music, each song is just the ultimate in 80s music. Mr Disco is one of the worst songs I've ever heard...it's like someone heard video game music, a child's xylophone and techno and thought it was a good idea to combine them. The best that can be said about this album is that it is a forgettable exemplar of New Wave music.

Nirvana is the culmination of post-punk alternative rock from the early 80s until the early 90s. They feel more representative of the musical trends that took rock from punk to grunge than Pearl Jam or Soundgarden. This is better than Nevermind. I also think the album tracks are better than the hits, Herat-Shaped Box and Rape Me. Very Ape is a good album track. All Apologies is a great song, great electric, great acoustic.

There are too many obscure British bands on this list. Another album involving an old, or maybe "old" tape recording over the music...why is this a thing? These guys heard Radiohead and thought they could be a band too. The spooky vocals on the title track fits but the song still misses. The back half of the album is better. The Man Who Told Everything is good. Also liking The Cedar Room.

I'm getting the feeling that if you've heard one Neil Young album, you've heard them all. This doesn't seem particularly fresh. A full minute of guitar distortion to end F*!#in' Up is stupid. This is Better Than Ezra's favorite album. Tomorrow is a long, long time if you're a memory is a great line. Mother Earth (Natural Anthem) is not a strong close lyrically or musically.

Early pop Beatles is my least favorite Beatles. All My Loving is a great pop song though and is the big hit from this album. There are several covers on this album and Till There Was You is a good example. Please Mr. Postman and Roll Over Beethoven are not as successful. Never cover Chuck Berry unless you happen to go back in time. I know they love Motown, but these are not great covers. Money (That's What I Want) works though and one of their more famous efforts.