Reviews by therealab

I don't know much Creedence outside of the hits, but I'm liking it so far. Travelin' Band is one of their bigger hits, but I never really liked it. It has a Little Richard cover sound. After Ooby Dooby, there is a truly great run of songs from Lookin' Out My Back Door through the end of the album. CCR is able to be a California band that does the country rock thing authentically...like the exact opposite of the Eagles. Run Through the Jungle is a great song, maybe my favorite Creedence song. My Baby Left Me is the one song that isn't a hit, but it's a decent blues album track. Who'll Stop the Rain is another great song. Normally an 11 minute cover of a soul classic wouldn't normally be something I'd love, but CCR's I Heard It Through the Grapevine is the exception. Long As I Can See the Light is another all-time great Creedence song.

I have low expectations heading into this album. Starting with the Serenity Prayer is adding to my sense that this album is going to take itself way too seriously. I bet this is the album that made Fiona Apple decide she wanted to make music. Bjork too. I Am Stretched On Your Grave is a techno poem. It would be better if the beat and glass breaking sounds were toned down a bit. She does have a lovely Irish voice. Three Babies showcases how great she sounds when it's basically her voice just shining. The Emperor's New Clothes is the most 90s song I've ever heard. It could be the music for the opening titles of a 90s girl power movie. Black Boys on Mopeds is the simple political polemic I was waiting for on this album. And the inescapable hit, Nothing Compares 2 U. Well deserved though. A great song written by Prince and knocked absolutely out of the park here. An album very much of it's time. Other than Nothing Compares 2 U, there are some good songs and some bad songs but it's a decent album as a whole.

So Far Away from me is a terrific song. So Far Away, Money for Nothing and Walk of Life to start an album is an insane string of hits. Definitely their three biggest songs. Money for Nothing is the best song Sting was ever involved with. Great music video, still holds up as cool. Walk of Life had a great video too, just sports highlights/bloopers. It was a simpler time. Now begins the real test once the popular songs have been listened to and it's just album tracks left. Not a good start with the smooth jazz intro to Your Latest Trick. Mark Knopfler got the job for The Princess Bride Soundtrack based on Why Worry. Nope, three hits and an album of garbage, nonsense mid-80s rock. They could have been the house band in Roadhouse except they aren't gritty enough. Mark Knopfler has a distinct sound, that's not enough to carry an album though.

She burned out fast, but she burned bright. Ex-Factor is the second best song on the album. To Zion, the greatest anti-abortion song ever. The speaking interludes I could do without. Doo Wop (That Thing) was the big hit, it's good and the video was cool. Demanding everything with your name on it come with the honorific "Ms." before it is pretentious as hell. There are a lot of R&B/Soul artists who owe a lot to this album...Amy Winehouse not the least of them. Nothing Even Matters with D'Angelo is like the NeoSoul equivalent of Batman and Superman teaming up. D'Angelo makes everything better. You don't realize how bad Frankie Valli sucks until you hear Lauryn Hill do Can't Take My Eyes Off of You, one of the all time great covers. Tell Him ends the album and is another home run.

I know heading into this album that All I Wanna Do and Strong Enough are the big hits and that they will likely be the songs I like the least. Run, Baby, Run is a good start. Leaving Las Vegas was a single and it's good too. This album is much better than I remembered. As a 13 year old boy when it came out, I was not the target demographic though. Coldplay totally ripped off the lyrics for The Scientist from No One Said It Would Be Easy. No doubt that All I Wanna Do is the worst song on the album. Everything else is actually a pretty decent album.

This sounds eerily similar to the Beach Boys' Surf's Up which was not good. You Need Your Head is awful. I wonder how much crappy experimental music can be directly blamed on Frank Zappa. Music critics cream their jeans for any genre that is prefaced with "experimental" or "art". Dogs play fighting with some sci-fi noises and fake laughing...this is not music, it is an idiot playing with audio equipment. Flamingo is actual music and might be worse than Dogfight Giggle. This album could only have become a thing in the era of FM radio playing full albums. Zen Archer is only five and a half minutes long but feels like double that. No one could have ever really liked this album. It's like he challenged himself to see if he could make each song awful in a unique way. SUCCESS! Revisiting the first song on the album on the last track of the side...dumb. The cover medley is probably the best song on the album and still manages to include some truly terrible moments. Just One Victory was a bright spot to close the album out.

Weezer heard this band and thought they could tighten it up and give it a little more pop sensibility. Pavement is the dark side of Wilco. There's a Pixies vibe to this album as well. Cut Your Hair was their hit. It's not a Pixies vibe, it feels more like an homage now. 5-4=Unity steals a bar from Dave Brubeck and I'm here for it, it's a nice departure from the rest of the album that is very much one note. There are some things to like about this album...but it is a lot of the same, track after track. Hit the Plane Down is more grunge than the rest of the album and the worst song on the album. And Wilco is the first band up in the "Because you just listened to Pavement" queue.

I closed this review without saving or rating and I can't get through this album again. Suffice it to say, it was not the worst album I have ever heard and that's about the highest praise I can give it. I have yet to hear a British rapper that made me think that artform should have ever crossed the Atlantic.

Girl punk! Not what I was expecting from an LA punk band called X. LA band so the Doors influence makes sense. This is like punk lite but not pop punk. I bet the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. love this band. It all sounds good, but it does also all sound the same. The girl singing is better than the guy.

Thinking about it, I may have only ever heard this version of Ace of Spades, what a great song. Not sure how I feel about a band leading off a concert with its biggest hit though. Feels like a mistake. Motorhead is an underrated band. A lot of their songs sound very similar. They make AC/DC look like the BeeGees. Other than Ace of Spades, Overkill is the best song so far. Considering the nature of the music, this is one of the best live recordings I've ever heard. The real stars of this album are the production crew.

Sunday Morning is a strong contender for best first track off a debut album. These guys love drugs. They could put this album on repeat on Little Steven's Underground Garage and it wouldn't be out of place. They are like the original breakout garage band. I don't love Nico's voice. I love Venus in Furs great song, one of my favorite Velvet Underground songs. One of the best album tracks ever...but from a time before that was such a big deal. I love blues rock, everyone in the 60s apparently did too. The Nico tracks are the worst on the album. I guess when Andy Warhol produces your album without interfering too much, you give him a win once in a while. On All Tomorrow's Parties, the music is still cool, her voice just gets me out of it. Heroin, another great song. I understand why people in the 50s and 60s thought rock n' roll was the real gateway drug. I feel like a lot of industrial "bands" got their idea from this album as well. The surf music of the early 60s and then psychedelic music is definitely an influence. The back 3/4 of European Son is a long, distorted guitar solo and the only real miss on the album.

It's impossible not to hear the Toy Story theme when Randy Newman opens his mouth. He also apparently loves using the N-word. Every song sounds like if Toy Story got super political about the South in the 70s. This is super political but the goofy delivery makes for a strange combination. Guilty is the best song so far. A lot of songs about the South. It's hard to imagine any of his other albums sounding very different than this one since his film music all sounds exactly like this, but I am curious. Maybe this was his hit album and this New Orleans sound just stuck. The music fits the theme but everything sounds pretty much the same. Maybe he took it too far and couldn't get away from it. I get Kingfish, it's a song about Huey P. Long but it's a song about Richard Nixon. Deep. Not a good album....maybe less aggressively bad than just corny and feeling like it's a critical darling because he was criticizing Nixon through a concept album.

I do not have high hopes for this album. A lot of short songs though, so that's a plus. This is better than I thought it would be. I like just a man and a guitar. Poughkeepsie is a bad song. I think it was a turning point for this album, everything after it is just getting worse. This is music that takes itself too seriously as music. Even the titles of the songs are pretentious. Tit Smoking in the Temple of Artesan Mimicry is a truly terrible title. It is also the best song on the album. Just cut the outtake, dog, you aren't Bob Dylan. I know you want to sound authentic but it actively works against that because it's so intentional in the context of a studio album, release a live album or a making of album. Oh my god, I took a break in the middle of this and am getting back into this....shockingly bad to jump into again. Even a short album with short songs can seem interminable.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young....the original super group? Carry On is a solid opening song. Teach Your Children is in the running for the most overrated songs in history. Followed up with Almost Cut My Hair which is one of the most underrated songs of all time. I heard it on one of those "deep cut Saturday" radio promos and loved it. It is probably my favorite CSNY (or CSN for that matter) song. Neil Young has to center Canada of course. Our House is terrible too. The rock songs are better than the folk songs.

This is not too bad. I never got into Garbage, but I never hated them either. Queer and Only Happy When It Rains are pretty good. I bet this is Billie Eilish's favorite album. The album tracks are not as good as the hits, but this is surprisingly better than I anticipated. I misjudged this album when it was popular, this is pretty good. I always liked Stupid Girl. The album tracks are better on the back half of the album, Fix Me Now is particularly good. Milk is a little bit of a let down to end the album, a little bit Depeche Mode-like for my taste. But overall a better album than I would have ever expected.

Chuck D is right, the beats and the rhymes are so dope. Don't Believe the Hype is another great song. There's not a lot of East Coast rap from the late 80s through the mid 90s that doesn't owe a debt of gratitude to Public Enemy. Cold Lampin' with Flavor is better than I remember. I could do without the Terminator X solo song. Louder than a Bomb is the best song on the album so far. Rumpshaker could not be further from Public Enemy, and yet....She Watch Channel Zero?! is the invention of NuMetal! I wish everyone else, other than Rage, had left it alone after this. Night of the Living Baseheads is another great song. Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos is one of the best Public Enemy songs, maybe my favorite, great lyrics. Political hip hop was perfected on this album....every other attempt is still trying to reach these heights.

Thirty seconds in and this already sounds like every other Pet Shop Boys music ever made. The first song was bad and yet I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing is worse. This album is terrible, at least all of the other albums that are made up of industrial noise, found sound, screaming or gibberish words are trying something...something I don't like, but these guys are trying to make actual popular music and failing miserably. This is like the music from Barney for grown-ups. Kids in their room are creating better AI music than this right now. Closing with an eight minute song is not helping. This might not be the worst album on the list, at least it's "music", but it's close.

I am not sure why Supergrass flew below my radar. I was a teen into music when they were popular. Listening to them, I understand better. This is like British Green Day or pop punk Oasis. Alright is familiar but from a commercial. It's not a terrible song. There's nothing great about this album....nothing terrible either, and with this list, that's not nothing. I'm ready to abandon this album with the chipmunk voices on We're Not Supposed To. Time is the best song on the album. No it is not, Sofa (Of My Lethargy) is.

Human Behaviour...strong candidate for the first track off a debut album, although the video came out when I was the MTV age for it so that might be nostalgia talking. This could be a Massive Attack song and I wouldn't know the difference. It sounds like a little Icelandic girl talking over EDM. That said, her voice has an appealing quality to it that I can't put my finger on. Like Someone in Love is a radical departure from everything else on the album, but I like it. I don't love this album but EDM was better when it was "techno", 90s, early 2000s. Aeroplane is more the Bjork I was expecting, not in a good way.

From the band name and album cover I was expecting worse, but the first song is defying expectations. Folk/rock/country in some measure, similar to Manassas or CSN or The Flying Burrito Brothers or the Eagles, each with a different level of success. Only Dreaming Now is not as good as Are You Happy? This album is getting worse and worse. Nine Pound Hammer is better. All the songs are short and the album is only 29 minutes long which is a huge plus. This is like psychedelic Simon and Garfunkel, in the worst possible way. Simon and Garfunkel probably stuffed these magic loving dorks into a locker when they saw them. It's like trippy Jim Croce. Only 29 minutes and I'm still counting the seconds until it's over. I don't hate the cover of My Old Kentucky Home.