Reviews by therealab

One song in and I'm liking this much better than the other album they had on the list. It gave back that goodwill pretty fast. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1 has great music but these guys cannot quit with the lyrics that are better suited to a comedy album. The up and down continues as Pt. 2 is not good. They should have called this album "Music You Love When You're High and Literally No Other Time". The Shins do this music better. Do You Realize?? is the hit from this album and on some commercial. The lead singer's voice is cartoonish in the worst way.

This apparently is "cool jazz" which means that all other jazz must be "square jazz"? Whatever you call it, I like it better than more freeform jazz. This is pretty good. I would definitely listen to this again. Move and Moon Dreams are particularly good.

Arguably the greatest movie soundtrack ever made, maybe the best Prince album, one of the all-time greats. Prince is great. I wish he had put some of the Morris Day songs from the movie on it. No Apollonia either. Darling Nikki....shocking! Prince is the herald of Neo-Soul. When Doves Cry is a great song, great music (all Prince), great lyrics (ask the Milhouses). From When Doves Cry to the end of the album is one of the great four song runs of all time. I normally hate really long songs, particularly to end an album. Purple Rain is the exception that proves the rule. Purple Rain is my favorite Prince song.

I don't know why I was hesitant to start this. Chan Chan is a great start. It sounds like the music that would be playing during a Robert Rodriguez love scene. I know one is Cuban and one is Mexican-American but there are some similarities across Latin music. I'm finding a newfound appreciation for Cuban music. I like this a lot more than I would have expected. This album is great. Amor de Loca Juventud is the Cuban All of Me. Orgullecida is a low point. The back half of the album is not as good.

Grrl Power. Tori Amos loves Kate Bush. Also, the food truck episode of Bob's Burgers totally nails Tori Amos as parody. There's something familiar about this while not being exactly like anything else. I like it more than I thought I would so far. She's like feminist late-Bruce Springsteen. Me and a Gun is way stripped down, but I like it. Little Earthquakes is a solid closing track. Underrated album.

More New Wave?!?! Music critics are dumber than usual over 80s music. This has to be a joke. This is like the song created for Teen Titans Go! Or like if AI was asked to create music created by a terrible white 80s R&B band from the UK. These lyrics make Color Me Badd look like Bob Dylan. This is the worst 80s R&B. This has no business on this list and whatever critic put it on there should not be allowed near any form of music. These guys might have done the entire soundtrack to Short Circuit. Wood Beez, these guys suck at everything. This is white knock-off New Edition. I like cheesy 80s R&B and this sucks. El DeBarge...that's why it reminds me of Short Circuit! The homeless man's El DeBarge.

On some songs, I have no problem understanding his lyrics...others he might as well be speaking Mandarin. The live version of No Woman, No Cry is infinitely better than the studio version. Bob Marley is unequivocally better live than in studio.

Classic glam rock Bowie...I like it. Some avant-garde jazz piano really spices up the title track, said no one ever. I don't understand the appeal of atonal music. I think I like Ziggy Stardust and Bowie's Greatest Hits because this started promising but is losing me. I bet this is Queen's favorite album. I don't dislike the cover of Let's Spend the Night Together, but it is a pale imitation of the Stones' version. Jean Genie is the hit. It's ok. That's probably the best assessment of this album as well.

I love Erykah Badu, the queen of neo-soul. This is a great album. Didn't Cha Know is a jam. This is one of the best albums I've ever heard. I love her revisiting On & On. Every song on the album is good. Bumpy's Lament from Shaft gave us two amazing songs...Bag Lady and Xxplosive from The Chronic 2001. The Cheeba Sac remix of Bag Lady, using Dre's beat, is even better. Everything was good until the 10 minute closing track that starts like a 30s rag about eating vegetables. This is like a super mix and it's better than most ending tracks, no stupid phone call, no long silence. This list doesn't have enough R&B when both Baduizm and Voodoo don't crack the top 1,001 but Morrissey has 4 solo albums on the list.

I don't get improvisational jazz. Part II is superior to part I. Jazz makes me feel stupid because I absolutely do not understand most of it, this included. This is what is on at a snobby, rich young New Yorker's loft during a party in a movie. I can't imagine real people listening to this even as background music on a day-to-day basis. I feel about the saxophone the way I know many people feel about the harmonica in Bob Dylan's or Neil Young's music. I think I'm just more of a standards and jazz trio kind of person.

A double album of psychedelic rock...I am skeptical. I think there's something to having the visual component as well. But this is, so far, the best Pink Floyd album. Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 is the biggest song from the album, I could do without the movie sounds though. Mother is one of my favorite Pink Floyd songs. The phone beeping, the talking...this probably works better when all of that is part of the movie rather than an album. Or at least if you've seen the movie. I just learned that the two were not conceived together. Now it's just more found sound to hate. Hey You is another Pink Floyd song I just don't like. The first album is better than the second. I don't like Comfortably Numb either. The Trial is like a song from a musical...so corny.

And It Stoned Me is a great song. And It Stoned Me, Moondance, Crazy Love, Caravan and Into the Mystic might be the strongest first five tracks of any album in history. Another album with a really pronounced R&B influence. The back half of the album is not living up to that start. Brand New Day is a strong return though. The harpsichord is not an instrument that needs to be a part of music anymore. Everyone is a low point, the fife and harpsichord combination is a nod to the silly British folk scene that they always took way too seriously. Good album.

Without a doubt, the best Beach Boys album. Maybe the only one worth listening to. Psychedelic surf rock > surf rock, and that's saying something because I usually hate psychedelic anything. I like this album, huge hits, good album cuts. There's definitely an R&B feel to some of the songs as well, Let's Go Away for Awhile notably. Sloop John B has always been one of my favorite Beach Boys songs even if the lyrics are kind of goofy. It's strangely upbeat and melancholy at the same time. God Only Knows is my favorite Beach Boys song. Some of Brian Wilson's weirdness on this album were definitely an influence on Sgt. Pepper's, particularly the title track. Nothing like some dog barking and train crossing noises to close out an album. The 60s and found sound...not a major advance in music history.

Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits are two peas in a pod. Leonard Cohen feels more like a poet whose poems have been set to music. There's a similarity to Bob Dylan's work. Dress Rehearsal Rag is a good song. I bet Cake loves Diamonds in the Mine. I like this more than I thought I would as it started. Second Joan of Arc reference.

New Wave music sucks. These guys get classified as blue-eyed soul and reggae in Wikipedia, truly anyone can edit those pages. Karma Chameleon is the hit off this album and it is awful. Each song sounds the same and is uniquely New Wavey garbage. That's The Way is the blue-eyed soul...it would be better without Boy George and just the backup singer doing her thing. There is nothing redeeming about this album and Mister Man hits a true low point in music. On the plus side, the album is short.

Devil's Haircut is a good start. Love the album cover. I love Beck but his earlier music has straight nonsense lyrics. New Pollution has a retro feel, like girls in go-go cages should be dancing behind Beck. I don't need all the high-pitched computer beeps on Novacane. And I just realized there is a lot of distortion on this album. A lot of found sound too. Maybe I don't like this album as much as I thought. Jack-Ass is good right up until the braying title character at the end. That is one of the most annoying sounds in nature. Where It's At is the hit, but Jack-Ass is a better song. High 5 (Rock the Catskills) sounds like a Beastie Boys knock-off. And it has a lot of annoying sounds. Ramshackle gives you a sense of where Beck's albums could go. It's a great song. And then Computer Rock ruins it.

Nice Oasis reference for a post-Oasis band. This is totally innocuous. It feels like the soundtrack to Dawson's Creek. The French lyrics are as stupid as the title of The Last Laugh of the Laughter. It always rains on you because you're a whiny bitch. Luv has a Radiohead quality to it that I like but it still feels a little bit like a kid dressing up as daddy. This band feels like they heard Fiona Apple's cover of Across the Universe and decided to write some songs. Thank god for some car noises. Now a reference to Beck and another Wonderwall reference is not a good reflection on their songwriting. And it ends with car noises. A ten and a half minute ending track with found sound and a long gap between the first part of the song and the second is going to drop this album a full star. The song gap is a very 90s thing.

Maybe no artist is more associated with their genre than Bob Marley. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or if it has made reggae kind of a static thing where most of it sounds like a Marley cover band. I consider myself a fan but I'm not sure I've listened to any of the albums rather than greatest hits albums of compilations or playlists. So Much Things to Say is a great song, better than some of the singles that came off this album. A three and a half minute Jamming is a shock, I usually only hear the extended version. Turn Your Lights Down Low is another great song, and the version Lauryn Hill did using the original is great too. Three Little Birds is a great pick me up song. It's hard not to smile a little bit when you hear it. It's too bad they turned him into a mascot...I guess he's Jamaica's greatest cultural export...either him or the bobsledders. Great album.

A 45 minute album with 4 songs? I like soul/funk but this feels like it's going to feel longer than it is. Walk On By is a cover! Today I learned something. Also, his version once he's done singing is awesome. I like this album, it could be the alternate soundtrack to Black Caesar. Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos sample. Teddy Pendergrass owes Isaac Hayes a debt of gratitude. One Woman is a Classic Soul song where the rest of the album feels much more experimental. By The Time I Get to Phoenix is losing me. I'm a sucker for the Hammond B3 though. This was a really good album.

I love Nick Drake. River Man is an amazing song. This is THE album if you're feeling low. What an amazing talent gone too soon. It brightens up as it goes on. I prefer Pink Moon, but this is a great album.