Reviews by tipula

I'm one of those people who didn't really listen to Hole for the usual reasons, that it was considered by a lot of people as "less than" (plus at the time I was more into industrial kinds of stuff).

Anyway, I know "Miss World" and "Doll Parts" from the radio, but none of the rest of this. And I liked it. I know that people who are Real Punks say that this isn't as good as their first album, but I appreciated its angry tunefulness. I like records that have vocal/guitar/thrashy thing going on like this.

It was sad to watch the live footage in some of the videos, knowing that the bassist died from a heroin overdose shortly after the release of this album.

I thought Been Caught Stealing was a lot of fun back when it was on the radio, with the dogs barking at the beginning and the whole manic energy of the song. The rest of the record was new to me, and I pretty much liked it all; it’s relentless, with its blend of punk/metal and Farrell’s weird vocals.

You know, I have this idea that I don't like Rod Stewart, but that must be affected by his later stuff. There's a bit of a British folky thing going on with some of these arrangements, which I'm enjoying; the title track is good, with the mandolin coming into the long instrumental break. I like this cover of "It's All Over Now" better than the Rolling Stones' version. The rest slowed down some and I started to lose interest, but I’m glad I gave it a listen.

"Typical girls - buy maaaaagazines!” This album made me smile when I saw it was what I had for today.

“Cut” is one of those albums that absolutely belongs in the "1001" book, for its blending of punk and reggae, its wild subversive energy, and Ari Up's unrestrained German-accented vocals. It rewards multiple listens because the lyrics have many amusing surprises in them that are hard to catch the first time around.

Their cover of “Heard it Thru the Grapevine” wasn't on the original album, but that’s ok. It gets more airplay these days than most of the rest of these songs, so I've heard it quite a lot. It’s a fun cover, but I prefer other tracks on here like “Newtown” or “Typical Girls,” with the band’s own quirky lyrics and instrumentation.

I'll always prefer something imaginative where the performers "can't play their instruments" over something done by "professional musicians" that sounds like a thousand other records out there.

This hip-hop record is quite something. It’s incredibly compelling, with a relentless beat and his incredible rhymes. The autobiographical arc of it is much of what makes it so engaging, how he starts out doing crime, ends up in jail, then he finally becomes this famous rapper; so glad the "Juicy" video was there on YouTube because it was joyous. I'm not going to listen to this a lot (ever?), but I thought it was pretty great today.

Mellow early 90s music from the “alternative rock” station archives; I remember "I Should've Known" from the radio at the time. Her singing is good, lyrics often interesting, and accompaniment well played.

One or two of the tunes reminded me of things from Mary Timony’s most recent album, which I like a lot. But the arrangements here weren’t as interesting to me, which I suppose could be a function of this having come out in 1994 rather than 2024. There unfortunately weren't any surprises for me on this record, just lots of chill, nice 90s alternative radio songs; and I don’t think this unchallenging music showcased her lyrics well enough for me to keep my attention. It was a nice listen, though.

I've never heard Jacques Brel in the original French before now! My parents had that English-language soundtrack "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,” but despite hearing that endless times (including my dad singing "Amsterdam" as his audition song for musical theater, and then David Bowie covering it later on), I really don't know the originals at all.

And wow. This is perfect timing because I've gotten kind of obsessed with current music from Francophone countries lately. This album is rough and angry and sad; he has such a marvelous, expressive voice, and the accompanying piano and accordion and such work perfectly with his singing. Unfortunately my French has only recently improved to the point where I can understand some of this; here’s another incentive to work on it. But it doesn’t really matter, I’m not someone who has to understand all the lyrics (in fact sometimes I’d prefer not to and just treat the singing as part of the music).

So why did I have to spend the 60s listening to English-language covers of these songs, when Brel's original renditions were so much more interesting? I guess I should have thought to look for this, but I’ve never thought to do so. This is a fantastic record.

So I've never been an ABBA person - that synthetic mid-70s pop sound has never worked for me. But this record is short, so that's good!

I like their odd Scandi-accented English. And the keyboard bit going on in the background of "Money, Money, Money," "That's Me," and some of the rest of these songs is fun. They have an old-fashioned feel, like you're in a bar in the 1950s or something. I enjoyed "Tiger," though I'm disappointed on reading the wiki that it's metaphorical and not about an actual tiger. And if I meet you, then I will eat you, I am the tiger, tiger, TIGER. The rest is kinda dumb, but fun.

Favorite track: "Arrival." This opens sounding like something by Väsen, or one of those other Swedish trad bands. I liked it better before they started singing, but it's nice.

I LOVED this record when it first came out. Looking back on that period of my life, I recognize that I was going through the sort of exceptionally memorable shit that would make one want to listen to "The Downward Spiral" on repeat all the time.

So I went into this with a bit of trepidation 30 years on, as a person who still likes a lot of industrial music but doesn't require quite as much screaming and desecration anymore. But a lot of it is more subtle than I remembered. There's a lot of interesting stuff on here, mostly related to percussion, the insect noises that got mixed in here and there, and extended howling stretches of music like the end of "Ruiner."

I probably would have rated this FIVE STARS FUCK YEAH BURN EVERYTHING in 1994, but I think I'll give it a slightly more restrained four today. The good songs are very good, but after a while it's all a bit much. I'm glad I was reminded of it again today, though.

Favorite track: "The Downward Spiral"

The kind of blues music that you might hear coming from a strange little shack when you've ventured just a little too far into the swamp. I had forgotten that Ry Cooder was on this record! He was only 20 years old. Summary: a fantastic album.

I have had this record on both vinyl and CD. The CD is nice because it’s got a bunch of delightful added instrumental weirdness at the end. I generally think that "extended versions" are a waste of time, what with all the remixes and demos and whatnot. But I feel like in this case those were a solid addition, and that's the version I listened to today.

I probably listened to this record twice a day for months when I first got it. As a teen LOTR nerd I was occasionally annoyed by all the vague LOTR references in the lyrics that didn’t make any sense, but that didn't matter much to me compared with the music.

At this point Robert Plant gets a bit on my nerves. Oooh-ooh yeah. Aaaaah-aaaaaaaaaah. But the rest of it is still pretty great: the bass, the drums, the guitar. “The Battle of Evermore” is the standout track for me, partly for the mandolin but mostly because Sandy Denny is singing on it.

However, “Stairway to Heaven” is one of those songs that I have heard too many times at this point, so I hereby confess that I skipped it. Ask me in another 10 years if I've listened to it again yet.

On the whole, this is much more interesting than I thought it was going to be. It’s still not exactly my thing, but still greatly exceeds expectations, I think because of the band. He has a marvelous voice; the opening to “Corpus Christi Carol” is haunting.

I know his covers of “Lilac Wine” and “Hallelujah” are good, but I'd rather have Nina Simone and Leonard Cohen singing them; there’s a restraint and an intensity to those two versions that somehow is missing here for me. I just put Nina Simone’s version on now, and there’s no comparison.

I was surprised by this album - it's another record from back in the day that I've never listened to other than a track here and there on the radio. I guess I’ve never chased it down because the Beatles have always felt like something innocuous from my childhood for me and therefore not very interesting. But this album was much angrier and intense than I thought it was going to be.

It begins with the heartbreaking "Mother,” What an opening track - so restrained, with just piano and drums, and then he cries out at the end. "Working Class Hero" made an impression as well - again, strong lyrics with just a guitar. And finally, “Well Well Well,” which feels like it’s edging to protopunk with the simple noisy background and John screaming from time to time. Love that that's the longest song on the album.

Some of the other songs sound like Lennon songs on Beatles albums, of course, but even they have an interesting edge to them.

Moby Grape, one of those 1960s San Francisco bands that I've always known existed but honestly have no memory of ever having listened to.

To me this sounds like a lot of other bands from back then, sometimes a bit like the Airplane, sometimes a bit like the Dead. Songs are short and noisy with nice harmonies and guitar. Probably won't come back to it, but I enjoyed it.

"Can I walk down the street naked if I want to," they asked, but I said sorry, no, put those pants back on please.

I like how she feels very sincere about what she’s singing. She has a good voice, too.

But I really dislike records like this where all the songs are vocal-forward and the lyrics are all about relationships and the music is just serving to emphasize the vocals. None of it is interesting to me. But I tried, I swear.

One of those records that I know I’m going to give 5 stars to before listening to them. This was one of my favorite records when it came out.

Hearing the whole thing again for the first time in a while, I’m catching things that I’d forgotten about recently by just hearing the big singles “Sheela-Na-Gig” and “Dress” on the radio. The tracks “Happy and Bleeding,” "Joe," and “Plants and Rags” particularly stood out today, both of which have some very interesting strings and guitars happening along with the intense vocals and lyrics. But the whole thing is great - heavy, truthful, angry, strong.

I like this - it's chill but very rhythm-forward electronica. Sometimes it sounds like 90s world music type stuff like Transglobal Underground, sometimes kinda trip-hop, sometimes like soundtrack music.

The tracks I like best are the dark, almost industrial one with John Lydon on it, "Open Up" ("Burn, Hollywood, burn!"), and "Afro Left," which has someone speaking over the music in nonsense that sounds like an African language. A fun album.

I’ve heard individual tracks off this album on the radio, but never the whole thing before. This is excellent early punk rock - some of it’s like the Clash, some a bit like Pere Ubu, some just sui generis. I love stuff like this. It isn’t just a solid mass of speedy yelling - I mean it’s speedy, and he’s yelling, but is varied enough to keep my attention; makes me want to jump around and yell too.

Yeah, I will always give records like this a 5 star review. While I love prog and some of the other things that this stuff was created somewhat as a reaction to, I’m grateful to punk for giving rock music a bit of a reset in the late 70s.

Their big song “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” wasn’t on the original release, but I listened to it anyway, so there. It’s a great song.

5 stars

234) Muddy Waters, Hard Again - 5
Opens with the very familiar “Mannish Boy,” with Johnny Winter on guitar (as well as the producer and “miscellaneous screams”). But then the intensity of that song - the guitar, piano, singing, and mesmerizing repetition of it - repeats throughout this whole album. The way he syncopates the vocals with the rest of the music is what makes this so exceptional. I don’t think of myself as a fan of the blues; in fact I think a lot of more recent blues albums are a little boring. But THIS album is a strong exception; will definitely listen to this one again. The whole thing is good.

A number of decades ago I had a bunch of lovely friends who were Deadheads, and this record reminds me of them, and the interesting things we got up to back in those days.

If you’ve read some other of my reviews here, you may be surprised by my fondness for this popular American album from the early 70s, but I still like a lot of stuff by the Dead, and this record in particular. It’s also an absolutely solid album, with music that ranges from roadhouse blues and bluegrass to quiet songs that sound like a hymn, and many of the lyrics are the kind that don’t make immediate sense and make you think a bit, which I always like.

“Ripple” in particular is a great song; it makes me cry every time I hear it for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on. And while we all may have heard “Truckin’” a million times, it’s a great ending to the album. There are times when I get sick of hanging around and I’d like to travel, but then there are other times when I get tired of traveling and want to settle down. I appreciate the Dead writing a song reminding me that that’s ok.