Reviews by tipula

OK I don’t usually complain about choices made for adding records to this book, but why were both this and “Machine Head” included, seeing as they're both from roughly the same time period, and a couple of the tracks on this one are originally from "Machine Head"? Given a choice between the two I’d vote for this record, since the extended live versions on here of those and other Deep Purple songs are lots of fun.

The wikipedia article calls this Elton John's "progressive rock album"? I am confused, it sounds like early 70s commercial pop to me. I of course heard this record many many MANY times around when it first came out and therefore am qualified to say that I have heard “Madman Across the Water” before I died.

Overall I'm pretty tired of Elton John at this point, but still, these are reasonable songs. 3 stars

An ok early 2000s rock band, with the postpunk sound that I usually like.

Lots of bits of this seem borrowed from other bands, and they're good bands that were borrowed from, so that helped. Some of it feels like a toned-down version of The Bends. Like if Radiohead were less interesting, then they might have sounded like this. (Though the opening of The Jungle made me think they were going to go into Don't Fear the Reaper.)

This is ok stuff, but not my new favorite band or anything. High 3 stars, hits a 4 occasionally.

I like short guitar-heavy songs that have a beat, so the La’s’s quasi-sixties thing from the 90s is fine. It isn’t my new favorite record, and is occasionally annoying, but I didn’t start wondering how many more of these songs I was going to have to listen to until about halfway through. I know “There She Goes” from the radio, of course. (Unfortunately I never really liked it. In fact “There She Goes” is kind of irritating.)

So ok, “The La’s” is a perfectly fine record with occasional exceptions. As I’ve said about other comparable stuff, these are all competent tracks that would work well in a radio set with other music like this. But as a whole record, it really wasn’t interesting enough to sustain my attention.

“You gotta get in to get out!”

Yeah, one of my favorite things about this project is when I get to be reminded of a record like this, something I used to love and listen to all the time 50-some (!) years ago but eventually moved on from. (And then realize that I can still sing along with “The Carpet Crawlers” all these years later.)

I’ve come to think that double albums are a bit much, but the length of this one certainly made sense in context with all other endless quasi-symphonic prog albums that I was into at the time like Yes’s *Tales from Topographic Oceans* and Aphrodite’s Child’s *666*. This one seems a little angrier, weirder, and less noodly than what I remember about some of those other expansive projects, so it’s interesting to keep that in mind while remembering the radical shift in “rock” music that was about to take place in the late 70s. (OK, maybe it’s not weirder than *666*.)

Of course, many of the lyrics seemed like a hot dumb mess even back in 1974. (I can see the rest of the band being like "So Peter, just so we’re on the right page, this track is about a raven absconding with someone's amputated penis, yeah?”) But hey, it was the 70s.

4 stars

One of my favorite memories of the title track is hearing it at a rather deranged Halloween party, probably the year after it came out. It’s amusing to think of how 1999 was The Future when this record came out, while now it seems like the deep dark past when the internet was young and we all lived in caves.
Anyway, this is a fun record. I never listen to Prince anymore, and these days I think a whole record of Prince is maybe a little too much Prince, but it was fun to hear today. I had completely forgotten the existence of “All the Critics Love U (In New York),” so that was particularly entertaining.

I can't believe that anyone other than this album's producers and engineers would listen to this record in its entirety in one sitting, so I approached it like I would if I owned a copy, listening to it in digestible portions over the course of a couple of weeks.

Ella Fitzgerald has a great voice, of course, as well as a great sense of timing; I always respect singers who can syncopate with the beat of the music like this. And of course Gershwin was a talented lyricist (“it’s just another rhumba - why did I have to succumbha?”). Of course as usual, I liked the speedier tracks better than the slow ballads and love songs. There were also a handful of instrumental Gershwin pieces that were nice to hear.

Summary: this album is a wonderful historical resource, but not something I'd go out of my way to listen to again. One or two of these songs would be fun to hear if it popped up after a Magnetic Fields track on the radio.

My thoughts about metal can be summarized as "nah I don't really like it - well except for Motörhead of course." Maybe it's because this is closer to punk than to a lot of other metal? This is good relentless noisy fun. R.I.P. Lemmy. (Ignore the lyrics if possible.)

4 stars

I know I'm a broken record on this topic, but while I love music like this, I prefer when it has lengthy instrumentals and less singing. Or all instrumentals! - that would be even better. The music on this record is marvelously intense, though.

3

Confession: I skipped the three tracks on here that I've already heard 45 million times ("Sweet Baby James,” "Country Road,” and "Fire and Rain"). At some point there are songs from the early 70s where I just have to put my foot down and say no, I have heard this enough for a lifetime, thank you, next, move on.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest: this is a collection of competent acoustic blues/folk songs, plus some of that strummy kind of guitar stuff that used to get used as TV theme music in the early 70s. "Lo and Behold" was my favorite track on this listen, just a straight-up acoustic blues song, beautifully done. (But "Steamroller Blues" is one of those jokey things that was cute in 1970 but gets an eyeroll from me at this point.)
This is a fine album, just worn down from overexposure for me. I'm sure I'll hear "Fire and Rain" again at some point when I'm in a grocery store.

I've heard of these guys, but had no idea they were Finnish. I like a lot of Finnish music, but the Finnish records I have are pretty much all folk/experimental.

So here's some Finnish glam/new wave, or whatever this is. It's mildly annoying like most glam, but it has a New York Dolls crossed with The Jam or something vibe that I can appreciate. Reasonable album, glad I got to hear it.

I loved reading that the guitarist ("Nasty Suicide") quit the band to go back to high school and then studied to become a pharmacist and is now working for a Finnish pharma corp.

3 stars

The opening track is mesmerizing, and I like how a lot of the tracks have electronica in the background with interesting percussion that sounds Asian or something. It's a whole lot to listen to as the whole album, though. His fast rapping is pretty amazing, but for me it ended up as a bit of a blur after a couple of tracks; at least for me this kind of stuff is best as a spike in a radio set that's mostly calmer electronica.

But while I'm not particularly enjoying this record, still I have to appreciate it. It feels so intense, the point he's trying to make of being a young person going through all that shit and the way it just hits hits hits.

Records like this is what this project is all about, since there has never been a day when I would have said to myself "I think I'll listen to a Fats Domino record today." But this is a great record, with the jamming horn section and piano underlying his singing. Lots of fun for a hot summer afternoon.

Huh, so this is what Incubus sounds like. I guess nu-metal is just neo-grunge? It's reminding me of Temple of the Dog, or whatever that was. But then there are some other interesting things happening in the background here and there in the music; I found some of this enjoyable. But hoo boy this is one of those records where the vocals get on my nerves. It isn't quite as annoying as emo, but it gets whiny a little too often for me.

This is a drawling, stoned mess but I have to say I kind of liked it. It's maybe like if Spacemen 3 were slightly less interesting? Don't think I'll listen to it again, but it was ok, glad I heard it.

3 stars

Oh yeah I have good memories of this record. My kid was in junior high and I’d drive him over there every morning and we’d listen to the grunge CDs of the moment. This reminds me of sitting in DC traffic at 7:00 in the morning, headbanging with my kid. Some of it is a bit much, but I always liked the bassline.

Oh right, this is the record with “My Old School” on it, have fond memories of that song, and like it more than most of the rest of their output. (I have a general bad attitude about Steely Dan, probably due to overexposure to their later material - to me all sounds like Steely Dan, all the vaguely proggy jazz rock spiraling on and the very Steely Dan vocals.) But respect to them for telling interesting stories with their lyrics, and they’re very good musicians.

The Bee Gees give me a headache. Next album please

The opening song is fun, with the strange whooping sound and drums overwhelming the vocals! I already like this album.

And I like the next couple of tracks even more. Well, I am partial to incomprehensible lyrics overwhelmed by noisy guitars and drums, with fragmented symphonic bits thrown in here and there. Which hey, is a description of this record. I particularly like how it isn’t just perversely experimental, but instead manages to be both noisy and tuneful at the same time.

Not sure why I say I like shoegaze and MBV but never picked up a copy of this album; am dealing with that oversight now.

All I know from this record is the title track, which is a solid song that makes its point quite clearly. Yes, ok Marvin
The rest of it is stuff that I’m glad to be introduced to - the way the backing singers, horn section, and percussion were integrated into the tunes makes this record more interesting than a lot of other material from this genre. Another record that I doubt I’ll listen to again. Could probably have lived without the slower songs, but otherwise I’m tapping my foot here and enjoying it.