Reviews by tjehl

I adore Bowie, but I’ve always had a hard time with Aladdin Sane. As a follow-up to Ziggy Stardust, Bowie and the Spiders goes all in on the American way in ways that feels strangely alienating to me.

A few songs still surprises me and feels complete - but too many ends up sounding like “just a fine hair rock song”.

10/10 cover art, 6/10 music.

The people of Japan enjoyed this way more than I did. I don’t care for the vast majority of the song and even though the band plays well, it’s not enough to keep me engaged.

There’s absolutely nothing I enjoy about this record. It’s a disaster.

Beautiful and atmospheric album from Northern India. I could only find a vinyl ripoff on YouTube - the scratching didn’t worsen the experience.

It’s a bit monotonous in the end and I don’t really get the feeling of the apparent concept, but I rather enjoyed it nonetheless. I was happy to hear the link to neighboring musical traditions - especially obvious on “Bhoop”.

Massive, massive, massive production.
Billy Corgan wrote some of the greatest alternative rock songs of the 90’s.

I once wrote a song with my old band only to find out that the intro was exactly the same as the one on “Soma”. Really wish we’d been able to write the rest of Siamese Dream as well.

Adding Neil Young to this trio is just showing off.

Throwing Muses was only a faint acquaintance before this, but I definitely need to dive deeper into the works of Kristin Hersh. Great songwriting and another take on a genre we’ve already been through a hundred times.

R.E.M.’s biggest record is filled with desperate songs about death and mourning. Who else can sell 18 million copies of an album containing mandolin and songs like “Star Me Kitten”?

This is also further proof that John Paul Jones is a secret, deadly weapon to any album he’s credited on.

Surprisingly fun rap rock album by Pharrell and those other guys - at least until we’re halfway in, at which point N.E.R.D. seem to lose focus and produce one boring middle of the road song after another.

Still going to be kind to Fly Or Die due to the blast that is the first half.

The fact that Billy Corgan wrote this at 28 proves that being an angry, angsty teen has nothing to do with age.

I was about 12 when I gave my cousin this as a birthday present. Fell in love with the cover immediately and the music soon after.

It’s as excellent today as it was back then.

Decent 70’s pop.
Nothing is really bad, nothing is really excellent. You can’t be mad at this.

Listened to both the English and French version of Chris. Liked the English, loved the French.

The artist is definitely more confident in the native tongue and it shows - it's simply just more charming and feels more complete.

Named The Blueprint because of all the music shaping Jay-Z up until this album.
Turned out to be an actual blueprint for the direction of hip hop in the 00’s.

There are a few near misses along the way; out of all the songs on this, why would you choose “Girls, Girls, Girls” to appear twice?

Pleasantly weird but ultimately boring beep boop sounds.

There’s a song on this soundtrack with the powerful title: “Shaft Strikes Again” - and it’s the most mellow and boring thing, you’ve heard in a long time.

I listen to Isaac Hayes for his vocal, a thing that is almost completely omitted from Shaft. It’s not a bad soundtrack; it’s just not an album.

Looking forward to listening to Howard Shore’s LotR-soundtrack further into this list.

One of the greatest snare productions this list has ever seen - no wonder with Questlove behind the kit.

Badu is a great singer, but there’s simply not enough interesting material on here to warrant the runtime.

Music budget < acid budget

I really don’t understand how this is so poorly rated on here? Highly imaginative and interesting - but also too long.

It’s fine, but there’s really nothing on here I haven’t heard a better version of somewhere else. I would probably listen again, but does it actually belong on this list?

You have to embrace unreasonable amounts of Britishness to make it through this record.

Luckily for me I accepted it right away and rode with it. I guess you either find it hilarious and brilliant or incredibly stupid.