Reviews by tjehl

"Greetings To the New Brunette" opening this album had me hooked. I felt fully encapsulated in the universe of Billy Bragg. Then the horrendous "Train Train" followed and I was pulled back to reality.

Billy Bragg is a great songwriter and I appreciate his no-bullshit lyrics - to some extent.
The in-your-face style of his writing with an almost complete lack of metaphors at first felt refreshing but soon I found myself bored by his sheer bluntness.

There's some great tracks on this.
There's some really stupid track on this.

The cover is great though.

When reviewing Blue earlier on this list I called Mitchell one of the, if not the, greatest songwriters of the 60’s and 70’s.
Maybe ever?

I was right then and after Hejira I still am.

Other than Joni Mitchell herself that fretless bass is the true winner of this entire album. What a sound!

What I find most fascinating about this record is that the instrumentals were recorded in a single eight hour sessions.
How well rehearsed and disciplined did the Magic Band have to be in order to achieve that and be able to play these extremely complicated songs like that every time? What an achievement!

Captain Beefheart delivers one of the most challenging records of the 20th century with Trout Mask Replica. It’s polyrhythmic, polytonal and at times almost incomprehensible. Spoken words, free jazz, dirty blues, progressive rock and avant-garde is thrown together in a seemingly random order.

The product on the other hand is not random at all. The sheer discipline of the band points toward that. There is a great amount of humor but the album is not a joke at all.

“Moonlight In Vermont”, “My Human Gets Me Blues”, “Ant Man Bee” and the closing “Veteran’s Day Poppy” (a song that almost displays a certain beauty) are what this album is all about. Horribly demanding but nevertheless extremely well thought out.

Nothing tops the legendary opening that is “Frownland”. It’s not rare that I find myself singing parts of the song alone at home. Despite all its complexity. Despite the weirdness. Despite of the fact that it seems that the song itself wants me not to like it.

This is genius in its purest form.
Or maybe it’s madness?
That’s not for me to decide.
And I don’t care.

The Who really enters the music scene all guns blazing.

Their debut album is incredibly hard hitting for its time and it feels like a label representative is standing by, telling Entwistle and Moon to take it down a notch once or twice a song - everything sounds like it’s on the verge of explosion.

Then the sides end with “My Generation” and “The Ox” respectively and the label has apparently gone home. Everything is off the rails and The Who makes it clear that they are the most ferocious of the British mod bands.

Who the hell opens an album with a 10 minute guitar solo with little to no backing band? George Clinton, the genius madman, that’s who!

When that solo is Eddie Hazel’s legendary “Maggot Brain”, without a doubt one of the greatest solos ever recorded, I’ve got nothing to complain about either.

The rest of the album is a weird mixture of dark, gritty funk and Clinton’s LSD-trips come to live.

There’s a lot to love but it doesn’t hit a home run.

L. Cohen could have used up the entirety of the record telling knock-knock jokes for all I care, as long as “Avalanche” and “Famous Blue Raincoat” were featured.

Fortunately, he doesn’t.
Nevertheless it wouldn’t have altered my score significantly. What an emotional ride.

On Bossanova Pixies combine the unapologetic sound of Surfer Rosa with the more melodic approach of Doolittle.

It just never reaches the heights of either of those records. Not bad but not great.

And Nile said, “Let there be funk,” and there was funk.

- Genesis 1:3

Nick Cave possesses the unique ability to create works of insurmountable beauty when faced with great personal tragedies and sadness.

In many ways The Boatman’s Call was the first album to truly show this ability in full scale. It was also the album where Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds took the definitive move away from their early post-punk sound and stepped into a new era.

The Boatman’s Call deals, in large parts, with Cave’s faith diminishing and taking on a new and more questioning form.

It is in his search for answers that Nick Cave is at his best - and this album finds Cave frantically searching for answers like never before.

If you’re new to country, Waylon Jennings is not a bad place to start the journey.

Honky Tonk Heroes is approachable, at times both raw and melodic and Jennings’ vocal is country at its finest.

The record clocks in at just under half an hour (which I like) but I never feel any connection to most of the songs - and for me that’s the most important thing in this genre.

Then, right at the end, Jennings gets me with “We Had It All” and I end up leaving Honky Tonk Heroes a little teary eyed.

I don’t mind the earlier The Kinks, but Face to Face feels like a transition album where they’re trying to master their own sound.

There are a few great songs like “Rainy Day In June” and “Sunday Afternoon”.
The rest of the record feels like Beatles-leftovers. That is, of course, rarely a bad thing. I just don’t feel any particular connection to it.

It’s only been a couple of days and I’m once again presented with a Steely Dan record.

Countdown To Ecstasy opens with one of Dan’s greatest blues-inspired songs. After that it moves into heavier jazz territory as is the case with Steely Dan records you’re never completely sure where you’re being taken.

It might be due to nostalgia but I’m leaning heavier toward Pretzel Logic than this record.
But that being said - Steely Dan proves, on this album as well, that almost nobody wrote more intelligent and refreshing pop music in the 70’s than they did.

I was getting ready to get groovy with Earth, Wind & Fire. But while I still mostly enjoyed this record I never truly felt the legendary groove of EWF.

The instrumentation is (of course) great, their are some funky tracks and those vocals rarely fail to deliver.

There just seem to be something amiss. A lack of soul (this is a soundtrack, keep in mind)? A lack of that one big, phenomenal hit EWF are known to deliver? Maybe it’s the overall lack of cohesion as the band delivers soul, jazzy grooves, funk and African rhythms all in one?

Whatever it is I just don’t feel that impressed.

I understand that this is highly influential.
Unfortunately I’m not a huge fan of a lot of the bands that Hanoi Rocks influenced.

Most of this just sounds plain silly and it only really shines at times on “Tooting Bec Wrecked” and “Beating Gets Faster”.

Pretzel Logic was one of the first records I owned on vinyl - so this is easily the Steely Dan album I’m most familiar with.

I won’t try to even begin analyzing Becker and Fagen’s obscene lyrical universe but I’m always intrigued by the vague hints of obscure meaning in the songwriting.

Steely Dan might come across as just a 70’s pop rock band but the jazzy complexity of the songs, air tight instrumentation and warm production makes the duo anything but ordinary.

If this is dad rock then I’m ready to settle down with a wife and a couple of kids.

Truth be told. I have never listened to this album in full before. I know the hype and all. I just didn’t jump on the train. Sue me.

Now I have. And my expectations were high.
But I leave disappointed.

The production is stellar.
Most songs are beautifully written.
Solange is a great singer.

But this whole album is going nowhere.
The songs have little to no room to evolve and after a few seconds of any given song you’ve heard the entire thing.

Let’s get it out of the way.
Warehouse: Songs And Stories is obviously too long. You can sense that neither Mould nor Grant were willing to give up any of their own songs.

The result is a bit unfocused at times due to this and their are songs that could have been easily cut.

I feel mainly drawn toward Mould’s songwriting which is way more melodic and interesting than Grant’s - not to say that Grant doesn’t deliver. Mould is just more consistent. Especially on “Ice Cold Ice”; what a track!!

Cut at least 15 minutes and Hüsker Dü had gotten an extra star.

Balances elegantly on the line between painstakingly beauty and extremely demanding.

Rufus Wainwright is pretentious as fuck.
And it doesn’t bother me one bit.

Ray Charles must have recorded this through a series of tin cans and managed to sleep his way through it as well.

The true genius of Ray Charles was him somehow getting this album included on the list.

I adore Jorge Ben (Jor). He’s a legend in samba and South American musical in general. He’s always capable of delivering catchy tunes and África Brasil is no exception.
I felt drawn towards the majority of the songs and the inclusion of the electric guitar brings an extra element of funkiness to his music.

I was gonna hand this a four star review, but at the end of the album I had grown so tired of the relentless use of the cuíca that I found myself giving up every time it reappeared.