Reviews by uergsel

"Catch a Fire" is widely considered to be the Big Bang of modern reggae. Although reggae music existed before this album, sonically it was much closer to ska than this 'modern' interpretation, for which Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and the Wailers are considered pioneers. The influence of the British record label Island Records should also not be underestimated. It ensured that the music was recorded and produced more professionally, and made more recognisable and danceable for a white audience. Marley, Tosh and the Wailers popularised themes such as racism, poverty and oppression, which are as promiment as love songs and the (glorified) use of marijuana. Listening to this debut album, it’s striking just how low-budget the production was. This is even more apparent when you listen to the album’s ‘Original Jamaican’ recordings in the Deluxe version, which you can then compare with the overdubbed Island recordings. I’m not a reggae fan, and I don't think I ever will be. However, I have always found Bob Marley to be the most interesting of all reggae musicians, especially given that the band and their sound were so iconic that they are still being copied to this day. You can hear the band's raw and somewhat rough-around-the-edges beginnings here. At the time, it was certainly a sensation: politically charged music from the Third World which, in retrospect, is more historically significant than musically compelling. Marley & Co. achieved this better and with greater confidence on their subsequent albums.

In the nineties, I found the rock music of the time a bit alienating. None of the new bands really appealed to me, and none of the new sounds really won me over. But there were, of course, some bright spots, including *Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness* by The Smashing Pumpkins.

(t. b. c.)

When you consider that the album was released in 1967, it’s almost on a par with the era's other masterpieces, such as Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced? or the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Cream evolved the simple blues rock of their debut album into a much groovier form of psychedelic rock. At least, for the most part. This makes the boring or silly tracks all the more painful: 'Blue Condition', written and 'sung' by Ginger Baker, is particularly bad; 'Take it back' is a dull blues rock number; and 'Mother's Lament' is simply silly English humour that belongs on a comedy stage, not on an album. Conversely, tracks such as “Strange Brew”, “Sunshine of Your Love”, “World of Pain”, “Dance the Night Away”, “Tales of Brave Ulysses” and “SWLABR” are genuine psychedelic rock classics. Let' put it like this: This is a strong album, so just ignore the weaker tracks.

Cheap Trick sound exactly as their name suggests. A cheap rock ’n’ roll trick or, to put it a bit more sexistly: hard rock for little screaming Japanese girls. Because if you strip away the screeching during the concert recording, the flowing manes, the unbuttoned shirts and the bare chests on display, all that’s left is very ordinary boogie rock, somewhere between Status Quo and the Bay City Rollers. Cheesy pop music for teenagers, with electric guitars and simple lyrics about love and heartbreak.

Phew. Three things I can’t stand: glam rock, hair metal and cheesy punk rock all in one band: to me, Hanoi Rocks are the epitome of what ruined 1980s rock music. Rock music for the redneck dance-off at the village disco. Silly, built on cheap hooks and with a particularly strong visual element. Rock music for teenage posters. Absolutely unimportant, absolutely trivial, absolutely boring.

This is the first in a series of perfect or almost perfect albums by the Beatles. It all, really started here. These were the new Beatles, leaving the teenage craze and beat music behind, mixing pop and folk and psychedelic rock and Indian influences into iconic songs like "Norwegian Wood", "Nowhere Man", "Michelle", "Girl" and "In My Life". "Rubber Soul" foreshadows album masterpieces like "Revolver", "Sgt. Pepper", "The White Album" and "Abbey Road".

"Back in Black" showcases AC/DC at the height of their popularity. It was the first album featuring singer Brian Johnson, who had replaced Bon Scott, who had passed away five months earlier. In 1979, the band had achieved their definitive international breakthrough with "Highway to Hell", a success that they now effortlessly replicated despite the significant change in line-up. "Back in Black" became, in effect, the blueprint for all subsequent AC/DC albums and for 1980s hard rock. Musically, there was nothing new; instead, the band perfected their sound: riff-driven compositions in a blues scheme, with lyrics revolving around ‘real men’s themes’: women, alcohol, heaven and hell, rise and fall, and rock ’n’ roll. If you set aside the well-known tracks ‘Hells Bells’, ‘Back in Black’, "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution", what remains is run-of-the-mill AC/DC. From today’s perspective, it’s almost unintentionally comical in its clichéd nature, but clichés are an integral part of hard rock culture. Even if the music is a bit dull over the course of the album. But if it’s AC/DC, then this album or its predecessor. You really don’t need to know any more than that.

John Lennon thought it was rubbish, George Harrison was disappointed by it, and the critics hated it back then. Today’s critics, however, love it because its fragmented style anticipates the lo-fi bedroom productions of indie music. And what about me? I’ve actually only just listened to the album properly for the first time. Not much has stuck with me. Some parts sound like demos from The White Album or Abbey Road; other parts sound unpolished. But ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ is brilliant. McCartney moved away from the perfectly produced Beatles albums, and so did the other three. They were to produce their albums far less elaborately and innovatively than the Beatles did with George Martin, and that’s fine. I often find this album lacks compositional brilliance. However, Paul McCartney went on to compose hits as a solo artist for decades to come. Overall, this is more of a 'pass' certificate.

Oh, what's this? I had no idea that Gary Burton and Astor Piazzolla had made an album together. It's a live recording from July 1986 at the Montreux Jazz Festival, which was released a year later. The album is made up of pieces by Astor Piazzolla, but "Vibraphonissimo" was written especially for Gary Burton. As the album title suggests, this is Piazzolla's typical Tango Nuevo. But with Gary Burton on vibraphone – with Pablo Ziegler on piano, Fernando Suárez Paz on violin, Hector Console on double bass and Horacio Malvicino on electric guitar – it sounds a lot less irritating than the 'original sound' of Tango Nuevo, which I just can't get into and which normally bores me to tears. But for those of us who weren't convinced by Tango Nuevo before, this album is probably going to feel a bit samey and even a bit tiring at times. Fans of the genre will definitely find something they like in Piazzolla's discography. So, my rating is based on what I personally like; fans should definitely check this out. It's a real milestone. I'm just not interested in it at all.

By the time “Achtung Baby” came out in 1991, I had already turned my back on U2. While I loved “The Unforgettable Fire” and “The Joshua Tree,” “Rattle & Hum” had deeply disappointed me. And “Achtung Baby!” would turn my fondness for the band into antipathy. The hype surrounding the album was unbelievable. At the time, it was truly considered the most “avant-garde” thing you could sell in the mainstream. Listening to the album again 35 years later, you find neither anything particularly avant-garde in it (aside from a few studio gimmicks by Lanois and Eno), nor anything hateful. Since “The Unforgettable Fire,” U2 had been shifting more and more toward a very ‘American’ expansive sound, which was fully realized here for the first time. In short: this is mainstream at its broadest, featuring a few good tracks (“Mysterious Ways,” “The Fly,” ‘Acrobat’), many mediocre ones, and a few bad ones (“Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses”—hey hey sha la la, hey hey, sha la la).

Back then, U2 were the biggest rock band on the planet, and that fame certainly went to the band’s heads; above all, though, it makes it so difficult to properly categorize their music. Without all the media hype surrounding the band and the album, “Achtung Baby” (what a stupid album title that no English speaker can pronounce correctly) is just a rock album with the sound of its time, with some highs and lows but mostly “more of the same,” which has acquired a lot of patina over the years. The album wasn’t even “groundbreaking” for the band itself, whose hubris would spiral out of control after this album and culminate in gigantic tours.

Yesterday, I listened to 50 Cent’s debut album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'", arguably the low point of the 1001 Albums Challenge. Today, I moved on to a true rap classic: "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. When the title track was released as a single, it was revolutionary because, yes, there had already been “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang, but this was the real catalyst for rap music’s commercial breakthrough. The music was groovy and absolutely danceable, and the lyrics were critical, political and socially conscious. For a moment, it seemed as though rap was the ideal medium for criticising the dire state of political injustice in the world. But, as we all know, the music has since developed in a completely different direction. When I listen to the album "The Message" today, I’m struck by how inconsistent it is. On the one hand, there are critical, highly political tracks such as "The Message" and, in the Expanded Edition released much later, the non album single "New York, New York". On the other hand, the album contains a lot of filler tracks and the catchy electro track "Scorpio". There are a plenty of scratch and mixing and sampling sounds from Grandmaster Flash, as well as a somewhat bizarrely banal R&B tribute to Stevie Wonder. In short, the singles are the absolute highlights of the album; unfortunately, the rest is rather dated pop that bands like Kool & the Gang were doing better back then.

Grandmaster Flash and rapper Melle Mel are undoubtedly historically significant, but this album is neither consistent nor consistently convincing. A rating averaging between ★★☆☆☆ and ★★★★★ amounts to no more than ★★⯪☆☆.

Sorry, but that’s not music; it’s the musical equivalent of Tourette's diarrhea, performed by a misogynistic, violence-glorifying thug with no musical talent. It feels like half the lyrics are just 'I, I, I, I, I', ''n-word, n-word, n-word, n-word', 'motherf*cker, motherf*cker, motherf*cker, motherf*cker', 'gangsta, gangsta, gangsta, gangsta' and 'bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch'. Compared to the other rap albums I’ve heard in this challenge so far (such as Gang Starr and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy), this is the most simplistic and rambling verbal diarrhoea I’ve heard from an egomaniacal idiot.

Many of my friends are big Rush fans. Since we have similar musical tastes, I’ve always wondered why the band more or less passed me by without making much of an impression. This may be because I had hardly any exposure to Rush during my musical formative years, with one exception: the live album "Exit... Stage Left", which followed the album "Moving Pictures". At the time, I liked the record that a school friend played over and over again, but obviously not enough to make me want to explore the band further. And that’s pretty much how it’s stayed. Whenever a friend warmly recommends a particular track or album to me today, claiming it will “convert” me, I give it a listen. I find it quite all right, but it doesn’t really stick with me. Above all, it never triggers the urge to hear more of their music. It’s all very skilfully played and composed, of course, and the lyrics aren’t any sillier than those of, say, Yes (although, as an Italian, pseudo-Italo-Spanish titles like “La Villa Strangiato” (SIC!!!) look absolutely dreadful to me). I don’t even have any issues with Geddy Lee’s unusual voice either. I don’t know what it is I’m missing about the band. Perhaps it’s a bit too much of everything for me? Many Rush fans consider Moving Pictures to be the high point of their discography. As a self-confessed Prog aficionado, I find the album OK, but nothing more. Sorry, folks.

There are quite a few people who consider The Cure’s “Pornography” to be the dark masterpiece of the 1980s, a high point in the discography of a great band. And then there are those like me, who have always considered The Cure to be grossly overrated and who couldn’t relate at all to the band’s dark, depressive and sometimes morbid style, even going so far as to regard it as a caricature. Let’s put it this way: “Pornography” is not a Cure album (unlike, for example, its successor “Japanese Whispers” or the later “Disintegration”) that can convert a Cure sceptic like me. All the preconceptions I have about The Cure are confirmed here: a contrived gloomy atmosphere, whiny vocals, depressive lyrics, mindless post-punk with the same old chord progressions and unimaginative arrangements. The album really isn’t for me.

Until now, I knew little more about Thundercat than his name. That has now changed. His third studio album, "Drunk", is an excellent showcase of a highly engaging, eclectic style that blends elements of funk, jazz, soul, hip hop and R&B with psychedelic and progressive pop and rock. At times, it sounds as though Steely Dan and Todd Rundgren, Prince and Earth, Wind & Fire had been jamming together. The artistry of the album lies in the fact that no new elements have been invented here – how could they? – but rather existing elements have been artfully and harmoniously woven together, even though they seem to contradict one another. So it’s no surprise that the album’s guest list features such a diverse range of musicians as Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, Pharrell Williams, Kamasi Washington and Louis Cole. I’m not sure if every track on this highly fragmented album is of the same quality or to my taste, but overall I really like this postmodern ‘jigsaw puzzle approach’.

Who or what on earth is that? When I opened my '1001 Albums' app this morning, I came across an album called "Chore of Enchantment" by a band called Giant Sand that I’d never heard of. These things happen; I'm not all-knowing. OK, Wikipedia tells me that they’re an ‘alternative rock’ band. The mastermind behind the band is the American singer-songwriter, musician and producer Howe Gelb, who I’m at least familiar with by name. The album itself, however, isn’t worth mentioning. It's fairly laid-back alternative rock, similar to the Eels, but significantly more boring. It's not awful, but it's incredibly monotonous. The lyrics probably aren't bad, but I wish there was more going on musically. Not my cup of tea.

In my last review of Nick Drake’s "Five Leaves Left", I concluded with the following lines: "All three [albums] rank among the best singer-songwriter albums of all time. Nick Drake was the John Dowland of the 20th century." I stand by that. Whether the sparse orchestration of “Pink Moon” was a result of Drake’s severe depression, which prevented him from working with more instruments, is purely speculative. Apart from his voice and guitar, only a single piano melody can be heard in the title track. In its sparse simplicity, "Pink Moon" is, in a sense, the essence of Drake’s music. At less than half an hour long, it is pure magic and poetry: a swan song that was never intended as such. Drake’s fame only grew much later, in the late 1990s, thanks to a promotional film featuring the title track.
In the raucous rock year of 1972, with its symphonic progressive rock, "Pink Moon" was simply too quiet to be heard above the noise of mellotrons, Rickenbacker basses, and Moog synthesizers. Nick Drake is a tragic hero. I would have liked him to live to see his success and relevance.

I only own one hip-hop album: Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. When it was released in 1992, the single 'Television, the Drug of the Nation' was played frequently on MTV. Michael Franti’s razor-sharp lyrics were a breath of fresh air in nineties pop music. Added to this were Rono Tse’s remarkably powerful beats and groovy bass lines. Finally, danceable pop music with political lyrics had returned. Above all, the whole album thrives on Franti’s intelligent, unsparing and alarmingly topical lyrics, which break away from the hip-hop mould.

Sadly, the band only released two albums, the second of which, Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales, set texts by William S. Burroughs to music. However, it was clear from the outset that the narrow musical framework of hip-hop was too restrictive for Michael Franti. Tracks like 'Music and Politics' break completely away from the hip-hop sound, drawing closer to the jazz and soul of Isaac Hayes — not least thanks to the fantastic guitar work of jazz musician Charlie Hunter, who was making his debut at the time. In a sense, this album anticipates the music of spoken-word performers like Kate Tempest.

I’ve never been a fan of Van Morrison. That’s partly because I’m not really into blues music, and partly because I saw Van Morrison live once – it was the most bored and arrogant performance I’ve ever seen. A real grump. I can’t really get to grips with his landmark album ‘Astral Weeks’, but ‘Moondance’, with its late-sixties charm and that peculiar blend of folk-rock, R&B, soul and a touch of country – largely free of classic blues schemes – has a lovely patina that’s easy to appreciate, even if you can’t stand Van the Man.

When "Superunknown" came out, it was one of the few albums from that era that really caught my interest. I was particularly taken with the video (and the song) for 'Black Hole Sun'. Overall, I have fond memories of the album. Now, many years later, I've put the album on again and I'm a little disappointed. My initial fascination has waned somewhat. Musically speaking, Soundgarden were undoubtedly the best that the grunge scene had to offer and Chris Cornell was a fantastic singer. However, looking back after more than 30 years, I would say that it's just a good, solid alternative metal album with a slight grunge influence. But it's not my cup of tea (anymore). The single 'Black Hole Sun' really stands out, and the other singles 'Spoonman', 'My Wave' and 'Fell on Black Days' are further highlights.