Reviews by uhhhellurr

a really fun album. it's not as out there as the other talking heads albums i've listened to over the course of this project and felt a little more mainstream, so i liked it a bit better. it's still off kilter and still very much talking heads, but it felt a lot more accessible to me than some of the other stuff i listened to. what can i say, i really really liked it!

a pretty cool album when all's said and done. a fun iteration of early 70s psych rock, a bit harder edged at times and bordering on prog. when it really goes, it's a blast. the poetic interludes are a bit generic, of the time, and dated, but i think that adds to the charm of this one. i enjoyed it a lot, and it's one i think i could come back to in the future.

it's a classic for a reason. the production here is top notch and holds up extremely well to this day. michael is at his pinnacle and his vocal performances are excellent. what makes this a light 5 for me is the track listing. there are some absolute bangers on here, but there are also some lesser tracks ('the girl is mine' - the lesser of the two paul mccartney and michael jackson collaboration songs - and 'the lady in my life' in particular drag this album a bit down). but look, it's one of the greatest pop stars of all time doing what he does best. it's pretty great!

as a lover of oldies music, i'm actually not the hugest elvis fan but i've listened to quite a bit of his music. unfortunately, this one is pretty unremarkable, in my opinion. at least with his early stuff, there is a semblance of being "groundbreaking" (whether or not he actually was is another story) or at least a trendsetter. elvis in 1969, quite frankly, is a little bit of a has-been. don't get me wrong, there's nothing here that i would consider bad. in fact, it's a little interesting to hear elvis turning into a country-soul singer. some songs are a bit more country, some are a bit more soul. but most of this album is just kind of stale and uninteresting. as with most of elvis' career, none of this is self penned, but there are a couple of contemporary pop hit covers on here ('only the strong survive' and 'gentle on my mind') and boy they are not really anything. many apologies to the king, but this is a pretty nothing album.

at first, my kneejerk reaction was that i dislike this. but once i let myself be openminded about this, i actually found i enjoyed this album. it's super aggressive without being over the top, it has some fun time signature moments, some dissonance, and is a lot more adjacent to music i like from the era than i wanted to admit up front. it's not an all timer for me at this point in time, but i can see myself warming up to this one a bit more as time goes on.

pretty solid punk album. definitely in the era of that first wave of british punk acts, but decidedly different than contemporaries like the sex pistols. the energy is fun, but the song mix here wasn't totally my favorite. don't get me wrong, there's some good stuff. it just didn't totally blow me away. also the weird bleep bloop scale at the end of "moving away from the pulsebeat." bleep bloop bleep bloop bleep bloop bleep bloop. odd. but mostly enjoyable.

there are some songs here approaching 'gems in the rough' territory, but nothing here, outside of the big song, is really compelling or interesting. the sound is sparse, but the synth sounds can be quite cool and a little dated. overall, it's a decent album, but nothing to write home about.

this one is a stone cold classic. i'm not the hugest cheap trick fan but i enjoy some of their stuff. i've tried to listen to some of their studio output and in my opinion it pales in comparison to this one. the energy here is high, it's fun, it's raucous. the highlight here for me has always been the rhythm section. bun e carlos knocks it out of the park here and tom petersson holds down the low end in a satisfying manor. rick nielsen's lead guitar is off the rails and fun. at one point, in one of his solos, he even pays tribute to the beatles, referencing the lick from 'please please me.' that being said, although fun, the track listing here is a bit uneven. there are some absolute great live tracks here in my opinion: 'come on, come on,' 'ain't that a shame,' and, of course, the omnipresent 'i want you to want me,' but everything else here comes off a little more middling. nothing else here is awful, to be clear, but i find it leaves a little to be desired. still, all in all, this is a fun album that i have always really enjoyed listening to.

decent enough album but nothing in the realm of greatness. solid rock numbers and some decent, but kind of shaky vocals at times. some of these tracks are really loud and a romp ('i'd give you anything,' 'darkside lightside') and some i felt were a bit unremarkable ('gone the dream,' 'angel interceptor'). at the end of the day, I felt like it could have been so much more and didn't really blow me away. it's not bad, but ultimately a bit unremarkable.

I came into listening to this one not knowing what I would expect. the first half, it wasn't really my thing but it was listenable enough and didn't mind it. the second half was slower and was even less my thing. if you like sensual r&b, you'll probably love this. for me, it felt more like I was a background character in a porno.

if there's one thing you can't say about tom waits it's that he makes boring music. is his voice beyond rough around the edges? yes. does he have a kind of zany approach to the lounge music aesthetic? yes. but I think that's what makes his music great and truly him. the highlight here is 'jersey girl's but I really enjoyed everything on here. tom waits is singular, 1 of 1, and that's what makes this album special.

really great americana/bluegrass album. soft and the quality of songwriting is quite stunning. gillian's voice is quite stark and authentic. i suspect this one's not for everyone, but as someone who has had an interest in this style of music, i can say i definitely loved this one a lot.

just based on the content, i'm not going to go my usual "fun album" route, but this is my third (of three?) public enemy albums in this project and i think this one is my favorite. i thought the tracks here were more consistent than the other albums i've listened to and, of course, the a lot of the messages on this record are still relevant today, even almost 35 years later. the beats here are great and pull from a lot of eclectic sources. chuck d's rapping is strong as ever and, of course flavor flav adds a lot of, well, flavor. now is this a contender for my favorite rap albums of all time? no, not really. but it was a good listen. closer to a 5 than a 3.

i'm not too familiar with gil scott-heron's work outside of a few select tracks, so i had an idea what to expect, but not the full picture. i am a bit blown away by this one! very jazzy, very smooth, very soulful. some of these tracks are a little funkier and some are a bit more balladic. the poetry was quite nice and the vocals were really nice. the electric piano on here sounds so great. just a really cool, pleasant album that has great feel and soul.

a really fun, a little bit off the wall album. there are some really fun sounds and songs on here. some really fun play with time signatures. in my opinion, this is one of the epitomes of 00s indie music. fun, sideways, unique. the album cover hurts my eyes. my love of this album cemented the fact that, deep down, i am a late 00s hipster.

some solid late 90s rock music that is totally bogged down by impressively long and vacant noise tracks. there is some pretty decent stuff on here that is not quite memorable, but will be overshadowed in my mind by having to listen to long stretches of shoegaze noise. if the noise had been trimmed a little bit to cut the length of the album down, this would've gone up a bit more in my esteem.

i was pleasantly surprised by this one. of course, i kind of forgot that queen latifah started off as a rapper but her flow is pretty decent and the beats here are super fun. it's not anything high brow or mind blowing, but it's extremely listenable. the highlight here for me was 'mama gave birth to the soul children' which features de la soul and is a killer track. but there's nothing here that's truly bad. it's pretty fun and a solid album.

a pretty nothing album. not bad, not great. it's fine. it's completely listenable. it's about as middle of the road as you can get. sometimes there's a little hint of something interesting - maybe a harder britpop edge, or something a little beatles-y - but most of the time this is just very plain.

cool record. you can definitely feel how it is like an evolution of the sex pistols. definitely still has that johnny rotten attitude, but it's a little more subdued and a lot more sleeker. i didn't know what to expect out of this one but was really surprised! definitely one i am going to revisit.

perhaps a lot of the repetitive beats and crazy loud noises should bother me here, but they really didn't a whole lot. maybe a little. but the album is pretty fun and doesn't take itself seriously, which i appreciated. i wasn't expecting much out of this one but it was pretty enjoyable!