Reviews by uhhhellurr

solid album. out of all the songs, i think the big songs on here are probably the best ones - the album cuts weren't bad, but i think they just did not leave a huge impression on me. to me, what's more important here is the attitude and impression this one left on people. starkly personal, biting. a turning point for music.

my third pj harvey album and i have to say, i think this one is my favorite. loud, aggressive, biting. high energy. just really great through and through. i've heard a lot about pj harvey over the years and never delved into it and i can definitely say i am coming back to this one.

a really cool folk-rock album. it starts off with a bang with the title track, which i knew before listening to this album. the rest of the album is really interesting and pretty good, but there's not a whole lot here that meets the title track for me, at least after this listen. just a really solid, enjoyable, evocative folk record.

usually i try to listen to albums with an open mind, but boy howdy, from the first track, i knew i was going to not enjoy my time with this album. the production is so badly dated and cheesy, it sounds like music from a second-tier straight-to-vhs-and-only-sold-to-libraries educational program. the world music influence added here only compounds on that, especially when it is talk-sung over by a bored sounding english man who sounds like rowan atkinson's zazu from the lion king. this really is my trifecta of dread - boring electronic music meets white dude doing world music meets woefully dated production.

on one hand, i am realizing i find ac/dc to be really boring. back in black, my second ac/dc album generated, is really middle of the road in terms of the instrumentation side. nothing here stands out. this is maybe the most generic sounding hard rock in existence. scientists have been working for years to create the most "rock and roll" sound ever, and this is it.

on the other hand, i find ac/dc to be kind of obnoxious. part of it is the generic hard rock sound that doesn't offer much. the other part of it is the screeching singing that is beyond grating. not awesome. the music here is pretty horny. i dunno, i found it a bit exhausting. it gives the energy of a middle schooler or a person who never grew out of being a middle schooler.

genuinely one of the most obnoxious albums i've ever heard. this brand of blues-rap gen x whatever the hell this is, is such a pain to listen to. the only saving grace here is the musicianship, which is pretty alright, but yeesh man. this sounds like if the mediocre-at-best busker in the subway station got a record deal. it sounds like an alley cat getting its tail run over by a bicycle. it feels like it has to be ironic but i do think it is quite genuine. pretty awful.

a decent enough synth-pop album. this one did not really resonate with me a whole lot. like the production was fine, the instrumentation here is fine. the lyrics didn't really land with me and for my second foray into pet shop boys' music, i can't say i super love the style of the vocalist. that's not to say the sum of all this album's parts are bad, but just really unremarkable to me.

i'm really not a fan of u2 in general, partially because it was force-fed to me growing up and also because i find their typical output to be pretentious and, quite frankly, uninteresting (yeah, even their good stuff). this album is a bit of an exception for me. this album has an aggressiveness and rawness that i find a lot of their other music lacks. it has energy and doesn't bore me to pieces. is it my favorite album of all time? no. but as far as a band i am generally uninterested in goes, it's pretty good.

really solid album from method man. it started a little slow for me, but after the first 1/3 of the album, it really picked up for me. consistent through this release is strong rapping with great flow, really solid production, and a dark, almost low-key feel. it's not the most in your face bombastic album, but it still has energy, even though it feels more subdued than other rap albums of the time. i particularly enjoyed 'bring the pain' and 'method man (remix)'.

to be honest, I didn't really care for this one. what I really didn't like was the production which was so bright that it felt disjointed. the songwriting here did nothing for me and overall I felt like it was a slog, even for how short the album was. not my thing!

kate bush is brilliant and to me, this is one of the biggest pieces of evidence. every song on here is dramatic as fuck and i love every second of it. her vocal range is great, as usual. everything about this album is so creative and out there, and yet, not really inaccessible (although admittedly, it's not her most accessible album). the production on here is pretty dated (full of of-the-era synth sounds that have not aged particularly well) but if you can get past most of this album sounding like an old video game, it is truly great. it's definitely an album that i'm sure most people think sounds like a cat getting its tail stepped on, but to me, that's part of the charm of kate bush. she's out of left field and unabashedly so.

really solid album. biggie's flow is pretty damn great and always makes for an interesting listen. i also enjoyed the production on this one. it definitely sounds a lot more modern than a lot of albums that were released contemporaneously. in terms of the songs, i enjoyed the majority of them, but not too many of them gripped me immediately, but i feel like i would continue to enjoy the songs and grow to love them if upon subsequent listens.

my second of two amy winehouse releases while she was alive. i enjoyed her album 'back to black' well enough so i was anticipating enjoying this one too. well, not so much. her voice is still very good but the songs and production here leave a lot to be desired. in particular, the production has not aged well and sounds really dated. a lot of the songs, i thought, were not particularly well written. it sounded like they left a few bum notes from amy on this one too, and some tardiness on the rhythms. maybe it was supposed to be more laid back but to me, it came off as sloppy. really disappointed in this one, not going to lie.

what makes this record phenomenal is that it captures in a bottle what makes james brown special. his studio recordings are great, but what sets him apart from everyone else is his high octane performances, his charisma, his vocal chops. he is wailing all over this thing and it is so damn impressive. i don't know how you could listen to this and not be floored. a live album of the greatest stage performer of all time, what could it be other than pure, distilled energy?

a decent enough prog album. for me, the highlight was clearly the 2112 suite, but for me that was a little bit hit or miss. some "movements" were kind of corny and others were pretty cool. the rest of the album didn't really leave much of an impression on me. as always, with rush, the musicianship is really great and geddy lee's voice is as iconic as ever. but overall, an album that didn't really move me one way or the other.

interesting album. very quirky, rough around the edges, noisy in a way that tickles my brain. i did enjoy my time with this one, although i felt a little bit less impressed with it than their debut album, which i loved. still, i enjoyed moments like 'caligari's mirror' and the weird, but fun, '(pa) ubu dance party.' i definitely suspect this is not going to be everyone's bag, but i find pere ubu's music to be challenging enough while not being completely obtuse, which is a nice middle ground for me.

i really want to like bonnie raitt's music but every time i've listened to this album i have been absolutely middled by it. despite its wide acclaim, really outside of a handful of songs, this album is just really not a whole lot to me. bonnie's songwriting is pretty good at times and her voice is iconic. but, quite frankly, some of the stuff here is just boring. the highlights to me are the first three tracks (the title track, 'thing called love,' and, 'love letter') and i could take or leave the rest. it's not bad, it's just really middle of the road for me. i'm always a little perplexed why it has such a huge reputation.

a fun little new wave album. it gets a bit unabashedly horny at times (i'm looking at you 'sex dwarf') but honestly from the title, i don't know how you couldn't expect it. the production is very dated but in a charming way? like it's very silly and of the era, but i found it fun. the big song off here ('tainted love') is clearly the highlight, but there are other fun tracks here. i thought 'chips on my shoulder' was a fun little romp. but yeah, outside of the hit, nothing particularly mind-blowing here, but still fun.

this album is a pretty great encapsulation of why i love the temptations. their vocals are great and the production here from norman whitfield was absolutely groundbreaking for soul music of the time. although i would say that the two singles off of this are the most consequential (the title track and 'runaway child (running wild)' because of their great production and catchy, funky beats, the rest of this album is incredibly solid and really highlights the songwriting of barrett strong and norman whitfield. really, for me, the only blemish here is the somewhat pedestrian cover of 'i heard it through the grapevine' which is, unfortunately, sandwiched between two all time great temptations songs for me. but otherwise, i really love this album, and it is one of the temptations' greatest.

a pretty nothing album. nothing here really stands out and the production here has aged pretty poorly - a lot of 80s music still sounds great, this... does not. i've never really understood the mass appeal of steve winwood and this just falls into that bucket. let me be clear, this is not bad. it's not unlistenable. i would even venture to say that some of the songs are a tiny bit catchy. it just sounds like you are in a dressing room, circa 1980. in the most unappealing way possible.