Reviews by uhhhellurr

going into this album, i knew ahead of time only of the song 'get free' which i think is awesome, so i was really looking forward to the rest of this album. unfortunately, the rest of this album is not really like 'get free' at all, and mostly just feels like a lesser version of the band Jet. very MOR, slightly retro inspired early 00s rock, not the bold and brash vision of the band I was expecting. a little disappointed.

genuinely not as bad as people make it out to be. is it particularly listenable? not really. is it off-putting? maybe a little. is it something I'm going to put on again? no. but I kind of had a decent time with it while I did. a lot of its musique concrete vibes reminded me of the beatles' 'revolution 9' - an often misunderstood and often mis-maligned song in itself. it is noise, it is a little baffling, but I do think it's ultimately an interesting piece of music

flow so legendary, the costco guys have nothing but to steal directly from them

WE BRING THE BOOM THAT'S WHAT WE DO

if you hate this album then you hate massachusetts

ok. john lee hooker from the 80s. the production is not my taste. very clean, very 80s. not very apt for the blues in my opinion. but surely this isn't the only album from the blues legend we have on this list, right? right?? there's at least another album from his prime, right??? oh no

an interesting entry for this list because this one is maybe the least white stripes-y white stripes album. for a band that is famously "only guitar and drums" this album has quite sparse use of the guitar, instead opting for a primarily acoustic instrument set, most notably featuring piano and marimba, and lots of interesting percussion. song for song, it's not my favorite album from jack white, and i think it's a little bit of an odd choice for this list, but this was also a big album for me at the time, as a tween first exploring music outside of my parents' tastes, so i am a little nostalgia blind for it.

probably the most listener-friendly entry from the fall on this list, there's some cool stuff on here that sounds like a sort of demented new wave band. unfortunately that good stuff is outweighed by a lot of stuff that i still find pretty hard to listen to. off kilter vocals, some instrument perfomances that may make you cringe. the album also sort of overstays its welcome. if it was trimmed a little bit, it might have been a star up for me.

i'm a pretty big fan of psychedelic music in general so i was a little excited to hear this one, which i was unfamiliar with. the best i can say is this is a "sonic textures" album, which is to say, it has some interesting sounds, but not a lot of substance. quite frankly, there are sections of this album that are downright boring - long stretches of just noise with repetative rhythms. maybe it's more interesting if you are stoned, but i am sitting in my office completely sober, so this does almost nothing for me. and unfortunately, i can't help but think of several psychedelic revival bands and albums not on this list that did sonic textures in a similar manner that also had interesting songs, that i think deserve this slot more than this album.

i've always been lightly positive towards everything i've heard from belle and sebastian, but i'm going to be honest, it's really hard for me to feel very strongly about this album and music. it's nice, it's pleasant. that's kind of it. i don't feel very strongly about it. it's not bad, but i don't know if it is ultimately very compelling.

this album asks the question, what if we took culture club and made it completely toothless?

i discovered this album years back and fell in love with it, so i am a little biased. spirit was a pretty unique band in the realm of late 60s psych, in the sense that they did not strictly stick to the more acid-rock stylings of psych. this album exhibits that pretty well. some soft acoustic numbers, some harder rockers, a lot of jazz influence. the highlights for me are 'nature's way,' 'animal zoo,' 'mr. skin,' and 'morning will come,' but i truly don't think there's a bad moment on here. definitely not everyone's cup of tea and definitely a bit scattered, but ultimately, i think it is a pretty cool, underrated album of the era.

genuinely one of my favorite albums of all time, bar none. i think it's as close to a perfect album as you might find. paul simon's songwriting is at its peak, the arrangements and production are fantastic, art garfunkel's voice soars like it never has before. i could go on about the title track for a long time, but it truly is one of the most beautiful songs put to tape of all time. the way it builds and soars. it is an achievement. everything else on here is also great, from paul simon's first toe dip into world music with 'el condor pasa' to some fun and poppy tunes (with innuendo too!). my only qualm is the live track feels phoned in and feels like they put it there because they didn't have enough material. but the rest of the album is terrific. there's a reason it is held in such high regard.

i'm a springsteen fan but not a superfan. there are several of his albums that i love, but this is not one of them. there are definitely some classic tracks on here, but although it never gets truly dull, there are some tracks here i would probably have nixed. just as an entire album, it's not my favorite track listing. i still think ultimately it is a good album, just not one i come back to very often.

i love that he sings 'san quentin' twice. the editing on this one is kind of insane (not just the bleeps, but hard cuts left and right. this thing has been chopped and screwed every which way) but despite all that, it is a truly great live album.

not awful but terribly uninteresting. the highlight was the song from the old geico commercial (obligatory mention)

the production is way too clean for my liking and the songs themselves feel like some sort of melodramatic scott walker-esque overdramatic nonsense. not for me

look, i know he's controversial but the dude knows how to make an album. i absolutely do not condone what kanye has said over the past few years, and i think it's awful even if you buy that he blames it on his mental health conditions. but just like a bunch of other albums in this project, i am going to separate the art from the artist. if you listen to this album just as an album with a generic artist, there's no way you think this is a bad album. the beats and production are innovative and unique. the album sounds great. his rapping is as great as ever. despite everything, it is a pretty good album.

feels like it fits somewhere in the realm between public enemy and gil scott-heron. michael franti's flow sounds a bit dated these days (definitely of the golden age of hip hop) but is definitely owed to the sound of chuck d. it's a pretty boldfaced political album, which i don't mind, but also is a bit heavyhanded with the political statements. i'm sure to some people this album feels like a lecture. the beats here are alright and are definitely of the time, but there aren't too many moments that stand out from one another. i wish i felt stronger about this album. it has a lot of characteristics of music i would like, but it feels less than the sum of its parts.

interesting late 60s psych album. it's pretty rough around the edges, which make it a little difficult to listen to at points. particularly the harmonies here are a chore to listen to sometimes. at the same time, there is a level of charm here that makes it feel like an authentic, grassroots psych album, which makes it a more interesting listen - definitely different than a lot of the big name psych stuff that was coming out at the time. there are some cool sounds explored here. a little loony and goofy. although it definitely is not the acid rock variety of 60s psych, it still has a rougher edge at times than a lot of the other "sunshine" pop psych acts of the time, although i find its sound and style tend to fall more in line with the latter, not the former.

you have to listen to this album before you die so that you understand how truly abhorrent the human mind can be