Reviews by uhhhellurr

i think ultimately, this album in the grand scheme of things is not very important, but i adore it a lot. i don't know if it has aged very well - it definitely sounds like a mid-late '60s album and modern listeners may find it mundane, but i was raised on this album and the rascals in general. i think the crop of songs is great, the sound of the rascals, at the time, was fairly groundbreaking, and the musicianship here is extremely underrated, especially the drumming of dino danelli (some of the greatest fills of all time!). is this a monumental album from 1967, in hindsight? maybe not. i still love it a lot.

i so badly wanted to love this album - i generally like talking heads and, of course, i am very familiar with 'genius of love' (which i adore) and so i was hoping for more of the same. unfortunately a lot of this album did not resonate with me. it still has a lot of the same quirkiness of 'genius of love' but really not to the same level of quality for me. i found myself a bit underwhelmed and disappointed. that being said, 'wordy rappinghood' is a fun romp but outside of that, i didn't really feel a whole lot here.

from a musicianship standpoint, you do not get better than this. miles, trane, cannonball, and evans all on the same record should rightfully be praised. some of the greatest to ever do it. and as such, the musicianship on this is incredible. my problem with this album is purely a me thing - i really don't like cool jazz. i much prefer miles' bebop stuff. cool jazz just doesn't do it for me. i, quite frankly, find it a bit boring. so despite the classic songs, the incredible playing, and the all-timer status, i actually really didn't enjoy myself listening to this a whole lot. once again, i admit, this is fully a me thing. if you love this, go off kings. it's just not for me.

another album that's a classic for a reason. the clash here take their punk sound and elevate it to new heights, something that is more progressive than their contemporaries, yet also a little more poppy. the attitude is still here and the musicianship exhibited here is pretty dang good. nitpicking a little bit, but not all of the songs here are amazing songs (i'm looking at you, 'jimmy jazz') but the vast majority of this album slaps hard.

sorry to say, i didn't really care for this one. i thought the sound they crafter here was interesting and on track for something i could see myself liking, but i think the songwriting here and particularly the vocal performances here were lackluster in an amateurish way. sounds like i'm listening to a local bar band at points, and not in a good way.

another album i cannot be unbiased about. to me, pet sounds is the alpha and the omega. this is brian wilson firing on all cylinders. i think a lot of people miss the fact that what makes this album so special is the time period it was made in. nothing sounded like this in 1966 and nothing ever sounded like this again. it went on to influence countless contemporaries and future musicians. the arrangements are so superb and so complex that you don't even realize how complex they are while listening to the music. the structure of the songs was so progressive for the time. the vocals are impeccable, obviously the strong suit of the beach boys. the one thing you have to keep in mind is that because it's 1966, all of these were done pretty much live and recorded on four tracks, as compared to today where everything can be recorded on infinite tracks. it's just an incredible achievement of recording engineering, production, and songcraft that, in my opinion, has never been matched.

yeah i'm afraid this one wasn't for me. i appreciate the effort here - the combination of electronic music and indian music is an interesting one, but i knew halfway through the first track this was going to be not my thing. i can see how this is music that you can get lost in, but unfortunately i don't really get lost in it - i more just get bored. the repetitive rhythms don't do much for me and to be honest, there's not a whole deal more here besides stilted vocals every so often and some muted trumpets (and such). just not my thing.

obviously a classic album, one that is still iconic of its time and still has a presence in culture. i really go back and forth on the doors as a whole, sometimes i really can't stand them and sometimes i do appreciate them. right now, i am feeling more positive towards them. what i appreciate most about this album is the sound - nothing sounded like it before, or really since. what is particularly important to me is ray manzarek's keyboard playing, which is, in my opinion, what makes the doors music special. without him the group does not stand out from the crowd. his playing is proficient and is incredibly important to the sound of this album. of course, jim morrison's vocals are iconic and the guitar playing and drumming on this one are underratedly good. between 'break on through (to the other side),' 'light my fire,' and 'the end,' you have a trio of terrific late 60s psych.

there are some nice songs on here and christina's voice, as always, is incredible. but honestly i found this album a bit boring and same-y. the hits on here are great pop songs, but the rest of it is very generic early 00s pop music that does not stand out in any way. very middle of the road for me.

i went into this project never having listened to the beastie boys in full. this is my third beastie boys album and what i can say across the board is that my favorite part of their music is their production. this record is no exception, and may be my favorite of theirs from that standpoint. the production on this album is superb - it sounds so damn good. tracks like 'futterman's rule' are funky, groovy, and sound live and loose. just really cool stuff. my issue, like other beastie boys albums is that their vocals don't really do it for me at all. i would say at times they are grating and annoying to me. in fact - i think q-tip on 'get it together' is my favorite part of this record. the production is phenomenal, and i can't help but think if someone else was rapping on the entire rest of the record, it would be a slam dunk 5/5 for me. either way, i still enjoyed it well enough.

really cool record! i have heard pj harvey's name forever but have never explored her music. i greatly enjoyed this album. in some respects, it reminds me of sleater-kinney (who would follow) but in other respects, it reminds me of grunge like nirvana. really cutting, biting lyrics, aggressive instrumentation. great songwriting and great musicianship exhibited here. awesome stuff!

this album was really neat and i loved being exposed to music that i normally do not get exposed to. you could tell how joyful the music was from the singing and from the instrumentals here. just a very chill, jubilant album to kick off a weekend morning. cool stuff!

three things that i love about this album on first listen: 1) willie nelson's voice is so soothing. 2) this album is so chill and calming. 3) this album is 'short and sweet: the album' - 15 tracks and the album isn't even 35 minutes long.

i will say, i am not very well versed in the greater world of country music, only where it seems to touch my other musical interests. i'm not sure what i expected out of this album, but i know it wasn't this. i had no idea this was even a concept album with a story. this is one of the albums i've listened to in this project where i was kind of floored? this is the good stuff, man.

i'm a big fan of motown in general, but it's obvious that, production-wise, the temptations truly were at their best with norman whitfield at the helm. this album is the pinnacle of that. of course, as always, the temptations' vocals and arrangements are top notch, the production, as previously mentioned, is great and although not as groundbreaking as the temptations' 'cloud nine' with this production style, but is a continuation and elevation of that style. whitfield's trademark lush orchestration and funk instrumentation is incredibly important and still great to this day.

i think what prevents this album from going from good to great is the crop of songs. the first side is great and funky - especially with what may be the temptations' magnum opus ('papa was a rollin' stone'). the second side is a lot slower and ballady and, even though i know the temptations were very fond of soft, sensitive ballads, i don't know that i like them as well from them as opposed to their more upbeat fare. their cover of 'the first time ever (i saw your face)' is, quite frankly, kind of boring. i can deal with the rest but it does feel like it kills the pacing of the album.

i think is album is more important for its concept than it is for being a truly great album. don't get me wrong, i did enjoy it and it is up my alley. i think upon multiple listens, i could really get to liking it, but to me upon first listen, it feels like it's more notable for being "the first rock opera" than the actual quality of the music. either way, there were some cool psych-tinged moments on here and there wasn't a bad song in the mix.

i get really torn about this album. if you can separate the art from the artist, this is a really great 12/14ths of an album (i am not a fan of 'i am yours' and 'thorn tree in the garden' at all). that being said, eric clapton is a big ol' pile o' shit (and he continually loves to announce this to the world) and this album's origins are so bizarre (falling in love with george harrison's wife and writing an album about how much you love her, and then subsequently marrying her yourself). patti boyd was not the only thing eric clapton lifted from george harrison, as a very good portion of this album sounds like a hypothetical 'all things must pass 2'

all that said, i still think it's a pretty great album, and even though i am (un)officially part of the Eric Clapton Resistance Force, this one still holds up - i mean 'bell bottom blues' is such a great, emotional track that i can forgive its weird origins.

i like the police a lot but i think often they get a little too pithy for their own good. on this album, i think this ring the most true. like all their music, the musicianship and instrumentation is unreal, but at this point in their career, i feel sting is getting a little too full of himself. don't get me wrong, there are some stone cold classics on this one - 'every breath you take,' 'king of pain,' 'wrapped around your finger,' and 'synchronicity i' are masterpieces, but nothing else on here gets close to them. it's not that the rest of the album is bad, it's just the rest of the album feels very... pretentious at points. i do want to like this album a lot more than i do, but i'm not sure i'm ever going to totally see eye to eye with a lot of people about it.

i have a deep fondness for 60's garage rock and psychedelia, and this album is really important in the merging of those genres. the first track, 'you're gonna miss me' is one of my favorite songs of this era. there are lots of great tracks on here like 'reverberation' and 'roller coaster' and it is rightly considered a classic of this era - HOWEVER, i think as many point out, the big "feature" of this album is an "electric jug" which is prominently displayed on every track. i think it's actually a very psychedelic "percussion" instrument choice to include, but its welcome is worn out very quickly. i can handle it in spurts listening to 'you're gonna miss me' but an entire album's worth is a bit much. i don't think it makes this album unlistenable, but is undeniably present and will wear on you.

this was a good album but i don't think it reaches the upper echelon for me. the two big songs on here, the title track and 'shining star' are fantastic, great mid-70s r&b songs. the rest of the album is not quite filler but is not equal to those two songs. don't get it twisted, i enjoyed the rest of these songs to a certain extent - particularly enjoyed 'reasons' (which i could swear i have heard before... it doesn't look like that was a single but it sounds so familiar). the rest of the album is ok but feels like it's mostly r&b ballads, which are nice, but not anything special to me. the ending of 'all about love' is a bizarre mishmash of synthesizers which feels out of place. so yeah, not an all timer for me, but decent enough.

another album on this list that i unabashedly adore. ccr's run in the late 60s into the early 70s is pretty unmatched in terms of quality of album, in my opinion, and this one might be my favorite of theirs. short, sweet, to the point, and not a bad track on here. john fogerty's songwriting is top notch as always, with the exception of the album closer, 'the night time is the right time,' a cover of the ray charles classic. the instrumentation here is all great and sonically, the album still sounds great and swampy. it's truly a document of a great band at its peak firing on all cylinders.