Reviews by uhhhellurr

i adore the beatles and i cannot be anything other than unabashedly positive about them, so this album is no exception. this is probably my favorite "early" period beatles album. the songwriting is great and you still get the high energy feel of their early recordings. songs like the title track, 'i should have known better,' 'tell me why,' 'can't buy me love,' are all stellar. even the more ballady stuff here is pretty great. i know it's not going to be for everyone and it's not going to be as trendsetting and influential as some of their later work, but to me, this album is the pinnacle of what made the beatles special in the first place.

the highlight here for me is the leadoff track 'summertime blues' which is a great heavy psych-blues track from the era. the rest of the album is fine enough, nothing super mindblowing. what makes this album special is that you can definitely see it as a bridge from the psych-blues of cream to the early heavy metal of black sabbath. it's got that psych tinge and it's not super heavy, but it is definitely fuzzed out and all in all decently fun to listen to.

a pretty fun album. obviously there's the one big hit on here, which i adore, but the rest of the album is pretty damn solid. if you like the feel of 'come on eileen' then the rest of the album is certainly for you. i also really liked their cover of van morrison's 'jackie wilson said'

i find i am becoming a mild fan of genesis' work, and i had never listened to this one. it was a fun listen, but i felt it was a bit overly long and bloated for my taste. i still liked it at parts, and it still has that nice genesis charm, and all the great musicianship associated. just felt like it was less satisfying to listen to than their other albums. maybe something i will enjoy more down the line. still, i liked it enough!

i really wish i liked this style of music, because this one is really unique amongst the metal i've heard. the use of brazilian instruments and styles at points on here is really neat and i think it works well. this is a me problem, but i am not a fan of the growly metal vocals (in general) and so despite the interesting spin on the metal formula, this one was a bit of a tough listen for me. pretty neutral on the instrumentals overall, but the vocals bring it down for me a lot.

cool album. i don't know that it's particularly mindblowing, but the louvin brothers are extremely foundational and groundbreaking in terms of their use of close harmony, something you can immediately see in the following years and decades to come. the songs are quite charming and a bit quaint, but still fun to listen to. always nice to hear a mandolin!

interesting album. there are some moments on here that are really great power-poppy tracks and there are lots of more noise-y, harsher tracks. i appreciated the power pop stuff more than the more rough around the edges stuff. the vocals here are kind of all over the place. sometimes they're nice and sometimes it's like they can't hold a tune. a real mixed bag.

not really my thing. i tend to like late 60s folk and folk adjacent stuff, but i find tim buckley's music tends to be a bit obtuse and dull for my liking. clearly there's artistry here, but it's really not my cup of tea. not something i think i would come back to.

pretty fun country romp. i wasn't sure what to expect, but it's a really enjoyable, high energy album. there's some fuzz guitar on here which was a little wild to hear. some of it's more rock n roll, and some of it's more fiddly, but either way, it's a pretty nice surprise of an album.

wow, i'm a little blown away by this one. i am familiar enough with ELP, but haven't listened to anything beyond a couple of albums and a compilation here and there. this album rules! the live energy adds something great to this recording, and everything on here is super cool. i love the prog treatment of some classical classics. the musicianship is incredible, but that goes without saying. hidden gem!

i'm not a huge fan of hers, but have heard a bit of her music through osmosis with people in my life. i think her music can be quite charming, but ends up not being quite my thing. i like her voice, which has a certain sweetness to it, but sometimes her songs fall flat for me. on a scale, i would say this is a light 'good' to me, solid but somewhat uninteresting.

pretty interesting album. the more "traditional" stuff on here is really great, and the less "traditional" stuff is interesting but kind of goofy. i never thought of the combination of sitar, moog, and classic rock. it's an interesting concept but i don't know how well it pulls it off. it is a bit dated and clunky sounding, and while i think a lot of applications of moog from this time period can sound cool or charming, it does sound a bit out of place here. still, it was an interesting listen, and i did enjoy listening to it, even though i think it somewhat misses the mark here.

a solid album, but it can be a bit uneven at times. there are two, maybe three great songs on here (one all-timer) but the album cuts are what make this a little bit more of a rocky road. with ABBA, of course, you're getting their iconic vocals and arrangements, which are a joy to listen to. the songwriting here is what makes this album a little bit of a teeter-totter. going from 'when i kissed the teacher' to 'dancing queen' is some of the greatest whiplash i've gotten in this project. that being said, it is extremely listenable and quite the opposite of a slog, even though the songwriting could be more.

noisey but not in a super satisfying way for me. it's not bad, but not really an album i can see myself coming back to. i have liked other mudhoney releases, so i'm thinking this one may just not be for me.

this album to me feels like somewhere between early 70s stones and early alice cooper. it's got this bluesy rock feel that almost feels like t. rex at points. it's fun to listen to. i really liked the cover of randy newman's 'have you seen my baby' and also i have adored 'whiskey woman' for years, both of which i felt were a great romp. it's not mindblowing, but it's a good time.

man, this album is so sick. listening to it, you feel like the coolest motherfucker on the face of the earth. the playing here is incredible. it can be all over the place, but it all still feels like a cohesive unit. the way this album sounds is incredible. there's nothing like it. truly a unique 1 of 1 album.

i hear what everyone is saying. this album is kind of corny, kind of uncool, kind of lame. this album is also so quintessentially 70s rock. much more flash than substance, but still pretty entertaining. there's not a lot of depth here, but goddamn are 'shout it out loud' 'detroit rock city' and 'god of thunder' not just an unabashedly fun listen. it has its duller moments and, although i like 'beth,' it does feel like a bizarre song for kiss to have released, as it sounds more like a song from a coffee commercial than from the band whose bassist sticks his tongue out and breathes fire. it's best not to take this album so seriously. the schtick is kind of what makes it what it is.

really fun britpop album. i find i have quite the liking for blur's output so far, although i do find them to be firmly my #2 britpop band. this one is a really good, fun record, especially with the incredibly nostalgic and bash-you-over-the-head "song 2" which definitely buoys this album a little bit. the rest of the album is pretty solid and satisfyingly sneering, but, hey, it is predominantly defined by its most famous song.

i normally enjoy beck's music from what i've heard but i didn't really jibe with this one. it has its moments, but mostly it is very subdued and acoustic, and quite frankly, a bit boring for my taste. i'm used to beck being very progressive with his production and this feels very regressive to me. it's not bad, but i didn't find it very interesting, and quite frankly, a little disappointing.

i want to like this album and m.i.a. a lot more than i actually do in practice. the beats can be so innovative and cool, and her flow and presence is really unique. but a lot of times i find her music to be a bit of a slog, this album included. it has all the potential in the world! but does not meet it for me, unfortunately.