Reviews by uls980

Not much to say that I haven't said about the other Indian/Pakistani albums, along with the samba and bossa nova albums.

It's good music for if I want the vibe, but I will only really want that vibe in films and whatnot to set the scene. Unfortunately I have no cultural connection to this music, so it's scene music to me.

Much like Trans-Europe Express, this album just does not have the punch and catchyness that The Man Machine did. I will say, I do think I like this more than Trans-Europe Express though, since it's got more variety in it, and it doesn't sound as dated to my ears.

But The Man Machine is still their best album by a mile for me. That one feels like the most influential of the bunch, with it's sounds popping up in modern sci-fi properties today.

Dated and boring me to tears. Don't got much else to say.

Honestly doing nothing for me. Thought I recognized Rod Stewart though.

But yeah. Perfectly fine blues rock, with a little bit of psychedelia to it. Just burnt out on this style of music.

This one was a surprisingly difficult one to rate because while it has some absolutely monster classics on it, and generally the beats throughout the thing are amazing (No one sounded like Eminem around this time - Extremely singular sound). Slightly approachable, but the horrorcore vibes are vibing), the quality does falter slightly towards the end, particularly with cuts like Amityville and Under the Influence (Although the chorus on this one is not great). Those songs aren't necessarily bad, just that their presence kinda extends the runtime of the album to be a tad long.

Additionally, despite having amazing beats, a few songs do kinda stretch on a tad long.

But yeah, this album is packed full of great tracks like pretty much the entire first half (Kill You, Stan, The Way I Am, The Real Slim Shady), and then you have absolutely harrowing stuff like Kim that, while I don't know if it's necessarily "good", it's a shock to the system when you compare it to the other songs on the album that might be similarly shocking, but clearly are joking. And Kim is not.

So yeah, it's one of those albums I really want to give full marks to, but don't think I can just because of the inconsistencies towards the end of the album.

(I didn't really let it affect my rating, but the skits were generally unnecessary too, especially the Ken Kaniff one).

I won't have as much to say on this one as Vespertine, as Vespertine is just the superior album, but this one is still very good. A little too on the calm side for a lot of the album, but it does have some really great bangers like Notget.

But I'll say it again. After years of trying to stockholm myself into liking Björk and not getting anywhere, it's kinda funny that relistening to her for this project is what has gotten me to enjoy her music. I don't know if Medulla is on the list, but if there's a Björk album I think I still won't be into, it'll be that one. But we shall see.

Pretty solid modern post-punk here. What's turning me off though is the genre experimentation. They're at their best when they're channeling The Smiths through the 2000's indie rock sound.

But then they have songs that weirdly sound a little like Primus or 50's diner music and while it's solid, it's not doing much for me. The garage rock style songs aren't really my thing either.

Definitely going to be a multiple listens album once I get the time. There's just too many great songs on this one to not sit down and figure out what to playlist.

But yeah. Generally I'm not enamored with the country albums this list picks. For the most part, they're generally fine, but due to how incestuous the genre is, even the most revolutionary albums sound dated and overdone as a result of every artist after them completely ripping them off.

This album though is just fantastic. No matter how one tries (And they've certainly tried, oh God have they tried), they just can't copy Dolly into oblivion like they do with artists like George Jones. There's only one Dolly.

Pretty decent pop music, that I swear I've heard music very similar sounding to this, but can't place it at all. Maybe Imogen Heap? Dua Lipa? Not really sure, and pretty sure those aren't the ones I'm thinking of, but this album sounds very similar to a song I've heard before.

But yeah, it's fine, not blowing my socks off though.

Don't really know what to say about this one except that I definitely prefer Rain Dogs with it's far more interesting and experimental sound going on.

Really solid country album with some unique instrumentation going on. That said, didn't particularly blow me away either.

Old school hip hop that, unfortunately, just isn't my thing. Cool to see one of the albums where the genre started, and cool to hear the original Renegades of Funk (Rage Against the Machine did an amazing cover of it), but yeah. Way too dated for my tastes.

Definitely an interesting one. Do like the jazz/noir meets horror vibes. But overall, being a "soundtrack", I don't think its one I'll be going back to. Perfectly solid.

Can my review of this just be that .gif of Danny Devito saying "Oh my God, I get it..."?

No?

Anyways, I always thought Debut and Post were fine albums, but everytime I tried out her more experimental stuff, I always bounced off it no matter how much I tried to Stockholm myself into liking her music.

But its pretty crazy how much not having the vocabulary matters as far as enjoying a record or hating it. I can't remember if I ever tried listening to Vespertine before, but I've definitely heard Cocoon and Pagan Poetry before. Last time I heard those was years and years back, before I got into trip hop, so not having that vocabulary likely hampered my enjoyment of this music. But now, having delved into trip hop quite a bit in the intervening years (Portishead's Dummy is my second favorite album all time, and Mezzanine by Massive Attack is an all timer), I'm enjoying Björk way more.

And this album in particular is amazing. Ethereal, sensual, gorgeous, and filled with a million tiny little bits that are an absolute joy to listen to. On my third listen as I'm writing this, and each time a new song jumps out at me. First it was the aforementioned Cocoon and Pagan Poetry, this time its Aurora and An Echo a Stain. Lots of very chilly but beautiful songs.

So yeah, beautiful, gorgeous record. If you had asked me prior to doing this project if I'd be rating a Björk album a perfect score, I'd emphatically say "absolutely fucking not". But its a wonder how exposing yourself to a ton of music can get you to eventually like stuff you previously couldn't stand.

Amazing album.

For once, the music in a 70's post-punk record isn't bothering me. Weirdly, it even has a proti-goth sound to it on some tracks that I enjoy.

Unfortunately Mark E. Smith's awful singing and the really bad, stilted drums are doing this record in for me. I think I prefer it over their other album on the list, but not by much.

Man, it's pretty amazing how full of a sound Jimi was getting back during a time when a lot of psychedelic music was thin and tinny as hell.
I normally rail against psychedelic rock, but here it works because of the great production and the general energy he has going here. Also helps the song writing is top notch and Mitch Mitchell's amazing drumming.

Entire album of great songs. Spanish Castle Magic, Little Wing, If 6 Was 9, Castles Made of Sand, Bold as Love, etc. etc. etc.

Classic.

Perhaps it's a situation of it being revolutionary at the time it was released but now sounds incredibly dated, but yeah, this album is extremely dated to my years.

Doesn't seem to sound particularly original either. I'm hearing quite a bit of Eurythmics and Nine Inch Nails aping (But not in a particularly great way). And the samples used aren't great either.

Yeah, pretty not great in my opinion.

Definitely more varied and interesting than You Want It Darker, but I think I slightly prefer the emotional gut punch of YWID vs this one.

Some pretty solid and fun cuts, even if it's a tad too much on the 80's side for me. Liked Jazz Police quite a bit.

Not much to say that I haven't on the other Stevie albums. Just an amazing soul album that is peak Stevie. I know I rated one of the other Stevie albums on the list a 3, but I should go back to that one and see if I should bump it up to a 4. Feel like everything should be a 4 except for Songs in the Key of Life which is the obvious 5.

A little slower of an album here, and I'm not huge on Boogie on Reggae Woman, but yeah. Great album.

This is one of those times where I feel like not being familiar with the album aside from the singles kind of hurts it, since Tiny Dancer and Levon are such amazing songs, while the rest of the tracklist is just solid. Had I been familiar with this album my whole life, I could honestly see myself rating it higher, but for now, it's just gonna get the four.

But yeah, aside from the big hits, the rest of the tracklist has similarly great piano work, just the lyrics are kinda throwing me. Not as immediate or punchy as the big Elton hits. Still good though.