Reviews by uls980

This is an interesting one as this is absolutely the wrong QotSA album to pick for this list. One of the most egregious examples of malpractice when it comes to picking albums for this list (Dimery also got the wrong Foo Fighters, Slipknot, Gorillaz, System of a Down, and Daft Punk albums, to name a few).

Songs for the Deaf should have 100% been the pick, or MAYBE Like Clockwork...

That said, this is a solid desert/space rock album with a very unique vibe even within QotSA's discography. Does feel a bit rough around the edges, and after this QotSA would build towards better and more popular stuff.

Pretty funny because in the past week, I sat down and basically marathonned Sonic Youth's highest rated albums (Already got Daydream Nation for the generator previously, but in the past week I listened to Goo, Sister, Dirty, EVOL, and Washing Machine).

All fantastic records, and I'm usually against bands having this many records on the list, but honestly with Dimery leaving off Washing Machine, they might actually be *underrepresented* on the list.

But yeah, I don't think any of those records are quite as good as Daydream Nation (gave that a 5), but they're all at minimum a 4. Of the non-Daydream albums, Sister is probably not my favorite (right now I think its EVOL, but its really hard to evaluate 5 records when you shotgunned them in a week), but its still a fantastic record. More noise rock than on Daydream Nation which is why I think it's holding me back from enjoying it quite as much (other than Goo, Sister might be my "least" favorite right now, Goo is definitely the "weakest" of the albums right now for me, but it'd still get a 4).

But still some standouts like Schizophrenia and Catholic Block. Wasn't expecting the Beastie Boys-esque "rapping" in Master-Dik.

Overall, great record, and overall Sonic Youth really are that great a band that I have no qualms saying they deserve 5 albums (honestly 6 with Washing Machine) on the list. Incredibly influential to 90's alt rock.

Feel like I have listened to this album before, but honestly remember nothing from it.

Fresh ears though, yeah I understand why this is considered one of the best hip-hop records of all time. Do feel like some of the songs stretch on a tad long (Which is crazy with this album being a very trim 39 minutes long).

Previously I got Jeru the Damaja on the generator, and I'm hearing a ton of similarities between the two (Pretty much the dissonant keys, but it's a lot more subdued on Illmatic), but it's obvious why Nas became the household name and Jeru didn't. Nas was just far more accessible a sound whereas Jeru was just too dissonant for mainstream appeal (Being the closest thing I've heard to the rap version of Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica or Gorguts - Obscura, maybe not in experimentation, but definitely in dissonance).

But yeah, standouts for me are songs like N.Y. State of Mind, The World is Yours, and Represent. Amazing record.

Just an absolutely perfect record. For my personal tastes, think I prefer Sketches of Spain to this record. Some of the tracks sit on the same riffs and themes for a little longer than I'd like, but they're damn good riffs, so it isn't really that big a deal.

The sound of a saxophonist playing while falling up the stairs lined with rubber chickens. But in a good way?

I don't like or even really enjoy this (Honestly, what I've heard of Ornette Coleman I didn't care for, was already too experimental), but I respect it. The thought of playing jazz, but taking inspiration from hardcore punk and grindcore is interesting. Doesn't particularly "work", but I don't think that's necessarily the point. The experimentation and drive to push music "forward" is the point.

It does hit moments of enjoyability from time to time (fleetingly) when there are portions where I can actually make out some sort of beat or repeated phrases to lock onto (That basically sounds like the soundtrack to Mario Kart 8, haha), but mostly it's just free jazz noise through most of it.

Weirdly reminds me a bit of the later albums in Caretaker's Everywhere at the End of Time series. Where it's mostly noise, but once in a while a recognizable riff shows up.

So yeah. I don't particularly like this, but I respect it.

On the flipside, I've lost a shitton of respect for Dimery on his choices for this list. Why the hell is an Ornette Coleman cover album on the list and no actual Ornette Coleman? Are you telling me that this album is somehow more essential than the guy they're covering? This literally wouldn't exist without Ornette Coleman's music in the first place. Fuck man, just put The Shape of Jazz to Come on the list. No disrespect against Zorn, but honestly kinda insulting to Coleman to snub him but have this. I have no qualms with this being on the list, but without Coleman on as well is a bad look.

Started off a little shaky for me (Although I think that has more to do with not really knowing what to expect going into it. Figure if I give it another spin, I'll retract that statement), but once I got accustomed to the sound, I found my self enjoying it quite a bit.

Really feels like the love child of Dark Side of the Moon era Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and Akira Yamaoka (Of Silent Hill fame). Especially songs like The Word Hurricane, Dirty Trip, and Ghost Song. Highschool Lover just sounds like a straight up rip off of Dark Side's Great Gig in the Sky (I say this complementingly).

So yeah, quite surprised by this one. Really enjoyed it. Will say though, I'm not opposed to soundtrack/scores on this list, and don't particularly take issue with this album being on the list out of context of the rest of the list, but with there not being a ton of film scores/soundtracks (Or any video game soundtracks) on the list, this one should not have been picked over some other huge snubs, like anything from Morricone, John Williams, Hans Zimmer, the aforementioned Akira Yamaoka, Koji Kondo, etc.

Definitely a place on the list for this one, just not without those others having a spot.

This is an interesting album because I remember trying to listen to it previously (Couple years back) and absolutely not liking it. And going into it, I was expecting not to like it.

Listening to it not, I honestly can't remember why I didn't like it, it's a really solid album. The first half of the album has some absolute bangers, especially Tightrope.

However, the second half of the album does fall off a bit for me. Between the length of the album and it really falling into (This is a poor description, but it's the only thing I can think of) Disney soundtrack-isms (?) and some psychedelic pop that I don't really like, the second half just isn't my thing. A lot of the second half doesn't really have the bangers that the first half did.

Was ready to give it a 4, but it kinda fell off to a 3.

Never really been a Grateful Dead fan, but will say they are the ultimate good weather summer band.

Mostly this album does nothing for me, but Box of Rain is easily the best track.

This one is probably a victim of it's age at this point. Just really basic, old country music. And unfortunately, with the exception of Act Naturally, this album is not Fallout-core.

Starting with the Speakerboxxx side, just not really into this southern hip-hop sound. Some good stuff, beats, flows on this, but the vibe in general is doing nothing for me. Some standouts though like Flip Flop Rock.

The Love Below definitely has more variety I feel, but a lot of it is just too smooth for my tastes. Hey Ya obviously being the standout single here.

But yeah, two hours later, and I'm just not really that into this album. I tried listening to Stankonia a while back, and remember feeling similarly underwhelmed by it. It's good, but not really the type of hip-hop I go for. And at two hours long, it's a slog. Even each side by itself is a bit exhausting.

Just generally not feeling this one. It feels if the White Stripes were a noise rock band, but more on the classic blues rock sound vs White Stripes' alternative side. And I'm pretty bored with that classic blues rock sound.

Singer sound's like the singer from Jet as well (Or one of those late 2000's garage rock bands), and while I do like Are You Gonna Be My Girl?, it's not a voice I am really enamored with here.

Overally, this is generally just fine, but this is definitely an album I'd drop from the list for a more important/influential/better album.

Definitely one of those albums that I'm just not going to get into because I just am not a part of the culture. Like samba, bossanova, etc., this is more "vibe" music to me and not listening to music.

That said, a lot of the sounds on this album are pretty dated in an 80's pop way. I'm just not feeling this one.

And generally I'm not one to speak on whether or not an album is deserving of a place on the list when it comes from a country/culture I'm not familiar with, but this one I'm confused on. One of the lower rated in his discography on rateyourmusic, no article for the album itself on Wikipedia (While others of his do). When I look up the genres associated with this album, Baaba Maal nor this album tend to rank very high (Aside from his album Missing You being #1 for Fula Music). I probably shouldn't expect an answer to this, but getting some context of this album's inclusion would be appreciated.

This is one of those albums where I recognize the greatness, but soul/funk is not one of my go-to genres, and having Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On so recently (And getting What's Going On? a while back), it's tough to really be into this record in comparison.

Some really great stuff here, particularly the title track, All About Love (First Impression), and Africano. Never was huge on Shining Star despite it's popularity.

So yeah. Great record, just not really my thing, and there are other records out there from this genre that I much prefer and would rather go back to.

I mean, there isn't anything really to say (I will have stuff to say though) about this one. This is about as perfect as an album you can get on this list short of an Abbey Road or Rumours. I was only three years old when this album came out, so I don't really have any frame of reference on the impact it had at the time, but I have to imagine that this thing was basically an atom bomb on the music landscape, reordering things in the span of a second.

But yeah, it's been a minute since I've listened to this record, so getting it here is a good excuse to really dig into it. And I have always had my favorites (Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom, Come As You Are, Breed, and Lounge Act), but this re-listen is allowing me to pay attention to the tracks I haven't had on my playlists for decades. It's a testament to the quality of this album that it takes until the sixth song that I can say there's a song that doesn't quite hit 10/10 for me (Polly), and it's still a great fucking track.

I've always known Krist Noveselic's bass playing was fantastic, but damn some of his work on here is amazing. Especially on tracks like Lounge Act and Stay Away where it's just so prominent (Stay Away being the type of song Grohl would go onto make numerous times for the Foo Fighters). Also, it's cool listening to this album for the first time since I got really into Seattle/Pacific Northwest type punk and indie rock music like Sleater-Kinney, The Spinanes, and Built to Spill. Grunge music (And Nirvana as a result) always sounded kinda separate from that scene despite being from the area, but hearing songs like Drain You and On A Plain, I can definitely hear a through line to those other PNW bands. Those songs in particular just sound "Seattle" to me.

So yeah. One of the best records of all time.

Oh hell yes. I've always wanted to listen to this album due to that absolutely beautiful, amazingly terrible artwork. Like what the hell even is that, haha.

Almost tempted to give this album a 5 purely for the armadillo tank, despite knowing going in I won't like the album.

And yeah, I don't like it. But as one of the greatest philosophers of our time, Taylor Swift, said, "It's me. Hi. I'm the problem. It's me."

This might have been an album I enjoyed in my teenage years when I was heavy into prog, but once I discovered stuff like punk, post-rock/metal, and atmospheric/ambient black metal (music that either gets straight to the point or vibes, two things prog is openly hostile of doing), I couldn't go back to most prog music. Especially prog like this. This is prog in all of its masturbatory glory, for better or for worse, and unfortunately, for me, its for worse.

On this album, ELP want you to know exactly how much they jerk the keyboards off. There's no tender loving here. It's a furious jackhammer trying to fit in every position in the kamasutra. But at the very least, they slow down from time to time to allow some good Pink Floyd-esque guitar solos and the vocals to come in and not completely overshadow them (the vocals).

SO THATS JUST THE FIRST SONG. Then we get the comparatively basic next six songs which are simple addition compared to the 20 minute opener's calculus. Jeremy Bender is a kinda nothing Beatles-esque silly track with an almost Whose Line Is It Anyway? hoedown/Irish drinking song-like jig (in that it is a repettitive riff you could easily improv lyrics too).

Bitches Crystal is back to the prog, just manages to keep itself in check instead of cramming a million different songs into itself.

And it kinda just continues with that bite-sized prog on the rest of the songs. I'll give it something though, Are You Ready Eddy? taking a 50's greaser jig and periodically perverting it with 70's prog was pretty cool, even if it's not good.

But it's shocking how exhausted I am after listening to this given that its only 38 minutes long. There's just way too much going on that it wears you down. You can't vibe with it, it DEMANDS attention, Clockwork Orange, eyes-forced-open style.

So yeah. I'm sure this is a fantastic album. It's just a type of music I am incapable of appreciating anymore. My idea of good music is diametrically opposed to everything this album is. Unfortunate, but hey, that's taste for you.

This one's honestly disappointing me. I wasn't huge on The Man Machine, but it was still pretty good. This one though is just stretched out within an inch of its life with overly long, extremely repettitive tracks. The triple threat of Trans-Europe Express, Metal on Metal, and Abzug really wore me down. And then immediately into Franz Schubert, with basically the same synth riff for four minutes.

And the cool sci-fi vibe of The Man Machine is not here, with this one having a more "futuristic travel" vibe, which... yeah, fair given the title, but its just not my vibe.

Yeah, this one just isn't doing it for me.

So I actually listened to this album previously because of this project. Saw it was in the list, and decided to listen to it ahead of time (did the same with a few other albums). And holy shit is this an amazing album. It's one of those albums where every song I feel like I had heard before. I Feel The Earth Move, So Far Away, It's Too Late, You've Got A Friend, and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman most prominently.

Impossibly smooth, but also with the slightest edge.

Easily one of the greatest albums of all time, and for me, prime up north driving/cabin music.

Side note: Can't go wrong with an album art featuring a cat, haha.

Honestly, probably the best live album I've heard (Live at Leeds and the Johnny Cash prison albums are close).

See Thin Lizzy, THIS is how you produce a live album. It's raw, noisy, chaotic, messy, and just all around fantastic. It's not produced to within an inch of it's life like Live & "Dangerous" was.

And of course, it's got the classics on here. Ace of Spades is a fantastic opener, with Overkill and (We Are) The Road Kill being some of my favorites.

I still struggle with the idea of putting live albums on this list (They're basically glorified greatest hits most of the time), but regardless, this is great.

Forgot Rod Stewart was in a band before going solo.

Anyways, solid blues rock album. Some really good tracks, but mostly falling into being burnt out on this type of blues rock.

Yeah, this one isn't working for me, dawg.
Once in a while, I can get behind psychedelic music if it meshes well with another genre (Candy Claws mixing it with shoegaze for their album Ceres & Calypso in the Deep Time is great). But mixing it with 2010's indie rock only ends up reinforcing the janglyness and thinness of the 60's psychedelic rock they're channeling. Honestly, some of this wouldn't be out of place in the 60's, such as the song Waveform. And for me that's not a good thing.