Reviews by uls980

Was kinda dreading this when I got it. Psychedelic Rock is the bane of my existence when it comes to this list.

But this isn't half bad. Still gonna give it a middling rating, but the bossa nova is helping it avoid a lot of the stuff that makes me hate psych rock (Random noodling that goes nowhere, ren-faireisms).

So yeah, decent enough album, but I'm just not going to be into 60's psych.

This is honestly just The Rolling Stones.

And given I'm pretty ambivalent on the Stones to begin with aside from their singles, I'm pretty ambivalent on this. And given that the only things of note regarding this album are that Mick Jagger name dropped it as good, and it's on the 1001, this will be added to my list of albums that should be removed from the list.

As I say for all Stones albums, the non-bluesy tracks are good, not huge on the bluesy tracks.

So yeah, decent album, with some garage rock-y moments. But that's all it is.

Pretty solid album. Rise Above is a great track.

Beyond that, never was huge on hardcore punk ir Black Flag. But still good album.

And here, got an album that was better than I was expecting. I knew the songs Band On the Run and Jet (fantastic songs), but the rest is just classic McCartney sounds. Bluebird and Mamunia probably being the weak links on the album. Mrs. Vanderbilt is great.

Honestly, not as good as I was expecting.
Was expecting more surf rock stuff, but really only got ballads and vocal pop.

Its fine. Same rating as Pet Sounds, and while I don't like the styles as much on Pet Sounds, it was much more interesting at least compared to Today.

I have liked The Replacements songs before, particularly off of Pleased to Meet Me, but it was interesting hearing them go through a bunch of different styles. Cowpunk, hardcore, more power pop stuff like on Pleased.

So yeah, really enjoyable record.

Not terrible, but not really hitting me either.
In Da Club is a fun song, the Eminem track is probably my favorite.

I am not a huge fan of 50's vocals here. He tends to slur his words and has a kinda sloppy flow. Some songs are worse that others for this.

Overall, it's a decent album.

You know you're in for a treat when the first track (Not a song) is about Morrissey, and somehow Morrissey is the better person in the conversation compared to Adams. Pro-tip for artists. Never name drop a better artist in your music, especially when you're a shitty person who was outed as a predator. Making me defend Morrissey's honor, fuck you. Somehow Adams gets worse.

Additionally, this fucker changed San Antonio to "San Antone" for what I assume was a rhyme, and then he proceeds to rhyme it with "what".

But aside from all that, this album's fine. Some pretty solid cuts like Oh My Sweet Carolina, Bartering Lines, and Come Pick Me Up. All of this sounds very Jason Isbell, but Isbell is far better.

Outside of those solid cuts, the rest of the album is just OK at best. Still... making me defend Morrissey. Unforgivable.

Maybe part of it is that I have zero nostalgia for this, but this isn't good.
Mushy, dated as hell, and generally just not great 80's ballad/dance pop stuff.

But I think part of it is it's just not good either. 80's music that your grandma at the time would have zero objection to (Although I guess props for the gender nonconformity, grandma would definitely not like that), and not even a cool grandma. I'm sure they were considered cool at the time, but this is aggressively uncool music in this day and age.

I would give this a one if it weren't for Miss Me Blind, which I do have to admit is a pretty good track. But that's all it really has. Even Karma Chameleon isn't very good. What a waste of a fantastic song name.

It's been really hot and cold with the generator lately, and I've been hitting some bangers lately, and this one is no exception.

I definitely prefer the Tricky version of Karmacoma (Renamed Overcome here) over the Massive Attack version.
Additionally, Pumpkin is a fantastic track.

Relistening to this though for the first time in years, what strikes me is that, on some level, I think this was what Damon Albarn was kinda going for on the first Gorillaz album? At least as far as his fusions of trip hop and alt rock go. Obviously, Albarn was more ambitious (For better and worse, as while I do think Gorillaz has much better hits/singles, but Maxinquaye is by far the more consistent album), but Tricky still has his alt rock bangers on this album too (Black Steel).

I do think a few of the tracks at the end trade on some dated sounds, but it's not to the detriment of the songs.

So yeah, this album isn't quite as immediate as other trip hop albums (Especially Dummy and Mezzanine), but it is a really well crafted, consistent album.

Kinda struggling to say much about this album other than it's probably my favorite Radiohead album, and one of the easiest 5/5 albums on this list.

I'd list which songs are my favorite, but I'd basically just end up listing the whole tracklist.

But what I like about this album more than other Radiohead albums (Although Kid A comes close) is that it retains the more alt rock leanings while excising the cowpunk, weird alt they had going on in The Bends (Honestly not a huge Bends fan).

THIS sounds like Radiohead to me.

You know, I was expecting to give this a light 4, say its good, but not great, and be done with it. Honestly was expecting more of a pop-punk album, given a lot of their singles.

But aside from Come Out and Play, this album for the most part is hard driving skate punk, which I really appreciate.

So yeah, damn good album. Still a 4, but a high 4.

Ughh. Man I have gotten a string of bad to just fine albums, and this one is not helping. Guess that's what I get for having a really damn good string of 4s and 5s recently.

I'm sure it's fine for country, but this stuff does nothing for me and a lot of times verges on annoying.

I will say Boxcars is a pretty good song though, since it's darker and got more of a vibe to it beyond just standard old country.

But yeah. Not enjoying this one.

Don't really got a ton to say. Traditional African music mixed with blues. Its solid enough.

OK, there are some pretty solid songs on this one such as Meus Filhos, Meu Tesouro which goes hard.

But what's absolutely destroying this album is whatever instrument (Looking it up, it's the cuica, and it's meant to sound like an opossum) sounds like a squeegee cleaning off a windshield of a car. It's especially bad on O Plebeu.
Like, I feel bad for shitting on a traditional instrument, but it drives me up the wall.

Sometimes it's OK when it's more staccato, but a lot of the time it's going off and doing it's own thing, and it just sounds grating.

I was maybe considering a higher score, but once I started noticing the cuica, I couldn't not hear it, and like I said, it's honestly destroying my enjoyment of this album. It's so annoying.

So yeah. Unfortunately have to give this album a 1. Feel bad, because it's a cultural thing and I don't want to do that, but I just cannot stand that instrument. It's infuriates me how annoying it sounds.

Honestly pretty disappointed with this one.

Kinda cheesy heavy metal, doesn't really show off Halford's chops at singing.
Obviously there some good stuff on here like Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight, but the rest is just perfectly OK heavy metal.

Honestly, the pick should have been Screaming for Vengeance, with Judas Priest getting a second album in Painkiller.

Have listened to this one a few times before, but going into this, didn't really remember what it sounded like and only remembered that I did like listening to it.

So pretty curious how this listen would go considering I was not big on m b v. If I remember right, m b v had the issue of being less noisy, too repetitive, and the songs being too long. None of those issues crop up on Loveless as it sticks more towards traditional alt-rock construction (But still spacey and not really verse chorus verse).

But yeah, really loving this album. Definitely on a scale of dream pop to noisy shoegaze, this one slots more on the noisy side compared to a Cocteau Twins (dream pop) or slowdive (More in the middle, but still on the dream pop side).

Just a vibes album all around, beautiful, and amazing.

Not quite October yet, but this is a good spooky season album.

Prior to getting this, felt like I would have given it a 3 since I don't think it's as good as Marshall Mathers LP, but honestly this is hitting today for me. Could be the season, could just be it's better than I remember, either way, today's a good day.

I'm just going to ignore the skits. Most of them are pretty short anyways, and I typically don't count skits against an album.

It's interesting how out of place My Name Is on the album, given how upbeat it (And it's sample, Labi Siffre's I Got The) and weird it is when the rest of the tracklist is so dark with it's horrorcore styles.

Still fantastic and classic song, but yeah. Beyond that, this album is just filled with great flows and beats. Guilty Conscious is good, but the breaks to introduce the next character really slam the breaks on the momentum of the song. Brain Damage is fantastic with it's plinky guitars giving it that spooky vibe. If I Had is a more dark R&B style track that vibes, but I do think the lyrics/flow aren't as strong as some of his other stuff on the record.

Then you have '97 Bonnie & Clyde, the sequel to the absolutely harrowing Kim on the Marshall Mathers LP. Knowing Kim, this song kinda loses some of it's horror when you know that it gets so much worse. This song is kinda quaint in comparison, although still solid.

Role Model brings back some plinky guitars that gives that Halloween in Detroit vibe that I love. Couple that with an insane flow from Eminem, just a fantastic song. Classic Slim Shady song.

After that, the album does start to drag a tad with My Fault and Cum on Everybody, two songs that I would honestly drop from the album. Side note: If you dropped the skits (I'd leave Public Service Announcement) and those two songs, this could honestly be a really tight 50 minute album that might be a 5/5.

But Em brings it back with Rock Bottom, probably on of the best tracks on the entire record. Guitars on this album are just bringing the horror vibes and I love it.

Just Don't Give A Fuck is a solid track. The the screaming bell sound does get old by the end of the song, but a great flow from Eminem keeps it interesting. As the World Turns, I'm Shady, Bad Meets Evil, and Still Don't Give A Fuck just keeps things moving though and finish off the album nicely. Feel like I could appreciate those songs more if My Fault and Cum On Everybody were dropped, just because the runtime does exhaust a little by the end.

But yeah. Classic record from Em, better than I remembered. I'm sure some of my praise of this and MMLP are due to me being from Detroit and kinda feeling like I need to hype up artists from my area (Especially as Eminem's reputation has kinda took a hit with his later albums not being that great), but SSLP and MMLP are legitimately great albums.

I'lll have to relisten to MMLP again. I do remember it having similar issues with it kinda having a few songs that aren't up to snuff, but the highs are definitely higher than on SSLP.

This album definitely wears it's influences on it's sleeves. Heavy Red Hot Chili Peppers in the guitar and bass. White Stripes/Jack White as well, and on vocals.

But regardless, I'm having a lot of fun with this album, terrible album art notwithstanding. Just some good 00's English garage rock fed through a slight funk/blues sound.

I'm learning I just am not really into Outkast or Atlanta rap.
Not that it's bad, it's just not really my thing. It's got the silly Gorillaz Plastic Beach type stuff going on that I would normally be into, but for some reason it just doesn't click outside the context of Plastic Beach.

Way too many interludes, along with a lot of the tracks being very repetitive and wear out their welcome for me.

Fine album, but yeah, just not for me. Far prefer East Coast/Jazz/Soul/Alternative rap over Atlanta/Southern rap.