Reviews by uls980

Barely two songs into this album and I already know everything I need to know about it. This is without a doubt the most unnecessary add to the list that I've gotten so far (250ish albums in).

It wasn't a really big practice back when this came out, but this reminds me of the stuff Nickelback would do. Basically workshop an album until it is the most boringly middle of the road slop that "anyone" could enjoy. The difference is, at least Nickelback had How You Remind Me. To be fair, apparently The Cult started outside a goth rock/post punk band? I'd much rather listen to that then this lowest common denominator hard rock music that doesn't have a single unique idea in it.

Overall, it's not bad, per-se, which is why it's not getting a 1. It's just beyond derivative and boring. This thing was made in 1987? Only two years away from Nirvana? Way to fuckin date yourself immediately. And they're aping the 70's, not even trying to cash in on hair/glam metal. Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and Aerosmith was doing this stuff better back in the seventies.

If I were to re-do this list, this honestly would be the first album I'd drop from the list, and it isn't even close. At least every other album I'd drop has *something* unique about it. There is no originality to be found here. If there's ever an album that feels like it got on purely because the band is British, it's this one. Why there needs to be a 70's throwback album from 1987 on the list confuses me.

Up front, I've never been a fan of Björk. She's been one of those artists that I want to get into, but just can't. Tried multiple times to Stockholm myself into liking her, but just can't. However, I am finding myself "getting it" this time around.

Between this album and Post (which has her best song, Army of Me - her only song which I previously have actively enjoyed and playlisted), this is her at her most accessible, with solid tracks such as the previously mentioned Army of Me from Post, but also Human Behavior and Venus as a Boy from this record. But there's also the stuff that's starting to hint towards her weird, experimental albums to come like There's More to Life Than This and Aeroplane.

But the album does have a handful of great cuts here or there too. Big Time Sensuality with it's Prince-esque 80's vibe and One Day with it's chilly sci-fi vibe. One Day might actually be my favorite track on the record. I like the vibe of Come to Me.

Overall, this is a solid 4 from me, surprisingly. I'd be surprised if her later albums get a higher or equal rating than this from me though. I'm already not too into the more experimental stuff on this record.

Well the title track really promised a lot that the rest of the album didn't really deliver. Went into it expecting more rocking folk tracks like American Pie, but aside from one other song (that's basically American Pie 2.0), the rest were really slow, acoustic folk songs. Good folk songs mind you, but nothing that particularly impressed me. I've definitely heard Babylon somewhere though (Edit: Mad Men. Man, it's been years since I've watched that. Surprised I remember).

So yeah, solid album. Just not something that wowed me.

Classic album. Obviously Message in a Bottle is one of the biggest classic rock staples out there, but thealbum does have some great pop punk tracks like Bring on the Night. Stewart Copeland always locks down the drums, easily the best (and most underappreciated) aspect of The Police IMO.

Will say, getting to the second half of the record though, it's kinda losing me. Some weird vocal choices, and odd musical ideas. Thought this was gonna be better than it is.

One of those exquisitely produced and made albums that just isn't really my thing. A perfect soul/R&B record.

But with the extreme song lengths (Average of 11 minutes, one of them is 19 minutes long!!!) and this just not really being my thing, just don't got a ton to say about it other than it's fantastic, just not for me.

You know, I've listened to this album before and I thought I knew where I was gonna settle on this one (with a 4). But listening now, it's just scratching an itch that I didn't know I had.

Of course, theres the songs I loved before like Wave of Mutilation and Gouge Away, but other tracks like Debaser and Tame are hitting for today (and Here Comes Your Man and Monkey Gone to Heaven and There Goes My Gone). Album full of bangers here. And what's driving it all is Kim Deal's basswork. Simple, but driving and prominent. Along with Black Francis' vocals and shouts, its fantastic.

So yeah. Fantastic record of front to back winners.

Side note, speaking of Kim Deal, why The Breeders aren't on the list is puzzling to me.

Generally, industrial isn't something I'm too big on, but when I like it, I really like it. Bands like Nine Inch Nails and Godflesh (their album Streetcleaner should be on the list) are great, along with whenever Chelsea Wolfe and Blut Aus Nord incorporate industrial into their music.

Mainly, when I don't like industrial its when its more electronic/dancier. I like my industrial to be dark, heavy, and dissonant (although I do like NINs electronic/dancy stuff too).
Ministry luckily falls into the more dissonant/heavy vibe.

That said, I'm not super crazy for Ministry. But I liked their album The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste, Thieves off that album is great. And listening to this album, it's just more good industrial metal. I think a lot of the songs can get a bit repetitive, really driving the riffs and drum beats into your head. I do like that Ministry have always sounded like they used power tools to make their music.

But yeah. Just some good industrial metal.

Gonna be honest, I can't be objective on this album. This album gets a high rating for a purely personal reason (although it is fantastic objectively) despite the fact I've never heard it before.

My grandfather passed away in 2006 and my uncle in 2008. I remember breaking down one time and having to leave while visiting my grandfather while he was going through chemo, and that was the last time I saw him.
After that I promised myself I wouldn't avoid my family members when they were going through similar health issues. So I made sure to be there when my uncle passed. Father and Son was one of the songs my uncle requested be played at his funeral and that's stuck with me ever since.

With that bit of incredibly sad backstory out of the way, yeah, this is an amazing album. Of course Wild World is fantastic, but other cuts like Miles From Nowhere, Longer Boats, and On the Road to Find Out are amazing. The cello (bass violin, I dunno, too busy breaking down in tears listening to this) in Longer Boats is exquisite. This is music that would fit incredibly well for driving through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (UP-core, if you will).

Cat Stevens has an amazingly full, warm, and comforting voice.

But yeah. This *might* be a 4/5 without the personal connection to Father and Son, but I can't justify anything less than a 5 due to that. Honestly breaking down in tears writing this review, this is tough. I'm a mess listening to this.

Didn't think this would hit me this hard tonight, yet here we are. This album has too many personal feelings (including stuff I won't mention here) and issues wrapped up in it for me, so yeah. 5/5, 9/5, fucking whatever out of five, doesn't fucking matter. I both did and did not need this tonight. Fuck you Cat Stevens for destroying me tonight, and thank you for the amazing music, and for reminding me of the important things in life I have been neglecting. FUCK.

"All the times I've cried/
Keeping all the things I knew inside/
It's hard, but its harder to ignore it"

Rest in peace Uncle Vince.

Now this is some proper Fallout-core. Probably the single most Fallout-core album I've gotten so far.

Anyways, great, fun little jazz rock album. I listened to the expanded edition, and honestly the added songs weren't as strong as the original tracklist, but it was still fun. (I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) You Rascal goes hard, especially as a closer.

If I may indulge a little bit here... absolutely terrible, godawful album art. Have always thought that. Does not affect my opinion of the album, but yeah.

Now that I got that out of the way, have always been a fan of this album (Even if I've fallen off the prog train) along with Frances of the Mute and the stuff Cedric and Omar did in At the Drive-In. What sets this album aside from a lot of other prog projects is the different genres The Mars Volta take in their music, whether it's jazz, latin, and especially the post-hardcore influences. Punk is anathema to prog, but the post-hardcore influences do a lot of the heavy lifting of elevating this record beyond just being another overproduced, indulgent prog rock record. It adds a sense of intention and drive to all the music instead of sounding like a masturbatory session on the guitar.

Overall, just a fantastic record. Highlight for me (Probably obvious) is Inertiatic Esp, but songs like Cicatriz Esp and Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt are great too.

I've been familiar with David Berman's (Rest in peace) work for a while. Mostly songs from the Silver Jews like How to Rent a Room or his final project Purple Mountains, and generally it's all been fantastic.

I will say, sometimes with Silver Jews being indie alt-country/rock, it does sometimes lose me when its a bit too cowpoke/country, but overall this is a great record with Horseleg Swastikas and Transylvania Blues being the standouts as their more western sounding vs country, along with being fuller sounding.

A really solid album with great singles, but is hampered by deep cuts that feel derivative of other bands. Round and Round is straight up a Black Sabbath song, there's a couple songs on there that sound very Lynyrd Skynyrd. And the weakest track on it is easily Big Ten Inch Record. Those lyrics are painful. Understand that's a cover, but probably should have left it off.

That said, like I mentioned, the singles are great, Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion.

Solid album with good singles, just derivative.

I feel like this is an album I would need nostalgia for to enjoy. As it stands though, I'm not really feeling the heavy 80's vibe of this record, especially with the ballads not being quite as strong as the bangers like Sledgehammer and Big Time (great bassline though).

Oddly, We Do What We're Told is probably my favorite song? It's got a very vibey, Nine Inch Nails feel.

But yeah, pristine pop album that isn't really doing much for me.

Got nothing really to say about this. It's fine. Funeral is better. Neon Bible doesn't really do much for me (but honestly that's Arcade Fire in general).

I'll have to listen to her stuff earlier in her career to see what she sounded like before the drug use took a toll on her voice.

Unfortunately, I'm just not a fan of the vocals on this one. Musically, it's solid (although I'm not huge on the blues of Brain Drain and the bluesy new wave of What's the Hurry?). It's odd that this album is described as new wave though. Mostly sounds closer to a bluesy/folk post-punk on certain tracks (Broken English, Guilt). Definitely an album that's weirdly all over the place genre wise, but also feels pretty cohesive. Guilt kinda feels like a punky Pink Floyd, if you can imagine that. But the vocals just aren't doing it for me, and even the backing vocals don't gel with the leads.

So yeah. Good musically, unfortunately not my thing vocals wise. Broken English and Guilt are probably the only tracks I really like, despite her vocals.

The second this started playing, I was like "I recognize that deep voice", and I was right. Chali 2na was in Ozomatli (never really listened to them, but my drum teacher liked them), and he did Neil DeGrasse Tyson in Epic Rap Battles, which was a great episode.

Anyways, generally enjoying this. It's got a more classic hip-hop vibe (pre-gangsta rap) with more modern flows/production. Got some of that jazz hip hop I like from bands like The Roots and Tribe. That said, I'm not super sold on this being an album that I "must" listen to. This feels like a VERY Robert Dimery pick, picking something more underground but not necessarily something that I hear a ton about in music circles (similar to Jeru the Demaja, Lupe Fiasco, and Mike Ladd, although that Jeru album was great).

This is a weird one, because I'm not really disliking anything on it, but feel like I'm going to settle on a 2 for a couple specific reasons. Firstly, it's weaker to me than Pet Sounds and Surfs Up (which I gave a 3 and 4 respectively).

But also, this doesn't seem to have any hooks or catchy bits for me to latch onto. It's not plodding, but the flow of the album feels very uniform without a ton of distinct verses or choruses.

And lastly, I'm just not a big fan of this type of psychedelic chamber pop. Even Pet Sounds I'm not big on.

So yeah. This isn't actively doing anything I dislike I guess, but I just don't "get" it I guess?

Perfectly fine disco R&B that just isn't my thing. Not even a big fan of Le Freak. Savoir Faire is probably the best track on the album with its Clapton-esque guitar, but the vast majority of the album has an issue with the songs being way too long. Every song could have used one to four minute pruning. Especially songs like At Last I'm Free which is dreadfully plodding and didn't need to be seven minutes long.

And if you thought DJ Kaled was bad with announcing his name, check the first two songs on this album, haha.

It's interesting how the generator seems to really like giving me certain artists albums all at the same time. Feel like I got all the Beck albums within like a 100 day span, haha.

Generally enjoying this one more the Guero with its more 90s vibes vs the tex-mex vibes of Guero (although still has some of that sound). Weird Beck is on full display here. Really enjoy songs like Lord Only Knows. A little surprised that this album is vibier than I was expecting. Was expecting something a little more rocky, in line with other songs of his like Loser.

But yeah. Good album, but still think Sea Change is my favorite from him.

I was curious about the albums from Queen outside of A Night at the Opera (which I've heard before). Generally the vibe I've gotten is that Queen is a singles band outside Opera.

But listening to Sheer Heart Attack, I don't agree with that at all. It's generally a good album all the way through. It does drop off a bit at the end starting at Misfire, but before that is consistently great, with the singles leading the way (Killer Queen, Flickr of the Wrist, Stone Cold Crazy). Tenement Funster is a great track too.

So yeah. Great album. Don't agree at all with the "singles band" criticism. Get the feeling that's just people's dislike for their goofier, showtunes-y songs.