Reviews by uls980

Feel like if I was listening to hip hop back then, this would have been great, but in a world with Kendricks and Aesop Rocks, this album just feels ancient.

Not necessarily aged poorly, just that the beats and rapping are very simple, there's a lot of "I'm a great rapper, I'll destroy you at the mic" lyrics. That late 80's "I need to hit every beat extremely hard with my rhymes" with a very hard flow (which is now, unfortunately, synonymous with awful corporate training videos that try to be cool).

A lot of the music is great and some of the sung choruses are great (The Pros, which weirdly has some of my least favorite rapping on the record. Which is funny because the sung choruses have better "rapping" with rolled/trilled lines that the actual rapping does not).

Monie Love was great on Ladies First.
Also, recognized the sample used on Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children as it was used in an episode of Better Call Saul, fun fact (Scorpio by Dennis Coffey).

But overall, it gets the 2/5 simply because this style of rapping, to me, has just kinda been left behind and does not really work for me in today's landscape. Not necessarily a knock against the album itself and more just a reflection of how far hip hop has progressed since this album came out (and how far it's progressed due to this album's influence).

It's fine I guess, but the whole time I was listening to it, I was just thinking how there is so much better rock music from around the same time.

Doesn't have the songs I like from him, and a lot of his vocal affectations kinda annoy me/are all over the place. It's like there's three different singers on the record, and they don't really mesh.

Was hoping for some good Fallout-core and unfortunately did not get it, haha (Although Fallout music is more 40's, but still).

This one surprised me a bit, and made me realize Rod Stewart is very Rolling Stones-esque.

Never really thought to listen to a whole album by him, but it was a good listen. Like Stones if you cut out heavier blues stuff. Which I like a lot, because the deep blues stuff Stones do kinda has aged a lot to my ears.

While Stones I think are better in general on their big singles (Nothing on this album comes close to something like Gimme Shelter), I liked this album as a whole better than Let It Bleed.

Maggie May is a classic, and Every Picture Tells a Story and (Find a) Reason to Believe are fantastic. That's All Right is the only song I'm kinda "eh" on and even then, it's still solid, just doesn't justify it's length IMO.

Great album.

15 years ago, this would have been my jam and would be an easy 4/5 assuming I had hopped on the Yes boat back then (as far as prog rock went, I was more into Pink Floyd/Coheed and Cambria, and then the metal stuff like Dream Theater and Opeth).

Unfortunately since then, I discovered technical metal, post-rock and metal (similarly black metal) and punk music, which to me are kinda the opposite of prog. Especially punk, but technical metal accomplishes the virtuosity of prog without feeling noodly (assuming they're not sacrificing feeling/humanity/emotion for pure technicality). Post-rock and metal/black metal gets me the long run time that I do like, but allows me to just vibe to it which I can't do with prog. And punk music is self-explanatory, haha.

So yeah, my tastes have basically changed to want music that is functionally not prog, lol.

That said, still a solid album, the sounds on this thing are nostalgic to my childhood (parents big into classic rock), and the musicianship is great. I've Seen All Good People is a stone cold classic. Just, my tastes have changed, and I don't have a ton of patience anymore for prog rock noodling beyond what has been grandfathered onto my playlists.

I feel like I've listened to her album Rid of Me (or maybe I'm mixing it up with Sky Ferreira's album Night Time, My Time, although thats definitely not punk???), but with an album name like Let England Shake, I was expecting more rrriot girl punk type stuff, not jangly indie pop/folk, haha.

Either way, really solid album. I'll have to give it a few more spins.

Never really been a fan of The Doors. A lot of the stuff on this album just feels incredibly dated to me, with the only thing propping it up being the singles, which have aged a lot better in my opinion (or it could just be that I've heard the songs so much, they don't sound as dated due to familiarity).

It's just good. One of those "I can't really explain why I like it or why it's good, it just is". Can't say anything on it is playlist, but I enjoyed listening to it, not a dud on the album.

Really good folk music. Particularly liked Alice's Wonderland and Angie. You can definitely hear this guys' influence all over bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who, and The Rolling Stones. Some songs feel like unfinished ideas, but you still get the full emotional punch he was going for.

Just a solid, great folk album.

Metal is basically one of my bread and butter genres, however I didn't really get into the genre until I was in college, and by that time, I was mostly into bands like Mastodon and Gojira, branching out into more technical, atmospheric stuff like Dillinger, Converge, Wolves in the Throne Room, Krallice, Gorguts, ISIS, etc ("hipster" metal, if you will, lol).

So groove metal (aside from whatever Gojira mixed into their music) was never really my thing. Kinda always found it too "meathead" for my tastes.

That said, while I probably wouldn't go back to listening to Pantera after this, it's definitely a good fun listen. Rhythms on drums are great, Dimebag's guitar work is fantastic, Anselmo has got a unique voice somewhere between Hetfield and Jens Kidman (Meshuggah).

Walk sounds like one of those songs that are somehow 90's as hell, but also timeless.

Not really my thing as far as metal goes, but it earns it's place on this list, not just from its influence and legacy, but just being a solid as hell metal album.

This is a really interesting album to get immediately after Talking Heads' Fear of Music, especially since I couldn't stand that album. This album feels a lot like that Talking Heads album, with the repetitive rhythm based music, some songs lacking in catchiness, really cheesy instrumentation here and there.

All things considered, I should hate this album same as Fear of Music, but I don't. I think it's just due to how sincere and *fun* Adam sounds like he's having on this album whereas the Talking Heads' album didn't sound fun at all and felt way too up its own ass, I guess? Like they're doing all that weird experimental stuff because it's "true art", whereas Adam and the Ants are just fucking around and having fun. It may not work all the time for me, but at least it's fun.

Yeaaah, this one just isn't it for me. It's extremely repetitive, some of the songs sound like they were constructed from really cheesy music sample packs, I'm not hearing anything that's catchy, a lot of songs grate on me.

To be fair, I've never been a huge fan of Talking Heads, even on the songs I do like (Burning Down the House and Psycho Killer), but this is just not good. Maybe I'm being too hard on it, but stuff like Electric Guitar and Drugs are awful.

Like, I can see where they were going on *some* of the album, but it just doesn't work at all.

This'll be my first 1/5. Really struggled between a 1 or a 2, but yeah, nothing on this comes close to being enjoyable for me.

(I somehow came out of this record with Psycho Killer stuck in my head... what?)

This feels like some good Fallout-core, and I'm always down for that. Just good jazz.

It shocks me that a band can write absolute classics like Take It Easy and Witchy Woman, and on the same album also write absolute garbage like Chug All Night, Most of Us Are Sad, and Earlybird.

The lyrics in Most of Us Are Sad are unforgivable.

Even the last single, Peaceful Easy Feeling is pretty mediocre.

I almost was super generous and about to give it a 3 purely on the backs of the first two songs, but yeesh Earlybird. The sampled bird noises and the banjo are awful.

I never understood the hate for the Eagles, but that was before I heard their non-singles. I get it now.

This one surprised me. Not that I don't like Johnny Cash, I just went into it thinking it'd be just fine, a solid 3/5. Ended up finding myself enjoying it quite a bit though to the point I put it on for a second spin.
Guess it just hit the spot.

Was debating between a 2 or a 3, but ultimately I just can't get past Janis Joplin's voice. She sounds like if Marge Simpson tried to sing after chain smoking five packs of cigarettes.

It works on Piece of My Heart purely due the fact I've heard that song so much over the years that I've gotten used to it, but its just not working for the rest of the album.

Music and talent is great, but just her voice is not doing it for me. That, and that 60's blues sound is just starting to feel too dated to me.

I really want to like this, the production is amazing, and some of the music is fantastic, but I just can't stand his voice. When he's low it's that monotone Drake type voice, and when its high it's that high pitched R&B voice I dislike. He sounds a little more Bruno Mars on Bad Religion, which I don't mind, but still.

Not a lot of heavy hitting songs either. Pyramids I guess, but a lot of downtempo R&B stuff.

Forrest Gump is probably the standout for me, but even then it's a tepid standout.

Really good album. Just not my genre. Probably would have been a 4 or 5 if I was into classic funk.

Great album, nothing but classics.

Kinda the same issue I had with Tanto Tempo. The unfortunate association I have with this music is either soundtrack or dance music, and not listening music. It's really good for those things, but not something I'd ever go out of my way to just put on and listen to.

This album was made in 1974? Jesus this album feel incredibly ahead of its time. It wouldn't sound out of place in the 80's I wouldn't think on some songs.

Always meant to listen to it, just never got around to it. Really good stuff, especially the lead song The Thrill of It All.

Edit: Went back to it and relistened, and it's just not hitting me like I remembered? Dunno what it is. Feels weird to go back and downgrade an album that I said I liked previously, but yeah. Also relistened to Roxy Music, but that's at the correct rating already at 2.