Reviews by ultraclear

Rainy Day singer/songwriter. Drags a bit, but passes the time just fine.

I remember watching the thing when it first released. Wouldn't exactly say it aged well. Or, well, the ways in which it's interesting in hindsight don't quite overcome that it's just kinda obnoxious.

There's a kernel of Something in there, though. It's an explicit piece of COVID Lockdowns Art, which *sounds* like it should be more interesting than all the media that elides that era... but in hindsight this thing's really more about just being generally insecure on the internet. But then one of the big legacies of quarantine time is more people getting flushed online & mainlining all of this stuff.

I dunno! It's probably healthy for Burnham to be working through all this stuff for his own sake, but I'm not all that charmed by the end result.

Argle Blargle aggro music. Honestly might be kinda great for something like lifting weights

Maudlin Indie, sung by someone who sounds like he's flat even when he probably isn't

Ranges from “fine” to “actively annoying.”

Weirdly I think I’d like it more if I *didn’t* understand the lyrics

Second thing from them that I’ve heard on here. A little bit more reined in than Chocolate and Cheese. I dunno, I kind of want to like these guys better than I actually do, I think.

Arrakis Sandworms Walk Without Rhythm guide. It’s good when experimental music actually gets out there and experiments

Unmistakably 80s, more of a "weird moody" flavor than most new wavey stuff of the era

Kind of an indie pop sound, wore out its welcome as it went on

"Poems with backing music" but the music is chugga wugga metal. I had fun with this one.

A very lyrics-forward album, which can be tough for me. It's not enough to overcome my distaste for slide guitar

It's an interesting historical artifact, if nothing else. Demonstrates that 80s production really, really screws up the vibes when trying to cargo-cult Gabriel-era Genesis. Phil Collins & co. definitely made the right move in pivoting to pop music

Bass showcase album. Some nice sunny day jazz, overall

UK Folk Music > American Folk Music for me, and Nic Jones has a better singing voice than most of what the original list had to offer for this sort of thing

Grading on the curve of Steven Wilson works, I liked his solo album on here better. Grading on the curve of “keeping the torch of prog rock lit during the 21st century,” I like Mars Volta better

Pretty decent folky prog metal/post-metal kind of thing. Wore out its welcome a little bit toward the end

Down-the-middle 80s rock, which can sometimes drift a little too sleepy for my liking. Thankfully, this sidestepped that.

Hits an interesting energy level. It's busier than most ambient out there, but not nearly as frenetic as most english electronica seems to aim for

Hard to sum up in a star rating. Runs into the same issue as a lot of the pre-1960 albums from the original list, where it's *really* not meant to be listened to in the same kinds of settings & contexts as I tend to play an album... but also Louis Armstrong was an absolute titan, and deserves recognition for all time.

Above replacement country music. I actually grabbed a couple songs off here for the highlights playlist, I don't normally do that for the country entries