Reviews by verbaljazz

This album asks us to question "What is the purpose of music?" Mostly because on it's surface this album is not enjoyable and it's not danceable. So many of our reactions to and enjoyment of music comes from when we were teenagers. Then we come to this project confident in our belief that we know what music is and rate these albums accordingly. This album has its moments and is full of frenetic energy. No, I'm not going to put this on when I'm in the mood for love or a dance party, but it challenges my assumptions of what is "listenable." That said, the drummer often seems to be playing a different song than the rest of the band, and many of the songs sound like extended versions of the endings of rock songs where the instruments are on a collision course with each other.

This record contains perhaps the tightest song Rush ever made ("Limelight"), my favorite Rush song ("Red Barchetta"), an instrumental named for an airport ("YYZ"), a truly propulsive opener ("Tom Sawyer"), and ultimately a collection of music that highlighted the instrumental range of the band. The back half of the album does drag a bit, but imagine it's 1981, you would buy the vinyl, cassette or 8 track - and only listen to the first side.

Not Petty's best. Some decent songs.

A lot of effort went into making this record. The finished product sounds like it was meant for a musical. One has to appreciate the artistry, if some of this falls short.

Decent. Nothing groundbreaking.

It's wild that more people don't talk about how influential Lou Reed was. He had a mirror on the true counter-culture.

Any record that starts off with "Gimme Shelter" is an instant classic. There are a number of great songs on this one: the title track, "Midnight Rambler," "Monkey Man," "You Can't Always Get What You Want." There are some skips, though.

This album was groundbreaking. None of the songs could be played on the radio but it still sold because it tapped into the simmering anger at a system that viewed young Black men as a problem to be aggressively managed. This album also fueled the debate about who is allowed to say the N-word - to this day mediocre racist white people WANT to say it because "rappers say it all the time." Sure, some of the lyrics are misogynistic and homophobic, but rap goes in a different direction without this record.

Indistinguishable from a lot of music from the era.

Love bluegrass. This album is a bit long, but a true deep dive into what makes this music so great. Could do without the confederate flags on the cover, although that was not such a divisive issue in 1972.

Neil Young is an incredible songwriter. He's always been an icon and an iconoclast.

"She's got legs/She knows how to use them/She never begs/She knows how to choose them" is pure sublime poetry. How have these lyrics never been collected in book form?

All kidding aside, it's decent straight ahead, competent blues rock with insipid lyrics. Nothing groundbreaking, except for the beards.

Every song on this record is a gem. Neil Young is such a great songwriter, as well as experimenter with sound. The shift from acoustic to fuzzy electric captures his full range as a songwriter and performer. This does what a live record should do: reimagine the songs instead of flawlessly re-create the album versions.

This album was a constant for me in the mid-90s. There are a lot of great songs - "Hummer" and "Mayonnaise" are standouts. But there is also some filler.

This has not aged well. I used to listen to this quite a bit back when it came out. I can't believe I used to think I liked it. Everything sounds like mud: the mix, the vocals, the lyrics. Even the cover leaves a lot to be desired. "The Rooster" and "Would?" are this album's saving graces, but they aren't enough to overcome the unrelenting sameness of the other tracks.

Perhaps my favorite Beatles album. This album that proved to the Beatles they could get away with anything. A transition between the pure pop of the early years, and the more experimental records to follow. So many great songs on this one, and one of the best closing songs of all time ("Tomorrow Never Knows"). I often wonder how fans of the Beatles viewed this album. Were they repulsed at first? Or did they go along with it? Every song feels like a different experiment.

Abrasive for the sake of being abrasive. It has its moments, but seems to revel in irritating the listener.

My first experience with The Pogues was seeing them open for U2 on the Joshua Tree stadium tour in 1987. Shane McGowan had bad teeth and swigged from a bottle between shouting incomprehensible lyrics. Traditional Irish music with an edge that tells a story. The music tends to run together.

There is no denying the outsized cultural impact of this album. When the "Thriller" video was released on MTV it was an event. Michael went from a superstar to a mega super star. The good songs on this record are good. There are some forgettable tracks, but the Michael Jackson phenomenon was more than just the music: it was the whole aesthetic.

Nothing special. Listenable rock. It occurs to me that someone could write speculative fiction about a world in which the brothers Gallagher had murdered each other before becoming famous, but then the only change in this world is that Oasis would not exist. Everything else would be the same, and no one would be aware of a giant void in their life.