Reviews by z_e_q

3.5? sometimes sounds uneven rather than varied, but grows in strength as it goes. jackson’s key/piano playing is great throughout, although i prefer the second half with the fuller band. hits its stride with “the bottle.”

gil’s poetry also improves in the second half, both in his ability to surprise and the acquisition of a sense of humor. although i get that funny wasn’t necessarily what he wanted in an exploration of black life in america. his rhythmic timing isn’t exactly dead on, but i think that's part of his thing.

replace a few names in h2ogate blues and dedicate it to jd vance rather than spiro agnew, and it’s perfect for 2025. even better that it’s live. lively, clever, sharp, true.

the flute also pipes up around halfway, flits in and out, and is more than welcome to hang out.

feels a bit heavy handed at times, but it’s good. it could grow into a 4 or higher.

i once spent three weeks in ireland. i'm writing a very precious album about it just to get back at these guys.

“all my favorite singers couldn't sing.” — david berman

doesn’t strike me as real. so the harder he tries, the harder i cringe.

there are a few moments. his guitar playing is good.

love a late career renaissance album. especially when it comes with an evolutionary step that suits their age and the times.

i'd be lying if i called myself a nine inch nails fan, but i’m a fan of johnny cash covering nine inch nails from what sounds like a dungeon cell. sounds like a goya painting. music for a mccarthy novel.

“the man comes around” is so good it’s like you’ve known it your whole life. perfect song to go out on.

most of it works. “i’m so lonesome i could cry” is one of the best songs ever written. personal jesus is great. it’s enthralling to hear his old voice RIGHT THERE. the production is awesome.

bridge over troubled water teeters on the edge of not working, but you're rooting for the old timer the whole time, aren't you?

damn your eyes!

twice as pissed as london calling, which i prefer for its diversity of styles. but this is raw, powerful, and seminal. it’s a killer album. five for sure.

there's no stars higher than five on here, and i'm not rating this down to make some weird star room for lc, so they'll both get full marks. if it didn't sound like a five the first time, turn it up.

double nickels on the clash.

fun, crass, clever, funky, raw, funny, weird, culturally rich, dynamic.

sew ya asshole closed and keep feedin you and feedin you and feedin you and feedin you.

give me more. i can take it.

made me sad. the musical equivalent of being forced to sing happy birthday to a coworker on your lunch break. a lame attempt to manufacture excitement from nothing. unearned and uncalled for. empty. forced. probably fun for a fleeting moment for those who don't know any better.

i expected to dislike this, but i didn't expect it to be so boring. the "hooks" don't work. the songs are too long.

rot. or if i'm more charitable, music to have a dalliance with at fourteen, but to move on from once you realize there's a big, beautiful, genuine world out there.

fun, dynamic album. always has a new sound, fresh hook, or clever turn of phrase in his back pocket.

probably the closest we got to an actual wizard on earth. summoned blood and thunder, water and earth. elemental music. the rhythm section made the whole thing fly even higher, and the times mythologized it.

he was just a guy with demons and vices and fears, but he sounded like a god. a song like "manic depression" is always jarring because it's about a human problem. why you singing about this, jimi? aren't you above this, on your own plane?

turns out, no. and that's both what made him so great and what robbed the world of more of him. a killer debut and a great record. gimme more jimi.

"got anything that leans into mccartney's worst instincts? sometimes sounds like the beach boys but bad? maybe a little cute and camp?"

buddy, have i got an album for you.

tolerable:
summer's cauldron/grass
big day

"elaborate pop arrangements" only go so far. toyed with the idea of a 1.

from an album that doesn't overstay its welcome for one second to this.

isn't she lovely? isn't six minutes of the same grating musical phrase repeated ad nauseum with someone else's home movies laid over it lovely?

it's produced beautifully, that's for sure.

but the other words that come to mind are saccharine, trite, and repetitive. "love's in need of love today"? lol k. how about "if it's magic", a three minute jingle for an unmade coca cola commercial?

high points:
-the opening harmony on "love's in need."
-have a talk with god. that's a good song. stellar sounds in there.
-village ghetto land is one synthesizer that sounds like an orchestra. pretty cool. clever, real lyrics too.
-contusion. more of that would have gone a long way to breaking up smooth stevie's sugar sweet singalong.
-pastime paradise. coolio was right.
-i wish. good song. will smith and kevin kline were right.

you can keep almost all of side two. isn’t she lovely never ends or changes. "black man" has an intense groove, but just. doesn't. end. or change. right through the question and answer chanting. it's a nice sentiment, but so is the title "love's in need of some love."

stevie's never been a go-to for me. his voice has never stuck to my ribs like some others. the grooves have always pulled up short of genuinely infectious. they’re repetitive. it took me five good listens before talking book clicked. but it did click. maybe this will, too. this is a biggie in musical history and universally lauded. i'm curious to get to the bottom as to why. but not today.

album concept: five goobers who look like they work at a pizza parlor dress as tarantino characters and put on a power pop hook clinic while a golden haired demi-goddess (i love you deborah) whirls, sneers, and wails her way through twelve excellent songs.

i can remember the exact moment i fell in love with debbie harry as a boy in the back of the minivan listening along to Q104.1 FM: the second chorus of "one way" when she starts letting her voice do that growly thing. probably 7 years old. floored. slack-jawed. what is this weird feeling? who is this lady who's gonna get me? god, i hope she does. i didn't know who she was or what she looked like for another seven years. didn't matter. imprinted.

apparently they caught shit for "heart of glass." too commercial or disco, not close enough to what the post-punk art rock world thought was legit. goes to show the value of a dogmatic view of music. any musician who wanted to rob the world of THAT groove (nice one, goobers) deserves to have their card revoked. plus it fits perfectly with the album's sequence.

not a dull moment. gets better with every listen. makes me love rock and roll, debbie, and even disco a little more. what more could i ask for?

i always get bayou country and green river mixed up bc they’re both just pictures of them in the woods. northern ca boys in the “swamp.” who you fooling? you jokers are in el cerrito.

zep knew about myth; sabbath too (and a lot of metal bands); so did creedence. creating a world and living inside it, sending out dispatches from middle earth or the lower circle of hell, or in this case, the humid swamps of an idealized american south. cynics might call it a gimmick, but it gets to the core of something human: we love fantasy. crave it. need it.

i love the first creedence record. it's raw and they're still thrashing around trying to perfect the sound.

"born on the bayou" is the pivot where it really snaps into focus. establishes the myth not only in sound but in words, too. dead perfect tremolo too.

does graveyard train need to be that long? probably not. they could have set the tone in less than 8.5 minutes.

good golly. back to the source. fogerty with a fuzz pedal, a wicked combo.

"penthouse pauper" is similar to one of my fave tracks from the first record, "the working man." call and response blues song, fogerty talking with his guitar. i love the third verse in particular. after the hacksaw line, his guitar rasps and cuts; after boasting about moving up to the house on top, a scale that builds from low to high. not tricky or fussy, but just what the song calls for.

i've heard proud mary too many times, but it's so very good. fogerty plays the right guitar for the moment again. the solo doesn't rip or tear, but laps up against the riverbank.

chooglin'. talkin' bout sex, compadre. slightly too long a bit too aimless? probably. but choogle is also the perfect verb to describe creedence's sound. fogerty's guitar tone is nasty.

ever hear anyone covering creedence? it's usually bad. tina turner could do it. you need a force of nature to cover a force of nature.

not their best or my favorite, but still very good. it's probably on this list because of "bayou" and "proud mary", but if this is here, that means the next three albums are too because those are even better.

so i’m saving some creedence headroom with a 4. ooby dooby what a band.

extraordinary album. like, extra ordinary. like weird. wyrd. death-obsessed and out there. with an all-time guitarist.

i'm cuckoo about the first side of this thing, but i've always felt like the second side isn't as strong. softer. not as varied. more dated. funereal at times.

the first side is stunning. an intoxicating mix of british folk and thompson's wily raga guitar fills. a great opener in "when i get"; blues rock stomp in "bright lights"; the moody "calvary cross" (thompson's opening guitar solo, holy christ). "withered and died" and "drunkards" slow things down, keep it balanced. beautiful songs. rooted at least half in the past musically, but timeless in their subject matter:

death, of course (the border line). but also being sick and goddamn tired of work, living for the weekend, drinking on the weekend, getting hammered on the weekend, looking for love on the weekend, and dreading monday morning (which is also sometimes death). existential workingman's music.

side two:

"we sing": three string fiddles and "the old fashioned way." a good singalong.

i love "has he got a friend for me." that's some good lovelorn achin', linda. great slice of life tune about desperation and dating. sounds current.

where "drunkards" could depict any skid row from the 19th or 20th century, "beggar girl" feels older, more dated. the cockles and clams girl from game of thrones or something. that’s good folk though.

end of the rainbow. jesus, that's dark. hey little baby, there's nothing to grow up for anymore. but really, what's he gonna do about it?

man, "valerio" is a dirge, isn't it? the lyrics are great. that's just a hell of a note to end on.

my lil former pothead hip hop wife used to listen to this. she says gza pulled her onstage at a show once and she didn't know what to do. danced around a little. that she likes method man's voice. i do too. this one's new to me though.

album art. double smoke blows. dark and druggy mood, got it.

title track. off the bat, this is heavy, thick, coarse. wall of bass. i like it. and the real squeaky voice guy asking to pass it over here.

good news: this album sounds like the art looks.

meth vs. chef is fun.

sub crazy mmph. bustin nuts in your wife lol.

let me pull ya brain out ya ass with a hanger. ooh ooh do me next.

is the "release yo delf" intro "i will survive" parody singing dumb? it seems dumb. settles in after that. pretty relentless.

lol i like the skit/audio of all the bees and the guy screaming. i always liked the kung fu movie ones.

how many chambers, fellas? i keep forgetting.

plo style is no frills great.

i get my thang. tribe called quest beat, but murky and menacing.

mr. sandman is fuckin weird and better for it. that singing guy. also, “runnin through bitches like emmitt smith”. 1994.

enjoyed the whole thing three times. maybe a little same-y throughout. kinda paints with one tone brush. if i saw it for the right price, i'd buy it.

i’ve avoided this record since adolescence mostly based on the album art. she’s so unusual. she’s so random. look how interesting. no shoes wow. what wild hair. i’m also not drawn to pop. we've all heard “girls” and “time after time”, but i've avoided the rest.

but now i’m grading essays while this bops along, and i'm enjoying it more than i thought i would.

my wife told me she bop is about female masturbation, which is chill.

on my way home from work, i remembered i inherited this record from my mom, so my second listen is on wax.

money changes everything is excellent. like a springsteen tunnel of love instrumental.

when you were mine is also excellent. prince song, but she sounds like female elvis costello. or he sounds like male cyndi lauper.

the hits are memorable and as is usually the case, made better in the context of the album.

uh oh, i'm into it. all through the night. shimmering synth. quieter instrumental so you can hear her voice better. wicked synth solo with a nobel prize winning bass groove under it. i’m a changed man, cyndi. thank you generator.

she’s great. i'm sold. agile and peppy and alternately cartoonishly fun, desperate and aching.

dumb apples and oranges recency comparison: so far, this album is everything yesterday's cream album isn’t. self possessed, cohesive, actually fun.

a reggae song. good groove. good synth(?)/bass line. not the best tune for her though? the elvis costello comparison comes to mind again, briefly.

i’ll kiss you is good.

betty boop joke song, k. kept it short. good.

last track is fine.

stronger start than finish. good album. broadened my 80s synth pop horizons. glad to own it on vinyl and throw it into the mix.

say what you want about clapton (he’s both overly revered and unfairly maligned), but if that first hammer-on note of strange brew doesn’t get you, what’s wrong? too bad the album peaks here.

i don’t like jack bruce’s singing. i never have and i likely never will. he certainly thought so. i don’t buy it. give me ginger baker on "blue condition." hell gimme clapton on “outside woman.”

gimme: strange brew, blue condition, outside woman blues; play that heavy blooz, white boys.

warning: white guy talking about clapton's guitar tone. the formula that works best here is what worked best on mayall's blues breakers record with clapton: put him in the middle of the mix, crank his amp to 12, and let him bleed that sweet, pure overdriven tone all over everything. HOT tubes, baby. with clapton, it's not just what he's playing; it's how it sounds. so i guess it's about the producer or engineer or whatever too. which was the guy from mountain here, who wrote "mississippi queen." which kicks ass. this band sounds best when they sound like mountain.

you can keep: world of pain, dance the night away, we're going wrong (jesus); the "psychedelia"

the rest is mid.

take it back has a fun vocal hook and keeps jack bruce between the lines enough to be tolerable. it's nowhere near as good a traditional blues interpretation as, say, the stones could do though.

i sunshine of your loved myself to death in my 95 ford taurus in high school. it's a good song despite jack bruce. the greatest thing jack bruce ever did was play bass on zappa's song "apostrophe." and he didn't even like zappa. pff jack bruce.

thought about a 2.

nice, kind of a blind spot for me. i know the classic rock radio staples, and i know the 30 seconds concert footage ("psycho killer") that i used to watch on microsoft encarta on our family gateway. watched that a few less times than the thirty seconds of “my generation.”

the whole campy big suit stop making sense thing didn't appeal to me in my teens or early twenties, then in my later 20s and 30s, every coffee shop seemed to have a pink neon script sign that said "this must be the place." it annoyed me, and being an asshole, i avoided listening mostly based on this.

i zimbra. lol it’s so manic. working their asses off. i’m assuming byrne is playing and singing. impressive. an african disco song.

mind. sick. agile little riffs. big funky bottom. this is a GUITAR ASS RECORD.

i love cities. best disco song i've heard in a long time. the lyrics are funny: "Lot of rich people in Birmingham / Lot of ghosts in a lot of houses / Look over there! Dry ice factory / Good place to get some thinking done."

these first three tracks have blown my hair back. energy.

i got some GROCERIES some PEANUT BUTTER. always liked it when it came on 97.1 the drive. now i've got the bigger context.

memories can’t wait. big thick groove. out there. guitar party rolls on. i'm beginning to love rock and roll.

air has that kinda camp retro flair with the backup singers and those wacky instrumental sounds in the pre-chorus. at this point, i'm thinking about how good a vocalist david byrne is. this is impressive.

heaven. that's a lovely instrumental intro. love how the bass is still partying. this is a good record. i want this record.

animals is weird as hell and haha the lyrics: "I'm mad and that's a fact / I found out animals don't help / Animals think they're pretty smart / Shit on the ground, see in the dark." i want "shit on the ground, see in the dark" on a t shirt.

electric guitar is...there. i will say, it's still in my head.

drugs kinda builds itself out of its different parts. like a little robot finding its arms and legs. there are birds in the background. shimmery brian eno "treatments." i love the angular guitars around 4:20.

this album is like a party for 8.5 tracks, then does the "nuts and berries" thing in animals and kinds gets bummed on itself for the last two songs. maybe that’s the point. that’s kinda how parties are. i still want it. going 4 until i figure out if it’s a 5.

goodbye brian jones, welcome mick taylor. keith’s best partner i think. some of the best two guitar music out there. guitar heaven, this album.

brown sugar certainly wouldn't fly today. but what a song. lyrically, i’d like to think it’s got more in common with randy newman’s “good old boys” than it probably does. these guys weren’t randy newman.

sway is never the first song i think of, but it’s great. jagger is great. mick taylor’s slide is perfect for the stones. scuzzier than duane. his solo near the end trills and soars too.

wild horses is a great song, like, a really great song, but i usually skip it. part of that is classic rock radio overexposure and part is because i like my stones scuzzy. and also because

can’t you hear me knocking is next. and i can’t wait. i’ve got a thing for studio reactions that stay in songs. the stones have a few great ones (after marianne faithful’s voice cracks when she’s going ultra hard in “gimme shelter”, someone loses their shit and yells WHOO!). and here, during keith’s first run through one of the sickest rhythm riffs of all time, there’s a “guh!” halfway through and a back of the studio “yeah!” at the end of it. i swear to god i usually listen to the first seven seconds of this song three or four times in a row. there are a few more peppered in there. you can hear they were feeling this one.

this song was built for two guitars. or maybe two guitars were made for this song. worth listening on headphones for the mix. keith in your right ear, mick taylor in your left. perfect counterpoints.

you gotta move. you gotta include a faithful blues cover cuz you do it so good. this album's "prodigal son." works great after knocking. keith’s backing vocals.

bitch. drivin'. mick jagger really is an excellent frontman. another masterclass in how to use two guitars. the mix stays the same. keith on the right as the engine; mick left as the spitting flames; watts and wyman behind you, clacking on the tracks; jagger in your face, preening and mugging. lots of sax on this record.

naming a song "i got the blues" is funny. stones as stax. stones as the mg’s. mick jagger as otis redding. it's great. mick can't do what otis did but otis didn’t do what mick does. or did he? the stones are indebted to him. but he loved them too. satisfaction.

sister morphine. this thing is haunted. ry cooder, who plays his best guitar on other people’s records (beefheart, taj mahal), plays slide. his playing is ghoulish and note perfect. i think that’s a third guitar they use to make those haunted house sounds. by the time the drums really kick in at about 2:40, the engine is warm. a dark and very dirty song. murky stones at their best.

dead flowers. sunshine after sister morphine. country stones singalong. homies could write a song. hanging w gram parsons. dude was kinda in every band about this time.

moonlight mile. that's how to use strings in rock and roll.

filthy great record. love the black and white stones records. only thing missing is a keith-sung tune. but that doesn't keep it from a 5.

the band sounds alright at first, then the kinda neutered vocal harmony pipes up over it. woof.

it's only natural is the best bad song in a bad bunch. made me think of big star for a second. yearn for big star. why would i listen to this when there's big star?

instrumental as backing track for vocals.

ladies and gentlemen, the house band for television's "seventh heaven."

orchestra. crooning white man singing sentimental lyrics. bad.

i'll listen to some pop rock. i'll put on a 10cc record. but this is dreck. this is worse than supertramp. this is a 1.