Year: 1990
Rating: 4/5 after one listen
Favorites: Birdhouse in Your Soul, Istanbul, Someone Keeps Moving My Chair
Imagine my surprise to learn that even a non-kid album by They Might Be Giants is essentially an album for kids. And I mean that in a good way! I only knew these guys from Istanbul, which is a catchy but silly song. At the time, I was too immersed in grunge and industrial to be much interested in something this lighthearted. But it's definitely catchy and fun and I'll have to check out their other stuff.
Year: 1995
Rating: 3.5/5 after one listen, plus a live show
Favorites: Oppression, Ground on Down, People Lead
I saw Ben Harper open for Dave Matthews Band right around the time this album would have come out. I was suitably impressed, mostly because he was doing Hendrix-style playing on a lap steel guitar. I never did check out the album and, now that I have, I think it's a mixed bag. I like the high-energy tracks and the overall socially conscious lyricism. But the quieter tracks all sort of sounded the same to me. Still, it probably merits a repeat listen, so I'll call it a 3.5.
Year: 2005
Rating: 4/5 after two listens
Favorites: In Your Honor, Still, Over and Out
I was huge into Nirvana and shifted a lot of that excitement to the not terribly similar Foo Fighters. Their first two records are great, especially The Colour and the Shape. So I'm sure I gave this a listen when it came out. Listening to it again now, I am reminded of my overall thought on this band: great live band, so-so album band. They definitely have some amazing songs and will have a pretty epic greatest hits collection at career's end. But the albums don't really draw me in for repeat listens. Still, this one is interesting because it has a rock disc and an acoustic disc. I don't know why they didn't just mix them together; there's a really good album there.
I love that album, Emmylou's voice is beautiful; and yes, probably "someone" is going to smack you soon
Ha! I love that I have a website to remind me of albums I missed or ignored along with music services that allow me to revisit those albums. At the risk of sounding like old crank, it was really easy to miss stuff in the pre-internet era. In my little town, we had to settle for the one good radio station from the nearest city. And purchases were limited to whatever the crappy chain store (Disc Jockey?) in the nearest mall kept stocked. Unless you had a friend or older sibling to key you into some of this stuff, it just got missed.
I hate to tell you this dude, but your ears are broken. It's a terrible prognosis, I'm sorry you're stuck with this condition, sometimes life isn't fair. But your ears are broken. This is so sad. You and your broken ears.
jk it is what it is
No, he's kind of right.
zdwyatt wrote:
Ha! I love that I have a website to remind me of albums I missed or ignored along with music services that allow me to revisit those albums. At the risk of sounding like old crank, it was really easy to miss stuff in the pre-internet era. In my little town, we had to settle for the one good radio station from the nearest city. And purchases were limited to whatever the crappy chain store (Disc Jockey?) in the nearest mall kept stocked. Unless you had a friend or older sibling to key you into some of this stuff, it just got missed.
Some of my most rewarding experiences is picking up records blind in the store; sometimes it doesn't work out, but that's how I discovered Yo La Tengo and The Jayhawks.
Year: 1990
Rating: 4/5 after one listen
Favorites: Birdhouse in Your Soul, Istanbul, Someone Keeps Moving My Chair
Imagine my surprise to learn that even a non-kid album by They Might Be Giants is essentially an album for kids. And I mean that in a good way! I only knew these guys from Istanbul, which is a catchy but silly song. At the time, I was too immersed in grunge and industrial to be much interested in something this lighthearted. But it's definitely catchy and fun and I'll have to check out their other stuff.
TMBG are exceptionally good are writing ridiculously catchy, fun songs about the most random, absurd, nonsensical things, and they've been pretty consistent over the years (i.e. the album they released this year sounds similar to Flood or Apollo 18 ) _________________ Progressive Rock
Year: 2007
Rating: 4/5 after one listen
Favorites: Rich Woman, Polly Come Home, Nothin'
I love Led Zeppelin and Alison Krauss (see overall chart, #4 and #8, respectively), but Robert Plant's solo stuff is kinda... weird. Someone added this to my shelf, where I promptly forgot about it. I definitely dig the vibe of the album and their voices work well together. By the end, it was sort of running together, which may have more to do with traffic than with the music. I'll return to it at some point, if only to hear "Polly Come Home" again.
Year: 1994
Rating: 5/5 after 10+ listens
Favorites: Iris, T.B.D., Pillar of Davidson
I got this when it came out, mostly to listen to the singles. It was a couple of years before I bothered to let it play all the way through and it floored me from the very first track. This is an amazing album that I think people overlook because they didn't release the best songs as singles. Live never released another album that was even close to this good (#2 in 1994, #7 overall). Seriously, I was driving back roads outside Marshall, WI and just belting out these tunes. Typing this up makes me want to put it on again. Yep, I'm gonna do it. [Puts on T.B.D.] OMG that guitar...
Year: 1975
Rating: 5/5 after 10+ listens
Favorites: Welcome to the Machine, Wish You Were Here, Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part I-V
Best album of 1975, hands down. It doesn't make my overall chart because of a self-imposed limit of one album per band and Animals is my favorite of their albums. But this is a perfect album, as everyone knows. Nothing else to say really.
Year: 2007
Rating: 4/5 after one listen
Favorites: Rich Woman, Polly Come Home, Nothin'
I love Led Zeppelin and Alison Krauss (see overall chart, #4 and #8, respectively), but Robert Plant's solo stuff is kinda... weird. Someone added this to my shelf, where I promptly forgot about it. I definitely dig the vibe of the album and their voices work well together. By the end, it was sort of running together, which may have more to do with traffic than with the music. I'll return to it at some point, if only to hear "Polly Come Home" again.
Yes! Love this album, I saw them perform it live when it came out, fantastic stuff. I've always loved the sound that T-Bone Burnett gets when he produces the right people _________________ Progressive Rock
Year: 2010
Rating: 4/5 after 10+ listens
Favorites: You've Seen the Butcher, Rocket Skates, 976-EVIL
I remembered liking this more (just by half a star; still solid). It's much better than the two that preceded it, so I was probably exceptionally excited about it when it came out. I think I remembered it being heavier than it is; it's actually quite a pretty album. This is not a bad thing, but it maybe wasn't fitting my lumber-filled morning.
Year: 2000
Rating: 5/5 after 10+ listens
Favorites: Blood Brothers, Nomad, Thin Line Between Love and Hate
Ah, that's more like it. This was their first album after Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith rejoined the band, and their first as a three-guitar six-piece. They were clearly excited to be reunited, because everyone brought their absolute best. Even though I love early Maiden, this is my go-to album. The modern production is just much cleaner and heavier. It's face-meltingly fantastic.
Year: 1989
Rating: 4.5/5 after 10+ listens
Favorites: Terrible Lie, Something I Can Never Have, Ringfinger
This also isn't all that heavy, especially considering the 1989 production style. But it works for me. This, of course, has some classic NIN tracks. But it also has some awful tracks, like Kinda I Want To and That's What I Get. Still, this really takes me back.
Year: 2005
Rating: 4/5 after one listen
Favorites: Welcome Home, Ten Speed, The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut
I got into these guys with their 2010 release, Year of the Black Rainbow, which I understand longtime fans did not like (on account of the production). In fact, their last three releases, all of which I love, are ranked their lowest albums. I've been meaning to check out their earlier stuff and there isn't that much of a difference in sound. This collection lacks a bit of the focus and punch of the more recent albums, but I chalk that up to improving as a band and learning how best to record their sound. There's a lot here that I liked and I'll definitely be returning to it.
Year: 2005
Rating: 3/5 after one listen
Favorites: None
I knew the name, I think from Rock Band, but I wasn't sure what they sounded like. But then I recognized the band immediately. This is the band with the singer who goes "AH! AH!" after every line. Or sometimes he goes, "ooh AHAHAHAH!" I've definitely never been interested to hear more of that. But I'm trying to be objective and honest here. If I was 14, I might like this. It has plenty of crunchy guitars, double-bass, and angry vocals. But listening to it now, it feels very formulaic. Nothing is resonating with me emotionally. And every time he goes "AH AH!" I laugh out loud.
Year: 2005
Rating: 2.5/5 after one listen
Favorites: None
I don't even know what to say about this. This is so bad. I know nothing about this band, so I'm not sure what they're going for. On the first track, they almost had a Mercyful Fate thing going, but then it shifted into more of a power metal thing, where the guitars sound like chiptunes. And if they were trying to do a NWBHM thing (as the cover art suggests), they needed to ditch the emo vocals. In fact, with a name like Avenged Sevenfold, I really expected something heavier than this all the way around. I hate when bands do that (see also, And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead).
Year: 2002
Rating: 4/5 after 10+ listens
Favorites: Save Me, Sturm & Drang, Risen
It's not necessarily my favorite KMFDM album (that's probably ANGST) but I quite like it. More importantly for my purposes tonight, it contains the track "Risen," which is totally something the rock wagon would play.
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