Listed below are the overall rankings for the best albums in history as determined by their aggregate positions in over 59,000 different greatest album charts on BestEverAlbums.com! (Chart last updated: 4 hours ago).
"I like almost everything about this album, love almost nothing. It's a solid throwback pop rock album, sob rock indeed, breakup songs, cool beats and some seriously fabulous Mayer guitar soloing and little licks. If he had expanded on that - those guitar heroics - I may actually love this. For so...""I like almost everything about this album, love almost nothing. It's a solid throwback pop rock album, sob rock indeed, breakup songs, cool beats and some seriously fabulous Mayer guitar soloing and little licks. If he had expanded on that - those guitar heroics - I may actually love this. For some reason he really pulls back. When ever he hits me with some inspired guitar part he doesn't let that breathe and grow. I wish there was at least one or 2 extended 3-6 minute guitar compositions. He is a beast of a guitarist, one of my favorites even. And at times his playing evokes Mark Knopfler and other times Clapton and most other times he showcases that sound which is all his own. And in those moments I am, without fail and every time, in music heaven. Its bliss hearing some sharp, emotional, understated Mayer guitar solo. But... then he stops almost as soon as he starts. On tracks like "Wild Blue", shit, if he had expanded on that tone and that melodic phrase, it would have been a brilliant track.
There are some legitimately catchy, and fabulous little track in here. The opner "Last Train Home" is infectious and just a good friggin pop rock song in every way. The aforementioned "Wild Blue" has something cool about its atmosphere, and is quite solid. "New Light" is a similar rock solid pop rock song to the opnening track. The ridiculous and ridiculously named "Why You No Love Me" is so good, much better than it has any right to be. I also really like "Shot in the dark" and "Till the Right One Comes" and a couple others. The album is just a solid set of tracks. Adore the album cover, it cracks me up and its executed flawlessly - he nails that 1987 pop rock album cover better than anyone outside of the 80s obviously.
The songs are each and every one about breakups and lost love. The consistent topic of the album made me wonder "did John like go through a divorce recently?" and I can't tell if he did. And of course this theme is almost a running joke for John, he is always writing songs about this subject, but here its almost every song and its even more pronounced than usual.
As for the production, its cool. Very much a throwback to heartland rock/80s pop rock. Some cool beats and synth melodies and overall the album sounds nice.
The issue and its a big one, is that I feel like half of these songs had so much potential. Maybe he just wanted to make a set of 3 minute pop tracks and not get too fancy. But damn man! Your guitar playing is brilliant, flex a little, apply your sharp musical mind to making some epic guitar jams to end all modern guitar jams! I mean The War On Drugs are amazing. They can be compared because they are also a band rooted in the same era of music that Sob Rock is. But they amp up the studio creativity and they give us lengthy, breathing, bracing, morphing, transcendent guitar solos. You can do it, John!
Anyway. It's a good album. Listened thrice and enjoyed it each time. Not quite a Top tier 2021 album. But also certainly not bad by any stretch."[+]Reply
"One of my favourites of the era. The band had 4 great musicians, especially in Mark Laff and Derwood Andrews and combined with the solid writing skills of James/Idol made a formidable band. Highly underrated unfortunately, probably due to Idol's looks and the teeny bopper appeal. Kiss me Deadly i...""One of my favourites of the era. The band had 4 great musicians, especially in Mark Laff and Derwood Andrews and combined with the solid writing skills of James/Idol made a formidable band. Highly underrated unfortunately, probably due to Idol's looks and the teeny bopper appeal.
Kiss me Deadly is a heck of a song."[+]Reply
"This is my favourite album of all time. I was lucky enough to get hold of a mint copy to replace my very worn original copy, only available, if at all, on vinyl I believe. This takes me back to my late teens, very eighties, very slick in production at a time when reverb was added to everything, b...""This is my favourite album of all time. I was lucky enough to get hold of a mint copy to replace my very worn original copy, only available, if at all, on vinyl I believe. This takes me back to my late teens, very eighties, very slick in production at a time when reverb was added to everything, but superb. The synth textures, electric drums and lashings of reverb give it a depth on vinyl which is amazing, add into the mix Peter Gamble's vocals and the well written, heartfelt lyrics, this album gets a maximum score from me. Considering also that U2 released 'The Unforgettable Fire' in the same year, this is in a different league and I really like U2!"[+]Reply
"This is a heavily underrated Tull album. When it was released, the public saw the group as a dinosaur that seemed to make itself even more irrelevant with every new offering. That is a shame, especially because as a musician you are chained to “Locomotive Breathe” while you also like to receive f...""This is a heavily underrated Tull album. When it was released, the public saw the group as a dinosaur that seemed to make itself even more irrelevant with every new offering. That is a shame, especially because as a musician you are chained to “Locomotive Breathe” while you also like to receive feedback about new work. But "Valley" and the beautiful "Beside Myself" are a socially critical songs ("bring back the tablets of stone", child prostitution in India) that stands up to the comparison with the so-called classics. The texts (how could it be otherwise?) are again of a particularly high level. The arrangements are perfect and the production excellent. If you have doubts, give the music a chance. You will not be disappointed. Labels such as Prog rock or Folk rock are no longer able to interpret Tull. As a writer and composer, Ian Anderson is too unique to dismiss him as a thing from the 1970s."[+]Reply