Reviews

Punishing and heavy Dissodeath with groovy riffs for days. This shit rocks.

Monstrous archival release from the band at their peak. This is highlights from an even bigger million CD box set

Disc 1: I listened to the 14 minute "Birdsong" while drifting in and out of sleep (this is not a bad thing!). They chop out a great version of "Brown Eyed Woman" featuring Keith Godchaux's saloon piano (this song really has become a grower on my ears). "Truckin'>Jam" is the first major excursion of the album with some brutal bass chords from Phil.

Disc 2 is complete insanity – an ALBUM LENGTH "Playing in the Band" - but it is the best song on here by a mile (or 45 miles). The highlights of this track is theSonic… More

This is only currently available as part of the Grateful Dead Records Collection compilation, but I'm reviewing it here as I wanted to listen to "Steal Your Face". It was an official live album so I don't know if there are vocal overdubs, but it all sounds pretty good to me.

There's a very strange running order to begin with, alternating between Bob's Chuck Berry covers and Jerry's beautiful ballads, but those ballads ("Cold Rain and Snow" and "Stella Blue" are spot on.

There's a big dip in quality at the start of the second disc, but it is redeemed by a inappropriately laid back take on "Casey Jones".

Nowhere near as good as Skull and Roses or Europe '72… More

La espera mereció la pena

The Lord is back with his second proper album. Silver Dragons and Moonrise Over Isengard are where the Lord really comes into his own, these are glorious flute and trumpet blowouts and are possibly the first great LL tracks - if you do not enjoy these, then LL is probably not for you. Mines of Moria is a short but sweet track with mellow harps and woodwind. The back half of the track probably inspired Fief, it sounds more like dancing deep in a forest than working in a mine though... This would be a good album, but obviously the loathsome cover drags it down...

The Lord's second relase. There is only one worthwhile track here: Quendi Amongst Valmar with its goofy and loveable melody. The other tracks are marred by hamfisted guitar and attempts at singing. The final track, a cover, is shockingly poor but what do you expect given the lousy source material?

Lord Lovidicus' first album (a short album, or a long EP?) is surprisingly minimal and chilled out considering his later 30 minute trumpet sessions. It peaks with track two Gazing Upon Night Sky From Dungeon Halls which really gets it right in terms of undemanding background music. The next track, Within The Castle Garden continues in the same vein. The cover & the multipart mini epic are less engaging, there are some good bits in the latter but also some really annoying stereo panning and problems with repetition. The album ends on a high note, however with a nice bit of winter synth: A Frozen Landscape (Outro) I can't remember if LL returned to this style ever. In summary, not… More

I listened to this album as part of the Musicbrainz Album Club

This was a completely new artist to me, from the album cover and release date I was expecting some kind of psychedelic rock, but this is more psychotic! The instrumentation is very sparse, percussion and acoustic guitar, so the main focus is the vocals. The vocalist has a great, raw and rough voice, he really pushes it into a bellow or growl and that's when it sounds best. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that this was marketed as some kind of "voodoo rock" at the time, several tracks certainly have a ritual feel, with the relentless percussion and chanting. The best of these is Paul… More

Two very different tracks. Ether Gyll is reminiscent of a long-form Pye Corner Audio track. Old and lo-fi sounding synthetic and drums making a hypnotic trip with subtle variations in the patterns emerging over time. Tenter Ground is a bit more polished with a loping, less minimal beat and strange noises floating in and out like backwards, strangled saxes and psychedelic Indian insects. Both tracks have a kind of industrial chug (industrial as in abandoned coal fields and factories, not industrial music). Recommended to PCA freaks, track 1 especially.

In places, this sounds like the ramblings of a confused, elderly man (which is what is is) but that doesn't mean that it's not also great (in places). Strong backing from The Orb throughout, but the standout is Golden Clouds, a remake of Little Fluffy Clouds.

Here's a idea - take some of Bob Marley's best-loved songs and remove all traces of the man himself. Sounds terrible, right? Wrong! This is an hour of great, minimal music. It's not heavy or rhythmic enough to be dub but there's too much going on for it to be ambient either. Bill Laswell can just focus on one of Family Man's great bass parts or some organ (which can sound quite creepy on its own) a vocal sample or some percussion.

I've grown up with these songs, and spent ages playing the basslines so it is really nice to hear them in a new way, this remix album of half a century old songs from quarter of a… More

Extenisve Interview at The Fader Site.

https://www.thefader.com/2024/08/28/geneva-jacuzzi-triple-flame-interview

Atmospheric, powerful and showcasing the songwriting talents of Paloma. But at 56 minutes it's a little too long for my tastes so some of the songs by the midpoint being to drag.

For me, it's hard to not see this album as an elevation for a survivor of sorts. Cave's two sons have died and I can't understand the depths of those sorrows; I've experienced visceral and all-consuming sorrow in different ways, but I feel—and I may very well be wrong about this—that Cave's spiritual sides have grown beyond that of the christian concept of God, into something that I identify as unitarian universalist.

The first half of the album uses Cave's voice as that of a gospel preacher, rhythmically and repetitively, throwing his audience into a trance. The addition of a gospel choir in a few places doesn't hurt.

I dig how the drums sound as though the mics… More

This is an album that, to paraphrase Jon Hopkins, just came about without intellectual process. While I doubt that somewhat—Hopkins is a masterful audio engineer and a great composer, and those qualities aren't solely attained as gifts from above/below—this is both a psychedelic and very warming album, at least to myself. There are a lot of analogue feel to the album.

This music reminds me of the most sacral and ambient music made by the wonderful Popol Vuh. Also, I find this album to be a great step from Hopkins's last album, Music for Psychedelic Therapy.

i did some URL hacking just so i could get here and say this is exactly the sound of a turn-of-the-millennium middle school dance. this compilation includes It Wasn't Me because it's from when music was real 👍

i got this album for christmas the same year that i got the 3rd gen iPod for christmas and i was so psyched. this is the first CD i ever ripped on my PC to put on an iPod!!! unfortunately that iPod was not long for this world because (i am speculating here) there was a firmware bug that could brick the iPod when you connected it to a PC????? so a few days after christmas my dad and i went back to best buy for an exchange… and a few days after that, that iPod bricked too. and so i gave up on iPods and did minidiscs for a while until i got the "iPod photo", which is apparently… More

i have never had a hankering to go back and listen to this album, but there was a phase during like… 6th grade? when i was really into it. mostly Monkey Wrench, Hey, Johnny Park! (still no clue what that song title "means" or is in reference to or what), Wind Up, and… wait for it… Everlong. yeah. of course.

lol, just skipping through this album now and dave grohl mentions the Kingdome in New Way Home! i know what that is (was) now!!! i guess that really did exist once upon a time huh

now here is a self-titled album from the '90s that has a Beige Version but no corresponding Red Version. if you have no idea what i'm talking about here literally don't worry about it.

honestly i'm only reviewing this because i'm allowing stream of consciousness to guide the reviews that i am writing here, which are more like little notes on how i encountered an album and what i associate with it. i was reminded of this one because 1) it's Beige, and 2) it came from my dad's collection. no i didn't know shit about Nirvana when i first listened to it. and i'm listening to it now and i'm not super impressed. i barely recall any of this… More

ok what's the deal with self-titled albums released in the late '90s that have a Beige Version and a Red Version of the covers. i am referencing the SOAD self-titled here but do let me know if there are other examples of this phenomenon.

i've never listened to another Third Eye Blind album but i've listened to this one a lot. (side note: they released an album in 2021 called Our Bande Apart? like… as a reference to Bande à part?? lmao.) my parents both bought new walkmans and my dad bought this cassette before my family took an overseas trip in 1999. it's funny that my dad bought this because it's not his vibe at all?? like i almost… More

OPEN YOUR EYES, OPEN YOUR MOUTHS, CLOSE YOUR HANDS AND MAKE A FIST.

the thing is the back of this album is so important.

yeah this album had an effect on me for sure ahaha. sometimes i do Sugar at karaoke and guess what it's awesome. at least one time i laid on the floor of my bedroom listening to Peephole on repeat, totally sober because i did not touch drugs even a little bit when i was in high school. i love feeling insane to this album. most of the music i listen to these days is not much like this at all! pretty much a perfect forever album for me.

the album that hit #1 on the charts on 9/11 !!!!! fucking awesome. i didn't listen to it until years later, and didn't totally process how much Prison System wasn't fucking around even a little bit until years after that. Science is one of the most straightforward SOAD songs to ever exist and back when i was an annoying atheist i was kinda like "well ok" but now i pretty much agree with it more than ever lol. i could take or leave Chop Suey tho

i don't have official stats on this but i'm fairly certain that i revisit this album at least once year because i'm fated to go through "i feel like listening to SOAD" phases for… More

pretty sure i got a burned copy of this from RC, and it was extremely novel to all of us at the time that a ~pop punk~ band could have a violin in it! wow!!! and it's electric even!!!

i pretty much do not ever go back and listen to this album but i did listen to it enough at the time that i still remember most of the lyrics. Way Away is a good album opener. i have some fondness for Breathing and Inside Out.

but let's get to the real reason i'm writing this review at this moment: they literally put a 9/11 tribute song on this album. they literally put a clip of george w. bush… More

what if i told you that i remember sitting on the school bus sometime in the week after 9/11/2001 listening to Hear You Me and being like wow this song is helping me process 9/11. like not in those exact words but that's what the feeling was.

like this sounds fake and i'm not sure if i would believe me either. but i remember very particular and detailed images related to this! specific stops along the bus route! the LCD on my sony discman! the 06 in the 7-segment display!

also i remember blasting Get It Faster in the family minivan in late august of that same year after getting this CD at uhhh probably best buy… More

It's a grower album. Not really a fan at first but "Desire", "Sundowner", "Motorcycle Boy", and "Horseness Is the Whatness" changed my mind after a few listens.

I like this direction of the band but I guess they will change their sound again in the next album (I hope)

With that being said, I still prefer Skinty Fia over this.

Five stars are not enough. Released in 1991 and this would be an AOTY-Frontrunner every year since then. So far ahead of it’s time.

Unfinished Sympathy would be SOTY from then to eternity.

Don’t you fucking dare to call this BritPop!!!

Masterpiece. Every note, every word is just perfect.

Dieser Release war eines der amüsantesten Release-Ereignisse der dt. Musikgeschichte. Wir waren über mehrere Wochen live dabei, wie die alten L’Age d’Or Fans damit konfrontiert wurden wie sich ihre Lieblingsband genussvoll zu Balladen und Schlager zuwandte. Es war groß.

Außerdem wurde hier der Grundstein für die bessere Band Kante gelegt.

Distelmeyers Texte treffen voll ins Herz und alle Beteiligten schwelgen in Melodien und vollen Areangements.

Merkwürdig/unangenehm ist einfach ganz großes Storytelling, gepaart mit guten Reimen und großartigem Wordflow. Standout Track.

One of the best mashup albums ever. This is just a wild ride. Both, La Roux or Major Lazer never peaked this high. This is unconditionally physical, explicit and sexual.

Five stars are reserved for the crazy mashup-album between La Roux and Major Lazor called LazerProof. This is the best La Roux and the Diplo-Crew ever came up with.

This high gloss pop is very good. Unfortunately, the production and most of the circumstances were not that pleasent.

This band has been a great reminder for me recently of how truly subjective music (and art in general, I suppose) is and how there's so much out there that I can just not connect with independent of whether it's "good" or not, but keeping an open mind and revisiting a work or an artist at a different point in their career when I am at a different point in my life can be rewarding, fulfilling, joyous, and/or important. And the glory of this particular occasion is that now I have a 5-album discography, and hopefully many more to come, waiting for me. Music... I Recommend It.

Holy shit did I hate this album. Normally, when I don’t like something, I’ll just turn it off. But I didn’t like this SO MUCH that I listened to the whole goddamn thing just so I could give it an appropriate thrashing. It was a war of attrition between the unbreathable fumes of hair metal and the most rancid expulsions of butt rock. I mean none of that in the most remote good way. I generally like to let people like things, throw out a casual “it’s not for me”, and go about my day, but I don’t think that’s who I’m going to be on this platform. I will choose violence when… More

Probably the most well known and loved Maiden album, and for good reason. It’s not my personal favorite, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t completely fuck.

This is one of those rare albums that captures emotions and feelings that previously had no words or sounds to express them. It's hard to explain exactly how this record makes me feel, but I love it.

Probablemente su mejor trabajo hasta la fecha. Exploran y expanden los límites del crust y del screamo, y crean algo propio.

This is an unsettling, spooky, fun, and disturbing album. Feels a bit as though Swans, David Lynch's writing, old-school horror films, and Einstürzende Neubauten had a kid together, as directed by Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci.

I don't mean to overhype it but I find it's hard to get people I know to listen to instrumental music if it's not by a handful of named artists. If you're into "neoclassical"/electronic music you should really check this out. The violin playing is good but the textures and the layering... sometimes I make the mistake of thinking I can listen to this before going to bed ("oh it's in my Plexamp instrumental collection, perfect to drift off to") but this is an album that grabs your attention. Sounds like Nils Frahm had a bad trip. This is like if the soundtrack to Braid was evil

The whole "Cheekface schtick" is such a tightrope and it could be incredibly cringe but instead I'm just repeating random lines in my head for weeks at a time. Had the pleasure of making some people aware of this band last weekend and it makes me feel good to have spread the word. I bet the one who writes the lyrics is like a B+ poster (complimentary) and still uses Twitter to this day (derogatory)

I'm definitely a fan of the comeback of 80s synthwave (thank you New Order). This album is loose, fun, nostalgic, yet still feels somewhat novel. However, I believe this album slightly falls short in diversity of the music. Yes, songs like "Wait Until It Rains Tomorrow" and "So Long" are great at shaking up the pretty consistent groove of the record, but those grooves can seem pretty homogenous on the surface. Diving a bit deeper is worth the reward. Overall, definitely satisfied with Donny's most recent record.