Enjoying this, keep it going

Trisha Yearwood - Thinkin' About You
Country
5th album

Nothing special, especially compared to the Shania Twain album that I previously covered.

5/10

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No Use for a Name - ¡Leche Con Carne!
Melodic hardcore
3rd album

I'm not normally one for this group's particular brand of punk music—but this record was made a little earlier in their career, when their sound was much more aggressive and biting while still maintaining elements of accessibility through its sense of melody, as well as their general ethos. I'm not in love with it, but it must be one of the last half-decent punk albums ever made, given the genre's ultimate shift towards something much more difficult to stomach in the mid '90s.

7/10

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Blink-182 - Cheshire Cat
Pop punk
Debut album

SPEAKING OF, one of the punk coffin's biggest nail-pushers was none other than Blink-182—which is not to say that I particularly hate this band, or anything. I mean, sure—the vocals are incessant and whiny, and all of their songs sound exactly the same, but on this record at least, I think they successfully managed to bring a lot of color and personality to the table, which you could argue a lot of their contemporaries lacked a bit. The dumb little skits and gags that occur here and there throughout the album do bring in some humor, even if it's goofy and childish, because the refusal to grow up has kinda always been one of the core themes of Blink-182's music, and I think they own it quite well.

It's also worth noting that the album was made on a tight-ass budget, and I'm always impressed whenever an artist is able to create a finished project under dire straits like that. It's kinda inspiring.

6/10

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Tricky - Maxinquaye
Trip hop
Debut album

All right, this one's gonna be tough. This guy made music with Massive Attack back in the day before embarking on a solo career where he dropped this weird-ass album for his debut.

Considered by several publications to be one of the best albums of 1995, if not the best (Robert Christgau gave it an A+, for Christ's sake), it's a record that is commonly cited to be the birthplace of the trip hop genre, which blends the wooziest and most down-tempo elements of hip hop and electronic music to create a "trippy" sound. This album in particular also throws in some ambient, jazz, rock, and even a little bit of reggae in there, as well, so it's quite the eclectic and experimental work of art.

The effect created by Tricky's production, in collaboration with Mark Saunders, is a distinctly druggy and heavily disorienting sound that makes you feel lost in a sedative haze. Tricky has a very interesting voice and vocal style on his own, but the lovely singer-songwriter Martina Topley-Bird is prominently featured, as well. They'll often trade places between leading and backing, and they complement each other rather nicely while maintaining the record's unevenness and off-kilter nature.

I like this album quite a bit, but as far as it being one of the best albums of 1995, I don't know if I personally share that enthusiasm. It has remarkable moments, but it also has its weaker points, and not all of its songs are as well-produced or as interesting as its best tracks, making it uneven not only in sound or concept, but also in overall quality.

The album does seem to be rich with themes from a lyrical standpoint, however, and admittedly, I haven't really looked into the meaning behind the lyrics just yet. I'll give this one a few extra listens because of it, and it may turn out later on that it's grown on me more. The potential is there for this to be my favorite album of February '95, but I personally don't see it ending up on my final list when I'm all finished with this project.

7/10

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DJ Quik - Safe + Sound
Hip hop
3rd album

A solid album. Compton spitter DJ Quik raps good and produces all his own beats, which I have a lot of respect for, especially when all the beats end up nice. If you don't like G-funk, though, look elsewhere, since Quik is one of the guys who pioneered that sound. He's also a dirty rapper like Too Short (some of the first words on the album: "All I give a fuck about is music and sex"), so if that's not something you can stomach, I'd pass this one up, too.

I wouldn't blame you, since that's not something I can stomach, either. I gave Too Short's album a 5/10 for being too hung down in that degenerate-ass shit. It just got tedious after awhile. But on Safe + Sound, Quik's breadth of subject matter is marginally wider, and there are only three or four songs out of the seventeen available that focus on the grossest details of his sexual excursions. Even on those songs, it's hard to deny Quik's talent as a lyricist and MC. His flows are on point, and there's a track on here where the chorus goes, "if it don't make dollars, it don't make sense"—even if you don't agree with that sentiment, you have to admit that's a pretty clever line.

The only part of the album that I fucking hate (and I've hated this particular moment more than anything else that I've covered so far) are the two counterpart tracks "Don't You Eat It!" and "Can I Eat it?" which both focus on the audacious and scholarly topic of cunnilingus. The former isn't actually a song; it's more of a skit that serves as a prelude to the latter track where a man (I don't know if it's Quik, or someone else) offers to go down on his partner while they're in bed or some shit (which gets rape-y as the female character says "no" three times, but he chooses to go down on her anyway). As this is happening, these audible and extremely over-the-top licking sounds can be heard, which is easily the most disgusting and uncomfortable shit I've ever heard on a hip hop album. The guy seems to notice that something is wrong, though, and he screams as a devilish voice is heard: "You dare put your lips in between hips? You don't know where that pussy's been! DON'T EAT THE COOCHIE!"

I'm not kidding. This is a thing that happens on the album. It's obviously played for laughs, and not supposed to be taken as seriously I'm choosing to take it. I'm just trying to express that I don't find any humor in this shit. It's embarrassing.

But anyway, with that dumbass shit aside, it's actually still a solid album, like I said before. It just has a few ridiculous moments, and you'll either find them hilarious or you'll absolutely hate them. To me, it's just music. I find them easy to overlook, given that the album is 60 minutes, and its worst songs are rather short. I don't know. Take it or leave it; I may enjoy the record overall, but I'm not gonna give it a strong recommendation, or anything. Just for those of you who don't get easily offended by stupid hip hop lyrics.

Here's one of the better tracks to give you a sense of what you're getting:


7/10

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Coming up next, we have some records by Energy Orchard, Atari Teenage Riot, PJ Harvey, Mike Watt, and Adina Howard.

Technically, I'm also supposed to listen to an album called Cerebral Caustic by the Fall, but because of the way I listen to music, I think I'm gonna put that record off for now. The Fall's discography is gargantuan, and I don't really feel like putting myself through it at this time.

Skip the rest, listen to this and call it a day. Eat shit also.

help me understand what i'm supposed to be listening for when it comes to this style of music

what separates the good extreme metal albums from the bad ones

because to me they mostly blend together and i could theoretically enjoy any of them if i were in the right mood, but i would never really be able to tell you if what i'm listening to is "good" beyond my own limited standards and sensibilities

Energy Orchard - Pain Killer
Basic rock
4th album

Probably the most obscure band I've covered so far, and that status is not undeserved.

Basically, an Irish group of Van Morrison wannabes make the most bland rock music imaginable. On previous records, they dared, on occasion, to incorporate some Celtic roots into their sound, which was actually quite nice, but there's not much of that to be found here. Not that it would've been a resounding selling point anyway. Do not bother.

5/10

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Atari Teenage Riot - 1995 (aka Delete Yourself!)
Digital hardcore
Debut album

"Digital hardcore" is essentially an adrenaline-fueled, blood-pumping affectation of electronica when combined with the vibe and ethos of hardcore punk music. It's very loud and very abrasive and most of you wouldn't like it.

This is a GREAT album, though, and if you enjoy the music of, say, Death Grips (especially for their punkier side), then I would absolutely consider this a must-listen.

If you've seen the third Fast & Furious movie, Tokyo Drift, then you've already heard the best song on the album. Which is unfortunate, but I hope that doesn't discourage you from trying out the whole album.


The song in general represents the album's sound very well. If you don't like what you're hearing, the album's probably not for you.

My biggest problem with the group is their politics—not that I disagree with them, but because it's practically impossible to disagree with them. You see, part of the group's whole appeal is that, sure, they may be making this intensely aggressive music, but it's only because of how politically conscience they are. They're directing that anger towards a greater evil. And what greater evil, you may ask?

...Nazis.

Yeah. Atari Teenage Riot is taking a hardline stance on Nazis and fascism: they're bad, and this is what they want you to start riots over. They have a song on this album that they, apparently, play at every single one of their shows, and they'll never stop until every Nazi is dead.

Obviously, I'm not saying it's bad to hate Nazis or anything. It's just a little... easy? And not the most political stance?

Whatever, the music is still good and that's ultimately what matters. So good, in fact, that I think this is probably my favorite album for this month.

8/10

Oh, and if you were gonna listen to it, do notice that 1995 and Delete Yourself! are the same album; the latter is a 1997 re-release that changed only the title and the cover, so don't get confused by that. Here's what the new cover looks like:


I'm not sure which one I prefer, but I went with the original 1995 cover because, after all, this is the 1995 thread.

---

PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
Alternative rock
3rd album

I think this album is somewhat of an alt-rock classic, so I'm not sure how much I need to talk about it. It's really good—Harvey's husky vocals are pretty powerful and bluesy, and even though I'd argue that she doesn't always sing "well" in the conventional sense, she embraces the idiosyncratic elements of her voice in such a way that every note feels deliberate and very impassioned or soulful.

She can get a little hamfisted at times, though, like on "I Think I'm a Mother," where the entire song is sung with the lowest possible voice she can make, and it does sound quite silly. It doesn't ruin the song or make it bad, but I personally can't listen to it without grinning.

My favorite tracks on the record are probably any of the heavier ones, such as "Meet ze Monsta" or "Long Snake Moan," but it also offers some really cool tracks that are less heavy, like "Working for the Man," which has this really sly instrumentation that slinks along like a cat, or one of the more popular songs on the record, "Down by the Water," which is a fun track that tells a rather grim but nonetheless interesting story in its lyrics.


I, for one, quite like it. Give it a try, it's pretty accessible.

8/10

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Mike Watt - Ball-Hog or Tugboat?
Alternative rock
Debut album

This one's pretty wild. So, Mike Watt is a bassist who played in a number of bands, like the Minutemen, and made a name for himself in the '90s before embarking on a solo career. This is his first "solo" album, but "solo" is a term I use loosely, because this album has this crazy yet ambitious gimmick where Watt pretty much formed a new ad hoc band for each of its seventeen cuts, all of which feature a menagerie of big names in the alternative rock world, including Eddie Veder, Henry Rollins, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Flea, Carla Bozulich, J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr, Mark Lanegan from Screaming Trees, Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill, and MANY more—most of whom I don't even recognize. Even Mike D shows up out of nowhere on one track. This album is a collaborative giant and every '90s alternative fans' wet dream, basically.

Does that mean it's good, though? Actually, I think it is. It's an extremely uneven and almost schizophrenic mess at points, but I think that's part of the experience.

Instrumentally, it's all over the place. You got your standard rock 'n' roll fare, which comprises most of the material here, but you also have these random flavors of blues, country, and a little bit of jazz, punk, and spoken word, too. All sorts of weird shit, and it's all done weirdly. There's a song on here called "Piss-Bottle Man," which is sung and performed very matter-of-factly as if it's not a bizarre subject.

The album seems self-aware about its oddball nature, which is part of what makes it work for me. For example, there's a cut on here called "Intense Song for Madonna to Sing." Naturally, you'd expect there to be vocals, but... it's an instrumental. That's fucking hilarious.

There's even one part of the album that aims to completely disrupt the experience entirely and make things awkward and uncomfortable. Kathleen Hanna's "contribution" is a phone call where she aggressively informs Watt that she has no interest in being on the album, because one of her friends was raped by one of the other collaborators (though she doesn't name anybody) before casually asking him to return her Annie soundtrack that he had borrowed. It's... fucking odd, and it wasn't until later when I did some research that I discoered that this segment of the album was merely a bit, and nobody was actually raped (or, at least, I think/hope that's what that entails). I think Mike Watt is a pretty ballsy motherfucker to include something like that in his album, and it's this moment on the album where I decided I was listening to a great work of art.

I don't even feel as though I fully comprehend this record, or what it's doing, or why it exists, but for what it's worth, I enjoyed a significant amount of what I heard. I do still think it's a little bit too uneven for me to give it the 8/10 that I want to, but it's still very much worth checking out and will most certainly top my 3x3 chart when this is finished.

7/10

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Adina Howard - Do You Wanna Ride?
R&B
Debut album

...

4/10

Next.

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Quicksand - Manic Compression
Alternative metal
Sophomore album

To me, this is a genre that lives and dies on the quality of its riffs. If you don't have good riffs, and you're making riff-based music, and you're not an insanely talented auteur producer or multi-instrumentalist like Trent Reznor or something, then you're probably not making very interesting music. You're probably making bland, forgettable music. So what does that say for these guys?

It's all right. Definitely forgettable, but decent if you're into the genre. I think their first album was a little better. "East 3rd St." and "Supergenius" are good cuts, and there's not an outright bad song on the album, but there's nothing particularly unique or special about them.

6/10

I think there's enough material on this record to MAYBE justify a 7/10, but my decision comes down to lack of memorability. I don't remember much of this record after first listening to it, and nothing is really compelling me to come back to it.

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Jewel - Pieces of You
Folk
Debut album

This style of music is normally a bit little too sugary-sweet for my sensibilities, especially when looking at the subject matters she typically sings about, but there are a number of songs that delve into some startlingly dark territory, and of course, these wind up being my favorites on the record. I'm especially talking about songs like the title track or "Daddy." I don't love these songs unconditionally, but they give an otherwise emotionally diabetic record into something that has a bit of an edge to it. It worked out, and it seemed to have worked out for a lot of other people as well, as this is one of the best selling albums of 1995 (apparently).

7/10
Maybe a little generous, it could be a 6/10 but I'm keeping it as a 7/10 for now.
If you're into soft and cuddly folk music like this, it might just be a 10/10 for you.

---

Wax - 13 Unlucky Numbers
Pop punk
Sophomore album

This record is just over 20 minutes, which is probably the ideal dosage. I can only take so much pop punk.

I actually kinda like these guys, though. Between the Blink-182 debut that I covered, as well as the No Use for a Name, I think Wax actually put out the best album. I think they have more energy, MUCH better riffs, the better vocalist, and all-around the more cutting-edge sound (for '95, obviously).

Not to mention, I think Wax's debut, What Else Can We Do, might be one of the best pop punk albums I've ever heard, but I've only been able to find it on Spotify. There's not even a Wikipedia article on it. But check that one out, too, if you're interested.

7/10

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Steve Earle - Train a Comin'
Country
5th album

Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Steve Earle—my favorite country singers, as someone who doesn't like the genre.

Steve Earle was never really a pure country artist, which is what makes him so palatable for me. He also has one of the coolest-sounding voices in the genre. You're probably familiar with "Copperhead Road" or "Guitar Town," both of which are great songs that manage to blend country with harder or catchier rock sounds which make them easier for non-country fans to digest.

Train a Comin', on the other hand, doesn't really contain any of Earle's more well-known hits, and instead takes it back to the roots a little bit. This would be disappointing, but he still has the voice, and the country roots we're talking about is the era where country music was about storytelling, where the stories being told have something useful to take away from them after listening.

And for that purpose, I think this album succeeds, for the most part, at what it's setting out to do. Sure, there's a couple of trite songs here and there, like "Nothin' Without You," but there's still great stuff like "Tom Ames' Prayer" and "Ben McCulloch."

I dunno, in terms of country music, I think you could do a lot worse.

7/10

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Porcupine Tree - The Sky Moves Sideways
Progressive rock
3rd album

While not even close to a bad record, I would consider this to be a slight disappointment coming off their debut and sophomore releases, On the Sunday of Life... and Up the Downstair, which are both sonically beautiful 8/10 albums that are exciting and forthright in terms of quality.

This one's still good, but it's not as good, and it's very difficult to explain why, especially when it's frequently cited among Porcupine fans as one of their weakest outputs. It doesn't really help that "psychedelic" music like this has always come with the punchline that it was all made on drugs, or that you need to be on drugs in order to fully appreciate it. And while Steven Wilson has made zero compunctions about his drug abuse (Up the Downstair opens up with a message outright stating that the record was made under the influence), I don't think it's the case that the listener must also indulge in order to enjoy practically any kind of music.

But when you put out a spacey, pretentious-ass record like this (and it IS pretentious), it really kinda undermines that point a little bit. There are multiple 15+ minute ambient compositions on this album that, while impressively made and overall "good-sounding" (and that really is the best adjective I can come up with here), do not justify their length at all, and instead threaten to bore most listeners, because they aren't very engaging or challenging. They're kinda just there for you to zone out to. It's good "zoning out" music, nothing more.

I happened to enjoy it decently enough in spite of this, but the way the music is made makes it very difficult for me to put into words just what I like about it, because it's very apparent to me that all the reasons why I enjoy the record would be the same exact reasons that someone else would hate it. I don't know how to recommend this album, or if it's even worth it.

Why couldn't they have just released something straightforward in 1995? Christ. Just listen to their other shit.

7/10

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All right, before we close the books on February, I have a couple of amendments:

Upon reconsideration, the No Use for a Name album ¡Leche con Carne! is a 6/10, not a 7/10. I also relistened to Tricky's Maxinquaye when I was in a mood more well-suited for the music, and decided to bump it up to an 8/10 from the 7/10 that I initially gave it. I reserve the right to change my ratings as I see fit, though I'll do my best to not be TOO fickle about it. It's important that I remain consistent, and I was simply beginning to notice that I was throwing out more undeserved 7/10s than was perhaps necessary.

Now I'm done, I think. Here's a 3x3 chart of my favorite albums from this month of 1995.


Top left best, bottom right worst. All of these are worth listening to at least once.


In terms of overall rankings, I would still say, as much as I like the Atari Teenage Riot, I still prefer the previously covered Swans record, The Great Annihilator. That record still rocks my socks, and it's gonna take a truly special album to dethrone it for the time being.

---

March is gonna be a fun month; I'm already seeing a lot of great bands that I already listen to.

Coming up, though, I'll be listening to Mike + The Mechanics, Grip Inc, Warrant, Adam Ant, and Zard.

what are you listening to all these albums on?

Quote from: nͫiͤcͫeͤ on March 17, 2019, 07:03:02 PM

what are you listening to all these albums on?

wherever i can find them tbh

usually youtube or spotify, if it's not on one it's surely on the other

sometimes i'm forced to piece together individual songs from the album since the full thing isn't always available, or no convenient playlist is made for it

i see

what hardware are you listening to them on?

Quote from: nͫiͤcͫeͤ on March 22, 2019, 12:41:06 PM

i see

what hardware are you listening to them on?

just some cheap headphones plugged into my laptop, nothing fancy

i wouldn't call myself an audiophile by any means

damn that’s absolute torture

Radiohead - The Bends
Alternative rock
Sophomore album

In spite of the fact that I've never really been hugely into Radiohead, this album—according to Wikipedia—is consistently cited, and among thousands of publications, to be the single best album released in the year 1995. This is it. This is the one. I can stop this thread right now, because this album is #1.

Eh, but not really. It's good and all, but I can already think of fifteen records from '95 that I would rank higher. In fact, I think I actually prefer Radiohead's debut, Pablo Honey, just a little bit more, to be perfectly honest. People often dismiss that album as a bog-standard grunge affair that's carried entirely by the one Radiohead song everybody knows, and that's fair, but here's the thing—"Creep" is still a really fucking good song, and The Bends, while undeniably more inspired, consistent, and closer to the cutting edge than their debut was overall, simply lacks a single that I consider to be as good or as powerful.

In fact, of the record's many singles, "My Iron Lung" is one of only two that I would consider to be particularly good. Songs like "High and Dry" and "Fake Plastic Trees" fail to leave an impression, but not as much as the title track, which straight-up bores me to tears.

That said, it's still a solid rock album, but that's all there is to it for me. If it turned out that this really WAS the best album of 1995, I would probably cut my journey short, because it wouldn't be worth it.

My favorite song, "Street Spirit," happens to be the closing track. I'll link it here, but just keep that in mind before listening to it.


7/10

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Mad Season - Above
Grunge
Debut album

Mad Season was a short-lived supergroup that combined the talents of vocalist Layne Staley (Alice in Chains), guitarist Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), drummer Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees), and bassist John Baker Saunders (The Walkabouts). This was their only album, and I'm happy to report that it's a fucking great one.

That being said, I am a little biased. Layne Staley happens to be my favorite vocalist of all time, across all genres, and this record showcases his talents very well. It's also just an aural feast for grunge fans, because unlike so many of the other supergroups I've covered already, these guys actually managed to get together and do exactly what you'd hope a supergroup would be able to accomplish.

Every song is unique and has its own modus operandi, from the warm and nostalgic "River of Deceit," the woozy and discordant "I Don't Know Anything," or the chilling and cavernous "All Alone." The lyrics are about as introspective and as soul-baring as you'd expect, and the bluesy grooves are prominent and intoxicating.


This is my favorite March '95 album so far, and it's gonna be difficult to top. I recommend this one to ALL rock fans, really. Even if you're not into the style, I think you have to appreciate what they were able to accomplish here, considering how often supergroups tend to disappoint.

8/10

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Goo Goo Dolls - A Boy Named Goo
Alternative rock
5th album

Before they came out with "Iris," which is an incredible song, Goo Goo Dolls actually started out as a punk band—and not a very good one, either, if I'm honest. It was either this album or the album just before that marked a transitional period for the band, where they began to adopt a much more palatable alt-rock sound in the same way that many-a-punk act would do back in the day.

This usually results in the group making considerably worse music in order to appeal to a broader mass, but in the case of the Goo Goo Dolls, it wound up being a good decision for them, since the quality of this album (though it's by no means outstanding) does eclipse pretty much all of their previous work, in my opinion.

This is the record that produced "Name," a soft ballad that wound up becoming the group's most successful pre-"Iris" single. I'm not crazy about it, but it's easy to see how, with singles like this, the band really was beginning to start playing into their newfound strengths.


All-around, the album is decent, but frankly a little sonically blasé for my tastes. I can't deny that it's an improvement over what they were making in the late '80s to early '90s, though.

6/10

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Collective Soul - Collective Soul
Post-grunge
2nd album

This record is kind of similar to a Pablo Honey, in the sense that, while the band isn't really doing anything new or creative or adventurous on this album, and at the time, it may have seemed a little redundant or even boring when it was released, I think we can kinda look back to albums like this in the current year with a little bit more appreciation.

Redundant or not, these guys really knew how to jam. Ed Roland's charismatic and energetic vocals are pretty infectious, and the band seems to have a powerful grasp of how to carry a groove while making some simple, bona fide rock music with some grunge-y Pearl Jam-esque undertones.

The other similarity the record shares with Pablo Honey, however, is that it has one major stand-out single a la "Creep" that kinda overshadows the rest of the album and, in some ways, the band's entire discography. The song "Shine" from their debut album is still my favorite Collective Soul song, but "December" is one of the higher-ups as well. It's just such a cool song, even if it's a little overplayed.


7/10

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Elastica - Elastica
Punk rock
Debut album

The "new wave of new wave," Elastica was a short-lived Britpop band who made some off-kilter alternative punk music in the '90s, starting with this very album. It's pretty cool, and it seems pretty popular in retrospect. Don't overlook it.


7/10

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Moby - Everything Is Wrong
Electronica
3rd album

Finally, something outside of rock music.

EDM mastermind Moby did not sleep through 1995, giving us an album that is not only as blood-pumping and gratifying as his previous two LPs, but finds a way to combine, quite beautifully, what made them work so well—the ecstatic, inventive, and adrenaline-fueled breakbeats of his self-titled debut with the gorgeous, layered, and meticulously produced ambient soundscapes of his sophomore album.

The result is pretty awesome, to say the least—the album art paints a nice picture of what it feels like to listen to—but it does tend to suffer a bit from sounding a little bit dated at points, and your ability to stomach some of these moments will probably inform how much you'll ultimately enjoy the record.

I, for one, think there's a charming cheesiness to a lot of the record's production, and that's not even to say it's all cheese—there's some genuinely kick-ass beats on this record. I'm just trying to say that the era in which it was created is very transparent, and I hope you don't let that bother you too much.

Of course, if you hate electronica or rave music in general, stay far away from this one. There's nothing for you here.


8/10

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E-40 - In a Major Way
Hip hop
Sophomore album

Another solid rap record, but compared to the Smif 'n' Wessun album that I covered way back when I first made this thread, this one is gonna seem pretty standard by comparison.

Still, E-40 is no pedestrian on the mic. I'm still gonna give it the same score by virtue of the man being a VERY talented spitter and lyricist (even though his weird vocal inflections are somewhat of an acquired taste), and the production here is by no means bad—it's just not breaking new ground for '90s hip hop in the way that the Roots were, for example.

7/10

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2Pac - Me Against the World
Hip hop
3rd album

I was pretty stoked when I noticed I had a 2Pac album in the March section to listen to. It wasn't All Eyez On Me, but it is the only album he has where he doesn't intentionally misspell a word in the title, so for that, I was expecting to listen to some very down-to-earth, introspective rapping from one of the legends.

And yeah, sure, I got that. But the overall experience of the album can be summed up with the phrase, "That was pretty good," which is somewhat of an underwhelming response when we're talking about one of, if not THE most beloved and legendary emcees to ever do it.

I just don't really have much to say, which feels lame to say, but I'm just being honest.

The production was pretty good. I really like how chilled out it is. Every song had a place and purpose. His rapping was pretty good. The lyrics were pretty good. It was all just... pretty good. Nothing more, nothing less. I guess I can say that the quality of consistency throughout the tracks is absolutely through the roof on this one, because every single song is precisely as good as the last one you heard. I couldn't say the same about his first two records, which all had their definite peaks and valleys. Here, everything is good. But nothing is all that GREAT.

I'd definitely rank it above the E-40, though.

7/10

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Annie Lennox - Medusa
Adult contemporary
Sophomore album

Annie Lennox was the vocal half of the '80s British synthpop duo Eurythmics. If you don't immediately recognize the name, you've no doubt heard the song "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" at the very least.

After splitting up in 1990 or so, Lennox went off on a solo career, and, after releasing her debut Diva in '92, decided that her next record would be comprised entirely of covers.

I'm not usually one who finds this concept terribly compelling—obviously, I think covers are great, but fifty minutes of nothing but covers is not exactly my idea of an interesting album. I'd simply rather spend that time listening to original material. Of course, Matt Johnson was able to pull it off, so it's not like there are no exceptions to this rule, but in order to make a great covers album, you not only have to make each and every song your own, but I must be able to walk away from the record thinking that I just listened to a completely original work.

Does Lennox succeed here? Eh, maybe partially.

On Medusa, Lennox offers her take on a bunch of old songs from a relatively broad variety of decades, eras, and genres, providing them with silky smooth yet vocally-focused pop instrumentation. There's a minimal dance vibe, but this style of pop music is truthfully more about showcasing how good of a singer Lennox is (yawn).

There are songs by '60s MoTown groups like the Temptations on this thing, as well as some relatively obscure British synthpop and new wave bands, such as the Blue Nile and the Lover Speaks, from which the opening track and most popular cut from the album is derived: "No More 'I Love You's," which is a song you'd immediately recognize upon hearing it, assuming you didn't recognize the title.


Honestly, though, beyond that track and the covers of "Downtown Lights" and "Thin Line Between Love and Hate" by the Persuaders, there's really not much here to talk about. Lennox is a very talented vocalistm to be sure, but if you're like me, and you don't care to listen to good singing for the sake of it, most of the material found here will likely just bore you, or (worst case scenario) make you want to listen to the original songs instead. Look no further than the Neil Young cover for an example of that.

6/10

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Matthew Sweet - 100% Fun
Alternative rock
5th album

Possibly the shittiest album cover so far?

It's okay, though. I would just listen to his previous album Girlfriend instead.

6/10

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I was supposed to listen to a Linda Ronstadt album, too, but her back catalog is way too extensive for me to care right now. Same with Stevie Wonder, who would be coming up, but I can't be assed.

Instead, we got:

Sleeper
Seefeel
Ned's Atomic Dustbin
The Tea Party
Monster Magnet

A BUNCH OF NOTHING (maybe i'll be surprised, though)

Neds atomic dustbin is p cool fam

you right

how far are you willing to go to listen to an album that isn't freely available on any streaming service and has no seeded torrents

turns out, i'm willing to go pretty fucking far

Quote from: Verbatim on April 24, 2019, 08:56:21 PM

how far are you willing to go to listen to an album that isn't freely available on any streaming service and has no seeded torrents

turns out, i'm willing to go pretty fucking far

I am intrigued

so, i was in the process of listening to the first two albums of some fuck-off garage rock band called Railroad Jerk leading up to their 1995 album, One Track Mind, but since they don't have a spotify, i had to try for youtube, which usually has everything i could ever want

i was able to find and listen to a full upload of their entire self-titled debut, which is not a good album by any means, but because they're such an unpopular band, the upload did not have any advertisements breaking up any of the songs whatsoever, which made for a nice listening experience (i'm opposed to adblockers, so this is rare for me)

the second album, Raise the Plow, was a bitch and a half to find on the internet, and i was about to give up before i decided it would actually be a kind of fun little game to play to piece the album together using my google-fu

no spotify, no youtube, no torrents—short of buying a physical copy of the album from amazon, or digging through my dad's colossal CD collection (which assumes he even has what i'm looking for), i had to find ten individual songs all on my own

the band does have a myspace page with three albums, but none of the albums are complete, and none of them contained any of the songs i was looking for

only three tracks (#1, #4, and #9) were available for listening on youtube, but in order to make any use of these, i had to find every single track in-between, as well, since i'm not gonna listen to the album out of order


at the end of the game, this is the quality of music that i can look forward to

as most people should know by now, the secret to google-fu is the clever use of quotation marks, which forces the engine to only give you results in the exact order specified in your search query—and depending on where i place the quotation marks, i might just be able to narrow down the results to what i'm looking for

- railroad jerk [song title]
- railroad jerk "[song title]"
- "railroad jerk [song title]"
- "[song title] railroad jerk"

each of these queries would yield wildly different results, and each of them was necessary to find all ten tracks

Track #2 was found on some old-looking russian online radio website that happened to upload entire playlists of radio segments, where i was able to find the track about an hour and thirty-seven minutes into one of them (not that i listened through the whole thing; they had each of the songs listed and timestamped, which was rather convenient)

Track #3 was found on some shady german music sampling website with individual songs uploaded, but every time you clicked on anything, at least two or three malicious ads would pop up, but i was undeterred—the bitrate on this track was so fucking bad, too, but i was just happy to have found the track or free

at this point, it's not even about listening to the full album, and more about seeing if i can ACTUALLY complete it through this process

Track #5 was probably the craziest one—i found it on a super shady .mp3 provider, but before it let me download anything, it gave me a list of these "offers," and i had to pick one to accept before it allowed me to proceed

most of these "offers" involved luring you in with something like a $100 gift card to some restaurant, which in turn involved signing up to some other creepy website that asks for your credit card details and shit, but one of the offers just had you play a simple dungeon-crawling browser game where you play as a skeleton with a spear until you've killed at least three other players, or thirty-three NPCs

it was the shittiest and cheapest game you've ever seen in your life, but i was determined to complete this shitty '90s rock album that nobody has ever listened to, so i went ahead and actually did it—i killed thirty-three NPCs (which sucked, not just because the game sucks, but because every time you died, you had to start all over from zero)

and then it didn't give the file to me OH WELL (i wound up finding it somewhere else anyway)

still four more songs to go—every now and then, i would happen upon some other eastern european music sampling websites that would give you the option to stream the song first before downloading it, but more often than not, it would end up playing a completely different song—either frank sinatra or some shitty-ass pop song that had nothing to do with anything, and it would always alternate between those two no matter what jank-ass website i stumbled on

it wasn't before too long before i actually completed it, though

Tracks #6, #7, #8, and #10 i was able to find uploads of on various blogs (one of them being tumblr, of all things) that uploaded these foreign music "podcasts," which are essentially just these two-hour playlists of the most random collections of songs ever, and had each of their songs listed below the player (in that weird "[song title] [band name]" format, which was throwing my queries off at first)

one bizarre thing about these particular playlists is that, if they detect that you're not from their region, which i wasn't, they actually stop you from rewinding the playlist—it'll tell you that you're not allowed to do that—so if i fucked up while sifting through the songs and i had to go back, i had to refresh the entire page just to be able to do that

i did wind up completing the entire album, though, and the most remarkable thing about it is that i didn't have to download a single thing, which probably would've infected my computer with all kinds of malware and other fun stuff—nope, i was able to find streams of every single track, even if i had to look into the weirdest fucking places to do it

that's the power of the internet though, i suppose

oh and btw the album sucked tbh 5/10

You just activated a trap card on yourself:
Tupac, an overrated rapper released his third album in 1995.

You'll have to endure listening to 3 hours, 5 minutes and 9 seconds of "thug bullshit".

You'll have my salute once it's all over.

Silverchair - Frogstomp
Grunge
Debut album

Considering this album was made by a group of 15 year olds, it's definitely not bad, but I'm not the type to give bonus points for that. It's still super derivative and kinda boring to listen to in 2019. I really like the cover and title, though.

Also, I legitimately thought for the longest time that "Tomorrow" was a fucking Pearl Jam song. It's not.


6/10

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Red House Painters - Ocean Beach
Slowcore
Fourth album

A bit of a disappointment compared to their previous work. I would recommend you listen to their first self-titled album instead. Or just listen to Mark Kozelek's current project, Sun Kil Moon.

6/10

---

Smog - Wild Love
Lo-fi
Fourth album

Bill Callahan makes some pretty interesting music, to say the least. I wouldn't say that I love this record, but he experiments with just enough weird shit for me to feel not only intrigued by it, but I respect it enough to give it a relatively higher score. It's just very hard to recommend or even describe because of all its eccentricities.

Give a listen and judge for yourself.


7/10

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Wilco - A.M.
Country rock
Debut album

I know people like Wilco and he seems pretty popular, but I assume it's because of his latter discography, because his first album wasn't doing shit for me. I was bored the whole way through.

5/10

---

Soul for Real - Candy Rain
R&B
Debut album

It's okay, I guess. Not really my genre.

6/10

---

Just seven more albums from the following artists before I can put March in the books:

Faith No More
Big L
Mudhoney
Juliana Hatfield
Ol' Dirty Bastard
Skid Row
Suddenly, Tammy!

Wikipedia also lists an Our Lady Peace album called Naveed, but when I check its specific article, it says that it came out in 1994. AllMusic considers it a 1995 release. Discogs considers it a 1994 release. So, I dunno who to trust on that one. I think I'll just opt to not listen to it, if only to have less shit on my plate, and call it good. Not a huge deal.

I was watching some Naruto clips on YouTube and now YouTube is recommending me future spoiler clips help

The Highwaymen - The Road Goes on Forever
Country
Final album

Four words: Cash. Jennings. Nelson. Kristofferson. It's no secret that I don't like country music, but as it turns out, when you have a supergroup that combines the quadrilateral talents of all the most beloved stars in the genre (only two of whom are still living today, unfortunately), you get a pretty good album. Go figure.

It's not the kind of album that'll convert you, by any means, but it's hard for me not to be won over by just the sheer novelty of it, especially knowing that this is the last time they'd ever collaborate. The opening track, "The Devil's Right Hand," was written by my guy, Steve Earle, and is probably my favorite track.

That said, this is probably not even the best Highwaymen album. Try the first one instead, if you wanna hear the best they've been able to produce together. This one's worth a listen, but perhaps not if you just hate the genre out of pocket.

7/10

---

General Public - Rub It Better
New wave
3rd album

This is just some shitty reggae-infused new wave that probably sounded out of date in 1995, let alone 2020, notwithstanding some of the homoerotic overtones (not that there's anything wrong with that). Pretty strong "why the fuck am I listening to this?" material.

5/10

---

Duran Duran - Thank You
New wave
8th album

These guys are okay, but this is pretty much just a throwaway covers album. The song choice is definitely interesting, though—from Bob Dylan, Led Zep, and Lou Reed, to Public Enemy and Grandmaster Flash—and I don't fully understand the logic behind these choices, but judging by the album cover and the title, it appears that Duran Duran just wanted to pay tribute to a bunch of artists that inspired them and nothing more.

That's all well and good, but none of the material is very interesting. I enjoyed the cover of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" (and Reed himself reportedly gave it high praise, saying it was the best cover of his own material that he'd ever heard) and "Drive By," the only original song on the record, is pretty interesting as well, but this album got completely slammed by critics for some reason. Q magazine in particular said it was the worst album ever made.

I mean, it's not that it's good, but I honestly don't know how you could come to that conclusion. It's just whatever. Not memorable, not useful, goes in one ear and out the other for the most part, but completely inoffensive. If a record has to be bad, this is as bad as I'd ever want them to be.

5/10

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Montell Jordan - This Is How We Do It
R&B
Debut album

This is the one with that dumbass "THIS IS HOW WE DO IT" song on it, which is easily one of my least favorite popular songs that apparently came out in 1995. Everything else is just typical hyper-sensual R&B trash, and I have nothing nice to say about it. By all accounts, the guy does have a nice voice, but if he didn't, he wouldn't have a CD, so I need a little bit more than that. There's only so many songs about licking vaginas that I can put up with.

4/10

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Blind Guardian - Imaginations from the Other Side
Power metal
5th album

This was pretty neat. As far as metal goes, I don't really think it does anything special or unique, but the band does seem to place an emphasis on dramatic narrative storytelling in their lyrics. Besides that, they pretty much just make really cool and shred-happy metal music. Every song is as epic and grandiose and empowering as you'd expect it to be—but depending on how much metal you listen to, the appeal may not come across to you at all, or it might just seem lame or passé to you. As someone who finds himself in the middle, though, I liked it.

7/10