Excellent power pop music. I appreciate the more orchestral tracks, as well as some of the harder edged material. The noise tracks don't land as well for me, probably because of the amount of subsequent noise bands I've listened to. I'd be curious to know how they would have impacted my listening experience without having engaged with bands like Sonic Youth, Flipper and the Jesus Lizard. Nevertheless, I greatly enjoyed this, and look forward to digging into Big Star's back catalog.
Spectacular. A lot more folky than I expected. Ian Anderson’s voice is so clear and resonant, Martin Barre’s guitar playing is fluid and creative, and Clive Bunker’s drumming is more Bonham than Bruford. Any time the folk songs started overstaying their welcome, Bar would come in with overdriven guitar.
I listened to this on a drive from Tallahassee to Jacksonville after a weekend of visiting a friend.
The only song I had heard before was “The Weight.” How I didn’t know any of the others is anyone’s guess, because this was fantastic. I keep mental notes of my favorite songs per album, and each song here could have been my favorite.
Less a traditional album and more a collection of singles. Nevertheless, I had never realized how many songs I knew originated as Little Richard tracks. His vocal performance is the standout, making the material hold up in a way that some of the other rock and roll pioneers’ work does not.
So cool how Bowie kept tabs on what was new in music and found a way to incorporate it into his work without pandering or sacrificing a shred of his unique style. The first side is Bowie’s take on krautrock, blending in the funk i fluences inherent to the genre and which he dabbled in on previous releases (Young Americans, Station to Station). The second is Bowie-fied Brian Eno ambience. While my personal favorite of the Berlin trilogy is probably Lodger, and my favorite overall is Ziggy Stardust, it is undeniable how influential, cutting edge, and all around “great” this album is.
Fitting that this was the next album after Bowie’s “Low.” I consider Miles Davis and Bowie kindred spirits in a way, both evolving with the times without sacrificing artistic integrity.
It goes without saying that “Bitches Brew” is fantastic, picking up where Davis left off with “In a Silent Way.” I may prefer “Jack Johnson” and “On the Corner” as far as Davis’s “electric period” albums go, but this is undeniably his high-water mark from the era, insofar as ingenuity and popularity intersect. Portions of it even seem to preface the ambient and dark ambient subgenres of popular music which would emerge in the ensuing decade.
Hard to believe that many jazz purists rejected this upon release. It may boast more electric instruments, but the language is still very much jazz.
I don’t know enough about the style of music to offer much insight, but I enjoyed this. Bits of funk scattered here and there, some psychedelic rock. Would be interested to hear more.
It always makes me sad listening to this, knowing that we would never get to hear where Nirvana would go next. It’s like the Beatles breaking up after 10 years, only obviously more tragic. Would Cobain have gone the Elliott Smith route and released acoustic songs without a backing band? Would they have embraced the personal orchestration of R. E. M.’s Automatic for the People (whose producer engineered this live album)? We’ll never know, but at least we have this.
The performances are studio quality, and the song choices are sublime. Few hits included, making it truly feel like the fourth Nirvana album we never got. Brilliant covers of Bowie and Leadbelly join covers of Cobain’s favorite underground artists like the Vaselines and Meat Puppets (members of which briefly join Cobain and company onstage), introducing a generation of fans to some of the most exciting music ever made.
I may be sad that it ended here, but I cannot fathom a more perfect coda for one of the greatest bands and songwriters of all time.
Glam rock with a Captain Beefheart weirdness. The songs are great and reminiscent of T Rex and David Bowie.
Really cool 60s surf guitar combined with subtle hip hop beats to make the score to some unmade spy film that Austin Powers would have referenced. Beth Gibbons’s voice is gorgeous. Less hip hop influence than most trip hop though, making Portishead distinct from contemporaries like Massive Attack.
Surprised this came out in the 80s. There were points that almost reminded me of Burt Bacharach.
Not my favorite, but maybe it just has to grow on me.
Being a kid is wishing B. B. King’s band would shut up and let him play. Being an adult is knowing that subtraction cak be musical addition, and those horns fuckin’ rip.
King’s stage presence is outstanding, no wonder he crossed over in a way that many of his contemporaries did not. It goes without saying that his ability to wrangle strong emotion out of a few simple notes is second to none.
Surprised to find some Latin jazz influence on “Help the Poor.”
Take a drink every time King “tells a story.”
Rocks so hard. Never really noticed how much funk is in their sound. They honestly do the funk/rock/rap thing better than a band like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who made that fusion their whole identity. The presence of a James Brown/George Clinton influence is probably what makes Rage so good and Audioslave lacking in comparison.
Evil Empire is my personal favorite, but there’s no knocking this.
Pretty cool new wave pop songwriting. Not like the hits I’ve heard from Costello.
Maybe Hendrix’s druggiest album? Definitely the most psychedelic. Are You Experience bore more of the blues and hard rock influence, whereas Electric Ladyland brought the funk. This is pure psychedelic songwriting, and Spanish Castle Magic and Bold as Love are my two favorite Hendrix songs.
Dinosaur Jr.’s cousin who’s really into Captain Beefheart.
Really cool guitar rock with a strong English strain. Kind of like if the Kinks never shed their American influences and discovered punk.
Production and guitar tone are superb. If I have one thing to say about this album, it’s that Tom Scholz’s influence on guitar tech cannot be overstated. The songs are still good, even if I’ve heard them so many times on classic rock radio. I’m deducting one star though, because I think that this album marks one step closer to the Journey-fication of hard rock in the 70s, and one step away from more organic bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and even Aerosmith.
Excellent palette cleanser. Will return. Favorite track, Maseru.
Horniest album ever?
In some ways more fun to listen to than What’s Going On, though that is the more cohesive and impressive artistic statement from Gaye.
Got some fat on it, but the highs are high
Beloved by many, but not by me
The word “sublime” was coined to describe John McGeoch’s guitar tone.
I rock with the production. Kind of a Mobb Deep/Wu Tang feel. He sounds like GZA.
Avoided this for a long time (except for the title track) due to my understanding that it indulged in “nu metal” tendencies. Pleasantly surprised by the listen. The Brazilian rhythms were sublime, and the grooves were on point. I wish Jonathan Davis didn’t get a track, and I may still prefer the earlier stuff, but nevertheless, this is a surprisingly easy listen.
Also, the drum sound reminds me of Helmet.
Love a fretless bass, but this was not really my thing. Sucks to have your musical lunch ate by the son you abandoned.
Greatest breakup album ever.
Second greatest Dylan album ever.
An album I found boring at first. Now it’s transcendent. Davis+Coltrane=God.
I love 90s hip hop production. Insane in the Brain will always be their magnum opus though.
I don’t hate it, but it’s not for me. I liked some songs, Blank Space for example, but many I had forgotten by the time the next song started.
Who am I to criticize such an incendiary voice? I started the album thinking that Joplin’s legacy was less her recorded output and more her technical prowess and showmanship demonstrated through her live performances. Furthermore, any groundbreaking qualities of her work would surely be diminished by more accomplishes songwriters of her generation (Joni Mitchell) or successors who carried her legacy and with whose catalogue I am more familiar with (Amy Winehouse).
I was wrong.
Over the course of my listening experience, I could not help but be charmed by this record. Not just her voice too, her backing band REEKS of late 60s, early 70s blues rock that is just goddamn electric.
Janis Joplin is (obviously) undeniable, and so is Pearl.
I always considered ABBA a singles band…but what singles!
Meant a lot to me many years ago. I can’t say that I love it as much as I used to. Not to be “that guy” but I definitely prefer the previous four albums. The thing that’s missing for me is a solid sense of swing, a la Black Sabbath. My nostalgic affection won’t let me rate it any lower than four stars though.
Of course I love the Roots, but I only knew a couple songs off of this. Thankfully, I remedied it immediately. Might be their most fun listen? “The Seed” is definitely the best Rolling Stones song of the last 40 years.
Just keeps me wondering why they slum it on Jimmy Falllon.
