The first time I heard The Girl From Ipanema was a YouTube video of that synth cat thing. Love the sax on The Girl From Ipanema (also every track of course) and hi-hats crispy as they should be. Great glissando halfway or so in on Para Machucar Meu Coração. I specifically enjoy the sort-of chaotic feeling key changes on So Danco Samba, and on O Grande Amor I find the somber tone mesmerizing. Overall relaxing head-bobbers. I like it for solitude, just you know, perfect for being alone.
Reading about how he passed made me cry. I have this album on vinyl, it's great. I've also heard that his father made some good music as well, and unfortunately had a similarly tragic death. Rest In Peace to the both of them.
On Mojo Pin the way his voice bends between the notes, other-worldly. Grace is one of the best songs ever made, I discovered this one from a vinesauce brb. I like how it goes from a dog frolicking in a sunny field to a storm of emotions that descends and then rises back to the sunlight, eventually crescendoing beautifully. Last Goodbye has a spectacular bassline progression and strings too. The messy sort of crooning at the end stood out to me, I don't know why it just sounds cool. I haven't listened to the original of Lilac Wine, I should though. Perfect rendition from what I feel and I assume that it's much more instrument dense than the original. There's a few chords on So Real that feel like Slint. Delightfully gloomy, and uh, dreadfully real. As a kid I thought Hallelujah on this album was the original. Near the end, how did he make his voice sound better than the best ever theremin? Lover, You Should've Come Over's Reverbed snare is superb. Beautiful guitar arpeggios. Amplified guitar at the end feels like a Jimmy Hendrix thing. The space/sound staging is amazing on Corpus Christi Carol. It would be funny if the intro for Eternal Life with the clean guitar wasn't there. Dream Brother is haunting.
This album has a perfect mix. The strings throughout it reminds me of In Utero by Nirvana. Also you should listen to one of Jeff's favorite bands, Shudder to Think.
Lost my notes, yeah it's a good Beatles album I enjoy, had a teacher that had an Abbey Road poster and he was cool. There are a couple of tracks that have really cool choirs, and plenty of cool strings on like every track.
Thank you David Bowie for everything you have given us.
Stunning work of art and lyrical subject matter. I enjoyed raking leaves to this album. I had no idea that these were his first written songs, and the fact that this was the most expensive album cover produced at the time is interesting to me for how simple it looks. Such a robust tracklist, the opener and closer is a perfect tone setter and tone ender respectively. Dewit!
My Grandma had all his CDs, bless her heart.
Introduction's string swells are greatly graceful. I like the drummer's galloping beat and fills on Hazey Jane II. I'm a sucker for descending and somber sounding riffs followed by uplifting and sunny sounding song sections like on At The Chime of a City Clock, guitar work incredible on this one, and did I mention it features a saxophone?! One of These Things First dealing lyrically with identity, it's resonant with me in these times. Nice Bossa nova beat and arpeggios. Bryter Layter's central riff reminds me of the Disney Pixar Cars game main theme for the Xbox360. Fly sounds a bit baroque, hmm, I wonder what instrument makes it sound that way... A steady mambo beat sits patiently in the sidelines on Poor Boy, interesting the Latin inspirations throughout this record, for it's time I'd imagine that to be revolutionary. Northern Sky has this short but sweet piano part before the second verse that feels like when the sun peers through a gap in a thin gray cloud on a soggy afternoon with an almost blinding, white light across a plain, grassy field that in a nano-second, renders the already calm and tepid air to a warm blanket that consoles the outer layer, this song speaks of the seasons and love with intrepid curiosity. Sunday is an alright closing instrumental and gently sets the baby down in it's cradle.
Plenty of instrumentation to pay attention to, it can become a meditative and engaging process to focus on one set of sounds or a calming background to contrast life's daily chaos. That's right, this album has me waxing poetic. This record is going to make me cry at some point in life, I just know it.
Why are them drums so crispy on Father to Son? I ain't complaining though.
Beautiful classic progressive rock song, uh yeah. White Queen reminds me of those days when it's a Blue-ish-gray sky outside and dead willow trees line the road with deep green grass just below that patches up the damp and dark Vandyke brown ground. Some Day One Day has an excellent, wandering phaser on that jangly guitar! When I was listening to The Loser In The End I had coffee grinds stuck between my teeth because there was a hole in the coffee filter, I kept 'em there and chewed on the excess because it fitted with the sound of the song. What is that skipping drum beat!!! At the very tail end of the song that! Oh my how magnificent. Is Ogre Battle a Shrekrence? (Shrek Reference), and The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke, Is it a Darude by Sandstorm? I fell in love with this song instantly. It's so Over the Garden Wall, and Smiling Friends; it changes on a whim, so creatively executed. Apparently it's inspired by a painter named Richard Dadd who made a painting that was the origin of the title, as well as the themes of human conditions and whimsy from what I take, I'll have to learn more about him soon. Nevermore is like a basic glass of crystal Pepsi, short but sweet in not the best way. Oh yeah, my dad played The March Of The Black Queen a few times (I think) when I was younger, thanks dad for inspiring my music taste, that or the college station, which might make more sense because of the popularity of this band among 'new-age hippies'. The acoustic on Funny How Love Is guitar is so airy and bright, almost overbearing. Boxy snare on Seven Seas Of Rhye got the whole room Irish tap dancing.
This record has a very royal and rich sound with grand choirs paired with middle-heavy guitars that coexist for the sole reason to pounce on the senses and render them pleasantly weary. Or wait, maybe It's just because my coffee hasn't kicked in yet.
A collection of calm and inspiring renditions of classic pop standards that helped me type out my dream journal onto my website I'm working on. A pure vibe.
This review will not be lyric oriented, although I did read a couple of the tracks. "This is gonna be like Psyche Origami but technically better because they probably are the original" I say to myself as I hear the intro, I was kind of right (it does sound a little bit like them).
Freedom has these syncopated slices of the guitar sample that are nice and the kick is lovely like a big ham hock being dropped onto the top of an empty cardboard box that came from a refrigerator. The chorus is clever with using the sample to name the song. If You Only Knew has Fluuuuuute. Break really shows off the layered vocals. Love the instrumental interlude React, really reminds me of something that would be on Psyche Origami's Is Ellipsis, A Day At The Races also reminds me of them in some way, I'm not sure, maybe it's the bassline. Remember His Name starts off with the words: "I was sitting at the television feeling disturbed" and this kicks off quite the story, top tier lyricism. With What's Golden being the hit of the album the sound makes sense for it. Thin Line is sooooo good, I love the Nelly Furtado feature and my mom does too. The chorus made me tear up reading it. The clean cut slices of the melodic samples I assume are mostly assigned to cut-chemist. Production, lyricism, features all good.
Upon hearing the other parts of Jump, I find it strange that I don't remember them at all, but it was never really a song I heard a lot of when I was younger. Intro for Top Jimmy is insane with the harmonics, and the entire song is really good. What an amazing music video for Hot For Teacher. Girl Gone Bad is another highlight for me.
Not particularly my favorite style of music, but I do appreciate it's greater context in rock history, Eddie Van Halen's legacy, his skill and all the other musician's skills and chemistry, because of that I can certainly see why this album is heralded by glam metal fans as one of the best of the genre.
Wow! I absolutely adore this album. If the riff on the first track doesn't get you feeling some kind of way then I don't know what to tell you. This project is a commendable collaboration and a half. There are these musicians that all seem to know how to play their instruments better than anyone else. I guess it just sounds perfect to me.
Pretty nice country music that's good for diners that serve cornbread.
This is also in my grandma's cd collection, I had listened to 4 of his albums once, including this one. Incredibly interesting reading about the history of his albums as well as his life in general.
I swear I've heard Blowin' in the Wind in a super market before, that's a good one to hear in a store. Girl from the North Country has my favorite guitar picking in any folk song I've heard so far in my life, specifically one of those chords that has that sappy tone to it. Masters of War is cold, really hypnotic and real in it's language. Don't Think Twice, It's Alright is sweet and makes everything feel ok. Talkin' World War III Blues sounds sometimes like it's going to be Stand by R.E.M. for a second. I think I Shall Be Free is an entertaining closure.
A soup of magic. My sister told me she was at a concert of an artist or band (I can't remember) when she was micro-dosing on mushrooms and they were playing the last three songs of this album on the PA system before the show, she was very weirded out but then she grew to like that album. I just find that to be a wild way of discovering Portishead. I like this album just as much as Dummy.
Did they rip off Rage Against the Machine's song title? If you're not going to be reading about it, you better be moving to it (I think to myself). So I danced to half of the songs while making strawberry jam. GOOD ENERGY.
I hear some Underworld's DNA in the certain elements like the backing vocals of the chorus to the first track (Is Bryan Ferry saying "calling you calling you calling-calling you calling you"?), maybe I have Underworld Derangement Syndrome (UDS). The high speed octave jumps of the bassline are so in the pocket. 'So I drink my fill, until the thrill is you.' is gonna stay in my head for awhile, no doubt. The space in which the harmonica stands in Three and Nine is like the complete opposite of the harmonica on Bob Dylan's second album, which I find to be a good thing. By the third song in, I notice that there is at least one particular instrument that stands out to me, for example; On All I Want Is You there is the very bright and wide sounding grand piano, covers nearly the whole field of audio. There's this overwhelming flanger effect on God knows what instrument during an instrumental break on Out Of The Blue, also the baseline feels very halloweeny during that part, OooOoOOOoh spOooOky and so CooOoOky. Bitter Sweet starts by hitting you hard in the face with a big amped up stroke of a chord, half expected him to say "I AM IRON MAN". Does anyone know what style of singing that's called on Triptych? I like Texas, I don't think it's dumb.
The lyrics on the entire record are very comforting and came at the right time in my life. I wonder why I all these 70s British rock bands had really satisfying basslines, like where did they get that from?
I thought I wasn't gonna like this album upon hearing the first couple of songs, but there are ones I like more, so overall, it's alright.
My mom had this on cd but I can only find the paper booklet for it in the basement, such a shame. Some really nice songs, I love the first and last song very much. Her voice is unique and hard to replicate, don't even try.
Splendid stories of 'emotional landscapes' and strange patty melts all across the board. I think the bassist is chained up somewhere (I don't know what he meant by that but it paints a vivid picture in my head so it stood out). I love this album for cleaning, it is one of the most perfect chore albums.
Wow so catchy! A-u-t-o-matic, so in love with you! Ooh! Alright! Dance, music, sex, romance!
Also Lady Cab Driver is where the main melody of Lady by Mojo is lifted from.
His singing style is too grating and 'swingy' for my ears but I do like certain parts of the instrumentation. Not bad, not good overall.
An album with no lows and a couple highs for me. Pretty fun all things considered. Pokin' Around is familiar sounding, the starting chords.
The singer has a voice similar to Thom York to me, and kind of like that one guy in Tally Hall, pretty good.
Can I just give one word: catharsis.
That was certainly more pleasing than I expected. The choices of instruments are very eclectic while the choices of style are kind of the opposite, but I don't mind it because they make up for it with really clever song progressions and melodies.
Got this one on vinyl from a sale on someones collection and I got it because it:
1. Had smoke on the water.
2. Wanted to hear more of the smoke on the water band.
3. Japan.
Certainly not bad reasons as this should be a textbook example of a good live record of a hard rock band from the early 70s (I believe they're most popular around that time). I've only spun once so I got nothing more.
Not really my cup of tea in terms of the discography of the band. Anyone who likes metal should give this a try though because the singles are great at least if you're like me and don't care for the rest. I just don't find the songwriting as unique as their earlier albums.
Tones of layered and angry guitar riffs are suitably very red and dense sounding with these sort of rhythms that make my mind dance, feels similar to centralia by car bomb and it washes over me like how sound waves from a nu metal album should, very good!
Didn't expect some of the more folk inspired elements on this album to exist, but I think that's cool and I should've listened to this album earlier in life when my dad was playing some of their songs in his car.
My favorite thing about 90s hip-hop is often how many different breaks and vocals that are sampled in tandem to create a sort of poly-rhythm during the parts where the MC isn't rapping, I don't know if you call it a bridge or a instrumental break, but I just love the endless amount of unique grooves you can get with that technique. This album has a lot of that, plus very dense lyrical matter that I haven't even listened to or read yet but still recognize the effort put into that pen game which I don't know shit about. What a trip, I love it.
I haven't listened to much of Elvis Costello yet but I have heard a little of his early stuff, and I liked it, however this is trash; his voice constantly crosses over into a Donnie Thornberry-esque raspy style of singing which I hate. Only good thing about this album for me is that it made me laugh out loud.
It's the numbing guitar riff heaven of Definitely Maybe but turned up to the extreme, however the songwriting is not as spicy to me.
I think Helicopter and Earthquake are the two most beautiful 'indie rock' songs I've ever heard, the rest is pretty good.
Now typically I don't like old rock and roll, kind of more bluesy stuff but the way they experiment and changed certain things up intrigues me, like with the heavy flanger effect on the guitar on Let It Loose or the canned sounding recording style of the vocals on I Just Want To See His Face. Without these effects and production choices I think it would be much more forgettable to me, but in pairing with the dense instrumentation and original song writing it goes well with me even though it's not my type of style.
emotionally life affirming through the lyrics that stand out through the wonderfully weird noise of the production choices (that might be word vomit)
I remember being inspired by the song Sloop John B because it reminded me of when I was younger and tried "running away" from home and consequently was warrant 302'd into a mental hospital miles away by some constable (I didn't drink or fight or anything I just resonated with it for the repeating lines "Why don't they let me go home?" and "This is the worst trip I've ever been on"). After listening to the album for the first time like 6 months ago or something, I painted like 6 small drawing/painting things on printer paper and called them all Sloop John B of course, well because I used reference images of a car ride I was in at night that I'd imagine would be how it looked outside during that terribly traumatic car ride. Anyway now actually a few words about the album itself... I love the psychedelic, foggy feel of the production, like a precursor to Animal Collective. Some of it's mall music, but none of it is ONLY mall music, because it still holds together very well in terms of the emotional value within the sort-of complex song writing for it's time. The ending of I Just Wasn't Made for These Times is the best moment on this record, sounds like a Daft Punk rhythm strangely.
Upon first listen, I definitely get a soul-lifting feeling, and as usual as a description that is, it probably rings true for many other listeners so I'll just say that. Thankfully it doesn't have Don't Worry Be Happy, or I wouldn't consider it to be a perfect album. Everything from the recording style, mixing and instrumentation; well yeah, just everything is pretty good here. Oh wait, did I just mix up Don't Worry Be Happy with Three Little Birds, WHAT THE HECK I DIDN"T KNOW.
