His voice is very pretty, I very much enjoyed the album.
4/5
I love the instrumentals of this album they're incredibly powerful. I love the guitars but im a sucker fo⁷r some drums and a bass.
I appreciate Casablancas singing style, on most of the tracks he sounds very non chalant and uncaring but then on tracks like New York he yells into the microphone and you can feel the emotion. It also feels like hes being crowded by the instrumentals and its kind of claustrophobic which is really cool, I just wish they'd boost his volume a bit more.
One thing that holds this album down is the track Barely Legal. The entire concept is vapid and predatory. Although the song may be about his dad's relationship with a young girl, I'm not entirely sure of that and it makes me pretty uncomfortable.
Except for moments near the end of the record, This Is It is incredibly monotonous, they clearly have a lot of skill, I'd love to see them push boundaries and do something that wasnt so heavily inspired by previous artists. :)
2.5/5
Unfortunately I could only find the deluxe version on Spotify, and it comes in at a whopping 1 hr and 57 mins.
The remixes are a slog and honestly very bad, mysterious ways (perfecto remix) is an assault on my ears.
I think that this album has really some high highs and the rest is either really bad or just mediocre. i personally, love Zoo Station, especially the intro and as introduction to the rest of the album, it's the only song that really stuck out to me.
This album has a really cool concept production wise, because the fusion of electronic dance and rock was very new at that time and has soo much potential. However, the execution was mid at best: for example, the production on Even Better is kind of a nothing burger sonically, even though, again, it has so much potential. It lacks anything to write home about other than the fusion itself and relying on how good an idea is doesn't make the song itself good.
All of that being said I dont think the album is necessarily trash, I definitely think there is something here, and to be honest I think that part of that is the influence it had on U2's later career and the rock genre as a whole.
If we're gonna talk about rock fusions Gorillaz's Electronic rock or Wednesdays's country rock are much better examples of a practice in fusing rock and im honestly kind of reminded of how it's actually possible to fuse genres in a sonically appealing way when I listen to this album. It leaves me really disappointed if im being honest.
2/5
I think this album is alright at what it does. There isnt anything that made me sit down and think because it was either too good or bad.
In my personal opinion, calling this psychedelic rock is pretty misleading, it isnt really that.
6/10
The intro to the opening track is an amazing almost slow burn and im genuinely kind of in love with it. Disappointed ive never heard this before.
Not a fan of the vocals or the lyrics on the first track at first but ozzy osborne grew on me but even after a second listen the lyrics are still so corny. Very cornball, harmonica isnt helping.
Im not as familiar with metal as I am with other genres so I did look into the history and its really cool. Honestly something im shocked about is, considering their reputation, that a song like Brutal by olivia rodrigo has much heavier instrumentation (very extreme example i know) thsn this album. However at that time it was consideredably heavier than like any other rock so it birthed an entire genre which is wild and really cool.
3/5
The vocals were stunning and honestly carried the album in weaker tracks like independant women pt II.
Overall the album was good, but since I didnt watch the music videos I don't think I can really understand the cultural impact and the album itself.
The album isnt bad to be clear, they definitely have great music and from just a listen I can understand some of the hype.
This album -- conceptually -- isnt terrible, im not opposed to live albums, the live version of La Fama by Rosalia is better than the original. But to be honest the live album i prefer to stream is NPR tiny desks.
Tracks like Im a Boy are actually pretty good lyrically and instrumentall wise. However notably at the end of that track the main singer (i unfortunately dont know his name, sorry) ends the song to describe the next couple songs about an older man seducing a "little girl." These live albums get kind of a lot more personal than polished and finished products by the labels because you get random intersections to make the crowd laugh, like when one band member describes himself a "black raper." These intersections and the whole vibe of this band is predatory and racist and strangely not one single review his picked this up and i feel like im going insane.
I understand this was the 70s but like why do I need to listen to this album before I die if it's just racist and predatory. Its kind of just nostalgia I think.
1/5
I like this album, a lot of diversity between tracks but not in the tracks themselves. Very repetitive.
Love the vocals.
I like this album, getting recommended albums like these is why I use 1001 generators
Alex Harvey walked so CupcaKke could run
Would be better if there was a music video or live version bc I think its missing a pretty essential visual aspect.
Pretty average, not bad, not particularly good.
5/10
It was good.
Didn't stand out.
I liked international jet set but the track right before (didnt even bother to remember the name) was terrible, almost skipped it.
I am aware that to a British person in the 70s being sick and tired of seeing "fags" meant something else but I couldnt agree more.
5/10, good but could be better
I dont like the harmonic on the first two tracks. General rule of thumb is dont hsve a harmonica solo.
It was kind of mid. Sorry to all the bob Dylan heads out there 😭✌️
It was good all the way through
Never a moment I thought "oh, this is bad" or "this could be better"
It was pretty good. Let's lynch the landlord is amazing no notes.
I think in general across the album my only qualm is the vocal style isnt really good. Theres just a few spots here and there that really needed some work but it was alright
7/10
I like it. The intro isn't as strong as other albums ive seen and I dont like his voice.
But at moments near the end I can hear the Americana, it feels like i can hear Mitskis The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We. Unfortunately these moments are only when hes silent and let's the instruments play
Im not the biggest dna of his writing style too, I think again, it got better as the record progressed. Very mixed bag
5/10
Not much to say about this, its alright
I think the part that really held this record back was the inconsistentency, like some of the songs felt half finished, there's no conclusion or anything like that I guess.
Something that I noticed is that the songs with vocals were so much better like those vocals added an entirely new layer to the songs and really enhanced them.
This whole album felt like kind of sexy and smokey, and I liked that, I just wish they were a bit better.
6/10
So close to a 10/10 but the lyrics are meh and the vocals are bad but luckily they are hidden underneath a lot of the production and instrumentation.
8/10
Everythinggg about this album is just soooo good, the production, the flow, the lyrics are stunning, the vocals, the sampling is always on the mark, the references. Dog its just everythingggg is so good
Loved this album, her vocal style is so unique but in a good way. This entire album is just pure 80s camp and I love it.
9/10
It was pretty good, doesn't seem like it was pushing a lot of boundaries though. Not a fan of the vocals style either. Other thsn that it was pretty good
I lovea good synth. It was pretty good.
After reading some of the reviews I feel uncomfortable giving this a 6/10, but it was good, just like I think over hyped.
Something i find really interesting is that like all of these male singers in this era had very similar vocal styles, maybe this was bc of the tech. Idk. I think it's kind of like how today a lot of female pop singers like Olivia Rodrigo sing very breathily. Kind of just interesting to me I guess.
This listen was hard to grade. On one hand it pioneered a lot of production styles, I can hear childish gambina in this record. But on the other, there was a lot of misogyny within this track and it's incredibly dated.
4/10
This album is such an easy 5. The lyrics are always eloquent, the bars are on beat and the features are amazing. I can see why I needed to hear this before I died, and Im glad I did. This album feels like a collage of the best moments of the studio, and it works beautifully. The sampling is always perfect and im genuinely blown away.
Yeah pretty mid. Would give 5/10 but -1 for the harmonica.
4/10
What can you even say to describe this album? As a debut album too? This masterpiece is spectacular and I can physically feel the love and passion out into this record
This album is really good, very cohesive, everything is well done. However I wouldn't say that it's like the best rap album I've heard or that it really set itself apart. Like whatever it's doing, it's doing it really well.
It feels deeply rooted in the moment as well, a lot of mentions about a DA trying to get him on made up crimes.
But I'm going to be honest, I don't really think it does anything to deserve a 10/10 album, in so much as production doesn't really stand out, and while his raps and flow are really good I feel like they could be better. Dont get me wrong, I think it's pretty close to a 10/10, it just isnt quite there.
8/10
This is a complicated album to grade. His vocal style, lyrics and instrumentation was all heavily influential on people like David Bowie. His way of matching almost classical-esque style of music has been done better, the likes of Raye and Rosalia most recently. I find it hard to completely remove his influence from my grade.
That being said, I generally don't look into the singer when I listen to these albums, this, however, was an exception. In the track "Next" Walker uses "Fag" as a slur twice. Up until his death, Walker advocated against gay marriage. If I should account for his influence and legacy regarding his music, then why not his advocacy against my own rights, which itself is baked into his music?
That aside, Plastic People Palace is an assault on my ears. It's not good, id rather every hair on my head be ripped from my scalp then listen to it again. I can't understand how he even wrote something so bad and then thought that it was alright to put that out into the world.
While it was influential and should be remembered as such, I cannot find a good reason as to why I need to listen to this before I die. Undoubtedly, there is an album somewhere that should be on this list instead of this album.
2/10
Psychedelic and really well put together
I actually really loved this album, but it took me a few listens to really fall in love with it unfortunately. I will also say that the sounds themselves feel pretty generic, but aren't done poorly.
8/10
This album felt generic, mid and flat. Although i felt myself bumping along to some of their tunes I kind of felt embarrassed, they're trying so hard to be cool. Their use of Jazz and Bossa Nova throughout the record reminds me of Ian's use of Trap for his records today. It feels cynical.
4/10
