It felt so unfinished. So much potential that a good co-writer or producer could have bought out. A tragic reflection of Nick Drake I guess.
There are so many ideas and experiments here. Every time I heard a new section, fresh with promise, I had the same anticipation fall over limply and amble into another melody-less fashion house ad backing track.
It's like a name check of classic genre tropes, but without any substance or weight, a theater kid's idea of a grand concept. Which makes it so much worse because my god can this girl sing, and there are some amazing production and arrangements, on top of a reluctance to follow through on any musical ideas, it's a wildly inconsistent mix that legitimate makes some songs almost to harsh to listen to.
If there is actually a theme here, musical or otherwise, it's not conveyed in any meaningful way. Style over substance, but the style has no substance.
South Park really ruined Jackson for me (well, that and the allegations)
Still, even if the whole thing has a shadow over it and at times as aged pretty badly (the 80s tones that is), damn if these aren't some amazingly produced and written songs. There's barely a wasted note (except maybe Macca and Michael arguing about a girl)
I legit had no idea of what Steely Dan actually were like, I just assumed something like the Eagles. This album is very much not like that.
Man I love this style of 70's bass and drums mixing - so warm, tight, and clean! The arrangements, timbre, production, and song structure were interesting, but I cannot for the life of me recall a single melody.
This might need a few revisits later.
Live audio is subjectively an inferior product, but this sounds pretty decent. Pity for all the good he said, this guy was an pathetic misogynist.
Good heavens this album is shrill! It's all snare and tinny guitars. Nasty riffs though, made "the face" many times. I legit don't know Metallica well, but decades on to an outside observer, The Black Album, Load, Reload etc don't seem that out of place - you can hear the same approach to harmony here, just less tight riffage and more melodies. Also, Lars really isn't great is he?
Maybe I was primed for it, but I swear I heard every metal technique of the future, at least in passing. The rest was all blues! The mix and production are dated but still pretty great too. Nice to still be able to hear bass.
The first 5 songs are like half remembered flashbacks to childhood!
I'm a bit surprised how both dirge-like some of the songs are, almost like the vocal style pulls the whole feel back. Also at times kind of psychedelic too, but that's just the 90's.
On the subject, there's something about the late 90's/early 2000's mid tempo rock bands that all feel a bit singer songwriter jam with a slightly more adventurous rhythm section. Like it's the second rehearsal on songs that were just a melody and chord chart.
Just to start a fight, but you could possibly swap singers in Matchbox 20 and Oasis and that would be the only major difference.