The Beatles - Album Rep. #4

Personal background: Last time I heard it, I loved it, but it's been a bit now

Expectations: Renewed enjoyment

Historical background: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is from the perspective of the titular Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a fictional band The Beatles created, according to Wikipedia, for the sake of allowing the band to experiment as much as possible with a degree of separation from being The Beatles. Here they were super ... read more

The Velvet Underground - Album Rep. #1
Nico - Album Rep. #1

Personal background: Obviously it's a cool record. I've never thought much about it, though, outside of Femme Fatale and Venus in Furs. I've heard the record front-to-back a handful of times and appreciated it

Expectations: I'll be calling it a masterpiece and everything

Historical background: Andy Warhol! One of the most significant "underground" records of all time. Hugely ahead of its time. Gritty ... read more

Bob Dylan - Album Rep. #4

Personal background: Personal favorite Dylan album. Just excellent. Has all the best songs of his career

Expectations: I'm scared that now that I've heard one billion Bob Dylan albums, this will no longer be my favorite.

Context: I mean, it's just another Dylan album at this point. Like, what could I possibly say. It concludes the trilogy of Highway 61 and Bringing It All Back Home.

The review: Man, it still holds up so well, in fact, maybe even ... read more

The Beach Boys - Album Rep. #1

Personal background: I've heard it a couple times. Yea, it's good. Really the only surf rock I've gone out of my way to hear was Jan & Dean, soooo

Expectations: Increased enjoyment

Historical background: The Beach Boys finally become more than a plain old surf band! And it only took them 11 albums. Ooh. Yikes. But at least we got Pet Sounds out of it. Their goal? Become bigger and badder than The Beatles. This was written as a response to ... read more

The Beatles - Album Rep. #3

Personal background: Briefly my favorite Beatles album, containing the legendary "Eleanor Rigby" and yea okay fair enough a few duds

Expectations: Medium to high enjoyment

Historical background: The Beatles go fully psychedelic and avant-garde at this point in their career. The whole thing was pretty LSD influenced (versus Rubber Soul, which was pretty marijuana influenced). Also, here George Harrison really gets his sitar on.

The review: who hates ... read more

Bob Dylan - Album Rep. #3

Personal background: none. I recognize a few songs here but that's it.

Expectations: probably won't enjoy it because of Bob Dylan fatigue

Historical background: Dylan goes electric! (For real this time. H61R was the one where I brought it up because I thought it wouldn't appear on the list.) It's amazing that no one had anything better to do in the 60s. It also holds Bob Dylan's first charting single in America. That's cool.

The ... read more

The Beatles - Album Rep. #2

Personal background: honestly, this is my least listened to Beatles album other than Let It Be. I've listened to Drive My Car quite a bit but this one just doesn't stick out to me.

Expectations before listening: my opinion will probably stay the same.

Historical background: Rubber Soul is the album where The Beatles leave their bland merseybeat tunes behind in search of greater meaning. This is where the "real Beatles" stuff starts. With the ... read more

Bob Dylan - Album Rep. #2

Personal background: I listened to this one way back when. Ballad of a Thin Man was the first Dylan album I ever appreciated.

Expectations before listening: I mean, it probably won't change my life, but I will at least like it.

Historical background: this is Bob Dylan's sixth album, which seems like a sign that Bob should've considered slowing the crap down. However, this is also his most popular and highest rated, so what do I know. Anyway, this was ... read more

John Coltrane - Album Rep. #1

Personal background: such a level of required listening that yes, I have heard it two or three times. Funnily, I don't remember much from either time, so this is more like the first time of listening.

Expectations before listening: you know what? I think I'll understand it this time.

Historical background: A Love Supreme proves that jazz is the pure overlap of pop music and classical. A Love Supreme is a very spiritually and religiously significant ... read more

Stan Getz - Album Rep. #1
João Gilberto - Album Rep. #1

Personal background: really none. But props must go to this for being the best non-soundtrack album of 1964.

Expectations before listening: it'll probably fly over my head (in part to this being my first listen and the language barrier)

Historical background: this is a classic bossa nova album made by bossa nova songwriter João Gilberto and jazz musician Stan Getz in collaboration. The whispered vocals became an ... read more

The Beatles - Album Rep. #1

Personal background: I had a huge phase for early-era Beatles about a year ago. Just the really forgettable, early, merseybeat stuff. Seeing as this was one of the band's few critically respected albums from that period for them, this naturally was the only one I could get away with carling my favorite.

Expectations before listening: It'll awaken the ancient emotions I have for this sort of music, albeit just a fraction of that.

Historical background: ... read more

Bob Dylan - Album Rep. #1

Personal background: The album that got me into Bob Dylan and 60's music as a whole. Incredibly significant album for me and the first Dylan album I really ever understood.

Expectations before listening: The highs will be higher but the lows (i.e., the very bluesy tracks) will be lower.

Historical background: This was Bob Dylan's second album, but his first success, as his self titled debut had barely eked out a follow-up in part to its critical failure. ... read more

Mingus - Album Rep. #1

Personal background: none. Well, I mean, I'd seen it on RYM's top charts for the longest while, but I'd never listened to it before today. (Jazz isn't much my forte.)

Expectations before listening: kind of unsure whether or not it'll live up to the hype. With the jazz I've heard, I've just thought, "Yeah, it's all right." However, it's in the top ten, so something about it must be good.

Historical background: This ... read more