if you hate this album then you hate massachusetts

not a lot extraordinary here, but very pleasantly surprised by the cover of The Strangeloves' classic Nugget 'Night Time' - very much feeling the opposite of the bizarre spoken word novelty and otherwise huge question mark, 'No Anchovies, Please'

this album is so funny. it's such an unabashed pastiche of what i will loosely call "early-to-mid-70s music." want a leo sayer song? we've got it. want a santana song? we've got it. like of course i would rather listen to the original artists instead of bruno mars larping as a 1970s K-Tel compilation, but that being said, the album is pretty listenable and bruno's vocals are as nice as ever. it's almost entirely fluff, it's a bit overly sweet and ... read more

suprisingly decent late 60s pop-psych record. there's nothing mind blowing but it's kinda fun. i will forever die on the hill that the single version of 'crimson and clover' is miles better than the "album" version, retroactively extended in a clunky way in order to try and cash in on a trend.

turns out i don't really want to hear hilary duff sing about sucking dick. who knew

look, half of this compilation may be filler, but the other half is some of the greatest music ever put to tape. marvin and tammi's voices were made for each other, that even the filler sounds pretty damn good.

investment firm chic

"At the moment, music isn't even what I'm dreaming about"

yeah man you don't say

certainly one of the weaker entries in the beatles' catalog, but for my money, this album has some of their best sounding vocal harmonies. i mean the bridges of 'baby's in black' and 'i don't want to spoil the party' have some unreal harmonies. the covers here lack something to be desired, but i am nostalgia blind and i grew up listening to this one, so despite its shortcomings, i do still adore it.

when the first anthology project was released, it was fairly novel, since studio outtakes and alternate versions were not easy to come by. now, 30 years on, when every major beatles release has countless outtakes attached to it, anthology 4 feels pretty inessential. it's nice to hear the fab four giggling and snarking, and it's interesting to hear iterations of songs, but it's hard not to write this one off as a total cash grab to siphon money out of hardcore beatle fans' ... read more

mr steal your girl (evil)

some of the most generic, soulless covers of classic soul songs that i've ever heard. seal's voice is nice as always, but most of these are, outside of seal's vocal riffing, essentially note for note covers, put through a late-00s Muzak-like veneer. they don't provide any value over the originals, don't feel transformative in any measure, and most importantly, are universally downgrades to some of the best songs put to tape. that being said, it's still a listenable ... read more

i am of two minds of this soundtrack. one is that diana ross does a really great job with the material! it's quite fascinating to hear her voice in a completely different context than what i'm otherwise used to. and it works pretty well. she does a pretty good job with all of the swing numbers. on the other hand, what seems like at least a third of this album is dedicated to dialogue from the movie. if it was just the bits of ms. ross singing billie holiday, this is a way better ... read more

as a big time fan of both the band and bob dylan, this one has always mystified me a little bit. it gets a lot of acclaim and, to be honest, i think its reputation precedes itself a bit. don't get me wrong, there's still some great nuggets on here, but acting like this is some hidden gem instead of what it really is, a collection of demos, does it a little bit of a disservice. i still think it's an interesting listen, especially for the songs that would go on to be on other ... read more

the capitol records representative was named WHAT

wow. what a hidden gem! sincerely, it feels up there with a lot of its contemporaries. side a, in particular is pretty great! nice arrangements, smooth vocals. clearly a group coming into their own, but it's a pretty impressive debut.

every time i listen to a lemon twigs album (or, now solo album), it is a nice feeling to know that they and i are cut from the same cloth in terms of music that we adore. with brian's first solo endeavor, once again, his influences are laid bare on his sleeve, with songs drawing from the likes of john sebastian, the byrds, michael nesmith, and gram parsons, amongst others, which gives this album a pleasant retro folk-country rock feel. it's a nice album to listen to and, as always, ... read more

i wanted to like this album a lot more than i did, unfortunately. the instrumentation and production is pleasant, but nothing to really write home about. it's nice indie psych-rock, but not much more than that. what really kills this album for me is the vocals. someone in the vocal mix flat-out cannot really sing and it makes it really rough to listen to at times. i can handle rough around the edges vocals but this really is not that.

not a hot take but paul's bass playing on this is incredible

although many tracks on this record fall in line (relatively) with their previous works, the moments on 'rapscallion' where the tracks sound decidedly different and heavier than the others are the highlights. they are not quite out of their comfort zone here (see what i did there) but they are willing to play with their sound a little bit.