This album may not have been as influential in regards to popularity as some of Zappa's other works, mainly Hot Rats or some of the late 70s stuff, nor the peak of instrumental virtuosity like the later bands got to reach, but it surely feels like an absolutely essential step on Zappa's career.
Zappa was the kind of guy who didn't really care about his own legacy, and I tend to agree with this posture, and precisely for this reason I believe this work is somewhat underrated. It shows, for the ... read more
Getting this out of the way: G-Spot Tornado is probably one of the most interesting Zappa compositions ever, up there with Brown Shoes Don't Make It, Little House I Used to Live In, and all of the Boulez Conducts Zappa album.
But this album is overall pretty great and grew a lot on me. Listening to some pieces such as the title track, I sometimes wonder what would Zappa say about stuff like videogame music in the 2010s. This album will definitely not appeal to all people, but his compositions ... read more
This album is as good as I expected it to be. After the troll decision to make a 17-minute long song about events from 1963 and before (and what's the funniest - make it his first #1 on Billboard), Dylan made bold moves by releasing two more singles.
I had an amazing experience with Rough and Rowdy Ways. Nothing feels out of place, and everything seems like it was written with a purpose. It's a much more positive album than Tempest, which makes me feel better about Dylan, someone who most ... read more
"I'm first among equals - second to none
I'm last of the best - you can bury the rest
Bury 'em naked with their silver and gold
Put 'em six feet under and then pray for their souls"
Edgy Dylan meets old Dylan. If Rough and Rowdy Ways is as good as these singles, we're gonna have another masterpiece after Tempest. Even the least interesting of the bunch, "I Contain Multitudes", has something great about it. It's amazing to live at the same time Bob Dylan does, specially ... read more
This review is gonna be regrettable.
This song only made sense to me when I watched the music video. It's obviously a humourous song and, for some reason, people treat it as if it's serious. It's probably the perfect song for the niche it proposes itself to be, just take a look at most reviews everywhere: nobody talks about much more than supposed mysoginy and "incel culture", whatever that is. It's a meme. The fact that it struck a chord with so many people crowns it as a success. ... read more
Triplicate is a mood, almost background-music-like album. Some classics here are great: "Once Upon a Time", "That Old Feeling", "Braggin'", "Day In Day Out", "It's Funny to Everyone but Me", "Sentimental Journey"... the real problem here is that it's a damn long record. Had it been shrunk a little, it could've been the best out of the "Sinatra" albums.
But they're not Sinatra albums at all. These songs are directly from the ... read more
Street-Legal is an absolutely essential album to anyone who vaguely enjoys Bob Dylan, and an amazing album overall. Dylan's career is full of triads -- the acoustic triad from The Freewheelin' to Another Side, the electric triad, the religious triad (of which this album could be part of), the standards triad --, and this album fits in a peculiar way.
Musically, this album is wild. Desire already had pushed the boundaries of what Dylan could make, but this went way further. The soprano sax and ... read more
There are countless things that are impressive about Have One on Me. Maybe we should start with her previous record, Ys. In five songs (and impressive 55 minutes), consciously or not Newsom borrowed from the long form writing style of the likes of Bob Dylan in songs such as "Desolation Row", "Highlands" and "Visions of Johanna", keeping choruses at a minimum and giving more and more to the potency of the lyrics she wrote. Not only that, musically she was wild. Not ... read more
(This was originally written on October 25th, 2019.)
It's probably too early to write a review of this album, but I don't think I'm gonna have such a radically different opinion about it anytime soon. Maybe it will age well, like Kids See Ghosts did last year, or maybe it will age poorly, like The Life of Pablo did, but I don't think either going to be the case.
What I see from the other reviews is that people are incredibly biased and went into this album wanting to confirm their bias. They ... read more
This album probably announces the end of the most productive era for Carla Bley. Although she would frequently have good moments, few would reach her peak of albums such as A Genuine Tong Funeral and Escalator Over the Hill.
The problem is teased with the first song of the album, which although very entertaining isn't as inspired as the ones from her operas or theatrical works, nor is as experimental as the works with The Jazz Composer's Orchestra. But that doesn't mean that the song is bad. ... read more
The Jazz Composer's Orchestra was a project by jazz titans. We had Carla Bley and Michael Mantler, the first one being a genius and the second an innovator. The two of them started a partnership that would give birth to some of the greatest jazz music ever, Escalator Over the Hill, an absolute masterpiece, being the best example.
The musicians in this album include Gato Barbieri, Cecil Taylor, Pharoah Sanders and Don Cherry. It's amazing how such a work could fit all of these people and not ... read more
The woman herself, Carla Bley, the genius composer that crafted this masterpiece, described "A Genuine Tong Funeral" as "a dramatic musical production based on emotions towards death -- from the most irreverent to those of deepest loss." And this is an absolutely precise description.
This heavily emotional album evolves continually towards the stages of grief, and Burton's quartet added much to what would be the first bombastic piece by the composer. Bley would evolve ... read more
(Originally written in Portuguese, on May 20th, 2019)
It gets more and more obvious to me that Chico Buarque is, today, a simulacrum of himself from the past. And I actually mean a simulacrum, I'll soon explain it better.
This album isn't good, except for a few songs such as "Dueto", which also aren't much at all. But, for some reason, whenever Buarque releases a new album, his audience accepts him without any kind of criticism, because he is not a popular singer, but an elite one, ... read more
(Originally written on June 4th, 2019)
Today, I hit my car. I wasn't listening to this album, but to Trout Mask Replica, yet I feel this could've been more adequate. No, not that my accident was anywhere near to Kanye's famous car crash, but because I was going to college, because I had a test. It is specially ironic when I tell you that I was not in a hurry, but over 30 minutes early, just so that I'd have no chance of missing my test. It's incredible.
As I said, I was listening to Trout ... read more
(Originally written on July 15th, 2018. Does not consider future edits.)
Kids See Ghosts is the best album of the year. I like how the weird Kanye/Cudi relationship ended in an album talking about mental issues. Both of them have history of not being the most mentally stable people in the world. In 2010 Kanye was already saying he was "trippin' off the power", and when he tried to make an image of himself as a more arrogant center of the world in Yeezus he didn't do well, and made ... read more
(Originally written on April 2nd, 2019).
Haley's done it again: another good album, but not without flaws. Maybe her worst, actually. Listen Up! was a pretty fresh album, contrasting with what I expected from her, but still going in an at least interesting way. Way less jazzy (she performed "Moanin'" in a pop show, I would expect something more commercially daring), she made a pretty great pop album. Overall, she's done good works, but I don't think any of them had more to say than ... read more
(Originally written in March 9th, 2019)
I saw an article about how Bob Dylan influenced this young musician on his first album, so I decided to give it a try. It's not something I usually do, but I wanted to write something, and I felt like this would be the perfect thing to write about. And I'm glad I picked it.
This is a pretty good album. I can hear some early Dylan here and some folk-ish influences. Ondara's vocals are ambicious, but I don't think he can always deliver what he wants. Some ... read more
This is catchy and, no doubt, the best Youtube diss track ever. Technically, this is as good as an edgy school shooting-looking nerd and his effeminate friend could do, so, not that great. But still, many efforts here are paid off. Idubbbz is an edgy guy, and the lyrics, by far the best thing in the track, are pretty edgy (by the way, I like how Ian's previews of Ricegum's channel dying actually came true in a year or less after the song was published). Although Youtube music isn't taken ... read more
1
Create an account to rate and review albums.
Recent Review Comments
On NEGATIVE XP - Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Ruined a Whole Generation of Women
"Thank you two. Why was I this mean to NegativeXP refusing to call him an artist?"
On iDubbbz - Asian Jake Paul
"Gee, I wonder what ever happened to idubbbz all these years later."
On Whynot's review of Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
"What always got me in this album is the fact that Miles could "tame" the young John Coltrane, who was at the verge of exploding into hard bop and technical impossibles. Not my favorite Miles, but maybe his best."
On JustSomeGuy's review of Frank Zappa - Lumpy Gravy
"I think the spoken word parts worked really well on Part One, which is a masterpiece imho. The second half, although not exactly terrible, in comparison seems a lot less inspired, though I have to say that ending it with Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance was one of the best options possible.
I've been listening a lot to this album throughout the year, and often I find something new that interests me. I think it's somewhat negligenciated because of its weirdness and the public interest in more commercial sounds, but it amazes me for some reason."
On sl33pd3al3r's review of The Mothers of Invention - Burnt Weeny Sandwich
"This review is quite underrated."
On vanchromosingle's review of Party in Backyard & PewDiePie - Mine All Day
"lol imagine writing this"
On Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways
"Thanks man! The great thing of forums is that we can discuss and find more and more to these bottomless albums. Cheers!"
On Whynot's review of Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways
"Reviews such as this make me start considering the possibility of translating a text I made in Portuguese just to add to the conversation so that collectively Dylan fans extract as much as possible from the album.
I've been personally bothered by the way people treat his music or his sounds as if they were necessarily a secondary thing, but I think it's essential to really "getting" Dylan. It's not like he started in a place in his career and is in a completely different place now. I also feel like modern listeners (not that I'm an ancient one in my 22 years) tend to ignore that music from the past is great, if not greater, and yes this is kinda boomer talk but still true. At the very least, the music from the past brought us to where we are now, so at least in this regard it should be more noticed. And since 1961 that's what Dylan does: homages to traditional music in one way or another.
Very good, man."
On PipePanic's review of Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways
"I couldn't disagree more with JustSomeGuy. Actually I could, because yes, Dylan from 2001 on is not the best place to start, even if it's probably his most solid era, except for one album.
Personally, I really enjoy the chronologic take to his career because you can see the narrative behind it. The change of tone on albums usually reflect changes on his takes on music, and not in a "discovering music" kind of way. It's a "way of seeing music" kind of way. And that probably explains why his music shifts sounds so much throughout his career.
But if you're not interested at all in the narrative, which would make his music 50% or more less interesting, the best place to start is surely Bringing it All Back Home. If you prefer how the first half sounds, go to the next two albums, if you prefer how the second half sounds, go to the previous four."
On exception's review of Pusha T - The Story Of Adidon
"I don't think Pusha dissing Drake's father was a direct insult (it wouldn't even make sense, since Drake - or anyone else - does not get to choose who he is the son of), but that his point is that Drake is turning exactly into what his father is, so he can't cry about it in his songs without being a hypocrite."
On KT KnifeTrick's review of iDubbbz - Asian Jake Paul
"I liked the gum wordplay. With the other ones I actually agree, they sound as if Dave's trying too hard to make puns like a good rapper. Maybe Ian's lyrics were better because he doesn't take himself seriously at all as a musician, which is right."
Advertisement