Talking Heads - Talking Heads 77

Talking Heads - Talking Heads 77 (1977)

Genre: Art Punk, New Wave, Funk Rock

Probably the most unique band to come out of the CBGB scene, Talking Heads released their debut studio album in 1977, receiving widespread acclaim and attention. As a reminder, I do not intend for this to be a really in-depth and complex review. I'm just sharing my quick personal thoughts on the album. As for any album review I will do, I try to be objective without letting any personal bias get too much in the way of the final grade.

I like to think of Talking Heads as the first art-punk band to come to mainstream recognition. These guys could literally crank out a song like Don't Worry About The Government and mean it, and it would ironically (or unironically, depending on which way you look at it) make you feel like a genius for listening. This band is basically punk for nerds, something of a paradox, but this album clearly proves that they were onto something. I'm not one to delve much into the critical analyzation of an artist's lyrics, but there is something you could clearly make out of songs in this record.

More importantly though, David Byrne is somewhat of a musical genius in my eyes. This album isn't as experimental as some of their later work, but even here, it's hard to describe most of the songs and categorize them into one or two genres. I'll start off by explaining what initially got me hooked. The album opener, Uh-Oh Love Comes to Town honestly didn't capture my attention much at first listen, but I still couldn't deny how unbelievably funky that bass sounded. This feeling skyrocketed on the next song, New Feeling. Tina Weymouth seriously has to be one of the most underrated bass players of all time. Even if a song does not click with me much, I can still count on her bass playing to keep me hooked.

Moving on though, David Byrne has to have one of the most unique voices in rock history. I honestly feel bad that can't appreciate Talking Heads' wonderful discography because of his voice. Personally, his quirky style fits well with the style they are consistently going for. After all, this record especially, is still considered punk. Therefore, FIGHT THE SYSTEM. SCREW WHAT PEOPLE THINK. David Byrne is an amazing vocalist, case closed. I still can't help but laugh at some of his intentional vocal quirks, however. Who Is It? has him sounding like a schizophrenic paranoid as he sings the title on repeat. It's so damn entertaining and totally not weird in the context of this band.

Album closer Pulled Up is perhaps the most anxious I've felt while actually enjoying a song. David Byrne's progressively louder vocals are at best, ironically powerful and at worst, downright hilarious. I do have a point I'm making when I keep commenting on his vocals, and its that even with some of its deep lyrical context, this band doesn't take itself too seriously, and that's part of its charm. No Compassion and The Book I Read are two songs that I played on repeat for days on end at one point. Most of the songs on this record are just so incredibly infectious that it remains one of my few "therapy" records. When I'm feeling down, I just pop in Talking Heads 77. It's nears perfection with its incredibly upbeat and funky performances.

A+

Favorite Tracks: New Feeling, No Compassion, The Book I Read, First Week/Last Week....Carefree, Psycho Killer

Least Favorite Track: Uh-Oh Love Comes To Town

Paul McCartney - McCartney

Paul McCartney -  McCartney (1970)

Genre: Rock, Lo-Fi

Released less than a month before the release of the final Beatles record Let It Be, McCartney's debut album received substantial hype, thanks in part to rumors of The Beatles' eminent break-up. As a reminder, I do not intend for this to be a really in-depth and complex review. I'm just sharing my quick personal thoughts on the album. As for any album review I will do, I try to be objective without letting any personal bias get too much in the way of the final grade.

It was perfectly reasonable to expect nothing short of a masterpiece from Macca. After all, he contributed so many hits to The Beatles' discography as part of his songwriting partnership with Lennon. The first time I listened to this record all the way through, I was honestly left a bit confused and disheartened. It's riddled with unfinished songs and short, whimsical ditties that by the end, it felt like I had listened to a collection of cut studio takes and abandoned B-sides. It definitely didn't have the consistency and wow factor that one would expect from a former Beatle.

But I digress, as none of the tracks on here are downright stinkers. In fact, this album did spawn one of McCartney's most celebrated solo efforts, Maybe I'm Amazed, a raw, yet sweet piece of romantic piano rock. It's very clear that most of the album drew inspiration from his wife, Linda. The opening track, The Lovely Linda, while only being a mere 44 seconds long, is one of the cutest acoustic piece that McCartney ever recorded and stands out as one of my favorite tracks on the record. If you like cute, sappy love songs, then Macca has you covered on this record.

It's interesting to note, however, that out of the 13 tracks, 5 of them are instrumental and that includes Singalong Junk, which is just an instrumental version of Junk. Pretty cheap of him, if you ask me. While the incomplete songs were already a big indication, this further solidifies my claim that poor Paul was simply struggling with coming up with enough decent material. Junk is quite pretty, at least. Glad he didn't do this with some of the other tracks. Oo You is the most hard-rocking tune here, very much uninspired in it's lyrical content, but quite catchy nonetheless. Man We Was Lonely dabbles in some country influences and remains another simple, but effectively catchy tune. To sum up my thoughts on most of the track-listing, a lot of these may be pretty short, simple tunes, but they're mostly quite pleasing and enjoyable.

 I'd like to properly address Kreen-Akrore. I like to think of this track as an excuse for McCartney's ego to shine through. It's a glorified percussion-heavy jam session. Seeing as he played every instrument on this album, he possibly wanted to show off his [subpar] drumming skills. It's not a particularly horrible track, but it seems quite odd to include it, especially as the closing track. Overall, the album has a low-fi quality about it, production wise. Seeing as a lot of the tracks were recorded at home, it stands to reason that McCartney was going for a more "DIY" kind of sound and aesthetic. For the type of tunes he was putting on this record, it works well enough. This was probably not what most people expected from Macca's debut solo effort, but it has its charm.

B

Favorite Tracks: Maybe I'm Amazed, Man We Was Lonely, The Lovely Linda, Junk, That Would Be Something

Least Favorite Track: Kreen-Akrore

Harry Styles - Harry Styles

Harry Styles - Harry Styles (2017)

Genre: Pop Rock, Glam Rock, Hard Rock, Folk Pop

Harry Styles of One Direction fame, released his debut solo album in 2017, with some interesting results.  This album is being reviewed per request. As a reminder, I do not intend for this to be a really in-depth and complex review. I'm just sharing my quick personal thoughts on the album. As for any album review I will do, I try to be objective without letting any personal bias get too much in the way of the final grade.

Most fans may agree that Harry Styles always seemed to have the most potential within One Direction, and this album has been a small step in proving that statement. I was already fully aware of his hit-single Sign of the Times before the release of this record. It's quite a beautiful piano-rock ballad. It gave me some optimism, as I expected that at least a couple of other tracks would be able to match it. I can't say that my expectations were exceeded, but I was still pleasantly surprised.

Harry has definitely matured in his songwriting since his One Direction days. Throughout the record you will notice lots of influences from 60's and 70's R&B and some funk sprinkled in. Carolina blew me away with its hypnotic bass groove and sultry guitar rhythms. Styles' vocal performance on the track is incredibly seductive and appropriately powerful as well, and it left me wanting more. Nothing on the album after that was able to match it, unfortunately. Only Angel and Kiwi seem to try and one up Carolina with its more hard rock style, but fall a bit short on creativity. If anything, they're still decent efforts and the only two worthwhile tracks on the second half of the record.

Sweet Creature seems to get a lot of attention from fans, but I personally thought it was pretty overrated. The song's finger-plucked riff sounds like it could have taken inspiration from The Beatles' Blackbird. It's tasteful, but a bit generic in my book. What really killed the momentum for me, were the last three tracks, which unfortunately, have the distinction of being the three worst tracks on the album. They're not bad, per se, but there was potential there to close off the album on a high note, and instead, Harry just let it simmer down for the last 13 minutes or so. 

Ironically, I personally feel that the strongest tracks on this record were the first three. Although I still did enjoy the songs in between, it's unfortunate that it had to dwindle down and lose its momentum as much as it did. With that said, Harry's debut definitely shows promise in his songwriting abilities and his ability to blend classic rock influences were for the most part, simple, but appreciated. I expect him to grow more and for a first try, it's pretty solid.

B

Favorite Tracks: Meet Me In The Hallway, Sign Of The Times, Carolina

Least Favorite Track: Ever Since New York

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I (1969)

Genre: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Blues Rock

The debut album by the English hard rock band Led Zeppelin hit shelves at the start of 1969. Initially, reviews were largely negative and their reputation would not recover until later. Was it truly a terrible album? As a reminder, I do not intend for this to be a really in-depth and complex review. I'm just sharing my quick personal thoughts on the album. As for any album review I will do, I try to be objective without letting any personal bias get too much in the way of the final grade.

During this time, heavy metal was in its infancy, and there were certainly quite a few bands at the forefront of it. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Jeff Beck Group, and even Jimmy's Page's previous band, The Yardbirds. Led Zeppelin however, had the distinction and honor of becoming the most accessible in the hard rock scene of the late 60's, personally. I'm not gonna lie and say that this was a completely original group in both their songwriting and musical composition. In fact, 3 out of the 9 tracks on this record are covers. Amazingly, even if you were already familiar with the original versions of them, they still sound like new songs.

Jimmy Page was at the wheel of this group, both musically and production-wise. He was already a very capable musician and had garnered enough experience in the studio to work out new techniques and play around with them on this record, and it shows. His experimentation with extra reverb techniques gives the record a very constructed ambient sound, which especially for a hard rock record, was very unusual, but it works beautifully here. Probably the most effective use of this is on Your Time Is Gonna Come. John Paul Jones' organ wonderfully drives the track forward and is perhaps the most interesting song on this album, sonically. 

There's something to be said about all these tracks, though. There's no reinventing the genre here, but every single track here presents itself with incredible musicianship and Robert Plant's vocals are some of the best in any rock record ever recorded. His ability as a singer is most beautifully showcased on Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, where his seductive, hushed singing can suddenly go to loud, howling rock "screaming." It's not the most daunting vocal performance, but it demonstrates what he's capable of doing with his vocal range. 

Performance-wise, John Bonham and John Paul Jones are masters of the drums and bass, respectively. Usually, with any band, there's always at least 1 who is clearly a much more proficient musician than the rest, but the same can't be said about this group. With their first album, they all established themselves as masters of their craft. How Many More Times, the album closer, never ceases to impress me with its jam-session style presentation that kicks ass. Intricate riffs, smooth bass grooves, powerful drumming, and grade-A singing are on display here, prominently. Even with more simple, by-the-numbers tracks like Communication Breakdown and Good Times Bad Times, they still manage to provide a powerful sonic punch in the span of less than 3 minutes each. This is certainly among my favorite debut albums of all time and even now, nearly 50 years from its release, still sounds fresh with its amazing production quality. Critics back in 1969 had no idea what they were talking about.

A+

Favorite Tracks: You Shook Me, Dazed And Confused, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Your Time Is Gonna Come, Communication Breakdown, How Many More Times

Least Favorite Track: Black Mountain Side

The Score - Atlas

The Score - Atlas (2017)

Genre: Pop Rock, Hard Rock, Indie Pop

Atlas is the debut studio album by the indie pop-rock duo The Score, released in 2017. I am reviewing this album by request. As a reminder, I do not intend for this to be a really in-depth and complex review. I'm just sharing my quick personal thoughts on the album. As for any album review I will do, I try to be objective without letting any personal bias get too much in the way of the final grade.

I may not have a full appreciation for modern pop, but I do enjoy a good dosage of indie rock from time to time. That said, upon my first listen of this album, I didn't have such a strong impression. A second listen did allow me to pick out a couple of "gems" off this record, while still leaving the rest as below average, simple feel good music. Legend teased me near the beginning with some barebones sonic imitation of Led Zeppelin's heavy guitar driven riffs, and then it just went away. A real shame, as it had the potential to keep its momentum going and become my favorite track. Tightrope surprised me with Eddie's admirable performance, as unlike most of the other tracks, he sounds pretty "clean" and, admittedly a bit sultry. Strange on the other hand, is the other decent cut on the album which I praise for it's seemingly simple, but catchy syncopated vocal performance. Speaking of vocals though, I have to talk about the lyrics.

Look, I'm all for bold statements and intellectuality in music, but there's something about this record that screams, "SELF-CONCEITED!" The fact of the matter is that a lot of the lyrics clearly relate to grand ideals of fame, uniqueness and standing out. Most of it is the sort of happy-go-lucky songwriting you have come to expect from most of the tween friendly pop world of today. Normally, that's not a big deal, but I'd be lying if I said they don't feel blown out of proportion thanks to the saturated overproduction my ears experienced from listening to this album. I'm not blinding myself to the fact that at heart, this is a pop record, but there is a limit to how much overdubbing you can do before the music comes off as a bit pretentious, especially with the subject matter at hand.

  

From what I've gathered, the band's very own Edan Dover handled production work, and while I admire his efforts, some tracks could have fared better without some of the unnecessary overdubs and blown up production. One of the cleaner sounding songs on this record, Believe, has the unfortunate distinction of being one of my least favorite on the record. As Eddie sings on Revolution, "There's a revolution coming!" If this album is any indication of things to come, then they have some work to do before I'm willing to listen to their cause. Overall, it's a painfully standard feel good record in which some generic by-the-numbers compositions and questionable production choices hamper it from being an enjoyable debut. Fans of simple, modern pop rock may very well get a kick out of this, though, but I wouldn't really know.  

  

D

  

Favorite Tracks: Tightrope, Strange, Who Am I

  

Least Favorite Track: Only One

The Beatles - The Beatles [White Album]

The Beatles - The Beatles [White Album] (1968)

Genre: Pop Rock, Art Rock, Psychedelic Rock

With the release of the new 50th anniversary edition of the Beatles' legendary Double-LP, I found it appropriate to start my album reviews with this one. This will not be a review of the new mix's production, but more so just the music and the original album in general. As a reminder, I do not intend for this to be a really in-depth and complex review. I'm just sharing my quick personal thoughts on the album. As for any album review I will do, I try to be objective without letting any personal bias get too much in the way of the final grade.

Fresh off the heels of Sgt. Pepper's (Let's forget about Magical Mystery Tour for a second), anticipation for the Beatles' next studio album was undoubtedly high at the time. What we ended up getting was the most musically incoherent album that they ever released. I don't mean this in a negative way, though. Packing 30 tracks into a Double-LP is no easy feat, especially with the strict deadlines that they faced. With that many tracks, one would expect quite a few of them to be real stinkers, but surprisingly, the album keeps a steady momentum going throughout most of its nearly 94-minute runtime. 

In comparison to Sgt. Pepper's, this does feel like a return to more traditional rock n' roll. However, this wouldn't be a proper late Beatles record without lots of sonic and stylistic experimentation within. Glass Onion, with it's simple, yet funky riff and entertaining "4th wall breaking" lyrics, dabbles with tints of psychedelia, prominently on display with the eerie use of strings near the end of the track. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill provides a short, but tantalizing Spanish guitar style intro. Helter Skelter infamously became known as the first heavy metal song and, ironically still sounds fresh, with its distorted, fuzzy production and all. 

Being a Double-LP, there is also room for good handful of acoustics. Blackbird and Julia remain among the most hauntingly beautiful songs in The Beatles' discography. With both of these songs being solo efforts by Paul and John, respectively, it's interesting to note that there are quite a few times throughout the album where you get the vibe that in reality, this record is a mish-mash of solo efforts combined into one. Tensions within the band were troublesome throughout the recordings, but it gave us a glimpse, to some degree, of what each member was cable of writing and composing on their own. Probably the most celebrated effort on the album would have to be While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which forever solidified George's great ability as a songwriter. 

As I stated previously, this album does suffer from a sort of identity crisis, in that there is no consistent style throughout, and while this can be attributed to the vast amount of tracks, it does seem like each Beatle had different artistic ideas in mind. Nothing can excuse them from the (admittedly little amount) of weird filler, though. God knows what was going through Paul's mind when recording Wild Honey Pie, one of the shortest and most unique, yet unsettling pieces of filler I've ever heard. Revolution 9, which has sort of become a novelty at this point, immensely drags down the momentum of the 2nd disc, and at nearly 8 and 1/2 minutes, it REALLY drags. While I consider it more of an experiment than an actual song, I still skip it pretty much ever time I go through this record. Because of this and my general dislike for George's much too slow Long, Long, Long and the admittedly appropriate, but snore-inducing (Perhaps, that was the point?) closing track Good Night, Disc 2 does present itself as a weaker effort than the first, though it doesn't get too much in the way of holding this record to a high standard. This is most certainly one of the The Beatles' greatest accomplishments and the fantastic assortment of songs mostly makes up for the few stinkers.

A+

Favorite Tracks: Dear Prudence, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, I'm So Tired, Blackbird, Rocky Racoon, Julia, Savoy Truffle

Least Favorite Track: Revolution 9

A List of the Artists I Have Reviewed

Artists I've Reviewed

*Numbers represent how many albums I've reviewed

**Color means I have reviewed all of their releases

- The 1975 (1)

- Abandoned Pools (1)
- AURORA (1)

- The Beatles (1)
- Best Coast (1)

- Camilla Cabello (1)
- The Chainsmokers (1)
- Daughters (2)

- David Bowie (1)
- The Doors (1)
- Dream Wife (1)
- Emma Blackery (1)

- Gorillaz (1)
- Greta Van Fleet (1)

- Harry Styles (1)
- Iceage (1)
- Jack White (1)

- Kero Kero Bonito (2)

- King Crimson (1)
- Lana Del Rey (1)

- Led Zeppelin (2)
- Linda McCartney (1)
- Massive Attack (1)
- MGMT (1)
- Mitski (1)

- Paul McCartney (2)
- Phil Collins (1)
- Radiohead (1)

- The Score (1)
- Soccer Mommy (1)
- SOPHIE (1)

- Talking Heads (2)

- They Might Be Giants (1)
- The Unicorns (1)
- Wings (1)
- The xx (1)