I have only heard one Dio-era Sabbath album, and I can’t say I loved it. But it was a few years ago and I can’t really tell you specifically what it was that rubbed me the wrong way; maybe it just seemed out of step with the time.
Tag: Music
Piece of Mind (1987) by Iron Maiden
Sometimes I’m listening to an album, and reading about that album, and wondering why I seem to be hearing something different than other people do.
Power, Corruption and Lies (1983) by New Order
I was pretty disappointed by New Order’s debut. If I can recall, I believe I was expecting something along the lines of the little I knew about New Order, and what I got was Joy Division minus Ian Curtis. Yes, that’s basically the band, but I was not expecting that. I was disappointed.
Eternally Yours (1978) by The Saints
The major innovation of The Saints’ second album is the presence of the horn section on some tracks. Basically we can trace the “punk with horns” thing back to this album.
Power in the Darkness (1978) by Tom Robinson Band
This is certainly more musically traditional punk than so many of the punk albums that came out in 1977 and especially in 1978. I guess that’s why some people consider it pub rock; it’s more musically competent than punk and, were it not for the lyrics and the vocals, it could be mistaken for pub …
Die Mensch-Maschine aka The Man-Machine (1978) by Kraftwerk
If I thought Trans Europa Express was the beginning of synth pop, that was because I had not heard The Man-Machine. The connections between Trans Europa Express and ’80s synthpop felt slightly tenuous; honestly it felt like I might have been exaggerating the connection just a little bit. Not that that record didn’t influence a …
The Pentangle (1968)
This is some pretty good folk jazz / jazz folk stuff, that is classified on RYM as “progressive folk” and “folk rock” for some reason. (Well, there is a reason: it’s possible they don’t recognize the existence of the folk jazz / jazz folk sub-genre, despite how much of it there is out there.) Anyway…
This Is Hardcore (1998) by Pulp
I think one of the things that distinguishes Pulp from their supposed contemporaries in Britpop is simply their experience – they’ve been making music so much longer than most of the other bands they’re lumped in with, they just know how to do things better. At least, that’s my theory as to why I like …
Suede (1993)
This is a more theatrical version of Brit Pop than I’m normally used to – that’s not to say it’s super theatrical but it is definitely glammier (for lack of a better word) than their contemporaries.
Are You Gonna Go My Way (1993) by Lenny Kravitz
I do not love nostalgia. Even when that nostalgia is for music I like, I have a hard time liking or sometimes even appreciating music that was made in awe of and devotion to another time. Sure, it might sound better than the original because it was recorded better or mixed better or mastered better …
Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) by Depeche Mode
At this point I have heard enough synthpop (and enough Depeche Mode) to understand how this record breaks from that tradition (much like the previous record, Violator, also does), and so I feel like I might actually have something decent to say about it, unlike when I first listened to Violator.
Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka (1998) by Nile
One of the things that I worry about with Death Metal (or Black Metal, for that matter) is that I am going to be confronted by 35-60 minutes of the same style of music and that doesn’t really float my boat. I just don’t want to listen to so many tracks where the style of …
Before These Crowded Streets (1998) by Dave Matthews Band
I have always been the kind of person to go left when everyone else was going right, when it comes to cultural things. If a song is everywhere, it’s pretty much guaranteed I won’t like it. If a movie is getting celebrated a little too much, I want to not like it. What does this …
Mezzanine (1998) by Massive Attack
Massive Attack is more towards the Hip Hop side of Trip Hop and for me that’s a bit of an issue since Hip Hop has never been my thing and the whole appeal of Trip Hop for me is the lack of rapping.
Music Has the Right to Children (1998) by Boards of Canada
I don’t listen to a ton of electronic music but I do listen to some, especially more recently, with my podcast about album anniversaries, with lost of major electronic music album anniversaries arising. So I do find it hard at times to put electronic music in context, though I think I’m getting better at it.
When Forever Comes Crashing (1998) by Converge
This is some excellent metalcore, with just about everything you would want from the genre.
www.pitchshifter.com (1998)
I do not know anywhere near enough about ’90s industrial or the British electronica scene to have any real idea of the context this record was made in but I can tell you it sounds insanely ’90s. Imagine a more political, perhaps slightly less articulate Nine Inch Nails, mixed with The Prodigy and maybe you …
Porno for Pyros (1993)
I don’t love Jane’s Addiction. One reason for that is that I had just heard way too much about how great they were before I ever heard more than a couple of songs. The other reason is Farrell’s voice, I don’t love it.
The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of The Reverend Horton Heat (1993)
I understand the appeal of this music: it’s loud, raucous, fun, manic, and it’s well-played. The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds (no gospel included…) manages to bridge the past and future together, like other psychobilly, combining punk with more traditional rock and roll. There’s definitely more of an alternative rock vibe here than the punk vibe with ’80s …
Today’s Active Lifestyles (1993) by Polvo
Imagine if Sonic Youth played Pavement-style indie rock (albeit longer songs), but more of a post-hardcore version of Pavement without their idiosyncrasies, you may get some vague idea of what Polvo sounds like. RYM lists them as a Math Rock band and frankly that mystifies me, even in the context of the early 1990s, but …
Cadillac Records (2008, Darnell Martin)
From the opening scenes of this docudrama about history of Chess Records, things feel a little off. The attempt to balance the stories of Leonard Chess and Muddy Waters feels a little wonky and the pacing definitely seems off. A man just walks up to Muddy in a field and says he’s Alan Lomax and …
Life’s Too Good (1988) by The Sugarcubes
For Bjork fans coming to this after listing to her solo career, this album feels like a bit of glimpse into Bjork in utero: her voice is already fully formed and distinct but much of the other stuff that make Bjork Bjork seems missing or replaced by a rock band which sometimes has a male …
History of a Time to Come (1988) by Sabbat
I am, on some level, a sucker for thrash. Yes, this was released in 1988. Yes, it is heavily influenced by the major American thrash bands. No, there isn’t the kind of genre-creating and genre-defining additions to trash that other late ’80s bands were able to create, on this particular record. I don’t care. Its’ …
Tracy Chapman (1988)
Chapman’s self-titled album is the introduction of a strong new, one might even say necessary, voice. She offers what was likely a very unique perspective in late 1980s, that of a folk-singing African American woman. Excuse my ignorance but I’m not sure there was much precedent for her, even by 1988. (When I say folk, …
Hootenanny (1983) by The Replacements
This is a bizarre, jokey mess of a record, as much of a transition record (in hindsight) as any record I’ve heard by an American band.
Today (1988) by Galaxie 500
I don’t really know the history of dream pop, but from what little I know of it I’m willing to guess this is a fairly seminal record.
Green Thoughts (1988) by The Smithereens
This is one of those records that basically just fails to move me. I understand that it’s all very competent and I do not dislike the aesthetic, really, but something here is missing for me.
Viva Hate (1988) by Morrissey
One of my reasons for my antipathy towards Morrissey (and the Smiths) is the music, and I must say the music here is much artier and weirder than I was expecting. (I think we can thank Vini Reilly for that. He’s a musically interesting guy in ways that Street and Morrissey normally are not.)
The Hurting (1983) by Tears for Fears
Like most people my age and younger, I first heard “Mad World” through a cover in a video game commercial. The song made a big impression, so much so that the first time I heard the original I was like “I don’t like this.”
Adventure (1978) by Television
It’s hard when you’ve only ever listened to one album by a band for so long, you think that that album is the band. Worse, it’s the band’s “classic” and the one everyone knows.