Halibutt Reviews Random Albums

[Sweat]

Yeah, I thought why not. These reviews will mostly come from me doing this game on another site where people basically have each other review different albums, and I thought it'd be cool to showcase them to you guys. Critiques are welcome. Don't expect this topic to be packed until I finish my favorite-90s-albums list.

 

#1 // Minutemen - "Double Nickels On the Dime" (1984)
Post-Punk, Punk Rock
You know, I'll be pretty honest, I kind of thought that this album could've had a chance at being pretty boring.

I don't know, it might be that album cover or the huge amount of really small songs that kind of lowered my expectations, but it was something. One thing I was aware of with this is that it was one of those artsy punk albums that had kind of a dry, skeletal sound to it like Marquee Moon or Entertainment!, which can be kind of a hit and miss for me. Television does it quite well, but Talking Heads, despite still being good, weren't quite the best at it. I had mixed expectations for this album, but it turned out to actually be really good!

The first big thing I did not expect was its complexity, though. Marquee Moon popped up first in my head for this album, because it had the same air of being instrumentally dry, but still complex and very interesting. When you combine that with the amount of songs and their lengths, it's surely not an album that will keep you bored for too long. If you don't like one song, you don't have to worry a single bit. This does bring it down at times though, because when a song is really good but it only spans a minute and a half, you want more. While the worse songs are easy to ignore because if this, they still bring the album down quite a bit. The songs on this album that are more aggressive and funky work a lot better than the softer stuff. At least that shows a lot of variety, and while this is not my favorite album ever or anything, I still respect it a lot.

Also, now I know where the Jackass theme came from, so that's one small weight lifted off of my shoulders.

A-

[Sweat]

#2 // The Cure - "Pornography" (1982)
Post-Punk, Gothic Rock
4.5 || 1 || One Hundred Years
4.0 || 2 || A Short Term Effect
4.0 || 3 || The Hanging Garden
3.5 || 4 || Siamese Twins
5.0 || 5 || The Figurehead
4.0 || 6 || A Strange Day
5.0 || 7 || Cold
5.0 || 8 || Pornography

Prior to this album, the only experience I have had with The Cure was with their 1989 album Disintegration, but I was already convinced that I will probably be a fan of them. I have always been a fan of those 80s pop songs with really dark or sinister undertones, so The Cure was basically those pop songs, but with a lot more post-punk edge to it. I was sold immediately, but even with the expectations of my first album of theirs, I fell in love with this album soon enough.

The most notable difference between this and Disintegration though is that this one seems to be even MORE dark and agonizing. The fact that they managed to balance that with their catchy poppiness is very impressive, and these songs capture what they're best at perfectly. The atmosphere is beautiful, mostly supported by the instrumentation like the forceful drums and the lush guitar, but it's also tough and brooding. This is the main selling point for why this album is as great as it is, really. Albums like this can cross the perfect line either by being too harsh and dark or too poppy, but for the most part, this album balances it very correctly.

I'll be honest though, while I do love the catchier aspects of the album, the song that hit me in the gut the hardest was the title track at the very end. By the end, these guys seem to totally give up at balancing that catchy/dark line, and totally get on the dark side. It mostly reminds me of "European Son" from The Velvet Underground and Nico, in the way that while the rest of the albums at least bothers to be accessible, they just go balls-out at the end to satisfy the listeners who did want something much heavier. This admittedly isn't nearly as much of an outpour of insanity as "European Son", but it's still an excellent way to end the album.
A

[Sweat]

#3 // Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - "Safe as Milk" (1967)
Blues Rock, Psychedelic Rock
4.5 || 01 || Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes, I Do
5.0 || 02 || Zig Zag Wanderer
4.5 || 03 || Call on Me
5.0 || 04 || Dropout Boogie
5.0 || 05 || I'm Glad
4.0 || 06 || Electricity
4.5 || 07 || Yellow Brick Road
3.5 || 08 || Abba Zaba
4.0 || 09 || Plastic Factory
3.5 || 10 || Where There's Woman
4.5 || 11 || Grown So Ugly
5.0 || 12 || Autumn's Child

Captain Beefheart is surely one of the more polarizing artists for people. Some people find his work absolutely genius, while others see him as a pretentious moron. Admittedly, I've always been kind of neutral on the debate on if Van Vliet is good or not. I have listened to his most controversial album, Trout Mask Replica plenty of times, and while it sure wasn't bad, I felt like something was missing or flew over my head. While I usually really like avant-garde in rock, that album was kind of off-putting to me in a vague way. At its best, it was still very good.

Unlike Trout Mask, I didn't have conflicting feelings with Safe as Milkat all, I loved it instantly. I think the big reason that I loved this is because it's simply because it's more accessible. I've always had a lingering feeling about Beefheart that he was a really good musician that didn't really need to be outlandish, so this album is pretty much exactly what I wanted an album from him to sound like. It's still quirky and silly, because a Beefheart record without at least that would definitely kill the charm, but it's a lot more listenable here. I could listen to songs like "Zig Zag Wanderer" and "I'm Glad" over and over again and not feel guilt, while if I were to show people that I listen to stuff like "Pena" or "Dachau Blues", I feel like I would have to question myself.

To put it simply, I kinda feel like any heated argument on this guy's music would probably be null and void if his more accessible work were acknowledged a whole lot more, because this is just some damn good, straightforward, psychedelic blues rock. I really have no complaints about this album, except for the fact that it is kind of frontloaded. The latter songs kinda lose the mood a little bit, but it's still works fine, especially with that wonderful closer.

Standout Tracks Zig Zag Wanderer, Dropout Boogie, I'm Glad, Autumn's Child

A

[CyanideFishbone]

Yo is it okay if I start a thread doing the same kind of thing

[Sweat]

10 minutes ago, CyanideFishbone said:

Yo is it okay if I start a thread doing the same kind of thing

I don't mind at all. After all, I took your 90s album thread idea, you have every right to make one like this