The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project (aka Preachin’ about the Preachers if today’s selection sucks)

July 4, 2023

View attachment 176804
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement





I love this album and My Mistakes Were Made For You is one of my favourite songs. There's some Gainsbourgesque stuff in this song (compare to Initials BB).
 
Yep, I figured that the moment he started singing. I was actually about to write how this felt like a precursor to their sound on Tranquility Base (which also was the first Arctic Monkeys album I really enjoyed from start to finish).

I'm not an Arctic Monkeys fan but I did enjoy Alex Turner's soundtrack to the film Submarine

 
7/5/23

View attachment 176884

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fanatasy





I'm not putting myself through this one again. Here's the previous play by play:

Day 109 - (I've been putting this one off for a minute)

205b6692b6b710a322919c7ca9cece2997ac1869


"The clock's ticking, I just count the hours" - 8 minutes into this 1h 8min long album I'm counting down the hour... I wasn't looking forward to this, and I'm still not. But I'm in it...

If this led to anybody checking out King Crimson who hadn't previously done so, that's probably going to be the most positive attribute of this album for me...

Oooof! "Monster" might just feature the weakest Jay-Z verse I've ever heard. That was painful.

"Runaway" is about 9 minutes too long and has one of the dumbest hooks I've ever heard.

Oh! Nevermind. This vocoder/autotune re-write of "Iron Man" for the hook of "Hell of a Life" is much worse!

Alright, in order to inject some positivity into these proceedings I will fall back to where I commonly wind up when it comes to discussions around Kanye - there is some fantastic production here. I think Kanye is a solid producer. Not the best; not legendary; solid. But as an emcee, I feel like his spectrum reduces to something between decent and horrifically wack - more often than not the latter end of that. Perhaps the incredible array of guest appearances on this album distracts many from the fact this is self-indulgent and not that good, aside from a bunch of the beats.

Objectively: 2/5; Subjectively 0/5
 
@Yer Ol' Uncle D did you go to any of these, do they seem accurate to you?

Yes - in attendance for all 3 and these lineups look accurate.

Sometimes there was some regional variance depending on legs but that mostly involved side stages. And there were some great bands on the side stages.

'92 was just ridiculously nuts. I'm not a chili Peppers fan at all but genuinely felt sorry for them having to follow Ministry every night on that tour. They didn't stand a snowball's chance. Ministry had darkness, metal bombast, voodoo-laden mic stands on wheels and the crowd starting bonfires. The Peppers had fire hats and socks for their dicks.
 
Last edited:
7/5/23

View attachment 176884

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fanatasy




Probably the most problematic artist that I truly loved. Through TLOP I was able to separate the art from the artist but at this point it’s nearly impossible for me to listen to this album with anything more than disappointment. Kanye had an amazing transcendent run of albums from 808 through TLOP and it’s pretty much all down the shitter now.
 
7/5/23

View attachment 176884

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fanatasy




I KNOW THIS ONE!

'POWER'

It's alright.

The record so far has been alright to be honest.

King Crimson.

lol.

FUCKING RIDICULIS!

Well, well, well, could do with being about 15–20 minutes shorter. I also don't care and can't relate to a lot of the situations he's writing these songs about, but he's a good rapper, the beats and samples are good and the guest artists do their jobs well.

3 / 5 stars.
 
Yep, I figured that the moment he started singing. I was actually about to write how this felt like a precursor to their sound on Tranquility Base (which also was the first Arctic Monkeys album I really enjoyed from start to finish).
I remember how when tilhis first came out it seemed like such a departure from anything Arctic Monkeys were doing. Now it seems more similar to their sound than the first 2 albums at this point.
 
July 4, 2023

View attachment 176804
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement




Big fan of this album. Probably one of my favorite Alex Turner related albums. Their 2nd album failed to capture the magic of this album. Great songs, great sound. 5/5 for me.
 
7/3/23
View attachment 176718

Green Day - Dookie





I can't put my thumb on why I'm so reluctant to give this a 5, but I gave it a 4 - which, really, would be a 4.5 rounded down I suppose. I enjoy the shit out of this whenever I put it on - both in the moment and nostalgically.
 
I can't put my thumb on why I'm so reluctant to give this a 5, but I gave it a 4 - which, really, would be a 4.5 rounded down I suppose. I enjoy the shit out of this whenever I put it on - both in the moment and nostalgically.
I think the sophomoric content prevents it from five. I’m still kind of shocked at how much I liked American Idiot. It is overwrought at times but beyond the similar sound styles, it’s hard to believe they are the same band that made both.
 
Back
Top