Stream of Consciousness & Music Reviews

    I'm listening to this at the behest of a couple of my friends; it's ok. It's pretty acceptable pop-rock with some catchy songs that standout but without much of a real unique identity. The instrumentation is what you'd expect without much experimentation, but the keyboard/organ parts are particularly good and were regularly my favorite aspect of a lot of the songs. I also liked the lyricism a good deal, having a realistic and cynical tone that both feels thought out and contrasts against the usually lighter tone of the instruments. Aside from that, though, nothing much here stood out to me all too much. The songs that are very popular are pretty good and I can definitely see the sticking power, but as a whole the album doesn't do too much to set itself apart from the crowd and sticks to a very 'mainstream' sort of sound throughout. I don't dislike it but I don't know how much it'll stick with me going forward (especially outside of the popula...

    Dirty Mind sees Prince leaning more into a pop-punk adjacent sound while upping the explicitness of his lyrics and subject matter, as indicated by the album's name. I think that the more sexually charged themes work well for Prince and suit his style (given that he's generally known for this nowadays) but I think the more synthpop-y sound that eschews the funk/groove of his prior two albums wasn't the best move. In my opinion the more simplistic feel and thinner timbre isn't as interesting as the more complexly layered tracks from what he had already made by this point, and subsequently the songs on this album that do lean more into that style with more funky elements are far and away the best parts of the album. I don't think that I would consider anything here "bad" in terms of style or sound and most of it is still pretty good, but I think that, for me, this is probably his weakest showing so far (which checks out when you see that he said that a lo...

    Sad to say that I didn't really like Homework very much. This album leans very heavily into being "dance" music, with pretty much every track focused on having a strong driving beat and repetitive melodies and hooks and not much beyond that. These elements are good for that purpose but leave me wanting more from the music. I know that the intention is to get the listener moving and focusing less on the music itself and more so on the rhythm and movement, but it could use more depth beyond that surface layer to give it more staying power; perhaps I've been spoiled by them, but their later albums are able to pull off the same feel while also giving the songs more personality and variety, with more stuff going on throughout that make it more interesting to actually listen to rather than just as background noise to encourage you to do something else. For the most part the music here is largely 'whatever' to me, mostly that emphasis on the beat that makes most ...

     Take Me To Your Leader keeps up the great quality set up in Operation Doomsday and improves on it. This album is more similar to Madvillainy in that it actively explores the villainous subject a lot more, with a much greater emphasis on the story of King Geedorah invading Earth and fleshing out the persona, and in this regard I think that I may like this one of DOOM's characters the most out of what I've listened to so far. The extensive sampling from old sci-fi and kaiju films to get across Geedorah's personality and motivations make the narrative a lot more gripping and help to enhance the messaging in the songs, with this album going for a much more specific critique of humans and social injustice in specific that I think was executed very well. And, of course, DOOM's composition, sampling, and lyricism are all still top notch and a wonder to listen to. I really like the guest rappers that made appearances this time too, I think that they really fit the mood of ...

      Yeah, everything I've heard about Aja is accurate. This album is great and marks a significant stride forward in Steely Dan's style and quality so far in their discography. The jazziness in the rock is at it's most forefront so far and it's just fantastic; the rhythms and layers, the instrumentation, the overall composition and flow of the songs, it all just works so well and sounds effortless with how natural it feels. It's a weird way to describe it, but this is a case of it feeling less like a meticulously constructed work and more so something that just exists. I have, of course, heard the popular singles from this album many times before so that possibly has some influence in that regard, but I honestly think the album is good enough beyond just that to really earn it's status. Becker and Fagen's work and the efforts of apparently nearly 40(!) musicians brought in to contribute really shines in how polished nearly every aspect of the music is. Aja...

      More of the standard affair from Steely Dan on The Royal Scam with good jazz fusion. I'll say, I think that this is the smoothest album from the band yet. It's got more aspects of groove/funk in there that give it a good flow and makes it just sorta wash over you at times. It's got some good new sounds that it experiments with but nothing too crazy or too much of a step forward, similar to how I felt about the jump from Countdown to Ecstasy to Pretzel Logic. The composition of the album itself is a little wonky, with most of the better songs lumped onto the first half, leaving the second to drag a little and peter out. The quality is still very much in tact throughout and their style and sound are still up to the quality of their better works, but overall the songs aren't as memorable as the standouts that've come before. I personally still like it a good deal and say that the stuff that's good here is really good, but I do think it's a bit of a dip in...