Stream of Consciousness & Music Reviews

      Deceptive Bends is a little all over the place, which is not a good thing. Typical of art/prog rock, the album tries a variety of different styles and sounds across its tracks that turn out being pretty hit or miss. Some of the songs have nice distinct feels that I found easy to get into while others felt pretty generic and weren't too captivating. This also leads to the album as a whole not really having a strong identity or feeling too coherent, because the different styles they try out don't fit together all too well. The standout aspects of the music are the guitar, both acoustic and electric, and the vocal harmonies, which all sounded great and I thought were creative and well performed. Other than that no single aspects really jump out one way or the other; the songs that didn't grab me just didn't leave much of an impression and thus have nothing of note to really mention. I will say, however, that a sizeable chunk of the songs feel... dated? That's abo...

      Pretzel Logic really feels like the band is just spinning their wheels for the runtime. The album overall is more of the same from Countdown to Ecstasy but not quite as good. The music still generally has that Steely Dan smooth flow for a lot of the songs and the performance and presentation are still good, but it feels a little generic compared to what else the band had already made by this point. The structure of the songs are all same-y and unambitious, with most of them being characterized by simple alternating verse-chorus with a bridge in the middle. The band doesn't try to experiment or branch out too much, but on the few songs that they do I found it to be good and wish that they had maybe tried more weird stuff here since I think that it probably would've worked well and given the album more of a distinct identity. The instrumentation is strong as is though, and has some nice variety between tracks. Pretzel Logic is overall a fine album that I enjoyed but i...

      Meddle is a fairly experimental album, at least in terms of its scope for Pink Floyd. The band employs a wide variety of tones and timbres to create a broad array of sounds that really showcases their prowess in the studio. The different ways they're able to use the instruments to make the different sounds for each track is very impressive, having haunting guitar and vocals on One of These Days and Echoes, to the softer acoustic ballads of A Pillow of Winds, the almost tropical carefree sound of San Tropez, the straight blues of Seamus, it's all done so well and really shows the band's talents. To go along with this, the overall production value is very high, and some of the tricks and techniques that they show off (such as delayed guitar riffs, manipulation of vocals on tape, and especially some of the stuff that they do on Echoes, like the *ping* at the beginning or the shepherd's tone near the end) are fantastic and create such a strong atmosphere. My only real...

    That's the Way of the World, Earth, Wind & Fire's sixth album, really showcases why they're an iconic soul/funk group. This album, serving as the bands initial big breakthrough hit, is an excellently crafted piece of work. The composition in these songs is great, both for the funky chart topping type songs and the slower ballads. There's not much that I can say to really explain how good it is; it's Earth, Wind, & Fire, you've heard them before and know that they're good. And the vocal performances are just phenomenal as well (Maurice White has just an amazing voice, especially in his falsetto). I really wish that I had more to say about the album, but my thoughts just boil down to "it's really good and all of its elements are great without anything that I can find much fault in". It's very high within its number ranking, but just shy of crossing the line to the next one.     Highlights: That's the Way of the World, All Abou...

      Steely Dan's second album continues the lively soft rock that they established in their first album and builds on it. The sound is a little more straightforward rock this time around, sounding almost 60's-ish with a good amount of jazzy elements mixed in, and I think it works pretty well with what they already had going. The songs aren't quite as catchy as they are on Can't Buy a Thrill, but the bands ability to create captivating and creative melodies and riffs is still perfectly intact. Given how the album is able to play around with numerous styles and the time when it came out (1973!) I might even call this a little ahead of its time, it's very impressive. Not quite to the height of Can't Buy a Thrill but it's still very quality and a good listen.     Highlights: Razor Boy, Your Gold Teeth, Show Biz Kids, King of the World. Rating: 5/6