Kylie was all the rage again, so it made sense for Danni to get it on the action as well. This album is a tour de force of discofied electro pop. And, honestly, it defies expectations. Non-stop groove. The mashups are suspiciously well done, also.
Highlights: Hey! (So What), Come and Get It, Put the Needle On It, Creep, I Begin to Wonder
7.5/10
Never a Dull Moment - Tommy Lee
He totally should have billed himself as Tömmy Lee. It is all fairly generic modern hard rock. Like Foo Fighters meets Limp Bizkit doing a... Bowie cover. That last part is for real. I am not sure why, but I genuinely expected better from Mr. Lee. Still, better than any other solo album other Crüe members have released since 1993...
Highlights: Fame 02, Blue, Higher
6/10
Never Take Friendship Personal - Anberlin
Time for some mid-00s christian emo! Such an oxymoron. Or just a bunch of morons? That criticism aside, this is just classic emo rock. Some great riffs and cool screams. Lyrics get a bit pretentious, like most emo, but generally the melodies are on point. I will attest until my dying days that I could have improved A Day Late if they had recorded with me in the booth; the chorus just needed a little vocal repeat in the hook and it would have been perfect. Producer LOGMAN always knows best. Lyrics for that song, though, are super cringe; you are a happy christian man with "a lover" wondering what it would have been like to been "lovers" with your friend? Keep that to yourself, buddy! The first 15 seconds of Time & Confusion are killer. Maybe this album just hits me as something that had great potential and falls just short and that is what gets such a reaction from me? Is that the story of my morning so far?? Why am I writing so much about this album?!?
Highlights: Dance Dance Christa Päffgen, The Feel Good Drag, Time & Confusion, Paperthin Hymn
7/10
Nevermind - Nirvana
I want to hate this album. I want to tell you it is overrated and Nirvana are lame. I want to tell you grunge is lame. I want to tell you all sorts of edgelord nonsense. I really do! But by the time that first pre-chorus builds and the chorus explodes in Smells Like Teen Spirit, there is no use pretending. I know the truth. You know the truth. We all know the truth. I have the Butch Vig mix and it being the superior mix is the hill I will die on.
Highlights: Lounge Act, On a Plain, Stay Away, In Bloom
9/10
New Adventures in Hi-Fi - R.E.M.
New adventures in Ebow! This album is a bit more palatable than Monster, and certainly a bit more relaxed. And Peter Buck clearly just discovered how to use an Ebow.
Highlights: The Wake-Up Bomb, E-Bow the Letter, Leave, Bittersweet Me
6.5/10
New Clear Days - The Vapors
This is only the song Turning Japanese. Very appropriate. Give me more Japanese rock instead, please.
8/10
The New Golden Age (Live At Coachella 2008) - Prince
So this actually opens with Prince live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, performing Turn Me Loose, before launching in to a listenable bootleg of Prince performing at Coachella. A fantastic mix of classics and newer material, and a whole barrel of covers done VERY well. And HOLY BUDDY CHRIST OF DOG RIVER not only is the band in good form, but Prince's guitar playing just puts everyone to shame. I thought his solo in Creep - yes, the Radiohead song - was amazing, but then he pulled out some sort of Hendrix-inspired blues solo jamming in Come Together and my face melted and I am dead. My corpse is going to finish my bLog for me.
Highlights: Come Together, Creep, Purple Rain, Turn Me Loose, Controversy/Housequake
8/10
New Jersey - Bon Jovi
This album is better than it has any right to be; I do not think there is another album of the 1980s that even comes close to achieving what Bon Jovi did here. Almost everything is epic in nature, without sounding overblown or overproduced. If you are looking for some of the best straight up rock songs Bon Jovi ever recorded, or the best power ballads they ever recorded, then this is the place to come. There is not a bad moment on the whole darn thing. Not even an average one!
Highlights: Stick to Your Guns, Wild is the Wind, I'll Be There For You, Blood on Blood - but really, just listen to the whole album
10/10
New Tattoo - Mötley Crüe
The Crüe return without all that modern nonsense of Generation Swine - including that awesome drummer of theirs, because Tommy hated them too much and wanted to make rap-rock instead. Things are still showing hints of punk, but it is more radio rock than anything. Definitely nothing as heavy as Dr. Feelgood or where they have headed since.
Highlights: Hell on High Heels, First Band on the Moon, She Needs Rock N Roll, Fake
7/10
New World Disorder - Biohazard
The title is like what happened in WCW when we had the New World Order Black & White, New World Order Wolfpac, and the Latino World Order. Fun times were had by all! Interestingly, this album came out around the same time all that was happening! All this anger at politicians and war and fascism and the general state of the world makes for the perfect soundtrack while tracking the Sumud Flotilla and watching activists get arrested by a terrorist regime.
Highlights: Switchback, Cycle of Abuse, Inner Fear On, Resist
7/10
"Albums" listened to so far: 1165
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