First of all, please excuse my english: I must be kind of educated french lad, but in my country, the best of the world with all the cheese and Paris people, we learn english to be able to read The Tempest, not to write or talk it.
In these darker times, I'd like to thank you tell you give me the strengh to expand my musical horizons by your mamothean projects which eventually will fail like everything under the sun but manage to give a corporal layer, fueled with love of culture and sharing, to anything you once listened and found emotionnally and intellectually interesting.
I came one day, searching for a human who could have written what I feel about the first Steve Vai album, and you did it. Afterwards, by reading your reviews, I discovered numbers of artists I didn't know or used to dismiss because they were presented to me in the french music journalist " bougie"manner and so totally digusted me the first time, like Genesis or the Byrds. You manage too to make me, every time you write about one album, to make me discover again and again, even if I deeply know it, like the Beatles ones, and I feel glad and lucky to find a man on this earth doing that for nothing.
Also, thanks to you I played and loved the Gabriel Knight series, which I didn't know, even I've got a lot of video games...
So, please, keep the faith, the good one, the one loaded with the vivacious conatus and not the hypocrite posture, and keep on writing. Please!
You may be in the heart of the storm but it will cease eventually.
Love your music reviews. Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones and Beatles are some of my favorites. Maybe in the future you can do more Jazz music reviews. Check out the Karrin Allyson album Ballads - Remembering John Coltrane.
Hey George! I want to sincerely thank you for all you’ve done. Your music reviews have provided me with great enjoyment and exposed me to lots of new artists/bands, particularly Brian Eno, so thank you for that. I was wondering how you feel about other ambient artists, and what other good music you’ve heard from the genre. Thanks George, you’re a big inspiration!
Dear Julia, you're very welcome. Glad I could be of use.
Now that I think of it, I don't really feel as if any other artist I know could be called "ambient" to the extent that Eno defined the genre. Lots of electronic artists have their ambient "phases" - Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada, Carbon Based Lifeforms, etc. - but I don't think any of them were as persistent with the form as Eno. You can also try out all the people he's worked with over the years, from Robert Fripp to Karl Hyde etc.
I myself, if I'm in the mood for something artistically similar, prefer the classical minimalism which inspired Eno - Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Harold Budd, etc. I think that Glass often sets the exact same moods as Eno, even when playing far more notes at far faster tempos.
Thanks for the reply, George. The way that Reich and Glass create a sense of meditation while using a fast tempo and lots of notes always impresses me. I haven’t started delving into Budd’s solo stuff, and don’t know where to begin.
Fripp’s solo albums always struck as me as sort of “amateurish” or experimental, and I haven’t been able to connect to them in the same way I can with Eno.
Oh well, when I don't know where to begin, I usually just start from the beginning - if it's already great, you're in the clear, and if it sucks, you still have hope that it eventually gets better. :)
I think Budd's proper career starts with "The Pavilion Of Dreams", an Eno collaboration - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSEpSpIrt98 - you'll easily see if you like it or not.
Fripp certainly has a different artistic vision from Eno, but he has deep respect for "ambience" as well on occasion, otherwise they wouldn't have been working together so often.
Hello Starostin (I think that is the most natural way for me to greet you, since your last name is what I would always type to get to your reviews),
I was unsure of whether I should put this post here or in response to the ‘Where the Hell Is Music Going (20 Year Anniversary)’ opus, but since this will contain more than just a response to that, I figured I would put it here.
Your early reviews (poo-poo’d by you as they are) form a very important part of my musical development. The year was 2006, and I was an 18-year-old rooted deeply in Hip-Hop music and culture (as I still am), but receiving a shot in the arm of a new cultural and musical influence. It was Easy Rider, and I was blown away by these hippies, and the song Born To Be Wild. Somehow, with little direction to explore my newly found interest, I came across your website, which became something of a bible for my classic rock explosion of listening. Many of my tendencies in the genre can be traced directly back to you (though you might say some of them are just an accurate state of the musical hierarchy, it seems)—The Beatles, Stones and Who are at the pinnacle (with Dylan, though he’s an oddball), with other legends like Led Zeppelin and The Doors decidedly lower; the 80s was the dead times for rock generally, though R.E.M. and other bands (did you review the Pixies?) kept the soul alive; alternative rock, though a true resurgence of ‘true musical quality’, simply does not compare with the legends of 60s/70s yore. Etc., etc., etc.
I did not follow your reviews on your blog, the ‘new site’ (now defunct site #2), for probably two reasons. For one, I had already received the overall ‘good word’ from you that sent my rock luge off into that world, and now being in college would continue and yet further expand my musical exploration. The other reason was kind of silly (and explains why I would still go back to your original site at times but not really to the blog)—the original rating system, though surely inferior to the demolitions of it and then new systems you created later, was just so fun to parse. A ‘13’ grade *felt* like quality. An 8 or above within an artist’s max-10 could divide from their 7 or below what was their real efforts. … I could go on, but I think I have set the scene now of my attachment and ignorance of your various deep reviewing efforts. I think this time would be appropriate for my first *thank you*, as well, an indescribable appreciation for what you’ve given me and so many others. Your recommendations have gone from heart to heart, and your writings whether agreed or disagreed with have provoked real thought.
This is where I will pivot to my reaction to your ‘20 Years After’ piece. I do not have a solidified view of it, and I know I will forget some of the main responses it has brought up in me, but here goes anyway. I love it, I think you go where no other modern writers on music I’ve seen go—you cut aside the polite bullshit (or, on the other hand, any unadulterated hater activity without impetus), and just give straight what you think. It is good for the culture. Long story short, I (1) agree there will not be another ‘Beatles’, but (2) do not think that means new music is less, but (3) do acknowledge that ‘not all music is automatically of equal standing’, and (4) want to say that music is in a dark period now, but (5) also acknowledge my own dampening relevance as a 33 year old Millennial, as I believe you can’t help but have as a non-Generation Z too.
There is no doubt that more old music is being streamed (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/old-music-killing-new-music/621339/), which I am sure you would take as empirical evidence of your views, while I would take as evidence more so of a transition of the qualitative nature of contemporary music. I believe this has happened other times for a new burgeoning genre as well, and is actually often even the wellspring of the creative development of music. Ironically, it also tends to close off generations’ musical tastes from each others’, to various degrees. This is why the rock artists you value at the top of everything, traditional classical and jazz musical folk might look at as perfectly worthless (‘Where’s the complex musical structure? What’s with the degradation of moral values *in* the music?’). Hip-Hop people might look at all ‘singing’ music forms as somehow hackneyed, a stylistic aberration of the human voice’s musical qualities on par with what anime is to cartoons. On the other hand, I’ve seen how you as a primarily-rock critic (though taking much more than before from Hip-Hop over the years, notably) still can’t really get around Hip-Hop’s sampling, viewing it as artificial, meta-music.
Well, maybe meta-music is where Generation Z will take it in further and further ways. When like 95% of music being streamed was made more than one and a half years ago, perhaps aligning yourself with existing content, but putting twists on it, is the way to go to hit a large proportion of the populace. I know, even speaking from my devout Dylan NET-listening (thanks for starting me on the road towards that, though not being a NET fanatic yourself, by the way), that’s kind of the source of my addiction. I want to hear a song I know super-well, but with a totally-experimental I-don’t-know-how-his-improvisational-phrasing-might-change-the-whole-meaning excitement. New and old, in one. In fact, of course, that is what we have always done with music, right? Taking familiar chords and chord progressions, or rhythms, or whatever, and rearranging them with modern relevance for fresh cultural life (thus, how all the artists you love most were ‘sampling’ as well :P).
I am aware that much, if not all, of what I am saying you already know or have considered or have debunked already, but just as you felt the need to share your own general viewpoint (and a prolific mass though of reviews which I cannot compete with even in imagination), I felt I should share my own as well, as a representative of my age group who is also attached to your views as previously described. Before I finish, I will just give less high-level input on some of the things you mentioned about music of my era. First, I can’t believe you never mention KiD CuDi’s 2009 album “Man on the Moon (The End of Day)” alongside Kanye and Kendrick. That album is arguably the best of the mid-2000s-ish through 2010s period, better than MBDTF, TPAB, DAMN. and whatever else. I’m sure everyone suggests to you more music than you can (or want to, or should) listen to, but please, give that one a listen if you haven’t already. You’re a melody guy, right? Well besides its other merits, the absolutely amazing (yes, I decided to use the forsaken word) choruses on the album should blow you away.
That album actually speaks to some of the trademark styles of my generation too, which you claimed don’t exist (instead only being represented only by a ‘hodgepodging’ approach to existing genres). It has the ‘bleak beat’, invented by Kanye on the 808s & Heartbreak album, and defining our popular music ever since. The bleak beat is a sad, perhaps otherworldly, sparse and lonely accompaniment—it speaks to the lifestyle that has developed, of everything we ever wanted available now (as you very correctly described), but with other humans so far away, so much more. It is a loneliness. Birth rates are tanking across the developed and even much of the developing world. The bleak beat is real.
I should wrap up here, so let me speak quickly about some other truly new Millennial innovations. Nerdiness as the dominant cool lifestyle. Again Kanye foreran this, CuDi mastered it, and everyone’s been doing it ever since. Sure there were artists like Weezer in the past (and the grand Ween, though they didn’t attain such mainstream success), but there is no comparison for the mainstream nerdiness that has taken irreversible hold. Finally, there is… trap. No, this was not a Kanye/CuDi assist creation. And is it great? I don’t know. But trap is certainly new, there was nothing like that sound before. And (lord help me) mumble rap. I don’t want to say anything more there, but I will say I would pay to see your review of a mumble rap album (particularly a bad one though—it wouldn’t be as entertaining to see you review whatever its magnus opus is… which of course exists, considering even Disco had its classics).
Alright, so that’s that. Messy ending, questionably paced, but I think I said to you most of what I wanted to say to you here. I think I passed over more of your piece that I agreed with than I could have, but perhaps I gave in to something of a Devil’s Advocate urge out of an impulse to ‘make interesting conversation’. You should know once again that I hold you in high esteem, that I think you share a lot of true (and *important*) perspective that no one is willing or able to share otherwise (see the Atlantic article I shared before for a much tamer and less useful perspective on the situation at hand), and I am honored if you have decided to read my post to this point. My life would not be the same if I had not discovered the wild instinct of live Who, the brutal honesty of Zeppelin’s FIRST album, the entryway into the bizarro world that is Ween… I could go on and on and on. Thank you, and I wish you the best in all your endeavors. :]
Thank you, Charles! "Nerdiness as the dominant cool lifestyle" is a good turn of phrase, and one that sits perfectly all right with me, as you can understand (hey, I pioneered nerdiness as the cool lifestyle for me since I was three years old or something :)).
The idea of everything going "meta" (hello, Mr. Zuckerberg!) is also true, and largely inescapable. It's probably the one obstacle from experiencing yet another rejuvenation of the 'Rock Around The Clock' / 'She Loves You' / 'Blitzkrieg Bop' fashion, like we used to have each decade at one point; we seem to be too mature and loaded with a feeling of our own self-importance for that now (so even if you try it, it usually doesn't work).
I promise to give CuDi a spin some of these days, this somehow slipped past me.
Thank you for giving my comment a fair shake! Yes, we are all working hard on that nerdiness life, hah. I'm also going to follow your new reviews—hopefully get a better understanding of Rock n' Roll roots!
At this point, George is so overpowered at reviewing that there is no point in writing reviews anymore: you will only be worse than George. Marvelous new stuff, keep the awesomeness coming!
I have for a long time been a great admirer of your reviews.
2 albums released this year which may restore your faith and give a little hope that all is not completely lost: Fontaines DC - Romance (it definitely takes a few listens but is worth the investment) and Michael Kiwanuka - Small Changes (released today).
Neither is groundbreaking beyond being good albums released in 2024 (which I guess may in itself be groundbreaking!).
Just read your review of Purple Mountains was wondering if you were familiar with the work of The Mountain Goats. I’d personally consider them the best music act of the 90s besides maybe Silver Jews or Wilco, and I think if you heard an album like Zopilote Machine or All Hail West Texas you’d think so too
Thank you for the recommendation - no, I'm not familiar with their output at all, but I'll keep an eye open. I must say, though, that I actually find Purple Mountains far superior to most Silver Jews I've heard - precisely because it does sound like the last, most powerful scream from somebody with nothing left to say, very impressive in its creepiness.
as a longtime adventure fan (especially by Sierra On-Line and Lucasfilm Games/ LucasArts) I really enjoyed reading your detailed reviews. Thank you very much!
Thank you, George, for providing Space for General Discussion. Kindly let know how if we also can have Time for General Discussion so that General Discussion can start and proceed.
All I know about Time, Alex, is that it keeps flowing like a river to the sea. I might advise you to take a trip to the seaside and you'll probably be able to scoop up quite a handful of Time on the shore. But hurry up or you'll miss the starting gun.
Hello George. Greetings from Austin, Texas from a long time reader and admirer. Thank you so much for igniting my interest in popular music, especially for musicians I would never would have normally given a second look as well as those that are very unpopular here in the states (mostly Brits). My tastes and yours are very close at the artist and album level, but interestingly deviate much more on a song-by-song basis. Of course I was never really a singles guy so it all works out. Anyway anyone who can appreciate both Robert Fripp and David Berman is okay in my book. If you ever decide to review Pulp, The Divine Comedy, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Outkast, Nick Lowe or Split Enz that would make my day! All the best, Greg
Sometime way back, I think maybe between the Old Old Site and the Blogspot, you used to publish short reviews of individual older songs. I don't remember the exact format, but you touched on artists like Leroy Carr, Mississippi Sheiks, Rev. Gary Davis etc. I enjoyed them alot and learnt about many artists for the first time.
I can't seem to find it anywhere on the web now though. Do you still have those saved somewhere?
I just saw that you didn't cover the Maytals' debut album released in 1964. Will reggae not be covered either in the series? If some will be covered, what is the criteria for selection?
I don't know how much reggae I might be able to stomach, but anyway if I did, they'd be in the American ("Western Hemisphere") section rather than the other one, so you'll have to wait until I get to 1964.
It's kinda curious how people in Russia (or the whole Europe?) calls the "Western Hemisphere" not exactly the "Western Hemisphere of Earth Planet" but the developed countries who are in the west of the former Iron Curtain. It's not the first time I see that. Perhaps even Australia and NZ are part from the "Western Hemisphere". Not that I consider Latin America 100% "Western" (though in the same "Hemisphere") (and though the Argentins seem to consider themselves as "Western Hemisphere"), but the difference doesn't seem to us so distant as the Europeans feel. Just an observation, no censoring at all.
Hey George, big fan of your Bob Dylan reviews and I was curious what you thought of his releases since Triplicate, especially Rough and Rowdy Ways. Thanks.
Hi Julia! Was there anything else since triplicate besides Rough and Rowdy Ways (other than the never-ending flow of the Bootleg Series)?. I liked the record but it wasn't much of a surprise, I think, largely similar to Tempest in mood and structure. It's more of one of those "wish we all had that kind of energy and sharp-mindedness as we hit 80" moments than an artistic triumph, I think.
I think I haven't had anyone write "fuck you" in a personal comment since at least 2002 or so. And in defense of Gerry and the Pacemakers, wow! You don't know how much that means to me, really. Go old school!!!
1960s... How about a review of Roberto Carlos, "King of Latin Music", (from 1963 on), or Ronnie Von, "the Little Prince", (from 1968 on)? Os Mutantes came from the TV show of the latter, while their second album is a kind of response from the former (and also a response from Bossa Nova).
Sorry! With all due respect to Brazilian artists, if I expand my coverage to localized acts I won't even get past the 1950s. Why just Brazil when there's also Chili, Peru (where Yma Sumac is actually more recognizable world-wide than Ronnie Von), Argentina, and lots of other countries in Latin America alone, let alone Africa, Asia, Western and Eastern Europe? Russia, for that matter?
Os Mutantes did break through internationally, so I'd be happy to write about them at some point - as well as quite a few other artists around the globe that managed to transcend boundaries. But the selection has to be limited. I'm not a one-man army.
Sure! But why did I chose those names? Roberto Carlos was a hit at Latin America, not only Brazil (and had just a few albums related to pop-rock). Ronnie Von had 3 albums with a psychedelic sound at the same time their friends Mutantes started their carrer (actually those albums were not a hit a the time, but some say that an austriac magazine praised them recently). Furthermore, Yma Sumac is not related to rock.
Taking the opportunity, I wish to say something about "Tropicalia ou Panis et Circencis", the Mutantes' second album (actually a collective album). The artists involved wanted to bring the Hegel logics to the 1960s music. Bossa Nova was the thesis, Rock was the antithesis and Tropicalism would be the synthesis. And when they said "rock", they were talking more about Roberto Carlos' commercial sound, who was heavily criticised in those years.
Actually, there is no real need to make a review about Roberto Carlos, but at least to be aware about what was happening. This is were Os Mutantes (and Jorge Ben, btw) came from, as a kind of tip of the iceberg.
Just one more remark. Russian artists? Man, when the Iron Curtain disappeared, we all here were eager to know what kind of music people were doing there. Brazil, Argentina, Cuba (not Chile, I guess), we were all in the best age of our music (1960-1970), and we were very curious about the heirs of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. It was kind of disappointing not to hear about anyone. Same with Portugal after 1974. And it was nice to discover about Spain's Movida Madrileña, although it didn't become a hit in music. If there was any genius during the Soviet era, I really would like to listen - even if you don't write any reviews about him.
I can tell you with certainty that, while there are many professional Russian artists creating solid-sounding pop / rock / etc. musical art, almost nothing in this scene can offer you something you don't already get in the English-speaking world - except if you are specifically interested in Russian culture and are interested in finding out, e.g., what a "Russian-flavored Joy Division" or a "Russian-flavored Bob Dylan" would sound like. And that, in turn, would generally require at least a passable familiarity with Russian language and culture. I'm not saying you shouldn't try, but I'm saying it's going to cause a much larger cultural dissonance than Tchaikovsky or Stravinsky or even Shostakovich or Schnittke.
I fear that, to a large extent, the same problem exists everywhere, and since my own knowledge of the various cultures of Latin America, for instance, is unfortunately limited (other than a little reading and a couple screenings of Orfeu Negro), I don't want to be a "cultural tourist" in this respect. When a Brazilian, Japanese, or Greek band makes a serious stab at international recognition, I can at least evaluate them from a general standpoint, but if their focus is local first and foremost, I'd rather admire from a distance.
That's fine! The reason I wrote that is because I don't think what happened here in the 1960s was just "something you don't already get in the English-speaking world". But it doesn't exactly apply to Roberto Carlos, who just did the same pop-rock that was being done everywhere. The ones who got an international recognition did it more often in the jazz world, just like Bossa Nova, though they sounded as pop-folk to us. (example, if you can understand portuguese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBfVsucRe1w)
But, well, let's wait for your review of "Tropicalia ou Panis et Circencis". Thanks not only for the answer, but for all the good work you have been doing all these years!
I've heard 'Angry'. It sort of confirms my idea that humans and AI have reached a happy synthesis, because it sounds very much like the kind of track an AI could have written if asked to write in the style of the Stones. I'm ready to go back to 1965 now.
Yesterday went to Music Exchange shop in London UK and bought few CDs (used CDs but in great condition): The Vibrators 4 albums box sets 1976 - 1978, first 2 official albums + BBC session and one live CD £15; KISS 1st album £4 (from 80s issue); Hazel O'Connor 1st album £1; Jellyfish: Bellybutton £2, Jan Garbarek: Osmium £1; Yes:Topographic Ocean £2; Faces: The nod is as good.... £2; Hawkwind: Space Ritual £4.
This might be the wrong place to put this, but here are some errors on the page I noticed:
1. I think your Davy Graham links aren’t working on the artists page.
2. Muddy Waters, the Zombies, and Burt Jansch seem to be missing artists page links, and Zombies and Bert Jansch are missing their albums on the album page.
3. I think you forgot to put ratings for Havin A Good Time by Huey Smith and the Tornadoes album.
4. Did you mean to not bold most of the albums for 1959? Just seems like a long stretch without bolded albums
Have you ever listened to The Who’s post Entwistle albums? I’ve never bothered with Endless Wire, but WHO is quite solid. I’d like to see you update your Who reviews since you did it with the Beatles and the Stones, or at least do their last two albums.
I did and I honestly don't remember anything about them, which probably means they were okay. The last original Who song that ever shook me up a bit was 'Eminence Front', and it was really more of a solo Townshend song masquerading as a Who number anyway...
It's been quite a long time since I listened to that one. Not sure if I'd go that far (what's wrong with Radiohead, after all? or, heck, even The Joshua Tree?), but an achievement it certainly was.
Well... crucially, for the most part, I'd say Radiohead at their best don't _rock_ 😉
I love OK Computer as much as the next guy, but you get a lot of midtempos with Thom Yorke wailing and Selway either playing with brushes or (intentionally) sounding stiff and... not rocking.
After all, Airbag is 80 BPM, Boy in the Bubble in 150 BPM.
But I'm aware how this conversation could end up sounding really stupid if taken to its logical consequences 😉
(Now, Muse could probably be more interesting in that respect if I could bring myself to listen to an entire album instead of replaying The Beatles over and over...)
I am Russian, living in the US since 2014 and I envy your English. Have you ever described how you learned English to such a great degree? If yes, I'd definitely want to read it. If not, could you share?
there's nothing to describe because there's absolutely no magic secret to it. All you have to do is surround yourself with all your favorite things in the English language - books, movies, music, websites - and keep immersing yourself. Fluency and expertise comes from doing things you really love to do, not things you force yourself to do.
Yes Pavel I have wanted to ask George this question for nearly 20 years but finally you asked it. As a speaker of other languages myself I always admired his command of English and that 'intellectual' approach to his music reviews having finally realised that his level of written communication is dominant even to majority of native speakers. I guess hard work + talent go places ...(I also admire Vlad Valdemar's - philosopher and political commentator on You Tube oral communication skills but then Vlad came to the West as a young boy and has had advantage of going through English speaking education).
Hi mr starostin, I would like to ask you whether you have checked on Foghat. I've just checked on them today and must say I'm impressed by them mainly because they're a hard rock band that can play the funk right, a very rare sight as far as that genre goes. Greetings from Colombia.
I hope you're doing (reasonably) well, and I hope this isn't too much of a bother. I could have sworn that you had a very negative review of A Crow Looked at Me on the old blog, but there is no trace of it. Was there one, or did my brain fabricate it from half-remembered remarks about it in other reviews?
Hi George! I've recently found out that the first olympiad in linguistics took place in your country in 1965. Did you participate in any of those? Somewhere in the 90s perhaps?
Are you planning on reviewing games such as Starflight and Star Control 2? The latter has some combat mechanics, but it’s essentially an adventure game with amazing atmosphere and story. Since it’s from 1992 it’s right around the era you’re focusing on. I think a later remake(?) had voice acting, but you can turn it off since it seems quite bad to me.
I'd like to, some day, but I never played Starflight and only briefly played Star Control 2 (so I'd need to at least finish it). They do fall under my radar, but they're rather low on the priority list, since I want to concentrate on Sierra, LucasArts, Revolution, and several other studios first.
Hi George. I'm glad to see that you are still going strong and still reinventing yourself! I first discovered your original website way back around 2001/2 when I was a student. I was early in my musical discovery journey, and your website proved indispensible in showing me the way to discovering classic rock music that I will probably listen to for the rest of my life. Your detailed, astute and fearless reviews were inspiring to me and you still remain THE authority on music in my eyes. I may even dare to say that you were and still remain one of the very best websites on the internet. I owe you a great deal of gratitude for introducing me to such great bands and albums that I may never have heard of were it not for you. For example, I doubt I would have discovered Ween on my own, and I now consider them to be the best band of the past 30 years. Similarly, I'm not sure I would have heard Pete Townshends Empty Glass or Cowboys were it not for your reviews. You showed me a path which has given me endless hours of pleasure and had a profound positive effect on my life. I have never commented on your site before, but when I saw this, I felt compelled to write and simply say thank you for your great work and for showing me music that I could not imagine life without. Whenever I listen to great classic rock albums, you and your reviews will forever be in my thoughts, and I sincerely hope that you do not stop what you do so well and without equal. Ziad
Thank you very much, Ziad. The ability to occasionally turn good people on to good music is my best consolation for the perenially inescapable amateurish nature of those reviews!
George, as always I'm astonished at how prolific and consistent your work is! To that point, do you have some sort of itinerary you follow, or is the schedule for now just going day by day with the backlog you must surely have? Secondly, your essay on the last twenty years of music very compellingly outlined why it just doesn't have the same function or power that it once had. Though there are surely no artists who excel in all categories, as a thought exercise, would you be able to single out contemporary musicians who come close to transcending in each of your individual V.A.L.U.E. parameters?
Thanks, I'm still not sure it is as sufficiently prolific and consistent as I'd like it to be, but there's only so much effort you can pour into a hobby.
You can clearly see the current chronological itinerary, just going on and on in time with those records and artists that I think are still worth looking into today. It's a very simple principle, and easy enough to uphold in our era of "total availability" (as opposed to 20 years ago when I had to be satisfied with whatever was available and cheap enough in stores).
I'm not sure what you mean by "contemporary musicians" - how old do they have to be nowadays to be counted as "contemporary"? Are Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney "contemporary"? Radiohead? Arcade Fire? Kanye West? If you mean no older than the Billie Eilish generation, I've honestly lost touch here, so I couldn't tell; I haven't listened to much new music since I stopped the blogspot blog a couple of years ago. I'm sure there must be something out there, but I think it's much more individual than it has ever been, so any recommendations would be futile anyway.
Oops, by "contemporary" I was just using your parameters from the essay of "since the mid-2000s", but if you're very unsure of your preferences since then, just disregard the question. :) I definitely understand the chronology you're following, sorry for the confusion. One further thing I wanted to bring to your attention is the new Only Solitaire splash page text seems to be cut off at the sides on my laptop, no matter my resolution or window size. Has anyone else mentioned this issue, or am I missing something critical?
Just upon reading your Johnny Cash reviews (excellent, I must say! You’re totally on point with most Cash fans just only hearing the big hits and not admiring the greatness of the style), I wanted to ask how much country music do you plan to cover given that you said you don’t have much interest in traditional country. I’ve seen you talk about Hank Williams a lot, do you plan to at least cover some of his stuff at some point?
Still not much, I'm afraid; pure country mostly remains out of the equation for me, so no Patsy Cline or Gene Autrey. I'd certainly be willing to look into all sorts of crossover stuff where the lines between country and singer-songwriting become blurry (Willie Nelson, etc.). Hank Williams is, in a way, also reflective of that strain - he is, in a way, "alt-country" before the term was ever invented - but he predates the era I'm reviewing. Maybe if I ever introduce an additional line for reviewing classic pre-rock era singles... but that'll probably have to wait for now.
Hi George, I've been reading your music reviews for years and find them an essential resource in my own listening. I really like your new site, and the way you've set it up!
I've never commented before, but I did want to suggest on the "List of Albums" page, you combine the US and UK/non-US tables. Maybe add another column to indicate the nationality of the band? It just seems awkward, and putting the US table first may imply the US artists or somehow more important? In any case, it makes the UK albums easy to miss.
I think it works on the "List of Artists" page because the two columns are side by side, and it's fun comparing which artists were current in UK or US for each year.
Anyway, just a suggestion. I'm not a subscriber or anything, so feel free to ignore if you don't like it!
Thanks! I'll think about it. I didn't think it was much of a problem. The US table comes first because of chronological reasons (the rock'n'roll explosion did happen first in the US, and spread to the UK and other places only afterwards), but yes, I can see where it could be possible to miss the UK table. I don't want to mix them together right now, though, because it would look odd and might give the impression that American music ceased to exist after 1959 (in reality, my US reviews are lagging behind for now precisely because there was so much of that type of music there in the 1950s, and so little in the UK). But later on, perhaps, I'll integrate them in a single table.
Now that I finished my Beatles listening (always accompanied by your old reviews), I think I’m going to try my hand at Dylan next. Any recommendations on where I should start? I don’t think a chronological approach is going to be a good idea…
Well, you do have my old Dylan reviews as well, don't you?
Why wouldn't a chronological approach be a good idea? Each of Dylan's albums released in the 1960s and 1970s is worth listening to, even the lesser stuff. And it gives you general context and a trajectory of development. Unless you have an aversion to acoustic folk or something, in which case you can skip right to "Bringing It All Back Home"... but I wouldn't recommend skipping the acoustic stuff.
It takes a while to get to the meat of it with some artists (I’d never recommend someone to start Pink Floyd with Piper and the avant-garde post Barrett stuff), but thankfully that’s not the case with Dylan. Got up to “Bringing It All Back Home” thus far, and other than “Times” there’s hardly anything skippable.
I’m really not a big fan of Folk, but I’d say it was essential so I could warm up to Dylan’s style before the electric stuff. He’s by no means a bad singer, but I think his debut album explains why he sings the way he does with all the Blues and Folk influences. And turns out he’s a pretty solid strummer, fingerpicker, and harmonica blower too! “Home” had a nice balance between that and the rough garage punk backing band, but I’ve yet to see if really I’ll miss solo Dylan in the next two albums.
Hi! I do have a Steam account, but I really only use it for buying stuff, not much of anything else. As for 'Harvester' and 'Disco Elysium', they're both classics of course - a classic classic and a modern classic. I hope to do some write-ups on both of these eventually.
Hi George! I’d be curious to hear your latest thoughts on the late 70s and early 80s New Romantic bands, given that you never finished the reviews on your first site and I doubt they’ll make the cut on this new one. Your reviews got me into early Japan ages ago and over the past few years I’ve seen a lot of critical reappraisal for the Tin Drum (as critics have gotten more and more sympathetic to the 80s).
Honestly, I don't have any latest thoughts on the New Romantics, it's been a while since I last listened to any Japan or Spandau Ballet. I do think the term has little to do with music as such, not to mention musical quality - like "glam rock", which was a blanket term to describe everybody with a pompous theatrical show, regardless of whether it was hard rock, bubblegum rock, or futuristic rock. So there are good New Romantics (like Japan) and bad New Romantics (uh, I dunno... A Flock of Seagulls?).
There's also Taylor Swift's 'New Romantics', but I hope you're not asking about that.
Georgei, as most of us humans, I had resigned myself to living in a world without 1) Crowded elevators 2) Greek letters being only used for fraternities and math problems and 3) new OS reviews. In a world of grey and surgical blue, a ray of light has fallen on me. I thank the late Rev Billy Preston for this. It was his angelic hand that prompted That's the Way God Planned it to show up on my Spotify, which led me to find your Blogger site to re-read again your reviews, which let me to this wonderful site. At the expense of decorum and restraint, I say, today is just like finding your old Moody Blues page all over again. I am home and whole.
PS You just HAD to take another shot at Kansas again, dintcha?
Nice to see you again Jimm! Yes, back in business for a while, provided another Greek letter won't do us all in the end (there's still about a third of the alphabet to go, after all). So apparently reviewing all these Billy Preston albums was not a complete waste of time!
I honestly don't remember when was the last time I took a shot at Kansas, but I think I can be excused - it's either taking a shot at Kansas or at the Dave Clark Five, and the latter is like taking a shot at a puppy or something.
It was in the Introduction which feels like it was 3 years ago. You were kind of hard on them on the first site too but they are very much a mid tier band so they are hardly universal in appeal. Definitely not a puppy.
The problem with Kansas is not that they were a mid tier band. The problem is that they were skilled musicians with way too little creativity to make good use of their skills. The instrumental Spider is a good example indeed. It sounds like ELP taking themselves far more seriously than the trio already did. Compare Boston's Foreplay: much simpler, just a rather simple melodic line repeated several times. So they pay lots of attention to the arrangement, which is creative indeed.. Or compare Banco's Traccia II, obviously inspired by ELP too. The Italians make very sure to put their own stamp on it - something that requires creativity too.
George, I'm a longtime fan and I'm very glad you've found a new place for writing more stuff and even branching out into game reviews. Seeing as how you're a big fan of adventure games I'm really curious whether you've ever played The Legend Of Kyrandia. Growing up in Ukraine that series was my introduction into adventure games (not that I'm much into point and clicks in general, but that's beside the point) and I used to think it had to be a classic only to discover, after moving into the heart of Europe from its periphery, that it was rather obscure and the real classics of the genre were titles I'd never even heard before (aside from Syberia). So yeah, my question is basically, whether you played the Kyrandia games. Also, was Kyrandia even well-known in Russian-speaking countries, similarly to how the HOMM series, for some reason, was more popular there than in the West, or was it just a local anomaly in my childhood?
Yeah, I did play Kyrandia - the first game, at least - and I think it was just as popular in Russia as in Ukraine (we probably shared a pretty similar market for videogames). Don't know why it got so much more of a cult status over here, but the market worked in mysterious ways in early post-USSR times. In the West, I think people treated it as more of a King's Quest+Monkey Island clone, so they didn't pay too much attention (and Westwood Studios were rather associated with Dune II at the time than anything else).
I'll probably end up replaying and reviewing it eventually, which will give me more time to think about it!
Hi George! I’ve been reading your music reviews for years. I know much less about games than I do about music, so I’m curious: what do you think are the reasons that video game developments have stalled recently, just as music did around the early 2000s?
I think the reasons are more or less the same. Too many remakes, too many sequels, too many clones, not enough original ideas, because the market is way too oriented at "giving the people (more and more of) what they want" instead of trying something daring and unexpected, because they are too afraid that the risk won't pay off. Fortunately, there still seems to be a genuine "indie" segment in the gaming industry (e.g. Disco Elysium, which was probably the last time a story-based game truly confounded expectations), the only question is just how much an overall impact it will be capable of making.
Hello George, given your love for music and video games, I’d love to read your opinion about music from video games, don't know if you intend to talk about them at a certain time. I think there are lots of soundtracks out there that are worth checking, especially from the Japanese. I mean, it’s impossible to listen to SNES/Genesis games’ music and not see the heavy influence of progressive rock on many of them. The clearest example is Nobuo Uematsu, who’s for me the very best in video game industry.
By the way, thanks for all your time spent writing about music, it has actually helped me to discover a new world, a very beautiful one, indeed. Ah, it's so much easier when someone does all the hard work.
I have no plans for making separate reviews of video game soundtracks - after all, they are not really intended to be listened to outside of the game's context (unless you have already played the game and have all the associations properly playing in your mind).
However, as you may have noticed, there is a special "Sound" section in each of my video game reviews, where I discuss the music if it's worth discussing. E.g. Michael Hoenig's masterful soundtrack for "Baldur's Gate" mentions his connection to the German electronic scene of the 1970s (which is only indirectly felt in the soundtrack, but is still important). Or Robert Holmes' fantastic work on the Gabriel Knight games. So there already are and will be even more of these opinions in the upcoming reviews.
Hi Georges,
First of all, please excuse my english: I must be kind of educated french lad, but in my country, the best of the world with all the cheese and Paris people, we learn english to be able to read The Tempest, not to write or talk it.
In these darker times, I'd like to thank you tell you give me the strengh to expand my musical horizons by your mamothean projects which eventually will fail like everything under the sun but manage to give a corporal layer, fueled with love of culture and sharing, to anything you once listened and found emotionnally and intellectually interesting.
I came one day, searching for a human who could have written what I feel about the first Steve Vai album, and you did it. Afterwards, by reading your reviews, I discovered numbers of artists I didn't know or used to dismiss because they were presented to me in the french music journalist " bougie"manner and so totally digusted me the first time, like Genesis or the Byrds. You manage too to make me, every time you write about one album, to make me discover again and again, even if I deeply know it, like the Beatles ones, and I feel glad and lucky to find a man on this earth doing that for nothing.
Also, thanks to you I played and loved the Gabriel Knight series, which I didn't know, even I've got a lot of video games...
So, please, keep the faith, the good one, the one loaded with the vivacious conatus and not the hypocrite posture, and keep on writing. Please!
You may be in the heart of the storm but it will cease eventually.
Best regards
Gaël
Love your music reviews. Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones and Beatles are some of my favorites. Maybe in the future you can do more Jazz music reviews. Check out the Karrin Allyson album Ballads - Remembering John Coltrane.
I wish I could, but I don't really know how to write about jazz. We have Ted Gioia for that, who's also on Substack.
Ted Giola is one of the few music writers I can take as seriously as your reviews in terms of depth and insights :)
Hey George! I want to sincerely thank you for all you’ve done. Your music reviews have provided me with great enjoyment and exposed me to lots of new artists/bands, particularly Brian Eno, so thank you for that. I was wondering how you feel about other ambient artists, and what other good music you’ve heard from the genre. Thanks George, you’re a big inspiration!
Dear Julia, you're very welcome. Glad I could be of use.
Now that I think of it, I don't really feel as if any other artist I know could be called "ambient" to the extent that Eno defined the genre. Lots of electronic artists have their ambient "phases" - Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada, Carbon Based Lifeforms, etc. - but I don't think any of them were as persistent with the form as Eno. You can also try out all the people he's worked with over the years, from Robert Fripp to Karl Hyde etc.
I myself, if I'm in the mood for something artistically similar, prefer the classical minimalism which inspired Eno - Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Harold Budd, etc. I think that Glass often sets the exact same moods as Eno, even when playing far more notes at far faster tempos.
Thanks for the reply, George. The way that Reich and Glass create a sense of meditation while using a fast tempo and lots of notes always impresses me. I haven’t started delving into Budd’s solo stuff, and don’t know where to begin.
Fripp’s solo albums always struck as me as sort of “amateurish” or experimental, and I haven’t been able to connect to them in the same way I can with Eno.
Oh well, when I don't know where to begin, I usually just start from the beginning - if it's already great, you're in the clear, and if it sucks, you still have hope that it eventually gets better. :)
I think Budd's proper career starts with "The Pavilion Of Dreams", an Eno collaboration - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSEpSpIrt98 - you'll easily see if you like it or not.
Fripp certainly has a different artistic vision from Eno, but he has deep respect for "ambience" as well on occasion, otherwise they wouldn't have been working together so often.
I’ll check out Pavilion of Dreams , thanks. Your music reviews have always been my favorite. :)
Hello Starostin (I think that is the most natural way for me to greet you, since your last name is what I would always type to get to your reviews),
I was unsure of whether I should put this post here or in response to the ‘Where the Hell Is Music Going (20 Year Anniversary)’ opus, but since this will contain more than just a response to that, I figured I would put it here.
Your early reviews (poo-poo’d by you as they are) form a very important part of my musical development. The year was 2006, and I was an 18-year-old rooted deeply in Hip-Hop music and culture (as I still am), but receiving a shot in the arm of a new cultural and musical influence. It was Easy Rider, and I was blown away by these hippies, and the song Born To Be Wild. Somehow, with little direction to explore my newly found interest, I came across your website, which became something of a bible for my classic rock explosion of listening. Many of my tendencies in the genre can be traced directly back to you (though you might say some of them are just an accurate state of the musical hierarchy, it seems)—The Beatles, Stones and Who are at the pinnacle (with Dylan, though he’s an oddball), with other legends like Led Zeppelin and The Doors decidedly lower; the 80s was the dead times for rock generally, though R.E.M. and other bands (did you review the Pixies?) kept the soul alive; alternative rock, though a true resurgence of ‘true musical quality’, simply does not compare with the legends of 60s/70s yore. Etc., etc., etc.
I did not follow your reviews on your blog, the ‘new site’ (now defunct site #2), for probably two reasons. For one, I had already received the overall ‘good word’ from you that sent my rock luge off into that world, and now being in college would continue and yet further expand my musical exploration. The other reason was kind of silly (and explains why I would still go back to your original site at times but not really to the blog)—the original rating system, though surely inferior to the demolitions of it and then new systems you created later, was just so fun to parse. A ‘13’ grade *felt* like quality. An 8 or above within an artist’s max-10 could divide from their 7 or below what was their real efforts. … I could go on, but I think I have set the scene now of my attachment and ignorance of your various deep reviewing efforts. I think this time would be appropriate for my first *thank you*, as well, an indescribable appreciation for what you’ve given me and so many others. Your recommendations have gone from heart to heart, and your writings whether agreed or disagreed with have provoked real thought.
This is where I will pivot to my reaction to your ‘20 Years After’ piece. I do not have a solidified view of it, and I know I will forget some of the main responses it has brought up in me, but here goes anyway. I love it, I think you go where no other modern writers on music I’ve seen go—you cut aside the polite bullshit (or, on the other hand, any unadulterated hater activity without impetus), and just give straight what you think. It is good for the culture. Long story short, I (1) agree there will not be another ‘Beatles’, but (2) do not think that means new music is less, but (3) do acknowledge that ‘not all music is automatically of equal standing’, and (4) want to say that music is in a dark period now, but (5) also acknowledge my own dampening relevance as a 33 year old Millennial, as I believe you can’t help but have as a non-Generation Z too.
There is no doubt that more old music is being streamed (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/old-music-killing-new-music/621339/), which I am sure you would take as empirical evidence of your views, while I would take as evidence more so of a transition of the qualitative nature of contemporary music. I believe this has happened other times for a new burgeoning genre as well, and is actually often even the wellspring of the creative development of music. Ironically, it also tends to close off generations’ musical tastes from each others’, to various degrees. This is why the rock artists you value at the top of everything, traditional classical and jazz musical folk might look at as perfectly worthless (‘Where’s the complex musical structure? What’s with the degradation of moral values *in* the music?’). Hip-Hop people might look at all ‘singing’ music forms as somehow hackneyed, a stylistic aberration of the human voice’s musical qualities on par with what anime is to cartoons. On the other hand, I’ve seen how you as a primarily-rock critic (though taking much more than before from Hip-Hop over the years, notably) still can’t really get around Hip-Hop’s sampling, viewing it as artificial, meta-music.
Well, maybe meta-music is where Generation Z will take it in further and further ways. When like 95% of music being streamed was made more than one and a half years ago, perhaps aligning yourself with existing content, but putting twists on it, is the way to go to hit a large proportion of the populace. I know, even speaking from my devout Dylan NET-listening (thanks for starting me on the road towards that, though not being a NET fanatic yourself, by the way), that’s kind of the source of my addiction. I want to hear a song I know super-well, but with a totally-experimental I-don’t-know-how-his-improvisational-phrasing-might-change-the-whole-meaning excitement. New and old, in one. In fact, of course, that is what we have always done with music, right? Taking familiar chords and chord progressions, or rhythms, or whatever, and rearranging them with modern relevance for fresh cultural life (thus, how all the artists you love most were ‘sampling’ as well :P).
I am aware that much, if not all, of what I am saying you already know or have considered or have debunked already, but just as you felt the need to share your own general viewpoint (and a prolific mass though of reviews which I cannot compete with even in imagination), I felt I should share my own as well, as a representative of my age group who is also attached to your views as previously described. Before I finish, I will just give less high-level input on some of the things you mentioned about music of my era. First, I can’t believe you never mention KiD CuDi’s 2009 album “Man on the Moon (The End of Day)” alongside Kanye and Kendrick. That album is arguably the best of the mid-2000s-ish through 2010s period, better than MBDTF, TPAB, DAMN. and whatever else. I’m sure everyone suggests to you more music than you can (or want to, or should) listen to, but please, give that one a listen if you haven’t already. You’re a melody guy, right? Well besides its other merits, the absolutely amazing (yes, I decided to use the forsaken word) choruses on the album should blow you away.
That album actually speaks to some of the trademark styles of my generation too, which you claimed don’t exist (instead only being represented only by a ‘hodgepodging’ approach to existing genres). It has the ‘bleak beat’, invented by Kanye on the 808s & Heartbreak album, and defining our popular music ever since. The bleak beat is a sad, perhaps otherworldly, sparse and lonely accompaniment—it speaks to the lifestyle that has developed, of everything we ever wanted available now (as you very correctly described), but with other humans so far away, so much more. It is a loneliness. Birth rates are tanking across the developed and even much of the developing world. The bleak beat is real.
I should wrap up here, so let me speak quickly about some other truly new Millennial innovations. Nerdiness as the dominant cool lifestyle. Again Kanye foreran this, CuDi mastered it, and everyone’s been doing it ever since. Sure there were artists like Weezer in the past (and the grand Ween, though they didn’t attain such mainstream success), but there is no comparison for the mainstream nerdiness that has taken irreversible hold. Finally, there is… trap. No, this was not a Kanye/CuDi assist creation. And is it great? I don’t know. But trap is certainly new, there was nothing like that sound before. And (lord help me) mumble rap. I don’t want to say anything more there, but I will say I would pay to see your review of a mumble rap album (particularly a bad one though—it wouldn’t be as entertaining to see you review whatever its magnus opus is… which of course exists, considering even Disco had its classics).
Alright, so that’s that. Messy ending, questionably paced, but I think I said to you most of what I wanted to say to you here. I think I passed over more of your piece that I agreed with than I could have, but perhaps I gave in to something of a Devil’s Advocate urge out of an impulse to ‘make interesting conversation’. You should know once again that I hold you in high esteem, that I think you share a lot of true (and *important*) perspective that no one is willing or able to share otherwise (see the Atlantic article I shared before for a much tamer and less useful perspective on the situation at hand), and I am honored if you have decided to read my post to this point. My life would not be the same if I had not discovered the wild instinct of live Who, the brutal honesty of Zeppelin’s FIRST album, the entryway into the bizarro world that is Ween… I could go on and on and on. Thank you, and I wish you the best in all your endeavors. :]
~ Charles
Thank you, Charles! "Nerdiness as the dominant cool lifestyle" is a good turn of phrase, and one that sits perfectly all right with me, as you can understand (hey, I pioneered nerdiness as the cool lifestyle for me since I was three years old or something :)).
The idea of everything going "meta" (hello, Mr. Zuckerberg!) is also true, and largely inescapable. It's probably the one obstacle from experiencing yet another rejuvenation of the 'Rock Around The Clock' / 'She Loves You' / 'Blitzkrieg Bop' fashion, like we used to have each decade at one point; we seem to be too mature and loaded with a feeling of our own self-importance for that now (so even if you try it, it usually doesn't work).
I promise to give CuDi a spin some of these days, this somehow slipped past me.
Thank you for giving my comment a fair shake! Yes, we are all working hard on that nerdiness life, hah. I'm also going to follow your new reviews—hopefully get a better understanding of Rock n' Roll roots!
Don't know you but jsut want to say that I really appreciate this post.
Thank you Robert! That's very nice of you to say.
At this point, George is so overpowered at reviewing that there is no point in writing reviews anymore: you will only be worse than George. Marvelous new stuff, keep the awesomeness coming!
Long-time reader rediscovering your writing.
Looking forward to reading you on Substack!
Hi George,
I have for a long time been a great admirer of your reviews.
2 albums released this year which may restore your faith and give a little hope that all is not completely lost: Fontaines DC - Romance (it definitely takes a few listens but is worth the investment) and Michael Kiwanuka - Small Changes (released today).
Neither is groundbreaking beyond being good albums released in 2024 (which I guess may in itself be groundbreaking!).
Keep up the great work!
Just read your review of Purple Mountains was wondering if you were familiar with the work of The Mountain Goats. I’d personally consider them the best music act of the 90s besides maybe Silver Jews or Wilco, and I think if you heard an album like Zopilote Machine or All Hail West Texas you’d think so too
Thank you for the recommendation - no, I'm not familiar with their output at all, but I'll keep an eye open. I must say, though, that I actually find Purple Mountains far superior to most Silver Jews I've heard - precisely because it does sound like the last, most powerful scream from somebody with nothing left to say, very impressive in its creepiness.
Purple Mountains is definitely THE masterpiece and Berman’s finest work but every Silver Jews project has something worth adoring on it
Hi George,
as a longtime adventure fan (especially by Sierra On-Line and Lucasfilm Games/ LucasArts) I really enjoyed reading your detailed reviews. Thank you very much!
You're welcome! Hopefully I'll have a full set for every one of them some day.
Happy birthday George!
Thank you, George, for providing Space for General Discussion. Kindly let know how if we also can have Time for General Discussion so that General Discussion can start and proceed.
All I know about Time, Alex, is that it keeps flowing like a river to the sea. I might advise you to take a trip to the seaside and you'll probably be able to scoop up quite a handful of Time on the shore. But hurry up or you'll miss the starting gun.
I hope you're doing OK.
The Jackie Wilson page on your own site doesn't have By Special Request added yet.
Hello George. Greetings from Austin, Texas from a long time reader and admirer. Thank you so much for igniting my interest in popular music, especially for musicians I would never would have normally given a second look as well as those that are very unpopular here in the states (mostly Brits). My tastes and yours are very close at the artist and album level, but interestingly deviate much more on a song-by-song basis. Of course I was never really a singles guy so it all works out. Anyway anyone who can appreciate both Robert Fripp and David Berman is okay in my book. If you ever decide to review Pulp, The Divine Comedy, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Outkast, Nick Lowe or Split Enz that would make my day! All the best, Greg
Hi George!
Sometime way back, I think maybe between the Old Old Site and the Blogspot, you used to publish short reviews of individual older songs. I don't remember the exact format, but you touched on artists like Leroy Carr, Mississippi Sheiks, Rev. Gary Davis etc. I enjoyed them alot and learnt about many artists for the first time.
I can't seem to find it anywhere on the web now though. Do you still have those saved somewhere?
Yes, that's right, somehow that page remained without a proper link on the main archival site. Here they are, all of them!
https://starlingdb.org/music/sod/frame.htm
Great, thank you!
I just saw that you didn't cover the Maytals' debut album released in 1964. Will reggae not be covered either in the series? If some will be covered, what is the criteria for selection?
I don't know how much reggae I might be able to stomach, but anyway if I did, they'd be in the American ("Western Hemisphere") section rather than the other one, so you'll have to wait until I get to 1964.
It's kinda curious how people in Russia (or the whole Europe?) calls the "Western Hemisphere" not exactly the "Western Hemisphere of Earth Planet" but the developed countries who are in the west of the former Iron Curtain. It's not the first time I see that. Perhaps even Australia and NZ are part from the "Western Hemisphere". Not that I consider Latin America 100% "Western" (though in the same "Hemisphere") (and though the Argentins seem to consider themselves as "Western Hemisphere"), but the difference doesn't seem to us so distant as the Europeans feel. Just an observation, no censoring at all.
In light of the actual exchange here, I wouldn't exactly call Jamaica a "developed country".
Certainly I didn't understand what you wrote, then.
I thought you wouldn't write too much about Jamaica. Sorry!
Oh right, that makes sense
Hey George, big fan of your Bob Dylan reviews and I was curious what you thought of his releases since Triplicate, especially Rough and Rowdy Ways. Thanks.
Hi Julia! Was there anything else since triplicate besides Rough and Rowdy Ways (other than the never-ending flow of the Bootleg Series)?. I liked the record but it wasn't much of a surprise, I think, largely similar to Tempest in mood and structure. It's more of one of those "wish we all had that kind of energy and sharp-mindedness as we hit 80" moments than an artistic triumph, I think.
There was also the album Shadow Kingdom, just a bunch of covers of old material and an instrumental.
Fuck you for your review regarding Gerry and the Pacemakers, the insult!....and the fucking beatles! Fuck them!
Thank you for your comment!
I think I haven't had anyone write "fuck you" in a personal comment since at least 2002 or so. And in defense of Gerry and the Pacemakers, wow! You don't know how much that means to me, really. Go old school!!!
I should not have used the F word
Nor to have F'ed the beatles. Apologies to everyone. So sorry.
Thank you
Kc.
Hi George.
For some reason, I can't access to the main site since yesterday. Am I the only one with this problem?
The hosting server had some problem that took it more than 24 hours to resolve. Everything seems to be working now.
Yes it is. Thanks.
1960s... How about a review of Roberto Carlos, "King of Latin Music", (from 1963 on), or Ronnie Von, "the Little Prince", (from 1968 on)? Os Mutantes came from the TV show of the latter, while their second album is a kind of response from the former (and also a response from Bossa Nova).
Sorry! With all due respect to Brazilian artists, if I expand my coverage to localized acts I won't even get past the 1950s. Why just Brazil when there's also Chili, Peru (where Yma Sumac is actually more recognizable world-wide than Ronnie Von), Argentina, and lots of other countries in Latin America alone, let alone Africa, Asia, Western and Eastern Europe? Russia, for that matter?
Os Mutantes did break through internationally, so I'd be happy to write about them at some point - as well as quite a few other artists around the globe that managed to transcend boundaries. But the selection has to be limited. I'm not a one-man army.
Sure! But why did I chose those names? Roberto Carlos was a hit at Latin America, not only Brazil (and had just a few albums related to pop-rock). Ronnie Von had 3 albums with a psychedelic sound at the same time their friends Mutantes started their carrer (actually those albums were not a hit a the time, but some say that an austriac magazine praised them recently). Furthermore, Yma Sumac is not related to rock.
Taking the opportunity, I wish to say something about "Tropicalia ou Panis et Circencis", the Mutantes' second album (actually a collective album). The artists involved wanted to bring the Hegel logics to the 1960s music. Bossa Nova was the thesis, Rock was the antithesis and Tropicalism would be the synthesis. And when they said "rock", they were talking more about Roberto Carlos' commercial sound, who was heavily criticised in those years.
Actually, there is no real need to make a review about Roberto Carlos, but at least to be aware about what was happening. This is were Os Mutantes (and Jorge Ben, btw) came from, as a kind of tip of the iceberg.
Just one more remark. Russian artists? Man, when the Iron Curtain disappeared, we all here were eager to know what kind of music people were doing there. Brazil, Argentina, Cuba (not Chile, I guess), we were all in the best age of our music (1960-1970), and we were very curious about the heirs of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. It was kind of disappointing not to hear about anyone. Same with Portugal after 1974. And it was nice to discover about Spain's Movida Madrileña, although it didn't become a hit in music. If there was any genius during the Soviet era, I really would like to listen - even if you don't write any reviews about him.
I can tell you with certainty that, while there are many professional Russian artists creating solid-sounding pop / rock / etc. musical art, almost nothing in this scene can offer you something you don't already get in the English-speaking world - except if you are specifically interested in Russian culture and are interested in finding out, e.g., what a "Russian-flavored Joy Division" or a "Russian-flavored Bob Dylan" would sound like. And that, in turn, would generally require at least a passable familiarity with Russian language and culture. I'm not saying you shouldn't try, but I'm saying it's going to cause a much larger cultural dissonance than Tchaikovsky or Stravinsky or even Shostakovich or Schnittke.
I fear that, to a large extent, the same problem exists everywhere, and since my own knowledge of the various cultures of Latin America, for instance, is unfortunately limited (other than a little reading and a couple screenings of Orfeu Negro), I don't want to be a "cultural tourist" in this respect. When a Brazilian, Japanese, or Greek band makes a serious stab at international recognition, I can at least evaluate them from a general standpoint, but if their focus is local first and foremost, I'd rather admire from a distance.
That's fine! The reason I wrote that is because I don't think what happened here in the 1960s was just "something you don't already get in the English-speaking world". But it doesn't exactly apply to Roberto Carlos, who just did the same pop-rock that was being done everywhere. The ones who got an international recognition did it more often in the jazz world, just like Bossa Nova, though they sounded as pop-folk to us. (example, if you can understand portuguese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBfVsucRe1w)
But, well, let's wait for your review of "Tropicalia ou Panis et Circencis". Thanks not only for the answer, but for all the good work you have been doing all these years!
Hi George. The Only Solitaire website seems to be down/inaccessible.
Nope, seems to be running perfectly fine to me. Maybe it was a server reboot or something.
Yes, it was temporary.
George, have you heard the new singles by The Rolling Stones? What do you think about them?
I've heard 'Angry'. It sort of confirms my idea that humans and AI have reached a happy synthesis, because it sounds very much like the kind of track an AI could have written if asked to write in the style of the Stones. I'm ready to go back to 1965 now.
The Bert Jansch page works now, but now the Zombies page is displaying an error message.
Just a heads up that both the PDF and HTML links to the Bert Jansch page on your main site display error messages.
Yesterday went to Music Exchange shop in London UK and bought few CDs (used CDs but in great condition): The Vibrators 4 albums box sets 1976 - 1978, first 2 official albums + BBC session and one live CD £15; KISS 1st album £4 (from 80s issue); Hazel O'Connor 1st album £1; Jellyfish: Bellybutton £2, Jan Garbarek: Osmium £1; Yes:Topographic Ocean £2; Faces: The nod is as good.... £2; Hawkwind: Space Ritual £4.
This might be the wrong place to put this, but here are some errors on the page I noticed:
1. I think your Davy Graham links aren’t working on the artists page.
2. Muddy Waters, the Zombies, and Burt Jansch seem to be missing artists page links, and Zombies and Bert Jansch are missing their albums on the album page.
3. I think you forgot to put ratings for Havin A Good Time by Huey Smith and the Tornadoes album.
4. Did you mean to not bold most of the albums for 1959? Just seems like a long stretch without bolded albums
Thanks so much! I'll go over and correct most of those in the next couple of weeks. With so much stuff, some things inevitably slip through.
Adding some more corrections:
1. Along with the Huey Smith and Tornadoes albums, the Del Shannon album is missing ratings
2. I think the artists missing on the artist page on the site are the Miracles and Moody Blues
Of course not trying to hurry you fixing that, I know how annoying formatting with HTML can be. But just in case you had missed these things
Have you ever listened to The Who’s post Entwistle albums? I’ve never bothered with Endless Wire, but WHO is quite solid. I’d like to see you update your Who reviews since you did it with the Beatles and the Stones, or at least do their last two albums.
I did and I honestly don't remember anything about them, which probably means they were okay. The last original Who song that ever shook me up a bit was 'Eminence Front', and it was really more of a solo Townshend song masquerading as a Who number anyway...
Dear George - wanna talk about Graceland by Paul Simon?
I think it's a towering achievement, quite possibly the Last Great Rock Album.
I especially love the opening track, with ten parts dark sarcasm and one drop of hope, strangely reminds me of So-era Peter Gabriel.
Or Kurt Vonnegut.
It's been quite a long time since I listened to that one. Not sure if I'd go that far (what's wrong with Radiohead, after all? or, heck, even The Joshua Tree?), but an achievement it certainly was.
Well... crucially, for the most part, I'd say Radiohead at their best don't _rock_ 😉
I love OK Computer as much as the next guy, but you get a lot of midtempos with Thom Yorke wailing and Selway either playing with brushes or (intentionally) sounding stiff and... not rocking.
After all, Airbag is 80 BPM, Boy in the Bubble in 150 BPM.
But I'm aware how this conversation could end up sounding really stupid if taken to its logical consequences 😉
(Now, Muse could probably be more interesting in that respect if I could bring myself to listen to an entire album instead of replaying The Beatles over and over...)
Hello George,
I am Russian, living in the US since 2014 and I envy your English. Have you ever described how you learned English to such a great degree? If yes, I'd definitely want to read it. If not, could you share?
Hi Pavel,
there's nothing to describe because there's absolutely no magic secret to it. All you have to do is surround yourself with all your favorite things in the English language - books, movies, music, websites - and keep immersing yourself. Fluency and expertise comes from doing things you really love to do, not things you force yourself to do.
Yes Pavel I have wanted to ask George this question for nearly 20 years but finally you asked it. As a speaker of other languages myself I always admired his command of English and that 'intellectual' approach to his music reviews having finally realised that his level of written communication is dominant even to majority of native speakers. I guess hard work + talent go places ...(I also admire Vlad Valdemar's - philosopher and political commentator on You Tube oral communication skills but then Vlad came to the West as a young boy and has had advantage of going through English speaking education).
Hi mr starostin, I would like to ask you whether you have checked on Foghat. I've just checked on them today and must say I'm impressed by them mainly because they're a hard rock band that can play the funk right, a very rare sight as far as that genre goes. Greetings from Colombia.
I hope you're doing (reasonably) well, and I hope this isn't too much of a bother. I could have sworn that you had a very negative review of A Crow Looked at Me on the old blog, but there is no trace of it. Was there one, or did my brain fabricate it from half-remembered remarks about it in other reviews?
Hi George! I've recently found out that the first olympiad in linguistics took place in your country in 1965. Did you participate in any of those? Somewhere in the 90s perhaps?
With love from Pakistan.
Are you planning on reviewing games such as Starflight and Star Control 2? The latter has some combat mechanics, but it’s essentially an adventure game with amazing atmosphere and story. Since it’s from 1992 it’s right around the era you’re focusing on. I think a later remake(?) had voice acting, but you can turn it off since it seems quite bad to me.
I'd like to, some day, but I never played Starflight and only briefly played Star Control 2 (so I'd need to at least finish it). They do fall under my radar, but they're rather low on the priority list, since I want to concentrate on Sierra, LucasArts, Revolution, and several other studios first.
Hi George. I'm glad to see that you are still going strong and still reinventing yourself! I first discovered your original website way back around 2001/2 when I was a student. I was early in my musical discovery journey, and your website proved indispensible in showing me the way to discovering classic rock music that I will probably listen to for the rest of my life. Your detailed, astute and fearless reviews were inspiring to me and you still remain THE authority on music in my eyes. I may even dare to say that you were and still remain one of the very best websites on the internet. I owe you a great deal of gratitude for introducing me to such great bands and albums that I may never have heard of were it not for you. For example, I doubt I would have discovered Ween on my own, and I now consider them to be the best band of the past 30 years. Similarly, I'm not sure I would have heard Pete Townshends Empty Glass or Cowboys were it not for your reviews. You showed me a path which has given me endless hours of pleasure and had a profound positive effect on my life. I have never commented on your site before, but when I saw this, I felt compelled to write and simply say thank you for your great work and for showing me music that I could not imagine life without. Whenever I listen to great classic rock albums, you and your reviews will forever be in my thoughts, and I sincerely hope that you do not stop what you do so well and without equal. Ziad
Thank you very much, Ziad. The ability to occasionally turn good people on to good music is my best consolation for the perenially inescapable amateurish nature of those reviews!
George, as always I'm astonished at how prolific and consistent your work is! To that point, do you have some sort of itinerary you follow, or is the schedule for now just going day by day with the backlog you must surely have? Secondly, your essay on the last twenty years of music very compellingly outlined why it just doesn't have the same function or power that it once had. Though there are surely no artists who excel in all categories, as a thought exercise, would you be able to single out contemporary musicians who come close to transcending in each of your individual V.A.L.U.E. parameters?
Thanks, I'm still not sure it is as sufficiently prolific and consistent as I'd like it to be, but there's only so much effort you can pour into a hobby.
You can clearly see the current chronological itinerary, just going on and on in time with those records and artists that I think are still worth looking into today. It's a very simple principle, and easy enough to uphold in our era of "total availability" (as opposed to 20 years ago when I had to be satisfied with whatever was available and cheap enough in stores).
I'm not sure what you mean by "contemporary musicians" - how old do they have to be nowadays to be counted as "contemporary"? Are Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney "contemporary"? Radiohead? Arcade Fire? Kanye West? If you mean no older than the Billie Eilish generation, I've honestly lost touch here, so I couldn't tell; I haven't listened to much new music since I stopped the blogspot blog a couple of years ago. I'm sure there must be something out there, but I think it's much more individual than it has ever been, so any recommendations would be futile anyway.
Oops, by "contemporary" I was just using your parameters from the essay of "since the mid-2000s", but if you're very unsure of your preferences since then, just disregard the question. :) I definitely understand the chronology you're following, sorry for the confusion. One further thing I wanted to bring to your attention is the new Only Solitaire splash page text seems to be cut off at the sides on my laptop, no matter my resolution or window size. Has anyone else mentioned this issue, or am I missing something critical?
Just upon reading your Johnny Cash reviews (excellent, I must say! You’re totally on point with most Cash fans just only hearing the big hits and not admiring the greatness of the style), I wanted to ask how much country music do you plan to cover given that you said you don’t have much interest in traditional country. I’ve seen you talk about Hank Williams a lot, do you plan to at least cover some of his stuff at some point?
Still not much, I'm afraid; pure country mostly remains out of the equation for me, so no Patsy Cline or Gene Autrey. I'd certainly be willing to look into all sorts of crossover stuff where the lines between country and singer-songwriting become blurry (Willie Nelson, etc.). Hank Williams is, in a way, also reflective of that strain - he is, in a way, "alt-country" before the term was ever invented - but he predates the era I'm reviewing. Maybe if I ever introduce an additional line for reviewing classic pre-rock era singles... but that'll probably have to wait for now.
Hi George, I've been reading your music reviews for years and find them an essential resource in my own listening. I really like your new site, and the way you've set it up!
I've never commented before, but I did want to suggest on the "List of Albums" page, you combine the US and UK/non-US tables. Maybe add another column to indicate the nationality of the band? It just seems awkward, and putting the US table first may imply the US artists or somehow more important? In any case, it makes the UK albums easy to miss.
I think it works on the "List of Artists" page because the two columns are side by side, and it's fun comparing which artists were current in UK or US for each year.
Anyway, just a suggestion. I'm not a subscriber or anything, so feel free to ignore if you don't like it!
Thanks! I'll think about it. I didn't think it was much of a problem. The US table comes first because of chronological reasons (the rock'n'roll explosion did happen first in the US, and spread to the UK and other places only afterwards), but yes, I can see where it could be possible to miss the UK table. I don't want to mix them together right now, though, because it would look odd and might give the impression that American music ceased to exist after 1959 (in reality, my US reviews are lagging behind for now precisely because there was so much of that type of music there in the 1950s, and so little in the UK). But later on, perhaps, I'll integrate them in a single table.
Now that I finished my Beatles listening (always accompanied by your old reviews), I think I’m going to try my hand at Dylan next. Any recommendations on where I should start? I don’t think a chronological approach is going to be a good idea…
Well, you do have my old Dylan reviews as well, don't you?
Why wouldn't a chronological approach be a good idea? Each of Dylan's albums released in the 1960s and 1970s is worth listening to, even the lesser stuff. And it gives you general context and a trajectory of development. Unless you have an aversion to acoustic folk or something, in which case you can skip right to "Bringing It All Back Home"... but I wouldn't recommend skipping the acoustic stuff.
It takes a while to get to the meat of it with some artists (I’d never recommend someone to start Pink Floyd with Piper and the avant-garde post Barrett stuff), but thankfully that’s not the case with Dylan. Got up to “Bringing It All Back Home” thus far, and other than “Times” there’s hardly anything skippable.
I’m really not a big fan of Folk, but I’d say it was essential so I could warm up to Dylan’s style before the electric stuff. He’s by no means a bad singer, but I think his debut album explains why he sings the way he does with all the Blues and Folk influences. And turns out he’s a pretty solid strummer, fingerpicker, and harmonica blower too! “Home” had a nice balance between that and the rough garage punk backing band, but I’ve yet to see if really I’ll miss solo Dylan in the next two albums.
Hi George! Thank you for your reviews! Do you have a Steam account?
Btw what are your thoughts on 'Harvester' and 'Disco Elysium'?
Hi! I do have a Steam account, but I really only use it for buying stuff, not much of anything else. As for 'Harvester' and 'Disco Elysium', they're both classics of course - a classic classic and a modern classic. I hope to do some write-ups on both of these eventually.
Thank you for your reply!
Check this out: https://youtu.be/EE6Ct39bYUc.
Hi George! I’d be curious to hear your latest thoughts on the late 70s and early 80s New Romantic bands, given that you never finished the reviews on your first site and I doubt they’ll make the cut on this new one. Your reviews got me into early Japan ages ago and over the past few years I’ve seen a lot of critical reappraisal for the Tin Drum (as critics have gotten more and more sympathetic to the 80s).
Honestly, I don't have any latest thoughts on the New Romantics, it's been a while since I last listened to any Japan or Spandau Ballet. I do think the term has little to do with music as such, not to mention musical quality - like "glam rock", which was a blanket term to describe everybody with a pompous theatrical show, regardless of whether it was hard rock, bubblegum rock, or futuristic rock. So there are good New Romantics (like Japan) and bad New Romantics (uh, I dunno... A Flock of Seagulls?).
There's also Taylor Swift's 'New Romantics', but I hope you're not asking about that.
Georgei, as most of us humans, I had resigned myself to living in a world without 1) Crowded elevators 2) Greek letters being only used for fraternities and math problems and 3) new OS reviews. In a world of grey and surgical blue, a ray of light has fallen on me. I thank the late Rev Billy Preston for this. It was his angelic hand that prompted That's the Way God Planned it to show up on my Spotify, which led me to find your Blogger site to re-read again your reviews, which let me to this wonderful site. At the expense of decorum and restraint, I say, today is just like finding your old Moody Blues page all over again. I am home and whole.
PS You just HAD to take another shot at Kansas again, dintcha?
Nice to see you again Jimm! Yes, back in business for a while, provided another Greek letter won't do us all in the end (there's still about a third of the alphabet to go, after all). So apparently reviewing all these Billy Preston albums was not a complete waste of time!
I honestly don't remember when was the last time I took a shot at Kansas, but I think I can be excused - it's either taking a shot at Kansas or at the Dave Clark Five, and the latter is like taking a shot at a puppy or something.
It was in the Introduction which feels like it was 3 years ago. You were kind of hard on them on the first site too but they are very much a mid tier band so they are hardly universal in appeal. Definitely not a puppy.
Oh, right. Well... it's a love that lasts forever, it's a love that has no past!
The problem with Kansas is not that they were a mid tier band. The problem is that they were skilled musicians with way too little creativity to make good use of their skills. The instrumental Spider is a good example indeed. It sounds like ELP taking themselves far more seriously than the trio already did. Compare Boston's Foreplay: much simpler, just a rather simple melodic line repeated several times. So they pay lots of attention to the arrangement, which is creative indeed.. Or compare Banco's Traccia II, obviously inspired by ELP too. The Italians make very sure to put their own stamp on it - something that requires creativity too.
George, I'm a longtime fan and I'm very glad you've found a new place for writing more stuff and even branching out into game reviews. Seeing as how you're a big fan of adventure games I'm really curious whether you've ever played The Legend Of Kyrandia. Growing up in Ukraine that series was my introduction into adventure games (not that I'm much into point and clicks in general, but that's beside the point) and I used to think it had to be a classic only to discover, after moving into the heart of Europe from its periphery, that it was rather obscure and the real classics of the genre were titles I'd never even heard before (aside from Syberia). So yeah, my question is basically, whether you played the Kyrandia games. Also, was Kyrandia even well-known in Russian-speaking countries, similarly to how the HOMM series, for some reason, was more popular there than in the West, or was it just a local anomaly in my childhood?
Yeah, I did play Kyrandia - the first game, at least - and I think it was just as popular in Russia as in Ukraine (we probably shared a pretty similar market for videogames). Don't know why it got so much more of a cult status over here, but the market worked in mysterious ways in early post-USSR times. In the West, I think people treated it as more of a King's Quest+Monkey Island clone, so they didn't pay too much attention (and Westwood Studios were rather associated with Dune II at the time than anything else).
I'll probably end up replaying and reviewing it eventually, which will give me more time to think about it!
Hi George! I’ve been reading your music reviews for years. I know much less about games than I do about music, so I’m curious: what do you think are the reasons that video game developments have stalled recently, just as music did around the early 2000s?
Hi Samuel,
I think the reasons are more or less the same. Too many remakes, too many sequels, too many clones, not enough original ideas, because the market is way too oriented at "giving the people (more and more of) what they want" instead of trying something daring and unexpected, because they are too afraid that the risk won't pay off. Fortunately, there still seems to be a genuine "indie" segment in the gaming industry (e.g. Disco Elysium, which was probably the last time a story-based game truly confounded expectations), the only question is just how much an overall impact it will be capable of making.
Hello George, given your love for music and video games, I’d love to read your opinion about music from video games, don't know if you intend to talk about them at a certain time. I think there are lots of soundtracks out there that are worth checking, especially from the Japanese. I mean, it’s impossible to listen to SNES/Genesis games’ music and not see the heavy influence of progressive rock on many of them. The clearest example is Nobuo Uematsu, who’s for me the very best in video game industry.
By the way, thanks for all your time spent writing about music, it has actually helped me to discover a new world, a very beautiful one, indeed. Ah, it's so much easier when someone does all the hard work.
Thanks Alejandro!
I have no plans for making separate reviews of video game soundtracks - after all, they are not really intended to be listened to outside of the game's context (unless you have already played the game and have all the associations properly playing in your mind).
However, as you may have noticed, there is a special "Sound" section in each of my video game reviews, where I discuss the music if it's worth discussing. E.g. Michael Hoenig's masterful soundtrack for "Baldur's Gate" mentions his connection to the German electronic scene of the 1970s (which is only indirectly felt in the soundtrack, but is still important). Or Robert Holmes' fantastic work on the Gabriel Knight games. So there already are and will be even more of these opinions in the upcoming reviews.