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!
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. :]
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!
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.
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
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).
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 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 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.
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
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?
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?
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!
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…
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).
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?
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?
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?
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.
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.
Happy birthday George!
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!
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
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!
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.
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
I hope you're doing OK.
Hi George.
For some reason, I can't access to the main site since yesterday. Am I the only one with this problem?
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).
Hi George. The Only Solitaire website seems to be down/inaccessible.
George, have you heard the new singles by The Rolling Stones? What do you think about them?
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
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.
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.
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 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.
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
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?
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?
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!
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…
Hi George! Thank you for your reviews! Do you have a Steam account?
Btw what are your thoughts on 'Harvester' and 'Disco Elysium'?
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).
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?
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?
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?
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.