NMC: THE BEST ALBUM EVER (read page 5)

[Lamrock]

Michael Jackson - Thriller - RATING: 7.4/10

I didn't expect to like this album, and was looking forward to writing an annoyingly pretentious review explaining its flaws. But alas, this album isn't half bad. The album starts off strongly with up-tempo "Gotta Be Startin' Somethin'" that certainly starts something. Baby Be Mine is meh, but singles "The Girl Is Mine" and the title track are pretty strong. The three-song sequence of Beat It -> Billie Jean -> Human Nature is the best of the album. I wasn't too big on the final two songs, which seemed a bit like filler.

Overall, "Thriller" is a pretty good album still. It isn't as groundbreaking as critics say, but while dated, it holds up fairly well. Track Highlights: Gotta Be Startin' Somethin', Beat It, Billie Jean

[Mayerhendrix]

Alright, I'm going to give this first one a shot, so here goes. I've already heard the album and I love it [4 of the top 14 most played songs on my iTunes library are from Thriller] but I'll 'review' it anyway.

1. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
Catchy opening track, and it sets the mood for the rest of the album for sure. I personally find it a bit repetitive sometimes and that's why half of the times I listen to Thriller I'll skip over this track, but it's still way above average as pop goes. That "Ma Ma Se, Ma Ma Sa" part at the end is my personal favorite part of the song.

2. Baby Be Mine
The backing beat is alright and probably the main "hook" for this song, but otherwise this song isn't too great. It's probably because I'm not too big of a fan of those 1980s soul/R&B ballads and this falls into that type of category. It's like a Whitney Houston song, almost, and that's just not my style.

3. The Girl Is Mine
This has to be one of my most favorite romantic songs, and a large part of it is the duet pairing of Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. It slows down the pace of the album but still does not sacrifice quality. It scores big for musical quality and for romantic meaning behind the words. [Nohomo]

4. Thriller
One of the greatest pop songs of all time. Needs no introduction and no description at all. It's flamboyant, catchy, upbeat, and over time the massive pop culture appeal of the song has just added to its overall value.

5. Beat It
I guess this would probably be one of MJ's first pop/rock crossovers. E.V.H. on guitar provides a sick basis to this track and Jackson's vocals are right-on. As a guitar player, I love that solo at the end. There's few other songs which are so fun to air-guitar to.

6. Billie Jean
Another tempo slowdown but this song is still epic...personally, it's my favorite song on this album. The lyrics are ICONIC, and the bassline is recognizable in a second.

7. Human Nature
Never cared much for this song. It's not bad, I guess, but when you've got a song like this in comparison to three of the greatest pop songs of all time in a line, it's obviously a sobering step down from a "music high".

8. P.Y.T.
Sorry for this being the FOURTH 5-star song, but this IS one of the best albums of all time and therefore, it's entirely warranted in this case. This is a good dance song, and it's a great "get-in-the-mood" song. Very useful for practical purposes.

9. The Lady In My Life
It's not excellent. I'm more astonished that MJ actually had a lady in his life [instead of a group of little boys] than I am astonished at the quality of this song in any way.

32/45 = 71%

[benji]

Michael Jackson - Thriller

The excess is too much, whether it's a four minute song becoming six, too many horns being dropped into another, spoken word and skits, sound clips, modified voices, etc. I'll never like the Billie Jean chorus but the verses are alright. There's a desensitization to Thriller and Beat It after twenty-five years that is probably welcome and assists the rest. The Lady in my Life was a bit long and I would've liked it more in tune with the rest but I can see why he put it last and wanted to do it.

Top Favorites: Baby Be Mine, Human Nature, and P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) despite how it ends.

3/5 - Good.

[Nick]

Oooh, i wanna play!

I'll begin for the next album.

[J@3]

I think Doobie, Joe, thierry and ratrac are yet to review this, I'll give you guys another two days. Nick you're in, if you review Thriller you'll go before shadowgrin but if you wait til the next one you'll go after.

DoobieKnicks
Jae
Joe`
thierryhenry
JaoSming
Lamrock
Pdub
PhatGeezer
ratrac
Mayerhendrix
Ben
shadowgrin
Nick

After those guys review this one Doobie will be up.

[benji]

You should move newbies above the loser fags who have already gone.

I say this completely objectively.

[Doobie]

Michael Jackson - Thriller.

This album is legendary by the words of others, but giving it a listen it isn't that groundbreaking today. Maybe it is cause I grew up in a different era of music or because I was never a huge fan of Jackson, but this album really doesn't live up to it's hype. The album is good but I don't think its the greatest album of all time. This album spawned the only two Michael Jackson songs that I like though, my favorite P.Y.T and beat it. I never really been a fan of thriller and the music video, but I guess in the 80's that was there thing. Baby be mine, Wanna be startin somethin, and Billie Jean are all OK to me. Human Nature and The Lady in my Life really didn't appeal to me though. It is a solid album by all means, but really not my cup of tea.

7/10 doobiepoints FTW!!

You guys may bash me for this since none of you like Rap, but I am picking my favorite album by a hip-hop artist ever. Advice, listen to the words. Also I couldn't find a youtube link but I found this Rhapsody thing, so just Play all and Listen.

Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
http://www.rhapsody.com/lupe-fiasco/lup ... --explicit

[J@3]

A few other guys still haven't done theirs so we'll wait on Joe, ratract and thierry before getting onto that one...

[Doobie]

alright well I'm just letting it be known now since I may not be online for 3-4 days.

[shadowgrin]

My review:

I can't stand the starting song of the album. Vegetable? WTF?

Baby Be Mine has a good RnB sound to it. I'm not a fan of RnB though. It's still better than most RnB songs out today.

The Girl is Mine is a decent laid back song, until Paul and Michael ruined it with their exchange at the end.

I was expecting to like Thriller but it's neither good nor bad for me now, it's just a meh feeling.

Beat It still kicks some ass. No wonder even a band like FOB can cover it and still rock, the song is just that good. Now if only someone would murder My Chemical Romance for butchering songs of Bob Dylan and Queen/David Bowie.

Billie Jean is also good. A personal favorite, nice beat and vocals to it.

Human Nature is a good sappy song, no sarcasm.

P.Y.T. is pretty catchy. Not bad.
I just realized that Michael wants a 'young thing'. He sure did get some young things to sleep with.

The Lady in My Life - same comment as Baby Be Mine but not as good as Baby though.

Overall, some songs are great, some are just ok. Only ones I can't stand are the initial track and the flirting going on between Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.
I give it a 2 out of 8-Hype.

[Nick]

Excuse my daftness, but why are the reviews ordered by member?

[J@3]

The reviews aren't but the recommendations are. You can review in whatever order, but the person who gets to recommend the album to review is in order. Otherwise it'd be chaos.

[Mayerhendrix]

thriller, and food and liquor..these are all good but can people pick more obscure good music in the future? there's not as much of a point of reviewing songs that are already popular and well-liked.

[shadowgrin]

You have a point there, but I already stated my reason on why I picked Thriller for my turn. Most of us in this review are kids back then and have the mental capacity of Coolmac during that point in our lives, I doubt we would be able to appreciate/hate the album when it was released then.

[kibaxx7]

Getting internet connection tomorrow.

[Lamrock]

Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor - 8.3/10

I'm not a big fan of rap, infact I have about ten rap albums out of 400 on my Zune. However, among those ten albums is Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. That's probably because F&L isn't strictly a rap album. Its just as much a pop album, in the vein of Kanye West's first three LP's, and if you liked those, you'll like this.

And those three Kanye LP's are the best source of comparison for Food & Liquor. Fresh off his introduction to the rap world on West's single "Touch The Sky", Fiasco makes an album that follows almost the exact template of Late Registration. Sample-heavy, sometimes theatric pop-rap with plenty of special guests. And in general, it works well.

This album didn't give me a very good first impression. "Intro" is a preachy, unoriginal spoken verse poem voiced by a child. Real is catchy enough, but nothing special. The album doesn't really start to catch its stride until lead single, "Kick, Push", a rap song about the unlikeliest subject: skateboarding. This is followed up by the excellent, up-tempo "I Gotcha". "The Instrumental is skippable, but "He Say She Say" is fantastic, as are singles "Sunshine" and the epic "Daydreamin". The album hits its peak on the excellent "Hurt Me Soul", but F&L proves to be a middle-heavy record.

The album starts to lose momentum with the Matthew Santos (Who is this guy anyway? Was Adam Levine busy?)-aided "American Terrorist", and segues into filler track "The Emperor's Soundtrack" and unnecessary "Kick, Push II", which serves as the closing track, as "Outro" is unlistenable trash. Fortunately, Outro is easily skippable, being the final track. I listen to tracks 2-15 whenever I play F&L, so I'm judging it by those.

There is lots of negativity in my review, but I actually quite like the album and would recommend it. I still listen to it on occasion, and while there are a few weak tracks, its very good. While I prefer "The Cool" slightly, this is an excellent album that I would recommend highly.

Track Highlights: "I Gotcha", "Daydreamin", "Hurt Me Soul"
Track Lowlights: "The Instrumental", "American Terrorist", "The Emperor's Soundtrack" (And the Intro and Outro)

[J@3]

Fuck it lets move on, thierry you get a free pass again, Joe' and ratrac you don't (unless you did review it and I've missed it) so strikes to them. The order is listed above ^^

[Nick]

So... are we reviewing this Lupe fellow or not?

[kibaxx7]

Thanks Jae, will review both Thriller and Food & Liquor today... finally, internet connection at home

[BigKaboom2]

Some of you guys are extremely skilled at spending four paragraphs talking about an album without saying anything at all except "it's good" or "it's alright." Joe's have been the most tolerable, but even he has gone for "THE GUITAR SOLO IS AWESOME" on occasion. More specific plz thx.

Almost all of them have been better than the typical professional review though.

EDIT: Oh, and a score of 7.5485 out of 10, for example, means nothing to me.

[Lamrock]

I hope you aren't referring to me, as I had a track-by-track analysis, listed my favorite/least favorite tracks, a little background information and my overall opinion on it.

[Moz]

Never bought a rap/hiphop album as I’m not an avid listener of it. I thought he’s got a lot of those Kanye West traits... the rhyme delivery, the accent, and those stuff I can’t explain. Intro is indeed an intro. I thought he’ll go Missy Elliot on the first few lines (is he talking about the boxer that luckily knocked out Lennox Lewis?). It kinda drags on for an intro to be honest. The echoey Real is alright, nothing massive about it. Just Might Be OK is a Kanye West song, right? Love Kick, Push’s catchy chorus. The horn section made the song as smooth as it should be. “..hey shortie...it’s your birthday...” rip off? Don't know but I Gotcha got enough swagger to be called Fiasco’s own. The bossa nova-ish piano blends well on the flow of the song. One of the highlights of the album. I thought the next track is another album filler then there goes the Trent Reznor-ish vocal interlude, then the verse came in, ok it’s not. Love the fast tempo of the song and it somewhat got that movie soundtrack potential in it... you know, those that accompanies the credits. It also got that Linkin Park vibe in it. He Say She Say and Sunshine are too generic, that’s all for me. Right from the intro you’ll know that Daydreamin’ will be epic. Easily the best track of the album. Again, the next track is too generic. He got the Snoop Dogg type singing on Hurt Me Soul The story telling is relaxing. Thought the next track, Pressure, will be another epic one but it fails me when that 80’s game show soundtrack came into the picture. Sorry Jay-Z. American Terrorist and The Emporor’s... are alright. Like the movie Dumb and Dumber...Kick, Push’s sequel is a huge let down. Outro is skipable, don't worry no hidden tracks to follow so go.

******

6/10

[BigKaboom2]

This album didn't give me a very good first impression. "Intro" is a preachy, unoriginal spoken verse poem voiced by a child. Real is catchy enough, but nothing special. The album doesn't really start to catch its stride until lead single, "Kick, Push", a rap song about the unlikeliest subject: skateboarding. This is followed up by the excellent, up-tempo "I Gotcha". "The Instrumental is skippable, but "He Say She Say" is fantastic, as are singles "Sunshine" and the epic "Daydreamin". The album hits its peak on the excellent "Hurt Me Soul", but F&L proves to be a middle-heavy record.

The album starts to lose momentum with the Matthew Santos (Who is this guy anyway? Was Adam Levine busy?)-aided "American Terrorist", and segues into filler track "The Emperor's Soundtrack" and unnecessary "Kick, Push II", which serves as the closing track, as "Outro" is unlistenable trash. Fortunately, Outro is easily skippable, being the final track. I listen to tracks 2-15 whenever I play F&L, so I'm judging it by those.

All I really know from that is that you liked some songs and didn't like other songs. No idea what it sounds like or what you liked about it. Then again most people reading them have listened to the album unlike me.

And the Thriller one was much less descriptive. Like barely anyone mentions any specific instruments unless they're talking about a solo, and thus it's almost always a guitar.

[Lamrock]

Whatever man. The Thriller review was rushed, but for Food & Liquor I posted what the album was (Kanye-esque theatrical sample-heavy pop-rap), and the songs I liked. I didn't do analysis for all 16 tracks because that would be a waste of (more) time. You should listen to the album though. I enjoy listening to music more than I do reading music reviews myself.

[J@3]

And the Thriller one was much less descriptive. Like barely anyone mentions any specific instruments unless they're talking about a solo, and thus it's almost always a guitar.

Personally I'd get bored reading about individual instruments, really it'd just be an extended version of what you're complaining about. It'd become "I hated this song because the drums bla bla" as opposed to "I hated this song because it was boring and the lyrics sucked". If you think the reviews aren't good enough then join in and do your own.