Khalid burst onto the scene with his first release and first hit song, Location, at the young age of 18. Khalid rose to stardom while he was still in high school. The young R&B/Pop star wasn’t done with his first release and followed it up with a hit record, American Teen, which peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 which is very impressive for a young inspiring artist. American Teen goes through the thoughts and feelings as well, an American Teen. The album as a whole was successful especially to younger audiences, who relate to the events of high school.
[Read more…]Abandoned Luncheonette – Daryl Hall and John Oates Album Review
Daryl Hall and John Oates released their first album in 1972 which was ultimately a failure and was recorded in their beloved city of Philadelphia. They ultimately blamed the city for the failure of the album and decided to move to New York to record their sophomore album, Abandoned Luncheonette in 1973. Unlike their albums in the late 70s and 80s, both Daryl Hall and John Oates contributed to the actual singing in the tracks rather than Hall being predominately the lead and Oates being a backup singer which makes their first few albums unique. Abandoned Luncheonette wasn’t necessarily a huge commercial success either compared to their pop rock albums of the 1980s. The album had one song, She’s Gone, that entered the Billboard charts and peaked around spot number 7 in 1976, three years after the initial release of the album. Overall, the album still wasn’t as successful as Hall and Oates would have wished for, but now people acclaim this album to be an essential for any Hall and Oates fan along with the biggest album of their career Voices which was released in 1980.
[Read more…]Darkness On The Edge Of Town – Bruce Springsteen Album Review
Bruce Springsteen’s 4th installment came on the 2nd of June in 1978. Springsteen was coming off his first commercially successful album, Born to Run, and released Darkness on the Edge of Town, a little less than 3 years after. Springsteen initially wanted the album to come out a lot sooner but a dispute with his manger delayed the production of the album. Springsteen ended up suing his former manager, Mike Appel, for fraud and breach of trust. The issue all began when Springsteen signed his initial record deal back in 1972, which gave a large sum of the profits of his music to his former manager Mike Appel. Springsteen and his band mates didn’t realize that they had signed away a large sum of their profits until the release of his third album, Born to Run. The three years of writing and recording gave Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band plenty of time to record not ten but seventy plus possible songs for the upcoming album. Through countless name changes and countless lyric changes, Springsteen reduced it down to ten songs, but no need to fear; the twenty of the additional seventy songs were compiled into an album of their own, The Promise, which was released in 2010. This may be one of the hardest rankings I have done to this date, every one of these songs is amazing.
[Read more…]Boston – Boston Album Review
Released in 1976, Boston’s first album titled “Boston”, was a massive hit, selling over 17 million copies. And there’s no question why. It was recorded by singer Brad Delp and guitarist/producer Tom Scholz in a basement in the middle of Boston. Although the album only has one top ten hit, “More Than a Feeling,” peaking at number five, the album is still great. I personally have it on vinyl and love to just listen through it. There isn’t really a bad song on it at all so here’s my review.
[Read more…]MANIA – Fall Out Boy Album Review
Fall Out Boy is an American rock band who was formed in Wilmette, Illinois just outside of Chicago, in 2001. Fall Out Boy is led by lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump with Pete Wentz on bass, Joe Trohman as the lead guitarist, and Andy Hurley on drums. The band initially came on as an early 2000s punk rock band which was common for the era of music. In the early 2000s Fall Out Boy as well as other punk bands such as blink-182, Green Day, Sum 41, Good Charlotte, and My Chemical Romance found their sound and soon gained a large fan base. Fall Out Boy’s debut album, Take This to Your Grave, was released in 2003 and with the heavy touring that was done after the release made the album an underground success spawning the first of Fall Out Boy’s fan base.
MXLLS
Strange Clouds – B.o.B Album Review
*Songs contain explicit content listen at your own risk
B.o.B’s second studio album was released on April 27,2012. The album itself didn’t gain much publicity and is somewhat undiscovered. Even though the album contains several guest artists which include: Morgan Freeman (yes, I typed that in correctly),Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, T.I., Nicki Minaj, Ryan Tedder, Lauriana Mae, Playboy Tre, and Trey Songz. The album had the talent to preform. The album had three Billboard Hot 100 placements and they all appeared in the top 20. The highest peaking song was the title track, Strange Clouds, which finished at #7. The other two songs that placed in the chart included So Good peaking at #11 and Both Of Us peaked at #18 with the help of Taylor Swift. On Billboard 200 the album finished at spot #5 which was slightly worse than his debut album, B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray, that peaked at the top spot. After the success of his first album (including hit singles Airplanes, Magic and Nothin’ On You) he had to come back with even more. He included even more stars in his songs and after just two albums he had worked with the likes of Eminem, Lupe Fiasco, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Janelle Monay, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Trey Songz, Chris Brown, T.I., and more. Strange Clouds has an interesting group of songs which fits its name of “strange” and even before writing my final thoughts on the album I can say I love it.
x – Ed Sheeran Album Review
Ed Sheeran’s sophomore album was released on June 21, 2014 and didn’t disappoint. He followed his album + that had a hit single, The A Team, with x. The album peaked at number 1 on The Billboard 200 albums. Also, the album had a #2 hit in Thinking Out Loud, Don’t peaked at #9, Photograph peaked at #10, Sing at #13, Afire Love at #37, and One at #87. Ed Sheeran surprisingly did not have a #1 hit until his most recent album which had two #1 hits in Shape of You and Perfect. Below I will rank the songs from worst to best.
[Read more…]Full Moon Fever – Tom Petty Album Review
Full Moon Fever was released in 1989 by Geffen Records. Whenever you hear the name Tom Petty, this is probably the album you’d think of. It was one of 3 albums that Tom Petty made without his band, the Heartbreakers. None of the songs on the album hit number 1, but Free Fallin’ peaked at number 7. I took some time to listen to the album, and found that it was better than I had expected. I hadn’t listened to Tom Petty very much until somebody suggested a review on him. I’ve started to enjoy his music a lot. He has a great style that’s impossible not to like. Here is my ranking of the album, from best to worst.
[Read more…]Slippery When Wet – Bon Jovi Album Review
Bon Jovi’s third album titled Slippery When Wet was released on January 1, 1986 and was the breakout album that the band needed. After two albums prior to Slippery When Wet got no traction and were pretty much failures despite the song Runaway that got a little bit of radio play but were ultimately unsuccessful. Slippery When Wet had two number one hits, You Give Love A Bad Name and Livin’ On A Prayer; also Wanted Dead or Alive peaked at #7 on Billboard’s Hot 100. After this album Bon Jovi was an instant rock success, churning out hit after hit and making Slippery When Wet an essential rock album.
[Read more…]Cracked Rear View – Hootie and The Blowfish Album Review
Quite possibly one of the greatest albums ever, Cracked Rear View, was released on July 5, 1994 (24 years today) by Hootie & The Blowfish. It was an immediate hit and went on to sell fourteen million copies. Surprisingly, none of the songs hit number one, but three of them made top ten, which is pretty good for a first album. Only Wanna Be With You peaked at number 6, Let Her Cry at number 9, and number 10 being Hold My Hand.
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