***** By the time Guns N’ Roses arrived at the final tracklist for their landmark debut LP Appetite for Destruction, it already sounded like a best of compilation. The group had already recorded a number of tracks that would later appear across the Use Your Illusion albums, but narrowed its focus to the best of…
**** It may be hard to imagine now, but in 1956, Elvis Presley’s debut album was the most critical Rock n’ Roll release in history. It was the first rock record to sell 1 million copies and was a foundational piece of the launch of music’s most lauded cover artist to superstardom. The album was…
Epic, unadulterated brilliance. From the opening piano hit on “Thunder Road,” to Clarence Clemons’ stratospheric sax solo at the apex of “Jungleland,” Born to Run is 39 minutes of musical brilliance from the greatest songwriter to ever live backed by the best collection of musicians to hit the Jersey circuit. In fact, the album is…
**** From the moment Lover’s lead single “ME!” featuring the nails-on-chalkboard grating voice of Brendon Urie operating as a depressing foil to Taylor Swift’s infectiously endearing charm, I’ve been skeptical of her latest project. To pull such a 180 from the polarizing yet bold reputation seemed like an overly calculated move that didn’t bode well,…
My life went through some pretty significant changes in 2018. I changed jobs twice and finally got a place of my own. And while everything has largely been an improvement, many of my new responsibilities (and my lack of a regular commute) significantly cut into my music listening time this year. Yet even though I…
Nintendo had a brilliant idea when they released the NES Classic a couple of years ago, and doubled down on that unit’s success with the even more popular SNES Classic last year. Quickly it became clear that there was a market for these miniaturized, plug and play consoles, so it should surprise no one that…
If you’ve been paying attention to video game news this week, you’ve heard countless hot takes on Nintendo’s new online service and how it’s a disastrous insult to its consumer base because it’s taking a service that was previously free and putting it behind a paywall. Other complaints include the service’s lack of good voice…
7 Upon its release on the Super Nintendo in 1994, a year marked by phenomenal games like Super Metroid and Final Fantasy VI (and also my birth), many gamers and video game outlets selected Donkey Kong Country as the greatest game of the year. In response to this, legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto had this…
**** Armed with hauntingly beautiful harmonies, kinetic melodies, and plenty of weirdo moments, the now legendary Music From the Big Pink is the kind of album that probably sounded a lot more revolutionary in 1968 than it does today. Still, it’s hard not to appreciate the influence it has had on many of music’s most…
7.75 Perhaps the biggest criticism of the Mario franchise is that Nintendo refuses to evolve the formula beyond what made it so captivating in 1985 with the release of Super Mario Bros. And while I largely agree with that criticism, there are also obvious benefits to sticking with what you know. It has been Nintendo’s…
The Soundtrack Online 