It's good, but nothing breakthrough.
347257
I'm a people photographer that enjoys shooting food, and the camera stuff wasn't worth reading for me personally, but the pictures were great and the background info was also helpful.
2036094
Imagine the Floyd's soundtrack albums ("More" and "Obscured By Clouds"), take only the instrumentals, and do it in the sound/style of "The Division Bell". There you have "The Endless River". It's essentially a mashup of (almost completely) instrumental fragments, some of which are interesting in their own way. It's not unpleasant. It's easy to listen to. Good background music. The last piece is the only actual "song", and it's not bad (though there are conflicting opinions on that) - could have been on TDB as one of the lesser cuts. I've heard worse - like the last Gilmour album. But really, unless you are a completist, it's dispensable. If it had been a bonus disk with TDB it would have been an ok bonus disk. But it adds nothing to their legacy. Maybe they released it to give some money to Wright's family/estate. Essentially muzak - Gilmour, Wright, and Mason muzak, but nevertheless...
1551025
I dug the Illuminati/ world conspiracy background to this exploration of free will and social control. It's clear what our vigilante protagonist is supposed to represent. Yet, his fall, or awakening, or redemption is not as dramatic as it should be, because the points of his epiphany are no suprise at all. He's a Punisher figure who looks like he's wearing Spiderman's Venom suit (as several jokes in the book remind you). Furthermore, does Pain really give up anything that he valued? If so, it wasn't developed as much of value before it was lost. The same critique applies to the female cop. She tells the secret of her past, and we see her spells of fear, but those are also undeveloped, pretty much. So, when the house of cards explodes at the end, I did not feel much of a revelation, awakening, or salvation on the emotional side coming off the page. The story is unique, but not so unique in that some the important parts were left untold or under-told.
3700690
Yes, it is the right word 4 it: dull. The songs R not bad, written and put together well, but too long and boring. It's not a weak album I think, but it's not complex. It would be more complex if the melodies were more catchy and there would be more instrumental parts with some solos or just some hypnotizing Cure sound. Smith's voice is all over this album with only a few changes of tone, he almost only speaks, but quite loudly, which is very annoying 4 me. It's not a bad CD, but I will not listen 2 it again and again like I did with Kiss Me, Disintegration and Wish before.
...
A few years passed and I was eager to hear some Cure music....and I put Bloodflowers to the player. What a refresh!
Maybe it is not as good as Disintegration, but this is a great album. Just let it grow on you. It just happened to me, my opinion has changed after years passed.....strange, isn't it? May be if you don't like it first, you should try to listen it again, and you'll be listen to it over and over again. You will, I promise you!
2120730
It's pretty useful and has a lot of good stuff related to the process of thinking, biases and how we can improve our lives through correcting those biases and acquiring knowledge. It's not great at story telling though, it's the quality of striking me with insight and brilliance that's missing. And maybe that's fine.
3800772
There are tidbits of good useful information, overall it was a lot of "this is what happens" and not a lot of solutions. Which is fine since I like creating my solutions. Read this and you might like it more than me.
1931165
The third album for the Strokes didn't arrive with a lot of fanfare (it was dumped in the post-holiday wasteland where no group ever releases a big album), and perhaps that's fitting. Room on Fire wasn't a big disappointment by any stretch, but in 2002, they were still the most hyped rock band in the world. In early 2006, hardly anyone talked about them anymore. First Impressions of Earth contains neither the energy, consistency, nor that strange "avant-accessibility" they do so well. This is just...a rock record. That's it. More divergent, less enthusiastic, more streamlined, less pigeonholed. It is what it is. Someone could even ask, "Is this it?" The hype machine hit a bump in the road and died.

Unfortunately, that also means there's no longer a reason to adore these guys. It's their most uneven record to date, and it lacks a good number of standout tracks, and it's too long (it's almost as long as their first two albums put together). Lowered expectations help a lot, it seems, because I liked it more than Room on Fire. Even the songs that start out promisingly before eventually failing like "Ask Me Anything" and "15 Minutes" are more interesting than a band rehashing the same thing all over again. Maybe that's why this whole mess works: at least they're trying to do something different.

Best cuts: "Razorblade," "Vision of Division," "You Only Live Once," "Juicebox," `Size of the World," "Fear of Sleep," "Red Light," "Killing Lies," "Evening Sun"
1013364
First the positives:

This book did alter the way I see the world and had an impact on the way I interact with people. My life has improved since I read this book because I am not my usual, negative self.

Second, it has a clear message; be positive -- and your relationships will be stronger and you will be more effective in your interactions with people.

However, the problem is that I finished this book in about two hours, because it's very short (few pages, few words per page, and many pages with little content). Also, the book doesn't have many strategies on how to implement its premise. Overall, I'd recommend it, but not highly.
2073846
It works and it's cool, but it doesn't wow me.  Sometimes I feel like my computer streams faster than this device but perhaps that's normal.  Features and interface is pretty basic and straight forward.  You can connect to 5G.  You can edit subtitles.  Nothing super in-depth and nothing crazy innovative.  Just a good "vanilla" stream box.
898692
I like the album. I find it to be enjoyable overall, but it's kind of overrated. The album is, how do I put this, slow. It's just not an upbeat rocking album but that's really to be expected I guess. It's basically an album of slow songs with a few more somewhat lively ones. I can see how some would find this boring is my point. The songs are solid and mostly enjoyable. I especially like "all I need." Probably one of my favorite songs by them. It's the best song on here by far. I guess my problem with this album is that it's just very stripped down and kind of standard. It's just not as interesting as most of their older albums. It's not an album I listen to over and over cause I've already heard everything and there's no mystery or a lot of atmosphere to it. It's just very stripped down and sometimes  you feel like it's a band made up of 3 guys instead of 5. To each his own. I prefer their older work.
1641369
Just not much here.  I get the idea, but I certainly don't think this is groundbreaking.  Focus on the positives.  The bulk of the book of studies and testimonials wasn't necessary.  It could have been summed up in a magazine article.
Let me say that I hate to knock a book that does present a great and positive message.  But, it is just way too long in getting the point across.
150651
First off, let me say that this album (both discs) is brilliant.  I give it 4 1/2 stars.  Musically, i would give it 5 stars, but i think it doesn't quite live up to the potential it had.  Nearly every song on here is amazing, but like many other reviewers have pointed out, by splitting the album up it doesn't combine the skills of Big Boi and Andre 3000 into one cohesive whole.  Speakerboxxx is missing the innovation and slower tempo songs of previous albums, while The Love Below is missing the crucial hip-hop element.  However, i like this album better than Stankonia, because it was just too much of a mish-mash of styles, and also the only Outkast CD I can't listen to straight through.  By splitting this album into two separate halves, it seems more organized and also gives insight into the different influences of the group.
  As other people have said, Andre 3000 is just too good of an MC to not rap on the majority of his tracks.  I like his album a lot, but i don't think it quite fits in with the Outkast aesthetic.  I would like to hear more songs like this from him in the future, but i think they would work better as a side project, similar to the N.E.R.D. CD, even though it wouldn't find as large of an audience as an Outkast album would.
  Still, I think this album is a must buy for any Outkast fan and any fan of quality music in general.  Contrary to what others have said, if you are a fan of underground music such as Def Jux like I am, this is still worth buying.  I actually bought this and Aesop Rock's Bazooka Tooth together, and think that both albums are pushing rap in a new direction.  I think Outkast is one of the few mainstream groups putting out creative material, and deserves to be recognized for it.
  By the way, to those who don't know, hip-hop is not dead, dying, or in need of a savior.  Just because you don't see thought provoking rap on MTV doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  Dig a little deeper and check artists like El-P, Atmosphere, Zion I, and RJD2 just to name a few.  To anyone who likes Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, I highly recommend buying Aesop Rock's Labor Days and Zion I's Mind Over Matter, both available on this site.  You won't be disappointed.
614820
Discovery has some really fine moments:Digital Love(probably their best track),Nightvision,Superheroes and High Life show Daft Punk at their creative best. The big hit One More Time is of course also very good,a true sing along.

But there are some tracks that are kind of a waste. Crescendolls,Face to Face and Too Long are just not good enough. Too Long is of course funny when you hear it the first time but it gets annoying after that.

Still,an above average dance album.
4802437
I can see what they were going for on this album, and all in all it's a solid effort with some good tracks.  The problem I have with it is that I can't help but compare it to their previous efforts such as 2009's Everything to Nothing.  That album was basically perfect.  It had a nice blend of different sounds and the lyrics were simply AMAZING.  Cope, on the other hand, is a bit of a one trick pony.  Nearly all the tracks sound very similar, and the beautiful thought provoking lyrics are missing.  Also, is it just me or is there something different about Andy's voice?  I think it's just the way the album was mixed but it sounds a bit over-processed or something, whatever it is it takes away a bit of the emotional rawness that makes his voice so unique.

I still like the album, and if I'd never heard Manchester Orchestra's earlier work I would probably be a little more impressed with Cope.  I'm going to see MO in Cincinnati next month and honestly I'm hoping they don't devote too much of their set to Cope.

The best tracks in my opinion are Top Notch, Indentions, and After the Scripture.
2209772
I like it, the illustrations are pretty for one. There are some helpful positive mantras and spiritual insights, but nothing I haven't really encountered before/elsewhere. I hoped it would be more enlightening or inspiring, but nothing profound here. The art is the best part.
2589828
Don't get me wrong, I'll probably buy another one, but it is far from "top of the line". I do think that it's worth the money.
2219885
I like Nirvana, and I understand the influence they had on mainstream music, but I can't say I love their stuff as much as others do. Nevermind is a good album, but it's front loaded, and just doesn't have that something that makes it great. You can totally see all the ways their sound is replicated by other bands, but I don't find any of them to be terribly interesting either. Cobain's raspy vocals fit with his dark-natured guitar playing and lyrics, and he's a talented musician. But I think he's put on too high of a pedestal just because of how his career ended.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is considered by many to be the best song of the decade, and one of the best ever. It's good, to be sure. It might just be hard for me to put it in context, having heard it for a long time without really knowing much about music when it was first popular (I had just turned four when the album was released). It's followed by four more good grunge songs I've heard before, and then six that I haven't. None of it's bad, it's just a little boring after the first half. The last track has the earliest instance I know of a hidden song after several minutes of silence. It goes with the whole album, respectable, high quality stuff, not quite what I'd call amazing.