Rushmoras

Started Katie Melua discography:

And with 4:44 (2017), completed Jay-Z's discography on spotify. This, together with his penultimate album, are his worst works. As always, subjective assessments: 1. Reasonable Doubt (1996) - 6/10 2. In My Lifetime Vol. 1 (1997) - 5.7/10 3. Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life (1998) - 7.1/10 4. Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter (1999) - 6.9/10 5. The Dynasty: Roc La Familia (2000) - 6.9/10 6. The Blueprint (2001) - 7.3/10 7. The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse (2002) - 6.4 (CD1) / 6.4 (CD2) 8. The Black Album (2004) - 6.4/10 9. Kingdom Come (2006) - 7.1/10 10. American Gangster (2007) - 6/10 11. The Blueprint 3 (2009) - 6/10 12. Watch The Throne Deluxe (2011) - 6.3/10 13. Magna Carta... Holy Grail (2013) - 4.4/10 14. 4:44 (2017) - 5/10

Still on Jay-Z. "The American Gangster" was probably his weakest one (then again, it's a soundtrack for a movie).

Started Jay-Z discog on spotify.

Still on my country's artists music. This time, Irena Starošaitė. I heard a couple of her songs many years back (she was kinda popular in 2000s), but never actually listened to her. First album, so far, chanson type music. Pretty good.

Started local folk rock/metal again, this time, decided to review the band called Žalvarinis (Made From Brass), and this is, um, real, at lest 19-20th century lyrics from rural folk songs wrapped up in a modern rock/metal format.

And with Compton (2015), I have ended Dr. Dre's discography. Um, I am still of the opinion that the album 2001, which was released way back in 1999, was his best overall. Some good collaborations in the end in the album "Compton" (2015), but, that's just the thing, overall, I find Dre to be average. Where he shines is in the collaborations (even in 2001 album his best songs were collabs). On his own, forgetful. As always, subjective assessment: The Chronic (1992) - 5/10 2001 (1999) - 6.1/10 Dr. Dre & Friends (2003) - 5.9/10 Compton (2015) - 6.9/10 Next on, will be probably my own country's artists repertoire. It's time to listen to Aistė Smilgevičiūtė ir grupė Skylė (Aiste Smilgeviciute and Band the Hole) newest album on Spotify, which is basically campfire songs (a drastic change from folk metal).

More or less that's how I feel about a lot of "legacy" bands (that paved the way to someone or was a major influence on someone) out there.

Dr. Dre's third album on Spotify. Eh... so far, 2001 was his best.

Yesterday, accidentally, on reddit, encountered a topic wherein someone posted lyrics to Nightwish Return to the Sea. And it got me thinking that I always heard quite differently the verse that was posted. What I always hear: "Giant spiders learnt how to swim and with wales they fought my nightingale" (which, I found logical all these years cause of the song Know Why The Nightingale Sings), but what Tarja is actually saying is: "Giant spiders leant how to swim, with wales they form a united kin". Which... actually comes close to Nirvana's lyrics for Smells Like Teen Spirit random nonsense :D

Dr. Dre. The Chronic was kinda meh, but 2001 brought back memories 😀

And with "Everythangs Corrupt" (2018) completed Ice Cube discography. As always,subjective assessments of each album: 1. AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990) - 5/10 2. Kill at Will (1990) - 2.9/10 3. Death Certificate (1991) - 5/10 4. The Predator (1992) - 4.4/10 5. Lethal Injection (1993) - 6.7/10 6. War and Peace Volume 1 (1998) - 6.7/10 7. War and Peace Volume 2 (2000) - 7.2/10 8. Laugh Now, Cry Later (2006) - 3.8/10 9. Raw Footage (2008) - 6.3/10 10. I Am The West (2010) - 6.9/10 11. Everythangs Corrupt (2018) - 6.3/10

Still on Ice Cube

Well, after a couple of weeks of break, continuing on with where I left off... Ice Cube. War and Peace Vol 1 is probably his strongest album so far.

During holidays, had the time to catch up on my reading and almost read 300 pages of C. Paolini's 'To Sleep in the Sea of Stars'. It's a science-fiction novel about a xenobiologist (biologist examining non-human lifeforms in other planets), who accidentally discovered a relic of a forgotten civilisation, and this event brought down a bunch of things to happen to her. Currently, read 3 parts of the book (560 pages in total), another 400 give or take still remains. It's quite better than Dune. At least the descriptions and the dialogue is not dry.