Weekly Review: Black Sabbath – Paranoid
this week for the weekly review, we’re checking out Black Sabbath’s Paranoid.
alright starting off extremely strong with War Pigs. a song being a classic doesn’t guarantee it’s good, but it is in this case. a timeless (if blunt) message about the way the poor are used as pawns in warfare, broken up by some PHENOMENAL instrumental movements. fucking rocks. Paranoid’s fucking good – not my fave amongst the tracks here but also extremely good. Planet Caravan is a spacey track – i like it thematically but the vocal effect really doesn’t do anything for me here. the thumping, steady plodding of Iron Man, between the guitar and the drums, fucking rocks. never really dug into the lyrics – its another track that i just kinda absorbed through occasional exposure but hell yeah love a good ironic sci fi tale. Electric Funeral’s extremely effective at cultivating a mood. it’s got such a sense of dread to it. Hand of Doom is understandably dark, given the subject matter – and man this track has MOVEments. Rat Salad is a weird, strange little instrumental track. probably necessary to have something light between Hand of Doom and Fairies Wear Boosts, and this does the trick admirably. Fairies Wear Boots closes us out here – def my favorite of the back half of the record.
faves – War Pigs, Paranoid, Iron Man
dislikes –
one of the first things i did after a few spins with this record was go check when it came out to contextualize it in relation to the only other Black Sabbath record i’ve spent time with, their self-titled debut record. so imagine my surprise to find out this was their follow up record, the same year. what the actual fuck. plus, that the debut record contained most of their material and this was mostly written during recording… to then birth some fucking classic bangers like this… truly incredible. was not disappointed with this one.
Paranoid – 8/10
next week, i’ll be taking a trip back into my own personal listening history, and checking out Radiohead’s OK Computer. i’ll be back next Friday, April 7th with that review and to pick another weekly record, and in the meantime, let me know what album you’d like me to review! (i pool all suggestions in one place, and draw a person, then one pick from that person, so feel free to drop as many as you’d like! if you leave an email or username i’ll contact you when i’ve gotten through all your suggestions.)
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