Let me preface this review: I am a huge fan of Philip Glass. You might even venture to say he is my very favorite composer.

I know this will sound coarse, but I can’t think of a better word: Hydrogen Jukebox is, simply, retarded. It sucks. It really, really sucks ass. There are maybe two tracks of the fifteen that don’t make me want to vomit (those would be tracks 13 and 15 if you’re interested). Yes, you can hear the usual Philip Glass music in the background of a few tracks, which would be nice if there weren’t really bad vocals drowning it out. It alternates between operatic voices (tenor and soprano) and the dramatic, fake speech you hear at open mic poetry night. The majority of the lyrics, I think, are stupid. Some of the tracks wouldn’t be so bad if the lyrics weren’t in English, but they all are.

I absolutely hated this entire CD. It doesn’t make me like Philip Glass any less, but I’ll be getting rid of this CD very soon. Ugh.