Sincere

I don't outright hate this but was hoping for more ambience and odd textures.

Ok

I believe there is a time or place for any piece of music, and this one is in a Gap at the mall.

Capital FM core

Forgettable

This was a 1 Star up until Crazy Love came on...makes you wonder why didn't they just make an album of similar tracks rather than record Crazy Love and then litter s bunch of nonsense EDM music around it.

meh

I feel like I'm back in da club and the world is about to end because of the Millennium bug. Well okay it came out in 2000, but you get what I mean.

The songs are fine but it's far too long and by halfway everything had all blurred into one. We won't be going back to this.

Good singles, tad too long and way too many remixes, could make good studying music or something.

Sincere by Mj Cole honestly, it did absolutely nothing for me. I’m not one to knock a record entirely without a fair play, but this album was such a dreary affair that I legit nearly nodded off on the sofa. To be fair, there are a couple of decent moments here. The production has its moments of crisp clarity, and a few of the beats have that signature MJ Cole touch that some fans might find appealing. There’s a subtle finesse in the layering of samples and rhythmic loops that, on paper, looks impressive. A couple of tracks manage to muster a spark of energy, hinting at what the UK garage scene is all about. However, for me, the negatives utterly outweigh these fleeting highs. The album as a whole is far too bland and repetitive – the beats just drudge on without much variation, and honestly, I found the whole thing to be a massive snooze fest. The soundscape is so monotonous that, at times, I felt like I was listening to the same loop over and over. It lacks the dynamism and excitement that I crave from a proper record. I also can’t get past the fact that the whole vibe of the album is just, well, uninspiring. There’s a lack of genuine character in the instrumentation, and even the vocals – when they’re present – come off as perfunctory rather than passionate. In short, MJ Cole’s attempt at crafting a laid-back, easy-listening record has left me utterly underwhelmed. Sincere is one of those albums that you could easily do without. While I appreciate the technical chops on display, the overall effect is just too lacklustre and boring for my taste. I nearly fell asleep listening to it, and that’s saying something. For me, it’s a disappointing 2/5 stars – a record that fails to excite or even engage on any meaningful level.

I don’t get it!

UK Garage / House music that's quite mellow for later on in the evening, but I don't see what's so special about this album and became bored with it very quickly.

I don’t understand why it’s on this list tbh

Doesn't do much for me.

I mean it's fine. Very background-music, and not really my type of thing. I kept forgetting this was something I'd intentionally put on.

really all over the place and just not that interesting. Strong 2

Not very interesting rap/electronica. Stand-out: Tired Games

Not sure if I like this techno type music

okay, this is clearly well-produced and intricate and blending a lot of genres, and maybe it's because i listened to it on a long flight, but this to me was elevator music from hell. droning, repetitive, slick to the point of feeling like nothing. it simply wasn't for me luvs

5/10

It's OK but just not my style of music. I can take this for a short period while shopping at Banana Republic, but it's not something I want playing regularly. It gets a little repetitive.

Weak sauce techno that sounds like something you'd hear on an online royalty-free music sight, while looking for background music for your gashapon opening video, presented with zero context as to why this might be included on the list.

The music Bravo licenses to play over b-role of Los Angeles inbetween scenes on Real Housewives, because they refuse to pay for licensing real music.

Dance based electronica. Cool sounds, just not my thing.

A lot of good production, but this bored the shit out of me.

Not my thing. Starts off okay but it wasn’t long until the album felt repetitive and boring. Onto the next one!

I found most of the record quite dull. A couple good songs. Just not my cup of tea.

Can definitely be played as background music for indoor cycling. The tracks Tired Games, Attitude and Sincere clearly stand out in my opinion.

Pretty boring and generic, really. This just sounds like something that would play on basically any UK radio station (absolutely not a compliment) There are some interesting ideas, like the stop start acoustic guitar at the start of Tired Games or the jazz fusion style organ on Sanctuary but these unique moments are often quickly brushed over for more bland house beats. On the point of how bland it sounds, the 'strings' (if that's what they're meant to be) on Crazy Love sound directly ripped from a Sims soundtrack. It's pretty repetitive, if you listen to a handful of tracks you've basically heard the whole album. I swear I had already heard that exact intro when Slum King came on. And of course, as an early 2000s album, it's far too long Won't be returning to this Highlights: Rough Out Here

Not terrible but not for me.

okay i am not listening to 72 minutes of that because i think i got the point after about 3 minutes (i ended up listening to like 5 songs though, including the title track, so i at least tried). yeah i’m sure it sounds great at a rave but there is just not enough going on artistically to hold my attention as something to listen to in any other context. i have better things to do with my time!

It was awful.

Βαρετη edm με 2 3 καλα κομματια. Rating: C-

Not my thing.

not unbearable, but nothing remotely interesting or appealing. Just not my music at all

A little dated for my liking. A lotta better electronic albums from this era in my opinion. Didn't hate it but it was sorta annoying.

2 at best

Enjoyable enough edm. Worked best when it was a cross of Beand New Heavies and Deee-Lite with some cool jazz samples. Didn’t like the rapper.

Just like yesterday, its not like there's anything wrong with this album, it's a nice vibe as far as 00s electronic but I feel like I'm not a fan of UK garage/2-Step's take on repetition for electronic music or the way drums sound or the length. It leaves me pretty cold but I think in the right context like a party it would be the right thing

Incredibly average.. though I liked the few tracks with some R&B mixed in.

First listen. Ok.

Overstayed it's welcome. Some stuff was fun.

Hm. Found this just generally uninspiring, but had the suspicion it was influential for london edm going forward? I didn't like the vocalists, maybe it was just how they were mixed. Definitely of it's time.

2.5

not totally bad, but won't be listening again

it was okay, was rather chavy

Come on, man. Seriously? Look, not much about this album is bad, per se, but man does it feel dated. The grooves are still there, it's still danceable, but the production just feels so old. I generally have a pretty mixed opinion about house albums like this, and I have a pretty tenuous one regarding their inclusion on this list. But for the love of god if you simply MUST include one on this list at least make it, you know, still culturally relevant? I don't know, I hate to rag on this thing so hard because it's simply a product of its time and you can't fault it for that. But did I NEED to hear this before my death? No, not really. Two stars. Standout Tracks: Introduction, Bandelero Desperado, Sanctuary, Rough Out Here, Slum King

Gen X British music critics are going to be flabbergasted when they find out that nobody but them cares anything about English house and jungle. Have fun in that perpetual Ibiza of the mind though, must be nice.

Admittedly when I first saw an album from 2000 (an era I'm most familiar with) that I had never heard of, I was a bit skeptical. But, I decided there's plenty of great albums I've never heard of so I wasn't going to let that affect my review. Then, I saw it was a double album. Two whole hours of my time?! But I decided I was going to stick it through just like I had every other album before it. Finally I was ready to hit play. It was a little unexpected that this was electronic music, but I'm not opposed to that. Surely this is some sort of masterpiece of EDM . But here's the thing: the album is fine. I read a lot of reviews straight up bashing it, but it's not bad music. There's nothing offensive or off-putting about it, in fact, it's quite enjoyable. But that's the thing, it's good music for an elevator. This is the kind of stuff I'd put on to get some work done, or whittle away time playing cards or something. There's nothing remarkable about this album. No stand out tracks, no innovation, no creativity. And that's fine, but it's not something I'd put on this list

Maybe electronic music was way more basic in the 2000s? But seem a very whatever album.

An incredibly eclectic mix of styles and genres, most of which ultimately hold little appeal to me.

A bit too many production gimmicks for my liking, although these are needed because there is not much to the songs without them. A few tracks like 'I See' work as complete songs but most come over as production and remix exercises, pleasant as they may be. A good enough album but doesn't hold my attention; will work well as background music with the head coming up occasionally to listen for something of interest

I am not a fan of club music but MJ Cole's album is interesting although it becomes a bit too repetitive.

That album cover lol In all fairness this is not the kind of music I’ve ever been into but still, could not listen to over an hour of this. Does every song have the same beat?

BRO REAL AF emoji gato lloros x2 Choose Your Own Adventure! Just slot in "You Must Hear Before You Die" where applicable: 1001 Drum Presets 1001 Unlabeled Extended Dance Mixes 1001 Cut Big Fish Theory Beats 1001 Dreamcast Era Racing Game Menu Themes 1001 Guest Vocalists Maybe Too Willing to Lend a Hand 1001 Sped-Up Massive Attack Songs 1001 Miami Bass Tracks for Timid Whites 1001 British Albums That Charted Somewhere 1001 Alternate Takes from That One Röyksopp GEICO Caveman Commercial 1001 is a Way Bigger Number Than We Thought Key Tracks: I dunno, listen to one of the ones with the dude singing, one of the ones with the lady singing, and one of the ones with the patois guy and you'll have heard the whole album.

dull and too long, with much better examples of garage out there I dont understand why this made the list - 2

Well... 9 tracks and 39 minutes in this is shaping up to be a sincere struggle.... This sort of dance music is not my cup of tea. The lack of stars in Apple Music was a bad and accurate omen even if this record had critical acclaim. I can see some of these tracks ending up in a movie or TV show when a character is on drugs or in a foot chase or fight scene though. Maybe a drug induced fight scene involving a chase? I'm feeling this "You're Mine" jam. Still... a lot of the musical elements feel like someone got high and was just jamming in a solo session and tooling around - it never seems to actually go anywhere (except back around the loop) - a lot of incomplete ideas smashed onto a sincerely long record. Two hours?! Fucking a... I might be giving up before I get to the end. Sincere apologies, Mj. Ok the first rendition of the title track kept me going. "Rough out here" is something I can groove into.

Ohhh kayyy... Here we go again with the creator's favorites. The British DJs. I've already got it. You really like British electronic music. Well, I don't. This album came in 2000. If it would've come earlier, maybe I would consider it somewhat good. But 2000 is pretty late for things like this. And we come to place where we think about what this album brings and who can it inspire. Well I don't want to think about it, because it goes nowhere. This album certainly doesn't belong here. How it's on the list since even Wikipedia doesn't say anyhting about any accolades or even charts. It only says it got 200k sales. In UK. Is it enough to be on the greatest albums list? I would rather listen to fuckin "saharan blues" than this (Etran de L'Aïr btw). I sincerly hope it's the last British DJ on the list. Unless it's Fatboy Slim... He's cool...

Not a great album, but a few decent tracks dotted about.

Not for me

I found this be very meh. None of the songs really stuck out and none of the production choices were interesting or novel enough to warrant discussing. Nothing offensively bad, but I was a little bored.

HipHop, Rap, Electronic, 2000 -> 2

1.6 1x nothing i would come back to

Very forgettable Euro-disco. Not innovative or interesting in any way that I can think of. Surprised to find out that MJ Cole went to university on a music scholarship, graduated and then did this? Maybe if you LOVE House music this works for you. Ironically titled "Sincere."

repetitive beats played behind repetitive vocals. once you got through the first fifteen seconds of a song, the rest of the song sounded exactly the same. and it was like that for EVERY song on the effin’ album. redundancy for redundancy’s sake.

For me this was a guine slog to get through

Dull dull dull. Sorry, just not my kinda thang

If you let this wash over you, then it's ok pop radio for background working. Vocals are melodic and the beats are nothing too severe. Having said that it's absolutely not one of the 1000 albums every made. From that year's Mercury Prize we could have had Lost Souls by Doves (epic northern melancholia), the second leftfield album (for the 'Guiness ad' track alone), Death in Vegas' Contino Session (dirty beats) or Nitin Sawnhey Beyond Skin (genuinely innovative).

Þetta fannst mér afskaplega leiðinleg plata. Ég skil af hverju fólk gæti fílað hana og ég gæti alveg hlustað á eitt og eitt lag en þetta var alltof löng plata af auðgleymanlegum og leiðinlegum dansiballalögum

In das Album eingestiegen, mit den Ohren angestiegen, am Ende ausgestiegen. Was ist hängengeblieben? Nicht viel

Ironically, it all felt very insincere indeed. If I'm honest, I'm still listening to most albums waiting to get back to listening to two very specific Brian Eno songs, so clocking in at over two hours was always going to mark poor old MJ down.

This wasn't too bad but can't say I enjoyed it much.

Cafe music

no no no no no not for me

While I am a fan of the genre this is not one of the stand out albums from the genre, so I am genuinely, no sarcasm at all, perplexed why this was added to the list. As I said before this spot on the list should be occupied instead by Oakenfold's Bunkka, an album that really changed how people arranged and recorded dance and electronica music. Produced well enough to escape reaching a 1, but not culturally relevant at all, so a 2 it is.

Reminds me of an era I’d rather forget, not for me unfortunately

I first listened to this while studying and it was fine enough as background music. On relisten, I'm halfway through and bored. Maybe this is here because it was innovative at the time, I don't know tbh, but it's mostly boring now. It's not offensively bad, but there's not much that stands out either. After finishing my second listen: oh God this is so long I couldn't wait for it to over so I could listen to something else. Also, the cover sucks

musica elettronica carina, avrei dato tra 3 e il 4 ma la lunghezza di 2 ore abbassa il voto, diventa tedioso

You know what? No. I tried really hard. I tried and tried and tried. But sometimes no matter how hard I try, some albums just don’t click with me. I wanted to like this. I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt and find something good hidden under the rubble. But after the first few songs, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. With one of the most 2000s looking covers I’ve ever seen, this record does one thing. And only one thing. It is the single most one-trick pony piece of music I have ever had the displeasure of listening to. Think of all of the most generic drums, effects, and synth sounds ever made. Like bottom of the barrel club instrumentals off of a website like Looperman. And then throw some really uninteresting vocals on top of that. Make 16 songs with that, and make it over an hour. That is this album in a nutshell. Was there no one who ever stepped in on a studio session, listened to the music he was making, and said, “Hey, maybe you shouldn’t make every track have the exact same drums at the exact same BPM”. I genuinely thought I was losing my mind. It’s unfortunate to see what would otherwise be a collection of really cool sounds and loops wasted on such a drab record. I’m also convinced these recordings were done almost entirely in some inner circle of underground UK musicians. Because none of the vocalists featured seem to have anything else that they’ve done in their careers. It’s hard to even find info on some, like Danny Vicious. Who is also unbearably annoying. Most of the vocalists aren’t horrible, but don’t add anything of value. At least Elisabeth Troy can sing well. I will give credit where credit is due. Most of this is pretty lame. But there are a few decent songs here and there. And Rough Out Here is honestly a banger track. Not mad at that one at all. This really does feel like music only British people would get a kick out of. There are dudes that have been on Love Island who probably vibe with this. But let me make this clear. If someone try’s to tell you that this is one of the best UK garage albums ever, they are LYING TO YOU. Listen to something else. Rating: 3/10

Desperately below average early 2000s garage.

Idc

My strongest feeling after hearing this album is that I am so incredible tired of the drum pattern he uses throughout the whole record, and I never want the hear those snare, rim and kick samples ever again. Garage and other drum-and-bass like genres are probably my least favourite electronic music, so this album is fighting an uphill battle from the start. I think the guest artists singing makes the whole record. He also has some nice piano progressions which fits well. But the record is way too monotone for me. FYI Mr. Cole, it is possible to do electronic records without it sounding exactly the same. It does get better at the end of the record though, changing tonality, and 'Rough Out Here' being a fresh breeze. But then it falls back into old ways a bit too much. Not complete garbage, but very close to a 1.

Not sure why this is special, hadn't heard it before and didn't really need to. Just sounded like som bland garage music. Passed me by without anything special. Only the vocals on "Crazy Love" stood out as remotely interesting.

House with a touch of soul and R&B. Probably quite good music if you like the style but not really what I like

Always be sincere…..

Not the worst UK garage I've ever heard, and 'Crazy Love' is a pretty decent tune. But at the end of the day, it's still garage, with all its repetition and skittery beats, which is simply a sound universe I don't particularly enjoy.

I was skeptical based purely on the album cover, but the opening strains of the first song gave me hope. Sadly no, this completely unremarkable. Next please.

I like similar music but this was not interesting at all. I don’t know why it is in this list.

- zu lang irgendwie, zu viele Wiederholungen (viele Songs doppelt / dreifach remixed - einige Songs, vielleicht auch nur Passagen waren aber auch ganz in Ordnung

I'm not sure what to even classify this album as. It's like a mix tape with not a lot of cohesiveness.

Meh

meh

I decided not to listen to 2 hours of MJ Cole

Uno de los álbumes, si es que no, el álbum más olvidable que he escuchado en esta lista. Con un beat que se mantiene a lo largo de una dolorosa hora y media, este disco no aporta nada de valor real a la escena de la música electrónica. Es impresionante como este trabajo apunta a un "mood" similar a la música default de la Nintendo Wii, pero mucho, mucho peor. Las performances vocales son todas buenas, pero cuando aparecen en bases que son básicamente iguales, no logran destacar y se pierden en un menjunje insípido. Si lee esta reseña antes de entrar al disco, no lo escuche, no se está perdiendo nada de valor.

I get why this is on the list, due to its evolution into Grime and Dubstep, but it is honestly mostly a snooze fest. There are a few songs that stand out and break the mold: Crazy Love and Sincere (possibly because I already knew them), also Rough Out Here, Slum King, and Free My Mind. But apart from those this album is largely forgettable and weirdly empty sounding. Not in a good, liminal space kinda way. In a bad way, like a dentist's waiting room. They can feck off with the deluxe edition, I'm not listening to volume 2!

lounge music, pass.

Fine, I guess? UK house usually seems too disorganized for me.

MJ Cole's Sincere was not my thing and was, quite frankly, a slog to get through. The main adjective I'd use to describe it is repetitive. Some of it was smooth and not abrasive as a jazz and electronica combo, but overall it wasn't engaging. You can't repeat the same series of sounds over and over again and think your music is appealing.

Wow. This was...incredibly boring. Repetitive and even the beats lacked any kind of draw or appeal. There was a super funky song called "Rought Out Here", and it was about the only thing that pulled me out of the lull this album was dragging me into. I wish I had something more to say, but this was just very underwhelming for me. And yet, it wasn't unpleasant, grating, or otherwise completely intolerable, so have a 2, I guess.

Just didn't hit for me, nothing terribly interesting on this one.

Not terrible but not my vibe

Not a bad album, just too long, not sure it needs to be in the list.

Interesting experiments with rhythm and sound design - some infectious grooves here - but fails to rise above background music from some trendy restaurant

this is simply not my type of music i’m not an electronica girly. im sorry

Okay this is boring. Seems like a background of some clothes shop.

I don’t really listen to much electronic music but this just sounded like "drum and bass but bad", with some jazzy bits and funky vocals. Aside from that, the 2 hour runtime felt like an insult. Overall, it was listenable as background music but nothing really stood out.

The musical equivalent of dumpster-diving. Just utterly bereft of any direction or something to say.

Mostly just beats. Fine in the background, but not very interesting

The setting: you wake up from a stupor in a random bathroom stall with visions of the last 12 hours of your life crashing you to consciousness. Excess drinking, debauchery, and craziness make you wonder aloud if anything you 'remember' was real. You beg whatever divinity you believe in to ease you through the oncoming recovery and for an easy transition to sobriety. Again. As you struggle to get up onto your wobbly feet, numb from however many hours of unconsciousness that paralyzed your movement your senses come to you. You are alone as the blury numbers on your phone reveal that it is way too late, or too early to be awake. This music is playing over the sound system. 1.5/5

This was pretty bad. It wasn’t interesting at all. 2/5

Drum and bass, r and b. nothing special

Some interesting elements sometimes, but ruined by the very (high in the mix) techno drums. I admit, super repetitive electronic beats are really not my thing so that might be a stylistic bias. All the disparate elements don't really come together even if they are at times interesting decisions separately. 2 stars, because while their is some originality hidden in the tracks it doesn't end up being enjoyable to listen or moving or interesting enough to compensate for that.

That one I remember from the charts, Crazy Love, it’s quite good

It's fine. Never something I am going to choose to listen to but it doesn't make me angry like a 1 star does. Just a weird genre in general and boring. Album is also way too long and I turned it off after 3 songs. Sounds like something you'd hear in the background of a hotel trying to be hip. 4.5/10 (2.25/5)

The only version of this available on Spotify is the Deluxe edition, and while I generally try not to have bonus tracks play a factor in my ratings, I found a bunch of conflicting information online regarding which songs are actually on this album. I guess no one really cares enough to properly identify the tracklist, which is something I totally get after listening. As it turned out, I really didn’t like or dislike any one song here more than another anyway, so it didn’t matter - this is truly one of the most generic 2000s electronic dance albums I’ve heard. At best, it sounds like the soundtrack to some SEGA game from this era. No idea why they leaned as hard into the genre as they did, but tell me this isn’t the kind of shit that would play as you were flying around looking for pieces of the Chaos Emerald as Knuckles. Not a lot to comment on in particular. Elisabeth Troy’s vocals probably save this from being entirely boring and one-note, but even then, not by much, and they're certainly not unique for this kind of music by any means. The only other thing that stood out to me during my listen was that this dude 100% lifted the sound effect at the beginning of Bandelero Desperado from the song All Mixed Up by 311. I don’t have enough evidence to prove that it wasn’t a sample or that 311 really even did it first, but either way, they at least used it before MJ Cole and within a much better song. Just meh, and way too long of a meh at that. Granted, I’m not entirely sure how long this is actually supposed to be given my Deluxe edition confusion, but Wikipedia says 72:20 which is still way too long for music this generic. I don’t see this getting another play from me.

what’s the point,

MJ Cole, pionero del UK Garage, con este álbum puso esta mezcla de House-Jungle en el mapa y en las listas de éxitos con Sincere o Crazy Love como evidentes gemas del presente disco. En él encontramos voces negras, ritmos sincopados (sobre todo en los bajos) y buen uso de cuerdas y sintetizadores. Sanctuary es un tema muy bien construido y tanto Strung out como Hokd on to me entran a la primera. ¿Está entre los 1001 mejores discos de la historia? La respuesta parece evidente: no. ¿Entre los 1001 discos ha escuchar? Tampoco. Ese 2000 se publicaron discos en mi opinión mejores que este: Ágætis Byrjun (Sigu Ros), Stories from the city, stories form de sea (PJ Harvery),The Sophtware Slump (Grandaddy), Kid A (Radiohead), The Facts of Life (Black Box Recorder), Rated R (Queens of the stone age), Parachutes (Coldplay), The Marshall Mathers (Eminem), Skantonia (Outkast), Voodoo (D´Angelo), And then nohitng turned itself inside-out (Yo la tengo), Felt mountain (Goldfrapp), Smile (Jayhawks), Daisies of the galaxy (Eels), A rock in the weary land (The waterboys), Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (Godspeed you black emperor!), Since i left you (The Avalanches), Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (At the drive-in), XTRMNTR (Primal scream), The Noise Made by People (Broadcast), The great eastern (The delgados), The Friends of Rachel Worth (The Go-Betweens), Artists' Rifles (Piano Magic) , Tourist (St. Germain), Community Music (Asian Dub Foundation), NIxon (Lambchop), Chore of Enchantment (Giant Sand), Hot rail (Calexico) y 69 lovesongs (The magnetic fields). Hasta Born to Do It de Craig David o A Grand Don't Come for Free de The Streets parecen más agradecidos de escuchar (obviamos Music de Madonna). Por no hablar de cualquier recopilatorio de House o trabajos pioneros de 808 State, Orbital, Armand Van Helden, Aphex Twin, Mr. Fingers, Chemical Brothers o Daft Punk.

Not my bag really, I did find it a bit samey

Too long and too much garage

Eh, I enjoyed it but not a “must listen”

Didn't expect to be reminded of the feeling of living in London 25 years ago, and picking up a dodgy minicab in Soho to take you south of the river, with a late night local radio station blasting exactly this kind of thing for hours. As in, the kind of thing that was ubiquitous, but I'd only hear accidentally. Production is (too?) clean, and I gave it a fair shot, but it only ever felt like backdrop music to more interesting things happening.

Not really my cup of tea. Kinda boring- just electro beats…

You know it's probably been made in his bedroom and is technically very well done but it bores me to tears and reminds me of the stuff wankers play loudly from their cars in summer.

Good background music

The other reviews have summarised it. This is generic beyond all generic. This could have been replaced with hundreds of other DJ albums. Just bland bland bland. 1.5/5

To much clubsound

2,5

The sudden mute on the guitars on the intro to track 2 feels like sleep apnea and I for one am against it.

I didn't hate it quite as much as everyone else. But that doesn't mean I liked it.

Not my favorite. But at least there is 72 minutes of it.

Sincere by Mj Cole Electronica album. Didn't hear anything special or different than all the other electronica albums from this time period. It was...fine. 2/5

General thoughts: Feels like a 2000's game soundtrack. Kinda like if I were a sim this is what I would listen to. Started kinda cool and I could see why people could like it, but three songs in and oooh fuck its soo repetitive, bit tiring but the songs are short so it's bearable. The best songs were where there was a soul singer. Actually If I could take only those songs out of this album it may be a 20 minutes 3 to 3.5 stars album. Favorite songs: Tired games, Crazy love. Desperado is fun lol Worst songs: Sincerely -and unironically-, 'Sincere'. Cover: Most house-y looking album cover ever, take that as you like. Real rating: 1.7

Like the Album-Cover indicates - Buy this one and burn it immediatly. Boring, repetitive, trivial and therefore way too long. Neither I hate this album at all nor it sucks but I could´nt care less about it. 1,5

CW music

More electronic dance music only this time it’s extra boring. Hard to evaluate this repetitious sleep inducer

I was dead set on giving this 1 star after the first few offensively generic garage tunes (and one i recognised from my days actively trying to avoid this type of music), however with some amusing in a good way mc'ing and a couple of pretty catchy classic garage tracks 2 stars it is. But, I really did find some of the first half of this album fucking dreadful.

There’s a J Cole and an MJ Cole? Regardless, not my type of shit

This album is definitely outside of my usual listening patterns. Why are there so many whale sounds? I like Bandelero Desperado. Crazy Love is a bop. Many songs had interesting moments that I enjoyed, but then would repeat the one moment every 4 seconds for the next 5:40. Decent background music if I'm not trying to listen actively, but it wouldn't ever be more than that for me.

Good sound but way too much. Probably much cooler in its time

Far too long. You can't be having remixes of the same songs on the same album

Rating: 5/10 Mixed bag album. Starts off absolutely awful with the most generic sounding electronic music ever, incredibly boring and derivative. Once Crazy Love hits the album is definitely better, catchier melodies and a lot more interesting production. Even then, there is nothing remarkable about this album, surprised this is on the list. Favorite songs: Crazy Love, You're Mine, Sanctuary, Strung Out, Rough Out Here. Worst songs: Introduction, Tired Games, Attitude, Bandelero Desparado, MJ FM Interlude.

Not great

It all sounds the same

Pretty generic electronic music.

Fine background music. 2/5

It's a dance album. It's more for dancing to than sitting down and listening to, so it's automatically going to get dinged for that. And it has the same annoying repetitiveness that other similar albums have. The lady singing in some tracks has a nice voice though.

I don't mind a wee bit of UK garage but this is boring. Sincere is a good track but I find much of the rest to be just a couple of rungs up the musical ladder from shopping mall lift muzak. The type of gear playing in the second room at the sort of club I wouldn't really want to be at.

Not impressed. Okay for background music.

Oh boy… I did not enjoy most of this album. My feelings strayed from bored to annoyed with the exception of a song or two. It seems to go on forever. Even though I was glad it was over, I gave it a second chance hours later and tried one more go at it. I was put off after a few seconds. I jumped around the tracks a bit - ended up listening to “Rough Out Here” which had a nice groove - and skipped the rest. This felt sterile - like videogame background music that I’d just as soon mute in favor of my own musical selections. I know this type of electronic music appeals to a lot of people but this album was largely lost on me.

Not great. It’s bog standard BootsandHatsandBootsandHats dance music. Very boring.

Fun backing beats on some songs. Just not really my interest in music.

Oh, it was popular on a small island state. Great! Once again, there is much British bias in this project. It's an average dance record. Dance records tend to be subpar to begin with, so 2 stars.

The first thing of this album almost feels like a different thing. For the genre this is okay but remixing the same song multiple times on an album isn't my normal vibe. I'm not sure why this is on the list.

Favourite song - crazy love

Repetitivt med vissa bra melodier och stunder

Not my kind of music. Wanders a little too much.

I thought it would be terrible. It was just not very good instead. Honestly, as far as these kinds of albums go it was one of the better ones that I've heard. It's still a 2 though.

2.5 Really nothing special here.

Long, dull and very bootsncats. Not too sure why it's on the list as I could have died and never listened too it and I think it would have been fine.

This was just alright. Nothing special, pretty meh, and just got a bit repetitive for me. Don't think I needed to listen to it before I die.

First real "electronic" album that's come up for me on the generator so far, excited to dive in, I've never even heard of this one. I like a lot of electronic music, but I haven't really good super deep outside of the big names (BoC, Aphex, etc.) So let's see what we've got here. "Tired Games" is kinda fun. I don't really get the hate on the reviews page for this one so far, it's a pleasant enough listen so far. "Attitude" is definitely a little more grating with the repetition. A pretty sparse wikipedia article for one of the "1001 albums you need to hear before you die." The 10 albums I've had before this are all lauded by many different websites, even the ones I didn't enjoy as much I can at least appreciate & understand why they were selected for this list, this is the first time it's a real head scratcher. Not the best reviewed or most popular UK Garage album if you wanted to include one from this genre, I wonder if this was just a CD the curator of the book had in his collection that he happened to like & snuck it in there? I guess the song "Sincere" was the first UK Garage song to hit the UK charts, ok fine, there seems to be some historical importance even though this album seems to be more forgotten today. (Some further research shows that this album was dropped by the time of the 2018 edition, interesting.) Kinda like "Crazy Love". Overall it was... fine. I think I'm going to dock it to a "2" because I don't think it really deserves by any reasonable metric to be in this list.

2/5 - Not for me

This just felt unremarkable. Inoffensively so though. Far too long. Low 2.

This was okay.

Matrix vibes

Bum tst bum tst bum tst zzzzz

Sincere would derive more benefit from shuffling than cutting. That and an ever-so-slight punch up of a few tempos: The record starts and ends with reasonably different, butter-smooth tracks, while the middle remains sludgy.

I can already tell I'm missing out on certain sounds without a subwoofer. Probably a good car album. Don't care for Elisabeth Troy's vocals on Tired Games. Unfortunately it looks like she features on many more songs. Bandelero Desperado has that Bri'ish "people" flow that I kinda hate. Oh, it continues on the interlude :( More Elisabeth on Crazy Love :( This is what passes for good house music in the U.K. in 2000? The Germans were already making better house in a cave with a box of scraps for two decades. This man was determined to use every instrument on his new digital keyboard on You're Mine. The vocals at Rough Out Here are rough indeed. Bad. Only redeeming quality is that some of these could be inoffensive lounge songs.

I was optimistic going into this one, but came away a little disappointed. The entire album feels like I'm in the changing room of some mall department store. Either that or stuck in an elevator somewhere. I'm baffled as to how this album made this list. I did not need to listen to this before I died. It doesn't grate the ears, but it's just boring.

Some interesting stuff but not enough

Yet another example that the original album might have been well crafted, but the deluxe version just ruins everything.

bofff

Not really a fan-it’s like Herbie Hancock’s third cousin found one of his old synthesizers and discovered how to loop a track, a beat, and got friends to record vocal snippets. It’s good background on a mellow night at the club I suppose, but not really for the light of day…

Way too much of the same bland progressions and too long of a record to keep me interested. There were a few instances where I thought it might go somewhere cool, but it stayed too safe. 4 out of 10

Asian-fusion-restaurant-core

Found myself grooving for the first few songs but then the feeling faded FAST

A bit more interesting than I thought it was going to be based on the most popular reviews. There's at least a bit of inventiveness in there, with some interesting soundscapes and changes in mood and tempo at times. That said, it's still not good. UK Garage beats are all pretty much exactly the same. Some tracks are incredibly vacuous and irritating as hell. And it's SO long. I almost gave up after 10 tracks, but then a few good tracks dropped. Incredibly frustrating that there's some good stuff in there, but that so much of it is just actively shit.

More songs to shop for khakis to. Boring, repetitive, and mostly unstructured.

Some ok but mostly bland and not my vibe

Give me one reason why this should be on the list

It's not my cup of tea, but it's certainly a sound of the time. "Crazy Love" was everywhere for a while back then.

Not really my thing, but it is well put together.

Boring garage influenced dance, with a couple of radio friendly tracks and way too many remixes and alternate versions. Not my thing at all, not really sure why this is on the list

Highly synthetic and of only passing interest. Even as background music, this feels replacement level.

Very avarage, not my type.

Not a fan. lazy electronic beats. nothing groundbreaking. Dont know how this record made it to the list. You can comfortably die without having heard this record and will have missed nothing. 2/5.

I actual do not mind Dana Electronica, when it is done well and hoping. Tight has too many longer, slower songs that I would not use the Dance genre. Not bad - decent musical arrangement. Can't believe they have 2 discs...

Very 2000

Not a fan, my least favorite genre. Some redeemable qualities, but for the most part repetitively annoying with no memorability. 2/5

What kind of egomaniac thinks that there’s enough good material here for a 71 minute album? There’s a decent half hour, maybe. Somewhere in there there’s a Motown/Marvin Gaye idea, and it kind of works. I quite enjoyed the little bit of MCing when I came up, but there is so much filler on here. And how would you dance to this? Maybe I not taking enough cocaine to really get into it?

Oh look at that, another nobody English artist I've never heard of... *yawn*. I don’t care for this. It’s way too 2000s.

Kinda boring ngl

Too long.

Oddly difficult to listen to. Multiple tracks have the exact same name, which makes seeking out a correct track list in this age of streaming music not the easiest thing in the world. Compounding on this, the Deluxe Edition I found seems to be unlike every other deluxe edition of an album I've ever seen. Instead of preserving the original track list and tacking on more to the end, it replaces and omits tracks from the original.

I see they’re trying something different here. Dig the use of strings and the beats were alright I just didn’t really care for most of the singers. MCs ans rappers weee alright. But honestly even at it’s best this isn’t my cuppa music

Meh, it was pretty generic

These motherfucking hour long Playstation 1 demo disc ass albums. Crappy UK House garbage that nobody has listened to outside the context of this book in the last decade. Why are there so many of these shitty electronic albums on this list. Do people actually listen to this slop, or is this a part of some large underground conspiracy? Stay vigilant people, the mole people are real.

When I first listened to this with my tinny AirPods, it sounded like elevator music. Gave it another listen in my car, and it sounded completely different with the bass drawn out. While I have almost no appreciation for the evolution of UK Garage, I can tell how an album like this was influential to the Disclosures and Jamie XXs of the world in developing the electronic dance music landscape in the UK. To me it does still have the vibe of a European coffee shop lounge singer rather than an underground club scene, but I wasn’t there in the late 90s/early 00s to know. What I do know is this doesn’t belong on this list and is clearly another example of the author favoring nostalgia over true classics.

J'ai l'impression que c'est un exemple typique du biais UK de cette liste. Je ne vois pas en quoi cet album mérite plus qu'un autre d'être retenu. Même à l'époque que c'Est sorti il n'y avait rien de nouveau et ça n'a pas si bien vieilli en plus. 4/10

There are moments that this finds its groove for me and the electronic vibe works. The lighter touch of the first half of the introduction is a good example. Tired Games and Attitude also have their moments, but i feel like it's got some electronic jazzy rap that begins with Bandelero and pollutes most of the rest of the tracks. This quickly becomes irritating and given that the album is pretty drawn out... i was happy when it was over.

Not my jam

Found this to be boring and at times, annoying. Not terrible by any stretch, just not worth my time.

This is another I was given before restarting this list as part of a group, and my original review still stands: Garage just isn't for me really. I get the appeal and it was a relatively enjoyable listen, though a bit on the long side, but just not my jam

I don't know much about electronic music in general and without any relevant information on Wikipedia I have no idea what makes this one stand out or what may make it historically relevant. But here goes. The album is quite varied between tracks, but not many of the different styles present here are very convincing and most tracks sound very samey in themselves. The more hiphop-oriented tracks such as Bandelero Desperado, MJ FM Interlude, Slime King were absolutely atrocious and I had to skip them halfway through. The random 80's disco track Rough Out Here, while certainly not the worst track on the album, felt very out of place. The soulful crooning of Elisabeth Troy really was the only saving grace of this album for me. But with such a boring backdrop, it wasn't enough.

House music is trash!

Had this when it came out, had a trendy girlfriend into garage, but I found it repetitive back then - now it is just generally repetitive crap with a generic beat. Even the title track, which felt epic at the time, is just dull

3/10 je ne comprends pas l'utilité de cet album dans la liste

I've never heard of MJ Cole or any of the music on Sincere. The piano starting off the first track was promising, but the music quickly shifted. Wikipedia lists this as House music. I've heard of House music but that's it. I'm not sure what rating to give. I wouldn't tell anyone that they shouldn't listen to MJ Cole, but I can't recommend the music either. I just don't know what to do with this album. I made it through the listen, and it felt long.

Not really my thing, some of it was alright

Sincere isn't bad, it is just simply too much. If there were ten, even five less songs on this album, I'd be more favourable, but it feels as though Mj Cole has very little to say in such a large amount of time. Pickings are decent, but sameish, and that's where the inherent problem lies. I saved about four or so songs to revisit, but I guarantee that I will likely never touch the rest of the album ever again.

2.5

Sometimes nice and bleep-bleepy but too often thank becomes slick&annoying like in "You're Mine".

Beats die standaard uit zo'n kastje rollen met een middelmatige coverzangeres en wat aankleding. Dit wordt een vervelende middag zo.

Best gezellig, maar dit is gewoon niet mijn ding.

Voor een half uurtje was dit prima zomerse muziek. Maar daarna wordt het toch wel echt veel van hetzelfde. Die beats ken ik op een gegeven moment wel.

This just isn’t for me.

I couldn't listen to the whole album, it was so boring

I just couldn't get into this album. Not sure why as I really do like this type of music.

Boring, straightforward electronic pop songs. The vocals and vocal samples are particularly dated. Perhaps would have been exciting upon release but challenging to listen to decades later.

This took me many days to get to. This is not for me at all, but I understand the appeal. I do feel like it's on here because of the overrepresented bias towards mediocre music from the UK from this time period on this list, but that's neither here nor there.

What if I don't want to dance?

Weinig interesse in dit genre

This album was boring, repetitive and went in for far too long. The music itself didn’t take any risks and just comes off as safe sterile electronica.

Not my thing

Não me empolgou muito o house dele. Até percebi algumas camadas sonoras mais interessantes e os vocais femininos agradaram bem.

Way too long and repetitive, feels like >50% of this has the exact same drum beat.

Det bliver ikke mig.

Listened to on 3/9/23 2/5 Favorite song: crazy love This album was TWO HOURS and repetitive as hell. I had to resist skipping most of the songs half way through because the random noises really got me

Onpahan todella 2000-luvun alkua, tosi kliinistä. Jos tähän olis saanut enemmän rnb:tä, olisi kiinnostavampaa kuultavaa.

Karmeista pianosampleista ja poukkoilevan tarkoista 2000-luvun alun biiteistä huolimatta lämpenen. OK, en voi kuvitella laittavani vapaa-ajalla soimaan, mutta voin kuvitella vaihtoehtoisen todellisuuden, jossa tekisin niin.

4/10. not bad but not for me. i don't mind loop-y electronic music but when weird lyrics are looping it totally turns me off.

Couldn’t tell which songs to listen to since there was only the deluxe version on Spotify. So I stuck it out for the requisite 70+ minutes, and boy was this 70+ minutes of techno. 3/10

House, meh

Some enjoyable moments, especially the more syncopated beats. A lot of stuff that's not really my style though.

Meh

Is this good? I mean, not really. It’s fine. Repetitive and vocals are sometimes cringe. Beats are usually well put-together but kinda sounds like a mall soundtrack, or music for a bad racing video game. Do I want to hear this again? No, but I wouldn’t be upset if I did.

A wholly unremarkable album, potentially good for some ambient noise, but that’s about it in my opinion

Didn't know being a remixer was a thing. First off Danny Vicious was extremely annoying. STFU, dude. The repetition in the songs is tiresome as well, like in "You Are Mine." I guess I was expecting verse-chorus-verse, as opposed to a remix of a song I have never heard. In the end, I just got bored with it. I didn't hate it, but it just doesn't interest me at all. Next.

Sincerly

They had so many of the cocaines that they started thinking that crew was spelt with a k.

This album was boring, repetitive, and formulaic. It lost steam almost immediately and it never picked back up. The album was also about an hour or so too long. I did like "I See" and "Sanctuary" as standout tracks, but overall this album felt more like a showcase of MJ Cole's production skills rather than an enjoyable album listening experience.

Generic Electronic, inoffensive but nothing that made my ears prick up :(

Very 90's. Is this house music?

I can imagine a mood where I am into listening one of these songs. As an album it's uninspiring at best.

My album of the day gets refreshed just before 11:30 pm. So, it's New Years Eve and I'm excited about what I'll get for my first album of the year. And I get this. What a mixed bag. Plus, in iTunes, there were several versions of some songs or were mislabeled. Quite a bit of this was trash. But there were a couple of respectable songs in there (Free My Mind). But a lot of it was nondescript. Ok for what it is, background music at a metro bar or if they're lucky, part of the soundtrack for some streaming series. But the album is definitely not worthy of a 1001 list. Scale: 5 - My absolute favorites. 4 - Albums I like. 3 - I enjoyed listening to it but wouldn't seek it out. 2 - Didn't like. 1 - Absolute shit.

House music? It's find background music. Nothing grabbed me.

So much of this album feels like background music to a video game. No thanks. Favorite track: Rough Out Here

Another electronic album, yihaaaaa......... Not.... Just more of the same old, you listen to one song and you've heard it all. Nothing exciting, nothing that stands out or is worth remembering

2.75

Good ol’ UK Garage. But not really good. I never liked this early 2000s rave era electronica to begin with. I don’t think it is something you NEED to hear before you die. This record is pretty repetitive. There are some cool moments, but it’s repetitive nature and overall length of the record ruin it for me.

Yet another 90s/early 2000 electronic album...

New agey

Not much of a dance album guy, couldn’t get into it

Not for me

This really didn't do much for me. Unremarkable.

90s bloat never gets better. "Let me see if I can fill this cd with music" is an atrocity, even if the music is passable.

Un bel exemple de coiffeur house nous est offert ici. Une charmante jeune femme vient nous proposer un shampoing pour lancer les hostilités, avant de nous aposer un tablier autout du cou. C'est alors que le coiffeur principal vient faire son entrée, prodiguant de savants coups de ciseaux, tout en nous demandant comment ça va. Nous repartons malheureusement en trouvant que la coupe est trop courte (au contraire de l'album).

Great voice. Could barely get thru the first hour so I’m assuming the second hour was like the first.

I like a lot of the beats, especially the drum and bass featured on the first two tracks and then popping up elsewhere. But I don’t really care for the pairing with the singing of Elisabeth Troy and the rapping of Nova Casper.

There is scant web info on this album and just a bit about MJ himself. He bested Dr. Dre to win 2001 Best Producer for this album at the MOGO (Music of Black Origin) Awards. That’s impressive although I had to read the date several times because I said 1991 in my head more than once. Thats the sound I hear. One that was 10 years behind its time. I skipped next before the end of almost every track.

Meh

Utterly antiseptic and more synthetic than sincere.. Will age about as well as cubic zirconia, though one suspects some stylish people in stylish capitals found this a stylish auditory accessory for at least a season. (Note: from the review linked on the official site: “Many will argue that 2-Step/UK Garage is a shallow, one-dimensional genre that will fade like overchewed gum. However, albums like “Sincere” go to prove that UK Garage is more than a fad.” Editors seemed to go with “fad” [one thinks “shallow and one-dimensional” to be more on point descriptively] as it’s been pulled from the official list and is now “ex.”)

Well, I didn't actively hate it so I can't give it one star... but I DID actively DISLIKE it so it's not getting more than two from me. The main problem is that it seems willfully lacking in self-awareness. It feels as though Mr. Cole is purposefully looking away from his influences and is unwilling to acknowledge the boundaries that he's trampling on. Everything he puts out here he presents with a totally straight face. He wants this taken seriously which is a problem because much of it is really very cheesy and silly. And it seems that even the listening public agreed as it only reached #14 in the UK. Why THIS, of all the UK Garage albums, merits inclusion in the list is beyond me.

Eh

Supermarket friendly UK Garage. The beats are desperate to be good, glitchy & bass heavy but the cheesy R&B vocals ruin it - and I mean really ruin it. It's like a kid who wants to be daring but then runs back to his mum. Not bad, just really really really dull. Best Tracks: Introduction; Bandelero Desperado; Strung Out

Just not for me, the songs are too same-y and get a little annoying pretty quickly.

2 Didn't particularly like this one

Two UK techno albums in a row, boy am I lucky! This one more PS1 racing game soundtrack type garbage. Went for an eternity, too. 2/5.

Inoffensive sort of background music. But pretty generic.

I could get into some of the tracks, but they were few and far between.

Almost as boring as the album cover suggests.

"Sincere" is the debut album from English Garage DJ MJ Cole. English Garage is a genre of dance music originating from England in the early to mid90's talking elements from R&B, jungle, dance pop and also encorporating gospel piano riffs and female vocals. Considered more soulful than Chicago House also big at the time. MJ Cole worked as a tape operator and sound engineer in that musical area before making his own album using a sampler and Atari ST. Truthfully, I had trouble getting into this. Almost all the songs had beats similar to Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison." It also kind of reminded currently of Disclosure. Some songs of note here. "Crazy Love" features Elisabeth Troy on vocals with her soulful voice. Nice keyboard intro and progression. Got that good beat. "Sincere" was the biggest single and features Nova Casper & Jay Dee on vocals. It has a cascading keyboard melody and creates almost a more chill/jazzy atmosphere. Maybe it was the repetitiveness of the songs or the genre itself but I had trouble focusing on this. It is not bad sounding by any times but just grab me. If you're more into the 90's house-type music, this might for you.

Boring

I genuinely find this album's inclusion on this list baffling. This album seems like super standard 90s techno released after the 90s had finally shuffled off. After reading a bit more about UK Garage techno, I understand a little bit more, but continue to be confused. This is one of the few albums on this list that I won't make it even close to the whole way through. It's just uninspired and uninspiring. 2/5

pop/rock/house com mistura autentica mas nada sensacional

Garage that's neither too dumb nor too smart, and more than hooky enough. Female voices add texture. Much of a muchnes but in the most pleasant way.

A bit inconsistent and yet redundant at the same time. Songs are all over the place. Not a must listen, but I guess it's ok as a UK garage token album. Best tracks: Rough Out Here and Slum King

British garage house a couple songs sound like persona 5 tracks 2.5

the voice was just incredibly obnoxious and there was potential but it didn’t reach it…

I like the idea, but i could not connect with this. There's a lot of effort that goes into creating music like this, I get that, but this ends up grating to me. Repetitive and mostly the vocals are ... not good at all. actually I think I'd probably have boosted this a full star if it were all instrumental.... (although some of the repetition is jarring). I just don't like it and wouldn't listen again. 3/10 2 stars

Not my jam.

Tja. Ich kann mir vorstellen, warum sich Leute das gerade anhören. Ich kann‘s mir allerdings größtenteils nicht anhören. Grundsätzlich ist gegen eine derartig heterogene Platte nichts einzuwenden, für mich sind daher aber nur sehr wenige Lichtblicke darauf.

Not my type of music and I sort of thought it was all over the place. That 2000 era beat was driving me crazy.

Not for me

Crazy Love is okay, the rest is absolute balls.

This does not hit a boring bland generic electronic album that was not worth my time 🙄

It had it's moments, but it didn't capture my attention. With the little that I know about electronic music, this seemed a tad boring and generic sounding. Really not much for me to enjoy, move on...

I got tired of this halfway through.

Yeah nah. Background music for people who don't really care about music.

Ça s’écoute bien en travaillant. Intéressant, mais trop long. Il y a de belles trouvailles, mais il y a aussi une genre de recette qui rend les tounes prévisibles.

EDM album out of the UK Garage scene. Beats are uniquely jittery and almost erratic, creating an interesting foundation for the smooth padded synths and jazzy samples. This is all layered over some lovely vocals, many of which are lent by Elizabeth Troy. I am not a fan of the UK Garage scene. I find it to be clunky and somewhat abrasive in how it handles the beats, which is usually the crux of the genre.

Not for me really. Some of the songs are ok at best.

Dance music isn’t my thing

This is not my style, so the number of stars has nothing to do with the quality but has everything to do with how much this album resonated with me.

My, my what do we have here? Makes me feel like a virgin princess being aggressively gang raped in the shower. Each song rips me open just a little bit more. The scars will never heal. The tears will never dry.

I did not need to listen to this album before I die. I did not need to listen to it at all except maybe in a club in 2001.

Bien aime en machant hehe mais lestyle est pas trop pour moi. 2.95

Meh not great.

Might deserve a three, but there is over two hours of this?I got through about 35 seconds total on four different songs. Had enough. Once again, who the fuck put this on the list???