Urban Hymns toes the line between saccharine 90s Britpop and early 90s feedback imbued shoegaze. Which is not to serve as a slight to the record. Since this characterizes the LP as a touch more distinct than most of their contemporaries. The brightest moments within the LP are tracks like Space and Time, which showcase a earnestness emotional proclamation of devotion. Accompanied by a rhythmic guitar backing. The seminal track Bitter Sweet Symphony is rousing but lacks a self awareness needed to temper it’s over done strings.

A beyond important project. I’m not too well acquainted with early electronic works. Besides a few acts. But the LP is a illuminating journey into the synthesized world of Kraftwerk. Plunky at moments but the allure and entrancement of such early use of a technology is there.

Karen O channels a fire reminiscent of The Runaways. Fever To Tell runs top heavy and some of that side A flare depletes. But the vocal performance of O is what elevates straightforward hard rockin into a energetic disorienting record a cut different from fellow acts of the day. The track Maps, slows down and takes on an sensual tone and remains the most enigmatic feature on the LP.

Sounds like George Martin is all over this or this is revolver era throw aways. Had some recognizable classics and slick ballad writing but the vocal didn’t endear me much.

I had listened to Aqualung (the track) prior to this full Aqualung the LP listen and had wrote off Anderson’s vocal as being painfully theatrical. I must’ve been still reeling from Rush 💀. This is an easy listen for prog beginners, it’s filled with hard rocking groves throughout. It’s like medieval-ish without the pomp and pageantry of the Canterbury scene.

Arduous and thin in writing. And the in and out belts on tracks like “Cyprus Avenue” were beyond irritating and makes me believe there was an pathetic attempt of imitation of bluesy singers like Mavis Staples. Just some gross ass minstrelsy throughout. The production was buried to a degree too.

A more mellowed down LP of what’s to come. But the full sounds and mysticism are already there. Also remasterings here bummed me out. BUT YES YES YES!

Middling but a great folksy tunes nonetheless. It came and went though.

A high energy ball of fun. A little one note and very early 90s dance but I still enjoyed it. Vocals were meh.

Still suffering from the theatricality of the 80s hair metal scene. Primarily in the vocals. Was not too into the sounds here, wasn’t as if it was abrasive it was just generic industrial production values going on.