I love Change in Pocket but really enjoyed a lot of the other tracks – I was surprised at how punky it was and how good the lyrics. I'd definitely listen again.
OMG! How did I not ever listen to this properly? All the big hits like Candle in the Wind, Bennie and The Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Friday Night's Alright for Fighting are so familiar they're almost background music. But the deep cuts surprise – including Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding and The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–1934). Jamaica Jerk Off hasn't aged well. But this is a masterpiece – amazing to think so many tracks, and such a journey!
Totally get the influence on punk and post punk and golf, especially hearing strains of the Smiths, the Cult and others. But overall pretty ordinary. Her extraordinary voice is drowned out by the guitars, and I never heard a track that really kind of grabbed me, with no clear melodies or choruses.
A total classic, amazing to hear the start of one of my favourite bands. Weird I've listened to so many of their other albums, and I loved 13 so much – and yet had never heard the one that kicked it all off. Thematically, of course, you can hear the influences of Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin but the sound is like nothing else. This is the start of heavy metal. I loved this, and I'll definitely listent to it again. Not Paranoid, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or Master of Reality – the best three of theirs – but still a great album.
Yeah nah. Song 2 aside it just felt dated and cynical. Much is made of Blur and Albarn’s musical experimentation between genres, even as bands like the Cult already killed for it. I just didn’t get into this, and I remember why I didn’t get into it when it first came out. Also, it’s hard to listen to a band who is leader, Albarn is such a dick, who exploits and appropriates world music, and other musicians. Relistened to Elastica the other day, and it was amazing!
I really enjoyed this – some discordancy at the start but really smooth, interesting and, in parts, transcendent. I'd kind of heard of Soft Machine but really liked this – you can hear their influence in Japanese jazz bands like Soil and Pimp Sessions, one of my favourites. Definitely a keeper, will listen again and again. Slightly All the Time was a highlight.
This wouldn't have been anything without Justine Frischman of Elastica. I've always thought MIA was bogus – performative authenticity for white people. Her voice is terrible, she can't rap, she's really unimpressive, and there's a kind of cultural appropriation going on with the iffy patois accent. I just don't buy it. Great record, shame about the artist.
I already listened to this and commented on it. Outside of the big tracks, and while I get the Thatcher/money references, it was quite dated and I didn't love it.
Lots of classics on here, like Rocks Off, Rip This Joint, Shake Your Hips, Tumbling Dice, Torn and Frayed - though it increasingly sounds more like appropriation than homage. If anything it makes you want to seek out the juke and blues inspirations like John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, BB King and others. Nonetheless, a lot of fun and very evocative of the place and time it's trying to depict.
There are some standout tracks but it's even more banal, overproduced and disappointing than when it first came out.
Love love love! Qawwali at its best. His voice is blues and opera swirling together.
I liked the first track All I Want and I get the autobiographical nature of it, and it's amazing she was so young to write something so accomplished and cohesive but it just didn't hold my attention – I kind of felt like it all sounded a bit the same after a while.
I really enjoyed this but nothing really stood out – it sounded like Count Basie with the piano and horns but it made me realise how hard big band and bebop bass players work. Eddie Jones is non-stop and really underpins the entire album. Great mix. Having said that, I wonder how many people will remember Basie, as opposed to Ellington, or Petersen, or Shaw or Miller?
Just brilliant. It's easy to forget the sillier and more outre performances in later years but this just reminds you not only what amazing players they are but what great songwriters they are too. Maggot Brain. Classic.
It's easy to forget how boring and mainstream REM became. I used to love them. Finest Worksong, brilliant.
Makes me want to listen to Green again, which was their best record.
Brilliant. For years I'd just thought the Pistols had lived off their reputation and history but this reminded me what an incredible classic this was and how ground breaking. I loved all the big songs like God Save the Queen, Pretty Vacan and Anarchy in the UK but the deep cuts like Holidays in the Sun and Submission were real surprises. It's also surprisingly better played than I remember, and I loved Johnny's lower register on Submission. Excellent.
Had its moments and I presume the interludes were nods to Sgt Peppers (as is the cover) but it kind of just drifted by, I didn't really connect with anything.
While I'd never heard or heard of the Blue Nile, and they do sound like most 80s AOR, they do have some experimental vibes and I loved the relatively bare production and lyrics. His voice is great too. Sometimes a bit overwrought but it was the midst of Thatcherism so I get it. I did find it mostly enjoyable and I'd definitely listen again – reminded me of dark rooms in old houses in Paddington, the fruit bats flying out of the dusk.
I'd never listened to this but what an amazing, rich, textured, complex journey! I need to listen to it again and again to really dive into it but I get the hype now. Brilliant.
I’d heard of them but never listened to them. I really enjoyed it. Although it’s dated and might be considered appropriate now, it’s funky and fun, much like the Fun Lovin Criminals, who I love.
Unlistenable. I liked Closer at the time but it's the only song I could listen to on this. I like Reznor's soundtrack work though.
Loved this! Surprisingly good!
Still as good as ever. So many memories!
I liked it at the time but it's really aged.
Love London Calling but really enjoyed this
