Some funky songs, some chilled out ballads. Short album. Bit God Squaddy on some songs
Stripped back covers recorded shortly before Cash's death. Many good choices, some very emotive (Hurt, In My Life), inspired (Personal Jesus) and Bittersweet (We'll Meet Again). His voice was still on point even if he could no longer play.
Very good, already knew many of the songs but a welcome re-listen. Are You Ready to be Heartbroken, Forest Fire and Perfect Skin are classics.
Dull, jammy, underdeveloped
Little bit samey but Radio Free Europe is excellent. Will give this more listens
Dreadful - overwrought, syrupy ballads with dull vocal arrangements.
The Old Man's back again! The last in a line of straight forward classic solo albums by Scott. Baroque chamber pop with elegant arrangements and Walker's amazing voice - hugely influential on many artists. The Seventh Seal and On Your Own Again are a fantastic one-two kick off, The Old Man's Back Again is drama in song and Rhymes of Goodbye end on a bittersweet note.
Great start to the album with 3 classics but it tails off in the middle before ending well.
Downbeat, sparse, that voice...a classic, best listened to at 3am after a fair amount of Old Fashioneds. Avalanche and Famous Blue Raincoat are highlights but everything is just pure quality.
A classic from start to finish - perhaps the only bad thing is the familiarity of all the songs as I have heard it so much that my 'go to' Bowie albums are either from 75-80 or from 93 onwards. I will never tire of hearing Five Years, Suffragette City, Moonage Daydream, Starman and Ziggy.
Not really in to rap - enjoy more laid back hip hop but I liked some of the tracks e.g. Back Like That.
Couple of classics on here, Pump It Up, (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea, but the rest blended in to one for me. That organ sound got quite wearing after a while as well.
Not my cup of tea, rather dreary and knowingly old fashioned.
Victoria is fantastic but starting on a high means the rest of the album suffers somewhat.
Excellent, love the analogue synth sound on this. Many classic songs on here such as Cars, M.E. (sampled by Basement Jaxx) and Films.
Some quality songwriting but gets a bit samey, especially with the vocal harmonies
Some classics on here but god is it long. Never been in to Pink Floyd and this doesn't change my opinion - self indulgent with occasional decent songs. Some of the vocals are dreadful!
Pretty dull early 2000s lo fi American indie.
Love it but at 24 tracks, it's too long (even if 7 are interludes).
Excellent, not heard of the artists before but it's a beautiful and enjoyable listen.
So late 90s it hurts. It's a fusion of Drum n Bass, classical Indian and various other bits and pieces from the time. Can imagine it was a coffee table classic back then, but now it struggled to hold my attention. Loved the first track - at 11 minutes it frequently changed direction and ended with some lovely sounding strings but the largely instrumental tracks failed to engage me as the album progressed. May revisit though, could see it being a grower.
I used to play the hell out of this back in 1999 when it came out - produced by Nigel Godrich, famous for producing Radiohead, and you could see the influence he had on their sound. The NME at the time accused them of going Dad Rock after their rockier debut but it certainly worked for them, especially after the heaven's opened during their Glastonbury performance of 'Why does It Always Rain On Me'.
This was their commercial peak and some of it does still stand up - Writing to Reach You nicked the Wonderwall chord sequence as made it sound like something from The Bends. Driftwood is still a pleasant listen - Turn was overplayed at the time and a one word chorus (replicated in later songs Sing, Side and probably others) is lazy. The Fear and As You Are are the best of the album tracks, as well as hidden track Blue Flashing Light (probably the best thing on here) which deals with domestic abuse and sounds a lot more raw, more akin to their first album.
It was quite nice to revisit this album and remember being 17 again - I'll certainly stick a few tracks in future playlists. Best thing about this album, along with Coldplay, Muse etc was pushing Radiohead to freak out and make Kid A!
Almost perfect - started a revolution in music. The genius is in Hannett taking the very good punk songs the band had written and then twisting them in to a different shape, thus creating the future.
A transitional album for the Beatles - initially conceived by McCartney as a bunch of comedy songs (Rubber Soul is a spoof of the term Plastic Soul, Drive My Car is about a woman hiring a chauffeur despite not having a car), they couldn't help but expand their musical and lyrical pallets beyond anything done before. George invents psychedelia by using the Sitar on Norwegian Wood (The Rolling Stones take notes), John decides he's going to be Bob Dylan on as well, and self flagellates on Nowhere Man. Girl and Michelle show their love of European music and Paul writes one for the grannies with In My Life. This and Revolver feel like 2 sides of the same coin, and it's the most valuable coin you've ever heard.
The Fall are always good, even if they're bad. This is a particularly good one!
Really good! Actually a lot more varied than I was expecting, this album flew by.
Game changer! Still holds up well too, doesn't sound dated.
Great fun, put this on after a few drinks and rock out
Horrible Nirvana rip offs, just sounds like someone singing while attempting to shit.
This is only after one listen (don't feel like another) but just found it wearing and samey. The singer just yelling all the time, math rocky guitars, long songs, though listening on a Monday morning after a 4 day bank holiday probably doesn't help!
Upbeat Hip hop from the early 90s - sounded like a cross between Public Enemy and Jurassic 5. Enjoyable enough but nothing ground breaking.
Very pleasant alt-country. Clear influence on Father John Misty. Will listen again.
So many classic songs on here.
Already knew the title track and Express Yourself but was still surprised at how good the album is - no annoying skits, just a lot of good rapping over a range of fantastic samples. Can see why this is so highly rated.
Fairly average English Invasion beat kinda stuff.
I know a good amount of XTC but the only track I knew from this one is Dear God, which I've never been a fan of. Happily the rest of the album was much better to my ears, it's all quite smooth and poppy compared to their earlier post punk work but the tunes are great.
Some really good tracks but I did find the vocals quite grating on occasion.
Such a classic album! Every song is pop rock perfection.
Decent 60s beat pop - very Byrds-esque chiming guitars on some songs. Not Your Stepping Stone is the famous song, covered by The Monkees and The Sex Pistols.
Better than expected, some nice dub reggae. Always like a bit of melodica so this went down well.
I'm more familiar with his son, Jeff, but this was excellent. Talent and tragedy seems to run in the family!
Enjoyed this until the Cockney knees up at the end!
Classic debut by the Reid brothers - their use of feedback crossed with 60s Spector girl groups was pioneering and was a major influence on noise rock and shoegaze. Future Primal Scream vocalist drums on the album.
This album is not for the faint of heart - the feedback sometimes dominates the instrumentation so if you have sensitive ears, proceed with caution!
The album opens with the classic Just Like Honey (used memorably in the film Lost in Translation) and also contains Never Understand and You Trip Me Up. Some versions include Some Candy Talking, another of their best songs, though this wasn't on the original tracklist.
So if you like your pop songs noisy, turn this one up loud and enjoy!
Hyperactive and obnoxious, the Beastie Boys can't rap or focus on anything for more than 30 seconds. While I know the hits, none of them are present on Paul's Boutique and I fail to see why this album is highly fêted.
The turning point between Bjork's earlier 'fun' material and becoming more experimental. This is very good and requires multiple listens to unlock all aspects of the songs.
Possibly the best Blur album, depends what you like. It's not as Brit Pop as Parklife/The Great Escape but I think it sounds a lot better - musically more substantial. Beetlebum is a fantastic opener, Song 2 is overplayed to death but if you squint, you can still see the appeal. Other highlights include the mournful Death of a Party, Strange News From Another Star, Coxon's bittersweet solo 'You're so Great' and the Bowie aping On Your Own.
It's a bit of a bridge to the far more experimental 13 and Think Tank, plus you can see elements of Gorillaz in some of Damon's vocals. It could just be the sweet spot between everything they've done and everything they'd go on to do.
This is excellent but why do they ruin so many of the songs with an annoying high pitched sample that constantly repeats? Bizarre production choice, otherwise everything else is great. Powerful lyrics, great samples, very influential.
Fantastic garage rock record - not heard of The Saints before but I will check out their discog now!
Fantastic live blues album.
So long! A lot of great stuff but quality control would have been appreciated. It's basically two solo albums from the two members, guess they couldn't work together any longer.
Pleasant enough but didn't really hold my attention - felt like a Film soundtrack.
Or 'Beck goes emo' - following the slacker, funk, tropicalia, and the downright weird, Beck worked with Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Travis, producer du jour) on this maudlin collection of ballads inspired by a break up. It's probably his most consistent album, everything is engaging and the string arrangements are fantastic. Guess I'm Doing Fine and Lonesome Tears are particular highlights.
Only thing is I miss fun Beck on this - perhaps one or two more upbeat tracks would have made this a 5 star album.
One is great but the rest all sounds the same really. Gets a bit tedious over san hour.
Great album from the mid naughties, when the Strokes, YYYs, The Libertines, The Vines and The White Stripes all led the pack. TV on the Radio never quite got there in terms of popularity but this was a good album for the time and it still holds up, possible better than many more popular ones from the time.
Enjoyed this a lot more than I expected - knew Take it Easy and Witchy Woman of course, but the rest was good as well - reminded me of CNSY in sound (lots of vocal harmonies, that alt-country sound).
Already knew many of the tracks - 1969, I Wanna Be Your Dog, No Fun - all proto punk classics. We Will Fall was a surprise - could have fitted on a Velvet Underground album as it's a 10 minute drone!
Basically, a classic album that deserves your full attention.
There's something about Bruuuce that always puts me off - is it the bombast? The hyper-masculinity? The fact that some songs sound like Meat Loaf? I just don't know, but when I sit down and listen to a full album, I do enjoy it and Born in the USA is a classic, with many of his biggest and best songs. The title track is oft-misinterpreted to be a chest beating patriot's song but if you actually listen to the verses, you'll see it's anything but and still relevant today. I'm on Fire, I'm Goin' Down, Glory Days, Dancing in the Dark - all fantastic songs and the rest was pretty good too.
Overall I preferred Nebraska, which I also had come up recently - more intimate, emotional without going over the top, but I may have to start going through his discography to see what I've been missing.
Great album, on par with Bowie's Aladdin Sane period.
Much much better than The Wall - a decent run time, some good songs and not actually that proggy.
I started the album last week and it's still going Monday morning. Someone make it stop!
Enjoyable but some of the instrumentals weren't that noticeable.
Endless southern rock but without any if the good bits - avoid.
It's a little lightweight compared to their previous classics but still rocks like an MF.
My Girls was a smash hit that got them noticed by the mainstream, but nothing else comes close to it. It's all very hyperactive, Brian Wilson on speed rather than acid. Definitely worth another listen, I think a lot more of the songs need time seeing as there are so many melodies and sounds to break down.
Starts out strongly but as it goes on, it feels like the songs get longer and longer - heavily reverbed production, long periods of yelling over drums and bass (sounds influenced by Suicide but less successful), some nice post-punk guitar lines but few and far between. The singer's voice is quite grating after a while so the songs blur in to one.
LOL at this being my album of the day the day after Liz snuffed it!
Considered the ultimate Smiths album by many, personally I feel the track list could be changed and would by massively improved by ending with There is a light and separating Never Had No One and I Know It's Over from each other - maybe Some Girls in between so they can each breathe.
The songs are undeniably excellent (apart from Shankly, but it's fun so it can be forgiven). The title track, Bigmouth, Cemetry (sic) Gates, Boy with the Thorn, all amazing stuff. So it's still a 5!
Probably one of their weaker efforts, this comes after the initial excitement of the first two albums bursting with jittery post punk/new wave style but before they got together with Eno for the genre busting Remain in Light. All sounds fine but nothing really sticks out and it seems the change in direction that was to come was the correct decision.
Kid A was my first Radiohead album to be released after I became a fan. I'd got in to them through OK Computer singles, nought the album but found it a bit difficult. Going backwards to The Bends and Pablo Honey helped and very soon a was digesting b-sides, live tracks of unreleased songs and anything else I could get my hands on. The wait for Kid A seemed massive (little did we know what what happen after In Rainbows - 2 albums in 15 years!) and finally we got news Kid A was coming out (with an sister album to be released the following year). The Hype was insane - this was the album that almost broke them following OK Computer and its surprise success that launched them in to worldwide acclaim.
They started touring well before the album came out - in a big top no less, avoiding all corporate sponsored venues and playing a hefty chunk of new songs slated for Kid A and its follow up. They seemed stranger than previous material - sometimes they didn't even have all members playing.
Release date approached - the whole thing had leaked on the net early but not many had access at this point and downloading 128 kbps MP3s was a time consuming project. I heard the album in chunks on radio 1 - I taped every song and then dubbed on to a different cassette to put them in the right order, so I dread to think what the quality would have been! To me, these seemed strange but an appropriate response to OK Computer. Warm rhodes piano, jazz drums, crazy horn sections - I loved it! It was far from a retread of previous material and was a logical progression, seeing as Thom Yorke had widened his musical horizons with a lot of electronica after becoming tired of guitar music.
Many hated it - it didn't rock so it was a fond farewell to that crowd. I thought maybe they didn't actually like Radiohead - they just liked rock. I liked Radiohead and I loved this. Everything in its Right Place is both eerie and soothing. Kid A like a child's story. The National Anthem was hilarious - I requested this be played at an Indie night once, went down so badly but my friends and I laughed as the horns played. How to Disappear is beautiful and classic Radiohead - with tweaks, it could fit on previous albums. Treefingers was out there - 4 minutes of ambience. Was it a song? Was it a palette cleanser? Why was this on the album when we'd heard there were loads of more 'traditional' songs like Knives Out and Pyramid Song left off? The answer is that it was part of the journey. Optimistic was the closest to a Radiohead rock song - but then it had a hip hop/jazz outro and led directly in to In Limbo, an off-kilter song that seemed to mirror the band's confusion during the writing sessions. Then came a clubby banger out of leftfield - Idioteque was again unlike anything from before and it was all the better for it. Thom ranting about ice ages over a beat and synth sample was the song we didn't know we needed. Morning Bell sounded numb and defeated, threatening to break in to emotion but always stepping back before losing control. Then suddenly it 's the end - Motion Picture Soundtrack had been played acoustically a few times and sounded like a beautiful ballad. This version was nothing like that - a church organ, mermaids and harps sound tracked a truncated version and Thom told us he'd see us in the next life.
The recent Ok Computer and Kid A anniversary re-releases shed more light on some of these songs with early versions, sketches etc but when Kid A came out, it was in a vacuum. It turned many off, but people with open minds got it straight away and were happy to join Radiohead for what would be a extremely satisfying journey and progression. It's combination of fin de siècle fear and embracing of new technology meant it set a template for the new millennium and enabled the band to continue without repeating past glories. They could do anything now.
This got a bit monotonous with just the one vocalist - some variety, guest spots etc. would have been appreciated. Otherwise this is pretty good, chilled out hip hop.
Already knew a couple of songs - Streets of Your Town and Was There Anything I Could Do (both brilliant songs) and have always meant to check the album out. They sound a bit like a more acoustic Smiths with Tom Verlaine from Television on vocals.
The album is fantastic - not a skippable track on first listen and I think I'll only come to like each one more on future listens.
Highly recommended.
Big band jazz stuff - not my cup of tea. Pleasant enough but sounds like muzak.
I like the music, bossa nova is very soothing. That is, until Foghorn Sinatra opens his gob and tries to sing all over it, rendering everything pointless. 4 stars for the music, 0 stars for the vocals.
Some classics and a few duff tracks. A strong debut that showed plenty of promise, it's a shame they never realised it.
I was slightly concerned by some of the tracklist times - 11 minutes of a Grapevine cover?! But actually, most tracks are super short apart from the cover and the opening song and even they whizzed by. Not really my cup of tea but this was very enjoyable 60s blues rock
Era defining. A ridiculous amount has been written about OK Computer and I doubt I have a fresh perspective. It's many people's favourite Radiohead album, 90s album, indie album, or album ever and deservedly so. It still sounds relevant and fresh - by filtering influences like DJ Shadow, The Beatles, Pink Floyd etc through their own songwriting process, they created something timeless. My highlights are Airbag, Let Down, and Climbing Up The Walls but every song is needed and so well sequenced. You're unlikely to put Fitter Happier in to a playlist but it must be listened to as part of the album - no skipping allowed!
I didn't hate it, so a win for Apple!
Songs like Girls and Boys and Parklife have since lost their impact due to overplaying, but if you can approach with a fresh mind then this is still a great album. It's too long - 90s Blur albums almost always were. Damon and the band managed to strike a chord and find the zeitgeist with this album which made them into Britpop stars and you can see why - the number of hooks in each song are crazy. Personal favourites are Tracy Jacks, End of a Century, London Loves, Trouble in the Message Centre and This is a Low.
Probably his best. Riverman, Way to Blue, Cello Song, Fruit Tree - an embarrassment of riches! I wish he'd lived.
Pleasant enough. I knew the Mr Wendal song but everything else passed by in a haze. 2.5 stars.
Arpegiated synths, Queen vocal harmonies and some dirty basslines, all check for that classic Muse sound. At this point, they could still write some good songs as well so Starlight (shades of Coldplay), Map of the Problematique (more than shades of Depeche Mode), Supermassive Black Hole (Prince) and Invincible are all good, while the rest is OK. Does tail off towards the end.
This is a bit of a come down after their debut, A Storm in Heaven, though there are plenty of highlights such as History, Drive You Home and the final track (reprise). As such it's probably unsatisfying to both fans of both their first and third albums - not psychedelic enough for the former, not Britpop enough for the latter.
Its strength is in its simplicity. Big riffs and big singalongs.
Decent enough but nothing stood out. His voice was pretty good back then.
Nothing of note to be honest - all a bit samey apart from the intro track.
Really good album - You Haven't Done Nothing was a highlight, reminded me of Superstition.
Apart from the title track, nothing really stood out.
Certainly their weakest album - pushes their sound to its limits with lots of jams, 7+ minute tracks with lots of screaming and squealing saxes. Worth a listen but do not go in expecting stuff like I Wanna Be Your Dog or No Fun!
While this could never live up to Loveless after so long, it was a good follow up. Only shame is how short it felt.
She Found Now was a reassuring continuation of the Loveless sound with a few tweaks, but it's the tracks that sound different to the previous album that stand out - Who Sees You, If I am, In Another Way and the drum n bass inspired wonder 2 (complete with an aircraft take off, by the sounds of it!) New You sounds like their version of a Bond theme, maybe inspired by the cover of We Have All The Time in the World.
This is nearly 10 years old now Kevin, where is LP4?!
A bit cheesy and MOR but nice pleasant enough.
Seemingly endless yet over fairly quickly - this may be the soundtrack to purgatory. Guitars chug, solos widdle and the vocals grunt. Brilliant or awful, it doesn't matter.
