Somehow I've managed to never have listened to this album before although the four singles off it I'm pretty familiar with. These were the tracks I enjoyed and the rest landed a bit like filler although I'll concede it feels like an album which would reward repeated listening.
It's exactly what I was expecting: very long 80s guitar and synth soundscapes with poetry sung yearningly over the top of it. Love the sparkly synths, some of the synth strings, however, have not aged well!
How to listen again to an album I've probably listened to thousands of times before and where three of the tracks are on my heavy rotation Spotitfy playlists?
It also feels like a record whose influence loomed over most of the music I've loved in my life. I actually remember the first time I heard it, when my brother played me the vinyl copy he had, and I remember when I bought my own copy, at a CD fair in Southampton.
Trying to listen afresh now it's still an amazing record. I realise, however, that I'd got into the habit of stopping it at the start of the five minutes noise at the end of European Son :D
Meh.
I guess I'm not a hip-hop fan. I tried to make an effort with this, did a bit of reading around the artist and the context the album was recorded in, hoping it would being it into focus. The thing is, trying to listen to the lyrics was exhausting and without it the whole thing just droned on.
I've never really listened to soul music much; nor have I actively avoided it. It's interesting that this comes following the 2pac album from Monday because the (very brief) bits of that I could have enjoyed, if it wasn't all so awful, had some of the same vibe this album has permeating the whole thing; although this isn't so much in a different league as on a different planet!
I'm listening to most of these whilst working and this is a great album to do that to. His voice is amazing, the music is spot on, the production is so crisp.
The conclusion is that I loved listening to this and it's probably the first thing on here that I wouldn't have chosen to listen to but may well revisit in the future, and the possibility of that is exactly why I started doing this in the first place!
Not really my kind of thing, to be honest. I don't hate it by any means, it's just boring. In some places really boring.
Another of those bands I'd heard of a lot but never got round to listening. Got to say this was a massive disappointment though. It's got a Muzak quality to it I can't get on with. In places I want to like the chilled vibe it seems to be aiming for but it comes out bland and tacky.
I also think the vocals are also buried in the mix far to much for the style but that may be a blessing since his voice takes on an annoying tone when it strays from the bass register he's normally in. Then we hit the song he sings entirely in falsetto and it sounds ridiculous! It just keeps going downhill from there... Roll on tomorrow!
Ugh. Another one of those albums which sounds very competent: well executed by talented musicians. It's just so boring. The sort of thing I'd expect to hear played quietly over the sound system of a department store. I must admit, I don't really understand how a album of covers done without any invention could be an album you must hear before you die.
Listening to this album was a strange experience. I'll love one song, really dislike a couple then suddenly something amazing happens. I could imagine I would have loved this to death if I had caught it at the right time of my life. As it is there's definitely a few songs on here that could make it into my daily rotation, even if it's unlikely I'll ever play the whole album again.
I really didn't know whether to give it a 3 or a 4 but ended up plumping for 4 because there's enough moments in here that I absolutely loved, even if the album made me work for them! Unsatisfied has gone straight into my list of favourite songs ever.
Really didn't know what to make of this other than I didn't enjoy it at all. Some of it' is truly bad. The awful 13 min instrumental in it really tested my resolve to listen to all the albums all the way through. I believe it's one of the worst songs I've ever heard. I almost ended up rating this a 1 but I enjoyed the last track just enough to sneak it into a 2.
I have to admit I've never really got Elvis Costello. The musicianship is great. The songs are well-crafted. I don't hate any of them. I really enjoyed the singles, which I was already familiar with. In the end though I found it starting to get samey; the same songwriting tricks being employed over and over and, I'm sorry but, I find his voice really annoying after a while. Is that a real accent or a put on?
I enjoyed listening to the album but it's not making into my regular rotation. I expect there'll be more Costello on this list. Maybe I'll discover one which will help me understand why he's so loved.
Saw the cover and thought this is gonna be awful. By half way through the first song that was confirmed. Somehow, it then continued to get worse. It manages to offend and bore me at the same time.
Eels are an odd band to me in that they've always been adjacent to my musical taste but, apart from a couple of singles, never really made it into my general rotation. I guess the mid nineties were a time when we I was spoilt for choice and also had more time and inclination to listen to more music.
So I'd never listened to the whole album before and it isn't quite what I was expecting. It's more traditional guitar-based than I anticipated. There's obvious parallels with Radiohead, or maybe Grandaddy, here. Actually some of the less experimental stuff is what I liked most. It tails off a little towards the end.
Scorewise I might have put a 3.5 if it existed. I enjoyed listening to it once enough to be a 4 but it has the occasionally cringey lyrics and replay value of a 3.
I've never heard of the band. I looked at the cover and expected to hate it. Actually kind of really enjoyed it!
One of my favourite bands; this was always going to get a 5. B&S are one of those bands who seem to have pulled off the trick of longevity. They've changed and grown but never completely lost what made them fresh and great. This first album though is a real thing of beauty. Fragile and innocent sounding - although anything but. It's not actually an album I reach for as much as the later ones but it absolutely showcases what B&S are about. I hope some of those will come later.
First reggae album I've got. So I have a strange relationship with reggae. I never listen to it but I always like it when it comes on. I guess it just feels very different to everything I usually listen to so it never occurs. Plus, it's a whole new genre with a whole new history; I wouldn't know where to start.
This is a good start for me, though. I really enjoyed it. Although I'm noticing a trend of albums wearing thin on me as they go on because of a samy-ness. I wonder if it's because, in music styles I don't listen to much, I don't hear the subtleties I would in styles I'm more familiar with.
It's Simon and Garfunkel! Of course it's brilliant. I don't really know what else there is to say.
I guess I'm the right age to have grown up hating Duran Duran and everything they stand for. There's still something in it that grates. It feels linked to the Thatcherism of the era. It's impossible to listen to them without seeing that video of them sat on a yacht in the sunshine looking like twats.
So in reappraisal with a little distance? I didn't hate it as much as I expected. How's that for faint praise? Some of the singles were played so much when I was of Radio One listening age that there's a nostalgic element I'm not going to be able to separate from the music.
In the end though, it's a bit shit. I'm not going to listen to it again.
Another album I've never listened to in full but, of course, knew a fair amount about and has clearly informed a huge amount of music I listen to on a regular basis. It's difficult to not pick up Velvet Underground vibes, I guess that makes sense. I'm familiar with I Wanna Be Your Dog, of course, and it's definitely the best song on the album but I really enjoyed all of it. I'm really really stuck between a 4 and 5 for this but after a second listen I'm gonna nudge it into 5 territory.
Ok, I was expecting to absolutely hate this but a few tracks in and I was already enjoying it far more than I expected. As it goes on, it gets worse though. The lyrics get cringy AF and I can imagine this attracting what you might call an incel crowd these days. Probably one of the reasons I never listened to it before: I associated it with people I wanted nothing to do with.
I enjoyed this enough, however, to consider exploring the rest of NiN's output and that's something I definitely wouldn't have said this time yesterday.
Interesting that I had The Stooges yesterday. Two visions of how the sixties were coming to a close and how music would move on. One chaotic and giving birth to punk, new wave and so on. The other a mix of testosterone and guitar wanking. Can't say I'm a fan. Well executed though.
This reminds me of the sort of thing I hear people play on Desert Island Discs and wonder how they got into this sort of stuff. I enjoyed it but I must admit I find listening to music where I can't understand the lyrics a bit disconcerting. Like, how do I sing along? What if they're saying something horrible!?
It's making me want to look up their other stuff though so, job done, I guess!
My thoughts on this basically go: title track is amazing. Solid 5. The next few tracks are great but get slightly worse. At this point it would probably be a 4. I'm enjoying it. I'll replay it.
Then we reach the cover of Across the Universe. I don't know how to explain my reaction to hearing this. It could be the worst thing ever created. It starts off a bad, but acceptable cover of what is an amazing song. The whole way through it manages to get worse. It's so bad it's funny. I was literally laughing out loud for the last two minutes. I never want to hear it again.
It's made worse by the fact that Lennon actually sings backing vocals on it; harming not only my memory of one of my favourite songs but also one (two?) of my favourite artists.
I was actually tempted to downgrade my score to 2 based solely on this one track - it's that bad - but Fame just about saves it.
My first Stones record on here. I've never really listened to them outside the huge singles so I'm looking forward to hearing these.
This is an odd one to start with for me, I think. It kicks off with Brown Sugar; a song played so much it's probably impossible to hear it in any way new. Then, I've got to be honest, most of the rest of the album just sort of washed over me. It does sound "important" and I did enjoy it but I can't imagine I'll play it again.
Except for Wild Horses; a song I love so much it brings the whole album a star in my ratings.
There's not much to say about this. I remember the title song being everywhere when it came out. I hated it then. Now? I don't hate it but mostly because there's not much to hate. It also gets very samey. To be honest, I don't really see why it's an album you must hear before you die; there must be a thousand albums out there which express this same thing equally or better. Maybe it's representative of a sound... but I have to return to the fact it's a sound I don't hate but I'm never digging this back out of Spotify again for the simple reason there's nothing to it. I was still tempted to bump it up to a 3 because it's definitely decent background music with a nice feel... but then I look at the last album I rated 3 and they're not even in the same league!
Another band I've heard much about but never got round to listening to. It's another one which is difficult because I can see, in context, how it's an important release it could have been. I liked it but I can't imagine returning to it. I love the sound of it. Real lo-fi production. Noise. Shouting. Certainly not the background music I've been accusing other albums of being!
- There's something in the production of Joy Division I just don't hear in anything else. It's so dark in tone but so light in weight. I don't even know if that makes any sense. Joy Division might be what you get if you went through a list of what I love in music and created a band from it. Yearning vocals; production which simultaneously sounds like they've spend hours crafting the perfect sound but also sounds like they've just struck up a bunch of shit instruments in the house next door and you're hearing it through the walls; clever use of repetition; over a shifting background; careful use of effects but basically still four people with guitars and drums singing about their lives.
I've talked a lot on albums that the context of the album sometimes makes it more important than the music itself. This is one of the albums where both things are huge. Everything about this music and the context and story behind it feels huge. Sitting in here in my adopted city of Manchester it feels even bigger. There was no way this was ever gonna be less than 5 stars.
It's the Beatles. It's Rubber Soul. Of course it's a 5 star album.
For me this is where the Beatles become the best band in the world ever. Not that there's anything wrong with the previous output. They already were the best band at doing what they were doing and they were starting to push the boundaries of that pop band mount. Here is where they started to carve out a whole new path. The album where they became The Beatles. They picked up Dylan, motown, the Byrds and everything else that was going on and made their own record which blew all of them away. Yes. And from here on in, it only continues to get better.
Look, I don't think it's that I hate rap. It's just that there's only so many tracks I can hear where the same beat and riff are repeated for ever while a series of blokes go on about how clever and/or hard they are over the top. I know there must be some better hip hop out there but this still isn't it. Yawn. I found myself shifting in my seat to the music though so it's got something!
Somehow I've managed to not know about this band but half way through the first song I'm loving it... although I've definitely heard this song before. I'm hearing Blur pretty strongly in here. Looking at it, it's the same year as Modern Life, makes sense.
Problem is the album quickly settles into Britpop mediocrity. It's OK but it feels quite by-the-numbers. I was looking forward to later tracks because other reviews called up some of those as great tracks but they didn't break through the tedium to me. By the end of the album I just wanted it to be over. Yawn!
Whilst listening to the albums I'm trying to read about them to get a feel for the context. With albums like this it's really helpful because I knew nothing about this artist at all before. Of course, the big songs - Everybody's Talkin' and Dolphins - I've heard but only as covers.
Here's the thing. The covers are better. As an album, I enjoyed listening to it but I think much of that enjoyment comes from knowing that context, hearing the covers, listening for the influences on later, better, music.
The last eight minutes of instrumental weirdness were certainly unexpected though!
- First band I've hit a second album with. The earlier album (Bayou Country) I really couldn't stand. It felt fake and boring. This one, recorded the same year, is an entirely different affair and I'm not really clear on why. I'm trying to reach back into my memories of the other album - maybe I should revisit it. My review just said it's not my kind of thing and it was really boring. And that's it. I remember it was boring. This isn't at all. It's still traditional - It's certainly not pushing any sonic envelopes - but it's just a great feel to it. It's enough better that I'm still not sure if it should be 3 or 4.
Another one of those people I'd heard loads about but never got round to listening to.
Instant reaction is that I can see where Belle and Sebastian took their influence, it's huge.
I liked the album a lot but there's something about it I couldn't quite place. It felt _off_ and I don't really know why. Like the production didn't suit the songs, or something.
Hearing this now, I don't think I feel any different from when it came out. It's alright. Wouldn't suggest it's an album anyone must hear before they die, though.
Well, I enjoyed this much more than I expected. It definitely could have done with being half the length, though. The glut of, pretty rubbish, covers really killed the mood. I'd have been tempted to score it higher if it had ended before that.
In a continuing theme of my reviews, I'd be perfectly happy for this to be on but I just wouldn't bother to put it on myself. Also, the constant sex theme of the album gets a bit wearing too, if I'm honest. I was going to write that it just turned into a bunch of instrumentals by the end but it turned out that's 'cos Spotify was playing a load of extras from the Deluxe version!
Another easy 5* for another album I've listened to hundreds of times already. In fact, I think I'd rate this the highest of everything so far. Higher than Rubber Soul, Unknown Pleasures and Velvet Underground & Nico (my other 5*s so far).
When I meet albums like this I'm trying to listen to them anew. It's probably been decades since I really listening to this album rather than had it on in the background or sung along. And it's amazing in every way.
I used to find the Stone Roses such an odd juxtaposition of frail, beautiful music and tough swagger. Now I've lived in Manchester for a couple of years, I don't find it odd at all. It's a horrible cliche to say it's the "Sound of Manchester" but it really is. That's what the city feels like: beautiful and gritty, peaceful and aggressive, a swirl of optimistic progressive politics and grimy industrial nostalgia.
Perfection.
I came to LCD Soundsystem a bit late. I think because it is, in many ways, totally not the sort of thing I'd listen to. As a result the first album of theirs I listened to (and still my favourite) was This is Happening. Of course, you couldn't not hear loads of tracks from this album while it was about. It was everywhere and it was brilliant, and it still is. If I could give a 4.5 I would.
I've always seen this as pretty much a perfect album and one I still revisit regularly. Hey, I was in sixth form when it came out and everyone loved it. It was an album that I bonded with people I'd normally hate over.
It's blues. Eric Clapton is playing guitar. That's all you need to know. Incredibly well executed but you've heard it all before and it smells of shit beer and machismo. Knowing as little of the blues as I do, I suspect there's something in this being an important album in the history of such music but it's a history full of guitar wankers I can't really be doing with.
I really don't know what to make of this. I don't hate the music; punky with a little more metal than I'd normally like. The lyrics, though, are something else, and not in a good way. The album gets really samey too.
I'm a sort of fan of S&G. Bridge Over Troubled Water is one of my favourite albums ever. I've never listened to this, though. I must admit the "concept" part of it didn't seem great to me. America is an astonishing song, but everything else that side left me a bit cold. The second side is far superior. And when it's good, it's really good.
Another album where the songs I already knew are amazing and the other tracks... less so. Also another album which was enough before my time that I never got into it but close enough that I can hear the influence in so much stuff I did get into. One of the biggest things I can hear in this record however, is Steve Albini.
Half way through this, the strength of the good stuff was enough to make this a 4 but by the end I've tired of the intentionally provocative sound enough drop it to a 3
I actually owned this album on cassette (don't judge me, I was seven years old!) and I still don't remember any of the awful filler which pervades it. The two big singles, Take on Me and The Sun Always Shines are still great though.
Enjoyed the title track. After that it descends into a lot of meh.
Another album which was everywhere when it was out but that never connected to me at the time, of course. It's actually very different to what I was expecting. Much more diverse and interesting. I really enjoyed listening to it and a couple of tracks might end up on my general rotation. Sags a bit in the middle but a stronger album than I was expecting as well.
Part blokes shouting about how cool they are over scratchy samples, part funkiness. I enjoyed it. I won't play it again. It certainly made me think of the Beastie Boys as more talented and diverse in output than I previously suspected.
I had a strange relationship with Radiohead. I had a taped copy of Pablo Honey which I listened to a few times and didn't think much of. Then I remember seeing High and Dry, a single released ahead of the album, on MTV and hating it. My mind at the time said this is overproduced try-hard rubbish. (By way of explanation I was mostly listening to Pavement) at the time. By the time OK Computer had come out, however, I'd gone to Uni and started listening to Pink Floyd. It was a perfect album to sell me at the time. So where did that leave Kid A?
I never listened to it. At all. The fact it even got released passed me by. The next time I noticed Radiohead they'd suddenly become seemingly the biggest band in the world. And I never really regained Radiohead. OK Computer is still one of my favourite albums ever but I've spent almost zero time listening to anything after that. I'm assuming there'll be a lot of it on here, it's that kind of list.
This album, listening to it now? It's very of it's time, isn't it? Maybe it felt like the future of music then. There's some tunes. Some of it sounds like the same band who made OK Computer. Much of the music seemed to be intentionally discarding anything which could be thought of as Alternative Rock or Indie Rock or whatever. I get that. Thom Yorke has the love/hate relationship with fame that so many great artists have.
Scores? I've written more about this album than almost any other (although, I've really written about me). There's no doubting it's a great piece of work. There's no doubting I'll listen to it again. There's nothing in there which has impact on me to even consider giving it 5. It's almost a textbook 4 for my scoring.
An album which came out when I was seventeen which pretty much describes my life at the time? How could this not be a 5? Friends and I listened to this to death before heading into town with a packet of Marlboro Lights and a bottle of cheap high-stength cider. Good times! It occurs to be that I still have the sideburns I probably grew under the influence of this record, although I've toned them down a bit. It's strong pop punk with the flavour of 90s Britain all the way through.
Christ this album has a rejuvenating effect on me. I really should put it back in my regular rotation!
This combines two of my least favourite things: Albums and dad rock. I don't know why I dislike live albums so much but I don't even like them by bands I love. And this is the worst type of live album: with all the showoff guitar solos and the crowd whooping, the crowd joining in and screaming. That shit's fine when you're at a gig. It ruins a record. Then the music itself: It's just so boring. I mean, man can play his guitar but I always find that a strange thing to build a sound. You can fine people who can play a guitar ridiculously well anywhere. If that's all you've got then what's the point?
Well this was completely unexpected. I think I'll have to listen to his other stuff to know what I think about him, to be honest. But I rather enjoyed this.
Love the Velvets. Not too sure about this. The songs are a bit samey and... boring. That last song is one of the worst I've heard for a while. Saved by Perfect day and Satellite of Love.
I honestly don't know what to make of this. There's so much talking about how amazing an album this is. Wonder is clearly an amazing writer and performer and this album is very consistent for a double album. I guess I end up back at that difficult and possibly unwanted phrase for reviewing an album: "it's just not my kind of thing." The synths are cringy. And it's just so long. I'm bored.
Enjoyed this more than I expected. The last hardcore punk type thing I listened to had awfully stupid lyrics. This one... I mean they're note Shakespeare or anything but they're not twatty. The music is more melodic than I expected. It's short and to the point. I can hear the influence on a lot of later music here too.
Another artist where I knew the big singles but not the album tracks. The stuff new to me was unexpected. More psychedelic and less poppy with certainly more sitar! I really enjoyed it. I can't quite believe I've not listened to it before because it's absolutely the sort of thing I love and by an artist I liked everything I've heard by. I'll definitely return to it again. I might even have scored it 5 if it wasn't for a couple of tracks which particularly outstayed their welcome (I'm looking at you, Guinivere)
Jesus this is awful. Just horrible horrible lift music.
I literally don't know what to write here. There's some amazing moments in this album. I remember hearing In The Neighbourhood on 120 Minutes years ago and it's always stuck with me. I love it. The rest of the album... I mean, I did like it but I felt like I was having to make myself listen. It's weird, no doubt. It's brilliant, I'm sure. It's not going to get played on a regular basis. It would have got a 2 but it gets a 3 just for In The Neighbourhood.
I find myself saying this a lot on here but I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. For hardcore punk there's a lot more signal to noise ratio than usual. These are actual songs. You could sing along to them. The words aren't quite as puerile as other bands. It's also over in just over 15 mins!
Five stars all the way. It's unfair, I guess, because it's an album I've listened to at least five million times and I love every part of. I remember buying this when I was visiting family in Leeds and they had a Virgin Megastore. It's pretty much calibrated for one side of me. Loud but fragile, often feeling ready to fall apart. It's beautiful. I still skip that last song though!
I really tried to like this; and I certainly didn't hate it. There's nothing to hate. It's just a bunch of musicians pissing about for forty minutes. They start of with one idea and they rinse that idea to death. They know what they're doing, so it's never horrible, but it's never really anything. I feel sorry for the bass player playing those same two notes over and over again for nearly twenty minutes of that first track.
It's not a 1 since I didn't hate it; but I there's nothing to give it more than a 2.
I enjoyed it more than I expected. Won't listen to it again.
I was expecting to like this. It was a real disappointment. Somehow manages to sound boring and self-important at the same time.
Never heard of them before but loved listening to it. I love the simple riffs, the distored guitar, the electronic sounds, the rhythms. It's the sort of album which could have been made any time between 1980 up to today and it would work. Love it. Definitely looking up their other stuff.
This is hard to score to be honest. If it weren't for the _actual words_ being said I might be wondering if I should score this 4. I'm not a rap fan but this guy has decent tunes and his own rapping style which I really enjoyed. But I just can't find enjoyment in an album with this content which is awful. It could still have been a 3 till he started rapping about his cock and then the stupid skits where they're acting out fucking it's dropped to a 1. What a waste of talent.
