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Tue May 09 2023
Deja Vu
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
This was one of three albums we had on cassette on a lad's holiday in the Lake District 30-odd years ago. We listened to each one many, many times. So I know this album well and it's a good one.
However, it's not a great album, some of the tracks have aged better than others. Neil Young's presence seems a little lacking. There's also a dip in quality on side 2 in my opinion.
3
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Wed May 10 2023
Fever To Tell
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Rather dull, sanitised post-punk with little in the way of soul. Singer was okay, but the rest of the band were very forgettable.
2
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Thu May 11 2023
Is This It
The Strokes
Enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Definitely a retro feel to this album, shades of Velvet Underground, with short, punchy indie pop songs.
4
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Fri May 12 2023
My Generation
The Who
Although I'm not going to become a Who fan after listening to one album, this was actually not nearly as bad as I had thought it would be. Dated and samey in places, but I guess it was ground-breaking at the time.
2
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Sat May 13 2023
Django Django
Django Django
Very reminiscent of west coast 60s surf rock. It's okay, but my initial enthusiasm faded as each track started to sound similar to the one before it. It's pleasant background music and it didn't grate, but I doubt I will listen to it ever again.
2
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Sun May 14 2023
Elastica
Elastica
I figured I would like this album and indeed I loved it from the opening to the first track. Nice mixture of short and interesting songs that never got stale, in fact it just got better and better the more I listened. It's not quite a 5, but seemed closer to a 5 than a 4.
5
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Mon May 15 2023
The Suburbs
Arcade Fire
Glorious Indie Rock/ Pop - shades of REM, Radiohead, even a bit of Ride and MBV here and there. An obvious 5 out of 5.
5
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Tue May 16 2023
Pink Moon
Nick Drake
One of my all time favourite albums. An immediate and automatic 5 stars.
5
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Wed May 17 2023
Green Onions
Booker T. & The MG's
It was pleasant enough, but I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to this again. Really grateful there were no lyrics, as singing would have made this really dated I think.
2
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Thu May 18 2023
Beyond Skin
Nitin Sawhney
Some of this is pleasant hip-hop/ trip-hop sounds that has some interesting tempos and instruments. The rest is just people making noises that I didn't really like. I think the vocals killed it for me, but it's not bad enough for 1 star, below average but not awful
2
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Fri May 19 2023
Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club
I enjoyed this far more than I expected to. It was great easy listening music and transported me to sunnier climes.
3
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Sat May 20 2023
In It For The Money
Supergrass
Plenty of memorable songs that have stood the test of time. It's a lovely sound, rich and dense, just a little murky. The tracks I hadn't heard before stood up well, with little filler.
4
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Sun May 21 2023
The College Dropout
Kanye West
This is quite the dilemma, it feels a bit like the medical research done by Nazis in WW2, should we use it to save lives, knowing it was based on unethical experiments? Although Kanye West is a terrible person, this is a very good album. It's also a breath of fresh air compared to the generic gangster rap garbage that was doing the rounds at the time.
If it was anyone else it would be a 5 star album, but because I know it's a bigot that produced this, I'm reducing it to 4 stars.
4
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Mon May 22 2023
Wild Is The Wind
Nina Simone
I enjoyed four women a lot, the rest of the tracks less so. I can appreciate the simplicity, power, and talent on show here, but it's really not the sort of music I enjoy and I would never listen to this again.
2
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Tue May 23 2023
Bitches Brew
Miles Davis
It wasn't difficult to listen to, but it also wasn't something that I particularly enjoyed, or would choose to listen to again in the near future. Nothing on this album really spoke to me, just lots of noises all jumbled up. Some of it was pleasant, some of it seemed to be going somewhere, but never really arrived. I'm sure it's all really clever stuff and I didn't hate it, but it was good background music at best.
2
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Wed May 24 2023
Achtung Baby
U2
There's some great pop songs here and the production is oh-so-glossy and polished, but U2 just leave me a bit cold. I think I used to own this album back in the day and it was just one of those albums I wouldn't ever think to listen to, as it's just lacking something special. Also, it really tapers off in quality for the last three or four tracks.
2
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Thu May 25 2023
Ellington at Newport
Duke Ellington
When I saw this album come up I was horrified that I would have to listen to such a long jazz album, I predicted it would be a 2-hour chore. However, the music was sublime and the talent was outstanding. The pseudo-live editing helped to make it all come together and give some sense of the pandemonium (I pretended not to know how much of it had been put together in a studio)! The whole time I was listening I was imagining old Tom & Jerry cartoons for some reason - guess the music is similar to the old soundtracks they used back then? I would definitely listen to this again and I was amazed how much I was moved by something recorded in the 1950s, the era of "bad" music.
5
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Fri May 26 2023
Want Two
Rufus Wainwright
I really like OK Computer by Radiohead, particularly Exit Music (for a Film). To me this album is like having that one song taken and expanded from a few minutes to an entire hour. After the pretty turgid first track, it was good but not great to my ears. Sort of mumbly and samey in parts, with some tracks standing out to some degree here and there.
2
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Sat May 27 2023
I Should Coco
Supergrass
I preferred the second album. This one is quite raw, some places in a good way, other places in a not so great way. I don't like "Alright" and that soured the experience for me slightly. I really like "Caught by the Fuzz" though, so it's all good. There was a nice variety of tempos and sounds, but it felt a little incohesive.
3
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Sun May 28 2023
Diamond Life
Sade
Smooth, jazz-lite, syrupy, sweet... awful elevator music. My first one star review - and well-deserved as there's literally nothing redeeming here. Awful music that makes me feel the world would be a better place if this album didn't exist. Sounds like someone with no soul, singing with a backing band of B-rated session musicians. This is radio 2 music, the sort of music that is so bland and meaningless that it can only offend by being so incredibly cheesy and dull to listen to. This is what sad hotel bands play to fill in the time between Chris de Burgh and other lobby music that give people indigestion. I spent 45 minutes feeling that I was in a telephone queue and someone had put this hold music on to try and discourage people from waiting for their turn.
1
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Mon May 29 2023
Imperial Bedroom
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Didn't like the whiny vocals or the dull arrangements. This was a chore to get through and I was glad when it was over. If this is Mr Costello's best album then god help me when the others show up. Lots of bland songs of a similar length and nature, nothing stood out. Sometimes there were strange noises that only served to wake me up and check how much longer I had to endure before I could call this one done. As the last strings and brass plodded away, fading into the distance, I had an immense feeling of satisfaction, knowing I would never have to listen to this drek ever again.
1
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Tue May 30 2023
Appetite For Destruction
Guns N' Roses
Takes me back to the summer of 1987, a year before this album was played everywhere. Me and my friends got it on import with the original album art (that got banned I think?) and for one year we got to play it to death before it was a hit in the UK. It's a great debut album, even though some tracks are covered too much by other bands and get too much radio play. That doesn't seem like a valid reason to knock off a star though, so it's the full 5-stars from me, even though it's not a genre (hair-metal) I normally appreciate, it's just such a great album!
5
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Wed May 31 2023
In Utero
Nirvana
I'm kind of surprised that I had never listened to this album before. I was a BIG fan of Nirvana up to Nevermind. Then my first child was born and music took a back seat for a few years. I knew this album had come out, but I thought it was some sort of acoustic rehash of earlier material or a put-together mash up of unreleased studio outtakes. Imagine my surprise and delight to realise it was neither of these, but an actual album that I had somehow missed. However, although it's a good album, these aren't my favourite Nirvana songs and there's a few meh tracks stuck in here and there among the better ones. A lot of people bang on about how much they liked the direction Nirvana were taking, but for my money they did one really good first album and then never managed to achieve the same heights in their later work.
4
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Thu Jun 01 2023
Berlin
Lou Reed
Pretty depressing, but in a good way. I was never really a fan of Lou Reed's solo albums before, having felt that his best work was as part of the Velvet Underground. When I first heard this album, many decades ago, I didn't really like it as it was a bit sparse and sad. Listening to it again, it just keeps getting better and when I got to the end I felt a powerful urge to listen to it again from the start. So I listened to it again, from the beginning to the end and it was even better the second time.
5
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Fri Jun 02 2023
Duck Rock
Malcolm McLaren
I remember this coming out and at the time it never really interested me. The video for Double Dutch was kind of cool, but the world music influences left me cold. Having been semi-forced to listen to the entire album, it was actually kind of enjoyable. I found Malcom McLaren's voice a bit annoying and felt the whole thing would have been better if had stuck to producing, or coming up with ideas, or whatever he actually did on this album, leaving everything else to the professionals. Couldn't give a stuff about who got credited and who didn't, not an issue for me; some of these artists got a kickstart to their careers and a new audience for their music. The world music influences still leave me somewhat cold, steel drums and people chanting meaningless words, but overall it was pleasant enough. The "Punk it Up" track was the only time I felt mildly annoyed throughout my listen. Double Dutch raises the rating from 2 to 3 stars.
3
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Sat Jun 03 2023
Purple Rain
Prince
I wasn't really looking forward to this one and sure enough it was just as bad as I remembered. I had to endure this album being played over and over by friends when it first came out and it hasn't aged well. I was glad to get to the end of it. There are a few tracks that are okay, plus a lot of filler, shrieking, bad guitar. Not my kind of music. Very 1980s; best left in the 1980s. I do actually like a few songs by Prince. I like his earlier stuff, also some of his later albums. I still remember the outrage when he appeared at some music awards ceremony and wasn't humble enough for the UK press. That has to be worth a star or two I suppose.
2
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Sun Jun 04 2023
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
OutKast
Listened to Speakerboxxx and I liked it a lot. Not exactly ground-breaking, but I loved the flow, the beats, the variety, even the skits. I've never listened to an entire Outkast album before and had always seen them as being associated with a couple of tracks that I got sick of hearing in the early 2000s. This was far better than I had expected. Didn't enjoy the second album as much, it was kind of grating and brought down the rating from 5-stars to 3-stars.
3
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Mon Jun 05 2023
Dust
Screaming Trees
Never heard of the Screaming Trees before. It was okay, a little bland, the vocals weren't great, but some of the guitar was quite nice. I liked the folky touches here and there, but the vocals killed it for me I'm afraid. Average overall.
3
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Tue Jun 06 2023
Low
David Bowie
I'm not really a big fan of Bowie, but this turned out to be rather enjoyable. I think the main reason I liked this so much was because it was more like a Brian Eno album with Bowie singing on only a couple of tracks here and there. Overall it was very relaxing and nice to listen to in a laid back way.
4
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Wed Jun 07 2023
American Beauty
Grateful Dead
Never liked the Grateful Dead and this album hasn't changed my opinion in the slightest. It was a slog of forgettable, country-tinged nastiness from start to finish. If I had to pick out a track as being slightly better than the rest, then it would be Friend of the Devil. I can think of so many other bands that did this genre better; the Eagles, CSN, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lynyrd Skynyrd. This is the epitome of bland music that should never have been made. It's radio friendly mush with poor musicianship, bad production, boring songs that don't go anywhere, horrible guitar picking with little licks added for no reason here and there. The only thing I liked was the cover.
1
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Thu Jun 08 2023
Darklands
The Jesus And Mary Chain
Short and sweet. I worked in East Kilbride for many years and still own a flat up there. This band is probably just about the only good thing to ever come out of East Kilbride!
The music is a lovely mish mash, with some parts sounding shoegazey, others like a Scottish version of the Velvet Underground. It's minimal in places, with little in the way of guitar solos or hook lines. The lyrics are suitably dark and depressing, with an undercurrent of humour "dead like a Christmas tree" springs to mind.
I have to say that I actually prefer other work by this band and I was slightly missing the wall of noise I had been looking forward to when I saw the Jesus and Mary Chain come up.
Difficult to award 5 stars, but definitely a 4.5.
4
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Fri Jun 09 2023
Next
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
My memories of this album is that there were always copious quantities of it in the record bins marked down to like 50p. I think I even owned this album at one point, but ultimately decided to ditch it. I really like the cover of Next on this album and it's definitely the high point. There's a few other pre-ACDC hard rock/ blues tracks that are enjoyable. However, I really didn't enjoy the more glam rock style tracks, Gang Bang being particularly odious. This makes it very difficult to score, as the individual tracks range from 1 to 5. I think a 3 rating makes sense for me.
3
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Sat Jun 10 2023
Red Headed Stranger
Willie Nelson
This is what I love about this album generator. I would never have listened to Willie Nelson by choice, Country Music is a genre that I always considered as something to despise, lots of "Get Along Lil' Doggie" and Dolly Parton. The closest I would ever normally get to Country would be parody songs about families all dying and the crops dying, etc.
This album has opened my eyes to music that I never realised existed. Sparse and simple, relaxing, laid back, a concept album that tells a coherent story about love, betrayal, revenge, and redemption, all tied up nicely and bookended with some outstanding piano pieces. Loved it.
5
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Sun Jun 11 2023
Modern Life Is Rubbish
Blur
A little samey in places, but every time I was starting to get a bit bored, it would start to move in a different direction. Dreamy pop with a nice mix of different styles taken from older musicians and also contemporaries. Hints of everyone from Bowie to Ray Davies. Probably somewhere between a 2 and 4 for me for the first disc. Then it seemed to get more rambling and boring the longer I listened and was actually horrified to find I was still in the first third of the second disc when I was hoping to be near the end. As the last disc rolled on things started to get worse and worse, awful covers, horrible filler, I wish they had just stopped at the end of the first disc to be honest. Two stars I guess.
2
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Mon Jun 12 2023
Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
Spiritualized
I was a big fan of Spacemen 3 back in the day, and always felt that Spiritualized were okay, but not quite up to the same standard. Jason took the gospel/ soul elements and dialled them up to ten and that wasn't the part of the music I liked the most. This album was more of a return to form I felt and I enjoyed it when it was first released. However, it's not an album I would listen to over and over again, like the Spacemen 3 material. There's a mixture between space rock, psychedelia, laid back drone sounds, with the aforementioned gospel elements thrown in. Listening to it now, for the first time in a couple of decades, it's actually a bit better than I remembered. I don't like some of the songs, the slow ones with just singing and not much instrumental accompaniment, they're just a bit dull. This makes the end result a strong 3 stars.
3
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Tue Jun 13 2023
A Girl Called Dusty
Dusty Springfield
Awful, just terrible, dated, of its time music that I would rather have not had to listen to. I derived zero enjoyment from listening to this rather dull collection of drab songs. I almost had to stop when I endured Dusty wailing away during Mockingbird, an unpleasant experience. I was also disturbed to learn this must have been a double album, as the listening time was too long for a single LP. Truly a test of endurance to make it all the way to the end, like having the worst radio station ever on for an hour.
1
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Wed Jun 14 2023
Nothing's Shocking
Jane's Addiction
I was actually a bit excited when I saw this album come up, as I vaguely liked Jane's Addiction and had never listened to a full album before. However, although I did enjoy this listen, it wasn't enough to change my vague appreciation to anything stronger. I've never liked the funk-metal genre, so a number of songs here grated slightly. I did like the more Led Zepplin inspired tracks and an album of just this material would have been great. So I ended up with something I enjoyed listening to, but would probably never make an effort to listen to again. Even the "Jane Says" track did little for me I'm afraid. Definitely a 3-star, probably the most 3-star album I've heard so far, not awful (and quite consistent), but nothing special. "Mountain Song" was by far my favourite track.
3
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Thu Jun 15 2023
Exit Planet Dust
The Chemical Brothers
Pretty chill album, no stand out tracks, but a vague urge to play Wipeout all the way through listening. I own this album already, but it's not one I listened to a lot back in the day, as it was always a bit too mellow and slow for me. It sounds a little better now after a gap of 20 years or so between listens, a definite four. Notably, I have quite a few Chemical Brothers tracks liked on Spotify, but not a single one of them is from this album. Greater things were to come on future releases and the sound here is a bit raw and samey.
4
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Fri Jun 16 2023
Manassas
Stephen Stills
I didn't hate it and it was actually quite pleasant listening in parts, but it didn't give me any reason to ever listen to this again. I think my main issue with this album is that the songs don't really have any relevance to me. The lyrics all seem to be about things I couldn't care less about, hippy concepts and lovey dovey stuff. I hovered between 2 and 3 stars for this.
2
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Sat Jun 17 2023
Disintegration
The Cure
I've always been a bit on the fence with the Cure. On one hand, I like some of their early stuff, remember it having a place at goth night clubs back in the early to mid 80s, nothing that would ever induce me to listen to a whole album, but not awful. One the other hand, they released "Love Cats", which was monstrous.
This album didn't really change my view. I found myself hoping for instrumentals, as Robert Smith's voice was just a tiny bit too petulant and whiny in places. Many times he didn't start up any singing until halfway through a track, which suited me fine. By the end I was actually quite enjoying it.
4
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Sun Jun 18 2023
Dig Me Out
Sleater-Kinney
Raucous guitar and simple, short songs. I had never heard of this band before and was expecting this album to be awful, but I was pleasantly surprised to find I really liked it. I will definitely listen to this again.
4
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Mon Jun 19 2023
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Bit of a mixed bag, the harmonies are a little grating to be honest, but there's some good tracks on this album alongside the duller ones.
3
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Tue Jun 20 2023
...And Justice For All
Metallica
For me this was the last Metallica album that I really liked. The first album was raw but had great songs and catchy riffs. The second album was somewhat more technical, but still had some rawness. The third album was far more commercial and this one is more of the same. To consistently put out four amazing albums without any real filler is an amazing feat. I don't personally think anything Metallica did after "...and Justice" stands up to this.
I saw them on this tour, in Donnington Monsters of Rock I think and it was just after Jason Newsted had joined. He did a great job here trying to cover for Cliff Burton RIP, who obviously had his hand in most of the songs.
Powerful and epic from start to finish.
Easy 5 stars.
5
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Wed Jun 21 2023
Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Sounded like a mixture of Bowie and the Velvet Underground, with honkey-tonk piano. I was expecting less musicianship and more glam. I don't think there was actually any glam rock that I could hear. I liked the first half better than the second half, but it was all not bad.
3
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Thu Jun 22 2023
Penthouse And Pavement
Heaven 17
First impression here is the repetition is off the scale. Some of these songs are just a phrase repeated over and over again with little to no variation. It did end up being just short enough to get away with being pretty awful in some places. I kind of didn't mind some of the jingly-jangly proto-synth-pop bits, but as I'm typing is I can hear they put the last song on an annoying loop to close out the album. Was going to be generous and go for a three, but this is definitely two material.
2
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Fri Jun 23 2023
Rapture
Anita Baker
It wasn't quite bad enough for 1 star, but it was pretty meh. Syrupy pop/ soul stuff that is radio friendly and instantly forgettable.
2
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Sat Jun 24 2023
Bad
Michael Jackson
Difficult to review this one. Half of the album is made up of big hits that I can appreciate the quality of. The other half of the album is made up of what could only be described as filler, nothing stands out as anything other than that.
It made me wonder if the bad tracks on Bad are there simply to make up the running time, maybe they're not as bad as I thought and just haven't had the airplay that the other tracks get, or maybe it's part of the whole MJ song writing. Maybe there's always going to be failures to sit alongside the huge hits?
3
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Sun Jun 25 2023
Fisherman's Blues
The Waterboys
Rather dull, very "fiddly". The first half was bland and the second half was grating. Not my kind of music.
2
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Mon Jun 26 2023
S.F. Sorrow
The Pretty Things
Well this was a band I had definitely never heard of, so I went into this not knowing what to expect. It was reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, but with more guitar in place, plus a touch of the Beatles and other pop/psychedelic bands of the 1960s. There weren't any stand-out tracks on a single play through, but nothing too awful either. It's hard to rate, probably somewhere between a 3 and a 4.
4
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Tue Jun 27 2023
Surrealistic Pillow
Jefferson Airplane
I think this album can be split into two parts, the rockier numbers with Grace Slick singing, which are great, and the poppier/ folky numbers without Grace Slick singing, which are nothing special. There's a similarity to other bands, like the Beach Boys, CSN, etc. a sort of folk-rock-pop combination that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Without the two big hits this would probably be a 2, but I'm going to raise it to 3 stars for White Rabbit alone.
3
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Wed Jun 28 2023
Time Out
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
It wasn't amazing, but it was easy to listen to, quite pleasant and interesting to hear hints of what would come in the following decades. There were definitely some parts that sounded like the beginnings of Progressive Rock for example, particularly King Crimson. Another one that was hard to rate. It felt like a pretty strong 3, not quite enough for a 4.
3
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Thu Jun 29 2023
In Our Heads
Hot Chip
This was the very definition of innocuous music. Many different flavours, but all of them were really vanilla once the sprinkles fell off. I heard Heaven 17, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, even a bit of Reverend and the Makers as I listened. Nothing new, nothing really exciting, just pleasant and abstract reimagining of music that already existed. I kind of liked Flutes, but only because it stood out as being a bit different from the rest of the album. Synth Pop/ 80s-retro, no way can I see this as having any Dance music influences. Very middle of the road 3 stars because I didn't hate it but it didn't really do much for me.
3
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Fri Jun 30 2023
Forever Changes
Love
I recognised the album cover immediately, but this is an album I haven't and wouldn't ever have listened to by choice. I always had Love down as some sad flower power band who faded away like the hippy dreams of the 60s did. I recognised the first track immediately, didn't know it was Love who did this and liked it. The rest of the album was a glorious mix of uplifting, happy music and depressing lyrics about society failing. Definitely 4 stars for me, not quite perfect, and nothing stood out enough for a full 5 stars.
4
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Sat Jul 01 2023
Music in Exile
Songhoy Blues
Liked the first track, but then it just flowed over me as every track sounded similar to the one before it. Was bored of this long before it ended.
2
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Sun Jul 02 2023
Bone Machine
Tom Waits
When I was at university I attended a Tom Waits film showing. I can't remember what we saw, some documentary with Tom Waits providing the music, it was arty. After the first five minutes people began to stand up and leave, soon it was a mass exodus. The people leaving seemed almost angry, as it they had been here under false pretences. There was also a mild disgust directed at the people who weren't leaving, as if they were only remaining in their seats to be annoying. In hindsight, I think it was more likely that the people leaving felt threatened by those staying, as they must see something in the music that the people leaving couldn't appreciate. About fifteen minutes in, we were down to around a third of the original crowd, but notably, nobody else left before the end.
As for this album, I found it imperfect, but still enjoyable, and very much an interesting listening experience. I have a few Tom Waits albums, but earlier ones. I hadn't ever heard this before, but it was a great mix of howls, shouts, the odd melody, and more howling. Easy 4 stars.
4
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Mon Jul 03 2023
Vanishing Point
Primal Scream
Seeing that this album was meant to be a "sort of" movie soundtrack makes sense. It's an eclectic mixture of mood-music with the odd vocals thrown in here and there. I was looking forward to the cover of Motorhead, but that actually felt a bit dull then it finally came along. Lots of Happy Mondays vibes. I hovered between a 3-star and 4-star rating, but in the end I think this would be great music to have on in the background and I'm going to go for the higher score for that reason alone.
4
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Tue Jul 04 2023
Surfer Rosa
Pixies
This is one of the handful of 5-star albums that I have been looking forward to and the first to come up on my list. A most excellent album, and my favourite Pixies album by far. An excellent album, even though they had an idiot of a producer and this wasn't a massive hit when it was first released.
Looking back, this is an interesting album, it has some of the signs of what was to come later, more refined, but ultimately a bit more boring. Along with the surfer rock/ punk combination, there's shades of the Velvet Underground here and there. Fantastic melodies, interesting strong structures, amazing sound. Nobody really stands out above the pack in this album, it's a definite team album, with the whole standing way above the sum of its parts.
This is also a very short album, just over 30 minutes of excellence.
5
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Wed Jul 05 2023
Joan Armatrading
Joan Armatrading
Saw the album cover and was half looking forward to some Tracy Chapman, until I noticed the year, then the name of the album. Although this wasn't quite bad enough for a single star rating, it was incredibly dull from start to finish. Middle of the road, boring, the first few tracks were slightly more interesting, but it rapidly became a snooze-fest of safe nothingness. I remember Love and Affection being a hit in the 1970s; hated it then, if anything it's even worse now. I feel 2 stars is being generous.
2
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Thu Jul 06 2023
Grievous Angel
Gram Parsons
I ended up going down the rabbit hole of reading about Gram Parsons, as I had never heard of him before and he seems to have lived a really interesting life. I don't normally like this style of music, but it was pretty inoffensive and I quite liked the musical arrangements here and there. It felt slightly closer to a 3 than a 2, probably 4 out of 10, and it wasn't overlong, so a 3 rating seems appropriate.
3
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Fri Jul 07 2023
Bummed
Happy Mondays
This was a fun listening experience. I knew around half of the tracks really well from a "best of" album I owned in the 90s. The other half were almost entirely new to me. I can see why some people would be annoyed by the production, Shaun's vocals, or even the fact this music is very much "of it's time". None of these are problems for me in the slightest. I've always liked the stream of consciousness lyrics that Mr Ryder comes up with, the strange combination of alt-rock, psychedelia, and dance music. It was far from a perfect album, probably somewhere between a 3 and a 4 stars, but I'm going to hike it up to 4 stars for how original this was at the time.
4
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Sat Jul 08 2023
All Directions
The Temptations
Seeing The Temptations come up didn't instil me with joy it has to be said. But the album started out better than I had expected. The second side trailed away a little in terms of quality and overall it felt a bit like one long track "Papa was a..." with some filler packed around it to make an album. It wasn't awful, but it probably hovers between 2 and 3 stars for me. I'll give it a grudging 3 as it was quite short and the main track is a classic.
3
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Sun Jul 09 2023
I Am a Bird Now
Antony and the Johnsons
The music sounded quite nice, but good grief, the vocals were awful. Warbling and affected, like someone doing deliberately bad singing for a comedy recording, it killed the entire album for me. Even the presence of Lou Reed wasn't enough to save this from the weird warbling noises that just vibrated up and down constantly, ruining everything. I always like to complete albums, even stinkers like this one, but it took me multiple sittings to endure the awful caterwauling noise coming out of the singer. Sorry, but this really isn't for me, just plain torture from start to finish. Like someone gargling their own snot, not a single phrase made without some vibrato added where it totally wasn't required.
1
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Mon Jul 10 2023
Vento De Maio
Elis Regina
I have to admit that I was dreading this based on the year and cover alone. I was also disheartened to find I was going to be listening to someone singing in a non-English language. However, by the end of the first track I was happy to find that this was not at all what I was expecting. It seemed like a mixture of funk, jazz, strong progressive elements, complex arrangements, and fantastic singing. Somehow I found myself singing along, even though the songs might as well as have been in Martian for all I could understand of them. It feel it would be unfair to give this album less than 4 stars, but it doesn't quite reach the heights required for a full 5 star rating.
4
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Tue Jul 11 2023
The Genius Of Ray Charles
Ray Charles
It wasn't the best produced album, but it wasn't dreadful and I found it quite enjoyable. I also liked the fact that each side sounded so different, which kept my interest going.
3
View Album
Wed Jul 12 2023
The Undertones
The Undertones
Very samey, but in a good way I guess. There's a few stand out songs, but everything else is just more of the same with slightly different lyrics and a slightly different tune. Short and sweet, but nothing amazing.
3
View Album
Thu Jul 13 2023
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
Mudhoney
I had vaguely been aware of Mudhoney's existence, but never listened to an actual song by them, never mind a whole album. This turned out to be an enjoyable experience. They sounded like a mix of Nirvana, the Pixies, with a bit of Neutral Milk Hotel thrown in for good measure. The vocals were great, the guitar was fantastic, nothing irritated me or felt off. This was very close to being a 5 star album, but not quite there.
4
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Fri Jul 14 2023
Future Days
Can
I was vaguely aware of CAN's existence, but I didn't even know that they were a German band. I wasn't really sure what to expect, maybe some experimental, jangly noise that I might find slightly irritating, or hippy crap that never went anywhere. I certainly wasn't expecting the dreamy space rock sounds I was treated to. I think the closest band I can think of to this is probably Hawkwind, particularly the last track (Bel Air) which was my favourite and could have easily appeared on In Search of Space (which came out a couple of years earlier than this album) without anyone noticing. It's another really hard album to rate, which shows the 1-5 ratings just don't work in my opinion. This would probably be an 8, but I'm not giving it a 5 rating as I'm reserving that for albums that are practically perfect.
4
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Sat Jul 15 2023
She's So Unusual
Cyndi Lauper
Never liked Cyndi Lauper. She has a nasal, whiny singing voice that makes me think of nails on a blackboard. She always seems on the verge of shouting as though she has a serious chest infection and her voice has to squeeze past congestion. I keep expecting her to start coughing her lungs up at the end of each song. She was sold as being quirky and unusual, but always came over as being slightly unhinged, in a sad way. I didn't enjoy the big hits on this album when they were being played everywhere and time hasn't improved this situation. The music is pretty basic synth pop, bland, the sort of music played by those part-time bands that play at weddings for middle-aged people to dance to. I was thinking about a 2-star rating for a little while, but as I got into the second half I realised this is a definite 1-star for me.
1
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Sun Jul 16 2023
Figure 8
Elliott Smith
Very Beatles-esque and I don't like the Beatles so I didn't really enjoy this much either. The quieter and more reflective songs were boring, while some of the more energetic songs were sort of okay I guess. As the album progressed my interest waned and around the halfway mark I was just looking forward to this ending. Whiny and dull. Not bad enough for 1 star, but not deserving of more than 2 for me.
2
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Mon Jul 17 2023
Tres Hombres
ZZ Top
I always preferred ZZ Top's earlier albums to the synth-driven 80s soft rock that was to come. This isn't my favourite album but it still has some great tracks on it, including Jesus Just Left Chicago and La Grange. It gets a bit lost on the way, so it's not quite a 5-star album, but an easy 4 stars.
4
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Tue Jul 18 2023
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
One of the best albums ever recorded, an instant 5-star rating. This is where the stars must have aligned and the various artists came together to produce an album full of back to back classics. This album will always remind me of working at Pizza Hut in the 1980s. Our treat on a Saturday close would be to put this album on as loud as the sound system could handle and clean up the store as we listened. Ideally we would be lying on our backs having a smoke for the last two tracks.
This is truly almost an hour of perfection, stunning and timeless, an influential album that has stood the test of time and still sounds as fresh today as it did when it first came out. I hate to think how many hundreds of times I must have listened to this album, yet it still moves me to tears as it's just so bloody brilliant.
5
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Wed Jul 19 2023
Mermaid Avenue
Billy Bragg
Sometimes I read other people's reviews and wonder if they were listening to the same album as me. I guess different people have different tastes, which is fine; nothing wrong with that.
This was fifty minutes of turgid and depressing dullness, truly awful from start to finish. There were no stand out tracks, apart from maybe Hoodoo Voodoo, which was a definite low point and where I would have normally given up listening if I hadn't promised myself to endure to the bitter end.
It didn't get any better and if anything it actually got worse.
1
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Thu Jul 20 2023
Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Oh god, that shrill voice was painful first thing in the morning. My tinnitus was so bad by the halfway mark, I actually thought about giving up on this. There were periods where I was lulled into a false sense of security and then the screeching would start up again.
I guess this wasn't quite dreadful enough for only 1 star, but there was little here that I took any enjoyment from. The guitar playing was okay, but the horrible voice ruined this for me. I can imagine this album being weaponised by being played at loud volume to get protestors to move on, which would be slightly ironic.
The folk songs chosen here had no interest to me whatsoever, boring and twee. There was little joy in this recording, it came over as too serious and almost forced. I was glad to get to the end and will make a point of never listening to this again if I can help it.
1
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Fri Jul 21 2023
All Mod Cons
The Jam
I didn't expect to like this album, but I was a bit disappointed to find I didn't really think much of it either way. It was a pretty uninspiring listening experience from start to end.
In 1978 there was a clear distinction in my class at school between people who like the Jam and people who preferred AC/DC. I was firmly in the latter group. This album brought back some of those memories. The pop-punk-lite songs all sounded rather watered down, although there was the odd flash of something more going on here and there.
This was difficult to rate as it wasn't awful, but I wouldn't make an effort to ever listen to this album again. It's probably somewhere between a 2 and a 3, but I'll give it a 3 purely because I do like the last track a little bit more than the rest of this rather pedestrian album.
3
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Sat Jul 22 2023
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
Well this was a rare treat after a run of duds. Not my favourite album by the Velvet Underground, but it's still a solid 5-stars.
Even though this is one of the more straightforward albums with only really Murder Mystery being experimental, there's still so much to take in here. Never dull, there's a mixture of ballads, straight-up rock songs, and everything in between. Each song is perfectly placed in terms of structure and pace, absolute perfection!
It's staggering to think how much of an influence the Velvet Underground were on the music scene and how an album from the 1960s sounds so fresh that it could have been recorded yesterday. There's nothing flashy or clever here, just people singing with guitars and backing. But this is exactly what is so revolutionary about the Velvets, showing the world what could be done and inspiring generations of musicians who came after them.
5
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Sun Jul 23 2023
Meat Puppets II
Meat Puppets
I'd never even heard of the Meat Puppets before, so this was a pleasant listening experience. Lots to love here, great guitar, interesting lyrics and delivery. I can see how the vocals might put some people off, but they were a good fit as far as I was concerned.
Nowhere near perfect and it petered out a bit towards the end a little. Definitely worth 4 stars though.
4
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Mon Jul 24 2023
New Wave
The Auteurs
I liked this more and more as the album progressed through various shades of brit pop/ alt rock. No real high points, but no low points either. It felt somewhere between a 3 and a 4 star album to me.
3
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Tue Jul 25 2023
25
Adele
This was okayish I suppose. I don't think I would have recognised an Adele track before as I have zero interest in pop music. I didn't recognise any of the songs on this album, but they were inoffensive, just maybe a bit bland in places. She has a good voice, so I'm going for a three.
3
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Wed Jul 26 2023
Machine Head
Deep Purple
Deep Purple were actually a pretty respectable band back in the 1970s, decades before they became a comedy band. Lots of talent on display here from the classic Mk2 line up. This was a fun listen, where I knew half the tracks really well, but hadn't heard the other half much at all. I was expecting this to be a strong 4-star album, based on the fact that I predicted to find the tracks I hadn't heard before were all filler, but they weren't and this is a strong 5 star album.
5
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Thu Jul 27 2023
Tuesday Night Music Club
Sheryl Crow
This felt like it was going to be a chore and indeed it wasn't a great listen, but it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was going to be and I even quite liked some of the less pop-rock songs in the latter half. Still not strong enough for more than a 2-star rating though.
2
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Fri Jul 28 2023
Fishscale
Ghostface Killah
Kilo is a thousand grammes, easy to remember! I wasn't expecting to see a Ghostface Killah album come up, but it was definitely a pleasant surprise. I would be hard pressed to pick just one of his albums to put in this list, but I guess if I had to choose, then this would be the one. Even though there's so many guest artists and producers, this is always a Ghostface album, and all the better for it.
It was always a bit of a disappointment for me that some of the members of the Wu-Tang Clan went on to pretty dull solo work, but there was still plenty of good stuff that came of the project, Raekwon and GZA spring to mind, but Ghostface was probably the most prolific and also the best for consistent quality.
Easy 5 star album that was a delight to listen to again after not hearing it in a year or three. I still sing "whips me with a strap" on a weekly basis.
5
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Sat Jul 29 2023
Bookends
Simon & Garfunkel
Thought I was going to hate this, but it wasn't too bad. Hazy Shade of Winter is a great song and I honestly didn't even know it was Simon & Garfunkel who recorded it - I thought it was The Bangles. Some of the other songs were okay too. I was expecting a 1-2 star album, but this turned out to be a 3-4 star experience. I think there's definitely pleasure to be had listening to this again, so I'm going to give out a generous 4.
4
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Sun Jul 30 2023
Supa Dupa Fly
Missy Elliott
It was okay I guess, nothing incredible, got a bit dull in the middle, but picked up again near the end. Didn't hate it, but wouldn't go out of my way to listen to this again.
3
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Mon Jul 31 2023
Crocodiles
Echo And The Bunnymen
This was a funny one. I never used to like Echo and the Bunnymen. By the time I heard of them they had released a few hits and I didn't particularly like any of them. I had some friends who liked the band, but I had already written them off and wasn't convinced otherwise by listening to their later albums.
However, this album I enjoyed. There seems to be a strange mixture of sounds here, synth pop, psych rock, very jingly guitars and a few songs I was singing along too without knowing them.
Some of it grated, so it's not a 5, but it's a decent 4 star album.
4
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Tue Aug 01 2023
Young Americans
David Bowie
Okay, but a bit dull. Was glad to get to the end as it dragged on a bit. I feel 2 stars is generous, but it wasn't dreadful enough for only 1 star.
2
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Wed Aug 02 2023
Tellin’ Stories
The Charlatans
Very bland album from the band that nobody wanted to own up to liking at the time. They were a few years too late, too poppy, a bit whiny and derivative. This album was pretty much what I was expecting, like a poor man's version of all the more accomplished bands around that had already done the same thing a decade or so earlier. The murky production didn't help much and there wasn't anything to stand out, no amazing guitar or exciting compositions, just lots of stuff that sounded a bit like other bands. I was considering a 3-star rating, but I think I'll drop this one to a 2.
2
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Thu Aug 03 2023
Roots
Sepultura
I knew of Sepultura but I had only a vague awareness of this album and had never actually heard a single track from it before today. I figured the mixture of metal and world music wouldn't be great, but I actually really enjoyed this one. It was surprising how well this has held up for an album made in the 1990s and it's amazing to see how much Gojira has "borrowed" from this material.
The vocals sounded very like early Slayer, the groove-metal just reminded me of any number of bands, but the tribal elements fitted in well and kept things interesting.
It's definitely worth a relisten, but it wasn't quite a 5-star experience, probably close to a 9/10, but not quite perfect enough for 5/5.
4
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Fri Aug 04 2023
Parachutes
Coldplay
I remember having this album on rotation back when it came out. I went through a period of really liking it, then it began to grate a bit, then Coldplay became too popular and I rapidly lost interest in them.
Putting aside the unfortunate personalities involved, there's still a lot to like here. Although they come across as a poor man's Radiohead, there's plenty of high points on their debut album. I like the mellow sound and everything just glides along nicely without any abrasive parts, but also without ever getting dull.
Listening to this after a gap of 20+ years was interesting. I remembered half of the tracks very clearly and the other half not at all. The second half does drag on a tiny bit towards the end.
Difficult to rate this, I thought somewhere between a 3 and 4 star rating seemed fair. It's not perfect but it's a solid album and I enjoyed listening it to after a sizeable gap. I'm going to go with a 4.
4
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Sat Aug 05 2023
MTV Unplugged In New York
Nirvana
I think I have heard just about every track off this album at some point over the years, even seen a bit on video from the actual performance, but never sat down and listened to the whole thing from start to finish.
It was a good mix of material, also a showcase that these songs can stand up to a far more sparse arrangement with semi-acoustic instruments being played. I'm glad the Meat Puppets album came up for me a week or so ago, as otherwise I wouldn't have known the three tracks that were played near the end.
I remember at the time that everyone was raving over this "new direction" for Nirvana, but it's not quite as ground breaking in retrospect. In fact, many of these songs just seem to work as well, if not better in this format.
Not quite a 5-star for me - it's a great performance though and worthy of 4-stars.
4
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Sun Aug 06 2023
Elephant Mountain
The Youngbloods
Started off really well, but never really lived up to the first track. It was okay in places, but I think I would have preferred if they had stuck to at least one musical style rather than chopping and changing between psych-rock, bluegrass, jazz, etc. Not amazing, but not abysmal, so 2 stars from me.
2
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Mon Aug 07 2023
Slanted And Enchanted
Pavement
I was dimly aware of Pavement, somewhere between an American version of The Fall and The Velvet Underground. Some of the songs here could have been on a Fall album without seeming out of place at all, which is a good thing in my personal opinion.
As the album progressed I heard echoes of The Pixies, even a little shoegaze here and there. Really enjoyed this.
5
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Tue Aug 08 2023
Paul Simon
Paul Simon
It wasn't totally horrid, just a bit dull. 2 stars as it was inoffensive, no more than 2 stars because it just didn't do much for me. I kind of liked Duncan as the one stand out track I guess.
2
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Wed Aug 09 2023
Double Nickels On The Dime
Minutemen
I'm pretty torn here. This wasn't a bad album, but I did tire of it by the end as it was long and 43 tracks started to feel a bit of a chore. Okay, the tracks are all very short, but even so it did begin to drag. Some bits stood out and I had a gut feeling that I might like this a lot more with repeated listens. I also experienced a bit of snobbery, as Hardcore is essentially American punk and that just feels wrong!
The half-spoken vocals were probably the weak point for me. I liked the music, but there wasn't anything to ever grab hold of due to the rapid delivery of short songs. Ultimately, this album slipped away from me a bit.
3
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Thu Aug 10 2023
Abraxas
Santana
This was another "oh no!" moment when I saw Santana pop up in my list. I had mentally placed them into the same category as bands like the Grateful Dead - ponderous and boring hippy-shit. I was expecting an album of Latin-tinged coffee commercial pap, but it turned out I was wrong.
From the opening I realised this was going to be something much better than I had expected. I could hear echoes of Pink Floyd (particularly Animals - which would come 7 years down the line) and a bit of Deep Purple. The guitar was great, but the whole album was well put together, never dragging and changing style throughout.
The covers at the start were probably the highlights, but I also enjoyed the instrumentals, even the foreign language tracks were good. Not quite a 5-star experience, but pretty close.
4
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Fri Aug 11 2023
The Trinity Session
Cowboy Junkies
Laid back and gently unassuming. Incredibly boring. I'm sure there's some great stuff going on here, but it's really not for me. I have heard many albums from this list that are outside my comfort zone and I learned to love, but this is just an hour of dullness. I guess it would make good atmospheric music for something where the music was entirely in the background, but it's not something I would ever choose to listen to again.
As the album progressed it felt more and more like it was slipping away from me, shyly trying to hide itself, almost as if the volume on my headset was being turned down lower and lower. I was reminded of that game kids play where they make quieter and quieter noises in turn, until it's almost impossible to distinguish between the noise and utter silence. Having an hour of silence might have been preferable here.
I was thinking 1 star, but they cover Sweet Jane and that's got to be worth a star maybe. God it's an awful cover though, it sucked all the life out of that poor song. I think 2 stars for the astounding levels of tiredness I felt listening to this. I might have found the perfect music to put myself to sleep with?
2
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Sat Aug 12 2023
Fear Of A Black Planet
Public Enemy
I feel like I need to break my own scoring rules here. This is definitely a 5-star album, but there is also a bit of filler, so it's not perfect.
For me this will always be the "middle album" of the trio of really great Public Enemy albums. There's some fantastic tracks here, particularly Fight the Power, probably my favourite Public Enemy track of all time. The samples are diverse, dense, interesting, and set up a great backing for Chuck D and Flavour Flav. There's so many iconic moments here to mention and much of this album has itself ended up being sampled for a multitude of purposes, which is slightly ironic I guess. It makes you wonder how much copyright laws stifle musical creativity.
The weaker parts are still musically interesting and there's definitely some importance to the positioning/ sequence of the album. However, some of the individual tracks are just so good that they can be lifted out and stand up on their own right.
5
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Sun Aug 13 2023
Peace Sells...But Who's Buying
Megadeth
I saw Megadeth headline Christmas on Earth 1987 in Queens Hall, Leeds, a couple of years before the venue was demolished. It was an "interesting" day. Me and my friends had to sit out most of the support bands, as we had decided to start the day with a bottle of vodka each and needed to sleep this off in a corner of the venue. However, we were all okay by the time Dave Mustaine hit the stage.
The band played many tracks from this album and they pretty much all sounded better than they did on the original mix of Peace Sells. The first album was really badly produced, but this one also has a bit of a muddy sound, particularly the vocals.
Megadeth have always been the lesser of the "big four" for me but this is probably one of the high points in their career. There's a couple of stand out tracks (Wake up Dead and Peace Sells), with everything else a bit forgettable. Definitely a strong 4-star, not quite enough for the full 5 stars.
4
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Mon Aug 14 2023
Brothers
The Black Keys
I guess this was okayish, nothing really stood out as overly grating, just all a bit formulaic and dull.
2
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Tue Aug 15 2023
Brothers In Arms
Dire Straits
This was a pleasant surprise. I despise Money for Nothing, mainly due to the fact that when it was a hit it seemed to lurk around for years and was on constant radio/ TV rotation. I also knew Walk of Life and didn't particularly like it either. I figured that was about it for the tracks I knew, but I half remembered the title track maybe.
Turns out I had heard almost every track on here at some point or another, often without even realising it was Dire Straits.
On one hand this is awful AOR, sax-solos, 80s cheese, pop/rock, everything I disliked about the 1980s. However, it's done so well, the guitar is superb, the long tracks almost sound like prog rock in places. I came away having seen why this was such a big hit. There's always a reason for an album being popular enough to be one of the biggest selling records of all time. Often the reason is simply that it's a good album and I feel this is the case here.
Not a 5-star album, and not even a strong 4-star one, but I'm giving it 4 stars anyway as I enjoyed it and, once I was past the hits, it was better than I had expected.
4
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Wed Aug 16 2023
At San Quentin
Johnny Cash
This was a blast! I enjoyed it so much I even watched the film that was made of the performance. I'm not going to give it a 5-star rating, as musically it wasn't really my cup of tea, but it's a well-deserved 4 stars. There's definitely some bonus points there for the sheer persona of Johnny Cash. He oozes coolness throughout and turns some basic music into something special.
4
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Thu Aug 17 2023
Vulgar Display Of Power
Pantera
This is my favourite Pantera album and I like Pantera, so it's an instant 5-star review from me. I liked Cowboys from Hell, but this album feels more coherent, everyone at the top of the individual member's form, tight as it could possibly be. The songs are great and we even get Hollow at the end.
Lovely production here as well, just overall a fantastic album. It's always a good sign when I open Spotify and half the tracks have green hearts already!
I used to play this endlessly as background music when I was playing some video game (that I can't remember the name of now) back in the day and it never got annoying.
Yes, this was a high point with many lows to follow, but I'm not going to knock off a point just because the lead singer turned into a douchebag.
5
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Fri Aug 18 2023
Sulk
The Associates
This is probably the most 80s album I've had to date. It seems set up to grate, falsetto singing, synth pop, experimental sounds. However, I ended up really enjoying it. I knew the two "hits" which I guess are literally all I had ever heard from this band before. I had a dim recollection of when they first charted that was dredged up from the sludge in my head from the early 80s.
This one is extremely hard to score fairly. I feel it's somewhere between a 3 and a 4. It's definitely not a bad album, but it's not a great one either, and I feel I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to it again. I was also horrified to see Spotify stick an extra 50-60 minutes of demos and alternate versions that I wasn't prepared to listen to.
I think I'm going to be generous and go for a 4, purely because I love some of the weird instruments I can hear, particularly the jangling piano in "Party Fears Two".
4
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Sat Aug 19 2023
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Simon & Garfunkel
The tracks I knew are indeed great, but the tracks I didn't know weren't so great, making this difficult to score.
I feel a 3-star rating is a little on the mean side, but I had lost any interest by the time The Boxer ended and the album just kept going.
3
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Sun Aug 20 2023
The Rise & Fall
Madness
When I was young you literally couldn't get away from Madness, they were always on TV with a new hit and video. Only two hits on this album, but I remember them well. I always liked the fact that "Our House" seems to have multiple levels, with something incredibly sad lurking just beneath the surface.
Many of the songs were similar, someone doing start-stop half-speaking vocals with a sax in the background. They sound like a very well-polished band that might do weddings or small nightclubs for middle-aged adults.
I got a bit tired of this by the end, but it wasn't as awful as I was expecting, so I'm giving it 3-stars.
3
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Mon Aug 21 2023
Gold
Ryan Adams
Kind of whiny, all a bit too serious, this is the sort of music you just never hear in the UK, as it's aimed squarely at American listeners. I actually liked the Nobody Girl song and there were a few places where I started to get into it a little, but mainly because I identified the music as being similar to another, better band. It also took me to the end of the first disc to realise that one of the female backing vocalists was actually the main guy singing in a squeaky voice. Not awful, but very cheesy and no real substance. Having to listen to an hour and a half of petulance about relationships got dull fast. Two stars.
2
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Tue Aug 22 2023
In Rainbows
Radiohead
I love OK Computer and early Radiohead. I struggled with this though. I listened to it twice and nothing really stood out, but I felt there were hidden depths. I don't feel it should be getting a 4-star rating on the basis that it might grow on me, but the fact I heard so much new stuff on a second listening was enough to push it from 3 to 4 stars.
4
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Wed Aug 23 2023
Tusk
Fleetwood Mac
I liked the dog on the album cover and the production seemed pretty good.
That's about it I'm afraid. This was airy-fairy-later-70s pap with no real substance to it. I didn't like Rumours much at all and if that was Fleetwood Mac's high point, then there's no way I'm going to like this mess. It feels like Rumours again, but just the filler songs and none of the hits.
It all breezes along in a jangly, bright manner, with people singing nicely and lots of instruments playing pleasantly in the background. God it's boring - almost like a parody of indulgent 70s pop/ rock.
I also found it quite amazing that a band could put out 100 minutes of tedium with not a single stand out track from start to finish. In itself that is some accomplishment. I half recognised the title track, second from the end, but then it faded into the background noise again.
Pretty easy to rate - it's not dire enough for a 1-star rating and I could even imagine having this on in the background of a long car journey, or when trying to get to sleep. 2-stars for elevator music seems fair enough.
2
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Thu Aug 24 2023
The Scream
Siouxsie And The Banshees
I enjoyed this from start to finish. I was actually a little surprised that I hadn't heard a single track from this album before (I'm not counting Helter Skelter for obvious reasons, and Hong Kong Garden wasn't originally on the album, although I do love it for both the music and the imagery of a busy Chinese takeaway).
It definitely deserves another listen, but it's not quite a 5-star album. There's a couple of tracks that felt like filler, like the song about smoking which made me feel a little ill. But even then there was something interesting to keep my attention.
4
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Fri Aug 25 2023
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
This was pleasant stuff, bright, sharp, nice vocals, I liked the pastoral lyrics and the feeling of being taken somewhere into a clean forest. It was nice for 30 minutes or so, but I doubt I would ever listen to this again. Definitely a 3-star rating for me, glad to have given this a go, but it's not really for me I think.
3
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Sat Aug 26 2023
American Idiot
Green Day
When this came out I worked with a guy who was a massive Green Day fan and he loved this album (he generally had very bad taste). We had some similarity in the music we liked, so he used to try and convince me that this was a good album. In the end I agreed to listen to it twice, end to end, uninterrupted and not while I was working. He was sure I would change my mind; I didn't, it was bubble gum pop/punk of the worst kind. My purist mind just couldn't see anything redeemable here. Stupid American 30-somethings pretending to be angry and sounding like Avril Lavigne.
Well almost 20 years later and I figured I would have the exact same opinion, but I actually enjoyed this, once I got over the annoying first track, which still grates. It's not really that the music is improved, but I think I must have mellowed a bit. Also, I now understand that this isn't an affront to rock/ punk, it's just soft-rock/ pop that's been mislabelled.
Treating it as music with no particular genre, it's actually pretty tight and melodic. So I'm giving it 4 stars.
4
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Sun Aug 27 2023
Astral Weeks
Van Morrison
I had to listen to this twice to decide what I thought of it and I'm still on the fence after two listens. One one hand it's kind of repetitive and the vocals are annoying. It also feels sometimes like the music and lyrics are strangely detached. However, I also found myself enjoying the slightly depressing sounds and the musicality of the whole thing. I wavered between a 2 and a 4, sometimes in the space of a few minutes in some of the individual tracks. I also felt myself hovering over the like button and then backing out again. I feel a 3-star rating is a bit low, but I probably won't go out of my way to listen to this again.
3
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Mon Aug 28 2023
James Brown Live At The Apollo
James Brown
Not my cup of tea musically, but I can still appreciate the power of JB's voice and the tightness of the backing band. I didn't find the crowd noises to be distracting and the whole thing was atmospheric enough to get 3-stars for the talent, even if I didn't really enjoy it.
3
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Tue Aug 29 2023
A Night At The Opera
Queen
This was kind of fun in place, a bit grating in others. A peculiar mash up of progressive rock, early heavy metal, vocal harmonies, all in one album. I guess it was interesting, although I wouldn't hurry back to listen to this ever again.
Queen were often seen as the final nail in the coffin for progressive rock, a bridge between pomposity and popular music. This is definitely on evidence here, even within Bohemian Rhapsody itself, which varies from operatic prog-rock styling to proto-metal.
It's difficult to rate this album, probably a 4 in places and a 2 in many others. I'm going to give it 3 stars, as there's some really bad songs here among the better ones.
3
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Wed Aug 30 2023
Foxbase Alpha
Saint Etienne
I was vaguely aware of Saint Etienne, but I thought they were more shoegaze and less indie-retro-pop. I actually think I may have been confusing them with Pale Saints, or other bands of that time.
Very chill, nice beats with a retro 60s vibe. Ultimately got a bit boring and there wasn't anything that really stood out. Definitely a 3-star album for me; I liked it, but I won't go out of my way to revisit it.
3
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Thu Aug 31 2023
Nixon
Lambchop
I like to go into albums I've never heard before blind, so I was surprised to see so many other reviewers hating on the vocals. I didn't actually mind them in the main, although there were a couple of places they did seem slightly out of place and too high pitched.
Overall this was dull and now I know I'm definitely not a fan of Countrypolitan music. It wasn't so bad that I felt extreme relief at getting through it, but bad enough that I'm giving it 2-stars. There just wasn't anything interesting going on here and it felt a bit like a mixture of Neil Diamond and Radiohead.
2
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Fri Sep 01 2023
White Ladder
David Gray
I was hoping for something good this morning after a rare heavy night of mid-week drinking. But no, the music gods decided I deserved this drek instead. This is music that firmly falls into the "the world would be a better place if this didn't exist" category. I can't rate it less than 1, but I would rate it negatively if I could. Just awful, affected, bland, over-produced shite.
This is the music that made me cringe at the time it came out, when you literally couldn't avoid this dross as it was everywhere. After twenty years it actually manages to sound even worse. Appalling!
I promised that I would listen to each album from start to finish, but this one was difficult. Just fake music for fake people. I can't quite decide which part of this is worst, the horrible false vocal performance, the dreadful computer synth noises, the nasty harmonies, the dull and repetitive lyrics, or the relentlessly slow and drudging pace. This was audio torture.
David Gray manages to sound like a goat bleating in pain at times, sometimes a failed Bob Dylan impressionist, then at other times he sounds like a talentless busker/ pub singer who has had one too many drinks. This is a vile abomination of a record and I'm going to need to listen to a lot of proper music when this is done to cleanse my soul.
God he butchered "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" - that must surely be a crime against humanity? If someone gave me a gun with one bullet, a time machine, and told me to "save humankind", then I would be sorely tempted to visit David Gray at the moment of his birth.
Sorry, but anyone who likes this music must have something wrong with their hearing. I can understand different people have different tastes, but this is beyond bad music.
1
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Sat Sep 02 2023
Natty Dread
Bob Marley & The Wailers
It's Bob Marley, so I liked it, not a perfect album, but definitely a 4-star for the sheer musicality alone.
4
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Sun Sep 03 2023
At Folsom Prison
Johnny Cash
Although I slightly preferred the other live prison performance on this list by Mr Cash, this was still a very good album. I love the fact that you can tell how much Johnny is enjoying performing with his little jokes and interludes.
4
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Mon Sep 04 2023
Under Construction
Missy Elliott
By the end of the first half this was a weak 4-stars, but by the end I had really gotten bored of it and the quality had noticeably dipped, so 3-stars overall. It's not bad, but it's in the awkward spot between classic 90s hip-hop and 2000s fake hip-hop/R&B for me and all the talking got dull.
3
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Tue Sep 05 2023
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles
This was surprisingly dull. Yes, there were a few big hits from the film, etc. but the rest of the album was just packed with the same, short, rather obnoxious songs that sounded incredibly dated and shallow.
I can appreciate the Beatles, but their later work was far superior to this.
2
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Wed Sep 06 2023
Idlewild
Everything But The Girl
This was really hard to get through, even worse than I had imagined it would be. Mumbling/ whiny singing, bland tunes, smooth/ cheesy sounds, horrible keyboards, saxo-fail, and jazz-lite noises thrown into a vat and blended together to come up with a dozen incredibly samey tracks that meander on and merge together into over 45 minutes of awfulness.
This is the sort of music I would expect to hear when put on hold ringing a company who don't want me to wait on hold. It's almost like it's designed to offend.
God the keyboards are an atrocity, a lot of work must have gone into making them sound so bad, they really are so very bad. They actually sound like something you might get out of a Christmas cracker. It's not even an excuse that this is from the 1980s, as I've heard better keyboards from albums made two decades earlier than this.
This has been one of the few times I've found myself looking forward to adverts on Spotify as some relief from the horror of this album. What a worthless chore this was. Definitely 1-star, almost worth more for the sheer relief of getting to the end.
1
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Thu Sep 07 2023
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
The Smashing Pumpkins
Rather embarrassingly, I used to confuse Smashing Pumpkins with Helloween - both were pumpkin themed I guess? Then I went through a phase of trying to listen to the odd Smashing Pumpkins track, but it never quite clicked with me and I gave them up as some US band that didn't have the same crossover appeal as Nirvana, et al.
I had never listened to this album before, or even heard a single track from it (or at least that I had remembered). It wasn't big in the UK as far as I remember, or if it was then it wasn't on my radar, even though it fit right into the sort of music I liked back then.
Billy's voice took a bit of getting used to, but I didn't hate it once I got past the mental image of Eric Cartman singing. Yes, some of the lyrics are true cringe, but I can forgive that I guess. In the end I decided that it was best to consider the vocal effort as being just another instrument and to tune out from the words being sung. Then I got along a lot better with this album.
I honestly didn't mind the 2+ hour running time, as there was quite a bit of variety here, with the "day/ night" thing going on I guess as well. The first CD (two sides?) were superior in my opinion, but the second CD ("night"?) wasn't bad, just not as musically interesting to me.
I could see some of the tracks must have been big hits somewhere, e.g. "1979", based on the listen count. None of these really stood out to me, which is where I think I went wrong with this band in the past. For me, they don't make songs that stand out, it's more a case of an interesting musical tapestry with interesting bits here and there. As a whole, the album seemed a lot stronger than a sum of its parts.
I wouldn't call this progressive rock by any means, but it had some good keyboards and I enjoyed the mixture of genres greatly.
I'm not giving this a 5-star rating, as I feel the quality tapered off towards the end (and the lyrics really sucked in places), but it's a strong 4-stars.
4
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Fri Sep 08 2023
Born In The U.S.A.
Bruce Springsteen
More big hits on one album than anything else I can think of. It's a bit samey and the shout/groan-singing gets a little tiring by the end. However, there's enough hooks here to supply a fishing competition. There were only one or two tracks here I hadn't heard before and they were so similar to the others that it was hard to tell the difference.
It's not music I particularly like or would choose to listen to, but I have to give credit for the sheer quality of the songs here and the staying power to make an 80s album that is so iconic. It's not as cheesy as I thought it was going to be and I would even go as far as saying that I quite enjoyed listening to this, even though once in a lifetime is enough for me.
3-stars for a middle-of-the-road experience.
3
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Sat Sep 09 2023
The Seldom Seen Kid
Elbow
I had heard of Elbow, but that was about it. I think I maybe once, very long ago, listened to one or two tracks by them, but either didn't like them or wasn't in the mood.
So this seemed like what might have happened if Peter Gabriel had set up with Radiohead and kicked out Thom Yorke. It was very much like listening to early Genesis Gabriel, but with a different band that was more film-score-music and less guitar/keyboard-orientated.
I loved it, nice lyrics, interesting songs, felt like a 5-star album from start to finish. I'm going to go back and listen to it again now!
5
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Sun Sep 10 2023
World Clique
Deee-Lite
More piano runs and "proper" house than I was expecting. The one, obvious hit single stood out as head and shoulders above the rest. I was expecting an album of fillers and, although it wasn't an album of killers, it wasn't too bad.
4
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Mon Sep 11 2023
Coles Corner
Richard Hawley
I was torn on whether this sounded more like Johnny Cash or Frank Sinatra, but there were some serious retro vibes going on here. It could have all fallen apart, but the backing music was spot on and the vocal performance was suitably underplayed. It all came together to make this sit nicely together. I'm still not sure if this album needed to be made in the early 2000s, but it was pleasant enough to earn 3 stats from me even though it was slow and not a genre I'm terribly interested in.
3
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Tue Sep 12 2023
What's Going On
Marvin Gaye
Short, solid, quality album that takes you on a journey. I only knew a couple of the tracks, but it felt very complete.
4
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Wed Sep 13 2023
The Number Of The Beast
Iron Maiden
This is the first Iron Maiden album with Bruce Dickinson on vocals and the last with Clive Burr on drums. It's the best line up Maiden ever had in my opinion. Excellent drumming, stand out bass, tight guitar, great vocal performance. Thanks to the dumb Americans getting all fired up about the album cover, this album got loads of free publicity and propelled Iron Maiden into stardom.
It's always a good sign when I go to play an album on Spotify and over half the songs have already been hearted! Yes, Invaders and Gangland aren't up to the quality of the other songs, but the fact that Hallowed Be Thy Name is the last track is enough for a 5-star rating from me.
5
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Thu Sep 14 2023
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
Never heard this before and folk-punk sounded interesting. However, I soon realised that this was an American band and Americans really don't just get punk in the slightest for some reason. It didn't ruin the album for me, but for me "folk-punk" resolves to low-fi/ acoustic alt-rock. If I had to think of similar artists then I would probably look to the Pixies.
I found this difficult to rate. Musically it wasn't anything special, but I did find the lyrics and performances amusing.
3
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Fri Sep 15 2023
Felt Mountain
Goldfrapp
Dreamy, breathy singing over an eclectic trip-hop/ electronica/ classical backing. I liked it and even went back to listen to some of my favourite tracks a second time. But ultimately, it just made me want to listen to Portishead, who are in my opinion anyway, similar but superior in every way, including doing this almost a decade earlier.
I'm going to stick to my personal rules here for scoring:
1- awful/ irredeemable - the world would be a better place without this album
2 - bad but had something about it that saved it from a single star rating
3 - average/ bland - won't listen to again but not awful
4 - good - will probably listen to this again
5 - superb - almost perfect and will definitely relisten or already on my playlist
This is somewhere between a 3 and a 4, but I'll be generous and bump it up to a 4 as I keep finding myself whistling the first track.
4
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Sat Sep 16 2023
Ramones
Ramones
Well I guess I asked for this when I said Americans didn't understand Punk and totally forgot that they (sort of) invented it with 60s garage rock. This is 60s garage rock sped up even though it sounds quite slow by more modern standards, I imagine it was shockingly fast in the mid 70s.
It's not a bad album by any standard, but it's also not the holy grail that some people seem to think it is. It wasn't even slightly successful when it was first released, probably because it's actually a bit samey. I couldn't imagine picking a favourite song from this album, because they're all essentially the same as each other.
I was kind of on the fence with this, but I found myself humming some of the songs all day, so I'm going for a 4 star rating.
4
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Sun Sep 17 2023
Treasure
Cocteau Twins
I think my experience of the Coteau Twins is Pearly Dewdrops Drop and that's about it. This album was of the same era and was pretty much as I expected it would be. Lots of ethereal singing and atmospheric music that never got dull but wasn't enough for a full five stars.
4
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Mon Sep 18 2023
The Gershwin Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald
There was no way I was ever going to listen to the full 3 hours of this, but the best of seemed a sufficient exposure. Not my thing, but I'm going with 3 stars as it's quality stuff I don't like, which is better than poorly done stuff I don't like I guess.
3
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Tue Sep 19 2023
Tonight's The Night
Neil Young
I knew Tonight's The Night, the main song on this album, very well indeed, but I hadn't heard any of the others much. Will definitely be giving this a repeat listening. Not my favourite Neil Young material, but it's still an easy 5 stars.
5
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Wed Sep 20 2023
Live At The Regal
B.B. King
I guess it was okay, not really overly fussed on the songs themselves though. It was all a bit sparse and samey. It was also mercifully short though and the guitar playing was great, so 3 stars for effort.
3
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Thu Sep 21 2023
Disraeli Gears
Cream
Short and sweet. Tales of Brave Ulysses is the stand out track on this album for me, a seminal psychedelic rock number that served as a template for decades to come. There were some other very good tracks, Strange Brew and Sunshine of Your Love also stood out as excellent. There was also some weird, almost comedy/ skit tracks, including the very strange Mother's Lament that closes the album. Definitely not 5 stars, probably somewhere between 3 and 4 for me, but closer to a 4 than a 3.
4
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Fri Sep 22 2023
The Bends
Radiohead
This was the album where Radiohead moved from one-hit-wonder to being a force to reckon with. Everything after this came with a much greater freedom for self-indulgence. This was also the last guitar-based album from them, a sore point for some fans.
When I was a contractor I did a job for a couple of months with someone who insisted on playing the first few tracks of this album, then skipping to Street Spirit, then back to the start again, over and over, all day long. The "missing" tracks have always felt fresher to me due to this and the first few I've heard so often I literally struggle for them to not just slip by my brain without even realising what I'm listening to. High and Dry starts up, then the next thing I know we're into Just and everything in between was a blur.
It's a great album, not a perfect album like OK Computer, but not far off and the few dips in consistency can easily be ignored. As soon as I saw this come up I knew it was another 5-star rating, one that's definitely deserved.
5
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Sat Sep 23 2023
At Mister Kelly's
Sarah Vaughan
I was almost determined to not like this, a live jazz record by someone I've literally never heard of before from the 1950s sounded like a punishment. However, it won me over and it was actually enjoyable enough for me to listen to the Spotify 35 minutes, then hunt out the "rest" of the album that wasn't available there. This was definitely a good move, as some of the later songs were brilliant.
I love the fact that this is so live that there's not just the odd mistake, there's an entire song where she doesn't know the words and just makes it up on the spot. Sheer brilliance!
4
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Sun Sep 24 2023
Penance Soiree
The Icarus Line
Another band I'd never heard of before that I enjoyed. This was a tiny bit too derivative in places, but overall I liked it very much. Definitely on my list to relisten now, as there were a few stand out parts here and there. Nothing too grating and no weak tracks that I noticed on one play through, although there were a few "this is too angst" moments maybe.
Will get 4 stars for not being perfection, but good enough for another spin. Bonus points for Spotify playing The Fall "Green Eyed Loco Man" after the album completed, which I took as a good sign, helped me place when this album first came out, and did indeed have some similarities.
4
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Mon Sep 25 2023
Konnichiwa
Skepta
Started out as a 4, dipped to a 2, rallied for a weak 3. Quite honestly, it all sounded a bit whiny, like a skinny little man/boy was whinging on about stuff. Didn't like the "skits" and all felt a bit flat.
3
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Tue Sep 26 2023
Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
One of the most hyped albums of all time and it's still criminally underrated. The music is a little basic at times, but this is part of the raw charm that exudes throughout. The rather murky production just makes this sound like it's been recorded live, rather than in a studio with a million takes.
There's so many standout tracks here, Holidays in the Sun, Bodies, God Save the Queen, Anarchy in the UK, and Pretty Vacant. Even the weaker tracks are superb, with a special call out for Submission, which has to be one of the biggest piss take tracks ever and has it's own little back story.
The whole band are really tight, much better than they should be for being pretty much self-taught. I'm guessing lots of live performances helped here. Steve Jones keeps it all hanging together, playing lead guitar and bass guitar for most of the tracks. Combined with Lydon's anti-singing it's aged well and still sounds fresh in the 2020s.
Like a breath of fresh air, the lyrics to each song are simple and honest. One of the best albums of all time and a well-deserved 5 stars.
5
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Wed Sep 27 2023
Logical Progression
LTJ Bukem
This was a grim reminder that, although I love Drum & Bass very much now, it was a bit crap in the early days. The era of "classic" Drum & Bass is littered with this atmospheric, slow, abrasive and unmelodic music. I'm reminded of Goldie and Roni Size, artists I don't particularly like. It's actually quite amazing how far the genre has come from these early days when it wasn't so great.
However, this leaves me with this long and quite dull album to review. It's very chilled indeed, to the point of being boring in parts. Drawn out, overblown, too chilled, horrible vocals, very much off its time. It's aged really badly, which is a shame. This should have been a strong 5-star album, but it's a rather weak 3-star one.
3
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Thu Sep 28 2023
You Are The Quarry
Morrissey
I was only vaguely aware that Morrisey was still making music post Smiths and was surprised to find that he's actually been pumping out so much material. This album was very well produced and Morrisey's voice sounded great. The material itself was okay, not as musically interesting as earlier songs, but there were some good tracks and it was all nicely put together. I didn't hate on the lyrics as much as I thought I would; they were basic but nothing I wasn't expecting.
I doubt I'll listen to this again, so I'm going to give it 3 stars, even though it felt like a strong 3, maybe a 3.4, not quite enough to push it up to a 4. I'm probably letting myself be swayed a little by the fact that Morrisey is a bit of a dick?
3
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Fri Sep 29 2023
Imagine
John Lennon
So glad to get this one out the way. I'm going to rate this as fairly as I can, pretending I don't know that John Lennon was such a terrible person.
Imagine is awful, it infested the UK charts for months and was played to death on the radio and TV throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Like a bad cancer, it kept coming back again and again, even into the 1990s and early 2000s. We finally got remission, but it's a constant danger, lurking somewhere, just waiting to be played again for some reason.
Jealous Guy sounds so bad sung by Lennon. Bryan Ferry made it his song and sang it so much better.
The rest of the album is just dull, pale shadows of Beatles songs hung together by session musicians. Some of the songs are awful, really bad, irredeemable garbage like "I don't want to be a soldier mama" that just lurches on and on without going anywhere.
The faux "peace people" crap surrounding this whole album makes me feel physically ill at times. Then I realise I'm back to the fact that the two people who put this album together are detestable, vile human beings. I hate to think how Lennon would be if he hadn't been gunned down in the 1980s. He was already a cynical, vicious piece of work and I don't think he would have aged gracefully like Paul and the rest of the Beatles did. He was probably one of the fakest people who ever existed.
I was half-hoping "Oh Yoko" might be half decent, as I had heard rumours that it was different to the rest of the album. But no, it was probably the most vomit-inducing trash on the whole album.
So this was forty minutes of utter shite. I hope I don't get too many other albums like this one where it's almost physically painful to get to the end. I would rather have to listen to three hours of Sandy Shaw than be forced to listen to this garbage again.
1
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Sat Sep 30 2023
Out Of The Blue
Electric Light Orchestra
I've seen it written that whatever someone is listening to when they were 13/14 will have a big impact on their musical tastes. Well my first album was an ELO Greatest Hits tape put together by Teledisc - back when you could order an album by phone and it would turn up in the post a month or so later. I think this hit my mailbox around that impactful age.
So the greatest hits of ELO got a LOT of playtime (for a while it was literally the only album I owned) and had four tracks that appear on this double album. I know those songs as old friends, but every other song on this album was entirely new to me.
ELO are awkward to pigeonhole. They have elements of classical, prog rock, and disco, all constructed with pop sensibilities. Sometimes sounding like the Bee Gees, syrupy ballads, rockier numbers, catchy pop songs all with dense and rich backing music.
Having listened to the entire album, I have to say that it's not my favourite ELO album. I think Time, Eldorado, and Discovery are all superior. But I can appreciate how this was popular and I love the cover.
The vocoder is used a lot here, maybe even too much, like a new toy that someone just found and couldn't put down. Almost every song has at least one vocoder section thrown in.
I was tempted to give this a 5 star rating, partly for the nostalgia effect, but it's not quite perfect enough to deserve that rating. It's still a very strong 4 star album though.
4
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Sun Oct 01 2023
Sweetheart Of The Rodeo
The Byrds
First side was pretty generic, but the second side was more memorable. Nothing amazing, lots of twang and country-style rock that I didn't really love.
3
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Mon Oct 02 2023
John Prine
John Prine
In a mini run of country albums, this one wasn't half bad. There were some great lyrics and the music wasn't awful either. I can see where Roger Waters got some of his ideas maybe.
4
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Tue Oct 03 2023
Endtroducing.....
DJ Shadow
This was an old favourite back in the day, so glad to see it come up today. The album has some stand out tracks, Midnight in a Perfect World for example, but there's also some weaker tracks mixed in like Napalm Brain, that never seems to go anywhere.
I love the feeling of a movie soundtrack here, lots of interesting sounds, ambient one minute, hip-hop another, even elements of jazz, funk, rock from time to time.
I'm probably going off nostalgia slightly, but I feel this still deserves a full 5-stars, mainly for the sheer effort of taking so many samples and making them into something that sounds seamless.
5
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Wed Oct 04 2023
Rust Never Sleeps
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Just perfection from start to finish, way ahead of its time and also has one of my all time favourite Neil Young songs on it (Powderfinger) as a bonus. The fuzzed up electric guitar on side 2 is something to behold.
5