I had to listen to this twice, once to get in the mood, second time to isolate the drumming and appreciate it as best as I could. I liked this album a lot on multiple levels, technically great, a good mixture of styles, excellent pacing, tension and release.
I didn't love it quite enough for five stars, but it was very close indeed. Four stars seems fair.
I've heard a few tracks by King Gizzard before and my Spotify was littered with tracks I'd liked by them, until they pulled the rug. I had to dig this album out on YouTube, but this gave me a chance to listen to the whole loop a few times with seamless transitions, so actually worked out as a bonus.
Definitely right up my street and an easy five stars.
I imagine this band playing in an American action film from the early 1990s where there would be a house band who provided the odd musical interlude when the plot was running slow.
There would probably be a scene with a big fight while the band play as if nothing special is happening. It would sound like the band definitely weren't playing live, but were in a studio with a lot of production. The lead singer would have maybe a couple of lines in the movie, but nothing to do with the actual plot.
This is the album soundtrack for the movie. There's no stand out tracks, but the guitar sounds nice every now and then, plus it's so generic southern country rock that they could be singing about anything and it doesn't really matter.
It actually wasn't bad at all, but so generic I feel three stars is fair.
This was certainly atmospheric and gave a lot of movie soundtrack music vibes. It wasn't amazing, but it was worth a listen for sure. Three stars.
Very bad sound quality, to the point where I felt this was an unnecessary inclusion. We already have the studio albums and they are far superior to this semi-official bootleg in every way. It's still The Stooges, so it gets three stars, but slightly begrudging ones.
Quirky collection of short songs, some dipping into country-lite, others with minimal accompaniment. It was okay in parts, but dragged on once I'd hit the middle. I imagine the vocals are probably like fingernails on a blackboard for many people, but I tolerated them.
I certainly wouldn't listen to this again. Two stars.
I think of all the albums I've ever heard, this is probably one of the most derivative. It's like a cut price mash up of various early 2000s indie bands, but without any good songs. There's even a little bit of other influences, like The Smiths here and there, from earlier decades.
The lead singer sounds very nasal. This is quite honestly the only thing that stands out from the pack. Everything else about the entire album is an almost direct copy from another band, or more usually a number of other bands. It wasn't unpleasant, just pointless, so two stars.
To be quite honest, I feel if this wasn't under half an hour, it would have started to drag. But it was under half an hour and it kept me entertained, even if it was very easy listening. Three stars.
The first side was good, one big hit that I recalled, a bit of variety, and everything just seemed to work. However, the second half wasn't as good.
They sound a bit like The Cranberries mixed with The Cocteau Twins. The lead singer is good, but the rest of the band are a little bland. Three stars.
This is one of my favourite genres, but there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of better albums. This is bargain bucket generic metal that I could have done without. Two stars.
This was on my shortlist for albums to recommend, probably in second place, so I'm very grateful that someone else saw fit to submit this great album.
It's obviously going to be five stars, but let's cover off why. I love Roy Harper, I've seen him in concert many times, and he always puts on a great show. However, his albums are somewhat patchy, with some great tracks, but also some lame ducks. He also sometimes seems to struggle to capture the magic in the studio as well as he does on stage.
This album is sheer perfection from start to finish, I wouldn't change a thing. Intelligent folk with a progression and the time taken to dwell on each of the four tracks just as much as they deserve. It's a very pared down and pure sound, but also complex, considering how few instruments there are. It's also an album where the long song lengths seem absurd, as they fly by in no time at all.
If I had my way, there would be at least two other Harper albums on the list, but I'm happy that this one made it.
Although there were some interesting things going on here and there, it was ultimately a bit forgettable. Kind of like a Duran Duran copy without any hooks. I waited until the end of the album for the big hit, Weird Science, but it was awful. Two stars.
A little too bleak and minimal for my liking. I did enjoy the UK Garage sounds here and there, but it felt more like background muzak than anything I would ever listen to again. Two stars.
This isn't a genre I particularly enjoy usually, but this wasn't too bad. There were some quite nice instrumental moments, on the piano particularly. The rest was slightly generic soul/ R&B but well produced I guess. It scrapes three stars from me, which is actually a compliment I guess?
I'd never heard of Jimmy Buffet before, so I'm guessing he was only big in the USA, or just a little too early for me to remember.
I was expecting this to be awful, but it was actually rather good. I must have been in the mood for humorous country/ pop today. I also did some reading up about the artist and he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. I almost feel bad giving this only three stars, but there's no way I could justify more than three.
About as middle of the middle of the road as you could possibly get. I knew one song well, and maybe had heard a few of the others a couple of times. I guess this was bigger in the USA than it was in the UK, so that explains why this passed me by.
As it's so middling I think a middle score of three stars is perfect.
I don't like Different Class and this is just the same, but worse, so it's not going to be pleasant to listen to. Indeed, this was pretty wretched from start to finish. Two stars because there's a few hooks here and there to break up the monotony of Mr Cocker's weird breathy voice.
It feels slightly unfair that if this was in English I might have given it three stars, but the lack of understanding of what was being sung means two is the score.
This was far better than it had any right to be. Four stars. I was half dreading the vocals kicking in, but when they did it was a perfect fit. It did start to drag just a tiny bit by the end, maybe I was saxaphoned out?
This teetered between three and four stars for me. It's nerd pop/ rock but done well. The big hits haven't been played quite to death yet. I enjoyed this just enough to bump it up to four stars.
I've struggled a little with this album in the past. It's often come up as something I should love and I think I've played it half a dozen times and it never really did much for me. It was a pleasant listen, but nothing special, and the lyrics are a bit all over the place.
It started to click after multiple listenings in one day. It's still not quite a five star album, a 4.5 one for sure, but I'll round it up anyway. I always assumed Steven Wilson was American for some reason, so finding out he was English was enough to add a further 0.5 stars I guess.
I enjoyed this while it was playing and I might even seek it out to listen to again, definitely the sort of progressive alt-metal rock I like, but nothing amazing stood out to lift it to five stars.
Definitely a bit odd, but was an enjoyable, short listen. Nothing really to grab onto for me, so a strong three stars.
If it wasn't in Swedish it might have sneaked a four, but three it is. Electronic folk with a female vocalist and the odd bit of atmospheric guitar. Sounded a bit like Hawkwind in parts, but that was probably the electric violin.
If I hadn't known this was a Swedish band, I would have assumed that this was some alt-country from America. It's okay, plods along in parts, has the vibe of the short-lived return of retro folk around when this came out. Three stars.
For some reason this gave me Radiohead vibes throughout. No idea why, maybe from listening to the remix of OK Computer?
Where I might have been tempted to mark down for receptiveness, it was actually a good thing here in some ways. There were times where I felt myself drifting away to somewhere much warmer and then three tracks might have passed by, all flowing together.
Four stars seems fair, not perfection, but definitely worth repeated listens.
I really didn't need this I feel. It was almost bad enough for one star, but through the awful vocals there was a little bit of something, I'm not sure what, but just enough to claw it up to two stars.
Nope, saw the rave reviews and figured this might be good, but I didn't enjoy it one bit. The Spanish language meant I had no idea what she was singing about, but even if I had understood, it just seemed like a blur of orchestral pop, which I generally despise anyway. Nothing stood out, other than the weird English bit at the end of one of the early songs that explained the explicit lyrics warning and came as a surprise.
One star. This is my first one star rating on the user album list. I came expecting a modern classic and it just sounded like a really bad Madonna Ray of Light clone.
This wasn't available on Spotify, but I found the CD (longer) version easily enough. I didn't think I would like it, but the hour and a bit flew by and it just kept getting better and better. I don't know how many times I would listen to this as there's a lot of spoken word, but it certainly deserves four stars.
I don't like monkeys one bit, so this album was always going to be a struggle, particularly taking into full consideration just how monkey-themed it is. It tries very hard to be funny, which I guess is the genre. But it comes off as people dicking around and recording everything with no filter.
There were a few times when I chuckled slightly. I know for a fact I wouldn't chuckle a second time though. Two stars.
I think this was supposed to be quirky and fun, but it just dragged on and on until I had reached my limit. But it still kept going, into bonus tracks even, but by then I had basically given up and was just enduring until it went quiet. When it did I figured it was worth one star.
A very strange, and at times disturbing album. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume this is tongue in cheek. If it wasn't, well I should probably have deducted a point at least.
The first track hits the ground running and if it had all been this good then I would have been awarding five stars. However, there's quite a bit of meandering and "weird stuff" over the 90+ minute running time, at least ten minutes of which is silence.
I'm going with four stars for some shoegaze that I enjoyed, even it was just a small part of a very strange album.
This was a great album, lots of variation, some bits were a little like early Genesis, other parts reminded me more of early Marillion. It went off on an orchestral journey at times, but it never grew dull.
I have to deduct one star for the simple fact that I didn't understand a single word being sung, but it's a strong four star album nevertheless.
Very generic, to the point where I was waiting for it to end from the halfway mark. I think this should be classified as pop with a very light folk rock touch. Didn't like it, two stars.
The first track threw me a little, as I couldn't get the similarity with "Stairway to Heaven" out of my head. But then it settled into a dark folk groove that I very much enjoyed.
Lovely vocals and instruments throughout. I found it hard to believe that Americans were capable of non-country-themed folk music of this quality. It has captured the sound of 1960s British Folk Revival, but adding a delicious dark twist. Five stars.
I couldn't name a single track from Quadrophenia, even though I've seen the film at least twice. Now I've heard the album and nothing really stood out, apart from the very strange lyrics in some of the songs. Three stars, enjoyable but nothing special.
I figured house electro-pop sung in French might be decent, but nope, this was utter trash from start to finish. Extremely annoying and zero depth, just Euro trash club tunes. One star.
Like American Idiot, but with more swearing and less big hits. Fake pop punk doesn't do much for me and the vocals always sound nasal and annoying. I will begrudgingly give this three stars for not being too awful, but it was a close run decision.
Very much passed me by in a bland vocals but some nice instruments way. Two stars, mainly because it's generic alt-folk that I could have happily never heard without feeling I was missing out in the slightest.
Even though this wasn't English, I found this enjoyable, and there didn't seem to be the language barrier I had expected. Indeed, the final track being in English felt slightly jarring in some ways.
It barely scrapes four stars from me. There's definitely a modern hip-hop feel that I was a little on the fence about, but it drew me in and kept me entertained throughout.
Whiny vocals and extremely generic indie-rock with literally nothing that stood out for me. Two stars.
As this album opened, I figured I would hate it. It sounded like pretentious jazz-pop, like Jamiroquai, but even worse. The clumsy middle-eastern influences came over as pretty lame.
However, as it continued I started to warm to it slightly. The songs took a slightly dark turn and the singer began to sound tortured, in an over-dramatic way, but certainly better than the first few tracks had made me feel this was going to be.
In the end I was getting just a little sick of it, then it finally finished. Three stars I guess.
Incredibly beige. It picked up a little bit near the end, but only barely enough to scrape two stars. Generic and bland American folk that wasn't even good background music.
Grew a little tiresome about halfway through, a little too repetitive and the sheer volume of words started to weigh heavily. I still enjoyed listening though, and enjoyed spotting the odd sample here and there. Three stars.
Comedy albums need to tick one of these boxes in my opinion. They're good as a standalone pieces of music in their own right (Frank Zappa for example) or they're actually really funny (Tenacious D for example). This falls somewhere in between. It wasn't awful and I'm going with three stars, but it wasn't great either.
Pretty chill neo-psychedelia. It wasn't special enough for five full stars, but it does grab four.
Not as horrible as I was expecting from the reviews. It did grow a little tiresome by the halfway mark, so three stars. It didn't sound particularly Japanese to my ears, even though I do like a bit of Japanese noise rock from time to time.
This sounded like a mash up between Bruce Springsteen and U2. Maybe this would be a good thing if you liked those bands, but I can't stand either, so this was utter shite from start to finish. It was also around one hour longer than it needed to be.
One star feels a bit harsh, but I honestly can't see any reason for this throwback garbage to exist, it's just awful and a waste of my listening time.
I saw the album cover and inwardly groaned, but hey, don't judge an album by its cover. Turned out my gut feeling was spot on, the slightly disapproving look of Amalia was a strong tell that I was in for an hour of painfully awful crooning in a language I don't understand.
Every song sounded exactly like the last one, and with the first song being utterly dreadful, this was not a good thing. At times the sound of her singing was almost physically painful, resulting in me turning the volume down for the first time in months, if not years.
One star for this desultory "best of" effort that doesn't even have a dedicated Wikipedia page. I'm sure other people might love this kind of thing, but I wouldn't even call this music. One star.
Well this certainly blew me away. I think this is just about the most perfect mix of Shoegaze, Stoner/ Sludge Metal, and Noise Rock that I could have imagined. My time spent listening to this album passed so fast that I had to put it on again. Once again, the time just went and it was on the closing feedback of the final track in what seemed like a few seconds.
I ended up listening to this album almost five times in one day. It's definitely a five star album.
An interesting concept that is stuck to throughout the entire album. It never dragged and was a nice mixture of funk and hip-hop. Four stars.
Truly dreadful. It sounded unforgivably similar to Elvis Costello. One star.
I loved Roky in the 13th Floor Elevators, but his work following that always seemed a bit lacking somehow. This is okay, but many of the songs follow the simple format of him repeating the title a few dozen times with some backing music that isn't amazing. Three stars seems fair, with one of those being a sympathy star I guess.
Very smooth, but also just a little tedious for my liking. The playing was pleasant enough but I would never go out of my way to listen to this again. Three stars.
Not at all what I was expecting and the lack of understanding didn't seem to hurt too much either. I went in expecting some awful French pop music, but came out feeling that it was innocuous throughout and actually half-decent in some parts. Three stars.
I enjoyed reading about the band and their dislike of the Australian press more than the actual music, which was about as bland as I had expected. Two stars.
I knew the hits and figured an album of Lady Gaga might turn out to be fun. How wrong I was. I'd forgotten just how cheesy and auto-tuned this was. The filler was awful and unrelenting. Very glad to get to the end, but it felt like an eternity getting there.
I was reminded throughout of 1980s cheesy "club pop" like Sinitta and Sabrina, only they had better hooks than this. The further into the album I went, the cheesier and cringier it got. One star.
I had a brief fling with MMJ about ten years or so ago, after watching the American Dad episode about them. They seemed okay, but the music was just a little too shallow. I somehow hadn't listened to any of the tracks on this album, which I found good enough for four stars. Chill and flashes of greatness here and there.
Got surprisingly good by the end, but never fantastic. Four stars as I'm feeling a little generous, but it's really generic folk rock. There's echoes of other bands here and there, but it's all nicely done.
I quite enjoyed this one, almost enough for four stars, but I went for three on balance. Quirky and slightly dark ambient in places.
Definitely quirky and, although I can't say it was witty, I can understand why people might think it is. It's lightweight and very 80s synth pop, almost like listening to the Pet Shop Boys from the same era, but with more weird stuff going on. It wasn't a terrible experience to listen to, but I certainly felt I'd done enough getting to the end of the album on Spotify and ditched the bonus tracks. Two stars for disposable pop music.
This was hard to rate. On one side it's exactly the sort of music I like, but on the other, it's not a particularly ground-breaking example, and it's just a regurgitation of far better bands who did all this and more 30 years earlier.
I actually might have preferred it if it went the folk-rock direction that I thought it might do from the first few minutes. But I think grungy-dream pop is probably about right as a description of the genre.
I'm going with a very low four stars on balance, because it was pleasant to listen to and I'll probably try their other albums.
There was nothing unpleasant about this album, nothing to jar me or make me feel I needed to deduct points. However, this very lack of any strong emotion is why I'm going with a two star rating. Probably 2.5 on balance, but it's just too bland and generic for three stars.
It reminded me of many other bands that I also don't mind, but would never actively seek out their music.
