The top rated review of this says that it sounds like flipping through AM radio in a dream. To me it sounds more like flipping through student radio in Dunedin. I get it, mainly because I was at a NZ university in the late 80s and early 90s, and saw Tall Dwarfs, who clearly were an influence on GBV. Giving this a 5 because GBV acknowledge the TD influence. If you like this and hadn’t heard it before now, give Tall Dwarfs a try.

Nope

First track made me think of this bit from Bad News - Hey Mr Bassman/Hey Mr Drummer: Vim: Er... You know that really fucking moronic bass run you do? Colin: Which one? Vim: It goes "ba-da-da-da ba-da-da-da duh duh duh duh"... Colin: Yeessss... Vim: Do you think you could liven up a bit? Give it a bit more? What I mean is...you can slide off the end of those notes...the second and the fourth one... […] It goes, "da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da DUUHHH! Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da DUUUHHHH!" And you can slide your finger down the fretboard. Colin: Yeah, but I've got a cut. Vim: (sighs) Can you use another finger? Colin: Well, I'll try, but it might mean using a different string.

Ice-T yesterday, Ice Cube today. I’ve got a lot of money riding on Vanilla Ice coming up next 🤞

Why are all the tracks on Tidal (apart from the instrumentals/drum solos) marked with an “E”? I caught one shit and one fuck in the whole album.

One of mythe two great albums by Morrissey.

Not as good as The Queen is Dead, but still a 5

My first thought was that this was what Bat Out of Hell was a parody of. Turns out there’s some truth to that!

Quite Lennony. I do find it a little sad that “And I Love Her” sounds like it could have been written at any time in the last 60 years of McCartney’s career.

I’d like it more if the rest of the songs were more like the hidden track. It was ok but I’m not sure I needed to listen to it and I probably won’t again.

Well this was a surprise! So different from their run of hits from the 70s. The saxophone is a welcome addition, and Noddy Holder has clearly had singing lessons in the interim. Having said that, the energy’s just not the same, in the singing or in the music. I think I prefer the old stuff. On the bright side, their spelling appears to have improved.

Would probably have given this a strong 4, but I didn’t get a chance to listen to it on the day. Next album in my list was The Holy Bible, my favourite album ever, and released on the same day as this in 1994. So, by (a possibly unfair) comparison, it gets a 3.

My favourite album. Easy 5. Could listen to this every day. I recommend the US mix, but the UK mix is still an incredible listen.

I’m not the biggest rap fan, but there’s a lot of stuff from this era that I like. I can’t with their voices though.

The top rated review of this says that it sounds like flipping through AM radio in a dream. To me it sounds more like flipping through student radio in Dunedin. I get it, mainly because I was at a NZ university in the late 80s and early 90s, and saw Tall Dwarfs, who clearly were an influence on GBV. Giving this a 5 because GBV acknowledge the TD influence. If you like this and hadn’t heard it before now, give Tall Dwarfs a try.

I can’t believe how leaden and “first gear” this album is - even the title track is more pedestrian than I remember it when it came out. There’s nothing here except cheesy parodies of other people’s work, the worst of which results in them providing Gary Glitter with an income. I really thought I’d give this more stars than this.

I would probably have loved this if I’d heard it when it came out. I didn’t. Because I can’t find an emotional connection to it, I don’t love it now. It’s ok though.

All over the shop. Not everything’s great, but the best bits put this to a 5 for me.

Thought I’d hate this when it first started but it grew on me a lot. Glad I got to listen to it.

Iconic cover and title track

Iconic cover and title track

This is a weird one. There are undoubtedly some great vocals on this album, but they’re not Paul’s. Great instrument playing, not Paul’s. Great songwriting, some of which is allegedly not Paul’s. The lyrics are definitely Paul’s, but they’re completely separate from the influences apparent in the music. In short this sounds like a normal Paul Simon album with a lot of heavy lifting from a lot of other people.

Was disappointed by most of this album when it came out. Still a 4 but nowhere near as good as the first two albums.

Back in the late 70s or early 80s, my brother and I were visiting our grandparents, and one day for some reason we decided to rummage through their record collection. Amongst the other stuff that I don’t even remember, we found a copy of this. We listened to it and loved it, but why was it there? My Grandpa was very musical, played a lot of instruments, and had been in bands in his youth, but it was definitely not his type of music. And there’s no way my Gran would have liked it. Were they among the purportedly large number of people who bought this album thinking it was actually opera? It’s definitely a possibility, given that when we asked at the time, we never received a satisfactory reply. I like to think they’d heard a song of the album somewhere, and it spoke to them enough to buy it. But they fought like cat and dog, weren’t into science fiction or fantasy, and owned a Mitsubishi Lancer EX which, although a strikingly angular car at the time, wasn’t something you’d fall in love with. I guess I’ll never know, but it’s always fun listening to this album, and imagining their reaction when they first played it.

Too much history with this album not to give it a 5.

Favourite track: the one with the spacey drums, driving melodic bass, guitars like shards of glass, and the one word title that gives virtually nothing away about the lyrics. And She’s Lost Control of course.

I now see where the early Residents got their ideas.

I love Solsbury Hill, and I quite liked a couple of the other songs, but I just don’t think I’m going to listen to this album again.

Never heard this before and really liked it. I planned to give it a 4, and then the day after I heard it, Brian Wilson died. I started thinking “is it as good as Pet Sounds?” Because I couldn’t figure out what to score it, I left it for another day. I then got “The Beach Boys Today!” which is definitely not as good as Pet Sounds. I then got “Smile” by Brian Wilson, and I couldn’t figure out whether that was as good as Pet Sounds. At some point I’m going to get Pet Sounds. I think that might be as good as Pet Sounds, but I’ll have to wait to find out. What I did work out was that comparing things to Pet Sounds is pointless, and given I really liked this album I decided to give it a 5, partly because it’s so good, but mainly because I wasted its time comparing it to Pet Sounds. RIP Brian, you had nothing to do with this album, but you did make Pet Sounds.

Not as good as Pet Sounds.

Nothing much to say, it’s Led Zeppelin

It’s hard to imagine what would have happened if this had been released when it was originally made by the Beach Boys in the 60s. And I’m glad that Brian Wilson was able to release this in a version he was happy with. I’m glad I got the opportunity to hear it, but I don’t think I NEEDED to hear it. I just don’t think the vocals are a patch on the original Beach Boys at their peak. That might be harsh, and Brian still had better pipes than people half his age, but I’d probably prefer to listen to the Smile Sessions. Again, RIP Brian. And again, NAGAPS.

I do like Neil, but I really liked this

Was expecting to give this a 3 or above as I knew a lot of people who loved this Wehrmacht it came out. For some reason it never grabbed me at the time. Listening to it now, it left me cold.

Ok Radiohead

I’ve only ever listened to the album Paranoid in the past, but I really liked this as well. RIP Ozzy.