My 1001 Albums Journey

I sit here listening to this album from 1986, reading an article about how the government is blocking plans for rewilding beaver in England and the Natural Sciences GCSE because they are "Tory legacies". To quote Ideology: "Outside the patient millions who put them into power, expect a little more back for their taxes - like school books, beds in hospitals, and peace in our bloody time... All they get is old men grinding axes" How have we not improved in forty fucking years guys, Jesus Christ.

Let's face this, this is pretty much a masterpiece by any metric. There's not going to be an easy way for anyone who's even vaguely into the rock/metal scene to go into this album objectively as a first-time listener, and considering I have listened to this album enough to learn to play most of the songs front-to-back means you shouldn't come to me for an outsider's view :P Punchy, amped-up, with crunchy guitars and growling vocals, but not so overblown that it becomes unnecessarily wanky, there's a reason that millions of people still wear this album cover on t-shirts the world over.

This, to me, is just absolutely representative of that not-quite-singing, not-quite-talking, waifish white woman mid-2010s nonsense that made me turn off the radio at the time. It's not offensive, it's just... there. And there's nothing that can elicit an emotion from me, to the point that I didn't notice I was already looking through Spotify at other musicians by about track 8. Definitely in the 'not for me' camp.

I'm honestly not sure about this one - it has all the trappings of a "great album", but nothing quite... clicks? If we take it as a whole, the ur-Rock Opera, then there's not much distinguishing the songs (barring the clearly-meant-to-be-a-single Pinball Wizard) and there's little context for much of the songs in the story. If we look at this as an album full of songs, then there's actually an awful lot of filler between the actually substantial stuff. The story is obtuse to the point that I only found out parts of it by reading the wikipedia article, and it's just very... Fine. Not awful, not great, just... Fine. I had honestly forgotten parts of it by the time I reached the end, which is a damning statement if ever there was one. Also, if we're listening to this in 2024, the story of a disabled kid with PTSD and severe needs being neglected, abused, then starting a cult to pass this experience on to others is Not Great. Faves (ish): Pinball Wizard, Eyesight to the Blind, Underture

French artsy noise -pop with funky time signatures and fuzzy driving basslines? This does very much feel tailored to me, not gonna lie - this was an enjoyable listen all the way through, and my biggest question now is four or five stars... Considering I've just listened through the demos and extended editions as well, it's probably gonna have to be five isn't it - this is definitely a band I'm going to look into more, this is what the List should be about :)