I think I'd only heard the singles off this, so a lot of the moodier stuff (It's Up to You, Doesn't Make It Alright, etc) is hitting a lot harder, and honestly? It's a really good vibe for them. A bunch of the less racially politically charged tracks on here kind of run on a surprising level of misogynistic tropes, though, bc while many of his politics may have been good, Terry's always seemed like kind of a twat (also Too Much Too Young has always been overrated, don't @ me, and having the longer, slower mix of it on here helps nobody)
I didn't expect this to turn me around on AC/DC, and I was pretty much right - it's very samey, straight down the middle rock that I would describe as "perfectly fine", with an annoying man singing bullshit over it.
Abattoir Blues: This shit bangs, I did not expect to be drawing this many Strokes and David Byrne parallels.
Lyre of Orpheus: Okay, this is more what I expected from Nick Cave, but in a David-Byrne-doing-Night-Vale-weather way? So hey, turns out this shit also bangs.
See, I *like* 60s/70s bullshit and soundtracks to musicals I haven't seen, but this is still getting on my nerves. Like, at its best it's approaching the less good bits of 2112, but then we go straight back into clunky recitative and magical crip narratives.
I know it's wildly influential, and I enjoy some of the individual tracks on there, but when my overwhelming feeling coming out of an album is "Christ, that went on a bit", it's rarely a good sign.
This is honestly breathtaking as a complete piece, there's a purity in trans gospel music I've rarely heard anywhere else and this piano work just kills me (and if you enjoyed that, I implore you to go listen to Transangelic Exodus)
I'd honestly never heard of these guys, which surprised me as a certified Knower of Things and enjoyer of rootsy folk-rock music, so thanks for making me learn, I guess, since this is really good? Like, it suffers (like so many albums) from frontloading the best track, so the rest of the album's not quite as good, but still, this is I think what I want Steely Dan to sound like every time I'm disappointed by Steely Dan.
Well, that uhhhhh... sure was Extremely Sixties. Like, I'm not convinced I disliked it per se, but wow, yeah (also it should've got to that last track sooner).
Okay, the rest of the album isn't as good as Papa, but that's an astronomical bar, and it is at its worst just really good classic funk. At its best, though? *chef kiss*
I'll be real, I have a lot of time for this kind of unpretentious Texas country (I'm a simple girl, I hear harmonica and pedal steel, I pop), and a few of these bang, but Waylon, why do you keep fading out just as we're getting to the good bit?
If you'd told me the guys out of Calexico were in a different band in the 90s and doing Lou Reed-style alt-country, this is, to be fair, the exact album I'd imagine. Luckily, I like all the words in that sentence.
I'm so torn, because musically this slaps (except when they get a bit too Deep Purple/generic 70s rock), but also Carlos Santana it costs $0 to not randomly be a transphobic asshat when nobody asked
You can't just keep saying "I am the Law," lieutenant-yefreitor. But for serious, I don't think I've ever actually listened to this whole album, and shocking nobody, it's good 80s synthpop - it lags a bit at points, but the bangers bang. And now I'm going to be singing Working as a Waitress all day.
Now, I *like* Sam Cooke, but this was just kind of...there? Like, he's great, but the lack of production does him no favours, and overall this just left me a bit cold.
You know how I said Highway to Hell was some perfectly serviceable classic rock? Well, to paraphrase a great thinker of our time, finally, some good fucking classic rock. I can't remember when I last would have listened to this as an album, if ever (I sure as hell don't remember ever hearing Thug before), but this is just bangers all the way down - taut, propulsive, riff-driven country rock, cocky without being pretentious, and just straight-up good fun.
God, it's been a minute since I properly listened to this, what an album. Like, not perfect and a little unfocused sometimes, but still.
I only knew Green Light and Perfect Places going into this, but they're both bangers that are on my regular playlist, so I was pretty sure I'd be a fan of the whole album. And goddammit, but I was right - it's queer femme-fronted electropop with some real Antonoffcore maximalist production, and as you might have guessed, every single word there speaks to me on a deep level. Yes, I'm a demographic, but I'm okay with that. (Also, "They'll hang us in the Louvre/(in the back/but who cares/still the Louvre)" is just an S-tier lyric)
I've been meaning to actually listen to this for ages, ever since Music League turned me into a Kendrick enjoyer, so thanks for that - and I do mean "thanks", because hot *damn* was that everything it's cracked up to be.
I just really like sumptuous 80s new romantic synthpop, okay? And like, this tails off a bit towards the end, and peaks with literally the first track thanks to Someone Somewhere, but it's really really good soundtrack to my day.
I mean, I was born in England in 1991, bangers bang, what am I supposed to say. It feels a little overstuffed at points, and I think it'd be like a 4.5 if we had more granular scoring available, but we're rounding up for just how high the highs are.
As another high-concept brutalist art-jazz soundtrack to a detective story that never was, this mostly reminded me of Bowie's Outside. And if you know me, you'll know what high praise that is, I am Vibing
The middle of this album is merely, for good or ill, very good funk. But those framing tracks? Genuinely transcendent, the opener is one of my favourite guitar tracks basically ever.
As I said when somebody put I-Spy into music league, once you get past the classic Britpop singles everyone knows, you realise what a little fuckin weirdo Jarvis Cocker is (complimentary). Like, this isn't groundbreaking, but it's a good album of weird little guy songs, and that's a genre I have a lot of time for. Plus, I found the ten minutes of ambient resonance weirdly soothing? I listened to this in the bath, so it definitely added to a weird spa atmosphere. Less a fan of the Jarvis jumpscare (jarmpscare?) though.
Going into this, I was like "Oh, it's the album Tuesday's Gone, Gimme Three Steps, and Free Bird are on - I don't know if I've ever listened to this as an album, so let's see if the rest of the tracks live up to that incredibly high standard." And then I proceeded to go "Ohhhh, it's *this* one!" to basically every other track. Suffice to say, this is all bangers, and while the rest of the album can't live up to Free Bird, I think when the question is "How many genre-defining masterpieces are on this album," most bands will absolutely settle for "One." Seriously, the only negative things I can say about this record are that the honky-tonk piano in Things Goin' On gives me extremely specific flashbacks to Dr Drago's Madcap Chase (you're welcome, handful of other people who grew up on that), and that Guns 'N' Roses listened to Tuesday's Gone and Free Bird, thought "Yeah, we could do that," and that's how we ended up with November Rain.
TIL that Weather Storm, a piano piece that I've known and loved since I was a child, was originally a Massive Attack track??? Anyway, shockingly, local trip-hop enjoyer enjoys foundational trip-hop album. Some bits of it felt like they'd been John Cartered into feeling a bit like they weren't doing much I hadn't heard, purely because it's so foundational, but still, it's really good, and 5 for the force with which finding that out punched me in the brain, if nothing else.
I was literally just the other day saying I needed to properly listen to this album, since Roads and Glory Box are absolutely impeccable tracks, and what do you know, this foundational album of trip-hop is really good trip-hop all the way down, I am Vibing
See, I genuinely like George Michael as a singer, but one standout track aside, this sure is a collection of late 80s/early-90s synthpop/R&B/desperate attempts to be Michael Jackson that are mostly just... There. Point added for the title track still being a banger, then deducted for the number of times I thought "Wait, is this one still going?" (Sorry, George, but nobody needed 9 minutes and 18 seconds of Look How Heterosexual I Am)
I mean, what's to say, one of my favourite albums growing up, and every bit of this holds up.
Van's a tosser, sure, but I actually really like this - good memories of listening to his best of as a kid, and it remains extremely good background jazz.
We're back to extremely unsurprising ratings, but come on, this album has always whipped out loud.
Is this perfect? No. Is it for everybody? Christ no. But if you're a certain kind of person (and I am), when this hits, it *hits*. Some inessential stuff in the middle, but what a start and end.
First of all, let me clearly state my case that Nina Simone's voice is an otherworldly gem and one of the best musical instruments humanity has ever produced, and if she's not on the Voyager record we have failed as a species. That all said, this sure does sound like a collection of offcuts rather than an album (mostly because it is), and a lot of these songs aren't the kind that really show off her power and emotion. When they are, like the title track and Break Down And Let It All Out, this is great (also Lilac Wine, but my brain rebels at the thought of treating it as anything other than a Jeff Buckley cover), but otherwise...eh. Also I legitimately heard the first "Aunt Sarah" in Four Women as "My name is Ed Sheeran", and even Nina is gonna have trouble coming back from that.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/V348yLxRHFDvpZAA9
But seriously, this album slaps - I only know the singles, but even they were longer and funkier than I remembered, so I probably only know the radio cuts? It sags on a few tracks, but overall, this was great, and brought back a lot of memories of seeing them live.
I'm torn, because this is really really good, but I feel like it's inconsistent? Like, when it's just really good son it is *really* good son (like, Chan Chan is just a transcendent track), but a lot of the time it gets a bit too 40s for me? Still, fantastic album, perfect background, and another good one to spend half the album going "Oh, that's where that's from."
I know Blur have the range, and *gestures wildly at every Gorillaz album*, but I feel like I still wasn't prepared for the sheer level of genre whiplash on here. Still, for all that it sometimes sounds like Damon doing the style of a different act of the 80s and 90s each track, there's more hits than nurses, and the hits *hit*
While I am as a general rule ideologically opposed to the American impulse toward post-colonial self-mythologisation, to pull it off you've got to either lean into the mythopoeic bombast of it and anchor it in existing stories (hi, Dark Tower), or else deliver it with this kind of understated grace and surprising bitterness.
How have I never got round to actually listening to this, and why did I always listen to the hipster brain telling me it wasn't cool and alternative enough to acknowledge that LP slapped?
It remains utterly wild to me that any of what is objectively some very weird music here made any impact on the charts, but I'll take it, this whole album rules so hard
It's giving "80s fantasy film with a demented good synth soundtrack that doesn't fit at all", and if you know me you know what a compliment that is. Might make a Jarre playlist for the next time I run a fantasy RPG, for the full Ladyhawke effect.
I feel like I wanted to like this more than I do - like, I like Grace Petrie, I like Kae Tempest, I like Arab Strap, I like Frank Turner, hell, I like Billy Bragg - but a lot of these were kind of just there? There are a few absolute bangers in Levi Stubbs' Tears and the later tracks, but it takes a lot to win back the goodwill the opening few left me with. Still, I absolutely enjoyed this, I'm just being harsh because I like the genre.
Once again, shock as local trip-hop enjoyer enjoys really good trip-hop. Seriously, this one just whips all the way down.
I mean, what am I going to say that hasn't been said before, it's Vespertine. I'd never actually listened to this as a whole album before, so thanks for that, but yeah - it's sumptuous, it's ethereal, it's incredibly horny in a surprisingly wholesome way, Björk's vocals are exquisite, and it turns into Wintergatan in the middle. What's not to love?
Oh, now this is jazz that's melodic enough for me to actually get with. Feels a little disjointed at times thanks to being a compilation, but yeah, enjoyed this a lot.
Sure, the quality drops notably later in the album, and the less we say about Jamaica Jerk-Off the better, but the highs are worth it, so many tracks on here absolutely bang
Starts well, ends well, goes on a bit in the middle. Honestly, like, Zeppelin are good, they're just not as good as their fans or, more important, they themselves think they are.
As someone who enjoys burbly synths, dark ambience, and even the bits of Tangerine Dream I'd previously heard, I was really expecting to enjoy this a lot, but it just left me a bit cold? Like, the last two tracks were good, but there was a whole lot of thinking "is this still going, and do I care" getting to that point.
A+ space bee music to vibe to, thanks
This is another one that falls into the thing of "Let's put all the bangers we can market as singles (and YYZ, let's be real) on side one, and then on side two we can have the.............. rest." And like, when that works, that works (I mean, Hounds of Love is right there), and if you know me, you know how much I'll love an eleven-minute concept piece with splashy synths that sounds like you got Peter Gabriel to make an Ecco the Dolphin soundtrack, but Witch Hunt and Vital Signs just feel desperately inessential, and it makes it all a bit of an anticlimax.
I told myself we wouldn't give this a nostalgia 5 just because Viðrar vel... was my introduction to a band I absolutely love, but damn if it didn't come close. The highs are spectacular, but it could do with being tighter and more focused. Still, more than an alright start.
I knew Chameleon going in (thanks Jae), but dang, this is fun*ky*
I like this, but it's a bit background? Like, it takes a lot for jazz to be more than background for me, especially jazz this free, but it's good some good soundscapes.
This feels like another one that was probably groundbreaking when it was new, but is now Perfectly Fine
Maybe it's just the fact that I'm lying in bed on a sunny Oxford spring morning and enjoying some nostalgia literature while I listen to this, but yeah, I'm Extremely digging this
Me on the first track: Wait, why am I not getting this? Were the Strokes never actually that good after all?
Me for the rest of the album: Apologies, Mr Casablancas, I was not familiar with your game.
Like, it's arguably a little samey at points, but it grooves, it's punchy, it doesn't overstay its welcome, it gave us Franz Ferdinand, and it's got Last Nite on it. It is once again a good day for dirtbag music.
It would be facetious for me to say this is a 5 based purely on the one piano progression on Find the River just after he says "naivete", but also not not, god this album rules
This has some listenable tracks on here, but entirely screw this guy.
I'm torn, because I'm a longtime PC(O) enjoyer who literally got Arthur Jeffes to sign my jacket, but this feels extremely "debut album produced by Eno"? A lot of the tracks here could have used a bit more time to cook and get some more of the expansive sound I love this group for, although The Sound of Someone You Love... is a delight. Also, the vocals jumpscared me like damn.
I went in expecting to love this, since I'm a sucker for Indian fusion music and Streets of Calcutta is one of my very favourite tracks, so imagine my surprise when this was... kind of mid? There's some good stuff, but a lot of the "fusion" is either mediocre covers or of the "man plays sitar while radio-friendly pop of the 70s is also here" form. And that's not even mentioning the closing track and its take that all your gods are actually Lord Ram in a hat, which sure is. A theological position you could take
There's some really good melodic stuff on here, and then suddenly it gets whiplashed by Anthony thinking he is either a Bloodhound Gang-style comedic genius or the second coming of George Clinton. Realistically this is probably a 3.5, but I'm rounding generously because I *adore* the title track.
I mean, this album just rips, this is known. (And yes, Ana, this is me giving my blessing to use the t-slur that once, but we're watching you)
The singles are fantastic, but a lot of the rest is very samey?
Oh hey, we're back to the "entirely screw this dick" mines
This is probably going to surprise nobody (local Leftfield/trance-in-general enjoyer, etc), but man, this is like if they got Mory Kanté to do the soundtrack for Tron and/or FreeSpace, and if you know me, you know how much of a compliment that is. Also, feels extremely on-brand for me to get jumpscared at the start of Inspection because The Orb used the same sample one time.
It's inconsistent, and it's not quite Blackstar, but damn if it doesn't come close. This is probably a 4.5, but let's see which way I round tomorrow.
It's still really good, but I'm not sure it's as good as I thought it was growing up, and it's definitely not as good as Matt Bellamy thinks it is. Some excellent musicianship on display, though, but my long-standing point remains that Take A Bow is an absolutely garbage track to open on.
Okay, I vibed with this a *lot* more than a lot of the jazz on here, it helps that it was quite such a single piece with implicit movement
I don't even hate Dylan, but this is...eh? Like, the opening track and Shelter are classics, but I'm struggling to have an opinion otherwise.
Sorry, Jae, this is...fine?
I mean, it's maybe nothing that hasn't been redone and arguably improved upon by later acts, but Tribe have always been funky as shit and this remains just an excellent groove.
Why do the US and UK printings of this have all of one track different, it's so weird not hearing Slow Motion in this. Anyway, this is such a great album, but it can be a bit one-note - it's another one where it's probably a 4.5, but I'll see which way Future Em rounds.
I like this kind of music, and The Fall in general, but this was kind of just...there?
I already liked Opus 40 a lot, and yeah, this really stands up to it (plus, this album sure is extremely "recorded at the same time as Soft Bulletin, with most of the same producers and instruments")
I mean, this is and always has been exquisite, thanks dad
That was just really nice Dolly-style country, and weirdly the perfect chill vibe for a swelteringly hot day
You know you're a god-tier songwriter when you can sing things like "I was stone and he was wax, so he could scream and still relax/Unbelievable" and people will just nod their heads like "you know Dave, I'd never thought about it, but that *is* unbelievable"
This was artistically a *hell* of a thing, but ultimately a frustrating listen for me? Mostly because the opening track is probably in my top fifty or so favourite songs, but then so much of the atmosphere and texture of that disappears, subsumed into More Leonord Choen. It comes back a bit for Travelling Light and It Seemed the Better Way, but yeah. I can absolutely respect this as a piece of art staring down his own imminent death, and the title track is *sublime*, but I don't know if I can get behind it as an album.
This is just what you'd get if the Flaming Lips were Scottish and occasionally incredibly whimsical.
One of these stars is purely for how much Sunny Afternoon still bangs (even if this particular afternoon is *far* too sunny), the rest of the album just mostly made me want to shove everyone involved in a locker, sorry
It's good if you want chillout music, but that makes it by design extremely background and just generally kind of fine.
I feel so conflicted about this? Like, these are all good-to-great songs, and Nile invented music and all, but also I can't think of a single track on here I wouldn't cut at least a minute off the end of. Everything seems to end [continue disco groove ad lib.], and like, they're fantastic disco grooves, but we got to a point where I genuinely forgot Good Times was even still playing at least once. Plus Shine is a better track than My Forbidden Lover any day, don't @ me
I like a lot of Arcade Fire (breaking news, local emo, etc etc), but I had a vague memory of this album in particular being kind of overrated, so thanks to this site for getting me to listen to it properly, since I think past me must've given up a track and a half in. Look, it takes a bit to get going, but then it's church-inspired emo with a surprising amount of alt-country flavour, to the point where a couple of tracks (Intervention in particular) made me think "this is like if Calexico had a pipe organ", and if you know me, you know how much of a compliment every part of that is.
This is just really good chill beeps and boops, this album has always slapped, idk what to tell you
Say it with me, shock as local queer femme synthpop fan, etc etc. But yeah, I already have at *least* three of these tracks on my regular rotation, I've just never got round to properly listening to the album yet, and now I have, it's making me want to go play Sayonara Wild Hearts again (complimentary)
Okay, that clearly caught me at the right moment, it's short, it's silly, but honestly it kind of rules
I *like* the long weird post-prog bits, but I can't decide whether the record as a whole is a 3 or a 4
When she's singing actual South African music, this is fantastic, I mean, it's Miriam Makeba. The rest of the time, sadly, it's an array of questionable covers of standards and novelty songs that just screams "released in 1960". It's no Welela, that's for sure.
It suffers slightly from being front-loaded with the singles (okay, technically Jenny wasn't, but ykwim), but this is just some really good foundational 00s indie right here, I am being nostalgia bombed *hard* (also like. Said singles are really really good)
I love Up With People already (mostly the remix tbh), but the rest of this felt a bit too bland? Like. The Moderately Warm Lips or sth
I'm literally a dyke who listens to post-punk and studied french literature, how have I never properly listened to this before
It's... It's Remain in Light. There are no surprising hot takes here, this album just rules.
I mean, again, no hot takes, this album is just fantastic.
Oh god I _despise_ this self-satisfied bullshit
This has its moments, but mostly it's just pretty standard 90s punk, puerile shock-baiting and all.
It's no Dummy, but damn, this is just a really good album. It's probably like a 4.4, but we can't give partial stars, so rounding errors come for us all. Also just found out that a lot of the sound for this was inspired by Geoff Barrow doing production on The Invisible Invasion, which absolutely tracks.
This made the list?? Hell yes. I don't know if this is an automatic 5 bc it doesn't have the second disc, but *what* an album.
This is to jazz what breakcore is to EDM, just the full "we've found a melody/motif/style, so let's immediately abandon it and find another" tactic. When it's good it's good, but a lot of the time it was just a bit background for me.
It's weird, I am a famous enjoyer of industrial music/songs where European men scream at me, but this just aggressively did not do it for me. Maybe it'd be better with more of a melody? Or possibly I'm just not their audience.
I've owned this CD pretty much since it came out for whatever reason, but I think this is the first time I've actually listened to it as an album? And having done so, Electric Feel is still a banger (and to a lesser extent Time to Pretend), but a lot of the rest of it just felt a bit like "Okay, which 70s act are we doing an impression of now?"
Fake sapphic, I know, but apart from a couple of standouts (Season of Hollow Soul, Constant Craving), a lot of this stuff is just... There? Like, I don't not like it, but idk if I'd actively listen to it.
Oh let's *go*, this would be worth a 5 even if it was just the guitar line from Grace
Like, a lot of this feels like club vibes rather than actual tunes, but they are _aggressively_ vibey.
This is well-executed, but mostly really samey and quite dull? I was starting to like the alt-country vibes on the last track, but it did not make up for a whole album of Sheffield Man Is Not Johnny Cash.
