6/10 1st up, I hate sax. 2nd, the songs are so earnest, so pained, so overwrought. It's exhausting. At times they are like they are from a musical, where everything has to accommodate the lyrics, and be damned the tune and the song structure. But it is obviously still a great album, with some brilliant songs.
What an album to start this journey with! The lyrics are fairly impenetrable for me, but I love their feeling. The music is genre defining -melodic indie with folk and rock. It feels li-fi, but is so well produced and comped it is on another level. Wonderful 5⭐
4 stars
5 ⭐
Top 10 favourite. 2001, 21 years old at University. It was like this album was made for me - angular guitar underwritten with classic 60s pop sensibilities. I can remember where I was when I 1st heard Last Nite, and that is what your Favourites are all about.
The songs that aren't covers have 1 musical idea, repeated to the point of medium. The covers are ok, but hardly greatest album material. I don't appreciate it lyrically, and I feel that it is where it's got to hit you, as the songs are so repetitive.
The aim of doing this is to 1. find great albums I'd never listened to and 2. reasses albums I had once dismissed. This is one I am glad I have reassessed. After OK Computer, Radiohead dropped off a cliff for me. Kid A etc left me absolutely cold. This album had a cursory listen at the time, but the purchasing process was odd and I considered it less of a proper release because of it. I know I did prefer it to their post-OK releases at the time, but I never listened to it again until it appeared here. What I like about it is that there are songs with melodies and bass lines that groove a bit. And rhythm. Overall, it feels like these songs are allowed to breathe - all the intensity is dialled back a bit to let the tunes rise to the surface. Glad I listened again. The first time it was almost a 5, but a 4 is probably closer - it's not that great, but very, very good.l and one I will listen to again.
After slogging through 11mins long track 1, I was dreading the rest of the album, but I found I quite enjoyed the rest! It was weird, but inventive.
I had a friend who said "Why would I go and watch **** live? I can listen to all their songs perfectly on CD." For me, this album is the reason. Songs shouldn't exist in one perfect form - they are living, evolving things. And on this album, with Keith Jarrett improvising them from the musical either, that is demonstrated to perfection. He shows music isn't about the best piano, the best rehearsed, the best produced. It is also about the immediacy of the moment. My only problem with this album is that it sometimes reminds me of the theme tunes to those 80s US law dramas! They really spoilt melodic jazz for me.
Inoffensive and pleasent, but hardly exciting. Obviously not up with the real big hitters of the period and lacks the standout tracks that elevate bands from the crowd
This was going to be a 4, but caught me on the wrong day where the angular and spiky songs hit wrong and annoyed me. Ultimately the instruments and vocals sounded so distinct from each other, rather than helping into a coherent sound.
Music with no soul. I can hear the midi instruments as they beep and click. It's redeeming feature is that it is largely inoffensive and recedes to the background.
7/10
5/10
9/10
It's nice! I enjoy listening to it. But it is hardly exciting, and I'm not sure I MUST listen to it before I die? The orchestration seems a bit lame really, perhaps signposting the garbage heading out way from the Arctic Monkeys. But here, the tunes remain and Alex isn't wholly up himself. 6/10
9/10
2/10 Got very bored after the first couple of tracks. Had to skip Da Bitches, with it's terrible, dated lyrics. Also was about to skip Mental Stamina with it's atonal, arythmic phone beep thing. Not good.
Hmm, incredibly inoffensive and safe - although I appreciate the background of the album. Kind of music that is like a warm bath or good to recover from major surgery from. It ain't going to get you too ruled up. However, I can't deny that these are some of my favourites versions of the behemoth songs. I'm just not that much of a fan of the songs. 5/10
9/10 Traditional British folk is an odd genre - I listened to this on my way to a beer festival in the West Country (UK), and I couldn't think of anything more fitting! I love it because the band, and the guitar especially, lifts above the trad folk. And Sandy Denny's vocals are genre defining. Thoroughly enjoyable, much better than I expected
7/10 Angry, frantic, but also tuneful. Aged very well compared to other music from the early 90s.
9/10 Maybe a bit generous - sometimes the noodling is a bit, sometimes the tracks are too long - but Born on the Bayou and Proud Mary are excellent and I love the general feel of the album. Go on, have 5 stars.
6/10 1st up, I hate sax. 2nd, the songs are so earnest, so pained, so overwrought. It's exhausting. At times they are like they are from a musical, where everything has to accommodate the lyrics, and be damned the tune and the song structure. But it is obviously still a great album, with some brilliant songs.
2/10 Little to redeem this. It is everything I dislike about 80s pop - it's music with the soul removed.
6/10 4 good pop singles sat amongst some fairly bland tracks. Lyrically, a relentless breakup album, which gets tiresome after a while
8/10 Great guitar. Very angry
7/10
7/10 Definitely an extra star for its influence. At times it's excellent, at others it just sounds a bit rubbish! One of the many double albums that would have been a solid 5 ⭐ single album.
4/10 Music I can't relate to, so it's hard to give it a decent score. It's just so syrupy-thick. Maybe if I were to hold a dinner party and invite some mid 20th century intellectuals, this could play low in the background, smothered by the smoke from our cigars. I find it hard to grasp how raw emotion can be conveyed by such bland music, but what do I know. I was glad when it finished.