Inoffensive, middle of the road album. Standard Radio 2 fare, but not really my thing.
Started off well, enjoyed the title track. 'Grapevine' not a patch on Marvin Gaye's version. Thereafter petered out into generic cheesy soul. Didn't do much for me.
Fairly dull. Much of this album's reputation stems from the secrecy of its recording and subsequent hype upon release. Whilst it's solid enough, there's nothing that really stands out.
Five stars for Free Bird, but the rest is unremarkable.
Grunge passed me by at the time. It came at a time when I wasn't exposed to much new music. I caught up with Nirvana later, but not Soundgarden or Pearl Jam. Listened to this with no preconceptions, though it turned out I did know 'Black Hole Sun' (no idea from when or where).
The album is a bit over long, a decent listen, but it's not 'Nevermind'. I'd probably have loved it at the time, but thirty years later, it's just another album that never entered my orbit.
Oh dear. I like a bit of psychedelia, and love 'She's Not There', but this is all a bit twee. A product of its time.
I had my heavy rock/metal phase in the early 80s, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath etc. By the time GnR came along, my tastes had broadened somewhat, and I didn't give this much attention. That said, 'Sweet Child' is a classic even if the rest doesn't quite live up to it.
Like fingernails down a blackboard. Next ...
Enjoyed this more than I was expecting to. I had Rush down as whiny vocals and pretentious noodling, which is true to an extent, but there are some strong tracks on here - 'Tom Sawyer', 'Vital Signs', and precious little noodling (a bit on 'The Camera Eye' maybe.) I may have to revisit their other albums and try again.
I'm reaching for the off switch seconds into each track. Unlistenable.
Pleasant enough background country rock. Prefer the more bluesy tracks, but don't particularly dislike any of it. That said, I wouldn't choose to listen to it again.
Another sub-Nevermind grunge album. Nothing much wrong with it, but it doesn't really stand out.
Horribly dated synths. Painful.
Groovy man. I love this album. When I first heard it, it was a revelation, but they're just a great band. A wide mixture of styles, but they all seem to gel effortlessly.
A darker side of Pulp. Great album, but may not appeal to everyone who bought 'Different Class'.
The singles got a lot of radio play at the time, but I found them whiney and annoying, so never listened to the album. I've now listened to it all, and I find it ... whiney and annoying.
This lot passed me by to the extent that I had no idea what kind of music to expect. There's enough here to warrant another listen, but a post break-up, comeback album is probably not the best place to start. Elements of Talking Heads and New Order in places, which is no bad thing.
Briefly nodded with familiarity, then fell asleep.
Music for when you ring the dentist and they put you on hold for twenty minutes.
The weathered voice, the sparse production; it just works so well. The choice of covers varies across each volume (I prefer American III overall), but a lot to like here.
Maybe it's a cultural thing. Awful. Like a dismal X-factor reject.
No idea whether there's any technical merit to this, but I know listening to it for an hour would drive me insane.
Pleasant background music, but a bit too soporific for me.
Billy Bragg is always worth listening to. Nothing as immediate as 'Between the Wars' or 'A New England', and his voice does grate a bit after a while (!).
Great album, and a natural follow-up to Ziggy Stardust. A mixture of glam rock and jazz-tinged piano. Bowie could do no wrong for much of the seventies.
At the risk of 'damning with faint praise', this was ok.
Don't know how I missed this at the time. Blister In The Sun and Add It Up are the highlights, but enjoyed the whole album. Love the prominent bass, and the general DIY feel of it.
Musically good, but only works in short bursts for me. Whole album goes on a bit after a while.
Wake me up when he's finished.
Mediocre 80s Aussie rock. Drifted along without ever taking off.
A bit too cheesy for me.
Not as bad as I was expecting. Rolling in the Deep is a great song, but otherwise too many generic power ballads. She can obviously sing, but it's not the sort of thing I'd listen to for pleasure.
Having grown up with punk and new wave, this was the sort of music I railed against as a teenager. It doesn't seem as bad now, though I still prefer his more subtle moody stuff to the shouty 'murican anthems.
Probably not the follow-up to 'I Should Coco' that the record company wanted. Supergrass always had more about them than the press would have you believe. Their album sales seemed to run contrary to the quality of work produced, which just goes to show that I know nothing!
Not exactly easy listening. The sort of rough and ready racket you'd enjoy on a fringe stage at a festival.
Well, they sound like nobody else, so there's that. This album covers everything from the sublime (Party Fears Two, Club Country) to the ridiculous (the rest of it). No idea how you would categorise them, but I'll stick to those two tracks and skip the rest, thanks very much.
Dylan does his thing. You either love him or hate him for it. This is classic Bob.
Weller gets his mojo back. There were one or two highlights in the previous decade, and a few in the years following, but this is his post-Jam 'statement'. Faultless.
Bog-standard modern pop. Instantly forgettable.
Never less than interesting, but not their most immediate album.
This skirts the grey area between interesting originality and unlistenable shite. Sadly it comes down on the wrong side for me. Like Andrew Lloyd Webber having a bad trip at a Queen concert.
I really like PJ Harvey. I should listen to her more often, except when she veers into Kate Bush territory, which happens a little here.
Everyone loves Dancing Queen (except me). Otherwise the big singles here are great, the rest of it mediocre to bloody awful.
Appreciate the sentiment and attitude (the punk of its day), but musically it's all a bit exhausting for a middle aged white man.
Music so far in the background you'd need a magnifying glass to find it.
Uh huh, huh, yeah, yo, etc etc. This sort of stuff just gets on my wick. I don't feel qualified to judge it on merit, only that it doesn't do anything for me.
California Dreamin' evokes the era perhaps better than any other song. Sadly, the rest of the album doesn't live up to it. Some of it is pleasant enough, but the rest is fairly dull easy listening.
'Easter Parade' works OK with simple piano and vocal. Elsewhere its notable by its dated 80s instrumentation and production. Horrible.
Tedious background music with annoying vocals. Somehow it's even worse than their disco era, and I really hated that.
Dreadful. Like a second-rate Clash tribute band playing something for the locals at a hoe-down.
Difficult to separate the music from her personal tragedy. However, her voice largely justifies the hype. Highlights for me are 'You Know I'm No Good' and 'Back To Black', but the quality is there throughout.
Don't know what it is with The Pet Shop Boys; for me, they merely exist, there's nothing about them I particularly like or dislike. This album is no different - it just potters along, neither inviting me to listen more attentively or to switch off.
Despite the obvious Kraftwerk influences, OMD clearly developed their own sound. This is a worthy follow-up to 'Organisation'. The singles are all excellent, and so, by and large, is the rest of the album. I'd give it 4 1/2 stars if I could.
I have a strong personal bond to the first Pogues album (Red Roses For Me), but this one is musically a step up. 'Sickbed of Cuchulainn' and 'Sally Maclennane' in particular encapsulate what the band was all about, but there's no filler on here. Magnificent. Five stars all the way.
Weird and wonderful as always, but this is a strangely understated Talking Heads album. It doesn't really 'grab' you for a repeat listen.
Reeks of folk night at the local - pewter tankards, arran sweaters and blokes singing badly with their fingers in their ears.
It's still an almighty racket that blows the cobwebs away. It doesn't quite live up to its cultural significance, but how could it?
Welcome to Jazz Club. Niiiice. 👌
It's like they're trying out everything to find 'their' sound. After a bunch of hopeless failures they finally hit what they're looking for. 'The Message' is the starting point, everything before it is rubbish.
Nothing new or radical here, but they were, along with The Hives and The White Stripes, responsible for bringing guitar bands briefly back to the forefront of mainstream radio play in the UK, so I won't hear a word against them. Not a 5-star album, but close.
Music for a generation I'm not part of. Didn't hate it, but didn't particularly warm to it either.
I get the crossover stuff on Licensed To I'll, but this doesn't appeal at all. In the parlance of generations too old to appreciate it, it's just noise.
One of the few bands to keep me interested into the second half of the eighties. This is uncompromising and best listened to LOUD.
Never heard this before, though I'm familiar with Johnny Cash's cover of the title track. He does a good line in downbeat, brooding meodies, and I get the feeling that this will grow on me more and more.
Sounds like a selection of theme tunes to 70s sitcoms or game shows. Do people listen to this for pleasure?
Title track is ok, but it all gets a bit irritating fairly quickly.
If I was compiling a Rolling Stones 'Best Of', it probably wouldn't include any tracks from Exile. However, as an album it still rates as one of their best. Everything hangs together well, and they haven't done a better album since.
All I know abou Kid Rock is his ridiculous name and his questionable politics. How apt then, that his music is shit aswell.
Didn't know what to make of this when it first appeared, but it grew on me every time I played it. When I listen to it without distractions, it fills the room and washes the stress away like nothing else.
A great album that ticks many boxes - no filler, hummable tunes, familiarity, consistency etc., but ... it just doesn't hold my attention when I play it. I always drift away at some point and its left doing its thing in the background with no-one listening.
