I can't tell you the thrill when I saw this album cover pop up. I LOVE Björk, she is my top artist of all time and I had a poster with this exact image on my wall for a long time. I was quite late to the party with her music, as she is a bit before my time. I started listening to her in 2014 with Biophilia, just in time for Vulnicura, and immediately worked my way back through her discography. I was captivated, and this album is one my favourites - of course it is, how could it not be!? The whole thing is just such a pleasant and enjoyable journey, it may be the one album I could show people to communicate my music taste. Sonically, it's just perfect. Groovy, creative, loud and a bit bold. Amazing instrrumentals and her voice really is so unique and satisfying to listen to. Best enjoyed with headphones, as Björk herself would want.

The only song I know by Sam Cooke is What a Wonderful World, currently liked on Spotify even. So what a wonderful listen! Really enjoyed driving around doordashing on a windy, cool and slightly wet night listening to some old music from quite a different genre to what I usually do. So quite the change all around, including the weather! A bit hard listening to the heavy love themes, but I’ll cope. Haven’t added any to likes but probably will, but saved the release. This is exactly the sort of thing I need on vinyl for easy listening.

Love the cover, but just didn’t connect with this sonically or lyrically. Perhaps with more listens, but when does that become beating a dead horse in hope of a glimpse of life? I appreciated some lyrics, but I didn’t find myself wanting to hear anything again. Gave it a few listens, wouldn’t skip it if it came up again, but unlikely to ever go back to it. I found it a bit dreary and monotonous, dragging my mood down. It didn’t feel enjoyable or a pleasure to listen to, but more like a burden or even, dear I say, a punishment. I didn’t hate it, but I wouldn’t ask for it again.

The extent of my LS knowledge is that they exist, in fact I couldn’t have told you they’re behind Free Bird or even Sweet Home Alabama. So this was very new to me, and I am thankful for it. This was a really enjoyable experience and I let it repeat a few times across the day. The vocals aren’t quite what I’m used to as a pop girlie fan, but I felt every note on the guitars in my bones. I would gladly listen to this again, however I can’t say it converted me beyond “yeah, I like a few of their songs” and I won’t be seeking out rock music on my own as yet, but I enjoyed the listen and filling yet another in my musical travels.

I found the experience rather unpleasant, and it’s poetic that there’s a song titled Rape Me as that’s exactly what I felt this album did to my ears, at times. It’s really hard to take an album with such a song seriously, and I found very little in any other component of the music that could redeem that, nor could I discern any deeper meaning. Perhaps if I spent time reading the lyrics and background, sure, but that’s not exactly how music is supposed to be communicated and experienced, is it? I wouldn’t say it was bad, or completely unenjoyable, just very close. I wanted to enjoy it, truly, I went in very keen and even optimistic, but it was beaten out of me one track at a time. A few lyrics were good, like “I tried hard to have a father but instead I got a dad” in the opening track, but those few moments were lost in the sea of largely nonsensical screaming. I just plainly couldn’t understand what I was being subjected to and I fear its magic may have been a “you had to be there” moment, lost to time.

My first 5 stars for an album I’d never heard before! Listened on a road trip and loved it from start to finish. Recognised the second track immediately, must’ve heard it around in years past. I knew it was a 5 star album from halfway through the opening track, something in there about how humans make snap judgements and stick them, perhaps. I loved the high energy and very electronic sound, almost reminiscent of hyperpop. Big fan, will be buying physically. Favourite track: Smack My Bitch Up - gives me Horizon vibes (the game).

I didn’t really want to like The Cure, it feels like the sort of music middle-aged English mums like, which may be completely off-base but that just reflects my “I’ve heard of them enough to know their status, but not enough to know their music” position before coming into this. I followed The Prodigy’s The Fat Of The Land with this on a long road trip through rural country roads to my mother’s house. Quite the change in tone, but I liked it. Chucked a few songs in my likes, enjoyed the vibes despite my desire not to. Good basslines, decent lyrics, each song felt unique enough to differentiate the album rather than it being a blur of sound.

A truly enjoyable listen. Most of the album ended up in my likes. It is definitely not quite the music I reagularly listen to, but very adjacent. The opening track definitely entered with a bit of a slap, and I was quite sure I was in for another unenjoyable listen. The vocals were, for the lack of a better word, weird, and almost comical, and when paired with the droning electronic noise throughout I was a bit pained. I thought "oh boy, this is gonna be a long one", but by the end of that song it was in my likes and I was a fan, and the rest of the album flowed on with great pleasure. I listened to it a few times through in total and even dipped my toes in some of their other music, from Loveless, and i'm excited to hear more. I really enjoyed the moody, spooky and ethereal sounds of this album and the strong guitar presence. I had heard of MBV before this, but I would've guessed they were a punk or rock group from the 90s/00s, so it's nice to fill yet another hole in my musical knowledge.

I was not particularly looking forward to this, something about the name of the band, and them including their name in the album title (it irks me, like a fourth wall break that I don't like or something) really put me off. I was expecting something... very different. I thought to myself "it'd be funny if it was actually not what i'm expecting and I also really enjoyed it" - nailed it on both! It was so good, I followed M.I.A's Arular with this for the second half of my trip home and it was spectacular vibes for driving into golden hour then the sunset as I crossed barren plains, the hills, and saw the city sparkling in the distance. Incredible guitar presence, vocals are quiet and mostly hard to catch what's being sung at all, but that didn't detract. I really enjoyed this album.

I can't tell you the thrill when I saw this album cover pop up. I LOVE Björk, she is my top artist of all time and I had a poster with this exact image on my wall for a long time. I was quite late to the party with her music, as she is a bit before my time. I started listening to her in 2014 with Biophilia, just in time for Vulnicura, and immediately worked my way back through her discography. I was captivated, and this album is one my favourites - of course it is, how could it not be!? The whole thing is just such a pleasant and enjoyable journey, it may be the one album I could show people to communicate my music taste. Sonically, it's just perfect. Groovy, creative, loud and a bit bold. Amazing instrrumentals and her voice really is so unique and satisfying to listen to. Best enjoyed with headphones, as Björk herself would want.

Gave it a few listens, nothing really sunk in immediately but I didn’t hate it and it was a decent listen. Didn’t hate, didn’t love it. Listening to this much rock in this project compared to usual (which is none) has definitely strengthened my prior opinion of it - I don’t really *hate* it, I enjoy and appreciate the strong guitar and drum presence, but I don’t find myself seeking it out.

Took a few listens to grow on me, notably because I was listening in my car the first few, and only passively. Really going to try focusing on listening on at least my speaker, but preferably headphones, from here (I have done so for nearly all so far, but first listen should be ideally - perhaps i'll revisit In Utero for this reason, give it another chance to not be terrible). On my first listen on the speaker I actually liked most of it, and added some to my likes too. So i'm unsure if it was just time or a better listening experience, but it grew on me. At first, I was finding this album quite... annoying. The lead male vocals, specifically, just... annoyed me. This was the same with My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything, too, but worse. I think it may just be me - I've always had a strong preference for female vocals. I also didn't like the quiet parts, the (painfully extended) dialogue and opening to the second track This Is What She's Like, specifically. Couldn't hear anything, is that intentional? I also found it hard to understand the lyrics, took me forever to realise it's "in time, in time" in that same song (at least I hope it is!), but I think that was exacerbated by car listening but was present in nearly every song. Not ideal. Really didn't think i'd give this more than a 2 at first, saved only by the very active and alive instrumentals, but i've changed my mind. I actually quite like it! I'd give it 3.5 if I could, can't quite justify a 4 at this point, but it's close.

I’ve never listened to Black Sabbath, I didn’t even know they sang Changes. My grandfather is a huge fan, and I see why. This was incredible, I loved it. In my previous reviews I’ve been saying how none of the rock albums I’ve listened to have converted me to a rock fan, coming back for seconds… this one has. I’ve played this album on repeat more than any other so far. Deep cleaned my old fridge with my headphones, hung washing and drove around all night with only this album on repeat. Hard to explain exactly why this one and no others have, perhaps it’s that this one has a “electronic” feel to it (namely in the guitars, but in the rest of the production too) and a male vocalist I actually like (not a fan usually). Maybe not, who knows, but I’m beyond impressed. I can’t wait to tell my grandfather about this!

A good, nearing on great, listen. Nothing I hate, but boy is "Mother's Lament" quite the tone shift! I was caught off-guard by that, shared it with some friends in a group chat to equally shocked responses. Very fun, very weird. Another example "oh, that's this song?" with Sunshine of Your Love" and the opening instrumental - immediately recognisable, scarcely nameable. Otherwise it was very enjoyable and groovy, but definitely a bit strange and unique. Would like to come back to it as I feel I didn't listen to it enough to recognise the individual songs and just generally not as much as some others i've listened to.

Very funky and groovy right from the opening seconds. I was immediately hit with "retro video game" vibes with the first track and was instantly entranced. I recently played Undertale, and can't help but see the commonalities. This album was definitely in my "sonic" rather than "lyric" category of why I enjoyed it so much, not that the lyrics were bad, but the sound of this album is what made me enjoy it so much. It was a great mix of electronic and analog instruments, at least to my ear, and I really loved it. Quintessentially 80s, for someone who wasn't there at least. I actually enjoyed the vocals too, which is often rare for me with male artists. This would be a 3.5 for me, which is exactly the proportion of songs I liked too (5/7 - for now at least). I should probably note my favourite track too, as hard as that can be - here it would be "Second-Hand Woman", just makes me want to groove and bop.

Aggressively boring, but not actually unpleasant. It made me feel like I was at a Christmas dinner where my chain-smoking uncle had gotten drunk and decided to adlib new lyrics to a Disney movie soundtrack. Some tracks were decent listening, but only decent. I couldn’t help but snicker at the line about the $15 prostitute, despite its intended seriousness. I didn’t actually dislike the vocals, they’re interesting and… fine, but the general vibe of the music is just quite boring and forgettable. I didn’t hate it, but it’s not for me.

I've listened to M.I.A before, according to my streaming history it was 2012! I had thought it was when I was discovering Björk, which was a few years later, but it was not. I had faint memories of listening to a bit of her discography quite a bit and enjoying it, to the point that she was no stranger to me as an artist - including her recent, uh... change in beliefs and business pursuits that has played out on instagram (for me, at least). Turns out it was her 2007 album Kala and her 2010 album /\/\ /\ Y /\ which I seem to have listened to enough to put it in my top songs of that year. I use stats.fm to analyse my Spotify data, and it was here I discovered that it seems to have not captured that year - I assume Spotify didn't keep good enough data back then, rather than it being stats.fm, but I also have last.fm data from that year. I was still in high school then, and I was transitioning to streaming rather than iTunes CD rips (couldn't afford to actually purchase much in those days, and I preferred physical if I was - still do!). I'm not sure why I listened to her, but she wasn't exactly unfamiliar with her success of Paper Planes (which is really the only M.I.A song that Spotify has fed me consistently in the years since) and I guess my penchant for more alternative pop and strong interest in Die Antwoord at the time led me to trying her out. I listened to Kala 4 times and /\/\ /\ Y /\ 5 times, going by the streams, between December 14-17, and a brief revisit to Kala on December 21. Of course, the streams weren't perfectly divided and some tracks have more listens - but you get the point, numbers are fun! It was nice to revisit that old memory of a very different time in my life, and I look forward to revisiting those albums too... as I had a great time with this one! Every song, minus the skits, made it into my likes during my roadtrip home. I had it loud, and immediately knew I was in for a bundle of music that i'd love. Super interesting with a wide variety of sounds and themes, hard to not dance along even while driving, with a few hooks still ringing around my head the day after. A real pleasure to listen to.