Could not force myself to listen to the entire album after hearing the piano tinkle for 17 seconds on the first track.
I snored through this one.
She’s the British female version of Pat Boone or Elvis Presley. Nice voice and unoriginal.
Catchy tunes and amusing lyrics. These lads sound like they are having an awful lot of fun as the second generation of angry young men.
I liked the parts with no guitars or singing.
Half the album are folk songs written to reflect the politics and events of those times. Dylan chose great mentors. His folk songs are striking in their humanity and empathy. This album contains some classics.
Mostly all enjoyable music. Did not enjoy the lyrical delivery though. Some choruses were catchy.
Some doodling additional sounds can’t make this insipid record interesting
Two songs worth listening to - I’ll Come Running and Everything Merges with the Night. Even those are like second class Jona Lewie songs. The others are pretentious Muzak.
If each part of her instrumentations were performed separately, I might enjoy them - especially the electronic saw. However, putting all the bits together it becomes music to Floss to and forget - if you can fade out her singing.
One of thousands post-punk records. One song that stood out musically was “You Said Something,” but lyrically it’s high schoolish.
Great mix of politics and good time songs.
Produced by the magnificent Nick Lowe this album is like a close sibling to Lowe’s Jesus of Cool. Peppy, clever, and poppy.
Great idea from the Guthrie archive. Billy Bragg is a great choice. Wilco was so-so. Five for Billy’s songs. Three for Wilco’s
The first track reminded me of the sounds my mom and dad were making while cooking spaghetti noodles and talking when I was tripping balls on mushrooms. That track gets a 5 for the intense feeling of deja vu it produced. The rest of the album is a confused cacophony of great genres who’s parts far exceed the whole.
Muzak for the stone deaf. I’m sorry I could hear it.
I’ve heard the idea that they were heavily influenced by The Velvet Underground; I don’t hear it at all on this album. To me, they sound like a power pop version of a sometimes enjoyable amalgam of the Turtles, the Byrds , Little Feat, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Two little stars for Big Star.
Why? Just why?
So fun musically and with some interesting lyrics as well.
The best parts were the opening couple minutes and the silence at the end.
Disgusting - the abusers claiming to be poor victims. Of course lonely teenage boys appreciated this moronic brand of macho whimpering. It’s troubling so many of them think it’s great rather than the greasy wankfest it has always been.
The lead singer sounds like the child of a Lou Reed and Jonathan Richman union. Unfortunately, these two greats produced an embarrassment. Better luck next time, fellas.
Peppy tunes and non-morinic lyrics, but the nearly incessant drum machine drove me to distraction.
Uninteresting musically and lyrically.
Mediocre music. Boring lyrics. Good voice. I don’t appreciate the gimmicky aspect of the the whole project, so I’m sure that creates a negative bias.
I am not a fan of swaggering, misogyny, or glorifying violence. Three songs on the album did not include those noxious themes. They were okay to hear, but musically forgettable and I wouldn’t ever listen to them again.
How many rapid fire guitar solo weepy blues ripoff rock songs with some Brit singing about how a lady he loves so much doesn’t love him - even though she is actually his best friend‘s wife who he will divorce a few years later - do we have to hear? I would hope the answer would have been none, but apparently there’s a whole crap load of them and bunch are on this album. An hour and sixteen minutes of “poor me” songs is an hour and seventeen minutes too much for poor me.
Painful. Without his mom and dad this guy wouldn’t stand a chance of being heard. I don’t get the allure of continuing to pay him.
Reminds me very much of Paul Simon’s music and phrasing combined with Rodriguez’s voice, song styling, and music - in both good and bad ways. I “liked” two songs. Which is about the same as Simon and Rodriguez. Both of whom I find slightly overrated musically, although Rodriguez’s story is incredibly interesting.
I don’t enjoy highly produced sounds. This is a perfect example of those records. I also don’t enjoy gimmicks. Another fine example of that with this album.