8/10 Have I even heard this before all the way through?
Dear god this is awful. He can't keep an idea in his head for more than 20 seconds.
You've got to really like the whole operatic thing to get this.
I don't like the voice. I don't like the rhythms - always meant to disrupt rather than groove. I don't like the guitar - squealy or grungy. Just dull. Satisfied people's idea of what dissatisfied people want.
It's not a coincidence that I avoid REM (whereas WAR was a total surprise out of nowhere). One of them was alright to begin with but just turned into the usual REM dirge. It might be Stipe's earnest droning voice. It might be the instrumentation (but no - the band are perfectly good. It's definitely Stipe. He's whining.
Lots of familiar hits and songs that sounds exactly like the hits. It's the falsetto harmony that's grating.
Churns along "Hey we've got John Lennon's mellotron" "Hey we can do harmonies" "Hey, we can start a new bit of the song every 20 seconds" Two standout tracks - "I Want Her She Wants Me" sounds like Belle & Sebastian and "Time of the Season" sounds like it's another band and another album altogether.
One of my favourite albums ever. Grasps your attention. Never lets you rest but changes from song to song rather than within songs. Don't understand why Sunday Morning has three times as many pays as all the other songs. Waiting For The Man is awesome. All Tomorrows Parties and Venus In Furs sound like no other songs before or since.
Lovely. A couple of bangers. Strong, confident and wavy. Really liked it. Don't need t hear it again.
I'm angry that I've been forced to listen to this. American Effing Pie FFS.
I preferred the instrumentals. didn't touch the sides.
Perfect. It's a filthy hot summer day and this slid through my evening like a balm. Only ever heard it in in compilations before but as a single piece it's excellent.
Astonishing contrast between the Hit (with the greatest tambourine ever) and the rest. Couldn't wait for it to end.
This was lovely. Really admire those great voices. Poor songs and three part harmonies less so.
Like a lot of these albums, I find it interesting because it's important rather than because it's engaging. Heaven 17's best tracks are on The Luxury Gap. On this, they've clearly got a soft political message to make and they're very experimental with the electronics.
Curiously muddy. Lacking dynamics. Backing singer doesn't lift it. Loads of great rhythms and grooves. Didn't feel the samba so much. Even Taj Mahal isn't as good as that brilliant live version. Nevertheless, four-to-the-floor Brazilliance!
Absolutely banging! Young confident relentless soul. Superb! If a little showbiz in the bits between.
Maybe someone else find this grating voice and flabby songs entertaining but not me.
Chewy, challenging, some moments felt White Light White Heat-ish
Ragged brilliance. Shine a Light is the highlight.
School went mad when he played Roundhay park in Leeds. I'd never heard of him. I was surprised by how many of these songs I knew. The rhythm on I'm on fire is good.
This is the missing piece of Roxy Music - the bit that was taken out between Virginia Plain and Slave To Love. The good bit.
Unexpectedly good. Stays into rawk now and again, but quickly finds its indie/avant garde way. No reason at all to call the band that.
Listened to this with Fred in the car ion the way to watch the cricket in Manchester. Apparently, it's a seminal work of UK Garage. Some of the vocals are very good soul but the musicality really lacks groove and feeling.
Loved this. Like the Waterboys with Trashcans drummer and Paul Simon of vocals. Very high quality.
One of the best albums ever made. Side one is incredible.
I'm sure this is great if you're a heavy. Paranoid stands out a mile, partly because all the other songs are much slower than I expected. Played while driving through Birmingham, past Villa Park a couple of days after Ozzie died.
Great album.. Great songs. A band really excited about what it was capable of. A lot happened after this, but at this point, Oasis were fantastic.
I enjoyed this. Much more musical than I thought it was going to be.
I get that they're being experimental, and I appreciate that, but they're not much fun. They're not angry, they're just a bit whiny.
Great. From Bowie's most creative period. Loads of great songs. Lust For Life is amazing and Fall In Love With Me is a new find.
Much better than I thought it was going to be. Bat Out Of Hell is a banger and All Revved Up is a find. Some absolute overblown claptrap in there as well.
Wonderful. Cool groovy, calm and controlled.
Dominated by the title song. Can't hear what's so good about the album tracks. You can smell the heroin, though!
Surprisingly brilliant - not the annoying papery Neil Young voice I'd been expecting. Soared into Bunnymen magnificence at times.
Surprised by how much I liked this. Really good rocky blues. Didn't get bogged down by the genre. Not to much of that slow, guitar-lead stuff. On the other hand, how long can a song be? At 23 mins, that last song is longer than some albums!
Not as good as it should be. Only a couple of tracks have real upbeat driving grooves that I would call funk. But what do I know?
Oh please make it stop. It looks like I'll have to listen to about 20 rap albums while doing this. I have no idea what makes them good or bad. Jonny tells me to listen to the lyrics but they are just swearing and posing. This music just seems made to aggravate and alienate me!
I guess all the songs are on Nevermind.
In another life, I'd have been a big fan of Arcade Fire. The voice is much stronger than expected and thenoise is great. If slightly U2ish.
Like having your brain cleaned out with a bottle brush to the ears. Left me reeling.
Loads of variety. Sometimes urgent and compelling, sometimes gentle and twee. Didn't even mind the rap too much.
Nice. Well crafted. A band that moved to Leeds (they get a star for that). Voice is distinctive but that doesn't necessarily make it great.
Obviously full marks, but it's not one of my favourites - some classics but no bangers. Here, There and Everywhere is awesome. Paul at Samba said that his sister was a big Beatles fan until she heard Tomorrow Never Knows and then she just stopped liking them!
Surprisingly good. Got to keep the customer satisfied is immense.
Strange and exciting. A couple of crackers. Interesting voice.
bouncy fun atmospherish forgettable
Some of this landed. I like the idea of heavy sound and folky vocals.
I hope there aren't many if these. Good chugga chugga in the guitar but clunky song writing and volcals.
This album started well and got progressively worse. I'd been planning a "pleasantly surprised" type of review but then Lake of Fire happened. Never really recovered after that.
Loved that. Bangers galore!
A lot to like. Crossover point between Primal Scream and Cocteaus. Should have been a 4AD band.
Didn't touch the sides. I think Jonny has an ironic playlist of this sort of stuff. Seems quite early, so maybe this was groundbreaking in 2014?
Banger after banger! Turned out I knew all the words without knowing it. I sang along like a sleeper agent being activated. Sing...blue silver!
Loved this - felt like a companion piece to Exile On Main Street. Dirty and frayed at the edges.
People went mad for this. One or two good songs at best.
Who write good songs but some of these are tedious. The 15 minute medleys are tough to endure but Shake It All Over was brilliant.
I'm sorry Jonny, I just don't get it. It's like listening to someone read out a list of words. It's so far away, I can't hear what's good about it.
No idea what that was about.
Sometimes he gets his voice going full blast and it's great other time it's just bland shouting. The last five minutes of the last track is appallingly self indulgent.
A real bassist! Otherwise... more rap.
Brilliant work. Great sound. Variable quality - Message To You is incredible, there were a couple lime Do The Dog that might be worth playing and the album version of Too Much Too Young was a tough listen.
Oh this was a treat. I'd been thinking that it is objectively the worst Orange Juice album because of all the 80s synths and saxes and Zeke doing African songs. But it's really a proper Orange Juice album with great song on it. Not perfect, but better than most.
Some bangers, no complete clangers, just a bit of album filler, more than made up for by Thank You, Found a Job, Take Me To the River and The Big Country. Two guitars hard at work.
This was lovely. Bought it while on sabbatical in 2002 but haven't listened all the way through for years. Really good.
Great fun. Never heard an album like it. Really inspiring.
Who knew Led Zep are really just a folk group? With a guitar! Apart from the amazing Rock m Roll, this is very well sculpted overblown claptrap. Stairway To heaven chief among them. The great relief being that I won't have to listen to it again (it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be).
This album contributes little to the pantheon. It almost passed me by by a couple of Thrills type bits and a decent closing track saved it from being completely without merit.
I'll be going on about this at length. The people who selected this album know nothing about the Waterboys. The first three albums are miles better and considerably more distinctive. This was the point when they went all Irish twiddly-dee-dee and I was so upset about it that I wrote to the record company and got a lovely letter from a PR lady called Mary. What I didn't know at the time was that Karl Wallinger had left and the glory days were over.
A bit headachy. Heard a lot of songs that I sort of knew (eg Breathe)
Apparently this is older hip-hop and feel more like trad jazz compared to Kendrick or Doom who are more free and bebop. First intelligent conversation with Jonny about Hip Hop. Still don't particularly like it and can't tell what they're on about but it has wit and that counts for something.
Great album. Saw them touring this at the Warehouse in Leeds in 1986. Memorable. All the great songs are on side 1 and then it gradually fades out by the end of side 2.
Oh there's some songwriting going on here. Alison and Watching the Detectives on the same album! The filler is very high quality - check out Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes.
These people are making music from another planet in a different dimension. This exists ion its own level. Really impressive.
Oh dear lord this was upsetting - "genre defining" apparently! The very worst and most indulgent of prog rock. I hope there's not much more of this - it's not like I get points off the kids for listening to it. There are a couple of moments of light - one song could possibly be a bit This Mortal Coil, another might have a hint of Belle & Sebastian but very little to redeem the whole thing. Glad I wasn't around much in 1971!
Just a bunch of frustrated american schoolboys complaining about their mum.
I'm imagining some shoulder-length haired corduroy cap-wearing optimistic singer swaying from side to side with a glint in his eye. It's sad that he died, but please spare me.
Twelve songs in 26 minutes! Four solid gold bangers. A couple of weaklings but overall a real treat after a week of prog rock, rap and wistful whimsy.
Ooh. This leaves the station like an express train and after a while really loses its way and meanders around as it's gone off the tracks. Really runs out of steam by the end.
Better than I remembered it. If only Morrissey wasn't singing.
I was hoping this would turn out to be an undiscovered gem, but there's a lot of filler that just sounds like AI Elton John. The singles are quite good but no unexpected revelations here.
Oh yeah. What a treat. From the first note, absolute class.
Relentless! The songs come thick and fast. They all sound the same, but they all sound like Ramones, sop that's fine.
Euphoric. Absolutely brilliant. Rich, inventive, full of surprises. This is the first time I've put an album back on to play again from the start. It's hard to believe that they carried on getting better than this.
Oh Wow! I was expecting prog rock and got krautrock! It's super-fantastics. Like the entrance exam for 4AD.
An exercise in blandness. Nothing happens until very nearly the end. Then nothing happens again.
Had to listen to this twice for logistical reasons. Not quite as awful second time round. Could barely spot a song or a tune in there. There won't be a third.
Brilliant. Perfect. Possibly the best. Certainly his best solo album. Seedy, lost and lonely people in bright urgent confident songs.
Quite a hard listen. Apparently owes something to Kendrick. He sounds very strung out until the end. The last track drifts out with a sad dreamy mantra.
Liquid wonderfulness. Went into this thinking it was just two or three songs and a load of filler (and admittedly there's an oompa track on there!?!) but it's a velvety mellifluous creme brulee for the ears.
Really talented at ending songs. Two absolute favourites on here. The rest is better than I remembered it,but a bit samey.
Standard. The definition of standards. People of multiple generations were singing along before the end of the fist verse. Hard to evaluate when it's such ubiquitous wallpaper.
More introspective and moody than they were earlier in the 80s. And as a result, a lot less fun. Fewer highs to punctuate the lows.
Not as good as the three singles would have you think. Really enjoyable, sometimes insistent and VERY reminiscent of 1983.
The sound of the dust bowl. There's some weird songs on here about death, murder and religion. All done in very neat two-part harmony! Very grating by the end.
Almost comically bad. There was one bit where one of them thought he knew quite a good song but couldn't remember it and another bit where one of them was trying to summon up his memories of the Blues Brothers but couldn't play more than one riff on repeat. I though there was supposed to be something almost mystic about the Dead but this just seemed shambolic.
Very very good. Saw them live supporting Cocteau Twins in 1994. It's not immediately accessible and I don't know why I haven't been more into them. There's something otherworldly and remote about them.
Started off loving this. There are some very special songs on there - particularly Grace which has a nod to Cocteaus. Really good songwriting etc but one step removed.
Acceptable pop - it's really important that they don't just have "important" albums by long-haired guitarists on this list. I bet "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" means more to more people than "Stairway To Heaven."
Better than expected. Particularly like Bad Behaviour.
Better than expected. I thought it was going to be horrific lengthy guitar solos. Quite neat songs that I would have loved 30 years ago.
Fabulous voice. A bit ponderous and slow, but well-crafted.
Real Blues. This happened in the lull between Rock n Roll and the Beatles. Should have been much more prominent. The flaw is probably the lack of variety - three takes of one song and a saminess feel. But the voice is great and the sound is perfect.
I guess it's an opera because there aren't any songs in it. Well... one. I don't understand music enough to know how to appreciate this.
Sharp choppy wiry punk. Exciting. The light Pours Out Of Me is God Tier.
Enjoyable, mid 80s rock in the Waterboys World Party idiom. Would have enjoyed this at the time.
Perfect. Really high quality, the ones I knew and the ones I didn't (for some reason I'd only ever really thought I'd listened to side 1, but side 2 had quality to spare. Turns out I've had Queen Bitch in my head for years without knowing it!
What genre is this? It's headache music. Makes me feel like my mum & dad. Just angry and unlistenable. Detected a tune in Come See Come Saw.
Fantastic for 2/3 of the time and then there's this dark side that forgets the pop and quite yukky. Still too good to mark down.
Do people think this music is enjoyable or fun? There's only one decent song on here called Sally Run Round the Roses or something and they are so keenly aware that it's the only decent song that it's on there three times, with little discernible difference between the three.
1976 no excuse. Long boring songs. Excellent musicianship.
Solid soul. Proof that boy bands are pointless - this is the real deal. One or two unnecessary vocal theatrics just to include all the singers but WOW the band was working hard. The Funk Brothers doing tgheir thing!
First album I just didn't want to listen to. Awful. Gasping and wooping and oh god just no.
Swampy blues. Look at the difference in the number of listens between the big hit and everything else.
It's fun. The continuity and premise is great. The filler tracks are weak and it's held up by a couple of good songs.
Like honey. Eumir Deodato's contribution keeps it serious, just a wafer thin slice away from cheesy.
Infectiously musical. Some of the songs are bangers (Superstition id God tier) but some of that Stevie-Wonderness that is musicality rather than music.
Elegantly bleak. Like some of the songs on Victorialand only with a hip-hop beat.
Powerful, monumental sound, sometime gloomy, sometimes fragile and spooky and sometimes warm and endearing. Shows off how versatile the Cure can be without reallychanging the settings on the mixing desk!
They're grinding me down.
Well 'ard. The sound of Birmingham. Obviously good at what it does but means nothing to me. Three and a half
I can see now that the cheekie chappie cockney thing might sound a bit arch and grating but at the time it captured a mood
Slick and confident. Oozing with fab songs.
Good music, unnecessarily wimpy soul voice
Better than expected - a halfway house between Kate Bush and 2025 white girl pop. Found myself singing one of the songs in my head!
Definitive. Don't like gatekeeping, but it really isn't Christmas until Phil's been. Some core songs on here.
Areal pleasure. As if Penguin Cafe tried to do songs.
Added kudos for the Yorkshire connection. Strays too far into rawk for my liking.
Total bangers. Don't feel the need for rhythm drops in every song. Fred set me right on that.
Wonderful, inventive, magnificent range, just amazingly talented and musical.
Really enjoyed that. Total blast from the past. My memory tricked me into thinking it was all about the last song but there were some crackers on there.
Better than I remembered. Quite a few decent songs emerge from the sludge of White Stripiness.
Was expecting something a bit more Velvety but it was still quite trippy.
This album is cool and groovy and works nicely as ambient background music but somehow makes me feel uneasy. There's no euphoria.
1959. This is the sort of crap they had to pretend to enjoy before the Beatles came to save the world.
Better than expected. I originally bought it hoping it would have more songs like Bittersweet Symphony but there's some heavy freak stuff that was worth hearing again. Iron Butterfly would do well to pay attention!
Height of sophistication for late 60s hippies. I now understand why Neil Young won't have anything to do wit the other three. It's not that he hates them, just that he doesn't want to inflict this dreadful noise of the world again.
*sigh* Spotify was playing silly buggers so i was in quite a bad mood by the time I got round to listening. Nothing stuck to the sides at all. No sentiment or sound or groove. Just.. dunno.
Really lovely. I'd associated Sarah Vaughen with scatty be boppy ddo bop type meanderings but here she sings the songs with swing and lyrics. Beautiful. Interestingly, when she does go off book, she refers to Ella. I'd always thought Ella sang the songs and Sarah went off book! Will ivestigate further.
Great. There's times when he's really using the power of a big band. Other times it sound like three blokes in the corner of a room - unnecessary when you've got them all together!
This was great back in the day but hard to listen to now. Bring On The Night is good. On Any Other Day sounds like it kicked off the whole of US schoolboy punk. A lot to answer for.
A tough listen. I know I like things that are interesting. And this was. But the voice is much better in some of the lovely warm songs they do rather than this alienating yowling.
There's a contrast between the funk which is excellent and the soul which is wimpy. It also breaks up the groove.
Masterclass in beautiful, yet unsettling songs.
The funk albums are the ones that are the biggest surprise. This one keeps on going and doesn't divert from the path.
