Sounds like working in a factory (positive). It’s as if he’s singing over machines from the far end of a high ceilinged warehouse. The soundtrack to a Lowry. You can hear the Manchester rain. Funkier than expected. Intense.
Sounds like walking without a map around a busy regional religious theme park in the best possible way. An album that is anti boredom - whenever I thought I knew what was happening it changed direction again. I appreciate this utter mania.
I enjoy an opening song/title that predicts the millennium bug despite a FIRM musical grounding in the 80s. So many songs that would be perfect for a dressing up montage in a brat pack movie. I just wish you would surprise me, Prince. Didn’t care for the lyric ‘work your body like a whore’ neither. Absolute hedonism can get tiresome when there’s nothing else on offer - Versailles felt like this sometimes, I imagine. Including a mildly sinister undercurrent (what’s with the woman screaming ‘help, please help me’?). I do like a camp laugh though. My mum will be pleased I’ve listened to this.
A bit of a hoot, a bit boring. Right on the edge. Was charmed by the lyric ‘I always get chocolate stains on my pants’. Enjoyed the bonus saxophone. I like guitar solos but GOD this is going on a long time. Largely uninspiring, far too long for how samey it is. The Boys Are Back In Town should be on one of those CDs we send into space for aliens, though.
Immediately reminiscent of Our Paul (insult and compliment). I know the unavoidable big ones but have never ever listened to a Billy Joel Album. He is not cool, or trying to be, and I respect that massively (was he once cool? Sorry BJ). OH MY GOD IT’S ONE OF THE SONGS FROM THE SHREK MEDLEY (Just the Way You Are). Easy listening. Schmaltzy? Is that the word? Candlelit slow dancing, fade to black before anything blue. A Tom Hanks romcom. A bit Disney (was it not him in dog and cat based Dickens adaptation Oliver and Company?). I know it’s the point of the song, but does he actually like the woman who is always a woman, or is he just pointing out the obvious, that she is always a woman? ‘She will rob you and stab you but she’s dead sexy’. I do get it.
It would be a 5 were it not for the occasional needless misogyny, and the fact that only knocked off one star is a real testament to the quality of the album. Wonderful stuff, obviously. Some of the most outrageous (positive) rhymes ever recorded. Not intended for me in any way (have any of NWA heard of Grimsby?) and it still speaks to me. Heavily played bangers that are funny, thoughtful, smart, daft, poetic and catchy every time. They are completely justified in talking shit about bad hip-hop, because they make it sound effortless. To be as boring and earnest as I can be: this is a crucial text for learning about the black freedom struggle in the late 20th century. Would send the whole album into space.
I absolutely LOVE this immediately. I have been instantly charmed. Losing my mind. This is fantastic. Funny, weird, lovely, distinct, jarring, stupid, clever, stopped me in my tracks. Freaks me out in a way I appreciate enormously. I have fallen instantly in love. Bits of the 60s bleed through whatever the hell else is going on. Long live the oddballs.