Not my first listen, but Aja is always a welcome album to revisit. An impeccably produced and arranged record. These guys really did wonders within the studio. I prefer my jazz-rock to be a bit more energetic and fusion-y, but as it stands, this is great stuff, although I don’t think I can say anything about Aja that hasn’t already been said countless times. Highlights? The entirely of the title track, but I do have a soft spot for the instrumental portion in the middle of it. Plus, Peg is always fun.

A decent country-rock album. Tasteful, but not particularly gritty. Pleasant, but won’t leave a lasting impression. “Guitar Town” is a pretty apt title as the guy is clearly quite good at the thing. I must confess that I don’t generally listen much to this type of music, but I’d say it won’t hurt to check out if this sounds up your alley, especially because it is rather short.

Pretty good, would rate 3.5 stars if half-stars were a thing on here. For a first-time Smiths experience, I was fairly pleased. Favourite cuts were A Rush And A Push and Stop Me. While I enjoyed the overall experience, I can’t help but wish there were more tracks akin to the opener (the keyboards! The MARIMBA!), and Unhappy Birthday borders on parody with how melodramatic it is.

A delightful folk album. Short and sweet, yet remarkably mature and well-arranged. Beautiful vocal harmonies. Favourite moments have to be the more acoustic songs (e.g. "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her") and the more baroque leanings of "Scarborough Fair/Canticle." Kind of speaks for itself, really. Either way, highly recommended.

Not my first listen, but Aja is always a welcome album to revisit. An impeccably produced and arranged record. These guys really did wonders within the studio. I prefer my jazz-rock to be a bit more energetic and fusion-y, but as it stands, this is great stuff, although I don’t think I can say anything about Aja that hasn’t already been said countless times. Highlights? The entirely of the title track, but I do have a soft spot for the instrumental portion in the middle of it. Plus, Peg is always fun.

Something that I’ve learned today is that I’m apparently a sucker for anything involving a Mellotron! I must confess that I had a bit of a visceral reaction upon hearing how different the bulk of the album is from the opening track (as I really wish the sitar played a more prominent role on the others), but as it stands, this is a very decent grunge record with a surprising amount of influence from 60s-70s psychedelia. I like that sort of music a lot, so hearing that influence pop up in places tickled me quite a bit. My favourite songs from it are Halo of Ashes, Dime Western, and Gospel Plow if you want a feel for what I’m talking about. The other tracks are well-done but didn’t stand out as much to me, although I may be more than a bit biased in favour of the aforementioned ones. I’m not familiar with much grunge music otherwise, but maybe it’s time I fix that one of these days.

Unfortunately, I don’t have that much to say about this one, other than that it isn’t really my thing. Kind of just went in one ear and out the other. I suppose this sort of music could be kind of fun if you’re in the mood for it, but I found it kind of meatheaded and uninteresting despite clearly having so much energy behind it.

I remember being in Reykjavík and passing the local Icelandic Punk Museum as I was walking. Unfortunately, I wasn't staying in the city for very long and didn't have enough time to make a stop there. A real shame; the next time I come across a local music museum, I won't make the same mistake again! Anyway, this is some pretty fine post-punk. Brilliant and snappy, with fantastic vocals from Björk's end. I had a pretty visceral reaction to some of her more electronic-oriented solo work when I first heard it some years back, but hearing her voice accompanied by a musical style that gives her so much room for expression (and that I like!) makes me very intrigued about her other projects. Check this one out (regardless of your familiarity with her music) if you like the genre; it's well worth a listen either way.

I must confess that this one kind of bored me. I wish I had more commentary on what specifically I didn't like, other than that I thought it was plodding and repetitive. Nothing interesting really going on here in terms of song structure; I'm told that these guys are more rhythm-oriented which, in theory, should appeal to me, but nothing here really piqued my interest.

I must admit that I kind of liked this one! Had elements of what I liked from the Smiths albums I've heard, which is a plus. Bittersweet and even kind of touching occasionally. I can't say the album generally has many surprises (save for Speedway, which is far and above my favourite song on here), but all in all, it's quite pleasant. I just wish it was made by a better human being, y'know?

Sometimes you hear an album that, despite not having a lot to say about it on first listen, just strikes you with how consistent it is (especially for a double!) Anyway, I liked this one. Not one of my absolute favourites, but it doesn't overstay its welcome at all.

Ginger Baker was an excellent drummer and there were some quality cuts off of this one, Brave Ulysses especially. Not too much to really say about it, although it's a classic for a reason.

I appreciate how different a lot of classic 60s psychedelia groups were from one another - the charming, the bizarre, the heavy, the soulful, etc. - courtesy of deriving a lot of influence from different musical scenes. Anyway, this is a love(ly) album. Very mature songwriting with some great arrangements, especially with the guitar work (e.g. the more folk-inspired passages) and occasional use of horns and strings.

A pretty decent indie rock album. At its best when it’s sentimental and atmospheric, at its weakest when it’s attempting to be more conventional (e.g. Grounds For Divorce, which in my opinion reminds me of early 2010s radio rock in all the wrong ways) or uplifting. Still, the melodies are well-crafted and the overall experience was quite pleasant, although at times I do feel it got a bit too mellow at times. Favourite tracks were The Bones of You and The Fix.

I went into this album fully expecting to hate it and I really didn’t. Sure, a lot of it is pretty abrasive and outright noisy, but there’s a surprising variety of things going on here. Occasionally playful and shockingly enough kind of atmospheric in places (e.g. We Fenced Other Gardens With The Bones Of Our Own). Cool uses of distortion. Overall not bad. Not something I think I’ll be revisiting much and I don’t doubt that these guys have better albums (seeing as this is only their second), but I harbour no dislike for it.

I liked the rhythm section a lot (namely those basslines), and although I wasn’t as keen on the vocals, I had a pleasant time with this one. I can’t say I’m a massive fan of this sort of bluesy hard rock, but I also can’t say that this is bad or underwhelming music in any way. A good album but not one I plan on regularly revisiting.