I listened to his albums Tear Down the Walls (with Vince Martin) and Bleeker & MacDougal years ago and never really felt the need to investigate further thinking he was one amongst many 60's folkies but this is much more to my taste, it's looser and jazzier. I wish I'd listened to this years ago, definitely one I will come back to.
I started off thinking this was all vaguely ridiculous but by about half way through I was thinking 'I'm a Rain Dog too'. Always great to hear something that you've written off for years without ever really giving it a try and be pleasantly surprised. Lesson learned not to prejudge based on what you think something is rather than what it actually is. I have a lot of Tom Waits to catch up on.
I like this album, the almost title track stands out for me and I wish there was more on the record in that acoustic folk style. Overall a solid listen though and well worth checking out.
A great voice and a good collection of songs, sympathetically arranged without the syrupy strings that, for me, spoil a lot of mainstream country music from the era.
I've never really been able to get into this album, I gave it another try today and it played softly in the background while I got on with other things, not horrible but not exactly arresting either. A pleasant listen but I don't feel like it's a particularly memorable one.
Bland and boring, I really struggled to finish this album.
Classic first album, it's been a while since I've listened to this and while I personally prefer some of his output from the mid-90's onwards there's some great stuff on here.
I avoided this album for a long time, I know how highly regarded it is but it wasn't anything that I went out of my way to seek out. I regret that now, I like this a lot. I'm listening to it in the middle of a summers day but it is an album I will come back to on a long winters night and I feel like it might become something I get a lot out of in the long run.
Solid enough album, sounds very much in the mould of other early 70s singer songwriters, towards the poppier end of the spectrum, more James Taylor than John Martyn. Pleasant enough and some nice songs but no real edge to anything and nothing that surprises. Nice escapist Sunday afternoon music.
A masterpiece of turning disappointment and disillusionment into a quesy and hollowed out version of Big Star's classic sound. Sounds eternal.
There's dark and then there's Songs of Love and Hate, it's an intense listen and not something that can be enjoyed casually. It's hard to put a star raring against this album without diminishing it in the process.
I've just read a few of the reviews peoe have left for this album and it seems to be one that provokes strong responses from everyone who hears it which I think makes it worth anyone's time to hear it at least once in a lifetime. I also didn't know it was possible to listen to Famous Blue Raincoat and not be stopped dead in your tracks but apparently some people think it's awful.
I intentionally avoided this album at the time it came out because everything I read about it made it sound really unappealing and pretentious but I was pleasantly surprised, there's always something interesting going on and it sounds like something I will enjoy even more with repeat listens.
I grew up with my dad's Byrds albums and other related releases by members of the band but he had no time for Crosby so I was never introduced to this album. I assumed my dad's opinion was the right one so while I've listened to lots of Gene Clark, Gram Parsons, Roger McGuinn I've sadly never checked this out, I love it. I think it's time for me to convince his to change the error of his ways.
Some good songs but I'm not a fan of the production on this album, it sounds too polished and sterile. I think it's a solid enough debut but not an album I'd consider to be a classic hearing it for the first time in 2025. Maybe if I had heard it 40 years ago I'd feel differently about it.
This was OK, the title track which was written by Willie Nelson is the best thing here. Overall enjoyable but not one that I feel like I'll come back to for more.
Good album, I used to love the songs that were sung by Jeff Tweedy and skip the ones with Billy Bragg singing, I like almost all of the songs on this album now and the back story is interesting. Jay Bennet deserves a lot of credit for making California Stars into an absolute classic. I love one by one too.
I didn't not enjoy this but it sounds hopelessly dated for 1965 - the same year that Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Out of Our Heads, Mr Tambourine Man, Rubber Soul and Otis Blue (amongst many others) were all released.
Listened to this while walking the dog, while tidying up the shit my kids left everywhere, while I was staring into space after a day of it. It still sounds as good as the first time I heard it, for about ten or so years the new DBT album was the best one. This was the first of their albums that I heard and when I listen I like it better than the others until I listen to them. The amount of people leaving reviews who didn't understand what the album was about it truly worrying. To counter the 1 star reviews that just said I'm European: I'm European.
All good, there's something to be said for an album that is basically one man and a guitar which gets better with each listen. It's also the best part for 60 years old and it feels relevant in any era.
I love everything about this album, from it's cover showing Sandy Denny's parents standing in front of their garden while the band sit on the lawn in the background. It's like the perfect album to lose yourself in on an English summer evening, Rightly considered a classic, hard to believe that some members of the band had barely turned 20 when they made this. A Sailor's Life and Who Knows Where the Time Goes? are the obvious standouts but the whole album stands up to repeated listens.
Great stuff, love the Nudie suits on the cover and the music is a good blend of country and soul, great version of Dark End of the Street. The playing is excellent throughout and there are some nice psychedelic guitar lines mixed in especially on Hot Burrito #1 and #2. I think Gram Parsons had the perfect voice for this music.
Really very good album, some of the post-Sgt. Peppers production actually distracts from the quality of the songs and performances. The less fussy sounding tracks are the ones I find more enjoyable. I discovered Tim's music through listening to Jeff and was initially disappointed as a teenager in the 90s but I have to say his music has grown on me over the years and all of his albums are worth investigating.
Great album, there's something much going on here and it's had an impact on multiple metal sub-genres over the last 50 years and the sounds and ideas that Black Sabbath made popular have informed so much popular music since this album was released that their influence must be up there with the Beatles & the Velvet Underground.
I was fearing the worst but this album made for an enjoyable late night listen. 1960 seems ancient but it wasn't anything difficult or boring listen in my opinion.
I liked his much more than I expected to, the songwriting is top tier pop/soul and it the playing is super smooth, not normally what I would listen to but sometimes you can't deny greatness when you some across it. One of those 70s blockbuster albums like Rumours where One listen is enough to confirm it's right to seemingly exist in every record collection on the planet.
They lay it on a bit thick for me on the title track, tone it down boys and don't overplay your hand! The rest of the album is pretty sweet, looser and much more of an interesting mix of sounds that Paul continued to explore in his solo career.
The Judas portion of the concert is the real reason to revisit this. The acoustic section is fine and Dylan plays some of his classic songs very well but once he goes electric, erm, it's electric. I always wonder if I would have been booing if I'd been there in 66? I hope not, but who knows, we all want to believe we're on the right side of history.
This is wild stuff, JC is on top form, it's just so far removed from other mainstream country artists of the time. A real rebel, still feels electric hearing this in 2025.
Five stars, perfect cover art and beautiful gatefold sleeve. Theresomething about an album like this where everything comes together, you get some perfect vulnerable ballads and a couple of more rocking tunes but everything is just right and the songs never outstay their welcome. Five stars.
Had Rain Dogs come up a couple of weeks ago and it was the first Tom Waits album I'd listened to in it's entirety. I'd heard some of his songs before but never been inclined to dig any deeper but I am big enough to admit when I've made a mistake. This is another strong album, I will definitely be listening to more by Tom Waits, there's plenty to get my teeth into.
I listened to this on a rainy Sunday morning and it was the perfect soundtrack. I think it's definitely an album where I would need to be in the right mood to really enjoy it but it's definitely worth making the time for.
Lots of people seem to really appreciate the lyrics but not the music and when I first heard this album after being familiar with his earlier output I felt the same way but over the years it's grown on me massively and it's one of LC's albums that I return to again and again.
Proto-Shania Twain, I was hoping not to hate this and I but it's a fine line and between love and hate and this album crosses it for me. I might be way off here but I feel like it's a last desperate attempt for mainstream success by an otherwise credible musician and it just sounds of it's time in the worst possible way. I might go back and listen to some of her earlier albums because I hope that they're less moulded with sales figures in mind. I just checked and before this album she never sold more than 500,000 copies of a single album and this shifted over 5 million so I guess it paid off.
I was never a fan of Tom Waits before this challenge and this is the third of his albums that has come up so far and they've all been great. There are always unexpected moments of genuine beauty waiting around the corner and this album like the others by Tom Waits that I've listened to so far really draw you in to a world of his construction.
It's fine margins but I come back to Bryter Later slightly less frequently than I return to Five Leaves Left or Pink Moon. It contains some of his finest songs but overall I tend to agree with his own feelings that some of the songs have a bit more decoration than they really need. Having said that it's still a great album and it boggles the mind that he didn't achieve at least a modicum of commercial success during his own lifetime.
Iconic, blistering from start to finish, I can never come to terms with this album starting with such a high bar and maintaining that standard throughout. You can make a case for each of the songs on the album being one of his best, Bob was on such a hot streak in the mid-60s.
