Pleasant enough. Close to you is a lovely song that was played at my Auntie's funeral. Interesting cover of Help! The album is beautifully arranged and she's got a lovely, calming voice. Very easy listening. Won't be top of my playlists, but I might pop it on when my mum and dad next come over for a meal.
1000 albums to listen to before you die they said. That doesn't necessarily mean they're good! A car crash is unpleasant, but you feel compelled to look at it! There are some really good songs on this album - Long Promised Road, Feel Flows, 'Til I Die are really diverting and demand repeated listening. Surf's Up is bonkers, but intriguing. Songs about dirty water and student demonstrations are well meaning but the songs are difficult to listen to, and I lost interest on songs about feet and trees! Not a complete waste of time, and I'm glad I listened to it, if only to realise how beautiful and how bad the Beach Boys can be on the same album.
Marvin Gaye, the original Chef from South Park, wants to give his woman good lovin', probably a few times. A soul classic, but at my age, if I started listening to this too much, I'm just going to worry my wife! I preferred What's Going On.
Think of Deep Purple, you think of Smoke on the Water, and that mighty guitar riff is right in the middle of this album. Never Before and When A Blind Man Cries might be even better songs. Beyond these songs, Space Truckin' is a bit Spinal Tappish and the other tracks rely to much on guitar solos and they don't really float my boat.
A 5 star album that became a big part of my life and helped me get through my mid twenties. There are so many happy memories associated with some of these songs, from listening to a group of primary school leavers rewriting one of the songs to sing how they had got through school with the help of a "Mitreball" to the songs blaring out through coach speakers on a football road trip through Germany. For album highlights, close your eyes and stick a pin in the track listing's.
A great album and an enjoyable listen. Our Lips Are Sealed is the standout track for me, but Tonite and We Got The Beat are full of confidence and attitude. Belinda Carlisle's voice suits this music better than the middle of the road pop she was singing a few years later and the whole thing sounds like they were having a lot of fun. A few filler tracks towards the end, but altogether an above average album.
A pleasant enough listen. It makes me think of my father in law, who liked his jazz and big bands. It's not my go to type of music, but you have to appreciate the drama and musicality of it all. Let The Good Times Roll had me tapping my feet and Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying was another great production. I doubt I'll listen to the album again though.
The kindest way to describe 1984 is a bit of a shit sandwich. Jump is excellent, Panama follows it well, but then we get an assortment of strange and sleazy songs in the middle that give me the cringe. I'll Wait is a similar but poorer version of Jump, and the 2 songs at the end are passable. After the opening tunes. I expected better.
Sure, this type of modern folk music isn't my go-to genre, but this is perfectly listenable. I enjoyed its peace and complexities and had the album on repeat during the day. There were no real highlights - Quiet Houses and Blue Ridge Mountains maybe being the most prominent in my mind - but the songs were consistent and I never felt a need to skip any. I will check out more Fleet Foxes material when in need of a calm day.
A bit of Latin joy here, and great to listen to while you're pottering around doing the housework or preparing your evening meal, as it's impossible to listen to without swinging your hips and imagining that you're out there on the Strictly dance floor. If your only exposure to mambo, salsa and cha cha cha was stuff like Lou Bega's Mambo Number 5, this album shows you how it was done properly. A solid 3 stars.
I knew almost half of the songs on Rubber Soul pretty well before I listened to this today, I was looking forward to listening to the entire album and fully expected to give it a 5 star review. However, maybe because The Beatles have set such a high bar, it didn't quite meet my expectations. Sure, songs like Norwegian Wood and In My Life are beautifully crafted and were a different style to previous Beatles songs. They showed their willingness to use a growing range of instruments to develop a more expensive sound, and some of the songs that were new to me, especially You Won't See Me and If I Needed Someone, are really good songs that I'm surprised I haven't heard before. However, the country style Ringo Starr fronted What Goes On falls flat for me, and the lyrics of Run For Your Life are unnecessarily dark and end the album on a sour note. Still, 4 stars is good. The fact I was expecting better shows how brilliant The Beatles were.
Where to begin? Firstly, Hard Rock? Really? Seems far too Middle of the Road for that. Next, lyrics: Now you fly, through the sky, never asking why. And you fly all around, 'til someone shoots you down. (This is from a song about a seagull that knows about the end of the world). It's hardly profound). The most well known track, Can't Get Enough of Your Love, would be better off a couple of minutes shorter, and while I found the whole album pleasant on the first listen, I found myself getting bored when playing it through again. It's not all bad - Bad Company and Movin' On maintained my interest for a few more listens, but in the main this is just pretty soulless 'dad rock'
R&B, hip hop and soul. Not normally my thing. But this album transcends it's genres and sends out important messages that were ahead of their time. Personal highlights include Ex-Factor, Forgive Them Father and Everything Is Everything, but there are many more. I can hear Stevie Wonder influences in some of the songs, and you can see how this album has gone on to influence more recent artists, male and female, from a range of genres. It's a shame that her solo output was limited to pretty much this album. She had important things to say.
Before today, my only experience of Isaac Hayes was from Shaft, and his soulful, and hilariously inappropriate advice to the children of South Park, and this was a nice, relaxing listen today. A bit surprising that there were only 4 songs on the album, but the songs rarely got tedious, even when pushing quarter of an hour long. That said, my favourite song was the shortest, One Woman. It's a solid 3 stars from me, but the highlight was when Spotify churned out Theme from Shaft after the album had finished. Absolute tune.
At last! After a few weeks of soul, folk and rock, an album that makes me truly FEEL something! Settle down people with smutty minds - you know what I mean! It's loud and intimidating but you want it louder. You want to be immersed in the aggression and strange, unsettling sounds and sequences and it reminds you of all the things that piss you off and how fucked up everything is at the moment. And you just bounce all over the place before emerging at the end, completely regulated. It's just genius! Apart from the three singles, Narayan and Climbatize are brilliant and bookend Firestarter brilliantly. There's no real filler to be honest. A consistent stomper! Thank you.
Very much a curate's egg of an album here. Some strange production choices ensure that my friends and I sang a more joyous version of He's Got The Whole World In His Hands during our primary school assemblies and some of the other songs sound like they were recorded in a swimming pool! However, there are saving graces in the New York City Song, and the incredible Your Own Back Yard which has a beauty and an honesty that brings shivers to the spine and tears to the eyes.
This transported me off to the US Deep South, swamp blues and spiritual voodoo magic, and you get a feeling of cultural significance. This is my introduction to Dr John and favourite songs are Jump Sturdy, and the incredibly strange Croker Courtbouillon, which appears to be about fish soup and for some reason stirred up memories ranging from The Addams Family to Scooby Do. Not entirely my thing, but altogether an intriguing listen.