You can tell the roots of what Blur would become are here, but the songs seem to really drag on - sometimes for an unnaturally and awkwardly long time - and very little of their later lyrical wit seems present. This is the sort of album that makes yanks think all of the UK's musical output is "alright guv'ner freshen yer wahter, stuff it down the chimney"
I think this is one of those albums that's a lot more historically important for doing something new than actually a Good Album
This isn't the sort of thing I'd want to listen to very often, but it's pleasant, and obviously Big Iron is a banger. Realistically, these songs are all pretty samey - this album is a one-trick pony, but I do really enjoy that trick.
Time to go play some New Vegas, as is the birthright of my people.
R.E.M are Beige: The Band and this is aggressively bland. This feels like what happens when you let one of those guitar wankers who plays Wonderwall and Stairway on loop actually make their own music. It's like we took the lyrics of the 70s, but none of the musical interest that made it properly hit.
The biggest song on this album is also the best one, but I was even ready for Orange Crush to end half-way through. It's only 4 minutes long!
I never appreciated as a kid just how angry and caustic this album is (when you only hear You Oughta Know on the radio/TV, you don't get any of the swearing). And yet, there's a really good range of songs on this album, it doesn't end up feeling one-note.
Obviously this album has all of her unquestionable biggest hits, but I also discovered Forgiven to put on my playlist.
This is a really good album!
This feels like it belongs on the soundtrack of a Gran Turismo or Burnout or something, which is great for me because I loved those soundtracks. This isn't entirely my normal genre but I definitely enjoyed myself (though I can see how some aspects of it might be very grating to others, or even to me on a different day).
I can definitely see the disco influence in this pretty much from the get-go. I feel like they'd have been well served by doing what disco artists used to do - trimming 2-3 minutes out of the album versions of their tracks and then releasing the full things for DJs to use. The repetition doesn't do too much for me and there's not enough variation in the repeats to really keep my interest.
Also, somebody please steal their cowbell.
I think I'm just not into Bob Dylan at all. The music itself is gratingly static, and folk is meant to be the realm of the storyteller but his lyricism is horribly basic. I deserve a medal for getting through 11.5 minutes of Desolation Row.
The second half is a solid improvement, but if the second half is a 2/5 and the first is a 0/5, a 1 seems fair.
Well, they found Waldo :)
This is the kind of 60s music I love being exposed to; experimental to the level of providing interest and pushing the genre on, but not so out there to be unpleasant.
That said, I doubt I'll make an effort to listen to it again down the road, but it was a pleasant use of 40 minutes
I didn't think I knew any of this album, but then Moondance came on and I was like "oh wait I totally know this song it kicks ass".
Nothing else on the album hits those highs, but it's a pleasant listen anyway. He's a good singer, the album is well produced, no complaints.
Some of this album is surprisingly proggy, which I guess makes sense given it was his more experimental phase. As you'd expect there's a frankly absurd amount of groove to this. Obviously, Higher Ground is an all-timer banger (though I could've done without the Jesus fellatio directly afterwards)
It's a little bit weak lyrically in places but I really enjoyed this
I've always appreciated that Basement Jaxx have always had *their* sound, pretty distinct from anyone else. It's also quite an aggressive sound which makes them a "sometimes" food for me and affects the rating I'm giving this album.
The groove is excellent throughout, it's just quite a difficult listen in places.
Obviously its got a couple all-time classic tracks on it, but overall this album is actually pretty boring. Apart from said classics, it's quite hard to really distinguish one track from another, it's all just the same beige music
First off, the obvious: this didn't need to be 77 minutes long and there's a decent amount of fat to trim. But honestly, I still really enjoyed my time with this album - it's surprisingly soulful for the most part, but with the odd full pop banger in there.
I will never like Beautiful though
I probably shouldn't have listened to this at 11am, not exactly the witching hour. No sir, not too spooky an hour at all.
This album is unsurprisingly a vibe, and even though I wasn't quite in the mood for that vibe when I listened to it I'll definitely come back to it when I fancy it. I was surprised that it got kinda dubby near the end, but that wasn't unpleasant either (and looking it up, the last 5 tracks are all bonus tracks they added on for shits and giggles, which makes a lot more sense)
This is clearly a foundational work in synthpop, like if Jean-Michel Jarre had gone into pop instead of prog. It's an enjoyable album, but definitely suffers a bit from being early in the genre and gets very samey - plenty of shared basslines and chord progressions across tracks.
Just great, filthy synthpop. This album is so moody and feels so much better than other stuff coming out at the turn of the decade. And then on top of that, it's got some of their biggest hits on. Good shit.
I'm kind of surprised how boring I found this as a punk enjoyer. Very plodding.
The year before this came out we got Smash, Stranger than Fiction, Dookie and Punk in Drublic from Californian punks. There was absolute gold coming from the era at the time, how did something this dull get made?
I like me some Big Band, but this didn't really hit. I think it's just a bit too shmultzy? Also pretty much every Sinatra song sounds the same, which isn't a problem when it's one in a playlist, but it's a bit much for a whole album.
Neat that it's the first ever UK #1 album though, that's a cool fact
It maybe could use to be a little shorter but there was no way I was giving this album any other rating, it's too goddamn good. Soundgarden's absolute peak.
This would be a good album if it had a different singer and different percussionist and was basically by a different band entirely. A soul band with no soul, there's a reason Simply Red are a national punchline in the UK.
If you're going to listen to soft rock, there's far worse choices than Coldplay, but I really don't like soft rock.
Also let's keep it real, their lyrics are ass
Purest distilled Summer of Love. +1 star if I'd rolled a number beforehand
I enjoyed this! A lot of really interesting ideas that didn't quite get put together right but still kept me entertained. Would've been a 4 but the lyrics were a bit cack
She had brown sugar all over her booga wooga
I think if I smashed this ten times in a row this week I'd probably fall in love with it, but it's hard to really appreciate something this arty on the one listen I give these. On one listen, it's quite a difficult album to listen to.
It's honestly kind of amazing that this is a debut album. I really like triphop, so it's hard to be particularly objective about this one. So goddamn moody in a way that wasn't really matched by their peers, making Portishead really stand out. If I had any complaint, I guess you could maybe trim 20-30 seconds off a few songs without losing anything, but honestly I enjoy the vibe so much that I don't really care.
Also, I gotta rep the album most local to me so far.
This is a tough one. Musically I like it, but I don't really gel with the themes - having been with my partner 15 years I don't have a lot of references for dirtbag men. I also feel like others have come along since and done what she's done better.
The big hits are still bangers though
I'd rather listen to a house band play standards. This was horribly dull
I dunno quite what to think of this, it's like a mashup of jazz, a bad Pink Floyd album and PS2 demo disc menu music
It's not as iconic as their prior albums, but it's still good stuff
On the one hand, it's not the strongest album. On the other, it's fucking Queen singing about a fucking OGRE BATTLE
You can't fool me, this is just 3 Blur albums in a trenchcoat
A very, very pleasant album. I'll come back to this whenever I need to kick back
Wow it's the 2 Van Halen songs everyone knows and an otherwise generic hair metal album. +1 star purely for the guitar playing
Must be nice to source 1-2 vocal samples per song, call it a day and move onto the next one. This should be my thing but it's just so samey and boring and god did it ever just carry on
