Cool early post punk, apparently she died this year and dated Mick Jagger in the 60s. wild.
The closer and the first 2 tracks were definitely the highlights for me, love it when she keeps her voice subdued and creates a lovely blended gothic soundscape. Pushing her voice into ranges that don't suit her ruined some of the songs for me, particularly 'What's The Hurry'.
Shocked at how short this is considering its status honestly. I think knowing this is top 20 of all time on aoty got my hopes up a bit too high.
Love the variety of instruments used, makes every song feel fresh and distinct, but I think it's also pulling a lot of weight. I like Bowie's voice here I think but these soundscapes would benefit from someone with a bit more power in their voice.
Highlights were the last 3 tracks.
Unique but not really my thing, the last 3 tracks carried it hard.
I was enjoying the long instrumental track a lot but it overstayed its welcome and lost me in the last 1/3rd when it became only percussion.
Highlights were Four Cornered Room and The World is a Ghetto
Consistently good but nothing super crazy. A diverse collection of cute ballads and some groovy pop rock tunes with the piano acting as the glue to stick the whole project together. An album I can definitely see myself going back to for a nice walk in warmer weather.
Highlights: The Stranger, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, Vienna, Get it Right the First Time
Pretty standard and boring 60s psych pop, had some nice moments, vocals were very inconsistent, didn’t find the instrumentation that interesting and nothing really stood out.
Highlights: Beechwood Park, Changes
ITS DREAM POP!!!!!
it's ok dream pop!
Some tracks really shine (it's when the melodies are strong, shocking I know Clo) e.g. the run of Desire Lines -> Basement Scene -> Helicopter is brilliant, and I loved the closing track. Nothing too special overall though.
his voice is nice but i'm really bored, got nothing else to say honestly.
Highlights: Seven More Days, Rain, Who's Loving You ???
Love this a lot, Sade's voice is beautiful and the instrumentation is so smooth. Love every sax appearance across the album, felt like I was lounging in a comfy warmly lit room. Did distract me from my work a lot though.
Highlights: Smooth operator, Your love is king, Hang on to your love, Why can't we live together.
listened to this in the rain, lovely experience. no highlights just very solid throughout
enjoy clo :3
This shit cool as hell. Very surprised I've never never heard of him considering his status, also pleasantly surprised to see such a distinctly non English/Spanish speaking album on here.
Not sure if I'd call the genre here Tishoumaren but, at the behest of sounding like I'm generalising West Africa's music scenes, if you liked this check out Mdou Moctar as well, active band from Niger pushing this sound in a psychedelic rock direction.
Highlights: Pitche Mi & Taaw
this dick aint freeeeeee
undoubtedly generational and i respect it a lot, just not something that speaks to me personally or that i seek out often. i did like some songs more than i had previously on this relisten though
clo 1 incoming
highlights: wesley's theory, for free?, u, momma, you ain't gotta lie, i, mortal man
So calm and smoothing. I secretly love mellow country music because it makes me feel so warm inside but I've never found a country-pop album that I've enjoyed until this.
Lovely voice, big fan of the strings that appear in a couple songs. Doesn't rely on tropes like every other country-pop album.
Highlights: Save Me, The Mind of Love, Miss Chatelaine, Season of Hollow Soul, Outside Myself.
Basic British punk rock but I’m a sucker for this stuff. I love how raw the vocals are, feels like something I’d listen to when I was 15 getting into harsher music.
oh we got live albums in here heeelllll yeah
felt like i was watching a movie listening to this honestly, the dialogue between songs, the seamless transitions, the crowd being excited and clear throughout.
the show is orchestrated so smoothly thanks to King's ability to woo the crowd then effortlessly go back to singing, which in and of itself is brilliantly soulful. something about the soundscapes he and his band creates here combined with the how casually he talks to the audience between tracks makes me feel warm and comforted, this is why live albums feel so intimate
highlights: sweet little angel, it's my own fault, how blue can you get
likely my first 5
Could never get into Gorillaz personally but this is the most I've enjoyed from them.
Highlights
Clint Eastwood
Gravity
Rock the house
19-2000
M1A1
Don't think I could tell you a single thing about any of the songs on here. There was some sonically interesting production choices I guess (I like the drums on Shout Me Out) and the occasional good line but most of it felt like boring indie rock with an equally uninteresting vocalist.
Last 2 tracks probably bumped it up to a low 3
Highly conceptual and might need a couple listens to get my full thoughts on it.
Currently there’s a lot I like about it, namely when the ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ motif returns in songs sporadically across the album. From the lyrical content of those title tracks separated into parts I gathered that the motif is meant to represent either child abuse or possibly conscription? something about boys (or children in general) being mistreated socially, so when the melody appears it really hooks me back in to an album that’s otherwise quite strangely laid out.
Everything from Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 1 - Pt. 3 (including all songs between them) was quite enjoyable. Disc 2 lost me initially with songs like Vera and Bring the Boys back home which felt to me like loose ideas that the band wanted to try but didn’t flesh out, it won me back with songs like Comfortably Numb and Run like Hell, then lost me again with the theatrics at the end, definitely didn’t feel like that fit.
High 3
uhhhhhhhh it was interesting but quite a drag to get through once i expected the vocals, the novelty didn't hold up.
oh fuck yes
its raw, its hard, its catchy, its brilliant and unfortunately still very relevant.
looked to see if they had any more stuff on here but sadly not, been wanting to listen to all their stuff at some point anyway.
2nd 5
Some songs are beautiful rock-infused ballads but the album is also littered with generic pop rock hooks that don't excite me at all. I enjoyed his voice regardless of how boring some of the tracks were to me but it's not something I'd seek out again likely.
'Be' was ass lol
Highlights
Sitting on Top of the World
Let Love Rule
My Precious Love
Nothing special compared to other stuff I've heard from them but god I looove the soundscapes these guys create it'll always hit
High high high 4
if i got £1 for every time an individual music critic got paid to write a review of this album for a reputable publication in which the critic would call this album a perfect masterpiece in the medium of music i would have four great british pounds.
there's some good guitar and drum work on here, and the vocalist certainly sells what he's going for. but i don't have anything else good to say, gets a 2 for being bad & interesting rather than bad & boring.
highlights
when big joan sets up
she's too much for my mirror
veteran's day poppy
ella guru
pachuco cadaver
Yeeeaaah this is the type of stuff I'm here for, big fan
Highlights:
Xica Da Silva
O Plebeu
Ponta de Lança Africano
ahahaha eagerly awaiting the Clo review here.
Heard this before of course, not his best at all but still so soothing and comforting, need to put it on more often honestly.
Highlights:
Blowing in the Wind
Girl from the North Country
Masters of War
Down The Highway
A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
I like it Clo I like it!!
Love all the different styles of guitar they're using, and whatever they're doing always fits with what the song feels like its going for
Didn't really like the vocal melodies they tried on Tuff Gnarl and Pacific Coast Highway but the instrumental sections brought me back around on them.
Highlights:
Schizophrenia
Catholic Block
Stereo Sanctity
Pretty high 4
i think i hear the opening track in ads all the time lmao
yeah sounds great but there's only so much i can enjoy an almost entirely instrumental soundtrack album, funnily enough a lot of publications compare this to Superfly which we had just before this, and i do agree with them in enjoying that one more than this.
where the hell does this 20 minute closer fit into a movie?
Highlights:
Ellie's Love Theme
Cafe Regio's
Early Sunday Morning
Soulsville
Do Your Thing
Low 4
iwl I'm writing my essay while listening to this so I'm not giving it my full attention but I'm loving the instrumentals and I like Yorke's voice here whereas I've found him quite whiny before.
I quite like the lead vocalist but isolating him as much as this album does makes him feel really dumbed down, some songs like Damaged Goods (which i've heard before ofc) and Glass give him a little more to work with and those end up being the highlights. generally it's not super interesting once you understand the soundscape. the backing(? might be the same guy) vocalist needs to be doing more to sell me on any emotion he's trying to convey whenever he appears, like he does on the final song.
Highlights:
Damaged Goods
Glass
Love Like Anthrax
A wide variety of styles here! some instrumentals i didn't care about that much and some that I loved, same with the vocal tracks, wish they got that Tracey Thorn back for more I loved her contribution.
Highlights:
The Paris Match
Blue Cafe
My Ever Changing Moods
You're The Best Thing
High 3
Turns out I knew more of these songs than I thought based on the titles.
Going into this I expected it to be mostly acoustic for some reason- by virtue of just hearing Wonderwall everywhere I guess. But even Wonderwall is more upbeat than I thought, it felt full, that's how you do an acoustic ballad.
Highlights:
Don't Look Back in Anger
Hey Now!
She's Electric
Wonderwall
Champagne Supernova
Sanullim do this better
Highlights:
Vicious
Walk on the Wild Side
Wagon Wheel
Just not for me at all, I don't care for these minimalistic repeating beats and Jay's voice doesn't engage me at all. Also a lot of lyrics throughout the project made me raise an eyebrow
enjoyed the lyricism but the music itself didn’t really grip me
Feel like this one didn’t need to be here, they’re just doing rock and roll / blues standards, sounds pretty good sure
low 3
i don’t know why country music makes me feel so warm, i have no connection to rural america, or the idea of living off the land and i’m not christian, but this just hits
thought I was about to hear one of my favourite albums of all time after the first song but it kinda dipped after that. love this vocalist a lot i wish he had more of a presence, still amazing.
Highlights;
Svefn-g-englar
Ágætis byrjun
instrumentally everything’s here, love the variety that they use and it made the 2nd half of every song enjoyable, but otherwise the vocalist kinda bored me
Does what it sets out to do well, be lounge music. It's a pleasant listen in the background but not something I'd seek out again in my own time. No complaints if it was playing in a public space though
Mitchell creates lovely soundscapes utilising flutes, sax and trumpets to compliment the light percussion played throughout.
Ultimately it was those wind and brass contributions that won me over most of the tracks when I felt as if they weren’t strong otherwise.
Often Mitchell is trying to fit too many syllables into a lyric, which in turn deteriorates from the lounge-like quality the instrumentals are providing
Highlights:
Edith and the Kingpin
Shades of Scarlett Conquering
Harry’s House / Centerpiece
Low 4
Look I'm not usually one to complain about repetitiveness in my music, I often quite like it when I can follow along a riff as soon as I notice it and that feeling wasn't absent during this listen, but it was present on every song on this thing which made it feel quite samey as it went on. I undoubtedly will forget every song by tomorrow morning, but it was decently fun
Highlights:
Mexicola
You Can't Quit Me Baby
Regular John
the indomitable youthful spirit is the foundation that allows all the weird squeals and high slurring vocal inflections to feel fitting on here.
i love me some twinkly dreamy guitar tones but this is one of the few exceptions where i'm glad they stayed low all the way through.
the melodies are catchy, the attitude is infectious. all i could wish for is some longer songs and a little more punch in her voice when she's really shouting on tracks like "Date With The Night"
Highlights:
Rich
Y-Control
Black Tongue
Maps
Based on the amount of effort put into the stereo version, I assume that's the version they want me to listen to. Unfortunately its most impactful moments were more uncomfortable to listen to than interesting.
I like the British novelty aspect on some tracks, ones that ended up being my favourite like "Rene" and "Lazy Sunday", even if it seems absurdist at some points it gives the the album some soul when otherwise it would just be dropped into the pile of 60s Beatles-inspired-psych-pop stuff that was so abundant.
The narration was also enjoyable and helped make it unique but the songs in the 2nd half didn't interest me enough sonically to warrant caring about it.
I'll be generous and give it a low 3
Dark yet groovy, very enjoyable. Lyrics are a bit too simple / on the nose for the most part but it's clearly not where the focus is
