I usually only listen to Paul's Boutique when it comes to Beastie Boys, but it's nice to mix things up, I like the nods to their hardcore roots and frequent shifts into psychedelic jazz and experimental groove. Better than I was expecting, and more experimental in terms of production. Enjoyed Sabotage more than usual in the wider context of the record. Starts with a really great flow to the whole thing, though it lags a bit in the middle and could probably be tightened up. In general, a highly enjoyable listen.
Been playing a lot of Red Dead Redemption so feeling particularly partial to cowboy music. At the end of the day it's quite fun, though it also feels impossible to divorce from the last 65 years of its recontextualisation and memeification, and gets pretty samey pretty quickly
Just can't really get on borde with Lorde, the over-earnestness of the vocal is hard to get past, every word annunciated as if it's extremely important, but really never going that much deeper than the surface level in terms of content. Though I wonder if I might feel differently were I closer to the kind of age Lorde was when she wrote it, and whether there's just too much of a gap in perspective that makes this harder for me to engage with.
All time classic! Though it's a little bit dated perhaps, I still think this really holds up. The production is hyperactive and fun, the energy is really infectious, the songwriting is witty and sharp. I'll even let De La Orgee slide
I mean, this was catnip as a sad sad angsty 14 year old, I still know this album back to front. Re-listening as an adult, yeah some of it is way too twee for a 31-year-old palette, but you know what a lot of it holds up, particularly the more experimental synthy bits and when they kick up the energy a bit with the guitar
One of the things that’s surprised me the most is the creative sampling and appropriating, the weird use of Enya and various little danchell references. It’s kind of one of those classic albums that you know is a classic for a reason. I’ve obv heard all the big singles from it, but then you listen to the whole thing it’s obvious why. All the same, when records are this tightly crafted, I sometimes struggle to feel a personal connection.
Just a really solid soul album, such a wonderful voice that’s brimming with charisma. Feels pretty timeless
Jam bands just aren’t for me. I get that they’re all very talented but this is just way too much self indulgent noodling for my taste
Banger! One of those albums I’ve heard a million times so a little of the magic has worn off, and Bluebell Knoll is still their best, but you can’t deny this is great
There are like, one or two good tunes on here when Brian Jones gets to go a bit psychedelic, but then the rest are just pure mid-60s blues filler. Jagger’s voice has never honked quite so hard, it’s actually quite annoying. Then there's the lyrics - hashtagproblematic at best, rancid and rapey at worst. A real slog. ¡No bueno!
Is this the most 90s album of all? I think so. It's really uplifting, makes you feel like it's 1997 and Tony Blair's gonna be great and we've ended racism and everything's gonna be OK with no disappointments / war crimes on the horizon. Hot take but I actually like the Brimful of Asha version here more than the Fatboy Slim remix (although the Phoenix Nights version will always be my number one). It's not like, groundbreaking musically, and every now and then we verge a little bit into dreaded electro swing town, and there's quite a bit of filler, but it's got so much charm that I don't really mind.
It's drum & bass init? Kind of the platonic ideal of 90s drum & bass, really smooth and kind of flawless. But then I also feel it's lacking a bit of edge, a bit of roughness and weirdness which makes dance music appealing to me. This would be a very different review were I to have dropped a zesty pinger or two before listening of course.
I have a real soft spot for music like this. I think because I went through the original 1001 Albums book from the very start at first, I listened to a higher concentration of 50s and 60s soul than most teenagers in the 2000s English countryside, so in a weird way this feels quite nostalgic to me. Burke's got a really really great voice and so much charisma, I love how the passionate moments cause the janky old 60s recording equipment to fray at the edges, and I like the playful sort of springiness to the instrumentals that gives it all so much room to breathe. Like all of the really old stuff that's come up, it's naturally a little dated, but I still like it!
Sometimes I toy with the hot take that RHCP were good actually, like this is really well produced and there's some good stuff here. But then I hear the opening track on this record and it's just a horrible mess of aural dickswinging. 'Rompin and a stompin 'cause I'm in my prime'? Really? It's way too frat energy for this sensitive boy I'm sorry. Often it's a bit of a plod but THEN there are some legit good songs on here like Parallel Universe and even Californication, and he's got a nice voice on a chorus or two, but then he starts rapping and it makes me want to throw my headphones into a canal and then throw myself into a canal. Emmit Remmus is one of the worst songs of all time, from then onwards this was a reaaaaallll slog. Still just can't make my mind up on them but giving this a proper listen has made my opinion worse. Maybe they should just stick to ballads and go to sex therapy.
Strong 'we have David Bowie at home' vibes, kinda throws into relief how good he was compared to his contemporaries - this is fine, but just doesn't have that magic. Peak 70s TOTP energy, glittery streamers and feather boas and tight trousers and big hair, which is obviously no bad thing, and I can see why my mum liked it when she was a child. But yeah I can't say there's anything really that special going on here.
I like the super long title track, like if The Doors were fronted by an Elvis impersonator, but in a fun way. Even then it's pretty much just a fun psych wigout, but not that much more. The rest is pretty much 60s filler tbh. I just can't really think of a lot to say about this record I'm sorry Iron Butterfly. Good name tho!
Nice to mix things up a bit! And it's a real nice one to boot, you can see why her voice has always been talked about as one of the best. Soothing vibes then joyful dancy vibes, fun for the end of a long week! Shout out to the wacky song about a flea. Scratch, scratch me back! The weird duet about a dead husband is very odd but I like it.
This is one of my favourites of his, the way it's cut in half between the raw electric stuff and very lovely acoustic stuff. Bob Dylan's been mytholigised so much that he's basically a meme at this point, but I still think the best moments here like Maggie's Farm and Subterranean Homesick Blues and It's All Over Now hold up, and the lyrics are just really really great poetry (even though that's a very lukewarm and cringe take). Sorry I just can't be contrary about this one, I like it a lot.
Classic album for when you’re 16 and think you’re the only person to know about the band and you feel really cool but then you just realise that all the hipster gen x dads already love it. Pretty solid psychy trip hop, but maaaaybe a bit too soft and not edgy enough for my tastes now
I usually like my jazz a bit less smooth than this but you know what the more it went on the more I was wondering over, like it worked its way into my subconscious or something. Very enjoyable!
Definition of a stone cold classic tbh! Not my favourite Kate Bush (that's The Dreaming) but still a five star record which gives you an idea of just how incredible 80s Kate Bush was. Just such an insane amount going on here, massive prog conceptual suite about ghosts! esoteric references to machines that control the weather! incredible emotional range! crazy production! a cheeky Irish jig for the lads! and all the songs absolutely slap at the same time. Masterpiece!!
A banger! My fav Radiohead record, such an intense and specific vibe of psychedelic melancholy that runs through the whole thing with such a brilliant sense of momentum. I love the tectures on this record and the guitar lines especially. Thom Yorke is a walloper but because of records like this he can still stay
When I was at uni I went to one social for the band society where they put on a gig. They were all really nice people and very talented at their instruments but also extremely naff and annoying (which I admit was a me problem, not a them problem). This is the sort of music they were making, milky tea music. Pleasant to listen to, but lacking oomph.
Kinda the point where The Kinks - who are one of my favourite bands - start to go off the boil a bit and into wacky theatrical concept town. But there's still lots of charm here and some really good songwriting at the core and its such a unique little slice of post-Imperial decline in the late 60s that everyone else in pop was ignoring. I feel like this record is them at their most eccentric and you can either get on board the weird suburbia train or you can let it chug away over the horizon. I'm all aboard baby. Choo choo!
At it's best this is some of the greatest music ever, that incredible bassline on Safe From Harm, the way those massive horns come into One Love but just a tiny bit. Occasionally goes a bit generic trip hop and coasts a bit, but then that's kinda just cos they invented trip hop to begin with. More than enough bangers here to make this a classic!
Ol’ billy catamaran at his very finest, probably the peak of his mystic cowboy wandering the plains phase, some absolutely phenomenal lyrics here and voice like velvet soup. Love it!!
A really really solid post hardcore record, perfect to blow off the cobwebs first thing on a Monday. They're on really relentless form here, and while it gets a bit samey towards the end of an hour's runtime, there's this really intense energy at the core that I really like. One of those cult records I've never got around to listening to, and I'm glad I did! Well done greasy 90s bois.
Suffers a bit from the fact that the title track is now like the go-to comedy song about fucking, and that just when that's gone there's another song halfway through that's called 'Keep Gettin' It On' where it's the exact same beat and the message is 'no, let's all remember that song about fucking that they'd use for the bit in an Adam Sandler film when he gets an erection'. It makes it kinda hard to evaluate it on its own merit, but for what it's worth this is some nice soul music.
THAT SAID I procrastinated by reading up on the background to this record and Marvin Gaye writing about sex in general as a means to get over childhood trauma and it's very interesting, so I'm adding a star
Not a huge grunge head but you know what I enjoyed this more than I was expecting, big walls of angst that feel pretty all-consuming in quite a nice way. I think these guitar tones that would have felt really dated about five years ago have benefitted from the revival of this kind of aesthetic so it actually feels quite fresh. This is still just not the kind of music I'm that into, but I was pleasantly surprised by it. 3 stars but would give it an extra half if I could.
Music from the 50s now feels like it's kinda from another world, Billie Holliday has such a famous and perfect voice that it's a bit like trying to review a faberge egg or a Ming vase or something. Once again takes me back to the weird phase of my teenage years when I was a 16 year old heavily into vocal jazz. That big sense of all-consuming melancholy that drew me to it then is still there and is kinda irresistible.
