He’s decent is Kendrick and this album isn’t bad but it isn’t my thing really. He comes closest of the current crop of rappers in speaking to me, but on this it’s still a disconnect. At least it’s not all ego
Dylan is a genius. Not much more to say. A great storyteller, a master of the song. Able to achieve fluid and comprehensive storytelling without needing to shoehorn in a word or a syllable. As a performer too, so what he isn’t the most athletic singer. He is a perfect storyteller.
I really enjoyed this. My first listen in a couple of years and it’s full of the fat guitars and riffs that I loved, but I’d forgotten how sensitive some of the songwriting was. I’d like to make music like this.
A great record. It’s not like other hip hop, not heavy on the self aggrandisement and sexism, heavy on the actual groove and their biggest concern could very well be a lost wallet. So much more musical that you may expect
How do you fault this? Ridiculously funky musical and fun.
Odd if you’re expecting Rumours 2. Interesting and different with the drums very forward in the sound and an aggression that seems almost unlike post Peter Green Mac. Still worth your attention though.
Supreme!
It’s kind of epic and wide. An expansive listen but one that hasn’t hugely left any songs with me. I have held onto some of the feeling. Not any of the specifics.
Another wide epic album that sounds like feelings but stayed with me no further than the final reverb tail. Not bad, but not amazing.
For me it’s not something that works. It always sounds like the soundtrack to a movie I don’t want to watch, kind of low budget John carpenter reinterprets Woody Allen without any jokes. I know many people love this but I find it entirely too satisfied with itself.
Full of energy and angles. It’s more punk than any punk I’ve heard yet there’s an intelligence and cleverness that comes through naturally. It doesn’t seem contrived to deliver a message, it just does.
I’m intimately connected to this record, and I love what the Stones became but this is all a bit too nice, lacking in menace and threat. They would grow from this and it is far ahead of many 60s debuts at this remove I’m asking where is the edge I love about the Stones?
Interesting is the best I can say for this. I can hear the influence it has had in what’s come since, but it sounds like an industrial future where the 60s dr who villains won. Laced with paranoia.
Hard edgy electrified punk blues that sounds massive but lacks a little when it comes to groove. It doesn’t seem to get into your hips, it doesn’t have the boogie. It’s angular. It has a lack of curves. I enjoyed it.
It’s a strangely wonderful thing this album. It’s odd, it’s confrontational, it’s beautifully recorded. It also seems to have pissed off a lot of people which adds to the entertainment. It’s deeply personal and I get the feeling John is also not for everyone but I’d like him.
It’s all over very quickly. It’s exciting but there’s almost no variation, one slower song but it’s all Jerry Lee’s schtick. I’m not sad I’ve heard it but I won’t listen again deliberately.
It’s a great album by Bruce. There’s the thrill of the instantly recognisable hit, something of a party vibe and then as you delve deeper a real emotional connection.
Excellent. Franks subtle and always cool delivery to the fore, it demonstrates why he was so well regarded. The arrangements too are not mired by their density. There’s a. Lot going on but the songs still live.
There is a better Tom Waits album than this, but only if you ask me. He is the master storyteller, inhabiting the characters in his songs, and rendering the absurd into the entirely plausible. A wonder of a record.
Just brilliant. There is no one like Neil. He has facets and this album happens to inhabit the noisy rocking edge of chaos one of those. It’s a glorious and exciting ride. More please.
Not my favourite and not the worst. It’s not like other hip hop records, it’s punkier, it’s more chaotic. But it didn’t fully connect with me on this listen.
It is very possible to become confused between skill and emotional connection in any kind of art. This is an example of just that. Mariah can sing, her voice is good, but she’s got lost in look what I can do, not what should I do. The songs with ne and exception are vacuous vehicles for this bout of exhibitionism. It took a Prince tune and a duet partner to rein her in.
It’s dark and twisted and I regret all the decisions that lead to me not hearing it in the 90s when it came out. This is expression and because it’s sometimes uncomfortable it’s not for everyone.
Brilliant, intelligent, not showing off, and full of funk, groove and soul. It’s even the perfect length for an album. And opens with something that hits just the right spot. Brilliant.
Unexpectedly awesome. I knew they were capable of greatness. I love Fairytale of New York. But had unfairly liked the Dubliners collaboration. In with my father’s liking for terrible cod irish folk and had never heard an album as a whole. A decision I now regret.
The music of little Richard is so far ahead of so many of his contemporaries and those that followed him. It’s still exciting, it still has edges and energy and all the things that make rock and roll special. It hasn’t faded so much with time. Maybe it’s because he was the real deal. Not a country singer doing black music so they could sell it to white kids.
Not the XTC I thought I knew. No power pop, Nigel has been replaced by the Green Man and the lyrics are mostly quite whimsical and aimed at Morris dancers. Musically it is interesting if unexciting, but I remain confused.
It’s good, not Sabbath good, but it’s good. It’s all a little too worked out for my taste. I like things on the edge of chaos when it comes to harder rock music, and it’s just a little too worked clean.
A renaissance album. And a justified one! John Lee shows how the boogie, how the groove is all and sets in place the imprint for every superstar blues album for a decade. Surround your star with guests and you’ll succeed. I only wish the Santana track wasn’t there. I love Carlos, but he dominates the whole thing and makes that song seem syrupy and thick against the brilliantly spare boogie of the rest of the disc.
It’s wonderfully peppy pop music, full of happiness in its groove and with some instantly recognisable tunes. Later it gets lost, a chaotic and out of place live track with some it was ok at the time (but isn’t now) lyrics and what sounds like the theme song for an unmade bbc 2 drama from 1987.
I don’t know about this. I swung between thinking it was oddly brilliant and then just annoying. I just dont know, and I think it will take a few more listens to really decide.
Superb. Magical and deeply emotional I like it more with every listen
A superb album. The second from Neil in this list and they couldn’t be more diverse… this highlights the gentler side of his music, less crazy feedback and more laid back, until you realise the songs have teeth. Full of depth and emotion. Love it.
Not really for me. It’s a bit like hip hop but aimed squarely at white people who are scared of other cultures, but also like the least heavy of all metals but it’s good at pretending. I can see the music forming a community around itself of people who think they’re hard done by because mum wouldn’t get them nuggets on the side in McDonald’s.
Pompous songs that sound like they belong in a musical, with too much exposition and not a single unanswered question. It’s Steinman to blame, Meat’s voice is fine but the songs and the overly dense arrangements are sickly.
An unhealthy obsession with Lynyrd Skynyrd and the way southerners are seen. Some interesting perspectives on former governors. But overall the production which is mostly flat, undynamic and dense made it a hard listen. It wasn’t bad but hard for me to penetrate.
I’m not sure I’m the intended market for this, but is brilliant. Confrontational, powerful, and personal I can’t think of a record like it.
An odd one this. It started out sounding like an industrial take on some Final Fantasy level music and then faded into a background that wasn’t unpleasant, but that my brain found easy to ignore.
A very produced and heavily crafted pop album dressed up in rockers trousers. I don’t mean that as a bad thing, I really quite enjoyed it… there’s a lot to be said for things like this. It’s quite powerful in its way.
Genuinely a superb album. It’s just surreal enough and artful enough to counteract the pure pop. Always something new to discover but it feels like home. Never boring.
A perfect modern pop album. Proof that you can make a record that’s fun, danceable, deep, and intensely personal all at once. Immensely cool. Love it.
Elvis, for all his ground breaking reputation, has nothing on the likes of Little Richard or Fats Domino. This is lacking in edges and is mainly country playing on rock and roll songs. His voice is good, it it would be framed much better further into his career.
It’s a great load of background music that is groovy enough but never seems to go anywhere or say anything. Inoffensive and mostly bland, it’s like trip hop with the good bits taken out. I didn’t dislike it. It don’t affect me enough to have that strong a reaction.
This is a subtle one. The film is amazing in the first place and it’s great on record too, but without being flashy or having that massive hit of something to grab you… it creeps up and gets into your hips.
Adele is a very talented singer, a decent songwriter and performer, but her albums always seem a little flat. Similar pace, similar feel, similar subject, not just on an album by album basis but across her entire body of work. I remain unexcited.
I’m not a huge fan of this record. Cheap Trick have always been fun, but this sounds flat and the vocals too far behind the guitar. I also didn’t feel the live performance added anything, the excitement and energy were not something I felt. I didn’t hate it but it wouldn’t be a first choice.
Very good this one. Some good songs, some great and they seem to build towards the finish where the final songs really connected.
A good album, but later ones would be better in terms of songs and production. You can hear him pulling away from the sound of Nirvana, experimenting and reinventing, and on its best songs it’s superb.
At first I thought what was the fuss about. It was just noisy chaos, but song two interesting things started to happen and I could kid of dig it. The random cure cover at the end was cool too.
An excellent record, full of energy and drive with that groove and attitude only Iggy brings. I’ve always enjoyed the slightly incongruous sleigh bells on I Wanna Be Your Dog. You really should listen.
