Was disappointed to see this pop up as my first album. Then “Immigrant Song” started and I was like, “Hell yeah!” It went downhill until the end of Side A (“Out of the Tiles”), and then got better again. I like the rock stuff better than the folkier and bluesier stuff. But Bron-Y-Aur Stomp had me tapping my toes.
Highlights:
-Immigrant Song
- Out on the Tiles
- Gallows Pole
- Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
“Since I’ve Been Loving You” was an interminable slog. Album closer “Hats off to (Roy) Harper” - I like the experimental nature of it but it’s not fun to listen to.
Love the cover art.
Crazy how much Jack White took from all this!
Chrissie Hynde’s voice and swagger are amazing. This album rocks harder than I was expecting by a band whose biggest single is “I’ll Stand By You.” I was surprised by how much of this album I already knew, even songs that weren’t singles.
“Precious,” the first song, is a one of my favorites and “Mystery Achievement” is such a cool way to end it. What an amazing pair of songs to bookend the album. I also really liked the punky-experimenting on “The Phone Call”; “Tattooed Love Boys,” and of course “Brass in Pocket”’is a classic.
I was surprised that I didn’t really know their cover of “Stop Your Sobbing” - I know the Kinks version well and didn’t care for the version on “The Pretenders.” Also, “Private Life,” their take on reggae, really wasn’t for me but Hynde’s voice is gorgeous on it.
I knew at least half the tracks on this album but had never listened to it before. I’m glad I did, I wouldn’t mind coming back to it.
It’s ok for what it is. It’s not one of the 1001 albums I needed to hear. Some perfectly fine radio singles that appeal to angsty teens and a bunch of other songs that sound just like them, only worse.
3/10
I love Cat Stevens’s voice, and the songwriting is great. A nostalgic listen that still holds up.
Favorites:
Wild World
Father and Son
Longer Boats (mostly because it was a surprise - never heard it before and it was different from the rest)
I’ll listen to this one again.
A very pleasant surprise. I knew only the biggest Siouxie hits before this. But after Juju was assigned to me for this project, I listened to it three times in the past 24 hours. Side A is near-perfect. It’s full of songs that are fun listens but also interesting and complicated. “Spellbound” is basically a song made to dance to at goth clubs, but sounds like it has acoustic guitars in it? Which is apparently all guitar trickery by absolute master John McGeogh? Incredible. 4 goth masterpieces in a row and then, to keep you from getting complacent they hit you with straight-up rock banger “Monitor.”
This is an album that demands your attention. Side B is more diverse, and weirder. It’s a tougher listen but so interesting. Album closer “Voodoo Dolly” starts as a haunting, ethereal piece and then picks up the pace, getting darker, faster, and scarier. There are some poppy bits on the album but “Voodoo Dolly,” playing with tempo, getting bigger and smaller, using both deep, quiet and then shrieking vocals, ending in a cacophony over which Siouxie hisses “Listen!”, it gives the message that this band WILL be taken seriously. And makes you want to push play again and start over at “Spellbound.”
Side A - 5/5
Side B - 4/5
What a waste of time. The title song “Hearts and Bones” was lovely, but the rest of the album ranged from boring to laughably silly. “Allergies,” “Song About the Moon,” “Cars are Cars”… the same person who wrote that drivel wrote “The Boxer”? “Bridge over Troubled Water”? Knowing what Paul Simon is capable of takes this album from bad to truly disappointing.
