Geography

Eyyy a classic Instant 5 Long time since I have listened to it all. Good to be back.

Great if you're sat by a pool in 30c heat drinking cocktails. Unfortunately I was walking the dog in the rain.

This album is smooth, polished, and safe to the point of sterility. Tom Misch is clearly a skilled guitarist and has an ear for groove, but Geography is pure Spotify-core: hyper-produced, mid-tempo, and designed to please everyone without challenging anyone. There’s nothing wrong with easy listening or coffee-shop funk, but I kept wishing his playing was in a rougher, more daring context. The beats are simple, the edges too clean, and the whole thing feels airbrushed. Funk, jazz, and hip-hop all make an appearance, but only in the most polite way possible. A pleasant listen, sure, but far too safe to stick.

This artist and their music is smooth as fuck. I definitely will be listening again and checking out more of their discography!

Very entertaining… I had a terrific time listening to this. Interesting styles, sort of jazzy but then some dance-infused songs that made it more interesting (“Disco Yes” for example!). Loved it!

Wow this album is superb. First time listening and an instant classic, loved the Jazz and flow and a nice surprise Loyle Carner popping up on water baby.

Jazzy funky hip-hop influenced grooves, with some cracking guests. Please don't cover Stevie Wonder though, it (almost) never works. His voice sounds oddly like Calvin Harris, which was a bit distracting at points, but a good album and one I would never have heard without it being suggested here. Thanks for the pointer

Fun and funky (but not too), warm and welcoming, accessible and maybe a little obvious, too (Stevie W cover more than a litlte obvs, actually). If not causing anybody to forget Wes Montgomery (or St. Germain, for that matter, or Robert Glasper), the guy can play, though one wishes he'd do more of that and less rapping or singing or whatever it is those vocals might be exactly. Rounding up because, listening in grimmest winter, one felt one's spirits lifted by dreams of summer rooftop parties and a giant tequila + soda with a giant lime (or, better yet, orange) wedge. One supposes one's saying yes to "Disco, Yes!" (best cut here). Thanks for the intro, recommender. One would rather listen to this than either of the Portishead records (again, it's winter so mental health, self-care, etc.) or Sabres of Paradise so fine to replace any/either of those on list proper.

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Lost in Paris, Movie, We’ve come so far

My music review BFF, tom5643, said it best. This is beach club resort music. Depending on your mood and your surroundings, that may be just what the doctor ordered! Or it may be kind of weightless and forgettable. I was in the right mood yesterday though so I'm all for it.

I suspect that this, both lyrically and musically, probably merited more active listening than I was able to give it at the time. Superficially a kind of light, jazz-adjacent vibe. It didn't quite grab me but I feel like I'll circle around and give it another pass eventually.

Geography is the debut album of Tom Misch. It's filled with easy jazz rock with hip hop influences and contributions of great guest musicians. It starts of pretty good with "Lost in Paris" and "South of the River". "It Runs Through Me" is also nice. "Water Baby" is sort of ok, but even Loyle Carner (still none of his albums on the user list) cannot make it more than that. The other songs are utterly boring, even as background music.

After tirelessly drudging through 1089 albums of varying quality, triumphantly getting to the finish line, and earning a privilege of adding one (just one!) absolutely distinguished album to this list, one life-altering, paradigm shifting album, that you REALLY want others to hear... this is what you go with?

If you're going to have a spoken-word passage at the beginning of your album talking about you're only in it for the music, you should probably ensure the following LP lives up to that self-aggrandizing promise. Despite the tight instrumental execution and thoughtful, clean production, the actual musical content of this album is flatter than a pancake. No matter how many times Misch steps outside of the key or fits in a funky little solo, the bones of these tracks are drop-dead boring: muzak-esque progressions, repetitive lyricism and instrumentation, meandering guest features that feel misplaced or are just plain bad. Tack on the jam band elements and the orobouros of Misch jacking himself off is complete – telling when you need a gratuitous re-do of 'Isn't She Lovely' to inject any kind of life into your album and it manages to be the most memorable track! The whole project is just self-serving and too smug for its own good. The main feat I'll remember from this one is how Misch managed to make even a De La Soul feature feel lifeless and limpid.

I wonder what the genre is for this album. Funkadelic spoken word rap? I'm finding myself moving to some of these beats. The album art looks like a candelabra. Why is it not spelled candlelabra? Movie was a bit slow for me.

This is some nice-enough, easy listening funk that sounds like it wouldn't be out-of-place as incidental music in a low-budget rom-com.

Neo soul, nu jazz, funk, jazz, hip-hop, electronic, jazz-funk, acid jazz, R&B, jazz rap, ambient, nu-disco, alternative. Bastante agradable. Un 4, venga.

This music felt very specifically like music that would be playing at the outdoor shop / lounge area at the Secrets resort we have visited twice in Mexico. Which pleases me. Don’t know if that helps you as a review

Very mellow, in a good way. Not typically something I would listen to on own initiative, but I liked it

Yea I can dig this album. Disco Yes is a song I have absolutely heard before.

Certainly an album worth further explortation. Fave: Movie

Groovy! Bordering on Berklee-esque theory salad at some points but the foundation is strong enough to support it

A cool smooth jazz funk album with a bit of soul. This was a good groove album, though nothing really got its hooks into me and made me want to listen more.

Never heard of Tom Misch before so this album was a pleasant surprise. The way he fuses the jazz pop sounds with some solid best production made this a pretty enjoyable album. Listened to it a few times and didn’t get tired. Could definitely revisit. 6.9/10 (nice)

Jazzy, funky, 3/5.

Good revision music according to a friend

Very smooth

Not bad

something very kenny g about this rnb. no shade, just rubbing weird against my anxiety today.

November 19, 2025 "Tick Tock", "It Runs Through Me" (feat. De La Soul), "Man Like You", "Water Baby", "We've Come So Far" Oodles and oodles of potential For such a laidback album, I feel like I went through a wide range of emotions. Anger for hearing such sophistication when I currently crave something noisier (as my voting record for punk and metal shows, that's not a common issue with me). Joy upon hearing that De La Soul was involved, as well as during the funkier tracks like "Water Baby". Contemplation, during the vibier tracks like "We've Come So Far" and that little Stevie Wonder excerpt. Tldr this album made feel everything and nothing 7/10

Nice little prog-jazz album that found me bopping my head and tapping my toes from time to time

Jazz instrumentals, pop vocals, cool outcome

Really chill and smooth. Not exactly the most inventive or original but nice nonetheless.

Really wasn’t for me. A combination of elements to styles that I don’t really enjoy.

It’s alright music to cook to, but that’s about all I got out of it. Kind of tepid

The production is pretty clean which I enjoy but overall it's a bit too poppy for me.

Extremely simple easy-listening music for coffee shops and travel vlogs. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from an album like this. Hard to hate, hard to write more than two sentences about it. Strong 2/5.

"Just because a record has a groove don't make it in the groove."

It's an okay album, and I can see some qualities, but if not submitted by Tom Misch himself, that is also giving a try to the 1001 challenge, I really do not see how a (component but) quite standard album should be included in a collective all-time best albums of all time. I recognize that everyone has their favorites, and there’s certainly a lot of awful music in the list. Some submissions feel like an attempt to enhance the original list, while others come off as more ironic. Then there are those where someone thinks, "I know this isn't a classic, but it's my favorite of all time." Strangely, to me, this album does not fit into any of these categories, and it leaves me a bit lost on how to evaluate it.

Not for me. This combined a lot of my least favorite elements of music.

I've listened to this album once before apparently. On my first play through now, I rather disliked it, but I'm recovering from some ill health, so I thought maybe I was just in an unreceptive mood. Gave it a few days and then a second listen, and I'm afraid my reaction hasn't significantly improved. Another reviewer described this as "smooth, polished, and safe to the point of sterility" and I think that's where I'm at with it. I dunno, maybe if I was hearing this in the summer on a sun-drenched patio I'd like it more? Mostly, it's inoffensive, but there are some tracks that actively aggravate. The "Isn't She Lovely" cover breaking off after only 1.5 mins felt like a blessed relief. "Man Like You" made my lip curl. Fave track - eh, "Water Baby" maybe?

Tänk så mycket roligare det hade varit om det hade varit Geography med Front 242 istället.

Smooth as a bowling ball. It’s not terrible but it’s not my style.

Good grief this is awful. It’s a parody record.

The production is spot-on, but god there's not a whole lot going on here is there?

I liked the artwork.

Since the user who suggested this doesn't leave any review, I'm gonna take a page out of his lazy book and copy and paste the introduction of Pitchfork review for this album, which I 100% subscribe to, for once: "The British singer and beatmaker’s largely self-produced debut album is a pleasant, frictionless listen that benefits from his obvious chops but is held back by his risk-averse tendencies.". Yeah, I don't think the world absolutely needs a more lethargic and less grinning version of Jay Kay from Jamiroquai, even if he is a stellar guitar player and competent vocalist (admittedly singing in a lower register). Covering songs by other artists with better songwriting chops (Stevie Wonder's *Isn't She Lovely", Patrick Watson's "Man Like You") only reveals what it is that Tom Misch is still lacking as an artist. "Water Baby" on the second side is kind of cool and lushly arranged. But each and every original song before and after is a borefest. In short, his dross is one of the reasons I hate Starbucks Coffee. Thanks, but no thanks for the latte. 1.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 2. 6.5/10 for more general purposes. ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 76 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 94 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 186 (including this one) ---- Émile, tu trouveras ma dernière réponse sous le *Inside* de Bo Burnham