Who Killed…… The Zutons

It's a pleasant listen.

Listenable

I own this album but probably haven’t listened to it in a good 15 years. I can see both why I bought it and why I don’t really revisit it - it’s fun but forgettable.

I had The Zutons on regular rotation when I was 13 but have had a 20 year gap in my listening. My wife walked in whilst I was listening and started doing a sort of barn dance. I don’t know if that says anything. The part that stands out most positively oddly is what my dad accurately described as the “grade 3 saxophone” which is fantastic in its own way.

I can hear why a time came when I stopped playing this record. While there are some more memorable songs in the second half, there is not much to it and it's quite ploddy. The compositions are “nice” but bar from the rare hectic moment (“pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure”) there is not much to get your pulse racing. The Beatles are overly credited with influencing every band under the sun, but I think it's fair to say in this instance that one's time would probably be better spent listening to them.

Really fun album

Okay album.

Ik ken het eerste nummer niet, maar het had in de zeroes zo dagelijks op de radio voorbij kunnen komen. Een pakkend gitaartje. Zoals velen in die tijd ligt de nadruk van elke zin een beetje aan het einde, maar vooral in het midden. Met verlengde verdraaiende lettergrepen als instrument hiervoor. Het geeft het festival-rock effect. Erom heen wordt een hele trukenkist geshowd. Dit album ga ik wel uitzitten.

Zoals wel vaker blijkt het eerste nummer de uitschieter. De rest blijkt wat meer vergeetbaar. Gek genoeg herken ik een paar van die weinig interessante nummers wel van de radio. Vraag me toch af of ze niet meer naam hadden gemaakt als ze een andere keuze hadden gemaakt over welke nummers op single moesten belanden.

Het totaal verdient wel een pluspunt, omdat er goed gevarieerd wordt. Helaas tot en met de jaren '60.

3,5 ster.

Favorite track(s): I should've skipped this album out of protest against Big Indie.

The album is fine enough, but it seems to be designed to impress the person who says "They don't make any good music these days," and has forgotten that 2004 was 22 years ago. Listenable, well played, but not particularly inventive, memorable, or meaningful. A pastiche of bygone styles. I have trouble seeing how it made the list, so it's getting rounded down on that basis. I certainly could have missed this one before I die.

Unfortunately, this obscure post-2000s alt rock ska album was not super impressive, other than a few moments early on that sounded like Jack White. 2/5

The only thing I know about the Zutons is "Valerie" (which isn't on this album). And Amy Winehouse did that better. What is on this album are 5 singles I've never heard of. So I'm not expecting much.

So how wrong am I? Very. There's nothing utterly killer on here. But it's all very listenable and catchy.
3½

Eh

I dunno what a Zuton is, but they should’ve stayed dead.

I really wanted to love this, but it felt like the singles then some forgettable filler. Pity as the singles were great!

Perhaps I am biased in this review, since I had to go looking for who these guys were and why this album is here, because my first impression is: ok, it's listenable, some tracks caught my attention, but is it really an album you have to hear before you die?

Hence my 3. In practice, it's something I can and do listen to, and even enjoy, but it undoubtedly falls into the category of thousands and thousands of others like it. And that's it, tomorrow I won't remember them :-(

Noch nie von gehört. Solide 3, mehr aber auch nicht, mit 1-2 Highlights

I only knew these guys from being the original writers of Amy Winehouse's Valerie, so I was kind of blind going into this. On one hand, it's a 2004 british indie album, the epitome of what people despise on this site. That said, this was a fun listen. Never felt boring, had some unique songwriting and was all around a pretty fun listen. The sax was noteworthy too. Very nice to see a 2000's indie album that is actually fun and upbeat. Still not really my thing but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Ordinary, I couldn’t get halfway through

I really didn’t care for this too much. I found the vocals a bit grating, didn’t care for the ska type of instrumentation (were the horns necessary?) and I was pretty over this album 3 songs in. Not the worst album I’ve heard, but I could have died without listening to it.

This felt like a gwar without as much fun?