Reviews by ajef

Was listening thinking: this sounds kinda unfinished? Then I read the book entry that says it’s literally demos so makes sense

Better than Nevermind. Feels like they did what they wanted to do on this album, when they could have easily followed up nevermind with an even more accessible album to appeal to the masses. Instead they created a very raw and actually quite disturbing album.

Enjoyable hip hop album, cool instrumentals and sampling. I just can’t get into the genre enough.

A very enjoyable prog/folk album. Felt like it was transported to a fantasy world. Flute playing was killer. Some of the longer heavier songs like Aqualung and My God are top-tier prog songs.

Strongest album opener ever? Gimme Shelter is one of the most powerful songs, with lyrics that are unfortunately just as relevant 55 years later. The guest vocals by Merry Clayton (I had to look that up) are absolutely insane and really the song would not be nearly as amazing without them.
The rest of the album is pretty decent but it would be impossible to keep up the quality after that opener.
You can’t always get what you want is a very strong closing song. Overall this album suffers a little from a lack of consistency but the highs outweigh the lows.

Mostly solo electric guitar, not the best vocals with quite political sounding lyrics. Nothing special

Couldn’t be bothered with this album, first song was good to run to but then listening to the rest got boring very quickly. It’s nearly 2hr long wtf

I had this cd when I was younger so know it quite well but definitely had not listened in a long time. It’s probably the worst of the smiths 4 albums, but is by no means bad. You can tell it was later in their career by the variety of instrumentation and song types, which works well on certain songs but makes some songs sound a bit silly.

Yeah I don’t really get this at all. Supposedly one of the most influential albums ever and I just thought it was boring, incohesive and kind of annoying at times. Also, not sure you should have equal credit on an album in which you sung 3 songs (referring to Nico ofc). I did find some tracks quite pleasant (Sunday morning, Venus in Furs) but overall this is pretty damn overrated.

Perfect example of an album that was probably pretty revolutionary at the time (I think it was one of the first true punk albums) but has not aged well at all. There is so much post punk music that is miles ahead of this nowadays. It would be cool to be able to erase all memory of any music newer than an album to be able listen to older albums as if they were new

😬 not for me

The issue with folk music for me is that I nearly always prefer it with more instruments/layers. The singer has to have amazing vocals and guitar playing for me to really like it stripped back (Elliott Smith for example). This album is a great example of that problem, his vocals are pretty good, guitar playing okay, but when there’s some backing vocals or more instruments involved it is really good. Therefore certain songs did stand out to me, e.g. So Long, Marianne.
However the rest I found quite boring and repetitive at times.

Pretty nice bluesy rock - their next album El Camino is much better and more consistent. This was quite front-loaded.

Nothing less than the best album ever recorded.
And yes, I have listened to every album ever recorded.

So this is the best album of all time according to the users of rateyourmusic.com and albumoftheyear.com (2 popular music rating sites). As you can imagine this album would have to be very very very good for me to not think it’s overrated. After this single listen, I am not convinced, but it definitely seems like an album worthy of multiple focused listens. I found quite a few songs didn’t really stand out but the others were really cool. The jazz influenced instrumentation is very nice and some of the bass playing is ridiculously good. I found his vocals a little bit annoying sometimes. Overall, although I’m not that into hip hop or rap, I can completely understand the hype this album gets and I definitely want to get into it more through repeated listens.

Going into this I really thought stone roses were a britpop band similar to oasis or something. But I was very much proven wrong. The album is an amazing fusion of sixties pop and eighties jangle pop with shoegaze and britpop - genres that would become a lot bigger in the 90s. The percussion on some songs is so amazing, and that extended outro to I am the resurrection is sick. The album starts and ends really strong but sags a bit in the middle.

Pleasant bit of scouse britpop.
Some more standout songs - due to quality or being different from the standard britpop formula - but generally quite a background album
Not quite sure why this is one of the 1001 albums you must hear before you die

*disclaimer - multiple listen bias as I already knew this album*

Whilst not my favourite talking heads album it has some of their best songs on (cities, memories can’t wait, heaven) and it’s really cool to hear as a transitional album between first 2 more straightforward post punk/art rock albums and the experimental and very hard to define Remain In Light. As with most talking heads albums it is really not much like anything else. My one critism is that slightly trails of in quality right at the end.

Some alright songs but I found it a bit boring to listen to tbh. Never been much into punk though.

Nice bit of medieval folk but whilst I appreciate the commitment to the bit, it can get a bit too much at times (on Knight-Errant for example). Overall the album has quite a lot of filler, whilst certain tracks such as Pleasant street are really really good. If all the album was that good it would easily be a 4 and possibly a 5/5. Also want to mention Goodbye and Hello, which has an amazing brass section.
Based on this album I have to say Jeff is the better Buckley