Reviews by applaud01

The idea that these guys - all art school, jerky, nervous twitchy energy - used to open for The Ramones and shared a tour bus with them is hard to imagine.

The first album was "nearly, but not quite." A fine announcement of intent, but Jerry Harrison has only just joined the band and they hadn't quite developed complete confidence in their abilities.

But here, with the guiding hand of Brian Eno, they hit their stride.

From the first track, Thankyou for Sending Me an Angel, (what a title) they grab the listeners attention and don't let go. Full of Byrne's quizzical lyrics and yelping vocals Franz and Weymouth's solid, driving rhythm section and Harrison's decorative keyboards it's a hell of a way to start.

Byrne writes songs that sound like they ought to mean something, but whose key stays just frustratingly out of reach. The titles are no help at all. "Found a job" seems to be about a couple who view their life as a TV show and are hoping for a spin off series. "The Girls Want to Be With the Girls" could be about the differences between the sexes could be about lesbianism or could be about how girls are into abstract analysis. Or maybe not.

The crowning moment is their take on Al Green's up-tempo, horn driven, soul classic "Take Me To the River". They slow it down, strip it back, give it a monster bass line from Weymouth, fill it with electronic percussion and turn it into a song that seems more about baptism than love. It's an early direction sign towards what was to come.

Just a classic album. Is it for everyone? Probably not. But hlget on board and its a joy.

Another of those "either you're dancing or you're dead" albums.

The sort of slinky hipped, sexy, slithering afro-jazz funk that Paul Simon dreamed he was making during the Graceland sessions.

And then you read the story of what happened after the album was released and you think "Holy Hell!"

And then you read about Kuti's life and realise that there's so much more here than a toe tapping good time.

No skips, no lowlights.

This had me from the first bass notes on the first track. And why not, when Ron Carter is playing?

This is cool, bebop influenced, laid back, minimal rap. The rhymes are witty. The beats are sublime.

Jazz (We've Got) is an absolute banger, but the rest of the tracks aren't far behind. Enjoyed this a lot.

"It gets longer in between each time you call me"

If I was going for the cheap laugh I'd make a penis joke about that line, but I think he means the time between phone calls.

Plenty of heartbreak, men a-doin' what a man's gotta do and jail time. Even, in If You Want to be my Woman, a bit a sexual coercion that really hasn't aged well.

"Mary's mine" brings a bit of happiness, about a man who was living a life without meaning, but who found a reason for carrying on in the love a true hearted girl gave him.

But the next song is about a man whose girl left him and now he's om skid row, so maybe Mary wasn't so true after all.

Then Jimmy Rogers song about a man who found a good woman but can't give up his rough and rowdy ways.

Then a song about a man who had his mixed up mess of a heart torn apart by a little bitty woman.

This guy really has some problems with his attitude to the ladies.

Seriously, it's probably A grade, old style country, but I admit I find myself listening to it as a sort of camp kitsch.

So let's give it a three and move on

So what do you get if you cross Music for Airports with I Feel Love.

Apparently this, eventually.

Takes all the EDM tricks and ticks, then slows them down and turns them in on themselves to have a good, hard meditation.

Safe from Harm:

A bass line that goes for miles with great vocals and rapping over a drum sample that drives it forward.

One Love

A track so minimal it threatens to disappear, then the horn sample appears so it can hook you in.

Blue Lines

Starts like the coolest jazz track then Tricky appears so he can rap about whatever his stream of consciousness throws up.

Be thankful for what you've got

A surprisingly faithful cover of William DeVaughan's 1974 hit. Massive Attack even sample the organ from the original hit. The message against consumerism is still relevant.

Five Man Army

Probably the closest the album comes to traditional rap. The members of Massive Attack take turns to boast and dis. All against the coolest nightclub soundtrack.

Unfinished Sympathy

The absolute masterpiece on the album. Shara Nelson's voice soars above a dense cloud of strings, voices, drum loops and keyboards. "Are you ready" they chant and Shara really is.

The Orchestra (not samples, but live) cost so much that the band had to sell their car to pay for it.

Daydreaming.

Again a minimalist backing track while Tricky raps over the top, Fiddler on the Roof and Beatles references and all.

Lately

Another Shara Nelson's soaring vocal over a giant bass line. Superb.

Hymn of the Big Wheel

Droning synths give support ro Horace Andy's song about the Big Wheel. The environment, social inequality, greed all get a mention. It's a big song with a big melody, stuffed full of ideas.

This is a magical album there are people who prefer Mezzanine, but we're lucky to have both that we can choose.

Well, it's not subtle.

I have a problem with this sort of thing. Distorted guitars, bass heavy mix, screaming, howling vocals. I really can't tell one from another. Not just one song from another. One band from another.

I was listening to this thinking, "This is really long album!" and when I checked, it had finished and Spotify had been other music for 20 minutes.

I'm sure there are people who can identify Groove Metal and Grindcore and Thrash Metal and Speed Metal, but I'm not one of them.

I'm not going to deny for a moment that the virtuosity on display is impressive, but to what end when the slow numbers all blend into each other and the fast numbers are SO fast they wouldn't be out of place on a Ravin' Rabbids soundtrack.

I can see the appeal if you're 17 and society sucks, man. But if you're a grown-up then it kind of seems a bit ... well.... vulgar.

Also, read the biography. What a great bunch of lads.

This may have the most startling debut album opening track since the Beatles went "1 2 3 4". What a calling card!

The cover photo, surly, defiant, tells you what you're getting.

Three Inch Nails

The first track is a complete banger and a memory from late night TV watching.

But then it sags into self consiously arty lyrics and fairly pedestrian music that isn't nearly as interesting as it seems to want you to think it is.

It wants to be making a statement about life the, universe and everything but just isn't that good.

It keeps starting to do something interesting and then goes of the rails. Either he starts singing in a put on dramatic voice or thr lyrics land with a thud or suddenly he thinks its a good idea to mix in tannoy announcements.

Wastes a lot of potential.

After the relentless ferocity of White Light/White Heat they tone it down a bit to produce this.

What goes on is one of my favourite songs and Candy Says is a surprisingly lovely thing about a trans woman.

Sure, they veer off into 60s Psychedelia nonsense with The Murder Mystery. But that aside, this is a solid album.

By the time they Roxy Music came to record this, their fourth album, Brian Eno had long gone and they were distancing themselves from the sort of 50s retro glam theatrics of their early period, transitioning into the sleek hit making machine they became by the time of the Avalon album.

This starts strongly with The Thrill of It All, All I Want is You and Out of the Blue. Three and Nine is forgettable enough and If it Takes all Night is a kind of bar room honky tonk.

It sags a bit with Bitter Sweet, where they go off to The Threepenny Opera for a bit of Weimar Cabaret and then Triptych, where they visit the Renaissance Fair for a song about The Crucifixion of Jesus - bet you weren't expecting that - but it gets back on the rails to finish with the excellent Prairie Rose, Ferry's ode to his then partner, Jerry Hall.

So not entirely good, but the high points are so good that you can forgive the lows.
3½ stars, rounded up because I've owned the vinyl for 50 years.

So not my thing, but seems okay for something I've got no feeling for

Their first album, and it shows.

It's a scattering approach with covers an instrumental, and original songs a couple of which are as good as anything they ever did.

The anthem, of course, is My Generation, with its fuck you chorus of "Hope I die before I get old", Entwhistle's kamikaze bass line, Moon's "just hit anything" drumming and Townsend's self destructing guitar solo. Daltrey sings over the top of it all with supreme arrogance. It's the song that defined them and the beginning of Punk.

Then you have Daltrey indulging his love of Soul Music with not one, but two James Brown Covers. Perhaps they thought if they did two they'd double their chances of getting one right. They don't.

"The Kids are Alright" is another great moment. Chiming guitars and the first of Townsend's songs about men who seem lost, which would come to fruition in Quadrophenia.

The other original songs are a mixed bag. La-La-La Lies is more pop than rock. It's good pop, but you don't think of The Who (Maximum R&B) recording songs that The Monkees could sing.

Much too much is another of Townsend's broken men, complaining that he can't cope with how much his girl loves him.

It's not true is probably the least of the originals, almost a joke about a man denying all sorts of outrageous rumours.

There two songs about relationships ending. A Legal Matter has a young man who can't commit as the central figure. "Sorry baby," he sneers as he goes back to the pub and dumps the idea of marriage.

Then there's Good is Gone, about a relationship that's gone sour and sung by Daltrey in a sneer John Lydon would be proud of. It's a threat more than anything else.

And finally, there's The Ox, a bass solo jam that's loose and wild with everyone (including a guesting Nicky Hopkins) going berserk and Townsend coaxing a series of howls and yelps out of his guitar that probably had never been put on record before.

Is it a great record? Well, no. But when it's good it really is very good. And they'd only get better.

This is exactly what I signed up for. Something I'd never even been aware of that turns out to be a gem.

Just great jazz piano playing with a soulful voice singing great lyrics.

Never heard of it before and suddenly it's a favourite.

5 immediate stars, except that the stars are from a different, higher universe.

When Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature there were those who said, "Sure, but have you heard Hejira?"

Written at a difficult time of her life, this documents the physical and emotional journeys she went on after the breakdown of a long term relationship.

There are songs here so personal and intimate - Amelia, for instance, or Song for Sharon - that you feel awkward listening to her sing them, like you shouldn't be overhearing what she's saying. The fact that the man she broke up with and that some of the songs are about is playing with her in the studio makes it even more awkward.

The songs on here are lyrically dense and musically static. Few chord changes, lots of words and sung as though they're being spoken. Quite a bit of Coyote IS spoken.

Probably Blue Hotel Room and Black Crow come closest to being songs you can sing along with, while Hejira, Song for Sharon, Coyote, Furry Sings the Blues are their own thing, a whole different type of music.

On later albums she would go further in this direction and by the time she was recording Dreamland or The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines she was in a world all her own.

This is probably the best of her Jazz Albums. In fact, it's one of the best albums.

There are songs of grest subtlety and restraint here. Fast Car, Baby Can I Hold You, If Not Know are all gorgeous.

Talking About a Revolution is up there with Lennon's Power to the People, Smith's People Have the Power and Guthrie's All You Fascists.

But some other songs - Mountains of Things and Behind the Wall for instance - do get a bit preachy.

Absolutely heart felt and sincere.

Janis Joplin is certainly one of the great voices of the 20th Century, but unlike someone like Ella Fitzgerald or Aretha Franklin, who seem to have every note and nuance absolutely under control, you feel that Joplin is skating on the edge and any moment could skid off the road into a pile up.

Of course there are great performances here. Bobby McGee, Mercedes Benz, Move Over are all highlights. But the passion and emotion in her voice, which, at times, seems about to overwhelm even her, make every note she sings great.

Perhaps the most affecting track is Buried Alive in the Blues. It's the backing track presented as an instrumental. She was going to record the vocal "in the morning", but died in the night, leaving it as a strak reminder of what was lost with her death.

Let's face facts.

Aretha Franklin does NOT have one of the great female soul voices.

She does NOT have one of the great female voices in 20th Century popular music.

She has one of the greatest female voices of the 20th Century in any genre.

She sells even slight material like Niki Hoeky so you think it's a great song and then, when working with a really great song like (You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman it's transcendent.

And the way she takes People Get Ready to church is amazing.

Immediate 5 stars. And worth more if it was possible.

The Beatles were arguing amongst themselves while the band was falling apart and produced the White Album, Let it Be and Abbey Road.

These guys were doing the same thing and produced a double album of 20 songs that all sound more or less the same.

The songs all chug along at the one tempo so that after a while they blur into each other. When something different, like "She Floated away, which is a different time signature, though still at the same tempo, comes along it's a jolt.

The lyrics might be different and might well be poetic gems, but they're often mixed so far down that they're often indecipherable.

This leaves "variety" to be determined by whether the distortion pedal is set at 6, 7, or 8.

And didn't we invent microphones, so that we didn't need to use two Campbell's Soup Cans joined by string?

The recording quality is pretty poor. I get that it was recorded in a warehouse, but was placing the recording equipment at one end and the band at the other, behind the pallets of building supplies, really the optimum plan?

I went back and listened to Zen Arcade and that really should be on this list. This, however, is nowhere near as good

And don't tell me that "She's a woman and now he's a man" doesn't lift the melody of Every Time That You Walk In The Room by The Searchers.

No-one's about to deny the level of Musicianship on this. Top notch playing with some killer riffs and solos.

Two things I find jarring. One is the general "I'm so much smarter than you" smart arsed attitude. There's a sort of Upper Middle class English sneering going on.

The other is a very 70s interest in school girls. There's a song about a school girl sex worker that is just unsavoury, post Jimmy Saville.

The stuff about God and Religion isn't anywhere nearly as deep as it would like to think it is and the whole thing seems a bit... up itself.

Back when I was a young slip of a thing, my friends and I used to try and dream up parody Country and Western songs for our dream band - The Hillbilly Cow Pokers - to sing.

If we had heard this album we would have hot the mother lode. Endless heartbreak, marriages split up, an excess of regret and she took our baby and left me her alone with nuttin'. And that's just the first song.

There's one song - Once You've had the Best - that's positive and another - that has a happy ending, although it's about a troubled marriage. But the rest are a compendium of misery.

30 minutes of infidelity and heart ache with overtime on the lap steel. Hot dang!