Reviews by arewenotben

Realistically I'm never going to listen to this again but it's still interesting, I'd have this over 10 britpop albums

Great album, not quite sure why on the list but thoroughly enjoyed either way

Appreciate the songwriting craft but found it hard to get too excited about this. The singles will probably be listened to forever but they've definitely been overplayed so hard to be objective

Forgettable, title track aside

I'd always discounted this record due to Mr Blue Sky being so overplayed but for the most part it slaps, HUGE pop songs. Very Beatles-esque. Goes on too long but this was unexpectedly great

The singles are still great, the rest not so much. Maybe 2.5

bit of a struggle, a couple of moments but not something I'll return to

This was a struggle - Emit Remmus may be the worst song I've heard as part of the project

Have tried several times over the years to get into this and never succeeded, this was definitely the most productive listen though - still can't see the best album ever claims but starting to understand the appeal

Doesn't set my world alight but thoroughly enjoyable to listen to

Maybe 2.5 - a lot of the production has aged quite badly but it's interesting - reminds me a bit of the Velvet Underground in places?. Hanging Out and Hung Up on the Line goes pretty hard too

Their best album, almost 25(!) years on it hasn't really aged. I was very contrary about this on release as I got annoyed by all the indie kids freaking about the "unlistenable" album whilst I was mainlining far more experimental stuff on Warp and Rephlex, so I wrote this off as Radiohead making a middling Aphex wannabe album just to be different. Instead now my older and hopefully wiser head just sees this for it's stark and chilling beauty, arguably one of the best albums on the list so far.

Unexpectedly great!

First time hearing this, I kind of lost interest after their initial hiatus. Found the elder statesman archness quite trying at the start and it felt like a weaker retread of earlier work, but gets much better as it progresses

Honey is maybe THE non-Xmas Carey track but this is so leaden with (admittedly well sung) ballads that it's a real trudge. I read her autobiography and this was an important album to her as an artist, but not something I'm going to listen to again

Fine enough, not the best Ibrahim album I've heard

Smooth

Forgot quite how many extended funk jams there are on this.

This was a blast, had no idea what to expect and exceeded all my expectations. Maybe overlong but feels like an album you can live in for years, let's go 5 to even out all the idiotic 1 star reviews

Better than I thought it'd be, although massively of it's time. I've not knowingly ever played this before but I seemingly recognised every track, probably soundtracked multiple stoned evenings at university