Reviews by arewenotben

What a voice!

This bangs, may be my favourite Jon Spencer album

of it's time, LZ-esque at times but nothing special in 2023 tbf

Went into this with low expectations but really enjoyed it, some excellent songwriting

Beautiful. Surprised I'd never heard this before, will be a favourite and need to investigate more of Maal's work

Very pleasant background music. I would have probably given this negative stars 10-15 years ago but can see the appeal to an extent.

2.5 rounding up to 3. Undeniable talent, but left me cold - too much artifice.

This is mostly banging. Enjoyed much more than I expected.

Better than I remember it being (I lived through britpop, it wasn't good). Imagine better if you haven't heard Design For Life played over and over again for decades. Prefer The Holy Bible.

Never knowingly listened to Elbow, despite being aware of them for decades. More interesting than I expected, slightly leftfield arena rock - quite strange in places. I may explore more but not desperate to

Of it's time to an extent but there's obvious craft and talent here. The humour and the experimental pieces at the end didn't really work for me, but I loved this for the main

Singles are great, the rest not so much

Veeery close to the full 5, wonderful

I don't think I can get with ELP and their prog ilk, it just feels really dated and musically staid compared to other music of the era (e.g. originally released the same year as Tago Mago which still sounds fresh).

The lyrics are dreadful too:
Can you believe / God makes you breathe
Why did he lose / six million Jews

Very top-heavy and overlong, but undisputable ambition. I'm glad there's someone like her pushing the boundaries in R&B/pop, but it doesn't always translate into something I want to listen to

This was released around the time I went to Uni, and I saw them in a 1/3 full venue shortly after the album came out - I don't think I'd even heard of them at the time, being dragged along by a cooler friend who was into alternative US rock. It was probably the best, most life-affirming concert I'd ever seen. I saw them again in the same venue about 9 months later and it was packed to the rafters, and just as good. I've seen them since and they didn't quite capture the same magic (it felt a little too culty in larger halls), but those 2 shows were very special.

Race for the Price will probably be listened to for as long as we have music, and there is a certain something to the album that doesn't really sound or feel like much else. However, I never loved this record as much as others - maybe as to me it paled against the live show from the era.

Always rated The Jam more as a singles rather than album band, and this re-listen confirmed the case for me. It's fine throughout, but only really Start and That's Entertainment shine brightly.

As a teenager in the mid 90s reading about music in the NME and Q, this was always mentioned in hushed tones as one of the all-time greats so I went in with high expectations and was initially disappointed. The Morricone-esque opener aside, the first few tracks on first listen seem on first listen quite standard MOR crooner territory. However as the album progresses and you tune into Walker's dark songs (touching on subject matter like Bergman films, the Warsaw Pact and PTSD) through his beautifully rich voice, it clicks into place. The second half becomes more musically varied and ambitious. On second listen, I loved it all and it feels like a proper album that builds and flows - the perfect length at 30 minutes too.

It also got me listening to some of his later, avant-garde output too which seems right up my street - The Drift in particular feels like a horror movie on record.

Top Tracks: Boy Child, Get Behind Me, Rhymes of Goodbye, Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo Stalinist Regime)

Despite broadly sharing the same politics as Bragg, he's never done anything for me at all. This didn't change my mind.

Another day, another Elvis Costello album. However, unlike yesterday's middling Brutal Youth, this was excellent. His band The Attractions are super-tight particularly on the jerkier, New Wave tracks (Pump It Up is close to perfect), and I can understand the credit Costello gets as a talented songwriter/lyricist. The production is much crisper than Brutal Youth too, everything sounds clear and sharp rather than the slightly muddy mastering of the later album - really brings out the way the band fit together so perfectly.

Didn't tire after a few listens today, will return in the future. It also introduced me to their infamous fuck-you SNL performance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD_24nDzkeo

Top Tracks: Pump It Up, (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea, Lipstick Vogue