Reviews by avoidperil

I never understood this band before. Every time they'd ever been shown as an influence on some documentary or other, they seems rowdy, loud, obtuse, and not very interesting. And I started this album feeling that way - but a couple tracks in and I found myself bopping.

This is a bit infectious. It's like if you took the Cure and made them really bouncy with big drums, vocal overdubs, and a punk-lite aesthetic. There's a manic quality here, reminiscent of Of Montreal in places. It feels like the missing vital corner puzzle piece of the British New Wave jigsaw.

I like Blur. I've always been around this album, I've known it existed, I've had Blur songs in heavy rotation for the past 20 years. I've probably listened to this album somewhere in my past and then shrugged and put it aside.

I gave it another listen. This album sounds like a really tired band unable to string their exhausted ideas into songs. I know I've listened to it before, or tried to, but nothing here resonates with me. Some of it's straight up grating and boring.

Strangely compelling. Not what I would have expected. I don't think it's good, and maybe not worth listening to again, or even for the entire length? It feels like it should have some kind of cult status, and yet it's more just an obscure and forgotten curiosity. Running it back - the first couple of tracks actually hold appeal, but it quickly breaks down into demo-level chaos. A really tough listen.

Showing its age. I don't care much for whether it was significant or not, because it just sounds very expected and middle-of-the-road.

I can appreciate how great Sabotage is as a song. In isolation. I'm just not here for an entire album of this.

No.

I showed my album of the day to my wife and she said 'oh it's a day off then?' But no. Why let a chance to listen to this album again in its entirety go to waste?

This is not my favourite Pink Floyd album. I don't think every note is perfect and I even think some of the songs don't work for me. BUT. This is masterfully recorded, brilliantly conceived, and lovely to listen to.

There's not a moment during my listen that I thought to bring this down from a solid 5 stars.

I don't have anything good to say. This actively made me angry. It's poorly recorded, meaningless, unimaginitive, poorly sung. I skipped my way through the album. I hate country/blues/rock with a passion.

I made it through this once. I don't need to again. It's jazz with words, which are probably great words given Joni. But I can't get past the medium, which at a certain point you just realise is random notes and chords with words over top which gives it a rambling and unfocused feeling.

Not a great entry point into Joni's works I'm afraid.

I honestly don't know what's wrong with you all. At this stage whenever I see an album with an average score less than 3, I know I'm in for a good time.

I was skeptical at first with Swampsnake, but Gang Bang is BRILLIANT. Come on! Have a sense of humour everyone. This is swagger and stupidity at its finest. And then you get Next. Wow. I've never heard anything like this, but I adore it. Apparently from Jacques Brel, translated, but given so much feeling and spite. An absolute masterpiece.

And finally Last of the Teenage Idols? It's just good, clean. bizarre fun. But even for all of its weirdness, it maintains a sense of musicality and charisma. I love it. This is precisely the kind of curveball I like to see in this project.

I'm a bit stumped on this one. I've listened about half a dozen times now and I still can't form an opinion.

On the plus side, the synths are really fun. I enjoy the music of the album and the lyrics are just kinda wacky enough to be interesting. That should be all of it. But on the negative, the vocalist is awful and the recording sounds incredibly 70's. I just struggle with old recordings.

But the fact I keep listening to it makes think I'll keep wanting to.

What in the American dad-rock is this? First track is familiar, obviously, but from there it goes into a masturbatory guitar ejaculation, then into a by-the-numbers cover that commits the sin of not matching the original.

From there on we devolve into a macho yelling match that I don't care to listen to. Technically good guitar playing is fine, I guess. It just comes off as a huge cheese fest.

That's two brilliant and unexpected albums in a row after months of slogging through awful dad rock and jazz. And it's Bjork, showing us how she is and has always been a force to be reckoned with in music. This is fresh and exciting to my ears, even as parts haven't aged well.

This is another example of why I persist with this list. And disliking Bjork is big NPC energy. I'm onto you.

I'm mad at myself. I love Americana and I've heard Gillian's name mentioned online in spaces which cater to my music taste. I love Joanna Newsom, Bill Callahan, Neko Case, Songs: Ohia, and just everything in this scene.

I'm giving this 5 stars on the strength of the final sprawling track alone. The rest of the album is a warm bath that I'll soak in for years to come, but that final track has signalled both a new revelation and a sadness of passing and letting go on every listen so far.

I don't really have any great thoughts on this. Nothing really stood out. I'm not a fan of an album of any genre that just plods along. Is this socially conscious? If so it's not something I care for, but also from a country I don't care about.

Everyone once in a while this list throws me something completely unexpected. Usually it's a resounding disappointment. In this case it was a resounding success.

The sheer audacity of making a soundtrack to a film that doesn't exist, and then creating something that feels like it could have inspired Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Not in sheer industrial weight, but that ambient weirdness that this one takes us through. The fact that Reznor went on to make film soundtracks only confirms it for me.

This doesn't feel very important, or groundbreaking, or even particularly brilliant. But something here tickled me, and there are moments I appreciate. I can see myself recommending this for the curiousity value alone.

What a disappointment. Maybe. It's hard to do this thing justice - listening to a youtube video playlist with random minute-long silence and different audio quality on each track doesn't reflect well on any work. What I did get really lacked any kind of substance. Clumsy metaphors, lacklustre singing, boring musical choices - it's an amateur effort at indie music.

And I will judge it harshly for this. You can't just throw a random pub rock indie band on the list and call it a day. There was literally an entire scene of indie music in Dunedin at this time that was inventing the grunge genre and this list completely ignores them.

Another annoying entry in a generally pretty terrible list.

There's something about this album that is touching and truly moving. ANOHNI's voice is such a rare and precious thing - and hearing this album for the first time back in 2006, I was enraptured.

I find some of the album to be a little strange and fractured, but the whole creates a sense of yearning that I feel is both masterful and necessary. This is the definition of essential listening to me.

To top it off, "Hope There's Someone" has stuck with me for almost two decades as one of the most powerful and touching songs I've heard. The fear of being alone, dying alone and unloved, creates such fertile soil for this album to blossom in. It makes putting a score on this album easy - it's a masterpiece.

My first exposure to an actual Led Zeppelin album was... a little underwhelming. Obviously Immigrant Song is the standout, but nothing else on the album really follows it, and it comes off as a mid blues-rock album.

From the first note: This sounds interesting. As soon as the weird falsetto came in, it started to lose me. Which is a shame because it has a jaunty musicality to it. The lyrics are also fairly trite. Just nothing to really engage me, but I'm feeling like giving it a pass and moving on.