Reviews by badger72

The politics overshadow the beats but only because they are so jaw droppingly relevant to today, it is stunning to think the album is 35 years old.

Also very depressing.

Sonically, the album doesn't have much range but it is nice to hear This Mortal Coil being sampled. Twice.

But it is the lyrics that will keep me returning to this. I knew 'Television Drug of The Nation's but it was wonderful to be exposed to the album. It makes you long for a re-release to highlight not how little we have advanced, but how far we've gone backwards.

3.5/5

It is a grower. I didn't immediately get much from it and found it a bit one dimensional. It was actually disappointing if I am honest because I expected more. This is a funny thing with records/artists when I am not coming totally cold. Preprogramming kicks in and makes adjustments - be they allowances or forfeit.
I give it a few more goes but rather than as a whole, randomly jumping around tracks - playing if the appeal skipping if they dont and slowly, I start to like it a little more.
Would I buy it? No. Will I give another listen? Maybe in a while when very I'm very bored and have an itch nothing else is scratching and I am thinking about records that fit the criteria of "try again" but it wouldn't be with any expectations of suddenly discovering an album I could fall in love with.

You know when you hear about the military playing music during a standoff to make people surrender? It's usually something not that offensive...
I can only imagine a court of human rights has outlawed Yes. F**k me - this is f**king horrible.
The first song lures you into a false sense of security - not because it is good but because it is not as head meltingly awful as what come next - The Clap?! I can easily imagine this as an audio STD...
And then it gets worse.
Seriously, this is god awful.

How can you remove the one star ranking?!

I know it is good and I really want to like it more, but something just is not quite there for me.

There is something that I miss with the Twins. It isn't lyrics because most of the time, I am making up my own. The lack of obvious lyrics should actually help.

Sonically, there is a lot to love. You hear their influence everywhere and if someone hadn't come up with the name, I imagine literally anyone asked to describe The Twins music would after some Liz Frazier style vocal improv, settled on the term, dream pop!

This is one of those things about music. I love their work within This Mortal Coil. Work which you could argue is effectively The Cocteau Twins, except it isn't because of circumstance. And is it simply that

Crazy. And I know it is crazy but This Mortal Coils version of 'Song to the Siren' and 'Another Day' (effectively performed by the Cocteau Twins) is better than. anything The Cocteau Twins has ever done. Like I said, crazy.

I can listen to their albums and at worst they are on and best, really good but I cannot love. And if there is no love, I am a little lost.

Love doesn't mean being a rapid fan or anything, it is actually probably more correct to say enjoy or pleasure.

2.5/5

I liked some of LCD's first album but found it and what I listened of the follow ups, it was a bit samey so no developed any love - I would've been optimistic until Gorillaz put me in a bad mood.

With no expectations I start and 'oh baby' is soooo good. Like Kraftwerk and Suicide collaborating on the soundtrack for a John Hughes film! Wow.
Initial excitement drops for Other Voices generic LCD sound and I start to fear the worst. But after that blip, the next few songs really open up. And that sets the tone - a couple of really interesting songs followed by a text book LCD Sound system song like tonight or emotional haircut.

Is it a winning formula? At the moment I don't know. The non standard songs are really really good but the out of the box stuff is disappointing. I think it would be stronger if at least one of them was dropped but maybe that's not what fans of the band want and at the end of the day, this is for them.

I will say the more I listen, the better it gets and it is definitely a record I will return to (and that is so rare in the crap I"be had to listen to so far)

3/5 (with the possibility to go higher over time)

Jesus Christ - what a slog that was.

Now THIS is an album that MUST be heard. A record that is utterly indifferent to whether you like it or not, yet has a purity and passion so many others lack. You only have to look at the reviews to see how divisive this record is and I can imagine if you could crunch the numbers that the people that give this record 5 are frequently not on the same page as those who give it 1 because, again from the reviews, it provokes people.
And it is easy to hear why.
It is a blur of buzzing synths, needling repetitive drums and echo laden vocals that spiral of to nowhere.
A love song 'Girl' that sounds both lust filled and psychotic. A similar tightrope is walked with the albums most accessible song 'Johnny' which stands on a similar knife edge to David Lynch's work were siultaneously it could be a simple wide eyed 50's apple pie rockabilly pastiche or the splintering mind of a serial killer.
And then there is Frankie Teardrop
This is an uncomfortable, intense listen. It is magnificent.

I've never previously been taken by anything in the world music sphere but this was an enjoyable listen.

The chiming guitars are by far the best part. I would happily listen to a an ambient mix of just The Edge's guitar and background synth washes, especially on the lighter touch songs. The earnest blister of Bullet The Blue Sky, not so much. That song sucks. You can imagine it was written with one foot on the monitor, while the band thought about how cool and serious they'd look playing it, teasing the audience, extending the coda because this means something... Same with Ex it's Patti Smith fantasy.

For a band that apparently have so much to say, why are their lyrics singular unmemorable?

Now isn't this the very antithesis of five mumble blokes saying we just make music for ourselves and if anyone else likes it, that's a bonus.

This, without knowing anything before pressing play, is music demanding attention. It is not background, it grabs you and requires a response - either turn it of or that tiny toe tap that started from the first blast of horns is going to spread thought your nervous systems... and nervous system it is.

It's not aimed solely at the feet because when those solos start needling on on your nerves - it is clear that this isn't just party music.

Then i clicks the links and read the context. Nigerian anti government protests, the Zombie's of the title are the Nigerian military. Protest, resistance, death ... How Fela Kuti was the innovator of afrobeat and a political activist (and more too as one review on the app simply said "Murderer, rapist turd" so that is probably more to unpackage).

In a rock context, I can hear things like Talking Heads, Paul Simon and Foals ... whether that is good or bad things are probably bridges to be crossed further down this journey but I am told this is the root source of all of that ... And it is thrilling.

Of the pieces presented, we're talking four tracks all over 10 minutes long based on solid structures and blasting horns. With anything of length, especially where routed to a structure, the challenge can be to hold attention but these songs absolutely grab the wave and hold mevtill the end with some really anxious solos breaking through to keep it interesting and fresh .

When the album is over, I can still feel the groove within and there a little sway in my usual stumble through the day to day. Yesterday, I started with Wilco which was inauspicious beginning but this is the real shit. Music with a purpose, that opens up areas I was totally unaware of. Obviously not every record can do that but when you find it, what a joy! Afrobeat, African politics etc. etc. Definitely an album I'd want to hear again from an artist I want to know more about.

4/5

Tweedy's voice isn't a grabber

There is more going on than I would've expected - I expected alt country. Pleasant, undemanding but bar Heavy Metal Drummer, nothing I'd ever want to circle back around to.
Doesn't demand anything of the listener, or even ask for anything, without being explicitly boring, nothing very interesting happens over a dwindling attention span...

This was actually the first album *bwas given but refused to listen to it at the time ...
"You can shine your shoes
and wear a suit
You can comb your hair
and try look cute ..."
mmm
You gotta live
You gotta love
You gotta be somebody
You gotta shove
But it's so hard
It's really hard"
okaaay
"Well I don't wanna be a soldier mama
I don't wanna die
I don't wanna be a sailor mama
I don't wanna fly.
I don't wanna be a failure mama.
I don't wanna...
lie? dry? eat pie??

"I'm sick and tired
of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow minded hypocrites"

Me too.

0.1/5