Reviews by berl1nchair

Stripped back instrumentation, tales of love, loss, outlaws and murders, all told by Willie in his unmistakeable drawl. Time of the Preacher, Red Headed Stranger, Can I Sleep In Your Arms and Hands On The Wheel are all fantastic originals, but the cover of Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain is just so amazing, I could listen to it all day.

Truly a 5-star listening experience.

Early 70s Elton John (his 4th album already!!), with a fantastic opening track in 'Tiny Dancer'. The rest is not as amazing as that, but still has a lot to offer. Lots of lovely piano melodies, even some piano accordion and mandolin on the later tracks. Background vocals amounting to a choir, to carry these pop tunes across to the listener. Indian Sunset suffers in the modern glare of history, but the rest is mostly vidid, personal tales of characters, from Levon to Razor Face and even the Madman Across the Water.

Perfectly adequate 70s rock. Nothing particularly memorable here, not sure why this gets a place in this list, to be honest. You’d easily go to your grave without having heard this and be perfectly ok!! Not that it’s bad, just not that special.

I can understand this was popular and seen as an important album on Neil Young’s discography with the loss of friends and band mates to heroin, but it doesn’t make for a very compelling listen nowadays. Lots of misery and sadness, but not a lot going on musically beyond some lovely pedal steel to make sure you know these are sad songs. Nothing that would really make me come back for a 2nd listen.

Great stuff from The Kinks. Starts with a bang with Victoria (one of my favourite tunes of theirs), and carries on with the theme of everything that is wrong with Britain in the 60s.

Hmm, what has the generator got for me today? Liars, band from New York, mid-2000s. Never heard of them, let's give it a whirl!

Hmm, you say this is not a 2-track bedroom demo? What!? It's actually their second album?!?!? Who the hell wrote these lyrics? Why are they so obsesses with witches?? Why the hell do the drums sound so bad??? Why are they so averse to anything resembling a melody or a tune?

Look, I get it, it’s noise rock. But the lyrics are nonsensical shit. The music is not interesting, and a total chore to listen to. I read somewhere that this is apparently one of their worst albums. I hope for their sake that is true

I knew the main singles, but hadn't listened to it all the way through. Consistently great songs, grand in scope but keeping to a theme throughout, Green Day have done themselves proud. Hard to believe this is the same guys who sang about masturbation losing its thrill..........

In a word, inoffensive. Pleasant tunes with wordy lyrics that don’t do a whole lot for me, but clearly other people love it. She has a lovely voice but never really uses it to her full potential. And the instrumentation is nothing too exciting for mine, but then maybe I just don’t love folk rock that much.
The final song (cover of Twisted by Annie Ross) annoyed the crap out of me.

Frenetic Cuban jazz. Sounds like it should be a movie soundtrack. Great if you like that sort of thing but does tend to blend into one after a while.

Wow, surprised this has so many haters. Cracking good guitar rock, with the distinctive scream of Greg Dulli, makes for an engaging time. The seemed to be lumped in with grunge around this time, but they actually had a lot more of interest than most around that time, and the songs still stand up today. ‘Gentlemen’, ‘Debonair’, ‘Be Sweet’ and the closing ‘Brother Woodrow’ are my highlights.

This is great. First 3 songs are up with any of Beck’s best. Slight drop in quality after that but still very good. Closing song ‘Send A Message To Her’ is also a banger. The sound of Beck having enough runs on the board that he can do basically whatever he wants

Didn't get around to listening to this properly, and somehow my last review got repeated here. I'll give it a proper listen next Xmas, I promise!!

Love this album. The Velvets in full noisy chaotic mode, but still managing to produce some memorable tunes along the way. Definitely a big influence on a bunch of my fav 90s bands. Recommended highly!!!

Couldn’t really get in to this. Started brightly with Penitentiary Philosophy but after that it all blended into a mass of sameness. The vocals started to grate and the music all began to sound similar from track to track. Found myself flicking to next track in the 2nd half of the disc which is not normal for me.

This is one of those albums which has been a staple of FM radio for years, so you think it might be a bit crap.
Actually, it's really good!! Sade had that smooth 80s sound down pat early, and cashed in with some great songs and good playing. The first 3 songs (Smooth Operator, Your Love Is King, and Hang On To Your Love) would be familiar to anyone who was anywhere near a radio in the 80s (and ever since then, to be frank), and the 2nd half of the album, whilst less familiar, is also very good.

Definitely shows off those early 80's vibes. Some good tunes in there, amongst the darker synths, and some nice instrumental breaks as well. I was a bit young still when this came out, so missed it the first time around, but I'd be happy to come back any time. I had Violator by Depeche Mode recently, and I can see this as an earlier version of the same sort of thing.

Classic metal, with screaming falsetto vocals, shredding guitar solos and plenty of drum fills, with themes of Satan, the Occult, prisoners and gangsters. And then the classic ‘Run To The Hills’ detailing conflict between native Americans and Europeans. Whatever, it’s a cracker tune that has stood the test of time. And the rest ain’t bad either. Just don’t listen too hard to the lyrics, turn it up, bang your head and have a ball

I recently have had this, and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which at face value may be somewhat similar. However, not so! This is so much more interesting musically, lyrically, production, the whole thing. Some of the guest spots can be a bit annoying, and the interludes and some of the songs drag a bit towards the end of the record, but I really enjoyed this.

Dark, moody synths, and lots of them. Some good tracks that you could even dance to, but you’re more likely to be sitting alone in the dark by yourself contemplating your own mortality.

Never understood why this was so popular at the time, and >25 years later, I still don’t. Boring bog standard R’n’B production, nothing interesting in terms of tunes, and flat delivery of unimaginative lyrics most of the time. And the interludes after several of the songs with sounds from a classroom make me feel like stabbing myself repeatedly………..