Reviews by berl1nchair

A landmark album of the 90s. Steered a bit away from the slightly more produced work of Nevermind, with Steve Albini bringing out the rawness of their sound. One of those albums I can listen to from start to finish without any skips, even when it goes off the rails for a while with things like the ironically named 'Radio Friendly Unit Shifter'. And the closer, All Apologies, is just a wonderful song, with melancholy and beauty oozing out of every pore.

Not more folk, generator, haven’t I had enough lately?? Thankfully, this is more interesting that most, with elements of jazz and avant-garde sort of stuff. I didn’t mind his voice (much better than a lot recent folksters that I’ve heard) and the arrangements were worth a listen. Not something I’d be likely to go back to, but worth hearing once at least.

Several big hits here for Neil and Chris, and deservedly so. A lot more interesting than the last PSB album I had, Behaviour, which I found a bit meh. 'Can You Forgive Her?' and 'I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing' still bop today, as well as the great cover of Village People's 'Go West'. Good stuff.

One thing the generator has taught me is that I have little love for folk-rock, or folk in general. This is no exception. Having 2 CSN albums (ok, other one was CSN&Y which was slightly better) in a week was too much folk for me to tolerate. It's not interesting to listen to and I don't care for the music, the singing or the songs.

Early 90s bogan rock, anyone? Although this does sound quite dated, they were the kings of the time in this type of music. Lots of Axl screaming, chunky guitars and riffs. There is some great songs on here - 'Welcome To The Jungle' still rocks, as do 'Mr Brownstone', 'Paradise City' and, of course, 'Sweet Child O' Mine'. A good nostalgia trip but not something I'd listen to all the time.

Hard to believe this is their debut album. You can hear that they haven’t quite honed their sound yet, and Moon mostly hadn’t gone full nuclear on the drums, but the foundations are there. Interesting hearing The Who doing more straightforward blues (Howlin Wolf’s Mannish Boy, here as I’m A Man), and even taking on James Brown (Please Please Please) but the pinnacle is a couple of certified hits, in My Generation and The Kids Are Alright.

The start of the Chemical Brothers journey. Gets into a groove and just stays there. The vocal tracks towards the end provide a bit of a break from the nonstop beats and samples, but otherwise it just burns its way into your brain. Not something I'd come back to a lot, but I wouldn't turn it off if you put it on the stereo.

This rules, in a funky disco kinda way.
Try not to nod your head with any of these tunes playing as you drive along, especially 'We Are Family' and 'Lost In Music' - absolute crackers.

Not my usual fare, but this actually holds together well after 20 years. Whilst Skinner's rapping might not be everyone's cup of tea, he does make a nice concept album with a thread going through it about a bloke's missing money and various adventures along the way. 'Fit But You Know It' is great fun, and he actually made a beautiful tearjerker for the modern young man in 'Dry Your Eyes'. Not nearly as bad as the top reviews might suggest.

Inconsistent, which I guess could be expected in the first album to incorporate Young to the CS&N family. A bit hippy-dippy in places, at other spots it rocks pretty well, but overall not really my jam. Graham Nash's songs seem to be the ones that don't gel the most with me, whereas Young's 'Helpless' is a fine tune.

Easy to hate on this album when it was everywhere for a year or two after release, and several of the songs have endured for a lot longer than that. And there is a reason for it, it's damn good!!
The big hits are massive - 'Rolling In The Deep', 'Rumour Has It', 'Set Fire To The Rain', 'I'll Be Waiting and 'Someone Like You' are all amazing, and worthy of adding to any playlist. The only sour note is a bog-standard cover of The Cure's 'Lovesong', but no album can be completely perfect, can it?? But this one comes pretty close, at least to my ears.

1 idea strung out over more than an hour.
I was really bored by about the 2nd track, but I persisted to at least do the whole 1CD version. If you think I’m doing the whole 2 CDs, you’ve got rocks in your head.

Great blues bar-rock. ‘La Grange’ is a classic. I was struck by how much ‘Jesus Just Left Chicago’ reminds me of ‘Ride On’ by AC/DC, but I guess it is just a basic blues with soft singing over the top. Still good, though!

This is like a guilty pleasure album. It's a bit goofy and stupid in places, but it actually has some really good rhymes and tunes in amongst it all. I challenge you to listen to 'The Humpty Dance' and not have a smile on your face.
'The Way We Swing' and 'Doowutchyalike' are also great, while the concept of 'Sex Packets' is bizarre but pretty cool.
Maybe it's just that I heard this when I was 16 and loved some of these tracks at the time, but it doesn't deserve the hate it gets in a lot of the reviews here.

I know a lot of people rate this as a classic, but Joni just bores me shitless. Her voice is nice, but she tends to wander off into high treble tones just because she can, and I find the lyrics pretty ridiculous a lot of the time. Not for me

The Cult do meat-and-potatoes guitar rock with a slightly ‘alternative’ bent, and have done for years. You know what you are getting with these guys, it ain’t fancy but it does rock fairly hard. The cover of ‘Born To Be Wild’ should have been left off, however, it’s a bit shit. Down a mark to 3 stars due to that one

Quirky Norwegian electro-pop. I wasn’t familiar with these guys apart from a few remixes they had done of other people’s stuff. This is a pleasant listen, nothing too outstanding but nothing offensive, either. Good background music for your retro dinner party, perhaps.

Was not prepared for how awesome this album is. I obviously know Brass In Pocket, which still gets played on FM radio even to this day, but a lot of the rest is spiky, snarly guitar pop-rock, which is perfectly suited to Chrissie Hynde’s vocals. But there is also some more mellow, softer songs which show the range of her as a vocalist and the band as a whole. Highly recommended

He growls, he croons, he bellows, he occasionally even sings!
Yes, Tom Waits is in full Tom Waits mode on this one, his voice is often craggy, and the band sounds like a bunch of guys banging on walls and tables at times, but it all adds to the charm. One bona fide hit in there, with 'Way Out West', and whilst the rest is not as accessible (my family were like 'what the fuck are you listening to???'), it makes for an interesting collection.

Didn’t mind this overall. At times leans too far into low grade Irish folk (When Will We Be Married), but at other times it soars, with great contributions from guitar, fiddle and vocals alike. It’s probably overly long and the cover of ‘This Land Is Your Land’ could have been left on the shelf, but worth a listen overall.