Reviews by berl1nchair

I don’t know quite why I love this album so much, but I just do. Listening back, it doesn’t really have a bad track on it, with perhaps ‘Soma’ the only one I don’t totally love. And even though the production is a bit thin (a lack of bass on this record has always annoyed me), it doesn’t matter, because the guitar interplay is fantastic, the rhythm section (when you can hear them) are tight, and Casablancas’ vocals up front are sneering, silly and brilliant. Definitely my favourite memory from the early 21st century

This was weird and interesting and I kinda liked it!
I must go back and listen to it again but first impressions was that it's damn good

This is not really my scene, but I managed to get through it. There is a bit going on here, but it can be hard to find under the pummelling drums which seem to permeate every track. The lyrics are surprising well heard, but it's the usual disaffection and anger directed at various things. It gets a bit wearing at times, and the songs do seem to linger on for longer than they really need.

Probably good if you like that sort of thing, but not a lot here for me.

My 2nd slightly underwhelming Blur album, although I rate this one slightly higher than Modern Life Is Rubbish, which was my opening salvo on this 1001 journey. The singles here are cracking, leading off with ‘Girls and Boys’, then ‘End of a Century’, ‘This Is a Low’ and of course, the title track, ‘Parklife’. The trouble with these Blur albums is there is too much low level shit in between the moments of genius, which leaves me a bit tired of it all by the end. And yes, this album didn’t need to be 53 minutes long, you could have knocked off 3-4 songs and have an absolute classic on your hands. Good, but could have been better.

One of Stevie’s early 70s masterpieces. The centrepiece is ‘Living for the City’, a 7 minute tale of NY eating up kids from the sticks and spitting them out. The rest of the album takes a similar tack, with Stevie’s soulful vocals telling tales of love, caution and partying. And there’s a little track called ‘Higher Ground’ which has one of the funkiest basslines ever and is guaranteed to get your foot tapping. The perfect running time of 44 minutes helps, too!!

Sigh, the sounds of a promo for Smooth FM.......

There is SOME redeeming features on here - the cover of 'Money's Too Tight To Mention' is good, and Holding Back The Years has been a staple on FM radio for years. But the rest of it just kinda sucks. Taking 'Heaven' by Talking Heads and turning it into a boring dirge should be a hanging offence. And the rest is mostly just jazzy nonsense with terrible 80s production.

No thanks.

My first Costello of the many in the generator. It’s OK, but nothing super special in my book. Oliver’s Army is still a great tune, nearly 50 years later, but most of the rest leaves me a bit cold. ‘what’s so funny…’ finishes it off nicely, but it was somewhat of a struggle to get to that point. I suspect I’ll prefer slightly younger, angrier EC but we will see

Amazing debut, even though Dave had been in several bands by this stage. Plenty of good songs to choose from here, the first 4 songs are all definitely winners. After that is a bit more uneven, as you might expect for something that Grohl cooked up in his spare time around the aftermath of the end of Nirvana. Just short of 5 stars due to the less impressive 2nd half of the record, but nevertheless very good.

Not sure why this album is considered essential - whilst pleasant enough, there is nothing that interesting or notable going on here. Slightly noodly, psychedelic folky leanings, and wibbly keyboards, but I found it hard to say anything left any mark on me after listening. File under 'Forgotten 60s artists who there is probably a reason they have been forgotten'.

Starts off reasonably well with 'Fight Test' before heading into One More Robot and then Yoshimi pt 1. Then gets sorta lost and wanders around for another 1/2 hour whilst you wonder what the fuck they are on about - seriously, what the fuck is Yoshimi pt 2?? It offends my ears and really starts to grate after only about 10 seconds. For the rest, the music lacks much diversity, with all the songs starting to blend into one after a while. 'Do You Realize?' provides some welcome relief in the back half of the album, with its heavy themes and slightly more interesting arrangements. But then it's back to more wigging out for the last couple of songs. Disappointing.

This was the album where I really got PJ Harvey - I'd heard bits and pieces off her previous albums, and liked them OK, but never delved deeper. But this one grabbed me, hook, line and sinker.
It's the sound of Polly Jean in New York, and in love. Alternates between tender and loving (A Place Called Home, You Said Something, This Mess We're In, Beautiful Feeling) and rocking out hard (Big Exit, Good Fortune, Kamikaze, The Whores Hustle and The Hustlers Whore, This Is Love). It's all fantastic and I love it.

Nice capture of JLL doing his thing live and tearing through a bunch of rock 'n' roll standards. Kinda feels like you had to be there, but you get the gist. Pity ol' Jerry was a bit of an unsavoury character otherwise, coz he could rock 'n' roll like his life depended on it.

What a way to open the 70s. Immigrant Song starts off with tales of Vikings and longing for Valhalla - it's all ridiculous and overblown, but it sounds so damn good you give it a pass. Other highlights include 'Celebration Day', ' Since I've Been Loving You' (LZ does the heartsick blues), 'Gallows Pole' and 'Bron-Y-Aur Stomp'. A bit more acoustic in places, which is sometimes a welcome relief from the screaming guitars and screaming Robert Plant. Overall, a great time, shame about the last track 'Hats Off to (Roy) Harper' which I didn't feel was up to the rest of the album.

Certainly different and unusual, but not something I'd go rushing back to. Maybe the fact that it's mostly in Portugese (with a token French song thrown in) affects my engagement? The music is willfully weird, but didn't grab me very tightly. Worth a listen, but not more than once for me

Ah, good old Angry Alanis, this was absolutely huge when it came out, smack bang in the middle of the 90's. Pretty amazing that 'You Oughta Know' was such a massive radio hit with references to blow-jobs in a theatre and thinking of someone else whilst shagging. The album starts with a bang with 'All I Really Want' and 'You Oughta Know' which are perfect for screaming along with whilst driving too fast in your car. But that's just the start, there are a heap of singles on here that worm their way into your ears - 'Hand In My Pocket', 'You Learn', 'Head Over Feet', and of course, the much derided 'Ironic'. Although some of the lyrics don't stand up well to deeper inspection, it's a hit, it's catchy and it has a killer hook in the chorus. Hard not to love it, even if you feel goofy singing along to some of the sillier lyrics.
I guess it's understandable that she never quite reached these hallowed heights again in her career, as how the hell do you follow up a breakthrough like this? Maybe you don't need to, and you just do what you want for the next 30 years or so...........

I had never heard of these guys, and now I know why. Sounds like something that would have inspired Motley Crue or some of those 80s metal types - that's not a glowing recommendation. It's not terrible, it's just not anything really inspiring or worthy of your listening time.

ELH has an amazing voice, but unfortunately the tunes on this album don't really do it justice for me. Or maybe it is the generic country/folk stylings of the music that lets it down. Anyway, it's a solid 3 for me, but nothing more than that

A mixture of some classic tunes (24Hrs from Tulsa, Wishin' and Hopin', I Only Want To Be With You, Can I Get A Witness), along with some pretty naff early 60s songwriting (Do Re Mi and My Colouring Book). Pretty amazing for a debut (although she had been around for a while in a couple of groups prior to this), but then she had some of the best songwriters in the business at her beck and call, with a voice to suit.

As much as the hits on this are mega-hits, it doesn’t quite hit as a whole package for me. I find the Lindsey Buckingham solo outings give me the irrits, whereas when you team him up with Christine McVie or Stevie Nicks, the results are sublime.
Great, but probably not one I’m likely to listen to the whole album, I’ll just cherry pick the hits and be happy with that

This felt a bit like ABBA if they discovered acid. Different, but didn’t really grab me in any way