Reviews by berl1nchair

It's easy to hate Morrissey these days for being a racist, right-wing twat, so it's also easy to forget what an influence The Smiths had on the 'alternative' scene in England in the mid-80s. Moz is in peak mope mode here, but Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce provide a brilliant backing track for the end of the world.
Although his wordy lyrics can drive me batty at times (anyone else think 'Frankly, Mr Shankly' is a bit piss-weak??), there is some fabulous wordplay at work in other parts of the album, with beautiful descriptions of scenes and emotions that conjure up something in your mind's eye. What other group could take a song about being killed by a double-decker bus with your beloved and make it a hit???!?!

Probably the best Smiths album IMHO. 'Bigmouth', 'Cemetry Gates' and 'There is a Light' amongst their best songs.

Jimi hits the studio, and makes an everlasting impression on rock 'n' roll from that time forward. I mean, how can you not rate an album a '5' when it has 'Fire', 'The Wind Cries Mary', 'Purple Haze' and 'Hey Joe'. Not to mention 'Foxey Lady', 'Are You Experienced?', 'Stone Free' and 'Manic Depression'. The deluxe version has a couple of songs in the middle that aren't quite up to the standard of the rest, but the hits are such killers that you almost need a little rest by that stage. Truly a remarkable album and well worthy of a place high up in the ratings.

Annoyingly not available on AM or Spotify.
GSH tries his hand at heartfelt jazz, and does a passably good job. You can feel the lived experience in the lyrics and the way he sings them, and the electric piano makes you feel like you’ve been transported to a 70s lounge bar.

This is tight as a drum. No wasted notes, 3 blokes going hard at it with a bunch of fantastic pop songs, usually between 2 and 3 minutes long. Snarling Paul Weller out front of a tight rhythm section. This is what all guitar pop/rock should sound like!!

Understated, but mostly unexciting. Intro is a great start, but nothing else meets those heights for the rest of the album. Technically competent but sadly The xx seem to be lacking x-factor

An amazing document of a period in time - the MC5, kicking out the jams in rough, loud, manic, sweaty rock 'n' roll fashion. This is totally my 'jam', and I'm happy to keep kickin' it out on the regular.

When this started, I thought it sounded interesting, but it soon devolved into a bunch of unrelated sounds pieced together, which kinda did my head in. That may have been the effect that Holger was going for, but no something I'm really going to listen to again

Iggy, you naughty, naughty boy. You've been getting up to no good with that reprobate, Bowie, haven't you??
I find it hard to believe that just a few years earlier to this, Iggy was doing the stuff with the Stooges, that was shambolic, rude and loud, and then come the late 70s, he's teamed up with Bowie for this which is a lot cleaner, but still has an edge to it.

Lust For Life has to be close to my top 'album opener' of all time - the way the drums come in, then the bass, finally the guitar and cymbals, before Iggy finally steps up to the microphone - it's a work of art! The Passenger is great too, and the other songs hold together fairly well, although obviously less well known but still great.

The original metal merchants. Riffs that go on for days, vaguely satanic lyrics and the sound of impending doom. Interesting that it was panned by critics when it first came out, but now regarded as a classic. Black Sabbath, The Wizard and N.I.B. all great tracks

I get that this in influential on a generation of punk bands, but it didn't really do a lot for me. The best song was the cover of '...Grapevine', which seems to be a hard song for people to fuck up. Interesting in a historical sense, but not something I'll be going back to any time soon

Coming off the back of EVOL, Sonic Youth decided to do something revolutionary - actually write some songs rather than just collections of noise. The results are a bit mixed, as you might expect. Schizophrenia is beautiful opener to this album, which nicely mixes noise with melody, which is a theme that continues on. Things do get a bit weirder through the middle of the record, but you can see where the Youth are heading - towards a great 3 album run of Daydream Nation, Goo and Dirty which propelled them into the 90s. A great reminder of what these guys were doing when the pop charts were full of hair metal.

This is pretty beige, although nice in parts. 'Homeward Bound' is a nice exercise in nostalgia, and Scarborough Fair always rates a glimmer of recognition. Ultimately, though, a lot of it passed me by and left absolutely no impression at all.

Funky, soulful, with a social message. Makes me think I should see out the movie this is meant to be a soundtrack for. But it stands by itself, taking you back to the 70s ghetto, filled with pimps, drug dealers and poor people trying to get ahead.

I’m torn on this one. It’s simultaneously cheesy as hell, whilst still being iconic. The ‘Loaf doesn’t do much as sing these tunes, rather batters them into submission over the course of several minutes. The titles are ridiculous, the lyrics equally so, and the music hits all the late 70s stereotypes, but I challenge anyone to listen to ‘Paradise…..’ and not be belting it out by the end of it. Although I want to hate it, I think I secretly love it

Hard to believe Lenny had already formed his sound back in the late 80s. Bluesy rock features here, with highlights being the title track, Mr Cab Driver and Flower Child. Recommended

The folky stuff I don’t really care for, but the rockier numbers are well worthwhile. Grace Slick can belt out a tune with the best of them, but sadly she only features heavily on a couple of tracks here. Pity.

Bleepy, slightly weird techno noises. Most not unpleasant, but not overly gripping either

Yes, I am grateful that most of them are Dead.

This was shit. A bunch of countrified ramblings that ultimately bored me shitless. I hadn't heard anything by the Dead prior to now, and I know now that I haven't been missing much.

Ah, the inspiration for what Nirvana would later become. I bloody love this record. It's loud, it's bizarre, it rocks, it has a couple of my favourite songs of all time, in 'Gigantic' and 'Where Is My Mind?'.
I remember reading a retrospective about Pixies, from NME or Melody Maker, one of the British papers, where the production values of Steve Albini were described as putting a mic inside the kickdrum, and turning everything else up to compensate. Whilst that's obviously an exaggeration, he captured a band tearing through a bunch of songs at lightning speed, with screamed lyrics, pounding drums (see the intro for Bone Machine that starts the album) and distorted guitars that set a template for so much 'alternative' music that followed. throw in a bunch of pretty weird lyrics from Black Francis, and you have the makings of a classic. Whilst I would probably rate Doolittle as (slightly) better an album, this is still gold.

Noodly 1970s krautrock, which wormed its way into my brain over the course of the album. The first half is a bit introspective and mostly instrumental, before giving way to more punky, shouty stuff in the 2nd half. Definitely worth a 2nd listen.