Reviews by bow_doubt

I have dipped into Joan Armatrading's catalog here and there in the past, and it never clicked. Sticking with this album, I found it a strong listen. Very 70s -- at times for good (People) and at others not so good (Save Me, about two thirds of the way through which I almost stopped listening to the album). There is some good playing, especially the funky drumming that appears with regularity, but other musicians, too.
Tall In the Saddle is interesting ... mixed feelings about it, kind of goes on too long ... and then in the last two minutes or so, Joan A and the band start to cook -- the lyrics become just the material for her voice to play with as one instrument among several, as the band goes into a mini jam to close out the record. That might be the best thing on the album. A high point.
Not really my bag, but a good album.

Never heard of this band. But apparently the bands I've never heard of could make up the lion's share of an idiosyncratically constructed book described by some as biased and un-Australian.
Competently executed electronic pop music. Very dull. Background music at best for the most part.
I started listening to the album and got confused that the intro to the first song was going on for so long, then looked down and saw that it was about 4 minutes into a 4.5 minute song.
I Stole Your Car is a promising title, and indeed that song is pretty good. And easily the best.
Not terrible, but not good. Are they British? Oh, yes.
Allmusic says: "Red Snapper never appear to run out of ideas or energy, and excellent production and recording unite the disparate styles into a jewel of an album."
So ... Allmusic, I guess They got to you, too?

I've been reading references to this album for many years, and keep forgetting to listen to it. Here we go!
Apple Music lists related or similar artists on the Oldfield page as including popular instrumental composers like Vangelis as well as prog rock type bands such as Genesis, Tangerine Dream, and Pink Floyd.
That seems about right ... this is silly soundscape music that unfolds straightforward ideas at a pace any listener can follow. It's ok. Not sure why we would be particularly interested in it. But ... sure. Why not?

As a great admirer of Gang of Four's Entertainment, I've long been Mekons-curious, since they often get mentioned in the next breath after G of F. I'm surprised that their Before You Die album would be this late, rather than from the late 70s or maybe, like 82 at the latest. Hmmm ...
Never did get around to listening to this band (or Wire). Thank you, ridiculous book and this generator!
Given that the Mekons are known as a post-punk group that emerged from the same university scene as Gang of Four, I was not prepared to be reminded so much of Robyn Hitchcock and the Pogues. The Mekons are also known as an eclectic outfit (Wikipedia says they were described as "a more chaotic version of Gang of Four"), so perhaps that is the ascendant aspect of the band here.
Pretty good little album. I don't see how it stands out from many, many albums in the world that are ... pretty good. There isn't a lot of top notch songwriting, or of developing the material into something exceptional. It's all right.
1001 Albums That Are All Right was taken, so they went with the other thing about mortality?
Wikipedia notes of this album that "Rock critic Robert Christgau described it as 'a sort of concept album sort of about life during wartime', " which is just funny. Sort of.

Pleasant, kind of cool ... kind of atmospheric, like a soundtrack, kind of just one damn thing after another ....
The little I know about Jarrett led me to expect something fairly abstract, subtle, and beyond me. So ... I guess -- expectations fulfilled.

I thought that when Bowie released Tonight in 1984, he had recorded his last good album. This album proves that I was wrong. Very good album. For me, I think Sue is the one that stands out. Sometimes it's good to be wrong.

Never got around to listening to Living Colour albums much at the time. Their sound is really not for me. I like them best when the funk is emphasized, and least when the guitar hero vibe is ascendant.
"Did I really hear just hear someone say, 'Like Josef Stalin and Gandhi'?"
Yes. I most certainly did. That is an unexpected experience.

I really like about 15-20 Van Morrison songs. The rest I could take or leave. They vary from solid to wobbly, meandering, boring songs that I wish would quit dragging on and just end.
This very long album represents the VM experience quite effectively. Some of the songs are familiar standouts. At times the band cooks on songs I'm not familiar with. And at times, I'm thinking, Yeah ... this is why I'm not really a fan; our casual connection is about right.

We are all entitled to enjoy guilty pleasures as the mood may take us. But when we tell other people they are missing out by not partaking -- that crosses a line. This could have been safely reserved for Afte I Died.

This album is better than I remembered it. Young AMericans and Fame are great songs. Fascination is quite good. The rest ... is kind of lackluster, but more listenable than my memory of it. Solid. Good performances. There just isn't enough strong material. Bowie was making albums absurdly quickly at the time.

Very famous album I have never listened to before.
Beautifully produced, great bass, at times fantastic sampling. Some of the songs are beautiful (Lil Ghetto Boy; Stranded On Death Row; High Powered, at points). When the vocals are set deep in the bed, so that they are one more among a number of interweaving instrumental lines, the whole thing works very, very well.
When the voices are isolated, so we really hear what they have to say ... oh, for heaven's sake ... this stuff worked to some extent at the time because being shocking and transgressive always has a kind of power artistically. But the violence, misogyny, and constant use of expletives was of dubious value at the time, and has aged very poorly.
[The Roach: beautiful music, but dominated by a worthless vocal. Drop that shit in the mix, DJ!]
What was clear at the time has only become clearer: this album is one of the supreme achievements in a style that was above everything else a grand display of enormous talents, misallocated.
Closing with Bitches Ain't Shit just brings it all home, confirming / reinforcing the mix of strengths and egregious flaws.
[bong sounds] What a mothafuckin waste. [gunfire effects]
To quote a hilarious review on the Generator of the Waterboys' Fisherman's Blues:
By the final ten tracks you're begging for it to be over.

Never felt the need to listen to a Janet Jackson album. She's talented, and the most likable member of a vast, strange family. But ... it's a pop album. Singles on the radio. That's adequate.
This is ok. Kind of boring. The songs all seem longer than they need to be. (Thanks, compact disc technology!)
The percussion is notably tinny. Don't like that.
The album ends (at last) with a reprise of the song about the plight of the children, drawing the listener's attention to linger on the way the children live in a world they didn't make. This, combined with some psychoanalytic theory and a bit of pop psychology, helps one to understand -- finally! -- the deep inner logic of Howard the Duck, who of course also -- just like The Children --was Trapped in a World He Never Made.

This record has it all ... great voice, strong instrumental performances, graceful arrangements, clean, clear recording ... and yet, not very exciting. I think listening to this album turned into an exercise in reflecting on how I don't really like country.
Ironically, this exercise in classic, retro country works best for me on the Chris Isaak cover -- not a true country artist, and a contemporary of lang.

It's fine. Some cool work with samples. Songs have their moments, but ... nothing stands out. The bass is mysteriously un-prominent -- what are we doing here?
Do you have anything more like that Gnarls Barkley Violent Femmes cover?

I've listened to a lot of Bowie in my life. I really, really like Brian Eno. I don't understand why this album is on this list. When I have attempted to listen to it, it always seemed like a lot of soundscapey, atmospheric dullness punctuated at intervals by something else. But I'm gonna listen to it afresh with as open a mind as I can muster.
So .... my memory was only partly accurate. It's more of a "Side 1 rock songs; side 2 ambient-y goofballery" schema, much like Low. But my memory that, aside from the remarkable title track, the album is made up alternately of the unremarkable and the dragging / dull .... that part was right.

When I was in seventh grade, I had many classmates who were very into AC/DC, Van Halen, Def Leppard ... etc. And while I thought some singles by the first two of those bands in particular were fun in a dumb way, the idea that you would listen to whole albums by any of them seemed ... untenable.
The ensuing 40+ years have done little to change that take.

Oh, for goodness' sake. This is not an all time great album !!!!!!! And I really like the title track! But when I used to listen to this album, I never listened to the whole thing, because the rest of the album is boring. And that's an LP, where it's More Work to listen to part of the record than just let it play! You have to get up and take the needle off the record.
Haven't listened to this in many years. Glad is still pretty cool. Freedom Rider is still dull and formless. Ditto Empty Pages. Stranger To Himself is a bit better. John Barleycorn isn't every one's cup of tea, I would guess, but I really like it. Every Mother's Son is ok, but ... again. To me, this is a mediocre album.
Capaldi and Wood do play well, I will give them that. And the musicianship shines more in a remastered digital format than it did on my old used LP.

Aimee Mann! Voices Carry ... never actually listened to her albums. Positively disposed. Enjoyed her appearance in that Portlandia sketch.
It gives me no pleasure to say that the production / sound is very 90s (not a compliment) and the songs are just pretty generic, even boring.
It's ok, has its moments, but ... I don't anticipate ever listening to this again.

I started listening to this album with headphones on, and they're doing the thing where the sound is racing back and forth between the left and right channels, and I started getting dizzy. Definitely need to stay off amusement park rides at this stage of my life.
I really only know the Revolution Will Not Be Televised album in the GSH catalog. Revolution / Televised and Whitey's On The Moon are great. But his is at best a hit or miss oeuvre.
I wanted to like this album, I gave it a listen in good faith, I don't like this album. He's not a singer, and this album relies on him singing. The music has its moments, but ... it's just not happening.

Pretty great album. One well crafted pop song after another. Interesting to hear them in the transition from the original boy band to pop innovators. At times, you hear the one thing and at other times the other. Or a mixture -- they're working off of American rock / RnB models, but doing Beatles-y thngs with those models.
Things We Said Today is a great song. I'll Be Back is a sneaky good gem.
You Can't Do That is a reminder that Lennon wrote a series of macho, domineering (if not worse) boyfriend protagonist songs in this period. Not good, Mr. Please Let's All Just Try Being Peaceful.
It's remarkable how good this sounds, in comparison to other mid-Sixties recordings. Hats off to George Martin and company.
Some of the songs are better than others, but a very strong set.