Reviews by conorr90

I've always been a bit of a Bon Jovi hater, but this wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. The first 3 songs are great, and there's a few others across the rest of the album. Still a bit cringe though in general

This one has a lot of nostalgia for me, since The Police are one of my Dad's favourite bands, but it's not their best. There's a run of great songs starting with Synchronicity II, but up until then it's not great. Walking in Your Footsteps may have been considered profound at the time, but now it just seems trite and childish. Mother is something else altogether!

Actually enjoyed this much more than I expected. It was great as background music for working, and I often found myself vibing to the very deep bass and jungle drums. I only knew the radio edit of Inner City Life going into this, but there are a couple of good songs on it. It's obscenely long though, and quite repetitive in places. Also a bit dated, so the album title is unfortunate!

Feeling a bit attacked after this. I don't normally like un-exploded blues that much, so this was a bit of a slog in places. There are a few interesting songs on it, but at it's worst it sounds like a band being deliberately obtuse. Still though, at least they made me feel something, which is more than can be said for a lot of these albums.

I've heard a lot about this album, bit don't think I've listened to it the whole way through. I see why it's so widely acclaimed, with great songwriting and singing. I knew more of these songs than I thought (going into it I only recognised Coconut from the tracklist), and some are fantastic. There's some pretty goofy ones too - I found "Without You" hard to take seriously given how often it's been in ads/movies and melodramaticly been covered. Some of the songs owe a bit too much to the Beatles too. And as much as I love "Coconut", if some white dude in a bathrobe wrote that song today, he would probably (quite rightly) be cancelled. Top tier album cover though!

Some good songs on here, but it's not up to the level of the Smiths' best albums. You can tell from the lyrics that he was already starting to become insufferable, but they were probably considered funny or tongue in cheek at the time. It's hard to judge a song like the National Front Disco now, for example. At the time, it was probably intended as a critique, but Morrissey's views seem to be lining up with the conservatives and UKIP a lot these days, so it's hard to know what he meant at the time. I was all set to point out how derivative some of the guitar riff are of Bowie's glam days, but then I saw who the guitarist was!

I enjoyed this much more than Eliminator, some great songs on here. None of them come close to La Grange though, that one is perfection. I found it a bit repetitive after a while though, not one I'd come back to.

Enjoyed this in the same way I enjoyed Buddy Holly. It's pretty repetitive and a little boring, but so obviously influential on all the rock and pop music that came after it. He has a great voice, would have been amazing to see home live I'd say. He does sound like a bit of a creep though, some of the lyrics haven't aged well!

Funnily enough, I thought I got this album already, I do listen to it quite often though. I've never seen The Exorcist, so it never really had that association for me. It makes me think of a lovely spring day or a walk on the beach (á la the iconic album cover), so I'm not sure why it was picked for that film! The album is a masterpiece in my opinion, it's incredible how many instruments he played on it, and how many great melodies appear throughout the two sides.

I don't think I've listened to this one before, but have no strong feelings about LDR either way. I'm surprised this one was included over NFR though - maybe a bit of recency bias at work here? There are some good songs on here particularly around the middle of the album. But I find the vocals just ok for the most part and the lyrics don't really interest me. Some some of the songs sound quite similar as well, but maybe it's one I'd get into more over time.

This album is pretty incredible, with one of the best opening 4 track runs I've ever heard. I've only recently gotten into Elton John; having never really listened to his 70s albums I thought he was a bit of a hack. I see now the error of my ways though. The songwriting and piano are fantastic, and there's only 2 or 3 duds (Jamaica Jerk-off, Dirty Little Girl and Roy Rodgers). That's to be expected with a double album though, especially when multiple genres are experimented with. None of them are bad enough to knock this though, 9/10.

Wasn't in the right mood for this yesterday, but after a second try today it's going down real nicely. The genre fusion is very interesting in some places, but a bit jarring in others. I could have done without Cajun Woman and Million Dollar Bash. Enjoyed the rest of it though, especially Genesis Hall, A Sailor's Life, and Who Knows...the latter of which I already knew, thanks to the Spotify algorithm! Sometimes it gets it right.

I previously only knew Steve Earle for "Galway Girl", which I grew to hate with a passion after 5 years living in Galway. So I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed this - kind of like a country Bruce Springsteen. I think it straddles (pun intended) the border between country and rock really well. Alt-Country is a genre that I've only recently come around to, but I'm liking what I've heard of it so far. The run from Hillbilly Highway to Someday is particularly great. It does get a bit too "Yee-Haw" for me in places though.

I like this - another group I've heard mentioned a lot but never listened to. Very space-age. It doesn't sound particularly dated to me either, which is kinda wild. Parts of this sound like they could have been recorded last year. It's not the most engaging listen though, I did find it faded into the background at times. I'd say a lot of the electronic artists I listen to would consider this a big influence. It also made me think about the many parallels between Electronic and Classical music. A lot of this sounds very symphonic.

Very enjoyable album, although I think it might be more suitable on a balmy summer evening, rather than a chilly spring morning! Not as good as Getz/Gilbreto, but still very impressive musicianship.

I don't care that this sounds a bit like hold music, it's smooth AF. If I'm being honest, I preferred it to the Stan Getz album I just got. Maybe some would consider that blasphemy, but I would love to listen to this while driving around a city late at night! 8/10

I've never intentionally listened to Frank Sinatra, but have read the story behind this a few times. It tends to catch my eye because it's the first album in the book. It's another one that's hard to judge by today's standards, as it sounds so very of it's time. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I found it pretty hard to relate to in general. It's pleasant enough to listen to, but a bit too long and fairly repetitive. Great voice though, and very well recorded for the time!

I've liked this one for a long time, enough to buy the special edition on vinyl a couple of years ago. I wasn't around for the first wave of shoegaze's popularity in the 90s, but was firmly on board the second wave in the early 2010s. It's a great album, definitely one of the best from the shoegaze years. I love the drive of the music, very strong in some places and nice and floaty in others. The vocals do get a bit annoying after a while though, and some of the lyrics are a bit immature. I can forgive it though, because it all ties together so brilliantly with Vapour Trail. Solid 9/10 for me.

Enjoyed this album a lot, ever though For Your Pleasure is much better. Contrary to what seems to be popular opinion, I like the spacey Eno songs!

Really intense album. I've known it for a while, mainly for the excellent "Kerosene", but hadn't really got into the full album til now. It starts off with arguably it's most challenging song, "Jordan, Minnesota" and doesn't really let up from there. Not for everyone I think, but there's some really inventive sounds and production all over this. I can see a big influence on grunge and industrial in the 90s. Not one I'd listen to a lot, but glad to have dived into it.