Reviews by dcspool

3/5

This album was really beautiful, so pleasantly surprised. Definitely no bad tracks. Tiny Dancer is my favourite Elton song so it makes sense that this album chimes with me, considering all tracks really have that same sort of soundscape.

Fave Tracks: Tiny Dancer, Indian Sunset, Holiday Inn

4.3/5

Pretty unusual album, I liked it.

Fave Tracks: The Wrong Way, Poppy

3.9/5

A bit of an odd record. Bongo Bong is the standout, I quite like it but it also feels like a novelty song. Not really sure how to feel about this record overall

3.1/5

What a weird album. It’s trying waaaay too hard. At its worst it is totally tasteless, putrid, cringeworthy. At other moments it’s just dull, and occasionally it’s very interesting, as on the title track. There are songs where I like the instrumentation and then Jarvis comes in sounding like a stuck up douchebag or just saying something incredibly lame, like comparing himself to Jesus because they have the same initials. Richard Ashcroft vibes. Not clever, not funny, just a bit sad.

Fave Tracks: This is Hardcore, I’m a Man

2.2/5

A very good album, but nothing groundbreaking in the sound palette.

Fave Tracks: Under the Pressure, Red Eyes, An Ocean in Between the Waves, In Reverse

4.1/5

I respect this album, but I'm not really that into it. I don't think I'm going to hugely want to return to even the tracks I think are great.

Fave Tracks: Lights On, Two Weeks, Numbers

3.7/5

When an album like this comes up my hope is that there will be some hidden gems uncovered. Unfortunately that wasn't my experience here - for me on this listen, the hits are the hits and everything else is fine. Don't get me wrong, that still makes for an unbelievable record - more than half the tracks are undeniable pop classics, and the rest are at least solid songs. Yet it's just a little disappointing to come out of the album experience without really anything new.

Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean is a 3 track run that is surely unparalleled in pop.

Fave Tracks: Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean, P.Y.T

4.5/5

I liked this as background music. I think if I tried to engage more I would have liked it less.

3.5/5

I thought this would be an easy 5 for me, but I think it does have its imperfections. As a cohesive piece of art it’s pretty great, but some of the tracks at the start of the second half don’t have much standalone value for me. Still there are so many groundbreaking tracks and ideas here, that are so uniquely Kate Bush, I think it would be a disservice to give it anything less than 5.

Fave Tracks: Running Up That Hill, Hounds of Love, The Big Sky, Cloudbusting, Watching You Without Me, The Morning Fog

4.6/5

First few tracks are cool. Oliver's Army has good earworm value. Then for me it really tales off, not much more of any significant substance.

2.7/5

I thought this would have aged badly, but the album starts off crisp. The guitars are recorded in a really clean way - it reminds me more of The Strokes than I ever previously considered. Tell Her Tonight at times sounds like a Beatles song, but with some very strange vocal affectations that give it some extra character.

Take Me Out is of course a very good song, perhaps the song that defines Indie rock from this era. It holds up. And Matinée was low key always my favourite FF song, also holds up pretty well. The verse about talking to Terry Wogan on BBC2 just tickles me in the right places.

The middle of the album loses some steam, but I like This Fire - I remember this song from an old FIFA game or Burnout maybe? Darts of Pleasure and Michael are also certainly more than filler. The subject matter of the latter feels starkly more progressive than most bands of a similar ilk and era would ever write about.

The last two tracks are a bit of a damp fizzle out for me, but overall I'm impressed at the depth and wit of this album and how well its aged.

Fave Tracks: Take Me Out, The Dark of the Matinée, This Fire, Michael

4/5

Hard to describe why this album is so good. It’s just so pure and simple.

Fave Tracks: Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side, Satellite of Love, New York Telephone Conversation, I’m So Free

4.7/5

Very surprised to find a Queen album on the list where I'm unfamiliar with any of the tracks. And also how come Bohemian Rhapsody is not on this album with that album cover?!

The tracklist here reads more like a Led Zeppelin album than a Queen one - lots of fantasy lore baked into the song themes. The start of Ogre Battle is pretty crazy - is there some reversed tape action going on there? The (pump fake) ending of The March of the Black Queen is a very clear precursor to the ending of Bohemian Rhapsody - interesting. I do really like the way the songs flow on this album - Funny How Love Is sounds like a Christmas song.

Fave Tracks: The Loser in the End, Ogre Battle, Seven Seas of Rhye

4/5

I didn't find this particularly difficult to listen to as I kinda expected I would, but I also didn't really think much of it. There were only a couple of moments where it managed to distract me from my work, and that feels a little bit disappointing from a metal album.

2.4/5

Fine

Fave Tracks: I Shot the Sheriff, Mainline Florida

3.4/5

Two big hits that are great pop songs. The rest is just mindless at best, and incredibly annoying at worst, like the final combo of “He’s So Unusual” and “Yeah Yeah” - some of the corniest vocal affectations make these tracks almost unlistenable.

2.5/5

Thought this was just a bit shite tbh. Groove is in the Heart made the other tracks sound so generic. NPC dance music.

2/5

Three Tom Waits albums in now, I just don’t see the appeal. His voice and style is weird, which is great and all, but it doesn’t make good music to me. I really would not like to go back and listen to many of these songs. At its most interesting the album sounds like the soundtrack for an evil villain in a kids movie.

Fave Tracks: Time, Downtown Train

2.4/5

Run of the mill 80s pop punk.

3.1/5