Reviews by dcspool

So many hits! Really surprised at how much I enjoyed this.

Fave Tracks: He's The Greatest Dancer, Lost in Music, Thinking of You

4.2/5

Just like the other Frank album really, a few interesting songs particularly at the start, and then by the end its all an uninteresting blur of music.

Fave Tracks: You Make Me Feel So Young

2.9/5

Dime a dozen white stripes formula muzak.

Fave Tracks: Blue Orchid

2.9/5

Good vibes kuti

4/5

Very close, but not quite a 5 for me. A few classics in early psychedelia and the absolutely stunning Embryonic Journey. But also a few generic 60s fillers.

Fave Tracks: Somebody to Love, Today, Embryonic Journey, White Rabbit

4.4/5

No strong opinions, I think this album is pretty good, but inessential, not groundbreaking, not hooky.

Fave Tracks: Saltine Sixteens, On and On and On, Take Me With You When You Go

3.4/5

3.4/5

I enjoyed the first few tracks, and particular the intro where Ray explains what the albums about - weird. But then it all got very samey quite quickly.

Fave Tracks: Introduction and Theme, Night Life

2.7/5

For an album with such critical acclaim, this was rather disappointing. The first half was nothing more than the hits for me, then the back half redeeemed it with some interesting more experimental instrumentations and even some decent skits.

Fave Tracks: So Fresh So Clean, Ms Jackson, B.o.B., Humble Mumble, Toilet Tisha

3.6/5

Hot diggity damn.

Fave Tracks: the first 7 and Glamorous Indie Rock N Roll

4.7/5

I had more previous with this album than I realised. Bloodbuzzzz is one of my favourite songs of all time, but I find a whole album of The National quite dreary.

Fave Tracks: Terrible Love, Bloodbuzz Ohio

3.3/I had more previous with this album than I realised. Bloodbuzzzz is one of my favourite songs of all time, but I find a whole album of The National quite dreary.

Fave Tracks: Terrible Love, Bloodbuzz Ohio

3.3/5

I listened as I ran through the fields surrounding Versailles. Jazz

4.1/5

This really is Layla and other assorted songs. A lot of jam banding around on very uninteresting blues progressions and pentatonic scales. It seems on paper as if it's sprawling epic rock and roll, but most songs drag and don't really go anywhere worth writing home about.

Fave Tracks: I Looked Away, Layla, Thorn Tree In the Garden

3.2/5

This album is a peculiar one for me. I feel like every track has something to like and something to criticise. Fairly or not, I always felt like this album was Lorde in a way selling out or at least playing up to standards and expectations of the music industry or the listening public at large. Yet on re-listen its quite hard to deny that its a great pop album, with almost no filler.

I was not a fan of Green Light when I first heard it. It lacks some of the rhythmic elements that I enjoyed a lot on Pure Heroine. Starting the album with some piano chords and a couplet about putting on make-up and drinking in bars, it strikes me as cliché and naive, particularly in stark contrast to Pure Heroine where the teenage Lorde seemed wise beyond her years. But the racing euphoric second half redeems the track. Its a theme of the album for me that I'll find myself a bit irked by the lyrical content, but then won over by a beautiful chord progression, or low key banger of a chorus.

Homemade Dynamite is my favourite track on the album - it retains what I liked most about Lorde's debut, it's catchy and danceable throughout, with a chorus that almost sounds like a Flume song. [side note - just went to double check that Flume didn't actually produce it and he didn't but he has a production credit on "The Louvre", interesting]

The rest of the album follows the same sort of oscillations for me. I don't like the hook lyrics on Writer in the Dark, nor the concept of Supercut, but still find them to be well written songs. The only track I think is unnecessary is the Liability Reprise, which reads to me like Lorde deciding she likes the way the word "Liability" sounds when she sings it.

So with the constant tug of war on this album I find myself siding more with the positives. I don't like some of the lyricism, but my only other real gripe is that the album doesn't sound enough like her debut album; that's just nitpicking isn't it. What's a few nits on a luscious head of hair?

Fave Tracks: Homemade Dynamite, Perfect Places

4/5

This seemed like a nice idea in concept, but just another scruffy live recording. I don't get why these are on the list.

Fave Tracks: Promenade (Pt 3), Nutrocker

2.4./5

Love this, but lets be honest, The Girl from Ipanema does carry a bit.

Fave Tracks: The Girl from Ipanema, Corcovado

4/5

I guess I'm casually familiar with a lot of Billy's work, without ever really actively listening to any of it (except We Didn't Start The Fire). This album feels very familiar, and it has a very strong consistent mood to it. I think its a very cohesive project, reminds me at times of Steely Dan and Bruce Springsteen. Songs like She's Always a Woman and Just The Way You Are are really beautiful in the context of the album, even though they're not the sort of thing I would normally expect myself to go back to.

Fave Tracks: The Stranger, Just The Way You Are, Get It Right the First Time

4.2/5

3/5

It ain't for everyone's taste, but I like it.

Fave Tracks: Birdland, Havona

4/5

I thought I would be into this, but actually I don't think the album has aged well, kinda ironic if you ask me. Alanis' voice is quite a challenge. I thought the album would be witty and edgy, maybe even jaggedy, but its really the opposite, cheesy and immature.

Fave Tracks: Ironic

3/5