Reviews by dcspool

So smooth, a couple of great EW&F slow jams on this one, really solid all round album.

Fave Tracks: Shining Star, That's The Way of the World, Reasons

4.4/5

This album really starts off hot. Fast Car is definitely one of those songs that I feel like I have heard too much already but its just undeniably awesome. I was not aware that she wrote Baby Can I Hold You - there are some real heavyweights on this album. The end tails off for me, but still a pretty solid album.

Fave Tracks: Talkin' Bout A Revolution, Fast Car, Baby Can I Hold You

4/5

I love the style and the intention behind this album, but I find it lacks the substance in the songwriting at times. Maybe I just listened to it a bit too passively, seems like something that should be right up my street.

Fave Tracks: Hong Kong Bar, Make It Right

3.5/5

Kraftwerk is brat.

Fave tracks: The Robots, The Model, Neon Lights, The Man-Machine

5/5

This album was so interesting to me through the first few tracks, but really trailed off in the second half and I lost interest. A lot of the sounds that were super interesting in the first half disappeared and were replaced by dated more generic electronic beats.

Fave Tracks: Bubble and Slide (I and II)

3/5

I often feel with Born in the USA that I should like it more. But the first half of the album is a bit of a slog for me. The songs all feel very simple in structure and chord progression. Apart from the undeniable energy of the title track there isn't much there that grabs me.

From I'm On Fire things pick up, but the real standout is I'm Goin' Down which has always been a favourite of mine. It doesn't really do much different to the rest of the album's formula but it just hits much harder for me. Dancing in the Dark is also great - I find it very hard to not sing a long with "you can't start a fire, can't start a fire without a spark"

Fave Tracks: I'm on Fire, I'm Goin' Down, Dancing in the Dark

3.5/5

Didn't like this. The first couple of tracks were ok and I liked some elements of Fun House, but most of it was just noise. Lots of sounds not coming together in any cohesive way, badly mixed. I get that Punk will always be that way, but this just not inciting any real emotions for me.

2.4/5

Relatively beautiful.

4.3/5

Ok so hear me out. Just Like Honey is an all-timer, a powerful shoegaze precursor. But the rest of the album is mostly just muck. Cut Dead is EXACTLY THE SAME SONG. The drums are identical, the structure is identical, it feels like a total slap in the face. But ok, we'll let that one slide, let's see what the rest of the album has to offer... Some Candy Talking... IS THE EXACT SAME SONG TOO! Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, I'll write a grumpy review of your album on the internet.

SOWING SEEDS ARE YOU FUCLKING SERRIOUS WTFFFFFFFF ITS ALL THE SAME SONG?!±!!!!!£R!££!RR!£R

Fave Tracks: Just Like Honey, i like the energy on Never Understand, You Trip Me Up

2/5 (this is probably harsh but they really pissed me off with the recycling of Just Like Honey)

Surprised to discover that didgeridoo led songs bookend this album, and they're not bad...?

I was also really surprised at how jazzy this album is - Jamiroquai at this stage are totally content to make 9 minute songs, or completely vocalless tracks, Which is good, because I do find Jay Kay's voice really quite irritating.

There are none of the big commercially successful songs that I remember from the radio growing up on this album, instead just a pretty solid set of acid jazz inspired funk pop tracks. However I do still find the sound overall has a bit of tackiness to it, and I don't think there's many tracks here I'd actually actively want to come back to.

Fave Tracks: Music of the Mind, Blow Your Mind

3.4/5

Really good, would only like it to be a little more diverse across the runtime.
4.2/5

Yeah it’s great, don’t need to overthink this one.

Fave Tracks: most of it really - Wildlife Analysis, Roygbiv, Rue the Whirl, Aquarius, One Very Important Thought, Happy Cycling

4.8/5

Two of the goats, and yet to me this album is a little less than the sum of its parts. At times it feels like a slightly less accessible Talking Heads album, and at times it feels like a noise collage that is still trying to hard to maintain rhythm and structure.

Fave Tracks: America is Waiting, The Carrier

3.7/5

Wow. So much of me wants to be edgy and contrarian and say that I loved this, but there was only one "song" here I could ever imagine playing again - Ab/7A. I fully support this sort of artistic expression - the fact that it exists (and in 1978 too) is a 5 star fact of history. The music as something to listen to in 2024, a very generous 2 star experience.

Fave Track: Ab/7A

1.9/5

Nat the most inspiring Bob if you ask me.

Fave Track: Rebel Music (3 O' Clock Road Block)

3.2/5

Quite an enjoyable experience, didn't feel fundamentally essential to the 1001 though. I strongly dislike the album cover and I am very confused why a guy born David Ryan Adams would choose Ryan Adams as his stage name when there already existed a very successful and well known Bryan Adams.

Fave Tracks: New York, New York, Nobody Girl, Sylvia Plath, the last two minutes of The Bar is a Beautiful Place (which I guess was a bonus track)

3.7/5 (probably 3.5 without the disc 2 tracks which I found all quite enjoyable)

I love the first half of this album, then it descends into madness in a way that is kinda great at first, but then does become an earsore.

4/5

Enjoyed this a lot. The Kinks are way underrated, they were the Beatles in another universe.

Fave Tracks: Victoria, Australia, Shangri-La

4.3/5

I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy this. I waited until the evening to listen as it just didn’t feel like the daytime would appreciate it. But it was pretty great. All felt very similar, and way too long, but definitely a case of finding a winning formula and just rolling with it.

4.4/5

Enjoying ceviche in Peru?
Seeing a double rainbow?
Did it make you want to fall in love?

Tbh Bitches Brew was less listenable than I remembered. It is a brew for sure. I still enjoy it as a piece of art, but lets be real its probably more groundbreaking and significant for musical evolution than it is enjoyable for the ears.

Fave Track: Spanish Key

3.8/5