Reviews by dcspool

Not what you'd expect from big Len, cold war synthpop vibes. I liked a few of the ideas - Jazz Police reminds me of a Momus track - but most of it didn't really do anything for me.

2.6/5

Are you experienced? Have you ever been experienced? I really love this lyric.

So many iconic tracks on this album, but I still find it to be slightly imperfect overall - a little bloated in places with meandering tracks that don’t add much.

Fave Tracks: Purple Haze, Third Stone From the Sun, Are You Experienced?

4.1/5

I thought the first track with Santana was great. Bonnie Raitt was interesting. From there on I thought it was all really one note and boring. I just can't get into Blues music apparently.

Fave Track: The Healer

2.5/5

Very middle of the road, inoffensive and unspectacular.

3/5

Turnover was a really cool start, but as the energy gets more ragged the album loses me.

Fave Tracks: Turnover, Shut the Door

3.2/5

I had a really good time listening to this. I thought perhaps it would have aged terribly or come across as corny, but I think it holds up well. The album is really well produced and there are some absolute pop-punk bangers. It captures a moment in time and I think is a vital inclusion on the list.

Fave Tracks: American Idiot, Jesus of Suburbia, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Are We The Waiting, Give Me Novacaine, Wake Me Up When September Ends,

4.6/5

Not my bag - I don't think its horrible, but I also don't really find anything redeeming in this.

2.3/5

I think 2pac is rather overrated. I’m mostly ambivalent to this album, not many stinkers, but barely anything that caught my attention. RIP.

Fave Tracks: Old School

2.8/5

I’ve never really got into Portishead before, but being forced into it, I can definitely see it’s merits. The production is really clean and the mood of the album is great. Missing perhaps some highlights beyond Glory Box.

Fave Tracks: Glory Box, other songs too but I didn’t see the track list whilst listening

4/5

I’ve had the Meat Puppets’ Plateau on rotation since hearing the Nirvana Unplugged cover. Great song, and I like parts of this album, though some points a bit too raw for me.

Fave Tracks: Plateau, Aurora Borealis, I’m a Mindless Idiot

3.2/5

This was an interesting surprise. I was expecting a lot more of the "Movin' on Up" indie rock and roll, but it turns out to be a wild ride across genres like dub and acid house. Sometimes it hits, and sometimes it sounds awful. I could understand if you loved or hated this album - Come Together embodies this for me, delicately toeing the line between euphoric and tacky. For me the album on the whole drags - the second rendition of Higher Than the Sun (there's that Jah Wobble fellow again) is painfully mundane, you'd really have to be higher than the sun to endure it.

Fave Tracks: Slip Inside This House, Loaded

3.1/5

I loved this. A wild ride. So many great quirky tunes.

4.8/5

Such a great ride. This album is crazy in the coconut. The Avalanches are fantastic.

Fave Tracks: Since I Left You, Tonight May Have to Last Me All My Life, Frontier Psychiatrist, Summer Crane

4.8/5

12 tracks of preamble to Pinball Wizard.
Pinball Wizard.
9 more tracks of mostly filler.
OH MY BLOODY CHRIST WHAT THE HELL IS TOMMYS HOLIDAY CAMP.

1.5/5

Finally found this on Youtube Music. Better than expected, though as expected I won't be revisiting it. But liked the energy and the production was surprisingly crisp.

3.3/5

Drop some new music please Frank.

This album's pretty great, I liked a lot of the songs I was less familiar with, though I don't particularly like any of the short tracks/interludes, they just feel like a waste of time and disrupt the flow. The album in general doesn't flow well for me at all. Pyramids into Lost just feels wrong.

Because I love Blonde so much, and this album pales so much in comparison its hard to even consider a 5, but there are so many great pop songs on this one - it delivers something different to Blonde that is still a great listen but for different reasons.

For me though something about the album feels disingenuous - instead of the vulnerability and raw emotion that Blonde has, it has shiny synths and stories about strippers, mosh pits and wet tits and rich kids living in LA. With hindsight it doesn't feel right.

Fave Tracks: Thinkin Bout You, Super Rich Kids, Pyramids, Lost

4.3/5

Not going to win any cool points here, but I think this is a really quite good album. I remember renting it from the library and ripping it to my computer and then listening to King of the Rodeo on repeat.

I just can't fight it, its so hard not to singalong to The Bucket.

Fave Tracks: Slow Night So Long, King of the Rodeo, The Bucket, Day Old Blues, Four Kicks

4.2/5

Incredibly easy listening I thought. But not in a good way. It was a very generic blur in my ears.

2.7/5

I was quite familiar with this album already, and in my head I came in thinking solid 4. But I listened very actively as I walked the quiet streets of a Lyon industrial area and I concluded this deserves more, it’s a great album. The interludes are so well woven, the flow of the whole album is impeccable, 21 tracks never drags, and there are some real highlights too - what more can you say about Cranes in the Sky.

Fave Tracks: Rise, Cranes in the Sky, Don’t Touch My Hair, Don’t Wish Me Well

4.6/5

Keep the Car Running intro gives me chills. So simple but so good.

No Cars Go does something very similar, chill-inducing for me - has always been one of my all-time favourite songs.

I had this album on CD when it came out, I still really like it.

Fave Tracks: Keep the Car Running, Intervention, Black Wave/Bad Vibrations, No Cars Go

4.5/5