Reviews by dcspool

It's Dire Straits. It's pretty good.

Fave Tracks: Water of Love, Sultans of Swing, Wild West End

4/5

Some trepidation clicking play on this album. Is it going to be more noisy incoherent punk rage? Happy to hear it ain't that.

A very interesting electronic industrial droney sound palette - it builds tension, which is enhanced by the slightly nervous whispery vocals.

Weird album, weird is good.

Fave Tracks: Rocket USA

3.5/5

Generally I'm not a big fan of the earlier RHCP stuff, though I think on listening to this the funkier album tracks are more engaging than some of the filler on later RHCP albums. The album flows well, though as with most 73 minute albums its too long to sustain the oomph.

Give It Away is another one of those songs I've heard a lot and generally don't feel like I enjoy, but within the context of the album its hard to deny it. The drums are so hard.

This album is kinda losing me the longer it goes on. The musical ideas aren't diverse enough to be continually engaging. The last song is the epitome of that - super annoying, why?!

Fave Tracks: The Power of Equality, Give It Away, Under the Bridge

3.3/5

There are some top tier U2 tracks on this album. There's a rough rawness to it that U2 lost somewhere in the late 80s.

I don't really have anything negative to say about the album, I think its a good un.

Fave Tracks: Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Years Day, Drowning Man, "40"

4.8/5

This is a surprising choice. I had this album as a teenager, but never really thought much of it then, was just an Arctic monkeys fanboy.

On relisten The Age of the Understament is a very underwhelming track. But Standing Next to Me is a pleasant surprise, channelling the Scott Walker western vibes well.

I mostly feel quite neutral about the rest of the album. Some tracks like Meeting Place are quite effective, others feel like contrived imitations.

A generous round up 2.7/5

So boring. What’s with the live albums.

I like the upbeat second half of School.
Bloody Well Right - what a song name. I didn't realise Supertramp were British.
Hide In Your Shell wasn't doing much for me but the song finale is enjoyable.

My least favourite moments are when its just piano and vocals, as in the start of Asylum.
Dreamer does the same thing as a lot of the other songs. I find it boring or annoying at the start, but it builds into something entertaining.
Rudy does it too - it's quite amazing how they manage to deliver this formula on almost every track.

My assumptions looking at the tracklist (and not seeing any hits I recognise) was that I wouldn't be impressed by this album. But I was happily wrong, I find quite a lot of it to be a good fun time. Most songs take a couple of minutes to grow into, but that's something I can tolerate, and it adds an interesting flow to the record.

Fave Tracks: School, Bloody Well Right, Rudy

4.1/5

Scott Walker vibes. I kinda love this. I don't know why at all. I find it very calming.

Fave Tracks: American Gothic, Blues for Billy Whitehead, Montana Song

4/5

I'm a bit worried that I'm just falling into a trap where any album that sounds something like this ends up with 4 stars. Nope, you know what, this didn't really capture my attention enough to warrant 4 stars. The ending of the album was funny, I liked that.

Fave Tracks: Say Anything

3.4/5

I'm aware of the name Talvin Singh from some remixes (this beaut for instance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1hyj9yOya4&pp=ygUldGFsdmluIHNpbmdoIGJldHRlciBvbiB0aGUgb3RoZXIgc2lkZQ%3D%3D) but I did not think he would be of the calibre to make the 1001.

Traveller is rather meandering, I think it takes too long to move between themes, and the mix of synthetic and more natural sounds I don't find particularly effective.

I prefer the Asian influence on Butterfly, though again I'm not really a fan of the dancier aspects of the song. I wonder if Jai Paul would cite Talvin Singh as an influence?

I think this album is better when it tries to do a bit less, like in Mombasstic. Decca is just a bit silly isn't it.

Jungle!

O.K. is the first track that pulls me in. Light also more enticing with the intro. As I go through this I think my main takeaway is that the electronic beats used are often pretty tacky, but the blend of eastern and western sounds has an undeniable appeal.

There's something about this music where it feels like I could love it, if one or two small things were different, but instead I find I actively dislike it. It reminds me of when I was a teenager getting into Indie Rock and Pop Punk and the like, and someone bought me a Classic Rock compilation CD and I hated every track. For me it treads the wrong side of a fine line.

Fave Tracks: O.K., Light, Vikram the Vampire

2.8/5

I love the blues rock sound of this album, but to me it gets very samey and none of the tracks really stand out at all.

3.3/5

This album seems like it should be right up my street, but the tracks don't quite click with me as much as I was hoping. I really like the vibe of Papa Was A Rolling Stone, but don't find it as compelling as it should be.

3/5

Quite generic new age ambient. The title track for example is driven by tactless pulsing synth lines that make the song a generally unpleasant experience. Its aged badly and all sounds quite cheesy, but I think there are some decent undercurrents here - you can hear the influence for instance on All Saints' Pure Shores.

Skin is intense. We've gone from a beach in Thailand to a Berlin rave. Nothing Really Matters tries to pull us back to SE Asia, but Sky Fits Heaven wants to stay in the cloob. Frozen also sounds so much like Pure Shores - they were really riffing from this album.

Fave Tracks: Little Star

2.4/5

Great album. The musicianship and mixing is so impeccable.

Too High - wonderfully smooth, but has some edge to it. A bluesy undertone to the "Too High" refrain.

Visions - this is a fine song, but I'm here for the funk and the grooves rather than the ballads.

Living for the City - the main riff of this one doesn't really captivate me, but the way the track builds and the spoken word/foley interlude builds a really compelling song.

Golden Lady is sultry. So earthy.

Higher Ground - iconic. Stevie played all the instruments on this track.

Jesus Children of America - another solid track, but not too much to say about this one.

All In Love Is Fair - again, not such a big fan of the ballads.

Don't You Worry Bout A Thing - this is not my favourite track either, Latin vibes.

He's Misstra Know-It-All - a gentle closer.

I have to imagine this album sounded refreshing in 1973, and it still sounds fantastic today.

Fave Tracks: Golden Lady, Higher Ground

4/5

I've always liked Neil, but he has such a big catalogue I've never dived deep into it. For many years I thought that Crazy Horse was a Native American chief who was also a virtuoso musician and had decided to accompany Neil barnstorming across the US.

Not necessarily the most interesting NY album to me, but its still pretty tasty.

Fave Tracks: Welfare Mothers, Sedan Delivery

3.6/5

I think I maybe hate this. The first two tracks are really cheesy.
Liberation started better, Balearic house vibes. I’m really not a fan of Neil Tennant’s vocals.
Yesterday When I Was Mad probably best track so far, but I still find the sound palette of it incredibly cheesy.
The Theatre is similar, has some decent moments, but then the hideous dramatic strings and vocoder-y synth effects are so corny.
One and One Make Five - jesus, this is bad. They turned in a whole song just for the contrived rhyme of “alive” with “five”.
So “To Speak is a Sin” isn’t even “It’s a Sin”.
Go West is one of the most annoying songs ever created. You can’t make me listen to the hidden track.

This is another case where I don’t think this is the worst album out there, but it’s baffling to me as to why this was included in the list. I don’t hear what is essential or groundbreaking about this in anyway.

1.5/5

Second Tom Waits album of the list, much of the same sentiments. Favourite song was the vocal-less piano track at the end.
2.2/5

2.3/5

For me, nothing more than the singles I’m already familiar with. Except a pretty creepy opening track about jailbaiting a teacher.

Pointless, why is this here. So long, such a mediocre recording.

This is horrendous. The intro has to be one of the worst things ever laid to tape. The isolated Fred Durst vocal at the start of the second track is equally awful. My Generation is at least just a boring song. This is by far the stupidest music I’ve ever heard. Its seriously so dumb. The lyrics are appalling. The singles (My Way, Rollin) are the highlights so far, if you can call them that. The Mission Impossible song is the only actually listenable song actually.

0.4/5