Rated 8/10
This is kinda sick. Often sounds so ahead of its time. So effortlessly cool. Sounds like the Nouvelle Vague.
Was this a film soundtrack or something? I don't really care it was fun.
Fave Tracks: Melody, Ballad de Melody Nelson, L'hotel particulier (BOF "Melody Nelson")
4.4/5
Rated 8/10
At first I was very skeptical about this - another electronic album from the 2000s from an artist I've never heard of, but some of this was pretty fun. It sounds exactly like what you'd expect from the album cover.
Fave Tracks: Shellback, The Rough and the Quick, Bussing
3.5/5
Rated 6/10
This is way too clean to enjoy.
2.8/5
Rated 8/10
Nick Drake is very nice. But this album doesn't really click with me in any special way. It strikes me as the sort of album that could grown on me with deeper listening, but I'm not sure I will ever give it the time of day tbh.
Fave Tracks: River Man, Man In A Shed
3.6/5
Rated 8/10
Southern Point is a great opener. Reminds me of Animal Collective (fitting for grizzly bear). The last 15 seconds riff is cool.
Fine for Now has some nice moments. The band sits in quiet lulls with poise.
Fave Tracks: Southern Point, Two Weeks, Fine For Now
3.8/5
Rated 4/10
Would have loved to have loved this, but it was kinda just messy. I didn't like him explaining what he was doing at the start of each song.
2/5
Meh
3/5
On A Rope is fun. This whole thing was pretty fun. What terrible album art though.
Fave Tracks: On A Rope, Drop Out, Fat Lip, Burnt Alive
3.9/5
Rated 4/10
Sounds like a French rock opera version of Beauty and the Beast.
2.4/5
Rated 8/10
Love these crazy German critters.
4.2/5
Rated 8/10
Better than I thought it would be
Fave Tracks: I Wanna Be Your Dog, We Will Fall
3.7/5
Rated 4/10
bore off
2/5
Rated 8/10
Girl From Mars so good. Ash were a great pop punk band. They had some hooks. I am quite a fan of Free All Angels too. This held up way better than I expected.
Fave Tracks: Goldfinger, Girl From Mars, Kung Fu, Innocent Smile, Angel Interceptor
3.9/5
Rated 8/10
I think the appeal of this album is in the storytelling. The tracks I was already quite familiar with (Alive, Jeremy) tell emotive tales of difficult childhoods. Jeremy gives me chills still after many listens: the combination of the chords/melodies/lyrics at the chorus line "Jeremy spoke in class today" is one of those incredibly powerful musical moments.
The Alive guitar solo does kinda annoy me. Its very on the nose.
Overall I found the sound of the album to be a little bit less polished than I was expecting.
Fave Tracks: Even Flow, Alive, Jeremy, Release
4/5
This is some good shit tbh, I kinda want to listen to this non-stop whilst I work.
4/5
Rated 6/10
Kinda fun?
3.3/5
Rated 8/10
This is a very pleasant album. I have the impression some people really love it and see it as an all-timer. I think that's a bit much - it does what it does well, but doesn't really do anything particularly special/transcendent. It reminds me of the good parts of early Taylor Swift, without much corniness.
Fave Tracks: Slow Burn, Velvet Elvis, High Horse
3.9/5
Rated 4/10
PSB doesn't do it for me.
A lot of these songs sound like they said, "I want to make a song called Rent", "I want to make a song called Hit Music" and then they just slapped a generic synthesizer preset on and babbled out the song title in a way they thought sounded cool or profound or something.
When the album finished it auto-played into a Saint Etienne track. It was one of those moments where I thought, ooh actually this track is good, only to go and check and realise it wasn't the PSB any more. That's usually a litmus test to me that the album really did suck.
1.7/5
Rated 6/10
For some reason I had it in mind that this would be brit-poppier, rather than the punky sound it has. Its kinda just meh for me, but the last few tracks I think are kinda stronger than the start.
3/5
Rated 8/10
This was much better than I was expecting. Not ground breaking, but I found many of the slower cuts pleasant.
3.6/5
