Reviews by declaniom

After listening to this album in the morning, this evening I saw Martha Carthy and friends play the songs of Martin Carthy. One of the songs they played was Iohn Barleycorn Must Die. The generator knows you know.

One of the blind spots in this book is the abscence of English and Celtic folk song. There’s a host of acoustic singer songwriters a few folk rock LPs that draw on these traditions and Bert Jansch’s instrumental lp but no MacColl, Copper Family, Carthy, Shirley Collins.

So despite the disappointment of their self-titled blues rock yomp the title and cover made me hope for more. Also Paper Sun and Hole in my Shoe were good songs - there must be a good Traffic album right?

Well it’s not this one. It’s a series of jazz fusion jams similar to Soft Machine only without the focus or a singer of the quality of Wyatt or Ayers..

Gig was good though.

The singles are great on the radio, or in a mix tape. But the rest is filler.

Boring. Nothing Ever Happens.

In 1979 my Auntie Irene asked for my Chrimbo list. It was this and Eat to the Beat by Blondie. She bought Eat To The Beat.

Phew.

Lucky escape.

Thanks Auntie Irene.

There are nine Neil Young albums on this list (if you include Buffalo Springfield Again and CSNY’s de ja vu). If I had to listen to only 9 Neil Young albums before I died Harvest wouldn’t be one.

I think that’s because the best songs - Old Man, Needle and Damage Done have better versions on live albums like Live Rust.

Listening again I enjoyed the orchestral arrangements and some of the guitar playing was excellent.

Really good album. Some tracks the structure of the rap is dazzling. Bit overlong and the homophobia feels less “in character” and more lazy abuse than when Slim or Marshall raps about violence. Less self aware and critical.

The Attractions hit the ground running on this one.

Great album. Good song choice. Well song. Ok arrangements.

It’s ok but they go on a bit don’t they?

Listened to a Wonderstuff 12” after this, back in the early 90’s there was cross over in their fanbases, they’d play the same SU Buildings. Wonderstuff has aged better and I don’t particularly like the Wonderstuff.

Pleasant acoustic album. Some nice Brazilian flourishes. Unfortunately I don’t speak Portuguese, sadly, I feel these songs need that skill set. Without following the lyrics this doesn’t cross over in the way Jorge Ben or Gal Costa does.

I haven't listened to this in years. Was expexting it to sound dated but sstabds up surprisibgly well

Kind of the first Jazz lp anyone gets into, more like. Then everyone moves on to discover their favourites and forget the entry point. However listening again it’s still great. Especially the second side.

One of the few perfect pop albums.

Faux-French Disco. The individual songs are ok. Some I remember from the time. But together as an album it lacks depth.

I doubt this would be under consideration for a fresh list now.

Oh God, this is bad. Tragic, even. Syd is long gone and with him all humanity, leaving Roger arrogantly ranting about how bad his lot in life is and dreaming of being a totalitarian ruler.

Even the pleasant keyboard intros that provided some relief before the guitars and vocals kicked in on Dark Side of the Moon have been banished.

I think this is a concept LP about how hard it is to be Roger Waters. Gilmour seems to have resented that and took to torturing guitars in the pursuit of the most excruciating guitar solo imaginable. The vocals are even more painful — some posh boy screaming about how hard done by he is by the fans who've made him a millionaire. It's immensely repetitive; I think the same songs are played several times. Certainly, musical motifs are repeated.

The one moment of light relief is when a gang of kids break into the studio and sing a punkish "We don't need no education." A very popular tune in my playground at the time. Of course, the whole song is like an insidious district schools talent competition. The kids (who were Gen X, by the way) from the local comp are allowed a little rebellion before David, a sixth former or young teacher (and therefore a boomer) from the boys' grammar school, demonstrates what art and a privileged education can do for you. But those kids are the only ones to provide a moment of sincerity in this whole wretched mess.

Proud Mary is a good song. Everything else filler. Unimaginitive, hack songs. So fake - young man trying to soundly worldly.

A cliched version of one of the fifties rock's worst songs - Good Golly Miss Molly, shows that this band had little taste and no quality control. Between July 1968 and December 1970 they released 6 albums but only had an albums worth of good, original songs. On some of these tracks you can hear the bottom of the barrel being scraped.

The WHO have some good songs but I think they were more of a singles band.

Pretty boring. Speed of drumming is impressive but nothing really happens. Bland.

I love this album. It was probably the lp that showed me what hip hop could be (well that and Public Enemy headlining the 1992 Reading Festival). Readng the other reviews I think this probably had a bigger impact on the Indie/Alt community in Britain than on the Hip Hop world.

Listening again I can see why some would call the flow old fashioned, but this I don't listen to enough rap for it to sound dated to me. The subject matter, however, is unfortunately modern.

Pretty cool. Muddy from time to time calls out to someone called Johnny in the bridge and Johnny arrives with a shit-tonne of shredding. However apart from Jonny’s boring contributions there’s a real swagger about this recording. But I can’t help feeling a Chess years comp would be the place to start.