Reviews by declaniom

He tried to fool us by front loading with the singles,. Those songs are good, but inconsequential pop. Afterwards it falls away for the listener. I'm sure Prince had fun messing about with his synth drums and rubber band bass sounds, but save it for your Soundcloud page Prince.

"What goes up must go down, Superfresco from Graham and Brown". Not only was the opening track used to sell wallpaper but a lot of the album is wallpaper music. Superior wallpaper music, though.

J Dilla an MF Doom’s contributions lift a solid rap album to a higher level.

Freedom 90 is quite good. It could have been by the Mock Turtles. Elsewhere he’s very deliberately being a serious artist and demanding we Listen Without Prejudice. I did it’s artfully put together toss. Wham! Was real. Real young people singing about real life things, a bit naff a times but ten times better than studious pretension that began George’s solo career.

Relaxed but that hides a great instrumentalist at his creative peak.

This is pleasant sophisto pop.

Elegant.

Boring corporate rock for the flat white generation.

Bogstandard metal with a touch of goth.

There’s a couple of fine songs, garage rock with a superior guitarist but a lot of it is unfocused and meandering. Record company A+R, producer, and Hendrix’s management needed to be tougher with him rather than enabling this legacy damaging half-arsed effort.

One of Neil’s best. Quite paranoid.

Gillan earns an extra star.

If this was my list of 1001 albums to hear before you die there would be many more Beach Boys records included.

If you’re new to the Beach Boys the starting point, obviously, is Pet Sounds. Your next step, in the British Isles, is 20 Golden Greats a TV Advertised best of that sold in such enormous quantities that you can pick it up for less than a fiver. Other countries will have their own versions. America’s is called Endless Summer. Next an early 70’s lo like Surfs Up, Sunflower, Holland. Probably then a version of Smile.

Then a 60’s pre Pet Sounds lp. So the compilers restricting to Today!Pet Sounds/Surfs Up/ Brian’s Smile have done pretty well within the limitations of the format.

Personally I would have gone for Surfer Girl or one of the full on Surf albums. Not because Today! Is a bad lp but because it’s the album before Pet Sounds where Brian is stretching his producer skills. I think the pure surf and harmonies belong on this list more than a transitional lp.

More listenable and ambitious than their fellow products of the EMI / Abbey Road posh boy band sausage factory - Pink Floyd, Muse, Coldplay, Keane etc. But still over emotive and vacuous. Don’t fall for the marketing.

Good album with great bass playing. I’d add it to my collection if I saw a second hand copy. But the again I have hundreds of good albums like this my US alt rockers in the 80s 90’s. Strangely that the American mainstream listened to crap like Van Halen.

Pretty ordinary. Second rate Cat Stevens.

Wait a year and two samba records come along together.

A really light cool lp. More Jazz than Samba.

I do like this album. The last album with Richey’s lyrics and afterwards they never really sounded as vital again.

It sounded so fresh upon release that it was my album of the year. Has diminished a bit since and Becks made better but it’s still a strong album.