Reviews by directoryofbunk

AC/DC are a dumb, and cynical band. Your singer dies, and it's business as usual making another album, with many of the themes linking to said singer's death in a totally non-reflective way. Absolutely mad.

AC/DC are an amazing and brutally efficient band. Refusing to bow to trends or to be set back by tragedy, they plough their own singular furrow with relentless doggedness. Absolutely rocking.

Not sure they've ever made a 10/10 album, always a tune or 2 that brings it down a notch, but the big hitters on this record are total killers.

Surprisingly gentle in its grooviness. Not as immediate as I might have imagined but might be a grower. Feel like it could gain a star with sustained listening?

Takes ages to get going and then when it finally does, it's pretty boring. The whole rock opera concept gets a bit lost - the key parts of the narrative are seemingly missing. Maybe it would make more sense if I watched the film, but I'm not exactly sold on that.

Pinball Wizard is still a cracking single.

A band that sort of passed me by at the time, even though very much adjacent to what I was into. I think there was a general feeling in "the scene" that the singer is a bit of a knob. Without feeling there were any particularly outstanding songs, this is a very enjoyable, soft focus listen.

Suzanne Vega always seems to me to be a musician who is actually much stranger than their mainstream success would suggest. This is a beautiful, elegant record, but maybe not her best?

I totally love the 1st 3 PE albums, so why do I never appear to have listened to this before? An absolute barnstormer of a record! A very different (More conventional) style of production (born out of necessity, apparently) does nothing to dilute from the power of Chuck and a more militant Flavor. Hard, funky, and still thought-provoking.

Can this album be separated from the tragedy of a life cut short, especially when the whole record is total heart-of-sleeve stuff?

All great songs and the production is right up there. Tears Dry On Their Own is a genuine tearjerker, Back To Black is similarly, and Rehab is a delightful slice of rebellion meets pathos, but every song is excellent. Amy's voice is, natch, remarkable.

Feel like the album feels slightly short of a 5 (some of the rhythmic choices don't quite hold up), but a 4 would be a bit tight.

Nope, Queen are still really annoying. A handful of tunes that are half good, but also half bad. Awful lyrics, some good riffs, and stylistic choices that are all over the place, quality-wise.

Almost irritating in its brilliance.

I'd forgotten about this band, that my kneejerk reaction to seeing the name was "landfill indie". They're a bit better than that, but more like a poor man's Grandaddy. Another one of those inoffensive albums that doesn't exactly scream "must hear before you die". Very adjacent to great stuff, but consistently fails to hit the mark. Kind-of enjoyable though, whilst somewhat throwaway, so maybe give it a generous bump up to a 3.

A beautiful balance of the melodic and the abstract. You can almost hear the rules being rewritten

The title track is so overblown and overplayed, but the rest of the album is perfectly pleasant. Very hummable, but not exactly essential.

Hit after hit. Even Kooks is pretty nice.

Starts of with an absolutely pointlessly long intro before becoming a load of nonsense. A clear influence on the more pompous bits of This Is Spinal Tap. But, perhaps without this there would be no Blood Incantation, which would be a shame.

Lyrics are godawful throughout. Some of the tunes are interesting, but generally this is not grabbing me at all.

The politics around this album remain complicated - it depends who you ask as to whether this is exploitation or collaboration, subversive or colonial.

If a neutral standpoint is taken - especially now at 30 years distance - this is an incredible amalgamation of seemingly incompatible styes put together in a way that few others have managed.

To quote Allo Darlin's "My Heart Is A Drummer": You see it's like loving "Graceland" / It's not allowed to be but we know it's everybody's favorite/Deep down in the place where music makes you happiest

Whilst I love The Beatles, and it is obvious that they are one of the greatest and most influential acts ever, I don'[t think they've ever made a flawless album. There's always at least 1 tune that should have been kept off it - maybe a consequence of absolutely rattling through the releases. SO many incredible tunes on the White Album, including a bunch that I regularly forget about - nice to revisit Yer Blues, Long Long Long, Julia, and I'm So Tired.

Won't point out the clangers, they're mostly pretty obvious, but Revolution No 9 is not one of them.

This is crazy annoying - especially his voice. Music for shoeless bobos. Couldn't finish.

Absolutely insane that, what is essentially a novelty covers record, bangs this hard.

This record would be infinitely better without talentless gobshite Bobby Gillespie on it. Crap singer, worse lyricist, ego utterly out of kilter with his abilities and so on.

A lot of the band sound pretty interesting across the whole record, which makes me think this could have been a 4 star instrumental album.

Probably actually 3 stars, but Bob is such a cunt it can't top a 2.

Had quite high hopes for this - figured it would be an exciting take on C&W, but is somewhat saggy and saccharine in the end.