Rated 6/10
A gloriously stupid good time. Sophomoric satanism and schoolboy sexuality, power metal riffs chugging brilliantly, wild 80s lead guitar shredding \m/ it will never not be funny to think about the Christian illiterates getting trolled by this moronic bullshit.
Rated 10/10
Slow ambient drones, fuzzy edge of feedback guitars, hypnotic synth loops, and frail vocals - slow and patient songs that occasionally whip up a frenzy but more often nod out into addled bliss. Beautifully depressed, pure wallowing, endlessly chasing catharsis.
Rated 8/10
Absolutely rips - big gloomy synthy goth rock with great vocals and hooks for days. The sparse piano track (1959) brings it down a bit but when it's full force it's a hell of a mood.
Rated 2/10
The twangy 'knowledge of beauty' has a great country arrangement with violins and lap steels, the rest is all brassy pop and wierd soul pastiche with nasal vocals and lots of energy.
Rated 2/10
Retail music - upbeat uptempo bright and breezy synth pop electronica. At best it's like an optimistic Boards of Canada but for the most part it's like an own brand Daft Punk.
Rated 4/10
Blues is a zombie genre that's been living a ghoulish perpetual afterlife since the dawn of rock - it informs most guitar based music and gives the harmonic basis and structural template for everything from classic rock and psych, jazz and jam bands, garage and funk to punk and metal, it's revived every so often when a new guitar guy comes along paying tribute to the old masters, it lives on in the expensive les.pauls of dentists and in museumified concert settings, and every once in a while one of the old guys is wheeled into the spotlight for a tribute (see Buddy Guy, one of the last OGs, with Sinners) - this is one of those times. It's fine, but everything about it is so predictable and boring - the only interesting thing is the kind of jarring combination of earthy blues performances and super clean polished 80s production. Why this over one of his 60s albums?
Rated 10/10
Their early albums have been overshadowed in my memory by how perfect YHF is, but holy shit this is worth a revisit. The opening has like 6 timeless songs I’ve loved since first listen, used to play to death, and still love to hear them play. Some of it is sparse singer songwriter folksy stuff, some of it really flesh out arrangements like a soul/rnb country band, some of it rocks with a barroom piano, some of it is dirty guitars. A blend of alt country twang, 90s post grunge radio sounds, and power pop jangle. The lyrics are full of great lines - these are amazing love songs about loneliness and attachment and longing and heartbreak - and the singing is full of life and emotion. Warm, nostalgic, earnest, weary, so so good. The only problem is there’s so much of it - prolific to a fault.
Rated 4/10
More guys who grew up in the 80s recreating the 60s for the 90s. Fun but fleeting, a late to the party debut from a solid festival circuit 3rd tier Britpop act. Best when they're doing high energy psych pop, worst when they go slow spacey trippy. The promised fuzz is nice though, beautifully dialed in and warm.
Rated 4/10
Dark acoustic Americana that's even more affected than his normal stuff but has some good moments and introduces the legendary character 'the chicken man'. Spare and stripped back, a man and his guitar and his harmonica and his songs howling in the wind. Kind of whiny and boring, super overrated bc critics were too embarrassed to admit they like dancing in the dark so pretended to like this one instead bc it is bleak and holds a mirror up to society by having some lines that say 'factory closed'.
A compelling argument for why rock is better than folk. Despite most of the best songs being on the solo acoustic + harmonica disc 1, the performances from the full electric band on disc 2 is just way more fun to listen to. Fun hearing him respond to the energy in the band, have more support, and let the possibilities of the songs blossom into something more fully realized.
Rated 6/10
A fun mix of motown soul and 60s psych that peaks on the long instrumental jam at the end of side A, where you get the glorious Jamerson style bass and some great fuzzy guitar sounds combining for a heady bit of funk. The B side is classic but not especially inspired RnB - great vocal harmonies and more of that perfect bass but the schmaltzy strings drag it down a bit and the songs are mid.
Rated 8/10
Like the raunchy honk tonk era rolling stones with the gain turned way up, performed on speed and in high heels. This is the raw spirit of rock and roll delivered as a glammed up mess, it's full of swagger and snarl. Makes for a pretty clear stepping stone between Little Richard and Johnny Rotten. Big dumb debauched fun.
Rated 10/10
Pillowy soft rock. Fittingly for the epitome coke fueled 70s mega rock, the highs are HIGH but the lows are a drag. Some all time pop bangers, huge emotions painted in bright and broad, ultra clean production, a floaty laid back mood containing a lingering darkness. Now that we're all over the basicness & uncoolness of liking this it has become a bit overrated, but still, it's a warm bath. Feels good, man.
Rated 4/10
The same whimsical psychedelic style as all the other English bands from this year. Sing songy vocals straight from a nursery rhyme, quirky arrangements (flutes!) and melodies that all these bands have referencing medieval folk, magic mushroom imagery, and oh God, the album has a concept. These bands all simultaneously learned all the tricks to sound trippy, dialled them up to 11 for 2 years and thankfully got sick of it and/or fried out on acid - it's an interesting novelty artifact, but such a boring sound 60 years later. There are some cool fuzz guitar bits though and the parts where the vocals stop and the instruments freak out are fun (balloon burning, the journey, defecating grey).
Rated 6/10
Spacey, dense, trippy electronic with a nicely varied sonic palette. Some chilled out stuff, some high intensity stuff, some dancey stuff, some bangers, lots of cool sounds, classic diva vocal samples, dank dub atmospheres, house beats, and a dark moody ambience to it all. It's so funny how this genre is great for both drug fueled rave partying and plowing through boring office work.
Rated 8/10
Similar recipe as Echo and the Bunnymen: moody gothic 80s synthy post punk with a heavy dose of dreamy 60s psych swirling around - big atmospheres, dramatic vocals, layers and layers of guitars and organs, melodic bass. But this more eclectic. Cope adds in a bit of the baggy madchester dance sound (easy rider, leperskin) and a couple of slower more stripped back acoustic tracks that start at Billy Bragg and ultimately build back up to a big orchestral psych noise. Some harder charging garage punk stuff ala Modern Lovers (hanging out). Some of it sounds like a British version of the shaggy slacker sound of 90s US alt rock. I like everything on here, but there is still too much of it - still, what a discovery!
Rated 10/10
Power pop gems with an almost punk dressing: effortless hooks, jangly guitars, a bit of dissonance and snarl, drawling vocals, bouncy bass, shaggy loose performances, Lo-Fi DIY production values, and a the energy of chilled out chaos. Another Planet is by miles the stand out track - a pure banger - but the rest is consistently great keep it simple stupid rock and loads of fun.
Rated 10/10
Sprawling and trippy - it's held together by the mesmerizing motorik drumming and steady bass grooves which form a base for the rest of the sounds to float around, go nuts, explore, lose it, find it, settle down, freak out, and float on. Just an amazing album to put on and get lost in the sauce.
Capable but thoroughly derivative electric blues rock - some nice fuzz tones and generic pentatonic noodling over the classic repertoire of 12 bar blues progressions. You can see how in London in 1966 this was fun for all involved, but it set a dangerous train in motion that's the curse of jam sessions and guitar stores everywhere.
Rated 10/10
Studied shagginess, pop gems buried in layers of warm fuzz and disjointed tempos, ironic detachment and drawling vocals. The songs feel on the verge of collapse, stumbling forward, barely coalescing at the last minute, then finally settling into some thrilling, moody, dramatic passages that build and build until clattering apart.
