Reviews by dohej

Sprawling exploratory strange psych jazz from the most shroomed out dudes in village England where getting off your gourd and noodling on your bass are by miles the best way to spend your time.

Bridging the outlaw country 'heartworn highways' singer-songwriter Austin scene and the more polished 80s heartland rock sound, this is a great bit of Americana - twangy but dark, cynical and jaded, with some great barroom guitar tones and a mix of sad bastard and big and blustery hard driving songs. He's a story-telling lyric-driven song writer, and I don't pay close enough attention to really appreciate what he's doing there.

A bit of a cross between classic punk energy, cute jangly power pop, and new wave quirkyness. The guitars are great - slinky leads breaking into some super bright twangy arpeggios. Naive lead vocals and Birdsy 60s psych harmonies. I wanna destroy you is an amazing opener, Kingdom of Love rips, Insanely Jealous is hilarious, and the closing 2 tracks are really good.

This album feels like a homework project. It demonstrates that they've mastered the instruments and the production techniques, they've studied the disco, soul, funk, and hip hop sonic cannon, they're doing clever things with sounds and samples and references. Good job, you get an A. It's expert and super competent, lots of talent on display, but has no reason to exist other than demonstrating that. There's not taking yourself too seriously, and there's being unserious - and this is both - it's silly and goofy because why not, it's just content through which to practice prowess. There's some decent jams, some nice arrangements, some solid grooves, lots of great bass parts, but it doesn't really amount to anything - pure filler. It's not even drunk, it's the epitome of tipsy.

The perfect blend on raw thrash pummelling and epic neo-classical bombast, each balancing the other, giving a bit of pompous ambition that elevates the hard charging riffs and plenty of gritty energy that keeps the grandiose stuff from veering too far into prog wank - you can feel that they're itching to get back to some headbanging, shredding, and chugging even as they stretch out into harmonized leads and sweeping melodic passages.

A glorious renewal of the 70s slow funk sensual soul tradition, returning to warm organic instruments and a mellow laid back approach that sets the stage for some virtuoso singing-ceooning-moaning. The aural equivalent of silk sheets.

Schmaltzy string, Bambi flutes, tame brass and plodding rhythms give all the songs a slow baggy washed out feel that nails a certain set of moods - listless, cool, complacent. But aside from a few turns of melodic phrase and the creaking cracking timbre of her voice, it's over orchestrated, tedious and pretty boring.

Sick solos, relentless riffing, gnarly shredding, brutal chugging, operatic falsetto, wailing screams, dumb guy acting smart lyrics, goofy as hell and totally self serious, more sick solos. It's a guitar nerd's dream - super technical and played at a breakneck pace - but is way more melodic and accessible than I remember it being - amazing how much time fades some forms of aggressive harsh music.

Left over synthpop found in the back of the fridge 20 years later and microwaved into a hot on the outside cold on the inside mush. Lots of cool textures and sounds, not much in terms of hooks/songs, pretty tepid predictable beats. Stock by the numbers millenial 80s revival stuff that takes the synths more into plodding indie than into than exuberant neo-disco.

Guy who wanted to write short stories but didn't have a pen, only a piano. Old fashioned pre-rock pop but with the pompous knowingness of doing it in a post-rock world.

Quite, brooding, sombre songs that get better everytime you hear them.

He's not breaking any new ground here but that's not always the right criteria. This is just plain and simple heartland alt country adjacent indie singer songwriter stuff ripping off/extending the narrow band of Americana from exile on main St to Springsteen to Mellancamp. Beyond being a dickhead, he provokes strong reactions because of the unstable mix of earnestness and pretense, the cringe self seriousness and ludicrous affectation. He really over uses some annoying writing tricks (naming specific places especially) and there's a lot of mid tempo low inspiration filler on the bum, BUT, goddamn if the good bits (5 of the first 7 songs basically) don't hit hard if you let them.

Geezer core. All rude banter, character studies in pub blokes, goofy singalongs, and tipsy accordion. The warm ale of music. Possibly the most English album of all time.

Open and opaque. Imagistic lyrics about heartbreak and love, nervousness and bad habits, nostalgia but undercut and unsettled, all delivered directly and earnestly. Simple songs deconstructed, restructured and rearranged.

Breakbeats and repetitive bass lines and a chilled out atmosphere and some hushed raps. Great working music that drowns out the world and just flows.

Frenetic energy, goofy attitude, ear for a hook, messing around with synths but still essentially a basement dwelling punk band. This and Talking Heads 77 are the twin corner stones of so much great (and also so much annoying) stuff in the following decade.

Clanging beats and sirens sound the alarm, ominous pulsating rhythms, high energy and off kilter. Unsettling and anxiety inducing, angry and insistent. The raps are similar: a staccato cadence, harsh and confrontational, direct, boastful. Some catchy choruses scattered throughout, but also annoying skits.

Pop was truly running on empty in 2017. Worst possible combination of whiny indie, soulless electronic production, and vapid RnB pop vocalizing. Retail music for a run down shopping mall barely clinging on.

What's the point? Their albums are just a pretext for the obsessive press coverage of the most boring drama imaginable. Generic even in 2004, rote indie sounds and postures, some decent guitars and big drums, but no imagination and way too much of that whinging singing English guys thinks is charismatic.

Knock-off Bowie. The first draft of Oasis. But nowhere near as good. Extremely British amplifier guitar sound, chugging bar room blues rock riffs, big thumping bass, glam aesthetics, stupid lyrics and over the top forced anthemic vocals. Cheesy fun ok in small doses.