Reviews by ella_ayates

Literally the worst time in history to have a song about how dumb New York cops are.
Favourite song: Last Nite
Least: Take It Or Leave It

The perfect album for when I'm feeling like I'm the first person to ever have to actually do work at work. Let myself be indulgently self pitying along with The Smiths for 36 minutes and then I pull myself together (this is the step Morrissey seems to have forgotten).
Favourite song: I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
Least: Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me

When ZZ Top breaks up I hope an imposter band starts touring as them, to honour Dusty Hill and Frank Beards origins as members of the fake Zombies. Might be harder to do now we have the internet.
Favourite song: Gimme All Your Lovin'
Least: TV Dinners

I understand it's influential and I'm glad to have heard it so I can say I have, but I won't be listening again.
Favourite song: Ann
Least: We Will Fall

I don't know why but before listening I assumed I'd like The Love Below a lot more than Speakerboxxx, I think it was mainly a name based judgement and because Hey Ya! is on The Love Below.
And then I heard Unhappy- and immediately added it to my playlist. Speakerboxxx is probably one of the best (if not the best) hip-hop albums I've listened to while doing this project.
I forgive all the other interludes because it means we got Bamboo- this is how you put your kid on an album, not the fucked up way Eminem did it.

And in contrast I hated The Love Below so much more than I thought I would. I found the God Interlude funny (A-lady!) and Hey Ya! is such an incredible and iconic song. But there were so many songs I just didn't like: overly horny, (literally) shitty lyrics and musically underwhelming. I could happily have never listened to any of the non Hey Ya! tracks on The Love Below (fine, I liked Take Off Your Cool).

Favourite song: Unhappy (It's probably actually Hey Ya! but out of protest I won't give it to a song from The Love Below!)
Least: Prototype

I'm not a big fan of his voice when he's singing slower songs or singing higher pitched but I really enjoyed the more upbeat songs and his deeper singing voice.
Favourite song: Papa bonheur
Least: Koweit, rive gauche

After the initial scream and reading the top three global reviews I was pretty prepared to hate this album. But it was so fun! I loved the energy, I loved the weird Elvis vocals and the more spoken Fuck Shit Up, I loved the genre combination! I could have done without the initial scream and the last song but overall a much better type of explosion than I feared.
Favourite song: Rocketship (or Fuck Shit Up)
Least: Sticky

Some lyrical moments I really liked but the actual music seemed set on pissing me off. There was a moment in Let's All Make A Bomb where all the squeaking and whistling felt like they were about to transition into HSM's hit song Get'cha Head In The Game.
Love that the original vinyl had a locked groove to repeat "for a very long time" indefinitely but on spotify it just makes it feel like just an annoying choice.
Favourite song: Song With No Name
Least: Geisha Boys and Temple Girls

When this album came out the bassist Bill Wyman was 35, his future wife (and step granddaughter....) wasn't yet 1.
Anyway album wise, the only song I really already knew was Wild Horses. Some dodgy lyrics and I hate the cover, hate that it originally had a working zip even more. Musically I liked it but other than Wild Horses nothing really stood out to me.
Favourite song: Wild Horses
Least: Brown Sugar

The dread I felt seeing there were only 5 songs on the 45 minute album- I live in fear of long messy showy improvised jazz. But I was pleasantly surprised, it was peaceful and tidy and lovely. Some gorgeous moments but it never felt like it was showing off. It was improvised but it never felt too far from where it started. I wouldn't necessarily just listen to it again but I'd be happy to put it on in the background... maybe I don't hate jazz.
Favourite song: Freddie Freeloader
Least: Flamenco Sketches

So iconic to name the song that completes the album you're getting paid 20 grand for "Suite for 20 G". Fun folky guitar and lovely voice, very calming album.
Favourite song: Fire and Rain
Least: Oh Baby, Don't You Loose Your Lip On Me

Find this quite hard to score because I love Into My Arms and People Ain't No Good but there is so much on this album that I don't like. He's playing hopscotch with the line between gorgeous lyricism and pretentiousness.
I much prefer this Nick Cave era to his birthday party shit.
Favourite song: People Ain't No Good
Least: Green Eyes

I don't dislike it, it's just kind of unremarkable, after listening I couldn't remember any details of any of the songs. Didn't enjoy the Born To Be Wild cover but it led me to the existence of an Ozzy Osbourne and Miss Piggy cover of it.
Favourite song: Love Removal Machine
Least: Born To Be Wild

Singing Jump for a mattress commercial nearly got the New Directions banned from sectionals! And that's what you missed on Glee.
Fun short album!
Favourite song: Jump
Least: Drop Dead Legs

Some really great songs, weighed against some songs where the fake Jamaican accent Sting does it really pronounced. I think generally the "white reggae" concept put a sour taste in my mouth and the album wasn't good enough for me to get past it.
Favourite song: Message in a Bottle
Least: No Time This Time

Maybe it's that I'm (lightly) hungover, maybe it's my general lack of patience for jazz, but it took me a couple tries to get into the album. When I did I found it was a fun high energy album with a funky spy movie vibe. Sometimes the horns toed the line of annoying but I think the joy and the shortness of the songs meant nothing actually crossed the line.
Favourite song: Minor Rama
Least: Holiday

I really love the faster more upbeat songs but I got bored during the slow ballads and found the ballad and synth combo weird.
Favourite song: You Haven't Done Nothing
Least: They Won't Go When I Go

I love the way she sings, I think it suits the music so well. It's a short and sweet album with a great energy level. And I love the album cover.
Favourite song: The Once over Twice
Least: White Girl

Not sure the organ was super necessary and sometimes I think they went a bit over the top with all the guitar but there were a lot of moments I really enjoyed and More Than A Feeling is such an iconic song.
Favourite song: More Than A Feeling
Least: Foreplay/Long Time

This album won two awards at the first ever Grammys, so I'm glad to hear it for music history reasons alone. I was bit apprehensive seeing it was a jazz album but ended up actually really liking it- I think it's the use of shorter structured songs rather than the long improvisational pieces I've come to dread. Felt a bit like I should be in West Side Story at points, that or a 60s dinner party having a cigarette and a prawn cocktail in a conversation pit.
Favourite song: After Supper
Least: Double-O