Reviews by galway_rat

There's a name I haven't heard for awhile... The last Dexy was album 334, the one with Come on Eileen on it; this is #952.

The book uses a much more fitting, colourful album cover than this drab, grey suits. Right from the get go, the bluesy brass of “Flicker”* and the extended coda of “This Is What She’s Like” are energetic and joyful.
I’m not as fond of the frequent spoken word pieces substituting for melody, however, even if the one starting ”What She’s Like” is amusingly banal.
Though this album doesn’t have a single, “Listen to This” seems like an attempt at a pop hit.
Daryl Easlea compares this to “Pet Sounds”, which is definitely one of the more insane takes I’ve heard. At the end of the day, I do appreciate this album’s audacity to be as uncool and un-trendy as it was at the height of synth pop & new wave.

3.5

HL: “The Occasional Flicker”, “This is What She’s Like”, “Knowledge of Beauty”

*a good trombone part will always elevate an album’s value to me

November 8, 2024

Things that don’t get a five-star this week: Irish folk, R.E.M., P-Funk
Things that do: 2 hrs of effing bluegrass, apparently. I don't know myself

I understand the guest list for Will The Circle Be Unbroken is full of influential country talent, but I can say that the names, apart from the Carter family & Earl Scruggs, don't really ring a bell. The reverence for them from the Nitty Gritty is clear, but the music itself is often casual sounding*, like they've all been buds the whole time. If I had to justify my rating further, it's not an album I can really debate the quality of each track and how they fit with each other (my country/bluegrass experience is lacking). I rarely feel immersed in the circumstances of the recording like this one. For all I get ticked off about non-musical interludes, the light conversation, the creaking & shuffling between songs really adds to the magic.

Both ancient & accessible. I feel less bad about dropping 12 Canadian dollars on this CD now

*Casual sounding, until they start shredding 🎸 🪕

November 6, 2024

HL: “Perfect Day”, “Satellite of Love”, “Walk on the Wild Side”, “New York Telephone Conversation”, “Make Up”

2nd and a half Lou Reed, after Berlin and half of Metal Machine Music :/

The big band flourishes are fun, and contrast well with the straightforward rockers. Recognized “Satellite of Love” right away, and “Wild Side” and “Perfect Day” are pretty inescapable as 70’s classics.

Of course, the references to gender and sexual fluidity are far too liberal for today’s climate. What’s next, actual gay people releasing music? /s
(I look forward to Frankie Goes To Hollywood, which I skipped to get to this one faster)

November 7, 2024

HL: “Two Tribes”, “Relax”, “The Only Star in Heaven, “The Power of Love”

A monument to 80’s plastic

If “Relax” is what was shocking 40 years ago, the more potent surprise today would be the über-faithful covers of “Born to Run” and “San Jose”. I fail to see the point but they’re fun versions.

I’m pretty sure I’ve heard an edit of the title track but 14 minutes of it did nothing for me

November 5, 2024

HL: “The Stars of Track and Field”, “Me and the Major”, “The Fox and the Snow”, “Get Me Away From Here”, title track

Can’t decide between a 4 or a 5, so we’ll remain at 4 for now. Belle and Sebastian popped up pretty late on this list (with Tigermilk this summer), and yet I don’t find myself comparing them to the many other folky acts I have heard this year.
Very cozy 🛌
This one deserved 2 full listens; one for music and one for lyrics.

November 4, 2024

"What am I? I'm a murderer" 💀
Where were you for Spooky Month, Death in Vegas?

Only having heard the track quoted above, "Aisha", before today, I assumed I wouldn't like this album. (It has a cool energy but I find it overly repetitive and wears out its shock value quickly.) And yet there's something to these Contino Sessions...

"Soul Auctioneer" has a dark yet danceable energy; "Flying" is a great slice of neo-psychedelia; "Broken Little Sister" has both the noise and the lead singer of a Jesus and Mary Chain song.

It's a 'results may vary' album to me, but at its best it's a great soundtrack to a nighttime city walk.

HL: "Dirge", "Flying", "Neptune City", "Aladdin's Story"

3.5

November 4, 2024

👽

3 pizzas out of 5

I guess it’s interesting that I was reading about Norwegian bands on RYM (almost all black metal bands, which might suggest tunnel vision on RYM’s part), right before getting a-ha and Turbonegro in the same week.

I can appreciate the former’s contribution to music much more than the latter, since it’s basically a copycat of a few 70s punk albums, with some 80s hardcore & hair metal thrown in. One of these influences is not like the other…

HL: “Humiliation St”, “The Age of Pamparius”, “Prince of the Rodeo”

Later on November 1, 2024

(October 31st, 2024) Not sp00ky enough, unless one is afraid of British women. See you in November, Dusty

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Groovy

HL: "Son of a Preacher Man", "Just One Smile", "I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore", "Breakfast in Bed",

November 1st, 2024 (morning of)

HL: “April 5th”, “Living in Another World”, “Time It’s Time”, “Happiness Is Easy”, “Life’s What You Make It”

I’ve read about the trajectory of this band, from synth-pop to post-rock, so it makes sense their entry on this list has the best of both worlds. I happened to listen to It’s My Life (1984) earlier this year, purely on the strength of “Such a Shame” & the title track, and it was pretty enjoyable, if anyone reading this needs even more 80s new wave.

Mark Hollis has one of my favourite voices in 80s bands, so you’d think the higher emphasis on instrumentation in Colour would put me off. It doesn’t. The mix of energetic pop-rock, jazzy atmospheres and peculiar arrangements (hello recorders and choir in “Time It’s Time”) never feels disjointed to me. It’s consistently enjoyable from start to finish.

I intend to go the full mile & hear Spirit of Eden & Laughing Stock at some point

November 2, 2024

HL: “Stand”, “Orange Crush”, “Pop Song 89”, “You Are the Everything”

The mandolin here is less “Losing My Religion” and more “Battle of Evermore”. Track 6, “The Wrong Child”, definitely has that dance-round-the-maypole energy.
“Hairshirt” is a bit odd, I kept expecting it to build to a stronger finish- not sure why, though. None of the other acoustic tracks had drums or anythin’
“I Remember California” just sounds menacing
“Stand” is the 1st REM song I was aware of; it’s silly and not really representative of their best work but I love it.

Is having both Green and Document on this list redundant? I couldn’t say, but there is a wackier energy in this one that isn’t immediately noticeable in the other 3 REMs.

Paired this with Reckoning (1984), which further makes me wonder if they ever made a bad record

Spooktober 28, 2024

Interestingly, not the first industrial metal album I’ve heard this month; Streetcleaner by Godflesh was the first. But where that was apocalyptic, Psalm 69 seems locked in party mode.

I wrote the previous sentence right before “Scare Crow”, at which point the album takes the exit lane to Hell and keeps going.

Full disclosure: this is generally NOT my cup of tea. But I have to give credit to it, since it takes the distortion, horror & machine drumming that Godflesh and The Young Gods honed, combines it with Mötorhead-esque rock n’ roll and somehow makes it work.

The mystery du jour is why I liked this so much more than Antichrist Superstar. Maybe it's just 'cause it doesn't try as hard to be creepy.

My Apple Music algorithm is going to be so confused after this and the Emperor album I put on yesterday.

HL: “NWO”, “Scarecrow”, title track, “Jesus Built My Hotrod”

P.S. It looks like this is the 500th album I have heard for the 1st time this year. (According to my spreadsheet. 🤓 EPs and compilations are considered an album for the purpose of my list)

Not familiar with Mark Lanegan and yet this is the 3rd album I’ve heard with him (after QotSA’s Rated R and Songs for the Deaf)

Also, reading the Wiki made me realize he moved to Ireland around the same time I did (though my visa was temporary), and passed away not long after I moved back to Canada. RIP

I suspect I didn’t get all this record has to offer today. Lanegan’s voice is good, the record overall sounds more like southern rock than grunge to me. The jangly riffs and harmonies make the record surprisingly smooth to listen to, but at the same time it doesn’t change much, volume or tempo-wise, between its 10 tracks. The Eastern flair in the first and last tracks made me think of Soundgarden and the Tea Party.

Tasteful use of the mellotron!

HL: “Halo of Ashes”, “Make My Mind”, “Sworn and Broken”, “Dime Western”

3.5, maybe more tomorrow

October 27, 2024

October 26, 2024

HL: “Roller Coaster”, “Reverberation”

Maybe too harsh given I liked this album, but the album artwork is the most interesting thing about it

Possible reasons why I put off this album:
-didn't feel like it
-don't like Sheryl Crow
-too busy

Actual reason why I put off this album:
- It wasn't Tuesday night

I must have heard "Leaving Las Vegas" at a young age, since hearing it scratches an odd itch. I know that "All I Wanna Do" and her later single "Soak Up the Sun" were on aggressive rotation at my local radio station.

Still, a delightful, easygoing folky album that balances with the darker, heavier records I've been listening to (it's almost Halloween, c'mon)

the night of Tuesday, October 29

Later on October 25

Anyone remember Omegle? I had a music-related conversation with an anonymous Finnish person on there years ago, who said this album was a comfort listen in the face of recent tragedy. Whoever that was, hope they’re doing alright.

Having heard this album before all the rest (aka Seventeen Seconds, Faith, Pornography), I have my doubts that it’s the best introduction to the Cure; The way the tracks sprawl and crawl may turn off people who have only heard “Just Like Heaven” and “Friday I’m In Love”.

But I’d have to go with the general consensus that this is their masterpiece 🖼️

“Plainsong” is up there with the all-time great openers.
I adore “Lovesong” now but it took me some time; when I first heard it I thought it was too dirge-like.
“Lullaby”* and “The Same Deep Water As You” felt like 1st listens (it has been a while since I heard Disintegration whole). The former brings out the playfulness and sense of the macabre that could pin down the genre of gothic rock. The latter’s heavy atmosphere and emotion fits the album no less than the former.

*Robert Smith and I differ on Spider-Man’s character. I happen to think he’s an outstanding lad who saves people

October 23, 2024

HL: "Overcome", "Black Steel", "Suffocated Love", "Feed Me"

Take #2 of listening to this, as yesterday my coffee wore off & I started to doze off towards the end of "Aftermath". I generally don't fall asleep to music, so I wouldn't take that as a sign I was bored- I certainly am not today. Perhaps the delirious, slow-moving nature of Maxinquaye is best suited to just before bed, as Apple Music suggests. (It's between one and 2pm now tho :0)
The quietness of the vocals, often overpowered by the eclectic samples, forces me to be engaged with it more than some of the other downtempo albums I've experienced through this list.
"Karmacoma", one of my highlights from Protection (1994), gets a fresh coat of paint right at the beginning with vocalist Topley-Bird, and I honestly prefer it here.

I will listen when I'm good and ready; I understand it's not as leftfield as A Wizard, A True Star but as it's like the 5th double album in the last lil while, my attention span is not at my (already low) standard. I HAVE made time for several smaller albums this week from my personal list (Tom Petty, Kris Kristofferson, B.T.O., so I haven't quite left the 70's singer-songwriter sphere).

October 25, 2024

Side 1: wonderful set of songs, and "I Saw the Light" is a great example of the rest of the album's pop rock
HLs: tracks 1, 3 and 4
Side 2: less consistent batch, but still very likable
HLs: tracks 9, 10, 11
Sides 3 and 4: S/A joins the ranks of All Things Must Pass and Double Nickels on the Dime for saving all the worst for the final quarter. Ya think I wouldn't notice a song called "Piss Aaron"? Shame on you, Todd
HLs: tracks 2, 3, 4, 7

Bloat aside, I am super impressed how the one-man show of Todd Rundgren sounds like an actual band (well 3/4s of it, as he has other people for the last stretch). Even during the asides before the song starts, he has chemistry with himself ("alright alright, 1-2-3-4...")

And really, when the biggest fault of a good album is that it's too long, there really could be worse problems to have

October 24, 2024

HL: “Wanted Man”, “San Quentin” (take your pick), “A Boy Named Sue”, “Darlin’ Companion”

I’m not here to argue that Cash deserved 2 live prison albums on this list but

oo I wonder if Don McLean has an album of spooky tunes like "Babylon"

One of those albums that has a ubiquitous titan that kind of takes all the buzz (see also: the album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, which I heard for the 1st time last month)- to be honest, the other 8 songs have to also compete with the stunning "Vincent".
"Everybody Loves Me Baby" is perhaps the only other uplifting moment apart from the title track, which I'm grateful is part of the album even though McLean's voice fits the slow songs the best

HL: title track, "Till Tomorrow", "Vincent", "The Grave", "Empty Chairs"

October 19, 2024