Reviews by gmuzza

This is just simply one of the great albums of all times and just highlights how underrated Soungarden were as a band.
Let me drown and new wave are in your face rock, but even they cannot prepare you for the brooding beauty that is Fell on black days.
This album manages to encapsulate grunge and the best elements of classic rock without ever sounding like cliched. As great and intense as Chris Cornell’s vocals and lyrics are, they are matched perfectly by the rest of the band.
The video for Black hole sun is so iconic, it is difficult to hear the track without picturing it in my mind. That should not however suggest the song is anything other than great. However BHS is neither my favourite song or video from this album as both of those belong to the Day I tried to live, which is is quite frankly perfect.

Spoonman manages to both be quite close to the original incarnation from the Singles soundtrack and fresh sounding.

Just pleasant smooth jazz/swing

Far too much synth to open an album with a track titled ‘Let it Rock’ for my liking. It does however descend into hair metal by numbers, which feels very dated and almost a parody.
you give love a bad name continues the dated feel, but at least brings the semblance of a good tune and a sing along chorus.
Livin on a prayer is undeniably a eighties classic and maintains the good vibes from the previous track.
Social disease is frankly horrendous. Wanted dead or alive brings some welcome relief before we go back to generic 80s hair rock.
The majority of this album follows a very generic formula, which unfortunately is one i dont like

Not my favourite Megadeth album, but the start of their stronger era. Holy wars is a strong opener and i love the curve ball of slightly spanish guitars that you get to compliment the full on metal guitars .
Is Dave Mustaine a great singer, obviously no, but his growl suits these songs and no where is that more apparent than Hanger 18. As with all Megadeth tracks this is built round long guitar breaks and changes in tempo, but this is what happens when necessity forces a guitarist to become a vocalist. You can feel the competitiveness with his former employers, driving this album along. This therefore feels very much a response to And Justice…. In the same way Countdown brought a more commercial sound in response to Metallica’s self titled (black) album.

In a generally enjoyable album Dawn patrol is a clear mis step which serves only to annoy and break the intensity of the thrash served up elsewhere.

Just painful

For a relatively short album this really drags. All the tracks kind of blur into one and just bored me.
American Girl is alright but wasted burying it at the end of the album when any interest i may of had is long gone.

Other than Once in a Lifetime, this is just unbearable

Now i like some Echo and the Bunnymen ( the obvious ones Killing Moon, nothing lasts forever and their cover of People are strange). Unfortunately nothing here comes close to those and my overriding wish was for this album to end

2tone delight. Some absolute classics here and nothing not to like

Track 1 hits like a crap 80s computer game soundtrack. Hail Bop is a slight improvement, but is so lightweight it just breezes past. Default has some quality moments and at least grabs your attention, but still too much bleeps and sci fi for me.
Firewater is a lit more enjoyable if a little too long.
The rest of the album follows a similar style and is therefore ok if not exciting

Just a terrible dirge of the album without a single positive aspect. Difficult to believe the same band that produced sour times, numb and glory box and even harder to understand how this makes a list of 1001 albums to listen to.

I struggle with this as i can see why some would consider this a great album, but it’s just not for me.
Cry Baby unfortunately just makes me think of the perfume adverts it currently soundtracks.
Half moon shows off Joplin’s vocals but just doesn’t connect. My Baby just sounds like an earlier incarnation of of Cry Baby.
Me and Bobby McGee and Mercedes Benz provide an enjoyable change in style, but there’s not enough to lift this album from just middling.

Pleasant album with River being a clear stand out. An easy listen, but nothing to get too excited about

There’s front loading an slbum and then there’s the Joshua Tree. The first three tracks are unashamedly classics, but it does feel there’s only one way to go from there and whilst the rest of the album is good it was an almost impossible task to live up to that opening.
Bullet the blue sky’s mainly spoken vocal provides an interesting contrast straight of the bat.
For all the attention Bono gets Joshua really showcases the rest of the band, whether this is Edge’s chiming guitar sound that was made for large scale gigs or the driving rhythm section of Mullen and Clayton.

Overall it’s a 3.5/5 but as no half marks i guess it’s more a 3 than a 4 (just)

This is very much a sunny day album, so not entirely suited to walking yhe dog on a blustery 27 November morning.
There are lots to like about this album, but i guess singles are singles for a reason and they are definitely the stars. Unfortunately the album doesn’t ever quite live up to its promise and possibly explains why this was pretty much it from Mr Quaye

Just plain enjoyable. Obviously i knew Pump it up, This year’s girl and (i dont want to go to) Chelsea, but this album offers far more depth with every track of a good quality in its own right.
I’d always considered myself as liking Elvis Costello but this process is making me realise how much.

The album starts well with two Christmas classics (White Christmas and Frosty the snowman), which suit the production style perfectly, but as soon as we go a bit deeper with the Bells of st mary and parade of the wooden soldiers, the enjoyment level drops significantly.

Aside from these couple of dips the album is generally a feel good Christmas day listen with versions of things like Marshmallow World and Christmas (Baby please come home)which have become the definitive versions.

The first two tracks are exceptional, but a lot of this album is just ok ambient sounding tracks.
I really didn’t enjoy tracks like spying glass and sly

I didn’t expect to enjoy this so i was quite surprised i found the first half of the album ok. It’s fairly light enjoyable industrial rock.

That said the length of the album and similar music throughout meant my enjoyment waned quite quickly and from there it was a bit of a slog.
Would’ve been a far better album if trimmed to half the length

Ok this has some very challenging (to say the least) lyrical content and the skits are generally needless but this remains a great album.
The production is on point and this represents Eminem at his best, before his focus became faster and faster delivery

I know Eminem brings a lot of baggage but there is no denying the impact of songs like The way I am and The real slim shady.
Album tracks like Kill you and who knew could easily have been singles with the only mis step being remember me, but that may be due to a lack of Eminem.

Stan obviously sits on a different level and demonstrates the impact of story telling through rap to wonderful effect.

Overall i think i’ve move down from a 5/5 to more 4.5/5 as my ability to look past some (a lot) of the lyrical content has changed with age and at times it feels like it could’ve been tighter (lose the skits and a couple of tracks)