Reviews by gregorsmith

Cut from the same cloth as Badly Drawn Boy, Snow Patrol and that ilk, this album was pretty damn decent for 2002, it had great singles off it like "There Goes the Fear", "Pounding", and "Caught by the River" and even "Words" got some traction for use in advertising... Looking back I loved this, it wasn't just another sad Britpop album, as NME called it back then, it was "the most uplifting miserable album you'll hear all year." And that's the core of some mad therapeutic breakthrough since my own very sad, mopey early 20s...

This album gave quasi-emo 20-something me permission to wallow, but in a grand, cinematic way. The lyrics of "Words" ("Words, they mean nothing / So you can't hurt me") were a defensive shield, a rationalisation for emotional unavailability. The soaring chorus of "N.Y." was pure escape fantasy, the sound of running away from my problems and calling it an adventure (which I did by leaving the UK for America in 2004). Every epic, drawn-out coda, like the one on "There Goes the Fear", was a substitute for a genuine release of emotion; I'd just turn the volume up and let the drumming drown out the existential dread...

Listening back now in my late-40s, I don't hear misery; I hear that crazed hope I had while working overtime in a basement, struggling with friends to get our company off the ground. This album wasn't about the darkness, it was about desperately searching for the light switch. The optimism that the band was striving for shines through, not as naive cheer, but as a hard won perspective. When Jimi Goodwin sings on "The Sulphur Man", there’s a desperate plea for connection that I completely missed the first time, only hearing the 'soul in tatters' part. The real genius is the way the music, all those lush strings, the layered guitars, the electronic flourishes, acts like the supportive, non-judgmental container you create after years of therapy. It holds the darkness without letting it swallow you whole.

The tracks that hit hardest today are the ones about forward motion. "Pounding" isn't just a frenetic banger, it's a defiant instruction to seize the moment, that ultimate antidote to the paralysis of my youth. And the closer, "Caught by the River", with its question, "Would you give it all away..." is no longer a lament of surrender, but a mature contemplation of what you truly value. It’s the sound of accepting that life is a flowing river, not a stagnant pond of regret.

In the end, The Last Broadcast didn't just soundtrack my youthful despair; it unknowingly provided the architecture for the resilience that followed. It's a reminder that even when you feel like you're broadcasting your final message from the abyss, there is always, always, a second, more beautiful signal waiting to be found.

Nonstop banging rave music, best dealt with a dust mask full of Vicks Vaporub and let the beats take you away, because you're never going home again... at least the person you were before isn't

Sounding akin to a misfiring 1986 1.4L Ford Fiesta, this thing tries in vain to propel you forward but, bless it heart, it's all noise and no power

Honestly, it sounds like a more monotone version of Interpol's stuff from 5 years before. This doesn't shatter my earth but it's a solidly ok album... Very whelming.

A mishmash of ideas, a few standout tracks like "Mother & Child Reunion" and "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard" lift this up from an average album, but overall its an easy way to pass 40 odd minutes

I can believe two things at once... Such as "Morrissey is a twat" and "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" is an all timer... but Morrissey is still a twat...

Come for "La Freak" but stay for the finest funky disco Nile Rodgers could dream up. Now, everybody struuuuuut....

I'm digging the world music selection in this list, and this was pleasant enough, and I'd probably have enjoyed it more if I had context around the lyrics.

Live albums are utterly subjective, some bands are better live and each song takes a new turn every performance, some are rigid and their live stuff sounds just like their studio versions.... Deep Purple sit somewhere in between where the songs sound studio quality, but are elongated to an extreme length. Besides we've heard all this stuff on their other two albums included in this list...

Proto-Grunge & Shoegaze here with heavy distortion and loud-quiet-loud noise progression, Imagine listening to this in 1987 and hearing what the future of music would be like while the rest of the soundscape was hair metal and shit.

Songs of Leonard Cohen, is a masterpiece of poetic folk. Focused almost entirely on his intensely personal, literary lyrics, the album established Cohen's signature style: that deep, meditative voice set against sparse, melancholic acoustic arrangements. Some easy classics like "Suzanne" and "So Long, Marianne" really lift this up from its depths.

Much like Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, early Rolling Stones, and future Clapton work, the cloud of "white man popularising the black man's music" hangs heavy here. Classic rock & roll, albeit distilled.

I usually joke on Radiohead reviews that "It feels like another Radiohead album I'm supposed to like... And I mostly do, but sometimes I'd rather listen to The Bends, you know?"

FINALLY MY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED! This is a sweeping epic album, I'd like to say it a revelation amidst the samey Britpop dross that was being shat out by bands not names Oasis or Blur, but no, I was painfully wrong about this when it was released. I wrote it off as depressing music, and don't get me wrong, it bloody well is, but its layered like an onion, and then you peel back the emotions and tears and find something so beautiful and fragile and pure, orgasmic... Was this really that weird band who did "Creep"??

No skips on this album, one of the best guitar albums of the 90’s, they're all great songs in their own right but listening to "Fake Plastic Trees" still gives me chills.

The in sound from way out, the future is the past is the future is the beginning is the end is the beginning, and this was before Jarre was rocking out on a goddamn laser harp...

*pew pew sounds*

How often do you get a walkthrough of the music before you actually hear it? Certainly gives you a deeper appreciation of the melody compositions, but it's still sitar music and sounds like its just made up as he goes, like experimental jazz

New Wave power pop, just incredibly 80s, dripping with shoulder pads, mullets, and killer basslines served with a dab of cocaine. This has 3 monster songs in "Rio", "Hungry Like The Wolf", and "Save A Prayer" which set them up for life...

I remember hearing "Goddess On A Hiway" on Jo Whiley's Channel 4 show and immediately falling in love with it, the rest of the album doesn't quite live up to this nostalgic high, even though its Flaming Lips coded, but it's pretty alright overall.

Different sounds from the previous Fear Of A Black Planet, harsher beats, and a killer crossover track with Anthrax in "Bring The Noize". This felt like the end of a 4 album hot run, as by the time their next album came out the game had changed...

Classic punk, fits a ton of banger songs into 35 minutes, just feels like the late 70s London. Just needed a "fuck Maggie Thatcher" song...

Just feels like a long jam session, as is the Allman Brothers wont I suppose, which can be ok sometimes, but filling a CD with just 7 meandering songs is criminal, that's an average of 10 minutes each. It ebs and flows, but you gotta be in a jammy bluesy frame of mind to appreciate this.