Reviews by gregorsmith

Basic beats, low level flows, just not hitting on any level.

She's got soul, she's got class, she's got style, she's badass...

It sounds so obvious now but this is where the gated reverb sound of the 80s Phil Collins (who drummed on this albums first two tracks ("Intruder" and "No Self Control") sans cymbals) and Kate Bush (also appeared on this album, and on "No Self Control" too) sprung from... So you could say it's influential.

Still, Gabriel has always been the experimental type.

Wasn't sure what to expect, but this is straight up jazz, like stereotypical jazz... like born in a laboratory, pure jazz distilled into a palatable mix.

Never rated The Divine Comedy, never my taste, and this just reinforces that belief

Starts with the hard hitting "Immigrant Song" and doesn't really rise back to that level, "Since You've Been Gone" and "Gallows Pole" are signs of life on an otherwise off album for this band.

I've heard of Dwight Yoakam but never really heard anything by Dwight Yoakam... Country music is a hit or miss genre, this feels more like the stereotypical pure twangy country, all songs about a lonely man, who's woman done him wrong and/or up and left him because of all his drinking and partying at the honkytonk. So he sets about drinking and partying his problems away at the aforementioned honkytonk, but on the way his truck breaks down and his dog up and dies so he decides to maybe do a little murderin' on the side...

Therapy wasn't invented yet in 1988 apparently.

You know, sometimes it doesn't get much better than this, after writing a fairly ambivalent review of my previous 2 star album from yesterday, I was greeted with a goddamn delightful Crowded House album... Another band who I had only really heard in Greatest Hits form (the brilliant Recurring Dream album) of which 4 songs came from here, so getting into the Neil & Tim Finn deep cuts is a great way to start a day.

This album is probably OK to use as background music, but nothing really stood out and time passed by very easily. Maybe that's the best use for it, for times when you just don't really care what you listen to, since time passes and you aren't really bothering to listen. That said, I probably won't relisten to it...

Dark and brooding goth vibes but so very accessible, banger songs like "Plainsong", "Pictures Of You", "Lovesong", and "Lullaby"... Probably the peak of The Cure powers as this album cured (pause for irony) Ray's overly sarcastic tone and spontaneously made him speak perfect Flemish. But a chance meeting with Robert Smith lead to another personal disaster...

2025 and I'm still quoting Mary Whitehouse Experience sketches from 33 years ago...

Morrissey is a twat. Now thats out the way, this is a good album musically, Johnny Marr is inspired and the rhythm section of Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce are tight, but Morrissey is still a twat...

2nd of 3 killer album they released in 1969 alone, it has "Green River", "Bad Moon Rising", and "Lodi" and all that and more coming in at under 30 minutes is a feat of unbelievable tightness.

*Gasp* an actually good Byrds album... and its the final one I got, this is all that good mid-to-late 60s shit before it all went off the rails and into cocaine mountain

The Roots go off, tight as all hell while still reeling off multiple 6 to 10 minute long jams, and scoring a monster single in "The Seed (2.0)" along the way. But don't sleep on the rest of the album, you got a hot Talib Kweli collaboration here in "Rolling With Heat", and Black Thought shows off and out on "Thought @ Work", and an interpolation of a Swing Out Sister song on the excellent "Quills", this has everything!

Fairly breezy poppy jazzy stuff, I remember this feeling like a slow burning yet ubiquitous album when it came out, it would eventually sell millions upon millions of copies and win Grammys for Album of the Year and Record of the Year so of course there has to be some weird retroactive backlash... I mean, it's not going to set the world on fire, but for 45 minutes Norah does take you away.

Less traditional folksy-ness and more 12 bar blues, and he's better for it... He's not at the Bringing It All Back Home or Highway 61 Revisited level, but he's coming up strong.

I was ready to dismiss this as "Aqualung" and 10 songs of filler but noooo, this is good shit if you can get past the flute slos

Stupendously bad, so bad you'll be wishing that straight razor on the album cover was in your hands instead

Urgh, a double album by the most annoying member of The Byrds? Oh wait, its by his other band Manassas but he's such a fragile ego it gets billed as him only....

Too long, too rambling, too indulgent, too little drugs (on my side) and, simultaneously, too many drugs (on their side)

Is it late stage Punk or early stage New Wave? Chrissie Hynde isn't here to be pigeonholed by the likes of me... "Brass In Pocket" is the standout/radio friendly bop, but there a lot to love in here if Pop Punk is your shit.