Reviews by gregorsmith

Night Life feels like a kitschy dive-bar soundtrack, complete with a hilariously sleazy cover. Backed by legends like Floyd Cramer and Willie Nelson, Price delivers smooth, mournful country vocals that capture the essence of heartbreak. While the formulaic honky-tonk can get repetitive if you're not in the right mood, the stellar musicianship makes it a genuine, bittersweet classic.

Also your night life is what Ray Price likes to watch, just remember that...

Bjork doing Bjork things, my ex-wife loved The Sugarcubes and Bjork so I'd heard this once or twice before, luckily the intervening 15 years hasn't tainted it in my mind. "Birthday" remains the highlight.

"American Pie" is a phenomenal song, "Vincent" is a great song, "Winterwood" is passable... The rest? We'll, its there.

I didn't like Super Furry Animals back in 1996 and I don't like them in 2025...

The Byrds post David Crosby were already as bland as psychedelic music can be, and Gene was the most bland member of the band.

The audio equivalent of watching beige paint dry

A violent series of short, sharp shocks that adds up to a strangely fun listen.

Corny? Maybe. But LL has always been in the same lane as, say, Will Smith. A fairly radio friendly east coast rapper who can mix corny shit/comedy in with fire (for the time) bars.

Trackwise, the title song still goes hard 35 years later... 'Cos he's fronting in his ride and his word is bond.

I've seen the storyline played out so many times before. Oh, that goes in there, then that goes in there, then that goes in there, then that goes in there... And then it's over.

Oh, what a hell of a show, but what I want to know, what exactly do you do for an encore?' Cause this is hardcore

His voice hadn't turned as gravelly as it would on his later albums, and the music sounds at least partially uplifting which goes again his later work also, but the lyrics are still dark as fuck.

Finally I get to fix the egregious error I made in my last Cocteau Twins album review...

As someone who used to live in Grangemouth, Cocteau Twins are the biggest thing ever to come out of that town apart from refined petrochemicals and the **M9** motorway in either direction....

Said it before, but "psychedelic" [genre] is apparently the way to my heart, and this debut album by the band that pretty much coined the psychedelic rock phrase opens up with a great number in "You're Gonna Miss Me" that hits every note I was looking for.

Absolute tranquility, Joan has that sweet sweet voice that just carries you away. And like most late 50s/early 60s debut albums, its all covers of traditional songs, but she makes each one her own with just her voice and her guitar, the way folk music should be.

Wasn't on Spotify, so had to hunt it down on YouTube (not even YouTube Music), and kinda wish I hadn't, its pretty mid despite its inherent jangly-ness.

Pseudo-deep spiritually intellectual/symbolic lyrics over painfully bland late 90s/end of the millennium beats with a snippet of Oppenheimer (the guy, not the movie) as the chaser. Blah.

Basic blues style guitar pickings and psychedelic organ vibes, is this enough? I mean, it's all perfectly serviceable, but nothing rises above the mid feeling. I feel like its only here because its the spearhead of the San Francisco scene.

Its also another album that takes stereoscopic sound to its extremes, gotta love the 60s for that, but I, for one, am glad it died down...

*Takes a long draw of a Gauloises cigarette*

It is, how you say, a tale as old as time... An older man seducing and deflowering a young teenage girl after running her down in his car.

But this one has at least some badass basslines and funky riffs.

I mean, it was the greatest album in the world for a year and 10 days until The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper. This isn't just peak Brian Wilson, or peak Beach Boys, it was peak pop rock and has only gotten better with age.

Absolute chaotic energy where the sum of its parts shouldn't work, but it all comes together and makes absolute magic, and it's not even a top 3 Beasties album...

Kick it over here baby pop, and let all the fly skimmies feel the beat.... drrrrrrooooopppppp!

I was Skepta-cal but it wasn't actually all that bad. Solid flow, grimey beats, Norf London rudeboy swagger.... until Pharrell Williams turns up?!?!

Gets introduced as "The King of the Blues" and for 35 incredible minutes, he's holding court