Reviews by gregorsmith

Solid debut, some genuinely good songs like "Everything Is Not Lost" and "Yellow" always makes me smile. Pretty sucky that people have basically review bombed this based on their unbridled hate of the band now

Jeff Beck lifts this up, but it's still fairly generic psychedelic tinged rock pop, 1966 was loaded with this style.

A mixed bag, no one particular style, a mish-mash of everything really. Solsbury Hill remains an all timer though.

Dave Mustaine and the lost art of holding a grudge

Overtures, Undertures, themes and motifs.... Nerdy theatre kids would eat this up. Most gravitate towards "Pinball Wizard" obviously, it's the showstopper, but the ending sequence of "We're Not Going To Take It" with the extended "See Me, Feel Me" & "Listening To You" motifs repeated from "Go To The Mirror!" is just superb.

Doesn't feel as long as it is, and honestly, it's only 74 minutes...

Rock really never sounded so dirty as it did in the mid 70s, and this album is borderline proto-hair metal, so its practically dripping with the sauce...

Psychedelic Appalachia, a little bit country, a little bit bluegrass, a little bit rock and roll, and a good ol' time.

I said for Sheer Heart Attack "I like Queen, but... Confession time.... I've been alive for 46 years nearly, and never actually listened to one of their albums. I grew up on the Greatest Hits albums, and some of those appear here, but the rest are just kinda meh?" and this can be echoed here. Hard to believe this is the same band as 80s Queen.

Finally something different, after 2 weeks of stuff I pretty much already owned, we get into something that I wouldn't normally stumbleupon. This was so relaxing, just a peaceful vibe.

Stuff like this is why I signed up for this

It aint no "Paper Planes", I'll say that much.

A return to the classis Blood Sugar Sex Magik lineup, and the Chili Peppers are locked in a groove alright, but outside of the 4 or 5 singles this thing spawned the rest is kinda middling. RHCP are good as a "greatest hits" band, you loved the radio friendly songs you've heard a lot of, but any deep cuts are just not hitting the same.

The Offspring were always just there, doing their thing, neither too offensive not too bland, just doing their thing. "Come Out And Play" and "Self-Esteem" still bang 30 years later.

And I'm always interested in albums released around specific dates (see Jay-Z's Blueprint entry a few days ago), and this one came out the day they found Kurt Cobain's body, weirdly morbid...

I'll be contrary, Side A sucks, solo Bob Dylan with an acoustic guitar and a harmonica is a blight on humanity. Side B is literally electric in comparison and the (as yet not named) Band are tight and being a judas never sounded so good.

Not my favourite Metallica album (that'd be the Black Album) but it's perfectly ok to me. The last of the classic line-up and has great bangers on it list the title track and "Battery". Absolutely overindulgent though as no song clocks in at under 5 minutes.

There comes a point where eventually you stumble into someone you know, maybe not well nor personally, but you're kind of acquaintances all the same. You know each other on a first name basis but you're not pals who hang around. Well, this is my storey about such a person.

The Time: Spring 2001. The Place: Glasgow...

I was a fairly recent dropout from college, I was unemployed and as part of my burden on society, the jobcentre offered me a place at a little college 3 days a week to learn how to build PCs and assorted IT related menial tasks because I told them I was a web designer (go figure). Now for those 3 days over a few months we had different people come in and show us the ropes, like Pico (real name unknown) taught us how to built networks, how to crimp cables and put the appropriate connector on them and wire it all up properly; Ken taught us how to put things together in a PC chassis while regaling us of far fetched stories of how a crunchy keyboard really meant you had a bajillion spider eggs in your keyboard instead of, say, toast crumbs; and finally Alex, he was a cool younger guy who didn't try to bullshit us, he took everything Pico and Ken taught us and tied it all together, he also had a million music recommendations because he ran open mic night at a music pub in Glasgow.

One of his recommendations was Carboot Soul bu Nightmares On Wax and to this day it remains a favourite of mine for comfy lofi beats, but I digress.

After a few months I got a job not doing PC builds and left the course to become a functional member of society and within a few years I had up and moved to America to follow my dream. So now we're in 2004, and firstly, THIS WAS NOT 20 YEARS AGO, how dare you, and secondly we're invited to go see a fun little show run by local alt radio station 99X at The Masquerade in Atlanta. Killer lineup, literally because it was The Killer co-headlining with one Franz Ferdinand. The Delays, The Whigs and Scissor Sisters were also on the bill so eat that people.

Glorious night, went down in Masquerade lore, floor almost collapsed but you could have put me straight through the floor when Franz Ferdinand came on and the singer introduces himself.

Its fucking Alex Huntley from Anniesland College.

So I give him a knowing nod and he ignored me and that's how we've remained to this day...

I wasn't a fan of U2 in the 80s, my dad was, I became a fan of U2 in the 90s through Achtung Baby and the retina searing intensity of the Zoo TV tour. "Where The Streets Have No Name" is an experience played live with the dark build up and soft red lights all cascading towards the crescendo when the house/stadiums lights are turned up and everyone goes fucking bananas, so that was my vision when I started listening to The Joshua Tree in the 90s.

And the album version of Streets doesn't live up to that memory, core memory, its flatter, the bass is dead in comparison, its just so overproduced. Same goes for the other songs I knew so well like "Bullet The Blue Sky" and "With Or Without You" but instead of being down that these versions just didn't live up to the later interpretation, I realised that age and wisdom had made them that much better.

(Tangentially they d a different composition of "Even Better Than The Real Thing" when they play it live nowadays and its fucking sick and I would have killed a man for spouting such heresy back in the day)

So, myself being advanced in age and wisdom, a relisten to this was like meeting an old friend, things have changed, but its comforting all the same. It has an absolutely killer side A.... "Where the Streets Have No Name", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "With or Without You", "Bullet the Blue Sky", and "Running to Stand Still" is a HALL OF FAME WORTHY run of hot shit after hot shit AND THEN you get "Red Hill Mining Town and "In God's Country"

You people don't deserve to be this close to perfection.

One of the few albums I remember getting released on 9/11, its alongside Ben Folds "Rockin the Suburbs" and They Might Be Giants "Mink Car" with the latter being one of two acts of terror put upon the American public that particular day... This was alright Jay Z, but it would get exponentially better when he would perform the best bits of it on MTV Unplugged...

Risque is a just a solid groove. Nile Rodgers locks into a pocket that defined the future of dance and funk, anchored by sharp drumming. From the legendary "Good Times" to the seamless flow of every other track, the organic precision and swagger make this a timeless, essential listen.

This might have the best opening combo punch of any album, "Running With The Devil" followed by "Eruption" followed by a cover of "You Really Got Me" on a debut album to, what a way to make a mark.

The xx (urgh, lowercase pretentiousness) is a letdown. While the minimalist vibe is ehhh ok-ish, it just feels empty and repetitive. The vocals are detached, making for a dull, lethargic experience that functions better as background noise than a compelling listen.