Reviews by gregorsmith

Early proto-Britpop (predates Oasis debut by a year) but let's make it queer coded and goth-y sexy, basically pop an Amyl Nitrate and let yourself relax in to the couch...

Mark E. Smith doing Mark E. Smith things.

Overly pretentious, maybe, but "Keep The Car Running" in a jam...

Medulla... Oblongata? Bjork always had weird albums, but this may be the weirdest. It's almost borderline inaccessible.

Classic lady doing classic shit. 1968 was a fire year for Aretha between this release and the later Aretha Now and the fabulous Aretha in Paris live album. Easiest 5 stars yet..

I'll paraphrase my review of The Slim Shady LP from a month or so ago:

I loved this in 2000 when I was 21/22, I'm horrified by this in 2024 when I'm 45. I can appreciate the craft and all that, but this was a 3 to 4 star album at best back then, it's still that 25 years later even if most of it hasn't aged well at all.

Gone are the real childish antics and guests like Royce da 5'9" and MC Get-Bizzy and replaced with a far more polished production but somehow angrier about everything and now has guests guests like Snoop Dogg. It's crazy to look back and remember how generation defining this album was to the angry white boy demographic, add in Limp Bizkit and 1999/2000 really set us up for the 25 years of simmering hatred and insanity we've had since...

Very mid-80s sound, bass is non-existant and everything sounds reverb-y. Now Suzanne Vega, I mean I like her next album that had Luka & Tom's Diner, but this one sounds like another artist I'm struggling to remember, maybe all mid-80s albums just sounded the same, you could tell me this was Carly Simon in her Coming Around Again era and I'd probably believe you

One of those Springsteen album you either love or hate, its insanely stripped back as it's literally dems that got released. A departure from the E Street Band sounds of The River, Darkness On The Edge Of Town, and Born To Run that preceded it, and radically different from the Born In The U.S.A. that would follow, its solid Springsteen storytelling, but you need to be ready for the bleakness that come from it.

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, well it certainly feels like it'll last forever. Double albums are usually a big ask, a couple of hours is hard to give to something you weren't planning on listening to and the link through on this went to the 92 song dep deluxe edition that runs for nearly 6 hours.

FUCK. THAT.

I hadn't really heard much outside of the monster singles this thing produced and I was somewhat pleasantly surprised at times, but it was mostly that nostalgic trip back to the mid-90s of my youth, and all I really came away with was that Billy Corgan is a madman when he's inspired, but that mad Billy Corgan could really use an editor.

Joy Division makes me feel old.

I never felt old, like *old* old, until I listened to Joy Division, it was harder music to listen to compared I was listening to before, thematically definitely, it was grown up music... I finally saw what NME, Q, and Melody Maker gushed so profusely about. Finally I was a man.

But then I didn't listen to Joy Division for a long time, and then decades later had a chance to see Peter Hook perform the Joy Division albums and being the kind of person I am, I went to experience it. It was an interminable 3 hours standing in a small club venue, my back and legs were killing me, it was way past my bedtime, and those feelings of not being the young man I used to be soured the whole night.

Joy Division makes me feel old...

Nah, took much work... like trying to solve an escape room before you're allowed to listen to it

Moving away from the high energy disco of their earlier hits, this album is a beautifully immersive experience defined by its melancholy, late night vibe and impeccable production. The pairing of Neil Tennant’s distinctive, vulnerable vocals with lush orchestral arrangements and guest spots like Johnny Marr’s guitar creates a sophisticated, cinematic atmosphere that feels both wistful and timeless.

How did this come out in 1983? It's got 1990s written all over it. Acoustic punk rock is probably the most punk punk could be, and this is a timeless classic. Everyone knows "Blister In The Sun" but there's not a bad song on here, everything has its own groove and hook like "Add It Up", "To The Kill" and "Gone Daddy Gone", and everything sounds like it was recorded in one straight shot as stripped back as everything feels. Real garage music energy.

This ain't no disco, its Sheryl Crow... She's very hit or miss, but when she hits its amazing and there's a few tracks on this album that vibe just right. I'd argue the first 4 tracks are ("Run Baby Run", "Leaving Las Vegas", "Strong Enough" and "Can't Cry Anymore") amongst the strongest start to an album at any time, add in the ubiquitous "All I Wanna Do" and that's pretty much half the album accounted for. So basically the singles bopped, the rest is ok but don't quite rise to the same level.

Solid middle 3 star album, a good way to pass 50 or so minutes.

This felt like it was right in my wheelhouse, 90s alternative with driving guitars and great vocals. Started off slowly but built as it went along, I was almost sad when it finished. Standout songs are "Be-In" "Minnesoter", and "Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth", but don't sleep on the instrumental "The Creep Out".

And I just want a girl as cool as Kim Deal...

Surprisingly generic turn of the millennium beats, is this really something that worth listening to? Something worth recommending that someone listen to? I'm honestly not sure it is...

Van the jazz man, just lay back, smoke a bowl and let it wash over you like fresh irish spring water. Pair this with his preceding album, Astral Weeks, and you might never be able to function in regular society again... Every song hits just right, every note is crafted with laser precision, even it sounds like Van turned up and recorded this with no thought about anything, just improvising like a demon.

Shame he descended into fucking Eric Clapton level madness during COVID, exposing himself to be a raging antivaxer and skirted with a little antisemitism because if you're in for a penny, you may as well be in for a pound. But, that said, people say it’s not the artist, it’s the art and "Into The Mystic" remains an absolutely perfect song...

New Order, but with a lot more "utz-utz-utz-utz", very of it's time as the acid house/alternate dance scene was sweeping the nation... There no "Blue Monday" or "True Faith" level banger here, but it's tight as all hell and, again, very of it's time.

The Nirvana unplugged set, the infamous Nirvana unplugged set, the anti-unplugged while driving MTV producers mad as fuck Nirvana unplugged set, the oh but he's really plugged in and heres some feedback Nirvana unplugged set, the play *anything* but your biggest hits Nirvana unplugged set, the put some shine on the Meat Puppets Nirvana unplugged set, the WTF cover of a fucking Vaselines song and also do a little Bowie and end with a Lead Belly song and there will be no encores Nirvana unplugged set...

Bittersweet, but emphasis on the sweet, because this is Kurt Cobain is, by far, at his sweetest here. Far removed from the frenetic live shows Nirvana would usually perform, there would be no diving into the drum set on this show. Instead it would be the swansong of an icon who would be gone less than 6 months later.

It's a great live album, the best of the released Unplugged albums, and I could listen to this and shiver the whole night through...

That weird transitional period for the Stones, from when they were releasing an album of mostly old blues covers to what would become The Rolling Stones we know and love. And this is made muddier by having two separate UK & US releases (I listened to the UK edition, it's the artwork provided above) where you have two seperate track listings with two good good songs (UK: "Mother's Little Helper" & "Under My Thumb"; US: "Paint It Black" & the aforementioned "Under My Thumb") and a lot of filler... Sometimes overly long filler like "Goin' Home" which is just an 11 minute long jam session.

Brian Jones is a tour de force here, he'd pick up any old thing laying around and make it work, so for that this album represents a more mature Stones sound. But 1966 was a hard year for many bands, we got Revolver by The Beatles and Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys and everything else was fighting for a very, very distant third place.