Reviews by gromit

Had some good stuff and minimal bad stuff but mostly in the middle for me

Good record, super smooth and really enjoyable throughout

Very close to a 5 - great record. Paced well, the sound is fantastic with a very tight unit playing here and some cool stuff like the organ. Smoke on the Water is probably only the fifth or sixth best track which is saying something!

Pretty good but nothing too special. Horrendous album cover

Such a huge step up on the last record we got in the challenge (the Buildings and Food one). The production is so dense and rich, the band is so much funkier and has picked up good influences - love the Fela Kuti-esque rhythms here. David Byrne's vocals, lyrics and delivery mesh so much better into the sound of the band. Definitely a fan of this one

The highs are very high but I wish this was a bit more consistent throughout. As a double album it was a touch excessive and I was thrown hearing this after being used to 80s Nick Cave - the gospel-infused sound, production and songwriting all feels a lot more hopeful/clean but it might take another listen at some point to get me fully onboard.

Really like this, sounds like the blueprint for the next few years of new wave. Love the touches of new agey synths, some tracks almost have a throwback rock & roll or glam feel and others are close to punk rock. Prefer this to some of the other quirky art punk heard so far if only because it feels very competent and you can really hear the punk roots.

Don't know what's special about this at all. Ok to have in the background but gets grating and really nothing interesting going on here

Really liked this, some very high highs and fairly pleasant/consistent throughout. The structure/pacing of it was a bit odd on first listen and I don't feel the need to revisit right now, so going with a strong 3 for now.

It's pleasant but pretty unremarkable

Aw man huge huge step up from the last one - a lot more conscious and emotionally sensitive than we had come to expect from Eminem.

The blatant homophobia and misogyny is rough here - unfortunately part of the 90s rap scene but it is a bit jarring now. Stops this from being as good as it could be.

Key pieces to the puzzle here are Stan and Kim. Where before there is an aloof nature to Eminem's antics now there is genuine emotion and it makes you uncomfortable in a different (better - think a good horror movie) way.

A genius at work - holding court in an audience that both reveres and hates him in equal measure. This is a masterpiece!!

There's some really good technical stuff here but it just isn't very compelling at all

I like this one a bit more than the first Fall record... Understand that is a bit sacrilegious but I think the musicianship is much stronger. Mark E Smith is a fantastic lyricist, don't mind the spoken word stuff but I swear he has started slurring his words here? Practically incoherent but it does work fairly well throughout. I think this is the maximum I can give one of these albums tbh it's just not my favourite style.

Leaning towards a 3 here as even though I love the opening and closing run of tracks I don't think it paces as well as I would hope. It is a very strong 3 as over half of it is excellent and I think it's just a lil less than the sum of its parts

Few good tracks here but not enough for a full record. Rest of it is dreadful filler.

Didn't hate it - a couple good tracks but kinda samey throughout and not all songs hit.

Really exceptional stuff, highest 4 I can give - not fully connected after three listens but I think ideally I would need to read the liner notes and maybe give it another few listens before I'm there at a 5.

The highs are incredible - talking about the starting and ending tracks in particular. The album transitions very well throughout and feels very cohesive. There are 1-2 weaker tracks in the middle of the b-side but never gets unpleasant.

Charming and a lot of fun - can see the raves. Funny that people will listen to this, give it a 5* and then refuse to listen to NWA or something because of the subject matter but that's a problem someone else will have to deal with.