Reviews by henry-winchester

Liked this, despite the immature misogyny in places.

I could definitely get behind this. Folk without whimsy, interesting and intricate.

I initially gave this one star and a pithy review ("clearly not"), but the more I listened the more I loved it. Reminds me of a lot of psych/trance of this time, but it just totally goes on a trip towards the end. The album art is classic too.

This was spangly and interesting and kind of amazing. Not sure how they passed me by at the time, but I have a vague recollection of them. At times it feels like a double-album isn't enough to contain them.

Liked the more prog elements of this. Didn't like the spoken word stuff.

I don't understand how this is so boring and predictable.

Not sure why this wasn't on the original list, it's not amazing and those artificial synth sounds have dated horribly but Hutchence's presence and the innovative pop orchestration elevates it. It feels a lot like what New Order were trying to do in combining rock and electro, but it's more commercial and less clever.

I like what they do, I just don't like how they do it. Very much following Green Day's "American Idiot" template, and in some ways sharper, but I'm not sure it all works all that well and it's cloying and cheesy in places. I guess at least they gave a voice to a lot of disenfranchised kids.

Who gave Bruce Springsteen all the heroin.

I really do think "Drinking in LA" is one of the best pop songs of the late-90s, but I always suspected Bran Van 3000 were one-hit wonders and this dreadful album just confirmed it.

Radiohead for people who found Kid A too weird.

Thought this might be too derivative, and it sounds like it might be to start with, but it actually goes to some interesting places within its very 70s template.

Not hugely amazing.

Reminded me of XTC in that they're very good but somehow not essential.

I'm usually a sucker for this kind of stuff, but this just felt so empty and meaningless and weightless.
Also, I thought user albums had to have a Wikipedia page attached to them? There are so many albums I love and would have submitted without Wikis.

Nice to find gentle, tender Beyoncé among the shouty, angry Beyoncé.

I don’t know what I expected; I was deep into my German techno/Scandi-stoner-rock odyssey when this came out and I’d heard of them but never heard them.
But I quite like it. It’s short (as albums like this should be) and it has that kind of distant, echoey production that makes it feel slightly disconnected and detached, in that bleak and wintry way that all Christmas songs should sound.

I just want to listen to albums that don't give me a migraine on the first track is that so much to ask

Five stars for the mere fact that this is on here. It's still so polished and slick, and the electroclash production and her silky smooth voals shine even when the songwriting doesn't. "Some Girls" is the best song Girls Aloud never recorded.

This was really nice.