Reviews by henry-winchester

This was fun and the more I read about them, the more it seems like they're the victims of the heavy metal industry acting like complete dicks.

I loved "78 Stone Wobble" when it came out, but jesus christ this has not dated well. They were kind of geeky and I always put them in the same category as Edgar Wright, for some reason, but the way that they seem to be pretending to be from the deep South when they're actually from Leeds or something, and that guy's screetchy voice, it's all just so cringe. They get a star for at least not being a Britpop band of this time.

New Slang was a one-hit wonder and this is the proof.

Had to double check that this wasn't on the original list. It should be! I was always a little hesitant about The Cranberries because I lumped them in with other female-led soft rock bands like Texas, but they're much more grungy and they have more edge. "Linger" really is one of my favourite songs of all time and I've spent most of today learning to play it on guitar (badly!).
Next week: why Texas were one of the most overlooked bands of the 90s.

Now I know how people feel when they listen to my contribution to this list (How To Operate With A Blown Mind by Lo-Fidelity Allstars). This is pretty good, it has genuine urban character and it's great fun. But, as with Lo-Fis, its let down by a flatness in the mix. It feels like dance music underwent a seismic shift in the early-2000s (especially house and techno) into much more sonically dynamic and experimental form.

I like him and I like this.

I'm sure this has been tried before a lot of times (Vanessa Mae, Mylene Klass?), but it never ever works. It just feels like someone playing a classical instrument over the most tedious and uninteresting electronica of the time, and the two end up sucking the life out of one another. This could have worked as a 30-minute album, but at an hour-plus it's completely unendurable.

Equally interesting and weird. Definitely where Daniel Lapotin/Oneohtrixpointnever got a lot of his ideas, I have no idea if I've spelt either of those correctly.

Decline of My Attention Span by British Sea Power

The production on this is amazing, but it does get a bit insipid in places. Love "Rain" though! Good on her for outliving that cheesy dance anthem too.

What's interesting here is how much this sounds like a Japanese videogame soundtrack, even though games were very much in their most primitive form at this stage. There's a cleaness to everything from the melodies to the production that just transferred so well to musical hardware.

What happened to these guys?

Did the job, a little 90s sitcom jazz in places, but overall really enjoyable.

Polished and coherent, but it lacks the weird, punkish attitude her earlier work has and it's just too polished.

This was absolutely delightful. I'm currently working in a shed in the countryside and this suited the mood perfectly.

New Order when they were actually new.

I didn't realise that an album could be intensely irritating in a good way. Reminds me of Mansun and Prefab Sprout, but playful and a bit more 8-bit. Goes all over the place but is somehow gestalt.

I love saying gestalt at the moment. I don't really know what it means.

Hey, look, new music I actually like!

It belongs in the 80s!

Sounded like Swans quite a lot, just not quite as good.