Reviews by henry-winchester

"Protection," "Karmacoma," and "Euro Child" are incredible, building up layers and constantly adding motifs. You can just feel how they pushed electronica forwards by slowing it down and saying, "hey, this can be intelligent and tender and meaningful." It's just a shame that the rest of this album sounds like keyboard demo modes, and the awful "Light My Fire" cover is so unnecessary and incongruent.

Laid back but also just kind of a bit melancholic and soporific. It feels like they ran out of ideas and just started making random noises.

If I could play guitar well and be in a band this is what I'd play.

I'd never heard of them until now, but having listened to the album everything suddenly makes sense. A definite missing link in psych-rock, and they seem pretty influential too.

Enjoyable and powerful, but lacking tunes. It feels like she's one song away from become a global superstar.

Unexpectedly brilliant.

Duran Duran on downers. Melancholic and angular.

So it turns out that "Connected" and "Step it up" are two different songs.

My second Cohen this week! This one is a bit more varied than "Songs of," but it does get a little bit corny in the more Western-influenced tracks.

A lot better than Moss Side Story, Adamson's slightly too on-the-nose concept album. A little bit MIDI and dated in places, but this has a seedy, smokey atmosphere that perfectly suited Lynch's movies of the era. The Big Bamboozle is such a torpedo; comes out of nowhere and hits you with its John Barry swagger.

This was the soundtrack to my summer in about 2001. 22 years later (!) and it takes me straight back to being high in some field somewhere. I know Spiritualized found success in love songs, but it's the longer sonic voyages that really stand out here. Just absolutely unlike anything that was around at the time (shoegaze? stoner rock? ambient?) and unlike anything since.

Sway slow. Stay low.

Every song just sounds like a variation of "Suzanne."

Five stars.

I'd always written off McCartney's post-Beatles work, but this is more interesting than I thought it might be, adding an experimental, electronic edge.

Enjoyed the ebbs and flows of this one.

Just so energetic and trashy and fun and unable to take itself seriously. It's a totally American take on punk-rock and it's all the better for it.

Sounded a lot like Swans. Surprisingly genuine.

Great artwork! The album is OK, still a bit nascent.

Never really answers the question as to why birds suddenly appear when that person is near. "They long to be close to you," is not really an answer. If birds suddenly appear, the person must be a magic saint or an evil wizard.

I wanted to like this, but it actually reminded me of My Bloody Valentine in that every track is soo epic and overproduced that it becomes kind of numbing and loses its impact. I listened to all one hour and 33 minutes of this though, so that's a thing.

I feel like so many of these 80s bands just flew under my radar. Probably because I was like four years old when this came out. But I think even my four-year-old self would have liked this. It's whimsical and light without ever becoming cloying, with some great tunes and lovely noodley little guitar bits. Just a perfectly formed album.