Reviews by ikejiri

Bitte Orca
This really takes me back to circa 2009, a guy I worked with loved this album and was always putting it on in the office. I wasn’t massively into it back then but it’s definitely a bit more interesting than I recall, even if I’m still not totally into it.

It very much feels like late 00s indie, a bit of Vampire Weekend, a bit of Bloc Party, a touch of math rock and experimental guitar-noise squiggles, which is not my favourite type of music, and despite some good stuff it is a bit patchy, not all of it working, Fluorescent Half Dome being the least successful probably.

Cannibal Resource is a good opener though, and Temecula Sunrise takes a western sounding intro and makes it into a pleasantly wonky bit of indie. I really like Stillness is the Move, the female vocals work a bit better than the male vocals, the guitar line is nice, as is the bass and No Intention is good too, a similar type of track with the guitar and bass doing the same sort of thing as Stillness is the Move. And Remade the Horizon is decent, particularly the outro section.

I’ll go 3, I’d listen again, even if it isn't that satisfying overall.
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Playlist submission: Stillness is the Move

Butterfly
Honey is a superb hip hop influenced R’n’B track, the synth bass and piano hook are excellently bolted on to a winning chorus, even if it does tail off in a classic Diva preponderance of vocal run oversaturation. I wasn’t aware Q-Tip was involved.

Butterfly feels like the inspirational song at the end of a hundred Disney movies, and while the lyrics are undoubtedly cliched and trite, and the melody incredibly overwrought, I can’t help being won around,perhaps against my better judgement, by the undeniably earnest and sincere yet powerful vocal performance.

It never really reaches those heights again, while never being bad and her voice, despite the relentless glissandos, is always great, but many of the songs struggle melodically, and are only really kept alive by her voice, with The Beautiful Ones standing out with Dru-Hill (who formed in a fudge factory I believe)

Despite not having so many great songs I quite liked it and found it all quite enjoyable, despite the cliched diva-mannerisms her voice is excellent, her tone really is fantastic, and it was actually very pleasant to work to, so much so I think I might well listen again, which I think nudges it to a low 3.
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Playlist submission: Honey

Goo
This is the only SY album I had heard before doing this, and its my favourite of the ones we have had, perhaps due to a bit of familiarity, perhaps due to Kool Thing being excellent, but perhaps because it is just better than the others, with the artisness, noise rock and drones being better corralled into more succinct and enjoyable songs.

Dirty Boots and Tunic are a great opening pair, Dirty Boots off kilter catchy melody is nice, and I like Kim Deal’s dispassionate vocals on Tunic are excellent. Mary-Christ sounds similar to songs from other SY albums and it’s fine, but I enjoy how it signposts its riff at the end before the excellent Kool Thing, the standout track.

I like My Friend Goo as well, another oddly catchy melody, and another slightly distant Kim Gordon vocal. Disappear is nice, that riff is great and Titanium Expose I like too - a bit of controlled noise-chaos with some excellent riffing.

Despite this being my favourite SY album I don’t think it's quite a 4, more like a 3.8 or 3.9, i.e. a high 3.
And cherish this one, really savour it, there’s only one more Sonic Youth album after this.
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Playlist submission: Kool Thing

Happy Trails
It’s hard to fuck up a song as great as Who Do You Love, and when they are working with the rhythm and melody on the 27 minute version it’s good, with a nice punchiness to it. But when they veer off into extended solo sections its far less interesting and more aimless, becoming the kind of wank fest that’s only really fun if you are in the band, you are off your tits in the audience or if you are a late 60s rock critic jizzing lyrical about it in order to justify that rock journalism is actually like, you know, an art form, man.

Mona is a much better, the bass and drums are nicely locked in to the Bo Diddley rhythm, the tremolo guitar shimmers and the lead guitar tone is great, with some excellently interwoven lines and runs, even if there is still a fair amount of the more standard acid-blues rock fret tossery.

There’s a touch of Black Sabbath before Black Sabbath to Maiden of the Cancer Moon in some passages, hinting at a kind of ominousness, but as a whole thing it doesn’t seem to go anywhere, feeling very much like the jam that it is. Calvary also has a little Black Sabbath and a little Led Zeppelin over the first few minutes, again prior to either band having released any music, before it moves into a kind of combination of Moricione/Spaghetti Western and blues rock, which I really liked, giving it a cinematic kind of atmosphere. And Happy Trails feels quite throwaway, which I guess was intentional, but it doesn’t really add much.

I wasn’t particularly enamoured on first listen, and I’m not really into the Who Do You Love suite, and there is a fair amount of acid rock self indulgence throughout, but I really like the version of Mona and found myself being won over by Calvary, the Morricone, film sound track feel being very effective if it does lean a little towards pomposity at times. That’s enough to give it a 3, I liked it more than some of the other late 60s blues rock albums, and I’d certainly come back and give side 2 another listen.
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Playlist submission: Mona

The United States of America
On the one hand I like the experimentalism of this and its early forays into electronic sounds, on the other hand it didn’t particularly grab me as a whole musical experience, which is often the case with psychedelia of this vintage - the whimsicality doesn't always age well, despite how progressive and exciting it must have been and how influential it might have been subsequently.

The opening track is the exactly the kind of track I don’t enjoy, psychedelia plus circus music is not my favourite combo, and a fair few tracks do pass by in a bit of a nondescript blur. But Hard Coming Love is good for the most part, a nice bass sound and groove and I like her vocals. Cloud Song has a decent dreamlike atmosphere. I’m aware of I Wouldn't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar from a psychedelia compilation I nicked off my parents, but it’s not necessarily my favourite of the genre. Coming Down is probably my favourite track, some great bass and a nice contrast between the music and her vocals, and in parts it sounds a bit like those early 2000s Nouvelle Vague albums. The closing suite is another of those types of songs I’m not keen on, especially as I don’t like the male vocals as much as the female vocals, and there is a bit too much circus clown stuff happening.

A bit of a mixed bag, and even if I didn’t enjoy it all, it is at least an interesting album with a few nice highlights and a degree of charm to it, and it probably sits a little above some other albums in this field. I’d probably give it another listen in the right mood, so I think it sneaks a 3.
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Playlist submission: Coming Down

In Utero
There are a couple of songs on here, Scentless Apprentice, Very Ape, Milk It, Tourette’s that feel a touch too much like some of the worst aspects of early 90s Grunge, US alt rock, and if they were by Alice in Chains or some other uninspiring band I probably wouldn’t be as open towards them as I am.

Whether it’s due to knowing they’re Nirvana songs or because Kurt is such a mesmeric writer and singer and the band are so great they don’t detract from the enjoyment of the album, they are good songs and in fact they actually kind of support the truly superb songs on the rest of the album, highlighting their desire to pull back from the polished sound of Nevermind, and in retrospect, indicating Kurt’s worsening state of mind at the time.

Serve the Servants has a brilliant abrasive Glam metal guitar sound, kind of wiry and chunky simultaneously. Heart Shaped Box and Rape Me are obviously superb, perhaps the closest to the style of Nevermind, but with an additional heavy, caustic sharpness. The Cello on Dumb and All Apologies is really interesting, perhaps a nod to The Beatles, but it really provides a different shade of weight to the album that more cranked up guitars, drums and bass wouldn't be able to. Along with the superb Pennyroyal Tea these are probably my favourites from the Unplugged album, showing what excellent songs they are.

I suppose it's hard to divorce this from what happened to Kurt 6 or 7 months after it was released, and there’s plenty of darkness and difficulty to it without that knowledge, but it’s the balance of heavy and lightness, with their brilliance as a band and Kurt as songwriter that makes this a super album, and in Heart Shaped Box, Rape Me, Dumb and All Apologies it has some of the best songs they ever recorded.

Straightforward 5.
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Playlist submission: All Apologies

The Poet
His voice is superb, the production is very 80s, which I think would be ok if there were perhaps a few more, better songs that were worthy of his vocals and charisma, but as it is, that sound just ends up being a bit too distracting, the bass on Lay Your Love on Me, the synth wobbling away on Secrets, the bass again on Where Do We Go From Here. So Many Sides of You was surely inspired by Master Blaster (Jammin’), but it’s nowhere as good and ends up feeling rather cheesy. And even when the song is arguably the best on the album, e.g. Just My Imagination, a great, melancholic song, with nice country slide, the bass feels a bit much and slightly detracts from the overall.

The most overtly 80s funk track, Stand, conversely works really well though, as it feels like a song written for that sound rather than one embellished by the production. And although I’m not as keen on the melody of Games, its relatively pared back instrumentation sounds nice in comparison, as it does on the slightly stronger ballad, If You Think You’re Lonely Now.

Tricky one to rate, perhaps harshly I think it falls to a high 2, there just aren’t quite enough good songs to push past the production, despite his excellent voice, and, sadly, I don’t think I will come back to it.
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Playlist submission: Just My Imagination

Idlewild
Jesus, I thought EBTG were a kind of coolly detached dance inflected pop band with a great singer. And while Tracy Thorn’s voice is excellent on this, musically this is the worst type of insipid, soporific, bland, self satisfied, soulless, hotel lobby, hold music to the point of feeling like an utterly pointless album.

Not fun at all.
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Playlist submission: These Early Days

Chemtrails Over the Country Club
I don’t really know much about Lana Del Rey, only the name and the odd song on the telly and radio, but I really enjoyed this, bits of Kate Bush, Fiona Apple and Tori Amos but with a more conventional pop style with some lovely country accents, and nice polished, atmospheric sheen.

The first 5 or so songs in particular are great, White Dress builds to a lovely chorus, the title track, like many of the songs, has a nice, sombre and subdued atmosphere. Tulsa Jesus Freak is very good in a breathy, percussive way with another nice build. Let Me Love You Like a Woman is my stand out, one of those great songs that sounds like it’s always existed. Dark But Just a Game is a lovely bit of pop music with a nicely minor key shimmer to it.

I like Yosemite and Dark Till We Die in the back half, the folkiness of the former and jazziness of the latter are a nice break from the prevailing sound of the album. And the cover of For Free is very good, another downcast and subdued atmosphere.

It doesn’t always to vary much from the piano with country-ish guitar licks template, but it works well, it doesn’t seem to get out of 2nd gear, but it never feels like it needs to, there are enough little pop hooks and moments that stop it feeling dirge-like and it’s a very enjoyable album.

Despite a bit of a tail off after the first half, there’s more than enough good stuff on it to tip it to a 4
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Playlist submission: Let Me Love You Like a Woman

Da Capo
This was a bit of a struggle, the whimsical psychedelia not really piquing my interest, all just feeling a bit trite.

Forever Changes I liked, and gave it a 4, but nothing on here is as good as anything on that, the only thing I really liked was the long but enjoyable Revelation, which had a nice groove and some decent guitar lines and runs.

It also doesn’t sound quite as good as I remember FC sounding, the drums feel a little insubstantial in the left channel and some of the mixing seems a bit scattergun, although there is a nice, round bass tone.

I will revisit Forever Changes, but I don’t think I’ll come back to this, the winsomeness just overpowers it for me
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Playlist submission: Revelation

Nowhere
I really like Seagull and Vapour Trail, nice drums, bass and psychedelic guitar haze but the whole album dragged a bit thereafter, it all being a bit one note. And while that My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Stone Roses note is fine, it doesn’t really feel like there is enough there to sustain interest over the whole album. It doesn’t have the immersive wooziness of MBV at their best, or the rhythmic interest of SY, or the pop nous of the Stone Roses (and while he’s not that much worse a singer than Ian Brown, the vocals have very little character to them), so it just kind of flattens out into one monotone 8 tracks, with only Seagull and Vapour Trail really emerging from the soup

I can’t really see myself revisiting this. There’s a couple of good songs, but it's just not that interesting overall for me.
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Playlist submission: Vapour Trail

OG Original Gangster
I’m totally and completely on his dick

This is fucking long, but I actually really liked it, much more than I was expecting. The obvious comparison is Ice Cube, both for solid state of water monikers and for LA gangsta rap reasons, but despite similar themes violence, sex and posturing Ice T presents a (slightly) more nuanced and complex picture, adding a degree of humour and self awareness as well as intelligent lyrics and incisiveness around class, institutions and the complications and contradictions of the world he’s in.
And for the time there are some (relatively) progressive comments on sexuality and misogyny.

Musically it kind of reflects the sprawling and scattergun themes of the album, never quite settling down into a coherent feel, which works both for and against it. You get a sense of claustrophobia and uncertainty and unease, but it never quite nails a sound, which I presume also reflects the time it was made, somewhere between the East Coast and Public Enemy kitchen sink sound and just before The Chronic and the full West Coast G-Funk sound. And of course there’s the ‘hardcore’ Body Count stuff, which sounds relatively anodyne 30+ years later.

I’d also never really realised what a skilled MC he is, I’d always thought he traded on the notoriety and the controversy around Cop Killer, and wasn’t a particularly strong rapper, but he has a great California drawl combined with a nice, controlled intensity.

There’s obviously a lot here, but there are some great tracks, Mic Contact has an infectious hook and some Flavor Flav samples, Mind over Matter’s slower tempo rapping is interesting, New Jack Hustler’s piano and organ samples add a nice bit of jazziness, as there is on Bitches 2, a great bit of storytelling (and a nice acknowledgement that he’s not talking about women). Fly By sounds quite like Eric B or EPMD, a great bass sample. Midnight is good, another departure from some of the standard samples into something a bit more like a low budget horror film (with the standard When the Levee Breaks sample). I like the shout outs on MVPs, and I love the way he says ‘players’. The Tower has some Eminem-like storytelling to it, I like the brooding atmosphere.

I think it just tips into a 4, the length is against it, but it really is a very good early 90s gangster rap album, with some great songs and rapping, all with a bit more depth, smartness and tone to it than I expected.
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Playlist submission: Fly By

Shaka Zulu
I listened to this A LOT last week. I had an unusually busy week at work and it was a perfect soundtrack, I was happy to let it go round and round with its lovely sense of warm, floating ambience, but it also rewarded the times I could listen more closely.

Obviously for the most part I don’t know what they are singing about, but I prefer not knowing, I just loved letting its peaceful serenity and moments of apparent melancholy slide gracefully by.

Maybe there’s an element of Heinz and Paul Simon based nostalgia, but without this list I likely wouldn’t have listened to this, and I would really have missed out.

Peaceful, joyful, otherworldly, soothing, I loved this and its an easy 5.
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Playlist submission: Golgotha

James Brown Live at the Apollo
It’s great of course, but I’m not sure how much I’m into it. The band, the backing singers, his voice, they’re all great, and the energy and charisma is obvious, and I know it’s held in high esteem for all those reasons, but it feels slightly unsatisfying. Maybe because it's a live album or maybe because my expectations were too high, or perhaps it just can’t live up to the late 60s James Brown concert of my imagination.

A solid 3 feels about right, I appreciate all the good things about it, particularly the backing vocals on something like I Don’t Mind, but overall I just don’t love it.
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Playlist submission: I Don’t Mind

Vauxhall & I
I’ve not listened to lots of solo Morrissey stuff, although I did quite like the one with him with a machine gun on the cover with Irish Blood, English Heart on it.

However, aside from his more recent political views, the thing I always struggled with his solo stuff is the actual music itself, and I feel similarly with this. His voice sounds excellent, and he deals out some excellent lines among the self pity and navel gazing, but I find the dynamic between him and the music so uninspiring that it all feels pointless.

I may be completely wrong about his process, and as as far as I’m aware he doesn’t have much musical aptitude, but I always get a huge disconnect between him and his words and what his band and collaborators do, it feels like he just does his bits and then they make some songs and never the twain shall meet etc. With The Smiths there was a sense of collaboration and tension between Marr and Morrissey, that they were equals, creating the songs and the band together, whereas this feels like session musicians filling in the blanks. Not that there is anything wrong with that way of doing things, he’s obviously worked with Alain Whyte and Boz Borer for a long time, and there are plenty of musicians I like who work in that way too, but, despite their skill, the music on here just feels really like really generic mid 90s mid tempo ‘rock’, there’s just no excitement or sense of cohesion between him and the band. Like I say, I may be completely wrong and it is in reality an intensely collaborative experience, but I really struggle to shake that feeling of hollowness to it all.

So, while this is of course fine, I do find it very hard to engage with, it all feels kind of aimless and empty, even if it’s very nicely played.

2 might be a bit harsh, but I don’t think I’ll actually come back to this.
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Playlist submission: Spring Heeled Jim

Jazz Samba
This is a very enjoyable little album of US jazzman produced Bossa Nova, with a lovely light touch. It's not too frenetic, taking the shuffles and rhythms of samba but pairing them with a cooler jazz sensibility, it's not overplayed and the whole thing is nicely balanced.

It’s breezy, but not insubstantial, with some lovely performances, passages and moments, the bass on Deasfindo into and the outro to Baia is great, and Donald Byrd’s guitar is consistently great throughout, particularly on Samba de Uma Nota So, E Luxo So and Bahia.

It also manages to avoid too many hotel lobby vibes, or any zany, madcap, screwball comedy movie vibes, balancing deftness with sincerity really well.

I’ve liked some of the samba and bossa nova so far, and have not been as keen on others, but this is my favourite so far, and I think it shuffles nicely into a 4.
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Playlist submission: Samba de Uma Nota Só

Screamadelica
I listen to this every few years or so, and every time I wonder if it will be as good as I remember, and then, even with all the familiarity and attached nostalgia, it is always as good as I remember, just a fantastic record.

There are perhaps a few wonky moments, and occasions where the production/sound feels a little dated. But those are minor quibbles, it’s a great listen, moving from different styles and moods from song to song, but retaining a superb, blissed out, hazy, psychedelic, rock-dance atmosphere across the whole thing.

I did not realise until today that Jimmy Miller produced Movin’ on Up, although it makes total sense with its Exile era Stonseyness. Although I still like Rocks and Jailbird this is probably their most convincing Stones style track. And I did not realise until today that Slip Inside this House was a cover, it feels totally at home as a dancey, shamanistic track amongst the rest of the album. Must read CD booklets more closely.

Aside from the electronic, rock and dub as the obvious influences, there is definitely some Eno and Bowie too - Inner Flight feels very Low to me. And I’ve just read that it samples Eno! What a day of discovery for me!

Come Together and Loaded are still superb of course, timeless but also quite early 90s in a good way, with some nice sixties touches to the house/dance, that slide on Loaded is Great. Again as I learnt today Damaged was produced by Jimmy Miller, and it has more of that nice stoned-Stonsey vibe, the organ in particular is very Let it Bleed/Exile. I love the saxophone and synth keyboard outro on I’m Coming Down. The dub version of Higher than the Sun is very Vanishing Point and Xtrmntr, and I love it, a great, woozy, discombobulating feel to it.

I’d never connected the two, but it does share some commonality with the Soul II Soul album the other day, although this takes the house-soul elements in a more druggy, psychedelic, ravey direction. I’m glad Screamadelica doesn’t have rapping on it.

Of course it’s a 5, a brilliant, influential and seminal album.
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Playlist submission: Loaded

Buffalo Springfield Again
Mr Soul, Expecting to Fly, Bluebird and Broken Arrow are obviously superb, and it’s no surprise that 3 of those are Neil’s 3 contributions to the album. Although Mr Soul is very Satisfaction-derivative it has some great guitars and nice muscularity that is absent elsewhere on here. Expecting to Fly and Broken Arrow I’ve really come to appreciate more over time. Expecting to Fly’s vaguely sinister dreaminess really is fantastic, it kind of feels quite White Album before the White Album in that respect and there is some nice George Martin-ness to the strings. Although the transitions on Broken Arrow are on the surface a bit heavy handed, they don’t detract from it all, in fact they add to the overall psychedelic post-Sgt Pepper/A Day in the Life feel.

Outside that, while never less than pleasant, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, many of the tracks feeling a bit like demos or not fully formed. A Child’s Claim to Fame sub-Byrds country folk is unfortunately a bit grating and Everydays, while decent enough, is one of Stills’ more throwaway songs, especially compared to the great hypno-country-rock of Bluebird.

Hung Upside Down is good, enlivened by some distinctive Neil guitar playing. I don’t think I’m a fan of Richie Furray’s songwriting, although Sad Memory is a nice understated bit of country-melancholy, the pseudo sub-Otis Redding of Good Time Boy I’m not convinced by, and the sax solo is not good. Luckily Rock & Roll Woman comes along, the little acoustic riff I really like, and there are some nice harmonies.

You do get a sense of the intraband tensions (again like the White Album) in the distinct feel of each songwriter’s songs, Neil’s in particular feel like solo tracks and very different in tone from what the others were doing, Expecting to Fly and Broken Arrow feel like they are chafing at the constraints of the band, while Still’s songs, the, superb Bluebird aside, don’t quite feel fully realised, perhaps missing a bit of expected input from Neil.

It’s a tricky one to rate, the four standout tracks would grace any album, but as a whole listening experience I don’t find it holds together that well, so perhaps harshly, and despite the quality of some of it, I’ll give it a high 3.
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Playlist submission: Broken Arrow

Boy in Da Corner
Sweet like Tropicana, Mash your head up like banana

I listened to this a lot when it came out, but listening now, aside from Fix Up Look Sharp and some pleasingly dancey hooks and beats, the main thing that stood out to me is its length, or more specifically how long it feels, as the 57 minutes really do not fly by. Which is a shame, as for an album that was so undeniably fresh and exciting in 2003, it really does Bow under the weight of its running time - it would likely be a much better, tighter and punchier record if it were closer to 40 minutes.

Still, it’s a good album, he has a great, distinctive and unique voice and vocal style, and a very expressive turn of phrase. He also has a great ear for a wonky hook and catchy sample.

Sittin’ Here’s icy synth line is great, I like the child-like chorus plus fraught rhythms and bass on I Luv U. 2 Far has some excellent lines about the Queen and the Billy Squier drums and vocal samples on the standout Fix Up, Look Sharp are excellent. Cut Em Off and Hold Ya Mouf both have nicely foreboding industrial-minimal rhythms. Jus a Rascal has a nice cheeky catchiness. I like Jezebel’s garagey feel, although the lyrics might be seen as questionable.

I do like this, but probably not as much as I did 20 years ago, and the length is definitely an issue, especially when there is a frantic, chaotic element to many of the tracks it feels a bit much. Trim it down and I think it would be a solid 4, but I think that does drag it down to a high 3.
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Playlist submission: Fix Up Look Sharp

Ramones
I don’t think I’ve actually listened to this in its entirety before, which is odd as I think the Ramones are fantastic, and I loved the double CD Anthology/Best of I had (although it had nearly half the songs from this album on it)

I don’t think I’ve noticed the amount of Beach Boys-esque harmonies on many of their tracks, like on Blitzkrieg Bop, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend and Chain Saw, but it's clearly a huge part of their minimalist rock’n’roll, garagey, pop, pre-punk recipe, something the Velvet Underground did, a band they obviously descended from. And a bit like Black Sabbath with metal they pretty much invented punk and influenced hundreds of bands, and then saw much of the genre disappear down musical cul-de-sacs of noise and thrash, with nothing interesting to say, forgetting the superb pop intelligence that makes these relatively simple, fast, stripped back, three-chord songs sound fresh and thrilling, even 50 years later.

It’s also interesting comparing them to Kiss from yesterday. Both albums released in 1976, both around 30 minutes, both guitar, bass and drums, and both doing variations on a particular song style, but whereas Kiss feels generic and staid, this feels exciting and infectiously great.

I don’t think there is a weak song, and even if there is it’ll be done in 2 minutes anyway, but there are a few obvious standouts; Blitzkrieg Bop, Beat on the Brat, Judy is a Punk, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue, I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement, 53rd & 3rd and their cover of Let’s Dance.

Obviously there are some questionable lyrics, which although tongue in cheek at the time, probably weren’t a million miles away from what Johnny Ramone actually thought, but that tension between the melodies, tempos, guitars, drums and lyrics is definitely part of what makes the whole thing great.

It's a glorious 29 minutes of smart-dumb, joyfully nihilistic bubblegum-garage and an easy 5.
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Playlist submission: Ubiquitous but fantastic, Blitzkrieg Bop