Reviews by ikejiri

White Light
This is such a lovely listen, a superb late 60s country-folk-rock album dappled with California sunshine and the rippled shadows of a graceful resigned, understated sadness. I’m pretty familiar with it, although I haven’t listened in a while, so it was nice to reacquaint myself, and just let it roll round and round over the last few days, letting its serene and unforced charm work its magic.

It has a lot of John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline vibes, especially on things like The Virgin and White Light (and the Tears of Rage cover of course), which makes sense with all the Dylan/Byrds cross pollination, and how much they influenced each other, but I like how he adds a more plaintive sense of introspection on songs like With Tomorrow, the beautiful Because of You and Where My Love Lies Asleep.

The whole album has a sense of lightness and deftness that can make it feel lightweight, but there isn’t a bad song on here, and it’s such a beautifully well written and constructed album that it can only be a 5.
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Playlist submission: Because of You

Something Else by The Kinks
I should listen to The Kinks more often. I did have a period about 15 years ago when I was really into them, and the run from Face to Face to Muswell Hillbillies, including this one, really is fantastic. I would assume this one is possibly a bit overlooked in comparison to the three truly excellent albums that follow it, and while it’s not perfect, it is a great album, with some pleasing oddities, and a nice mix of sincerity and sardonicism, ahead of some of the bitterness and cynicism that coloured them in the 70s. And any album with Waterloo Sunset can only be good, especially supported by some excellent songs like David Watts, Death of a Clown and Love me ‘till the Sun Shines.

I like the slightly low key and whimsical tone, with obvious baroque, chamber pop and psychedelic influences, but it doesn't go in for big grandstanding musical gestures, or flower power hippie mysticism, and for all the harpsichord driven songs like Two Sisters there are little folky shuffles like No Return, and lyrically it focuses on nostalgia, sentimentality and generally empathetic and bittersweet pen portraits or characters and situations.

For an album recorded after Rubber Soul and Revolver and contemporaneously with Sgt Pepper, the production and mixing is very haphazard, sounding quite amateurish at times, and really lacking a depth and richness. Some songs sound better than others, and generally the vocals, backing vocals and harmonies are all very good, particularly on Tears of a Clown, but the drums and bass and guitars are very up and down, and the mix is a bit all over the place, the handclaps seem excessively loud on Afternoon Tea, and the bass goes from a nice bright tone on some songs, to barely audible on Love Me ‘till the Sun Shines.

It manages to overcome that because the songs are generally great, David Watts (the name of my cousin, co-incidentally), the brilliant oddness of Death of a Clown, Two Sisters and No Return, the musichall singalong of Harry Rag, the horn driven whimsy of Tin Soldier Man, the excellent Situation Vacant, the terrific soul influenced Love Me ‘till the Sun Shines, the woozy, slightly creepy psychedelic-folk of Lazy Old Sun, the classic 60s Kinks pop of the superb Afternoon Tea, the excellent Funny Face and of course the peerless Waterloo Sunset.

Despite that, I’m not quite sure it is at the same level as Village Green, Arthur or Lola. It’s a superb album, but rated against them and perhaps a little harshly it is a very high 4.
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Playlist submission: Love Me ‘till the Sun Shines is one of my favourite Kinks songs, but it has to be Waterloo Sunset really

Your New Favourite Band
Another album with great memories attached, when they seemed to be playing at every festival we went to. I must have seen them about 5 times between 2002 and 2006.

In the main it is very enjoyable garage rock revival music - stripped down to its bare bones, tempo set at 136bpm, guitars cranked up and all delivered with great gusto and conviction. However the song quality is undoubtedly uneven - for the fantastic songs like I Hate To Say I Told You So, Main Offender, Here We Go Again, Hail Hail Spit N’ Drool and The Hives are Law, You are Crime (superb title) there are songs like Untutored Youth, Outsmarted, Mad Man, A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T and Automatic Schmuck which, despite the spirit behind them, feel a bit by the numbers.

It’s interesting to think about in comparison to Permission to Land, both albums very much of their time, and both albums solidly in their specific lanes, but I think the advantage of PTL is that they can at least go from rocker to ballad, whereas The Hives can only really go from fast garage rock to slightly faster garage rock or slightly slower garage rock, and don’t quite have the pop chops of The Darkness.

Anyway I’d come back for a nice hit of thrashy nostalgia, it’s a fun album, but it's definitely of mixed quality, and sticking the best songs from here and from the next two albums would probably be a better listen. I think that makes this a solid 3.
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Playlist submission: Hate to Say I Told You So

Home is Where the Music Is
My liking for Jazz is definitely increasing in inverse proportion to my disinterest in metal, and I thought this was great.

The piano-flugelhorn tandem is fantastic, particularly when it's the electric piano, like on Part of a Whole, Inner Crisis or Maesha, and the drumming is absolutely fantastic, it’s definitely jazzy, but combined with South African rhythms and phrases it gives a brilliant dynamism and variation in tone and feel.

Part of a Whole is excellent, it has a great feel, hitting a lovely low key groove, reminding me a bit of Rikki Don’t Lose That Number by Steely Dan, with some great horn and piano interplay. Minawa is excellent too, a great smoky number with some great drumming and The Big Apple continues the superb run of tracks, as does Unhome, the nagging bass and forlorn piano and horns giving it a great, sad, rainy feel. I’m not familiar with Miriam Makeba's original but will check it out

Maseru goes a little too jazz-frantic, take the bass for a walk about halfway through, and it is probably the only track I wasn’t keen on, especially as Inner Crisis does a similar thing but better and with a great soul influence, quite Curtis Mayfield-esque. Blues for Huey is perhaps a little too drummy, but there are some great tones and sounds to the recording of it. Nomali is another superb track, the bass is fantastic, kind of loping and stuttering, but keeping things anchored while the piano plays around it. Maesha also has a rainy, soulful feel, the electric piano rippling away a little like Ray Manzarak, before it hits a great up tempo groove. Ingoo Pow-Pow is the most overt display of their South African origins and is great, the tom toms punctuated by the solitary snare and the percussive piano is a superb combination, another excellent track.

It was a 4 initially, but it got better and better the more I listened. Apart from Maseru and possibly Blues for Huey, every track is superb, combining piano, rhythms, horns and great production brilliantly, so much so it ends up a 5.
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Playlist submission: Nomali or Part of a Whole, I’ll go with Part of a Whole

Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?
There are occasional moments of musicality that are interesting - the bass intro and the riff at the start of the chorus on the best song, Peace Sells, the slight shifting sections of of Wake Up Dead, the moody first minute of Bad Omen, the cover of I Ain’t Superstitious - but the remainder is the standard metal that I’m not into. Occasionally it feels like they are hitting a nice groove with an element of swing, but they can’t not go into the standard format of double time lumpen banging, palm muted riffs and guitar squiggling.

There’s really only so many ways to say this type of music isn’t for me, the more I’ve heard through the generator the less interested I’ve become in it. I’m sure this is a fun album for metalheads but it’s just not my vibe, the limited structural template, the palm muted riffs, the squiggles, the shouting, the ‘occult’ lyrics just don’t do it for me.

I didn’t dislike it totally, but I’m never going to come back - I’ll go 2 to reflect ambivalence over disfavour, and that Peace Sells, the song, is silly but fun.
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Playlist submission: Peace Sells

Heroes to Zeroes
I’ve never actually listened to this, not sure why I didn’t buy it as I liked them at the time. It’s nice listening right after Hot Shots II though.

Despite Steve Mason’s distinctive voice making it a clear Beta Band album, it has quite a different feel to HSII and The 3 EPs, particularly the first two songs. Assessment seems like an attempt to write a U2 style anthemic, moody rock song, the Edge-esque riff and tone and rumbling bass are great, but due to their singularity it ends up in a slightly different place, with the the horns and shuffling drums giving it a groove that U2 rarely achieve. And Space is great, the squelchy synth is fantastic, the melody is catchy and again it has an excellent groove and sense of movement. Easy has a great combination of strummed acoustic and funk influenced clavinet, a nice counterpoint of musical tones and styles, a common device across the album.

Wonderful highlights their ability to create vocal melodies that aren’t immediately catchy, but that you find yourself singing afterwards, the yearning ‘in time you’ll realise’ is fantastic. Space Beatle’s delicate Beach Boys style vocals and instrumentation followed by the instrumental Rhododendron is a lovely pair, and although Liquid Bird starts out unconvincingly it sheds its rock beginning, turning into a pleasingly disjointed track. Simple has a great rhythmic propulsion with another ear worm vocal, and some lovely strings, swelling and stabbing simultaneously.

Easily another high 4, perhaps a bit of patchiness but some excellent tracks, tied together with their trademark vocal style, but with a seemingly different set of influences than their preceding albums/compilations.
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Playlist submission: Space

Hot Shots II
I haven’t thought about this album in years. I remember buying it when it came out, having been into the 3 EPs, and I must have listened to it quite a bit as it all came back pretty quickly.

I really like the quiet tone, the slightly languorous, hip hop and trip hop sounding beats and rhythms, with a nice density and sense of meticulousness to the production. His voice and melodic style are pretty distinctive, and it it takes a while for everything to percolate, but once you tune into it there are some great off balance melodies, nagging, memorable hooks and some excellent arrangements - I love the vocal melody and then the outro to Squares for example, and AI Sharp is fantastic, from the earwormy verses and the lovely, atmospheric instrumentation and shuffling rhythm. In fact, including Human Being, the first 3 songs are excellent.

Dragon is another great catchy melody with great drums and rhythm, and Broke has some great 8 bit sounding synths and yet another nagging, catchy sense to it. Quiet has a very UNKLE feel and is another great track, while Alleged mixes nice motown-esque drums with some lovely guitar and an overall dreamy atmosphere and touches on the sound of some of the 3 EPs tracks.

I got more and more into this the more I listened to it, reminding me that I must have listened a lot when it came out. It’s a great album with a distinctive sound and atmosphere, making a high 4.
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Playlist submission: Broke

Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim
This is rather lovely, the tone of Frank’s voice suits the low key and unhurried jazzy bossa nova very well, very well indeed. And it suits the warm weather at the moment.

Musically it’s very nice too, the muted horns and strings with the lovely guitars and gentle percussion have a graceful sway and subtlety, balancing beautifully with the understated, elegant vocals - making a very relaxed and serene 30 minutes. It never really gets out of 2nd gear, but it doesn’t really need to, its placid, laid back movement is what makes it such a pleasant and enjoyable listen.

This sort of fusion of swing, jazz, bossa nova and crooning can be tricky, it can easily slip into bland and characterless 60s easy listening, but the skill of Jobim, the delicateness of the strings and horns and Frank’s vocals make this a characterful and engaging bit of 60s easy listening. Between 3 and 4, I’ll go 4 as I liked it more each time I listened, and as I’m looking forward to coming back to it for some more relaxed, easygoing, breeziness
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Playlist submission: If You Never Come to Me

Chore of Enchantment
I’m not entirely sure where I land with this. On first listen I really liked it, lots of Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen in the vocals, and a nice low key folk-ish, country-ish, loose, homemade vibe, with some good songs, some interesting twists and turns and nice unexpected instrumentations and sounds - the repeating snatches of Una Furtiva Lagrima, the sitar, strings and wonky keyboard on (Well) Dusted for example, or the little organ stabs, backing vocals and mangled guitar on the Temptation of Egg.

However I became slightly less enamoured on repeat listens, the arrangements and off kilter instrumentations can’t hide the dirge-like quality of many of the melodies and tempos, and the slight air of self-conscious whimsicalness and its lengthy run time meant it started to drag a little over the course of the 16 songs

I think I would have loved this if I knew about when it came out, it would have been right up my street when I was 21, but it's a slightly different proposition now. I do think it’s an interesting album, and there are some very good songs, but it does lack a bit of dynamic variance over the 16 songs, so I think it might be a bit limited for me in relistenability and sustained interest.

I had initially thought that it might be a bit of a rough diamond, but on repeat listens it slipped from a 4 to a 3 I think.
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Playlist submission: Temptation of Egg

Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
I owned this on CD.

Take A Look Around was the gateway, and doing My Generation and Rollin’ at Shidax Karaoke in Hanno with Paul, Bernie, Natsumi, Toru-sensei, Maki, Jason, Chieko, Jay, Ulf, Kim and Kim’s mum was the high that made me buy the album.

It is terrible, but I cannot bring myself to truly hate it as there are some very funny memories attached, and, as silly as they are, Take A Look Around, Rollin and My Generation I still like - for all their witless stupidity and narcissistic whinging, I cannot not enjoy them.

The remaining of the songs though are objectively lamentable, they’re more pitiful versions of those good songs, and the principal, recurring, overriding, exhausting theme of how everybody hates Fred Durst and are jealous doesn’t exactly give the album much light or shade.

If I’d never heard this before it would have been a 1, It’s wretchedness is undeniable, but as it carries some nostalgic weight and as I do like Rollin, My Generation and Take a Look Around , I’ll nudge it up to a juvenile, infantile, baggy jorted, red capped 2.

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Playlist submission: Take a Look Around

Talking Timbuktu
If you played this or Savane and asked me which one it was I don’t think I would be able to tell, apart from perhaps the occasional surfacing of Ry Cooder’s slide, like on Ai Du.

But I would also think this is a 4 (as Savane was), as I thoroughly enjoyed it - the evocative, soulful, swirling, circling guitars and vocal melodies, drifting soothingly across the rooftops and into the cool night of the desert. It’s similar in sound to Savane and similar in musical structure, but it's one of those albums that’s good-repetitive rather than bad-repetitive, the grooves and guitar lines are hypnotic rather than monotonous, and it probably helps that I don’t know what he’s singing, adding a nice mysterious edge to it.

Similar to Savane, I let it run on repeat for a few hours and similarly I was very happy for it to percolate and go round and round. Will definitely come back again, a solid 4.
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Playlist submission: Ai Du

The Healer
Mark walked into the wine bar, newly opened, excitingly sophisticated and unmistakably the talk of Aylesbury in the summer of 1989. He conspicuously placed his copy of the Financial Times on the counter and took off his jacket. With an air of deliberate disinterest he adjusted his red braces and spoke to the barman. He ordered a glass, medium, of Chardonnay to be sent to the blonde further along the bar, her gold clip on earrings catching the light hopefully beneath her immaculately set perm. Although they didn’t yet know it, they shared a language of leveraged assets, percentages, compound interest, investments and tax efficiencies and a love of Gordon Gekko, in a way that only people who work at rival, family run chartered accountants could. The opening bars of The Healer drifted from the speakers as Janet nodded and Mark, and as Mark mouthed ‘shall I join you?’

The title track’s Santana-assisted cheesiness is actually a little bit of an outlier, signalling its late 80s production and sound a little too heavily. The rest of the collaborations are much better, although some work better than others - Baby Lee, Cuttin’ Out, Sally Mae and That’s Alright are great, the latter two’s soulful blues in particular

His voice and guitar are consistently great throughout, but the album really excels over the last 3 tracks. With no guest stars and the pared back, simpler production and arrangements it allows his fantastic, evocative and charismatic voice and his superb, characterful and expressive guitar playing to come to the fore. As fine as the collaborations are, these three tracks are utterly captivating, the dusty country blues of Rockin’ Chair, the slow, hushed, spooky ominousness of My Dream and the resigned and muted bluesy march of No Substitute.

Up to track seven it's probably a 3, perfectly enjoyable with a couple of highlights, but those excellent final three tracks elevate this to a 4. I’ll definitely come back to it, although I might skip the title track, unless I want to dream of Mark and Janet

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Playlist submission: Rockin’ Chair

16 Lovers Lane
It’s interesting that the Antipodean jangly classic-pop-rock albums we’ve had - Crowded House, The Triffids and now this - have all triggered a similar response; nice and pleasant but not totally distinctive or memorable, particularly compared to other bands doing this sort of thing, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Smiths, REM etc. I get a little bit of Television from the vocals too, but without the New York cool.

I really like Quiet Heart though, a really lovely melody and wistful tone running through it. Love is a Sign is nice too, the motif at the end of the chorus is quite lovely, although I really don’t like the vocal tone and enunciation at all. Streets of Your Town and Clouds are very pleasant, hooky bits of jangly pop as well.

It's all very pleasant, but that’s kind of the issue, it passes by so pleasantly that, apart from Quiet Heart, it’s kind of underwhelming. It’s clearly very well crafted and considered, and I did enjoy it the more I listened, but ultimately it does feel like it has a limit on how enjoyable it is and how likely I am to listen again. It’s on the cusp of 2 and 3. Perhaps harshly, as it is so pleasant and inoffensive, I’ll go 2, as I don’t think I’ll come back to it.
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Playlist submission: Quiet Heart

Permission to Land
So many great memories of this album that justifiably colour my feelings about it, particularly Reading Festival, but even trying to listen objectively it’s clear that it is a top quality retro-glam-metal-pop-rock album, that takes the songwriting but not itself too seriously.

That’s not an easy tightrope to walk, it could easily come across as insincere parody, or self important guff, but it manages to stay upright in a spirit of over the top daft fun and enjoyment, especially over the first half - Black Shuck, Get Your Hands off My Woman, Growing on Me, I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Love is Only a Feeling is a truly excellent run of songs.

It does fade a little after that, struggling to keep the level of quality as high as the first 5 tracks, although I do like Stuck in a Rut and Love on the Rocks with No Ice

Aside from Spinal Tap, the comparison people often make is Queen, but I don’t really see that as much - they share a visual theatricality, but musically it is much more AC/DC and Guns’n’Roses style harder classic rock with some glam, and a super pop sensibility offered in a great spirit with a sense of humour.

It's still massively enjoyable, but due to it fading somewhat in the 2nd half it lands as a rock solid 4.
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Playlist submission: I Believe In a Thing Called Love is obviously a great song, but Love is Only a Feeling resonated strongly with me for some reason so I’ll go with that

Sheet Music
I like a bit of 10cc, there’s some great songs in their catalogue, I like their Beatles influenced and slightly unique pop-prog approach.

On this album in particular there are plenty of shades of Supertramp, ELO and Queen. Particularly the latter on Old Wild Men and some of the harmonies elsewhere, but with a sense of humour and a playfulness you don’t necessarily get with Queen or ELO. I can easily see how that playfulness might be seen as smug and irritating, like on Clockwork Creep and the music hall section of Silly Love, which aren’t great at all, but generally I do find that aspect of them quite endearing.

However I think this does lack enough top quality songs. The first three tracks are great, I love the guitar sound on The Wall Street Shuffle, and on and on, but it's more patchy after that. Despite appreciating their schizophrenic approach it seems like many of the songs have great parts but don’t always work as a whole. Old Wild Men is a bit too Queen, Clockwork Creep isn’t good, Silly Love is mostly a good song, again with a nice guitar sound, but it is somewhat ruined by the overly whimsical music hall section, Somewhere in Hollywood has some nice moments, but feels a bit ‘mid’ as the kids might once have said. I like the Macca-esque quirkiness of The Sacro-Iliac, and, again, sections of Oh Effendi are great, the riff and the main verses are good, but the other sections are less good.

It's a fun album that has a distinctive, pleasing charm with a few great songs, but it is a bit patchy and isn't always successful. I’ll listen again, but think it stays as a high 3.
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Playlist submission: The Wall Street Shuffle

Arular
I love Paper Planes from the album after this, but I didn’t realise she had gone full 5G conspiracy, Alex Jones, anti-vax, pro-Trump nutjob. From her leftist, pro-refugee, anti-oppression lyrics on here that does seem quite the switch, but you can also get from this that she is likely one of those anti-establishment contrarians who twist themselves in knots trying to stay at odds with the status quo. Or she’s just a grifter and sees she can make quite a bit of money from selling 5G resistant hats and ponchos to confused and angry people.

Aside from that I’ve listened to this a lot over the last couple of days. I took a few goes to get attuned to it, but I started to really like its homemade, scattershot charm. It’s very drum machine and percussion focused, you can sense each track was built from the beat up, and while there is a similarity of tempo to much of it I really liked the percussive feel of it all. She also keeps a consistent rapping style, but I like it and she has some great lines throughout. Once you’ve listened through a few times you there are also tonnes of little hooky earworms everywhere, I’ve been saying ‘You Big Dummy’ to myself quite a lot. Between the beats and the hooks and rapping there is a lot of density to the noises, keyboards, guitars and horns. It doesn’t sound particularly subtle, all piled up and moving swiftly between bongs and bangs, but, again once you get attuned to it, there’s some great stuff happening and some excellent songs. Pull Up the People, Bucky Done Gun, Sunshowers, Amazon, Hombre, 10 Dollar, U.R.A.Q.T., Galang, M.I.A. are all great, naggingly catchy tracks.

It's full of weird and wonderful beats and noises, and some great lyrics and hooks, and I love the inventive, idiosyncratic mishmash of influences and her unique background and point of view. I can see how it might be a bit marmite, but I thought it was great, a high 4 (forgetting her nutjobbery)
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Playlist submission: U.R.A.Q.T.

The Downward Spiral
In the plus column:
- The keyboards, synths, electro beats and hints of glam are more interesting than other bands in this genre, there’s slight textural difference, which is nice.
- Closer, despite the cringe lyrics, is a very catchy bit of electro-alt rock
- A Warm Place has a nice, elegeic sense to it
- And of course Hurt is a great song (although the JC version is preferable)

In the minus column
- It’s quite boring
- It’s too long
- The edge-lord-ness of it all, even if it is done with genuine sincerity, makes it all feel quite hollow - when the rage and harshness becomes the point if it kind of loses its power
- I’ve no real interest in the narrative and the protagonist’s descent into hell, he sounds like a bit of a pain actually.

So while there are aspects of it I appreciate, and I found it nowhere near as execrable as much of the music in this genre, I really struggled to connect with it, and ultimately it's a bit of a slog, in huge contrast to Nevermind yesterday. Despite there being positives and certain aspects I can appreciate, I shan’t be listening again, making it a high 2.
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Playlist submission: Hurt

Nevermind
You can wear them in the High Street, body contours, very discreet.

Why is this so good compared to so many of their contemporaries? Obviously they made a deliberate attempt to soften some edges and add a nice production sheen to make it more commercially acceptable, and while it doesn’t have much rawness it still sounds fantastic. And the Novoselic-Grohl rhythm section is clearly also a differentiator. The bass is melodic and propulsive with a great tone, and Grohl’s disco inflected drumming works brilliantly, combining power and groove, most notably on In Bloom and Come as You Are. And it’s interesting hearing that he was hugely influenced by Tony Thompson of Chic, as that makes sense, especially on Teen Spirit. That combined with the punky-ness and melodicism of the guitars and some of the songs is an excellent recipe.

And of course Kurt is just a great songwriter with a great voice and a superb melodic sense. And there are some monumentally great songs on here - Teen Spirit, In Bloom, Come As You Are, Breed, Lithium, Polly, Territorial Pissings, Drain You, On a Plain, Something in the Way. He’s also a great lyricist, or at the very least he has the amazing ability to write lyrics about frustration, loneliness, alienation etc without being cringeworthy or self indulgent - maybe because they feel like real thoughts and images, rather than someone trying to write angsty lyrics

Obviously a 5, influential and historically significant, while also being a fantastic album full of great songs.
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Playlist submission: In Bloom

Cut
I’ve always liked the cover of I Heard it Through the Grapevine on here, although I never realised it was a bonus track, and Typical Girls is also a superb song, but I’ve never really given this album a proper listen.

I really like their reggae-dub post-punk, quite PIL-esque, but with more of an unpolished sound and feel and a slightly amateur/primitive/outsider-ness to the playing, although Tessa Pollitt’s bass is consistently great and is just about the only thing that stops it all falling apart.

If it was more polished and professional though, it would lose all its charm, and although the overall song quality is a little patchy in places there’s enough moments of catchiness and exuberance with some nice post punk sloganeering to carry it through.

Along with Typical Girls and I Heard it Through the Grapevine, So Tough, Shoplifting, Ping Pong Affair and Love and Romance are the standout tracks, but I find the whole thing very enjoyable. Another on the cusp of 3 and 4, but I will go with a 4 as I find the whole thing very enjoyable and will keep coming back to it for sure.
✂️✂️✂️✂️
Playlist submission: Typical Girls

Billion Dollar Babies
More listenable for me than Queen in its theatricality, but it's actually not that interesting beyond that. The campy schlockiness is initially fun, but it wears thin fairly quickly, and ultimately the songs just aren’t that great, apart from No More Mr Nice Guy, which is a great mid 70s rocker.

I was probably expecting it to be more fun and enjoyable overall, but its lack of musical quality makes it a bit of an effort to get through, and I can’t really imagine coming back to it. 2.
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Playlist submission: No More Mr Nice Guy