Reviews by ikejiri

Walking Wounded
I really didn’t like EBTG back in the mid 90s, I really, really hated Missing and I would have hated this album.

But I was wrong to think that, and I don’t hate it now at all. But I have been going back and forth on how much I like it. The production is very mid-90s, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and it is a nice collection of understated, downbeat electro pop, but really it’s all about Tracy Thorn’s fantastic voice. If you took her vocals off the album I think the music on its own might feel rather too insipid and impermanent.

But then I think it’s the deliberate musical restraint that makes it work, the rhythms and percussion without the embellishments or atmospherics of say Massive Attack or Portishead showcase her vocals brilliantly, the sparseness combining with the melancholic and doleful lyrics and melodies.

I’m still not quite sure where it lands. On some listens I found it too lethargic and too dry, but then on other listens I found it really appealing, its musical iciness and her voice very compelling. There are some great tracks, Wrong, Walking Wounded and Mirrorball among them, and it’s never bad, but how much I enjoy it does vary everytime I listen, and I don’t think it really needs the two remixes on the end. Another on the cusp of 3 and 4, I’ll go high 3 - I’ll listen again, but I’m not sure how often
🤕🤕🤕
Playlist submission: Mirrorball

Bitches Brew
I’ve tried this album quite a few times in the past, but it’s never really stuck, too cacophonous, too unstructured with too many Jazz tropes; parping, noodling horns, seemingly arbitrary changes of direction, no spaces or breaks, random interjections from some organ or guitar and lots of drum fills.

Doing the list though has made me less fearful of Jazz and more open minded I think, and this is the first time I think I can say I enjoyed it, and perhaps I even started to ‘get it’. I’m a bit reluctant to say ‘get it’, as it feels loaded with the sanctimonious, pork pie hat wearing, earnest and superior Jazz-pseud, someone who thinks they understand music in a way other people can’t possibly comprehend because they get Jazz. But what I will say is that you are witnesses at the new birth of Tom, mark 2. I hope you enjoy my new direction.

There’s no doubt though that it’s not an easy listen, especially over 90 minutes. There’s a lot going on, either through various instruments coming in and out, or the phrases and structure shifting around frequently, and it’s very easy to not know what's going on and look down and see you are only 5 minutes into Pharaoh's Dance and there’s another 42 minutes before you even get to Track 3.

But the more I listened the more I got sucked into it, and found myself enjoying it’s structured chaos, and getting into the rhythm of very long songs that take their time to develop and unfurl themselves, and it's one of the first times with Jazz where I can start to understand how they are interweaving with each other, or how they are aiming to shift the direction of the songs. And the quality of musicianship is undoubted, and it’s nice to note that the bass player is from Wolverhampton.

On the first two tracks particularly you can really hear the influence on Kid A, especially Everything in its Right Place, Kid A and Idioteque. And you can also see how it also birthed Jazz-rock and, on balance for the worse, gave legitimacy to Jazz-fusion.

I’m not sure I totally understand all of it, and it’s not something to casually throw on, but I do think it is a pretty incredible album, the density of stuff going on makes it hard to process without multiple listens, and it is a long record, but how you can even imagine this and then make it is brilliantly crazy and an amazing musical achievement. I think it can only be a 5.
🫖🫖🫖🫖🫖
Playlist submission: Miles Runs the Voodoo Down

From Elvis in Memphis
That opening track is great, I love the older, more worn tone to his voice and the excellent reverbed backing vocals, twangy guitar, organ, piano, and the fantastic bass.

I don’t think I’d heard of Tommy Cogbill, which seems a bit crazy when I read about the songs he’s played on and how people regarded him. And that makes sense as the bass on the whole album is absolutely superb, sitting brilliantly in the space between soul, country and gospel, sometimes busy like on I’m Movin On and Power of My Love, sometimes back in the pocket as on True Love Travels on a Gravel Road, but always with a great tone and melodicism.

Despite the bass, and the superb playing in general, in terms of songs and overall tone it is a little inconsistent. Wearin’ That Loved On Look, Only the Strong Survive, Long Black Limousine, I’m Movin’ On and In the Ghetto all work brilliantly, and the version of Gentle on My Mind improves with every listen, and it gives a glimpse of what a fully excellent Elvis country soul album could be. But I’ll Hold You in My Heart, It Keeps Right On A Hurtin’, Power of My Love, After Loving You, Any Day Now seem a bit rote by comparison, never quite taking off or not being the right song choices.

The early Elvis albums we had, although also a bit inconsistent, felt consequential. Looking back from 70 odd years their influence and importance is innate, whereas this doesn’t have that same sense. It’s a very good country soul pop album, with great playing and lovely tone to his distinctively great voice, but some of it has the slight feel of being knocked out as part of a recording contract. Even though reading about the album that doesn’t seem to be the case, but I do get the feeling that on a few of the songs, he came in, sang and left and never fully engaged. But maybe that’s unfair, especially in comparison to the approximate 347 soundtrack albums he knocked out in the years previously.

But it is still very enjoyable and very listenable. It’s on the cusp of 3 and 4, but I will tip over to 4 for the superb bass and for the timbre of his voice.
👑👑👑👑
Playlist submission: Wearin’ That Loved on Look

Bongo Rock
Bongo bongo bongo bongo, bongo, bongo bongo bongo. Bongo. Bongo bongo bongo bongo bongo, bongo. Bongo bongo bongo.

Bongo, bongo, bongo bongo bongo bongo bongo, bongo bongo bongo bongo. Bongo bongo bongo. Bongo bongo, bongo bongo, bongo bongo bongo bongo. Bongo bongo bongo. Bongo bongo bongo, bongo bongo.

Bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo, bongo. Bongo, bongo. Bongo, bongo, bongo bongo bongo, bongo bongo…bongo. Bongo.

TLDR; Bongo
🪘🪘
Bongo: Let There Be Drums

Superfly
You had noo right, son, noo right at all.

To make such a great soundtrack for a not so great film.

Little Child Runnin’ Wild is a superb opener, the drum and horn hits followed by the string stabs is excellent, setting up the whole album. Pusherman and Freddie’s Dead are, along with Superfly, I suppose are two of his best known songs and of course they are both bangers. The main riff of Freddie’s Dead repeated on bass in the breakdown part is just fantastic. Junkie Chase is possibly the only track that really feels like incidental music for the film, Think, the other instrumental feels more like a song or piece of music that can stand alone from visuals.

I really like the little harp notes on Give Me Your Love, and the riff strings and wah wah all lock in brilliantly. Eddie You Should Know Better’s intro feels quite soundtracky, but once the lyrics kicks in it’s another superb, sad and bleak bit of soul, similar to No Thing On Me. And then the title track, which remains superb no matter how many times you hear it.

It might be easy to see this as a kitschy 70s wah wah, afro wigs at Flares, watching blaxploitation films ironically kind of thing, but the lyrics are pretty blunt social commentary and it fits in with his other albums in the early 70s, like There’s No Place Like America Today we had back in November

It’s a great album, irrespective of its soundtrack origins, with three of his best songs alongside some lesser known gems, and it’s all tied together by superb playing and that amazing, mellifluous, warm voice. And it’s all done in 36 minutes.
🪰🪰🪰🪰🪰
Playlist submission: Pusherman

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
I came to this album quite late, after hearing Adam Buxton talk about it on his podcast, I think with Eno, a few years ago.

It really is a fantastic album, with elements of Eno’s synths and ambient soundscapes, and Byrne/Talking Heads’ wiry funk, but with the added density of all the samples and found sounds, making it shift between slightly uncomfortable and anxious, eg the ‘I made a mistake’ line on Mea Culpa, and more expansive and groove laden as on Regiment. It was recorded before Remain in Light and its influence on that album is very clear, taking the World Music/African sounds and polyrhythms and experimental spirit behind this and putting it through the band. Help Me Somebody and The Jezebel spirit could absolutely be on Remain in Light.

It’s also another one of those hugely influential albums that still sounds modern, even 35 years later. On some early sample heavy records it can sound a bit stilted, but the looped percussion, live instrumentation and synths give it slipperiness and sense of movement and momentum that still sounds fresh. It’s also got that thing that lots of Eno albums have, in that there is lots of detail and texture that you can really tune into, while it simultaneously plays with mood and atmosphere that you can let passively wash over you.

It’s a fascinating album, musically and atmospherically with some superb bass and some excellent grooves, as well as some brilliantly layered synths and arrangements. Easy 5
👻👻👻👻👻
Playlist submission: Very Very Hungry

Rising Above Bedlam
‘Oh look mummy, a speed restriction’

TLDR; Stuart Pearce talking new age nonsense over excellent bass playing

The bass is clearly great throughout, as you might expect, and Visions of You’s proto-Tattva vibes and Sinead O’Connor vocals makes for a great opener. And musically much of the rest of it is good, in a noodly world music way, although a couple of tracks are pretty musically and culturally questionable

But it’s the canal boat, Thai fisherman trousers, roll ups, short fringed lady vibes alongside the stunning revelation that advertising tries to sell you things that sours it. If it was purely an instrumental album I think it could have pushed close to a 4 - but the contrast of the breadth and warmth of the music with the really quite bad lyrics and vocals really does detract from the whole thing quite a bit, putting it at the cusp of 2 and 3. The bass is undoubtedly good, but I can’t ever see myself listening again, unless there are vocal-less mixes, so I’ll go 2.
😮‍💨😮‍💨
Playlist submission: Visions of You

Sound Affects
I was really into The Jam around A-Levels. I loved the Greatest Hits so I bought the Direction, Creation, Reaction box set with my Christmas vouchers. It was all their albums and singles plus b sides and outtakes, but I never really listened to it much. It had two studio albums per disk so it never felt like each album was distinct, so I just used to listen to the Greatest Hits. A lot of their singles really were quite incredible - In the City, The Modern World, News of the World, Down in the Tube Station, Eton rifles, Going Underground, Start!, That’s Entertainment, Funeral Pyre, Absolute Beginners, Town Called Malice, Bitterest Pill, Beat Surrender - so I think their albums tend pale in comparison, and to me, despite this one, All Mod Cons and Setting Sons being very good, they don’t quite have that killer, go to album.

Pretty Green is a banger, great bass of course, and I love the sitar in the outro, indicating the Revolver influence that would become outright homage/theft on Start! I fall on the homage side, it’s a great track, especially with the horns towards the end. Monday is great, a kind of slippery melody and structure, with very I’m Only Sleeping Macca bass. I like But I’m Different Now, a bit of classic Jam punky-angry-pop, one of the few times they hit their earlier sound. Set The House Ablaze I love, one of their best album tracks, the psychedelic influenced riff and marching bass in the verses are great and I really like how it breaks into the very Jamian chorus. I like how Dream Time starts off dreamy and backwards and psychedelic sounding before ending as a tight bass, drums and power-guitar song with a great chorus and some lovely horn embellishments. I love the 60s Kinksian feel of Man in the Corner Shop and its ruminative lyrics. Music for the Last Couple is obviously ska/2-tone influenced and I love the guitar break bass and piano refrain against the parts with the melodica. Boy About Town I remember from that box set, a great catchy melody and a great song, with lyrics that I think deliberately nod to I’m Only Sleeping. And Scrape Away has great, slightly sinister new wave-ish feel, mainly due to Foxton’s excellent bass line, and a great, righteously frustrated lyric.

And of course there’s That’s Entertainment, possibly their greatest song. Fantastically bleak, evocative lyrics, you feel the greynes and the early 80s-ness, with one of my favourite lines ‘Two lovers kissing amongst the scream of midnight, two lovers missing the tranquility of solitude’. Superb.

Foxton is consistently excellent on this album, the Macca/Revolver inspiration is clear, but he also adds a great urgency and ominousness to some of the songs. Even with that I think you can hear Weller chafing against the limitations of the trio format and their sound. They always had wider influences and a classic 60s pop and soul in their sound but you, and despite Rick Buckler being a very good drummer and the soul and funk influences being apparent, there is still a tinge of a punky thudiness to his drumming, and in retrospect The Style Council seems like the obvious next chapter.

There’s a lot of great lines and lyrics and some interesting things happening musically, even if they are sometimes a bit buried in the mix, but I really enjoyed this, especially on repeat listens, and it has re-ignited my interest in The Jam. Started a straight ahead 4 but I think I’ll tip into 5.
🫙🫙🫙🫙🫙
Playlist submission: Obvious but That’s Entertainment

Wild Wood
I’ve never really realised how Traffic influenced this album is, until now. It’s not quite as jazzy as Traffic, but it still has that nice keyboard bumpiness and acoustic guitar sound. It definitely benefits from Weller arguably being a better, or at least more consistent, songwriter and melodicist than Winwood, from it’s retrospective take on classic rock, folk and soul (Moon on your Pyjamas is very Style Council), and from the context of Weller’s career to that point - finding his way out of the wild wild wood might be a bit literal but it’s pretty true.

The singles/well known songs, Sunflower, Wild Wood, The Weaver and Hung Up are all excellent, but I’ve always particularly loved Wild Wood. In the context of the album it really is superb, encapsulating all the themes of contemplation and introspection, and alongside the melancholic-pastoral and folk influenced tracks like the superb All the Pictures on the Wall, Has My Fire Really Gone Out, Country, Foot of the Mountain, Shadow of the Sun, it gives the whole album a very sweet tone of thoughtfulness and reflection.

I listened to Stanley Road not that long ago, and while there are some superb songs on there, and it was of course far more commercially successful and culturally zeitgeisty, I think this is a better album, the folk and pastoral elements give it a deftness and lightness that is missing from some of the plod of Stanley Road.

It’s perhaps 3 or 4 songs/10 minutes too long but it’s a great album, interesting songs and influences and some excellent tracks. Not sure it quite gets to 5, so I’ll go with a high 4.
🪵🪵🪵🪵
Playlist submission: All the Pictures on the Wall

Among the Living
I didn’t mind the sludgy, Black Sabbath-esque opening to the first track, but oh, yep there it is, the double kick drum and power chords combo and the ensuing musical moribundity. It does get a little more interesting when the tempo shifts back and forth, and I didn’t mind the solo, but ultimately it’s pretty much a rehash of every other thrash metal song. Which is also true for the rest of it, despite their perhaps being a slightly broader lyrical palate than some of their peers, and the odd occasion like on Indians or One World where they create a more memorable hook/chorus.

Obviously it’s not my thing, but I didn’t dislike it as much as say Sepultura or Venom, and I can see if you do like metal and thrash this is a good example, but for me a it's a very Partridgean shoulder shrug when he’s introduced to the man who’s just revamped current affairs, as I can find very little to be interested in.
🤷
Playlist submission: Indians

Planet Rock: The Album
The title track is still absolutely superb, early hip hop 80 Roland and Fairlight beats with some great synth lines and a big sample of Kraftwerk. It still sounds amazing - icy cold, imposing and austere yet expressive, and it’s massive influence is clear on hip-hop, sampling, new wave and electro.

I hadn’t heard any of the other songs on here previously, but it continues with more electro-kraftwerk-synth grooves with Looking for the Perfect Beat, another excellent track. Despite the slightly rudimentary by modern standards rapping, musically this also sounds well ahead of its time.

Renegades of Funk is good as well, especially on repeat listens, with the afro chanting, synth hooks and sound effects, but it definitely a notch below Looking for the Perfect Beat and a couple below Planet Rock. Frantic Situation is decent as well, the beats, synth bass and hip hop party chorus are all good, but again does continue the slide into diminishing returns after those stellar opening 2 tracks. Who You Funkin’ With isn’t great and suffers from sounding very different, especially with Melle Mel’s OTT delivery. Go Go Pop has some nice hooks, but again the rapping kind of lets it down. They Made a Mistake is also fine, but is pretty standard bit of early 80s hip hop, especially in comparison to the glacial magnificence of Planet Rock

If this was just the first 2 tracks this would probably be a 4, but it its a case of subtraction by addition with the rest of the tracks. Frantic Situation and Go Go Pop are certainly enjoyable enough, but nowhere near the brilliance of Planet Rock. I think that means it ends up as a high 3.
🌍🪐🪨
Playlist submission: Planet Rock

Bubble and Scrape
I bought their album The Sebadoh from a few years after this, while we were at Uni, having seen them do Flame on TOTP. Looking back, that was quite a strange booking for 1999, well after the peak of their influence as a lofi alt rock band. I remember liking that album at the time, and I had a quick listen today and it’s still good, and sounds quite different to this, a lot more confident and crafted perhaps.

Roughshod charm with the odd lovely melody poking through I guess is their whole thing, and this delivers that, but similar to Dinosaur Junior and a lot those US bands in the indie-alt-rock-grunge adjacent space it never quite feels like it quite lifts off, like they kind of lose a bit of steam halfway sometimes, or in the case of Eric Gaffneys songs they just aren’t that great to start with. I suppose that drift, again, is part of their schtick and appeal, but it feels a shame that they didn’t develop some of it further, or cut a few tracks (ie Eric’s) off the album as 17 is too many really.

Barlow’s songs are probably the strongest, or he has the best ear for a hook or melody, Soul and Fire, Sacred Attention, Homemade, Forced Love and Think are nice slackery lo-fi pop.

It’s more enjoyable, due to those songs, than other albums in this genre, and they do have an indefinable quality that makes them likeable. I’d listen again but it’s not necessarily something I’ll come back to that often, I’d definitely listen to The Sebadoh album if I fancied a piece of them. I think it just squeezes a 3.
🫧🫧🫧
Playlist submission: Forced Love

Come Find Yourself
Haven’t thought about or listened to this in years. I had it on CD around the time it came out. I’m not sure what prompted me to buy it, I think it might have been the King of New York single, as listening now it gives me a very strong Proustian hit of summer 1997.

It certainly sounds very mid-late 90s (in a good, interesting way) with its movie dialogue samples and very Beck and Beastie Boys, 70s soul and blues influenced rock and rap, and it’s still very enjoyable, even if there is a fair bit of nostalgia tied up in it.

It is also a bit inconsistent, or at least for me not every track works. When they are hitting the more soulful, bluesy, jazzy grooves like The Grave and the Constant, Smoke Em, I Can’t Get With That, King of New York, Bear Hug, Come Find Yourself or the catchy pop of The Fun Lovin’ Criminal or Scooby Snacks, it's really good, with some excellently arranged horns, but when they are at the overdriven rock out end of things it it’s far less successful. Passive/Aggressive isn’t great and although I quite like the idea behind Bombin the L with the Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Judas Priest interpolations I don’t think the end result really works. And despite some nice guitar moments I’ve always thought the cover of We Have All the Time In the World is a bit odd.

Still, it's a very nice reminiscilisten. Some of it is great, some less so, and despite only being 50 minutes it does feel a little long. I would definitely listen again, but not sure it quite gets into the 4s, so I’ll go high 3.
🚬🚬🚬
Playlist submission: The Fun Lovin’ Criminal

Cross
I remember liking this when it came out, around the same time as Simian Mobile Disco’s first album, and also when they were on a few of the Maison Kitsune albums. But I haven’t listened to it since then, and kind of forgot about them.

So it’s great to revisit now, and it still sounds excellent. The obvious comparison is with the similarly French, similarly electronic and similarly two-person Daft Punk. They obviously share some DNA, and while Daft Punk are perhaps slightly more eclectic and take their music into some strange places, I like Justice’s similarly disco influenced but more straightforward and belligerent sound with its excellent dirty, scuzzy basslines, squeaky noises and crunchy sound effects

It does perhaps fade in the middle, I’m not as keen on Valentine and The Party feels like a slightly misguided break in the momentum, but it’s also perhaps because the first 5 tracks are so great, that everything after doesn’t seem as good, especially the deliberately strained Stress. Although I do love the string stabs and ABC feel of DVNO, and One Minute to Midnight has a great 80s soundtrack feel, like Delorean Dynamite by Todd Terje.

It’s also interesting reading about the sampling, lots of snippets you wouldn’t immediately notice, manipulated and cut up, although the Dr Dre one in D.A.N.C.E. is great.

It’s a great electronic album and a great album. Despite the dip in the middle it’s very well sequenced, for an album of similar tempos and structures it never feels fully one note or too repetitive. Easy 4.
✝️✝️✝️✝️
Playlist submission: D.A.N.C.E.

Siembra
I found this very enjoyable, more so than I was expecting. Although I’m still slightly ambivalent about Salsa, I found the undeniable energy with added disco accents quite pleasing.

The Sly Stone disco funk bass and string intro to Plastico is excellent, and although it shifts more into salsa it’s a great track. Maria Lionza also has some nice disco bass, both of these kind of highlight the NY latin influence on disco. Pedro Navaja must have been an influence on Escape by Rupert Holmes, the verses are very similar. I like the refrain of Buscando Guayaba, the change of tempo with Dime and the slightly sinister tone and strings in Siembra, but it’s easy to let this drift off a little, as to my unknowledgeable ear the songs do broadly sound quite similar.

Nevertheless I do like the breezy charm and generally upbeat nature, despite, from what I gather, the socially conscious lyrics. I suppose this type of music always carries the tang of Salsa classes in village halls on Tuesday evenings, but the little bits of disco and the obvious quality of the playing make this a very listenable mid to high 3.
🕺🕺🕺
Playlist submission: Plastico

Calenture
Never heard of The Triffids, and I’m not entirely sure I’ve been missing out.

It starts off with a very pleasant 80s country and Irish folk twinged pop-rock track, and while there’s but after a few songs that overall sense pleasantness descends into a limp and anodyne insipidness that I actually found a bit aggravating. Combined with the vague whiff of Christian-rock and the 80s production it became a bit of a slog to get through, despite the on the surface ‘nice-ness’.

Bury Me Deep in Love, Trick of the Light and Holy Water are obviously the strongest songs, the melodies and arrangements are good and there is a sense of quality and interest that is missing from much of the other tracks. While some of them pass by inconsequentially well enough, if, as I say, rather limply, like Hometown Farewell Kiss, Open For You, Blinder By The Hour or Jerdacuttup Man, a few are actually actively quite bad, especially when they attempt a harder, rockie edge on Kelly’s Blues, Unmade Love and Vagabond Holes.

The pleasant songs are ok, if rather mundane and unremarkable and the bad songs are bad in a particularly banal way, adding up to a rather annoying listen. There’s no reason to ever come back to it, and that irritating nature I think rather harshly puts this as a 1, albeit, and as if it matters, as a high 1.
🌱
Playlist submission: Trick of the Light

Floodland
Bowie + Joy Division + Depeche Mode + Billy Idol = a decent enough album that starts well before fading away, getting lost in the similarity of tempo, tone, melody, sound and song structure.

On the strongest songs, Dominion/Mother Russia, Lucretia My Reflection and This Corrosion, the pompous 80’s goth-pop-rock atmospheres work well and make for some enjoyably catchy tracks. The other tracks, whilst not necessarily bad, are either not so successful variations on those tracks, or slightly dirgey and not that memorable.

It’s an interesting listen, a nice little snapshot of a genre I’m not that au fait with, with a few good songs, but ultimately it’s not something I can see myself coming back to. Cusp of 2 and 3, but as I’m unlikely to return to it I’ll go high 2.
👭👭
Playlist submission: Dominion/Mother Russia

The Joshua Tree
Despite the pompousness, the generally unvarying musical palette, the earnest, self important hollowness of the lyrics and the clear dip in the middle this is an undeniably good album. Whatever you think of U2, Where The Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, With or Without You and Bullet the Blue Sky is a fantastic 4 track opening run, the first 3 in particular, as well known as they are, remain 3 excellent bits of expansive stadium rock U2 songwriting - great melodies, meaninglessly universal lyrics and simple, uncomplicated arrangements. Despite the cheesy spoken word America bits Bullet the Blue Sky is a nice welding of their post punk origins with a dollop of Joy Division gothicness and their aspirations of worldwide, and in particular American, popularity, creating an, unusually for them, muscular bit of music, driven by Clayton’s relentlessly simple and effective bass line.

It definitely feels like it loses steam after that. Running To Stand Still, Red Hill Mining Town, In God’s Country, Trip Through Your Wires, while perfectly serviceable bits of rock-populism don’t have the clear sighted, eyes on the prize, ambitious quality of those first three songs. It does pick up towards the end, One Tree Hill, Exit and Mothers of the Disappeared, while still not quite at the level of the opening run, are a notch above the tracks on the middle of the album.

I know The Edge gets a lot of stick for his rather basic delay based sound, but it’s interesting in an era of excessive guitar heroes, he eschews grandstanding and soloing, and his sound is crucial to the non-threatening open armed, big sound they are going for.

While not a massive U2 fan I’m not really a hater either, and I quite admire the ruthless efficiency of this album. And despite there being a notable lack of depth and shad in the end I can’t really refute the quality of some of the songs on here, and altogether it adds up to an enjoyably undemanding listen that I will very happily listen to again. 4.
🏜️🏜️🏜️🏜️
Playlist submission: Bullet the Blue Sky

Automatic For The People
I was listening to a podcast about Euro 84 the other day, when France won and Platini scored 9 goals in 5 games. Apparently he was in one of those periods where everything he did and everything he touched turned to gold. If the squad were playing cards he won, if he saw a horse race on TV he picked the winner, if they played tennis or table tennis he won, and everything on the pitch went his way, he knew France would win the tournament, it was inevitable.

I kind of get that feeling from this album, one of those times where it feels like every decision, every string arrangement, every guitar figure, every drum pattern, every piano and keyboard note and every bass line is just right, when the artistry and artisanship meet perfectly. It also sounds fantastic, and nothing like much else from 1992, either in songwriting style or production, almost timeless, or out of time you might say.

For the most part it's all glacially paced, with only Sidewinder and Man on the Moon really recalling their earlier upbeat jangly sound. But it’s a compelling, stunning album, melodically rich and emotionally, melancholically resonant with some of their finest songs: Drive, Try Not to Breathe, Everybody Hurts, Sweetness Follows, Nightswimming and Find the River. And the remaining, perhaps lesser known songs like Monty Got A Raw Deal, Ignoreland and Star Me Kitten are excellent too.

I can see why some people might have been hesitant about it, compared to their slightly more rough-edged 80s albums. From those 80s albums I’ve listened to they have the exciting sense of the band pushing the outer edges of their talent, but this feels different, that they moved beyond what they had done previously, striking out into a stately, magisterial assuredness.

A fantastic album from start to end, there’s no weak tracks, and no weak moments - I kept wanting to give it just one more listen. A clear 5.
✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️
Playlist submission: It could be all of them, but today it’s Sweetness Follows

Bossanova
I enjoyed Doolittle and its surfer alt rock, but I had heard a few songs from it previously. With Bossanova I was unaware of any of the tracks, and despite liking the album, I found it a bit underwhelming in comparison.

Cecilia Ann is very good, it has some of the vibes of doolittle with a bit more wiry post punk too, reminding me a bit of Magazine. Allison is great too, as is Ana and Havalina. In fact the songs with girl’s names are probably the best tracks, they all highlight their undoubted melodic sense. I think Velouria is a girl's name too, and that fits nicely on that bucket too. And it also works well where they play a bit with rhythms and tempos and lean into the post punk vibe as on Dig for Fire and Stormy Weather.

Where their proto-grunge and goth tendencies mix with their alt surfer vibes, like on Rock Show, Down to the Well or Hang Wire I find it less interesting and less memorable, putting me in mind of someone performatively wearing a big black hoody on a sunny day at the beach.

Overall it’s a good listen, and similar to Doolittle you can see it’s influence on what came after with the quiet loud bit, although, aside from a few exceptions, I don’t think many of those subsequent bands can match their melodic skill. I think it’s a notch below Doolittle, although still good, so I’ll put it at a high 3.
🧚🧚🧚
Playlist submission: Allison