Reviews by ikejiri

Foxbase Alpha
In the end I had to listen to this on YT, as Tidal doesn’t have all the tracks available, so it’s slightly difficult to rate as the listening experience is a bit fragmented, and occasionally, such is the nature of some of their music I wasn’t sure if it was one of their songs or a Vrbo advert.

I know their version of Only Love Can Break Your Heart, and I’ve always liked it, the dreamy electronic feel works well with the plaintive nature of the song, but I didn’t realise until today that it’s not Sarah Cracknell singing.

I really like Stoned To Say The Least, with its Richard Whitely sample and excellent, propulsive, nagging bass line as the song unfolds over a leisurely and excellent 7 minutes. Kiss and Make Up is great too, the 60s guitar and string arrangement with the dancey bass and drums is great. London Belongs to Me is another great, dreamy track, the harpsichord/keyboard part giving it a nice texture.

I didn’t listen to the US version of the album, although I did listen to Kiss and Make Up from it, which was released as a single, and that is another great track.

I do like their dreamy, spacey, slightly dubby, trip-hoppy, 60s lounge electronica, and I quite like the proto David Holmes, pre mid 90s use of movie and tv dialogue samples It does have a nice atmosphere that washes over you very pleasantly, although some of the bass and drum sounds do feel a little too early 90s, and while that washing over-ness is one of it’s strengths I think it does also slightly let it down, some of the tracks are a bit fillery and that does colour it with a slightly anodyne sheen. Overall though, despite the YT interruptions, it’s a very nice album, great for working to. I’ll go for a high 3
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Playlist submission: Stoned To Say The Least

Pink Flag
Another album of multiple short songs!

I know Three Girl Rhumba and I know how influential this album was, but I don’t think I’ve ever listened before.

It is right in the sweet spot between punk and post-punk, straddling both those genres; there’s some of the riffing and urgency of punk, but with an added (subtracted?) minimalist edge with some great bass hooks and drum patterns, as well as some sludgy creepiness like Strange. They also have a great line in catchy singalong melodies among the punkiness, Ex Lion Tamer, Pink Flag, Fragile for example. I also really like his voice, it’s of course not the most technical, but it has some of the punk sneer but with a slightly more detached feel.

With Guided By Voices and Circle Jerks the shorter tracks are the whole point of what they do, whereas on here the shorter tracks interspersed with longer tracks feels more considered as part of the overall feel and sequencing of the album. I don’t get the same feeling of frustration as I did with GBV, something like Feeling Called Love is only 82 seconds but feels like a fully formed song with a beginning, middle and end.

Although it's perhaps less in thrall to rock classicism It feels a bit like Marquee Moon in places, from the same year, as well as some of the Modern Lovers first album. There’s also a bit of Ramones in some of the more bubblegum punk moments, like the backing la la las on Mannequin or the overall feel of The Commercial. You can also hear the influence it has had through the years, Elastica most obviously, but also on Blur and some of the Strokes/Libertines era bands. And of course on some of the bands and music that immediately followed it, PiL, Magazine, Talking Heads and post-punk and new wave in general.

It’s a great punk/post-punk album, wth some great songs, some great bits of frantic urgency and minimalist, wiry grooves. A solid 4 but keen to let it percolate some more, I think it will improve.
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Playlist submission: Mannequin

The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Great album, I remember buying it when it came out and enjoyed it, but haven’t revisited recently, and didn’t even know they made a second album.

I love the percussion, drums and bass. As you would expect Paul Simonon and Tony Allen are superb, Simonon’s bass is dense and deep, but with some softness, and Tony Allen’s slightly jazzy shuffle and swing is fantastic. He’s less heralded perhaps, but some of Simon Tong’s guitar is also excellent, at times slightly psychedelic and spacey like the Verve, but never too showy, it’s always embellishing the music. And it’s interesting that a lot of the piano and organ evokes Parklife and the Great Escape, but whereas there was an exuberance to those albums, this has a much wearier feel, like there’s a few more miles on the clock.

It also stands slightly apart from its contemporaries in the late 2000s, it’s influences are more folk and dub, with a bit of spacey rock, and its sounds less dated than a lot of music from that period. Despite the slightly downbeat themes and atmospheres it still has a degree of life and an emotional weight that other albums in those years are perhaps missing.

The first half of the record is particularly strong, History Song, 80s Life, Northern Whale are all great, and Kingdom of Doom and Herculean are absolutely superb. Herculean has a great, catchy melody and I love how it builds to a slightly frenetic close. The Bunting Song is also excellent, another great forlorn melody and melancholy feel, but with added electronic beeps and noises. It perhaps does stick too closely to the formula after that, not that any of the remaining songs aren’t very good, they are, but they tend to retreat into more hypnotic, repeating grooves, which are great, but it could perhaps do with a little more contrast and perhaps less restraint, although the fantastic title track does build on it’s evocative, doleful melody, building to a brilliant, expansive crescendo.

Despite the fact it stays largely within its own furrow this is a great album, melancholy and plaintive, but with some superb melodies, and some utterly fantastic playing. A high 4.
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Playlist submission: The Good, The Bad and the Queen.

The Köln Concert
I thought this was absolutely fantastic. I’m definitely more open to Jazz than I was before doing this, although I don’t think this felt particularly jazzy, apart from the fact it was improvised. It feels more like a classical piano composer like Lizst or Satie or Debussy, or a more modernist composer like Bartok or Phillip Glass, but made up on the spot.

As well as his incredible touch and tenderness there is something very visual about his playing, managing to conjure images and movements, incredible really for one man on a subpar piano. And I love the growling and shouting when he hits upon a passage he knows is great.

And the amazing backstory really does add to the whole thing, knowing the limitations of a slightly fucked baby grand has resulted in in an hour of superb improvised playing.

This is a 5, just incredible skill and its virtuosic in the greatest sense, it’s not empty technical mastery or grandstanding, it’s just an exceptional hour of moving, magnificent piano playing
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Playlist submission: It’s all great, but I did like Part IIb for some particular reason

Group Sex
This is completely what it is meant to be; 14 short US punk songs lasting 15 minutes. All the tracks are perfectly serviceable for what they are, and there are some good little hooks and moments (the tempo change on I Just Want Some Skank, the solo on World Up My Ass, the surf tom toms on Don’t Care) across it, but the point is not to develop or craft ‘proper’ songs or anything out of the tracks, the point is entirely to write noisy, angry, short, sharp, earnest missives.

It’s a tricky one to rate. Although it got better with repeat listens, it’s not musically or sonically all that interesting, despite some good moments, so it hovers around the 1s or 2s. But it doesn’t feel like they were interested in being musically or sonically interesting, so on their own terms it’s very successful, and I do quite admire that, especially as I get genuine sincerity and lack of pretension from it, which elevates it on the border of 2 and 3.

So, on balance I’ll go a 2. That puts it on a par with The Dictators, which feels about right. A worthwhile listen, and I’m glad it came up, but I’ve got all I’ll ever get from it across the 3 listens I’ve had.
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Playlist submission: Back Against The Wall

The Dreaming
This was a real grower, becoming more fascinating and more enjoyably off beat the more I listened. Initially though it felt a bit of a mixed bag, Sat In Your Lap and Pull Out The Pin I liked immediately, but the musical theatre aspects seemed too prominent and drowned out the more subtle and interesting elements.

However with further listens that gap between those two things started to blur. There Goes A Tenner’s cock-erny opening verses stood out at first as a little too am dram, but with repeat listens it seemed to make more sense, not only narratively but in contrast with the middle sections, helping morph the whole song into something quite odd and rather brilliant.

While there are still occasions where those theatrical tendencies threaten to overwhelm, she always manages to either pull it back or push it into more unusual and compelling places.

The run from Sat In Your Lap to Suspended in Gaffa is fantastic, I love the rasp in her voice in the I love life part of Pull Out The Pin. The Dreaming is another song that at first felt too like a musical, but again it really benefited from repeat listens, the sampled and looped voices and didgeridoo combining to give a slightly creepy, otherworldly, dreamtime feel. Night of the Swallow is a superb song, perhaps the most conventionally structured, but still with enough texture and unsettling drums, and a beautiful vocal and lyric. I think there is a slight sense of drift with All of the Love and Houdini, or at least a sense that they aren’t quite at the same level as the preceding songs, despite a suitably odd atmosphere to All of the Love. Get Out Of My House is superb though, the anger in the screams feels very real, and musically it feels like something from the Peter Gabriel Melt album, with the guitar and drums.

While there are some great melodies and hooks, there’s a lot of brilliant stuff happening rhythmically with the percussion, Fairlight and the piano. It put me in mind of Fetch the Bolt Cutters quite a bit, and, although it’s a bit reductive to always compare female singers to each other, it feels like there is a throughline, not just rhythmically but also in the sense of true self expression

It’s definitely an album that rewards time and effort, appreciation doesn’t necessarily come easily, it’s full of oblique corners and unexpected deviations into strange places, and it has a definite weight and density to it, despite the slightly floaty and ethereal character that hovers over it. It moved up from the 3s to the 4s after repeat listens. I’m not quite sure it reaches a 5 but it’s a high 4, a fantastically strange and intriguing album.
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Playlist submission: Pull Out The Pin

The Stones Roses
This definitely feels like lightning in a bottle, a great combination of musicians in exactly the right balance at the right time. Squire’s guitar is, of course, excellent, but it doesn’t dominate, or more accurately the Jimmy Page influence doesn’t yet dominate and result in too much noodling. Mani’s bass is superbly melodic and works beautifully with Reni's fantastic, shuffling drums. Despite the Madchester label, the rhythms aren’t overtly dancey, but they are more roll than rock and definitely suggest danceability. And all the obvious criticisms of Ian Brown’s voice are there, but it has been recorded brilliantly, and the thin etherealness suits it all so well. You only have to listen to the live tracks on the end of the deluxe edition to realise how good they are on here.

I’m not necessarily a fan of the backmasking on Don’t Stop, but aside from that every other song is fantastic, it all flows so fantastically, and even the less obvious songs like Shoot You Down, Sugar Spun Sister and Bye Bye Badman have such great moments of melody and playing. Made of Stone in particular has really grown on me in recent years, This is The One is superb, Waterfall too, of course, I Wanna Be Adored, brilliant, and I loved I Am The Resurrection as a teen when I first got into them, but I really love She Bangs The Drums, one of the most summery, sunshiney songs imaginable.

There is of course a lot of nostalgia and university memories all tied up in it too, which only adds to the warmth and brilliance of this, and even without that nostalgia its an undeniably great guitar op album
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Playlist submission: She Bangs the Drums

Purple Rain
1999 and Sign ‘O’ the Times both got 4, but this is an easy 5; 9 excellent tracks, all done and dusted in a superbly crisp and enjoyable 42 minutes.

Let’s Go Crazy is an absolute banger, one of my favourite Prince songs, and up there with When Doves Cry and Purple Rain, but the rest of the songs are great as well, with some superb hooks and melodies. I love the little acoustic guitar figure on Take Me With U, and it’s a brilliantly catchy song. I love the 80s power ballad vibes of The Beautiful Ones, culminating in some Macca-esque vamping.
Computer Blue is another great song, the piano motif and drum machine rhythms excellently set up for the solo passage leading into Darling Nikki. I have some practical questions concerning the opening lines, but nonetheless it's a brilliantly smutty bit of 80 tiny sex man r’n’b.

When Doves Cry always seems to be one of those songs that pre-existed the time I first heard it, the piano hook and whole construction of it just feels immediately right. I’ve always tended to overlook I Would Die 4 U, but listening properly now I realise what a great song it its, the shimmering drum machine/synth part and chorus melody picked out by the piano is super. I love Baby I’m A Star, a great bit of propulsive, energetic synthy disco funk, a great bit of sequencing before the brilliantly grandiose and widescreen Purple Rain.

I do love Controversy, 1999 and Around The World In A Day, as well as Sign ‘O’ the Times, but this is probably his best, most consistently great album - every programmed drum beat, hook, melody and arrangement add up to a joyously great, undeniable disco-synth-pop-funk-rock classic.
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Playlist submission: Let’s Go Crazy

1984
Jump is fantastic, cheesy but undoubtedly a 80s synth-metal-pop classic. Panama is a fun bit of 80s pop metal too, with a great catchy chorus, and Hot For Teacher is a nice bit of dated silliness. The rest is largely forgettable 80s metal, apart perhaps from I’ll Wait, which has a nice bit of synth driven propulsion.

Of all the guitar heroes of this period I think Eddie Van Halen is maybe the least interesting, or for me the least expressive. There’s occasions when he gets a bit psychedelic like on the solo on Panama or with the bluesy shuffle riff of Hot For Teacher, but I feel pretty unmoved by his licks and solos, I don’t find myself admiring the technical proficiency, or particularly enjoying the melody, harmony and tone of his playing. And Dave Lee Roth, for all his renown for his 80s, sleazy, onstage showmanship and as a ‘character’, I’ve always found him to be a pretty uninspiring singer, his voice doesn’t have much sense of uniqueness or personality, and he’s also in general an awful lyricist.

Overall, one great song, 2 decent 80s rockers, with the rest being broadly routine 80s metal. It’s not execrable, but it’s not that interesting either. It’s on the cusp of 2 and 3, I’ll go 2 as I can’t see any reason to listen to the whole thing again.
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Playlist submission: Jump

Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Back
‘Clear the way for the ass to ass 1ws’
I know he doesn’t sing that, but it certainly sounds like it.

I don’t know this one as well as Fear of a Black Planet and A Nation of Millions, I do know it’s not quite as well regarded as those two, but listening through now I do it’s just as good as those. Because it is less densely produced, due to them re-recording and Hank Shocklee being less hands on, it’s more musically direct and with some of the live drumming has a more organic feel. I do love it when they go full kitchen sink, but this does benefit from the contrast with their other albums, even if thematically and lyrically it's still just as intense and aggressive.

Lost at Birth shows the less full on style, it’s just one descending, repeating siren rather than 8 sirens all competing at once, and the clarity makes it much more immediate, a great opening track. Can’t Truss It’s intro sounds a bit like The Way I Are by Timbaland I think, but I love the repeating horn piano breakdown samples. The guitar sample is also excellent on I Don’t Wanna Be Called Yo N***, and the bass is also excellent. By The Time I Get To Arizona is my standout, the bass sample/groove is mesmerically good. Move! Feels most akin to Black Planet and Nation of Millions in it’s sound. 1 Million Bottlebags, Shut ‘Em Down and Get The Fuck Out of Dodge are also great. I’m not sure the Anthrax version of Bring Tha Noise adds much to proceedings though

It’s interesting coming so soon on the list after 3 Feet High and Rising, as there are a few references to it, the same This is a Recording sample in Lost at Birth, Me, Myself and I in By the Time I Get to Arizona.

Over multiple listens I do think this is just as good as Black Planet Nations, the sound is a bit easier to digest, and there are some slower grooves and tempos, but lyrically it’s still as dense and as interesting and as confrontational, and it just gets into the 5s
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Playlist submission: By the Time I Get to Arizona

Talk Talk Talk
Dumb Waiters is great and of course Pretty in Pink is a classic, a new wave pop banger. I Want To Sleep With You is good too, if only for its directness, I like Mr Jones and also the subtle, nuanced Into You Like A Train. And All of This is Nothing’s acoustic intro is a nice misdirect before the band come back in.

You can hear the punk and specifically Lydon influence in the nasal, confrontational vocal delivery. It’s not the strongest voice, but it is effective, even if its charm does diminish somewhat over the course of the album. I also like the new wave sound, you can hear further Lydon influence in the PiL sound with the occasional drone, synth, scratchy guitar and overall atmospherics, although with more straightforward melodies and hooks. Not totally convinced by the amount of sax, but it does give a slight variation to their sound.

It’s an enjoyable album, a nice early 80s snapshot with one bona fide pop classic in Pretty in Pink. Not sure how often I’ll come back to it, but Pretty in Pink, as well as Dumb Waiters and Into You Like a Train ensure it's a solid 3.
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Playlist submission: Pretty in Pink

Alien Lanes
Another one of those bands I’d heard of but whose music and style I don’t really know.

I can hear some Replacements, some Pavement, some Dinosaur Junior, some punkishness, with some great melodies, hooks and riffs, but it’s ultimately a bit of a frustrating listen. Not for the muddy sound, which I actually really like, it’s just when you are getting into a song it ends and they do another one, sometimes good, sometimes not so good, and then they abruptly finish that one and do the same thing again. I don’t know whether it's a wilful lo-fi-ness, a slacker can’t be arsed to finish thing, or an artistic statement. If it is from an underground sense of obtuseness. I kind of admire it, but at the same time it feels like a shame, as 10 or 12 of these songs fleshed out could make a great album, or if they just did ten 2 minute songs for a sharp 20 minute album.

It also feels like they must have been an influence on Blur and specifically Coxon, Chicken Blows feels a lot like a Blur/13 era song.

There’s lots of great stuff on here, little snippets and gems of punky lo-fi pop, but the songs are so brief and come and go so quickly that it’s hard to get a real handle on it. I’d listen again though and am intrigued to try some of their other albums, I’ll go 3.
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Playlist submission: Blimps Go 90.

Fleet Foxes
I haven’t listened to this in a while, so it’s nice revisiting, and this has to be one of the most ‘pleasant to listen to albums’, the folky acoustic, the canorous and expressive lead guitar, the vocals and vocal harmony, the reverby atmosphere, the sweet melodies it all makes for a warm, soothing, restorative listen.

I occasionally wonder though whether there’s a great deal beyond that, is it an exercise in style and mood rather than a fully satisfying album? But then I think the sound, the atmosphere, the niceness of it all is more than enough, and it exudes such an agreeable sense of joyfulness and craftsmanship, that you only really need to take it at face value and simply enjoy. And beneath the sweetness of the sound I think it does have sufficient depth and substance to it, which stops it from becoming too earnest, or too twee or too Mumford and Sons.

I’ve always loved Sun It Rises, the harmonies plus the circular little riff are fantastic, and White Winter Hymnal is of course superb. Tiger Mountain is also great, and I love the melody of He Doesn’t Know Why. But it’s some of the songs I forgot about that I really noticed listening now, Heard Them Stirring with its great organ undercurrent, Meadowlarks spare gentleness is really lovely and the finish of Blue Ridge Mountains with the piano and Oliver James is super.

I’ve always loved the Bruegel cover too, it suits the music in it’s evocative, pastoral delightfulness, while having just enough oddness going on to be engaging.

It’s a great album, but I think it just falls short of a 5, so it stays as a very high 4.
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Playlist submission: Sun It Rises

A Date With The Everly Brothers
I can’t imagine what I’d have done if my dad came up to me when I was 16 and said ‘girls were made to love, that's why some have eyes of blue, that's why some stand five feet two’.

With a lot of the pre Beatles/Dylan/Stones albums and artists a lot of the value is the recognition of what bits those and subsequent artists took and were influenced by, and it can be easy to overlook the merits of the music itself. I think this one straddles that line. The fraternal close harmonies are timeless, and sound fantastic 65 years on, and that combined with some great country-rock’n’roll-pop songs; Made to Love, That’s Just Too Much, Always It’s You (lovely, longing sound on this), Love Hurts, So How Come, Cathy's Clown, makes this an immensely enjoyable album in it’s own right, conjuring images of checkered sports jackets, state fairs, high school basketball and Saturday night at the hop. When it goes more bluesy, as onStick With Me Baby, or the more overtly rock’n’roll Lucille it’s less convincing, if still enjoyable

But you can also hear the influence, particularly on the Beatles early records; the harmonies, some of George’s guitar lines (although I presume they were also influenced by Carl Perkins) and the country shuffle and swing of the drums.

The quality of their harmonies, the quality of the songs, the 30 minute brevity and their influence on who followed make this a great record, and an easy 4.
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Playlist submission: Cathy's Clown

Spiderland
I’m sure I’ve heard the name Slint mentioned before, but I didn’t really have any preconceptions before listening, apart from remembering they might be a grunge/alt rock band judging from the name, and year of release.

While it has the feel of early 90s US alt rock I found this far more interesting and engrossing than a lot of that music. The tempo, guitar sound, sparseness, and repeating, mesmeric grooves and riffs are musically and emotionally much more satisfying and resonant than many of their peers.

There’s a bit of Neil Young/Crazy Horse, a bit of Sonic Youth, and you can hear Steve Albini’s production style clearly, but it feels apart and separate. It’s drums, bass, guitar and vocals but it has a distinct feel and atmosphere; tense, eerie and reserved, but also confident and assured, it’s pretty unique.

Aside from the guitar tone I love the drumming, it’s got a slight Can and Dub feel to it, it’s slightly spacey and untethered, but also hits some great grooves alongside the guitars. And I like how the alternating spoken word and singing helps give it’s own character too, without the stereotypical US rock voice of the period.

After the first listen I wasn’t expecting to end up liking this as much as I did, it’s very hypnotic, and I was very happy to let it run on repeat, the swirling and narcotic atmosphere washing over me. I’m certain this will improve with more listens and it’s almost a 5, but I’ll go 4.
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Playlist submission: Washer

3 Feet High & Rising
So many great memories of this album, helped by not being able to listen to it between getting rid of all my cds and all the rights being sorted and it coming on streaming.

To get the one negative out of the way first, like many Hip Hop albums, the skits and fillery tracks do disrupt the flow, and apart from the ‘gonna win all the money’ line, they don’t bear the weight of repeat listens.

But apart from that it absolutely holds up as a brilliantly joyous, inventive, kaleidoscopic record of samples and vibes - it still is a fantastic album. The Magic Number, Eye Know, Me Myself and I are high water marks for sunshiney, catchy golden-age hip hop, but there are superb songs throughout - Change in Speak, Jenifa, Ghetto Thang, Tread Water, Potholes in My Lawn, Say No Go, Plug Tunin’, Buddy, This Is a Recording. Samplewise its as dense and as intricately constructed as Paul’s Boutique, but I couple I really love are, Kraftwerk on Ghetto Thang, Peg on Eye Know, I Can’t Go For That on Say No Go.

The overall atmosphere and feel is fantastic, even the skits and filler cant bring down the mood, it still one of the funnest and most enjoyable listens - easy 5
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Playlist submission: Eye Know

Private Dancer
I listened to the 10 track international edition, rather than the 9 track US edition.

I do like the 80s-ness of this, but I’m not sure it actually makes for a great album. When it works well, when the songs written for her and the song choices are good it’s very enjoyable, there’s a nice contrast between her distinctively fantastic 70s soul voice and the slick 80s production. I Might Have Been Queen, the excellent What’s Love Got To Do With It, I Can’t Stand the Rain, Let’s Stay Together and the great Private Dancer all work really well.

But the flipside is that when the song choices aren’t great or the songs aren’t as good, it doesn’t work that well, and not even her voice can cover over the deficiencies. While some of the changes in the chorus are nice, Show Some Respect’s deliberate referencing of Nutbush City Limits just makes you want to listen to Nutbush City Limits. Better Be Good to me is ok, if a bit forgettable. And Steel Claw just isn’t a good song. I don’t mind the sound of 1984, and although I would give credit to her and Heaven 17 as Bowie fans for picking it, but you can’t escape the feeling that it was chosen because they were making the record in the year 1984. And the cover of Help is woeful - tempo, sound, instrumentation, everything - it just feels utterly pointless and devoid of any meaning or sense of interpretation.

Overall a bit of a mixed bag, it’s all enjoyable enough in an 80s way, but with a few stand outs. Think that’s a solid 3 then.
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Playlist submission: What’s Love Got to Do With It

Fetch the Bolt Cutters
One of those names I know, but who’s music I’m not really that familiar with. I wasn’t sure about it on first listen, it felt a bit like a deliberately obtuse Phoebe Buffet, but serendipitously the episode about Criminal on 60 Songs that Explain the 90s came up on my podcast feed, and that gave me a bit more background and context, which helped when I came back to it.

On repeat listens I started to really really like it, the focus on percussion and rhythm gives it a slightly unsettling, unpredictable, shifting feel, with some lovely piano lines and little memorable melodies peeking through and around the slightly cluttered sound. The structure and approach feels quite like jazz, even if the sound itself isn’t particularly jazzy, apart from a bit of double bass, and there also seems to be quite a bit of Tom Waits.

Shameika, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Ladies, Heavy Balloon, For Her and Drumset are the standouts, I keep singing the refrains from Shameika and Fetch the Bolt Cutters to myself, but For Her is probably my favourite, dense, sad, angry, a great great song.

From being a little lukewarm about at first I ended up thinking this is a great album, slightly odd and off balance, but always fascinating, to the point where yesterday afternoon I just wanted to keep listening to it. Definitely one I’m going to come back to. 4.
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Playlist submission: For Her

Casanova
I don’t think I particularly liked the Divine Comedy when this came out - they’ve got all the hallmarks of a band I wouldn’t have liked as a teenager - but listening now has triggered a long forgotten memory that I bought the Becoming More Like Aflie single.

Something for The Weekend and Becoming More Like Alfie are a great start, both excellent 60s-lounge adjacent pop songs, but it’s definitely a bit of a mixed bag after that. Some of it I really enjoyed and some of it grated. When it’s on the right side of knowing archness it’s a great cabaret-chamber-pop album with some nicely wry lyrics - Down and Out in Paris and London, Songs of Love and Through A Long and Sleepless Night I really liked and The Frog Princess is excellent. But it often stumbles the other way, and you get a sense of slightly smug self satisfaction, the feeling he’s not quite as clever as he thinks he is and the music becomes too cabaret and too musical theatre - Middle Class Heroes, Charge, Theme from Casanova and The Dogs and the Horses are all quite irritating.

He has a great ear for a melody and a hook, and he's more often than not a very good lyricist, and I quite like the 60s cinematic lounge style of Something for the Weekend and Becoming More Like Alfie a lot, I just get a bit lost when he leans to heavily into cabaret. It’s probably just about tips into a 3.
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Playlist submission: Becoming More Like Alfie

Surf’s Up
I used to listen to quite a few albums from the Wild Honey to Holland period, when I was in Japan for the 2nd stint a friend of mine was very into them, particularly this period, and I kind of got into it via osmosis. I bought most of the albums on CD, when they used to put two albums on one disc, but I haven’t revisited them that much recently.

This period is definitely interesting, if a bit inconsistent, but there are some real gems and this is definitely one of the best, even if it’s just for the fantastic Feel Flows, the superb title track and a nice sense of amiably directionless eccentricity.

There are undoubtedly a few missteps. Musically I really like Don’t Go Near the Water, but you can tell Mike Love wrote it, as the lyrics are characteristically bad. And Student Demonstration Time has a very unhip Osmonds rocker feel to it, and again you can tell it’s a Mike Love composition from the fact it isn't very good. Take A Load Off Your Feet I like for its oddness, but it does feel a little inconsequential. I can also see how some might find Disney Girls schmaltzy and saccharine, but rather than cloying I find it has sweet and affecting sentimentality.

But outside those there are some superb songs, Long Promised Road, the utterly fantastic Feel Flows, one of their greatest songs, and the superb closing trio of A Day in the Life of a Tree, ‘Till I Die and Surf’s Up. Fantastic melodies, atmospheres and themes across those tracks, I love the idea of a song from a tree’s perspective, and the moving melancholy of Surf’s Up is superb. But Feel Flows really is a fantastic song, the phased Moog and veiled lyrics combing brilliantly.

As much of a visionary as Brian Wilson is, I don’t always find I enjoy many of the songs from his dominance of their post-surf era. While I admire Pet Sounds, I’m not sure I truly love it, and I find in this period, where Carl and Dennis come to the fore a little more, it’s a bit more relaxed and less controlled, and little oddities, naiveties and eccentricities are allowed to come to the surface, and we get some variation from Brian’s melodic style. As on this album it doesn’t always bear totally convincing fruit, but there is a loose, warm charm to it that I really like. It’s right on the cusp of 4 and 5, some great songs, some flaws, so I think it just falls shy of a 5, a high 4 it is.
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Playlist submission: Feel Flows