Reviews by ikejiri

A Grand Don’t Come For Free
I’m mmmmassshhhhed

I loved this album when it came out, I really listened to the shit out of it. I have revisited it intermittently over the years since, and I still think it’s great, it wasn’t really like many other albums at the time, and is pretty unique now, with it’s homemade beats, Brummie accented slightly awkward flows, and very British and wryly observed lyrics and lines. That many of the choruses and hooks sound like they were created by someone who can’t sing just adds to the whole thing for me.

I’ve always really liked horns on It Was Supposed to Be So Easy, and I love the Birmingham twinge on ‘money’. It's a great track, one of the stronger songs alongside the brilliant Blinded By the Lights, the bouncy holiday fun of Fit But You Know It and the beery heartache of Dry Your Eyes. I do actually like all the songs to varying degrees and they all work with the overall story. The only real misstep for me is when it gets a bit Craig David at the end of Wouldn’t Have it Any Other Way, ‘the ash tray needs emptying…’

One other thing that has always bothered me too, is how did the £1,000 fall into the back of the TV? Even if it was twenty £50 notes and it was a CRT TV with air vents I don’t know how that could actually fall in the back?

But ultimately it’s a great album, with a unique, singular feel to it. I get why people hate it and hate his rapping style, but to me he’s not so much a rapper as rhyming colloquialist, and I just really like his music. Cusp of 4 and 5, I’ll tip over to 5.
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Playlist submission: Fit But You Know It

Clube Da Esquina
Wasn’t sure what to expect with this one - I presumed it might be in a similar vein to other Brazilian albums we’ve had like Astrud Gilberto or Machito or Elis Regina, enjoyable if not particularly my sort of thing.

However it’s not like those at all, you can hear some Bossa Nova and Samba but there’s a lot more folk and pleasant oddness to it. It’s not as overtly psychedelic as Os Mutantes, but it does share some of that, as well as some more ‘Western’ rock’n’roll. It actually reminds me a bit of The Incredible String band with an added bit of Prog and Samba.

That doesn’t sound like it should work, but it does, it’s great! It has a real sense of creative and artistic freedom and exploration, a kind of relaxed sprawling-ness, without self consciousness or pomposity. Reading about the time it was made, under the military dictatorship, it’s seeming carefreeness is in sharp relief to the oppressiveness of the regime.

It is quite long, but it does have a great ebb and flow, I never really drifted off at any point, it always stayed engaging, even if I have no clue what they’re singing about. In some ways I like not knowing, it all adds to the curiousness and sense of exploration. O Trem Azul has a lovely lilt and groove to it, as does Saídas e Bandeiras Nº 1. Cravo e Canela I really liked, San Vicente has a very Beatles between Pepper and the White album feel to it, Paisagem Da Janela is great in that vein too. Os Povos I liked, Um Gosto De Sol has more George Martin/Beatles vibes. Pelo Amor de Deus has a nice psychedelic folk vibe and along with Lilia it might be my favourite track.

There’s a lot of great bass playing too alongside the keys and and acoustic guitars, the whole thing has a lovely sway, from marching tempos to more breezy tempos.

Overall I really liked it. and it’s one of the albums that makes doing this fun, it’s one I would never have heard of without the list, and it makes slogging through some of the not so good albums very worthwhile. I’m tempted to go 5 - it’s been a while since I got carried away and given a 5 to an album I’ve only just heard, and although I’ve listened through about 5 times I feel I need to listen some more, but fuck it I’ll go 5.
📐📐📐📐📐
Playlist submission: Pelo Amor de Deus

The Wildest!
This isn’t at all wild, but it’s very enjoyable in an Elf/LA Confidential/When Harry Met Sally soundtrack way. It’s a very easy listen with a nice sense of fun and playfulness, the New Orleans swing really gives it some movement and life. The horns aren’t overbearing as they often can be and I really like the combination of his and Keely Smith’s vocals, his growling jumpy exuberance and her chatty jazzy style have a nice carefree feel together.

In the right mood I’d definitely listen again, but it probably won’t go into heavy rotation, making it a solidly enjoyable 3.
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Playlist submission: (Nothing’s Too Good For My Baby)

Natty Dread
Looking back at Catch a Fire I feel similarly about this, although I think the grooves and overall song quality is better here; Lively Up Yourself, No Woman No Cry (although it’s not quite as good as the more well known live version), Them Belly Full, Rebel Music, Natty Dread, Talkin Blues and Revolution are all excellent, but in truth all the tracks are good and it’s a very listenable album.

The rhythm section is fantastic, brilliantly in the pocket and the keys are also great, and the overall sound seems a bit better than Catch a Fire.

Not sure it’s quite a 5, but it's definitely a high 4.
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Playlist submission: Lively Up Yourself

Countdown to Ecstasy
This has always felt like a more streamlined progression from Can’t Buy a Thrill, the same elements of precision soft rock and jazz, but more high gloss and more focused, which then continues on to Pretzel Logic.

I totally get how something like Razor Boy’s glockenspiel could make it come across like lift music, but underneath that it’s a great track with lovely piano and interesting changes. That does go for a lot of the songs, the piano driven structure underneath the instrumentation gives it a sense of jazzy propulsion with a soft rock easy listening sheen over the top.

Like all their albums the sense of exactness and craft is all over it, I think the meticulousness of getting everything sounding correct and correctly in place is a big reason why I like SD so much, particularly on the first 3 albums.

For me there’s not a dud on the album but highlights would be the satirical Bodhisattva and Showbiz Kids, the picaresque The Boston Rag, My Old School and the superb, bass-driven King of the World. The second side in particular is excellent from Show Biz Kids to King of the World.

Like Can’t But a Thrill and Pretzel Logic and like Aja will be, this is an easy 5.
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Playlist submission: King of the World

I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got
I found this a genuinely moving listen. I recently listened to a podcast about Nothing Compares 2 U, I knew a bit about her life, but it really is very sad what happened to her as a child with her abusive mother, and what happened later in her life with her mental and physical health struggles, leading to up to her death, and the overall the perniciousness of the Catholic Church in her life and her struggles with religion. It definitely paints this album in a much more poignant light.

Her voice, of course, is excellent, she combines tenderness and delicateness with forcefulness and anger brilliantly, and whatever she sings she sings with sincerity.

I really love the Nellee Hooper pre trip-hop pre Bjork production on I Am Stretched on Your Grave, it’s a superb track. Three Babies is a lovely delicate tune and vocal with a nicely cryptic lyric. It does sound a bit Enya in places with the swell of the strings, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

Black Boys on Mopeds is superb as well, balancing the political and personal without being cloying or lumpish. Nothing Compares 2 U is of course excellent, perhaps it suffers from its ubiquity but it is a fantastic bit of music and she really makes it her song, interpreting it so brilliantly.

It closes out really well with the final two songs, particularly the excellent I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.

I was surprised how much I liked this, although it does sound quite late 80s early 90s in places, I wasn’t expecting it to be as good, the lyrics and Irish influenced folk rock is great, without veering too much into The Cranberries or Enya. Easy 4
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Playlist submission: Could be a few, but I’ll go with I Am Stretched on Your Grave

Being There
I bought this around the time it came out. It seems odd looking back that I bought an alt country album in 1996 when I was solidly mid-Britpop, but I remember hearing Outtasite (Outta Mind) on the radio and liking it enough that I bought the album. I also remember loving I Got You (At the End of the Century).

Anyway I did like it a lot then, even if it was probably more country than I expected, but nowadays it would be the Wilco album I listen to least.

Listening now it's definitely still a really good album, with a nice mix of styles on top of their country rock foundation - the Stax-esque horns, Stonesey guitar and country inflections of the excellent Monday is great and there is some really nice oddness and experimentalism spread across the track, with some lovely melodies and delicate moments

It is definitely unnecessarily long though, and it doesn’t need to be a double album. There aren’t really any bad songs as such, it's just there’s just too many, meaning the 2nd half of the disc 2 definitely drags. The Lonely 1 is a lovely song and one of the strongest on the album, but it does get a bit lost in that drag, as does the hoedown stomp of Dreamer in my Dreams.

Alongside Outtasite, Monday, The Lonely 1 and Dreamer of my Dreams there are other excellent tracks: Misunderstood, Red-Eyed & Blue, I Got You (At the End of the Century), Hotel Arizona, Say You Miss Me, Sunken Treasure, Someone Else’s Song, Kingpin (Was I ) In Your Dreams. Those tracks would make an excellent single album.

You can definitely see the start of what made their subsequent albums great, the hints of experimentation with sounds and textures, their eclectic approach to songwriting and an overall careworn feel, but it's much more tied to Tweedy’s country roots with those punk and rock’n’roll touchstones. This is not a bad album in any way due to that, but as they start to get less clearly tethered to their country foundations and add more off kilter pop to their sound you can really sense them making big leaps forward into more interesting territory, especially when Glen Kotche joined after Summerteeth. Ken Coomer is a good drummer, but Kotche is a step above and allowed them to be more rhythmically dynamic

If this had been a single disc album it may have just got into the 5s. It’s s a high quality set of songs but it just a bit too long, and isn't quite at the level of their next 3 or 4 albums
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Playlist submission: Monday

Bookends
This is on the same level BOTW as my favourite S&G album, even if it feels slightly more piecemeal than BOTW despite the concept, but it does have the imperiously magnificent America and the fantastic Save the Life of My Child, Overs, Fakin’ It, Mrs Robinson, A Hazy Shade of Winter and At the Zoo.

The Moog on Save the Life of my Child is pretty interesting and must be one of the earliest examples on a major pop record? The song itself is great, and the Moog sounds more modern than other contemporaneous uses, I like the little Sound of Silence interpolations and the whole thing mixes melody and experimentalism in a fantastic way. And crossfades superbly into the majesty of America, brilliantly taking the specifics of the first song into the wider picture and open narrative of the latter. Overs is great, the bluesy folky intro building up to Art’s ethereal entrance at 1.16. Voices of Old People does it’s job in the context of the concept of the first side, and I like the ‘an old person without money is ‘ line, but it does slow down the momentum into the delicateness and melancholy of Old Friends and the plaintiveness of Bookends a little.

I’ve always loved Fakin’ It, it has a little vibe of those S&G and Paul Simon uptempo acoustic songs like Baby Driver or Keep the Customer Satisfied or Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard, but with a more folky structure. Punky’s Dilemma is not a bad song, but does feel a little throwaway in comparison to the songs around it especially as its followed by Mrs Robinson, A Hazy Shade of Winter and At the Zoo.

It’s an easy 5, some of their best songs, a concept done brilliantly on the first side and an overall sense of personal wistfulness and introspection against wider musings on contemporary society and culture, all tied together with Paul Simon’s slightly off kilter melodic brilliance and Art’s graceful and otherworldly vocals.
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Playlist submission: America

Like a Prayer
Madness might be an archetypal ‘best of’ band, but Madonna must have one of the best Greatest Hits compilations and her run of singles from her first one up to, say, Justify My Love, has a fucking crazy hit rate:
Everybody - great
Burning Up - absolute banger, one of my favs
Holiday - absolute banger
Lucky Star - absolute banger
Borderline - absolute banger
Like a Virgin - absolute banger
Material Girl - absolute banger
Crazy For You - absolute banger
Angel - great
Into the Groove - absolute banger
Dress You Up - banger
Gambler - banger
Live to Tell - absolute banger
Papa Don’t Preach - absolute banger
True Blue - absolute banger
Open Your Heart - absolute banger, possibly my fav
La Isla Bonita - absolute banger (last night I danced with some Pedro)
Who’s That Girl - absolute banger
Causing a Commotion - banger
Spotlight - decent
Like a Prayer - absolute banger
Express Yourself - absolute banger
Cherish - banger
Oh Father - decent
Dear Jessie - decent
Keep it Together - decent
Vogue - absolute banger
Hanky Panky - erm, not great
Justify My Love - great

And then later on she has Take a Bow, Frozen, Ray of Light, Drowned World, Beautiful Stranger, Music, Hung Up.

Anyway there are three of those absolute bangers on here in Like A Prayer, Express Yourself and Cherish. The rest don’t ever quite reach those heights, but looking at that list you could argue that Like a Prayer or Express Yourself are among the best in her entire catalogue, so what does? They’re both joyfully fantastic songs of course, but for some reason I really love Express Yourself, there’s something about the melody line and percussion I just love. I had a nice silent disco dance to it earlier when I was making a cup of tea.

Love Song is very Prince, but also what you might imagine a Madge/Prince (Pridge? Pradonna?) fusion to be and it’s definitely a grower. In fact most of the songs are growers, Till Death Do Us Part I really liked, Promise to Try I wasn’t keen on initially but it is a very nice piano ballad. Dear Jessie has a pleasing quirkiness, and Oh Father might have one of her best vocals. She’s an incredibly distinctive and characterful vocalist, but not necessarily the strongest, most technical singer, but on this she sounds fantastic. Keep it Together may not be as strong as many of her singles but it’s still a superior bit of synth-funk-pop. Spanish Eyes is also a grower, it feels cheesy initially but is actually a very nice melody and atmosphere. Act of Contrition is more Pridge, but isn't totally successful, even as a bit of experimental fun.

It’s probably not consistent enough as a full album to get into the 5s, but it's a high 4 - anything containing Like a Prayer, Express Yourself and Cherish can’t be anything less.
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Playlist submission: As good as Like A Prayer is, I do love Express Yourself

The Rise & Fall
I used to love my cassette copy of the best of Madness when I was about 12. I have memories of playing Super Kick Off on my Game Gear while listening to it on my Sanyo walkman in the back of the car driving through France on holiday.

They are definitely one of the best greatest hits bands, loads of excellent (and some not so excellent) singles, but I’ve never listened to one of their ‘proper’ albums. I know Suggs can divide opinion, and he’s not the greatest vocalist, but he is quite distinctive, he does give the songs some character and he does have some good lines and lyrics.

It may be through familiarity but Tomorrow’s Just Another Day and Our House are the standouts, both excellent bits of pop music, with Tomorrow's Just Another Day’s sombre lyrics contrasting nicely with the upbeat chorus. But there are other decent songs too, Rise and Fall, Blue Skinned Beast, Sunday Morning, Tiptoes, That Face, Calling Cards. There’s a definite sense of maturity on many of the songs that falls outside the House of Fun Nutty Boys persona, and more influences on top of their core ska foundation, a fair bit of jazz and music hall in the piano in particular.

The playing is good as well, the keys and piano underpin a lot of it and they can still create a nice lilting ska-style groove on most tracks, Tiptoe for example is great on this count.

Not everything works though. I do not care for Madness (Is All in the Mind) at all, the jazziness feels overly confected and the whole thing is annoying. New Delhi is also a bit of an odd one - I actually like the groove and tune, but it doesn’t necessarily feel that sincere in its approximation of Indian sounds and instruments in the way that other songs by other people in that vein do. And the Indian accents in the outro sound quite jarring to modern ears

It’s a solid album that’s very listenable. A couple of great tracks, a handful of decent ones and a few that miss the mark. I think that makes it mid-high 3.
💹➕🍂
Playlist submission: Our House

Night Life
Quite the contrast to Public Enemy.

I really like the crooning vocals and slightly jazzy drumming with the bluesy reverb heavy guitars and pedal steel on the title track, and I also like the more obviously Honky Tonk The Wild Side of Life.

And those two songs are pretty much the general vibe for the rest of it, with it not deviating too far from either, all tied together with that kind of country-jazz crooning - e sounds a lot like Dean Martin singing on the Rio Bravo soundtrack on Sittin’ and Thinkin’ in particular.

Luckily I do like those two song types, I also really like his voice and the downbeat lyrical themes, so overall this was a very pleasant 40 minutes. I’d definitely listen again, but I don’t think it's quite worthy of a 4, so I’ll stick with a solid 3.
😴😴😴
Playlist submission: Night Life

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
I did have this album on CD at uni, I think inspired by watching that Channel 4 series, The Hip Hop years. I liked it a lot back then and like it alot now.

It is interesting listening to it after listening to Fear of a Black Planet for the first time last month. Obviously they are cut from the same cloth, both a righteous pummeling of noises, samples, anger and beats that make you feel quite exhausted by the end of the hour. Although it’s an enjoyable, exciting pummelling. I always thought the CD version sounded a little thin, despite the kitchen sink production, and although it does sound much better than I remember and packs quite a punch it doesn’t quite have the fullness of the sound on FOABP.

It also perhaps feels less groove-laden than FOABP, with fewer obvious soul samples and more pounding rhythms and quicker tempos, accentuating the lyrics and rapping.

The well known tracks, Bring the Noise, Don’t Believe the Hype, Night of the Living Baseheads (don’t think I ever noticed the Bowie sample before, even though it's obvious), Rebel Without a Pause and Prophets of Rage do stand out as the most immediate, but there are great tracks throughout, Louder than a Bomb, Caught Can We Get a Witness, She Watch Channel Zero?! and Party for Your Right to Fight are great, with the same density and aural bludgeon.

If FOABP is a 5 star this has to be too, it’s not exactly a relaxing listen but its density and chaotic power are pretty thrilling.
🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯

Cee-Lo Green… Is the Soul Machine
Fine, if a bit forgettable and far too long. There’s no need for this to be over an hour, particularly as there’s nothing as good as Fuck You to provide some focus

I do like his voice, and the sprawling nature of the album and oddities that pop up, and there are some nice moments across it. The Neptunes produced Art of Noise is cool. All Day Love Affair is also good, the horns are very nice, but it would be even better without the little wah guitar licks. I like the theremin/spooky noises on Scrap Metal’s verses, but the chorus kind of lets it down. Glockapella starts out unpromisingly but turns into a decent track, the slowed down Funkadelic interpolation is good.

It’s not unlistenable, it just needs a bit of an edit and a few more good songs to elevate it. I wouldn’t be averse to listening again but I can’t imagine I’d ever come back to it, I’d rather listen to Outkast for this kind of thing as they do it much better. On the cusp of 2 and 3, maybe a bit mean but I’ll stick on a high 2
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Playlist submission: All Day Love Affair

Dig Me Out
I think I would have really liked this when it came out. It’s fun and punchy with a nice punky energy, and there are some good hooks and songs, especially when the lead lines go a bit droning and dissonant. However, and although it does have a point of difference, it does get a bit too generic 90s US alt rock adjacent at times for me.

Dig Me Out is a good example of the whole album; fun, great attack, energetic spirit, nice guitar lines, brief and to the point, confident and charming but perhaps lacking a bit of swing or rhythmic variation or some kind of je ne sais quoi to make it really good. Turn it On is probably my stand out, the almost Indian guitar licks give it a pleasingly different texture. Words and Guitar and It’s Enough are also very good, the lead lines giving a similarly nice tone, and the change of pace of Jenny is nice too.

Overall it's one of those albums where, despite the appealing energy and overall brevity, you start to feel the limitations of the guitar, bass and drums format. That doesn’t make it bad, there are some very good tracks, and I would listen again in the right mood, but it doesn’t quite get above being decent, making it a solid to high 3.
⛏️⛏️⛏️
Playlist submission: Turn it On

Maxinquaye
I’m not sure why, but I’ve never listened to this, even though I’ve always thought I would like it, if I ever did listen to it, which I have now done, and I was right that I would like it, even before I ever listened to it, which I have now done.

It is a great album in the Portishead-Massive Attack milieu, but with it’s own distinct variances, mainly due to Tricky’s rapping style, subject matter and his lyrics being sung by Martina Topley-Bird - I suppose her being a cypher for his thoughts and the thoughts of his mum add to the sense of dislocation and unsettledness of much of the music.

The overall mood is pretty downbeat and hazy, as might be expected, but it sounds great, with a nice variety of instruments, samples and approaches, from scuzzy guitars to Public Enemy covers to Michael Jackson samples. I also like the Hell is Round the Corner story, that he apparently heard some early Portishead mixes and decided to use the same Isaac Hayes sample.

Suffocated Love is excellent and probably the standout track, but there’s great stuff throughout; His version of Karmacoma, the creepy plinkiness of Ponderosa, the drone of Pumpkin, the bluesy Abbaon Fat Tracks, Strugglin’, they’re all great, but none of the tracks are poor, they all add to the whole.

I’ve listened to this a lot over the last few days, there’s a lot of detail in the production and sampling that emerge on repeat listens, and I liked it more and more each time, I’ll give it a nice’n’hazy 5.
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Playlist submission: Suffocated Love

Illmatic
One of my favourite hip hop albums and one of my favourite albums in general. I only really ‘discovered’ it about 2 or 3 years ago but I absolutely love it.

There’s a minimalism to the beats and use of samples that matches the desolation and despair of the lyrics. The hooks are insistent, they nag and punctuate like a drone particularly on the excellent NY State of Mind - the bass, the piano and the And I really just love the production and sound overall and the snare sound in particular.

He is obviously a brilliant rapper too, there’s a real density to it all in the internal rhymes, the cadence as well as the overall story telling. The verses on the World is Yours are pretty incredible, for example.

He’s definitely in the same mould as Biggie and Tupac etc, but I find his lyrics less brash and self-aggrandizing and much more like reportage. While there is some triumphalism, overall it feels much more introspective with an undertow of bleakness and futility, and a feeling of being trapped by your circumstances.

The whole first half up to Halftime is superb, it might dip slightly with Memory Lane but One Love with Q tip with it’s jazzy bass and xylophone is excellent, I love how his voice works with the bass sample One Time 4 Your Mind, Represent is a banger, that piano/bell sample is great, and It Aint Hard to Tell is superb, the Human Nature sample knocked back in the mix is lovely

Overall great album, easy 5.
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Playlist submission: NY State of Mind

The New Tango
Much more listenable than you’d expect for a live tango-jazz fusion album by a concertina player and a vibraphonist, but ultimately it’s very long, a bit too plinky plonky and not really in my wheelhouse despite some nice passages and the obvious skill involved. I don’t think I’d think to listen again, that makes it, perhaps unfortunately, a 2.
💃💃
Playlist submission: Little Italy

The Dark Side of the Moon
After enjoying Wish You Were Here I was waiting for this to come up, I’m glad it arrived not long after.

I think I probably just about prefer Wish You Were Here, but it’s still obviously an excellent album; moody, portentous without being pompous, grand, elegant, serious.

Some of the same things hold true for this as they did for WYWH - ‘a meticulously built 44 minutes of brilliantly layered, slow tempo sonic atmosphere, movingly structured around a loose concept.’ and ’it’s really about experiencing the whole thing, the feel and movement of the full run time, with synths, solos, melodies all unfolding at a languid pace, all with an occasional disquieting undertow’

The female vocals are also great, they give a different texture to an already excellent sounding album. Gilmour's guitar tone is great, the solos on Time and Any Colour Your Like are excellent, and I love the synthy noises on On the Run. And of course the money bassline and sampled rhythm intro are superb. I really like the 2nd side from Us and Them to Eclipse, with Brain Damage a highlight.

It’s obvious why its got such a great reputation, it’s a fantastic listen. 5.
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Playlist submission: Brain Damage

Catch a Fire
I think this is the first time I’ve listened to a Bob Marley album outside the Legend greatest hits album. Aside from Stir it Up I don’t really know any of the songs and unsurprisingly it’s just a great collection of songs, with brilliant bass playing, grooves and melodies with Bob Marley’s fantastic, warm voice, and a winning mix of protest songs and romance. You can see how and why he became so popular worldwide after this.

The slide on Baby We’ve Got a Date (Rock it Baby) stood out on first listen and sounded incongruously great. I’ve since read Chris Blackwell put some rock overdubs after the Wailers had recorded it, including this, and it’s not that popular with fans, but I think its great, giving a slightly otherworldly atmosphere to it.

Really enjoyed this, exactly what I expected, solid 4.
🔥🔥🔥🔥
Playlist submission: Baby We’ve Got a Date (Rock it Baby)

Ace of Spades
First listen, this is pretty fun rollicking punky rock’n’roll metally thrash, if you don’t pay attention too closely to the lyrics. Musically, as a rock’n’roll/metal/punk act they are good at what they do, and the energy and attack are great. They are clearly far superior to the thrash and late 80s metal they inspired, probably due to that rock’n’roll swing and less double kick drum.

However the 2nd and 3rd time around it does start to lose much of that ‘charm’, the lack of deviation from their standard template becomes pretty obvious, and, apart from (We Are) The Roadcrew there not being anything nearly as good as Ace of Spades means it does start to get quite stale as a whole 35 minute listening experience.

Lyrically it’s pretty charmless from the off, and aside from a couple of songs it mainly consists of songs about shagging, which unfortunately conjures the mental image of Lemmy remorselessly humping groupies in squalid dressing rooms, smelling of sweat, unwashed leather trousers, fags and booze. And then of course there’s Jailbait. Charitably speaking you could say it hasn’t aged well, or that it’s a song satirising rock stars who shag underage groupies, but realistically they are a band not known for their subtlety. Either way the song is a pretty gross listen.

On first listen I thought this might scrape a 4, but on subsequent listens it regressed to the cusp of 2 and 3. Ace of Spades is banger and I like (We Are) The Roadcrew, but the other songs are a bit forgettable and/or a bit icky. Think I’ll stick on high 2 as I don’t think I’ll come back to it.
♠️♠️
Playlist submission: Obviously it’s Ace of Spades, but for a change I’ll go (We Are) The Roadcrew.