Reviews by ikejiri

Get Rich or Die Tryin’
"I'm similar to a squirrel, looking for a slut with a nice butt to get a nut"

Never particularly been a fan of Fiddy’s flow and style, although I do like In Da Club, a brilliantly well constructed bit of party rap, and PIMP, which while crass, has a good beat and hook.

What Up Gangsta is kind of what I’d expected, a pretty forgettable bit of gangster rap posturing, but Patiently Waiting is really good, with great strings in the verses, Eminem excellent as usual and a nice synthesiser running through the chorus. Many Men also sounds great with an excellent, even if lyrically it does tread the same ground as seemingly every gangster rapper. High All The Time and Heat are pretty generic and formulaic, If I Can’t sounds good, with nice instrumentation. Blood Hound is pretty ropey, Back Down is good, Like My Style not so much. Poor Lil Rich has a nice synth line, and Nate Dogg on 21 Questions gives it a 90s vibe, although the effect on 50’s vocal is a bit odd and the track overall isn’t great. Don’t Push Me has a nice sense of musical drama, and it almost feels as though he is about to get introspective, but it turns into the usual braggadocio. Gotta Make it To Heaven has a decent production, but isn’t a particularly goo track.

I kind of came round to his slurry mumbly delivery by the end, and I really liked the production, particularly the Dre and Eminem produced tracks. It does sound very early 2000s, but it has a polished sheen I found enjoyable and relatively non-uniform use of instruments and samples, giving a nice bit of interest.

Thematically it obviously covers a lot of the same ground as the 2pac and Biggie albums we have had. Nas is the pinnacle for me in rapping about all this stuff but I found 2pac more interesting and thoughtful behind the belligerence than Biggie, and I think 50 cent sits closer to Biggie. Although a little less puerile and crass than Biggie he still does seem to inhabit the same adolescent’s idea of edgy realness, which ultimately gets quite boring, even if he has lived that life for real. I suppose sensitive singer songwriters sing about love in the same way as every other sensitive singer songwriters, which could also be seen as repetitive, but there are only so many ways and times you can describe how you shoot guns, get blow jobs, sell drugs and spend lots of money before it all sounds the same.

I gave 2pac 4 and Biggie 2. This is better than Biggie but I’m not sure it quite reaches 3, even though In Da Club is a banger. Ultimately I’m unlikely to come back to it, so I’ll stick with a high 2.
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Playlist: In Da Club

Tuesday Night Music Club
I’ve never listened to this even though I’m quite partial to a bit of Sheryl. All I Wanna Do, If It Makes You Happy, Everyday is a Winding Road, A Change Would Do You Good, Soak up the Sun and Steve McQueen are all great bits of classic pop/rock songwriting.

That rock classicism is evident on Run Baby Run, but whereas those songs wear that classicism lightly, on this song it hangs a bit too heavy, feeling rather too studied and stifling.

Leaving Las Vegas is much much better though, the acoustic rhythm guitar helping to give it that nice, loose, rootsy 70s rock feel, which suits her voice, and the melody and lyric is much better than Run Baby Run. Strong Enough is great too, a sweet acoustic ballad with a little groove. Can’t Cry Anymore is very nice too, again the loose rootsy feel working well with the melody, lyric and vocal.

Solidify though sounds a bit out of place after those two songs, it has slickness not in keeping with the feel of the rest of the album. The Na-Na Song shares some similarities with We Didn’t Start the Fire and Bullet Comes, but has an agreeable jam feel to it, even if it is a bit lightweight.

No One Said It Would Be Easy is superb though, a sad and teary country ballad, with some very tasteful guitar and bass and a great feel. What I Can Do For You reminds me of something I can’t quite place, but it's a nice track in the same rootsy vein, even if it's not one of the strongest

You can see why All I Wanna Do was such a big hit, its slightly offbeat country pop brilliance is immediately evident, with its observational narrative verses and hooky chorus, and its very appealing evocation of drinking in the LA sun.

I get the idea of We Do What We Can, but I don’t think it works that well, the jazzy feel doesn't quite hit the right mark and it’s not a particularly strong melody. I Shall Believe is great though, a rather lovely ballad with a country feel and a great hymnal atmosphere.

It would be easy for this type of album and this type of music to end up in Counting Crows style middle of the road anodyne boringness, but, for the most part, it stays away from that. There is a warmth and feel to playing, but mainly I think it succeeds because it’s nice to hear this music from a female perspective, but also because she has a great soulful, expressive edge to her voice, singing the songs with conviction and authenticity.

Overall this is probably a 3 or 4 songs away from being truly great. The warm, loose, rootsy core of the album in Leaving Las Vegas, Strong Enough, Can’t Cry Anymore, No One Said It Would Be Easy, What I Can Do For You, All I Wanna Do and I Shall Believe is excellent, but songs like Run Baby Run, Solidify and We Do What We Can unfortunately detract from the atmosphere those other songs create. It’s still a great listen though, and sits as and easy 4 for me
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Playlist submission: Tempted by No One Said it Would Be Easy but All I Wanna Do is an undeniably great track, so I’ll go with that

She’s So Unusual
Interested to hear this, I love Girls Just Want To Have Fun and Time After Time, classic 80s pop songs and they still sound great despite their ubiquity.

Money Changes Everything is a great little new wave-ish synth pop song. I’m not familiar with the original but it’s a great opener with a nice drum sound and melodica solo. When You Were Mine does sound like a Prince song, but it suits her brilliantly well and I love the synth and guitar arrangement, the sound and overall feel. With Girls and Time After Time that is a great opening 4 songs, energy and excitement along with some genuine tenderness.

She Bop carries that one too with a great 80s sounding synth and drum groove and All Through The Night is also a great song, with an excellent 80s shimmering falling synth. Witness is good, but maybe a little dip from the previous songs, but it does have a pleasing Ska effervescence. I’ll Kiss You is a great upbeat bit of polished angularity, with a nice dip into the softer pre-chorus. Has a slight B-52s vibe.

I hate He’s So Unusual. But Yeah Yeah is great, a nice closer with great energy and I love that organ.

It’s a great, fun listen, upbeat, infectious with a generous helping of fizzy quirkiness, but with a bit more depth and edge than you might expect, and with a couple of all time classics in Girls and Time after Time. I don’t think it’s quite a 5, but it is close, ultimately a very high 4.
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Playlist submission: Time After Time

This is Fats Domino
I couldn’t find this album on Tidal, there is one called This is Fats, which is from 1959 but I think with
a different track listing from what I could find on Wikipedia. And there is a compilation called This is Fats Domino, but I don’t think that’s the album meant by the list. So I made a playlist of the tracks from album Wikipedia page. Interesting story, that.

Blueberry Hill is great, obviously a 50s classic, a Rock’n’Roll and Soul adjacent but of New Orleans RnB/Jazz/Blues, but it is a great track and stands up fantastically well to modern ears. Blue Monday is the same, an absolute belter.

While the rest of the tracks don’t quite hit those heights they are still all very listenable New Orleans RnB, with some excellent piano and that fantastic voice. You can hear that these are fundamental building blocks on the journey to ‘modern’ music, connecting big band Jazz of the 40s and 50s, emerging New Orleans RnB, nascent Rock’n’Roll and country Blues. Of these tracks Honey Chile, What’s The Reason I’m Not Pleasing You, So Long, Troubles of My Own, Poor, Poor Me, Trust in Me and You Done Me Wrong stood out at that level below Blueberry Hill and Blue Monday.

I don’t know if it’s because I cobbled together the tracks from different compilations but there does seem to be a difference in the recorded sound of some tracks, some sound great, and some not so much. I know I mention it a lot but there is a good episode on Fats Domino in the History of Rock Music in 500 Songs podcast, which talks about Fats’ producer Dave Bartholomew, who is pretty interesting.

Anway, this is a thoroughly enjoyable bit of historical context, but like a lot of albums from this period it is before albums were considered as a whole, so it doesn’t quite feel like a proper album. A Fats Domino greatest hits album would probably be a 4 or 5, but for this I think makes a 3 is fair.
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Playlist submission: Blueberry Hill

The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!
Not sure if I’ve heard of The Dictators or not. The name sounds familiar but it also sounds like the name of a lot of bands from the mid to late 70s who presaged or followed punk.

I thought it might be more like that Germs album, but it’s more listenable than that, reminding me a lot of the New York Dolls, with that sped up frenetic glam rock and blues rock sound, and a bit of the Ramones (esp the cover of California Sun), but without being quite as good or as exciting as either of those bands.

I can see how this would be influential on punk and puncturing some rock posturing, and while some of it is decent, California Sun, Weekend and Cars and Girls, and some of it is a dumb sort of fun, like Back to Africa, Master Race Rock and Teengenerate and the rest just sort of dumb and not that much fun.

One of those albums that, although I didn’t fully enjoy, I'm glad to have heard, even if I’m unlikely to come back to. Solid 2.
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Playlist submission: Cars and Girls

Graceland
Hardly a spoiler but this is a 5.

The classic 80s parents album, and I remember really liking it when they played it on car journeys, bouncing bass and synths and echoey drums I guess are particularly attractive to a child's ears. I also remember loving the video and the ubiquity of Call Me Al, and that song is still such a pure nostalgic hit of childhood. I then remember buying this on CD, I think at Uni, and realising what a great album it is, and it’s only got better over the subsequent years.

As has my appreciation for Paul Simon. I absolutely love his songwriting, up there with Macca for melody of course, but he’s such a good lyricist and I love how he lets phrases run across different lines giving a slightly offbeat feel. I also don’t think he’s done a truly bad solo album, even something weakly regarded like Hearts and Bones, which is clearly not as strong as others, has at least one or two great songs and loads of interesting stuff. His initial run of Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon and Still Crazy is superb and his last 2 or 3 albums are well worth investigating, I listened to Stranger to Stranger a lot when that came out.

‘These are the days of miracle and wonder’, I’ve always loved that line. Graceland is one of my favourite songs of all time, the non secular spiritualism and sense of pilgrimage is beautifully conveyed lyrically and musically, a sense of optimism and a sense of ageing and time passing at the same time. Love I Know What I Know, great opening line and chorus. Gumboots, great, love the accordion and drums. Diamonds on the Sole of Her Shoes, what a song, tender and sad, brilliant. You Can Call Me Al - ‘far away my willy blew up’, what a mondegreen. Can’t help but do air slap bass at the second breakdown.

Under African Skies, superb and lovely, a great melody, excellent harmony vocals and brilliant lyrical imagery. Homeless, just great. Crazy Love, again excellent, great melody, less African influenced but fits the whole theme. The accordion returns on That Was Your Mother, and while it’s cajun rather than African it fits brilliantly on the album. All Around the World is a corker, a great uptempo rocker. Who is the former talk show host?

It’s really interesting understanding more about the genesis, recording and production. Obviously there was understandably a lot of controversy and accusations of cultural appropriation, and I can see why people would feel strongly negative about the whole thing, but it seems to me about him finding inspiration and making his own songs out of it, which is how music has evolved, and ultimately I’d think it’s better to get together and make music across cultural and racial divides.

Anyway, I love this album, and every song on it. I can’t quite express how it makes me feel, musically and emotionally, I just love it. It’s quite disparate, but also thematically linked it seems, by a sense of loss and rediscovery, of getting older but also finding joy and happiness and sadness.
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Playlist submission: Graceland

Penance Soiree
Never heard of this or The Icarus Line before. Resisted looking them up, and wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the cover or band name. Maybe something Metal or some generic American Alt Rock?

Up Against The Wall Motherfucker - kind Alt Rock riffing with a garage punkishness and a bit of RHCP or RATM bass groove. It does sound quite early 2000s-ish and its fine I suppose. Spit on it is less successful and is thankfully pretty brief. On the Lash, has a bit of BRMC to it, but not as good and without the more ominous feel of their songs.

Annnnd….I can’t be bothered to go through the rest of it. It’s fine for what it is as some noisy garage rock, but it’s also quite tedious, with very little of interest to differentiate it from anyone else. There were many more better bands with better melodies and better ideas at that time, so why would you choose to listen to this? Listening twice through is enough. Not wretched, just boring. 2
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Playlist submission: Up Against The Wall Motherfucker

My Aim is True
Back when Elvis Costello’s songwriting was exciting and energetic with loads of great ideas, before he settled into writing rather flat and boring ’mature’ music.

I do know this album somewhat, but I haven’t listened as much as This Year’s Model and Armed Forces, so it's nice refreshing my memory.

It really is a great album - a direct, sharp, neurotic, wired and edgy 32 minutes (if you don’t include the excellent Watching the Detectives), with an engaging and exciting blend of punkish energy combined with classic rock, country, soul, 50s rock n roll and 60s pop influences.

Welcome to the Working Week is a great burst of cynical energy, etMiracle Man has that great guitar motif, while No Dancing has the Spector drum pattern and vague soul feel with some nice acoustic guitar texture. Blame it On Cain is great and very Springsteen. It’s not something I’ve connected before and I’m not sure if that’s just because Springsteen has Adam Raised a Cain but I feel like there is a lot of Springsteen influence here, albeit through Costello’s more cynical British lens. Great song though.

Alison is rightly a classic, a melody I could imagine Smokey Robinson singing in the early 70s, and just a lovely song, with a tenderness in contrast to much of the more bitter and angry lyrics elsewhere. Sneaky Feelings is a nice counterpoint to Alison’s more simple directness, a sweet little tune with a nice theme of secretiveness and mistrust. Red Shoes is a great track, one that just feels right in it’s construction, melody and lyric.

Less than Zero uses the Twist and Shout riff and is another great 50is rocker with a great lyric. Mystery Dance is even more 50s and again has some Springsteen about it. Pay it Back has some great guitar and great energy. I’m Not Angry is perhaps the only misstep for me, the guitar is a little too sub-Mark Knopfler classic rock and feels slightly out of place. Waiting for the End of the World though is superb, a great finish. Love the groove in the riff and the drum sound is excellent. Great track.

Overall this is an excellent album, a great distillation of early Costello, some great, if mean spirited, lyrics and some superb songs. 5.
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Playlist submission: Alison

Regatta de Blanc
This and Synchronicity are the two Police albums in this list and I think they might be the wrong two. Synchronicity goes too far into the jazzy dullness and this one, although really good and a bit of a grower, doesn’t quite match the angular punky reggae energy of their first or the overall consistency of Zenyatta Mondatta.

Message in a Bottle is obviously a great song and one of their best. No matter how many times you hear it it stills sounds fresh and the guitar and drums really are excellent. Sting’s bass is often great, and it’s hardly a hot take but Summer and Copeland really are what make them great. When they are pushed into the background on Synchronicity their sound really suffers.

Regatta de Blanc feels like an idea of a song rather than a song, there’s some great playing but it’s no surprise it developed out of a jam.

Bring on the Night, surely Radiohead lifted the guitar progression for Reckoner from In Rainbows? I can see why though, it’s excellent, although the song itself doesn’t quite match the guitar’s quality. I like Deathwish a lot, it feels like it might be another instrumental, but the guitar is great and the switch between the Bo Diddley rhythms and more standard beat is great.

I never liked Walking on the Moon that much when I had the best of Sting and the Police on CD, but now I dig it. The little elements of jazziness don’t overwhelm, the bass motif is simple but excellent and the almost dub-like tempo gives it a slightly unusual atmosphere. Very catchy vocal melody too, which isn’t always the case for Sting.

On Any Other Day, including its dated lyrics about a gay son, isn’t great. Copeland can’t really sing that well and although it might have worked as a quirky oddity like Be My Girl from their first album, it just doesn’t work and sounds particularly poor after the stateliness of Walking on the Moon.

The Bed’s Too Big Without You is more like it, nailing the rolling new wave dubby reggae vibe without sounding anodyne. Great track. Contact is good as well, slightly off kilter and I love the jangly 60s-ish guitar riff. Not a fan of Does Everyone Stare, it sounds a bit like a song off the Ghostbusters soundtrack, and the piano led sound to me doesn’t suit them. No Time This Time harks back to their debut, but with a more refined and cleaner sound, making a very good closing rocker, if not quite at the level of some of the songs on here.

I gave Synchronicity a 3, and although this is definitely better than that, it’s also not top tier, so I think it sits fairly at 4. A couple of great songs, a couple of very good songs and some ok songs, but all tied together with some excellent playing and overall a good album.
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Playlist submission: Could be a couple, but I won’t overthink, Message in a Bottle it is

Eliminator
Gimme All Your Lovin, Sharp Dressed Man, Legs - all cheesy as balls but also hugely enjoyable 80s pop rock bangers. The combination of metronomic drums and new wave synths and sequencers with their blues and boogie guitars is a winning formula and gives the songs a satisfying robotic precision and sheen.

The rest of the tracks follow that same pattern to varying degrees of success, without ever quite reaching the immediacy and potency of the three big songs. They are, however, all united by an undeniable enjoyability, even if it’s a rather fleeting and not particularly profound one.

Nothing much more to say apart from that overall it's a fun listen, like an intensely sugary snack. Not necessarily something I want for every meal, but at the right time and place definitely one I’ll munch on again.
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Playlist submission: Legs

Steve McQueen
Prefab Sprout are one of those bands that for a long time I overlooked. While I’m not fully acquainted with all their stuff I do listen to their first few albums occasionally, they really made some great extremely well crafted 80s jangly indie pop. From memory this is probably their best or most fully realised album, even if it does dip a little in the second half and get a bit bogged down by itself.

The run from Faron Young to Goodbye Lucille #1 is great, the lovely jangly 80s indie pop with country rockabilly guitar of Faron Young, the weary feel of Bonny, the synthy and propulsive Appetite, the jazz inflected pop craft of When Love Breaks Down, the tenderness and delicacy of sentiment of Goodbye Lucille #1 as builds to moments of tension.

I like the guitar on Hallelujah and it has some great backing vocals and nice wry lyric, but has a slight adult mundanity to it. Moving the River is a good track, but I’m not a fan of the little sax motif. Horsin’ Around I really like, similar to When Love Breaks Down with its jazz inflection.

I get the idea behind Desire As, but it has a woodenness and self seriousness that feels a bit overbearing. I struggle with the melody of Blueberry Pies and the overall mood is creates. Itrap. Obviously they have enough about them to be a cut above some of their contemporaries, and it’s fine line between wry and well crafted ‘sophisti-pop’ and slightly dull adult pop, and this one falls into that trap a little. When The Angels is a bit of return to the form of the first 5 or 6 tracks, bringing a bit of life and energy after the dip of Desire As and Blueberry Pies.

When the songs dip on the second side the Thomas Dolby sound can be a bit anodyne, but on the rest of it I love the sound, clean and spacious, suiting the observational theme of the lyrics.
If the quality of the first side carried on to the end I think it would be a 5, but as it is it lands as a solid 4. A very very good album from a very very good band.
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Playlist submission: Goodbye Lucille #1

Fever to Tell
I bought this album on the strength of Maps, which is absolutely great and still stands up. I’m sure I listened to it quite a bit at that time, but apart from Maps and Date with the Night I can’t really remember much about it.
It definitely feels of its time, that early 2000s indie garage rock vibe with added New York grubbiness and sleaziness, but it still sounds good I think, the minimal and unadorned production and instrumentation held together with the rough edged guitar and thumping drums and Karen O’s slightly wired and anxious charisma.

Love the little guitar figure on Rich, and Date With the Night’s stomping garage punk is great too. I like Man’s scuzzy almost funk rhythm, nicely accented by the organ. It starts to get a little samey after that, the groove based garage punk being the template, but each song is so brief, direct and to the point you just move on to the next one without much worry, until the utterly great Maps comes into view. It really is a superb bit of surprisingly tender garage pop, sounding of its time but also timeless. Great guitars, a lovely spare yet rich arrangement and a super vocal. Y Control is thematically somewhat similar to Maps, and although it's not quite at the same level as that, it’s still a great track and great melody. Modern Romance again has some similarity with Maps, but with a bit more vulnerability and another great relationship song. It does seem a bit odd they put the three strongest and most similar songs together at the end, it's kind of an odd sequencing choice.

There’s a lot of good guitar on here, almost Coxon-esque in places, and it’s jaggedy roughness suits them and the singing, shouting, moaning, wailing vocals. Kind of tough to rate as it's a mix of fun but relatively slight garage punk interspersed with some genuinely great songs like Rich, Date with the Night, Man, Y Control and Modern Romance and one absolute classic in Maps. I think it just about shades into a 4 on the back of those songs and the overall sense of energy and style.
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Playlist submission: Maps

1999
This is when he took his funk and disco into the computer age. I love the combination of the synth heavy and robotic computer sound with his soul, funk and pop approach - kind of Kraftwerk + Early Hip Hop + Funkadelic + catchy pop.

And what an opening 3 songs on the first side of the original album. 1999 - banger, Little Red Corvette - classic, Delirious - super

Let’s Pretend We’re Married has more than a hint of The Visitors by ABBA, and is a great up tempo bit of disco inflected pop. DMSR is very Afrika Bambataa in its drum sound and I love the two synth lines settling into a great hypnotic groove.

Automatic has another great groove in a similar vein to what’s gone before. I love the rhythm pattern and descending synth motif on Something in the Water (Does Not Compute), it’s a nice change of pace and style and has a pleasing oddness to it. After this fantastic set of 7 electronic funk party songs though, the album does start to run into trouble. It really doesn’t need to be a double and while the following songs aren’t particularly bad they do drag the album out of focus. Free’s more soulful vibe feels a bit strained, and Lady Cab Driver, while having a great guitar groove feels like a not so successful version of the first 4 or 5 songs. All the Critics Love U in New York is good and has a nice Kraftwerk-esque detachedness, but International Lover isn’t great and feels a step too far.

If this was a single album ending at Something in the Water, with perhaps the addition of All the Critics it would easily be a 5. The opening 4 songs in particular are superb, a fantastic run of tracks - funky, catchy and with enough oddness and quirkiness to keep you coming back. As a double though it is too long, with the last 4 songs or so noticeably of a lower quality than the first 7. That makes it a 4
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Playlist submission: 1999

…Baby One More Time
Hit me AB159

I’m guessing we’ll all go for the title track for our playlist - not only is it a copper bottomed stone cold classic pop banger it's also the best thing on here, despite there being some perfectly serviceable teen pop on the album.

(You Drive Me) Crazy is decent mid tempo pop with a good chorus and Sometimes, despite being rather coldly formulaic, is cheesily catchy, and is perfectly suited to the teenage Britney.

Soda Pop is unintentionally quite amusing, with a slightly strange vocal, but for some reason its’ very listenable with a kind of winning naive charm to it. It definitely feels very late 90s, one of those songs that might have been turned down by Bran Van 3000 or Smash Mouth before landing at her door.

Born to Make You Happy is another bit of standard 90s teen pop, although it has a cloyingness to it that hasn’t aged that well and is ultimately a bit irritating. From the Bottom of My Broken Heart again is a perfectly fine pop ballad, but definitely a tier or two below Sometimes.

You can really hear I Will Be There is a Max Martin tune, with it’s Bo Diddley rhythm and crafted efficiency, however it definitely feels like filler, not terrible, but apart from the rhythm there’s not much melodic interest.

Obviously this is a genre that flirts heavily with cheesiness, and while there are elements of cheese throughout, it goes full blown cheese on I Will Still Love You. The gospel-ish melody isn't good and the seriousness with which they’ve approached it is very jarring for what is quite a boring song.. Also whoever Don Philip is, he oversings the shit out of it, remorselessly stripping the song of any semblance of quality it might have had.

Thinkin’ about you is a return to the more bouncy pop sound, with some slightly leftfield country touches, and again is perfectly fine. E-Mail My Heart. Not a great song, but what a title, the proustian rush of late 90s internet is strong and pleasingly nostalgic. I suppose nowadays this would be called Snapchat My Dick, or TikTok my Minky or something.

The Beat Goes On is a great tune, no matter who sings it. Interesting that the All Seeing I helped produce it, having done it themselves the year before, and this sounds pretty much the same, although it does seem to suit Britney’s vocal tics well.

Overall this is pretty much exactly what you think it would be. The whole point of it was to make a late 90s teen pop album that would be totally unthreatening and sell a ton of copies to adolescents. And on that front it’s very successful. Everything on it is entirely interchangeable, and apart from …Baby One More Time, which towers above the rest, it doesn’t actually matter what is on here, as long as there are some ballads and some fun pop. And that’s fine, there’s craft and skill in doing that and it makes a perfectly listenable album, but obviously not one I’ll come back to, so on my scale that lands it as a solid 2.
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Playlist submission: …Baby One More Time

Behaviour
Growing up I really didn’t like the Pet Shop Boys, but fortunately now I have seen the error of my ways. Despite them occasionally sounding a bit ridiculous and being very very parodiable (particularly by Lonely Island), they are one of the great pop singles bands of the 80s and 90s.

Aside from Being Boring, So Hard and Jealousy I’m not familiar with this album, and I’m not sure it quite works fully. There are some great tracks but what feels like an attempt to write sophisticated adult electronic music sounds quite dated in places. Even if the songs themselves are good, the sprinkling of ‘tasteful’ wah wah on Being Boring and My October Symphony, the Sade-lite rhythms of To Face The Truth (even though the vocal and melody are particularly melancholy and lovely on this), the ‘rock’ guitar on How Can You Expect to be Taken Seriously - it doesn’t seem to quite have the panache and playfulness of their big hits. Occasionally this more mature sounds does work well, Only the Wind is very nice

When they move closer to a more immediate electronic sound, like This Must Be the Place I Waited to Leave, with its very nice Johnny Marr cameo, So Hard or The End of the World it's great. Nervously and Jealousy are also great tracks, Nervously in particular has a great synth line and slippery rhythm.

Some great pop music on here, but due to its slight 90s dinner party background music atmosphere it doesn’t feel that satisfying, particularly compared to something like their first album. It feels a touch harsh but I’ll go 3.
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Playlist Submission: So Hard

In the Wee Small Hours
Proof, if proof be need be, that wallowing in heartbreak and unrequited love is old as songwriting and recorded music. But then when you've loved and lost as much as Frank has then, you know what lifes about.

His voice really is great, of course it is, but he has such control of tone and feel, it is quite mesmeric. People always talk about his phrasing, but, and I’m going to sound like an old person here, his enunciation is superb, you can hear every letter and syllable, every pause and every note. Many crooners (and Buble is one of the worst at this), just affect a lazy slur in an approximation of laid back cool, but Frank doesn't do that at all, his voice and his interpretation of he melody has such clarity and precision.

Musically this is so deftly arranged and it sounds great for 1955, the horns punctuate rather than pierce and the strings for the most part avoid the schmalz and melodrama you might expect.

I also like that it frequently feels as though its about to interpolate Jingle Bells (like at the end of Its Cold Outside), giving it a slight Christmassy air. It definitely feels like a autumn into winter album, in the darker evenings with the log burner going.

Overall I really liked this - I thought it would be good but I’m surprised how good it is. I inadvertently saw that you both gave it 4. That feels about right, but I also think it deserves a spot on the podium. So in a blatant bit of score manipulation I’ll give it 5.
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Playlist submission: Mood Indigo

Songs of Leonard Cohen
I had this album on CD, and I think it's the only Leonard Cohen album I've ever properly listened to, until we had You Want it Darker.

It really is quite singular, with that similar feel and structure to each song, but I presume that’s the point - the simple and relatively unadorned backing and structures are to accompany the lyrics rather than being the starting point.

Some great tracks though, I loved Suzanne from the first time I heard it, and of course Sisters of Mercy is an excellent track. Master Song is great and Winter Lady gets better with each listen. I love the rising and dipping sweep of So Long, Marianne (always wondered about the two female names and how they sound similar, Suzanne and Marianne). Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye feels a bit repetitive and also like Father and Son by Cat Stevens. I like the slightly different structure of Stories from the Street, with more of a jig feel with the organ. Teachers is a bit of dip before a nice finish with One of Us Cannot Be Wrong, again that rising and falling lament and again it works well.

His voice really suits the songs and the playing, he doesn’t have great range but his tone and lack of flourish or ostentation complements the songs and the words excellently.

It’s a great album - I’m not sure it’s quite top tier but it's close. I’ll stick with a 4. I really enjoyed revisiting it and it has reminded me to come back to it, and I’m looking forward to reacquainting myself with it a bit more.

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Playlist submission: Suzanne

Young Americans
Probably the album from his imperial phase I’ve listened to the least and probably the album I think about listening to the least, despite loving the title track and Fame, so I’m not as familiar with it as I probably should be, so it’s nice giving it a considered listen now.

Win and Fascination are great, fascination in particular really stuck with me on this listen. Love the clavinet on Right and the harmonies/backing vocals are great. Somebody Up There Likes Me and Across the Universe are an undoubted dip, the latter particularly seems an odd choice and an odd arrangement.

Can You Hear Me is great and of course Fame is superb too.

You can really hear elements foreshadowing Station to Station, but without that album's darker and more complicated atmosphere Young Americans’ take on soul music has an air of detachment, of arms length aloofness that doesn't quite land fully. Still great though and a solid 4
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Playlist submission: Fame

Trafalgar
I went on a bit of a deep dive through the Bee Gees back catalogue before their disco pop machine pomp as I’ve always been partial to stuff like New York Mining Disaster and Massachusetts. This album and Odessa stood out particularly.

For such a brilliant songwriter as Barry and for how good Maurice can be, it's always seemed slightly strange that, aside from the SNF soundtrack, they don’t really have a defining album. When you listen to their albums there are some great tracks (and some not so great tracks) and a lot of dead ends, and you get a sense that they often didn’t quite know what they were as a band and as artists. Despite them, and Barry in particular, being up there with some of the best songwriters and song craftsmen (craftsthem?) of all time it feels like they never quite found their place, and that they perhaps didn’t have the personality/character/vision of some of their peers to make fully realised albums

However, and despite the similarity in the balladness and tempo of the songs on here, and while they aren’t as immediate as some of their pop classics, this for me is probably their most coherent album, the sense of vaguely melodramatic overthetopness, combined with their songwriting craft and skill makes its a bit of a broodingly atmospheric overlooked gem, with some nice oddness and interest to it.

There is also some great bass on this, a bit like Serge Gainsbourg in its tone and place in the mix but it really adds a great colour to it. I’m not always keen on Robin’s voice and he does sound a bit silly at the start of Remembering and When I Do, but I really love Barry’s voice, and he’s really great on Israel. Their harmonies though, as they always are, are superb throughout, so well considered and constructed with that great fraternal tone.

Standouts are How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? with that super little piano counterpoint, the fantastic Israel, The Greatest Man in the World, Somebody Stop the Music, Trafalgar, the brilliantly and slightly odd Lion in Winter and Walking Back to Waterloo. It’s Just the Way and Remembering and fine but not as good as the others and When Do I and Dearest don’t work so well for me.

Slightly tempted to go 5, but in reality this is a solid 4 - some great tracks, great harmonies, surprisingly good bass and an overall slightly strange and spooky atmosphere.
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Playlist submission: Lion in Winter

Disraeli Gears
Did either of you have this on CD? I never bought it but I’m sure I borrowed it from one of you.

Anyhow, I haven’t listened to this in years, and I can’t really remember much of it, apart from, of course, being very familiar with Strange Brew and Sunshine of Your Love.

Is this Clapton’s most inventive and interesting playing? As we’ve experienced on this list a lot of psychedelic influenced blues rock is woeful, but this feels different, the psychedelic pop approach seems to bring a sense of playfulness and service to the song from Clapton, and he works really well in tandem with Jack Bruce, while Ginger does whatever he wants. Sometimes Ginger does some great stuff and it really adds a different dimension to the songs, and at other times he just seems to be banging relentlessly on his tom toms. Also his two lead vocal tracks are terrible - Yellow Submarine and Octopus’s Garden these are not.

World of Pain, Dance the Night Away, SWLABR, We’re Going Wrong are very good bits of bluesy psychedelic rock. Outside Woman Blues is a great bit of blues, but Take it Back is rather pedestrian and unremarkable in comparison, but overall Strange Brew, Sunshine of Your Love and Tales of Brave Ulysses are the standout tracks.

Overall this is a very very good late 60s album with some great guitar and bass - an easy solid 4.
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Playlist submission: Sunshine of Your Love