Reviews by ikejiri

Let England Shake
I was a big fan of Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, but I’ve never dived into anything else she’s done, I just know the odd song as they play her a lot on 6 Music and have watched her on the Glastobury coverage, as she seems to play every year.

I guess she can be a bit of an acquired taste, and you could easily accuse her of a kind of studied eccentricity, especially vocally, but I do think she is genuinely a bit odd in a great way, and I totally buy into her earnestness.

Musically I love its modern take on folk and folk rock. You can hear the echoes of those old, old folk songs, evoking an almost supernatural, spectral atmosphere across the whole thing. The horns add a mournful feel, with their obvious military connotations, and everyday, early 20th century tactility.

Thematically and lyrically this is fascinating, and is just fantastically well done, weaving English folklore, mythology, the landscape, nature and history with our common cultural touchstones into an otherworldly, hazy, unsettling examination on England, Englishness and War and all the longing, loss, destruction, despair and sadness that entails. I’d recommend reading the lyrics in full on her website, they genuinely have a powerful and poetic grace to them.

Every song is connected but it feels to me like a lot of the songs seem to work in trios or pairs. The Last Living Rose, The Glorious Land and Words That Maketh Murder feel like a triptych, I love the imagery of The Last Living Rose and the Glorious Land, painting a picture of yearning for a homeland that is simultaneously imagined and real, beautiful and squalid, balancing affection, melancholy, futility and despair. The interpolation of Summertime Blues is great on Words That Maketh Murder, kind of bringing you forward in time while still conjuring the past

Even though All and Everyone feels a little like a continuation of Words that Maketh Murder, it sits naturally with On Battleship Hill to me, with the folky, delicate, shifting, undulating fragility of the latter and the more tumultuous dominant former.

England, In the Dark Places and Bitter Branches seem like another grouping. The melody and vocal on England take a while to settle, but I feel that’s purposeful, the backing vocals sounding almost like a call to prayer and the discordant piano all adding to the discomforting feel. The bleak imagery of In Dark Places and Bitter Branches is really moving, the electronica touches on In Dark Places contrasting well with the more rhythmic and guitar driven Bitter Branches

And then the final 3 song run of Hanging in the Wire, Written on the Forehead and The Colour of the Earth is utterly fantastic, elegiac, haunting, sad, tender, melancholy but also beautiful, death has come and war is in people’s homes and cities and towns.

I wasn’t expecting it to be quite such a magical record really, it’s almost startling in how affecting I found it and how much I like it. She does that great thing of being both specific and universal, alluding to Afghanistan, WW1 and WW2, anchoring you in a time and place, while also giving you the feeling of floating timelessly across the centuries. It really is a stupendous record and this might be my favourite record on the list I’d not previously heard.
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Playlist submission: Could be all of them, but I’ll go with Hanging in the Wire

Kick Out the Jams
I had this on CD, I think I bought it at one of those CD fairs in Dunelm House. One of those hipster albums that people love because of its proto punk energy and late 60s righteous hippy politicism.

There’s no doubt it captures that raw punkish energy and excitement and the earnestness of their sloganeering, and there is a palpable thrill to it, however when it comes down to it the songs aren’t particularly great and the playing is what you might generously call ‘loose’. The relatively poor sound quality also works both for it and against it: you get the sense of excitement and chaos but its muddiness and in the red distortion can make it a hard listen.

There is some great riffing in parts and when it roughly all comes together it is good, like on Kick Out the Jams and Come Together. But the rest of it is a bit of a slog musically, only kept alive by the energy, but, really, that can only take you so far.

It's cool as a document of the times and of the excitement rock music can generate and as a forerunner of punk, but aside from the title track, which is great, and Come Together it doesn’t ultimately have a great deal of re-listenability.

4 for rawness, energy and excitement
4 for musical historical context
3 for sound quality
2 for quality of playing
2 for song quality
Average that out and you get 3, which seems about right
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Playlist submission: Kick out the Jams

A Seat at the Table
Although Solange’s voice doesn’t have the power and range of Beyonce’s it does have a lovely, delicate slightly ethereal tone to it, which I really like. She also doesn’t have Beyonce’s predilection for a bit of bombast, and combined with the slightly downbeat off kilter, spacey jazz tinged r’n’b soul pop music on this it gives her the air of the detached, odder, quirkier but cooler sibling

I really like the feel of this Rise, the bass is great along with the simple laid back melody. The bass on Weary is also great and that little piano is lovely. Cranes in the Sky is truly excellent. I love the percussion and bass but how the musical touches like the synth that sounds like a shamisen contribute to the overall feeling of sadness of the lyrics. Great floaty vocal too.

Mad has that slightly over-recorded percussion and bass sound that keeps appearing, which I really like, and another great vocal too. Don't You Wait is a lovely bit of r’n’b pop, I like the guitar and slightly over-saturated synth drum pad.

This does feel like it has a kinship with the Kendrick Lamar albums we’ve had, which makes sense with Sampha appearing on Don’t Touch My Hair, another fantastic track. The horns and synths are great and the whole thing has a sense of drowsy frustration. Where Do We Go and FUBU have a similar percussive feel and I like the broken atmosphere of Where Do We Go and some of the synths on FUBU are great, with another great vocal. Borderline’s piano line evokes a kind of wistfulness, but is abruptly accompanied by the slightly discordant percussion. Maybe not the strongest melody but a great track.

Junie is a lovely bit of squiggly hybrid r’n’b funk, momentarily taking us away from the detached sense of despair that populates the rest of the album. Don’t Wish Me Well returns to the off kilter patterns of Cranes in the Sky and Don’t Touch My Hair, again the pervading sense of sadness is embodied by the percussion and synths. Scales is a suitably low key closer and in keeping with the whole feel of the album.

This is also, for the genre, slightly unusual in that the interludes are actually worthwhile, tying together the connecting thread of race and blackness that runs through a lot of the songs.

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This really does feel like a coherent album, each track shares a common feel despite the massive list of producers and contributors, but the overall sense of sadness, despair and frustration is so well conveyed musically. The lack of ornamentation and clean but soulful production and the thoughtfulness of the instrumentation supports that feeling, giving it some room to breathe and allowing subtleties and nuances and the edge underneath it all to come through.

It has enough melody and musicality to be interesting but is also rhythmically fantastic (I love the percussion throughout) and a great overall sound. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did on the first listen and I enjoyed it more and more throughout the day. A great modern soul record with a slightly unusual edge to it, it's an easy 4 seats at the table for me. Definitely one I’ll come back to.
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Playlist submission: Cranes in the Sky

Electric Landlady
Big Durham vibes. I listened to this a lot back then, and probably over listened to it, as I haven’t felt the urge to revisit it that frequently since then. Which is a shame as it is an absolutely fantastic record.

Dense, meandering, abrupt, spooky, exciting, throwaway, melodic, weird, this has everything, all tied together not only by the guitar, but also by Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, and Jimi’s fantastic, laconic, laid back voice.

It is definitely unfocused though and you can’t help but think what an amazing record a 12 track single album would be, but I think in the end, rather like the White Album, it’s length and weird corners are what give it its charm, and as an immersive psychedelic rock experience I don’t think it can be bettered. In anyone else’s hands this could be unlistenable, but Jimi manages to tread that line and keep you engaged. Also in modern terms 73 minutes isn't actually that far off many far inferior single albums.

The sounds on…And the Gods Made Love have always given me a slight sense of vestibular hyperacusis, but I love how it leads into the laid back charm of Have You Ever Been (to Electric Ladyland). Crosstown traffic is a classic and then I love the astral hippy woo woo bollocks lyrics on Voodoo Chile, as well as, of course, the song itself. Imagine being off your tits in 1968 and putting this psychedelic space blues on the turntable.

Little Miss Strange, Long Hot Summer Night and Come On is a great little trio, Long Hot Summer Night’s loping groove is great. Gypsy Eyes has that effortless sounding rhythm and lead playing and great bass playing. And then Burning of the Midnight Lamp is so good, one of my favourite Hendrix songs, absolutely superb with the harpsichord and the choral backing.

The jazzy organ and piano on Rainy Day Dream Away gives it a nice feel, a bit of a break from the guitar pyrotechnics and a bit of a breather before 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be), which is also one of my favourite Hendrix songs, an amazing spaced out 60s psychedelic jam. I love the sound effects, backward guitar, shifting times signatures, jazzy bits, flutes and the bass and drums. Great vocal too. It may be 13 minutes long but it is a monumental banger.

House Burning Down sounds like it could be on their first album, really great bass and drums. All Along the Watchtower and Voodoo Child get played so much it's easy to tune them out, but they really are superb and rightfully endure. I’ve always loved how the drum pattern matches the opening riff on Voodoo Child and All Along the Watchtower is, obviously superb, really amplifying the old time spookiness of the original.

It’s an easy 5, it may be long and slightly unfocused but I love it’s swampy, soupy, hippy vibes and I happily listened through 5 times today, frequently picking up things I’d missed amongst its density.
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Playlist submission; Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and All Along the Watchtower are the obvious ones, I really love Burning of the Midnight Lamp, but I’ll go 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be).

Want Two
I’ve tried so much with Rufus Wainwright but unfortunately it just never sticks. I bought Want One when it came out and I listened to it a good amount, but I don’t think I ever really got it or actually liked it that much.

Purely from a production and musical perspective there is a lot of great stuff on here, with loads of great people involved like Van Dyke Parks, the Garrigles and Levon Helm. I love Agnus Dei’s sepulchral spookiness and there are some lovely instrumental moments and touches, like the lap steel on Peaches, the strings on This Love Affair and the percussion and bass on Waiting for a Dream.

However, no matter how many times I try I just can’t get on with his voice, his vocal tone and most of all his melodies, which I just always find to be pretty flat, forced and, to my ears, rather uninspiring. I completely understand that he’s going for a theatrical, baroque style, and although he definitely nails that, it just doesn’t land with me, and subsequently, over the course of an hour I find myself tuning out, with the musical flourishes and overall ambition not making up for my inability to connect to the melodies. I was hoping against hope that a fresh listen this morning would help me see it differently, but unfortunately it's the same, with very little grabbing my attention, apart from Crumb by Crumb, which with the addition of female voices, does stand out, giving it some harmonic interest and variation.

It’s clearly not a bad album, but after trying with Rufus many times I just realise he’s just not for me. In terms of actual listening enjoyment it's probably a 2, but it feels unfair giving it that, as obviously the issue is me, not him, and there is a lot of intelligence and craft to it which I am reluctant to ignore. So with all that in mind, and although I don’t think I’ll ever come back to it, I’ll nudge it up to 3
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Playlist submission: Agnus Dei

John Prine
Despite the obvious influence of Dylan on some of his vocal inflections and vocal melodies
His voice is slightly unusual, but after a couple of songs I forgot all that and just found myself enjoying this immensely. I didn’t expect it to be as country, thinking it would be more folky/folk rock, but for me that was great, setting it slightly apart from other early 70s singer songwriters in the same field with its more overt country sound.

I really like the slightly unusual song structures like on Illegal Smile. Clearly there is an obvious debt to Dylan in the opening stanza, it moves back and forth from folk to country and back again with some quirk little stop start moments.

The little run from Hello in There to Paradise is great, again overtly country but with some little variations in style and instrumentation, like the electric sitar on Sam Stone, again giving it a slightly unusual feeling. With country you can often predict how the next line will sound, and while Paradise is relatively conventional in that regard, it still has that feel that it's going one way, but then it takes a detour or little left turn, maybe arriving back where you thought it would, but not necessarily in the obvious way.

Pretty Good obviously evokes Dylan, but there’s someone else it reminds me of that I can’t put my finger on. Anyway the electric guitar is another great little musical moment, particularly in tandem with the electric piano

Your Flag Decal is great, and also still apt today when you see those MAGAts driving around in shitty pickups with hundreds of Trump Flags and stickers.

Angel from Montgomery I absolutely loved, I don’t think I’ve heard it before but it had that feeling of instant familiarity that you occasionally get with great songs.

Quiet Man and Donald and Lydia is another great one two, the slight Hendrix style guitars in Quiet Man are great and I like the slightly existential ruminations of Donald and Lydia.

I love the bass on Six O’Clock News, and with the organ it gives a slightly unusual contrast to the country elements. Flashback blues is excellent, again it feels like a conventional country song, but the slightly hurried vocal metre gives it a slightly off kilter feeling.

Lyrically this works in a similar vein to the music - some of it is extremely affecting and moving, grounded in autobiography and his experience, but also humorous and occasionally surreal, going off on some fantastical tangents and diversions.

On first listen this was an easy 4, but it got better with each subsequent listen, with those little moments and diversions coming to the fore. I think it's going to be one of those albums that will keep getting better and better, so it's a 5 for me Clive
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Playlist submission: Angel from Montgomery

Live at the Regal
I wasn’t hopeful when the first track started, the jazzy and jauntily inane horns give it a 70s chat show feel.

However the run of Sweet Little Angel, It’s My Own Fault and How Blue Can You Get the is truly superb. I’ve never really listened to much B.B. King so I didn’t really realise he had such an incredible singing voice, especially when you compare it to his very vaguely Kermit-esque speaking voice.

I’m not as keen on Please Love Me and You Upset Me Baby. I don’t find that particular kind of uptempo jazz rhythm particularly satisfying, it feels a bit lightweight and doesn’t have the feel of the slower, blusier tracks, like the excellent Worry, Worry.

Woke Up This Mornin’s freneticism works slightly better than Please Love Me and You Upset Me Baby, but it still has a bit too much of that TV jazz flavour. You Done Lost Your Good Thing is good, if not quite at the same level of the other slower tracks. I really liked the slight Caribbean feel on Help the Poor, it’s a great contrast to the rest of the tracks, with a very nice rhythmic slipperiness.

Obviously his guitar playing is great, and his tone really is very lovely - smooth and warm like warmed up and smooth with no crunchy bits peanut butter, and when the songs are good they are truly excellent. He’s also clearly a great entertainer, and is brilliant with the crowd. However there are a few songs that don’t quite work for me, particularly on the second side, losing that sense of drama that the slower less jazz inflected songs create.

It’s still a very good live album though and shows off his voice and playing superbly. It’s probably somewhere between a 3 and 4, it probably doesn’t have a huge amount of replayability, but that 3 song run on the first side really is superb, it is a fun listen and a kid of landmark blues album. It really is 3.5, but I’ll tip it over to 4 for the guitar playing and voice.
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Playlist submission: It’s My Own Fault

Led Zeppelin
Although this is probably their most straight ahead blues rock album, the skill, sense of power and conviction takes it way past what any of their peers were doing. A lot of the blues rock tropes are here in the riffs and re-working of old blues songs, but Page’s guitar, Bonham’s swing and power and Jones’s overall musicality are far superior to many of their contemporaries, and Page’s skill as an arranger and producer elevate what could be a generic plodding blues rock album into something far more interesting and exciting, with changes in texture and tempo giving it much more sophistication and texture and nuance than might be expected. I know we’ve talked about Plant’s voice before, and it did take me a while to appreciate it, but there is much more skill, subtlety and range with real sympathy for the songs than I really understood until quite recently. They just wouldn’t work as a band without him.

As a bit of catchy blues rock Good Times Bad Times is great, the energy and force of the whole album is very apparent when the guitar solo kicks in. Babe I’m Gonna Leave you is also superb, the almost spanish style rhythms giving it a fantastic sense of drama/melodrama. What an opening 1-2.

You Shook Me has a good groove to it, although it does tread the line of pedestrian blues rock. The organ and drums do give it some shade and texture to stop it being too lumpen though.

For a long time I never really got Dazed and Confused, but over the years I have started to appreciate it more and more to the point of now thinking it is great. The slightly unsettling dream-like feeling and psychedelic elements alongside the rockier sections is actually brilliantly atmospheric and exciting. I can now see how its popularity as a quintessential Led Zep song has come about.

Your Time is Gonna Come and Black Mountain Side are nice examples of the folk influence that would become more prevalent on LZIII and LZIV. The organ and acoustic and steel string on the former and the tabla, Indian style drone and the Bert Jansch ‘inspired’ acoustic on the latter giving lovely contrasting texture to the heavy riffing either side of them, particularly the frenetic but absolutely banging Communication Breakdown.

I’m a little more ambivalent about I Can’t Quit You Baby. Similar to You Shook Me, it veers pretty close to generic heavy footed blues rock, particularly in the guitar tone, although the drumming is excellent as always. How Many More Times might be fairly straightforward riffing, but it is done excellently, it has a fleetness amongst the heavy rocking that gives it dynamism and interest, and it’s a great moment when the riff comes back in at the end.

I don’t think it is quite at the level of LZII and LZIV, but it is a notch or two above LZIII. I gave that album 4 stars, so I think I need to give this 5 (even though I’m also likely to give II and IV 5). It may not have the musical variety of LZIII, but as a debut record of intent and conviction it really is a fantastic, coherent listen - it really does feel like a proper album.
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Playlist submission: Could be a few, Babe I’m Gonna Leave You and Dazed and Confused are up there but I’ve been really into it today, so I’ll choose Your Time is Gonna Come

We Are Family
‘Just let me staple the vicar’

The sort of album I would have been a bit sniffy about in my younger days, but now it's the sort of album I really appreciate.

Of course Nile Rogers and Bernard Fowler are a fantastic songwriting and production team. The whole record sounds great, but Nile’s guitar sound and Bernard’s bass sound in particular are so good - the bright, clean and rhythmic against the deep, warm and melodic is such a great, contrasting combination. Bernard Fowler would absolutely be in my top ten favourite bassists

As well as that the Nile Rogers - Bernard Fowler - Tony Thompson playing axis is absolutely superb, and the sororal voices are excellent too, harmonising and blending as only siblings can.

I guess He’s the Greatest Dancer, after being sampled by Will Smith, and We Are Family might be seen as slightly jokey, novelty disco records, but they are so much more than that, they are fantastic bits of pop song writing, full of hooks, big choruses and killer grooves, and ultimately they are just joyous bits of pop music.

Lost in Music and Thinking of You are also superb of course, Thinking of You’s hypnotic groove is so satisfying and addictive, the swirling strings against the repeating chug of the guitar while being driven forward by the bass. That may well broadly be the Chic template, but it doesn’t matter when it's done as superbly as this.

I’m less familiar with the other album tracks, but I really liked Somebody to Love and Easier to Love as lower tempo, lower key songs to contrast and counterpoint the 4 big bangers. Somebody to Love is a actually great 70s soul ballad, with less of the obvious Chic elements and with great vocals and harmonies.

You’re a Friend to Me is really great, a real grower, getting better with every listen. Again a slower tempo track, but with the weight and dynamism of the uptempo songs. The bass is fantastic, particularly that repeating climb. One More Time perhaps feels a bit too Chic by numbers, not quite reaching the heights of the big songs, although the piano pattern is very good and I really like the slightly un-Nile Rogers-like guitar solo.
I’m right on the cusp of 4 and 5. It really is a fantastic 40 minutes of disco pop satisfaction, but I’m not sure it's quite in the top bracket of albums. The 4 big songs are absolute bangers and they are well supported by the other songs, but it is probably a bit two tiered. A 5 would also give it a chance at a podium place, as in the final reckoning I think it would be worthy of a bronze (assuming you both don’t hate it). Hmm, tricky.
It’s a beautiful sunny day, the album makes me happy with its joyfulness and I’m visualising Dan in his tiny pants by a Croatian pool, so I’ll let all that get the better of me and go 5.
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Playlist submission: Toss up between Thinking of You and We Are Family, I’ll go We Are Family for its pure joyous disco pop infectiousness.

Wonderful Rainbow
I often make the mistake of looking up bands and albums I’ve never heard of before listening to them, and I miss out on the fun of a surprise, fresh listen.

In this case I don’t think knowing about this album before would have made much difference to my enjoyment. It is pretty close to unlistenable. Not unlistenable due to a complete lack of ambition or due to a vacuous, empty poverty of intent like The Cult album or the Christina Aguilera album, but due to deliberately challenging obtuseness.

Similar to the Spy vs Spy album, I get that the difficulty is kind of the point, so on that level I do think it achieves artistic merit. But on a pure listening level it doesn’t have much merit at all. And as a collection of interesting ideas or themes, which might bridge the gap between the artistic intent and the listenability it also falls a bit short. It is ultimately quite boring, and any moments that might vaguely lead somewhere, like the riff of 2 Towers, the middle section of On Fire or the stabbing melody of Crown of Storms, tend to get squashed at the altar of musical obstinacy and noise.

Sometimes things like this get better with more listens, when subtleties and variations that aren’t immediately apparent start to emerge, and while I found it marginally better on the second listen, and a little more on the third listen, I think I could listen a further 100 times and it would feel broadly the same on listen 100 as it does on listen 1.

In summary, although I find it pretty unlistenable, I do also tend to appreciate the idea of people ploughing a furrow making this kind of music, intending for it to be hard and challenging, regardless of whether anyone will actually like it - and in fact in this case probably actively wanting people not to like it. So when you put that all together, it’s a 2, another of those ‘I’m glad I’ve been exposed to it, I like that it exists, but I don’t want to listen to anymore of it’ albums.
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Playlist submission: Possibly Crown of Storms, but I’ll go Wonderful Rainbow as it is relatively subdued and only 90 seconds long.

Back at the Chicken Shack
This is probably my favourite of the jazz albums we’ve had so far. With the focus split between organ, sax and guitar and the clear crossover with soul it’s actually very pleasantly listenable.

Back at the Chicken Shack sounds a lot like Green Onions, so I presume this was a big influence on Booker T. However this was recorded in 1960, but wasn’t released until 1963, and Green Onions came out in 1962, so who knows. To my untrained ear they are both 12 bar blues (please correct me!), and feature the hammond so I can see there is a lot in common purely from a sonic point of view, but I presume it may be a consequence of this album being a bridge between jazz and soul and also Booker T being into jazz also. Nevertheless nice song.

When I Grow Too Old to Dream is a very nice melody and is played with quite a nice soft feel. I should dislike the sax, but I actually like it, it doesn’t get too far away from the melody and the organ works very nicely in the back of the mix, kind of anchoring it to the band.

The sax blarps and dominates a little too much Minor Chant, making it a little too close to the stereotypical jazz sound I’m not keen on, although the keyboard is nice.

Messy Bessie I really like, although again the sax is prominent it again feels much more melodic and less obtrusive than Minor Chant, and is only one part of the soloing, rather than the dominant part. The guitar is great, some little bluesy touches and a nice counterpoint to the organ and sax

Overall I liked this, I found it a very nice listen, which isn’t always the case with this sort of album. I’m almost tempted to go 4, and although I will come back to this, I’m not sure how frequently, which I think would put it as a high 3.
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Playlist submission: Back at the Chicken Shack

The Slim Shady LP
I’m sure I’ve listened to some of his albums before but I can’t remember any of them, I just like quite a few of his big songs. So, I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of him particularly, but I do like his delivery and his ability, along with Dre mainly, to create some great pop/hip hop bangers. I also like his combination of over the top cartoonishness and genuine frustrations from his upbringings. The lyrical violence and misogyny is definitely tongue in cheek, and while there is a knowingness there, I think you can also see where it might be grounded in some genuinely held beliefs.

My Name Is, still sounds great, it felt really unusual at the time and while it does feel quite late 90s it’s still a great bit of pop music. Guilty Conscience fairs less well I think, although its still pretty good - again at the time I really liked it, but the stop start nature of it now feels a bit frustrating.

Although the lyrics are quite revealing Brain Damage does feel like some very run of the mill 90s hip hop, fine but a bit forgettable.

I really dislike skits on hip hop albums. They’re so common and I’ve never understood why, they’re never funny or interesting and take you out of any sense of flow.

If I Had is a bit try hard, and I really dislike the backing vocals. Bonnie and Clyde is a bit of an oddity and although it’s mixture of sappiness and anger is quite weird I do like that the hinted-at vulnerability it’s unusual for the genre. I forgot about Role Model, I quite like it although it feels a bit nothingy now.

My Fault is ok, but by this point the album is starting to drag, a lot of the beats are very similar and the lyrical themes are starting to get a bit repetitive. The bass on Cum on Everybody is good and gives a bit of melodic variation to the music. I quite like the melodica on Just Don’t Give a Fuck, and this is definitely the high point of the 2nd half, but you also do get the feeling he does give quite a big fuck. I’m Shady is also decent and better than Bad Meets Evil and Still Don’t Give a Fuck (you do!) but its definitely feeling like a bit of slog to get to the end at this point.

I suppose overall this representative of Eminem’s whole career: A couple great pop singles and hooks, and some amusing wordplay, but also a lot of generic album filler and while the cartoonishness works in small doses, there is a pervasive sense of 13 year old edgelord-ism that becomes tiring in bigger doses. And again like a lot of the albums from the CD heyday of the 90s and 2000s it's way too long with a lot of filler to stretch it out to an hour. I’ll go 3, a 2 is too low for his skill as a rapper but there’s no way it's a 4.
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Playlist submission: My Name Is

Histoire de Melody Nelson
I have listened to this before, it’s one of those cult albums that is always on lists as being hugely influential, which is very clear as this seems the stepping off point for Portishead in particular.

I love the bass, drums and guitar, particularly the bass though - what a great tone, with great melodicism and it’s perfectly placed in the mix, anchoring as well as moving the songs forward. The string arrangements are excellent too, cinematic and widescreen, but also slightly unsettling, kind of familiar but unsettling at the same time.

Thematically it's kind of interesting to try and pick apart, and it’s kind of hard to discern whether it's pederastic fantasy, or a Lolita-esque treatise on obsession. He certainly had a tendency for relationships with women much younger than him, and this album could quite easily be seen as a pervy endorsement of relationships with teenage children, but equally seen as narrative fantasy, with any paedophillic readings telling you more about the listener than him. I guess it probably falls somewhere between the two, and the openness to interpretation is deliberate and what makes it such a fascinating piece of art.

Musically I do love this, as I say the bass is excellent, the production is superb and as a 30 minute narrative sing cycle it is excellent. The marriage of funk with cinematic strings with atonal tendencies, and the occasional French folk element gives it a propulsive yet slightly off kilter atmosphere, which feeds into the whole narrative theme of it.

I’ll go 4, I can’t quite work out whether the ick is central to it’s quality or detracts from it slightly.
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Playlist submission: Melody

Rock’n’Soul
Easily one of the greatest soul voices, emotionally powerful with such lovely timbre, excellent control and superb range, from mellow and tender to rough and gritty.

However this album suffers from the way albums were regarded in the early to mid sixties as a vehicle for singles plus any other stuff lying around. Consequently this is a bit all over the shop and doesn’t really feel like an album, although I can understand why it’s on the list, from a historical perspective and to acknowledge his skill as a singer. I’m not really that au fait with his full discography but it doesn’t feel like there is a definitive Solomon Burke album or period, in the way Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin had, but I know he did some great covers in the late 60s, and that Don’t Give Up On Me album from a few years back is well worth a listen if you don’t already know it.

Not all of it, but much of the album does feel very rooted in its early 60s time period with songs dating back to 1961. You can hear the legacy of big band R’n’B in the arrangements and overall sound, particularly the slightly flat drum sound, the guitar and the saxophone heavy horns. Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye) is a good example of this, his voice is obviously great, but it really lacks punch.

As a fan of Dirty Dancing I’ve always loved Cry to Me though, and it is a great song - it definitely stands out. For 1962 the piano motif feels ahead of its time, really giving the whole song a sense of dramatic tension.

Won’t You Give Him One More Chance has slight Hawaiian vibes to me, and feels like a song from an Elvis movie or something. Great vocal of course but the song is pretty flimsy.

If You Need Me’s bluesiness is a better vehicle for his voice, but it suffers from the production, overall sound and slightly anaemic sounding band.

I like country vibes of Hard, Ain’t it Hard, which make sense as it's a Woody Guthrie song, and his vocal really is very lovely, but the backing vocals feel overly intrusive and the acoustic guitar in the left channel seems way too loud and high in the mix.

Can’t Nobody Love You is good, another superb vocal, particularly when he lets loose from around 1.40 onwards. But again the production vaguely lets it down, although the horns are nicely restrained.

He goes enjoyably full crooner on Just Out of my Reach (Of my Two Empty Arms), showing how versatile he is, and what a supercharged Dean Martin might sound like.

You’re Good For Me follows a similar pattern, great great vocal but a largely uninspiring production and arrangement, although the guitar is pretty nice.

The wonkiness of the recording of You Can’t Love Em All does jump out and the song itself is another of those slightly Elvis movie sounding songs, with mariachi horns this time.

Someone to Love Me is great though, the guitar is very good and backing vocals, for the most part, are very sympathetic to his voice and sit nicely within the arrangement. The soulful in a bar at 3am sound is great, one of the few times on the album where the song and recording come up to meet the quality of his voice. Beautiful Brown Eyes continues that feel, although perhaps slightly less successfully than Someone to Love Me, the slightly flatulent sax being a bit distracting.

I like He’ll Have To Go, the strings giving it a sense of harmonic range not that evident on the rest of the album, although the farty sax continues to make some more unwelcome contributions.

I suppose it’s not really fair to judge this as a soul album against the classic soul sound of the mid 60s onwards, as that hadn’t been invented yet, and it’s tricky to judge it as an album in general, as these are all disparate recordings from a period of 3 or so years, never meant to be an album. Despite that you can’t help but yearn for a bit of the joyous playing of the Funk Brothers at Motown or the gritty southern soul sound of Booker T et al at Stax and for it to be a more considered collection of songs. I had a cursory listen to the two late 60s albums that are on Tidal and they do have more of that classic soul sound, which really suits his voice, but I think his popularity had waned a bit by then and it looks like he decided to go back to Gospel and God.

Ultimately his voice is superb, and I don’t really mind what he sings as he sounds great, but musically this is way below someone of his quality - not because it’s poor, it’s just a reflection of the time it was recorded. I think a 3 is fair, musically and as an album it’s not re-listenable enough to be a 4, but he’s too good a singer for it to be a 2.
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Playlist submission: Cry to Me

Antichrist Superstar
Mum! It’s not a phase, this is who I am now!

Musically this is not my thing at all, although it is better sounding than Dirt yesterday, the elements of glam and theatrical rock make it more interesting and more listenable. There’s enough little guitar runs and moments to be interesting enough to alleviate some of the preponderance of industrial and metal noise.

Thematically, despite not being particularly original and more than a little parent’s basement, it’s not awful. The idea of ‘a populist demagogue who is driven solely by resentment, misanthropy, and despair, using his newfound position to destroy the world’, again is hardly novel, but is fairly apt at the moment, especially in the context of him deliberately provoking the hypocrisy of the Christian right with his lyrics and imagery.

Those lyrics though, while occasionally arresting, are quite ludicrous to the point of cliche: shit, blood, pussy, nightmares, alienation, anger ad infinitum. While I can definitely understand its appeal to unhappy, perhaps socially awkward, angry teens, I had too much of a privileged, happy UK childhood for them to ever resonate with me, and they definitely don’t resonate with me as a 44 year old man either.

However, for all the Christian baiting, the odd bit of good guitar playing and the occasional moment of clarity when it all comes together, this really doesn’t feel that shocking, it actually feels quite tame. And it does also fall a bit flat when it turns out that he’s probably quite rapey.

It didn’t make me despair in the way Alice in Chains did yesterday, and even though I would never choose to listen to it, it actually is comparatively listenable, or at least some of it is comparatively listenable anyway. I don’t buy into his artistic vision, but there’s no doubt he followed through and made an album consistent with that vision, which is something I suppose - although if that vision includes being a sexy predator it may not actually be something at all.

It’s also unnecessarily and stupidly long at 77 mins. Perhaps if this was a 35 minute short, sharp, shock I can possibly see how this might approach something near decent for the genre, but the reality is that it is nearly 1 hour 20 mins, and despite it having some merit thematically and occasionally musically it isn’t actually good. It’s probably a 2, but with the noncery factored in it's a 1.
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Playlist submission: Beautiful People

Dirt
I only know the name Alice in Chains, I don’t think I know any of their songs, and I do get all those alt rock, grunge and grunge adjacent bands, who are not Nirvana, from the early 90s mixed up.

And, I think, with good reason, as this really is American early 90s heavy alt rock so generic it feels pointless. I always try to be generous with music that’s not my thing, trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who would like it, and sometimes there’s good drums or guitars and production, or moments of excitement, or a diverting melody, or some off kilter little bits, but with this there is nothing interesting at all. The songs are boring, the lyrics are boring, the music is boring, the production is boring. Maybe if you are a 14 year old boy fetishising heroin addiction this is good, but why not go to a local fort of Victorian Folly instead?

I’m struggling to find any redeeming qualities. I thought the second listen might improve it, but it really didn’t. It’s not completely actively and offensively bad, in the way that The Cult album was, but it's characterlessness, earnestness, ponderousness and sense of self importance means it's actively and offensively boring, which in some ways is worse. Maybe The Cult broke the 1 star seal but this can’t be anything other than a tedious and wretched 1.
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Playlist submission. I don’t really care, so I’ll just choose Them Bones, purely as it’s the first track so I don't have to think about it further

Astral Weeks
I went through a big Van Morrsion phase about 15 years ago and I absolutely love this album. It’s astonishing that something this delicate, moving and beautiful could be made by someone who’s such a cunt. Sometimes it's hard to separate the art and artist, and this is extra tricky with his extra cuntiness over the last few years, but Van Morrison has always been a cunt, so I’m well enough practised to ignore much of that. Even though, of course, I’m inconsistent enough to not be so forgiving of other objectionable people’s music.

Anyhow, that aside, I love the flows and movement of this album, the songs, instrumentation, melodies and atmospheres, sometimes skipping around like butterflies, sometimes babbling like a stream, sometimes flitting like a breeze. The stream of consciousness words give the whole thing a dreamy feel, where some things make sense and feel concrete and real and others feel abstract and out of reach. The first side from Astral Weeks to Cypress Avenue is almost perfect in that regard, each of the four songs having a commonality of sound and style, but working as a brilliant cycle of songs, hazy and ephemeral yet simultaneously tactile and dynamic. Cypress Avenue is the cornerstone of these, but I do also love Sweet Thing’s bucolic feel.

The Way Young Lovers Do is possibly the least strong track, and feels a little out of sync with the rest of the album, although I get why it starts the 2nd side, as a bit of an end point to side 1 and before heading back into the ethereal and impressionistic soundscapes of the absolutely fantastic Madame George. What a song, like the first side’s tracks, the double bass giving it a sense of being rooted in something real, the circular guitars give it a sense of rhythm and movement, the strings freely skipping around give it an untethered sense, while the dream-like imagery of the lyrics tie the whole thing together.

It’s kind of hard to follow that but Ballerina, while maintaining a similar atmosphere, has a tangibility and density to it, with a great, soulful vocal. Slim Slow Slider’s jazzy sax, double bass, percussion and mentions of Ladbroke Grove, locate it more in a big city at night, in contrast to the more vaguely pastoral and less lonely settings of the other songs, ends the album brilliantly, as a kind of step into reality after the mystic dreaminess of the rest of the album.

It’s been great rediscovering how much I love this album today, after not hearing it for a good few years. It’s an easy 5, right up there with my favourite albums.
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Playlist submission: I’d like the whole first side really, but I’ll go for Madame George.

Abraxas
Never listened to a Santana album, my main knowledge of him is Black Magic Woman, his hair, old men in indoor markets in Santana T-Shirts and Smooth ft Rob Thomas.

Singing Winds, Crying Beasts, is very of its time in terms of title and psychedelic bongo atmosphere. I like it. Black Magic Woman is good. I know this is very famous and well loved but I do prefer the Fleetwood Mac original, although the mysterious bongos do add a nice texture.

Oye Como Va, the main motif is so so familiar, I don’t know if I know the Tito Puente original, or some other cover, or whether it’s just a very relied upon Latin musical phrase that appears in lots of places. It feels like it was on Buena Vista Social Club but there’s no track with that name and I can’t be bothered to try and find it.

For a jazz latin blues rock song Incident at Neshabur is actually very good, a real grower, becoming more expressive and more interesting with each listen. Probably my stand out.

Se a Cabo could also be a terrible latin jazz rock shitshow, but there is a winning joyousness to it that keeps it fun and at least diverting, even if it’s not the strongest track.

Of the two more straight ahead blues rock songs, Mother’s Daughter and Hope You’re Feeling Better, Mother’s Daughter works best, quite fleet of foot and dynamic, the insistent bass, both in the intro and the main song giving it a great sense of movement, while Hope You’re Feeling Better feels a bit leaden in comparison.

Samba Pa Ti is another grower, although there is a fair amount of noodling, it actually feels very expressive and interesting, rather than self indulgent. El Nicoya, the only bongo jam, is fine, not least as it’s only a minute and a half.

He does have a lovely fluidity to his playing, and he is also good at the more heavy rock moments, although more so on Mother’s Daughter than on Hope You’re Feeling Better. I know it’s not directly analogous but it's interesting comparing this to Cheap Thrills and the other Psychedelic Blues Rock from 67/68. It’s only 2 years later but technological advances in the studio and recording makes this sound a million times better than those albums, it’s got that depth and warmth. The skill and musical dexterity of the musicians, as well as there being more elements than simple blues rock, helps too of course, but as recorded sound, Abraxas is very good.

Overall I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. Latin Jazz Blues Rock is really not a genre I would actively seek out, and I was expecting interminable jamming and soloing with some jazzy latin steel drums, horns and bongo jams. And while those things do colour the album it is much better than those elements would indicate, and I enjoyed it more and more with each listen. I can now see why it has endured, why it’s so influential and why Carlos Santana is so well regarded as a guitarist. I’m not sure if I want to listen to any other Santana albums, my presumption is that they become a cheesy guitar wank fest, but of course I might be wrong. Anyway, the first listen was just about in the 3s, but with more listens I’ve actually surprised myself into a 4.
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Playlist submission: Incident at Neshabur

Blur
This was the album that really got me into Blur. I’d liked their big singles previously and had the Great Escape but hadn’t really really liked them until this album.

I loved the Beetlebum single, it came out right in the middle of A-Level mocks right as I passed my driving test. Strong memories of it being on cassette mix tapes that I played as I drove on my own for the first time.

It really is a superb album, it felt really different at the time and still sounds excellent. Lots of of oddness and strange atmospheres, with some great catchy pop hooks and, obviously, loads of fantastic guitars, whether big, loud and crunchy, or more subtle, complex and loving.

When it came out I loved Beetlebum, On Your Own and MOR, and they are still fantastic, with On Your Own being one of my top 5 Blur songs. Listening over the years since it was released a lot of the songs I’d is t immediately love on release are now some of my favourites - Country Sad Ballad Man, Theme From Retro, Death of a Party, Strange News From Another Star, Essex Dogs.

Look Inside America is interesting, not sure whether it was a holdover from around the time of Park Life and The Great Escape or a deliberate evocation of those albums. It bears quite a strong resemblance to End of Century so I guess it probably is a deliberate contrast between their old style of music with their newer more ‘Ameriphillic’ outlook. Also, never really noticed but some of the guitar breaks towards the end are very Harrison. Alongside their stated influences like Pavement etc, there is clearly a lot of Bowie and later Beatles across a lot of the album.

Strangely I find myself almost wanting to skip Song 2 nowadays, having loved it so much when it came out. Maybe it’s its ubiquity and its overuse in media to lazily indicate excitement, but it feels flat to me now - I don’t hate it, but it’s not that interesting anymore. Knowing it’s genesis as a kind of semi joke, that’s why it probably feels a bit too knowing and contrived..

The only other, very very minor criticism is that it’s quite long, possibly a victim of CD bloat. I’m not sure what you could actually take off the album, but for such a lyrically and musically dense album an hour is perhaps a lot to process.

But that can’t take away from what a great album this is. Possibly my favourite one of theirs, it’s an easy 5
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Playlist submission: On Your Own

You’re Living All Over Me
Wasn’t particularly looking forward to this, although I quite like Sebadoh, and I know how influential Dinosaur Jnr are, I wasn’t really in the mood for some American alt rock grunge type stuff.

But I did like the first track quite a bit, although the initial yelps did make me think we were in for something painful, but I liked the kind of slackery vibe and easy melody. Kracked is more of the same, a kind of laid back melodic feel with some good guitar noises.

I like the opening riff on Sludgefest and the subsequent riffing throughout too. The Lung is good as well, I like the time signature change and some of the guitar at the end is very nice.

Raisans is pretty generic alt tock, but again some of the guitar is very nice.

Tarpit, again, decent song, nice guitars. In fact that pretty much sums up the rest of the songs, apart from Poledo’s more fragmented and unsettling structure.

Although there is a bit of sameness to the songs and he’s not always the strongest vocalist, I like this. It’s much better than I was expecting, with a pleasing home made lofi quality to it too. While it is still in that American alt rock/grunge/noise rock style, I much preferred it to things like Sonic Youth, Soundgarden etc, it’s a bit more interesting with better tunes and generally a better vibe. And it’s good that it comes and goes in about 35 minutes, not outstaying its welcome. It’s not the greatest album I’ve heard, but also far from the worst - for this type of album it’s good. A very solid 3.
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Playlist submission: Sludgefest