Reviews by ikejiri

Cheap Thrills
I’ve never listened to this despite Piece of my Heart being so well know. I didn’t know it was made to sound like a live album until reading a bit about it.

It’s kind of an interesting one, rightly lauded for Janis’ voice, which is of course fantastic throughout, so distinctive, rough and smooth, just brilliant really. Despite much of it being relatively generic blues rock, there is a level of excitement and urgency to the guitar, which combined with the voice just about sets it apart from the other blues/acid/psychedelic rock we’ve had from this period. But I suppose we need to remember that at the time this would have been quite striking, and would not be affected by the fatigue that we suffer from a lot of stuff at the shittier end of the west coast blues rock scene.

It is a bit of a shame that they went for a fake live production style, it definitely gives an unnecessarily dated feel. It would absolutely have benefitted from a bit of ‘normal’ production to give the music, and the drums and bass, in particular a bit of clarity and a better place in the mix, while keeping the rough edges. The ‘live’ sound of some of the lead guitar too, particularly on Summertime, that kind of fuzzed up needle in the red sound, is a bit grating, and again it would benefit from a normal non fake live sound perhaps.

Combination of the Two is good, but Summertime, Piece of my Heart and Ball and Chain stand out. It outstays it’s welcome a little, but Turtle Blues’s 30s kind of barroom piano blues is a nice break from the heavier blues rock, but the remaining songs aren’t really that notable or memorable outside of her voice.

It’s certainly a decent example of west coast blues rock, clearly due to Janis’s voice as well as the overall sense of musical exuberance, but it is absolutely let down by the dated production style and the patchiness of the quality of the songs, as evinced by the best songs being the covers. Its not its fault that it feels dated of course, and although it does work as a much more listenable historical snapshot than say Iron Butterfly or the Grateful Dead, it probably doesn’t have a great deal of re-listenability - one of those ones to file under ‘Glad I listened, not terrible, may or may not re-visit’. That puts it firmly in the 3s.
🤏☮️❤️

Playlist submission: While the version of Summertime is great, I think it has to be Piece of my Heart.

That’s the Way of the World
Firstly, EWF as a band are tight as fuck
Secondly, they are excellent musicians
Thirdly, some of their songs are superb
Fourthly, some of their songs are cheesy as all balls

Shining Star is one of the superb songs, a fantastic bit of disco soul pop - groovy, propulsive, excellent musicianship, great melody. Can’t help a bit of white man’s overbite with this.

That’s the Way of the World’s horn part is lovely, and the song is great 70s soul ballad with some lovely floating harmonies and backing vocals, and continues the great start to the album. However, as a side note, the ‘Yeaows’ are pure Lonely Island.

Happy Feelin’ a song Jamiroquai wish they could write. The bass is a bit mental, as there doesn't seem to be a single moment without a bass note, but it’s not irritating like Jamiroquai, and the song is another strong disco soul groove.

All About Love, here comes the cheese, nice and soft, like a melting brie being slowly caressed into your ear canal. The instrumental breakdown with the cinematic horns is great, but the rest of the song isn’t great. Although I do love the weird bit tacked on the end, with the excellent keyboard bass, it sounds like a bit of experimental pop like something of McCartney, if Macca was a 12 piece disco soul band.

Yearnin’ Learnin’, some more ‘Yeaows’, and a fun but ultimately a bit of a forgettable track, and the production sounds oddly ‘spread out’ and less intimate and interesting than the rest of the tracks.

Reasons, ready for a nice bit of melted mozzarella, nice and stringy, slowly dripped all hot onto your face? Unfortunately this does feel very dated, the vocal on is ludicrous, no wonder this sort of thing gets parodied so much, it’s such a silly very unsexy slow jam.

Africano is pretty good, I like the jazz flute intro before it becomes a decent bit of disco funk.

See the Light, this is on the cheesy cusp, but despite never going full cheddar, it is a bit soul by numbers and is kind of forgettable.

The musicianship on every track is superb, and there are excellent moments - keyboard parts, bass, horns etc, everywhere - and while some of the songs are excellent, the cheese and some of the more forgettable tracks diminish the whole somewhat. It is fun though and those first two tracks are bangers, but it’s not quite enough to push it into the 4s, so I’ll stick it in the high 3s.
🌎💨🔥
Playlist submission: Shining Star

Isn’t Anything
I’ve listened to Loveless a few times, but don’t think I’ve listened to this before.

It has the elements you would expect, vaguely motorik drum patterns, lots of layers of noise and guitar and wonky vocals with barely discernible words. It’s also, as you would expect, one of those albums that makes sense the more you listen to it. Although the sounds and songs are broadly similar it's only after repeat listens that songs and nuances start to emerge, even if it never quite catches fire fully for me.

Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside), I like the drums and bass and the slightly disconcerting inhalation/exhalation noise. Vocals aren’t necessarily his strong point, and there are some wonky edits, but I do like it, a bit of a wonky grower. Lose my Breath has a quite lovely dreamy feel, very atmospheric and a great track. Cupid Come

Cupid Come is fine if a bit forgettable while (When You Wake) You’re Still in a Dream is good bit of noisy rock, the best of the uptempo more aggressive tracks.

No More Sorry, the shimmeryness punctuated with the guitar back in the mix and the vocal, is very atmospheric and intriguing. Almost feels like it might turn into The Next Episode by Dre. All I Need I like for its layered atmosphere, and sense of melancholy hopelessness, it's a good one.

Feed My Kiss and Sueisfine are quite Jesus and Mary Chain, with Sueisfine being a decent droning slightly bubblegum pop track and Feed My Kiss being a fun bit of thashy noise.

Several Girls Galore, although I like the vocal and the buzzsaw guitar, the whole thing doesn’t quite come together like some other songs on here.

You Never Should, I like this one, has a nice lo-fi pop vibe, almost feels like Ash, but with a guide vocal track. I quite like Nothing Much to Lose, it has a Teenage Fanclub vibe and the backing vocals are nice.

I Can See it (But I Can’t Feel it) is nice, again one of the more atmospheric and dreamy feeling ones, but also not a great vocal.

I think the more dreamy, slower tempo, more atmospheric songs like No More Sorry, Lose My Breath and All I Need work better than the faster noisier ones like Feed My Kiss and Sueisfine. As a full album does get better with more listens, and while I like a few of the songs and a lot of the atmospheres and noises, and in the right mood I’d listen again, it doesn’t quite fully grab me in the way Loveless does, which puts this solidly in the 3s
❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹
Playlist submission: Lose My Breath

Sulk
I’m vaguely aware of the name The Associates, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard any of their music, and I don’t really know what genre they are. I didn’t want to read about them or this before my first listen, but looking at the cover and the year, I guess some kind of synth pop type band?

Arrogance Gave Him Up, quite a bouncy synth pop instrumental, I like it.

No, quite a gloomy sound, a bit more new wave/new romantic, the pulsing drums and highly pitched synth is very 70s Bowie. Not the most convincing vocal melody. Bap De La Bap. I like the squeaky sounds, but does sound a little like a pastiche of a synth pop singer, like the Mighty Boosh might do. Good drum pattern though.

Gloomy Sunday - another very very Bowie vocal and Station to Station era feel. I really like the rippling synth line. Nude Spoons, great title. Drums, bass and one of the synths sounds quite like I’m So Excited.

Skipping - The vocal in parts sounds like when I try to do the lowest note I can in the bathroom mirror by dropping my chin into my chest and trying to look like a frog (or George Lucas). It’s Better This Way, sounds a little bit Jesus and Mary Chain, but without the echoey drums being quite as satisfying. Again the vocal melody isn’t my favourite.

Party Fears Two has nice bounciness, I like the synth line and the bass is good, and the piano in the back half is excellent. Club Country I really liked, the bass, synth, guitar and noises are great, and it’s probably the strongest vocal and strongest melody on the album and it’s best track - a potentially overlooked 80s classic.

nothinginsomethingparticular is similar to Arrogance Gave Him Up, a jaunty bit of instrumental synth pop, at slight odds with the slightly gloomy songs in between.

It feels like they are more of slightly new wave 70s inspired synth focused rather than synth pop band on the basis of these songs. Now I’m reading about them it makes sense they are Scottish, although I don’t know why that is, and that they would think of themselves as post punk, which also makes sense, but they are clearly in thrall to Bowie and a fair bit of pre-punk music. It looks like they were pretty influential too, although I guess that might be more for their attitude and style rather than the songs themselves.

I’m not entirely sure what I think. There’s a lot I like, there are some decent songs, some excellent synths and some very good guitar and bass, and musically overall it does a very good job of creating its own murky, vaguely histrionic atmosphere. The drum sound though, I’m not that keen on, there’s an almost midi quality to it, it feels thin and flat. And vocally while it does feel a bit tuneless in places, which is fine, the voices don’t have much weight or distinctiveness, and the very Bowie derivative aspect of them I do find a bit off putting, especially combined with their melodies.

It’s not a bad record at all, there’s some great synth lines and bass playing and some really interesting ideas and the overall slightly off kilter DIY aspect to it is fun, and while it’s intriguing enough to make me want to find out a bit more about them and see what else they’ve done, I may also, in time, forget I listened to this. I think a 3 is a fair score, some re-listening potential, but not necessarily an exciting discovery
🎹🎹🎹
Playlist submission: Club Country

Blood on the Tracks
This is definitely up there in my favourite Dylan albums, it may even be my favourite as it’s probably the one I’ve listened to more than any other. There really isn’t a weak track, each one is fantastic in its own right, and as a collection they work superbly.

Tangled up in Blue is one of his best songs for me, and a great opening track, setting up the atmosphere of the album. I love the shifting tenses, going back and forth in time.
Simple Twist of Fate. Another all time Dylan song, such a lovely melody and evocative lyric.

You’re a Big Girl Now, is such a bleakly moving gem, the almost spanish sounding guitar and feel amplify the melancholy sadness of the words. I love how the Hammond rises and falls evoking breathing throughout Idiot Wind, and the lyrics are, of course, caustically great.

After the bleakness and bitterness of the previous 3 songs, You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go’s jauntiness and vaguely upbeat feel is a pleasant contrast, as is the bluesiness of Meet Me in the Morning. While it might feel a little slight, the playing, and drumming in particular, is excellent and its a nice palate cleanser to start the 2nd side.

It took me a while to appreciate Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts, but now I think it’s great, its complicated picaresque plot tale is brilliantly told, fully utilising the 9 minutes without feeling long, the wild west setting and music marrying it all together.

If You See Her, Say Hello always puts me in mind of Girl from the North Country, with its similar idea of asking someone to wish his ex lover well. A beautiful wistful lyric, perfectly complemented by the fantastic music. More top tier Dylan.

I love how the first verse of Shelter from the Storm, setting up the whole song brilliantly. Love the melodic bass against the almost spiralling rhythmic guitar. Buckets of Rain has always been a favourite, again the acoustic and bass together are excellent, and it’s slightly amused but sincere observational lyric is great

The playing is uniformly excellent, the acoustic guitars and electric bass working in great harmony, particularly on some of the sparser tracks. And lyrically, while still hidden by allegory and riddle, it might be his most obviously personal, even if he still denies that it is. At turns sad and peaceful, profound and flippant, clear-eyed and opaque, every song has little corners and moments that are clearly about something specific, whilst also leaving room for interpretation and, in many cases, shifting meaning. I guess that’s the thing though, while he might say You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go is about literature, and while that interpretation clearly works, you can’t help but wonder what else he means. Maybe he is ultimately very literal and we all obsess over meanings that aren’t there, but maybe he just likes obfuscating everything. I guess that unknown gives it its emotional power 50 years later.

It’s a classic for a reason, it endures and no matter how many times you listen you can still hear something new, or you hear it in a slightly different way, like all the best music. An easy peasy 5.
🩸🛤️🩸🛤️🩸🛤️🩸🛤️🩸🛤️
Playlist submission: Tangled up in Blue

Electric
The musical growth rate of this band cannot even be charted. They are treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry.

This album feels like a joke, as if Spinal Tap never happened. Surely this is not real, released in earnest by a real band? And if it is a real album, how has it been remembered? It’s so poor in every aspect - intention, ambition, music, lyrics - that it feels entirely pointless. I’m not averse to this sort of music at all, but why would you listen to this when you could just listen to Guns’n’Roses or AC/DC, who do this a million times better, with a million times more charm?

She Sells Sanctuary is undoubtedly an absolute classic, and I was hoping there would be similar on here but, without knowing anything else of their catalogue, that seems like a massive fluke.

It’s not worth going song by song, just think of any utterly generic hard rock riff from the middle of 1987, add some echoey drum fills and some pub singer shouting yeah-ah in three slightly different ways, and mix it up in the most basic of configurations and you have any track on this album.

I’m reluctant to give out 1s, but I will this time. This is utter wank.
🧤
Playlist submission: I’ll go for my least favourite, a choice between Bad Fun or the cover of Born to be Wild. I’ll go Born to be Wild as it’s one of the most laughable covers I’ve ever heard

Faust
12 minute drone? Yes please!

I’m fairly familiar with this, following on from getting into Kraftwerk, Neu! and Can. I do think it’s great, kind of occupying the ground between Neu! And Can. The mislabelled tracks can get a but confusing.

Krautrock is great, long but interesting, great when the drums come in. The Sad Skinhead sounds very ahead of its time, almost post punk/new wave, whilst also simultaneously being very much of its time. Jennifer is a great, the pulsing bass is superb and it’s a great slow burn leading to the noise outro.

Just a Second is great, very ‘krautrock’ with it’s motorik rhythms and guitar, before moving into a slightly creepy 2nd half. Picnic on a Frozen River, Deuxieme Tableau has a lot of elements I love, but I’m not so keen on the vocal hook, I much prefer the instrumental passages. Great bass and guitar in the second half though. Läuft...Heisst Das Es Läuft Oder Es Kommt Bald...Läuft, I love the acoustic guitar and handclaps, but, like most of their other songs you expect it to turn into a kind of experimental noise jam, but it doesn’t, it plays out very sweetly.
Run, very Radiohead. I know Faust were an influence from Kid A onwards, and they obviously have Faust Arp on in Rainbows. It’s a Bit of a Pain is a very lovely way to finish, almost Bryter Later style guitar, before the noises come in and out, and before it reaches its denoument.

I do like this album a lot. It’s a bit patchy in places but I am a bit of a sucker for this type of stuff, it’s obviously very UK and US rock’n’roll influenced, but put through a teutonic hippy lens, which makes it really interesting and very enjoyable. Loads of ideas, lots of atmosphere, bit rough around the edges, it’s my perfect idea of a 4
👺👺👺👺
Playlist submission: Krautrock

To Pimp a Butterfly
I saw this was on the list when Paul recommended it after Good Kid, so I wanted to wait until it came up before I listened to it.

The list of guest stars and also musicians and producers is nuts - I counted 60 on the Wiki page - but it’s also nuts how much it all hangs together when you take all that into account.

Wesley’s Theory is great, squelchy bass and funk vibes, despite neither Thundercat or Gorge Clinton actually playing bass on it. King Kunta is excellent, superb samples and interpolations and great, driving bass and percussion. Sounds like an instant classic to me.

Institutionalized is also very good, really like the drum sound and drum pattern, and Snoop’s rap is great, his voice sounds really different, older and worn. These Walls is very Thundercat, I love that warm synth sound and again the drum sound is excellent, as are the little guitar lines.

Alright I remember from Glastonbury the other year, and I’ve definitely heard it in other places. Momma is great and Hood Politics too, love the ‘bending’ synth sound.

How Much a Dollar Cost feels like a succinct distillation of the themes he raps about, kind of despairing but not hopeless. Ronald Isley sounds fantastic on it. The Blacker the Berry is also excellent, has a similar feel to King Kunta, but brilliantly atmospheric and creepy.

You Ain’t Gotta Lie has a similar feel to some of The Roots. I is excellent, great sample and interpolation. Great delivery and awesome drums/percussion.

Mortal Man, what a closer. As a privileged person from the UK it’s hard to understand his experience, but this is very powerful.

It’s definitely one of those albus where it all just sounds right. The feel of the whole album is great, again a bit nuts considering the disparate cast of people, players and producers. It feels like a very modern soul record, with funk and jazz all being big elements without being overbearing or distracting and all layered brilliantly with the instrumentation, and a great drum and percussion sound throughout. Lyrically and thematically it’s great too, carrying on from the previous album, but with a broader more widescreen feeling.

I can easily see this becoming a favourite, up there with Illmatic, but I need to listen more and let it percolate further. It’s very dense, musically, lyrically and thematically, and it is long, but I’m looking forward to getting to know it more. It’s maybe a 4 right now, but I know with time it will be a 5, so I may as well give it the 5 now.
🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Buena Vista Social Club
The Guardian told me I should buy this back in 1997, so I did, likely thinking it would make me appear cool and eclectic. I did enjoy it, but it didn’t have much longevity in my barely formed 18 year old brain, so I don’t think I listened to it between 1998 and now.

Of all the music outside of the Western Europe/North America bubble, I do find myself drawn more to North and Northwest African desert blues and Indian stuff like Call of the Valley the other day, rather than things like this in the central american/caribbean/latin american genres. Maybe it’s the spanish guitars or the jazz adjacency but it never quite fires my imagination.

However I did enjoy it today, maybe out of nostalgia and maybe because it was a nice sunny day, but also because it is genuinely good. The various lead vocals and lead vocalists are superb, I love that they are a bit older and have that great lived in, slightly frayed around the edges feel. And the harmonies are excellent throughout. The playing is also great, giving the whole thing such a languid, sunny feel, although often there is a detectable air of melancholy. I obviously don’t know what they are singing about, it could be about lost love and family or worker co-operatives and production quotas, but it doesn’t matter, it sounds great.

However, unless you are really into this type of music, an hour is a lot. There’s no doubt it does start to feel quite samey after about ½ an hour, and although it doesn’t really drag, it’s one of those where you could accidentally restart the album at any point and you wouldn’t necessarily notice.

Highlights for me are the first 3 tracks, particularly the first one Chan Chan. Ry Cooder’s slide on this is great, subtly adding to the track and giving it a very pleasant hint of bluesiness. I also really liked El Carretero and Orgullecida. The rest, while very nice and atmospheric, didn’t particularly register.

Overall I’d say it’s right in the 3s. Very listenable and enjoyable, and I would listen again, but doesn’t quite resonate enough with me over the course of an hour to push it into the 4s, despite the obvious quality of musicianship
🇨🇺🇨🇺🇨🇺
Playlist submission: Between Chan Chan and Orgullecida, I’ll go Chan Chan

Nilsson Schmilsson
I fairly familiar with this album, I do listen to it from time to time, although haven’t in a while.

I didn't realise until I listened to a Nothing is Real podcast episode last year that there was quite a bit of intertwining between Nilsson and the Beatles, not just the lost weekend stuff with John, but they all liked him and his music. He’s done a few Beatles covers, You Can’t Do That and She’s Leaving Home on Pandemonium Shadow Show are good. Even without knowing that and listening to this album you can tell he’s clearly very influenced by them.

Gotta Get Up is great, really sets the tone for the album, kind of classic singer songwriting with a slightly off beat sensibility, interesting instrumentation and a lot of humour. He does seem to have that slight Macca-esque ability to appear to be able to toss off some effortless sounding melodies.

Driving along has that same effortless feeling, although it just seems to end, feels like it could have built further. Early in the Morning is also great. I’m not familiar with the orginal but the electric keys only backing is excellent.

The Moonbeam Song is very pretty, the Beach Boys style harmonies are great, they really elevate it.

Massive solo Lennon and solo McCartney vibes on Down. The piano feels very Spector era Lennon, but the horns echoing the descent as he sings down are very McCartney/Martin.

Coconut is fun but of oddness. I guess now you wouldn’t be able to sing in that accent, something something woke, but it’s great.

While Let the Good Times Roll is fun enough, I’m not sure it adds a great deal to the album.

Without You. Easy to forget what an excellent song this is when it’s been x factored/pub singered to death. I do love this version, the strings are excellent, just enough Bernard Herman edge to them to avoid it being too saccharine.

Jump into the Fire is excellent, the stand out track. I’ve liked since I first heard it in Goodfellas. The bass is excellent, especially in the breakdowns. Great song.

I’ll Never Leave You is a great downbeat end and a nice contrast to Jump into the Fire. Love the strings, horns and banjo as it builds and then levels out. Very pretty.

He really does have a great voice, Moonbeam Song, Down and I’ll Never Leave You really show that. And the Beatles/solo Beatles echoes make a lot of sense as alot of the musicians on here also played on Lennon and Harrison’s stuff.

Overall it is a great listen, although it’s definitely a bit woolly in places. It’s probably lacking a couple more really high quality songs to put it in the top tier. Nevertheless it lands very easily in the 4s, its slightly shabby and quirky laid back charm is a winner for me.
🥥🥥🥥🥥
Playlist submission: Jump into the Fire

Rage Against the Machine
Wake up sheeple! Corporations, yeah? The system, yeah?

Although I kind of agree with the overall sentiment, lyrically this is pretty artless - it’s hardly groundbreaking to criticise capitalism and express dislike of inequality, but if you are, swearing with vague platitudes about systems and not doing ‘they’ say just sounds a bit crap. It’s not necessarily that they are naive, and I don’t doubt their sincerity and conviction at all, but the words are neither direct and powerful, nor opaque and poetic, so it fails to reach the intellectual articulation that he’s clearly striving for, and consequently it sounds a bit laughable - it has that sense of a teenager with superficial profundity telling you something very obvious that you already know.

Musically however this is excellent, or more accurately ‘guitarily’ this is excellent. I know people always say Tom Morello is a great guitarist, but listening to this I completely understand. Although it may not be in my preferred genre, it’s so so good: heavy, groovy, riffy, simultaneously subtle and direct, it expresses the anger and themes of the album much better than the words do. I could quite happily listen to an instrumental-only version of this.

Song wise, Killing in the Name is of course excellent and probably the standout. Take the Power Back is, I presume(?), unintentionally Seinfeld. Musically Settle for Nothing is great, superb guitar. Bullet in the Head is good and Know Your Enemy is excellent, possibly running Killing in the Name of close. Wake Up is very Kashmir, and then the remaining tracks are more of the same. Excellent guitar, bad lyrics.

Of all the angry rock records, this has to be up there, I would say principally for the guitar - in fact I would prefer an instrumental-only version of this album. It’s tricky to rate, purely on guitar its a 4, but the whole is lesser, so I’ll go with 3.
🐑🐑🐑
Playlist submission: Killing in the Name

One Nation Under a Groove
The world is a toll free toilet
Our mouths neurological assholes
And psychologically speaking
We're in a state of mental diarrhea
Talking shit a mile a minute

💩💩💩💩

Playlist submission: Cholly (Funk Getting Ready To Roll!)

Call of the Valley
Couldn’t find the correct version on Tidal, so had to listen on YouTube, which is normally annoying, but for this it wasn’t, as it felt like one suite of music, so knowing individual tracks doesn’t really matter. (There is a version on Tidal, which seems to be a remake by his son

I also refrained from looking up anything about it until I’d listened to it. Obviously I knew it would be Indian, but I didn’t know whether it would be classical Indian or something more akin to the fusion of Indian and rock music on that first Ananda Shankar album.

After a minute or two it’s in the former. I know very little about Indian classical music, apart from the odd bit I’ve read about due to George and other 60s musicians who listened to it and were influenced by it. I also know that it has a different scale and also some very specific rules on instruments and improvisation, but when it comes to how that manifests itself and how it actually works I’m pretty clueless.

But I really really enjoyed this as soon as I started listening. I presume from the title it has a pastoral theme, and I definitely got that sense from it. I suppose that may be to do with the flute-like instrument, but I got the same pastoral or nature inspired impression that I get from Vaughan Williams or Sibelius in western classical music.

Now reading about it after, the flute-like instrument is actually a flute! And that plus the guitar throughout is probably why it appeals to my western ears, as it’s not full-on Indian classical but classical music made accessible for international audiences.

That doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of it all however, I just found the whole thing incredibly pleasing and relaxing, and even more so once I read more about it and the themes and inspiration. I loved the intricacies of the melodies and instrumentation and the peaceful and serene atmosphere it evokes. It really is a very beautiful 40 odd minutes of music.While I wouldn’t say I’m about to embark on a lifelong spiritual journey into Indian classical, I am interested to find out about and listen to a bit more.

Kind of hard to judge against the rest of the albums on this list, as it's probably more comparable to classical rather than pop, rock, jazz, soul or hip hop etc. I really really liked it though and as it kind of stands apart from the rest of the albums I’ll give it a 5.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Playlist submission: The 4th one, Rag Des (although if the albums on streaming we can’t put it on the playlist I guess)

Let it Be
Kind of familiar with this, one of those albums that get talked about a lot. I remember downloading it dodgily in pre streaming times, but it must have been a poor quality or highly compressed version as it didn’t sound as good as the version I’m listening to now. I didn’t really give it many listens but I did like Unsatisfied, which I’ve got on a few playlists to this day

I Will Dare, love this, very power pop, Byrds and Tom Petty ish with a punk new wave edge to it. Makes sense that Peter Buck plays on it. Favourite Thing is similar, with great guitar interplay.

We’re Coming Out, beers a bit close to a slightly tuneless punk thrash, although i love the piano breakdown at the end and the solo is good.

The lead and rhythm guitars on Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out are great, a cool post punk power pop combo, but the song just kind of fizzles out, even though I like sense of humour to it.

I can hear a lot of people must have been influenced by Androgynous, it does sound a bit like Mercury Rev and other 90s US and UK indie bands. Amazingly progressive and sympathetic lyrics for the time too. Bit of a gem.

Black Diamond. Bit of an oddity, don’t know the Kiss original at all, but seems a strange choice of band to cover. It’s fine but not as interesting as the other tracks.

Unsatisfied is excellent, a great bit of songwriting, it immediately sounds right, well constructed, but with enough roughness around the edges and a pleasing lack of polish. Stand out track.

Seen Your Video is another great slice of power pop, love that, idiosyncratically, it’s wordless until the end.

Gary’s Got a Boner. I’ve got a boner.

Sixteen Blue is really great, a few little county touches with a great sense of longing and yearning. Excellent solo.

Answering Machine is also great, love that’s it’s just guitars and nothing else until the little bit of percussion at the end.

I like their sound, the two ‘lead’ guitars, and his unconventionally affecting voice, and the unpolished looseness and occasional dissonance of their playing. Can hear a lot of Libertines in that.

It is possibly a bit patchy overall, but this is a great little album, it’s punk new wave power pop classic rock synthesis is great, it’s rough edges and it’s sense of often imminent musical collapse gives it such charm - you can see and hear why it’s been so influential and why it gets talked about so much. A definite minor classic, easily in the high 4s.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Playlist submission: Unsatisfied

Pink Moon
So good.
As with the previous Nick Drake albums, each of them on any day can be my favourite. Listening today, this is my favourite, but if I listened to Five Leaves Left tomorrow that would probably be my favourite.

The sparseness of the music fits so well with the sparseness of the lyrics, the fragments of observations, feelings and moods that the words evoke as they gently drift in and out. He doesn’t fully vocalise a lot of the words, so you get a real sense of an internal monologue of jumbled thoughts passing across the tumbling and spiralling guitar. Although there is an undeniable bleakness and sadness, there are also moments of joy and hope.

I won’t go through each song, but I like them all and I like the flow, moving in and out of focus, some more rhythmic, some more atmospheric, all tying into the overall feeling of the album

28 minutes of melancholy acoustic perfection.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Playlist submission: Stick a pin in any tack, but today I really liked Road.

Ready to Die
I do like Biggie’s flow, but I only really know Juicy, Hypnotise, Mo Money. Interested to hear this, especially in comparison to the Tupac album we had back in May.

I really like a lot of the sound and production on this, and the samples are pretty great throughout, a lot of string laden 70s soul, giving the whole thing a warm, lush sound. Good considering it seems to have had about 300 different producers.

Intro really resonated with me, it really reminded me of my own journey from birth to adulthood.

His rhymes and wordplay are good, and I like the timbre and style of his voice, but the actual words and lyrics on most of it I don’t like. I thought Tupac talked about these same topics and themes more as reportage, laying out the world and situations he found himself in, with a strong element of despair. While they did border on nihilism, I much preferred them to the lyrics on this. It’s not that he is necessarily glorifying violence or gangs, but there is a fair amount of self aggrandizing, eg on Warning. The bragging about his sexual prowess is also quite painful, the words on One More Chance for example are embarrassingly cringe and hard to listen to. The blow job noises at the end of Respect are also awful. That air of misogyny, while pretty pervasive elsewhere in the genre and other music at the time, is also pretty hard to listen to.

Juicy is still a great track though.

Musically and sonically I really like a lot of the album, but lyrically I really don’t like it. I know the world he grew up in and raps about is so far removed from my own experience that I don’t fee I’ml in a position to really judge it, but it feels like there are lot of other people out there who do talk about this stuff in a more interesting and, from my perspective, a much better way.
⭐⭐
Playlist submission: Juicy

Tago Mago
Ich Nichten Lichten - 73 minutes of German avant garde rock!

The first half of it, from Paperhouse to Halleluhwah is just fantastic. Skittery, odd, creepy with great rhythms and little hooks and melodies. It’s recognisable, but also slightly opaque, there’s grooves and lyrics, but the overall effect is slightly other worldly. It feels like what jazz thinks it, but is actually what jazz wishes it could be.

Paperhouse and Oh Yeah are great, but I love Mushroom and Halleluwah. Mushroom is possibly the most conventional song, even though it’s still a bit odd, but the 18 minutes of Halleluwah is just amazing, a little bit of funk, but spacey at the same time. You could dance to it, but you could also freak out to it. Just read that Primal Scream sampled the drums for Kowalski. Makes sense.

The 2nd side is definitely a different listen, although and without wanting to appear obtuse, I do really like it - although obviously it’s not everyones cup of tea and it took me a long time to come round to it. I do like how Aumgn slowly coalesces from chaotic noise into chaotic rhythm by the end of its 17 minutes. Although on the one hand it’s kind of tuneless, there’s something about it I find quite addictive, I really don’t know what that is or why I like it so much. Peking O’s introduction feels like its leading towards something like the songs on the first side, before it turns into a soup of schizo percussion and shouting. I’m less keen on this than Aumgn, although I do still like it. Again I don’t know why. Bring me Coffee or Tea is a suitably subversive end, going back to the style of the first side.

I do love this album, maybe Ege Bamyasi or Future Days are a better overall listen but I love how distinctive this is. I always get the feeling the avant garde stuff on side 2 comes from a genuine place of experimentation, rather than pretension or deliberate wackiness, while the stuff on side 1 is what happens when they try and write ‘normal’ songs, their innate slightly off balance and skewed sensibilities means it comes out slightly strangely, but in a brilliant way.

The recording and composition of it is interesting, recorded on 2 track in a castle, made by cutting up their jams into ‘songs’. You can hear the joins in lots of places, but that only adds to the charm in my opinion.

It’s not the greatest album ever, but the more I listen the more rewarding it is. I find myself enjoying it immensely each time I put it on, maybe because it's so off centre, and at turns creepy, slippery, funky, funny and weird. But I don’t actually know why it appeals to me so much. I love an effortless McCartney melody, or a extremely well recorded and structured Steely Dan song, or a skillfully written and arranged pop song as much as the next man, and this is not that, but I love that some weird Germans and a Japanese guy made this, and that it still endures 50 years later. 5 it is.
🥫🥫🥫🥫🥫

Playlist: Halleluhwah

Rattus Norvegicus
Stuart Pearce’s favourite band. He’s seen them over 1000 times.

The Stranglers best of is always a fun listen, but I’ve never given any of their albums a go so I’m quite interested in this.

They never seemed like a typical punk band, although the attitude and vocals are pretty sneering and punkish, the keyboards/organ and the prominent, melodic bass always made them sound more like a standard rock band, albeit with a bit of a rough edge. They definitely have a sense of musicianship and musical ambition beyond many their peers, and you can definitely hear a lot of 60s influences, particularly The Who.

Sometimes is a good example, it really doesn’t have that year zero punk ethos - the bass, organ and guitar breaks are much more pre-punk ‘classic’ rock. It’s a great opener though.

Goodbye Toulouse is a little more punky in attitude and tempo, but the circular organ and the guitar fills give it a more accomplished flavour. London Lady continues that pattern but with diminishing returns. Princess of the Streets is a bit creepy but a nice change of pace, developing into a decent hypnotic groove. Hanging Around picks the energy back up, with a decent memorable melody.

Peaches is a great bit of pop rock oddness. It could be easily dismissed as a bit of a novelty record, but it’s much better than that. (Get a) Grip (On Yourself) is good too, the synths and sax is great, giving a different texture. Ugly is pretty forgettable. I like the Down in the Sewer medley, a nice sense of musical ambition, even if it doesn’t work fully.

The lyrics do need a mention, they have undoubtedly not aged well and are problematic in parts, particularly Sometimes. And they do seem quite obsessed with sexism, streets, sewers and rats. Peaches you can probably just about give the benefit of the doubt to, in that it parodies a certain type of character and at least Goodby Toulouse uses a slightly unconventional inspiration.

Overall it’s a decent, fun listen, both as a counterpoint to their punk peers and in its own right, even if it is undoubtedly a bit patchy. Sometimes (despite the lyrics), Hanging Around, Peaches and (Get a) Grip (On Yourself) are very good songs, standing well above the rest. I also do like the composition of the band - when it works well the bass and organ/keys are a great combo, giving them a distinctiveness and point of difference. I’ll go 3, it doesn’t set the world alight, but I’d listen again.
⭐⭐⭐

Playlist submission: Peaches. (Get a) Grip (On Yourself) runs it close but I’ll go with the obvious

Station to Station
Really smashing through the Bowie, of the 9 on the list we only have 3 left after this one.

And another cracker, definitely top tier Bowie for me (feel like I’ve said that for all his albums so far). I do often like albums that straddle two eras or styles and this certainly has elements of Young Americans while also foreshadowing the Berlin trilogy. The title track really encapsulates this, the brooding teutonic sounding intro and build, with the more funk and soul ‘It’s too late’ part. Great guitar.

Golden Years is just fantastic, great riff and I love the handclaps. Superb vocal on Word on a Wing, and love the build from the understated opening to the full strained and yearning body of the song.

TVC15 has always been a favourite, a great bit of off kilter soul and rock. Love the piano and guitar in the outro.

Stay is truly excellent, fantastic guitar and another one that straddles the Young Americans and Berlin periods. Another excellent vocal on Wild is the Wind, delicate and translucent but very moving. The guitar is very nice too.

There is a coolness (as in cold) to this, a definite uncomfortable and uneasy undertone to it all, despite some more immediate moments like Golden Years, TVC15 and the piano intro to Word on a Wing, but that sense of detachment gives it a sense of density, hidden corners and a pleasantly unsettling personality. It has to be this length, anymore than 38 minutes and it might feel too oppressive. Only 6 songs, but each of them has room to breathe and none of them feel long, despite their lengths.

The sound of the album is excellent throughout too. I guess it’s hard to know who played what between Earl Slick and Carlos Alomar but the guitar on this album really is fantastic, skipping between styles and tones and sound, adding so much to the songs whether as the foundation like on Golden Years or as texture as on TVC15.

Endlessly intriguing and complex, one of those albums where it often feels like you are hearing it for the first time even if you’ve already only just listened to it, it can only be a 5
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Playlist submission: Station to Station. Hard to choose, love GY, TVC15 and Stay, but for it’s unique air of sinister momentum I’ll go with STS

Copper Blue
Never heard of this band or album, didn’t know it was Bob Mould until I looked it up.

I’m not overly disposed to the early 90s alt rock/grunge bands and sound, but I did enjoy this more than most albums in the genre. I do like Husker Du, and although the subject matter is more straightforward than HD, it does retain some of the same punkish 60s surf pop influences, but with more accessible melodies.

There’s something off about the bass on A Good Idea, I think it is supposed to sound deliberately amateur, but it honestly sounds like me failing over and over to learn a basic bassline. Changes is a good bit of grunge power pop.

Feel like I’ve heard Helpless before, I like it. Hoover Dam is very nice, the acoustic guitars and synth add a nice texture and are a nice contrast to the guitar heavy tracks. If I Can’t Change Your Mind is another nice slice of melodic grunge. I like Man on the Moon too.

The rest I can take or leave, it's all fine but pretty forgettable and formulaic heavy guitar alt rock.

It’s certainly a decent enough album, I wouldn’t be averse to listening again, and might choose to at some point if I got reminded of it, but I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way to hear it again. Think that lands it right in the middle of the pack.
⭐⭐⭐

Playlist submission: Hoover Dam