Reviews by ikejiri

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
(In a Brummie accent)

It’s going to be a 5, it’s one of my favourite albums. I have great memories of living in Japan when it came out and listening to it a lot at that time. I still return to it often and it still holds up, it doesn’t sound at all dated.

It wears its influences pretty clearly, but all filtered very deftly through the Wilco musical sieve. There’s less overt rock and country to it than previous albums, as they lean more into some pure pop melodies as well as more layered atmospheric soundscapes, using keyboards as textures rather than melodic drivers. They also got a new drummer around this time and he makes a big difference - there’s just a sense of more rhythmic interest and variation to it.

The shimmering keyboards, broken rhythm pattern and the discordant coda of I am Trying to Break your Heart lead brilliantly into the more conventional strum of Kamera, but still maintaining a sense of unease. Radio Cure and War on War follow a similar pattern.

The trio of Jesus, Etc, Ashes of American Flags and Heavy Metal Drummer are really the centrepiece of the album. The tenderness of Jesus, Etc, followed by the slightly uneasy of Ashes of American Flags and then the joyfulness of Heavy Metal Drummer encapsulates the whole album.

I really like the Neil Young/Crazy Horse guitar contrasting with the Motown style horns on I’m the Man who Loves You. Pot Kettle Black comes back to the feel of Kamera and War on War before Poor Places and Reservations end things on a suitably downbeat and sonically discordant note. I particularly like the layers and textures on Reservations, not so much a tune as a feeling.

I do love how the songs alternate between the slower, textured and rhythmically fractured songs and the more melodic up beat strummers, that combination is in keeping with the slightly dissonant, fragile and melancholic tone of the whole album.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐️

Slayed?
I do like Slade’s greatest hits but I don’t think I’ve ever listened to an actual album of theirs.

How d’ You Ride. Exactly what you might expect from the opening song to a Slade album.

The Whole Worlds Going Crazee. At their best these stomping 50s style glam rockers with big choruses seem so effortless and fun, but this one is a bit of a struggle

Look at Last Nite is great though, love the bluesy groove and the sinewy bass and it’s a nice change of tempo. The fade out is a bit abrupt though. I Won’t let it ‘Appen is nice too, again a welcome rhythmic variation with great bass.

The cover of Move Over is fine with its satisfyingly crunchy guitars.

Gudbuy T’Jane - classic Slade. I like to think Dan sings this with his guitar to Jane every time she leaves the house. Love the dynamic between the guitar and bass on the riff, very satisfying.

Gudbuy Gudbuy. Have to admire the consistency in their spellings. Has it’s moments but a bit meat and two veg.

Mama Weer All Crazee Now - more classic Slade, along with Cum on Feel the Noize this is probably the apogee of their sound. Love it.

I Don’t Mind. I don’t mind it.

I feel like every band in the 70s covered Let the Good Times Roll, and aside from the energetic performance I’m not sure what this brings.

Overall I guess it depends on whether you like Noddy’s voice and whether you like their musical template. I like both so I enjoyed this a lot. There’s is a bit more musical subtlety than might be expected, Don Powell is a very good drummer and Jim Lea is a very good all round musician - I particularly like his bass after the choruses in Gudbuy T’Jane for example. And they do move slightly out of the stomping lane from time to time, which is very welcome. It’s a very fun listen, it has no pretensions or ambitions beyond what it is, but has enough musical interest to it bear related listens. It lands somewhere between 3 and 4, but I’ll go for a very enjoyable three
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ps My Life is Natural, the first bonus track and b-side of Coz I Love You is the Led Zep/Pinball Wizzard mash up we didn’t know we needed. I think Rush might also have taken some of the melody for Tom Sawyer

American Pie
American pie is brillant, it really is. Not just the lyrical allusions but a brilliant chorus, joyful exuberant playing and a tender melancholic feels to the words. The line about dancing in the gym is always very evocative to me

Till tomorrow. Parts of this feel a lot like a Nick Drake song, particulate the verses and chorus. The middle eight not so much

I do love Vincent, even if the lyrics on occasion are a bit on the nose. Lovely meldoy

Not keen on crossroads, feels a little bit anodyne and inert. Everybody Loves Me, Baby is a bit unconvincing, not sure it quite works

The Grave is very good, although the S&G production doesn’t quite fully land.

It’s a good album, Vincent, American Pie and The Grave the obvious standouts, with some lovely melodies, but beyond that a lot of the songs do feel like variations of the same musical idea and the lyrics can be a bit lumpen and heavy handed. Production/sound wise it also feels pretty dated and a bit thin.

Somewhere between a 3 and a 4, I’ll go 3, one all time classic song, a couple of great tunes and some nice but ultimately middling songs.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lady Soul
I’m pretty familiar with this although haven’t played it in a while. It’s right in that ’67 to ’72 sweet spot for Aretha albums after she moved to Atlantic, from I’ve Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You up to Amazing Grace. Some great songs and some superb covers in there (including her fantastic version of The Weight).

Chain of Fools is rightly a classic. Money Won’t Change You carries on the fantastic start before the slowed down People Get Ready changes the tempo nicely. Great bass driving Niki Hoeky and a great vocal (although obviously every song has a great vocal) brings the tempo back up again before You Make me Feel Like a Natural Woman. Again one of those overfamiliar ones but this is just another level of brilliance.
Sweet Sweet Baby kicks off Side 2 nicely and brings more of that gritty guitar and uptempo, brilliantly propulsive soul sound. The superbly bluesy Good to Me as I am to You (with Clapton), followed by the energetic Come Back Baby is a great one-two. Groovin’ takes things down a notch with a relatively restrained vocal and arrangement before the emotional punch of Ain’t No Way ends things on a big dramatic note.
The playing on this is exceptional, as you would expect from the Muscle Shoals band and the various guests, but the rhythm section of Spooner Oldham and Tommy Cogbilll in particular stand out - tight, melodic, propulsive, sympathetic to the songs, just fantastic.

28 minutes, not a duff track or duff moment.

Combining this choice of songs, that playing, Jerry Wexler’s production and smart arranging (and great track sequencing) with Aretha’s voice and presence is always going to be a winner and this is superb. I don’t think it can be anything but 5, as an example of late 60’s southern soul it’s hard to surpass it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Synchronicity
Spiritus Mundi

It took me a long time to appreciate The Police fully, I think I was put off by Sting’s 90s solo stuff, all that banal adult orientated jazz and soul inflected wank. But they are a great band and alongside the big songs there are some absolute bangers in their catalogue. However this is my least favourite of their albums.


Synchronicity is a great start though, building on their reggae rock sound with some interesting synths.
Walking in your Footsteps kind of signposts where Sting was heading, I really like the first minute or so and then it teeters right on the edge of good and bad, and I’m not sure which side it falls on, I think bad by the end. I like the sequencer experimentation but for some reason I don’t think it works that well with Sting at the controls.

O My God has a nice bass line and drums but is a bit underwhelming.

Mother is not good. Not good at all. Really terrible. Woeful, and I mean woeful. 
Miss Gradenko is not great either.
Synchronicity II is ok, a bit Police by numbers but at least the guitar gives it a bit of urgency.

Every Breath you Take. Undoubtedly a great song, overfamiliar and its kind of been swallowed up in I’ll be Missing You, but just listening in isolation now it is a superbly constructed pop song, that guitar riff, the single repeating piano note and little piano figure and vocals after the first chorus is so good. This very noticeably jumps out as superior to the rest of the songs on the album.



I do like King of Pain I feel like the balance of pop vs jazzy noodling is ok on this one. Wrapped Around Your Finger is ok.

Tea in the Sahara I really really dislike and Murder by Numbers is one of those pointless forgettable songs.


I really like their debut album and Zenyatta Mondatta, but this one veers too close to being an AOR MOR Sting solo album - it doesn’t have the dynamism and excitement of their earlier records. With Summers and Copeland pushed back it loses a lot of what made them great I think.

Ultimately it’s somewhere around 2-3, but there are some very good moments that I do like so I’ll go 3, although I’d listen to all their other albums ahead of this
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hot Fuss
I’ve never really liked the Killers, so I’ve never listened to this album before. Not that I necessarily think they are bad, there’s just something I can’t quite put my finger on that I don’t really like.



I tried to put that aside and listen with an open mind. Clearly they can write some very catchy pop songs, they definitely have a knack for hooks and choruses. Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me are great examples of this. And I have always actually liked All These Things That I’ve Done. I also like the little bass hook on Jenny was a Friend of Mine. There’s some nice bass playing throughout too.



Outside of those big catchy songs though I did find it a bit dull, with a fair amount of filler. There’s a lack of dynamism and excitement and it often falls back into generic guitar pop, with some bad lyrics and not great vocals.



I’m also not a fan of the sound and production which doesn’t help. Apart from the bass tone and its place in the mix it feels very very flat. 



I was hoping I’d get more out of it and it would grow on me on the 2nd and 3rd listens, but I kind of felt the same as the first listen, although I think I appreciated some of the keyboards/synths more the 2nd time around.



Maybe it’s me and just don’t get it but I don’t think this is all that good. A couple of catchy big tunes and not a great deal else. I feel like perhaps there’s an artifice and insincerity to it that turns me off. It’s not an affected cool that you might tar The Strokes with, perhaps it’s a smugness or a kind of indie showbiz-ness.


Perhaps 2 is a bit harsh considering I gave Iron Maiden 3, but I feel this is more hollow even if it’s more listenable on the surface. 

⭐⭐️

Transformer
I remember buying this at Uni and quite liking it, although I haven’t listened in a long time. I must have known at the time that Bowie and Ronson produced it but that felt like news to me today. 
And listening to it their fingerprints are all over it. The guitar on Vicious (and throughout), the strings on Perfect Day, the bass and drums on Hangin’ Around, the tuba on Make Up. LOVE Bowie on backing vocals on the coda of Satellite of Love. Also didn’t realise Klaus Voormann played bass on some of the tracks .

Perfect Day and Walk on the Wild Side are more examples of those overfamiliar songs that really are superb when you properly listen to them. Iv’e always loved Vicious and Satellite of Love is a stone cold classic.

Listening through today, aside from the biggies, Andy’s Chest, Hangin’ Around, Wagon Wheel (GREAT guitar on this) and I’m so Free stood out. I wasn’t as keen on Make Up, New York Telephone Conversation and Goodnight Ladies - a bit underwhelming and feel more like exercises in production and arrangement rather than actual songs.

I do like Lou Reed and his style of songwriting and really like his vocals, but I’m not sure there are quite enough good songs on here, and without Ronson I think it would be more of a struggle to get through those weaker tracks.

I don’t know his solo work that well, but I do love the Velvet Underground and listening to this it feels like he does need some interesting collaborators to help elevate some of his more mundane moments or pick up some song writing slack.



One of those funny ones to rate - the highs are exceptional and although the lows aren’t terrible or too numerous they are a bit deflating, so it’s between a 3 and a 4.
Just because of Vicious, Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side, Satellite of Love and Wagon Wheel I’ll say 4.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Everybody Knows this is Nowhere
I tend to forget about this album, despite Down by the River being one of my fav Neil songs. I can’t actually remember the last time I listened to this, but must be at least 10 years.

Cinnamon Girl - it’s great. The handclaps, the sense of innocence. For some reason the intro always surprises me, I always think it’s at a quicker tempo than it is. Love the little guitar breakdown in the coda

EKTIN
Always a fav and always loved the harmonies and bouncy rhythm

Round and Round
I tend to overlook this one but it’s a very sweet low key melody.

Down by the River
I love this song. I love Buddy Miles version almost as much but this is just so so good.

The Losing End
I like the loping country feel, but it’s not one of my favourites

Running Dry
The fiddle is very nice against the slightly sinister traditional folk feel. Again I tend to forget about this song, but it’s great.

Cowgirl in the Sand
Banger

I knew Down by the River was written quickly when he had a fever but I didn’t realise until today that he wrote Cinnamon Girl and Cowgirl in the Sand on the same day when he was delirious with fever too.

How does one approach rating this? Alongside the McCartney, Bowie and Lennon albums this is the one of the ‘big’ artists with extensive catalogues, and when you know their other albums so well it’s hard to divorce it from the context of, in this case, what comes after.
I think I have to rate in terms of my appreciation of the albums of his I love, so therefore it’s a 4. It’s great, and people have built entire careers on songs not nearly as good as CG, EKTIN, CITS and DBTR, but it’s just that level below my top tier Neil albums.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Iron Maiden
Obviously not my type of music but I don’t mind Iron Maiden. Actually I just like Run to the Hills, that’s a great song.

Didn’t know that Bruce Dickinson wasn’t an original member.

Musically it was kind of what I thought, although with more groove and variance than I expected. Definitely more melodic than I thought it would be.

All the elements are there though, aggression, speed, double bass drumming, loudness, bad lyrics and a lurid album cover

You can see the influences of the early metal bands like Black Sabbath and the classic rock bands like Led Zep, as well as the theatricality of Queen. Feels like the heavy elements of classic rock stripped out, refined and concentrated down a heavy metal path, rather than bands who take heavy metal and refine that into even more heavy metal and lose any sense of tune melody or enjoyment, eg Pantera. It feels like they want to write songs and make them heavy metal, rather than just wanting to write noise.

I like the harmonies on Phantom of the Opera and there are some nice backing vocals here and there too. Phantom probably my stand out track.
Strange World is just a straight ahead power ballad.

Although I might rarely chose to, I’d quite easily listen to this again. Heavy metal is not really my genre but if I was forced to listen one heavy metal album then I’d be happy with this.

I’ll go 3, it’s not as good as some albums I’ve given 3 to, but for a heavy metal album 3 feels like the right score.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

The La’s
I wasn’t able to listen to this as much as I normally would yesterday , although I did listen to it last week.

On first listen last week I was a bit underwhelmed and I struggled to pick anything discernible out. I think I might have been expecting an album full of very melodic jangly 60s guitar pop like There She Goes, or something as polished and immediate as The Stone Roses.

The 2nd time around yesterday I listened to it sporadically throughout the day I enjoyed it more. And There She Goes is actually a bit of an outlier, not necessarily in quality but in structure and sound.

It’s definitely not the proto Britpop album it’s gets described as, it’s much less wedded to a classic 60s guitar group template, it’s a bit more sinewy and moves outside those boundaries. Liberty Ship has a kind of musical slipperiness, maybe a bit Talking Heads-ish, with a folky, she shanty-ish melody. In fact there feels like a lot of sea shanty influences on this.

There She Goes is an excellent song though. Like a lot of the overfamiliar of songs on these albums on the list, when you concentrate on them you really appreciate them.

Son of a Gun, Timeless Melody, Liberty Ship I.O.U really stood out on that second listen. Feelin’ and Way Out I didn’t much like though.

I’m not convinced by the overall sound. I know it was recorded over a lot of sessions but there is a bit of flatness on some songs and there’s a particular sound on some of the rhythm guitar that I’m not keen on. There She Goes is also a bit of an outlier in this regard as it does sound very different to the rest of the album.

Bit of a tough one to rate, I haven’t listened to it as much as have the other albums we’ve done but I did like it, and there are definitely some very good songs on here, although a couple I want keen on and the production/sound was a bit of a letdown. I’ll go 3 for now, but will definitely listen more, it’s almost certainly a grower.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

At San Quentin
The History of Rock Music in 500 songs has a good episode about Cash and Walk the Line, and the genesis of the Tennessee Three, basically how they weren’t really musicians but found a way of backing him that suited him but was quite unusual in its simplicity and didn’t sound like much else at the time, particularly Luther Perkins guitar lines and Marshall Grant’s extremely minimal double bass (basically he could only play every other note at the beginning as he didn’t know where the notes were on the bass and he couldn’t move his fingers quick enough). Obviously this is Carl Perkins here, which is cool, you can hear him embellishing a little on There’ll be Peace in the Valley.

I like Johnny Cash a lot, but I’ve always been a greatest hits and American Recordings man - I suppose the problem is that there isn’t necessarily a definitive early studio Cash album or set of albums, he released so many and many were just tracks put together from various recording sessions. I’m not generally a fan of live albums so I’ve kind of overlooked this and Folsom Prison, but they really are such a part of his legend that I should actually listen to them.

It is great. All the elements of Johnny Cash are there, the fantastic, resonant baritone voice, simultaneously hard and empathetic, but always full of feeling, the myth making outlaw persona and the overall charisma and presence.

It’s amazing what he can conjure out of such seemingly sparse and simple musical backing.

The Wreck of the old 97 really fizzes.
I Walk the Line is obviously superb, in whichever form. I love how each verse is in a slightly different key giving a sense of unsteadiness before resolving in the last verse.
San Quentin is great, particularly the reaction from the crowd. Carl Perkins also sounds excellent on this.
I think this is the definitive live version of A Boy Named Sue? It’s definitely the one you hear the most. Reading about it, it was a surprise in the set and was improvised by the band. Nice.

I listened to the original version, but the legacy version is meant to be very good and possibly even better.

I’d like to listen to At Folsom to compare but I thought this was great, up there with Live at Leeds and Get Your Ya Yas as the only live albums I like. A foot tappin’ rock solid 4. Keen to listen to it more
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

OK
I have a recollection of you having this at Durham, Paul? I’m aware of him but can’t recall ever giving him a listen.

I thought this was great.

Eno-esque in places, particularly My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, but obviously filtered through his own cultural upbringing.

Obvious Indian classical influences, but quite a lot of traditional Japanese influences too. Subsequently found out some of it was recorded in Okinawa, so that makes sense.

Some of the hip hop and dance/drum n bass beats do sound quite 90s, but they are so well woven amongst the other sounds it works really well

Traveller is great, has a bit of everything that’s to follow, love the strings.
OK is great too
And I loved Light.

I’m glad this came up, I’m looking forward to listening to it some more
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Live/Dead
Wasn’t looking forward to this.
The first song is 25 minutes. Fucking hell

If I was a kid in the late 60s SF, off my tits on acid and smoking weed all day I think I would have loved this and the Grateful Dead. Hard 55 years afterward to appreciate this.

Some decent grooves amongst all the noodling, and some nice guitar sounds. The vocals don’t sound great though.

The lyrics, earnest mystical stoner nonsense, but with a certain amount of vaguely charming guilessness.

The first listen through I didn’t mind it at all, it soundtracked doing work pleasantly enough. It started to become a bit tiresome by the 2nd listen and then I stopped halfway through the 3rd listen as the whole thing was becoming tedious. Life is too short to spend another 1hr 15 minutes listening to it. Not that’s it’s actually that bad actually it just all feels a bit futile.

I had it on loop to listen a few times and couldn’t tell what was the last track and the first track. It’s all one long noodle with some bad words.

I didn’t mind St Stephen, but struggled to pick much else out. The song Feedback. Why?

If you like the grafetful dead then I’m sure you’d love it. If not then it just passes you by.

Never listened to the Grateful Dead properly, not sure this will tempt me to, although I probably should try American Beauty one day. Don’t think I’ll start listening to their other 166 released live albums.

Some grooves here and there, some good bits, some unlistenable, but overall quite a tedious endeavour
⭐️⭐️

Bridge Over Troubled Water
BOTW - have heard so many times and so familiar. Even though sometimes the recording can feel a little OTT, really listening to it, what a magical song. Uplifting, comforting and full of beautiful moments, ‘Sail on, silver girl…’ in particular.

Always loved El Condor Pasa, particularly the intro.

Keep the Customer Satisfied I also love. Good example of Paul Simon’s wry sardonic storytelling.

It took a while for me to see that So Long, Frank Lloyd Wight was a good song. It’s a lovely little melody with a skipping rhythm and I like the little fiddle string low in the mix

The Boxer - what a song. Sounds brilliant every time I hear it. Might be my favourite S&G song.

Baby Driver, similar to Customer. I do like these quirky upbeat songs he does , a bit like Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard from Paul Simon’s ‘first’ solo album. Kind of upbeat folky Motown with unusual rhyme patterns

I LOVE The Only Living Boy in New York. Just love it, the bass, the feel, everything.

Why Don’t You Write Me. I feel like this is the only down note on the album. Feels like an arrangement looking for a song and the whole thing doesn’t quite convince.

I’m never quite sure why Bye Bye Love is on here too. It’s a good version of a great song, but it’s always stuck out as a bit odd. Not necessarily bad but seems out of place.

Song For the Asking. I really enjoy the low key nature of this, a nice contrast to the ‘big’ opening of the title song. Lovely track.

I do love this album, I go back and forth between this and Bookends as my favourite S&G album, but they are both great. For such a great act it’s always surprising how it feels like they only really have two ‘proper’ albums. They have written some of the greatest songs though and I suppose that’s why any greatest hits of theirs is so good.

Even though it’s not quite perfect and does feel uneven towards the end with Why Don’t You Write Me and Bye Bye Love , before the lovely Song for the Asking I think this has to be a 5, it’s got two of the greatest songs ever and some of their best non ‘big’ songs.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Is This It
So good when it first came out. In fact I think I might have bought it in Melbourne when I came to visit you Paul. July 2001, so the timing checks out. Think I also bought the Purple Hills single by D12 at the same time.

Is this still good or is there too much nostalgia?

I love that the first track played with the idea of hype and disappointment. Obviously the hype was huge, so to open with a detached sounding song that never quite builds and then just sort of finishes is great. Super bassline hanging the whole thing together.

Banger after banger. No matter how derivative the songs might be or how self consciously cool they wanted to be the songs are excellent. For their particular style and template it really is fantastic.

No weak tracks. 35 mins. Superb.

Love the overall sound, particularly that dry drum sound and the rhythm guitars. Although Last Night is basically American Girl the rhythm guitar is Lennon-esque, not quite the triplets of All My Loving but a nice version of it.

It so heavily reminds me of early 2000s and absolutely loving it but I don’t think it sounds dated, it’s still great, unlike a lot of bands albums they followed in their slipstream.

Musically and aesthetically they had the same effect on rock music as Nirvana did a decade before, you can see clear a line before and after of how indie rock bands looked and sounded.

My only slight reservation is that sometimes I think it’s too studied a synthesis of cool influences and is it really them, is there an artifice that I can’t quite see through? But then I think I’m overthinking it and every time I listen to it I love it. So it has to be a 5, can’t be anything else.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

África Brasil
Never heard of this or him. Wasn’t sure what I was expecting but I thought it might be some Afro-Brazilian jazz thing.

I purposefully didn’t read anything about it before listening, so with some trepidation/fear/excitement/anticipation I put it on, and was very happily surprised to hear the first track is a kind of funky Afrobeat groove. I love the layers of percussion propelling the rhythm, augmented by the bass and guitar riff. No idea what he’s saying but I do like the sound of Brazilian Portuguese with all the shhs and jsss.

Hermes Trismegisto Escreveu has an even more funk powered groove but with a more overtly samba/bossa nova vocal melody.

This is good!

Taj Mahal - Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?!?! I sort remember hearing about this, that Rod nicked that melody from here, and also the string line from another song, but claimed you were allowed to do that, or something. Can definitely hear elements of Barry Manilow and Copacabana in A História de Jorge too.

Really liked Camisa 10 da Gávea, I guess that’s about the Brazil no 10 shirt?

The one after, Cavaleiro Do Cavalo Imaculado is a superb groove. I was listening on my headphones while doing some housework and it made me dance around. I wouldn’t have looked out of place at the Carnival in Rio. I was already wearing the headdress and thong which helped though. Super.

I don’t want to know what he’s actually singing, I just like the sound and trying to guess what it’s all about.

What’s with the Cuckoo Clock sound on some of the tracks?

I throughly enjoyed this! Without this 1001 album thing I doubt I would ever have heard of it let alone have listened to it, so I’m very glad I did.

It was even better on the 2nd listen. The groves are excellent, and the Brazilian element takes it in a slightly different direction that is pretty novel to me.

By the 3rd listen it lands comfortably in the 4 zone. It’s got great tunes, grooves and rhythm and it’s incredibly fun and joyful.
A foot tappin’
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Endtroducing…
It’s a five before I even listen to it. I still listen to it regularly and I haven’t forgotten how good it is.

On my first listen today I really tried to listen objectively and try and remove the knowledge/nostalgia. That was hard but it’s clear it’s a fantastic album on its own terms. It sounds fresh and exciting.

Then listening again and thinking about it as being nearly 30 years old, it is of it’s time but doesn’t sound dated or or specifically of 1996, it just reconfirms how good it still sounds. It’s also then fun thinking about the memories of listening to it a lot at uni and when I first moved to Japan. Great times.

It’s hard to pick out individual tracks as the whole thing is l one suite of music with the repeating lines and motifs, but I’ve always loved Best Foot Forward, The Number Song, Organ Donor and Midnight in a Perfect World.

Not sure I can say anything we already don’t know or think about it how good it is or how it was built but as an hourlong sonic landscape it’s just so good.

It’s 5 for its innovativeness.
It’s a 5 for its quality as an album in this genre.
It’s a 5 for it’s quality as an album in its own right
It’s s 5 for the memories.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ps, Maureen has five sisters, they all got ass

Channel ORANGE
I remember there being a lot of buzz when this came out and we played it a lot for about a month at work. I listened a few times and then completely forgot about it until now. I still can’t really remember anything about it so it feels like listening for the first time

Wasn’t really into the first half much on the first listen, it definitely picked up in the second half with Pyramids, Lost and Monks. Pyramids is superb, a nice synth bass riff underpinning things before it wanders off, in a good way, into a minimalist spacey jazzy RnB thing.

Much of it did pass me by, with the minimalist production and melodies, but the moments when when I really listened to it I got quite a bit out of it.

I liked it more on the 2nd listen, I wish Fertilizer had been a proper song. Super Rich Kids was was noticeably good, as was Crack Rock. And the very George Martin strings on Bad Religion stood out.

Overall I liked it, as a slightly left of centre RnB album. It got better with each listen and I can hear how influential it was in that genre too. However some of it still felt a little forgettable and it is long. I enjoyed the production, composition and sound - quite full and rich while being simultaneously pared back and muted.

Maybe it’s an album of some good songs with some great moments within songs rather than a great album - although with more listens I think it might improve.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Let’s Get Killed
I really liked his album after this, Bow Down to the Exit Sign when it came out at the end of uni. I listen d to it again a while ago and it still holds up.

Despite liking that album I don’t think I’ve ever listened to Let’s Get Killed. I think Ben may have had the CD back in Durham though.

My Mate Paul - could this BE more 90s sounding
Let’s get Killed is good
Gritty Shaker I’ve heard before and like
Don’t Die Just Yet - standout by far

I think I would have liked it a lot in 1997, and at that time it would have been right at the vanguard of this type of thing, but listening to it now it feels a bit dated, in a way that Endtroducing doesn’t. There’s a lot of lounge/jazz organ to some of it that was popular at the time but doesn’t sound that great now. Im not massively keen on the drum sound either.

When it is a bit more ‘dramatic’ like on Let’s Get Killed it works much better.

Don’t Die Just yet is excellent, the real standout. Gritty Shaker, Lets Get Killed and Radio 7 were also good I thought.

It’s not as good as Bow Down to the Exit sign which has a bit more to it and a bit more sonic variation. I think there are also other better albums in this style so I’m not sure I’ll go back to this much, although Don’t Die Just Yet is going on my ‘Best Songs I didn’t Know About From 1001 Albums I Must Hear Before I Die’ playlist.
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John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
Unsurprisingly I’m very familiar with this album, and it is my favourite of his solo albums. As a snapshot of his state of mind in 1970 it is an incredibly honest and direct document. This is fully John Lennon, the person and the musician, in the 2nd half of 1970. He may have been different before or after but in keeping with his idea that the only true art is about the artist this is a real artistic statement.

It has some of his best solo songs and is his best collection of songs on one album. Mother, Hold On, I Found Out, Isolation, Well Well Well, Look at Me and of course God, which I absolutely love. Ringo’s drumming on that song in particular is just incredible - all those different fills between all the I Don’t Believes.

I listened to the Ultimate Mix and it sounds great. POB always sounded better than Imagine but now it really sounds great.

It’s not always an easy listen, but it’s always a great listen. Just using 3 different song archetypes, piano led ‘ballads’, riff based rockers and acoustic folk style songs, he creates a mood, feeing and an emotional response. Pretty incredible really.

If McCartney is a 5 this undoubtedly a 5 too. These first two solo albums are both incredibly revealing of each’s character and response to the world around them, and they make superb complementary listening.
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