Reviews by ikejiri

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
I don’t think I’ve listened to this in full before. Layla is rightly part of the rock canon, a brilliantly yearning and anguished blues-rock belter with that stunning piano part.

Elsewhere there are some good songs: I Looked Away, Bell Bottom Blues, Keep on Growing, Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad, their version of Little Wing and Thorn Tree in the Garden and the Delaney & Bonnie (and of course Duane Allman) influence is clear in the shuffling, rootsy, country-blues feel of some of it.

However it also has many of the things that I sometimes struggle with with Clapton, a kind of extremely skilled sheen of dullness. The interplay with Duane Allman is lovely and fluid, and his slide playing is great, but even Clapton’s excellent playing in that context I don’t often find very appealing. I also find that, aside from Layla, his vocals are particularly inexpressive - obviously it’s not his fault he doesn’t have the strongest voice, but I’m just not that keen on his rather affected gruffness and bluesy mannerisms.

And it also sounds very samey for a 76 minute double album, and about halfway through Keys to the Highway you wonder if this is ever going to end, especially when it’s followed by Tell the Truth. Fortunately Why Does Love Got to Be So Bad gives a welcome shot of energy and tempo, and Little Wing’s superb intro/motif brings a welcome edge of drama and variation. And I wish there were more songs like Thorn Tree in the Garden, with its wistful, Traffic-esque folky blues standing out against the bluesy morass.

It’s between a 2 and a 3. As great as Layla and Bell Bottom Blues are, and as good as I Looked Away, Keep on Growing and Thorn Tree in the Garden are, I don’t know if they are enough to make me want to slog through the rest of it, as outside those songs it I do find it kind of boring. But then Layla really is one of rock's great songs. But ultimately I don’t think I want to listen to the whole thing again.
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Playlist submission: Layla

Greetings from LA
I like Tim Buckley, but I don’t think I like this record much.

It's good to try something different, but right from the start the knock off barroom honky tonk really didn’t land with me, especially in combination with the lyrics. He’s not a sexy man, and to hear him contort his voice into letting you know that he likes having sex is particularly not sexy, and the whole effect is rather off putting.

There are occasions where his folkiness and jazziness poke through though, the intro, strings and overall 70s California vibes to Sweet Surrender are great, and the bluesy guitar and hammond intro to Devil Eyes is possibly the one time the funkiness doesn’t feel forced or ill fitting. Hong Kong Bar is possibly the stand out, the folk-blues acoustic nature of it is great, standing out against the rest of the album.

Aside from those three songs I don’t think this has much going for it, and Move With Me, Get on Top and Make it Right are actually quite irritating, and I can’t think I’d listen again, so a 2.
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Playlist submission: Hong Kong Bar

#1 Record
It's never really struck me before how much Feel sounds like Led Zeppelin, particularly vocally. I can take it or leave it somewhat, but for me the unassuming and unobtrusive magic of this album really starts with The Ballad of El Goodo, a deliciously harmonised bit of jangly, folk twinged power pop with shades of melancholy running across it. That feel continues with In The Street, another unpretentious slice of power pop. I love Thirteen, it nostalgically conjures the small town Americana of my imagination with its references to parents not understanding the music the kids like.

Don’t Lie To Me is a little throwaway for me, but I do enjoy its Glam inspired stomp. The India Song is a great bit of late 60s psychedelia inspired whimsy with a hint of Sloop John B. When My Baby’s Beside Me is excellent though, exactly the type of song that would make them such a cult band and a huge influence on the indie-rock bands of the 80s and 90s. My Life Is Right is similar, another great power pop guitar song, pared back in the verses, but bursting into life in the chorus.

Give Me Another Chance is a lovely song, a sad and delicate melody and more excellent harmonies, leading into the equally melancholic and great Try Again, with that excellent slide. Watch The Sunrise is super as well, matching folkish guitar with a bit of Led Zeppelin, draped with an almost Californian sunshine feel. St 110/6 ends things on a lovely, brief harmonised note.

It's almost satirically the archetypal cult album, ticking nearly every box (tops), and so much so it's easy to look past how great it actually is. While it's perhaps not the most innovative album from 50 years remove, it essentially invented power pop, and in its superb harmonies, songwriting craft of Bell and Chilton and undercurrent of wistfulness it really is a splendid and tremendous album.
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Playlist submission: When My Baby’s Beside Me

Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
* I listened to the original 9 track release rather than the 20th anniversary edition

Initially I felt like there was a fair bit to admire with this, although not necessarily much to love, and after Opus Dei I found it rather characterless in the way I do a lot of mid to late 00s US indie - lots of tom toms, droning guitars and horizontal melodies.

However it definitely grew on me on repeat listens, although it still feels like it has a big dip in the middle. The Wrong Way has a nice fuzz-crunch to the bass and a bluesy Jack White-ness to the vocals. I’m still not totally sold on Staring at the Sun although it is a grower, but I do like Dreams, particularly the more verse-like parts. King Eternal, Ambulance and Poppy is where I still struggle, with nothing really grabbing me, and I’m really not keen on the vocalisations in Ambulance and acapella parts of Poppy.

But the final 3 songs are probably the strongest. Don’t Love You recalls Kid A with its rippling keyboard and is probably my standout song. Bomb Yourself has a strong Down by The River feel, it’s unhurried groove is great. And Wear You Out has some Midnite Vultures to it, I love the sax and flute giving a slight note of jazzy chaos, a little like Fun House’s final track. are the final 3 songs, and Wear You Out

It pretty much started off as a 2, but ended up on the edge of a 3 and a 4. I think it will continue to grow on me, or at least The Wrong Way, Don’t Love You, Bomb Yourself and Wear You Out Will, but due to that dip in the middle I don’t think there's enough to make it a 4.
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Playlist submission: Don’t Love You

Opus Dei
A lot of this sounds like songs you might hear 20,000 German football fans sing in a fan park, gathered around that guy with the saxophone. The two versions of Life is Life only add to this, the second one in particular, with its orotund spoken word verses, has a not unenjoyable 90s/2000s Eurovision vibe. Or it sounds like the guy from Aqua.

The drum intro to Geburt Einer Nation sounds very much like the drum intro from a view to A View to A Kill, and it took me a moment to realise it was a cover of One Vision. Again it's not enjoyable, and I really rather like it. Leben-Tod is suitably dramatic and bombastic, and I like the synth/horn riff. The horn and string intro to FIAT is great, and I like its overall atmosphere of spoken word, echoey drums and National Anthem-ness.

I quite like the fraught synths and percussion and sense of Bernard Hermann of Trans-National, but I started to lose a little interest at this point as a careens towards the end, with How the West Was Won feeling like a less inspired retread of what’s gone before. Although I did like the horn lines of The Great Seal.

Industrial oompah music is not necessarily my go to genre, but this is probably my favourite of the experimental-industrial music we’ve had, the Central European classical and political angle giving it a point of difference that many Anglophone Industrial bands don’t tend to have.

They are obviously playing with the ambiguity of fascist and totalitarian imagery and sloganeering, and on occasion it does feel a little unsettling, which isn’t a bad thing. I suppose the issue with a lot of experimental art rock is that the artistic aesthetic and effect is naturally more important than the music itself. Sometimes that’s great, but often it makes it hard to sustain interest, as often they do only really have one thing to say, or in this case not speaking German I’m not sure what they are getting at.

It's one of those that I’m glad I listened to, it is certainly interesting and it has character and personality , and I genuinely enjoyed the first half. I might well listen again, but I also very much appreciated listening to something outside my normal preferences, so much so I’ll go for a 3.
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Playlist submission: Geburt Einer Nation

The Queen of Denmark
On paper I should really like this, and I’ve tried a few times with it, but it's never really grabbed me. For some reason I have always got a sense of insincerity from it, almost as if it's a pastiche or a slightly forced attempt at a sad country-folk-indie album, and I find Where Dreams Go To Die, Sigourney Weaver, Silver Platter Club and the title track quite annoying, Silver Platter Club in particular being too close to Rufus Wainwright for my taste.

Having said that, I did enjoy it more this time than I have previously, especially when Midlake really shine on TC and the Honeybear and the very good Marz, which nicely riffs on Tubular Bells with the piano part and Lee Hazelwood with the string part. I also like It’s Easier, the electric piano is great on and Leopard and Lamb is probably the one time for me when the baroqueness works really well.

It's in truth between 2 and 3. I didn’t not enjoy it, but it still doesn’t really resonate with me, and I’m not sure I will come back to it. High 2.
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Playlist submission: Marz

A Northern Soul
A New Decade was the first track on a particular favourite cassette mix tape I made when I first passed my test - I listened to it so much even 29 years later I still think On Your Own by Blur is going to play next.

I really loved this album back then but I’ve not listened to it in a while. The songs I loved back then I still very much enjoy - A New Decade, This is Music, On Your Own, A Northern Soul and History - but it’s striking how much shoegaze there is to it, and in my memory it sounds very different to the hazy psychedelic space rock of their first album, but it actually sounds a lot more like A Storm in Heaven than it does Urban Hymns.

Outside of those songs I was also a little surprised at how moany and dirgey it sounds to me now, and aside from History it sort of limps and moans its way to the end of a long 64 minutes.

The drumming and guitars really shine though, Nick McCabe in particular is superb on here - psychedelic, woozy and spacey yet melodic and evocative. I wasn’t such a fan of So it Goes on the listen, but his guitar on it really is great, and I love the teary country playing on Drive You Home.

Despite his excellence and unlike Gold, I’m not sure the nostalgia quite gets it to a 4. There’s some great songs, but listening now, my overall takeaway is that it is a bit of a slog. My 17 year old self would think I’ve lost my mind but I’ll go to a slightly tight high 3.
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Playlist submission: History

Live!
Similar to Zombie, this is undeniably great with insistent and irresistible grooves that I was happy to just let go round and round. And crucially as it’s an in-studio live recording it doesn’t suffer from the poor sound or had to be there-ness of many live albums, and it balances a loose, live feel with a nice clarity and overall sound.

And similar to Zombie, it’s only 5 tracks (including the excellent bonus track, the only drum solo it’s worth listening to), and even they are all long it never feels like it drags, the length allows the songs to percolate and meander through different phases, all the while the excellent bass and Tony Allen and Ginger Baker’s superb drums underpin everything.

Let’s Start is maybe the most jazzy, especially with the hammond organ, Ye Ye De Smell is brilliantly energetic and infectious and I love Egbe Mi O’s superb loping bass and the backing vocals in the back half have a brilliant, unnerving charm to them. But I particularly love Black Man’s Cry, the guitar riff, the groove, the anguished cries, the horns, all fantastic.

Similar to Zombie it's a 5, another great album.
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Playlist submission: Black Man’s Cry

Gold
This is an uber-nostalgic listen, I was hugely into this around 2001/2002, the bonus edition fitting very nicely on one minidisc, and it still very, very strongly evokes that time period of living in Japan.

That he was subsequently exposed as a wrong ‘un notwithstanding, it’s hard to add some objectivity to this, it being so tied up with a great time in my life. Having said that I can see it is a little bit uneven, and almost ludicrously derivative of every great 70s rock artist (Elton John, Exile era Stones, the Doobie Brothers), and on occasion his performative doomed romantic schtick is a bit wearing, particularly on something like the lyrically heavy handed Sylvia Plath.

But still I love a lot of these songs; New York, New York, Answering Bell, La Cienega Just Smiled,The Rescue Blues, When the Stars Go Blue, Nobody Girl, Gonna Make Me Love You, Touch Feel and Lose and Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard. The songs may wear their influences very nakedly, his vocal fragility too try hard and the lyrics dripping with too much adolescent yearning, but there are some great melodies and and on the upbeat songs an infectious charm and sense of fun.

I can see now how much it would appeal to a 22 year old vs a 47 year old, and 25 years ago and it would be an immediate 5, but in truth its on the boundary of 3 and 4 - it's a bit long and a few songs like Enemy Fire and Tina Toledo feel more like b-sides. But for the good songs and the memories I’ll tip it to a 4.
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Playlist submission: La Cienega Just Smiled

Talking Heads 1977
It might not be their most polished album, before their sound gained more punch and before they started to weave in more influences and worked with Eno, but as a distillation of their early post-punk art-pop odd-funk sound it is excellent, if perhaps marginally below their best albums.

They lay much of their template for funk rhythms, idiosyncratic yet catchy melodies, yelpy vocals and David Byrne’s quizzically observational lyrics. It’s also noticeable that there is quite a country influence running through it, the slide/steel on the excellent No Compassion, the rockabilly Carl Perkins guitar line on the also excellent Pulled Up, which they continue on their next album with Send Me and Angel and The Big Country.

Psycho Killer is clearly a standout, a superbly agitated song driven by that excellent bass line and scratchy guitars, but there are great songs peppered throughout. Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town is an excellent opener, the steel drum entering is just a lovely moment. New Feeling is a great bit of nervy post punk with some great guitar, and I love the martial beat, groove and melody of Tentative Decisions.

Happy Days is a great example of their idiosyncratic melodic skill, it feels like it keeps turning the opposite way to what you expect. Who Is It is another excellent groove and I love the guitar riff. Don’t Worry About the Government is one of my favourite songs of theirs, the sardonic lyric about preferring city life is very David Byrne and I love the mandolin sounding guitar, another little country influence. The sax and marimba on First Week/Last Week are great and it hints at some of the sound on Remain in Light.

Even though it might not quite be up there with Remain in Light or Speaking in Tongues or More Songs About Buildings and Food it’s a great, great album, easily deserving of a 5.
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Playlist submission: Don’t Worry About the Government

So
Nothing to do with the music but I find Peter Gabriel’s face very confusing - at every age he looks like a completely different person. In the cover photo of this he looks nothing like an older version of Genesis Peter Gabriel, and current goatee Peter Gabriel looks absolutely nothing like an older version of the person in the cover photo.

Red Rain is a great track, a superbly echo drenched and 80’s bassed bit of anguished epic prog pop earnestness, the sort of brooding song that no one but Peter Gabriel can quite pull off. Sledgehammer is utterly brilliant, you can hear the Stax influence in its strutting funk-soul groove and the flute solo gives it a great exotic edge. The video is also a core childhood memory (alongside You Can Call Me Al and Money for Nothing). Don’t Give Up completes an excellent opening 3 songs, the contrast between Kate’s ethereal floatyness and Gabriel’s gruffness is superb, echoed by the loneliness of his lyrics compared to the hopefulness of hers.

That Voice Again is also quite typical of Gabriel in that it’s a bit of a slow grower, but I really like the rhythm and percussion on it. Mercy Street is great, a very wistful, folkish track I find quite affecting. BIg Time is great too, I’ve always loved its big 80s sound, and the bass really is superb. I love that he wrote a song influenced by Stanley Milgram’s experiments, and I also love that it's a great song, with a great pulsing rhythm and a moody and oppressive, resigned atmosphere. This is the Picture (Excellent Birds) is another hypnotically great song, with a minimalist funk feel, not a million miles away from Remain in Light, it’s a shame, as a few people have noted, that it just sort of ends. Although In Your Eyes wasn’t the original closing track it’s an excellent song to end on, with its sense of romantic yearning and anguish and a fantastic vocal by Gabriel.

Daniel Lanois’ production is superb, it’s an excellent sounding record. The use of Linn and Fairlight do place it solidly in the mid 80s, but there’s a weight and lubriciousness to the grooves and overall sound that I really love.

I was thinking 4, but looking back I love pretty much every track and there are some belters on here. It may not be quite as good as Melt, but its an excellent album and just creeps into the 5s.
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Playlist submission: Could be a Red Rain, Sledgehammer, We Do What We’re Told, Excellent Birds or In Your Eyes. I’ll go Red Rain

En-tact
* The only version on streaming was the US and later UK issue, so I listened to that as I couldn’t be fucked to recreate the original track listing as a playlist

I Can Move Any Mountain was on a compilation album I had back in ‘91 and it’s still a fun track, a nice bit of rave-pop.

It is by far the strongest thing on here, although that’s not to say the rest of it is bad, it’s more that there isn’t enough musical variety or songwriting craft to sustain 15 tracks (1 hour 10 minutes!) of pop-edged rave and dance, it noticeably starts to drag after Hypereal Orbit, and the ecstasy-hippiness of the lyrics does feel rather naive and vaguely silly 35 years on.

Still there are some fun tracks alongside Move Any Mountain. I like the dubby bass and feel of Evil is Even, Hypereal Orbit is a good track, Hear Me has a nice groove, Make It Minimal gives the back half a nice shot of energy and Lightspan Soundwave has some nice 80s synths to it.

Realistically however I doubt I’ll listen to this again despite liking some of it, but I do appreciate it representing that early 90s period where rave sounds crossed over into the charts. But altogether and with its excessive length there’s not really enough to push it to a 3, so I’ll stick with a 2.
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Playlist submission: Move Any Mountain

Microshift
Musically I was immediately into this, I love the drums and instrumentation, a kind of Depeche Mode and 2000s indie-disco combination that is very enjoyable. However vocally and melodically I found it far less engaging - I don’t really like the tone of his voice, and combined with the melodic style it puts it very much in the 1993-2010 indie also-ran’s bracket, to the point it kind of turned me off a little.

I think I’d really enjoy an instrumental only version, as there is some nice stuff going on, the guitars on the standout Ullswater, the organ and sax on The Soft Season, the pulsing motorik rhythms and Baba O’Riley-ness of Opener

Musically it's pushing a 4, but as a whole it's somewhere between 2 and 3, the vocals and melodies drag it down and consequently give it an indie-generic feeling, and that there are plenty of other bands who do this better. However I think I’ll just tip it to a 3 a
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Playlist submission: Ullswater

Exit Planet Dust
I loved this album back in the day, and while it probably doesn’t quite match Dig Your Own Hole or Surrender’s sense of polished eclecticism there are some superb tracks on here; Leave Home, Song to the Siren, Three Little Birdies Down Beats, Chico’s Groove, One Too Many Mornings, Alive Alone and one of my enduring favourites, Life is Sweet.

Although it doesn’t have that widescreen feeling of subsequent albums I think it benefits in contrast from a more focused, singular feel. The pace rarely lets up and many of the beats and samples are excellent.

Leave Home’s relentless bass and guitar lead into the very 90s techno sounding In Dust We Trust, and Song to the Siren shows more evidence of their continuing fascination with mid 60’s Ringo. Three Little Birdie’s down has an echo in Naryan from Fat of the Land and a bit of Josh Wink thrown in making a belter of a track. Fuck Up Beats is a neat bit of filler before Chemical Beats leads us into the fantastic Chico’s Groove, bringing in some 60s psychedelia, and it pushed Life is Sweet for my favourite track. One Too Many Mornings has a nice dubby feel before Life is Sweet, another song that puts me right back in the summer 1995. Playground is probably the weakest track for me, one of those mid 90s imagined soundtrack style songs that don’t always work, and while Alive Alone is great, I think they would go on to better collaborations with Beth Orton on Where Do I Begin and The State We’re In.

I was thinking that this would be a 4, with a big dollop of nostalgia attached, and while some of it really does take me back I think it still stands up as a fantastic album. 5.
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Playlist submission: Life is Sweet

Hysteria
When my cousin worked as a music rep she used to give me all sorts of promo stuff, and one of the things she gave me was an Armageddon It 12 inch single box set with pin badges, posters and postcards. It also came with an Armageddon It grey sweatshirt. I loved that sweatshirt until I burnt a hole in it flicking matches and I put it in the bin to hide it from my mum.

This is fun in a way that Van Halen could only dream of, even if it can’t quite sustain its silly enjoyability over a full 60 minutes.

It absolutely reeks of the 80s in a good way; the gated drum sound, the big sound, the guitar tone, the synths, the vocal style, the charmingly earnest inanity of the lyrics, the woah woahs. And Pour Some Sugar On Me is an absolute belter.

It’s definitely front loaded, the first side being a much stronger set of songs. Alongside Pour Some Sugar On Me Women, Rocket, Animal and Armageddon It are all great examples of 80s hair metal. The second side isn’t nearly as strong, and the stylistic limitations of the genre become more obvious the longer the album goes on. Don’t Shoot Shotgun is good and I do like the mid tempo-ness of the title track. Gods of War is a bit of a low point though, another example of a metal band ham fistedly writing a song about war, man, and the final two tracks check a lot of hair metal boxes without feeling particularly inspired.

For the silly exuberance of the first side and for the excellence of Pour Some Sugar on Me it's easily a solid 3 - if I want a fix of 80s rawk then I’ll certainly reach for this again.
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Playlist submission: Pour Some Sugar On Me

Winter in America
It’s such a shame this is a YT listen as I think it would be something I’d return to a lot if access was easier.

I love the rippling electric piano of Peace Go With You, Brother, setting up the floating jazzy feel of the whole album, with Rivers of My Fathers leaning much more into piano jazz, and I love how it patiently and tastefully unfolds over its 8 minutes, supporting it’s lyrical themes of history and cultural identity. A Very Precious Time on occasion with a slightly anodyne electric-piano jazz feel, but on repeat listens it really grew on me, again the jazz-tastefulness is appealing to me. Back Home is really great though, with excellent bass and piano and lovely flute accents.

The Bottle, the one song from this album I was previously aware of, is also of course excellent with a similarly superb bassline and flute and latin-dancey rhythm against the sad despair of the lyrics. I love the downtempo soul-jazz of Song for Bobby Smith and especially Your Daddy Loves You (despite some Ron Burgundy-isms on the flute on occasion), sandwiched between The Bottle and the truly excellent H20gate Blues. This is more in the vein of his proto-rapping style, and is typical of GSH in that he somehow manages to make/sing/rap social commentary in a way that isn’t at all heavy handed. I guess the continuous flow of images and ideas keeps it interesting and stops it getting bogged down in bad sixth form poetry or cringeworthy slam poetry. And I love the return of Peace Go With You, Brother, bookending the album beautifully.

It’s a great album, one that I’d never heard before and is easily a 5.
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Playlist submission: H20gate Blues or The Bottle? I’ll go The Bottle

Scream Dracula Scream
I remember On a Rope from back in the day, and it is still a great, fun song, but its really the only time they hit upon a bit of gold on here.

It’s not a terrible album, and there are some little touches like the Beach Boys-esque twinkles at the end of Used, or the organ and backing vocals on Misbeaten, and the horns give them a slight point of difference. But unfortunately those horns oscillate between adding nice instrumental colour as on Young Livers and adding way too much ska, and the latter wins out far too frequently. He also really doesn’t have a great voice, and his thin, raspy unintelligibleness makes all the songs sound very similar.

Apart from On a Rope there’s nothing compelling that would bring me back, so I’ll go for a 2.
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Playlist submission: On A Rope

At Budokan
I don’t really know Cheap Trick, I’ve never listened to one of their albums and the only track I could name would be I Want You To Want Me, so this all feels a bit lost on me, especially as the sound is quite poor and muffled.

Reading about them I think I might actually like some of their stuff, and from listening I get the gist of them perhaps being Todd Rundgren/Journey adjacent. But the live setting, the sub par sound quality and the overall vibe just isn’t that engaging without really knowing the studio recordings.

I’ll go 2, there’s not much reason to listen to it again, I’d rather try one of their proper albums
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Playlist submission: I Want You To Want Me

Laser Guided Melodies
I enjoyed revisiting Ladies and Gentleman when it came up and off the back of Spacemen 3 I think I was primed to enjoy this, which I did, even if ultimately I’m not sure quite where it lands.

You Know It’s True has a lovely, dreamy ambience and If I Were With Her Now is great, made by that excellently economic bass line and tone, and I really like the almost steam driven feel in the right channel moving it along nicely. I Want You carries on the great start, its shoegaze-y track, but has a bit of bite and interest to the melody that shoegaze can often lack, sitting somewhere between MBV and JATMC. Run is a good groove too, riffing on the Think For Yourself fuzz bass. And Smiles is another great, spacey, dreamy track.

Step into the Breeze and Symphony Space are a bit of a dip for me, with neither song able to achieve the same dreaminess of You Know It’s True or Smiles. Take Your Time is nice though, with a graceful hypnotism to it, and Shine A Light is a successful return to the drawn out spaceness. Although I quite like the reverby guitar in 200 Bars, it definitely sags to the close as we cross the 45 minute mark with Angel Sign, with the samey nature of this style of music coming to the fore.

The first 4 or 5 songs are very strong, and if it was a tight 40-45 mins it would likely be a 4, but as it is I think it stays in the 3s.
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Playlist submission: If I Were With Her Now

Rhythm Nation 1814
I love the Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis 80s soul-funk sound, with those snares and keyboard stabs and an almost industrial percussive feel, and there are multiple bangers on here. However the interlude concept definitely disrupts the flow, making songs as great as Escapade or Black Cat feel a bit buried in the back half. Lyrically and thematically it also does occasionally veer into touring youth theatre territory in its slightly heavy handed, if earnest and sincere, messaging. Knowledge is a particular culprit: ‘Bigotry? No. Illiteracy? No.’

The title track really is fantastic though, as good as late 80s RnB funk gets, a great stomping, clanging feel, a catchy chorus and that ‘ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh’ motif is great against the chaotic rhythm. State of the World is also a great bit of 80s RnB, and Miss You Much is another banger, the Jam and Lewis rhythmic groove is superb underneath a great chorus. While she doesn’t have the strongest or most forceful voice, she has a very appealing ephemeral, fly away quality to her voice that works so well with the production, particularly on Love Will Never Do, where there are some lovely little melodic hooks.

Livin’ in a World has a nice chorus, and is a classic 80s RnB ballad in style, but I don’t find it as engaging as the more uptempo funk and swing tracks, and along with Alright feels like a slight sag in the middle of the album, even though they are still decent tracks. Escapade is another superb track though, obviously very Prince influenced in it’s drums and keyboards, but it has a brilliant, pop rush of a chorus, and again her flighty voice over the processed percussion is fantastic. Black Cat has the potential to be bad, but it’s great, it’s funk-soul-swing-hair metal crossover is great, and much more fun that ‘actual’ rock bands like Van Halen. Lonely is lovely, working in a way that Livin’ in a World doesn’t quite, and its influence on 90s RnB and people like TLC is very clear. It feels like a very strange bit of sequencing that it's followed by two more ballads in Come Back To Me and Someday is Tonight. Come Back To Me is another lovely song, but it feels a bit lost coming right after Lonely, and Someday is Tonight is probably my least favourite track, and it feels like an album full of RnB funk bangers just sort of peters out.

That bit of sequencing and the interludes are to the album’s detriment, as is its length at 64 minutes. Such is the strength of the good songs, a version without the interludes and maybe dropping a track or two might push a 5, but as it is I think its a solid 4.
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Playlist submission: Rhythm Nation or Escapade? Rhythm Nation