Reviews by j-bizzle

It’s alright. It’s quite perky and upbeat at times, and relatively inoffensive. It’s not wowing me. It’s a ‘sit gently in the background’ kind of album.

2.5 rounded up.

What an absolutely nothing album. I’m really trying to hone in on the actual content and discern the differences between the tracks but it’s so difficult. It’s all one long, indistinct, gentle waft of an album.

As someone who dislikes the majority of reggae, this was a real nice surprise. I was prepared to moan that this was the exact same beat on every single song – and of course it does have that persistent reggae beat – but this album feels WAY more varied than a lot of other reggae albums I’ve heard. The musicality of it is great, with tons of interesting sounds and varied instruments laid on top, and the songs are genuinely distinct from each other. It’s incredibly mellow (duh?) and I enjoyed listening to this one.

3.5 rounded down.

This album is such an achievement. There’s loads of stand-out songs on here, but the rest of them are consistently good as well. He has such a lovely voice, but musically there’s tons of creativity and variety across the board. To create a double album of such consistent quality and variety is seriously impressive.

One of the great things about this album is the diversity on display. You might expect a relentlessly heavy kind of thing, but it’s actually really melodic and quite surprising. You know straight away on the first track when it segues into that kind of vibey, mellow musical breakdown. Then obviously ‘Changes’ is a real change of pace. But of course this is a rock record, and there’s plenty of great riffs and good guitar work on here. I love Snowblind which has a bit of everything.

It's not as bad as I thought it would be, and I mean that in the sense that I'm not really into this genre at all. So it's not to my taste, but there's things to appreciate in here. There's some nice grooves, and he has a manic energy that works. Very rough around the edges, but it's got a bit of bite.

2.5 rounded up.

Fucking hell.

I've described way too many albums as 'pleasant' lately, but I'm really struggling to find other words. It's just a real smooth and thoroughly pleasant time. It's not exciting, it's not particularly daring, it's just nicely listenable. That's hardly a ringing endorsement, but I enjoyed it in the background.

3.5 rounded down.

There's a few good tracks, including Psycho Killer, but so much of this album is just really bland and meh. "Bleh".

2.5 rounded up.

It's quite pleasant, but so much of it is just really bland. Listenable, but really quite uninspiring.

This is pretty decent, if not exactly my thing. There's some good variation in beats and production, and some interesting little notes of difference in there. It feels ahead of its time a bit considering this is very early 90's. It's quite funky at times, and there's some nice smooth rhymes in there, even if I don't understand what he's saying.

I guess there's some interesting beats... kind of? It's shit though.

It's got some energy to it, and they're musically talented, but... *dramatic sigh*

This isn't my go-to kind of thing, but I have to give her props for this. It's quite varied throughout, it has some interesting production on it, and there's some really good songs on here too.

The two halves are genuinely distinct, but I think the second half is much better, to my taste. As with a lot of 'powerful' pop singers, I find the vocals can be a bit over-powering at times. That's more the case on the first half, but the second half it feels like they're servicing the songs in a much better way. Although maybe I'm being a bit contradictory, because she absolutely belts it out on something like Mercy on Me, and I really enjoyed that.

This album is genuinely quite surprising, as I wouldn't have thought that this kind of thing was in her wheelhouse. I assumed it was all route-one, sugary pop, but there's jazzy showgirl stuff, soul, and melodramatic power-ballads thrown in here too. I think that's pretty impressive, and she clearly has a lot of talent.

Side A: 3/5
Side B: 4/5
Overall... Let's be generous. 3.5 rounded up.

Not too bad! I had quite a nice time with this, and it was consistently good throughout with no real dips in quality. Not overlong also, which is appreciated.

It's quite a jam in general. Kind of upbeat rock n roll with some nice keys and jammy guitars. There's a few softer bits in there too which worked. It kind of flew by, and was a nice background listen.

3.5 rounded down.

I groaned out loud when I saw this being served up, as I've not really been on-board with most of his stuff. But you know, this one is at least pleasant throughout. I think the music is good enough that it prevents it from being boring, but it is quite slight.

Outside of a few songs, it's really not that notable. So much generic sounding, soft filler. I was never really into the Libertines at the time, but looking back I can confirm I really didn't miss out on much by avoiding the albums. There's precisely zero oomph to this. It seems to be going for a punk energy, so why does it sound so flat? The guitars are jangly but otherwise completely unremarkable. The vocals are really weak. Maybe it's the recording letting it down? I can't believe this is 42 minutes, I could have sworn it was well over an hour. Really boring.

What an album. Incredibly bleak and dark, and with a real atmosphere running through the whole thing. It's thick with it. Even the guitars are quite heavy and grimy too. The lyrical content is so dense, but they've made it work so well, where if you disregard them, the songs and music still stand totally on their own.

While there are some standout songs, it's a whole album experience really. I'll chuck out special mention to 4st 7lb though because I love it. You can tell it was a lived experience. It's SO evocative with so many standout lines. You get the sense of a real person in there. 'I wanna walk in the snow and not leave a footprint. I wanna walk in the snow and not soil it's purity'. "Mother tries to choke me with roast beef and sits savouring her sole Ryvita. "That's the way you're built" my father said'. The song starts off so angry and heavy and it just melts into this heart-breakingly sad finale, and the final line, 'I've finally come to understand life through staring blankly at my navel'.

Very powerful stuff, and it still holds up today in a big way.

The rating on this site puts this as one of the greatest albums of all time, and I just really don't see it. Sure, it's good, but one of the all-time best?

It might be a bit obvious to say that I really love the guitar in this, but I do. I love how down and dirty it gets at times. There are some monster tracks in here - particularly Hey Joe, but Purple Haze and Foxey Lady are excellent too. I doubt I'll really revisit outside of those tracks I liked the most really.

3.5 rounded down.

I've never really got on that much with Prince, so I wasn't expecting to like this. However, it's not too bad. It feels a bit dated, but it's also completely unique and it's clear he's a singular artist. I like the parts that are particularly upbeat and funky. The title track is the best one.