Reviews by j-bizzle

This is a perfectly nice 3/5 album. It’s competent, with some nice melodies and grooves. I’m not massively into this era or genre(s), but it has some personality to it and that works in its favour. I like the bass-lines and touches of keys in there. I felt there was a bit more filler as it went on, but overall it’s not bad.

It's a really good album. The best tracks to me are those that are full of energy, and have a bit of anarchic spirit to them (Vicious, Walk On the Wild Side). There's a bunch of weirder, meandering tracks that I'm less enthused with (New York Telephone Conversation), but overall it's very solid. I like his style and what he's about.

Perfect Day is an absolute all-timer of a song, my god. So good, I love it.

This is exactly what I thought it would be, and I had a pleasant enough time with it for the most part. 45 minutes of incredibly similar, softly softly music is a bit much though I admit.

Quadruple platinum, what the hell!? I guess this one really isn't for me. They seem accomplished enough at playing, and I like some of the musical bits (notably the brass explosions), but mostly it's just naff. I'm not drawn into any of this. It's incredibly boring.

Edit: I wrote the above before I'd gotten onto the fucking awful, drawn-out drum solo. That's got to be half a star off right there.

This is one of those albums that it's kind of mad I'd never listened to before now. It's such a well-known, iconic album. It's actually way more sedate than I thought it would be, based on other songs of theirs. In general, I preferred the more well-known songs like God Only Knows and Wouldn't It Be Nice. I liked the variance in instruments though, and the more orchestral bits. Overall, it's a nice time. Elsewhere, I had the realisation that Frank Black covered 'Hold On To Your Ego'.

The write-up on this is fascinating, and I hadn't had any of that context before now. I feel like I've grown as a music appreciator, even if this one didn't completely hit for me.

3.5 rounded down.

This is quite similar to the last review I gave for their debut, in that I like it, but I prefer their later stuff. There is some further expansion in their sound in this album, but it is still quite repetitive in a lot of the tracks. Whether that matters or not is the question I guess, as I do still dig a bunch of those ones. There are some seriously dirty beats going on at times, and then songs like Setting Sun are excellent.

3.5 rounded down.

This album is deeply, deeply weird, but I kind of like it...? That is, I obviously don't like it, it's terrible... but it IS funny... and I enjoyed finding out what would come next, and was met many times with more weird, mad shit... which is obviously bad and not something you would want to listen to... but it's also kind of great and I kind of love them and want to hang out with them. It's either a complete, ridiculous joke or a masterpiece, I'm not sure. Either way I'm actually glad I listened to this one.

2.5 rounded up.

I'm struggling to form a cohesive opinion on this one. It's kind of generally dancey and upbeat, but it's not something I'm particularly vibing with. It's ok.

There's some artists on here who have SO many albums represented, and that can feel like an absolute chore because you hear one, you've heard them all right? However, this album is further proof that that absolutely isn't the case with Bob Dylan. The preconceptions I brought into this album were proven wrong, and this feels like a real change of pace from what I've heard before.

I really like how slow and deliberate and soulful this is. It's got a great mood to it. Interesting, well written songs throughout. It's put together really well, and the musicality is absolutely on point. Great job BD!

It feels quite sedate. It's just kind of ambling along in the background, and it doesn't stir any real passion in me. I don't really understand the appeal.

2.5 rounded down.

I haven't liked some of their other albums, but this one is actually pretty good. It's got a lot of propulsive energy to it.

3.5 rounded up.

It's a bit of a weird album, completely hit and miss. At its best, the music is pretty interesting and quite varied. I even like the weird Klingon bit. But at its worse it's meandering, and it doesn't really stand out. It's a strange beast, I kind of admire the weirdness, but it's not something I'd return to.

2.5 rounded up.

It's quite jaunty and assured. It's very long, but it played nicely enough in the background.

It's a really great pop album without any real dips in quality. There's so many big hits on here, but even the ones I didn't know are good. It's just a very tight, consistently good album. Good hooks and melodies, and plenty of hits.

On paper, a mix of post-punk and 80's pop should be my anathema. But you know what, I'm actually kind of digging it. It's really weird, but quite daring and different. Some of the tracks are moody, others are kind of awkward and unsettling, with harsh synths pushing through, and weird drum beats.

There's an overall manic energy to this, again, something I've historically not got on with, but it works here. I really like the synths and soundscapes in general. They make for such an interesting backdrop.

A bit of a weird outlier this one, but I respect it and I'm very positively surprised by it.

3.5 rounded up.

It's not my thing. There's some good rhymes in there in places, but it's really grimy and lo-fi. When you compare it to the Ghostface Killah album I got, that had real energy and smacked you about the chops. This is just a bit limp. At least it's not full of shitty skits.

It's pretty chill and a nice enough time in general. There's some quite complex arrangements here that are very well done, it's just it doesn't massively stir anything in me. It all weaves together nicely and is an easy enough listen.

This kind of electronica is pretty shit. It's really minimalist. It's not something you can dance to or even nod your head along to, it's just kind of there. The only good bit in the whole thing was the rip off of Melody Nelson, but then all they really did there was put a rubbish drum beat on top of it.

There's plenty to like in here. Many of the tracks have real energy to them, a sense of fun, and great beats. There's a few dips, but overall it's pretty solid, and there's also a good amount of variation too I think. The singles are still the stand-outs, and the most upbeat, fun ones of the lot. However there were a number of tracks I'd never heard before that were real jams (like Yo Yo).

I remember dancing around like a loon as a kid to Red Alert, blasting it on my TAPE cassette walkman with crappy cloth headphones. One time we had a power-cut for about an hour, and I listened to it on loop about 10 times in a row. Meeemories. Rendez-Vu is where it's at though, what a tune!

3.5 rounded up.

This isn't really punk is it? It's more like a stripped-back, reggae-infused kind of thing. I'll be generous, and say some of the tracks are quite interesting in the setup (like Newtown) but it's mostly just boring and slow and weird. The groove on 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine' is really good, but then that's not officially on the album anyway.