Reviews by j-bizzle

This feels like a bit of a strange one. It's competent enough, but I didn't really find it that engaging. It just kind of floated along. From a production point of view it sounds really wishy-washy and kind of far away which doesn't help.

I'm not massively on-board with the comedy and twee elements. That's always a turn-off. And then side note: I realise I knew Lazy Sunday already, so that's always nice to connect the dots with something from my past.

2.5 rounded up.

How mad that I get this today of all days, as I literally fly out to Hamburg.

There's plenty to like in here. There's SO much energy. Great twinkly, frantic keys. If you're in the mood then it's great fun. I'm sure if you're in the room then it's incredible. It's obviously live though, and the recording isn't brilliant.

This has got to be one of the shortest albums on here right? Just as well, because I don't think I could do much more of this in one sitting even though I enjoyed it.

3.5 rounded down.

I'm on-board with this! I really like the style of beats and rapping. It's quite funky in places, but it also veers off into weird asides, with sci-fi and spooky synths. I like the trip-hop beats and scratching. Some of it is really funny. The album as a whole is definitely quite unique, and one I'll revisit.

Favourite tracks: Blue Flowers, I'm destructive.

This is quite a mood-shift from some of their earlier stuff. Pulp were nothing if not interesting. The Fear is such a great opener. It's got so much atmosphere to it, with so many interesting bits thrown in, from the ominous strings, to the backing vocals. I like how melodramatic parts of this album are, and I like some of the darker textures and soundscapes in there. Help the Aged is excellent, and I love it when that goes big. Plenty of other great tracks in here, but the overall quality isn't as good as something like 'Different Class'.

Ah man, this is such a disappointing one in some ways. The music here is SO good. It's a real party atmosphere throughout, with real passion, personality and skill, and I completely applaud it. The problem is that the tracks are way too long. It's such a shame, because even the best tracks become repetitive and samey. If this were a much tighter album, with shorter tracks and a shorter runtime, then I'd be way more up on it. By the end it just dragged way too much.

3.5 rounded down.

I love the write-up discussing the prestige of this title. No. 24 on the Swedish Albums Chart! No. 25 on the New Zealand Albums Chart! Appearing on the Belgium Albums Chart Top 60! This must be essential!

The reality is it's not great, but it's also not bad. It's a perfectly nice, inoffensive meander through gentle 80's pop-rock. It is, obviously, far from essential.

It's nowhere near as bad as so many are making out. That said I do struggle to see how something like this made it onto the list. I guess it's filling some kind of quota. Overall, it's perfectly nice, mellow background music. Some tracks are a bit repetitive and weird and offer nothing, but mostly it's a perfectly reasonable time.

It's very similar to Darklands, in that a lot of the songs feel quite similar. There were at least 2 occasions where the drums kicked in and I went, "oh, it's 'Just Like Honey' again", only it's wasn't. That's not necessarily to it's detriment and I did quite enjoy this overall, just not as much as their other albums. I like the fuzz for the most part, but it does get a bit much at times. In their later albums the songs had a bit more drive to them, and they eased up on the distortion a little bit, which I think works better.

I know this is proto-shoegaze, but it's more upbeat than a lot of those bands that went on to define that genre. There's actual melodies and grooves in here under all the fuzz and distortion.

A lot of people slamming this for not being as good as some of their earlier albums, but this feels more accessible to me. I'm not the biggest U2 fan, but I'm actually appreciating the craft of the songs and his voice. I much prefer this to the upbeat jangly nonsense they became famous for.

3.5 rounded down.

Slightly disappointed if I'm being honest, because I do really like Madness. I love their style and what they're about, and they have some great hits. This album is a bit hit and miss for me. It is interesting, and has a variety of different styles, but not all the tracks are landing for me.

Our House is SUCH a tune and is definitely the stand out. Spotify actually randomly skipped it on the playthrough, so I was really confused about how I could have worked through it and not noticed. The rest of the album doesn't hold up to that track unfortunately.

It's relatively pleasant, but also just a bit slow and boring. The Way Young Lovers Do is the standout track, but the rest don't hold up to it.

2.5 rounded up.

In terms of song-writing, this album is spectacular. Really lovely songs, with great melodies and stories. The lyrics are beautiful. I love the little musical flavours they add in, just chiming in with little accents and notes. The Boxer is a great example, as it has that kind of ambient drum popping up, various woodwind instruments, and then the swelling violins. I enjoyed this.

This is seriously dull for the most part and doesn’t really work for me. Some of the sounds are interesting, but can also come across as a bit twee. Some songs are a bit upbeat and inoffensive enough. But that's just it, it's all so soft and inoffensive. There’s no excitement to be found anywhere in here.

If he didn't have the association with Pink Floyd then he'd be nowhere near this list. These sounds like demos. They're quite flat and tedious, and the timing and delivery is really strange and disconcerting.

As with his other album I reviewed, looking back on this it comes across as so juvenile, edgy, and embarrassing. I didn't realise he could mine so much content from being violent towards women, raping people, and slagging off gay people. Were people in the studio down with it, or were they cringing while he laid the tracks down? I guess the sales speak for themselves, but jeez.

Stan is arguably the most accomplished song on here, but after the Dido bit came in, I kind of wanted that to continue and sing along with that song instead. That kind of shows where I'm at these days, compared with listening to this as a kid, where it had more appeal.

It gets some points because the beats and lyrical skill are there.

Some nice songs, with nice melodies, singing and guitar work.

I am so impressed by this, what a find. The ambition of it, the breadth of skill and the variety. I love the commitment to such a cool concept. The musicality and production across the whole thing is superb.

It's really upbeat for the majority of the album, but there's so many little hidden moments and gems sprinkled throughout, with lots of different moods and themes. I love the variety of instruments, with the cool guitars, the brass, bells, the cinematic sweeps.. I haven't even properly dug into the lyrics yet, but the snippets I've looked at are really interesting.

This definitely isn't in my usual wheelhouse, but I'm honestly so impressed by this. She's seriously talented, and I love the huge ambition and skill on display here. That's why I'm going big. What an eye-opener.

Well this is great. There's some big big heavy hitting riffs in here, but I also love how melodic the guitar work is as well. They're not just smacking you round the face, it's also really musical.

There's a bit to like in here. Overall it's a good debut. I like the riffs and the guitars in general, and the kind of down and dirty production. There's some propulsive energy to the songs. It has that QOTSA feel to it, with a lot of minor keys. The main criticism I guess is that not enough really stands out. It's all kind of similar.

The write-up says that these are effectively glorified demos, and that definitely feels like it's the case. There's some good songs in here with interesting melodies and guitar-work, but there's also a lot of meandering and mumbling as well. Some songs on here are so weak and not formed at all, and perhaps if this was a more traditional process those songs would either be scrapped or punched up a bit. There's enough promise to warrant a halfway decent score, but it's a shame we didn't get to hear a proper fleshed out album with full production.