Reviews by j-bizzle

Yeah baby. This is definitely my jam. I prefer the more down-tempo tracks, but the rest are still a nice upbeat happy time. I'd never heard of this before, but I think it'll enter the rotation given how easy-listening it is.

3.5 rounded up.

The first track is supposed to be the best by far, and I didn't like it. What does that mean for the next 50 minutes? Oh no...

I mean... hang on... it's not that bad. I kind of prefer some of the other tracks to the opener. It's not really my thing, but it's not bad. It passed by well enough. Plenty of wanky instrument noodling, but it doesn't come across as completely obnoxious, and there are some nice instrumental bits in there.

I deem that this album is "OK".

Unfortunately, this album is underwhelming. Some of the other reviews had this spot on, saying it's a bit of a tease and seems to promise something, but then ultimately fails to deliver. It's quite stripped back and restrained and doesn't deliver on the bigger grooves. Strawberry Letter 23 is a clear standout.

2.5 rounded up.

It's a really nice album. It's pretty solidly listenable and interesting throughout, and I like a lot of the songs. It feels imbued with real emotion, particularly in his vocals. I really love Where Are We Now? It's such a sad song.

3.5 rounded up.

This is their "most accessible album"!

Maybe this review is influenced somewhat by the fact that I've been doing this whole project while I work during the week - and this music is fucking TERRIBLE for working along to - but I'd like to think that even if I had my headphones in, sitting in a quiet space and really honing in on this, I'd still think it was bloated gibberish. I like SOME of the melodic bits within it, and I like the badass sounding guitars. The genre's just not for me. I need structure! I can't handle how aggressive and frenetic this is. It's just a bunch of stupid noise.

I usually shake my head when I see a lot of American reviews of classic Brit Pop albums. "Ugh, not another BRITISH band, they're so shit and overrated". While that opinion is usually stupid and wrong (!) I think this is the first time I'm actually kind of agreeing with them. While I don't think they're shit, I don't see anything in this that makes it stand out from the pack. It feels entirely generic and done better elsewhere. Other bands of the time had better riffs and better ideas. Even the annoying, whiny singing voice has been done better elsewhere.

I'm going 3/5 because it's decent enough, but in no way does it stand among any of those other great break-out 90's Brit-pop bands.

Weird and floaty and annoying and boring.

I had to re-write my thoughts on this, because I initially found a lot of it incredibly boring. However about half way through I thought it picked up a lot more and I was way more on-board with it. I went back and re-listened a bunch of times and actually it grew on me much more and I was able to appreciate it. There are some lovely songs in here as it turns out.

3.5 rounded down.

I know it's cool to like Depeche Mode, but I don't get it. I do quite like the moodiness that sits underneath a lot of this, and the almost gothic, dramatic instrumentation on some of the songs, but it's an issue when everything else is kind of droney and flat and boring.

I love the driving energy of this album. It has a kind of innate coolness to it. The only thing is there's not tons of variation, and a bunch of the songs sound quite similar. It's a good listen though.

I'm absolutely baffled by the deluge of upvoted 1 star reviews here. This is pretty nice you know. It's got a good energy to much of it and has some nice bopping tunes. Some of the songs are a bit droney and repetitive and those I like less.

Really chaotic and noisy, as expected. I'm sure punks would enjoy it way more, but it's not for me.

It's alright. It's quite nice and chill and lo-fi.

It's too wanky and floaty for me. I don't like the singing or the approach. All too comfortable and soft and harmless, and painfully earnest.

It's so long man, and so utterly dull. Such a slog.

I love the Kinks. Their songs are so interesting and have so much personality. Most of these are all little, self-contained stories which I really like. There's a lot of great songs in here, including some all-timers. Waterloo Sunset on its own is one of the greatest songs of all time.

As I said on the last review, the song-writing and compositions are really diverse, and they do lots of different things sonically here too.

Overall, it's a really good album, but not a great one for me, despite some brilliant songs. There's just too many so-so songs in-between which bring the score down.

Beck is such a unique artist. I love how he can just let loose on an album like this and do SO many things while still having a cohesiveness.

This album is funky, it's weird, it's accomplished, it's zany, it's engaging. How does he manage to blend so many genres so seamlessly? Something like Hotwax is a perfect encapsulation of this, mixing up country, rap, electronica, all sorts - and making them work together.

Lots of great (multi) instrumental work here, sax, drums, guitar, organ keys, harmonica and more. So much creativity on display. It's great.

4.5 rounded up

Ps: Shout out to the awesome album cover

Pps: Odelay IS a word. Just look it up in the Becktionary.

It's perfectly nice blues. Competent, really lively at times, easy listening, not massively varied. I had a nice enough time with it.

I liked the last Eagles album more. This one is a bit too Country for my liking, and some of the rock n roll numbers feel a bit more generic.

That said, it's well made and I'm still pretty down with it. Good production, some nice guitars, good backup vocals, and a number of the upbeat songs I really dig.

It's way upbeat this album. Lots of driving songs with interesting guitar and cool keys. It dies down a bit towards the end.

3.5 rounded down.

This is a bit of a mixed bag for me. There's some absolute gems in here like Pyramid Song, but then it has some absolute bullshit in there too. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors I can't figure out if it's them being pretentious or if they're actively taking the piss. It doesn't have the cohesiveness and grandeur of Kid A, and plenty of the album is just a bit miserable and flat.

2.5 rounded down.