Reviews by j-bizzle

The whole album is kind of lo-fi. It doesn't have a huge amount of bite to it in general. Is it just mixed a bit weird? Everything seems so far back and just a bit bleh. It's not grabbing me at all, sorry.

You do get a sense of Chrissie Hynde as a personality, and she seems to have a bit of attitude which comes across. Brass in Pocket is about the only stand-out track. 'Stop Your Sobbing' was done way better by the Kinks.

I'm not going to fall-out of love with the Pretenders as a result of this, as 2000 Miles remains my favourite Christmas song and I'll be singing along to that with gusto come December (probably November).

The first track is boooooooring. The only positive being that it got me looking up some Mighty Boosh skits on YouTube. "No-one listens to jazz. Science teachers and the mentally ill, that's all jazz is for." - "You hate jazz? You fear jazz!"

I'd say it picks up from there a bit, and it's not quite as chaotic. There's some smoother stuff later on with the last track.

2.5 rounded down

Yep, this is misogynistic as fuck, and that's obviously a mark against it. Looking beyond that there's some good tracks on here - quite an array of different sounding tracks - you can tell the influence of the 80's scene coming into the 90's. I quite like how aggressive something like 'Fuck Tha Police' is. If It Ain't Ruff is good. Express Yourself is a tune.

I'm not sure what I really want to say about this other than it's just really lovely. Lots of nice songs, quite delicate in its approach, and kept nice and short. As the songs are all well crafted and presented there's no bloat at all.

3.5 rounded down

There's some nice songs in here, and the album as a whole is pretty solid. I like their phat guitar tones in particular. I just think some of their other albums are a bit more exciting.

3.5 rounded down

This album is funky as fuck. The main thing for me here is the absolutely brilliant instrumentation. Smooooth bass, funky psychedelic space keys, violin, sexy synth, trumpet!

There's tons of great songs on here, but I also I love the extended musical interludes - really nice. And big shout out to the mixing on this record - it's top notch.

I find the other commentary on here around appropriation so boring, if we're talking solely about the music of course. Are you not allowed to have influences anymore? Get over yourselves. You're a white British man JK, stay in your fucking lane. You should be more like someone like George Formby, play ukulele and sing some innocuous song about cleaning windows or something. Oh wait, the ukulele was from Portuguese origin and popularised in Hawaii... but... that's appropriation too! Is it too late to cancel George Formby? He's a monster!

Rant aside... great album!

It's pretty raw and grungy. I don't find it particularly compelling. It's alright.

This album has got such a sense of style and mood to it. From the cover alone the tone is set, and the album really carries that promise through the whole thing.

I'd had 'Where the Wild Roses Grow' on my main playlist for years, but this was another classic case of not delving into the album as a whole. I think I did once, but maybe got unstuck after the first song, which frustratingly is a bit of a slog.

It picks up a lot from there. Stagger Lee has some real bite, and that's followed by Henry Lee which is a lovely duet. Outside of those, I thought The Kindness of Strangers was also one of the better individual tracks.

O'Malley's Bar threatens to derail it as it's SUCH a long samey song again, but it's then finished off with Death Is Not the End which is a great closer.

As an album and overall piece of art I think it's very good.

There's some big hits in here. The album in general is pretty nice, but it's not setting the world alight for me.

I really like the intro to this - it's a really nice way into the album and sets up the tone. Sadly I don't think the rest of the album really delivers on that early promise though.

I do like the atmosphere on some of these tracks, but the songs are just waaay stripped back and I'm not really digging that. I do usually really like bands where they have a girl and guy playing off each other, but less so here. The vocals are so breathy, and it feels a bit wanky indie to me. It doesn't have a ton of substance and I was a bit bored by the end.

2.5 rounded down.

I don't like it, it's just so chaotic and noisy.

I like a lot of Creedence songs. I feel like this album doesn't reflect their best work, but it's still pretty good. Graveyard Train was the only real down note and was a real slog at over 8 minutes. The album beyond that was nice and groovy. Proud Mary is obviously pretty iconic.

This is ok, just ok. And by that, I mean it's ok as background music only. It doesn't really have much substance. It has that kind of 'nothing' feeling to it that a lot of 80's music does. It's not offensive.

I didn't discover this album via this project, but it has been a recent discovery nonetheless. I joined a vinyl subscription club during the first covid lockdown, and this was in one of my monthly bundles. I have to admit I was massively disappointed when I opened it. Queen are just so bombastic, and while I like a bunch of their songs, they're not really go-to listens. Or so I thought...!

This album is fantastic, and I've listened to it a ton since then. Brighton Rock is a mental opener. It was one of those cases playing the vinyl where you immediately take it off and play it on the different speed setting because it sounds like a chipmunk singing... only to realise it was correct in the first place!

So many other great songs, with lots of variation and playfulness. Big glam hits. Really catchy, great guitars and melodies. TONS of personality. I love the way the tracks merge and sit alongside each other. I particularly love the segueing of Tenement Funster into Flick of the Wrist, which then eases beautifully into Lily of the Valley. Flick of the Wrist is an absolute beast, and definite favourite on the album for me. I can't help but sing along. Killer Queen is obviously another big hit, but Now I'm Here and Misfire are other real standouts.

I think this is a brilliant album. And for me it's a real left-field choice. I just think it fires on pretty much every level.

As a fun aside, the actual track 'Sheer Heart Attack' didn't make it onto this album, but instead went on 'News of the World'. However, that is also a tune!

There was some decent headbanging going on during particularly gnarly moments, and some decent foot tapping too. They're really tight as a band, with some great musicianship, but it's just relentless.

It's real nice. "Ain't No Way" wins the best track award, which is a lovely soulful ballad.

On my review of Siamese Dream I said it was mad that the Pumpkins got lumped in as 'grunge', and how I thought they were way more interesting than a lot of other bands at the time. Mellon Collie only further exemplifies that point, because this album totally blows those guys out of the water. How many other bands of the time had this range and breadth of songs? This level of mad ambition? This insanely prolific level of creativity? Even their (many) B-sides from this era were so good and could have easily appeared on this album, or walked onto any other album of the time.

Am I biased? ....Yes. I came to this project with Mellon Collie as my favourite album of all time. I have the t-shirt, the record mat, the original pressing vinyl that I spent an absurdly large amount of money on. This album, to me, is perfect. I love it deeply on a very personal level. It means an awful lot to me, and I think it always will.

So with that said, I'll try and leave some notes with fresh ears...

I think what's funny, re-listening to this critically through the 1001 lens, I totally get why people might find it a bit bloated. If I listened to it for the first time I would undoubtedly be blown away by a lot of these songs, but I think I would likely dismiss a number of them too. Overall though, I do love the way this album ebbs and flows, and has various moods working through it. I like how some of the weirder songs punctuate that too. I love how grandiose the whole thing is. And that extends to the cover and the whole package. It's beautiful.

Sonically it's so good. The drums really struck me this time around, as they explode into life in Tonight, Tonight. There's so many sounds, instruments and vocals layered brilliantly throughout the whole thing. The work that Flood and Alan Moulder did can't be underestimated in that respect.

This album does things to me that I struggle to explain. Listening to something like 1979 - I love it SO much. It's transcendental. It evokes something in me that makes me so happy. As a nearly 40 year old man, I find myself losing more and more individual fandoms, but it's so satisfying to know that I can put this on and still be so moved by it.

I came here with the plan of hopefully beating this album and finding my new favourite. I haven't yet, and likely won't. After all, how do you top something that has so much nostalgic and sentimental value? Something that was there for me in some of my most formative years, and has stayed a constant in my life since? I will hold out hope though, because if Mellon Collie can be toppled, it'll need to be by an album that's very special indeed.

Is it a bit too gentle and nice? Maybe. Will I revisit it again? No. Is it a perfectly lovely time in general? More or less.

I'm glad that this project gives me the chance to discover these kinds of albums. I would have avoided this like the plague based on the description, but this one mostly works for me. Yes it's experimental, and it's a bit of a concept album, and it is weird and non-conforming... but he achieves a cohesive mood throughout the whole thing that I'm on-board with. There's some nice floaty songs in here... a little bit melancholic at times... and sure, there's quite a lot of meandering bits in there too, and some odd moments, but it holds true to the vision of the album and works overall for me.

3.5 rounded up.

Everyone naturally compares them to the Stones which is fair enough. They are very similar, but they do it very well. It's a good album - I like their flamin' grooves!