Reviews by jonathanptait

I was shocked how little I remembered of side one when I remembered pretty much all of side two. I went into this thinking its not their best album. The highs are high enough to praise as their best.

I wanted to give this a five and say it's made me re-evaluate my opinion of grunge and I was regretful for not being an Alice in Chains fan before. Unfortunately, I just thought it was OK. I love the way the record sounds; but I don't love a lot of the songs. The song lengths feel quite bloated, with little development over five or six minutes.

I love the fact you can hear both eras of Waits in this album. The horrid grimy and strange beast to come, the straightforward songwriting of his earlier work. It's not perfect, but it's well beyond good.

Soon Forgotten sums up the story of the first couple of tracks on this. The performances wind up to a great second half that doesn't end perfectly, but is much better. It's a significant recording, maybe a little homogenous, but I'd call it satisfactory and influential rather than enjoyable and groundbreaking.

Having bought this on release, listened to it once and shelved it during 2016, this has been an absolute joy to rediscover. I don't think Cohen could've had a finer swan song. His delivery of sparse lyrics, the rattle of his voice, the understated instrumentation, the various genres covered and in some cases - fused, the brevity ensures none of his final moments on tape were wasted. A 5/5 - an incredible surprise - and will trigger me re-evaluating his other work.

Dave Formula's scooby doo keyboards don't always hit the spot, but there are enough good songs to call this an enjoyable experience!

It's the ugly, angry cousin of their big three records but there's some fantastic arty highs despite being less euphoric and consistent than the predecessors. Will be more often in my rotation than it was, as it's a lot better than I remember it being, although Seductive Barry could be their nadir.

You can question how authentic it's anti-capitalist credentials are; but you can't question the potency. The only time the album dips is Settle for Nothing - I could really take it or leave it off the album. It's not a bad track per se, but it changes the pace without necessarily improving the output. An easy decision to make it a 5/5, it defined a genre and it was never bettered by them or anyone else.

Arguably one of the best live rock records and the most important jam band album of all time; prototypical, even! It's a little long but for the most part it's a massive joy to hear such abundant talent and genuine improvements to some studio cuts.

The title track and passage to Bangkok are probably in the conversation for Rush's finest work. It's absolutely a shame that the majority of the second half isn't as memorable

Meditative synth experiments at the early wave of ambient music, it's an absolute trip but hardly a hoot. I wouldn't reach for it very frequently because it's an austere experience - but I very much enjoyed rediscovering it.

I didn't know anything other than Brass in Pocket which I've never liked. This was a dull way to spend almost 50 minutes. I disliked almost every song because of how insincere it sounds; biggest offender are the vocals. I liked Space Invaders though.

I can't believe this is the Shuggie Otis album that made the list - but nonetheless its excellent.

The title track is the highlight here, with some great (in their own right) jazzy pieces closing out. A meandering way to close out the record, especially when the work with sung vocals was very strong.

It's an imperfect classic; iconic voice with some signature tracks here. Maybe could've benefitted from being finished properly? It is still however a classic.

I think this is probably unfairly maligned because of David Thomas' voice and the timbre of some instruments. It's not one to playlist but I genuinely liked more than half of it. Judge this by the yardstick of being a post-punk record and you can see it's potency. Judge this by it's accessibility and it looks like a fish climbing a tree

Some phenomenal highs; but is mostly forgettable albeit enjoyable folk. Probably a victim of overstated importance.

The greatest commercial hard rock record of all time? Probably. Album tracks could've been viable singles for many other bands. They play cheap tricks; but by God are the tricks powerful. It's puerile but isn't it good to be every once in a while.

It's a dissonant piano freak out on the title track from being perfect; but is it as good as Ziggy or Hunky Dory? I'm not sure.

I WANT to like it, but I just don't like very much of it at all. Yes, Faster & This is Yesterday are brilliant; the rest of the album shades between being forgettable, inoffensive post-punk and horribly bad confessional indie

I absolutely LOVE REM, but as has always been the case when listening to this - which I know is highly acclaimed in their back catalogue - I am kind of ambivalent to it. I think instead of being a great realisation of where they would end up and the accomplishment of where they started it's just TOO transitional. It misses the soaring poppy art rock highs of their later work, and the austere jangle of their early records.