Reviews by justcoolvinyl

About time some Canadians crossed my path. Margo Timmons voice is the driver here. The sparse instrumentation is perfect for just the right amount of accompaniment to highlight her soft vocal style. If you start with the cover if the Velvet’s Sweet Jane - a distinctive and vibrant cover - then the rest of the album will make sense for those raised on rock. For me, the stark opener of Margo’s a cappella on Mining For Gold and the remarkable Postcard Blues are where you get to experience magic. Rarely are you captivated by the remarkable nuance of a soft vocal style but on these two tracks that nuance is exposed. You can imagine yourself in a Smokey nightclub with Margo surrounded by the Junkies carving out a distinct vibe. The combination of Postcard Blues, Walking After Midnight, and Dreaming My Dreams With You would be stunning. This is a singular record for its ability to transform some well known songs into something distinct that would compel you to go see them live. I can hear beer glasses tinkling and soft chatter as a single spotlight highlights Margo seated on a stool…. 5/5

I honestly hate this record. It’s up there with anything by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eagles and Steely Dan. Yes, there are good songs on the record. It was and continues to be overplayed. Are all the songs good? No. The songs you recognize because they are overplayed are the ones that soft rock radio wanted you to hear. This was the mid 70s. You had hippies still wanting this folk rock shit. This was safe. Sure the scandals within the band were compelling as was the chronic drug excesses of the members. This album along is amongst the records that spawned punk rock as a violent counter movement to this shit. It is the vileness of this record that is responsible for punk rock. Go Your Own Way was a clarion call to people who understood that the only way to fight being forever drowned in shit like this, Steeley Dan, disco, Prog rock and the excess of bands like Fleetwood Mac was rebellion. Sure your grandpa and grandma now in their mid 70s will romanticize this record and tell you it’s still great as does every critic who is of a certain age. But with the clarity of both hindsight and foresight, this is not a top 1001 record of all time. Not by a fucking long shot. Go ahead. Start your list. When was the last time Fleetwood Mac crossed your lips as the best band ever. It doesn’t. And if you said it has then you are either fucking delusional or a liar and quite possibly both. There are 11 songs on this record and 2 are actually good - The Chain which was not released as a single, and the aforementioned Go Your Own Way. That’s it. The rest are cliches and pretty much unlistenable. Silver Springs has a good lyric, but the vocal performance is terrible. Oh, and it was a b-side and not on the album. So 2/11 for good songs equates to 1 out of every 5. With credit for creating it in that fucked up band environment - 2/5

You have to be in the mood for this. Elizabeth Fraser, much like Kate Bush, or even say Tori Amos is an amazing vocalist with the ability to transmit a wide range of emotions. As Dream Pop albums go it’s enjoyable but I preferred the earlier more shoegaze elements which made Elizabeth’s voice more ethereal. There’s a bit of sameness to some of the tracks and the psychedelic and ambient elements work well, but like I said at the top you have to be in the mood. It may be my short attention span, but unless I truly focus on the album and enjoy it, I’ll lose focus and it quickly becomes just background. I get this with a lot of similar records. The highlight is Elizabeth and as I think about it, the only reason this record makes this list is because of her vocals. 3/5

Thom Yorke’s vocals are something you either love or hate. There really is no middle ground. I like the idea of Radiohead better than I like actual Radiohead precisely because Thom, is frankly, whiny. I also recognize that this album is regarded as their finest work with one track having over 1 billion streams and it probably not the track you are thinking of. It is also the only track where Thom is not whiny. No surprises is a decent track with 1.4 billion streams and yet I’ve not heard it played in the real world- where I actually live. It is a slower version of Paranoid Android, which would be an enjoyable song if sung by someone else. So, putting aside my dislike of Thom’s vocal tone, the album is musically interesting and at points inspiring, such as the last minute of Airbag. But is it enough to make the album enjoyable. Unfortunately, no. It’s an average Rock record with its own sonic palate that keeps things interesting but there is not enough emotional connection that you would say to anyone WOW! This is fucking great! In truth, it is not a great record and people who will try to convince you that it is are truly just fucking sheep. It’s like a cult on par with all those morons who voted for Donald Trump for President a second fucking time. That’s the thing about cults, isn’t it? Those who are members of the cult spew the gospel of the cult leader. Radiohead fans are similar. Let’s say it out loud, together: This album is not special or amazing or anything of the sort. It is a rather interesting but average record with a largely annoying vocalist. 3/5

It was difficult not to be charmed by Sinead at the time of this album.if you had encountered her debut, The Lion and the Cobra then you knew that underlying this beautiful voice was a fiery, complex, passionate and fearless artist with the rare ability to make you feel every word. On this follow up, the edges are a bit smoother, the vocals more controlled than on the debut, but none of the elements were missing. This is a fully realized album by a singular artist who is likely best known for the prince cover and a SNL performance, but should be remembered and regarded as a masterful artist. Nothing Compares 2 U is remarkable, but so is much of the album. Black Boys on Mopeds, Jump In The River and the titular track all could be singles. Sure there are those who will look at the record and compare every song to the hit- but that misses the point. A remarkable achievement overall that is so effective in highlighting Sinead’s real strength- her amazing vocals and powerful prose. 4/5

Remarkable for what it represents, this album and the reverberations from this album are more than a ripple in time. I note that this is the 1st boy band having been constructed by Malcolm for their look rather than any musical ability. It is the only explanation for replacing Glen Matlock with certifiably crazy junkie Sid. Matlock could really play. Johnny Rotten is really a conundrum. He is an unreasonable piece of shit to many but stood by his wife Nora and her devastating illness until the end. Does the history of the band influence how this album is viewed? Perhaps, but having seen the Sex Pistols live during their 90s reunion and hearing the songs now with Frank Carter (Gallows, Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes), these songs really have aged remarkably well. We all know the hits but the real enlightenment comes from the lesser played/known tracks. Bodies, EMI, Liar and No feelings all could have been singles and live these are honestly more exciting than God Save The Queen and Anarchy in The UK. That is, they belong with the real hits Holidays In The Sun and Pretty Vacant. In hindsight this is honestly a no skip record and still relevant today. 5/5 legitimately.

Pop metal record for those who like their metal shiny with no rough edges and their guitar solos inserted at precisely the right time. Look I got the appeal of Van Halen but if I look at it objectively, the Sammy Hagar years were actually better- but only in comparison to original member Van Halen with Dave. By 1984 metal was honestly dead. 1984 may be the greatest year for punk rock and made everyone realize that only AC/DC, Metallica, and perhaps Maiden were going to survive after this point. Sure, radio plays and MTV mattered during this period and Hot For Teacher had a great video. Comedy metal was popular. Jump and Panama were catchy and if you were still a teen or over 40 than Van Halen was catchy, chicks liked it, and you could play it at parties. But is it really a good record? No. It’s not. 10 million people bought this record and got it wrong. Used bins were flooded with copies. Other than the songs I just listed the album is pretty pedestrian and time has not been kind to the production. Metal used to be exciting, aggressive, and a good time. This is not. For all of the hype surrounding Eddie’s playing, on this record it’s pretty conventional. This is Rock Star Van Halen and it was pretty obvious that Dave thought he was the band. I’m sure other reviews will look at this album with nostalgia because of everything they experienced surrounding this record in their lives, but it does overall kinda suck. 2/5

Deerhunter it appears to me is one of those bands where you have to spend a bit of time to see if you can connect with the record. Beautiful in places with some interesting sonic choices, I can see the appeal of certain tracks such as Desire Lines and He would Have Laughed. These are the longer tracks on this album and I think capture the essence of the band as sonic exploration of divergent galaxies. These Beatles influenced Don’t Cry and the Beatles/XTC (Dukes of Stratosphere incarnation) inspired Revival are examples of the incorporation of a particular sonic palate. I acknowledge that certain tracks are particularly appealing because the pop influences are compelling- Revival is certainly one of those tracks. The most compelling aspect of the record in my mind is how each of these dispatches careens off into different galaxies with quiet ethereal moments breaking up otherwise stops on the journey. A good example of this is Sailing which quietly leads into Memory Boy and then quickly followed by Desire Lines. As I am one of those people who detest the Beatles but have loved most of the music by bands who are clearly inspired by them, Deerhunter captures that aesthetic. By the time you get to Desire Lines you should be comfortable with the journey and enjoy the last half of the record such that you’ll go back and ask yourself- why does Earthquake start the record. Bradford Cox vocals capture the indie rock vibe very similar to Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie. These bands could be cousins. Enjoyable and interesting as a well thought out record, the songs do transport you and with the touchstones to past influences make for an excellent album. 4/5

This seems tame now but at the time this was released there was nothing quite like it. Not as weird as the Amphetamine Reptile scene, Big Black’s mix of punk and industrial was actually pretty catchy for a punk rock scene where hardcore was really the vogue. Kerosene is a brilliant track and honestly if you are not a huge fan of noise bands or really not that familiar, it is a great introduction to the record. Almost a pop song it’s a great place to begin and from there the journey is really up to you. The very next track, Bad Houses, could have been made by Joy Division. Albini’s production is obviously well on its way to being fully realized as the dryness of the sounds, the clarity of the vocals on a bed of noise and the drum machine creating a motorik groove on most of these tracks - not that far removed from Faust, Can and noticeably Kraftwerk. Lyrics are full on punk rock topics designed to provoke a reaction. On first spin of this record I didn’t really pick up on them up when released, it was only after a couple of passes that the lyrics broke the focus. You start to parse words together and then suddenly holy shit - what the fuck is he saying? Fists of Love is about sadism. Get it? While this album is not as challenging as Songs About Fucking, Albini on this record is concerned with life in a small town, dealing with boredom and abuse of power. You can feel the conflict in Stinking Drunk which deals with someone dealing with the conflict of throwing away their sobriety or Bazooka Joe which deals with a manipulative narrator offering a psychologically damaged veteran a fake friendship to form a partnership that is one sided to benefit the narrator - to get Joe to use his skills to commit violent acts. At this point in the Big Black catalog Albini was experimenting with noise and lyrics to confront the audience and I think on this record and Songs About Fucking are two records where his vision is fully realized. And as a vision perfectly executed, it deserves 5/5. I ain’t no company man..,

I am not qualified to review folk music. I am often surprised by those who would venture to do do although they are not fans nor do they possess the knowledge necessary to fairly evaluate this type of music. In short, all critics are largely just making shit up in order to justify their paychecks. I do know punk rock and I would fairly say I could objectively review a punk rock album and do so comfortably in the knowledge of 50 years of experience participating in the scene as at various times a promoter, an attorney, a record store owner and avid fan. Woody Gutherie lyrics and Billy Bragg and Wilco playing folk music? Not so much. Sure I have enjoyed albums from both Billy and early Wilco but this is not my my bag. It is kid if background music and very folkie. Does it belong on this list? I have no fucking idea. It’s kind of mid for me as the kids say, so: 3/5

This is a walkabout by two guys doing weird guy shit together. Eno and Bryne no a thing about music, that is undeniable and there is ample evidence that there combined knowledge and understanding of rhythm, tempo and even pop music itself is second to none. So why is this rhythmic experiment such a dull pile of crap. I actually own this record and bought it new when it came out as I was a fan of Talking Heads and of Eno’s production work. I found his solo stuff, particularly the ambient pieces, pretty dull but I knew that he had some interesting ideas and this collaboration seemed a great idea. Except it is not. Samples and found sounds seems interesting except this early experiment of mashing it all up with African rhythms and electronics was just fragmented. It is the dissonant Frankensteining of these songs that fails to connect with me. I played it several times in the early 80s but could never connect with it. Perhaps it’s not my roots. It still doesn’t connect. Listening to the album today was tough because I could have spent time with the new Gurriers record or even the new Chelsea Wolfe record which come off as far more engaging and entertaining than this. So, what to make of it? I conclude that time is better spent elsewhere than playing this. 2/5

For a 10th album, this U2 record stands among the early records in terms of commitment to the U2 sound. Whatever you might say about U2 and specifically about Bono who at various times has come off as pompous while at the same time being a tireless advocate for the disadvantaged and a warrior for social justice, it is also undeniably true that they know how to write a good pop tune. On this record the standouts are recognizable classics. Beautiful Day, Stuck In A Moment, Walk On, and Elevation fit nicely amongst other U2 standards. Even the non-singles are enjoyable and as a whole, while not life altering, the album is solid. But it is also not special. It is U2 treading ground they had traveled 20 years earlier. So, two things can be true at once. In this case, U2 can make a solid album that would be awesome had you not heard of U2 before this record. The problem, and this is the second thing that is also true, is that you have heard of U2 and in context this album is not that special. It is just another good U2 record. So, does it belong on this list. Frankly no. The earlier albums in no particular order, specifically Boy, War, October, Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, are all better than this. If your glass house should break … walk on. 3/5

This album is worth a spin because it represents a moment in time where a genius delicately balances on the edge of the knife that is sanity. At its best it is an album of ideas some fully realized, such as on the track Octopus, and others still somewhat incomplete, such as Feel. It is evident that the patchwork of sessions created some inconsistency but as a whole songs like Terrapin, Golden Hair and Dark Globe are genuinely good tracks. On this listen, not thinking about the comparisons available from and of the time period or the context surrounding this album, it is solid but not an outstanding album. You enjoy the experience but after you can’t recall much of what you heard. 3/5

This was a tough slog. Not to say that Bonnie doesn’t have a beautiful voice - she does. But as music goes, soft rock is for dead people. I’m not sure what the actual audience is for this type of pablum, but this album like all of Steely Dan is soulless anti-music that would be excellent at torturing anyone who loves music. The music is so flawless and precise that it acts as sonic drapes for Bonnie’s voice. Bonnie does her best but the depths of the lifeless music is so great even she cannot raise the dead. I like Bonnie and you can tell her effort is sincere but it’s such a shame that her music is best played in funeral homes rather than clubs. It’s albums like this that give clarity to what the authors of the book were thinking at the time. I imagine they thought - hey let’s include Steely Dan and Bonnie Rait on the list. Then people will know that we’re not serious and we’re just fucking around. Play at your own risk. 1/5

My take when this was released was that Damon was taking the piss a bit after the plateau of Blur. Sure, modern life is rubbish and in my opinion, so is most of this record. It is in a weird way kind of vibey. The lyrical word play is very good overall and some of it is enjoyable. Some is not. I hate the Clint Eastwood track. It’s corny and the toy preset is tiresome. I am obviously in the minority as the track has 1.25 BILLION streams on Spotify. I also do not live 19-2000 but I do like the Soulchild remix of the track better. At this point, after listening 2x all the way through and trying to see what would capture my attention only Re-Hash, 5/4 Starshine and Slow Country made the cut. It is a little long, the repetitive nature and stealth mode vibe make for a little boredom. It’s not terrible but it’s not great either. 5/10

I had to work for this one a bit. The Spotify link takes you to a page where the tracks are not available on Spotify. So, YouTube it was. There, there is only a complete version without track listing or separation. Not withstanding that difficulty, the album is, on first play through, a little too loose and jammy than other P-Funk records of the time. I guess the genius of the record is the ability to still be funky while incorporating elements of 60s psych, blues, with soul. The handclaps pretty much give it away. One Nation Under A Groove could easily be the intro for Soul Train. The great distinction is that Funkadelic never spent too long in disco mode although it is clearly dance music designed for clubs and released at the height of the era. This album features some incredible performances and on the title track. The rest of the original record is a mix of space, funk, jazz and in my opinion at times unfocused. This is particularly evident on the the 11:00 minute pseudo rant Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad aka Get Your Shit Together. Not my groove but as a moment in time it was definitely an outlier in Black Music. 3/5

Honestly, and I hope that everything I write in these spaces represents my honest impressions of these albums and artists, this album is a bit of a bore. I get the emotional backdrop to this as I enjoyed the Charlatans early run and particularly the debut Some Friendly and its follow up Between 10th and 11. By Tellin Stories you knew that keyboardist Rob Collins was a bit of a fucking idiot. Having previously been arrested for armed robbery and having done jail time, I’m sure the relationship was a bit more strained than even the wiki version of the period covers. 8 months in prison isn’t a lifetime but it is a stretch. 4 years later I’m sure the tension was greatest and I note that Burgess and guitarist Marc Collins were at the end of the road with Rob. Then he fucking dies during recording. And with that background, it is obvious that this record is a mixed bag - both lyrically and musically. I like the guitar forward songs but the sonic palette of those early records relied on those keyboards which were intricately integrated into what was the Charlatan’s sound. So, when the album leads if with the morose With No Shoes and it really never picks up. I get there is diversity here with a mix of genres including hip hop and soul and in places hints of the soul pioneered by Dexy’s from the Searchin’ For The Young Soul Rebels days ( an album I thought so good I own 5 copies of that album). But diverse does not mean good. I bought this album when it came out and it was the last Charlatans record I bought in this period until 2001’s Wonderland. There are only 2 songs that I thought were good and they would not make the top 10 on I think anyone’s list of Charlatans hits: North Country Boy and Get On It. I have complicated feelings with One To Another, which I think I don’t think is complete. I just don’t like its arrangement or production much. I feel better about How High which captures the Charlatans energy and in hindsight I’d say is my favorite track on the record. There are moments on the record where Burgess has Paul Weller like moments, such as on Only Teething that are a little disconcerting but still enjoyable. However, the highlights don’t make up for the overall lack of truly interesting songs. It’s sonically well produced but perhaps that’s the problem. Without edges some of this comes off as indulgent e.g. the long instrumental section at the end of the aforementioned Only Teething. Oh well. No matter how your feeling you’re never on your own. 3/5

The Cult managed to find a pretty awesome guitar tone to go along with Ian Astbury’s vocals converting their glam goth earlier work into a pretty buzzy hard rock machine with more than a little nod to AC/DC while preserving those core influences. Rick Rubin’s production increased the sonic level quite a bit from the thoroughly enjoyable prior album, Love, creating some exceptional and catchy singles. This album has some A-List songs in Love Removal Machine and L’il Devil. The B-List is Wild Flowers, Aphrodisiac Jacket, Peace Dog and Memphis Hip Shake. The cover of Born To Be Wild is inexplicable and adds nothing. Its inclusion is a head scratcher. Overall enjoyable but honestly does not belong anywhere near this list. However, it’s also not Steely Dan which should be avoided at all costs. 3/5

When you think of music, you would be hard pressed to come up with Bitte Orca as meeting that definition. This is a form of anti-music for people who have committed to the idea that everything that an artist records as long as it is authentic and true to their vision. You know, the same people who have committed their souls to Steeley Dan, The Eagles, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the other critics faves. Dirty Projectors have managed to create indie rock without true melodies and shifting tempos to achieve sounds that are repellent to human listening. There are no sing-a-longs or anything really resembling songs in the traditional sense. As an art piece it hold up, but as music it just kinda sucks. Guess that’s why it is on this list. Nothing really to pick out here. Makes sense that it is on this list because most of this list ends up being average but critic fave cool. 2/5

Interesting as this is not in my top 3 favorite U2 records. I generally enjoyed early U2 as their sound was really a mix of Stiff Little Fingers and Siouxsie And The Banshees with Bono not quite in full on rock star mode. Like the earlier records this album contains the Edge’s guitar “sound” forward a little bit further towards traditional rock and carried by some pretty good songwriting without the preachiness that made October a bit of a challenge the record is actually pretty solid throughout. You know this because even if you remove Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Year’s Day, and Two Hearts Beat as One, you are still left with some pretty solid tracks in 40, Like A Song, and even Seconds. Oh, my Top 3 U2 records are: Boy, Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. Sure, they have some terrible records in their discography, but War is not one of them. 4/5