Reviews by k-dot-r

Fancy guitaring, lovely chilled singing, lyrics vague enough to allow personal interpretation, and a cheeky wee instrumental track near the end. An artist I had never heard of, but quite enjoyed, but not enough to put it in my book. A nice suggestion though

Pretty poor, but exactly the kind of nonsense that could be overhyped all the way into the charts and into contention for awards nominations in the UK, especially if the right people in the industry took a shine to them.

Not as good as his previous band or his next band, but solid and wilfully weird. Interesting as well as a solid album, and to be honest, the surprise is that it wasn't included in any edition of the book!

Like a south London version of Half man Half biscuit, but not quite as good or as funny. The b-sides and live takes on the expanded edition add context, but at no point does this sound like anything other than a full band - they make quite a racket for a duo.

Bad

Sounds more American than Swedish, but not in a bad way.

I preferred their debut, and this is still a five star album!

over-hyped, under-good

Live, but touched up with other takes. Prog, but not unbearably so. I still don't think I would include live albums, and there's definitely enough PF on the list already, and one of the main men isn't even there, but I kind of liked it.

Exceptional jazz/hip-hop crossover - fits comfortably alongside De La Soul and Jurassic 5 in my 'underrated rap genius' list

striking

An album

rap funk ska punk rock with hints of various other influences, including, oddly, Jamaican dancehall! really varied, but somehow consistent and coherent as well. Not quite on the level of RATM and RHCP, but that was clearly where they were aiming - and they made a decent stab at it.
heaps of fun, but perhaps not an essential work.

Exceptional metal. Not the most extreme or unique, but all the better for it - I must admit I enjoyed being able to hear the lyrics rather than having to look them up! Another band I knew by name, but had only heard a few songs - and another to put on my list for after the list to explore fully.

Brit-pop mixed with prog elements, but it somehow kind of works. Reminded me a lot of Be Here Now, from Oasis the previous year, both in how bloated it was (at points) and in showing (through production values and expensive sounding arrangements of the songs) how much money (and drugs) was swishing around the British indie/rock scene at the time. Not as focused as their debut, not as dark or interesting as I remember from hearing it as a kid, but not bad.

combines the worst excesses of folk and prog - long weird songs about nothing, played (in part) on bizarrely chosen instruments. The singer (or singers?) didn't have great diction either, meaning that even picking up the words was tricky at point, let alone figuring out what they were on about. Not actively terrible, but a long way short of my top 1,001 from this project so far.

I am somehow still glad to have heard it, if that makes sense!

very odd, funky bluesy jazzy rock-indie. In a good way though, even if some of the songs sound like three or four different songs at the same time (also in a good way).
I loved his voice, and will try to remember to explore them more fully if/when I have some time (and have probably finished this!)

Prog prog, with a side of prog. I enjoyed finding out that there were still albums like this being released recently(ish) - even if it wasn't my favourite on the list. Stoners and weird kids need something to listen to, right?

Sounds like what radiohead have been aiming for since OKC, mixed with a hint of JAMC noise and plenty of beautiful vocals. An absolute masterpiece, and a reminder of exactly why I started this in the first place - to listen to great albums I might otherwise never have chosen to put on. Thanks!

Possibly the most American sounding British band - even before their big hit TV theme use. Decent and very varied, but still disappoints at points and lacks any tracks that properly grab you.