Reviews by k-dot-r

Prog folk, but better than that probably sounds to most people.
Lots of field recordings, and three very long songs, and an absolute joy

Bluesy brilliance, with vocals and guitar playing from the top drawer

American indie, like a high class version of the landfill indie dominating the British charts around the same time.
Not a huge degree of variety among the songs, but enough to hold the attention.
The band are probably now more famous for their collaborations and production work, but this album goes a long way to show why they got those opportunities.

Over produced and under written, although she was a child at the time.
That 80s gated drum sound means it sounds really dated.
Fine as far as pop goes, and it is an oddly underrepresented genre in the book, but this is not the best example of (good) dance-pop

Brilliant. A band I had never listened to before, but have now added all their albums to my 'after the (expanded) list' list.
Sounds like early biffy clyro, which is pretty much the highest praise I can give!
Hints of at the drive-in and early emo as well, which is again a good thing. Predates all of the above though, suggesting I have it back to front and the bands I love actually sound like these guys!
Thank you so much to whoever suggested this.

I have three thoughts about this album, so you'd better believe I'm sharing them all!

1. Pretty much any track could be a background texture in virtually any song from Kid A. Listen to both through headphones (and within a couple of days of each other) for the strongest effect.

2. Anyone who enjoys this music should try the app 'Mubert' and/or the soundtrack to 'No Man's Sky', both of which have points where their procedurally generated sounds could easily inhabit space in this album.

3. When people catastrophise about AI taking over the creative industries, this sort of thing feels like it will be the first musical domino to fall, as AI can hoover up hours and hours, before spitting out a passable facsimile.

27 songs in under 51 minutes!
Punk as hell, and very influential on a bunch of American bands who followed.
An absolute blast, which I am glad to have heard, but would have to take the place of something similar (unless the book becomes 2,002 albums!)

A cracker of a début, although anyone not Irish, Scottish, or Welsh may need a bit of time to catch on with the lyrics.

Full of energy and attitude, and a band who have gone from strength to strength since it came out.

A brilliant suggestion, which falls juuuuuuust short of full marks in my opinion.

Over produced 80s pop, with a hint of an edge on a couple of songs.
Absolutely not my thing, and not unique or interesting enough to take a spot.
Not entirely without merit, but nearly!

80s jangle-pop, from the (very) late 80s!
A blast from the past even when it was released, but a welcome one.
They are one of the most underrated bands, possibly because they were never interested in moving south.
A wee Scottish bonus point means full marks!

Very chilled and cool, possibly the most relaxing album I have had so far.
Only slight oddity was one track sounding a bit like the "Coronation Street" theme song!
Well worth inclusion on the list, maybe in place of a more 'challenging' jazz album.

Arctic manc-keys; Oasis-ish; Blur-ry; (northern) Kinks - not that I'm complaining!
Like a best of Britain covers album, without many songs where they sound like something new.
Their biggest song is here though, which is nice.

[n.b. sorry, I think this might be my harshest review - but I genuinely hope some folks like it more than I did!]

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Shite.

The couple of times it sounded like a (half-)decent song might be starting, some terrible dance nonsense quickly took over.

Dance (or edm as dickheads & americans call it) just doesn't work in a longer form, such as an album.

Looks like it has about the same number of producers as tracks, give or take, and they are all culpable in not just making these songs better.

I know most dance music is listened to while off your face on pills, but i doubt even that would make this bearable. I didnt try it, to be fair; maybe someone can have a bash and let us know.

Not even mercifully short like some of the other rubbish.

Offensively bad.

Of all the albums ever recorded, this sure is one of them. It was released too, at some point, and I am sure I heard the music on it.
There were words too, I am almost certain. From what I remember, this album dreams of one day aspiring to "aye, half-decent, that", while being much better than "nah, not for me".
This is fine.

Just listen to Alanis instead

Prog pop nonsense, but they get a Scottish bonus point for Derek

Disco sucks! But this is not quite disco, even if it's a clear precursor.
Lady Marmalade is (obviously) the stand out track, by a long way, but the others are better than just filler.

MF Doom! And madlib, of course! A classic of alt hip-hop, with more characters than some movies!
This needs to be heard more widely, if only so folks know how talented Doom was.

I preferred his first album, but enjoyed this as well. Works as background music while studying etc, but with enough depth for more focused listening too.
Lovely vocals, great guests, and perfect production.
A cracker of a nomination.

So lo-fi I feel I can hear the "recording" light blinking on his boombox. I'd recommend reading the Wikipedia if you're not familiar with the (one man) band - and probably even if you are!
A bunch of great story songs, with sparse instrumentation and a fittingly brow-beaten voice.
For clarity, I loved it!