Reviews by k-dot-r

Possibly the only album made worse by a Beatle appearing, and the man was not a good guy, but as an album it is both really good and very important. Falls just short of full marks for me; for the duet and the crimes.

Really odd, in a good way, with bizarre lyrics and massive variation in rhythm and instrumentation. The 'Deluxe' version is not entirely necessary, although "Fela's Riff" is a nice nod to a superior artist.

pish

The "high" point of nu-rave, a short-lived and fairly local phenomenon in the UK which involved someone playing a guitar near some dance music, while everyone got off their face on various substances. If this had happened when I was a student, rather than a responsible and functional member of society, I would have loved it. As it is, it sounds like drunken pretentious asshats merging two genres that do not mesh well. But somehow, it works (a bit).

Disco sucks - and so does most of this album. 'Good Times' is fine, but everything else sounds kind of like a poor facsimile of a copy of a rip-off of that. 'My Forbidden Lover' is apparently the second most listened to song on the album (on Spotify; 13M, [compared with 183M for 'Good Times!]), but this probably says more about the foibles of people than the quality of the track

Punk blues - could be from anywhere between 1976 and 2029! Absolute genius, hard to believe it was a debut, other than how focussed it is. Another band I plan to explore more fully when I don't get a new album each day - think my "after the list" list is rapidly closing in on 1001 albums as well!
Word of advice (for those who don't know the band already) - listen first, even if you usually read the wiki; if only so you can have a guess when this was recorded

a live album of a classical piece - two reasons not to be on the list in my view. for classical, performed by rock musicians, it's pretty accomplished - but messier than if they had taken the time to record it properly, and the crowd noise tramples the start and end of a few tracks.
three geniuses combining to be far less than the sum of their parts.

Odd, in a good way! Massive variety of styles and genres, some of them completely unexpected (no spoilers!).
An artist I knew a little through his work with others, although not as a lead/solo artist - I'll sort that once the list is done.
The guest vocalist on track 1 is a particularly pleasant surprise - especially given how big a star they were at that time.

A decent soundtrack, but still just a soundtrack - which means I don't think it belongs on the list. Evokes a mood, which is the point, but doesn't work as well without the movie. Lacking in lyrics, lacking in soul, lacking in inspiration.
Not for me, but passable background music I guess.

Regularly up there in lists of best albums ever, and relistening after a few years reminds me why. There's probably not *that* many albums every track has its own Wikipedia page - but every title is blue; even "Silver Springs" which was only on some versions!

The genius of the album probably comes from the competitive nature of recording, which is shown in the variety of songwriters (and one full band composition) - if you wanted to get your song on the record, it had better be damn near flawless.

All the stories about the recording are so well known by this point, and people have literally written books on the topic, but even the band were able to see that everything they went through resulted in one of the great collections of songs. I hope they all know how much it means to so many people.

My favourite track is probably The Chain, especially the backing vocals, but the one I would love to hear spoken about more is Never Going Back Again - a 2 minute slice of acoustic perfection, and probably the closest to one person's vision.

My one wish is that I had been around to see them on the tour that followed!

Clint Eastwood is one of my favourite songs from the early 2000s, all the other singles are class, and even the really random songs (like Latin Simone and Sound Check) capture a mood or a feeling. Another album I own on CD, although I think my daughter has pinched it - but maybe it is the mark of genious [sic] that it still feels contemporary over 23 years later.

A guy who finally seems to be getting the recognition and appreciation he deserves, and who was a huge influence on at least two distinct movements of singer-songwriters. The album is very good, without ever quite ascending to great, but considering it was 1973(!) when it was out, it is an achievement that it still doesn't sound dated or stale at all. A nice story behind it too - a tribute to a friend who was still alive to hear it.
I'm not sure whether to give the Scottish bonus point - he was born in Surrey, but spent half his childhood in Scotland. Giving 1/2 star for 1/2 Scottish makes this a solid 4 for me!

A great album, from a great band, who I would probably have loved if I had been born a few years earlier. A massive influence on many bands I love, and a band I will explore fully once this project is done.

Probably the most important album of my musical life! An album from which I have played pretty much every song in one band or another. My CD copy wore out from being played so much - which shouldn't even be possible!
I was never likely to give this less than 5 stars - but listening again reminded me why, and inspired me to listen to everything else Nirvana put out.

A work of genius, with every song showing a new side of the band. I am fully converted to the cult of Cave, and look forward to hearing more from them - either on the list or once I am finished

Very prog, with a ridiculously wide range of influences. Instrumental tracks always sound a bit like background music. I enjoyed it plenty, but feel there are probably better albums not on the list - it seems like anything British from the 70s is here without having to do much more than exist!

Beguiling, engaging, alien and exotic, but lacking just a bit of light and shade I don't know enough about the genre(s) to fully appreciate it. It almost deserves a fourth star, but it didn't capture me enough - maybe even just a sunnier day here in Scotland would have tipped it into the next bracket! I certainly plan to listen to more music from outside of the UK and US - once I am free from the self-imposed restrictions of this project!

Pretty terrible, but one of the band is seemingly a pretty terrible person. I only checked the wiki link to see why I hadn't heard of them, given when and where they were active, but it turns out they have been pretty comprehensively scrubbed from the records - but not the book! Losing them is no great loss though - late period landfill electro-indie is not my idea of a good time

A flawless voice, but not as good as the work he did with his band. Pretty close at times, but just lacking a certain something - perhaps as simple as other voices and musicians to compete/collaborate with him!

A wonderful voice, an interesting artist, and someone I will be returning to - all her stuff is on my "after the list" list