Reviews by k-dot-r

Smooth as silk, but also filthy!

Pish

Pish

Mega prog, but also much more pop sounding than I would have guessed

A weird album by a weird band made up of weird guys, with weird songs done weirdly. In a good way!

Late era grungey rock, would have done well a few years earlier

YES! One of my favourite bands of all time, and a massive influence on my taste to this day. So weird, and heavy, and engaging that I really struggled to turn it off to write this and get my next album! A belter of a nomination, and well worthy of a place in the book - as is the rest of their stuff

Very good

The most pop, but also pretty mature

Not really an album in the traditional sense, but gets away with it because it cleverly uses a narrator as well as sung parts, and was written from the ground up as an audio piece (rather than relying on visual elements)

Gorgeous songs, beautifully sung, and expertly put together. Such a sad story, such a brilliant discography

Weird and bad

Post-punk genius

Smug indie folk

First up, this is not eligible - it's just not an album. I can't imagine how anyone could (presumably) listen to well over 1,000 albums, and then nominate something that is 100% not an album.
So this was never likely to score well, for that reason.

It was even worse than that once I listened though. The lyrics are terrible clichéd nonsense; the singing is regularly off key, with a few notes that caused me actual physical pain; the production is offensively bad, for example they have no concept of volume smoothing at all; the instrumentation is dull and predictable or stupid and annoying (looking at you, electric drum kit on one [and only one] song), or both; there are too many people singing at once far too often; and the story is dumb and stupid, and barely makes it through the noise.

All told, this is the worst album of the whole project for me - worse than Abba, worse than The Smiths, worse than Nico, worse than Throbbing Gristle, worse than bloody Kid Rock. If it wasn't for the fact that I refuse to let this be the final thing I listen to while doing this, it would absolutely be the final straw for me. If you can't think of anything good (and eligible) to suggest, just don't bother.

Genuinely offensively bad.

Dear god the next album had better be worth listening to (and had better be an actual album!)

Suggestion: allow us to give (at least) one zero star review, or to pick a "worst album" when we are done! This would be mine for both!

Exceptional - much closer in sound to NIN and Tool than i would ever have guessed

Pish

Much better than I had expected, not sure why I never really rated them before. I liked the guitars, the vocals, and the times they sounded a bit like NIN.

Very cool, with great drumming. Perfect soundtrack to a sunny day in Scotland - not that we get many!

Hypnotic and magical; sounds like a bunch of other stuff, from phone alarms to Radiohead (in their AMSP era) - but of course it predates all of them.

Changes gradually but constantly, like the tide or the hour hand of a clock - you only notice it is changing when it has already done it!

A mellow relaxing joy, which only loses a point because classical albums were specifically excluded from the book, so it doesn't qualify on a (daft) technicality.