Rated 8/10
Very, very good, a clear influence on loads of bands I love. Full of energy and attitude, and fills the gap between garage rock and grunge perfectly. Some songs are a little bit "older gent trying to sound like his younger self", but that's no bad thing.
Not on Spotify, but that meant I saw the videos for the songs that have them.
Joe Rogan still sucks!!
Rated 10/10
Exceptional, uncomfortable, repetitive, draining, occasionally enjoyable, but mostly awkward, and always always moves the listener.
One of the most startling albums I have listened to, and still sounds as fresh and unsettling as it always did.
Awesome, in every possible sense of the word!
Rated 10/10
Brilliant, one of my favourites before, but even more so after listening in full again. Jesus Walks is an absolute classic, Spaceship is a rare 12/8 rap song, and All Falls Down is masterful pop music. Couldn't be less than 5 🌟!
Rated 8/10
Very good, of perhaps a bit self indulgent at points. Works well as a full album, with sunshine of your love and strange brew as clear stand out tracks.
Rated 8/10
Very enjoyable
Rated 6/10
Very 80s, which is not a compliment! Best song is Reward, which wasn't even on the original version. Enjoyable enough, but not great. Definition of three 🌟 to me!
Rated 6/10
Meh
Rated 6/10
Hard, heavy, and repetitive. A clear influence on loads of bands I love, but a bit sterile and underwhelming for me. Would listen again, but mostly to have another go at picking out bits that went on to be "borrowed" by bands I like more!
Also, NWOBHM is possibly the worst genre/movement name in all of music history!
Brilliant and odd, and really fun. Reminiscent of Sgt Pepper's and Pet Sounds, but more tongue in cheek.
Rated 10/10
Exceptional. I obviously knew the duet with Kylie, but I loved pretty much all the other songs too.
Not quite a concept album, but with a clear theme, and musically really interesting
Rated 6/10
Interesting, not super catchy or exciting, but pretty pleasant and enjoyable. The Dolphins and Everybody's Talking were my favourite tracks
Rated 4/10
Nah, not for me. Perfect Day was better as a cover by loads of different people, none of the others are particularly memorable
Rated 6/10
The most prog of anything ever to happen. Good though, just dense and lyrically impenetrable. It seems to tell some sort of story, but without doing any background reading it is hard to tell what it is about.
Rated 10/10
Brilliant, and exemplifies why I was keen to do this: I would probably never have listened to this album otherwise. The click song and a couple of the covers were the only ones I recognised on first listen, but I loved pretty much every track.
Wonderful
Rated 4/10
Boring, the epitome of the bland, formulaic, guitar-less nonsense being produced in the UK in the 80s.
Instantly forgettable - and I mean *literally* instantly: it must have been (based on the length of the album and how long I had had it on) at least the fourth play through before I recognised any of the songs that I had just heard 45 minutes ago!
Also, after listening 4 or 5 times to this record, I still only know one Talk Talk song (it's my life), and it's not on this album!
One extra star for being able to sing well (i.e. not being Nico).
Rated 10/10
An absolute classic. One of my favourite albums growing up, and listening again showed me why. Only change since 20 years ago is that I enjoyed the longer, gentler, more contemplative songs more than when I was younger. Loved it, from start to finish
Fabulous, if a little one-paced. Brilliant vocals, decent lyrics, passable music. Very easy to listen to, or to have on in the background. Good, but not great.
Rated 10/10
Great, with a couple of benchmark punk tracks and the others all very very good.
Rated 6/10
Middling hair metal. The best song is probably 'photograph", but I prefer the Santana version of that as well. I was surprised to hear the sample from "pretty fly for a white guy" at the start of "rock of ages", but mostly because there is not other obvious influence on The Offspring by Def Leppard
Rated 8/10
Brilliant album, tells a story but with songs that stand alone as well. Some of the skits were arguably unnecessary, but they give the songs room to breathe.
Production of all wu-tang (and wu-tang solo) albums is always spot on.
