Reviews by littlestlassloves

This was odd. Like they were trying to sound like multiple other bands but doing it badly and coming out just slightly wrong. Parts were a bit Red Hot Chilli Peppers, parts a bit REM, at one point he sounded a bit spoken-word Shatner. The drummer was frequently cymbal-obsessed (or it was just the really poor mix - sometimes you could barely hear the vocals over the instrumentation).

I had never heard of the band before and have no intention of listening again. I'm not angry at it, just bemused it ended up on this list.

2/5

I enjoyed reading the Wikipedia page and seeing how many bands I love are max 2 degrees of separation from Circle Jerks (Bad Religion and Rocket From The Crypt being two notable examples).

While loving punk, I've never been the biggest hardcore fan. I prefer my music, and specifically the vocals, a bit more melodic.

As a result this has ended up fairly middling for me. Instrumentally, I would be around a 4. Vocally we're at a 2. So overall, we're on a 3.

3/5

It turns out that Lady Soul by Aretha Franklin is a great album to listen to while walking to work in the sun. I felt a bit like I was strutting rather than plodding like normal.

She obviously had an astonishing voice, but for the most part I also really enjoyed the songs themselves. The musicians are also great.

I have always loved Chain Of Fools so it was an excellent start for me, though I don't think this album quite kept up the same level throughout. It was so so close to being a 5 star album for me though.

4/5

I knew precisely one Jane's Addiction Song going into this (Been Caught Stealing because they played the video a lot on MTV when I was a kid).

This was something that grew on me a lot over the course of the record. I wasn't that fussed about the first half but then I found I was increasingly enjoying it. I really liked Three Days, Then She Did, Of Course and Classic Girl. The instrumentation was far more varied and experimental than I thought it would be.

Ultimately I suspect liking Jane's Addiction comes down to whether you like rock music and whether you can stomach Perry Farrell's rather screeching voice. As I very much like the former and am ok with the latter, this was a pretty good time for me.

3/5

It was only about 2 weeks ago the Generator gave me m b v by My Bloody Valentine and I gave it 1 star. So I'm not hugely optimistic going into this.

[38 Minutes Later...]

I didn't completely hate Feed Me With Your Kiss, but a single song does not a 2 star album make.

1/5

One of those days where there was absolutely no need for me to listen to the album to rate it (but I did anyway). Spoilers; this is a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ album for me.

Of all the albums ever released, Dookie probably had the biggest impact on me. I expect I have listened to this album more times in my life than any other record. Following me dipping my toes into rock with Grave Dancers Union by Soul Asylum, Dookie fundamentally changed the genres of music I listened to. As a teenager I made it extremely clear to my parents that should I die young, I wanted the lyric "She screamed in silence" written on my gravestone. I still have multiple 7" singles from this record (one including a sticker sheet I never used as I never had anything precious enough to justify using it on). It was, for a little while, my whole world.

As a middle aged Mum, I still listen to Dookie. It is a perfect pop-punk album. It arguably created pop-punk as a mainstream genre. And on that topic, fuck those people who still accuse Green Day of "selling out" - I was a 14 year old in England when Dookie was released, so without them releasing an album on a major label I never would have heard this. This was still pre-music downloads but post MTV and so opportunities to discover new music were more limited. Top Of The Pops was how I heard Green Day, and that genuinely improved my life.

People could, and do, dismiss Green Day as just playing 3 power chords, but they have a perfect ear for melody and harmony. The baselines are great (Longview is fantastic for this), the backing vocals are perfect, Tre is a brilliant rock drummer and it still feels weird to me that he wasn't the original drummer. The topics are often fairly standard for people in their late teens/early 20s (love, drugs, just wasting your time away with nothing to do) but Billie Joe has always written with more nuance. The fact he was writing a song about coming out as bisexual (Coming Clean) in the mid 90s, on a major label, is surprising to say the least.

I cannot pick a favourite song off this album. In fact I don't think I ever really listen to a single song: if I start this album, I finish it. That being said, I sang and played When I Come Around in a school concert so it has a special place in my heart. I was a very quiet, unconfident and shy kid, who certainly didn't want attention. Singing and playing an acoustic guitar in front of room full of my peers was terrifying - but I did it. This is the album that soundtracked my awkward teenage years (prior to my awkward adult years).

It is extremely weird listening to this on streaming though, and not having to fast forward my cassette to get to the hidden track of Tre singing All By Myself while Mike and Billie Joe giggle.

This isn't even my favourite Green Day album (once again, shout-out to Warning!) but I do think there's a good chance that when I finish this 1001 album project, this will be what I pick as my favourite overall musical experience because it means so much to me.

5/5

It was only a few albums ago I was saying Motörhead were fun but variety was not their strong suit. So this is basically that, but live.

I am still of the opinion that live albums are, in general, not really all that great - I love experiencing live music in person, but a recording of that is just not the same. Unless it's a band I already know I adore, in the comfort of my own home, I'm going to want to listen to a studio recording over a live album.

I gave Ace of Spades 2/5 but would have given it 2.5 if half stars were a thing. As this is that, but not quite as enjoyable for me, it's a genuine:

2/5

99% of the time, Mike Skinner has an objectively terrible singing voice. And he can't rap particularly well. And frequently the beats he uses aren't particularly interesting because they're pretty simple and repetitive. This is one of those bizarre things about music though: I don't care about any of that when it comes to The Streets. I can't justify it, I just get sort of dragged along with the narrative and enjoy the ride.

I am so, so curious to know if the average non-Brit listening to this in 2026 understands more than about 50% of the lyrics. The accent and slang combined make this almost impenetrably English. Like "introduce it up your jacksie" must be baffling!

I enjoyed all of it, even the bits that are objectively shite.

4/5

This wasn't what I expected, at all. After track one I wrote down "Clowns is a pretty song: the floating melody and light haunting vocals combine into a sweet but pretty insubstantial track" but in my head this album was going to be more upbeat and dancey than that, so I settled down for that to kick in.

I don't know why I had completely miscategorised Goldfrapp in my brain, but it was ALL sort of pretty but also sort of samey and sort of nothingy. It passed by pleasantly enough, but without leaving much impression on me at all. I knew and didn't dislike Happiness. Caravan Girl was at least a bit more up tempo for a tiny bit of variety.

My self-imposed rule of 'just being a bit dull can't get you a 1" means this is getting:

2/5

Despite loving Where It's At, Devils Haircut and The New Pollution at the time of release, I'd never listened to all of Odelay. It's such a weird mix of alt-rock, bluegrass licks, and hip-hop sampling - just endlessly funky with Beck's sort of disinterested, talky-singy thing pulling everything together.

I particularly loved Hotwax, Lord Only Knows, Minus and Sissyneck. Derelict comes across a bit Bjork to me - it reminded me of Army of Me in places. Novacane and High Five (Rock the Catskills) were both a bit Beastie Boys. Readymade felt a bit Eels thanks to the vocal delivery.

All the way through I was thinking this was a 4 or 5, but probably a 4, but then I realised I had no real reason not to give it a 5. I basically like every track (most of them I really loved), I wanted to listen to it again as soon as it finished, I intend to come back to it again. So I talked myself into it.

5/5

Before I started listening to this, I would have told you I liked Around The World by Daft Punk.

Fucking hell.

1/5

I have never particularly got in to Jeff Buckley. He had a beautiful voice, especially when he leant into the vibrato. I also think some of the songs are great - Grace in particular, is just a fabulous song, but I also really, really like Lover, You Should've Come Over (the organ certainly helps) and the rockier Eternal Life.

Hallelujah obviously overshadows almost everything else on this album. Despite not being the original, it is possibly the most well known version, and generally the one that gets the highest praise from critics. It's a beautiful, haunting, song. But I don't particularly like this version and never have (I like the Steven Page cover that he sang at the Canadian state funeral for politician Jack Layton best, with the Puddles Pity Party version in second place. Yes, I'm picking a 6 foot 8 inch tall clown over the tragic singer).

I enjoyed this album, but I didn't love it. I am wishing for half stars as it feels like a 3.5 to me. It was going to get a 3 until the last song (Forget Her) which bumped it up to just scrape a:

4/5

I do not care it has been raining for the last two days in Newport in July 1956, Father Norman O'Connor! At the point the introduction to this album felt like it would continue for eternity, I bailed on the "Complete" version and jumped to the "Original" version, because I was going to throw something if I had to listen to 2 hours 7 minutes of this. 1 hour 6 minutes (which Amazon claims in the original, despite Wikipedia telling me it was originally 43 minutes) felt more doable. And presumably cut out some of the priest ramblings. I don't like jazz. I do generally like big band/swing, so this at least gave it a chance.

I might have said this before, but I think I could possibly see me liking this sort of thing if I was sat in a club having a drink, watching the world go by. I don't like it when I'm doing the washing up. Jazz feels like music for a specific place to me.

This was just about ok. Clearly very talented musicians who play off each other very well, but it's just not something I want to listen to. And I'm saying that after listening to the short version!

2/5

The dreaded "open an album, see the length, feel your heart drop" issue. The problem with making an album that's 1 hour, 11 minutes, is that you REALLY have to enjoy the artist to not get fed up of it.

They don't half drone on, eh? It's pretty, but also repetitive. And in parts beautiful, but also soooooo long. I feel like I should like it, but 1 have no intention of ever listening to it again.

Just not for me...

2/5

Well, I put off listing to this for about a day and a half. I haven't previously liked Brian Eno that much and honestly, the thought of another Eno album filled me with dread. Gonna have to do it sometime though, so here goes....

I still don't particularly like Brian Eno's music. Listening to most of this felt interminable. They weren't even particularly long songs! But they felt like 3 or 4 times their actual length! Cindy Tells me was one of the only parts I liked, solely because it reminded me of the type of nonsense Joe Hawley releases (checking my review of the last Brian album I said "The vocals also reminded me a bit of Tally Hall but I can't put my finger on why" so it's at least consistent in what it reminds me of).

The Wikipedia entry for this album makes him sound like an enormously pretentious arsehole.

"Eno directed the musicians by using body language and dancing, as well as through verbal suggestion, to influence their playing and the sounds they would emit."

What a twat.

And yet... the record started to grow on me. At least enough that it avoids the indignity of a 1 star review.

2/5

Look, it's fun, but it also felt like listening to a single 36 minute song: variety was not its strong suit. Lemmy had a great rock voice though.

I saw They Might Be Giants in Nottingham, UK last year and as well as taking the piss out of the massive number of vape shops there, they seemed very impressed that a bust of Lemmy, containing his ashes, was somewhere in the venue with them. They sadly didn't play a cover.

I think I'm back wishing for half stars again, but as I don't have access to them, it's getting a 2 instead of a 2.5.

This just sort of passed me by. It was fine, but I have nothing really positive or negative to say about it. It exists. None of it grabbed me in any way.

I do love the cover though.

Should be a 2.5 really, but I'm rounding down.

2/5

Well. You wait for one for ages and then two come along at once. By which I mean a Randy Newman album where the opening track contains slurs but for seemingly benevolent reasons (or as least as benevolent as it's possible to be while throwing out the n-word multiple times - once again, Mr Newman is very much anti-slave trade). Yesterday's Generator album was Sail Away by Randy Newman, today it's Good Old Boys by Randy Newman.

I really liked the way the music on Guilty seemed as slurred as the drunken and high narrator must have been - it was a fun way to add to the story.

I like Randy Newman's (technically poor) voice as much as I did yesterday. I like the piano as much as I did yesterday. And the orchestral bits. But today's album features fewer songs I already knew (and loved) so it didn't hit as much for me. I appreciate the concept of loosely telling the stories of a certain place and a certain time, but I'd rather listen to Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear.

More a 3.5 for me, but I'm plumping for a 3.

3/5

P.S. I nearly got through two Randy Newman albums without mentioning Toy Story, but I cannot imagine the shock some parents must have listening to this after You Got A Friend In Me...

The whiplash change of emotions that happened to me within the first minute: "Oh, Randy Newman! This should be really interes... What the fuck! Did he just say a slur?!". Look, I know this is from 1971... and I know it's far from pro-slave trade... but ooooh gosh it made me uncomfortable. At least partially because I really liked the song despite it.

When Lonely At The Top followed I breathed a sigh of relief - I also *loved* that AND it was mercifully slur-free. Also Will Wood clearly listened to that song before he wrote Front Street.

The album continued at pace, nothing outstaying it's welcome, and then Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear came on. Oh the massive fucking wave of nostalgia! Story time:

When I was a kid, whenever we went on holiday a long drive from our house, my Dad would drive overnight, and on the way down (usually to Cornwall or Devon) we'd stop for breakfast in a Little Chef. If anyone reading this a) isn't middle-aged and b) British, Little Chef was a chain of restaurants that acted as service stations on motorways and A-roads in the UK. You could get food, but they also had a little shop that had sun cream and sweets and stuff.

One holiday, I suspect in the late 1980s, we picked up a compilation cassette tape from a Little Chef little shop. I have a weird, possibly false memory, that we got it free with stamps or points or something. The only song I remember from it: the Alan Price version of Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear! I loved it, absolutely adored it. I listened to it thousands of times. Finally hearing the Randy Newman original was fabulous and made me a little misty eyed.

I can't think of any artist with a voice that is as untraditionally, but in actuality, fabulous. It's just perfect for the tales he tells. And those tales are perfectly constructed 3(ish) minute pop songs. Seriously, all those artists who spend 7 minutes a song saying virtually nothing, could learn a lot from Randy Newman's ability to construct a story and a song.

I loved this Randy Newman album. It's a combination of things I have such a soft spot for: honky-tonk piano, brass instruments, songs that have a narrative, a guy with an interesting voice. This, for me, is clearly a

5/5

Sugergrass are fun. After the dirgey nonsense of My Bloody Valentine yesterday, this is like a breath of fresh air to me.

I don't think Supergrass ever really got the plaudits they deserved, as they got wrapped up as Britpop band and were dismissed as a result. And there's no denying that parts of this are reminiscent of Blur - parts of I'd Like To Know in particular make me think of Tracy Jacks. But Supergrass were their own beast and had far more ideas than the hundreds of carbon copy Britpop bands that flourished in the 90s.

Caught By The Fuzz is a brilliant track which although I know it from it's original release, is now inextricably linked in my brain with an equally brilliant film; Hot Fuzz. Mansize Rooster is also great, particularly the "ahhhhhhhhhh" backing vocal and the jaunty piano.

This whole album flies by in bouncy, confident and very enjoyable fashion, and then you remember this is their debut. This is such an impressive debut album. The slower, more gentle second half shows off their range and that they aren't just a trio of cheeky chappies.

Genuinely loved this album and was sad when it ended (even though I've heard it many a time before).

5/5