Reviews by littlestlassloves

Another stray thoughts review:

- this needed two listens as I had no idea what I thought about it after the first listen
- during (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing at one point the bass sounded like Uptown Funk and I spent ages trying to work out why
- Let's All Make A Bomb has a bit in it that sounds like they rounded up a load of Premier League refs and got them to whistle along
- everything is too repetitive and too long (you could fix the latter by fixing the former)
- The Height Of The Fighting is bloody weird: HEAT! WAR! SWEAT! LAW!
- the bleepy bloopy synths often sound like they're playing a different song to the one everyone else is playing
- the bass player is *great*
- I really like the vocals. I cannot in any way justify that statement
- I actually liked We're Going To Live For A Very Long Time a lot until the point they repeated the title 1 billion tomes during the fade out.

This is a 2.5 for me. I objectively think I should probably hate it, but I don't. I'm rounding down to 2, but I really did consider rounding up instead.

2/5

Listening to this was such a slog. I listened to the first 5 tracks, then jumped ship and had to pick up the rest the next day.

I just don't get the attraction in this type of music, especially outside of a club setting. It feels utterly bizarre to me that, even if this type of thing is what you're into, you'd put this record on while doing the ironing.

For my tastes, this had no redeeming features at all.

1/5

This is, as far as I'm concerned, a perfect album. It hits that beautiful combination of being an album I'm very nostalgic about, as both my parents loved it and played it a lot when I was young, and being an album that's also genuinely great.

I love that the voices meld beautifully and that different songs have different genders taking the lead vocals so there's a real variety in sounds. I like the simplicity of Songbird recorded in an empty echoy room. I adore Go Your Own Way which was a particular parental favourite. I love that The Chain turns into the theme tune to the BBC's coverage of Formula One for most of my life, thus making me think it's the weekend.

This album absolutely deserves it's spot in the global rankings vying for the topspot with The Beatles.

5/5

I only knew The Rain (which I don't like) going into this. I found the whole thing really slow, boring.and repetitive. Not even the appearance of Busta, a man whose voice genuinely makes me smile, saved this. I didn't hate it, but have no desire to ever listen to it again.

Would get a 1.5 but I can't justify a 1 so it's getting a default 2.

2/5

Crosstown Traffic is a bonafide classic. As is Voodoo Child. As is his version of All Along The Watchtower.

I am on record as being unmoved by long periods of guitar noodling... But Hendrix's guitar noodling is just better. Funky and soulful and just perfect for the track it's on. And I find it so interesting he was critical of his own singing voice, because it's perfect for these songs.

However, as a record this is too long to sustain my interest over the full album, and for every great song, there's a forgettable one, meaning this can't get more than:

3/5

One of those occasions where I was incredibly aware of the artist name, but completely oblivious to the music (at least on this album), and I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't Candy Says, which is sort of 50s high school slow dance.

This was a perfectly fine album to have as background music, but only made me properly pay attention to it twice. Pale Blue Eyes was the first occasion, when the lyrics made my brain go "Wait! Whose wife was Lou Reed shagging?!".

The second occasion was The Murder Mystery, which was beautifully weird and clearly where The Strokes got all those "just ripping off The Velvet Underground" comments from. Were it not so long, I would say it's my favourite song on the record.

A hard one to mark, but I'm settling on

3/5

Joan really likes a bit of vibrato doesn't she? Such a wibbly wobbly voice!

Lots of traditional folk songs over (in most cases) a single guitar accompaniment, makes for not the most exciting or dynamic album. I love House of the Rising Sun, so I should have at least loved that, but it was just ok. Girl (Man) of Constant Sorrow is another track I should have adored from the bonus songs, thanks to an abiding love of the Oh Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack. It was fine.

It may be a case of wrong album, wrong day (full of cold and little sleep really required something shouty I think) but this has been filed into the "it's alright I guess" category in my head. That would be a 2.5, but it's forced into being a 2.

2/5

During the pandemic, I tried to learn all the words to "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)". I utterly failed but in a world where we'd all lost all semblance of control, it helped me me feel like I still had a tiny bit left. All of which means, I heard this album a lot.

Michael Stipe very much fits into the category of "I could listen to him sing the phone book and still have a wonderful time" - I love his voice. And Mike Mills is a fabulous backing vocalist (and lead vocalist on the rare occasion that happens). Despite them having extremely different voices, they combine beautifully.

The whole band just fit together so well. And my goodness, they wrote catchy songs! I spent all day with "Your finest hour!" ringing in my head.

I love this album, and though it's not my favourite R.E.M. record, it was never going to get less than:

5/5

I listened to this while walking the hour to work and so, while I'd noted the version of this album was the extended one, I'd not made any attempt to work out where I was supposed to stop listening to get the normal experience. As a result, Noddy appearing to do an ad read was really very surprising. That might be the oddest thing I've ever heard on a deluxe album.

I really don't have that much to say about the rest of the record. I enjoyed it, in a toe tapping way, but I have subsequently remembered none of it other than the song I already knew. The very definition of "alright".

3/5

I had clearly not had enough lsd before listening to this. Piece Of My Heart is great, everything else is fine I guess. The added crowd noise is a bit odd? Why would you bother?

Just not for me, but I'm not angry about it, so

2/5

I went into this really wanting to like it due to a continuing love of Whole Of The Moon (which isn't on this album, and therefore doesn't make it onto the 1001 album list). However...

...the fiddle on We Will Not Be Lovers might be the single instrument that has caused me the most annoyance in the 212 albums I have heard so far. It started off mildly irritating, but by the time it had got to the 7th minute of doing the same thing, I was just angry. Well angry and thinking how bored the violinist must be playing this live.

I liked World Party a lot. And I enjoyed the Van Morrison cover.

The Waterboys apparently really like an extremely long fade out, as it appears on multiple tracks and just makes the album longer than it needs to be.

Overall, there were parts of this I liked, parts I was pretty indifferent to, and a violin I hated with a firey passion. I think in a half star world this would get a 2.5, but it's not a 2, so a 3 is where I'm sticking.

3/5

So far there's been a distinct lack of "heavy" music on this list, so I was looking forward to this.

I was never particularly into Metallica at school, but I was into music and would hang out in the music room at lunch, and I'm not sure I ever sat in that room without hearing a teenage boy play the picking part of One on an acoustic guitar. It's a genuinely fantastic song - I am admittedly a sucker for songs that are all quiet LOUD quiet LOUD, but it's just a great song regardless. Sometimes familiarity means you like singles better than album tracks, but I would say that in the case of this album, One is head and shoulders the best track here. That's not to say the rest of the album is a disappointment, One is just too good.

It was really interesting reading about the way this was recorded and poor Jason Newstead's bass getting completed obliterated in the mix. I know very little about the internal politics of Metallica, but it doesn't feel like the most collegiate band to be a part of.

I enjoyed this a lot helped enormously by the fact I like James Hetfield's voice a lot. It's the perfect metal voice for me.

4/5

Another band my Dad liked and which got played a lot in the house when I was a kid... and which I don't understand the appeal of.

The Model is alright (and short!) but otherwise this isn't for me. I did enjoy that the German accent made "Metropolis" sound like "call the police" every time they sang it.

Bleepy bloopy background music.

2/5

They get a 5/5 for the band name. But not for anything else.

Its a toss up between whose voice I dislike more: Gram Parsons on lead or Chris Hillman on backing vocals. The combination on the first couple of tracks was a bit like nails on a chalkboard to me. I found it less annoying as the album went on, but I'd never say I really enjoyed it.

The actual music is fine, if a bit dull to my ears.

5/5 for Chris Hillman's suit (love the blue), 2/5 for the record.

2/5

I don't have much to say about this album, other than that I really, really like it. It's just a very stylish, fun album to listen to. Love the vocals, love the brass, really enjoy the whole feel of it.

It feels weird giving such a high mark without a long explanation as to why I reached that conclusion, but it's just my kinda thing.

5/5

ELO: a band my Mum loves so much, she regularly goes to see an ELO tribute band.

I'm certainly not going to go those extremes but I did enjoy this. There are some interesting instrumental choices, with really different changes of direction at random points in songs. I love the multilayer vocals.and the piano.

The strings/guitar on Night In The City sound almost exactly like the Orchestra version of Pinball Wizard at one part, which I found a bit distracting (parts of Standing In The Rain also reminded me of Tommy). It's too long (though I'm sure that if I were an ELO fan I'd be wishing it was triple album).

I'm a fan of a lot of weird, goofy, theatrical artists (TMBG, Barenaked Ladies, Will Wood, Bear Ghost) and I'd be genuinely amazed if they weren't all big ELO fans. I was wavering between a 3 and a 4 throughout this listen, but I'm settling on a 3 as I don't like the more plodding ballardy tracks anywhere near as much as the upbeat ones. It was so close though.

3/5

I so really want to love Nick Drake.

I like the instrumentation, I like the lyrics, I like the way this was recorded where you can occasionally hear the squeak of fingers on guitar strings, I like the whole feel of the record. I am just still not sold on his voice - it's just so breathy.

On my review of Bryter Later I said his voice felt insubstantial and I'm not sure my opinion has changed much. I do really like everything else though. I particularly enjoyed the song Know as something about that riff really appealed to me (it reminded me of Gomez I think).

Last album I said it would have been 3.5 with half marks, but settled on 3. I'm going to say 3.5 this time too but as I like this album marginally more, I'm going to round up. So I'm averaging out to 3.5...

4/5

I imagine that if you like jazz, this is probably top tier jazz - it is Miles Davis afterall - but it you're me, you see this pop up and think "Oh goodie.... more jazz for me to not get".

The beginning made me think of the soundtrack to an Oceans 11/12/13/8 film, but where the composer was going through a particularly difficult life event at the time of creation and had channeled that into his art. Sort of cool, but deranged.

I obviously object to a 27 minute jazz song, even one that changes as often as Bitches Brew, because jazz already makes me feel slightly anxious and listening to music shouldn't feel like an endurance test.

Overall 1 hour and 45 minutes of experimental rock jazz is far too much for me in one go, which is a shame because I did enjoy bits of this. This is probably the closest I've got to actually properly enjoying jazz next to Dave Brubeck. It would get a 2.5, but it's better than a 2, so:

3/5

Starting off a record with a clip of Worf from Star Trek should really appeal to me, as I am a nerd. But my goodness that opening track was annoying. And then it was followed up with 9 minutes of "Withnail and I" plus an incessant beat.

By about a quarter of the way through, I was considering allowing myself a DNF, but the completest in me decided to stick it out. Suffice to say, I suspect being completely off your tits on amphetamines in a field is probably the optimum way to experience this album. I however, was completely sober making leek and potato soup.

By the time the didgeridoo appeared I had well and truly had enough.

This album was basically my idea of hell.

1/5

You know when you expect you'll love something, and then its just fine? Yeah, that.

The voices are obviously incredible - just the most emotive, gravely, beautiful voices. That version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine is definitely not for me though. And I could definitely do without the crying child in Runaway Child, Running Wild.

I guess I like my soul less psychedelic.

Should be a 2.5 but I think I'm going to round down.

2/5