Reviews by littlestlassloves

On the last Adele album offered up by the generator (25), I said find it really hard to have an opinion about Adele's music beyond her incredible voice.

This album I liked a little more than the last, helped a lot by it including Rolling In The Deep which is a such a belt out loud sing-along it's hard not to love it. I still prefer the upbeat version of Adele though and start to struggle when everything gets a bit schmaltzy.

While saying that I enjoyed this album more, I don't think I liked it one whole star more, so this would be a 3.5... but I'm still plumping for 3 given the lack of half stars. I am reserving the right to re-evaluate this in future though (a think a few more listens has the possibility to change my score).

3/5

I have a tendency to open the day's album on Amazon Music and immediately check the length. Even for an artist I've heard of and like, I'll see an running time of over an hour and my heart will sink a little bit. This is 1 hour 6 minutes long and that's a lot of mystical Madonna.

That being said, I actually enjoyed this in more of a background music kinda way. I knew far more of it than I expected (given I never owned the album) but I guess releasing 6 singles from a 13 track album will have that effect.

I would definitely pick 80s Madonna over this, but that's my inherent uncool rather than any slight on the record.

3/5

I'm not going to lie, I was expecting to hate this.

Underground, weird as it is, I actually liked a lot. The second track, Shore Leave, was a bit too discordant for me, though the whispery delivery of some of the lyrics coupled with the instrumentation put me in mind of a classic era Disney cartoon bad guy. Think the snake from The Jungle Book.

16 Shells From A 30.6 had a lovely groove to it (though Tom sounded a bit like he'd been smoking 50 a day, or had a sore throat like sandpaper). Town With No Cheer cruelly introduced bagpipes, a decision that has no defense, but then balanced it with some lovely accordion work. I loved In The Neighborhood (ahhhh, brass instruments). I liked Swordfishtrombone despite (or maybe because of) it having more Disney villain vibes. Down, Down, Down was extreme toe-tapping time. Gin Soaked Boy was no Gin Soaked Boy by Divine Comedy, but was still enjoyable.

As to the instrumentals - the first was circusy but dark, second more accordion (lovely), last atmospheric but a bit of a letdown for the last track on the album.

I feared after the horror of Captain Beefheart earlier this week, I would despise this too, but this is very solid - mostly the right side of weird, rhythmic, loads of interesting instrumentation. It made me want to listen to more Tom Waits and that must be a good sign.

3.5 if I had half stars, but as I don't:

3/5

I knew Spellbound which I've never held much opinion on - it's fine - but nothing else on this album. Now I've heard everything else, I think "it's fine" might be my position on the whole album. Post-punk has never been my thing.

2/5

Track 1 and every member of the band seems to be playing a different song at the same time. Track 2 fixed that by eliminating everything except the vocals and the crackle of vinyl but then we reverted back to type on Track 3 (which also featured a noise that sounded like a squealing pig).

Did they ever try and play these songs a second time? Is this jazz but worse? The whole album sounds like something The Mighty Boosh might have written as a musical act for a 30 second bit in a longer sketch. But for what felt like forever.

A little way through Hair Pie: Bake 1 and I realised what this really reminded me of: this is the noise that happens when you let a load of toddlers have access to a box of musical instruments and make no attempt to manage the cacophony of sound.

My two main thoughts on finishing this album:

1) thank fuck that's over.
2) so that's on the list but you had no room for one of the 23 They Might Be Giants studio albums? What the fuck, Rob Dimery?!

1/5 (but I still hate that Liars album more)

Second Dylan album the generator has served up, and I assume one of the few (only?) that spawned two cover albums (Mary Lee's Corvette and Ryan Adams*).

I still dislike Dylan's vocal delivery although possibly a bit less so on this album than the previous one (maybe I'm accidentally conducting exposure therapy). I still dislike his harmonica playing.

Meet Me In The Morning had a nice groove I liked. I was not really into much else.

2/5

* I had a quick skip through and of all the versions I think I'd pick Mary Lee's Corvette.

The guitar work is lovely but everything felt a bit samey over the length of a full album. I really liked Do You Hear Me (including the little voice crack) Alice's Wonderland and Angie.

It was interesting that, presumably as it was recorded for £100 in someone's house, you could occasionally hear breathing during the instrumentals. Everything is often so polished and produced now, it can be easy to forget a human was responsible.

I think this would have been best experienced sat cross-legged in a field at a folk festival rather than on my commute.

3/5

Well this is a whiplash change of direction from yesterday's Talking Heads album.

Full disclaimer, I bought this when it was first released but probably haven't heard it in its entirety in 20 years. I remembered very little except the famous tracks.

My Name Is might be the most unhinged opening track ever, but it very much sets the scene. Eminem makes me slightly uncomfortable, which frankly I suspect he'd enjoy enormously. And he's incredibly good at what he does plus the beats are great.

When it comes to the lyrics, they're frequently clever but often *mean*. Funny but *problematic*. I have never entirely understood how much of Slim Shady is a joke and how much is true for him. And I'm also not sure how much that matters, given that regardless of how seriously he takes what he says, some of his listeners really do?

Judging it purely off the record, I liked "The Marshall Mathers LP" better in the early 2000s (but again, I've not heard it for a long time) and I like this less than I did when it was released. I'm far too much of a pearl-clutching, middle aged middle class woman.

A surprising 2/5.

I feel like I should really absolutely love Talking Heads - I do really like the music and I enjoy the lyrics, I'm just never fully sold on the vocal delivery. And I get that David Byrne's singing is really their USP so replacing that would really be taking away what makes Talking Heads, Talking Heads. It's definitely a "me" problem.

That being said, their cover of Take Me To The River is obviously fabulous and I enjoyed everything else, just not as much as I wish I did.

3/5

The second Joni Mitchell album the generator has handed out and I don't think my opinion is much different from the first: she has a lovely voice but I'm not sure she's really for me.

Joni Mitchell is very different to what I thought she was as someone who only really remembers Big Yellow Taxi - parts of this reminded me of Fiona Apple (The Jungle Line in particular) and its far weirder that I ever expected. This album passed the time while I made a lamb curry but I can't imagine I'll listen to it again.

2/5

I love Harry Nilsson and regularly listen to this album, so the moment I saw this pop up I knew it's rating.

As a teenager in the 90s I was massively into Reservoir Dogs - many things attracted me to it (not just Tim Roth, sigh...) but the soundtrack was a major part. Every time I watched it, I fully watched the credits so I could listen to the weird man sing "She put the lime in the coconut, she drank 'em both up". That was my introduction to Harry Nilsson.

Gotta Get Up is one of my favourite songs and it was used to excellent effect in the first season of the Natasha Lyonne show Russian Doll with is worth a watch. His cover of Without You is another fabulous song, made far more famous for people of my age by Mariah Carey (who apparently loved his version of the song).

I love Nilsson's lyrics (he tells stories), I love his voice (especially his falsetto, which is just dreamy), I love the instrumentation (lots of brass and piano is the way to my heart).

My only down point to this album is that Jump Into The Fire is too long - I am not a jam track lover- but it's not a big enough negative to change the fact, this is one of my favourite albums, even though doesn't contain my favourite Nilsson songs (One and 1941).

5/5

This was a bit of a mix. Bits I thought were completely pointless and uninteresting (sorry all you 10-minute meandering guitar solo fans out there). Bits I really liked (Can You Get To That, Super Stupid*). Bits were, and I cannot stress this enough, really fucking weird.

I listened to this while trying to tame the tomato plants taking over the garden and I was balanced on the edge of the raised borders trying to construct a branch and string contraption when the wet fart noises started and I was so surprised I nearly wobbled into the courgette plants.

Wikipedia highlight: "Guitarist Tawl Ross reportedly had a traumatic drug experience after getting into an "acid eating contest, then snorting some raw speed, before completely flipping out", and did not perform with the group again".

That is absolutely what parts of this album feel like.

I want 2.5 but 2/5 will have to do.

* After finding out Audioslave covered Super Stupid, I had a listen after this and it's fantastic.

Yesterday's album was from Van Halen and I said that really wasn't my kind of thing, so given this shares a number of similarities, I was convinced it was never getting a very high score from me. However it turns out I like Ozzy as a vocalist way more - that Van Halen album was almost cartoonish as a result of the vocal but Ozzy sounds genuine and that's far more engaging. The guitar solos on this record also feel less like someone just showing off how good they are - they fit the groove of the song far better for me.

Changes is a fantastic song that I already knew (though Bowie takes gold in the "Best Song Called Changes" Olympics). I really liked the main riff in Supernaut. By Snowblind I'd realised I did really like this (love the strings).

Despite the fact I would have felt like I was committing some sort of crime the day after Ozzy's death, I was very much prepared not to like this and give a low score as a result. But nope, I like it a lot.

4/5

Full disclosure: this type of thing, in general, just isn't for me. That sort of 70s rock vocal delivery and twiddly 2 minute guitar solos just doesn't float my boat. If it did however, I can see that this is a great example.

The Kinks cover was surprisingly faithful to the original, just a lot more waily. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love made me want to listen to Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub by Apollo 440.

I liked I'm The One for starting off quite punk then suddenly turning into Queen. I also quite liked Jamie's Crying, but throughout the whole album I felt like I should really be watching an episode of Supernatural.

Even though it's not my kinda thing, I would say it's an accomplished debut.

2/5

I enjoyed the jazzy funkiness of this record, but reading the lyrics did make me laugh a couple of times. Particularly "Go get yourself some toilet paper 'cause your lyrics is butt". Also a round of applause for getting "a smidgeon" in, and extra cheers for rhyming it with "the pigeon".

This already felt like a good time and then Busta Rhymes turned up right at the end, like the cherry on the cake.

3/5

This was a huge surprise.

The generator previously gave me Djam Leelii by Senegalese artists Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, and I struggled with the repetitive licks, finding it pretty annoying by the end. But Songhoy Blues doing similar short repetitive musical phrases I didn't mind it at all. In fact, I was really tapping my foot. It felt like something that was traditional from Mali but very modern at the same time.

I had a good 10 minutes trying to find a lyric translation for the full album, sadly coming up empty-handed. I wish I knew what the songs specifically meant, rather than just knowing the general theme. The general theme is heartbreakingly sad though; fleeing your country because the people ruling it believe playing music is a sin.

I really, really enjoyed this album, more so than I ever could have expected (though I would say the first half is stronger than the second, particularly the first two tracks).

I want a half star again, but in it's absence:

4/5

What I thought was the first track (there was a slight issue were I clicked on the title track instead of the album and then got extremely confused when the second track on the record was "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen) pleasantly surprised me - the musical parts of the song reminded me of Harry Nilsson, Divine Comedy or Badly Drawn Boy and I loved it. I also liked the lyrics. What I was really struggling with was his voice.

After the mistake was realised and I played the actual first song, that continued. I don't like his lyrical delivery at all, but I do mostly like everything else. I do really struggle to get into an artist, no matter how talented in other ways, if I don't enjoy the singer's voice. Conversely, for the artists I do love, it's a voice that always cemented my love of them (even in some notable cases, where it's band with a beautiful voiced backing singer).

I had to try very hard not to laugh at his pronunciation of Chipping Sodbury.

I think I'd give the musicanship a 4/5 (I did really like the songs) but his voice 1/5, so:

3/5

I'm sorry Neil Young, what sort of lyric is:
"Welfare mothers make better lovers
While they're washin' you can hear this sound now
Welfare mothers make better lovers
Di-vor-ceeeeeeeee"
???

And while we're on the topic of lyrics:
"I'm gonna ride my llama
From Peru to Texarkana
I wanna ride him good"
???

This is my second Neil Young album since starting the project, and I found this album less dull than the last one (I think I've moved on to "questionable" now), but I still hate his voice.

2/5

I remember all the singles from my teenage years, and I would argue that they are the highlights from this album, especially Doo Wap (That Thing) which I've always really liked.

I could have done without the skits (which seems to be a common theme with all the hip hop albums I've heard that include them) but I get that they're world building. I'd just rather a tighter running time than listen to a guy pretending to be a school teacher.

The actual music I don't have a lot to say about, but I like it.

3/5

My experience with Radiohead is almost entirely limited to their mid 90s output (I love Just), so I had never heard this before.

In 15 Step Thom sounds like he's singing while trying not to sneeze but I really like the drum beat. The band also appear to be channeling their inner Pink Floyd with the shouting children.

By Bodysnatchers I'm fighting the urge to yell enunciate. I quite enjoyed the start, but it's a bit too much of a jam track by the end for me. Nude seemed to start with some interesting (and creepy) reversed audio but otherwise mostly passed me by.

I again really liked the beat on Weird Fishes/Arpeggi. Part of the backing vocals reminded me of Mike Mills from REM for some reason, which is definitely a plus point.

All I Need's low booming noise throughout was very appealing, particularly through headphones, plus Thom has dialled down the muttering. Very chill but feels like it needs to explode and never does.

Faust App's strings are all Beatles loveliness. Reckoner I found a bit dull. House of Cards I quite liked, but once again Thom's delivery of the vocals grated on me. Jigsaw Falling Into Place was more mumbling but the music itself was nice enough. I liked the piano on Videotape but nothing much happened despite a long build up suggesting it might (again I liked the percussion a lot).

I can't say I always liked it, but it was mostly interesting. Should really be a 2.5, but:

3/5