Reviews by littlestlassloves

Such a prog rock opening riff! It was a surprising start, but didn't last long. The sound was more like classic rock for track 2. Then track 3 sounded completely different again. The genre shifting in this album is dramatic.

I really liked Love Interruption and I knew and loved I'm Shakin already. I do like Jack White, and I enjoyed this album quite a lot, but for some reason it's not something I can see me wanting to regularly listen to.

3/5

I've never listened to PJ Harvey, despite thinking I'd probably kinda like her. And it turns out, I do in fact kinda like her. It wasn't the most promising of starts, as I didn't really like Oh My Lover or O Stella but I really liked Dress, Victory (I liked the whole slide guitar thing that was happening) and Sheela-na-gig.

I don't think this reaches the heady heights of a 4, but if I had half marks this would definitely be getting 3.5.

3/5

70s twiddly instruments and wavery flat vocal nonsense. Parade (A Banda) is bonkers. Then she absolutely murdered one of my favourite Lovin Spoonful songs with her annoying child's accompaniment and my dislike crossed over into hatred.

At least it's short.

1/5

Well that was odd. I didn't totally hate it, but also wouldn't ever really want to sit down and listen to it again.

Hearing Genius Of Love was a weird experience, given all the much more famous songs that sampled it (Fantasy by Mariah Carey being the most obvious, but it's been pulled apart and used in so many songs).

Everything is pretty repetitive and most feels too long despite being 4-6 minute songs as a result. It is quite funky in places (the beats used are often pretty fun). But I'm happy sticking at my one full listen, one skip through to write the review.

It's not getting the lowest score because I don't find it that bad, but it's not far off...

2/5

He really did have a beautiful voice. It's dreamy. And all of his songs sound like a soundtrack to a 50s Hollywood movie, regardless of whether they were actually ever in a film.

But ultimately this just made me feel a bit sleepy. I think it's another example of an album that needs a certain time of year to really be enjoyed. This is clearly a snuggled in a blanket, watching the rain patter on the window, in the dark of a late autumn evening kinda record. It's currently the summer and in the midst of of one of the hottest, least rainy summers I have ever experienced. It doesn't fit.

2/5

Look, Don't You Want Me is a brilliant song and almost everything else on the record pales into insignificance next to it. But here are some thoughts.

I appreciate the name checking of the members if The Ramones on one of the least Ramonesy sounding songs ever made. Not that it was very Norman Wisdomy either. The Things That Dreams Are Made Of is extremely repetitive and very synthy.

Open Your Heart at one point makes a noise like an alien laser beam which is random. Sound of the Crowd sounds a bit like The Model by Kraftwerk in places. Darkness is pretty forgettable.

Do Or Die is a bit ska but with a billion synths - I quite liked it. The Get Carter sort-of cover was pointless. I Am The Law I liked. Seconds I didn't (more spacey synths though).

Love Action is a good song and choice for a single, as it's undeniably catchy. On any other 80s synth-pop album it might be the standout song. But the final track is clearly the best song here.

Overall a 2.5, but I'm rounding down.

2/5

Black Dog is just a brilliant cathartic sing along song. Even I, a woman limited patience for guitar noodling, can get behind that solo.

I actually really enjoyed all of this though. Which was a bit of a surprise as I have been a little luke warm on the two previous Led Zeppelin albums that have come up. Whether it was the sunny weather, or this just really is the best Led Zeppelin album I don't know, but this deserves a:

4/5

I've not had a stellar track record with Steely Dan so far during this project, so lets see what happens when there's only one of them. A stray thoughts review:

- It certainly sounds like a pop album made at the beginning of the 80's, that's for sure.
- He sounds like he has a heavy head cold.
- The first song being nearly 6 minutes did not please me.
- This was nominated for seven Grammys?! Bloody hell.
- I bet my Mum likes this.
- Half way through Maxine I realised I'd stop listening because I was thinking about the Clacton by-election and how well Count Binface was going to do.
- I really don't like the nasally singing.
- Is that a cowbell during New Frontier? It sounds a bit like a dripping tap in my right ear.
- "She loves to limbo, that much is clear" - amazing lyric.
- The Nightfly - more cowbell!
- The Goodbye Look sounds like elevator music at the beginning and reminded me of the Four Rooms main theme tune by Combustible Edison.

It's scraping a 2/5

I'm not sure how I felt about that. Very atmospheric but also a bit annoying at times. A bit Everything But The Girl at times, but nowhere near as objectionable (to me). The floatiness made it feel a bit unsubstantial.

Just not my kinda thing.

2/5

This album outstayed it's welcome for me (and I didn't even listen to the 2 hour 35 minute deluxe version the generator linked to!). Richard Ashcroft's voice over a full 75 minutes was a bit much, and I think the songs were a bit inconsistent. Although that might have something to do with how many singles were released and how ubiquitous those singles were.

Bittersweet Symphony is the obvious, and massively successful, one of those singles. It's a great song*. Probably my favourite song off the album, though I do also like The Drugs Don't Work a lot.

Another middling mark from me:

3/5

* Anyone reading this who hasn't seen Ren's YouTube live version of Bittersweet Symphony with his own lyrics, you should watch it. He's an amazing story teller.

Sone absolute classic 2000s pop songs on this album, and I do think it has every right to be on the 1001 album list. Unfortunately it just isn't really my thing, so while I'd never turn it off if it appeared on shuffle, it's getting a very middling score from me.

3/5

I love the title track but for the most part, think it really overshadows everything that follows. There are hints of Sgt Pepper in this album which means I'm predisposed to enjoy it at least a little bit- Do You Remember Walter? is a good example of that.

Picture Book is a great song, and Green Day must also agree as they blatantly ripped off the main riff for Warning (they covered So Tired Of Waiting for You as a B Side to Basketcase in 1994 so are clearly fans).

I like the off kilter piano in Sitting By The Riverside, and the harpsichord in Village Green.

I found my attention wandering a bit, although that might have been the fault of me listening to the version of the album on Amazon Music. That has different versions of some tracks but also includes Days (which is one of the best Kinks songs, but it's also a non-album track so shouldn't really count towards the score).

This feels like a 3.5 for me. It would be a 4 with Days, but alas...

3/5

The production on this album is SO late 90s/early 2000s but my word David Gray has a beautiful voice. Sometimes the album reminds me of Gomez, just if they were using a shitty drum machine instead of having Olly Peacock sort out proper percussion (Silver Lining is particularly guilty of this).

It is impossible to explain to people who weren't in the UK, and at least in their teens at the time this came out, just how ubiquitous the five singles from this album were. Particularly Babylon, which as of January 2026, has gone two times platinum (600,000 sales). It still gets played. I suspect it always will.

All of which can really count against it in a whole "familiarity breeds contempt" kinda way. I never heard the album at the time, so I tried to focus my listening on the album tracks. Which I did enjoy for the most part. I carried on frequently not liking the choices made in instrumentation but enjoying his voice. All of which results in a fairly middle of the road score.

I suddenly really want to watch some Grey's Anatomy...

3/5

I often get really annoyed by the (seemingly mostly) Americans complaining about a British bias on the 1001 Albums list written by a British author for a British market, given how so much media is US centric.... and then the generator links to a Bristolian 5 hour 14 minute drum and bass album from the 90s and I think "yep, fair enough".

1/5

One of those albums where it immediately became apparent that, genre-wide, this wasn't going to be my kinda thing, so I settled in for 30 odd minutes of perfectly pleasant background noise...

"While Mama used to pray my crops would fail"

What? Some seriously questionable parenting there...

I have settled into a sort of pattern with a lot of these country and bluegrass albums, which is imagining they are the soundtrack to a Coen Brothers film. In that context, this would be pretty darn good. However, this sort of croony slide guitar country stuff is never going to be something I would want to put on when I want to listen to some music.

I am going to be kind and say 2 because I liked Mixed Up Mess Of A Heart, but this is really a 1.5 for me.

2/5

I really don't get U2. I will say that I like Sunday Bloody Sunday, but I am completely meh about everything else. It's just ok.

2/5

On paper I should love this album, and there are certainly parts I thought were alright, but I really didn't like the majority of it.

A lot of that was the vocals. I didn't like the screamy, high-pitched warbling on most of the tracks. It felt like like an audio assault.

Not bad enough for the lowest mark thought, so:

2/5

I appreciate that the cover art really sets out this album's sound before you've heard a note. It definitely sounds exactly how it looks. Mind you, calling your album Electric Music For The Mind And Body also helps with that.

I was not high enough to enjoy this album. I'm not sure it's actually possible for me to be high enough to enjoy this album to be fair. I don't get the appeal of this genre at all. And Section 43 caused me to involuntarily mutter "what the fuck is this shit?" on my walk to work so it's an inevitable:

1/5

Sounds like Yes or Marillion or something, just shorter and from 2011 surprisingly. It was alright but simultaneously had too traditionally proggy breakdowns for me and didn't have a distorted garage rock growl to balance it out. I wasn't a fan of the vocals until he put some force behind them on a track like Is And Is And Is - more of that would have better for me. He did sound a bit like Ian Ball from Gomez in places but as he's my third favourite lead vocalist from the three in the band, that's not saying a lot.

Just fine (should be a 2.5 though)

2/5

I enjoyed this far, far, far more than I expected. I am always going to be Beatles over Stones, but I enjoyed this on a sunny summer morning. Mick Jagger's voice, which these days feels like a parody of itself, is perfectly acceptable on this record and I enjoyed the honky-tonk of the whole thing.

Questionable lyrics aside ("my breasts, they will always be open"), I had a good time.

Really a 3.5, but I am in a good mood, so

4/5