Reviews by littlestlassloves

My Dad was big Led Zeppelin fan which meant I heard a lot of Robert Plant shouty-singing during my youth... however none of it actually stuck. I know he had Physical Graffiti but I can't remember that much about this at all (Kashmir excluded). This was sort of like a first listen.

At first I liked the bones of the songs, but could have definitely lived without the extended jamming at the end. However I did really like In My Time Of Dying despite it being so long, and then I loved Houses Of The Holy (I mean, funky and the occasional use of a cowbell!), so I turned the corner after the first two tracks. I have to admit my attention did wander over the length of the album though, despite how varied it is.

I like the vocals although it is quite a lot over a double album (he's very screechy), the guitar playing is obviously incredible, the drumming great: it's a very accomplished album.

Ultimately, although I enjoyed it, it's just not entirely my thing.

This is more a 3.5 for me to be honest but 4 seemed too high for my personal tastes, so

3/5

I did not expect to like this one little bit: the first thing I did was audibly groan at it being 73 minutes long.

But I listened to it while getting ready in the morning and it was a great start to the day. Most enthusiastic brushing of my teeth in as long as I can remember. This project has definitely cemented my suspicion that I will, at minimum, passively appreciate brass in essentially any genre. But this went past that into dancing in the house.

For some reason the too much repetition that I can often find annoying was really charming on this, call and response style. I also enjoyed No Shame's funky organ solo.

It is too long, and I am not sure whether I will listen to it again as I suspect repeat listens will start to highlight the things I normally object to, but I did really enjoy it today.

3/5 (but was close to a 4)

That was absolutely abysmal. I might hate it more than that Liars album. The lyrics to Albatross
including the phrase "You are unbearable" was far too on the nose.

1/5

This lady seems nice enough, but she doesn't appear to understand the limits of her vocal range at all. Her low notes are fairly regularly flat and sound like they take far too much effort meaning they are difficult to listen to. Her high notes aren't much better.

I'm not completely against artists who objectively can't sing (Hello John Darnielle!) but there has to be something else to grab you. This sounds like a worse version of a ton of the folk my parents listened to when I was a kid. And every song blended into each other after a while, except during the unpleasantly screeching feedback parts.

Given that I found this really hard to get through, it's getting a:

1/5

Look, I'm not going to claim this is in anyway groundbreaking or innovative. And it definitely runs out of steam before the end. But I have a simple brain that hears the many, many hooks and gets them firmly embedded in there and so ends up humming Boys Better all day.

If this record managed to maintain the same level throughout, it'd be on for a 4, but it really tails off, so:

3/5

I don't really understand why this made the list. It's perfectly serviceable 80s fodder, but I can't help but think loads of other people did it better.

Also Love the Fever was bizarre.

2/5

Happy Mondays are one of those bands that I think I should find annoying, but somehow in practice I find quite charming in a completely chaotic way. This album really barreled along at quiet the pace, from the opening beats of Kinky Afro (a song I have always liked) all the way through to Harmony.

I can only assume the lyrics were completely baffling if you aren't British though.

3/5

So you really can't listen to this sat in your house, purely attempting to listen to this. The repetition will drive you stark staring bonkers. However at the two opposite ends of the spectrum (tipsy and dancing in a field OR while getting a ton of ironing and washing up done) this works great.

There are certain songs that I find it impossible to divorce from the music videos, and "Praise You", directed by Spike Jonze and Roman Coppola, is one of the primary examples. The weird dudes, shot on grainy footage, really badly dancing their hearts out, was such a unique video it stood out so much at the time.

My favourite track is probably Gangster Trippin but honestly I kinda like everything. It's not an album I'd actively want to put on and listen to, but I wouldn't ever turn a track off if it appeared on shuffle. I do think as a whole album, it's just too long, but its so, so hooky.

I think this is actually a 3.5, but given this appeared on the weekend of Tramlines festival and I spent all evening dancing to live music at the Tramlines Fringe while Fat Boy Slim himself played the main event, it set the right mood and so I'm rounding up:

4/5

I quite enjoyed this. I only vaguely knew a couple of the singles off this album so it was a new experience really. Parts of it remind me of Badly Drawn Boy, parts Elbow, parts Gomez, parts Radiohead and parts Foo Fighters (in the case of Catch The Sun, which felt a bit out of place).

My mind was completely blown by the knowledge they were responsible for Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use) before they became Doves though. What a classic early 90s dance track that was! And extremely different to their work as Doves. I had no idea!

I don't think this set my world alight, partially I think because it reminded me of so many other people, but I did enjoy listening to it. So it was get a 3.5 in a half mark scoring system but as it is:

3/5

Reading some of the other reviews of this album, I never really considered that Ash might sound like Weezer, but that's actually a good point. And I generally like Weezer a lot, so you can see where this review is going.

This debut album, written and recorded when the band were teenagers, is so much fun. I really cannot get over the idea that Tim Wheeler was 16 when he wrote Girl From Mars, which is such a joyous piece of pop punky rock.

I have forever loved Kung Fu, which remains remains my favourite song on the album, mostly because it appeared on the soundtrack to the film Angus (with J.A.R. by Green Day, and Love Spit Love, and The Muffs, and Pansy Division and Dance Hall Crashers - just a great 90s film soundtrack).

I don't think this album is perfect though. The production, while raw, is pretty muffled and I'd like a bit of a less muddy sound on the guitars, and much as I like the adore the upbeat numbers, I'm less keen on Tim's voice on the slower more reflective songs.

It's still a great debut though and well worth a:

4/5

On the previous The The album I said it sounded aggressively 80, complained about unnecessarily long intros and got angry (again) that some - extremely deserving! - bands get zero albums on this list yet this band get two.

However, while some of that summary remains extremely accurate, I started to enjoy this The The album. Heartland and Angels of Deception were massively cheesy, but I kinda liked them. I can't really explain it. Maybe I was just in a funny mood.

This is getting a surprising:

3/5

I have no idea why the majority of the albums the generator has provided recently have been over an hour, but they need to knock it off! Even with bands I love, I'm getting a bit angsty by that point.

I have never listened to a full UB40 album before, but it should be something I'd really enjoy, given that I like reggae and love horns on records. At it was, I did enjoy it, but maybe not quite as much as I expected to.

Should really be a 3.5, but due to length its getting

3/5

Her voice is lovely, there were rather more n-words than I was anticipating, it was far too jazz for me in places, and the eating a lot of vegetables song really confused me (and felt like it was never going to end). I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more had the runtime been more reasonable (even with me ignoring the last Japanese edition/European reissue bonus track). As it is, this is getting a:

2/5 (but is really a 2.5)

Frank Sinatra has a nice voice but I don't understand why I had to listen to Girl From Ipanema two and a half times.

2/5

The moment this album ended, my music app of choice autoplayed Fiona Apple, and I thought "That's more like it!".

I don't think I like her voice very much - it's a bit nasal. I was fine with everything else, and tapped my foot a few times to the very poppy songs on the record, but nothing much jumped out and grabbed me. I liked Jacob Marley's Chain but I think that was mostly because the instrumental made me think of The Riddle by Nik Kershaw.

Just really not one for me to get either angry or excited about.

2/5

Until now I've been enjoying the Tom Waits albums that pop up on the generator, having previously never listened to him, despite knowing the name. Well, I've found the line I won't cross with Tom, and it's Nighthawks At The Diner.

I did not enjoy this. I tend to find skits on hip-hop albums quite annoying, and this album is chock full of the Tom Waits equivalent. I also tend to find jazz infuriating so there was a double whammy here, with the album pretending to be set in a jazz club. I also tend to dislike albums that are very long, and this clocks in at nearly 74 minutes. So now we're up to a triple whammy.

It's like he made an album purposefully for me to dislike it.

Eggs and Sausage (In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson) really made me yearn for a fry up though...

1/5

Another album that I don't entirely hate, but just fundamentally don't understand why its made it onto the list.

What is there about Hanoi Rocks that makes it stand out as worthy of inclusion? I grant you that the same thing could be said of much of the Britpop that made it into the 1001 books, but at least they have the excuse of the author being British, and therefore more integrated into that music scene, and Britpop being pretty current at the time the books were made. Hanoi Rocks seems to have dated terribly and to my ear, nothing particularly makes it stand out.

If you love glam-punk or hair metal, good for you! Enjoy this. But to me it's like watching Wayne's World... just significantly less funny.

2/5 (because I can't give 1.5)

Well the title track really lulled me into a false sense of security. I thought I was going to hate this before pressing play, but I really enjoyed the title track. I thought track 2, Beside You, was absolute bollocks.

I got irrationally annoyed by the mixing of track 3, Sweet Thing, particularly the very loud triangle in my left ear at the beginning.

I liked The Way Young Lovers Do but that was mostly despite Van than because of him (yay trumpets!).

I get really annoyed by how he drrrrrrraaaaaaagggggssss oooooouuuuttttt tthhhhhheee voooooooocaaaaaaaals one minute, then suddenlysayssuddenlysayssuddenlysayssuddenlysays the same couple of words repeatedly and very quickly. In one song it'd be fine, but he repeats the same trick again and again and it's really irritating.

On the basis that I can't give an album a 1 where I liked two tracks quite a lot, this should feel lucky to get a:

2/5

This was fine, but nothing much stood out to me. I liked the sampling. I liked ManWomanBoogie and Move. The Norah Jones feature was weird but sort of worked.

This is very much a 2.5 album for me but it's going to get rounded down

The second Tom Waits album I've heard on the album generator but the first since a read a social media post from someone saying that they always imagine Rowlf from The Muppets when they hear Tom Waits singing.

The actual music remains extremely 'discordant Disney villain' which as I said last time, I'm definitely not against. I feel like this ends up being more than the sum of it's parts and I completely cannot justify it.... but I kinda like it. I think the title track really summed up the whole album, and it made me smile.

I can't see me ever being a massive Waits fan, but I could see me buying a Best Of.

3/5 (but probably nearer a 3.5)