Reviews by littlestlassloves

This was alright. Obviously some stand out singles, but away from those, I liked the reggae-tinged Music For The Last Couple, and I really enjoyed Man In The Corner Shop too (when it got going).

Ultimately though, this was just fine - I'd happily listen to it if I heard it, but wouldn't seek it out. A classic 2.5 for me, but I'm rounding up.

3/5

I was not expecting The Byrds to sound like this. It started with a Dylan song and it was all downhill from there. I sort of wish we'd got psychedelic-Byrds rather than country-Byrds.

I have very little to say about this other than I did not enjoy it.

1/5

I listened to a big chunk of this album walking along on a warm day with a gentle breeze and it was just the perfect combination.

Al Green has a fabulous voice and I love the accompaniment. One of those rare albums where the most famous song being track 1 didn't feel, for me at least, like everything that followed was a disappointment - I liked everything.

As a complete side note, Al Green's Wikipedia Personal Life section is *a lot*.

I enjoyed this, but not 5 stars of enjoyment, so:

4/5

Few things make my heart sink as much as seeing a 41 minute album that only contains 4 tracks. And then seeing the inevitable "jazz" mention.

I kept checking whether it had ended yet, but eventually realised it had when my app autoplayed Funkadelic afterwards.

Not for me.

1/5

I wrote a really long review of this that was all thoughtful and balanced and shit, but then accidentally lost it.

So: I can tell it is technically very good, and I like a lot of the sampling, but it's not really for me.

3/5

Another separating art from artist album for me. Billy Corgan has some really, really, really weird ideas and has been on Alex Jones' InfoWars program multiple times (all pre-$1.4 billion defamation trial, so I'll give him that at least, but Alex has always been an asshole). But I'm trying to ignore that for this purpose.

One of the big issues I have with this album is that it contains Today and Disarm, both of which are, in my opinion, head and shoulders above anything else on the album. They are both genuinely great songs.

The rest of the album, I can pretty much take or leave. Billy does objectively have a pretty odd voice, but it sort of suits a lot of this. The distorted guitar tone starts to get a bit much over the full album, as every song ends up sounding quite similar - someone needed to buy James Iha some different pedals.

It's mostly a little bit dull with two absolute standouts.

3/5

This feels like a less experimental, more stripped back version of Beck. A bit Wilco, very chilled and a lot different to Odelay which I previously loved.

The backing vocals on The Golden Age reminded me of Mike Mills from R.E.M. so there's obviously bonus points for that. Adored the strings on Paper Tiger. I like the chorus of Sunday Sun a lot.

Overall it is unfortunately a little too chill for my liking - I generally prefer a bit more upbeat, and while I think it's really beautiful in places, it does feel quite one-tempo. I like it, but would have preferred either a shorter album, or a bit more variety.

3/5

Such a gorgeous voice.

It might just be that I listened to this at 5am because I couldn't sleep, despite being sleepy, but it completely felt like the right album for the right moment. It was such a gentle, relaxing listen.

I knew a few of the singles but nothing else and I enjoyed it all. Not sure it's something I'd regularly listen to, but it was perfectly pleasant while it happened.

3/5

When I started this project, I never expected to reference Mark Radcliffe and the boy Lard (Marc Riley) so much. But here, once again, is a song I remember more fondly through the Shirehorses' parody that the original: North Country Boy by The Charlatans becoming West Country Boy, featuring the line "You scrumpy-guzzling, carrot-crunching tosspot"...

...anyway, I enjoy The Charlatans but they have never set my world alight. And so this album gets a very middling review. It's alright, but I don't find it sets itself apart from other artists of the Britpop era. Part of that problem for me, is how much Tim Burgess's voice reminds me of Liam Gallagher.

I probably should enjoy this more than I do, but I don't have the emotional connection to it that I have with other bands of the era, as I didn't really listen to them then. I have a stronger attachment to bands like Joyrider, who were nowhere near as popular, but I bought a lot of their singles as a teenager.

I do like the singles from this though, particularly One To Another, which has a great catchy riff. How High is also pretty fun.

Generally fine. It would get a 3.5 in a world of half marks, but:

3/5

This was odd. It seemed to jump around allover the place in terms of genres, something I would normally enjoy, but for some reason it didn't click for me at all.

It was fine, I guess.2/5

I put this off all day and ended up having to listen to it the next morning. I just really wasn't looking forward to it at all.

For me, the intro is pointless - it's too short to hold any real interest for an instrumental. Jump is fine, but the synths are just SO synthy. Panama is boring and I really don't like the William Shatneresque spoken-word bit.

There's just too much instrumental noodling for the sake of it, for me to enjoy this, and certainly too much for me to carry on going track by track in this review. I'll be back if something I like happens...

...nope.

1/5 (but not as bad as the ones I hate, this was mostly just dull)

Look, it is definitely about 30 minutes of essentially the same song, I'm not denying that. But I like that song and it's so much fun!

4/5

I think Nick Cave may be starting to join my ever growing list of 'objectively terrible singers who I weirdly don't care can't sing for reasons I can't quite define'. I get why people wouldn't enjoy this, but I kinda did (apart from the Dylan cover, which I thought was an abomination).

There is a slight issue for me though. Mark Reilly, ex-bassist of The Fall, and Mark Radcliffe (of BBC Radio fame) had a parody band in the 90's called The Shirehorses who "covered" two tracks on this album. On hearing Henry Lee, I was instantly stuck with the lyrics to Franny Lee in my head - and so instead of the brooding lyrics of death I was mentally singing a song about the relegation of Man City football team in the 90s:

"Going down, going down little Franny Lee,
Down to division three,
With only one lad who isn't half bad
And that's little Georgi Kinkladze"

Away from that, I obviously loved Kylie's appearance on Where The Wild Roses Grow which was a surprisingly big hit in the UK. Lovely Creature is great and I really enjoyed The Curse of Millhaven (despite some of the worst examples of Nick's singing and it basically being an upbeat Henry Lee).

I liked this better than the previous Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album, I think because I enjoyed the story telling, but not enough for an extra star, so:

3/5

We got Fat of the Land less than 10 albums earlier, and much as I quite enjoyed it, I would have preferred a bit of a longer break before being handed Prodigy album number 2.

This is too long and also feels like being an extra on a 90s sci-fi/computer hacking movie set in a dark basement. I like No Good (Start The Dance), Poison and bits of Voodoo People. Everything else, except 3 Kilos which I really enjoyed, was very, very trying.

It's getting a 2 and should feel lucky I've been so generous.

2/5

I was aware that this album was considered one of the greatest albums ever made and I was excited to start listening despite it being so long. Which meant, when I pressed play, all full of enthusiasm but then didn't like track 1, Love's In Need Of Today, I got a bit worried.

However, it was just a very wobbly start as from track 2 (Have A Talk With God) onwards, I enjoyed pretty much everything. It was a fun "spot the song that got sampled" album, although it did mean I ended up with "wicki-wicki-wild wild west" stuck in my head for a bit after listening to I Wish.

As a confirmed disliker of skits on albums, I'm going to add weird talky intros and endings to the no-no list. I had clearly only ever heard a radio edit of Isn't She Lovely because the end of that song is weird.

Nonetheless, you can hear the quality and the ideas throughout this record. It does seem bizarre that this is Stevie's 18th album - there was no running out of ideas here, although as is often the case I'd have preferred a shorter record.

Ultimately for me, this is a mostly good to great collection of songs that could have done with a little bit of a trim. Still incredibly funky though.

4/5

I do not like The Fall. That was going to be my whole review, but I'm going to add, Rebellious Jukebox was really shit, and then it was followed by No Xmas for John Quays which was worse.

I only listened to the original 11 tracks because I don't need that kind of negativity in my life. To end on a positive note, I do find calling a studio album "Live at...." mildly amusing.

1/5

(I'm sorry, Marc Riley, if you ever read this. Your 10pm BBC Radio1 show with the boy Lard, genuinely influenced my teenage musical tastes more than pretty much anything else..... but your band were shite.)

On the last Prince album I was somewhat surprised to find I didn't really like it. It was really samey over the length of a full record, so I wasn't really looking forward to this. And then I looked at the running time and my enthusiasm dropped even further. Some stray thoughts:

- The title track is fine but doesn't really build to anything.
- Rhyming "lets jam" with "green eggs and ham" is a choice, but Housequake is very funky.
- this is extremely 80s.
- I liked The Ballad of Dorothy Parker backing vocals, but it was again very meandering.
- by the time I got to the song It, it became fully apparent that I wasn't really going to like the second Prince album on the list.
- the weird whooshing noise on Starfish and Coffee was **horrible** - I very nearly fast forwarded through it.
- how did Prince become such a massive star? These albums are so dull for 90% of the run time.
- U Got The Look just made me sad that I wasn't listening to The Look by Roxette.

Another artist the generator has taught me that I don't like, I just thought I did. A grudging:

2/5

It was mostly fine, but I have limited patience for guitar noodling, so this is not really my kinda thing. I kept finding reasons to listen to other things, which is never a good sign. Oye Como Va is great though, that would get a 4 by itself.

Clearly a collection of extremely talented musicians, but not ones who I want to spend time with.

2/5

I did not enjoy this. I have an almost visceral reaction to his voice, the song which differentiated migrants from people who "belong" in the UK really annoyed me, and I think, particularly in current times, the guy's an absolute tosser. At least on The Smiths albums you get Johnny Marr.

1/5

I sort of feel like I probably shouldn't like this album. But I did.

Loved the sampling, the funkiness of it, the flow of the rapping. I am however massively unhappy to discover Insane In The Brain has not made it to the generator. Should really be a 3.5 but it's not a 3 so:

4/5