Reviews by londonhawkredux

Oh. Weller. Hmmmmm.

I was marginally too young for this originally. And didn't get it at all anyway. Fully engrossed as I was in "GUITARS", my older brothers mysterious bright red hardhat with happy-face-acid emojis on the side was a total mystery to me.

Now, of course, NOW.....................

Oh to have had the chance to participate in this even slightly. A delicious landscape of bloops, bleeps taking you to another world. Take a pill, and let your troubles slide away because we're all mates aren't we?

There IS something here. I don't know what, but I didn't instantly think "oh no, why is this here". I suppose an equally valid point would be that I didn't find anything to make me think "yes, I understand why this is here".

I had the absolute pleasure of hearing Songhoy Blues on the tour promoting this album and, amazing as it is here in it's recorded format, as a live proposition these guys are a phenomenon.

Biased because I saw them live, perhaps, but what a gorgeous fusion of desert sounds and rock this album is.

Wait? Did I actually listen to this yesterday or not?

A delicious slice of R&B infused soulful pop. Would I have it on my own 1001 list, probably not. Did I enjoy it on a cold, rainy Friday morning, I sure did.

And we're back to the bog-average white dude R&B.

Even more hip-hop that I don't hate. Remarkable what I've learned from this project.

Oh finally. Feels like it's been a long run of meh the past few weeks.

The advantage of being much younger than my siblings (almost certainly an accident) is that instead of being into, MC Hammer or 5 Star or anything from the SAW stable, I had a house full of Pink Floyd, The Police, Fleetwood Mac etc And this.

This is obviously absolutely glorious. Wistful, emotional with Mark Hollis' vocals vulnerable and powerful at the same time. If you haven't picked up Jude Rogers "The Sound of Being Human" then you absolutely must.

Oh look, it won the Mercury Prize. I look forward to being underwhelmed by this.

*remains underwhelmed for 61 minutes*

Sure, I get that there's an argument that this was reasonably significant in the UK at the time. Definitely brought that "urban / R&B" sound closer to the majority of mainstream listeners and no argument that some of this is still kinda catchy, Dy-Na-Mi-Tee especially.

But come ON, there is no argument for it being on this list. Unless you think the Mercury Music Prize makes it so. Which is silly.

As an individual who has never been heavily into the whole Bowie / Eno / glam-rock era, then I largely knew what was coming. The album artwork *chefs kiss*, "Do The Strand" an absolute romper-stomper up-tempo track with Ferry almost howling over the beat.

7 tracks of poncey arty-wibbling with strong "oh, aren't we so fucking clever, you don't even UNDERSTAND" vibes.

Me, yesterday morning : "Been a real run of dross the past couple of weeks. Come on algorithm, give me something good."

Oh.

Hey, I listened to The Beach Boys today
Oh great, which album?
The Beach Boys Today
Yes I know that, BUT WHICH ALBUM

Fantastic harmonies, glorious production but............ this hasn't evolved much from earlier efforts. It's not a bad thing, but why the inclusion of this album specifically?

Bonnet de douche Rodney, bonne de douche...........

Haunting vocals over relentless beats. Should it be this album included vs any of their others? I don't know, but they absolutely deserve to be here.

Initial reaction to this appearing was, of course, "oh, those sweater wearing floppy haired funksters of new-wave"

It's actually very good though isn't it. You might not want to admit it, but it's deliciously bouncy. Yes, the funk gets a bit wearing after a while, but the big hits were all big hits for a reason.

I'm not sure it's *quite* enough to warrant inclusion in this list, but I'm pleased the project brought it to my attention.

No 4 star ratings for 8 days now - the algorithm is clearly determined to punish my mental health. Cocteau Twins are one of those bands that I always feel like I should like more - they tick a lot of my personal preference boxes but somehow it never *quite* grabs me. Quite tempted to give 4 stars to break the slump, but sadly the final score 3.499 has to be rounded down.

Hmmm, I know "disco sucks" and all that, but Saturday Night Fever is streets ahead of this. Kudos to the Bee Gees for reinventing themselves throughout their career, but this is some truly mid level ballad / harmonies.

Sad smoky warbling. Can think of precisely zero occasions when I would think "oooooh, I must play this"

Soothing no? Will always have time for William Orbit.