Reviews by londonhawkredux

Along with Pulp, easily the best of the Britpop-pack well away from the Blur vs Oasis nonsense. Soaring vocals, sharp suits and pointy shoes, this album feels as fresh as it did to my young ears on release.

The album I put on when I'm trying to impress a classy lady. (W.A.S.P. by W.A.S.P. if she's FILTHY)

Could be 60 days since release, could be 60 years. A kind of timeless jazzy samba vibe that never dates, but never becomes popular.

Did not know that I needed a sitar version of Jumpin' Jack Flash in my life - that cover absolutely slaps. The rest, yeah OK, but 3 stars for the opening track alone.

My Dad wasn't the best in the world (nothing physical or anything, don't worry) but he did love Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones.

Thanks Dad.

Hmmm, had possibly always unfairly tainted them with the "nu-metal" brush (and nothing wrong with nu-metal at all, don't @ me) but coming back to SOAD for the first time in ages, this felt like a cut above.

But most of all, it made me feel ANGRY. GOOD ANGRY.

Oh, was expecting this to be some funky Bedouin tribal rhythms. Just some regular ol' jazz.

Sometimes music leads you to conclude "I really should have done more drugs". Happy Mondays are the band that lead you to conclude that you probably shouldn't have.

I think Annie Lennox was the *only* female UK vocalist in the 80s right?

That said, this is a delicious slice of synths and powerful vocals. Was never a huge fan of the title track, but the opener (Love is a Stranger) ticks ALL the boxes. Bleeps and bloops, husky vocal, shrieky vocal. Splendid

Whilst never a particularly big fan (always too popular with the "oy oy, nawty ladz" crowd for my liking) it does make me nostalgic and wistful for a time when the UK wasn't totally shit. Bonus point for that.

OK, just too much hipster UK music press selections now. Much praise when this was released and it just bored me senseless. Why? Why this?

Folky, chilled, but not the right vibe for spreadsheeting on a warm summers day. I shall return to this when it is more dreich

Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiines. Oh no, wait, NOT that one. Oh, OK. Still pretty jazzy and funky. I will trust others judgement on the seismic importance of this one.

"NARTING COMPARS. NARTING COMPARS. TO YOOOOOOOOOOOOUSE"

Hard to get beyond the "even bigger than a smash" hit here. *That* video. *Those* vocals. Obviously deeply troubled personally, but a glorious slice of Celtic folky-rocky business. 4 stars for the album, bonus star for calling out the Catholics for their hypocritical bullshit.

"The Band" - both very familiar and simultaneously hard to name any of their tracks. Ah yes, the one about dropping my load on Sally, that's right.

Surely only on this list for being Dylan adjacent - nothing radically different from any other folky, daydreamy, harmonies, let's listen to at a campfire as the sun goes down 60s vibe.

This cannot possibly be co-inky-dinkal. Brian Wilson departs, "Smile" spins up next in my list. Ozzy departs and THIS is next in my list.

Hugely influential of course, without necessarily being the leading exponent of the art. If you'd spent the 60s listening to the Archies and Roy Orbision then WOW were you in for a shock

Ooooh, haven't had many of these. Very firmly in the "deserves to be on the list even though I can't stand it" category. Can fully appreciate how different this was, and how well the album is put together whilst it absolutely bores me to tears.

Time to slip on some oversized comfy trainers and fire up the grill while waxing lyrical about how cars ain't as good as they used to be.

Damn it's good though isn't it.

Gorgeous Nordic power-pop, powered by Nina Persson's smoky vocals. Somewhat unfairly bundled in with the Tier 2 Britpop bands (largely because they would have played on TFI Friday a lot)

Some of this list is just odd and compiled by someone who worked for the UK music press between 1993 and 2008.