Reviews by mibbiesaye

After 40+ years I think Depeche Mode might have just properly clicked for me. Thanks generator!

I especially like the RnB and Hip Hop elements on this. A few of the ballads produced by her usual collaborator up to that point have a soft piano sound that has a distractingly cheesy 80s feel. But overall the songs and the production give a lovely floaty feel. The vocal production is particularly great. I like the way her voice is blended in two or sometimes three distinct ways with further backing vocals present. My indie kid head was even reminded of how Kate Bush and Liz Fraser's vocals were produced.

I wish he'd done fewer boring and predictable blues rock 'numbers' on this. Greensleeves was a nice detour with Suck My Love Pump vibes in this context.

I like this album a lot but I think this one and its sequel are albums you spend a year with and then rarely go back to.

I choose to believe all the stuff about her researching for years is just PR and actually one afternoon she just listened to the excellent and uncharacteristic Motörhead tune 1916 a couple of times and thought hmm I could do that in a more indie style and stretch it out with different perspectives. Lemmy even sings in a higher register than usual like Polly. Go check it out.

Those bad reviews are right when they say this is way more country than rock. I differ in thinking that is not a bad thing.

I too was not offended.

I have become a sucker for that 66-68 English psychedelia sweet spot. This isn't all genius but there's a good variety to the sounds they create and I like the way Jeff Beck sounds like he is spilling out from the mixing desk over his bandmates.

All those one star reviews and this is her most approachable record, haha. I think this is a strange beautiful and intriguing if apparently unhappy experiment. You can feel Nico, the musicians and Tom Wilson all pulling in different directions. I like those big heavy Germanic vowels in her voice. I suppose she is a bit flat in places. I forget how much that can upset people. I think you can make a case that without Nico's heavy clang of a voice the likes of Ian Curtis, Siouxsie, Robert Smith, Marc Almond, Morrissey, (all fans) don't have the confidence to sing in their own instantly recognisable and unique ways.

Anyway it is a bit daft and dismissive to include this and not at least one of either The Marble Index or Desertshore, both of which are much fuller expressions of Nico as an artist and I would argue far more influential. The Industrial scene and all of post punk are thoroughly indebted to those two records.

They had more layers and more invention than almost all their contemporaries in early dance music.

I was probably unfairly dismissive of this when it came out on grounds of it being too obviously indebted to Kate Bush down to the tribute cover art. But music is full of musicians honouring their influences in this way. Some more obvious than others. I'm never going to choose to listen again as I struggle with the piano as a lead instrument in this way throughout a whole album. But I can appreciate the songs and the ultimately unique path she has forged albeit with Kate's help at the start.

I was hoping the majesty of Motor Away would be enough to give them an average above 3.0 but sadly not.

Way more ideas than you have language to tell me hurts your ears. Maybe there is too much greatness here to digest in one day. That's what I am telling myself.

One cheesily enjoyable tune the rest pretty forgettable.

In this game you cannot be too extreme (Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten, etc) or too subtle. If you listen in there is so much to discover in this album's arrangements never mind the personal and political in the lyrics.

These guys have no understanding of what it is to be 'cool'. That's something I increasingly respect. Not fully my thing but I like their maximilism.

Icky Thump is better.

I find with Rush it's better not to take them too seriously despite Neil Peart's furrowed brow when he's writing those lyrics. I like the honesty of Limelight up to the point in the last verse where he seems to be suggesting all human interactions are performative. Sheesh Neil, who hurt you?

It's odd to me that people hear something cold and clinical in their fiddly music. I hear a lot of joy and exuberance.

You can almost begrudge all the commercial advantages Bob Marley had over other reggae acts. He was good looking, had catchy tunes with soulful lyrics and an English record label to push him. He was so successful it sometimes feel like the media and his fans have his light blocking out other reggae acts.

But his records are actually very good. So you can't really begrudge him.

It is very hard not to think of "Get up those stairs and tidy your room" as what prompts the "Fuck you etc" refrain in Killing In The Name. But also nice to remember it getting to Christmas number one at the expense of yet another X Factor contestant.

I love how raw and intense this is. Too often people want to treat 50s/early 60s jazz as merely pleasant background music. This won't let you do that. The rhythms are too insistent.

I think Red is a much better, more fully realised and focused album. There are plenty of great parts to this with some incredible sounds and bits of improvisation.

However, I feel like Jamie Muir's talents could be better integrated. The extremes of loud/quiet aren't a bad idea (see Mogwai) but it feels a bit like Fripp wasn't keen on Muir's solo sections amd designated them to the extreme quiet parts.

David Cross's string parts are really good in themselves but there are a few places where it feels like he and Fripp are vying for the same melodic ground and place in the mix.