Reviews by mibbiesaye

Wow, iPod/MP3 nostalgia.

I'm learning through this process that I dont really rate Steve Winwood

It gets an extra star for getting me back off to sleep yesterday morning.

My least favourite of his 70s albums. Fine to go conceptual with the live in the studio as a jazz club thing capturing Waits' with an audience but he just didn't have the songs this time to pull it off. I can also understand why its uniqueness would be catnip to music writers. However, Small Change would be a much better choice.

So committed to their pofaced satire of totalitarianism that almost 30 years after this album they were invited to play songs from The Sound of Music in North Korea. That's a bigger achievement than getting to number one.

I've always had a soft spot for their ability to personify the latent fascism in popular music. Other great cover versions include Sympathy for the Devil, the whole of Let It Be (even Maggie Mae), You're In The Army Now and Final Countdown. Having lived through the original Life Is Life being a big hit the addition of the lyric "We gazed at the power, we gazed at the best and everyone lost everything and died with the rest" has always been hilarious to me from the first time I saw it on Channel 4's The Chart Show.

My only real concern over the years has been that irony isn't really a defence against totalitarianism but they probably know that and their career is secretly one big comfort rocking session.

Vibes of local band make overblown attempt at immortality. It's amusing how much the length and tone of the Wikipedia entry match how overblown this is. Their songs are all half an idea stretched clumsily over six minutes.

I enjoyed listening to this again so much I put the Fillmore East 1970 set on straight after.

Almost 700 albums in the temptation is more to review the reviews that the actual album. I would suggest that the reviewer who claims 'The Boss' became a raging liberal after this album needs to really think about what they mean by "liberal" and then go back through Springsteen's albums very carefully, probably with a lyric website open :D

Anyway this has got some great songs, some less so and a bit of a bland production in places. Maybe it would grow on me with more time.

Fair play to the editors for trying to recognise the invasion of 80s/early 90s club music into pop in the book. (See also Coldcut). But the album format is an uncomfortable way to way understand that phenomenon. Like all great pop music, singles were how it progressed, maybe 12" singles. So, you'd expect an album on the list to feature more than one monster hit from the UK or US chart. Admittedly it is one stonker of a monster hit but it is only one. I remember me and my pals who liked this stuff were a bit underwhelmed by the album given how high our expectations had risen off the back of Groove Is In The Heart.

Alongside another reviewer's shout for Betty Boo I'd suggest Original Soundtrack by S-Express or even the monumentally repetitive Pump Up The Jam album by Technotronic, maybe the Betty Boo launchpad Anywayawanna by The Beatmasters, as better more hit laden examples they could have gone with.

I like the plasticky production on this. That side of it feels like a step up from Pyromania but I'll never be convinced by Joe Elliott's vocals. They work best here when they are smothered with the enjoyably over produced harmonies.

Why is it so long?

I seem to enjoy reading the bad reviews of music I like more than the positive ones. It's funny, Cocteaus' records are so old now I forget that the lack of discernible lyrics can still irritate people so much.

There's Cocteau Twins records I prefer because it can feel on this one that they had almost perfected their sound too much just before Britpop came along and dulled all the colours for everyone. Still beautiful though. Still five stars.

When it came out this album was just a year or two early for me to access its angsty, nerdy, horny charms. I now feel like it's a party that sounds fun if nervy in a flat two floors up that I would feel ridiculous trying to gate crash.

If you are interested in understanding popular music in all its genres from the last 70+ years then this album is genuinely one you need to hear before you die. Even more than the debut so much of Metal and loud rock music has its roots here. Weirdly, though the one thing almost nobody takes from it is the 'swing' that Bill's drums bring.

Required extra treat if you enjoyed this: The life in Paris 1970 version of War Pigs on YouTube. Bill's drumming on that is a thing to behold.

I sort of understand people reviewing with words like 'nice' on a single first listen but they clearly haven't tuned into the lyrics much. End of the Rainbow has to be the bleakest thing ever written and most of the rest aren't any sunnier. I love it I sought out the extended version. Treat yourself and look for a live version of Calvary Cross. Not on the extended version of this. The comp Guitar, Vocals might be on your streamer.

There is a sort of muso orthodoxy that Guy Chambers carried Robbie Williams through this album but I think he is unfortunately often too pedestrian by half for the funny, soulful, honest thing Robbie Williams is reaching for. You can see why a lot of pop stars will employ dozens of songwriters instead of one.

She's got legs AND she knows how to use them... for walking and running... hopping even.

Magic pimps Gandalf and Saruman and their little moustachioed hobbit friend outstay their welcome a bit on this.

Len's always getting a five from me but I would have gone with Songs of Love and Hate instead for being further out there, or New Skin for the Old Ceremony for being a little more varied and melodic. But this is a minor grumble. Any album with Len's version of The Partisan is worthy of a spot.

I'm a big fan of both Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed. I enjoyed reading separate accounts of how they both felt when they encountered one another around the Factory scene in 60s New York. Leonard was a brief peripheral figure on that scene as he started up his music career while unsuccesfully pestering Nico.

They were very aware of one another in the room on at least one occasion but they were each too intimidated by the other to connect. Leonard felt like an imposter as a musician and looked on Lou as the real deal and someone already adept at what he was aiming for in terms of setting literary lyrics to music. Lou still had a nagging feeling that what he was doing was lesser compared to real poets and looked on Leonard as the real deal seeing as he had a novel and volumes of poetry published. It's a slightly sad story that they didn't find camaraderie as fellow "workers in song" but I like the humanity in their respective insecurity.

A likeable listen. It's funny how something using retro sounds can be so closely dated to when it actually came out. I wonder why they chose to pitch shift the actor's voice at the end. I don't remember it like that in the film and it's a bit annoying.

Are there any other soundtrack albums on the list? Does this one get around some kind of moratorium because it is billed as a score and Air are a pop act rather than a composer. Bernard Herrmann, Ennio Morricone, John Barry arguably all put out soundtrack scores at least as worthy of a spot. You'll have your own favourites I'm sure.

There don't seem to be any modern composers on the list either apart from John Zorn. No Philip Glass, no Steve Reich, no Gavin Bryars, no Terry Riley, no John Cage.

I'm a recent convert to Springsteen and had been holding off on this one because its 80s production and ubiquity at the time are a big reason for why I thought I couldn't stand him for the past several decades. Still never going to be a favourite but I like it fine. The synth on the chorus of Glory Day has no business while the sequenced bass on Dancing In The Dark has all the business. I think I'd like to hear Drive-by Truckers cover Glory Days instead. They've probably been my route to Springsteen because I can now hear just how much they've been influenced by him.

Working on the Highway is a surprisingly jaunty tune about a paed.

I can't believe I hadn't thought of their influence on Pixies until I read the reviews on here. It's really obvious.