Reviews by mibbiesaye

At the ripe old age of 24 Green Day were my first experience of feeling old as a music fan. I just couldn't relate to kids and teens' love of these safe punk not punk retreads. I felt people my own age should have known better.

I also suspect they were America's perfectly justifiable revenge for years of UK bands singing in bad American accents.

Such effortless blending of all the available genres of the day while pointing to the future.

I read plenty about this at the time and wanted to check it ou but funds were short and I didn't know anyone to tape it off. Then time moves on and the moment passes. A shame because I would have really loved it. I like it plenty now. I don't understand the one star reviewer justifying their review with the statement: "It's like a teenage girl singing her inner monologue."

My last Miles Davis from the list. It was cool to get them in release order. We've come a long way from Birth of the Cool. One thing I didn't know about this album was just how many musicians were involved in each session. It is incredible how they complement one another and don't trip over each other, especially the multiple bass players, piano players and drummers.

I had this on cassette years ago. It was perfect personal stereo headphones on staring into a rain lashed train window on a long journey by night music. Then I had it on CD and lay in bed hungover on Sunday with it on. Now I have a vinyl copy and look out at the foliage of all the back gardens and the abandoned caravan park I can see out of my window typing this.

I should have taken note of what Kurt was trying to say more. Loose but clever and mysterious.

Like a lot of people, I imagine, this album was my way in to jazz. It's melodic and approachable enough to not scare you off but it also has enough exploratory sections to at least hint at the wilder directions you can take backwards into bebop and much wilder onwards into free jazz and Miles' kick start of fusion.

Take that Metallica and Megadeth this is the thrash metal I was looking for.

I suspect there are experts in North African music who roll their eyes at the inclusion of this album on the list because it is quite poppy and has an entirely unnecessary cover of Imagine, but I'm a total novice and it sounds great to me just for the melodies as much as anything. Maybe it is the rhythms too because I don't particularly like the slow ones.

Turns out XTC had a very clear antecedent. I had no idea. All a bit clever clever for me while also having some of the dumbest lyrics imaginable. All a bit arch and postmodern for me.

Neil Young steals the show so much.

Still one of the greatest after all these years. The high point for sampling based production and an innovation in rapping.

This probably isn't any better than Good Old Boys but I enjoyed it a lot more on the day I listened. This process really brings home how unreliable critical thought is.

Who's going to tell all those one star reviews freaked out by the voice about Sparks? How will they cope?

Anyway, I quite liked this even if it struggled to stick.

This is how you use your Howlin' Wolf influence not that blood drained stuff 70s blues rock bands bored us all with. The intro to Pena is one of my favourite things ever. It is highly suspect that during this period Beefheart never looked bulkier than when his band were starving. I've just realised I've been singing the wordless tune at the start of When Big Joan Sets Up in my head quite a bit for the last few years. Beefheart deserves more credit for inspiring an entire genre of weird 80s spiky UK independent music - it wasn't all jangly Byrds chords and floppy fringes. It wasn't just Tom Waits ripping off this album at that point.

I'm super happy in my 'naive', 'fake', 'pretentious' enjoyment of this. Some of you carry on being weirdly grumpy and aggressive towards people who like something you don't.

Wow 11 years. Definitely for headphones or good speakers cos of all the great we details she packs into the production. I agree with the reviewer saying Magdalene is a better album but this is still great. Also surprised at its low score. Too pop for the 'real music' brigade, a little too off kilter for the pop kids? They're all missing out regardless.

As an early 90s indie kid in Glasgow it was almost compulsory to love this album. If you told someone you thought it was just alright their faces would fall and they'd look at you askance.

It's got its moments but I guess I'll never love it. Just past the halfway mark the relentless mid pace drags me down, a bit like an Oasis album.

I've been listening to this album for 45 years and I still hear new things in it. Along with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath it is probably less immediate than the other four in that incredible initial six album run but it has layers to unpick and tempo changes to catch you off guard.

Another 90s album that felt like it was pushing into the future at the time but now sounds utterly 90s. The beats are the main culprit. I don't mind that really but it isn't quite as good as I remember it. Also I retrospectively find Nick Cave a bit annoying sometimes. I think he gets aways with nonsense lyrics sometimes to the point of people proclaiming him a great poet because of how he delivers them in such sonorous way. How's getting brutally chucked The Sweetest Embrace, Nick? Explain it, c'mon.

I think music journalists like saying this is the best Beatles solo album because they aren't really journalists in most cases, they are writers, and they like a story. The story of George, the poor put upon Beatle finally getting to shine is a good one and not wholly false. However, I think this album has its flaws much as it has its moments of genius. The production has the two problems of Spector being on the wane and George being too influenced by him and inexperienced as a producer, especially on his own stuff which is sometimes harder than working one someone else's stuff. I usually love big mushy reverberant productions but it gets a bit wearing here. I like the idea of a bonus instrumental album a lot but always get disappointed by most of it being Clapton infected blues snoozefests.

Having said all that most of the tracks up to and including Apple Scruffs are good to great with Isn't A Pity being the real standout and worthy of its double appearance.