Reviews by mibbiesaye

I'm getting old. I really enjoyed the depth of inoffensiveness of this. I also enjoyed the back story of how this smooth thing was created with a lot of friction.

I think there's a problem when your lead instrument is a piano played how Elton John plays it. There isn't a lot of expression. So, everything kind of blends into a clangy mush. Despite that I recommend seeking out his John Peel radio session where he played pub piano, no singing.

I do accept that it is wrong that I prefer The Scissor Sisters.

At the grand old age of 31 I felt I was too old for this garage rock retread even if I could see why the young uns might fall for it. If we're having compilations we'd be better off with Nuggets - way more influential and something you genuinely need to hear.

I still get surprised by how good this is. I enjoyed The Next Day but felt it did have that feel of "oh well this is as much as you can expect". Very good not great. Blackstar meanwhile really is up there with his best.

Is there a parallel universe where Bill Drummond realised wee Holly playing bass next to him in Big In Japan was such a talent and masterminded his rise rather than Echo & the Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes?

The four singles carry this but I also love their cover of Born To Turn. There is a touch more joy in their desperation than Bruce.

A couple of things I am learning from this process.

1. People are a bit loose with their genre terms. Synth pop, really? This sounds like Soft Cell and The Human League to you?

2. I dutifully read all the Wikipedia entries and have developed a healthy enmity for Robert Christgau and his joyless, nebby and in this case nonsensically homophobic views on music. Who is deciding every Wikipedia album entry needs this twerp's input?

The most proggy of all the proggy progginess to be had just in terms of sheer showy offyness. I used to hate Yes but they've been a fun rediscovery lately.

I fell asleep twice.

Glacial innit?

I think the reportedly deserved punch in the face from Nico was worth it all things considered for One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong. It's one of the most mordantly hilarious things ever written. Listen in close to Len, he is one of the funniest songwriters ever.

Another album that doesn't really work with sitting on your sofa in your pyjamas eating your muesli in your mid 50s. There are a couple of standout tracks but its Big Beat tricks do get tiresome pretty quickly if paid close attention. A bit better than Fatboy Slim.

All the way through disc one I'm always thinking this is such a great record because I forget how much it falls away on disc two which mostly feels like lesser versions of the songs on disc one, the title track aside. I could have gone a much longer version of Tusk, it always feels like they fade it to soon because they're a bit bashful of having something so odd on the album.

A bit like with Rhiannon I wish they they could capture their live sound a bit more on Sisters of the Moon. It's still fantastic but just has a bit of its snarl smoothed over.

Disc one still makes the whole thing.

Sandwiched as it is between two other great Sonic Youth albums I forget how good this is, how clearly it captures what a phenomenal band they were, quadruple threat.

In the 80s there was a particular strain of preppily dressed music critic who were convinced Nick Heyward was a genius. Turns out they still walk among us.

I prefer the slightly more minimal earlier albums but it's Funkadelic!

I think every moment of this album is perfect, jigs included.

I also think of all the casualties of the era Sandy Denny is one of the saddest because I think during her time the UK music industry didn't really know what to make of her. If she'd been born a little later into the punk era her creativity might have had a better chance of taking centre stage and she could have presented herself more often on her own terms

Not as overblown as I remember but still quite boring to me.

Late 90s dance music like this is quite hard to explain if you didn't live through it so I can understand younger people hearing this and being a bit non-plussed. It mostly isn't suited to a process like this where you sit on your own and intently listen. This music soundtracked getting ready to go out with your friends or being out in the pub with your friends before you went to a club or after you all went to someone's flat or possibly even nursing a hangover/coming down with friends the next day. It was communal and incidental and you probably had to be wearing a pair of cheap combats. Like a lot of music that felt so now at the time it does feel a bit stranded in its time.

Btw I prefer the albums either side of this one.

They can be quite infuriating, Blur. There is a handful of great moments on this but as with most of their albums it's topped up with Blur by numbers irritations.

I might start playing a game with myself predicting how many reviews down before the first grumpy American rock bro complaining about too many UK entries on the list. I think they're nicely balanced against the two or three Red Hot Chilli Peppers entries.

All this time I didn't know the UK release was missong two tracks. I feel short changed. The list is missing the best one out the first three in Heaven Up Here.