Reviews by mibbiesaye

Surprised myself how much I enjoyed this. I still think the production is horrible and Liam sounds like a foghorn especially on the supposedly tender Wonderwall. But I like how it is music that is designed to be sung along to. I think that's one of the things people love about them. In our post religion atomised society they offer a rare opportunity for communal singing. A shame how much they've just shamelessly profiteered off that but it's still there despite what a pair of arseholes they are.

She was a good song writer but as other reviewers have said the plasticy faux 60s production really grates. Also I don't mind her voice but she can't help but remind me of her million copycats.

It's funny that thing people do where they believe that the order they have discovered music is the order that it was released and that because they've heard two thing with some similarities they believe one is automatically ripping off the other.

Look at a couple of the other reviews. The idea that Feargal Sharkey was in any way influenced by Jello Biafra. Hahaha. Listen to the lyrics, read some Wikipedia, ask yourself if Dead Kennedy's records were available in Derry a year earlier than anywhere else in the world, if at all.

The two singles are great. I suspect they didn't break through in the UK only because of a lack of marketing power.

That opening theme is fantastic and there are other good moments but it also meanders a fair bit. I know people love Vivian Stanshall but he sort of ruins the end of side one.

Listened to on my mum and dad's old copy which is handily filed need their Carl Orff for ease of access to 70s horror vibes.

Post rock is tricky. Everything stretched out and spacified and smothered in reverb. There's a fine line between epic and dull. I think this album just crosses the wrong side a little as it plows on through its 70+ minutes but the early part has some great sections.

Vocals and lyrics are a bit Judgy Bowie.

I like how each of the three original Hole albums are very different, like they had a clear idea of what they wanted to do with each one. This one might be a little too good at sounding like 90s grown up straight down the middle rock. It's fun but could be a couple of tracks shorter for me.

I sort of like the honesty and the bare faced cheek of very faithfully covering David Watts, The Kinks song that The Jam so obviously cop their signature sound from. "We are very good at being The Kinks with the anger nearer the surface.'

There is more to them than that on this album. I'm a sucker for backwards guitar as on In The Crowd. A star off for Weller recently being so rude about Robert Smith.

It was obvious that I had listened to a lot of the same records as Ride in the 80s. So, I always felt like I was supposed to like them as much as the music papers did but they have never fully clicked for me and still don't. I like their sound ok but the songs and the vocals not so much. Dreams Burn Down is good.

I liked some of the guitars and the energy of it but in the end Grievance Metal isn't my favourite genre.

Hear me out. This album is the centre of all modern popular music. With only two ingredients, the 50s slapback reverb vocals look back to the start and the metronome keyboards look forward to the electronic future.

Either that or it is just the coolest.

It's sort of a mess in terms of everyone starting to pull in their own direction, but a beautifully made mess. The production is like a one gun salute for the end of the 60s and a starting pistol for the 70s.

I feel a bit sad how much of a rough time this album is getting on here. For me it represents more than anything an early 80s post punk optimism that music could be reinvented with new sounds and shapes and still be pop.

Sultans of Swing was the 80s wedding band guitarist's moment to shine. It was ubiquitous when I was growing up that its genuinely difficult to have a perspective on it. It's got the best hooks on it and you can hear why it was the single.

But this album is simultaneously the most polite and the most overbearingly convinced of its own marvellousness neutered attempt at rock and roll.

I feel llke must have heard this album a lot when I was a kid because my older brother had a copy and I heard all his listening choices by proxy. So, I was expecting at least a fun nostalgia hit but to be honest I only remembered the three big singles and the rest was a cheesy bland mush.

Maybe if I had more than a day to digest a double album chock full of strumminess I would like it more but I have my doubts. Ultimate Mojo magazine music.

They reinvented themselves for the 80s with Eliminator but they always had little innovative moments like with Master of Sparks on this and the way the first two tracks segue right into one another.

Great singer, great drummer. A shame she couldn't display the latter as much. Sometimes I like syrup.

One man cultural revolution. Androgyny, black pride, teenage rebellion, sexual freedom, etc. All here in a handful of singles plus extras more minimal than punk, much wilder than Elvis. Little Richard was the King AND Queen of Rock and Roll.