Reviews by mibbiesaye

If you're enough of a nerd like me to obsess over the development of highly codified genres like Metal then Judas Priest are really interesting. They're older than most people realise being almost contemporaries of the big 70s rock acts but this album being such a commercial breakthrough in 1980 gets them categorised as NWOBHM alongside whippersnappers like Maiden, Saxon and Def Leppard.

In some ways they are just as important or even more so than Sabbath in the development and codification of Metal, or at least the non doomy, non Satan referencing stuff. The popularity of the leather and studs look is down to them. Their faster riffing and occasional lack of swing in tunes like Grinder point towards Thrash more than the doom of Sabbath or the Rock n Roll but louder of Motörhead ever did. When they do sound like Rock and Roll in something like Living After Midnight they point towards Guns n Roses.

I am choosing to believe Breaking the Law and Grinder can be both social commentary on the horrors of early Thatcherism and secret gay anthems.

Made me think of Jesus Jones. Indie Rock trying to keep up with the latest tech.

Happy to upset the purists and rank this higher than The Chronic which I had yesterday.

Whisper it. The beats aren't 'that' good.

Everyone seems convinced Travis were an early Radiohead facsimile. Maybe a few moments of the high register singing fit that but they sound a lot more old fashioned to me. Less post punk-lite than either early Radiohead or especially Coldplay. Whiffs of Gallagher and Lyle if you want an obscure geographically close reference point.

I did my best to ignore them back in the day because in Scotland they were utterly fucking ubiquitous. Like it was your national duty to like them. This made them the utter and total anathema of 'cool'. If you were hanging out with punks it was equally your duty to hate them with a passion. I never really felt either way and listening now with distance is not unpleasant even though it is all way too one paced by the end. The Last Laugh of Laughter is a hilariously terrible title with an amusingly weak lyric. Also how did Mike Hedges get from the wild goth psychedelia of Hyaena by Siouxsie and the Banshees to the polite dinner party of here?

One reviewer on this page is just a little too obsessed with who college girls fuck.

Not entirely its fault but this made me think of Kendall Roy.

Fair enough Ain't No Fun is being called out for its misogyny. As a happily married middle aged man I realise I have a different perspective from Snoop and his friends, but I only half jokingly think this is the saddest song on the album. It is a succession of grown men stepping up to the mic to proclaim "I CAN'T FEEL LOVE".

The retooling of P-Funk to meet the needs of hiphop was a genius move of Dr Dre.

Clumsy outraged outrage lyrics but still fantastic. A shame Songs About Fucking isn't here too and maybe a Shellac album or two.

They always sound like such a music critic band to me. All their reference points are so carefully curated and present. Despite their drug addled wild bunch reputation it all sounds a bit too self consciously cool. I prefer this to the other one on the list for its longer in the studio lushness, but maybe if they'd recorded it through a tin can it would be better.

A long time since I listened to this. It has aged really well. They were so scrappy when they started out, lovably so, but this is the one where they elevated to a new level. The Fatboy Slim mix of Brimful Asha served its purpose in being them a wider audience but it does such a disservice to the soulfulness they possess as a group.

Syd's two solo records have a firmer place in my heart but this is still pretty great for its sense of adventure and invention. It's a shame they went so po-faced after Syd.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this after reading the reviews that described it as background music. I was expecting another excruciatingly dull example of electronic music like the William Orbit one on the list, but this has way more interesting things going on despite sharing some of the same aesthetics.

One of the great break up albums. Brutal and tender. It's not really built for this project. I can understand reviewers on one listen thinking it's a bit impenetrable. It has quite a unified feel throughout and it is long. I love how musically it maintains a mood. But underneath that there is a lot going on. It is an album I can put on any number of times and hear something new.

That filtered fake old timey vocal effect gets pretty annoying fast. I suppose on this album they were the band to make the whole 90s Easy Listening fad really pay off as a group with (mostly) original songs. Personally I find it all a bit too contrived, bland and boring.

Very much the template for New Wave. Old dudes hacking at it since the Beatles were still playing live and finally hitting paydirt with new haircuts, skinny ties and a couple of hits in My Best Friend's Girl (a bit annoying) and Just What I Needed (genuinely great). The rest of it is mostly filler. Some of it really grates for me where you can hear them stretching for late 70s relevance by going all angular. I quite like All Mixed Up because it reminds of Astronomy by Blue Öyster Cult but just not as good.

Fuck's sake read the Wiki. There's only twelve songs on this album not 18.

Anyway, until I read the reviews I forgot about the particular kind of Pogues fan who just uses them for a knees up - it's all FUN, apparently. Not a criticism.You do you. I'm not saying there isn't fun to be had but you must be skipping The Old Main Drag and drunk under the table by the time the band plays Waltzing Matilda.

I wish I'd studied French because there aren't enough translations of Brel even with the the show Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, the subsequent other covers and the Marc Almond album of his songs. And apparently most of those aren't necessarily all that accurate. I was really surprised when I learned that Seasons In The Sun is a Brel song. No wonder cos its sentimental nonsense is way wide of the typically grim and funny song he actually wrote.

I think this record still sounds great. Ecstasy informed funky white boy psyche. Even though it kick started the shortly lived and mostly rubbish Baggy genre and the even less appetising 'indie dance' scene there isn't really anything else that sounds quite like it, including their own other records. Probably the Hannett effect.

The 80s get such a bad rap on here. Plenty of it was rubbish but this one isn't guilty. Weird how a few of the reviews fixate on Rain when Sign Your Name is right there coming up next. Also a bit of history rewriting going on in one review being described as an artist "with a couple of minor hits". Number 1 and top 5 both sides of the Atlantic isn't minor. The record does sound a bit more clinical than I remember because he had such a great live band at the time that did some TV shows with him.

Everything about this album is underwhelming. Even the argument about Morrissey barely qualifies as a tiff.

The Led Zep album I return to most. I'm always hearing new things in it.