Reviews by mitch058

I definitely appreciate getting two Fatboy Slim albums in this collection, although I'm not sure this is one of his best albums (but it *was* his debut album, which likely explains its inclusion). And I bought this CD a long time ago, so it's equally nice to revisit an album I've enjoyed over the years (even if I haven't listened to it all that much recently). My favorites are the single "Going out of my mind" (with a fun accompanying video), "Give the po'man a break", and one of my all-time favorite Fatboy Slim tracks "Michael Jackson" (which I still find myself humming at times); and a nod to the interesting video to "Everybody needs a 303". A solid debut, but he definitely got more interesting and varied over the course of his future albums.

Although it's their latest of four albums in this collection, it's the first U2 for me so far, which is always a bit disappointing to get a band's albums out of order, but fine (and it's still from 25 years ago). And nice to see that Brian Eno (who is everywhere) and Daniel Lanois produced this album, much as they did with 3 earlier U2 albums. I was a bit surprised to realize that I'd heard all of the singles from this album many many times on the radio, as I foolishly thought that since I didn't recognize the album title I wouldn't have heard many of their songs. I particularly enjoyed "Elevation" (and didn't realize that the album version was somewhat different from the "Lara Croft" single version), "When I look at the world", and the semi-bonus track "The ground beneath her feet" (largely because of the lyrics by Salman Rushdie and then Daniel Lanois playing steel guitar, and the connection to yet another Wim Wenders movie featuring U2 music).

It's funny to read that this album was considered more of a return to their musical roots, as I guess I was completely ignorant that U2 had veered in electronic dance music in the 90s, although I guess that characterization includes "Achtung Baby", which I would never have called EDM.... Either way, I'd say that few of their tracks on the album seem like throwback songs (maybe the Aung San Suu Kyi homage "Walk on", but only somewhat, and definitely "In a little while" and "Grace"). Overall, though, while it's a good album by a solid (and now clearly older) band, I'm not sure why this fourth U2 album was needed for this collection, as it's not particularly distinctive or ground-breaking.

Ugh. *Another* Robert Wyatt album??? How disappointing. At least it's from his earlier--and presumably more musically active--era, and at least it's much more distinctive and downright weird at times (compared to "Shleep"), but ultimately it's not really any more interesting or particularly entertaining, at least to my unappreciative ears (although I did enjoy parts of both of the "Red riding hood" tracks). I *do* feel badly for him that the album was recorded not long after a horrible (and sadly very drunken) accident that left him a paraplegic (and oddly coinciding with his partner's work on the excellent 1973 film "Don't Look Now"). But this was a chore to endure the thankfully-brief 40 minutes or so on this album.

I like it that there's a bit of a string of unknown albums and bands right now in this collection. This one's definitely an oddball, but enjoyable in a *very* 80s/New Wave way, and with a surprisingly hard edge to the lyrics and more funk to the music than I would have expected, in kind of a Prince/The Time sense, at least on the "Pavement" side of the album; the "Penthouse" side isn't quite as fun (although "The height of the fighting" is pretty decent). And of course there's that fantastic UK/BBC-inspired album cover that succeeds in being very ironic.

I'm not sure I could say I had many favorites on the album, largely because their style isn't really to my taste, but I enjoyed the opening track ("(We don't need this) Fascist groove thang"), and was disappointed to read that the BBC banned it from the radio because it might have dared to imply that Ronald Reagan was a fascist; hard to imagine that happening in 2025.... Interesting that they recorded this album alongside The Human League (I guess in part because two-thirds of Heaven 17 were formerly part of The Human League), as you can definitely see the connection. And kudos to them for the "Clockwork Orange" reference with the band name (Heaven 17).

I enjoyed this album, especially because I'd never heard of him before, never heard of this album, and I'm pretty sure never heard any of the songs either. But I'm also completely baffled why this album is in this collection, and neither the Wikpedia entry nor the "1001 Albums" entry provide any real clue either, and the latter review seems equally mystified why Joe Ely never got more than a cult following. I guess we're listening to him because The Clash had him open for them in the late 70s (poor guy)?

Given how few country-related (or even -adjacent) albums we get in this album, it seems a shame to get what appears to be an arbitrary choice instead of substantially more established/respected/acclaimed country artists (no Jerry Jeff Walker, no Townes van Zandt, no Robert Earl Keen, to name just a few). But that's certainly not Ely's fault, and it's an interesting enough album. I think my favorites were "Boxcars" and "Fingernails", in part because they had more of a rock-crossover aspect to them.

This definitely seems like the quintessential Santana album to include in this collection, and impressive that three of the tracks have survived so long on the airwaves. It's equally impressive that two of the three tracks are covers ("Black magic woman" and "Oye como va"), but with a definite Santana spin to them; ironically, the other hit from this album (which I'll admit I'm far less familiar with), "Samba pa ti", sounds more like an Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck instrumental than Santana's. (I actually thought "Hope you're feeling better" was a better track.) I also had no idea that the lead vocals (and some impressive organ pieces) are performed by none other than Gregg Rolie of (future) Journey fame.

It's kind of tough to rate this album, as the main hits feel like it's a solid four stars, but then the rest of the album feels a bit nondescript with largely instrumental pieces (or as Robert Christgau uncharitably put it, "a not disreputable performance, most likely a failed experiment or a pleasant piece of hackwork"). This would have been an easy four (or five) stars if it included "No one to depend on" and "Evil ways", but I feel like Santana himself deserves four stars for hanging in there and exploring all sorts of music.

I seem to have invoked New Order by semi-slagging them in the previous album's review (for Adam and the Ants' "Kings of the Wild Frontier"), so I'll try not to jinx myself too much in this review, although I have to say that New Order often feels like a slightly peppier version of The Cure (which I hope I don't get tomorrow). I think the only tracks I'm familiar with on this album is "Round & round", which had a fairly good run on the radio, at least in a slightly different version than the album version (although I was kind of disappointed when I realized that it wasn't the earlier and much more effective ear-worm "You spin me round" by Dead or Alive). I don't think I'd heard "Fine time" before, and listening to the song and watching the video was surprisingly creepy, especially with some poor kid being asked to seem...crazy? neurodivergent? unstable? perhaps even abused? I'm not really sure, but I find it hard to believe that anyone would make a video like that in the years since (and I'm not sure why it was OK to do that even in 1989, frankly).

All in all, this is about what I'd expect from New Order, so it neither disappointed nor delighted me. Faint praise, I know, but I'm thankful it's not another Morrissey album, or Duran Duran! (And I'm laughing now that I look at my review for their other album in this collection ("Low-Life") and how similar these two reviews are...)

I was vaguely aware of this band when they were active, but I'm not sure I ever heard anything by them, or at least from this album. And now, after listening to the album and watching the (very dated) videos, I'm sorry on some level for having missed out on them, as they seem like a great example of the potential of New Wave that fell apart with subsequent acts like Duran Duran/Pet Shop Boys/New Order. And I really enjoy some aspects of their music, from the double drums (at least on some songs) and some interesting harmonies/backing vocals, and full credit for being much more of a traditional band than relying heavily on keyboards. And those costumes...nothing speaks New Wave like a Musketeer-outfit with all sorts of hair flair and white face paint.

My favorites on the album are probably "Antmusic" (largely from the dual-drums into and the fun video and outrageously 80s outfits and dancing), the spaghetti-western-inspired "Los Rancheros", and "Killer in the home". But ultimately, the songs aren't all that interesting either lyrically or musically, at least for my tastes. But kudos to Adam Ant for creating this seminal album from the ashes of Malcolm McClaren having poached all his band members to create Bow Wow Wow.

It's nice to have a series of unknown (to me) albums and bands from this collection, and this one largely works (for me). It's definitely not earth-shattering, and it feels a bit like this will always remain in some weird cul-de-sac of hip-hop, following the footsteps of De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, but from the other coast. Some of the tracks kind of fall flat (even one of their singles, "4 better or 4 worse"), but most of the album is entertaining, albeit occasionally in a kind of sophomoric way; my favorites were probably "Soul fish", the ultimate insult-track "Ya Mama", "Passin' me by" and the relatable "Otha fish". Mainly, I just enjoyed the distinct lack of braggadocio and gangsta-style posturing on an album that was released in a time and place where that wasn't particularly trendy, and I also liked it that they had some roots with the show "In Living Color".

I know I've heard of the band before, but nothing on this album is familiar to me, and I'm not sure I've ever heard *anything* by them before--it's nice to get another unknown from the collection. And while it's not an earth-shattering album by any stretch, I enjoyed it more than I expected to enjoy what Wikipedia labelled as a "post-punk" band (a term that doesn't really conjure up much of anything in my mind, and seems to span a *lot* of territory). I was occasionally reminded of Ministry's take on industrial sound ("Wardance" in particular), and also The Clash's beat-driven sound, but they clearly had their own sound. My favorites were probably the opening track "Requiem" (in part because I wasn't expecting such heavy synths from the get-go), "Bloodsport", and "Primitive" (with a head-banging nod to the B-sides "Change" and "Pssyche" that apparently only appeared on the "Requiem" and "Wardance" singles (respectively)).

This feels so much like the soundtrack to some post-apocalyptic/dystopian movie from that period, like "Escape from New York", "Running Man" or "Mad Max"/"Road Warrior" or the like, all of which would have benefited tremendously from the grind of Killing Joke. I can also see why Dave Grohl calls this one of his favorite albums, even if it's probably not going to live up there as one of mine. It's tough to know how to rate this, as it's much more interesting than three stars, but aside from its out-of-left-field-entertainment-value, I'm not sure it's really four star material. But why not reward experiments that actually (and largely) succeed?

I'm very glad this album is in this collection, but I'll admit I'm also surprised that there are three PE albums in total (so one more after this for me). To me, this is the original Public Enemy album, mainly because it was one of the first CDs I bought long ago, and while the videos don't really age all that well, it remains a classic for me, largely on the strength of Chuck D's voice and deeply political/social-consciousness lyrics and what was for me an awe-inspiring wall of sampled sound (despite not really getting/understanding at the time a lot of the musical and political/cultural references). My favorites are still "Brothers gonna work it out", "911 is a joke" (by far Flavor Flav's best work), "Welcome to the terrordome", "Burn Hollywood burn", and of course "Fight the power", with honorable mentions to the insidious "Pollywannacracka" and "Power to the people". Frankly, there are few duds on this great album.

I suspect it sounds like sacrilege to suggest that this collection doesn't actually need seven different Bob Dylan albums, nor does it need a best-of compilation masquerading as a live recording. But it really doesn't. That said, though, I can see including this album as a substitute for much of his earlier work, as it provides an impressively hig-quality live recording of many of his great early songs, both pre- and post-"electric". And reading about how so many of the Manchester fans were alternately appreciative during the acoustic set and then outraged when he moved into his electric set, is both fascinating and baffling. (The "Judas!" call is rightly infamous, and seems to say so much more about fandom than anything Dylan did or didn't do. Sadly, though, all streaming versions of this album have omitted all the juicy pre-track snippets, including the whole back-and-forth before "Like a rolling stone".) It's also fun to listen to The Hawks (soon to be The Band) tear things up in the electric set. The only ding I'd give is that if only his voice wasn't so...Dylanesque...so many of the songs (acoustic, mainly) wouldn't sound so undifferentiated, but the lyrics are worth squinting for.

Much like Thin Lizzy's "Live and Dangerous" album, this album feels like it's somehow circumvented the "rules" of this project, but it doesn't seem fair to knock down the rating because of it, and while I find overly long albums a bit of a bore, this one packs a lot of great songs into an hour and a half.

Well, at least this is the last Bjork album for me in this collection. It's gotten hard over the past four albums of hers to distinguish between a lot of them (although the earliest stuff and her Sugarcubes album are definitely much less Bjork-sounding than the others), and this album is no exception, despite being the most recent one of the collection. I'm hard-pressed to call out any particular track (except maybe the many-layered "Atom dance"), and even the videos for this album weren't as compelling or otherworldly as earlier albums; "Lionsong" and "Notget" are in some ways the most creative (and pretty wild costumes, plus creepy Alienesque scenery in "Notget"), while "Stonemilker" and "Black lake" seem pretty tame by Bjork standards, although they showcase Iceland's harsh landscape well. Overall, this felt like a soundtrack album more than most of her albums in this album--perhaps a soundtrack to an arthouse film, admittedly.

Until I read the extensive Wikipedia entry for this album, I hadn't realized how extensive her work on this album was, nor how many (often VR) videos she'd produced for the tracks, nor how many variations and strings-only versions she released. I suspect those were all manna for her devoted fanbase, but I just couldn't go there.

Now that we've overloaded on Bjork in this collection, I just hope that I can reclaim my occasional enjoyment of her music and creative spirit.

I've never heard of Shack before, and definitely haven't heard anything from this album, so it's nice to get a new (to me) sound. It seems like a fine enough album, but honestly nothing much stood out, musically or lyrically, except that it sounds like it could have been produced 20 or 30 years earlier than it was (except maybe "Shack - reinstated"). I kind of liked the back-to-back "Captain's table" and "Streets of Kenny" a bit more than the others, but I'm not sure exactly why, and "Daniella" reminded me a bit of Gorillaz in a weird way.

Sadly, the Wikipedia entry is pretty spartan, so it wasn't until I read the "1001 albums" entry that I got a glimpse of the sad and drug-ravaged story of the Head brothers and their path of will-play-for-drugs for far too long. And apparently several of the songs are all about their quest for heroin and other narcotics back in the day.

I'm really surprised we get to listen to Fun Lovin' Criminals in this collection, but happily so. I only own one album by them, their compilation "Bag of Hits", so I was familiar with their singles on this album and love every one of them, although perhaps not as much "The grave and the constant", and while the video for that track was weird and kind of compelling, it didn;t make a lot of sense and didn't add to the song itself. (By contrast, the video for "Scooby snacks" made the song even more fun, and the same for the video for the great "King of New York"; the video for "Fun Lovin' Criminals" didn't add much.) I also enjoyed hearing the new-to-me tracks on this album, with my favorites likely "Bombin' the L" and "Bear hug", as well as "I can't get with that" (perhaps because it has some affinity with "King of New York").

Even though there's not that much of a connection, aside from a NY vibe, when I saw the videos I was really reminded of The Beastie Boys and how both trios really seem to enjoy working with each other. I was also reminded of another great (and seemingly unsung) New York band from the mid/later 90s, Soul Coughing (and a shame we don't get any of their albums in this collection).

I definitely wish there were half-stars for albums like this. If there had been more singles--and what a shame that this album didn't have "Korean bodega" and "Love unlimited"--this would be an easy four stars, but the non-singles are uneven enough that I can see a three star rating. But hey, they're too much fun for that, right? La-di da-di, free John Gotti.

Seems fitting to finally get a Sly & The Family Stone album not longer after Questlove's "Sly Lives!" tribute got released (in February 2025). I'm not sure I've ever heard a full album by the band, certainly not this one, so everything but the two iconic singles ("Sing a simple song" and "Everyday people") are new to me. A few of the tracks seemed pretty flat (the title track especially--strange to read that was a hit single--but also the strangely uneven "Somebody's watching you" and the overly long and rambling "Sex machine"), but overall it's pretty entertaining, and pretty wild to have such an explicit song title as "Don't call me n****, whitey" (with a fairly strong song to match its title and a crazy amount of wah-wah going on); the version of this song by Ice-T, Body Count and Jane's Addiction at the 1991 Lollapalooza doesn't really add much musically to this song but is a great and uncomfortable performance.

The centerpieces of the album are clearly those fantastic singles, with honorable mention to "I want to take you higher". There have been so many great covers of those songs, yet the originals hold up to all of them extremely well, and they make this album a classic. (My favorite "Sing a simple song" cover/adaptation is the one by D'Angelo/Chuck D/Isaac Hayes, well worth checking out on the tribute album "Different Strokes by Different Folks", which also has a fun and faithful cover of "Everyday people" by Maroon 5.)

Although I'm not sure I ever knew the name of the band that played it, I've heard the opening "Intro" track many many times and always enjoyed it (brief as it is). I'm glad I finally get to hear the album it belongs to, even if the other tracks don't always live up to what I imagined they would sound like. There are only a few duds, though (mainly "VCR" and ""); my favorites are "Intro", "Islands", "Shelter" and "Infinity". I was also surprised at the number of videos for an album that produced no singles--the "VCR" video kind of redeems the lackluster song; "Crystalised" and "Basic spaces" both have pretty boring videos, although weird to watch the percussionist play the tiny drum-board; and the "Islands" video accentuates a good song with a great and sad hypnotic dance story.

It's tough to know how best to rate an album that's more mood music than something demanding all your attention. But for "Intro" alone I'm willing to give them four stars, and I feel like the remainder of the album backed up that potential anyway.

An interesting selection for the day. I'm pretty sure I've never heard any of the songs on this album, and if I've heard anything by Marianne Faithfull I'm not aware of it. And even before I read about the sad story of where this album stands in her life/career, I could tell there was something somewhat tragic from her voice alone (a bit like listening to Billie Holiday's ravaged voice in "Lady In Satin"). But whatever the inspiration or source, the combination of her voice, Steve Winwood synthesizers and a basic backing band makes for a strangely compelling album that combines a New Wave aesthetic with almost country-style songs. There's really one track that falls a bit flat ("Brain drain"); my favorites are the title track, "Witches' song" and the surprisingly caustic and explicit "Why'd ya do it?", as well as both covers which vastly improve on the originals (an impressively darker and more believable version of Shel Silverstein/Dr Hook & The Medicine Show's "The ballad of Lucy Jordan" (that absolutely shines in "Thelma & Louise") and an inspired take on John Lennon's "Working class hero"). At times I was reminded of Toni Childs (a shame that we don't get anything from her in this collection), but more from the resonance of her voice than the bleakness of some of the tracks on this album.

Given how tortured her life was at times, I kind of figured she must have passed away a while back (although likely not at the age of 37). But I only just now discovered that she died very recently (1/30/2025). RIP Marianne!

Another gem from the unknowns-corner of this collection. I'd never heard of Slint, either during its incredibly brief existence, or in the decades afterward; nor had I ever heard of the term "math rock" before reading about this album (and very amused that King Crimson and Rush are considered equal members of that genre). And very satisfying to know that I've now listened to what the Independent in 2024 ranked as "number five on their list of the 20 most underrated albums ever" (according to the Wikipedia entry).

I'm not sure I could say I really enjoyed this album, as it's hard to sink your teeth into, particularly after only one listen (and despite wearing headphones, I *still* struggled to make out most of the largely-spoken-word lyrics); I thought "Washer" was more accessible than most, and "Good morning, Captain" has...something..a bit more captivating than the others .

But either way they definitely created a distinctive sound and style, and I'm not surprised to read that they've inspired a number of other later bands to follow down their lonely path. And I wasn't all that surprised to read that they broke up just before the album was released--insuring that they and the album would remain in obscurity--largely due to the lead singer's depression, but what a shame in many ways.

I'm pretty sure I've heard of Animal Collective before, but also pretty sure I haven't heard anything by them (or at least from this album). I feel like they've sort of channeled Radiohead and maybe some sort of mashup of TV on the Radio and LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire, blended with some sort of retro 90s alternative vibe (mainly just the occasional wall of impenetrable sound), plus weird bits of Beach Boys and ersatz-world-music styles. But somehow not as interesting as what that combination could have been. The highlights for me were "Summertime clothes" and the oddly peppy "Brother Sport".

There are a surprising number of videos for this album (6), most of which hew (somewhat) to the Radiohead style, especially the video for the opening track "In the flowers" as well as (partially) "Summertime clothes" and (even more remotely) "Brother Sport", but again not as intriguing (perhaps even pretentious), and with a weird fascination for masked dancers in sheets in many of them. The cover's non-animated illusion of animation is pretty cool, though, I'll give them that. Overall, though, it's not really to my taste, even if it was *much* shorter and/or they'd convinced their guitarist to participate in the album.