Reviews by mkw

How is this, in any way, an essential album? I can't find anything beyond super generic 80s pop.

I actually mostly like Jarvis Cocker and his lyrics, but there's a thin line between the songs he pulls off, and the songs where he fumbles and it's all a bit embarrassing. This album has both.

The album is longer than it should be, and there's absolutely no excuse for that 15 minute closer.

I struggle to enjoy Bowie. I hate the "stuttering" on changes. It's very, very difficult to argue that this isn't a brilliant album though.

I usually end up giving these experimental albums fairly high ratings, but this just isn't very interesting.

I've been struggling with these farewell albums. I hated Blackstar
Somehow Cohen manages to compensate for the crumbling voice and makes a very depressed album shine in a way that is almost unbeleivable. The lyrics seem less complicated than his previous albums, but it also feels like an intensely personal conversation with god.

I want to like this. I desperately want to like this. At points I actually do.
But overall this just isn't that great. I struggle so much with Peter Gabriel - both the solo albums and Genesis.

This is both incredibly boring, and manages to be intensely frustrating by having several tracks that are almost good.

2nd Stills album in two weeks, but while I liked his self titled album, this one is just incredibly generic. A double album, so a lot of filler, but no standout tracks either.

Some great tracks, but hasn't aged well in my opnion.

Very strong opener, and very strong final track. I feel some of the slower tracks are a bit on the boring side though.

A couple of really strong tracks, but also a lot of filler. Even the strongest tracks, with their swelling crescendos never actually does enough to justify the drama of the backing track.

Nirvana was never nowhere close to as good as they got credit for. This album is no different. There are two great tracks on this album, but both Bowie and Lead Belly nailed them on the originals, so what's the point?

There's simply not enough here to carry an album. The opening is great, the middle is almost okay, and the closers are a waste of time.

Sure, it's just beeps and boops, but everything just works. Having a sound this crisp and coordinated on such an early electronic album is incredible. The tracks flow into one another, and the album is fairly short so nothing ever sounds tired.

Very strong opening that absolutely nose dives with "I Come And Stand At Every Door", and then never recovers.

I liked this a lot more than I expected. It's a very listener friendly album, but I'm not sure I'd consider it an all time great.

The most solid 5 I've had on this list so far. Everything just works, and the songwriting is off the charts. I will never understand how “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” fits in with the rest of the album, but everything else is incredible.

This is just boring. I've never been a huge Dylan fan, but this is the 5th Dylan album so far on the list, and the others have been easy 4 stars at the very least. This is just too slow and feature poor to work for me. The music is solid, but it's static - nothing changes, nothing evolves, there are no crescendos or surprises. The lyrics are obviously still interesting, but everything progresses so slowly that it's a struggle to stay focused.

Not sure if this was ever good, but if it was it certainly didn't age well.

Why was this a double album? There's a ton of good tracks here, and it could have been an incredible album, but it's just drowned out on disc 2 with (almost) nothing but filler.