mosephone-listens

Huge synths, huge hair, but only one banger.

'Jump' deserves some kind of 'service to 80s pop culture' award. Some of the guitar riffs ('Hot for Teacher' for one) are seriously complex - as anyoned checked how many fingers Eddie Van Halen has?

Fun fact: Eddie himself apparently said his inspiration for all that finger tapping was Jimmy Page's solo on Led Zeppelin's 'Heartbreaker'.

Apart from 'Jump', I couldn't hum any of it afterwards, so bumped it down to 3 stars. Maybe it's a grower?

I couldn’t believe it when ‘A Minha Menina’ came on. Just last week I was banging on about the original by Os Mutantes, and how it was in a Citroën ad (I think it was the Picasso). The conversation spawned a whole drunken game of 'guess which ad this song is from', which went on until 1 a.m.

The album itself was good fun. Jazzy, relaxing and sunny, elevator worthy. It starts a bit strangely, but once it settles in it’s an easy listen. Pleasant rather than thrilling. Good company. And any other phrase that mean "fine". 3 stars.

This is a time machine to 1969 that somehow came out in 1989. It's warm and full of sexy swagger. It's rich and analogue, which is not something I'm usually happy with, but the vibe of this album is the perfect home for it. Hard to believe it was mostly one person playing everything. It does lay the hippie stuff on a bit thick, and a few of the slower songs drift, but I'll take sincerity over cynicism any day. 4 stars.

I have a confession to make: I don't really like U2.

However, here's proof that they were so much better before the stadium singalongs. This one is lean, urgent and properly angry, and I mean that as a compliment.

'Sunday Bloody Sunday' is iconic, of course. It's the opening track, so when this tidy 42-minute album finished and cycled straight back round to it, I was genuinely glad. The marching drums and jagged guitar still sound like they mean every word. 'New Year's Day' and 'Two Hearts Beat as One' are strong too.

A couple of tracks feel like filler, still, it's a proper album, and miles ahead of what came later for U2. Could come back for a few of these tracks. 4 stars.

It's fine. Genuinely fine. I like blues, so an hour and a quarter of it was never going to be a hardship, and some of the guitar riffs are properly cool, the kind that make you pull that 'gurning guitarist' face. 'Layla' was a highlight. That riff, then the piano that takes the song somewhere completely different, was cool. There's a lot of slow-burning blues, and by the back half I was waiting for something to shake things up. A lovely backdrop nonetheless. 3 stars.