Reviews by nevele

What a masterpiece in its genre. An easy 4,5* for That Lady and Highways Of My Life alone.

One of the most underrated britpop albums of the 90's. With so much youthful energy every song is just joyous.

I really appreciate the craftsmanship of The Avalanches. How every song is woven into the next, how the samples mix and match. It must've taken years to put this together, and only therefore is an album for the ages. It swings, it dances.

Only it does so little for me. I think I would want to like this more than I actually do.

A lot of highs filled up with a lot of mediocrity.

For every 'Go Back Home' there's a 'Sit Yourself Down' and for every 'Cherokee' there's a 'Black Queen.'

On 'Songs for Swingin' Lovers!' Frank Sinatra captures the joyful and positive side of love. Even more significant is the contrast to 'In The Wee Small Hours,' an album I had a few months back on this list- released not even a year before this one - where Sinatra himself was lost and the album reflected that depressing sense of lost love.
What a contrast! These two albums explore totally different themes, showcasing Sinatra's diversity.

Where I am normally drawn to the darker side of music, this second album wins it on all fronts from the more melancholic Sinatra.
His beautiful voice conveys relaxing emotions, and in 'Songs for Swingin' Lovers!' the musical accompaniment feels animated and full, as if a big band and brass section provide the necessary optimism.

Nowhere on this 45 minute album does it get boring. While it's not my go-to choice of music, 'Songs for Swingin' Lovers!' is something I'll happily listen to.

In 1999/2000, Moby's album was everywhere and extremely popular, appealing to a wide range of music lovers, from a wide range of backgrounds.
That's because the album featured a mix of pop, uptempo dance, ambient, and a unique blend of old blues vocals with electronic beats by Richard Melville Hall. The second half of the album, with tracks like "Everloving" and "My Weakness", added depth to the more dance-oriented singles from the album.
A classic.

When this album first came out, I was a big fan of it. The singles that came off it were a pleasant surprise on the radio and the full album had some great songs while some of the lesser songs on the album didn't bother me that much. And this was a deserved return for Morrissey in the spotlight.
Over time this view has changed a bit.
Where older albums like "Vauxhall and I" and newer ones like "I Am Not a Dog on a Chain" are still feeling fresh, I never reach for this album anymore.
And re-listening to it over the last day I think it was indeed one of the last times this album would've played on my stereo, with the exception of one or two songs.

She has an excellent voice for elevator music

This may be the best neo-soul record of the last 50 years, but it's not my style. The 90's smooth and chill mix of soul and hip-hop is too close to the R&B of that era for me. "Cruisin'" is a standout track.

I really vibed with a much later album by XTC on this list (Apple Venus Volume 1) but this kinda cynical 80's wave rock does it much less for me.

Based on the averages on this site, it seems like most people hear something in this album that I don't. While it has a few great songs, overall I feel like Bowie is still searching for a style and direction with this album, and it doesn't quite come together as a cohesive whole.
A different calibre of album than the ones he would make after this.

It's dark, it's raw, it's brooding, it's sexy, it's rock 'n' roll.

I knew the singles of this album of course: "Relax," "Welcome To The Pleasuredome," (of which I enjoy the 7" single a bit more than this 13,5-minute album version) "Two Tribes" (of which I enjoy the 9-minute 12" a lot more than this shorter version on the album) and "The Power Of Love."

What I didn't know is that these singles were part of the whole album which leans completely on the sounds of these four songs, with a few covers in the mix.

Producer Trevor Horn enjoys creating bombastic sounds and incorporating them into a cohesive whole, but this approach only partly succeeds on this album. The rest of the material is just not strong enough. He would achieve greater success with Propaganda and Art Of Noise.

This album is an amazing time-piece of the 80s, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece.

This is completely the genre I'm into, but it's not the best album in the grenre or even the timeframe

What a phenomenal record!
Whether it's the groovy rock parts of the first four songs or the experimental sounds of 'Aumgn' and 'Peking O,' it's all equally interesting. It's a progressive rock epic that keeps me engaged from start to finish.

I understand that some people have issues with the Second Vinyl of this record, especially with 'Aumgn,' but I'd like to take a moment to defend that song.

In 'Aumgn,' I hear the layers of sound that I would later hear on the first Laibach albums. It gives off a feeling of transgression. This song, with its incredible soundscapes, moves from tense anxiety at the start to a rhythmic drumming at the end that feels like an anti-authority poem set to music. Absolutely incredible.

Loud and a bit psychedelic blues / hard-rock

After a couple of really good albums, it was time for Harry Nilsson to cash out.
That's what you're listening to here.

Where I rate Vulnicura and Vespertine as two of the best albums ever made, this Medúlla has never done it for me. I find the sounds lacking any interesting quality to it. I appreciate where Bjork was going here, but it needed time to be fleshed out, which she did on later albums

Good debut, where the biggest power lies in the story -telling and a little less in the music.

One brilliant song, lots of filler