Reviews by nevele

An incredible fun album with an eclectic range of music from surf to electro to rock

The album is completely being carried, and feels like whole, due to the amazing guitarwork from Jeff Beck. Besides that there's some great songs on here, as well as some decidedly mediocre tunes.

Another Morrissey album in this list and one that could likely be considered his best work to date, with closing track Speedway possibly the best solo song he has released.

"All of the rumours keeping me grounded
I never said that they were completely unfounded
And all those lies, written lies, twisted lies
Well, they weren't lies, they weren't lies, they weren't lies"

Reading up on the production of this album, the 8 months of recording that were spent on getting the perfect drum sounds by using the high-hat sounds of one drummer, the kick-drum and tom sound from another on the same track, how a whole bunch of session musicians of the highest caliber are credited on this album, to create the sound that was needed for this album to be perfect. Reading on the switch between analog and digital recordings. On the songs that are stitched together from multiple takes. To make this production sound that has been revered by audiophiles across the globe.

What makes me so upset about that is that the end result is an overproduced, uninspired smooth-pop-jazz album, that could've been given a bit of leeway if it also didn't include a song like Ruby Baby, which really is an atrocity to make it to an album after 8 months or recording.

In order:

Excellent Voice
Good Musicianship
Decent Production
Below-par Songwriting
Terrible personal enjoyment

With its warm production, tasteful orchestrations and of course beautiful voice, this album grabbed me from start to finish.
'The Seventh Seal' and especially 'The Old Man's Back Again' are incredible

Tusk doesn't do it for me. I can indeed hear that it is all a bit more experimental, but it's Fleetwood Mac Experimental.
It creates a few songs that I can hardly sit through. Amazingly, almost all of them are Buckingham songs. The title track jumps out a little for me. For the rest, there is a lot of mediocre stuff that goes in one ear and out the other.

Tusk doesn't feel like an album made on autopilot, but neither does it feel like an album that has a clear vision. Three captains on a ship, so to speak. I understand that a second 'Rumors' was not desirable from Buckingham's perspective, for me it just doesn't make for an album that I really enjoyed. Not something that annoyed me, but I really don't understand the high scores.

First listen didn't really do much for me, but the album got increasingly more pleasant with every listen.
This is a timeless album, while also being a child of its time, romantic and subdued with a psychedelic touch here and there. Certainly "No Man Can Find the War", "Pleasant Street" and "Phantasmagoria in Two" are beautiful songs.

This was quite a fun debut album from this Welsh band, but it took until their second album till they dared to step outside of this standard rock comfort zone.
Only the first (and shortest) song on this album is really memorable.

When I'm in the mood for this, it's 5*, when I'm not, it's a 3*

I don't know what it is with Steely Dan. I objectively should really like this music. It's clever, well written and they're great musicians.
But I always feel like something's missing. And I can't put my finger on it.

I don't dislike Pretzel Logic, but it also doesn't make me sit up and really want to listen to it.

This is my introduction to the Beta Band and the first listen made me straight want to go to a second. And third. So this album has been on at any opportunity I could find. With headphones, in the car, or just my home stereo.
And with every listen another layer in a different song makes itself known, which was even more surprising since it seemed like a bit toned down indie electro at the start with some trip-hop influences.
But there's so much more to it than I thought.

I will be playing this a lot on the coming months and it might slowly make its way into my favourite albums. What a discovery!

4,5*

After the second and third listen I started to really enjoy this album more and more. A good cross between psychedelica and the start of prog/symphonic rock with some soul influences.

Uncomplicated rock 'n' roll with some southern swamp influences: Nonchalant and the perfect music for a rock cafe.

The music of this roguish trio distinguishes itself positively from most other synthpop bands of this era, because they sound a lot less dark, cynical and generally arty-farty. That's not to say that their lyrics have the same positive vibes.
Great album and a superb debut

Delightful album by a bunch of teenagers who take you on a grand tour of music and style history. As many ideas in music as the cover shows it will be.

I can hear there's talent here, but the album devolves quickly into a 13-in-a-dozen pop-by-numbers exercise

Big Sur was such a great summer hit in 2003, a superb song for cruising, and most of the singles of this album still hold up.

The whole of it is certainly ok. Uncomplicated, with a nice retro sound and a great background sound album

A (semi-)classic of the early hardcore punk.
15,5 minutes, 14 songs.

It's one of the albums I had looked up earlier because of NOFX's song "Two Jealous Agains" which speaks about merging record collections with a new partner and now has so many 80's punk albums double, with the mention "We now have 31 minutes of group sex"

It's just not his best work I'm afraid. It's never bad, but it might be the production that makes it sound a bit emptier to me