Reviews by nevele

Psychedelia mixed with Celtic folk melodies Medieval and Middle Eastern arrangements plus quite some Asian instruments.
It's a landmark in psychedelic folk music and influential for years to come. It might not be the best album of all time, but it's intriguing and I'm glad to have listened to it.

An album where you just hear the Voodoo creeping out of the New Orleans swamps. Slowly.

This was an incredible album and I enjoyed this immensely. It reminded me a bit of Alan Wilder's Recoil but newer.
I've listened to it thrice over the last day and I'm currently and for this list putting it at 4 stars.
But this album will make its way back into my playlists and I wouldn't be surprised if this became more over time

A really enjoyable album and I'm glad I've finally heard it. About 4 years after the release of this album I became a fan of The Levellers, and their influences can definitely be said to be the Pogues, Waterboys and the Clash.

That's why this list works, I've now been much easier been able to pinpoint where my favourite bands got their sounds from.

Back to the start after some poppier electronica suits Goldfrapp well

Jamiroquai's "Emergency on Planet Earth" is an infectiously groovy mix of funk, jazz, soul and disco. From start to finish there's catchy and infectious Stevie Wonder inspired rhythms. The bass in particular is fantastic. The instrumentation is rich with with added horns and percussions and of course Jay Kay's voice.
A wonderful record to relax or dance to.

And really, don't get me started on people complaining about cultural appropriation and 'white guy trying to sound black.'
Culture is a mosaic, not a monolith, and it is improved, not damaged, when people incorporate pieces from other sounds or cultures that inspired them. How is honoring your favourite artists, in Jamiroquai's case Stevie Wonder, all of a sudden not done?

It's an enjoyable funky record, clearly inspired by some of worlds greats.

I don't dislike Willie Nelson, but I've never understood how this is rated as a number #1 rated country album of all time. It's got a few really decent songs like 'Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.'
But as a full album this falls so incredibly short.

Well-known recipe of 'Odelay-Beck' with lots of variation and hints of hip-hop, country, folk and electronica.
Again cleverly woven together, but not very surprising.

This album was a lot better than I thought it would be.

Even though Laura Nyro has a good voice, I don't think her way of singing suits me well, especially when she bellows and goes up. It sounds too theatrical to me, and that's a shame, because the songs are quite good. I think the instrumentation is quite worthwhile, but it remains a challenge for me to listen to it in a relaxed manner.
So, to be fair, I could do without this album (actually, most of hers)
A matter of taste probably. Today, I tried again for the 1001 Album Challenge, but I was glad when I finished listening.

Where Plastic Ono Band hit me hard, this album has never really done it for me.

This album, and Public Enemy's Fear Of A Black Planet, are the reason why certain sampling laws were introduced and why records like this can't be made in the current day and age without being bankrupt before release unfortunately. And it's a shame.

https://kottke.org/19/12/every-sample-from-pauls-boutique-by-the-beastie-boys

Elbow is a band that on every album has 3 or 4 songs that reach such incredible heights that they are amongst my all-time favourites. Unfortunately these songs are then surrounded by the rest of the album that's pretty ok, but not outstanding.

If you combine 4 or 5 Elbow albums and combine those songs, you can create an all-time classic. But even this Elbow, counted among their best, just doesn't hold the quality throughout.

But when it does - 'One Day Like This,' 'The Bones Of You' - it's breathtakingly good.

54 Years Old and a classic in the symphonic and prog (hard)rock.
Of course Moonchild is always a small stain on this otherwise magnificent album, but lets just be happy that it allows us to rejoice when the first notes of In The Court Of The Crimson King fade in.
4,5*

There are a few of those bands that make albums where 3 or 4 songs reach amazing heights and the rest feels ok, but not great.
But when you take 4 or 5 of their albums together you can cherry pick and combine the ultimate classic. A band like Elbow has that. And so has Badly Drawn Boy.

Some of these songs are amongst the best I've heard, but as an album, it doesn't reach that height.

I found this unexpectedly good. The easy flow of the music, with the sometimes minimalistic sounds work incredibly well with the message.

Ingenious pop music

"Got enough guilt to start my own religion."

Tori Amos put the bar for any follow-up album incredibly high with a 1-2-3 of 'Silent All These Years - Precious Things - Winter.'

I don't have much more to add than others with 5* have already said.

After the break-up of Fugees, Lauryn Hill started a solo career. When we look back on the past twenty-five years we unfortunately have to conclude that Lauryn Hill's career has not become what was expected at the time. Despite the fact that Ms Hill ultimately only released two albums, she did have a great influence on a whole generation of young musicians.
Which makes sense because The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is a really great album.

With sixteen tracks and more than 45 minutes of music and a few skits that unlike on many other rap and R&B albums do not have to be suffered through, it is quite an ambitious album. This is not only because of the playing time, but also because of the colorful mix of styles, the high-quality songs and the versatile singing and rap of the American musician. Lauryn Hill takes on soul, R&B, hip-hop, rap, folk, gospel, reggae, funk and pop and cleverly blends all these styles together.

This album, produced by Lauryn Hill herself, still sounds fantastic 25 years later, partly because Lauryn Hill was way ahead of her time in 1998 and partly because the music on The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is surprisingly timeless.

This really wasn't a bad album, but it also really never blew me away.