Reviews by nevele

The swan song of The Smiths. A bit more poppy and better produced than their previous albums, but with the same quality.
Johnny Marr is in form, and adepts many new styles on this album without it ever becoming anything other than The Smiths, Morrissey has kept his working-class intellectual lyrics that are as sharp, funny and biting as ever.
Tragic stories in one sentence ( “Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me / no hope, no harm, just another false alarm")
typical Smiths cynicism ("“And if you think peace is a common goal / That goes to show how little you know”)
Or funny while describing the pain every man can feel when he sings it (" I crashed down on the crossbar / And the pain was enough to make a shy, bald, Buddhist reflect / And plan a mass murder")

And please don't forget bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce. They are both in perfect form on this album and complete one of the few perfect albums.

Yes, we all know what a douche Morrissey became (or already was?) but even assholes can be very talented.

An album I gladly keep singing along to.

2* because of Streetlife.

For the rest it's 13-in-a-dozen jazzfunk-by-the-numbers lounge. The music you'll hear in the park when there's a band playing that doesn't want to upset anyone.

1997 was in my prime music listening years, and this album is right up my alley.
And I genuinely wonder how this album has passed me by, not just in that year, but in all the years to come right up until today. It seems outside of the US this has stayed an obscure band for some reason.

And I've been missing out, because it is simply a rock solid album. Fresh, sharp songs, melody, great guitar hooks (One More Hour, Dance Song '97).
It's not groundbreaking, but it doesn't sound like they pretend to be.

This album will be going on rotation for a little while longer.

Sometimes blues-oriented hardrock with crude lyrics works (ACDC's Back In Black) and sometimes it doesn't

Nice voice, nice music, nice lyrics. Just really nice.

Conjuring, stirring, powerful and at the same time completely resigned to despair. This is so damn deep that I have trouble putting it into words.

It's interesting, I was born in the 70's, so the first Queen I heard was the Queen of the 80's. A sound I didn't enjoy at all, never did anything for me.

Until 1991, when I heard Innuendo. That album blew me away and I told my parents who then proceeded to take out and play of their record collection the LP's of Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, A Night at the Opera and a Day At The Races. And all of a sudden I understood why Queen were so highly regarded.

This is another great album by Queen from their somewhat earlier years. But the highlights are definitely found in the first 8 minutes of the album. The rest of the album is of a high level, but won't reach those few minutes again.

A great blast of Glam, it's the simplicity that makes this album groove. And combining the upbeat songs with some very reflective lyrics.
Life's A Gas was a highlight for me on this album, about not dwelling on missed opportunities but embracing life’s joys and celebrating the beauty that it has to offer.

It really grooves but it lacks the broodiness of Kyuss. But I think that might have been the idea of Homme on this album. A bit more straightforward repetition in the riffs.
And it works incredibly well.

What an amazing album, another one that has been lost in time for me.

A great album from Björk, but not her best to be honest. Still, this was incredibly refreshing when it came out and still hasn't really lost much of that feeling.
She definitely built on the sounds and only got better over time.

Without the psychedelia wank, the Doors are much more palatable. And this blues-rock album does it well.

I feel bad giving this album such a low rating, because I'm actually quite fond of Khaled. But we're rating albums, and not artists.
This album is where the music of Khaled really started to lose me a bit
. Too smooth and polished, a far cry from his raw and energetic Rai from the 80's.

The Algerian 80's period, when he was still called Cheb Khaled, was filled with amazing Rai and many classics were written in that period. His French 90's period, when he moved to Paris, brought many Western influences to his music, and made his music even more interesting.

But here, together with the The Brooklyn Funk Essentials, he rehashes or reinterprets many of his older songs which really could've and maybe should've been left alone.

Later he'll make better albums again. It's just not this one, I'm afraid.

I never knew.

This was a delight to listen to this and much better than I guessed it would be. Not all songs are as good as others, but the album has quite a few hidden jewels.

This album appeared on my list on the EXACT day I picked up a copy of The Illuminatus Trilogy at my local op shop.
I think the Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu are trying to let me know they're still alive.

It is so hard rating this album on just the music. There's the book that came out before this album (The Manual) explaining how to write a top selling album, there's the whole Discordian/Illuminatus Trilogy myths, there's the burning of a million dollars as statement, there's the invention of stadium house, there's the whole act.

Music wise, the hits were absolute bangers, and I like most of the 12'' better than the album versions, but the low-beat versions soothe the soul as well.

It's 3,5* fr the album, but 5* for the KLF. I'll stick to 4.

When KD Lang slows down on songs like I Wish I Didn't Love You So and Black Coffee - ripped straight from the 50's - the album becomes bearable.
But the terrible country twang was already outdated when this came out.
Looking past her amazing voice, I now know for certain I'm not a KD Lang fan.

It's all a bit silly, really

Ofcourse there were much better bands out there in this time.
But none were as loud and energetic as MC5

Listening to 'Exile In Guyville' I understand why the critics at the time were and still are lyrical about Liz Phair's debut album, but I also understand why this album did not sell by the millions.

Liz is a great songwriter and the album is quite lo-fi, which adds to the rawness of the songs.

At the same time, Exile In Guyville is a blueprint for the indie rock that would later be mass-produced in the 1990s. Liz Phair's debut album could not commercially match Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, released two years later, but has been much more influential musically.