Reviews by nevele

A decent version of the French electro style, but really nothing more

A double album that doesn't bore for one second. It's one amazing song after the other, across several styles and with a lot of spot-on social commentary and humour in the lyrics.

I finally fully agree that this album always ranks among the best albums ever written.

When you ask a pixies fan which album they like best, about 1/3 says Surfer Rosa, about 1/3 says Doolittle and about 1/3 seems to enjoy Bossanova over the four others.

And, once again, Bossanova is a superb album from the Pixies. But I fall in the group that doesn't have this one as their favourite. And I've now re-listened to this album a few times over the last two days and to me it falls short in comparison because after the legendary first half of this album I have the feeling of a little bit of boredom come over me during the second half.

This album listens more like a straight forward rock album and a bit more poppy than other Pixies alums do. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, because if there's one thing Bossanova achieves is that it sounds like a whole, like an album that belongs together. A bit more than the sometimes disjointed other albums.

But it lacks some of the magic and peaks that was happening on the two albums before this one. But it also lacks the sometimes terrible songs those two had and thus is the most consistent of the lot. And I kinda miss the background vocals of Kim Deal.

I listened to this with a crazy amount of enjoyment, but it's just a small step below the first two.

The second Bjork I listened to on this list and another one that's blowing me away.
But where Vespertine is about the beautiful sides of love, this Vulnicura is about heartache. So dark and melancholic instead of romantic and tender, but just as mystical, intimate and strong.

And it's the lyrics on this album that make it complete. We follow and listen to the story of a relationship that's failing. Björk is taking us from the months before the break-up to the times after. And some of the lyrics felt like a gutpunch, where the music is amazingly orchestrated around the parts of the decaying love in every song, whether we go from melancholy to pain to anger to relief.

If I regret us
I'm denying my soul to grow
Don't remove my pain
It is my chance to heal
We carry the same wounds
But have different cures

The album grows and shows more with every listen. What a discovery.

Jeff Beck, Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart are in form on this album, and this lays the basis of the British Blues-Rock that was to come.
Some great interpretations of songs. But the few songs written by Beck and Stewart are not up to the level of the songs written by others.

An absolute essential album, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece.

I'll be honest to say that I really wasn't looking forward to listening a whole 2 hours to something classed as a 'country' album. There are few things that appeal less to me in this life.
Luckily when the bluegrassy Nashville Blues started I was relieved there would be more to this album.

2 hours is still too long, so I listened to the album in steps.

In the end, I feel like I've been listening to a great collection of vintage country and bluegrass, where the old school seniors of the genre like Roy Acuff and Doc Watson play together with the bearded hippies of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

And I didn't mind it at all.

A very impressive 45 minutes of music with a voice that carries power as well as gentleness.

I understand all this has meant for pop music. I appreciate the influence this has had on the later up and coming music diva's, from Christina Aguilera to Ariane Grande. I understand we have a young Andre 3000 and Busta Rhymes on here.
I understand how people have good feelings about this from their youth. I appreciate that people like nodding their heads on these easy going flowing beats. I get that people got laid on this with the sexy and smooth R&B.

But for me, this is absolutely nothing. I disliked it when it first came out, and I dislike it even more now. Background dribble.

Grand, compelling and at the same time intimate, this album took me a few listens to get into. But the evening listen on the couch with a glass of wine caught the right mood.

It has taken me a bit more than 30 years to realise what a great album this is.
Not as experimental as Wowee and not as brilliant as Crooked Rain Crooked Rain, but definitely following shortly after those two.

I was ready to bitch about this album, but for the genre it's in, it really is not bad at all. The reason she wasn't taken seriously definitely had to do with the transformation from Micky Mouse Club Girl to her slutty image around this time. Which fully felt forced and fake. Even the title of 'stripped' did her no favours.

And that's too bad, because she's an amazing vocalist with a voice that can do R&B as easy as soul, pop and even rocky.

The album itself, with its 77 minutes, has some great songs on it, and some terrible filler. It could've done with some major cutting and demoting about 5 to 6 songs to B-sides.

And like her voice, this album is all over the place, from jazzy funk ballads, to poppy piano ballads, to soulful powersongs, to rocky bangers. It feels very disjointed.

All in all, I didn't mind it, but also won't listen to it again.

It might not be their best, and a bit more
poppy than their previous work, and the production is shite, but I'm still enjoying the hell out of this punkier version of REM

After the first listen I was impressed with the album, but did think it was a little like a jazz-singer album full of covers.
Then I started looking into the album and found out all songs are actually written by Carole King herself.
And that the reason I thought it was an album full of covers was because she is just an insanely talented songwriter.

Unexpectedly pleasant. Back when I heard this in the 90's I thought this was the music that put me to sleep, but found much more in it than decades before. Must be me getting older. Or better at listening to music.

Some really interesting ideas and executions on this album. But it's still the fact we're listening to a few film-score tracks for different non-existent movies. Lots of sound that might be better if they were, indeed, used in movies instead as music on an album

The best of the three Nirvana albums. But where the anger was replaced with more cynical self loathing, the music made a step forward.

What a great album and a joy to listen to. Clever music, very rocky and with lyrics that actually made me laugh.

I'm not normally one for superlatives but this was a masterpiece

A showcase of a lot of electronic music in the 90's, given a William Orbit spin.
Made for home and for the dancefloor in one go, and that deserves some praise.

"Somebody to Love," "Today"and "White Rabbit" are rightly the prize-winners, with the latter being maybe the best song under 3 minutes ever made. The intro bass of Jack Cassady later combined with Grace Slick's vocal line is absolutely incredible . This also immediately names the strongest asset of the band.

The other songs besides those three on the album are nice, but nowhere do they reach the level of the band's two most famous titles. That's not a bad thing, but what you're left with is changeable song material with some psychedelic elements without being blown off your feet.

But that song about Alice. And The White Rabbit. Oh my.