Reviews by owen

I liked this quite a lot; more than the debut Pere Ubu we got a while back (which I gave four stars). This is catchier, almost poppy in places, though Thomas's voice is still a love-it-or-loathe-it oddity. This is in the upper echelons of four for me; I suspect it could go to five with repeated listens.

Soulful and funky, very enjoyable. The guitar solos in "That Lady" and "Summer Breeze" elevate those already great songs to the next level - I love the guitar tone in particular in both of those. The rest of the tracks are not quite at that level but still very good. I think the inclusion of those two songs pushes into a 5/5

For every song of the caliber of "I Can See For Miles" (a sure fire 5-star song), there's a stinker like "Silas Stingy". Overall there's some decent stuff on here, although I found the "ad jingle" interruptions an annoyance after a short while. Low three.

I didn't like this quite as much as the debut album, though oddly it was the tracks most like the first album's tracks that maybe worked least for me. I liked the stuff that showed the direction headed towards Ghost Town, like Man at C&A.

I didn't particularly like Electric Ladyland, so I didn't expect to like this either. But surprisingly, I found it a very enjoyable listen. Little Wing is great and there are several other strong songs on here. Felt much more focused and rock/R&B oriented than Ladyland. Giving this a very solid 3, almost a four.

I liked this well enough (The Rough and The Quick was a standout), even if so e of it was a bit backgroundy. Some was a bit like a less good Massive Attack.

Much like other samba, I like this generally, in that it's easy to listen to, but it doesn't overly grab me. I do like Getz' sax tone though.

I have a huge reggae blind spot. I'm sure this is good, even great, if reggae's your thing, but it doesn't do it for me. I quite liked "Waiting in Vain", and actively dislike "Three Little Birds", but overall, I find the album to not have enough variation.

Wow, the bass is really high in the mix here, though that's fine by me. Having said that, this is an album of decent material with one standout great track - Roundabout. Strong three.

This sounds incredibly dated. In no way is the sample (actually interpolation) of Kraftwerk better than just listening to Kraftwerk in the first place. This is a low 2; pretty close to a 1, TBH.

XTC is another of those bands that you'd think I'd like more than I do. Generally I think this is because I don't really like Partridge's vocals. Dear God is the strongest track here, though.

I don't think I've ever listened to this album before, so I was surprised how many songs I knew - I guess there were a lot of singles from it. And with good reason, because there are a bunch of catchy songs on here (though perhaps still none quite as good as Alright).

There are a few great songs on here, but also quite a bit of filler. This isn't as consistently good as Ray of Light or Music IMO.

Too many skits on here, and it didn't need to be an hour and a quarter. I like this about the same as Yeezus, which is to say there were moments I liked a lot, but the whole was just too much for me.

I didn't mind this, mainly I think because I find Rod the Mod to be a fairly compelling rock vocalist. Some of it was a bit run-of-the-mill blues, but there were moments I liked a fair bit. Lowish three.

At an hour and a quarter this is too long, and I don't think it's quite as strong as Back To Basics, but again, I enjoyed this more than I expected. A pretty high three. Pretty shameless Sugababes ripoff though!

Taylor's voice is too smooth for my liking. Overall this is bland and forgettable.

Title track is great. And I like Kometenmelodie 2 a lot too. A very solid four, close to five.

This is pretty familiar to me as I had the cassette tape of it in college days. Excellent musicianship, and I see some of the ideas here being used by other prog bands later (there's a section in Moon child that influences Genesis circa Lamb Lies Down IMO)

This is adjacent to stuff that I like a lot, but I found it too aimless to be compelling. I don't dislike it, but it doesn't have enough forward momentum.