Reviews by owen

Man, I love this album so much. This was my intro to the Pixies in 1989, and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say this changed how I thought (and felt) about music.

I like the beats, but there doesn't really need to be over an hour and a quarter of this. I liked Macy Gray in Geto Heaven Part 2, and the last track with Pops was also a highlight.

I liked the music quite a lot, but I wish he would enunciate a bit more when singing. The excellent final track boosts this album, almost into four territory.

Hucknall can clearly sing, but I don't care for his voice. The production doesn't help; it all comes across as a bit soulless. Also the Talking Heads version of Heaven is vastly superior.

I guess this is my third five-star review for Kate Bush. Some great songs on here; as well as the title track and This Woman's Work, I liked Love and Anger and Deeper Understanding a lot. I love the bass sound on this album.

This is good stuff; I like Blur. I don't like this quite as much as later (more Pavement-y?) Blur. Still a solid four though.

I wasn't totally sold on Cool In The Pool, where I found the vocals a little too comedic, but the other tracks made up for it for me. Generally good stuff, although I prefer the straight up krautrock of Can. A solid four.

Oof. Joe Elliott's vocals are not to my taste. And the music is run of the mill hair metal.

Two Weeks is (even if overplayed) a great song, with lovely Beach Boys style harmonies. I liked Ready, Able too. But for every decent song, there were a couple of unlikeable ones, and on the whole I found more of this irritating. The wavery tone to the singer's voice is less noticeable on the faster songs, or those with harmonies, but is a little annoying on the slower numbers. A high two.

There are bits of this that are dangerously close to jam band territory, but it manages to walk the knife edge quite deftly. Feels driving and repetitive in a way that works for me. I liked Lemmy's bass playing especially in Lord Of Light. I didn't really mind the spoken word bits, though Sonic Attack sounded like a Monty Python skit :) All in all, there's a lot more to like here than dislike.

One of my favorite albums of all time. Had the pleasure of watching MBV play it live a while back. Transcendent.

Deserves all its accolades. Gaye's voice is beautiful, lush arrangements and social conscience. Mercy Mercy Me is my favorite track.

I like this a lot but it's not quite at the same level as ATCQ or De La Soul. "Good Newz Comin'" was a jam. "Doin' Our Own Dang" was the best track on the album, but the collabs on that track highlights how important the contributions of De La Soul, Q-Tip and others were. A strong four.

I see everyone else has made the Lebowski joke, so I'll leave it this time. But I find this to be terribly bland.

O'Connor's voice is great, and I especially loved the more uptempo tracks on here (Emperor's New Clothes was a standout for me). I'd almost forgotten how powerful Nothing Compares 2 U was. A solid four. I still think Mandinka is my favorite track of hers (off the previous album).

Competent but uninspired 70s rock.

I thought I would like this. But it turns out I didn't care for it at all. I'm not entirely sure why; it has components I like (and I'm not averse to "depressing" music). But it didn't grab me.

I had some of the same problems with this as I did with the Ananda Shankar release recently. I didn't like the versions of Western songs (Imagine was pretty bad), or the Algerian songs with more Western production and would have just preferred Algerian music. Khaled has a listenable voice, though.

I generally liked this, although I thought the vocals were a little uninspired. By the end of the album I was begining to tire of it. A low three.

Some of this is a little creepy. Maybe it seemed fine in 1990. Some of the beats got a bit samey too; I swear multiple tracks sampled Funky Drummer.