Reviews by owen

I thought I was going to dislike this, especially given the dreadful album cover. But although I wasn't that sold on the first track, I liked it more and more as I listened. Although this is nominally grunge, it's doing something quite different from most grunge bands. I thought Lanegan's voice suited the material well.

I like the intention here, and Sullivan's voice is good, but ultimately I did not find the music here to be particularly memorable. Price Tags was the track I enjoyed most.

I liked this, but to be honest, I'd have liked it more if it had been 40 minutes long

Very obviously a predecessor to Spiritualized. I really enjoyed Revolution and Suicide on here; repetitive and hypnotic in a way that worked for me. I liked the rest too, but not to the same extent.

I feel like I listened to this in the past and didn't particularly like it, but I found it reasonably engaging listening this time around. A fairly strong three, close to a four.

Man, I love this album. Probably The Fall's best. Yes, Mark E Smith can't sing. Yes, it's repetitive. But it does something for me that I can't quite explain.

Running Up That Hill is so good, and it's not even the best song on the album (I'm partial to The Big Sky). I really like side 2 as well; Kate Bush really is one of a kind

"Fast Car" is a fantastic song, but it's far from the only one on this album. The bass tone on "Across the Lines" reminded me of the bass on Peter Gabriel's "Mercy Street"; turns out both were by Larry Klein. Chapman's voice is top notch.

I genuinely don't get the appeal. Lots of people here praising her voice, but although it's undeniably powerful, it's also pretty hard for me to listen to. The grating tone in Mercedes Benz is awful. This is musically a bit better than Cheap Thrills though; the band is pretty tight. A higher two.

There are a few truly dreadful songs on here; Remembering, When Do I, Dearest. Title track is not bad, though seems inspired by Across The Universe. Schmaltzy stuff; Bee Gees would get better later

The bass sounds like they forgot to plug it into the amp and just held a mic really close to it. Can't stand the vocals. This is, if anything, worse than Limp Bizkit. Couldn't finish.

I like this a lot, and generally I'm a fan of the genre, but this isn't quite at the level of Portishead's Dummy or Massive Attack's best. Still, I like the claustrophobic nature of it.

This was not to my taste. Although I'm not averse to a bit of tuneless shambolic music if done right, this version of it doesn't work for me.

I expected to like this more than I did; I feel like the whole is less than the sum of the parts here. I liked the individual tracks, but they all got a bit much for me. I liked the various guest additions, and there's no doubt there's a lot of skill on display here, but it all got a little too samey.

This is is my favorite of the five Elvis Costello albums we've had so far. Several great songs on here. Maybe just sneaks into a five for me.

Much of this feels like filler, but I think Everyday is Like Sunday is the match for all but the very best Smiths songs, and Suedehead is pretty good too. Plausibly.deniable anti-immigrant sentiment in Bengali in Platforms :(

I liked this quite a lot; I admired its scrappy nature. Marginally overlong at an hour and a quarter, but the music was enjoyable enough to compensate. A solid four.

kd lang's masterful voice suits this material so well. I really like the arrangements too (the shimmery guitars in So It Shall Be!). This album has been a long standing favorite, and easily earns five stars.

Dreadful stuff. Soulless juvenile cock-rock. Is the joke that the trucks are humping on the cover?

I like this a fair bit, but it feels that for the most part, Simon had not yet found an independent voice that was distinctive from Simon and Garfunkel; this feels very much like Bridge Over Troubled Water II at points. This means it feels like Garfunkel is lacking from the record; I would have welcomed his voice. The exception here is Me and Julio, where it feels like Simon is covering new ground, and is the strongest track on the album by far. A strong three, almost a four.