Reviews by owen

The opening track, Krautrock, is so much to my taste that I could quite happily have extended it to forty minutes and had it be the whole album. I liked the other stuff too, but not to the same extent.

Pleasantly listenable, if a little unexciting. I like her voice. Maybe this might be higher than a three on repeated listens. I think I liked Happiness best.

I liked this, but not quite as much as Djam Leelii. A couple of the songs were a bit too synthy in a way that didn't work for the music; similarly with the guitar solo on the final track.

This was very enjoyably melancholic, and I liked Dennis's slightly ravaged voice. A pretty solid four.

A delightful slice of power pop. Short and sweet at only 35 mins, pretty much every song worth listening to. Great use of synths.

Huh. This is an interesting one. I generally like Royksopp quite a lot. But this came hot on the heels of Nightmares On Wax, which I found dull, and it made me realize that perhaps this album is not a million miles away. It's definitely better than NoW a fair bit. Eple is a strong standout. And there are maybe days where I'd feel more into this (and I also think I like later Royksopp a bit more). But today this is a strong three, not quite a four.

Title track almost drove me to give up. But I persisted and ... hated the rest just as much. Singer's voice is unlistenable to me.

Fantastic stuff. I liked this just as much as TPAB. The man's a poet.

I liked this more than Eliminator; maybe I was just in the mood for some blues rock today. La Grange is solid, I also liked Master of Sparks a lot. Sneaks into a four, I think

This album is inoffensively pleasant, but that's actually the problem; as a result it's soulless and boring.

Relaxing and pastoral, but perhaps a bit too much so. I liked the faster portions more and wished there had been more like that. Enjoyable listening, but I've liked other Indian music on this list more.

Harris has a beautiful voice and there were some tracks on here that I really enjoyed; Boulder to Birmingham was a standout. A few of the tracks were a little too country for me; the Merle Haggard cover among them. But definitely some strong moments; this gets a high three but is close to a four.

I like this a decent amount; nicely jazzy production. I was slightly less excited by the rapping, but overall a pleasurable listen. Solid three.

I love the Beatles, but although the musicianship is there, this doesn't have the composition strength of later albums. Standout song is All My Loving, which is great (Hold Me Tight is a bit of a stinker though). Serviceable covers played with verve (Money is among the best). A lower end four.

Been a while since I listened to this, and I feel I've drifted away from Franz Ferdinand a bit, so I was pleasantly surprised to be reminded what a banger this album is - not really a bad song on it. Nicely spiky.

When the electric piano kicked in on Inner Crisis, I found myself involuntarily exclaiming "oh yeah!". I also love the little bends the bass is doing in Maesha. I kind of wish more of the tracks had a South African feel like the last track does. A strong four.

I think I would enjoy any of these songs in isolation, but an entire album of it was simply too much for me. I like Margo Timmins voice, but I longed for a little variation.

I deliberately held off on scoring this for a while as I wanted it to sit with me for a bit, and relisten a few times. After having done so, I think it crosses the border into a five. I find the vocals to be the weakest point - some minor tuning issues, but musically, this is excellent.

My problem with this is that it's too close in sound to the things it's parodying (which I also tend not to like), so it's not satisfying musically. And it's not funny enough to succeed on that front either.

This is a fantastic album; in the top tier of Beastie Boys albums. Love the mixture of hip hop, punk, and jazz-funk.