Reviews by owen

Listened to the non bonus version - thirteen tracks. Even so, a wee bit too much tweedle-dee-dum for me. I like the title track, but much of the rest doesn't stand out to me. A low three.

I like the instrumentals, even if it sounds a little dated. But there's something about Matt Johnson's voice that doesn't work for me, even though he's not a bad singer by any means. Liked the addition of Neneh Cherry on Slow Train, though.

I had a bootleg version of Smile on cassette that I practically wore out in college. I think The Beach Boys (later released) Smile Sessions are actually more essential than this - Brian's 2000s era vocals are not as strong as the originals (especially Carl's). But I can't give an album with Surf's Up less than four.

Like being bathed in warm treacle.

Pretty much the same as the last AC/DC we got - hard to dislike its exuberance, but gets a bit samey after a while. I prefer Bon Scott's vocals in this over Brian Johnson's. High three (but marginally higher than Back In Black)

An hour and a quarter of aimless meandering. Feedback especially pointless. A generous two.

This is pretty soulless. It's not unpleasant listening, but there's not much substance to it.

I didn't hate this quite as much as I expected to, but I really don't like Tyler's voice, and he's a creep. Big Ten Inch Record was egregiously bad.

I think I liked this even more than I liked Blue. Amazing bass playing from Jaco Pastorius, who really brings that extra something to the tracks he is on.

The singles off this are pretty great; I especially like Stupid Girl. The rest isn't quite as strong and doesn't hold my attention as much. An upper three.

Another album that's been a long time favorite. I bought this in 1991 when it first came out, loved it. Still do.

Wow, the Gilberto family really has the bossa nova scene sewn up. This example is pleasant but unexciting.

I thought this was pretty cool - particularly liked the original songs on it, which had a great proto-punk feel to them. The covers weren't nearly as interesting though. Strong 3.

Half way through this album I was ready to give it four stars; there's no denying that Shake It Off is catchy. But the album seems to drop off quite a bit in the second half and get fairly unmemorable. Still merits a three.

I like this era of The Cure. Nicely gloomy. A solid 4.

This doesn't have the benefit of having Paper Planes on it, but I actually preferred this over Kala by quite a bit. Some genuinely good tracks on here that worked for me.

Phew, did it, though it took me three days! Not every song on this is a winner, but that seems a bit much to expect - there are enough of them that are to merit a positive rating. Shirley Simms has a beautiful voice - sounds quite like Kirsty MacColl. The tracks she's lead on are among the strongest on the album. Merritt's voice is a sonorous bass, also nice to listen to.

I'd heard of this but not listened to it before. It grew on me as I listened. When it came to "Along The Banks ... " I realized I'd heard this track before. Good focus music.

I liked this a reasonable amount but it didn't grab me in quite the same way as Lost Souls did.

I find this very hard to rate, because there were aspects to it that were absolutely fantastic - I loved a lot of the production - but so much of it was so relentlessly misogynistic. Giving it a two on balance, but there were bits of this that were four or five stars