Reviews by owen

Thankfully not too many moans and groans in here. Some masterful piano improvisation, though sometimes a little too meandering for me. When he locked into a groove, it was great.

Unfocused guitar noodling. Random noises. God save us from late sixties San Francisco jam bands. If I could give this less than one star, I would.

This didn't do it for me in the same way that, say, Black Sabbath did. I found it a little plodding.

Some (ahem) might say this is where REM dropped off, but I quite liked most of this, at least as much as some of the earlier stuff

Decent prog, though I think I like Close To The Edge better (and this isn't nearly as good as Gabriel era Genesis)

I feel like I should have liked this more than I did, but I found it all a little samey. Sounded good, with a nice vibe, but I don't suspect I'll return to it. Low 3.

Not as great as Kid A, but excellent nonetheless. Radiohead when they were "merely" a really great indie rock band. Solid five-starrer.

I still don't get the whole "one time" thing on "Killing Me Softly", but otherwise this is a good listen. Lauryn Hill elevates it; both her rapping and her singing sound great. Forgot how good "Ready Or Not" was. A high three, bordering on four.

I liked Safesurfer. There's some other decent stuff here too, but this wore out its welcome long before the end of its 1hr 16 running time. The single Beautiful Love is one of the weakest on the album IMO.

Some fun tracks on here, including some that I like a bit more than I did when this first came out. I'm less keen on the ballads, on the whole. Also, is he sniffing his oxter on the album cover?

A major step up in quality of both songwriting and production from "Frank" - on the whole I think the Ronson produced tracks are the superior ones.of the lesser known tracks, I liked "He Can Only Hold Her". Good stuff.

I like the guitar tone in Mona. Overall a decent set of covers, but I remain a Beatles guy rather than a Stones guy. Low three.

Dozed slightly on a plane while listening to this, so maybe this review isn't entirely fair; I found it to be pleasant but a little uninspiring.

I wasn't blown away by any of the individual efforts from Wu Tang members that we've had yet, so I wasn't really expecting to love this either. But the whole seems to be greater than the sum of its parts, because this was pretty good.

This is basically a Chic album under a different name, which is no bad thing. Amazing bass from Bernard Edwards, especially on Thinking of You and We Are Family. The funkier songs work better than the slower tempo ones, but overall this is a highly enjoyable listen.

Like a mixture of 60s pop, the Go Gos and early B52s, I liked this rather a lot. Opening track is the standout.

I kind of dismissed this when it first came out, partly, I think, because TTD was a bit of a blowhard in the music press. But listening to it now, it's actually pretty damn good. Funky stuff, and TTD has a great voice. Somewhere in the high three/low four range; going to be generous and round up.

Short and sweet at only 30 mins: doesn't outstay its welcome. Of course, later Beatles stuff is more interesting but these are great pop songs that catch your interest. Lennon seemed to be ahead of McCartney in songwriting prowess at this point, though both have great tracks on here. Only a couple of relative duds (the George fronted "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You", for example).

I generally greatly dislike 60s psychedelic rock but there were a few tracks on here that I quite liked. Not all of it though - there were a few that grated (like Life Has Just Begun). A high two.

Didn't listen to this when it came out, despite having bought and been quite keen on Different Class. Knew a couple of singles off it. Overall, I quite like it, although in retrospect Jarvis has a fairly weak voice. Amused by the line "I am not Jesus, though I have the same initials". A strong 3.