Reviews by owen

Part Indie Rock, part Dreampop, part Shoegaze, part Madchester, part Triphop. Makes for a absorbing combination. I'd missed this (and Doves entirely) when it came out, but really glad to catch up with it now.

Another album of listenable but not exceptional Elvis Costello material. 20% Amnesia is a little annoying. Overall I could have done with a shorter playtime; an hour of Costello's voice is a little too much to bear.

Great title. Impressive how she manages to fit so many syllables into ni-i-i-i-ight. Good in its genre; not for me.

A New Years treat! I've listened to this album more times than I can count. I possibly love it even more than Doolittle. 35 years old, and still holds up.

I'd only really known them for Lowrider. This was perfectly passable funk/soul. I liked City, Country, City

This is decent but longer than it needs to be. Body Count is interesting, but sounds pretty dated.

Another good one from Arcade Fire, though not quite as good as Funeral.

I find the singer's voice to be annoying. This is fairly unexciting stuff.

I thought this was pretty great - she could teach Fiona Apple a thing or two. Best tracks; Suspended in Gaffa, Night of the Swallow.

This all sounded pretty much the same after the first song. Good for what it is (and definitely better than modern pop-country), but not really my thing.

Pretty good as Christmas albums go. Darlene Love is the star.

I'm not averse to a bit of prog, but this is pretty fucking dreadful.

I like this but I don't think its particularly memorable. By The Throat is the best song here - it sounds like Let's Eat Grandma (though this came first)

I dislike this quite a lot. I especially don't like Jim Morrison's voice. It's not bad, or out of tune, just one that I find displeasing. Maybe the rest wouldn't be quite so bad without Morrison. Ok no, "The End" would be just as interminable.

Oh shit, do I like Dylan now? First Neil Young, and now this? Anyway this is pretty good, perhaps my favorite of the three Dylan albums we've had so far.

The excessive talking at the start of "This Is What She's Like" was irritating, but I like the song once it finally got going; its probably the highlight of the album. In general, this record has too much chit chat on it.

I love the title track from this album; it's beautifully melancholic. Similarly "Train In The Distance". Not so keen on "When Numbers Get Serious", and who allowed "Cars Are Cars" onto the record? 3.5 (there are better Paul Simon albums) but rounding up to 4.

I like her voice (although there were a few Cilla-ish moments on one of the tracks). Son of a Preacher Man is the standout here - a classic. Everything else is good, but not super memorable.

Visions Of You is a fairly boring song, but Sinead O'Connor's voice elevates it significantly. The rest is pretty terrible.

I quite like Rod Stewart's voice here; it quite suits the material. Some of the songs on this album are pretty good. It's quite bluesy for several. A high 3.