Reviews by owen

Not my thing at all, but you'd have to be churlish not to admire its commitment. The fact that this is done with an entirely straight face elevates it above semi-parody like The Darkness.

Tombstone Blues feels like it ran its course after about 3 minutes, but was stretched out to 6; similarly Ballad Of A Thin Man & Desolation Row. I liked quite a few of the songs on here but it got a bit samey after a while.

Love the opening track. St. Elmo's Fire and I'll come Running have amazing guitar playing from Robert Fripp. The title track was the theme for Arena! For me, this was the perfect balance of ambient and actual songs - will go into my rotation.

Nah, couldn't finish this. Just dreadful.

This is a patchy album; some good stuff on it (mostly the Neil Young-led tracks) and some less good. "Good Time Boy" is probably my least favorite track. "Broken Arrow" doesn't quite work - too start-stop, and a little gimmicky with the crowd noises etc, but there's the core of a good song there.

One if my all time favorites, this is a very easy 5/5 for me, especially if you add Born Slippy to the end

Tuneful and easy to listen to, but completely unmemorable, and far too long - I didn't need an hour plus of this. Answering Bell sounds like The Weight crossed with Van Morrison. Oh, and add another to the count of creeps encountered here. Judging on musical merit only, though some bias may have crept in.

I didn't like this as much as On The Beach. Albuquerque was nice, though.

Putting this in a list of 1001 must-listen albums seems somewhat ridiculous, like putting in Ocean Colour Scene or the Bloodhound Gang. It seemed fun at the time, but has not stood the test of time.

Pretentious bullshit.

I only knew Seven Seas of Rhye from this one, but most of this was pretty enjoyable. I liked Some Day One Day especially.

I've always been put off by Neil Young's whiny voice, but maybe I'm starting to come round, because I quite enjoyed this. Revolution Blues is pretty great, but Vampire Blues is a bit of a plodder.

Similar to Low, I liked the "different styles on each side" approach here. Favorite track other than the magnificent "Heroes" is "V-2 Schneider".

OMG I just realised that the Fall song "I am Damo Suzuki" (which I knew was about the Can singer) musically quotes this album's "Oh Yeah".

For those not liking Aumgn; you have to push through it and surrender. Once you come out the other side, it's great.

This album passes my "listened to it twice in a row" test, five stars from me.

The singles are great, of course, but the rest is highly enjoyable too.

This is too much Van Morrison for me in one sitting. I did like "Into the Mystic" though.

Points for being the originator of ambient, but by its very ambient nature, it's not something you spend attention listening to. Four stars, but not necessarily on the same scale as non-ambient music.

Never really been a Dylan fan, but I liked this more than I expected to. Don't Think Twice is good, as is Corinna Corinna.

Some of these songs were pretty good (I liked the vibe of Breathless) but the album was far longer than it needed to be, and the skits seemed unnecessary.

Why is it that all it takes is a certain style of bass and some strings and it instantly sounds like Air? Moon Safari is one of my all time favorites, and although this isn't quite at that level, it's still pretty great.