Reviews by owen

Good stuff, love the guitar tone. April skies is a classic.

I liked this but not nearly as much as later, Berlin-era Bowie.

Never heard of this guy before, but this is a fun and enjoyable album. I definitely see why he sued Rod Stewart; Do Ya Think I'm Sexy owes a big debt to Taj Mahal.

I liked this more than the 1960 Muddy Waters we got earlier. Some nice guitar playing (especially in "I cant be satisfied", and Muddy Waters voice sounds better with age. But it still isn't very varied, and I get my fill after a few songs.

Excellent stuff. Good enough to almost make you forget that Morrissey is an arsehole these days.

Really enjoyed this. It's relatively upbeat for Elliott Smith (though I also like the downbeat stuff), and I liked the arrangements.

This was mostly good, but not great. A couple low points marred the album IMO; the marching bands of Parade and the kid's singing in You Didn't Have To Be So Nice. Also, I think some of these lose some of their charm when sung in English.

This is not as consistently good as LCD Soundsystem's earlier stuff (Sound of Silver is better) but it's still right up my street.

God Only Knows is every bit as good as its reputation. I also really like the two instrumentals. The least effective song on the album is Sloop John B, which feels like it belongs on an earlier Beach Boys album. Still, an easy 5 stars.

I'd heard of Nick Drake but never actually listened to anything by him. What a pleasant surprise. I liked this album a lot; the arrangements were really nice. Particularly liked Three Hours, Cello Song.

Edit: in a rare exception I'm coming back and editing the score for this from four to five; I've listened to it many times in the last three years, and my appreciation for it has only grown.

Not very exciting. Feels like a strong contender for "album you don't really need to listen to before you die"

There are three great songs on this, but the rest is a bit filler-ish.

Solid 4/5 album with a few 5/5 songs on it. Interesting to see how much of a magpie Elvis Costello is: "Two Little Hitlers" quotes "Rebel Rebel" and "Party Girl" quotes "You Never Give Me Your Money"

I didn't like the stereo mix; this wasn't designed for listening to on headphones.

I started off thinking Runaway Child didn't feel like it needed to be 9+ minutes long, but I think I came out the other side; by the end it felt like it earned its runtime.

Also we've had enough covers of Heard It Through the Grapevine now that I'm going to start ranking them:

The Slits
The Temptations
...
...
...
...
Creedence Clearwater Revival

George Michael has a great voice, and there are some good songs, but the album as a while is a bit too ballad heavy for me, and is maybe a bit to "smooth".

How are there people giving this 2 or 3 stars? Maybe the Eno-heavy side 2 puts them off? Anyway, Sound & Vision alone would be enough to merit 5 stars, even if the rest of it (both sides) weren't also fantastic.

If Heartattack and Vine was a 4, this is a reasonably solid 5 for me; it elevates from "good" to "excellent". Standout tracks are the title track and Downtown Train, but the whole thing is pretty great.

I had never heard of this album or even the band. I enjoyed this quite a lot, though (though perhaps it's a little long, even if you stop after track 16, which is the end of the original studio version). I quite liked the singer's voice - it suited the music. Will give another listen at some point.

I expected to dislike this, knowing Soundgarden mainly from their radio hits, but it was actually a lot better than I expected. It's still not the kind of thing I'd go out of my way to listen to, but there are some decent tracks on here, especially the more upbeat ones.

Liked: My Wave, Superunknown
Didn't really like: Limo Wreck

This is practically blasphemy given the regard in which Hüsker Dü are held by middle aged white indie-loving guys like me, but I found this distinctly mediocre.