Reviews by owen

Evans has a beautifully light touch on the Piano - wonderfully understated. LaFaro's bass is incredible here too. I understand that the label rushed out this release containing the most bass-forward tracks from the session after his death; tragic loss for jazz, but really made this album something special.

Disc 2 of this is vastly better than disc 1 (excepting the title track which is great), and if it were just that it'd be an easy five stars. Excess filler on disc 1 takes it to a four.

I love "Victoria", but maybe that's because I love the Fall version so much. Great kickoff to an album that, although it has its moments of Kinks tweeness, is generally better than the other Kinks albums I had on the list.

Too dangerously close to nu-metal for my liking. I don't like Patton's vocals at all. War Pigs by far the best track on here.

The album version of Brimful Of Asha sound a bit lumpen compared to the Fatboy Slim remix. In general I liked the songs on here with Indian instrumentation the best; We're in Yr Corner was a highlight.

I remember Dy-Na-Mi-Tee from when this came out; I liked it then, and still do. This album is pretty decent - I also liked Krazy Krush, among others. Another high three.

I thought the last couple of tracks on here were the strongest, and were in definite solid four territory. The start wasn't quite as good, although maybe repeated listening would push me up. And I don't really need to hear crying babies in my music, as a rule. But overall a solidly high three, with potential for higher.

I think I might have enjoyed this more in '97, but in 2026 it seems pretty dull.

This was significantly more enjoyable than the two sixties Tim Buckley albums from earlier. Vastly prefer the horndog funk variant of Buckley, even if the lyrics are cringe. I still don't totally love his voice so this is a strong three, but it's pretty close to a four.

Again, I think I prefer Cohen's songwriting to his performance; there always seems to be a version of one of his songs that I greatly prefer - in this case it's Courtney Barnett's cover of So Long Marianne, which is great.

First half is excellent; some amazing disco/funk production from Quincy Jones, and Jackson's performance is great. Let down a little by the more ballad heavy side 2.

The first track was ok; like being in a Professor Layton game. But as the album wore on I disliked it more and more. Very low two; I came pretty close to giving this one.

Fairly run of the mill jazz; there are much better jazz albums missing from this list.

I've given Tom Waits a 2, 3, 4 and 5 so far, but this avoids the straight :) My issue with this album is that even though i liked each of the individual songs, an hour and a quarter of it is too much, and they all start to blend into each other. I liked Warm Beer and Cold Women best; the bass in it sounded really good.

In general I find this a little too twee. Big Sky sounds a bit ahead of its time, though. A fairly middling three.

This was my entry to Harvey's catalog when I bought the CD of this on initial release. Although I think there are other albums of hers I like more, this is still powerful stuff. The cover of Highway 61 is brilliant. 50ft Queenie is another standout.

Although I like Elliott Smith, I thought I wasn't going to be in the mood for this today. However, the strength of the songwriting completely won me over.

Ugh, I dislike her voice so much. These Days is a decent song, if someone else were singing it.

Ok, _now_ I get it. Not sure why it took me so long. The Individual stood out as one of my favorites, as did No God, Only Religion. (Why are these the lowest played tracks on the album? They're great)

Four things:

* Is this cultural appropriation? I'm inclined to say no, it's collaboration and highlighting, though I understand the arguments of those who feel otherwise.
* Was it OK for Simon to break the cultural boycott? No, I don't think it was.
* Did Simon rip off Los Lobos for a songwriting credit? Probably, but who knows the truth.
* Is this a great record anyway? Absolutely. Five stars without a doubt.