Reviews by penthousedawg

It's The Doors - what's not to like? This is a tight, exciting, sexy album full of swagger, confidence and playful psychedelia. Rock Riffs, jazzy basslines, daft lyrics, all backed by organ and solid drums. One mistep: The WASP is a crap track. Otherwise really good record

The standard of quality is consistent, the non-single tracks don't feel like filler which is nice to hear. Production is squeaky clean which probably helped with the commercial success this record saw. Not personally a fan of the hip-hop/metal fusion that a lot of nu-metal encompasses, but even now it's easy to see why this was so popular. It made teen angst and rebellion palatable for 00's kids.

Soulful vocals, R&B/Hip-Hop electronic beats, piano melodies. Pleasant, but not for me.

Never heard of Gene Clark. Really surprised by the record. Country, soulful, hints of psychedelia, even some groovy disco elements. Not even sure how to describe the record. Love the gospel backing singers who fade in and out throughout parts of the album. Interesting arrangements and vocal melodies. A lot to unpack, I'll listen to this again.

The album blows it load in the opening three tracks and then after that it becomes a bit forgettable. Bonos voice is self-indulgent and self-mastabatory. Nicely produced though. The simple clean guitar lines allow plenty of space for the bass to cut through. Most songs build up only to go nowhere. I guess they didn't know what they were looking for arf arf.

Along with his debut album, Slim Shady LP, this is Em's best work. Cartoon violence, angry, sarcastic, purposely dumb and clever lyrics in equal portions.

70s hard rock. Led-Zep meets Spinal Tap. Fizzy production. Chunky rock guitar riffs. Plus organ. Solo! Some interesting ideas on this album (Child of Time) but still suffers from the excessive bloat of a lot of hard rock from this era.

A live album of jazz and soul vocalist Sarah Vaughan. What really made this enjoyable was how the singers personality shone through. A tight and brilliant snapshot of the time.

Fast and frantic. If you've heard one Motorhead song (Ace of Spades) you've heard 'em all. Here is two hours of that.

I always assumed Steely Dan was country music. Turns out it's some really smooth 70's funk-soft rock fusion kind of thing. The bass is working overtime on its interesting and groovy basslines and each song has a soulful choir of background singers. It's incredibly 70's but I did find myself enjoying the toe tapping funky melodies.

Classic 90s Britpop. Swaggers between Rock and guitar ballads, lots of simple string samples/arrangements peppered in, the occasional 70s psychedelic guitar tones. You'll probably recognise at least one song on here. Bittersweet Symphony is an anthem of that era. The Drugs Don't Work has one of the most depressing lyrics ever ("like a cat in a bag waiting to drown.."). There is a definite dip in noteworthy songs after the opening few tracks with maybe the exception of Lucky Man. It sounds like the 90s.

Not a fan of 90s/00s pop I'm afraid. This sounds like a typical showcase of Christina's vocal gymnastics. I was surprised at the heavy gospel/R&B influences and hip-hop beats and record scratching. Good if you like pop music.

Each of these songs sounds like they had a thousand ideas and tried to cram them all in at one time. A bazillion notes and riffs. I feel a little sorry for the producer who had to track and mix all of this. The bass is front and centre and seems to be leading the band. Some nice guitar tones to pick from the thousands on offer. Although I wouldn't say I'm a prog fan, and can certainly see myself exploring some more Yes albums.

Americana, Country rock with organs, twangy guitars and honky tonk pianos. Not really my thing.

Even some nice arrangements, complete with piano and string sections, can never distract from the lack of variety on this record. If you like what Cat generally does with his songwriting and vocals then that's not a huge problem. But I had trouble picking standout moments on this record. The most noteworthy tracks come at the end of the record with Father and Son and then the title song, which finishes just as it threatens to get going. Serviceable, quaint but a little tedious. The cover art was apparently painted by Cat himself; it's terrible.

Everyone knows the sound of The Beatles' early Merseybeat records. The sound of US Rock and Roll and Rhythm and Blues can be heard throughout, particularly on the intricate and clever vocal harmonies. This is even more obvious with some of the cover choices (Please Mr Postman, Roll Over Beethoven). The music is stripped back in terms of instrumentation, keeping the vocals at the forefront. As a side note: some of the mixing choices on this remastered weren't great; panning the vocals completely to the right channel on some songs felt odd, almost distracting. Not my favourite era of the band, they are emulating a sound rather then their later more creative output but the vocals are crisp and enjoyable.

Surprisingly tight instrumentation despite the singers famously loose and snotty vocals. Each Track is like a swig on a bottle of whiskey and an enthusiastic stumble down the street. One song throws in some middle Eastern influences, another sounds like a noir detective car chase through Chicago - they certainly keep things interesting. 'Fiesta' is lifted straight from a Spanish fairground jingle which you will no doubt recognise from somewhere. Although other influences are thrown in to the mix, ultimately if you don't enjoy traditional Irish music, you won't like this - which is why I tapped out halfway through. But I appreciate the variety of this album. Oh, and this is the record with 'Fairytale...' on it, so that's probably why this one is on the list.

The drumming is the star here. It engulfs everything in a thunderstorm of cymbal crashes and void-filling fills. That and the lyrics to the track Tattoo "Rooty-doot-toot tattoo". Aside from that I'm not the biggest fan of The Who but they definitely come alive in these live recordings - it's like this is how they are meant to be heard. Substitute is a banger, but some of the songs (Happy Jack/I'm a boy) are awful.

Immaculate and clean production. You can slide down it on your ass. There are layers upon layers of sound; most notably, MJ's multi-tracked vocals. I can understand why I thought this sounded like magic as a kid in the 80's. Is that key change at the end of Baby Be Mine auto tune? It should be. Human vocals shouldn't be able to do that. Chipmunk vocals on P.Y.T crazy! 42mins of condensed pop perfection.

The soundtrack of 2000's British comedy films. It's twee and British, every song is about scones and strawberry jam. Not really, but sort of. One of the songs has the same riff as the bass in Warning by Green Day. It's like sitting in a field watching cricket and drinking Pimm's. I feel a lot of bands sounded like this in the late 60's.