Reviews by pops

It's got the two Red Hot Chili Peppers hits I like (Give It Away and Under the Bridge) on it, so I guess this is my favourite of their albums, if only by default. Ultimately though, they're just not a band I enjoy listening to for more than a couple of songs, let alone for over an hour. By the time Anthony Kiedis started going on about the demons in his semen, I'd mentally checked out.

Fun, poppy and the perfect length so there's no chance of it wearing out its welcome.

When No Other was reissued in the early 2000s, I bought it on a whim as part of a 3-for-2 CD offer, and was underwhelmed by it. Then around 20 years later, I heard Life's Greatest Fool on a playlist and loved it, listened to the album again, and finally got those 'lost masterpiece' reviews that convinced me to take a punt on it in the first place. So, if you're on the fence about No Other now, just give it a couple of decades, and it might grow on you too.

The cover is a very bold move, but the contents lived up to it. I really enjoyed this.

Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy wrote the songs for the movie Wonka, and with the benefit of hindsight, I do think musical theatre is a better fit for him than vaguely indie-ish pop. The man can write a tune, but there’s an archness to this that sometimes threatens to tip into flat-out novelty songs.

I listened to this on a train journey while staring out of the window, which might be the optimum way to hear it. It’s a good soundtrack for drifting off into your own little world.

I thought I knew what I was getting with a Simon & Garfunkel album, but I was wrong. When Save the Life of My Child started, I briefly thought I'd put the wrong album on. Then there's the sheer oddity of Voices of Old People, and the ghostly way Art's voice floats in on Overs. I liked it though. Maybe they should have got weird more often.

This was a dilemma, as I could honestly live without the Apple Jam. But the rest of it is so good, it might have to be five stars anyway. (Speaking of Apple though, Apple Scruffs is all the sweeter for coming from the Beatle you'd least expect to appreciate fans hanging around on his doorstep.)

I didn’t hate it but I’m also not convinced I would recognise any of these tracks if I heard them again. It went in one ear and out the other.

Last summer, I started going to a weekly pub music quiz where the format is usually 'songs by bands in alphabetical order'. So, I've probably heard more XTC in the past 12 months than in the rest of my life. This album shows XTC deserve to be more than just the band you shoehorn in when you can't think of anyone else starting with X especially if you like anything Beach Boys/McCartney-esque. Which I do.

It starts to run out of steam towards the end, but the first half is disco at its finest.

I have a nagging feeling that this must be what Steely Dan sounds like to people who don’t like Steely Dan. It’s a bit too slick for its own good.

To give this album the benefit of the doubt, maybe it was so influential, everyone else ripped it off and that’s why it sounds like generic psychedelic rock today. If that is the case though, the people copying them had better tunes.

It’s my 200th album. The generator clearly thought that deserved a little R.E.S.P.E.C.T and threw me a soul classic.

It sometimes sounded like the singer was performing a different song to the rest of the band. I generally preferred what the band were playing.

Deceptacon is on my running playlist and always gets me pumped up - and if you could see me wheezing round my local park, you’d know that’s no mean feat. This whole album is a fun shot in the arm - energetic and catchy with a bit of righteous anger thrown in for an extra kick.

I’ve always been quite “eh, they’re ok” about Foo Fighters and this album just confirmed that.

It definitely sounds like something you’d play on your newfangled CD player to impress your guests at a 1980s dinner party, but those Yuppies weren’t wrong about everything. In a very 80s way, a lot of this slaps.

I honestly try to approach all these albums with an open mind but I’m increasingly finding that if it’s live, has fewer than 10 tracks and yet somehow lasts longer than an hour, then it’s probably not for me. I can hear that they are good musicians, I just don’t think endless jamming is my jam.

Like a true 1990s teenage girl, I had Jagged Little Pill on a cassette a friend copied for me, but with the exception of You Oughta Know, I haven't listened to it in years (well, decades). That's definitely still the stand out track for me, but the gap between You Oughta Know and the rest isn't quite as big as I'd remembered - I enjoyed revisiting this.