Reviews by pops

Did Sister Sledge ever bother releasing a “best of” compilation or did they realise people could just buy this?

Is it evocative dream pop? Or is it twee indie baby talk? I’m genuinely on the fence.

I can see why he ended up working with Talking Heads - besides maybe naming a song after them (in anagram form), there’s definitely a shared vision here. That’s a compliment by the way - this has more tunes than I was expecting.

Fiona Apple kind of passed me by until I listened to Fetch the Bolt Cutters a lot during the covid lockdown (it was released in 2020, but it also suited my mood). I've been meaning to go back and listen to her earlier stuff so it was good to get this one - it's less distinctive than Bolt Cutters but it's still a great debut. I should have got on the Apple train a lot earlier.

If any other early 1960s band had written something as evocative as Things We Said Today or as catchy as You Can't Do That, it would have probably been their biggest hit. For The Beatles, they were deeper cuts because they knew there were plenty more pop classics where those came from. That's why they were always ahead of the pack, even before they got experimental.

This feels more like it could be the background music at a cocktail party than some of the other jazz albums I've had so far, which demanded more of my attention. But it would be the most sophisticated cocktail party of 1959.

It starts with someone testifying like he’s Cyrus in The Warriors telling the gangs to join forces and overthrow the police, getting you all pumped up for... some sloppy garage rock. I couldn't dig it.

I've heard the title track so many times but I don't think I'd ever listened to it with headphones before, because I'd never noticed how great the bass playing is. The lesson is that I should have been paying more attention to Duran Duran - there are some serious bangers on here.

I bought this album but I could only really remember the singles. It turns out there’s a reason for that, but the singles are still fun.

As a Beatles nerd, I’ve read a lot of people saying this would have been better as a single album, but I’ve never seen a track list I was fully onboard with. That suggests to me that a) one person’s filler is another person’s underrated gem and b) this album works so well because it’s a weird and wonderful collection, full of fascinating bits and bobs along with the undeniable classics.

This project is making me wish I knew more about jazz. Partly because I've been enjoying the jazz albums a lot more than I thought I would, but also so I can work out why I have close to zero tolerance for extended rock noodling (Deep Purple's live album really tested my patience), but unexpectedly loved In a Silent Way, which has only two tracks but lasts nearly 40 minutes.

Like Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs, this album has got me thinking about whether rock critics have an uncomfortable tendency to romanticise mental illness as some sort of marker of authenticity. Or at least mental illness in white men - big thumbs up to the review saying that an album like this by a woman would never make it anywhere near the list.

It's my 100th album! It would have been cool if I'd got something I either loved or hated to mark this milestone, rather than something I thought was pleasant, but that's not Crosby, Stills, Nash or Young's fault. (Well, maybe Nash's - Our House and Teach Your Children are so pleasant they are verging on twee.)

My generator summary says that metal is my worst genre but I thought this was fun. Admittedly, I probably won’t listen to it again but at least I can now appreciate that Iron Maiden had the tunes as well as a knack for branding.

It’s not Radiohead’s most ambitious album, but it might have their best tunes.

Short but sweetly melodic.

Really enjoyed this jazzy, funky album. It felt like it should be the soundtrack to something cool.

I love this album so much that for my birthday last year, my brother gave me a Wu-Tang Clan doormat. (It’s got the logo with ‘watch ya step kid’ written underneath.) Easy five stars for both the present and the Wu.

Maybe it was the reviews or maybe it’s the name Suicide, but I thought this was going to be an unlistenable racket. Either way, this might have benefited from my lowered expectations because I ended up liking it. (Still, Suicide as a band name - bit try-hard, right?)

An album that feels like it was made to be listened to late at night alone in your bedroom. I listened to it on my headphones at 11am in a busy office, but it still felt intimate.