Reviews by richardwiggins

I like how good natured Mudhoney are as a grunge band, they are rather sweet. The production is fantastic, I enjoy how each track has a clash between its super clean and its fuzzy, distorted elements - this is a core part of their sound. The song writing is solid, but it never quite makes the leap from “pretty interesting” to “compelling.” They are definitely the grunge band you’d take home to meet your mother though!

Nico was a German who learnt to speak English, Spanish, and French during her travels through Europe. By the time she started her music career in 1960s New York City, her gifted voice and mixed European accent made her sound totally distinct to her British and American contemporaries. There are only so many singers who have an instantly recognisable voice, and Nico is one of them. Her voice has an ethereal quality which vacillates between sounding mysterious and, when called for, haunted.

Recorded immediately following her debut with The Velvet Underground, on this solo debut she surrounds herself with gorgeous chamber instrumentation and warm guitar picking. This typically acts as a whimsical backdrop for her vocals to take centre stage, but the music goes to a wide range of places. She provides cutting edge folk rock performances but also shows that she is suited to more mysterious, medieval style baroque pop songs. Daringly she adds into this pleasant mix some more experimental and uncompromising moments too - music as modern art.

Had the internet existed in the 1960s Nico could have garnered a huge audience of people who love slightly off-beat, forward thinking music. But in an age where music was limited the radio and physical record sales, you can see why this would have struggled to find purchase. Of course, thanks to albums like this, as time went on she became a star.

What keeps Time (The Revelator) so fresh is its even split between folk and country. It is able to reel you in with one and then entertain you with another, never settling on too strict a formula. There is an authentic emotional core to Gillian Welch’s singing which makes the more serious and probing numbers the stand outs, with the opening and closing tracks being particularly stunning vocally, the former even being a bit gnarly at points on the guitar - which is a surprise! However, I appreciate the light hearted numbers for how they add extra dimension to the LP, increasing its overall impact. It's interesting how much of the album she dedicates to singing about rock music and its icons, although the Elvis tribute might be the only cut on this LP that I could have done without.

Nina Simone's voice is absolutely stunning - almost overwhelmingly beautiful. Surprisingly deep and deeply humane. Some of the earlier cuts lack her full gravitas, but as soon as you hit the two live tracks, including the title track, there is a superb run of slow building drama from there to the end. She knows how to make the most of every note, wringing out every bit of potential and keeping you on tenterhooks.

Faith No More has a real range but I find the vast majority of it very silly. The occasional flirtation with Metal works best but the vocals consistently put me off, whether theatrically whispered, delivered with a gung ho yell or nasally eeked out. I struggle to work out exactly how ironic it's supposed to be.

I like the opening tracks, but can’t make sense of the long stretches of discordant, messy bits - which must be where the real joy for this record lies. There are unconventional tuning changes between each song, which make the band members sound out of tune and out of harmony with each other - I’m definitely missing the point! I thought I’d like the sound of a more professional “The Shaggs” but with all the energy and raging pulse, Sebadoh lacks their charm.

I thought I'd never heard a ZZ Top album before, then I saw on my RYM that I listed to Tres Hombres three months ago and it failed to leave any kind of impression on me. Considering that I had more fun than I expected with this. The move away from blues to a campy form of hard rock made things more enjoyable. Though by the time I got to TV Dinners I did start to lose the will to live, in no small part because of the absolutely dreadful lyrics.

Dr Dre summons up a whole new sound here. A robust, punchy rap flow over the top of high pitched, sleezy synths and low pitched thwacking percussion births G-Funk. The production is surprisingly musical. It gets the balance right between being a lot of fun but still having depth.

Grand Theft Auto owes its entire auditory experience to Dre. He creates a great vibe that even now it sounds entirely distinct.

If you could trim this record down to a lean 35-40 minutes I think it would be considered one of the all time classics. But it sticks around long enough for less interesting tracks to get airtime, the most egregious example being The Doctor's Office skit which is just dumb.

This Stephen Stills album has a lovely vibe, and is very listenable, but if I was to be harsh I’d say it sounds like Neil Young if he had no hits. To Stills’ credit, I enjoyed every moment but even with a killer sound, over the course of 71 minutes, it would have helped if at some point it coalesced into a straightforward single. There are weirder and wilder moments where you feel in a slightly more dangerous and exciting territory, but it never fully commits to this either.

Tim Buckley sounds a lot older than he is on this. He has the voice of a seasoned professional on their 10th album and instrumentally he is a master of the art, comfortable enough to expand out on interesting little ideas within the framework of his well defined compositions. He is also comfortable enough to write songs which are on average over 7 minutes long which shows a serious amount of confidence in his vision as a singer songwriter. It's astonishing.

There is a real driving force on this record, a rush of energy. Its a jazzy, jammy rock record that is scatty but completely structured in its erratic nature. There's a nice mix of smoother moments with wilder brasher moments - Zappa is not afraid to blow your head off.

Interestingly, over 50 years later it strikes me the influence Hot Rats has had over the very best of video game music. Its got that wistful exploration that makes you want to drive your character to the next level.

A solid pop rock record with a lot of energy - its not enough to flaw me but it made for a pleasant listen. I much preferred this to A Wizard / A True Star even if it takes you on less of a "journey."

Blending rock into traditional English folk music in a way which doesn't destroy the delicate nature of the folk is no small achievement, Fairport Convention get the balance exactly right. Its very listenable and manages to bypass that self-consciousness that very earnest music can sometimes summon.

I see them as a cornerstone of contemporary acts I love today, such as This Is The Kit.

The US version is better in virtue of the extra single power. I can only imagine how mind blowing it would have sounded in 1967. It doesn’t hit me quite as hard as it should just because this particular mix of blues rock / psych is not that exciting to my ears, which means the album tracks sometimes are missing that magic. But man - he can play, and he is nothing short of an icon.

I suspect this is an album which will do different things to different people’s brains. For me, it’s more of a sample tape showing off the textures, arrangements, production and transitions this group are capable of with Faust rarely organising themselves into “a song.”

This is obviously completely missing the point of what the band are trying to do. They want a feel of organised chaos though I’d prefer it if it sounded a little more improvised and organic.

Due to these personal tastes Jennifer and Lauft… are the obvious highlights to me.

The stylistic shifts within stylistic shifts make this Jazz(?) Rock(?) Modern Classical(?) Blues(?) album unknowable. It’s variations on variations on variations and it’s also a lot of fun. My favourite bits are the instrumental sections, though I admit that vocals consistently contribute to the LP’s number one strength, which is surprise. The use of covers and interpolations are also mind boggling. It’s controlled chaos with every new element sounding perfectly out of place.

The more Talking Headsy XTCish elements of Devo appeal to me. I love the feel, energy and presentation of the music, which is skittish and slightly unhinged. The songs themselves are cool, though I’m not sure how I feel about the Satisfaction cover.

I remember switching the record off in disgust after hearing Mongoloid as a 17 year old. This time round I had the patience to read the Mongoloid Wikipedia page which gives some fascinating historical context around the word, but it did still leave me stretching my head as to why they committed so hard to this bit.

In a good mood I like this band and in a bad mood I’m not particularly bothered about them - there are worse reactions!

They aren’t subtle are they? The Cars drive each song confidently giving off a bold, brash, basic brilliance in their power chords, straightforward bass guitar, bubbly synths, all with a dramatic flare in the vocals and occasional but powerful backing harmonies. There are no subtle digs in what I’m saying here - they have found excellence in pairing down songs to exactly the number of ingredients required to give the listener a big punch of flavour. Nothing is under or overwritten, it's all just exactly right. It is joyful music which is designed to be played loud.

I’d seen a lot of chatter about how The Strokes have ripped off The Cars. I don’t understand that at all really, but can confidently say that releasing this album in 1978 puts The Cars solidly ahead of their time and singles them out as influential.

An interesting listen. I enjoy how the Manics have blended a series of rock genres into something which is theirs alone. There are some stray artifacts from music of the time that’s not so much to my tastes but fall in the same ballpark as their Welsh countrymen Stereophonics. Talking of the Welsh, it’s nice to hear fragments of the native tongue on Revol, I only wish there was more of this.

The best bits are when it gets really wiry and angry. The worst bits are when its so-so lyrics are put under the spotlight.

It was on my 100th listen of the title track of Young Americans that I spotted the surprisingly overt Beatles A Day in the Life interpolation. I could have done with that being the only Beatles reference on the album as the overwrought cover of Across the Universe is really unflattering for Bowie’s voice.

This album vacillates between excellent and okay, with the exception being that cover. For this reason it’s a record listeners usually just pull the singles from. Having said that, it’s a testament to Bowie’s talent that this constitutes average for him.