Reviews by richardwiggins

Ice Cube sounds tough, but not at the expense of a head nodding, digestible album. I didn’t realise that hip hop that hits this hard was released (just) before I was born.

The Predator has a pretty flawless first half - vicious, sharp, groovy beats which Ice Cube delivers clinical rapping on top of. Wicked goes super fast, the rapping is exhilarating. It Was a Good Day feels like it’s from a different universe. Super chill beats with a smooth rap which slowly unfurls on top of it.

The second half isn’t as perfect but nothing that spoils the vibe. A very impressive effort.

This is a very rare album. One that, in 2006, seemingly everyone in the UK all loved all at once. Music fans and people who couldn't care less all cottoned on to this group at the same time, with catchy, immediate singles leading to the release of a well rounded and (more than anything else) fun album. There is a freshness to it that almost 20 years later still manages to make you sit up, despite all of the singles having received more than its fair share of airtime.

Alex Turner is at his funniest on this debut. Its his well observed, interesting or absurd lyrics that turns an album of energetic garage rock tunes and slower indie ballads into something instantly relatable for most listeners. "Have you been drinking, son? You don't look old enough to me." "I'm sorry, officer, is there a certain age you're supposed to be? 'Cause nobody told me."

There are touch points that you can hear under the bonnet: The Strokes; The Streets; The Rapture; but what they're doing is a new amalgamation and created an album that still today some guy in your local pub describes as "the last time a band made proper music."

A strong mix of huge pop hits sitting neatly alongside spookier experimental offerings. It’s dramatic throughout without ever tipping over into being cheesy. Songs sound meaningful and important without the messages behind them being spoon fed to you. It’s a work of art.

Perhaps the most potent strain of the 1980s ever discovered? It’s an awful lot of fun. Camp, extremely extraverted, maximalist music with verbose and arch vocals. Flourishes on top of flourishes. I like how ever-present and persistent the vocals are, putting the singer in frame as much as possible. Taking up all the oxygen. It leads with bombastic, huge melodic force. The 1980s sounds like it could have been a fun time to be alive. I think we need more of this theatrical fun in music.

Whenever I walk into a guitar shop, there is a guy playing something almost exactly like this and I want to walk straight out. I just don’t get it. There’s a crossing point between blues and rock music that I struggle to engage with - people really getting into bending the guitar notes, closing their eyes, feeling the music. It’s just not for me.

10/10 for featuring a copy of The Beano on the cover though.

A beautiful meeting of beats and lyrics. Luck of Lucien particularly has an outstanding groove, it’s a really smooth ride which demanded immediate repeat listens from me when I first picked up this album. The good natured rap flows are just as buttery. The whole production just bubbles away like a dream. The samples throughout the record are intelligently selected and an excellent new twist is brought to them all.

There is a slight drop off midway through the record, I can totally see this being the start of an incredible run of LPs though - looking forward to hearing more.

This goes to some pretty surprising places and sounds great in all of them. Mike Oldfield is keen to show you everything he can do and how creatively he can assemble a pallet of different sounds that you don’t usually hear side by side. At various points something sudden and surprising happens (e.g. an unexpected voice) and continues to impact how you perceive the music well after it has left the stage. A very clever composition.

Relative to other post-punk bands this is a very eccentric album, though in the context of Pete Ubu this is a pretty sober and subdued follow up to The Modern Dance. There are two epic hits in the form of Navvy and On the Surface which will definitely be in my regular rotation, but the album as a whole is strong. It’s like listening to an evil Talking Heads. It’s interesting to hear them present themselves as a slightly more conventional rock band (again, this is all relative). I’m sure this different mode will be an improvement for some but for me gives the debut the slight edge.

Most of Fever To Tell sounds like basic garage rock to my ears. It's a pleasant listen but Instrumentally there is not much to favourably distinguish them from The White Stripes, though Karen O does have a distinctive voice. Maps and Y Control squeeze themselves in at the end of the tracklist - cold, icy glasses of water in a desert. They are great songs, full of personality and flavour.

There’s so much going on throughout this record. It’s a smorgasbord of genres, styles, instrumentation. Sure Shot has Jazz flute, tight smart looping production, with a traditional rock drum kit. This transitions into Tough Guy which turns into straight up hardcore punk, which is possibly the most successful mode on this record. The instrumental tracks, particularly Eugine’s Lament and Sabrosa, featuring a prominent double bass, adds some engaging left turns and sophistication to a record which in other ways is full of reckless charm.

The only downside of its sprawling nature is that it does not quite know when to end. You don’t begrudge the hour long run time too badly, because of the various strange and surprising avenues they take you down, but I think it could have been even more effective if it was a little tighter.

A gorgeously produced record with Morrissey’s vocals acting a centrepiece throughout. It's very consistent with no outliers or energy dips, very listenable. The charm Morrissey brings to The Smiths records, which is missing from some of his solo work, is present here. He seems more self aware, gentler and compassionate, particularly on Hold Onto Your Friends and The More You Ignore Me.

I’m not sure this is my favourite Morrissey solo album, though I think it’s the most sonically consistent and the most similar to The Smiths. Speedway is a particularly strong closer - I love the LOUD DRUMS.

The Smiths' records are just hit after hit, and this isn’t that but it’s a pleasant way to spend 40 minutes, Morrissey sings beautifully throughout.

The thing that puts me off of some older jazz is just how stately it can be, it lacks a pulse that a lot of my favourite jazz has. In contrast, I love how erratic and hook-laden the first couple of tracks on Kenya are. They are going for bombast, even sitting down I could feel my body twitching, ready to dance. Machito’s Latin jazz variant adds extra layer of insatiable danceability to proceedings. When it moves away from the bombast it’s an album of contrasts and regular dynamic shifts, horns pulling in and out, percussion bubbling away, rarely sitting still. Definitely one I’ll return to.

This is certainly in the upper echelons of Bob Dylan albums. The run of songs in the middle of the LP in particular. I Want You and Just Like a Woman have to be two of the most emotional songs he has ever written. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat then reminds you how funny he can be. I've been laughing along with that song since I was a small child.

While the arrangements, finger picking and production remain phenomenal throughout, emotions do cool slightly on the back-end of the record. With the exception of the epic and powerful 10 minute long final track, the songs aren't quite as exciting. For this reason there are multiple other Dylan records which I'd rank higher - but its a high bar!

Within a sea of 2009 landfill indie emerges Merriweather Post Pavilion, one of the decade's most impressive and enduring records. A dense and uplifting experimental sunshine pop record which bounces from shimmering, hyper melodic synths to fidgety psychedelia. This record pushed a generation of kids away from Razorlight and The Pigeon Detectives towards Tame Impala and Beach House. The shift was real and sizeable.

Part of its appeal is that Animal Collective has a foot in two camps. While being uncompromising (gleefully engaging in glitchy excesses which will be annoying to some) they have created highly accessible, well crafted pop songs for those who are swept away by the drama. They are entirely lacking in self consciousness. They have spent no time considering how the outside world would respond to the record or the prevailing forces of music at the time. The results are majestic.

Political Science could be satirising Trump’s actions this week. It’s funny, a cheery song about bombing the world. The title track is more chilling, soon to be slaves sailing towards America, towards “the land of the free”, written as a patriotic anthem. It’s clever, world weary satire. Risky lyrics delivered in a gentle way. Musically it’s somewhat interesting, lyrically it’s very interesting. I like that you could have this on at a party and pay no attention to the subject matter of the songs.

My favourite moment of this record is the opening a capella song, which suggests a straight up, very earnest traditional folk album. What you get instead is a series of extremely mid-tempo, extremely boring contemporary folk songs. Nicely produced, nicely performed, but there's little to no flavour. I've seen people rave about the Velvet Underground cover... I just don't see it. A worse and more boring version to my ears. The songs all meld into one by the end. The most I can say is its - quite "nice".

I did not realise how conceptual Iron Maiden were as a band. I couldn’t imagine turning up to band practice with some very literary lyrics about defending the Earth from alien invaders. I don’t know where that impulse comes from. But I’m glad someone’s done it. When you think of how many bands out there have utterly meaningless or derivative lyrics. To have a band write an ode to 1960s TV show The Prisoner, I’m all here for that. Their music is a lot of nerdy, camp fun - and instrumentally very impressive. They’re adding something to the culture that you’re simply not going to get anywhere else.

It’s an interesting production but not one that I have fallen in love with like others. My favourite part is the middle of the record which swells with positivity as a more straightforward counterpoint to the esoteric beginning and end. For me it’s a reward / relief when it becomes a pop album, then a bit of a drag when it’s discordant, noodling or meditative. As a fan of his ambient albums I suppose this record sits as a bit of a halfway house between styles that I don’t personally “get”.

It’s an interesting record in that it’s got bundles of personality and a band who are clearly keen on creating a new path. The moment where they harness this towards more complete sounding songs for me work a bit better than the sound collage elements, but it’s all good. I love the grinding chords on Interstellar Overdrive. This is clearly not the space the band stay in post-Syd but you can continue to hear little touches of what’s going on in the debut throughout their discography

It is most definitely conscious hip hop. The through line is in the title - he’s a good kid in a mad city. He is a world away from being a gangster, even if he’s surrounded by them. You hear him talk with relief and regret over an early (almost) run in with the law on The Art of Peer Pressure. The features on this album are quite clever, in contrast Jay Rock and MC Eiht play the role of trouble makers, rapping about guns and cocaine while Kendrick’s response is "and they wonder why I rarely smoke now.” The repeated themes of prayer and religion push this further - his mind is on other things. While other rappers are rapping about drugs and gangs, he’s rapping about how his family and faith serve as a grounding force. He is exploring his struggle to stay true to their values while being exposed to the various negative forces of his environment. Okay, he’s also rapping about drinking and his hot girlfriend, but you get my point.

The album manages to be robust but light and good fun throughout. On an album full of highlights Swimming Pools (Drank) is a really nice hit of pop rap. I could imagine this getting better with each listen.