Reviews by ryzgee

It's just a classic, benchmark album for post punk innit?

One of those albums so ubiquitous that it's hard to really provide a unique slant on it, but the quality is unrelentingly good with this one. Cavernous and murky, yet relatable and within arm's reach at the same time, Joy Division captured something truly special here which would define a movement.

The opening track set the tone pretty effectively - overlong and grating as fuck, going for a schizophrenic, orchestral type vibe but ultimately sounding like someone talking into a fan over a pound shop rendition of wildlife documentary background music. Did it get any better from there? No, not really, much of what I successfully managed to endure was some of the most turgid drivel I've ever had the displeasure of listening to, even if amusingly so in places.

The vocalist actually sounded half decent on a track such as "Marley Purt Drive" when attempting to sing properly, though not to enough of an extent to carry the song towards being anything remotely inspiring. With such inventive lyricism on the following track "Edison" as "Oh, how, look at us now, we've still got a lot to learn but it's someone else's turn", it does at least point to a self-awareness within the band, but a lack of willingness to apply any of their (rightfully observed) criticisms towards their own product.

"Suddenly" gives off the vibe of a politician trying to write a love song, "Whisper Whisper" is similarly frigid and a bit skin-crawling to listen to, and "Lamplight" was the point in the album where I began contemplating which of my recent actions warranted receiving this awful mess as today's listening experience. Maybe karma is real after all.

"Sound of Love" might just be the worst lyrical offender here with lines such as "I need a life to go my way, so every night I pray. Just give me someone for my life. I feel a clown, people try to play me down, and there's one thing I never found. The sound of love. See the old man walk the lane, see him walk along in pain. It makes me cry to see them smile", "buoyed" by the most annoying, belting vocal approach delivering them.

"OK, that's 10 tracks I've miraculously endured, surely it's almost over right?"
Nope... SEVEN more to go. Fuck this shit, I'm out. Give me a Kanye x Anthony Kiedis collaboration over this nonsense any day of the week.

This is proper good. Really, it is! I've never taken much of a plunge into CCR despite the constant banging on about them from my fellow pub-goers, and on this evidence I 100% get the love for them.

Jubilant, swinging rock and roll at its foundations, there is also a healthy and very tasteful country influence weaved into the fabric here, not dominating the sound but accentuating it very well. A deceptively simple album on the surface of it, but there were some interesting variations and subtle switch ups in time signatures and song structures to keep each track fresh in direct succession from one another. It chugs along brilliantly whilst avoiding becoming too formulaic, and the playing here is really tight. Interesting to note that the album's title derives from the meticulous rehearsal sessions which were conducted in drummer Doug Clifford (Cosmo)'s warehouse, though this doesn't pervade into the music too much for me as to detract from the intimate nature of it.

Another one to whack onto the wishlist, honestly there is very little, if any fault I can pick with this one.

This is like royalty free background music that YouTube would suggest to you instead after you've had a copyright strike on one of your videos, except the vocalist is kinda cool and charismatic. These are a desert blues/afro-rock band from Bamako, Mali, with an interesting and rather distressing backstory which overshadows the fairly average music on offer. Props to them for navigating those circumstances, using this album as a cathartic release and as a huge middle finger to forms of oppression essentially, but the end result isn't really for me.

I understand why this is here, and I do feel enriched by having heard it, but it just felt like too much of a relic from a bygone era for me to actively seek it out again. This is the kind of music my Mum would've been listening to at home courtesy of her parents growing up, so naturally she has an appreciation of it, and I wouldn't mind getting up and wiggling my arse to this after a few beverages if someone was to put it on.

Actually nowhere near as bad as I was expecting, and quite enjoyable for considerable periods, although equally it did become a bit too much in patches. I was unconvinced with the vocals at first - throughout the album I was flip flopping between "Jesus Christ, shut the fuck up mate" and "actually this guy can carry a melody fairly well", but he fits within the spacey, diffuse, drowned in reverb template that The Verve exercise here. The running time is a bit unnecessary for me - 45-50 minutes max would have done just fine, but I made it all the way through which has to count for something. There was enough on offer here to warrant a revisit down the line, though I'm perhaps not in any great hurry for it.

Haha, I actually gave this album a listen earlier last week. A fresh go with it again this morning has done it no harm at all.

This is how you do synth-pop down to the letter, in my humble opinion. Neil Tennant has a really distinctive voice which goes hand in hand perfectly with the ethereal and ingraining, yet ominous textures on offer here, and his wry lyrical approach ensures that their music cuts deeper beyond just the sonic aspect. It's quite a dark and wistful album underneath the layers of deceptively welcoming and delicate instrumentation, with themes of loss, abusive relationships and existential contemplation underlining it. There are through lines to what would become trip hop on several tracks, not least "My October Symphony", concluding on THAT violin note which is proper heart in mouth stuff.

This is the perfect album to chuck on between the changing of the seasons as days begin to grow shorter, temperatures recede and realisations of the impending gloom and humdrum dawn upon you. Maybe I'm a few weeks early to the "party", but I'm already in the zone for it and dusting off my invitation.

I haven't got any Pet Shop Boys on vinyl, but I'm on a mission to rectify that in the near future. They don't have any bad albums across this era of their career, but Behaviour might just be their best, marking a distinctive shift with their canon which would define their future direction.

Coldplay are a band that receive a lot of stick, and I'd entirely agree that their later material is amongst the most beige, insipid, soul-destroying stuff out there. Music for people who don't like music and "Karens" essentially. However, and I'm acutely aware that this might get me crucified, I actually quite like this album (and only this album), particularly the first half of it.

Some of the textures, arrangements and harmonies on A Rush of Blood are wonderful, and whilst it is perhaps a bit cynical in some ways and a direct consequence of what Radiohead were doing, it holds up pretty well in 2025 unlike much of the other "post britpop" stuff which was loitering around at the time. There is an emotional depth to A Rush of Blood which still endures today, and Chris Martin's vocal performance / lyricism here doesn't stray too far into over-earnestness for me, although I get how it might for others. "Clocks" was one of the first songs I learned how to play on the keyboard at school, and I'm not afraid to admit that it's a cracking tune.

I could do without a handful of tracks on this - some of the second half is a bit dull, but not enough to taint the rest of the experience too much for me.

An absolute worldie, no question or much elaboration needed here. How do you follow up two stone cold classics (released in the same year as each other)? By creating something arguably even better the following year. For my money, this is their apex and essential listening in every sense of the phrase.

As far as Nico's material goes, I feel that she struck gold with her contributions towards The Velvet Underground's debut, however her solo work hasn't ever clicked with me in quite the same way as that album has. On the rare occasions that I feel up for the challenge, The Marble Index is the album of hers that I'm most likely to reach for.

Chelsea Girl is quite low down in the pile for me as I just find it a bit empty, drawling and boring. It's very easy to tire of her vocals when there isn't much going on around them to distract you from them, or much variety in her approach, and unfortunately that's the case here. It's a "weird", but very surface level "weird" album that kind of becomes musical mush before too long.

The second Queen album I've had the pleasure of listening to as part of this challenge. For my money, this is perhaps a bit more consistent all the way through than Sheer Heart Attack, but the highs aren't quite as high.

It's worth noting that both albums were released in the same year, and they were only one removed from A Night at the Opera, which is pretty mental to think about.

The theatrical, triumphant bombast that everyone knows Queen for is present here nonetheless, particularly within the latter half of the album, although not to as potent an extent, which I actually think suits Queen II down to the ground. Are there as many jaw dropping moments on this one? No, but it still absolutely rocks the hell out, and it offers a more than viable alternative for when I'm fancying a bit of Queen, but perhaps want something a bit lower key from them.

I was actually familiar with several of the tracks on here (I live in Norfolk so of course I would be), and the opener is actually a banger (maybe I've just had it bashed into my head so much that I'm experiencing a live case of Stockholm syndrome), but a fair bit of the rest of it... isn't actually that bad for a country album?

There is some absolute tripe on this for sure - If I Could Only Take a Flamethrower to the track of a similar title, I gladly would, and "Bottle Let Me Down" has a face that not even a mother could love, but "Boulder to Birmingham", "Before Believing" and "For No One" are lovely acoustic, folky ballads, "Sleepless Nights" at worst could just be considered a bit inoffensive, and "Coat of Many Colors" is just a Dolly Parton cover so I suppose it's hard to butcher that. The final few tracks are... bloody awful. It's comically bizarre how as soon as the backing band starts warming up again, Harris sets out to pierce your eardrums, but she sounds great during the album's pared back moments, and half a decent album isn't bad for this sort of thing.

I was excited to receive and dive into this one as I'm a sucker for 90s British electronic music, and somehow hadn't ever given this album a crack despite knowing of the artist, however I'm coming away feeling a bit nonplussed by it.

A strange type of jazzy, early drum and bass, it generally takes on a low key approach which probably lends itself better to being on as background music whilst reading / working. It's not quite chill out music, but equally, not really strident enough to be gym music. Some of the tracks are interesting in terms of their progressions, layering and structure, but there wasn't a lot here which really left a significant impression on me, and the nearly 80 minute running time is difficult to justify.

Annoyingly, the last two tracks were unavailable on Spotify, so I had to conclude my listening via YouTube.

There are actually some highly catchy bangers on this, annoyingly so as 1) I was expecting to hate it and 2) I can't really sing along to them without sounding like I've tried funnelling too much food into my trap, as I don't know the slightest bit of Portuguese. However, there are also some very dated moments on here when it decides to sneak some synth work in. I suppose if I'm ever looking for a fix of some funky Nando's background music, this is where I'd be gravitating towards after the sample size of two albums I've heard, but how often will that itch present itself?

The first track started out promisingly through carving out a wonderful atmosphere for itself, however it very quickly began to feel a bit laborious and drawn out (a common thread throughout the rest of the album, despite the relatively modest track lengths). The piano arrangements and rumbling bass work are the MVPs here, but something about the vocal style didn't quite do it for me, and the album plods on at a very pedestrian pace which didn't satisfy what I was after today. Nothing egregious here, but I can't see this forming a part of my regular rotation.

This album is like a trifecta of some really good, some OK and some pretty rough tracks, and it always leaves you second guessing as to which sweet you're about to pick out from the jar. An ambitious, career defining statement or overindulgent and lacking in quality control? The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle, as does my rating. I'd be quite content for this to have at least half an hour shaved off from it, and I'm unlikely to ever take in the full experience again, but it is an album you should hear before you die, as, well, it's The Beatles.

The album title was an immediate red flag, and it unfortunately proved to be accurate as far as describing the overall experience. Having the album's supposed centerpiece "Layla" as Track 13, after over an hour of tedious, self important twaddle for the most part, is trolling to a sickening degree. It's seriously lacking in the quality control department, and ultimately comes off as pretentious above its station. Could very easily have been a 4 or 5 track EP at most. I'll stick with Blind Faith and what I know of from Cream, thanks.

This is a decently catchy album, although I do feel it is one that benefited greatly from arriving at just the right time and place to make the impact that it did. If this had been released a few years later, would it have been as widely celebrated as it was in 2001, where you had nu metal circling the drain, mall emo in its relative infancy etc? Debatable.

Nonetheless, this does a grand job of combining scrappy garage rock energy with hooks, optimistic tones and melodies. It's well-documented that The Strokes could barely play their instruments at this early juncture of their career, giving Is This It an endearing charm which I think made it relatable to a lot of people. I was just about weaning off nappies in 2001, so I don't have the same degree of attachment to this as I'm sure others here will, but I did enjoy giving this another spin after a little while away.

This was actually quite the surprise and very enjoyable, despite my fears when I took note of this being a mixture of studio and live tracks. The end result is a well-assembled package which sailed by pleasantly in my ears. The stripped back, gentle acoustics combined with infrequent, reflective bursts of harmonica really do provide for some heartstring-tugging moments throughout, with the album coming out of its cave and taking on more optimistic, hard rock tones as it advances. Wikipedia describes Rust Never Sleeps as "proto-grunge", but I'm not sure I'm getting much of that from it (thankfully) - rather, it feels like a precursor to the exploits of bands such as Built to Spill, Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, Sebadoh et al.

The opening track has a veil of darkness shrouded over it in a way quite unlike anything else on the album, probably taking the cake as my highlight. I was also pleasantly surprised by Neil Young as a vocalist - for whatever reason, I was expecting some gravelly, two-pack-a-day smoker groaning, but he has a smoother vocal style much more aligned with vocalists of the 90-00s alt/indie persuasion.

Would I put this on again? If the circumstances called for something of this ilk, then yeah, I'd probably reach for it.

An album I initially rated 1/5 - for the longest time, I couldn't stand it, mainly because of bad past associations and experiences that songs from it had soundtracked. Damon Albarn's voice and mockney-isms also require a fair bit of getting accustomed to, which I had initially dismissed as being entirely silly. All of a sudden, a year or so later, I felt it necessary to reappraise my lowest rated albums, and this suddenly clicked into place for me, particularly when I paid closer attention to the lyrics. There is a notable drop off towards the second half of the album, which does prevent me from awarding it any higher than a 3.