Reviews by ryzgee

It's Dark Side of the Bloody Moon. Nuff said!

I actually didn't mind this for what it is. It's a modernist take on the glossy styles of the late 80s to early 90s – like a fusion of dance pop, R&B, disco and funk, with a very current sheen and clarity to it. Vocally there are some pleasant melodies on offer here, even if few of them really stick in your mind, and I think that's ultimately where the main problem lies. It's a pandora's box of pastiches without offering anything particularly unique or memorable.

Possibly (probably) a spicy take, but between this or Toxicity, I'd take this ten times out of ten. It's SOAD at their most unhinged, feral, instinctual and unapologetically strange. I'm not saying Toxicity isn't any of those things, but this, comparatively, completely disregards playing by any rules.

It's a wonderful marriage of avant garde music, thrash and angular post punk with Serj Tankian giving a completely untethered performance all the while. The songwriting on the debut is much more unpredictable and unpolished, as is the production. It sounds as though it's trying to break out of a 10ft box at all times, which goes perfectly hand in hand with the neurotic instrumentation on offer. The bass is far more percussive, and the guitars here are sludgier and far heftier, however they also combine to spellbindingly emotive effect on a track such as "Spiders" which has a creeping, dark atmospheric feel to it.

In short, this feels much more like my SOAD album and it's the one of theirs I return to the most. I simply love it, have done for many years and will continue to do so until my time on this mortal coil is done.

I've only become familiar with Happy Mondays in recent times off the back of a pub mate speaking glowingly about seeing them live earlier in the year. I started here and worked my way backwards towards their debut Bummed, and I'd have to say this is their strongest material by a long shot.

This captures something really unique, fun and quite special in my view – it's like an injection of serotonin into the veins of industrial and post-punk to create something still cynical and murky at its core, but now geared for the dance floor. It has a gritty, druggy street feel and working class mentality reverberating through it both sonically and lyrically, and although there is an observable polish to the production, the album still has a loose, ragged funk to ground it in its surroundings.

The grooves, bass lines and percussion on here are hypnotic and nothing short of remarkable, and even if this does sound heavily tethered to the 90s when you take the production for what it is today, that's a huge part of the appeal for me. It makes me feel nostalgic for a time I wasn't even around for.

"Step On", "Kinky Afro" and "Loose Fit" are the obvious highlights for me for their razor-sharp hooks, but the surrounding material holds its own as well, even if some of it does bleed together on occasion comparatively.

This isn't quite as strong as the debut or Mezzanine in my view, but it's still a more than formidable release, and it represents something of a gaping hole in my collection.

The mood of Protection is notably different to that of its more optimistic predecessor; leaning further into dub, reggae and spacious electronica, whilst placing a greater importance towards textural layering, but it's not quite as dark and heavy as its successor would prove to be. It's a lush, meditative experience nonetheless and it embodies more of a cinematic feeling than Blue Lines in my view, immediately apparent on the title track opener through Tracey Thorn's agonising yet soulful vocal performance and the pulsating atmospherics shrouding them. Warmth and coldness entwine superbly there to produce the album's defining statement, but much of the rest is of a similarly high standard.

This just misses out on a five star rating for me as there are moments, particularly during the instrumental-led offerings where it loses a modicum of focus and threatens to teeter into background music territory, compared to either album aside which both constantly demand my attention.

I'm conflicted with my thoughts on this. On the one hand, there's some killer bluesy riffage, ominous basslines and even a proto-industrial energy contained within it at times, but on the other it's an uncomfortably sleazy experience, surely with theatrical intentions but I still found a lot of the lyricism to be crude nonetheless. Sonically it finds itself in this weird intersection between glam/hard rock and cabaret, and it struggles to settle into any discernible stylistic pattern or groove.

I struggled to get through the complete package as a result, despite liking bits and pieces, but the worst offenders were "Giddy Up A Ding Dong" and particularly the second track "Gang Bang", which has aged like milk.

I'm awarding a very tentative three stars for some of the musicianship.

"Take on Me" is obviously the jewel in the crown here, but I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of what this album had to offer. It's a shame that it very much suffers from the one-hit wonder curse in the public consciousness, as it's a high-quality 80s synth pop package across its running time.

Beneath its glossy exterior lies a surprising amount of musical depth, dramatic flair and classical undercurrents, particularly on numbers such as "The Sun Always Shines on TV" which functions as an epic, operatic counterweight during the album's mid-section. You then have the title track which offers some welcome respite and tenderness.

The production is perhaps lacking a touch of grit to lend some of these songs the full-bodied muscularity they deserve, but the songs are 100% there and emotionally resonant. I'd absolutely purchase this.

Musically this is well-crafted, but I absolutely cannot stand her voice. It's way over the top and it's migraine inducing to the nth degree. Couldn't handle more than a couple songs of it.

This felt kind of vacuous and pretentious in the main, like it was trying to be sophisticated, breathy electronic art-pop, but it just lacked any minerals or anything truly interesting or memorable about it. The songs are just there doing their thing until they aren't.

I can see how this is a fair example of a genre that I've got absolutely no time for at all. Lyrically it holds little back in laying her class / poverty struggles bare, acting almost like a confessional document. In that sense it's easy to connect with her songwriting. I just can't do her vocals, and found the music itself incredibly simple and unengaging.

Sad to hear of her passing though. She seemed like a genuinely decent human being who used her status for good.

This was a lot to get my head around first thing in the morning, but I actually kind of liked it.

Rhythmically it's quite complex, intimidating and bordering on alien when you isolate the instrumentation for what it is at its core. However, through the crystal clear production where you can truly feel the room reverberating with each beat of the conga, and with the call-and-response vocal dynamic, the songs possess a sense of warmth and a real human connection. It's a simultaneously uncomfortable but fascinating listen with an authentic, uncompromising energy, functioning as a snapshot of a particular culture/era but also sounding like it could pass as something relatively current.

I'm not sure when or how quickly I would revisit, but I'm giving this a generous rating for being quite the curiosity and a breath of fresh air.

I've been putting off listening to this all day as I've been in a good mood and was fully anticipating an abomination from the murkiest trenches of the 60s for whatever reason. That, it isn't, but the twangy vocals aren't a favourite of mine, and whilst this is solidly performed, not much of the musicianship really leapt out at me. "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" is a bit of a banger though.

I was expecting this to be some fairly standard balladeering hard rock fare – Aerosmith doing Aerosmith things, if you will. Turns out it actually kind of slaps all the way through, and that they have more than one trick up their sleeve.

The sleazy, swaggering style of riffage on here totally won me over, but there was also a surprising amount of variety to be had between looser and more frantic songwriting. Either way, this was a good, fun 37 minutes. I might look into making a purchase.

Basically CTRL+C / CTRL+V my review from the Billy Bragg album I had the other day. I don't like this either.

This all just felt a bit too safe, pristine and one-paced really. Nothing particularly offensive about it, and she clearly has a great voice, but the music quickly grew tiresome.

I've tried this a couple of times over the years, and have never liked it. I still don't after today's attempt. Just not my thing at all. The vocals are an immediate turn off and the music doesn't offer much respite. I admire the satirical/ironic lyricism however, which prevents this from getting the one star treatment.

A real shame that this seems to have become lost to time somewhat – only 5k monthly Spotify listeners, and I can't say that I was familiar with the artist in any way.

I thought this was excellent, wide-ranging and ambitious. It's a cinematic, sweeping orchestral album with darkness at its core, whilst managing not to err too much on the over-dramatic side, and Ackles' vocals are an enjoyable, slightly unhinged rich baritone, bringing the likes of Scott Walker and Nick Cave to mind. Lyrically, it's a poetic combination of dysfunction and tender, sentimental relief, finely balanced on a knife edge at all times.

Yeah, a definite revisit for me and a likely purchase if I can get a hold of a copy.

Another one to chalk down as an interesting cultural exercise, but not something I'd ever have any inclination to return to.

Fairly harmless, unremarkable singer-songwriter music with a potent country twang to the vocals. Yeah, that's never gonna be a winning formula for me.

I actually quite enjoyed this. I've seen the album cover bandied about a lot, and am aware of the artist through this coming up in conversation regularly as being amongst the most well-regarded jazz albums.

Really appreciated the odd-metered nature of it, which constantly leaves you second guessing from passage to passage within tracks, however the melodies remain distinctively catchy and hummable despite the underlying complexities to the arrangements. Bright, breezy stuff which engaged my brain, although perhaps not quite my soul or emotional core in the way that some jazz albums are capable of for me, as it did feel somewhat clinical and inch-perfect rehearsed.