Reviews by ryzgee

Grandiose in scope, large and swelling sonically with its acoustic/piano arrangements, but it just left no real impression on me whatsoever. Style over substance.

Very competently done blues/Southern rock, but it's just not something I'd ever put on by choice in a million years. It's got a good swing to it for what it is though.

Only managed a couple of songs. Hated every second of them

This plays out like a constant case of whiplash between fairly uninteresting ballad-like tracks, soft folky numbers, utter absurdity like whatever the Coconut song is, and occasional rockers such as the 7 minute "Jump Into The Fire". At the end I was left bemused as to whether I actually liked this or not – probably not enough for a revisit as there's just no rhyme or reason to be found here at all.

Aside from "Tainted Love", a lot of this just wasn't for me really, and at times it made me feel genuinely uncomfortable with its lyricism and jarring instrumentation/singing. It's not one star levels of awful in my eyes as I can at least recognise how it was intentionally crafted that way in a clever manner, but I'd never willingly listen again.

Not a bad listen by any means, but the sum of it doesn't hold up as an essential listen nearly 60 years after the fact, in my view. Supposedly hailed as something as a lost classic which was "derailed by one of the most disastrous marketing campaigns in music history", there are moments when this hits hard courtesy of its frenetic, proto punk-esque energy, chiefly so on "Omaha", however the muddy and unfinished production lets the side down a fair bit. The whole thing also felt a bit all over the place stylistically and sonically.

Wow. Another one entirely new to me that I'm simply blown away by, within a matter of days. Talk about the algorithm grinding you down and then rewarding you handsomely for your persistence. I've always admired William Orbit's production credits on a number of landmark downtempo/electronic albums from throughout the 90s, but have never really explored his own output. That was a glaring oversight on my part.

I'm not sure I've heard a fusion of dub, house, ambient and world music that sounds anything quite like this. The production is absolutely phenomenal – timeless, wonderfully lush and spacious, it truly sounds as though it was made for headphones and it really does hold up well in 2026 unlike many albums of its era. The bass lines on here have a snug sense of liquidity and pulsating rhythm to them, in a way which constantly feels like having your brain massaged. The beats are often club-like but not too forceful or rigid in tempo, varying from trip-hop to techno-like rhythms. You then have the echoing delay to the guitars when they feature, in a manner which brings shoegaze/dream pop to mind, and the Jarre-esque synthesisers bringing introspective calm. Maybe not strictly in terms of sonic similarity, but in how expressive they are.

Purchase material and five stars without a shadow of a doubt.

Wow, just wow. The Stooges have always been a bit of a musical blindspot for me, and after one runaround with this I'm lamenting not having taken the plunge sooner.

This feels like exactly the type of album deserving a place on the list – one that surely laid the groundwork for punk's aggression and uncompromising style with its relentlessness and pure adrenaline from start to finish. The lead playing on here is frantic and oozing with attitude, and it has an early metallic edge to it, whilst Iggy Pop sounds like a man possessed on the mic with his charisma expertly entwining with the chaos unfolding around him.

I listened to the 2023 "Iggy Mix" which supposedly fixes some glaring production faults observable on earlier versions, so for extra credit I think I will investigate further later on, such was my enjoyment of this record. Although I recognise how it could feel slightly thin or wearing to others, I kind of like how the entire thing sounds like a complete house on fire with its somewhat undercooked sound. It's 30 relentless minutes of having your eardrums bashed in.

A big "hell yeah" from me, it's gone straight onto the purchase list and fuck it, I'm awarding full marks.

Instrumentally, this was a marked improvement over the Kings of Leon I'm most familiar with – some actual vigour, crunch, energy, skill, looseness and passion to the playing came as a welcome surprise to my ears, posing the question of how they slid so drastically and rapidly from here into the soulless radio fare of their latter-day career. The vocals on this, however, are a complete deal-breaker for me. I can't stand them whatsoever, and on that basis I shall'nt be revisiting.

This was a reasonable enough listen, and I can see how something as swampy as this would have stood out amongst the wave of indie landfill and straight-ahead garage rock revival stuff that had begun rearing its head at the time, even if it does wear its influences quite loudly on its sleeve. There's more than a few hints of The La's and The Coral to be found here, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Despite that, there's a strange bluesy, soul-funk flavour on offer here to differentiate it enough, and the interplay between the vocals, which often have a slightly gritty and unhinged quality to them, and the saxophone lends this album a driving presence. It's fun and unapologetically catchy, but I'm not entirely sure it's an essential listen in today's landscape, and its veneer does wear off a bit towards the second half where it begins to feel formulaic to an extent.

There's clearly a lot of talent and expertise on display here, and this wasn't without its promising moments, particularly when it leaned into Eastern-inspired instrumentation; but they felt surrounded by a fair measure of filler and by passages which felt more like half-baked session jams in desperate need of stronger hooks to ground them.

This starts off a bit ropey for me, and I do have to be in the mood for Waits' vocals but I found myself warming to this fairly quickly as it played out.

It definitely feels like an important turning point within Waits' canon from the smoky, jazz-lounge stylings of his earlier material towards the kind of junkyard blues-esque experimentation that would define his later arc – incorporating enough of both to remain hospitable to the ears whilst offering continual intrigue.

During its most tender moments such as "Jersey Girl" and "On The Nickel", this is a fantastic, unapologetically romantic listen, and I'd return for those cuts alone, but much of the surrounding material is no slouch either. A strong four stars and another addition to the purchase list.

Classic

Really enjoyed this, so much so that it's gone straight onto my purchase list. A compelling fusion of abstract techno, downtempo, experimental synths and breakbeat, it's a lengthy but immensely rewarding listen, rooted in 70s textures and production values but reframed for the 90s IDM scene. It almost sounds as if Future Sound of London hopped on a time machine back into the Berlin school era and this is what they came back with. Excellent stuff.

Absolute fucking shite. Mumbly processed crap autotuned to within an inch of its life.

Meh, just not my thing at all

Not quite the untouchable masterpiece that many view it as, but I can't ignore its influence and status. This takes a little while to properly get going for me after a promising start packed with energy – I'm not really keen on "I Know It's Over" or "Never Had No One Ever" at all, both of which very much err on the dirging, self-pitying side and threaten to grind the album's early momentum to a halt, but Side 2 is much more my speed. Everything else about this album has already been said before.

I've come to adore Spiritualized and their adjacent projects in recent years (essentially anything featuring Jason Pierce in some capacity). This perhaps isn't quite my favourite of Spiritualized's studio albums, but it's still a herculean achievement in experimental rock. It marks a distinct, ambitious shift from the more aggressive works of Spacemen 3 into something truly expansive and profoundly hypnotic, where this is meant to be heard as more of a multi-part symphonic piece than as an album in the traditional sense.

Jason Pierce's talents are the MVP here, where he combines minimalist drones, gospel-tinged harmonies and classical instrumentation such as horns, autoharps and luscious strings to craft such a weightless atmosphere. This doesn't rely on sheer volume or distortion to overwhelm you, rather, it crushes you with its delicate textures, relentless motorik repetition and slow building intensity, whilst it also carries emotional intensity through its drug-hazed melancholic undertones. This feels indebted to Krautrock in many ways, which I think is precisely why it ticks so many boxes for me, but it's far less optimistic in tone and much deeper reaching in a personal sense.

An absolute classic. Five stars without a shadow of a doubt

The title track opener is an absolute monster, but unfortunately the same energy and bite isn't sustained from there on in. Much of the rest is perfectly fine, but a little too straightforward and "radio" to grab me. Lyrically it's also a bit on the edgy side, but in what feels like a performative way.

A couple of songs of this was enough. Absolutely horrific, skin-crawling shite by just about every conceivable metric.