Reviews by shenanigan

Well, yes, this one is truly incredible and lives up to its reputation. I love the flowing opening chord of Breathe, the psychedelic intro of Time, the heavenly Gospel voices of The Great Gig In The Sky, the odd measures and saxophone in Money, the powerful climaxes of Us And Them, the great solos of Any Colour You Like, the melodies of Brain Damage and the conclusion in Eclipse. I love how everything fits together so perfectly, but does never get samey. No second wasted anywhere on these tracks, while the songs still take their time if it fits them.
And then.... there's also On the Run, which I don't get as a track (and even less why it's placed near the beginning of the record!?) and which keeps this from being a perfect record.
Still, the rest is pure magic. It's fantastic and I will probably listen to it many many times again.
4,5/5 near perfect

Very mixed bag here, lacking coherence. Most of the more alternative rock oriented tracks are quite listenable, but not much really stands out. The country stuff on the other hand... nope. Most of the ballads... yawn.
Hotel Arizona was cool.
2.5/5 okay

Expert voices, beautiful vocal harmonies, warm and soothing. Reminds me of the vocal parts in The Lion King soundtrack and musical, which I like very much.
However, I felt that after one track, I had heard them all. So, as a whole album, it's not for me.
Add some orchestra and percussion, and I think I would enjoy it much more.
2/5 below average

Great album, the songs are as tight as the guitar and bass lines.
I like how Franz Ferdinand show that they have a talent for interesting chord progressions and meldodies, which makes it an engaging listen from start to end.
Two or three songs are of lesser quality though, which keeps it from being a real classic.
Highlights: Dark of the Matinee, Darts of Pleasure
4/5 very good

Awesome. Such a warm, cozy, mildly psychedelic album. Instant stress relief.
There are so many beautiful details in the compositions and I'd like to point out all of them, but I'm too lazy and will just mention the first thing and that is how I absolutely love the bass line in the first track.
They manage to start off very strong and maintain the magic throughout the whole 43mins.
"Talisman" is the best track here and can compete with All Them Witches' "Talisman" for "Best Track Called Talisman".
4,5/5 near perfect

Well, it goes on and on and is pleasant enough, but it's getting boring pretty soon. And sometimes there's a little country music mixed in there, and a little country is too much country for me.
Also, I do love me some vocal harmonies, but here these are just over the top.
Would probably not skip but wouldn't actively put on either.
2,5/5 okay-ish

Never got into HipHop, and this album certainly won't help.
Many instrumentals are actually quite good, I like the beats and the Jazz samples. Would have enjoyed this more if it WAS only instrumental HipHop, because I hated the rapped verses. I generally don't pay much attention to lyrics, so I get why some of the appeal might be lost to me. But on the other hand, whenever I did listen to the lyrics, it was about why this guy was the coolest and that everyone else can suck it... yawn.
1,5/5 weak

Okay, heavily biased here. This album showed 11year old me the way towards music that was heavier and more aggressive than my parents' classic rock and pop stuff. (I remember them being shocked by Chester Benningham shouting from my room SHUT UP WHEM I'M TALKING TO YOU!!!)

There's much to like here, and the parts fit together nicely: Downtuned metal riffs, sweet DJ effects, Mike Shinoda's rapping, Chester's powerful clean and non-clean singing. The songs are short and effectively constructed.
Only the middle stretch of "Crawling" and "Runaway" insn't that strong.

I know mu metal is often frowned upon (by me also), but here, it really comes together and forms a sweet listen. As I said, I'm biased ;)
4/5

First of all: can't unsee Garfunkel's magnificent moustache, and that's a good thing.
The title track and "The Boxer" are so good and quite breathtaking when listened to at proper volume.
The rest of the album was surprisingly diverse musically and also really enjoyable apart from like two boring numbers (and what about that live version near the end? The clapping and cheering was annoying and the song wasn't that good).
All in all: 3,5/5 - strong

Some of the experimental ambient-like soundscapes are pretty cool, like in "Kid A" or "National Anthem" with its brass instruments.
What I can't get over with is the depressing undertone of the whole thing. No, thanks, I don't love music that makes me feel so lonely, anxious and fundamentally sad.
2/5
Will put on some Colour Haze now to heal my soul :)

It goes on for too long, it's quite weird and freaky, and I don't love his voice.
That said, it did somehow develop kind of a hypnotizing spell. And so I found myself listening to it again and again over the day, and my liking for it grew step by step. Definitely a grower.

"Will Is My Friend", "Fall", "This Beard Is For Siobhan" were highlights.

3/5, and might grow on me further.

On the negative side, it's somewhat dumb party rock. (I'm no AC/DC fan either.)
On the plus side, it's somewhat fun party rock.
But still not much there to really catch my attention ("Look at Last Night" and "I Don't Mind" were pretty cool though).
2,5/5

Very cool and enjoyable, especially the A-side. Liked the background singers and the occasional wahwah guitar.
Minus one star because musically there wasn't much new on side B.

So boring and uninspired. It feels like their goal is to make music in a way such that least people are annoyed by it... and that's very annoying

Pleasant enough listen, but none of the tracks really stood out. Quite nice background music.

Was hyped as I saw this coming up because I listened to this a lot when I was a kid. And YES, it lived up to the hype all these years later.

It's crazy and over the top, and that is its strength. Great guitar work, sweet vocal harmonies and top tier songwriting with lots of unexpected turns. Every song presents new flavours but it all adds up to a real treat that just makes me feel good.
Also, that vocal middle part in Prophet's Song? Just wow.

Near perfect 4,5/5

Nice riffs everywhere. Actually liked it best when the Grunge was turned down and the Doom turned up, like in "Sickman" or "Junkhead". "Rooster" also had a cool vibe.
That said, it runs too long (CD age sickness 😮‍💨). Also, whole album about suicide, addiction, mental breakdown? You ok guys? 😅 Negative vibes dragging me down and would prevent me from listening to this often.
3,5/5

So boring that it would have put me to sleep - if it hadn't annoyed me so much. 😤
Too American? Too much reverb on the damn voice? I don't know but I don't like it.

It was.... "historically intereseting" 😂 and actually an okay listen.
But overall too repetitive and the clean voice was annoying (robot voice yessss)

Really loved the overall vibe of the album. Some if the folky stuff dragged a bit too long though.