Reviews by simonh

The menu at a high class song licencing bistro, where the ingredients are simple but of the highest possible quality.

Take your pick. Every song is tasty. And most, if not all, have been tried by many other artists.

I've never seen The Strokes live. So do they sing all their songs through a megaphone?
Then why do all their tracks sound like the vocal is being played over a short wave radio crystal speaker? It would be ok for one track, but a whole album?!

If they want to record in a tin box then good for them. Not for me.

Bookended with borrowed classical flourishes, the album quickly dives into psychedelia before veering off to Broadway—something in the vein of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. From there it slips into crooning, then suddenly detours into samba. It’s all over the place.

I recognised “Spinning Wheel,” though I hadn’t realised it was theirs as my only exposure had been old TV variety coveres by the likes of Shirley Bassey or Frankie Vaughan.

Then comes their take on “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.” After that, we’re in church (and I do love a bit of organ), before shifting into straight jazz, and finally landing on a direct lift of Sunshine of Your Love.

This is quite a journey of an album. I enjoyed the ride—but I’ve no real desire to take it again.

Divine AND comedic. What more could you ask for.
4
(+1 for surprising me with the theme to Father Ted)

Funky music for vegetarians. No meat on it at all.

Elevator music. Not too bad as background, but not really much body to concentrate on. Maybe it's called 'post rock' because it's like rock music produced by someone deaf as a post? The best I can say is.. it was there.

Anyone who deliberately adds technical glitches to a track to make me think my audio equipment is broken deserves to be slapped around the legs. -1 star.

"I must put some Tortoise on", said no-one ever.

Sword and sorcery, flower power, trippy, eastern baroque precursor to the summer of love. And quite obviously so.

Definitely some good stuff on here... Season Of The Witch (which I'd never heard before but it seems well known?) and Sunshine Superman are standouts. Legend Of A Girl Child Linda is an overlong dirge.

So yes there's good and bad, but this is mainly good.
3½

He doesn't sound like the miserable fucker everyone says he is?
He sounds quite upbeat actually.
The wind section adds nothing, but overall this is a great live album.

Some good beats, although a bit repetitive. Lyrics not very inclusive.
And how do you pronounce his name anyway?
Gee-zee-ay?
Gerzaaaaaah?
Geeezer?
Jizzer?

Ah who cares anyway.

Really enjoyed listening to this. Interesting throughout. Lovely melodies. Good harmonies and great playing. By a band id never heard of... (even though I've already reviewed the other album on this list and given it a 2!)
This is far better than a 2. So much so that I'm going to go back and relisten to 'Third' simply because I can't believe a band that produced this in 1972 had sunk so far by 1978 (drugs, splits?)

Not as rough a diamond as their first (very short) album and sounded more like they went into the studio with the bare bones of each track and then 'jammed' it out. But yes it was ok.

At the 'Big Weekend' festival in Swansea, I left the Taylor Swift headline set after the first song to go see Christine & the Queens. No regrets. She puts on a good show. A lot of her performance is visual but this album has a great sound.

And for what is worth, whether "80's pop" was recorded in the 80's, 2018 or 1850, I couldn't give a fuck. If I like it I like it.

This was a bit of a struggle, mainly because I didn't have a block of time in which I could listen to the whole album end to end.
I'm not a great lover of the screeeeeeeem school of vocal delivery, but much of the musical content and rhythm section was very much ok. I will try to give it another listen but for now it's a good 3

The first thing I should say is - do some research before you slag an album off for being 2 hours long. This album is actually 37 minutes long if you shave off all the extras and 'bonus' tracks, which I always do.

It's very Beach Boys in places. Of course it is. Has a melacholy vibe and surprisingly good songs.
I'm only surprised as I was led to believe that Brian was 'the talent' and the other brothers were just in the band to keep the parents happy.
One criticism is the number of poor fade outs. It seems our Dennis could write songs but wasn't great at endings?

It's not an album I think I'll play again, but it has certainly shifted my opinion of the Beach Boys' family tree.

My dad was a professional musician his whole life and he rated both Frank and Nelson Riddle as the best singer and arranger in the business.

I take on board some of the other reviewers criticism that many of these songs sound similar. But that's the nature of this record - it's a compilation/showcase of the best songwriters and songs of the era arranged in a swing style.
The style is the same.
The songs are not.

Anyway, I agree with my dad regarding Sinatra. The phrasing and syncopation; and the diction all perfect. The songs are stories and you can understand every word.

My dad is 92 now and wants me to take him to the new Frank Sinatra musical in the West End this summer.
I'll be happy to.

For a record that came out in 1971, this has the air of a Greatest Hits album about it.
It contains a couple of my favourite ever Bowie tracks. Life on Mars? and Queen Bitch. Back that up with Changes, Andy Warhol, Oh You Pretty Things and Kooks. And it's only 1971 FFS!
I was never a massive Bowie fan but how can this be anything other than a 5?

I was looking forward to putting this on the headphones and having a rave party in my kitchen. And to a certain extent I did.
But I was expecting better and left at the end of the rave a little disappointed.

Strange to say this of a supposed pioneer of the genre, but I found that this album lacked... creativity.

He found some good themes but then hung on to them far too long before underdeveloping them. Theres some good stuff. Like 'The Weekend Starts Here'. But generally most tracks just got repetitive.
Probably fine at 3am if you're off your face, but not so good in my kitchen.

Another album I saw and had made up my mind about before listening.
I'm not a big fan of his sneery voice and haven't found the other albums of his I've listened to so far to be that inspiring.
However, this kept me reasonably entertained as I stripped a bike. The voice can still be grating after a while but here the sneer index seemed to go up and down with different songs.
Overall it was passable.

I enjoyed the songs.
He's a good songwriter and guitarist.
But it's difficult to keep your concentration on the songs without your mind drifting onto how unlucky you have to be to get stabbed in the chest. Twice. For your girlfriend who happened to be in the next room to "pull the knife out" and then for the law to say you committed suicide.
With luck like that no wonder he spent most of his life feeling miserable.

I looked back at the other Echo album I've rated, 1983s Porcupine. TL;DR Waily and dull 2*

I'm not hearing that at all on this album. It's very Cure/Siouxsie-like. Metalic guitar sounds and more brooding and rhythmic vocals. The songs are structured and individual. And I'm not bored.
So that happened between 1980 and 1983?
Can we blame Thatcher for this as well?
3½