Reviews by simonh

Very 1960s and very Liverpool.
Bearing in mind I don’t care too much for either then this is pretty listenable. Obvious influences mentioned by other reviewers so I won’t bother.
Nothing on it I didn’t like.

The Temptations seem to have been around my whole life. i don't really think of them as a group, more of a franchise. A tool to sing songs that the writers couldn't or wouldn't sing themselves. Like 'Trigger's broom', 6 new handles and 8 new heads, but still the same broom. And there always seem to be 2 or 3 versions of "The Temptations" touring at any one time.

So I don't know which incarnation these guys were, but all the songs are pretty good, bar the opener live track which doesn't really fit.
Highlight is 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone', a classic. 'First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' is good though I prefer the Roberta Flack version.
Nice stuff.

An empty sandwich.
The two slices of bread being the excellent 'My My Hey Hey' and 'Hey Hey My My'.
But the rest is very forgetable. Songs about going to the dentist and a particularly dodgy song about hitting on single mums on benefits aren't that great. Especially as, even then, he sounded like a whiney 80 year old.
3 (-1 Harmonica tax)

Started off as a 5. A great heavy sound, good melodies and not too fast and thrashy.
But then it ascended up its own arse.
Too much religious imagery and at the end a lot of white noise and feedback hiss.
Making my headphones sound like they are broken really pisses me off.
Started a 5. Finishes a 2½

Enjoyed this. But indistinguishable from any other NW US indie grunge of the time. Listened 3 times and can't remember any specific tracks, but end to end it's a good listen.

So I lied, I do remember Fantastic Disaster for its great use of harmonica. I hope it was a pisstake because it made me smile.

3½

Was really enjoying this album until I got to “They’re Red Hot” which is absolute shite. Thankfully it’s only 1 minute 11 long but it completely fucked up my impression of the whole album.

And lost it a star.

Guys, just because you’ve got 74 minutes playing time on a CD doesn’t mean you have to fill it with every bit of shit you record.

Funky jazzy album and a good listen.
One annoyance...bad grammar. It's "Where were you" or "Where have you been" NOT "Where was you at" fuck's sake.

Not great. But not as bad as the usual US gangster rap stuff I've listened to.
The usual mysogyny and racism of course.
I didn't notice the length of it as I was working - so maybe I was only half listening? Lucky for Common perhaps.

I really wasn’t expecting this.
Really liked the first couple of tracks. We were definitely heading for a 4 or a 5. But then it seemed to lose its way with Little Red Riding Hood which is a bit of a mess and then some bizarre goose impressions on a sax.
Overall still enjoyed it in a weird way. And great to hear singing in a Kentish accent.
3½

Pleasantly soulful album. How it can be also labelled on the hip-hop genre I have no idea..possibly because it has some waste-of -time 'skits' in it and he uses the N word, I dunno? But I'm not going to downgrade it because of that.

An apt title. This is hot, smooth soul.
Perhaps, though, a few more concise tracks would a been a better choice than 4 bloaters?
Although the 18 minute ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’ is great the first time; once heard, the 8 minute single-note talky intro is surplus to requirements on subsequent listens. So whilst probably brilliant at a live show, on a studio album it’s a waste of vinyl.
My first listen took 45 minutes. Subsequent listens took less than 30 (plus the time taken to trim the fat).
The lean was lovely though.

This album is in my collection, though I think only because I got it from one of those record clubs prevalent in the 80s and 90s where you get multiple albums for free and then get lumbered with ‘album of the month’ for the next 12 months unless you actively cancel it.

At the time I probably thought it was ok - I certainly remember all the tracks when listening to it today - but I got tired of it pretty quickly (as I also did today) and it then most likely rattled, boxless, around my car for years being ignored and discounted as ‘boring’. 

It’s all just a bit too ethnic and samey. 



35 years later… it was pleasant to reacquaint myself with it, but I think if it was to be another 35 years before I hear it again I’d be comfortable with that.
2½

One of only 3 acts whose live set I have walked out of half way through (the other two being Foals and Taylor Swift), this was better than I expected it to be..
It must have been all down the tubes from here.

Definitely music to bump and grind to, the dirty bastaad. A pleasant listen even without getting it on.

Sounds like a badly recorded demo tape for a band I'm never going to sign.

I took the advice of another reviewer and started listening to this album at track 4. Then went back and listened to the ‘big two’.

There were more than passing resemblances to Vincent and American Pie in some of the other tracks but I thought they were generally ok, with The Grave being the highlight of ‘the rest’.
Without the two monster tracks this would be a 3. With those two, and because I’ve never got tired of them, it’s a 4.

Ok so another album that’s not actually on the 1001 list - it's on the ex-list. The expunged list. Removed because the author maybe saw the error of his ways and realised that this is not great, it's just overplayed.
I’m already bored and I’ve not even put the album on yet. Just looking at the titles makes me think oh no not THAT song again. And there are a lot of them.

It's an album my mother would love - because she’s got dementia and doesn’t even remember my name. So all these songs are forever new to her. For the rest of us it's a bit tiresome. But is suppose credit where credit’s due, to churn out an album of quality songs at 21 is impressive. It’s not her fault they were played to death in every shop and on every radio station.
Best songs are Turning Tables and
I'll Be Waiting. Worst are everything else that's been overplayed. But worst of the worst is a horrible version of The Cure's Love Song.

Kid Rock.
I’ve never heard of the bloke, but a lot of Americans seem to hate him? Why? Did he jerk off over young boys wearing a diamond encrusted glove and sleep with a chimp? Or was that somebody else? Surely not worse than that?

Ok I Googled him and he’s a MAGA Trump loving fuckwit that likes to mouth off. But surely that’s more likely a reason for 50%+ of Americans to adore him, right?? Also he appears to be a big campaigner against ticket-scalpers - and we all want that! (having tried and failed to get Rush tickets last week).

So, anyway, I’m going into this ‘bottom 5’ rated album completely blind.
And you know what - it’s not bad at all. Nice tunes. Great production. Ok so the lyrics are rather crass and juvenile to the extent that they’re laughable. More laughable than some of the gang related violent hip-hop stuff that is also on this list and meant to be taken seriously.
And he has a stupid name which he clearly loves since he mentions it in the lyrics in nearly every song.
But apart from that I think this is ok (will I ever be allowed into the USA again??)

So Supertramp are the absolute epitomy of uncool, right? Never listened to a Supertramp album in my life.
But I really like this.
I'm reading in other reviews that `Breakfast in America' is better. But seeing as I hate The Logical Song then I formally endose this being on the list and not that.

I’m reading a lot of hate here for this album. What the fuck do YOU know? This is more Human League than Human League. So much so that the last 2 tracks even sound like Philip Oakey singing them (or probably more likely the other way around since Glenn Gregory was the singer they wanted for Human League in the first place).

Not to detract from either the Human League or Heaven 17 - I like both their respective albums on this list as much as the other. Well no, maybe Dare just a teeny bit more. But they are basically the same band.