Reviews by simonh

I wonder sometimes how hip-hop artists make any money when most of their tracks are samples of other people’s work.
That being said, this is a melodic and largely inoffensive piece of work with some recognisable (and I mean the tracks not just the samples) songs that I quite enjoyed. Well done hiphop (for a change).
4
But I did hate all the sketches in between songs. Why is that a thing in hiphop? It never works.
Knocked down to a 3 because of that.

As much as I have always disliked Michael Jackson, sometime you just have to separate the artist from the art and concede that this really is a great album.

Of course ‘great’ is always subjective. I’ve never listened to this album before in its entirety but I find that there’s only one track that I haven’t heard before. Probably because its heyday was the same time as my heyday, out most nights at student pubs or clubs where Thriller, Billie Jean, Beat It et al were played to death. And those clubs were all the better for it.
Even the track I had never heard before I liked. The only fly in the ointment was the ham of The Girl Is Mine (of which I was very pleased to see that Paul McCartney didn’t claim any writing credit - sensible man!).

(Of the artist, MJ probably had mental issues exacerbated by his sycophantic entourage's facilitation of them and society’s willingness to look the other way because of his celebrity. But the crazy fucked-up nonce is dead now and good riddance).

Remember 1970 UK 'variety' shows. "It's Cliff Richard" or "Lulu" or "Summertime Special"? About half way through there would be some troupe of clean cut dancers doing a very 70's routine to some Norrie Paramor or Ronnie Hazlehurst orchestration.

Well this is appears to be the soundtrack.

If I had to review this in one word it would be


Cacophony

A bit of a tinny sounding mess in places (maybe my speakers? I think not), but tuneful in others.
I do like an album where all the tracks merge into the next. So much more preferable to lazy fadeouts.

Sometimes traumatic events happen that can affect your whole life. A kind of PTSD if you like. For example being soaked in a tent for a whole week can make one never want to visit the Lake District again.

‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ is singularly the worst pop song ever released. True, there must be worse that never charted and saw the light of day. But this bastard song got to number 1. There must be some sick record buying fuckers out there. And that clouds my judgement of Stevie Wonder for all time. So today is going to be a traumatic day.

So in reality the trauma lasted more than a day because ths record is so damn long.

I concede there are some good songs on here (and some bad - Village gheto, Knocks Me Off.. ). Also a lot of hits. But every song seems to have the life squeezed out of it. Most of them overstay their welcome. The album could be literally 20 minutes shorter without the self congratulatory outros.

Conclusion. Pretty good. But not as good as everyone would have you believe.

And No I do Not want to hear a recording of your baby in the bath

I've had a Gilberto album before, but that was Atrud Gilberto.
A bit of Googling reveals that Astrud was Bebel's dad's first wife. And the dad is João who was a famous Brazilian guitarist. And he has an album on the list too! It's like a bossa nova soap opera.

Not my go-to genre of music. Posh background music. Might be on my playlist if I was to open an obscenely expensive café serving Civet coffee and bomboloni. And even then I think I'd prefer the ex-wife's album.

Astrud had a vulnerability and wavyness to her voice that added something to the music. This is more self assured, and therefore a bit boring. But it will do in the café.

Couldn’t understand pretty much anything he was saying apart from the odd 'ghee-tarr', 'perdy lady' and other cliched codswallop. Listening to some of the tracks, I can only agree with other reviewers about it sounding more like a parody. And all I could see when I closed my eyes were old people with their thumbs in their belts line dancing.

I did find myself tapping my foot on the odd occasion which saves it from a 1. And if a friend was playing this in their house when I visited then I wouldn't ask them to turn it off. And they'd still be my friend.
But I never want to hear it again.

2

In a very similar vein to Juju (reviewed earlier), Scream has some absolute crackers on it (Jigsaw Feeling, Metal Postcard) and some tracks that drag on a little too long (Carcass, Switch).

For mid-punk’ the playing and production is better than I expected and Siouxsie’s voice is unique. I’m torn between a 3 and a 4. If I’m honest then I’d like a playlist of the best of both albums. So probably a 3 then.

A little bit repetitive. Songs are quite similar. But I enjoyed it.

I've given up trying to listen to the words of hip hop albums. I mean who gives a fuck what they think anyway.
And I can't take anyone calling themselves 'The Damaja' seriously. It's like at school when the kid-with-no-mates tries to give themself a "cool" nickname. Mate, you're still a cock.

This has some foot tapping beats (Come Clean is great). But some stuff gets repetitive.
I've heard worse though.

2½

I’ll always remember Pete Murphy in the Maxell cassette advert back the the 80s. Good looking guy and probably the best thing he ever did.
Because this isn’t. Not bad, but totally forgettable
2½

Classic. Love me a bit of Hammond Organ and nobody does it like Jon Lord.
Enjoyed hearing this again after a long long time.

I always had a problem with Paul Weller’s aggressive confrontational delivery. He sounds like he’s one 'are you looking at his pint' away from kicking your head in. Even after he softened up a bit with the Style Council and is now an old man he still sounds like he wants to glass you.


This wasn’t totally what I expected musically. There’s a fair amount of variety on here. The bass is exceptional and it’s sad that Weller did the dirty on Bruce Foxton when he broke up The Jam.

Of the singles, I’d say That’s Entertainment is their very best and Start! Is one of their worst. The rest is somewhere in between.
3½

Good well produced sounds. Gave me a party-around-1am vibe. Will listen again

This literally is the equivalent of a film soundtrack. But not a film soundtrack with hit songs like Saturday Night Fever or Guardians Of The Galaxy. No, it’s film incidental music with the odd sound effect.

And as such it’s not really complete without the accompanying film. 


So, since only half of the project is here, then I’ll mark it out of 2½

Great opening track.
Classic closing track.
And a lot of good stuff in between.

Inoffensive and pleasant enough.
But if you'd told me that this was an album by Rod, Jane and Freddy out of Rainbow then I wouldn't have questioned it (apart from not being able to hear Jane).

Rabbits are coprophagic. It means that the first time their food passes through their gut, since it’s primarily plant cellulose, the majority of digestion takes place in the caecum, after the point at which they can absorb any resulting nutrients. They then eat their own turds so that they can then get the maximum out of one meal. 



Nirvana are also coprophagic. In Utero is Nevermind shat out and re-ingested. If you’ve never heard Nevermind before then it’s superb. But if you have then it’s the same old chords and same old song structures dumped, repackaged and sold on.

Second Cure album of the week. And much earlier in their career. Not as good as Disintegration. And if I was in a Cure mood it wouldn’t be my first pick.
But I will listen again. Apart from the closing (title) track which is a bit of a mess.
3½

I have Solitude Standing in my cassette collection.
I must have taped it off a friend’s album at some point. I have no idea which friend or why I chose to record it. I’ve not listened to it for nearly 40 years. But I do remember liking it a lot. 



I’d never heard Suzanne Vegas eponymous debut album. But listening to it now I realise my decision making was good back then.