Reviews by simonh

I enjoyed this album, but it's something I'd only want to listen to once. It really is a 'rock opera' in the sense that they have written a story and then they've shoehorned the words into multiple vaguely similar tunes (possibly in one recording/jamming session?). I'm glad I had the lyric sheet in front of me. I saw the word 'Educational' used in another review. And yeah to a Brit it was in some ways. There's 2 sides to every story though, but thanks for sharing your side.

Like any Opera or Broadway Musical, now I've seen/heard it, then I've no desire to see it a second time.

I love rock and metal. And this is Led Zeppelin man. Gotta be a shoo in 5 surely?

Don't get me wrong. I like it but there's enough I don't like for it not to stay on my playlist. Whole Lotta Love is good, but drags on too long. I also don't care one iota about Robert Plant's knob so give me a break with all your dick lyrics. The whole album is too bluesy. Some good some not so. It's a bit samey guys. Leave the 'woke up this morning...' harmonica stuff to Bob Dylan. And the drum solo on Moby Dick is... well it's shit. What?! Thats Bonno!!! I dont care who it it, it's shit. Sounds like a fish thrashing about on a trawler deck (maybe that's the impression they were trying to make? Moby Dick and all that?). Anyway I can live without drum solos on anything other than live albums. And I can particularly live without shit ones.

So in summary. Good. But too many flaws.
3½

My new favourite Rolling Stones album.

Well, bearing in mind they were already regarded as past it even in my teenage years why would I have ever bothered to listen a Rolling Stones album before now? This is therefore (at time of writing) my only favourite Rolling Stones album.

It seems unbelievable that I'm in my 60s they're STILL going? At 90 odd. Or dead. Who knows. They only come out when the sun goes down.

I love this album though. Aside from the superb Brown Sugar and even better Wild Horses the stuff-I-didn't-know is brilliant. Keef's solo on Can't You Hear Me Knocking. I had no idea! Outstanding. What? It's not Keef? It's Mick Taylor? Well fuck me - why did they let him leave?

5 any day of the week

Looks like the album cover to a 1970 Top Of The Pops album. Disappointed with the production, it sounded mono (it possibly was) and the fadeouts were a little severe.

But at the end of the day it's Otis. Smooth bastard. My new go-to blues album if I'm ever on the pull again.

I will come back to this review as I'm only three quarters through (why? because it's a fucking slog).

Sounds like it's been written for a Broadway show that he (I assume it's a he) never got the funding for (why? I hear you ask). Because it's mostly dull pap (ideal for Disney then??). There were a couple of songs I liked - so it's not a 1. But mostly it was dull, dull, dull, dull... so incredibly dull.

I've had another listen and a rethink. Its got humour and good tunes. It's still too long though. Quit while you're ahead mate. Better than I originally thought so upgraded to 3.

There was a film that came out a few years ago about a songwriter bloke who had a road accident. When he woke up nobody knew who the Beatles were, and so he ripped off all their songs. A pretty lame chick flick notable only because Lily James was in it playing a rather hot girl-next-door type.

Anyway in another universe substitute The Beatles for The Pretty Things. Nobody knows who the Pretty Things are, and after the accident they are as big as the Fab Four or the Stones. That is the universe we re living in. Why weren't they huge? Their paths even crossed with Mick and Keef at Art College, but they seemed to go unnoticed and unpromoted by their record company. They were 'difficult' and did their own thing.

So of course I didn’t know anything about them and don’t recall ever hearing any of their stuff. But this is an amazing album. I’m currently on my third listen and it will stay on my playlist (and I thought I hated the 60s - I’ve rated both this and the zombies as 5*). 



Oh what might have been.

I really didn't want to like this. I can't stand the numbingly boring overrated song 'Imagine'. And John Lennon is possibly the least talented Beatle (if you include Ringo's 'Thomas the Tank Engine' work). But it's ok. I guess the dude can write songs.

Pleasant voice, but seemingly recorded this borefest standing in a railway tunnel? Clearly of its time. Added a point for writing all his own songs. Took one away for sounding like an American Cliff Richard.
2

I used to read Sounds every week as a spotty youth and always remember an advert for Holiday in Cambodia by the Dead Kennedys, which I thought was a great name for a band and a great song title. Being a metal head at the time i never sought out neither song nor band. So here I am 45 years later finally hearing the Dead Kennedys.

Did they record it at the wrong speed? The Elvis cover of Viva Las Vegas is a massive improvement on the original.

Not a huge amount to say. Top class debut for the last of the US Hair-metal bands. What is it about US rock bands that most of the debuts are already the complete article? Was there never anything to improve or are they all manufactured? Anyway this isn't meant to be critical, it's a great album.
4½

I saw Green Day at Reading Festival about 10 years ago (it was 2013 - ed!) and they played a lot of this album. I knew the 'hits' of course but the whole set was damn good. I thought then I'd seek out some more of their stuff. Of course I didn't, but I wish I had.

I never bothered with this when it came out (because I wasn't a 13 year old girl) but it's surprisingly rather good.
A lot of humour (to be expected, but it's clear from some reviews that non-UK reviewers dont get it). Angels and Let Me Entertain You are great songs and well known (in UK at least). Ok so maybe there isn't the same familiarity and knowledge ouside the UK. I suppose I feel the same way about Elliot Smith (who?), but at least I gave that miserable twat a chance.

I particularly liked the 'fuck you' poem to his teacher at the end.

Well done, thingy!

I shouldn't read other peoples reviews before I jot my own. But I saw a lot of the word 'dated'.

Of course it's dated!! If you listen to Sex Pistols it's clearly late 70's. Beatles sounds very 1960's, New Romantic synth stuff take you straight back to the 80's. And this is clearly early 90's so of course it's 'dated', knobheads.

This album is what it says on the tin, a collection of club tunes. Great party tracks for chilled dancing to all night without being crippled next day. And for the record (and the reviews that had a pop at the rapping), I liked it. Understandable, clear, non-offensive. You can keep your illegible, chip-on-shoulder Outkast shit I'll take this any day.

This is less an "album" and more a library. I managed to get through a lot (23 tunes) before I needed a break. Although great songs and an incredible voice the thing that broke me in the end was the repetitiveness of the band. The same taddah wham pow Nelson Riddle arrangement got tiresome. But did anybody ever expect to listen to this end to end? If you treat it as a library and pick a song or a side then it's a classic

I've never listened to this over-60-year-old album and yet of 13 tracks, only 4 had I never heard before.

That shows the legacy of the Beatles (maybe overated?) and this isn't even one of their most 'popular' albums. I'm trying not to fawn all over this just because it's them, but of the tracks I didn't know, Any Time At All is a 5, I'll Cry Instead is very 'Beatles' and only When I Get Home and Tell Me Why fail to hit the mark with me. The rest of the tracks I knew before are all bangers however many time I have heard them throughout my life.

Considering this is such an early album (3rd?) that's quite good going.

I've always like Jonathan Richmans voice and he's obviously a talented storyteller and songwriter. I mean I can just picture Picasso cruising around in his El Dorado and all the girls swooning over his hard stare and never callling him an asshole. The guy must have been on something really strong! Or maybe he just wanted someone who rhymed with asshole. Fidel Castro got lucky.
3½ for me. Though some of the songs failed to hit the mark so downgraded to 3.

Junk Yard? Yep. (and yes I listened to it all. and no, it didn't get a second chance)

The 4 'hits' are all great. The Bed's... being a forgotten gem. In fact all the Sting songs are quality (maybe that's why his head exploded a few years down the road).

Though could the same man who wrote 'Walked out this morning, don't believe what I saw 100 billion bottles washed up on the shore' have also really written 'Giant steps are what you take, I hope my leg don't break'??

Couple of duds, Deathwish and Any Other Day bring it back down to earth. Brilliant drumming, Stewart Copeland has always been one of my favourites. Hmmm 3 or 4?

This is what happens when you make music drunk/stoned. Someone pleeeze tell him to tune that guitar. It was ok, but can't really tell the difference between these guys and every other indie grunge band from the mid 90s.
2½

Excellent debut. So what happened? Would have been a 5 but lose 1 star for 15 seconds of pointless harmonica in Guest List.