Reviews by simonh

For a hip-hop album I thought this was a relatively good listen. I could live without the running commentary all the way through though.

I'm confused.
Why was an album seemingly made in 1978 released in 1990?
Back in 1978 this would have been a mediocre punk album.
In 1990 it's an out of place mediocre punk album.
A tad more musical, perhaps. A tad better production. So, ok, a little better than mediocre.
A solid 3.

An album titled Honky Tonk anything is always going to make me wary. And so it came to pass. It's whiny and painful. The steel guitar belongs in the same league as the harmonica and bagpipes: instruments of aural torture.
I totally respect the thousands—nay, millions—who love this whiny, soundalike country drivel. As I also respect the millions that love Mongolian throat singing. Surely millions can't be wrong? right?
Hmmm.

Darwin awards - best album 1994

Some of the individual tracks were ok.
I do agree with the concensus that his voice flows well. And although generally boring and repetitive, some of the samples are foot tapping.
But I don't want to listen to someone getting a BJ and fucking in between the tracks (unless it's me!).
And the constant fuck fuck fuck fuckety fuck fuck motherfucking fuck fuck motherfucker bitch fuck fuck hoe fuck fuck fuck pop pop nigga fuck fuck motherfucker fuck fuckety motherfucking fuck bitch hoe, just gets mind numbing.

Is Steve Winwood the keyboard player? Because if he isn’t, somebody urgently needs to explain the horrible keyboard noises currently emanating from my speakers — and why whoever is responsible wasn’t fired.

Arc of a Diver sounds like it should be playing over the perpetual closing credits of the worst babe-movie you ever had to sit through.

There may be songs in here somewhere, but they’ve been laminated.

Please make it stop.

Three lovely lovely voices and some beautiful harmonies.
Parton is probably the weakest of the three, but brings her songwriting talent to the table to make up for it.

What this loses in the country 'sameyness' of the songs, it certainly gains back in the quality of the voices.

This is an album from a time when an album meant a collection of songs with a theme. And the theme here was obviously “The Wee Small Hours”, since this is basically a set of slow ballads best played on Smashey and Nicey’s Radio Quiet at about 2am if you have insomnia.

All of the songs are technically undemanding and relentlessly sedate. And that may well be the point. It’s the sort of material I’d have expected Des O’Connor to record, because he couldn’t sing anything faster or more complicated.

This is not to trash one of the greatest singing voices of the 20th century, but surely Frank Sinatra made much better albums than this.
2½★

It's all very comedic nowadays, and the Devil stuff is just a bit naff.

As an avid metalhead and Sounds subscriber back in the days when this came out... I ended up completely ignoring this album. But I also totally get that this was a pioneer of speed metal and how it has found itself is on the list.

But being a 'pioneer', it's cheaply recorded and poorly produced. And the ultimate sin is that it's badly drummed. It's also monotonous, dull and rather satanically stereotyped in 2026.
And it kinda was then too.
1½★

So if I go get myself a reel-to-reel tape recorder and a sometimes-out-of-tune guitar and record some songs I'd made up when in the nut-house, maybe Columbia will release it?

I suppose with Dylan, Springsteen, Cash, Pink Floyd and Beyoncé on their books they can afford to throw some shit at the wall.

p.s. In hindsight, like a schizophrenic, sometimes this was ok, sometimes it wasn't.
p.p.s. If I was Cream I'd definitely be after a writing credit for 'War In Peace'.

"Fuck! We've got 2 hours studio time booked this afternoon and we've not done any rehearsing, let alone written any new material. What are we gonna do?"

I have no idea how this band supposedly became influential, because this is absolute cods.

For a change, I found the time to stop and read the lyrics as I was listening to this album.

Each track feels different and individual, even if it all comes from such a weird, dark place, full of grotesque imagery.

This is nothing like the Nick Cave of The Birthday Party, and for that I'm glad.
3½★

I had no idea Bernard Sumner was such a bad singer in the early days before the polish and maybe less taxing vocal range of songs like Blue Monday, True Faith and World In Motion.

Objectively 2.
But I came of age to New Order and this is a subjective list so..
3½★

Remember when you were a kid and you used to walk around with a cassette and microphone recording random noise? This is a much more expensive extension of that, but it's still noise. Some of it was ok as a one-off, and It's probably very arty and influential, but I won't be listening again

It's been fun discovering some of Cosey Fanni Tutti's earlier work though.

Some good samples and well put together. None of the lyrics are overly offensive, although it's always difficult to undertand most of them so I mainly bass hip-hop reviews on the rhythm of voice and overally sound quality. And this was generally ok.

This album is a bit of a mixed bag. Some good songs on here - and also some nailed on skips (Hong Kong Bar, Sweet Surrender).
I find his voice a little whiny and over the top in places, but then you could say the same about Robert Plant.
Overall ok.

You can't judge a kook by it's lover.

A prodigious talent <<clunk>>
A great songwriter <<clunk>>
Multi-instrumentalist <<clunk>>
Particularly a magnificent guitarist <<clunk>>
But maybe not such a good <<clunk>>
Producer <<clunk>>
Since every song seems to have <<clunk>>
The same sound <<clunk>>
Reverb and <<clunk>>
That goddam annoying drum machine <<clunk>>

A bunch of typically Bruce Springsteen songs on a Bruce Springsteen album by Bruce Springsteen.

A couple of the tracks were a bit different and surprised me but the rest were standard Bruce Springsteen fayre which Bruce Springsteen fans will love.

I thought it was ok but nothing epiphanic. It does make me laugh though when he counts the band in on a studio track.

Just Bjork and voices.

A lot of it made me smile which probably wasn't the emotion she was trying to convey.

Some of the more choral tracks are gorgeous. Countered by some of the beatbox which isn't. Although Bjork often rises above the noise.

Overall, not my favourite Bjork album. But I do love having Bjork moaning and panting in my ear.

2½★

I like a lot of prog. Not all! And initially I felt this album was stretching it a bit.

The first Yes album I ever owned was 'Going for the One', which I love and still listen to. But my Yes collection never grew after that (or before — since they were basically done by then).

And I can hear the seeds of 'Awaken' in 'Close to the Edge' (the track). It has the same slow build and a similar pipe-organ crescendo. But I think Awaken is by far the better track. CTTE has two basic hooks, overworks them and, compared with the magnificence of Awaken, the organ here is a bit of a damp squib.

Of the three tracks on the album, 'And You and I' is by far the best.

But whereas this was a 2★ album on first listen, I felt I had to give it the reverence it deserved. Four listens later, it has grown to 4★.

If only I had such patience with everything on this list.