Reviews by simonh

First impressions... this is what you would get if you put X Ray Spex and Joy Division In a blender. Quirky and individual. Really enjoyed this. 3 times so far!

I enjoyed the first couple of minutes - because it was a surprise and a bit different. Then the second track is the same as the first.
Then the third.
I get the joke. This is a piss take right?
The second half seems to have more structure and cohesion. But wait... no they've got bored and are doing their own shit again.
I made it to the end.
But I'm not going to tell you they are wearing wonderful new clothes - like the Emperor, they're stark bollock naked.

Postscript : This might not have been my thing, but I'm glad I heard it.

You can tell how successful an album is when you know most of the tunes having never listened to it before.
But It's only when listening to it from start to finish that it struck me how simplistic and repetitive Bruce Springsteen songs are.
It doesn't seem to have done him any harm though and it's an album i'll listen to again.

This could potentially grow on me, but I just can't get past the grating vocals
2½

The soundtrack for the early 90s. Psychadelia for the new psychadelic age. Certainly an album welded to its time. I was no stranger to clubs at that time and this takes me right back.
Some of the tracks drag on a bit, but when you're spaced out on 'E' (which I never was I might add) then who cares about time.

Like 'Rust Never Sleeps' he top and tails this album with a great track. But the sandwich filling is a mixed bag.
The rocky tracks are great.
The steel guitar country songs were boring.
The quality control is also a bit variable. 'Mellow My Mind' is an awful mess. The harmonica playing is excrutiating and he can't seem to hit a note. Any note - not just the usual top end struggles. Was he drunk?
I'd give this a 4 without the skips.

Treads a fine line between a 'proper' album and a comedy record. I'm never sure whether he's exaggerating the voice for comic effect. On The Nickel, for example, is ludicrous.
But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

I'm a big fan of repetitive electronic dance music but this didn't really grab me anywhere.

If it's on the list as a pioneer then well done for paving the way for others to do a better job. If not then there's better examples out there.

This started off as a 2* but the second half ('Brothers' and beyond) is a lot better than the first half.

They make a good sound but they don't use it to their advantage.

Some of this album I liked but a lot of it was just noise.

3½

I'd like to have dated Björk in the 80s.
Bit quirky. Batty as a box of frogs. But I bet she was a wildcat in the sack. Ok maybe a bit too arty for me, so perhaps just a couple of months.

This album is made in the Björk image. The only downside are the talky bits dotted throughout which I found totally annoying.

I remember when Paul Weller disbanded The Jam to do something different, but I never appreciated just how different Style Council actually was having never bought or even listened to anything other than their singles. So I give kudos for such a massive departure. This album is a jazz-pop cocktail, miles away from the snarling Jam.

Paris Match is a drag, Strength Of Your Nature is just bad, the rest is passable.

Never particularly being a fan of Paul Weller, The Jam or Style Council, this album is hit and miss for me.

It's been interesting having a Faces album and a Rod album on consecutive days. Indeed this album was recorded and released the same year... and released whilst RS was recording A Nod Is As Good As A Wink. You can see how Rod might have had other things on his mind.

Truth is of the 2 albums, this is the better one. RS had a unique voice and was a great front man. By the time I'd heard of him in the late 70s he was a bit cheesy and housewives choice, but at the height of his powers (i.e here) he was a force.

Pretty much everybody at my boys grammar school 4th form lusted after Deborah Harry. Except me - who very much wanted to get into Kate Bush's leotard even then.
But I thought Debbie - and Blondie - were ok, purely for the music of course.
Parallel Lines is like a greatest hits album. And i could give it 5* just for 'Picture This' and 'Heart Of Glass'. But the rest of the tracks aren't filler either. There's no duds here.
4½

Sounds very much like Ronnie Wood's audition tape for the Rolling Stones, even though he didn't join the Stones until 1975.
Putting a Ronnie Lane sung track in the middle of 2 Rod Stewart tracks was a mistake. I don't know why Rod didn't front the whole album, but I guess he had other things on his mind.
Not bad.

Violent, absurd, dark, weirdly comedic.
The guy has talent as a wordsmith but is totally fucked up.
I'm ashamed that I smiled at some of the absurd comedic violence.
Maybe that's what he was aiming for? I fear he wasn't though.
2½

A good collection of songwriting, production and performance by Andy Partridge/XTC. Why they never were hugely successful after 'Making Plans For Nigel' and 'Senses Working Overtime' is a mystery.

I liked this 14 track 59 minute album.
I backed Oasis in the britpop wars of the 90s, but I can see why Blur were in the running.

4

-1 for a poor Pete Shelley impression throughout. Why not just get Pete Shelley in the band?

+1 for putting Mallard on the album cover

(Footnote for fuckwits:- Before spouting off in your reviews about 100s of tracks on an hours-long album, take a look at the Wikipedia tracklist to confirm what tracks were on the original release, learn how to use Spotify, and just listen to those, you dumb fuck.)

This album (or more honestly the singles from it) bring back a lot of memories of the hot summer of 1982 stacking hay after my A'levels. And the endless singing of "Maje meets dog - woof!" To Favourite Shirts for weeks at school after a notorious 6th Form dance. (I'm genuinely so sorry, Paul).

You had to be there. No you really did.

Lovely to see it pop up on a glorious hot Spring Bank holiday. Takes me right back.

Didn't influence anything? It fucking influenced me!
4

(ps. It jjust so happens that my first grandson was born today. So it's a Fantastic Day)
5

Really good sounding album. Melodic and slick.
I've never heard of Sugar. Makes me wonder why it is that some bands break through and others disappear almost without trace. It can't just be the naff name surely.

Honestly? Nothing wrong with it. But it does nothing for me.
Sounds like the love child of a clandestine night of passion between Red Hot Chili Peppers and Yellow Dog (of "could I could I could I stay just one more night" fame).
And they are the most boring band I've ever seen live.
Totally average.