Reviews by tall_poppy

Absolutely essential album, presaging math rock surge a few years after. Songs are complex, almost Byzantine, mixing beats/structure and guitar noise in a fascinating way.

Essential

One of my favourite period pieces, a phenomenal collection of arty psych pop. The aural mystery and excitement captured in the interplay of the band on Astronomy and Interstellar remain a fascinating listen 60 years after the fact. And Barrett’s way with a pop song and lyrical turn of phrase is top notch. Lucifer Sam, Chapter 24, The Gnome are parodic English masterpieces. It’s a great record.

ELO definitely belongs on this list, but for my money it would be the previous record (New World Record) a tighter collection of phenomenal orchestral pop. Blue is comparatively bloated and less satisfying, though with lots of quality if this style of music is in your wheelhouse. I owned the single of “Turn To Stone” as a preteen, and it still provokes a little chill.

One of the all time great debut records, still influential today, arguably the progenitor of both jangle pop (Tambourine Man, All I Really Want To Do etc) AND power pop (Gene Clark’s brilliant Feel a Whole a lot Better). The originals are of a high standard, some of them near classics. A response to and not particularly derivative of The British Invasion. It doesn’t get much better in the mid 60’s. 5 stars !

Humorous but hard to listen to.

The album that changed everything for guitarists, also some pretty good psychedelic songs here. But it’s the sound more than the songs. Having said that, the compressed and tinny mix does it no favours. Essential stuff though.

Foundational piece in the bossa nova movement of the early 60’s. Charlie Byrd brought the songs and the arrangements, played with local musicians including his brother. The next wave would bring Brazil’s leading lights into the picture and amp up the craze. I don’t think people today realize how big BN music was in the mid sixties. This is beautifully played a unified record, and well worth a listen.

XTC evolving towards lush psychedelia, lacking the angularity and sharp edges of their first ten years. Well worth a listen, though I prefer their previous work.

The band sounds great throughout, and the title track is an all-timer. But this is mostly nice background music at a over 60’s party.

Essential record from the Shoegaze scene, still played a LOT in my world.

Late Bruce is not great Bruce. Bombastic and unappealing

Not a big fan of late U2

Good grungy hard rock, innovative in its day.

The last great Byrds album, reflecting a more grown up post Sergeant Pepper’s version of the band, with and without both Crosby and Clark at times. The songs are very strong and the sound is leaner and less lush, with old friend Rickenbacker buried and adding only the occasional sparkle. The effect is impressive and very worthy of inclusion In this exercise.

An extraordinarily strange and even harsh critics’ favourite. For its unique and uncompromising Anne garde approach it deserves a couple of stars, but nothing more.

Love the lofi poetry and mix of sincerity and irony in David Berman’s delivery. There are some brilliant songs here too.

Didn’t love it then, though I have a bit more appreciation now for the percussive jazziness that underpins their sound.

My favourite Radiohead album, less conceptual perhaps (though not entirely) then their other classics, but the quality of the songs wins the day. And the playing is as ever, committed and fascinating. One might say that Radiohead made three leaps in their artistic journey. This is leap one, and an extraordinary one at that.

Just an extraordinary album, so sonically interesting, mixing joy, vulnerability, confessional narrative, poetry. I was 40 when I heard this and a serious musicologist….still, it changed the way I think about and listen to music.