Reviews by tipula

Ah yes, more Depeche Mode. Do the masses like whiny synth music? I guess they do, since this was a wildly popular album.

"Violator" justified itself with "Personal Jesus," but this record doesn't have any standout tracks like that for me. The music is pretty consistently uninteresting to me, it just doesn't have any force behind it. It's not completely unpleasant, though.

3 stars

Another classic punk record! This record stands out for me because of the saxophone, and of course Poly Styrene's vocals and lyrics are great. Wonderful album.

10 stars

I was pleasantly surprised by much of this record; it sounds a lot more messy and garage-y than what I expected from my experience with later Who albums, none of which I particularly like. It's got a couple of James Brown covers and some other noisy stuff. I think it sounds a lot like 90s garage rock, though I recognize the absurdity of saying that, since it's 90s garage rock that sounds like records like this.

I thought I was going to be tempted to skip "My Generation" since it's been played to death in the intervening 60 (!) years, but it worked in context with the rest of the album. (Though now it's stuck in my head, which I kinda wish would just g- g- g- go away.)

I think 3?

I put this record on the minute I saw it was today's assignment, since I love the music from west Africa with guitar that I've heard before like Ali Farka Touré and Tinariwen. I know who Baaba Maal is, of course, but when I opened this I didn't remember exactly what his music sounded like.

This is a mesmerizing album. The songs build up slowly with interweaving vocals and a long stream of repeating notes with guitar and percussion, some of which reminds me of minimalist classical music. Marvelous album.

5 stars

The beginning of this record was ok, but it seemed like a lot of other early-80s stuff - boppy synth, vague lyrics, dancey beat. However, things improved starting with "Promised You a Miracle" - at that point the album started to get my attention, with the songs getting a little longer and the instrumentation and vocals more intense and interesting. That material still has the underlying format of 80s radio synth music, but is a little more imaginative -- I can see why people think that this record stands out from the rest of the band's work.

The bass is great, of course; I just wish they'd mic'd it louder.

4 stars

I honestly don't remember anything about The Zombies - all I could tell you beyond the fact of their existence was that the first person I knew to get covid got it at a The Zombies show in 2021.

This is pleasant late-60s psych-pop with pretty harmonies and interesting melodies here and there. I remember "Time of the Season," of course, though I never knew what band it was because it didn't interest me much. So I didn't think I'd like this record as much as I did - there's some interesting stuff on here.

So this is a reasonably listenable album, though It got a little monotonous around song #8, and the lack of zombie-related content is disappointing. But it was good for what it was.

I was amused to learn that "Odyssey" is spelled wrong in the album title because the cover artist screwed it up, but the band wanted to be nice and made up a story to make it seem like they'd planned it that way.

3 stars

Well I haven't heard anything by Culture Club in quite a while, and this morning I am reminded of why I haven't missed it. It's competent, and some of the vocals are excellent, but in the end it's all pretty bland.

This is fine for an early-80s pop record, and I always appreciated Boy George's gender-nonconforming thing. But sadly, I think it's boring.

2 stars? 3 stars? will decide at the last minute

Belle and Sebastian are another one of those bands that I know from the radio and other people's record collections. I'm always like "oh yeah, yay, Belle and Sebastian" - and I love "Lazy Line Painter Jane" - but never really spent time with an entire record of them.

Anyway, I thought all of Tigermilk was great, from the beginning to the end - music that's indiepop but more interesting, somehow, and lyrics that also seem like a predictable sort of pop song but come off very differently when you listen to them closely.

So, 5 stars for this one too.

I would give this a 5 just for "Bigmouth Strikes Again," which I am singing along with as I type this.

As I said about the other Smiths record I reviewed here, I love the contrast between the superb music and the clever, often sarcastic lyrics. I don't like all of their stuff equally, but this is another 5-star album.

Another record that I wouldn't need to listen to in order to review it because when it first came out we played it constantly. The rhythms are infectious; the lyrics weird, interesting, and occasionally inspiring; and Brian Eno worked on it (he's why I started listening to the Talking Heads in the first place back then).

I'll admit I had gotten a little tired of hearing "Once in a Lifetime" after the thousandth time I heard it on the radio, but listening to it closely again today reminds me of how those lyrics helped me adjust to a large, sudden life change at the time.

One of those records that has stuck with me - 5 stars.

So here's where I admit that I only know of Scott Walker's existence from his being mentioned in a Black Country, New Road song.

The songs I liked best on here were the Jacques Brel covers. They're great songs; I know one or two of them from my parents' copy of "Jacques Brel is Alive and Living in Paris." But these versions don't feel quite right; they're like an easy listening version of those songs.

The rest of this continues along those lines: smooth and a little wink-wink decadent. Objectively good for the genre I guess but a slog for me - 2 stars

"Common People" is one of my favorite songs. It actually affects me pretty strongly, a song that's both infectious pop music but also angry, in my opinion one of the best popular songs of the 90s. "Yeah? I don't see anyone else smiling here. Are you sure? you wanna live like common people..."

But I have never listened to an entire Pulp album before. This is an example of why I'm doing this project, to force myself to listen to more Pulp than just "Common People." And hey, this is a pretty interesting album. I wasn't completely taken by everything, but most of it was about as forceful and memorable as its top hit track.

I'd give this 4 stars now, but that could increase on future listens.

I'll start this by saying that in general I can't stand The Eagles. But I've always liked the title track of this album, with its creepy theme and Spanish guitar.

Still, while I like that song, I slogged through the rest of this album. OK, "Life in the Fast Lane" is fun, but I could easily have lived without hearing "New Kid in Town" or any of the rest of it again.

I know I'll give the first Eagles album 2 stars, so I guess this one gets a 3 since I like a song or two on it.

I've heard occasional songs from Nick Drake on the radio over the past however many years, but this is the first time I've heard an entire album of his.

I had to brace myself a bit for this, thinking it might be a dozy, calm acoustic album, but I was pleasantly surprised - it was a little dark, and had a good sense of rhythm to a lot of it. I think it's like how I like folk music from the UK and Scandinavia more than American folk, there's a darkness to a lot of it that I like.

I don't know if I'd go back to this, but it was good to finally hear a whole Nick Drake album. I see why people think this is such an important album.

4 stars

So I don't really listen to music like this ever, but: if I were going to, I imagine this would be what it would be because I have to say that a lot of this is really good.

I had to listen to it in parts over the course of a day since listening to the whole thing in one sitting wasn't keeping my attention, but when I was listening to it I enjoyed it. She's obviously a great singer, and the faster tracks especially were pretty intense and enjoyable.

Tom Tom Club was my favorite record for quite a while when it first came out. The best New Wave records were things like this - dancey but also musically and lyrically interesting.

I've always preferred the oddly powerful side 2 of this record, with the ritual chant "As Above, So Below," the mesmerizing "Lorelei," "On, On, On, On," and the marvelously weird "Booming and Zooming" closing it out. Get out of there, F104.

But of course side 1 is good too. "Wordy Rappinghood" is something I'm pretty tired of at this point, but I'll admit it's fun, especially with the conga breaks that pop up in the middle and fade at the end. And of course the ubiquitous hit "Genius of Love" is fun too, especially as it slides into the percussive instrumental bit "Tom Tom Club Theme."

Great to listen to this record again this morning.

5 stars

"Immigrant Song" is the best part of this album, well, and to me the best thing Led Zeppelin wrote. But there are a lot of other interesting songs on here, especially the ones that veer to the acoustic like "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp."

Some of this is a bit too much Robert Plant for me, but in general it's a reasonable album. "Immigrant Song" bumps it up to 4 stars.

This is a lovely record, that I haven't heard probably in decades. Stevie Wonder of course has a great voice, and these songs were already playing in my head before I even put the record on. A nice antidote to the noisy stuff I usually like to listen to.

Whee another 5-star punk album. Every minute of this is great.

Compelling, rhythmic punk rock. It's got Jello's vocals, and the humorous but also strongly political lyrics (still relevant, unfortunately). "Kill the Poor," "California Uber Alles," "Drug Me," "Holiday in Cambodia," "Viva Las Vegas" - What else do I need to say. 5 stars.

5 stars

Another record that I can give a 5 to without even listening to it, but of course I'm going to listen to it. Right now!

It starts off strong with "Janie Jones" and just continues strong. A fine antidote for our miserable current timeline, with "I'm So Bored With the USA," "Police and Thieves," "Career Opportunity," "Garageland," etc. (I'll admit "White Riot" makes me slightly uncomfortable these days since all the white riots lately have been coming from the right wing, but it's a great song when you think about what the context was for it at the time.)

5 stars