Reviews by tjehl

The Mars Volta came crashing in and defined the entire prog scene for decades. The combination of Bixler-Zavala and Rodríguez-López is a creative force to behold.

Fiona Apple has always been above and beyond. Her jazzy and wonderfully emotional debut proves that.

Feels like a filler album. As if they reached 1.000 and just needed 1 more.

It’s okay and I don’t mind it, but there’s no need for The Beta Band to take up room, when so many albums seem to be missing.

It’s almost nauseatingly sweet, but the production is magnificent and ultra smooth.

It’s not revolutionary. It’s doesn’t even progress that much during its runtime. It’s just there - and somehow enough.

The THIRD Tim Buckley album. I’m as surprised as you are. I’ve liked the other two; but Goodbye And Hello is the album of his that truly deserves its spot on the list.

The experience of this album is almost that of a fairy tale. His vocals are phenomenal and the compositions never fail to both surprise and astound you. There’s magic to be found here.

The cover and the fact that 2Pac was involved at some point (later on) was somewhat promising.

But after what felt like a hundred 6+ minutes hip hop songs with little variation, I had to give up hope and just let the record play out while doing more important stuff like organizing cleaning supplies.

The Clash proving that you don't have to be a bad musician to play punk. It's controversial, but nonetheless true.

Yesterday I gave Julian Cope a hard time for including 18 song on his boring album.

Wilco included 19 on this.
Is it too long? Sure.
Is it somehow fine by me? Also sure.

I didn’t really care for Cope when he was with the Teardrop Explodes. I don’t much care for him as a solo artist either.

With this many skippable songs it’s almost a crime to include 18 of them.

A bleak and dark debut focusing almost entirely on the bottom half of your speakers.

It’s one of those rare albums on this list where I had to give it another listen, as I wasn’t quite ready for what hit me. Did I actually like? Was it simply too barren?

Turns out I really dig it!

Looking forward to revisiting Dear Science later on.

I think I rather enjoy some of what SoP (do people call them that?) try to achieve here. They fully explore each song and let them evolve organically.

I just don’t remember if I truly like it or not after 75 minutes of techno… But as I’ve come to learn from this list, it seems to be the excruciating standard runtime of any techno album.

Great, great record, made slightly worse by the inclusion of two very long and very unnecessary instrumental sections on “Sealand” and the title track.

No Echo And the Bunnymen records are uplifting per se - but there’s something about Porcupine that still feels more joyous than a lot of their other efforts.

It’s a band that rarely misses.
This is their third album on this list for me - and they still manage to hit the mark.

Few white men can get away with using the sort language and words, that Newman carefully weaves into his sharp and satirical storytelling.

It’s a thin line, but he balances perfectly.

The Charlatans sound as if they’re dedicated to only playing Oasis b-sides.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Listen to the great Deserter’s Songs, then listen to its magnificent sister record The Soft Bulletin - proceed to just enjoy life.

I have come a conclusion that Tank Battles doesn’t really fit this list. I just don’t get, why everyone would need to sit through this cabaret-style record in their lifetime.

When that it said, I was strangely compelled by Krause’s emotional vocals and, at least to some extent, the storytelling as well. You can hear in the delivering alone, that this is an important album - maybe only to Krause, maybe because of its themes, maybe to a lot of people understanding this slightly better than I do.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
So I’ll finish this review now, before I change my mind and hand it 2 stars.

Was not expecting this. Impressive vocals and creative use of the instrumentation.

The use of two excellent lead vocalists makes it hard to guess where Wild Beasts are heading next. I was blown away for the entire ride and need to dive into their other albums in the near future.

It started of as a soulful trip with psychedelic vibes, but soon turned into a great occasion for me to practice my napping skills.

Nothing is particularly bad - just boring.

The darker and more intelligent cousin of early britpop. It’s not without its flaws and it might also be part of the britpop fatigue this list gives birth to.

It’s nonetheless both charming, funny and well written.