Reviews by tjehl

At first glance I was pretty overwhelmed by the stellar production and almost nausea-inducing butter-smoothness of the vocals.

But as I dove deeper into the album I fell myself slowly losing interest. The last few songs are particularly monotonous and easily blends together into a soft, mushy pillow of delicious but boring songs.

Had this been shortened by 2-3 songs it would have been so much better.

Beatles’ first venture into an all original album is a musical landmark. You start to fully grasp what the partnership of Lennon/McCartney would become.
Especially on songs such as the title track and the fabulous “Any Time At All”.

A Hard Day’s Night is not the Beatles at their full potential yet. But it’s the Fab Four showing where they’re heading.

An important lesson on album structuring.
. It’s obvious that Side A & B should’ve been switched. I’m emotionally and mentally exhausted when the first three songs are over. There’s no reason “We Will Fall” is not the final song of the album.

Tha being said it’s still one hell of a debut album.
Had Side B not been this good I would quickly have lost interest. But it’s hard not taking an interest in whatever The Stooges are up to.

Gritty, raw, ugly and ahead of its time.
Who thought that all The Stooges needed was a saxophone? Well, props to that guy.

I expected this to be good, but The Isley Brothers completely blew me away. The vocals are perfectly mixed and smooth as hell - but it’s Ernie Isley’s Hendrix-inspired guitar playing that turns out to be the scene stealer time and time again.

This is funky soul trip is in a class of its own. Simply excellent.

Despite the band name, War delivers an incredibly enjoyable album with The World Is A Ghetto.

A tight 6-song album containing a great combination of soul and jazz. I was fearful that this would just be “Low Rider” for an entire album (great song though). It was not.

This is simply Lou Reed firmly proving that he would do just fine without The Velvet Underground.

The shape of post-punk to come.

A pleasant visit into the realm of Donovan.
Pleasant, but not that special.

A few interesting tunes. Other than that it’s just a Spector-produced snoozefest.

Almost offensively British. Sound of the 00s in its purest form. All over the place … and I just dig it.

I had all but forgotten “Golden Skans”. What a tune!

Undoubtedly highly influential to bands that in the end turned out more exciting that The Strokes themselves.

Is This It isn’t quite the bomb I remembered it as - even though it is really effective. The songwriting is tight, the instruments even tighter… I guess, when all is said and done, I just don’t really have a special thing for Casablancas.

The Healer not only boasts an impressive array of guests - John Lee Hooker himself also sounds incredibly vigorous considering he recorded this after turning 70.

I’m still not a blues man to be honest.
But Hooker is far from the worst choice, should I put on a blues record one late evening.

When The Police are good, few trios are better.
Stewart Copeland is to no surprise as good as ever on this.

It starts out excellent. The title track is simply pure brilliance. Then everything takes a nosedive before completely going of the rails on the train wreck that is “Mother”.

The from title track 2.0 and for the remaining album everything is back on track and The Police deliver a few of their greatest songs.

I just can’t get over the fact that most of Side A is that boring and/or bad.

I’ve spent years underestimating Lupe Fiasco.
His music is so much more conscious and clever than the floating Nintendo DS on the album cover leads one to believe.

The lyrics are strong, the beats fresh and Fiasco himself delivers some great bars even when the hooks occasionally leave something to be desired.

Björk either completely nails it or takes everything a bit too far on all of her releases.

Vulnicura falls into the latter category. The string arrangements are interesting but I grow tired of the concept along the way. This is somehow both too Björk and not quite Björk enough for me.

That being said, it’s really not a bad album. It rarely is with Björk.

The Jesus And Mary Chain fully embrace their romantic side on Darklands. And while it works (more than) great, I’m still left missing parts of the noisier approach of their debut.

Just enough variations to keep you guessing as to never be quite sure where The Everly Brothers are turning next.

The lyrics are dated but surprisingly alright considering the release year.

It’s under half an hour long. And it’s just enjoyable.

Tosh sure did his part in the attempted and at times successful legalization processes of ganja.

When Tosh is at his best he easily matches the songs of his former band: “Legalize It”, “Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised)” and “Till Your Well Runs Dry” being the strongest outputs of this record.

Peter Tosh fails to keep it interesting throughout the entire album with “Watcha Gonna Do” being especially bad. But it still stands as a proof that Peter Tosh was more than able to manage on his own.

A stark contrast to their legendary debut album, White Light / White Heat sounds as if it was produced by a deaf horse in a hurry.

“Oh, but the sound was highly influential on noise rock and shoegaze. You like those, right?”

Well, this still sounds horrible for a considerable part of the runtime.