Reviews by tjehl

This caught me completely off guard!

Apparently South Africa’s been hiding a true jazz classic - without ever mentioning it to me.

Nothing is rushed as every track takes its time to fully develop and unfold its potential.
The production is stellar as well with Makhaya Ntshoko’s drumming blowing me away.

I didn’t know that I needed this.
But I did.

How does an album with this amount of repetition sound this varied? It’s like it’s never standing still!

Everything on Remain In Light is just peak innovation and creativity. Talking Heads was already one of America’s most interesting rock bands. This is just showing off.

Byrne delivers career highlights in almost every song while Frantz’ pulsating drumming breathes live into every second of runtime.

Peak lyricism, peak new wave, peak post-punk, peak dancable rock (side one at least), peak Talking Heads.

Remain In Light is simply peak music.

Easily my favorite U2 record.
How can it not be with that trio of opening songs? Slow down guys!

Bono really developed as a vocalist leading up to this record and while he’s still emotional as ever his technical abilities much improved.

The Edge must’ve heard his fair share of talk about his guitar playing over the years - and while he’s by no mean a flashy guitarist every single thing he does on The Joshua Tree just works. His use of effects is magnificent and the general feeling he creates is the glue that binds this album together.

U2 was never better than on The Joshua Tree. And, given their recent releases, they probably won’t surpass it any time soon.

Honky-tonk, beer and candle light.
This might just be how you’re supposed to listen to this. It worked for me at least!

I’m not that familiar with Buck Owens, but I’ve listened to a fair share of Merle Haggard, so I’m quite familiar with the charming, foot-tap inducing Bakersfield Sound.

Everything works without overdoing it but nothing truly stands out - it just flows and does its things… And with that I’m rather content.

I was not looking forward to this. Entire Queen albums generally aren’t my vibe.

Then “Brighton Rock” and “Killer Queen” opened up the record - and for a moment I thought to myself: “Huh, I really underestimated Shear Heart Attack!”

Spoiler: I didn’t.

Most songs from here on feel half finished and Side B is especially horrendous with only Stone Cold Crazy at least trying to do something. “Dear Friends” is plain boring, “Bring Back That Leroy Brown” sounds like a parody and everything finally collapses with the May-led mess, “She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettos)”.

The production is killer and the vocal harmonies and exceptional understanding of mixing these are par excellent. Enough in itself to deserve at least a couple of stars.

The full force of Paul Simon’s creativity and ingenuity is on full display on Graceland.

The controversies regarding his trip and work in South Africa taken aside, the mbaqanga influence is what makes this album - and there’s no way that could’ve been this successfully recreated in a US studio.

For such a rather complex album it’s impressive that it managed to create singles in the scale that it did - everything just works here.

Looking forward to re-listen to some more Paul Simon later on this list.

I will never grow tired of Nick Drake’s haunting and beautiful vocals. Simply beyond comparison when it comes to singer/songwriters.
In this matter his debut album is no exception.

Somehow Five Leaves Left might still be my least favorite of Drake’s three albums.
Some compositions overstay their welcome by just a bit and nothing seems as eerily close and personally important as on Pink Moon.

Being my least favourite Nick Drake album is nevertheless far from bad. It’s like being my least favourite gourmet chocolate.
At the end of the day the quality is still in a league of its own.

Pleasantly surprised to see Adele on this list - I have absolute no idea, why I didn’t expect that, when she so obviously belongs here.

Adele, for me, is clearly at her strongest when the piano is at focus and everything is grandiose and a tad dark. Obvious highlights are “Hello” and “When We Were Young”, but “I Miss You” really is the one that takes my breath away. What a powerhouse of a track!

On the other hand I don’t get the hype about “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” which I find totally misplaced and heartless.
I really don’t need that much radio-pop on my Adele album.

Nevertheless; on 25 Adele once again proves that she just might be her generations greatest singer. And that’s saying something.

“When our third album comes out, our place as the quintessential English band of the '90s will be assured. That is a simple statement of fact. I intend to write it in 1994."

- Damon Albarn, 1990

I can not fathom the amount of times I’ve listened to this in my teens. There’s barely a bad track on it (some of the heavier funk stuff, “Get on Top” and “I Like Dirt”, I don’t care for) and the band is amazing - too put it mildly. Especially the return of Frusciante is evident and much welcomed!

Most of the lyrics are plain awful, but at this point it is by far Kiedis’ best vocal performance.

Californiacation is just pure fun and nostalgia - and I can easily look past the lyrical mess.

I don’t particularly care for Murdoch’s vocal or songwriting. I also think the instrumentation is rather bland - especially considering the fact that Belle & Sebastian have strings and horns.

There are a couple of fine tunes on Tigermilk.
But other than there’s nothing truly memorable on this record.

There’s no denying that Pulp was the grown-up in the room regarding 90’s britpop.
There are more Oasis and Blur albums that I listen to a couple of times a year, but there’s a certain charm, confidence and (the keyword here) ability to convey social stigma in Cocker that neither Gallagher nor Albarn possess.

Different Class is unfortunately too long - I think maybe cutting it a full 10 minutes would have done wonders. But it’s nevertheless one of the quintessential British 90’s records.

So... That's the entire MBV discography, huh?
That was quick.

After 22 years of album silence from My Bloody Valentine they returned with a self-titled album that somewhat honored the legendary Loveless and somewhat went in an entirely new direction.

Shields is still masterful at creating beauty in noise and the first three tracks really blows me back.
The following "Is This and Yes" and "If I Am" then suddenly stops the freight train of sound that was set in motion by the opening songs.

And although the rest of the album is in no way bad or boring, I don't feel like we're moving at full speed again until the closing "Wonder 2".

I went into this on high alert.
Then I started letting my guard down after the extremely fun sped up rendition of the single “United”.

A question came up: “Why do I not actively hate this?”

Then it dawned on me.
Nothing really overstays its welcome.

The krautrock influence is apparent but this is still something completely new and groundbreaking - especially for a ‘78 release!

I was equally curious, horrified and alienated - just as I believe was intended.

Extremely polished and a dramatic shift from her debut, Lorde is battling a broken heart and the lust for partying on Melodrama.

I absolute love the first couple of tracks and while there are a few lesser lows along the way, I was really entertained and quite frankly a bit shocked about the quality pop songwriting on this.

Spin’s Album of the Year 1991.
That’s the same year Nirvana released Nevermind. Talk about setting a high bar!

It’s no secret that I love me some jangle and noise - and Teenage Fanclub delivers a great blend of exactly that and fun song writing.

The R.E.M. and Dinosaur Jr. influence shines through; and when “Is This Music?” ends of the album I’m left with nothing but a smile.

One of those albums that deserve to be heard in one sitting. Oldham’s songwriting is haunting and longing and I See A Darkness only makes use of sparse instrumentation.

I feel moved with almost every word uttered by Oldham and while the first listen made me consider a 3 / 5, the second listen won me over.

It’s almost impossible to fully comprehend the names that appear on this record.
Shorter, Zawinul, Corea, McLaughlin, Cobham and of course the main character, Davis. This could just as well been a random listing of greatest jazz musicians on their respective instruments. Mind blowing!

There’s something about Bitches Brew that feels almost illegal to listen to. Like you’ve ventured into an area where only a select few have set foot before.

This must have sounded extremely revolutionizing back in 1970. And the reason I know that is because is still sounds just as groundbreaking 52 years later.

There are few artists that I could listen to for days without end. Bob Marley is one of them.

The first album to not feature original Wailers Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh proves that Marley was fully capable of not only carrying on without the others - he was able to do it just as well.

Family Man provides one perfect bass line after the other and the spiritual and politically charged lyrics are mesmerizing - especially on one of my favorite tracks of the entire discography, “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry”.

What an absolutely uncompromising album.
By no way a clean and easy listen but it’s overflowing with complexity, ideas on the verge of collapsing under their own pretentiousness (a few exceptions actually falls flat) and creativity.

Dirty Projectors are fighting to keep their avant-garde thoughts inside the framework of ordinary pop structures - and somehow they manage to get away with it.
One of the few exceptions is the middle break of “Useful Chamber”, which consists of a weird beat and misplaced spoken words. The rest of the song is just explosive.

This really had a hold on me from start till finish even though I never fully knew where I was about to be taken to next.