Reviews by untone-survive

What a gem of an album!

I only knew "Friday I'm in Love" by The Cure, so imagine my surprise when I discovered this minimalist album full of dark, depressive sounds of decay and despair! A perfect soundtrack for a gray November day.

I can hear echoes of these 35 minutes throughout Soviet and post-Soviet rock from Kino to Molchat Doma.

Guess 2 Tone ska is not my thing. At least not this album.

I may sound like an old-timer from ’79, but I have a complaint: this is not singing!

It’s a collection of chants to shout with your friends at a pub or a football match. Also a good soundtrack for a fight, I suppose.

I heard some tracks from their later albums after finishing this one, and both the music and the vocals seemed to improve. But this debut was disappointing.

Also, I read more about The Specials and their role in the 2 Tone movement with the efforts to promote racial unity. A lot of respect for what they did and the influence they had on British music.

But that doesn’t mean I enjoyed this record, it's is still a 2/5 for me.

Good old days when the grass was greener, the trees were taller, and the Gallaghers were not beefing!

More than 30 years later, the album still sounds fresh. Loud guitars, catchy melodies, and an almost ridiculous amount of confidence. Nothing particularly sophisticated, but that's ok!

Good old rock'n'roll!

It's has more psychedelic rock sound than Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow" that was released in the same 1967.

But Jefferson Airplane at least had "Somebody to love" and "White rabbit" and this one here is a pretty dull album.

It's an astonishing album! And if were not a Radiohead album it would be an instant 5.

But though it has three of my favorites - "Just", "My Iron Lung" and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", this is not the album I love Radiohead for. I can hear the changes brewing - but on the "Bends" it's still generic 90s MTV rock.

It get's more Radiohead-y on next two - "OK Computer" and "Kid A". But this one is a 4.5 for me.

As if Kraftwerk and Talking Heads had made a collaboration album!

The tracks still sound SO fresh, almost half a century later! Basement Jaxx even sampled “M.E.” for “Where’s Your Head At”, and the original sounds like it barely needed any processing!

I can also hear echoes of this sound in bands like MGMT.

Top-notch album!

I think I understand the problem artists faced in the vinyl era: you either released a single LP of about 40–45 minutes, or you went for a double album. And if you had more material than would fit on one record, you suddenly had a lot more space to fill.

I had a similar issue with Pink Floyd’s The Wall. One LP wouldn’t have been enough to tell the whole story, but two felt excessive, as though some material was there just to fill the sides.

And now George Harrison takes it even further!

I understand that he’d accumulated years of unreleased songs during his time with The Beatles. And there’s some truly excellent music here. Harrison is a fantastic guitarist, songwriter, and singer. I genuinely think a carefully selected single LP could have been a 5/5 album.

But somewhere during the second LP, I started losing interest. Not because the songs were bad, but because there was simply too much of the same good thing. And then there’s an entire third LP of instrumental jams!

Yesterday I listened to Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew. It’s over an hour and a half long, but somehow every minute felt justified. So it’s not the length itself that bothers me.

It’s the OVERSHARING!

George, I admire your talent, but come on! Nearly two hours? You made this for yourself, not for the audience!

I enjoyed every second of it.

One of the best albums of 1980?! Well, okay...

Can't relate to it, being a non-UK and non-english speaker. I guess, the lyrics are a major part of this.

Musically it's rather ordinary for my taste.

Never heard of this band! Judging by it's name and the cover art I expected something harder and darker.

But it's a good old 90s rock. I can feel a bit of Nirvana and Soundgarden influences, though I am not sure who influenced who.

Not much I can say about it - an ok album.

"Keito" was a bit like Angine de Poitrine but actually playing live without loopers.

My first acquaintance with the Talking Heads (excluding Psycho Killer).

I'm really puzzled by this album. It's not rock, this ain't no disco, but it's definitely something beautiful and sometimes a bit hard to get through.

But I've been tapping my foot almost from beginning to the end.

Being a nice Beatles album, I don't think "With the Beatles" belongs to the "listen before you die" list.

It's actually pretty fun to listen to the group that (arguably) defined the music of second half of the 20th century singing some silly love songs.

Though last tracks on each side - "Please Mr. Postman" and "Money" - have some feeling of what the Beatles would become in couple of years.

The problem with significant albums is that significance ≠ good listening experience. I had this issue with Stevie Wonder previously and now with the Jefferson Airplane.

Knowing only "Somebody to love" and "White Rabbit" I was getting ready to have a hell of a ride listening to this album! But I've got some pretty light folk-rock and blues songs.

Probably you had to be there to get the right impression first-hand. Today it seems a bit bland after listening those, who used Surrealistic Pillow as inspiration.

Heard the name of the band, never heard the band itself.

Actually a pretty good album - some britpop influences, some grunge, some psychodelic rock.

Last instrumental track is very good.

...and here we can observe Bowie in the process of becoming Bowie...

#5

Though album title was more like a joke because the band did not considered their music for the masses, today it feels like a general 80-s synth pop/rock music.

Also this album heavy influenced and somewhat defined the Russian rock scene in the end of the 80s: Kino, Nautilus Pompilius, Agata Kristi. So it's highly praised in Russia.

As a child of the 80s I get very nostalgic listening to this darker tunes.

"Mr. Brightside" and "Somebody Told Me" were in my favorites playlist forever. But i have never heard through "Hot Fuss" entirely.
And what started as a cheerful journey got pretty boring by "On Top". Maybe it's my ADHD kicking in, maybe it's the songs being almost identical in their structure, but i started looking at the number of tracks and time left till the end of the album.
And "Everything will be alright" felt like a long-awaited happy end, but then goes "Glamorous Indie Rock'n'Roll" that is like what? A love song to indie-rock? Satire? It no longer mattered to me - I didn’t want to get into it.
Overall a very good album, just not my cup of whatever-rock it is.
P.S. Also as non-English speaker always wondered why he's singing "pineapple" in the end of Mr. Brightside.

#3

I like to think of music as a language.
And jazz is an ultimate form of conversation.

It is not always intended for the outsiders. Just a group of friends (and versatile speakers, too) enjoying each other's company.

Sometimes you can't understand what they're talking about anymore. But if you've been listening from the beginning, you understand how they got there.

One can't deny - it's a beautiful act.

#2

Before listening: never ever have I heard any album by Stevie Wonder. Moreover, I can't name any song by him.

After listening: well, it was hard for me. It's a very long and very varied album. I can see why Stevie Wonder is a musical genius, but being a simpleton from Russia I just can't relate to his music.