Reviews by wackywilliam

Another one of those album's that I like but would never really return to unless I put it on in the background. In order to fully appreciate this you need to really pay attention and that's not something I want to do all the time while listening to music. The musicality on display here is otherworldly and there are a number of songs here that I found to be quite hypnotising but I think because of it's length and quite demanding nature, this isn't going to be something I'll fully re-listen to again even though I do think this is pretty great.

Fav Songs: Miles Runs The Voodoo Down, Pharaoh's Dance, Spanish Key

Least Fav: John McLaughlin

8.1/10

I think they would go on to perfect this sound on their later albums, but I think this perfectly lays out the foundation for what metal music would become. Some absolutely fantastic tracks on here with the title track and N.I.B in particular still standing up there as two of the best songs in the entire genre. The other songs here are all varying degrees of good but there's nothing here that matches the heaviness of those two. This is far from my favourite album from these guys but this is still a super impressive debut that holds up against most of what modern metal has to offer.

Fav Songs: N.I.B, Black Sabbath, Warning, Evil Woman

Least Fav: Sleeping Village

8.8/10

I'm a bit conflicted on this one. I'd say I enjoyed this a lot and the best songs here are amazing but I can't imagine that this is something I'll return to frequently. Most of that is down to the fact that this is a very slow album with extremely personal and heavy lyrical content, inspired by the untimely death of Nick Cave's son. Because of that, this isn't exactly something that I'm gonna be itching to throw on even if the music here is very good.

Wasn't sure how much I'd get out of a live album from a band I'd never heard of before but I ended up having a very good time with this. Super infectious, high energy rock music which is simple but works super well in this setting. Not sure I'd put this in the conversation for best live album ever, but this is still pretty great nonetheless.

Fav Songs: Surrender, Need Your Love, I Want You To Want Me, Clock Strikes Ten

Least Fav: Goodnight

8.4/10

Atrociously boring.

Fav Songs: Debaser, Here Comes Your Man, Monkey Gone To Heaven, Hey, Gouge Away

Least Fav: Silver

9.4/10

Nick Cave is an artist who I've always heard really good things about but have never gotten around to checking out. I was a little weary of the length of this going in with this being 17 songs long over 2 discs and over 80 minutes in length, but after listening to this I can safely say that it more than earns that runtime. I think that mainly comes down to both sides of the album being so different sonically, so I didn't have a chance to get tired of the album's sound before it moved into something completely different.

Abattoir Blues is the first and the louder side of the album, being made up of 9 anthemic, bluesy alt rock songs with super catchy choruses and a lot of gospel-esque backing vocals. I wasn't too familiar with Nick Cave's style going into this but I loved his vocals here, and I thought he brought so much character and personality to all of these songs, even the ones towards the end which didn't hit as hard instrumentally.

The Lyre Of Orpheus is the second disc and far softer in its sound than the first disc, with a huge focus on acoustic guitar and keys. I thought this was a bit more consistent than the first side, even if I thought that Abattoir Blues had the higher highs. Some of the album's lyrical highlights are found on this side too, with the song "The Lyre Of Orpheus" being a huge highlight for me, showing off Nick's ability to tell an engaging story throughout a song whilst not sacrificing any of the charm or catchiness found on the other songs on the album.

Overall, while I didn't know what to expect from this going in, I came out of this loving a majority of what I heard. While there are a few songs that don't hit as hard as others, I thought pretty much every track here brought something interesting to the table and despite the lengthy runtime, I thought this actually flew by and didn't drag at all. This definitely has me interested in checking out more from Nick Cave, because this was pretty fucking amazing.

Fav Songs: There She Goes My Beautiful World, O Children, Get Ready For Love, The Lyre Of Orpheus

Least Fav: Fable of the Brown Ape

9.1/10

Fav Songs: The Light, The 6th Sense, Nag Champa (Afrodisiac For The World), Geto Heaven Part Two

Least Fav: A Film Called (Pimp)

8.9/10

Fav Songs: Kid, Brass in Pocket, Stop Your Sobbing, The Wait

Least Fav: The Phone Call

8.2/10

Fav Songs: Mirage, Helter Skelter, Carcass, Nicotine Stain

Least Fav: Overground

7.6/10

This is far from my favourite Floyd album but this is still as iconic as it is for a reason. Plenty of fantastic songs on here, several of which stand as some of the best in this band's entire catalogue and a very forward thinking concept too.

Fav Songs: Time, Money, The Great Gig In The Sky, Us And Them

Least Fav: On the Run

9.5/10

Fav Songs: none, they all sound the same and they're all ass

Least Fav: all of them

1.4/10

Fav Songs: Big Me, I'll Stick Around, This Is A Call, Alone + Easy Target

Least Fav: X-Static

6.4/10

Fav Songs: Xica Da Silva, Taj Mahal, Cavaleiro Do Cavalo Imaculado, Hermes Trismestigo Escreveu

Least Fav: O Filósofo

9.0/10

Fav Songs: Our House, Almost Cut My Hair, Woodstock, Teach Your Children

Least Fav: Deja Vu

8.0/10

Fav Songs: Straight Outta Compton, Fuck Tha Police, Gangsta Gangsta, Parental Discretion Iz Advised

Least Fav: Compton's N The House - Remix

7.2/10

Fav Songs: War Pigs, Paranoid, Iron Man, Electric Funeral

Least Fav: Rat Salad

9.6/10