Reviews by wotanmjolnir

Sabotage is one of the great 90s tunes, but the Beastie Boys do spend an inordinate amount of time sniffing their own farts on this album.

I have not been complimentary of Arcade Fire in the past. I thought The Suburbs was bland, boring and a bit crap, and was very disappointed in Neon Bible when it came out and haven’t listened since. I was very pleasantly surprised by this, then, when it turned out to be perfectly good early 21st century indie rock. Not massive stand-out, but I enjoyed my time with it.

I like Simon and Garfunkel, I do. Paul Simon actually saved my marriage. ‘America’ is one of my favourite songs of all time. This album, though … it’s just a little bit too clever-clever for its own good, and they don’t pull it off. I don’t dislike it, of course - America, Mrs Robinson, and A Hazy Shade of Winter make it a good album. But the meandering experimental shit pulls it down and I can’t give it more than a three.

This is the kind of crap my grandparents liked. And not my nice grandparents, but my rubbish grandparents - you know, my dad’s parents. Quite shit.

I should like Sonic Youth - I like punk, I like rock, I like lo-fi stuff … but they just don’t click. It’s ok, but it’s not very interesting.

I was introduced to Primal Scream by the guitarist in a band I played bass in at university. I love Screamadelica, and it remains one of my favourite albums. This, however, although it has a couple of good tunes (and Kowalski is an absolute stormer - RIP Mani) just doesn’t live up, and is a bit disappointing.

I was not expecting much from this, but it was surprisingly enjoyable. I always thought I like hip-hop but this project has shown that to not be true, I just like some hip-hop tracks. Give me some trip-hop, though, and I’ll enjoy it. Not massively, but enough for it to get a solid 3.

This is the third Kinks album I’ve had, and whilst the other two were fine I wasn’t massively impressed. This one, though, this one is really good. Great tunes, with a great sense of proper Britishness and may make me revisit the others.

I’m not sure this deserves a place on the list, not because it’s bad (although it is a long way from good), but because it’s not really music. There are a few moments of interesting melody and rhythm, Dead On Arrival for instance I actually enjoyed, but the majority doesn’t seem to have any musicality as far as I can tell. It felt less like an album of music and more like Tangerine Dream were soundtracking my dystopian day.

This is more accessible than both White Light/White Heat and the stupid banana bollocks. That does not make it good.

I’m really bloody bored of rap and hip-hop now. It’s definitely not my thing and this is just dull. A very few of the beats are interesting, but I everything else is just boring. I can’t give it 2 because it isn’t bad, but I didn’t enjoy it either.

Proper tragic country - horrible stories, told beautifully.

It’s perfectly pleasant, but Marlena on the Wall reminds me of the theme tune to 80s British Loch Ness Monster-based cartoon The Family Ness.

3 thistle-whistles out of 5, Elspeth!

Perfectly pleasant, if inconsequential, country pop.

Really enjoyed this - dark and brooding, but melodic and hooky enough to be accessible. Good album.

‘This song is too short - how can I spin it out to seven minutes?’
‘Maybe try listing a whole bunch of fish and shit.’
‘Ok, rock on!’

<A few hours later …>

‘This one’s too short, too. Do you think just putting in a bunch of celestial bodies would work?’
‘Fuck it, why not - what’s the worst that could happen?!’

This album. This shitty album is the worst that could happen. What a load of shit.

Utterly bonkers but remarkably enjoyable. I never knew I needed to hear two synth-metal retellings of Opus’ ‘Life is Life’ in German and sung by the Cookie Monster, but I’m glad I now have. Throw in some reworking of Queen’s contributions to the Highlander soundtrack and you have yourself a surprisingly enjoyable, if entirely mental, album. How is this in the lowest rated selection?!

I had It Takes A Nation Of Millions … yesterday, and this really does not compare at all well. Also, I was very confused why they were so obsessed with gloves until I checked out the band members.

Quite shit, really.

I’m no fan of hip-hop, but as hip-hop goes this is better than most of the rest.

I was thinking this wasn’t bad, just boring - and then they did that awful cover of Light My Fire. I am a big Doors fan, but I don’t mind covers of their stuff, in fact I think the Will Young cover of this very song is actually pretty good. This one, though … this is fucking terrible, and drags the album down with it. Shite.