Reviews by wotanmjolnir

The Flying Boredom Brothers more like, eh? Eh?

The fact that Madonna was allowed to call herself ‘The Queen of Pop’ when Cyndi Lauper was recording is a huge dereliction of duty on the part of the music-listening world. The singles are great, but the deeper cuts (with a couple of exceptions) are excellent. All Through The Night in particular gives me chills, and the vocal performance is so much better than Madge could ever do.

This is very of its time, and it’s perfectly pleasant, but I think the fact that nobody has even thought about Badly Drawn Boy in 10 to 15 years says all you need to know. Also, god damn, the stereo panning on This Song makes me want to throw up.

Perfectly pleasant jangly-jangly folk, but I prefer a bit more folk-rock to straight ahead folk. It’s ok.

This is ok - it’s not the best Elvis Costello I’ve had so far, but it’s still a pleasant enough listen.

This is fine mid-rate punk. It’s not amazing, but it’s ok.

The most dedicated experts of ABC are only able to state three things with certainty:
1. ABC had success with the single ‘Poison Arrow’
2. ABC had success with the single ‘The Look Of Live’
3. Martin Fry looks like the economics teacher who was sleeping with the mother of one of his pupils

Having listened to this album I now rank alongside the greatest of ABC scholars. My life is not richer for this.

Well, I can’t say I hated it but I sure as shit didn’t like it.

If ever there was an album of two halves …

The first half of this comprises of six songs that, whilst not as good as anything on Forever Changes, show flashes of some of the greatness that would come. The second half, though … whew, it’s like parody Doors, just meandering boring bullshit and completely shafts the record. I can’t imagine many people flipped the LP more than once.

This is one of the very best debuts ever recorded.

Alex Turner is an extraordinary song writer and hit the ground running here, and backed by Matt Helders’ drumming this makes for an incredibly powerful and clever album. There’s barely a misstep here, perhaps the harshest criticism can be levelled at the guitar leads which tend to be very simple boxy pentatonics, but other than that this is brilliant. The hype it had, and I remember it as I was there, was fully deserved.

I don’t know if this is good or not. I do know it is boring.

“But I don’t want to listen to this faintly shit, boring yank-folk!”

“I know, son, I know - but we committed to this project and we’re going to see it through no matter what.”

Fuck, this is a tough listen. Musically it reminds me quite a lot of Kid A / Amnesiac era Radiohead, which is good because that’s my favourite Radiohead era. Lyrically and emotionally … fuck.

Great music can come from personal tragedy - Rumours, Arrival, Zeppelin’s ‘All Of My Love’ - and this is on a par with those. It’s raw, and broken, and a really hard album to hear, but it is good although not something I really want to go through again soon.

God damn this is so dreary - I can’t imagine anyone getting even faintly excited about anything on here, and every song lasts 30 seconds to a minute longer than it needs to.

It’s indie rock and roll for me. But not that strongly. In fact, I could live without it.

This is maybe a bit too proggy too quickly for my liking but once you get over the initial mental mess it settles down. The cover of America on the deluxe version is unforgivable, though.

Dick-fixated Nelly Furtado impersonator who looks like she smells like the ashtray in a 1977 Morris Minor Traveller. The fifties were a bit shit for music, why would I want to revisit?

This is a pretty ok punky / post punk album. There’s some more experimental stuff on it which is less fun but over all it’s pretty good.

Ok, standard defence - I have no cultural connection or touchstone to this kind of music so cannot objectively say if it’s good or bad, just what it makes me feel.

Firstly, the stereo mix is fucking horrible on headphones. Saying it is a mix is being generous, it’s almost like one set of mics went into left channel, and another went into right channel, and never the Twain shall meet. Horrid.

Secondly, it is so repetitive. I like percussion as much as the next man, even if the next man is Neil Peart. I gave Bongo Rock five stars. I don’t think Moby Dick is the skip track on Led Zep II. But, fuck man, come on - give me a bit of a break, please! Please? Please.

I like folk, but I like British folk, not this boring bloody bollocks.