Reviews by wotanmjolnir

This is really fun - it’s punk, but it’s also a bit proggy, and the musicianship is surprisingly good to the point it reminds me a bit of Primus (who suck). It can’t be a 5, because it’s too long, and too scattershot, but if this had been trimmed down it could easily have been up there.

I like Paul Simon … but I often don’t like Paul Simon albums. This is a perfect example of why - this has one of my favourite songs of all time, Me and Julio, and a couple of other good tunes, but most of the album is inconsequential filler. As such, this can only ever be a mid-quality score.

This is so very repetitive, and dull. And it’s repetitive. It’s also dull, and repetitive. I do think it is repetitive, though, and dull.

Perfectly pleasant 60s jangle. Not amazing, but perfectly fine.

I’m halfway through the project, give or take, and I now know I just don’t really get on with rap or hip-hop. I’m sure this is fine, but I don’t get it and didn’t enjoy it.

Well, it’s perfectly pleasant, if a little bland. I suspect this may benefit from multiple listens, but unfortunately what I listened to isn’t making me want to rush back.

Good blues album - the voice is incredible, and the guitar sound is great, but for some reason it didn’t grab me like Muddy Waters at Newport did.

Gives pretentious shithousery a bad name.

I had this on whilst I was making breakfast, and one of my dogs decided to shit on the floor. Cleaning that up was more memorable and enjoyable than this album.

An odd one, this. It’s not my type of music, and the production and Mike Skinner’s delivery is, to be blunt, a bit shit. But here’s the odd thing - it’s intended to be a bit shit, and it’s endearingly so. It probably helps being British and only a couple of years older than the protagonist of the rap opera so I find this sort of relatable, but I really didn’t hate it.

I love Out of stone and Automatic for the People, and think Monster is OK, but that was my range of REM. I had tried Green and didn’t think much of it, so wasn’t expecting a lot of this - and wasn’t surprised initially. It starts off slow and mediocre, but as it goes on it really improves and the second half of the album is really good. A definite surprise, and a pleasant one.

I’ve always ragged on the song ‘Born In The USA’, mainly because it is musically the most boring song ever written - 4 notes looped in a single pattern over the whole song. I’d never really considered the lyrics, although I knew the general gist and that it was often misinterpreted as being a positive theme, but listening to the album as a whole really impressed me. Born In The USA, Dancing in the Dark, and Glory Days are all great, but the album as a whole is also really good, and one I’ll revisit.

I did not have high hopes going into this, but was pleasantly surprised. I’m more of a punk rather than post-punk fan, but there was enough anger and spikiness to make this pretty good, actually.

There’s a reason Dead Kennedys were so important to punk and hardcore, and that’s because they were formative in the movement. This isn’t brilliant, but it’s very, very good - California Uber Alles, Holiday in Cambodia, Kill the Poor are all absolute classics.

I bought this when it came out, wasn’t massively impressed but thought it was fine. Listened to it today for the first time in 25-ish years, wasn’t massively impressed but thought it was fine. I was surprised by how many songs were very familiar, though.

Well, the record happened but I remember nothing about it.

There has been no greater victim that Steven Morrissey knows of than Steven Morrissey. Having said that, he really has an ear for music, and his stuff generally ranges from no worse than ok, right up to gorgeous. This album is good, there is no denying it - put aside the personal qualities of the artist and just listen to som really good tunes.

Incidental music for a ‘70s sci-fi thriller soft-core porno. But it was ok.

This was the first Zeppelin album I listened to, and it’s still one of the best albums of all time. Ok, the plagiarism issues and lack of credit to the artists that made the music possible are shitty, but put that to one side and you’ve got possibly the greatest hard rock / blues rock band really starting to gather momentum. Brilliant album.

Apparently they were trying to make this album for around a decade. They could have saved that time and not bothered. Bland, pedestrian, inoffensive pap.