Reviews by wotanmjolnir

This is exactly the kind of saccharine, easy-listening shit my grandparents listened to, and as such it didn’t remind me of Rio de Janeiro, waving palm trees and white sandy beaches. This reminded me of Benidorm, high rise three star hotels, and Belly Buster Breakfasts with a pint of Carling for 5 Euro at 9am.

Infectious energy, proper lo-fi garage-y, punky, poppy, dirty little album. If you can get on board with what an amped-up little bag of monkey-skin is doing then you are in for a ride.

Ok, this is a bit more muscular than I remember SmpleMnds being, and that’s fine - but it’s still not very good. There’s nothing wrong with it, but not really much right, either. It’s ok, but entirely forgettable.

Come on, you’re taking the piss now, right?

Obviously a divisive album, and I can see why people don’t like it, but this is a whole lot better than anything jazz.

It’s another Britpop album, and it does sound like just another Britpop album - there’s a couple of good tracks, and it is the music of my youth so I’m not hammering it - but it’s not great, either.

This is probably one of the most important albums that shaped my musical journey through life. It came out when I was 16, and up to that point my musical taste had largely been influenced by my parents’ and my older sister’s taste. I had started to listen to more rock, but had always shied away from heavy metal as a bit scary … and then this album opened the gate for me. I loved this album. I had been teaching myself to play guitar for a year or so before I heard this, then once I heard this I knew I wanted to play like James Hetfield. I was asked to join a covers band at school based on my ability to play most of this album, and that opened up a new aspect to my social life. I listened to other bands that were similar, bands that had influenced Metallica or been influenced by them, and my musical horizons expanded dramatically. I saw them live twice in support of this album including the legendary open air gig at Milton Keynes Bowl, which is probably my most “I was there!” moment.

This is not the best album in the world, in fact it’s a bit bloated and over long in parts, and it’s not the best Metallica album, not by a long way. It’s not even very representative of what made Metallica one of the biggest bands in the world. But what this album is, for me, is a huge turning point in my life, and a founding document of the person I became, and for that I whole heartedly thank James, Lars, Jason and Kirk. They gave me a place where I belonged.

What a great album, riding the swell from punk to post punk to new wave, and so very influential. Sonically brilliant, really innovative. Just wonderful.

This is ok, but it’s very samey. It’s not a surprise they developed and became influential, but it’s not very exciting.

Perfectly ok alt rock, not a world beater though.

I can’t hate it, because that would mean it had some sort of impact on me. The beigest of beige music.

I was not looking forward to this as I’ve found every Velvet Underground album to be horrible self absorbed bollocks, but this was a really good album. Decent singer songwriter pop, and definitely revisiting. Aside from the horrid cod-reggae track, of course.

Ok, rap and hip-hop is never going to be my thing, but old school / golden age stuff is way more my lane than anything that came after. I didn’t enjoy it as such, but I didn’t dislike it either.

There’s a very good reason when, if asked to think about the Bee Gees they tend to go more Saturday Night Fever or Stayin’ Alive rather than Trafalgar, or this offering Odessa. Yet, for some unfathomable reason, Robert Dimery decided to put the latter two albums of twee folky/country/baroque/jangle pop into this book.

This is massively overlong, simplistic, and basic. It did fool me for a moment with Marley Purt Drive which is a genuinely good song, but the rest of this hour-plus album is just so meh I can’t give it any more than 2.

There is nothing bad about this album, but it’s not one I’m ever likely to reach for again. If I was the kind of person who hosted cocktail parties then I may have it as background, but I’m not, so I won’t.

This is fine, but not very memorable.

I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of the people who claim Kate Bush is an iconic artist are actually mostly boomer men who remember rubbing one out over her dancing around in a leotard when she was seventeen. Because, let’s be frank, this is a bit shit, really, isn’t it?

I mean it’s not bad, in fact some of it is pretty good … but some of it isn’t, and it does drag on a bit. I can’t imagine playing this again.

I feel liked I’ve been sexed at without my consent.

Jesus, what an annoying album. Possibly the longest 42 minutes of my life, and I spent it being warbled at by someone who sounds one step away from the old people’s home.