Reviews by wotanmjolnir

I say this a lot on these reviews, but I'll say it again. This is OK. It's not amazing, and it's not bad. It's very OK.

This came out when I was buying a lot of music and reading a lot of music magazines, and so I listened to this at the time - and it was OK then, too.

Like so many other albums here I wouldn't be upset to listen to it again, and I'm also unlikely to seek it out for another listen. It's OK.

For a 35 minute album this feels like a very long listen. There is nothing bad here, in fact So In Love and Hard Times start off sounding really interesting. And that's the problem- tracks either start off sounding interesting, like So In Love, and just don't go anywhere with no progression or structural interest beyond the first few measures, or they start off sounding interesting, like Hard Times, and then are over really quickly.

It's OK, but there is nothing that is fully satisfying. It feels like they have come up with a cool idea or riff and gone "right, lets keep doing this for 4 more minutes and call it done" - plus this album is solely responsible for the global wah-wah shortage of 1975.

It started badly and got worse. And why does it have to be so long. And so bland. And so samey. This is so safe and non-threatening that I suspect the 'Midemeanor' in her name probably relates to jaywalking or some such stupid shit. Rubbish

At least it doesn't have the skits that so many rap and hip-hop albums have.

Nirvana are hugely important for modern music, but are also massively overrated in my opinion. I think they are good, but they aren't amazing - and this sums up this album too. It has some outstanding moments, notably The Man Who Sold The World and Where Did You Sleep last Night (neither are Nirvana songs, notably), but the three Meat Puppets songs, especially Plateau, are just completely forgettable.

This is OK I guess - hard to tell, really, as it left absolutely no impression on me whatsoever

It's Christmas songs, it's Christmas - it's OK. I have no desire to run across it again, but it passed the time while cooking the dinner

A perfectly nice album, even if towards the end I started checking my watch a little.

What a brilliant album. I'd never listened to any Zappa before, but I definitely will be now. Absolutely amazing from the first note.

When I got this I didn't know what to expect. I knew of Heaven 17 and assumed they were just very lightweight synth pop. Then I looked at the score and reviews, and was kind of dreading it - 1 and 2 star reviews, average below 3 ... but its really not as bad as that.

It's not great, but it's perfectly pleasant and more political than I expected, but I quite enjoyed it. Not enough to seek them out again, but if I had to hear it again I wouldn't be upset.

This was a challenge. The first 6 minutes are just some weird soundscape, no real melody or anything, but if you treat it like an orchestra tuning up you can get through it, and it improves, marginally. The rest is ...fine (and I like prog), but I really wouldn't want to hear this again. It's over long, not interesting enough, and Robert Wyatt's voice, which works really well on Shipbuilding, does not really work here.

A good album, but very pretentious. For every excellent Christmas there's an indulgent Underture, but on the whole it's a strong work. One thing though - where's the book, Pete?

I'd never listened to a Country album before, and I enjoyed this. Good songs performed well, and Wille Nelson's voice is great. Definitely one to revisit.

Texturally, this album is all over the place. There are tracks that have strong Beatles vibes - To Be Someone riffs off Taxman, for example - then there are some weird, angry almost punk stuff like
Mr Clean. Also, Weller 'singing' "if I get the chance I'll fuck up your life "is the least threatening thing I've ever heard. Then you've got ballads like English Rose which is pretty, but nothing amazing. Overall its OK.

Fantastic album. Blues is a strange beast - it can be seen as formulaic, all twelve bar repeating rhythm figures and pentatonic scales, but it's so much about feel and emotion, and this album really captures it at its finest. Wonderful.

Not a good album, but, like so many, not awful. This Is The Day is packed full of accordions with bontempi organ backing and sounds like charmless zydeco. Also, the organ player wishes he was Ray Manzarek. He isn't.
On the plus side, The Twilight Hour is quite good, and the last half of Giant is a blast. Still, it's just not engaging for me.

This is a very variable record. Head over Heels and Everyone Wants ... are objectively good songs. Mothers Talk and Listen are not. I Believe sounds like a Sade version of Shipbuilding, The Working Hour has elements that remind me of Genesis' The Brazilian. Its on OK record, good in parts, but I'm not going to hurry back.

What an obstinately, aggressively bland album.literally nothing stands out, and everything goes on for far too long. Dire.

This album disappears so far up its own arse that every time John Cale brushes his teeth he pokes himself in the eye.

Venus in Furs and I'll Be Your Mirror are good, though.

This was OK. I started off really enjoying it, it gave off some nice Sigur Ros and Flaming Lips-type vibes, but it all got very samey. Its nice enough.

This is lift music for people who think they are better than lift music.

Boring, bland, beige album, although Ray of Light is an absolute cracker, and saves the album from being one star.