On the whole, this set of 20 albums was pretty disappointing, with the top spot in my ranking going to the first Ian Dury album, New Boots and Panties!! This album didn't seem to connect with many other reviewers, maybe because it's so deeply rooted in the London vernacular. But for those of us who came to music in the punk years, it was an important album bridging pub rock with the new punk rock and quite typical of the (often peculiar) Stiff Records roster. Every track is a banger.
Biggest disappointment was Prince's Purple Rain. I've tried over the years to like his albums, but I've never been able to muster the enthusiasm of his many admirers. Other disappointments included My Bloody Valentine's comeback bore-fest mbv and I really didn't like Adele's 25 much either.
| 340
Dec 15 2024 |
m b v | My Bloody Valentine | 2 |
2.72 |
| I've got this album in my collection, but I don't think it's that great. Most of the shoegaze stuff passed me by at the time, and even when My Bloody Valentine reappeared with this album, I wasn't convinced. The critics were, but what do they know? The tracks seem a bit long. It's all a bit wavery, to the point that if I had this on vinyl, I'd think I had a defective pressing. If a shoegaze album should be on this list, I don't think it's this one. | ||||
| 339
Dec 14 2024 |
Hot Buttered Soul | Isaac Hayes | 3 |
3.41 |
| This was an interesting album, but before I played it, I was wondering how he'd spin out four tracks into an album that's 46 minutes long. After playing it, I think that this would have made a good half album if only Hayes had shortened the tracks, especially By The Time I Get To Phoenix. To spin out Phoenix to nearly 19 minutes is a bit execrable, and I didn't much like having the whole thing explained to me for 8 minutes of that. Maybe this sort of noodling out songs into long extemporisation was in the air at the time (viz. Vanilla Fudge). | ||||
| 338
Dec 13 2024 |
Introducing The Hardline According To Terence Trent D'Arby | Terence Trent D'Arby | 4 |
2.98 |
| So I can recall Terence Trent D'Arby exploding into the charts with this album and its accompanying single, Wishing Well, and I can remember his voice. However several decades further on, and I think I'd qualify my enthusiasm by noting that the music hasn't perhaps lasted as well, and he does tend to over do the vocal gymnatics. But what happened to him after this album? I played this album three times this morning, and at times it felt like I was listening to Heaven 17. Then I looked at the Wikipedia page and saw that Martyn Ware produced nine tracks (and Glenn Gregory provided backing vocals for one of those. So there you go. In rating this album, I note that this isn't really the sort of music I'd really want to play, but I think it's a polished debut. Perhaps a little too polished. | ||||
| 337
Dec 12 2024 |
New Boots And Panties | Ian Dury | 5 |
2.72 |
| Ian Dury emerged out of the UK pub rock scene into the punk mileu with this fantastic album of character portraits. It was a very popular album, despite its often risque lyrics. I can see why it garners some poor reviews from an international audience as lyrically it's located in a very English, if not London-centric, vocabulary. But for those of us in our teenage years at the time, this album came at a time when the musical landscape was changing rapidly and it fit well with the Stiff Records roster of (often oddball) artists. A great album, probably Dury's best. | ||||
| 336
Dec 11 2024 |
After The Gold Rush | Neil Young | 2 |
3.64 |
| I'm sorry, but I just don't like Neil Young's voice. | ||||
| 335
Dec 10 2024 |
3 Feet High and Rising | De La Soul | 2 |
3.45 |
| This is all a bit dull to my 2024 ears. | ||||
| 334
Dec 09 2024 |
Either Or | Elliott Smith | 3 |
3.37 |
| Inoffensive. Just not the kind of music I particularly enjoy. | ||||
| 333
Dec 08 2024 |
Elastica | Elastica | 3 |
3.22 |
| This isn't a particularly exciting album. I mean, it's a nice enough album that revisits punk and post-punk stylings, but it shows its influences so strongly that I'm not surprised they got hit for plagiarism. | ||||
| 332
Dec 07 2024 |
25 | Adele | 1 |
3.38 |
| I'm not sure why this is included in the list. Is it because it was so massively popular? I don't think popularity is an indicator of quality. To me, this is bland and over-produced and lacking emotionally. | ||||
| 331
Dec 06 2024 |
Purple Rain | Prince | 1 |
4.01 |
| At the outset, I confess that whenever I've listened to Prince's music I've never found it particularly engaging. Maybe it's an age thing. I've played Purple Rain three times now. And that is three times too many. It's shallow, crass and dull music. It seems to be a product of a sex-obsessed bloke in frilly shirts and high heels. I just don't get why Prince has acquired this aura of god-like genius. | ||||