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Music
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Alone
With Everybody - It seems The Verve's
split hasn't done Ashcroft any harm as his debut album
finds him in soulful mood with songs as deep, meaningful
and tripped-out as ever. A Song For The Lovers
and On A Beach are brilliant. |
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Bocanada - An
excellent album covering a wide range of styles from rock
to electronica. Cerati has an incredible voice and a
musicality I've rarely heard before. Río
Babel is a real chingón of a song. |
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Buena
Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer
- A fantastically lively album of Cuban music from
old-timer Ibrahim and friends. Great voices and a rhythm
distilled from the soul. The improvised piece Marieta
is particularly excellent, and Herido de Sombra
just makes you want to weep. |
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Formica
Blues - a magnificent album, somewhere between
Portishead, Stereolab and Sandy Shaw with the occasional
bit of drum 'n bass thrown in. Listen to this and
you'll imagine yourself in sixties black and white French
cinema. You know, the ones where everyone has names
like Tristesse and Ennui. Something like that,
anyway. |
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Orbital
- is a superbly simple first album from brothers Phil and
Paul Hartnoll. It sounds as if the music has been hewn
from the walls around them. Belfast and Chime
are excellent. |
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Orbital
2 - develops their sound into something more
melodic and lifts their talents to another level. |
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Snivilisation
- is a more polished work than their previous albums. Are
We Here? is superb. |
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In
Sides - is a more introspective album than the
rest, but is packed with great tunes. The Girl with
the Sun in Her Head (recorded with purely solar
energy) and Out there Somewhere? are
brilliant tunes, but The Box is the most
dramatic piece on the album. |
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The
Middle Of Nowhere - an exploration into future
realms with mystical sounds and solid beats. Know
Where to Run and Style are my personal
favourites. |
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Wish
You Were Here - includes some
brilliant songs. Shine On, You Crazy Diamond
is a superb song about wasted youth with a fantastically
long intro. I wrote a film script based on this
which wasn't half as good as the song. Wish You
Were Here is one of those songs which just gets
you without knowing why. A song for the homesick. |
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The
Wall - a concept album about
walls which is more interesting than watching one built.
Comfortably Numb used to be played by my pub all
the time, not that we were hooked on heroin though.
Just strong Dutch lager, which seems to achieve the same
results. Another Brick in the Wall Pt II is
great, but it shouldn't be played to teachers. ¡Viva la
revolución! |
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Delicate
Sound of Thunder - a live album
including the above songs and loads more which I've
forgotten to mention. |
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Pablo
Honey - I don't have this album, so all I can
say is that Creep is on it and that it's a
damn fine song. |
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The
Bends - Lyrical and majestic, this is an album
you'll keep having to come back to. All the songs
on it are great. |
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OK
Computer - More hits than misses,
and the hits are sensational. Paranoid Android
and Lucky alone make it an album worth buying,
borrowing, stealing etc. |
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Kid
A - This one's still growing on me. A
mixture of Can
and Aphex
Twin, it's a slow starter, but something weird to
chill out to. |
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