Reviewing the playlists in the "Shuffle Your Playlist" thread

[Trollheart]

Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me! Look, I'll put up with a lot but I am NOT listening to the crap he listens to! No. No fucking way. You can't make me. What do you mean, I'm under contract? That's not my signat - oh my! That IS a rather large stick with a very impressive nail in it that your associate is thumping into his equally impressive fist, isn't it? Okay, okay! I suppose I have no choice.

(God how I hate that guy, with his whiny "Bon Jovi are great" and "Why don't you guys like Genesis?" Makes me sick. Oh well.)

One more exaggerated sigh, and on we go.

Vile Temptress - Booze Control

Genre: Heavy Metal
Source: 3rd album The Lizard Rider
Year: 2016
Nationality: German
Comments: Oh dear. Yet another metal band who want to be, but never will be, Iron Maiden. The guitars, the two axemen lineup, the sounds and melodies, hell, they even use the same sort of logo as Harris's boys! I mean, yeah, it's okay but Maiden do it so much better, so why listen to a third-rate German rip-off? Pass.
Rating:

Dear Dream - Gilbert O'Sullivan (shut up)

Genre: Singer-Songwriter
Source: 2nd compilation album The Best of Gilbert O'Sullivan
Year: 1991
Nationality: Irish
Comments: Gilbert was a star in Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s, scoring huge hits and making all the grannies fall in love with him. He was a major crush on my sister (not Karen, my elder, Sue) and I admit he has some damn fine songs. This is not one of them, and makes me wish he had never sat down at a piano. Drivel, pure and simple.
Rating:

Some Kind of Friend - Barry Manilow (I SAID, shut UP!)

Genre: Singer-Songwriter/Easy Listening
Source: 3rd compilation album The Essential Barry Manilow
Year: 2005
Nationality: American
Comments: Manilow is at his best when crooning out heart-wrenching ballads like "Weekend in New England", "I Made it Through the Rain" and "Could it Be Magic". When he goes (shudder) disco/uptempo it rarely works. "Copacabana" is one rare instance where it does. This is not another. It's just embarrassing.
Rating:

Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie

Genre: Glam rock/Pop rock/Art rock/Rock Opera
Source: 5th album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Year: 1972
Nationality: English
Comments: Oh come on now. As Occult Hawk used to say, unassailable. What more can I say?
Rating:

Santa Fe - Jon Bon Jovi

Genre: Film soundtrack/Hard rock/Heartland Rock (?)
Source: Debut solo album Music Inspired by Young Guns II: Blaze of Glory
Year: 1990
Nationality: American
Comments: You all know I love Bon Jovi, so you won't be surprised to learn that I love this song. A Jon Bon Jovi solo effort, it's music he wrote when inspired by the movie Young Guns II and... hey! Where are you all going? Oh all right, be like that!
Rating:

No Ordinary Man - Kasey Chambers

Genre: Country
Source: 10th album Dragonfly
Year: 2017
Nationality: Australian
Comments: It's not all that often you get to hear Australian country, but I loved this album when I first listened to it. I'm always tickled by the way they can bring Jesus into it, and here Kasey does just that in fine style. Great song, with a memorable chorus. Yee-haw! Or something.
Rating:

Tears in My Eyes - Uriah Heep

Genre: Hard rock/Progressive rock
Source: 3rd album Look at Yourself
Year: 1971
Nationality: English
Comments: I wouldn't class myself as a fan of the Heeps. I've had good and bad experiences with them. This is, as you can see, an early track, from their third album, from which the epic ten-minute "July Morning" comes, but this is definitely more in the straight-ahead hard rock than prog vein. It's okay. I guess. Probably goes on much longer than it should.
Rating:

Tulleries - Voyager IV

Genre: Symphonic Prog
Source: Debut (and only) album Pictures at an Exhibition
Year: 2019
Nationality: German
Comments: Yeah, that one. I'm no fan really of prog bands who use classical music such as ELP, and this is of course a reworking of Modest Mussorgsky's famous orchestral suite, so how much credit can I give them for copying one of the old masters? Way too jazzy for my taste, mein herren!
Rating:

Refuse the Line - Randy Edelman

Genre: Film score
Source: 18th album Gettysburg
Year: 1993
Nationality: American
Comments: It's a film score, what do you want from me? It's evocative, it's powerful, it's grand and stately: everything you would expect from the guy. 
Rating:

Blind Me - For All We Know

Genre: Progressive Metal/Progressive Rock
Source: Debut self-titled album
Year: 2011
Nationality: Dutch
Comments: A fairly relatively unknown Dutch prog metal band, this quite impressed me and I need to listen to more. Good understated vocal with some good backing vocals, a chugging building guitar and some bright piano. Kind of puts me in mind of what might result were Kamelot and Evanescence to collaborate.
Rating:

Just goes to show, I have some crap on my hard disk, don't I? Even I admit that. And you just never know what's going to come up when you hit that shuffle button. Ah well, better luck next time, possibly.

Overall rating:

[Trollheart]

Ok then it's time to see what

is lisna-ing to...


Chaos by The Church

Genre: Dream pop/Jangle pop/Neo-psychedelia
Source: 8th album Priest=Aura
Year: 1992
Nationality: Australian
Comments: Sounds  a bit Velvet Underground-y to me; sort of drony, echoing, hollow with some sort of ethnic feel to it as well. Maybe. The singer sounds like yer man out of Icehouse. Remember them? No? Sod ya then. I find this fairly depressing, if I'm honest. Yeah sorry, I really hate this, and fuck but it's over nine minutes long! Not a good start.
Rating:

Drunken Angel by Lucinda Williams

Genre: Alt-Country/Americana/Country/Roots rock
Source: 5th album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Year: 1998
Nationality: American
Comments: This should be a lot better. Lucinda is one of those "bad girls of country", isn't she, the ones who forged their own path and put up with no shit. You can tell by the title already this isn't going to be some soppy love song to a cowboy or anything like that. Okay her Wiki page doesn't say anything about that, so maybe I'm mixing her up with Loretta Lynn? Still a good song - sort of sounds more like Alanis Morissette to me, not all that country. But good. Still, I'm a little disappointed, as it wasn't as good as I was hoping. Ah well, at least it wasn't The Church. Sorry.
Rating:

Tánc by Kolinda

Genre: Progressive Folk/Neo-Medieval Folk/Hungarian Folk Music
Source: 2nd album Kolinda 2
Year: 1977
Nationality: Hungarian
Comments: Neo-Medieval? Isn't that an oxymoron? And while we're at it, while are all oxys morons? Aren't there any oxybrainiacs? I think it's a little stereotyping personally. But on we go. This should be interesting. Certainly ethnic sounding from the start, can kind of imagine this being played up high in the Carpathians or something, with Count Dracula leaning out of his window saying "Oi! You! Yeah, you lot down there! Shut that noise! Don't you know I have to be up for work in the evening? Honestly! Some people have no regard for others!" But seriously, it does evoke images of the older, mythic side of Eastern Europe, and while I probably would ram that flute-like thing up whatever orifice of theirs is handy, it is, as I predicted, interesting. Is it good? Jury are still sequestered on that one.
Rating:

Los Hongos de Marosa by Juana Molina

Genre: Folktronica/Ambient Pop/Free Folk (Sounds like a popular uprising movement!)/Art Pop/Neo-psychedelia/Post-Minimalism/Freak Folk (now it sounds like a village where odd people live!)
Source: 7th album Un Dia
Year: 2008
Nationality: Argentinian
Comments: I have something of a nervous relationship with folk. Whereas as I said before, metalcore and I tend to avoid each other on the street, I can pass the time of day with folk, but if it starts getting all prefixed, with things like neo and indie in front of it, I usually check a watch I don't wear and remark upon the time, and exit stage whichever direction is open to me at the time. No I will not shut the fuck up. Not yet anyway. This is, well, I would have to say a little annoying. Never trust any music genre with -tronica after it, that's what I say. It's quite repetitive, and catchy in its way, but I think maybe too long at over seven minutes? Ah I suppose it's not so bad, but I'm still waiting.
Rating:

After Hours by Roy Buchanan

Genre: Blues rock/Electric blues
Source: 3rd album Second Album (huh?)
Year: 1973
Nationality: American
Comments: Surely we can't go wrong with the blues? Ah but then, Trollheart likes his blues slow and sad. Nothing quite like a "Stormy Monday" or "The Thrill is Gone", but you can keep your "Texas Strut" or "Walking After Midnight". Which side does this fall on? Ah yes, seems to be on my side, nice slowburning blues tune. Testify! Or something. There's surely a reason why over 1,000 people have raised the thumb on this and precisely none have given it a negative on the Y. Superb stuff. At last. Yer the first one, Lisna, other than meself, to get a five-star rating. Bravo!
Rating:

Kimberly by Patti smith

Genre: Proto-punk/Singer-Songwriter/Art Rock
Source: Debut album Horses
Year: 1971
Nationality: American
Comments: Kinda have a bias against Patti since she is said to have robbed Springsteen's "Because the Night" and had a big hit with it. Unfair? Maybe, but like superglue applied ten years ago, I'm too old and set in my ways to change now. Actually I can hear a lot of early Bruce in her singing, and the chorus reminds me of something. Mink de Ville? Think it might be "Cadillac Walk". Not sure. Good enough I guess but I wouldn't be going mad over it.
Rating:

My Little Town by Paul Simon

Genre: Singer-Songwriter/Pop soul/Jazz pop
Source: 4th album Still Crazy After All These Years
Year: 1975
Nationality: American
Comments: Got a lot of time for Simon, especially when he used to hang around with that other fella, can't recall the name, big Sideshow Bob-like hair. Grundel or Grandiddly or something. On his own, he can be hit and miss for me. I love songs like "Mother and Son Reunion", "Train in the Distance" and "Slip Slidin' Away". More recent stuff though, like "You Can Call Me Al" or "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes", you can basically keep. Right, the only version I get of this has himself on it too, so I don't know. Guitar is a lot more in your face than their usual laid-back college rock or whatever the fuck they played. It's okay but I could easily have lived my life without ever having heard it, sorry Paul. And your friend, whose name escapes me. Okay by the end it had grown on me. Interesting sort of break away from their usual fare with the kind of soul backing.
Rating:

Engine #9 by Wilson Pickett

Genre: Southern soul/Philly soul/Funk
Source: 10th album Wilson Pickett in Philadelphia
Year: 1970
Nationality: American
Comments: Probably about as impossible to hate a Wilson Pickett tune as to be rude to Lisna, so let's just say this is a classic which has been covered more times than I've listened to Marillion, and it ain't never going to stop being covered, nor should it. But this is the original, and it slays.
Rating:

And you've done it again. Now not only the only one other than me to get a five-star rating, but the only one to get two. Sadly, the flip side of that is that most of your other songs got much lower ratings, but as the ancient Romans would say, sic biscuitus disintegratis.

Overall rating:

[Trollheart]

So we're back to me eh? Well, you only have yourselves to blame. If you're not going to take your chance to rid the world of me once and for all, I have no sympahty for you.


Vegas Shuffle - Rod Stewart

Genre: Pop rock/Dance pop
Source: 34th album Blood Red Roses
Year: 2018
Nationality: Scottish
Comments: I love Rod but this is throwaway garbage, quite possibly worthy of being associated with the least genuine town in the USA, where glitz and glamour and bright lights belie a seedy underbelly and a rampant criminal... well, you know how it is. The song's trash, is what I'm saying.
Rating:


I Know - Soul Asylum

Genre: Alt-rock
Source: 1st live album After the Flood: Live at the Grand Forks Prom
Year: 2004
Nationality: American
Comments: Honestly, I had no idea who Soul Asylum were until I went looking to find out who sang "Runaway Train", a song I loved. I've heard virtually nothing else from them, but this is decent. Has a pretty cool guitar line. I don't know that it would make me a fan, but I wouldn't be averse to hearing more.
Rating:


Key to the Highway - Eric Clapton and B.B. King

Genre: Blues rock/Soul
Source: 15th album Riding with the King
Year: 2000
Nationality: English
Comments: Two blues legends together: what's not to like? Well, Clapton's right-wing, anti-immigrant attitudes, but let's concentrate on the music. Is anything on which the King guests worthy of less than five stars? As if.
Rating:


I'm On My Last Go-round - Leadbelly

Genre: Blues duh
Source: The Blues Collection Volume 30
Year: 1994
Nationality: American
Comments: Would I be churlish and try to award less than top marks to a classic from one of legends of the genre? Not this guy.
Rating:


Litorali - Rondo Veneziano

Genre: Classical Crossover
Source: 8th compilation album Fantasia d'Inverno
Year: 1998
Nationality: Italian
Comments: Rondo Veneziano (literally, Venetian dance) are an ensemble orchestra who also use electric guitars and keyboards, and who both interpret classical standards and write their own music. This sounds familiar to me, but though I know my classical there's a lot I know just to hear, as it were, and can't identify right off. It's a nice stately flowing number with a sort of cinematic feeling to it, very relaxing. Then it picks up in the middle on a bubbling keyboard line and sort of takes on an Alan Parsons Project theme, while retaining the basic melody it began out with. A good example of their work; recommended if you like your classical a little more updated.
Rating:


Life of the Bird - Cinematic Orchestra

Genre: Classical Crossover/Film Score
Source: 5th album Les ailes pourpres: le mystère des flamants
Year: 2008
Nationality: English
Comments: I had no idea I even had this band, but then, what else is new with my record collection? I do like artists that play sort of film music, the likes of Lights & Motion and Carbon Based Lifeforms. This is something similar, though quite why so many of the album titles (including this one) are in French I don't know, as they're apparently English. This is played mostly on a nice soft acoustic guitar with piano backing and then some strings, very peaceful.
Rating:


Lost in Translation  Threshold

Genre: Progressive Metal/Progressive Rock
Source: 11th album Legends of the Shires
Year: 2017
Nationality: English
Comments: I've been a big fan of Threshold since I heard their 2000 album Subsurface and went and got all their albums. Haven't come across a bad one yet. That said, I have yet to listen to this, or their latest, but this song puts me very much in mind of work they did on their 2012 effort, March of Progress as well as "The Art of Reason" and "Opium" off that Subsurface album, and does make me wonder if they're running out of ideas. Ah but I still love them. Big, overblown choruses, powerful keyboard solos and emotional vocals - it's prog metal. Incidentally, Threshold are one of the only bands in the genre I've heard who use vocoders. Bit of useless information for you.
Rating:


All the Aces - Motorhead

Genre: Heavy metal, guv!
Source: 3rd album Bomber
Year: 1979
Nationality: English
Comments: Oh now what do you want from me? It's Motorhead, it's loud, it slays the competition. The original and the best. Rest in Power, Lemmy!
Rating:


Train Song - Tom Waits

Genre: Tom Waits (!)
Source: 10th album Franks Wild Years
Year: 1987
Nationality: American
Comments: There's just no way to pigeonhole Waits. Last time I tried, he caught the pigeon, cooked it and ate it. I'm not that fond of this album, but the song is a yearning, Captain Beefheartesque lament for home by a man who knows he can never see it again. Or something. Great stuff.
Rating:


I Come Alive (Date with an Angel)* Russell Hitchcock

Genre: Soft rock (the softest)
Source: Debut solo self-titled album
Year: 1988
Nationality: Australian
Comments: I refuse to listen to this drivel again. Why oh why did I assume Air Supply had something to give besides soppy ballads? They don't, they really don't, and their lead singer going solo has not helped. Get me out of here!
Rating:

Well again there's some, how can I put this? Trash? Is trash being too impolite? No. No it's not. There's some trash here, but some classics too. It's how it goes, it's the nature of the beast, it's downloading shit you should never have downloaded but are too lazy to delete, or have forgotten that it's lurking on your hard disk, just waiting for a chance to jump out and get you in an attack of mediocrity with menaces.

Overall rating:

[Trollheart]

So we're back with Lucem, who becomes the first person other than me to have a second playlist here. What's in it this time? Glad you asked.


Wifisfuneral - Hills

Genre: Pop rap/Southern Hip-hop
Source: 3rd album Pain?
Year: 2020
Nationality: American
Comments: Another from the man who wants to kill all our wireless communications it would seem. It's decent, but really, I don't see it as being anything special. Maybe it's just me.
Rating:


Pissgrave - Suicide Euphoria

Genre: Death Metal/Deathgrind/War Metal
Source: 2nd album Suicide Euphoria
Year: 2015
Nationality: American
Comments: A bit chaotic (guess the clue is in the genre title - deathgrind?) and not really something I'd listen to. Couldn't make anything out at all, though the guitars were good. Not enough to make me listen again though.
Rating:


Ouija Macc - Juggalord (FREESTYLE)

Genre: Trap
Source: 8th Mixtape Pretty Ugly 2
Year: 2021
Nationality: American
Comments: This honestly I find boring. Too slow and way too much lazy use of the b-word. Meh.
Rating:


Rivers Of Nihil - Perpetual Growth Machine

Genre: Technical Death Metal/Progressive Metal
Source: 2nd album Monarchy
Year: 2015
Nationality: American
Comments: I wonder which side this falls more over on? Oh I see: the first part. Well I kind of expected that. Never quite see the progressive tag being used with death metal myself, but there you go. Well I think I can kind of hear it now, but it's a bit of a mess to me.
Rating:


Dark Lotus - Garden of Evil

Genre: Horrorcore
Source: 5th album The Mud, Water, Air and Blood
Year: 2014
Nationality: American
Comments: I guess you have to laugh and join in the joke on horrorcore, cos surely you're not meant to take it seriously are you? For what they do, these guys do it pretty well. I like the chorus/chant thing. It's fun, is what it is.
Rating:


Psyclon Nine - Widowmaker

Genre: Aggrotech/Industrial Metal
Source: 3rd album We the Fallen
Year: 2009
Nationality: American
Comments: Okay now I know what aggrotech is, I kind of know what to expect this time around. Um, no I don't. This is more like what I expected originally, and it's loud, mad fast, screeching vocal, completely unintelligible, and not at all for me.
Rating:


Kxng Crooked - GiveUDatHammer

Genre: Hardcore Hip-hop/West Coast Hip-hop/Political Hip-hop/Gangsta Rap
Source: 6th album Good vs Evil II: The Red Empire
Year: 2017
Nationality: American
Comments: Oh yeah I really like this. It's a bit repetitive, but the energy in it and the backing track, so cool.
Rating:


Suicide Commando - Pleasure

Genre: Electro-Industrial/Industrial/Minimal Synth/EBM
Source: 2nd album This is Hate
Year: 1989
Nationality: Belgian
Comments: Yeah this is not for me. Just a repetitive sound like of a machine or something. Meh.
Rating:


Alla Xul Elu - Skin

Genre: Horrorcore/Boom Bap (?)
Source: 3rd album The Almighty
Year: 2018
Nationality: American
Comments: Thought it might be boom rap, maybe I read it wrong, but no, boom bap. What in the name of blue jumping fuck is that? The echoey backing track is pretty sweet, and it's a pretty angry and forceful track, but hey, it's good. Almost sounds... familiar? Sure I never heard it before but it does sound like something else I heard.
Rating:


Army of the Pharaohs - Hollow Points

Genre: East Coast Hip-hop/Hardcore Hip-hop/Boom Bap (there it is again!)
Source: 3rd album The Unholy Terror
Year: 2018
Nationality: American
Comments: The spoken bit at the start is a bit much, very bigging himself up, but I guess that's how it goes in this genre. Keyboard line is very progressive rock - wonder if it's sampled from something like ELP or Yes? I think "I" must be the most-used word in a lot of hip-hop lyrics. It's got a nice dramatic, epic feel about it which I have to admit wears me down and I kind of like this, for what it is. Still have no idea what boom bap is, other than a rather surprising explosion of a breakfast roll!
Rating:

I think I liked your first playlist better. Ironically, it's the metal tracks here that put me off mostly. Oh well.

Overall rating:

[Trollheart]

Which will bring us back to d'oh! Me again. Oh yes; I'm like that bad smell that just won't go, no matter how many times you clean the carpet! The one percent of germs Domestos can't kill, the bit of toothpaste left behind when you throw out the tube.

Yeah, well, let's just, uh, move on shall we?



Guardian of the Sea - Shadowkeep

Genre: Progressive Metal/Speed Metal/Power Metal (covering a lot of bases here, guys!)
Source: 4th self-titled album
Year: 2018
Nationality: English
Comments: Fairly bog-standard band who think they're a whole lot better than they are. Generic and uninteresting with no real identity. Could be anyone.
Rating:


Anthem for No State - Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Genre: Post-Rock
Source: 7th album Luciferian Towers
Year: 2017
Nationality: Canadian
Comments: After the ridiculous posturing of Shadowkeep it's good to hear a band who just know they're good and don't make a big deal about it. I do like my post-rock, and there are few who do it as well as GY!BE. This is a long piece - over fourteen minutes - and as you might expect, goes through some changes as it goes along, gaining power and anger and intensity as it builds.
Rating:


Abundance - Legenda Aurea

Genre: Symphonic Metal/Power Metal
Source: 3rd album Aeon
Year: 2016
Nationality: Swiss
Comments: Symphonic metal and power metal can both be very up themselves, taking themselves way too seriously, and really, in most cases this isn't justified, as most of the bands in both genres can be seen as interchangeable. I love power metal, but even I can admit that most of it sounds the same, and honestly, if I hear one more symphonic metal band copying the standard female operatic voice/male harsh voice model I think I'll just end up listening to a Wham! album! So I don't really expect too much from any symphonic metal band, be they Nightwish, Within Temptation or any other. There's little in the way of originality in either genres, and it's just something you accept if you listen to them. So yeah, this is nothing different.
Rating:


The Shadows and the Wind - Uriah Heep

Genre: Hard rock/Progressive rock
Source: 7th album Wonderworld
Year: 1974
Nationality: English
Comments: This has much more of a prog rock edge than the previous Heep track I listened to, with moaning organ and a nice build-up melody which turns into a real stomping rock anthem. Just when it seems it's going to end on a cool acapella, the guitars return to add the finishing touch. Still sounds good fifty years later, and that can't be bad.
Rating:


Bring Him Home - Colin Wilkinson

Genre: Show tunes/Easy listening
Source: Compilation album Stage Heroes: Colin Wilkinson
Year: 1997
Nationality: Irish
Comments: If you know the stage musical Les Miserables, or have read the book, you'll recognise this song. If not, it's a powerful appeal from the hero/anti-hero Jean Valjean to save his adopted daughter's lover, even at the expense of his own life. Stirring, emotional and epic. Like the show. Wilkinson, as we say here, gives it socks.
Rating:


I'll Be There - Crystal Project

Genre: AOR
Source: Compilation album No More Waiting
Year: 2011
Nationality: American
Comments: Despite the fact that I know this comes from one of their other albums, the only one I can find on any of my sites - including Heavy Harmonies, which specialises in AOR - is this one, so it will have to do, a kind of retrospective, it seems. Their original albums are now lost in the mists of time, and nobody seems to care about them. Which is a pity, as it's a decent song as far as AOR goes. Of course, this is another genre in which you don't expect too many surprises or too much experimenting with the formula, but it's good for what it is.
Rating:


Shiva - Holocaust

Genre: NWOBHM/Heavy Metal
Source: 7th album Predator
Year: 2015
Nationality: English
Comments: Weirdly, I spent AGES looking for this album, under the misapprehension that it was called "Holocaust" and was by a band called Shiva, of which there exist a few, even an old NWOBHM one. But it's not: it's the other way round, idiot. Decent song I guess, but it's nothing special.
Rating:


Gates of Fire - Grand Illusion

Genre: AOR
Source: 5th album Prince of Paupers
Year: 2011
Nationality: Swedish
Comments: If you're looking for good AOR, Sweden is the place to be. Yes, the same country that gave us the most extreme of extreme metal, there is a huge sort of AOR factory there, and Grand Illusion are, well, a product of that factory. Look, as I said, it's AOR. Don't expect much you haven't heard before, but if you know what you like (in or out of your wardrobe) and that's good AOR, you'll probably like this. I do. Could have sworn that was a female singing, but no, it's a bloke. Colour me surprised.
Rating:


Bright Lights, Big City - Jimmy Reed

Genre: Blues
Source: The Blues Collection Vol 11
Year: ?
Nationality: American
Comments: I must say I don't know Jimmy Reed, but then I'm not all that well versed on the blues. I know the greats - Howlin' Wolf, BB, Son House, Albert King and so forth - but this guy I've never heard of. The song I have though, and it's a blues classic. Maybe I just didn't realise who was singing it.
Rating:


Who Was It - Gilbert O'Sullivan

Genre: Pop/Adult contemporary/Easy listening
Source: 3rd compilation album The Berry Vest of Gilbert O'Sullivan
Year: 2004
Nationality: Irish
Comments: I mentioned before that Gilbert has written some classic songs. Again, this is not one of those. I've been desperately trying to get the fucking thing out of my head for weeks, and now it's back. Thanks a lot Trollheart you prick. It's just insipid and lovey-dovey and owes rather a lot to one of his big hits, "Clair". I bloody hate it.
Rating:

A little more AOR and metal in this playlist, though as we all know that's just the roll of the dice you throw when you hit shuffle. A better overall score, or a worse? Let's see.

Overall rating:

[Trollheart]

First playlist from

Who thoughtfully added in the albums afterwards. Thanks for that man. Others have done this too and it's appreciated; makes my work a little easier.



Alice Cooper - "The Awakening"

Genre: Glam rock/Shock rock
Source: 8th album Welcome to My Nightmare
Year: 1975
Nationality: American
Comments: I always consider one of my biggest shocks (as such) seeing Alice on a golf course selling insurance in a TV ad. The man who scandalised a generation and delighted a younger one, the guy who so flouted convention that he took a female name and chopped dolls up onstage? Oh, how the mighty had fallen! Luckily, this shows him at the height of his fame, popularity and his most mad, when even Ozzy might have been saying "Come on man, that's a bit much!" Unfortunately the track you've chosen here (or that shuffle has presented you with, I should say) is some sort of intro, driven on piano and with none of the violence or power we associate with Alice, but hey, at least he's not teeing off!
Rating:


Hatfield and the North - "(Big) John Wayne Socks Psychology on the Jaw"

Genre: Canterbury Scene/Jazz-funk
Source: 2nd album  The Rotter's Club
Year: 1975
Nationality: English
Comments: And this is precisely forty seconds long. I can't make a judgement on such a snippet. I'm not a fan of the Canterbury Scene, but what I hear in this little extract is ... okay.
Rating:


The Megaphonic Thrift - "Den evige heten"

Genre: Dream Pop/Indie Pop
Source: 4th album Få meg til verden i tide
Year: 2016
Nationality: Norwegian
Comments: This however is a full eleven minutes long, so at least I can get a better idea of what it's like. Can't say I'm overly impressed when it starts, but there's a long way to go so we'll see.  Seems to be an instrumental anyway, kind of hypnotic in a way, almost a fast drone, but not really something I'd be interested in. Good for what it is, I guess.
Rating:


Chelsea Wolfe - "Eyes Like Nightshade"

Genre: Darkwave/Post-Industrial/Trip Hop/Industrial Rock
Source: 13th album She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She
Year: 2024
Nationality: American
Comments: Thought I had heard her before but I think that was Julia Wolfe? Any relation? Not sure. No, checked and they're not related. I can see why the tag Industrial is used: very cold, clinical, sterile but then that's juxtaposed by Chelsea's voice, which is sultry and alluring. An interesting mix, to be sure. Pretty good to be fair.
Rating:


The Moody Blues - "Evening"

Genre: Baroque Pop/Progressive Rock/Art Rock/Symphonic Prog
Source: 3rd album  Days of Future Passed
Year: 1967
Nationality: English
Comments: I know this one, as I reviewed the album for my History of Prog journal. An interesting one, based around the passage of one day, and the first on which they used a full orchestra. Definitely sounds like it's from a 50s movie or something when it begins, then takes on a kind of tribal chant. Oh yeah I remember now: I didn't like this when I listened to the album. Still don't.
Rating:


The Fabulous Wailers - "Shivers"

Genre: Garage Rock/Frat Rock
Source: 1st live album The Fabulous Wailers at the Castle (feat. Rockin' Robin & Gail Harris)
Year: 1962
Nationality: American
Comments: Thought this might have been something to do with Bob Marley, but no, not a rasta in sight. Could have guessed that from the genre I suppose. Basically another instrumental, mostly on guitar and organ. Meh.
Rating:


Jefferson Airplane - "Today"

Genre: Psychedelic Rock/Acid Rock/Folk Rock/Psychedelic Pop
Source: 2nd album  Surrealistic Pillow
Year: 1967
Nationality: American
Comments: A band who went through successive changes throughout their career, beginning as (The) Jefferson Airplane, updating themselves in the mid-70s to Jefferson Starship and finally dropping the Jefferson entirely to end up as Starship. This is a fairly hippy-style 60s deal, an acoustic ballad. Doesn't do much for me, I'm afraid.
Rating:


Jefferson Airplane - "Comin' Back to Me" –

Genre: Psychedelic Rock/Acid Rock/Folk Rock/Psychedelic Pop
Source: 2nd album Surrealistic Pillow
Year: 1967
Nationality: American
Comments: Another from the same band, another from the same album? It's happened to me with so-called Shuffle, and it seems I'm not the only one. This one sounds as laid-back and acoustic as the other track - maybe all the album is like that? Well I like this one a lot more.
Rating:


M83 - "Don't Save Us From the Flames"

Genre: Dream Pop/Electronic/Synth Pop/Shoegaze/Ambient Pop
Source: 3rd album Before the Dawn Heals Us
Year: 2005
Nationality: French
Comments: I liked M83 when I heard their music on the TV series Versailles. Good energy in this song, very uptempo and rocky. Like it.
Rating:


Refused - "Summerholidays vs. Punkroutine"

Genre: Art Punk/Metalcore/Post-Hardcore/Alternative Metal
Source: 3rd album The Shape of Punk to Come
Year: 1998
Nationality: Swedish
Comments: Ah, two of my least favourite genres together, with a slice of punk thrown in. How could I not love this? Well, I don't. I mean, it's not terrible, but kind of like listening to The Jam and The Clash trying to out-punk each other, or something. Typical post-hardcore vocal, melody is very barebones. Nah, you're all right mate, I'll pass.
Rating:

Well that wasn't very successful was it? Still, I has to call them as I sees them, you know?

Overall rating:

[Trollheart]

This is the last time, I promise!*

*(Promises from Trollheart aren't worth the paper they're not written on)


To Get Back to You - Nelson

Genre: AOR/Hard Rock
Source: 6th album Lightning Strikes Twice
Year: 2010
Nationality: American
Comments: Ah I do like my ballads, don't I? And AOR does them better than most. Interesting use of flute (probably synthesised) gives this something different.
Rating:


The Graves We've Dug - Harakiri for the Sky

Genre: Melodic Black Metal/Blackgaze/Post-Rock/Post-Metal/Atmospheric Black Metal
Source: 4th album Arson
Year: 2018
Nationality: Austrian
Comments: Grindy turned me on to these guys a while back. I didn't even know there was such a thing as blackgaze (shoegaze in black metal) but now that I do know, I sure do like it. This is a great piece of that sort of music. You really have to listen to be able to understand. The Matrix of black metal? Maybe. Take the blue pill. Or is it the red one? Well, whichever doesn't return you to the life you know and you carry on, take that one.
Rating:


Crawling Chaos - Axemaster (chortle)

Genre: Heavy Metal
Source: 4th album Crawling Chaos
Year: 2017
Nationality: American
Comments: Chortle is right. Another band who think they're so hard, but really don't have enough going for them. Axemaster? Really? Oh dear: gives heavy metal a bad name.
Rating:


Hijos del Odio - Tierra Santa

Genre: Heavy Metal/Power Metal
Source: Debut album Medieval
Year: 1997
Nationality: Spanish
Comments: I've called them the Spanish Iron Maiden before, and I think it's an appropriate description, though that's not to say they copy or rip Bruce and the boys off. They do have a very similar sound though and it's clear they've been influenced by the biggest metal band on the planet, but then, who hasn't? This is a good rip-roaring rocker from them, but you can't help but be reminded of classic Maiden.
Rating:


First Light - The Amnis Initiative

Genre: New Age/Neoclassical/Ambient
Source: 2nd album Relaxation Music: The Full Series
Year: 2013
Nationality: Dutch
Comments: Boring as a three-hour party political broadcast, and just as empty. Probably good to fall asleep to; about the only thing you can say about it really.
Rating:


Little Bird (Utah Saints Version) - Annie Lennox 

Genre: Synthpop
Source: 3rd EP Little Bird
Year: 1992
Nationality: Scottish
Comments: A good rocky track with a fair bit of soul in it, but as I said before, I prefer the B-side. Which in my view should have been the A-side.
Rating:


London Kid - Jean-Michel Jarre

Genre: Progressive Electronic
Source: 2nd compilation album Images
Year: 1991
Nationality: French
Comments: Not one of his Jarreness's better tracks. Very pedestrian and boring, not the sort of thing I usually associate with the man who changed the way we think about synthesisers.
Rating:


Dream Baby Dream - Bruce Springsteen

Genre: Heartland Rock/Singer-Songwriter
Source: 18th album High Hopes
Year: 2014
Nationality: American
Comments: I've written at length already about how boring this is. Now I know it's a cover, I don't feel so bad. Still shite though.
Rating:

The London Boys - David Bowie

Genre: Psychedelic Pop
Source: ?th compilation album London Boy
Year: 1998
Nationality: English
Comments: An early example of the Thin White Duke at his most cockney. Interesting in a historical sense, though really not much more than that.
Rating:


Hurricane - Y&T

Genre: Hard Rock/Heavy Metal
Source: 3rd album Earthshaker
Year: 1981
Nationality: American
Comments: Powerful rocker that reminds me of when I had hair and could headbang. Not my favourite band, but they had a few good tracks. This is one of them.
Rating:

Some pretty poor tracks in there, damn you shuffle play! It's frustrating, when you have so much good stuff that the crap keeps coming up. What was that about cream rising to the top? Not 'ere, mate!

Overall rating:

[Trollheart]

Only five tracks submitted by

But then we can assume she values quality over quantity. Also very well and artistically laid out, with handy links to videos and removing the need for me to find images, as she has thoughtfully included them. Thanks Steph! Let's hope I can do this list justice.


torres - good scare [silver tongue (2020)]
Genre: Indie Rock/Art Pop/Indietronica
Source: 4th album Silver Tongue
Year: 2020
Nationality: American
Comments: What did I say about genres ending in -tronica? Starts quite sparse, drumbeat sounds like someone banging on railings or something. Her vocal is nice, quite wistful and haunting, sot of in the vein of Hazel from Lanterns on the Lake or the Deheza sisters from School of Seven Bells. Nice.
Rating:



key glock - word on the street [yellow tape (2020)]
Genre: Trap/Southern Hip-hop/Gangsta Rap/Memphis Rap
Source: 6th Mixtape Yellow Tape
Year: 2020
Nationality: American
Comments: Like the horns here, kind of reminds me a little of some of the early Waits songs. The beat is nice and the rap is slow (duh: it's trap, Trollheart you dummy!) and easy to understand, which helps. He has a good voice too, though I will say that as the trumpet or cornet or whatever it is goes on it becomes quite monotonous, playing the same few notes. Could have done with a bit of variety. Not bad though.
Rating:



mavi - love, of money [let the sun talk (2019)]
Genre: Abstract Hip-hop/Jazz Rap/East Coast Hip-hop/Conscious Hip-hop/Drumless
Source: Debut album Let the Sun Talk
Year: 2019
Nationality: American
Comments: This is very short, which is just as well because I hate it. The guitar seems all over the place, the rap is kind of muttered and what I might call sulky, hard to make anything out. Yeah not for me at all.
Rating:


https://youtu.be/UULrmCBzeWc?si=dfBcJvOUsfaYiJz6"]
big thief - masterpiece [masterpiece (2015)]
Genre: Indie Rock/Indie Folk/Americana/Folk Rock
Source: Debut album Masterpiece
Year: 2015
Nationality: American
Comments: I can hear a kind of semi-country influence here, good harmony vocals but perhaps the guitar is a little too front and centre in the mix? Or maybe it's the production? It's not bad, but I wouldn't be rushing to hear more honestly.
Rating:

https://youtu.be/Wlykn_KSQ3o?si=dYizAJj1cv6KuSwV"]
drugdealer - honey feat. weyes blood [raw honey (2019)
Genre: Psychedelic Pop/Pop Rock/Soft Rock/Baroque Pop
Source: Second album Raw Honey
Year: 2019
Nationality: American
Comments: I really like the singer's voice, very relaxing to listen to. The melody is nice too; kind of has a seventies feel to it. Oh yeah I really like this one. Finally, says you! 
Rating:

Not an ideal result, but hey, for five tracks not a really bad set of scores. Also, once again, appreciation for the layout and the links, for which I think it's only fair I add one extra half star.

Overall rating:

[Saulaac]

Great reviews, Trolls

I don't know how you get through them all. You stretched yourself there didn't you with the modern stuff.

OR maybe you didn't, you Jazz and Trap loving swine.

Those tunes you couldn't review earlier are below:
Composer: George Russell
Album: Vertical Form VI
Track: Event IV
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz9j-hhqUhs

MOWGLI - Cénac - Jazz 360 - 8 Juin 2019
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYhZSl-pQEU

[Trollheart]

Looks like an interesting and eclectic one from

Let's see what it's like.

Premiata Forneria Marconi - Dolcissima Maria

Genre: Symphonic Prog/Progressive Rock/Jazz-Rock
Source: 4th album L'isola di niente
Year: 1974
Nationality: Italian
Comments: I know PFM from both my explorations of the history of prog and also the special I wrote on RPI (Rock Progresivo Italiano) so this should be somewhere within my wheelhouse I hope. Yeah pretty cool. A nice little acoustic ballad, very pastoral with flute and organ. A good start certainly.
Rating:


Avery R. Young - Tchala

Genre: Funk/Soul/Gospel
Source: Debut album Tubman
Year: 2019
Nationality: American
Comments: Sounds a bit salsa to me, with a healthy dose of funk and some gospel backing. I think I prefer my gospel pure, as it were. A little too much going on here, which is not to say it's not good, but it's only good when it could have been great.
Rating:


Klaus Schulze - Für Konrad Bayer

Genre: Berlin School (?)
Source: 14th compilation album La vie electronique  4
Year: 2009
Nationality: German
Comments: Berlin School? No, I'm going to say it. I am. Just watch me. Sounds like where Hitler went to take lessons. I assume it's some sort of German music genre, and again I assume it has to do with electronic music, as per the album title. This is a long one, almost ten minutes, and no, I have no idea who Konrad Bayer is. The music seems a bit drone-ish with a keyboard motif recurring through it like something out of The Twilight Zone. I guess it's okay but if it goes on like this for ten minutes it's going to get very boring. Yeah, it more or less did.
Rating:


Earl Sixteen - Hot Sun

Genre: Reggae/Roots Reggae
Source: 22nd album Natty Farming
Year: 2014
Nationality: Jamaican
Comments: Is there such a thing as a sad reggae song? I mean, it's not my genre of choice, of course, but they always seem to be happy, upbeat tunes. As is this. Can't complain really.
Rating:


Ibeyi - Sangoma

Genre: Alternative R&B/Art Pop/Yoruba Music (?)
Source: 3rd album Spell 31
Year: 2022
Nationality: French
Comments: Yoruba? Yor kiddin' me, right? Sorry. I have no idea what this is as a genre, or even whether this song fits into that genre or not. No, I imagine this would be more the alternative R&B side of things. Two female vocalists, it seems, very nice. Pleasant with a sort of echoing, slow booming percussion.
Rating:


Franco Battiato - Il Mito Dell'amore

Genre: Canzone d'autore (?)/Art Pop/Sophisti-pop/Synthpop/Singer-Songwriter
Source: 18th album Fisiognomica
Year: 1998
Nationality: Italian
Comments: I have no idea what canzone d'autore means, but I wonder if it has something to do with contemporary singing or something? Hell I know less Italian than I do Irish, so could be anything. Yeah, sounds like the Italian version of Julio Iglesias or something. Pleasant enough I will say. A ballad, good voice with a nice piano line and some orchestral backing. Good solos from both the guitar and the organ.  Bellissimo!
Rating:


Koala - Indian Spirit

Genre: Trance
Source: Single Indian Spirits
Year: 1998
Nationality: Unknown
Comments: This one was incredibly hard to track down, so much so that I don't even know if it's the right one. You wouldn't think there were that many artists named Koala, but there are. This uses the plural of the title whereas it's posted as singular, but I have to assume this is the one referred to. It's trance, so expect buzzing, bouncing synths and thumping drumbeats and bass. And that's what you get. Probably great to dance or get off your face to, and to be fair, really it's pretty catchy. Not a fan of trance, not at all, but this ain't bad.
Rating:


Eiliff - Bird-Night of the 7th Day

Genre: Jazz-Rock/Progressive Rock/Krautrock
Source: Debut self-titled album
Year: 1972
Nationality: German
Comments: I have something of an uneasy relationship with Krautrock too (can you even call it that these days? Guess you can) but this sounds fairly cool. Thought it was going to be an instrumental but then that bit faded out and the vocals came in, and it's a bit more punchy with the organ rising (yes, yes, ooer I know) and jazzy brass a la Van der Graaf Generator. Then it seems to begin a third time with a guitar line leading things. Well, it is Krautrock: expect weirdness. Though as that genre goes, this is relatively mild compared to other compositions I've heard.
Rating:

Moonshine - Garden of Men

Genre: Psychedelic Rock
Source: Single "Susannah" (B-side)
Year: 1969
Nationality: English
Comments: Sounds like something off Genesis's first album maybe, with a very seventies (yes I know) organ, maybe elements of early Moody Blues? Guess it's a ballad and really not too bad.
Rating:


V4w.Enko - 221 (Part 2)

Genre: IDM/Glitch
Source: 6th album Synthetic Explosion
Year: 2012
Nationality: Ukrainian
Comments: I must admit, glitch is a genre I hate. Sets my teeth on edge with all this, this, well all I can say is that it's like dropouts on old cassette tapes, if that makes sense to anyone. Or like listening with partial hearing, like when there's wax in your ears or something. Kind of an industrial drone with beeps and scratches and blips; seven minutes is way too long, and so basically no, don't like this at all.
Rating:

Well I said it looked eclectic, and that's surely what it is. Not a lot I'd be particularly interested in, but I guess interesting as a playlist.

Overall rating:

[Trollheart]

Great reviews, Trolls

I don't know how you get through them all. You stretched yourself there didn't you with the modern stuff.

OR maybe you didn't, you Jazz and Trap loving swine.

Those tunes you couldn't review earlier are below:
Composer: George Russell
Album: Vertical Form VI
Track: Event IV
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz9j-hhqUhs

MOWGLI - Cénac - Jazz 360 - 8 Juin 2019
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYhZSl-pQEU

Cool. I'll try to make time to listen to them and add to your review.

[Trollheart]

joins the ranks of those who have more than one playlist, even if he couldn't remember the names of the last two tracks!


Tamikrest - Addektegh

Genre: Tishoumaren (?)/Blues Rock
Source: 3rd album Toumastin
Year: 2011
Nationality: Malian
Comments: Very nice acoustic laid back tune, two guitars I think. Very pleasant.
Rating:


The Byrds - Eight Miles High live

Genre: FolkRock/Country Rock/Psychedelic Rock/Jam Tart sorry Band
Source: 3rd live album Live at the Albert Hall
Year: 1971
Nationality: American
Comments: The flying ones have several live albums, but one has this only as part of a medley and this one has a bloody eighteen-minute version, which I assume qualifies as a jam in anyone's book. So this must be the one. Well I know the song, but how they stretched it out to almost twenty minutes will be interesting to hear. Maybe. Or perhaps I'll go looking for my shotgun. Well it seems they jam for almost 15 minutes before they start the song. That's some jam alright.
Rating:


Joe Strummer - Arms Aloft

Genre: Alt-Rock/Contemporary Folk/Reggae/Dub/Reggae Rock
Source: 5th album Streetcore (3rd with The Mescaleros)
Year: 2003
Nationality: English
Comments: Not quite as aggressive and in your face as his work with the Clash, but Strummer shows he still has it, even if this a kind of B.A.D. rather than a C.L.A.S.H. Should he stay or should he go? Stay please, Joe.
Rating:


Xera - Lliendes

Genre: Celtic electronica/Asturian Folk Music
Source: Debut album Lliendes
Year: 2006
Nationality: Spanish
Comments: Asturian I assume is to do with a province or area of Spain, though what that has to do with Celts I don't know. I certainly hear Celtic influence in it (uileann pipes?) with a low chant behind it and some fine keyboard work. Not at all as folky as I had expected now to be honest. Really gets going then with some frenetic fiddle and thumping percussion. I do like this.
Rating:


Hamza el Din - Grandfather's Stories

Genre: Nubian Music/Arab Classical Music
Source: 2nd album Al Oud
Year: 1965
Nationality: Egyptian
Comments: Arab classical music, you say? Interesting. A long one this, over eleven minutes, and seems to be almost monotone, one instrument (one I can hear anyway) being plucked away at. Perhaps the album title is a clue: is this a solo Oud performance? I will say it sounds a little one-dimensional and boring to these ears. Look, I often struggle with solo instrumental guitar albums (thanks a lot, Neal Schon!) so this is not exactly blowing my mind. I guess you have to admire the guy's skills, but it's just too long drawn-out for me.
Rating:


World's End Girlfriend - 100 years of Choke

Genre: Post-Rock/Modern Classical
Source: 7th album Hurtbreak Wonderland
Year: 2007
Nationality: Japanese
Comments: I don't know if it was your intention, but even forcing me to drop two tracks as you don't remember what they were, you're still giving me double-digit reviews to do here. That bloody "Weekender" has a 15-minute version, so don't expect me to listen to that,  as this is 13 and I've already done 18 minutes with the Byrds, to say nothing of our extended Egyptian friend! At any rate, this seems nice, with a sort of picked acoustic guitar against what I can only describe as a muted roar of a synth maybe, and now some lovely cello or violin. Is that girl being sexually molested by tigers, or is that just what I'm seeing in a perfectly innocent album cover, and if so, what does that say about me? This tune is really nice. Think there might be some goddamn glitch in there from time to time, but it's not ruining it for me. Okay it is a little annoying. Very interesting how the percussion gets progressively faster and more frenetic while the music stays at its slow, laid back speed, and somehow it works. Oh but it has a weird, abrupt ending. What a pity. I was enjoying that.
Rating:


Flowered Up - Weekender

Genre: Baggy/Alternative Dance/Dance-Rock/Progressive Rock/Neo-psychedelia/Krautrock/Jazz-Rock
Source: 4th single Weekender
Year: 1992
Nationality: English
Comments: That's a whole lot of genre tags for one single! Sounds to me fairly basic though, maybe something like Metal Tulips or Sad Tuesdays or something? How the fuck would I know? Not bad though. Can't see how all those genres apply.
Rating:

Can't do the last two obviously, but honestly there's more music in your eight than there is in some people's ten!

Overall rating:

[Lisnaholic]

Ok then it's time to see what

is lisna-ing to...

... not only the only one other than me to get a five-star rating, but the only one to get two. Sadly, the flip side of that is that most of your other songs got much lower ratings, but as the ancient Romans would say, sic biscuitus disintegratis.

Overall rating:

"sic biscuitus..." That's a good one, Trollheart.
Thanks very much for reviewing my playlist and filling out the details of albums, dates, images: I appreciate the effort you are putting in to make everybody's playlist more approachable and attractive.

I read your reviews of my playlist with great interest, only occasionally slamming my fist on the table in outrage !   Actually, I agreed with your comments about two of the lowest scoring tracks (by Kolinda and Juana Molina): I played them again thanks to your links, and wondered to myself, "Why did I think this was so good a couple of weeks ago? Sounds pretty flat to me now." And I really liked your comment about the placement of the flute when the Kolinda musicians were done  

I was really pleased that you gave 5 stars to Roy Buchanan! He's easily my fave blues guitarist: he really gets to your heart and does far more instrumentals than most elec blues guitarists, afaik. I saw him once in London, on a stage that was suitably bleak: no props, everything seemed to be painted black, and he was carrying the whole show: song after song of exciting, heart-wrenching blues with discrete, almost minimal support from his small backing band.

If you and I were in a Dublin bar we might come to blows, though, over your review of Chaos by The Church: you didn't even mention the thing I like best about this song: the rambling story of some semi-military conflict, (" I felt something warm enter my guts/I was bleeding bad but there were no cuts" ) which ends up with the lyricist hitting on a simple formula, using "equals", and then adding equation after equation, like a mantra which gets progressively more nonsensical or more profound: I'm so hypnotised, I don't care:

Spoiler

...a message from my enemies, and here's what they said
They said that love = hate
And death = fate
An enemy always = an adorer
But priest = aura
And life = time
And time = space
And space = sublime
And human = race
Oh and woman = man
And pot = pan
The fauna ought to equal the flora
But priest = aura
And beginning = the end
The end always = the start
But straight = bent
The mind sometimes = the heart
And you = me
The land = the sea
Richer = poorer
And priest = aura

[close]

[Trollheart]

Hey you're welcome Lisna. One of my old bosses used that "ancient Roman phrase", and it just stuck with me. It's probably not correct Latin, like the way doomicus metallicus is not real (there's a word for what they do there, I just can't think of it) but I thought it fit here. As far as The Church are concerned, I was probably just concentrating too much on hating the song to listen to the lyric, even I could even make it out. Just did not like that. Your second playlist chimed with me a lot more, as you can see, so there is hope.

[Trollheart]

Time for our second helping from

So will it be "Hang the DJ" or "Rock DJ"? Let's see.


Taylor Swift - Anti Hero

Genre: Singer-songwriter/Synthpop/Chillwave
Source: 12th album Midnights
Year: 2022
Nationality: American
Comments: I know this, as I came across it during my charts through the decades thread (soon to be resurrected, maybe) and it struck me as unusually insightful and a real attempt to get at the roots of depression and having to live up to a particular standard. It's also a very good song, and for a very short while changed my mind about Swift. Then I listened to the rest of the album. This is great though. A very good start.
Rating:


Flyana Boss Feat. Missy Elliot & Kaliii - You Wish

Genre: Trap/Pop rap/West Coast Hip-hop
Source: 4th EP Make it a Double
Year: 2023
Nationality: American
Comments: Not mad about this one though. Sort of reminds me of the little I've heard from Nikki Minaj, though I probably don't know what I'm talking about. To paraphrase Midge Ure, this does nothing for me.
Rating:


That Mexican OT & DaBaby - Point Em Out

Genre: Trap/Southern Hip-hop
Source: 3rd album Texas Technician
Year: 2024
Nationality: American
Comments: One of those dramatic backdrop style tracks. It's okay but I wouldn't be mad about it. Good for what it is.
Rating:


Martin Jensen - Solo Dance

Genre: Tropical House/Dance-pop/Future House
Source: 5th single "Solo Dance"
Year: 2016
Nationality: Danish
Comments: Pleasant little dance tune, has a nice beat and oddly enough, lyrically parallels that old disco classic "Yes Sir I Can Boogie." Not bad.
Rating:


Fridayy - Stand By Me

Genre: Contemporary R&B/Pop rap/Afrobeats
Source: Debut self-titled album
Year: 2023
Nationality: American
Comments: This is good, a slow ballad with a lot of emotion, and a nice sort of chanted chorus.
Rating:


Nobuto Suda - Two

Genre: Ambient/Field Recordings/Drone
Source: 7th album Transistoriness
Year: 2013
Nationality: Japanese
Comments: I would say at the outset I never quite get Field Recordings, and this is a long track, perhaps the longest on either of DJ's playlists - over nine minutes long. But it's also ambient, so we'll see. Hmm. It's also drone, but I've got into that slightly, particularly through the work of Solar Fields. It's kind of hypnotic. Odd how an unchanging melody (or a loop of the same melody) can not get tiresome and boring, but this doesn't.
Rating:

Ciara - Level Up

Genre: Contemporary R&B/Pop rap/Afrobeats/Pop/Dance-pop
Source: 7th album Beauty Marks
Year: 2019
Nationality: American
Comments: A lot of energy here, but honestly it just drives me mad. Does she have to say "Level up" so many damn times? Pass.
Rating:


Bree Runway - Somebody Like You

Genre: Alt-pop/Synthpop/Contemporary R&B/Alternative R&B/Sophisti-pop/Adult Contemporary
Source: 14th Single "Somebody Like You"
Year: 2022
Nationality: English
Comments:  Like this too; a dramatic sort of power ballad. Good song certainly.

Rating:


Gracie Abrams - Risk

Genre: Singer-songwriter/Folk Pop/Alt-pop
Source: 2nd album The Secret of Us
Year: 2024
Nationality: American
Comments: Think she sounds a little like Suzanne Vega. Interesting idea, a female stalker, as it were. Very catchy, like it a lot.
Rating:


Pardison Fontaine - Thee Person

Genre: East Coast Hip-hop/Trap
Source: 19th single "Thee Person"
Year: 2023
Nationality: American
Comments: Yeah this is pretty good. Guy has some issues he needs to air, doesn't he?
Rating:

So let's see how you did on your second time out, DJ. There was only one or two tracks I think that I really didn't like, so the overall rating should be reasonably high.

And it is.

Overall rating: