Saint Lucia take it by less than a tenth. Aldous Harding in our bottom 10 for the year. The Smile's "You Will Never Work in Television Again" is a heavily backed TOTW. Justin has just his third š of the year. Sam's first ā¹ļø since July.
Andy
Aldous Harding - A bit too quirky at times but not unlistenable 5.5
Horace Andy - Dub? I just can't see the appeal, it all sounds the same and it's not a good sound. God knows how far I got into other songs on Spotify before I realised Horace was done 2
St Lucia - I quite enjoyed this. Some of it goes a bit bleepy but anything with a touch of yacht rock thrown in amongst the electro pop will do for me 6.5
The Smile - I'm not really a Radiohead fan post OK Computer but from listening to this I guess it wasn't Thom who put me off. Not one I'd listen to over and over but not poor by any means 6.5
TotW - You Will Never Work in Television Again
Jerry Lee Lewis - Decent stuff from the killer but nothing too amazing 6
Sam
Aldous Harding : Kiwi folkā¦ wafty nonsense. 4
Horace Andy : bang average 5
St Lucia : perky , fun , disco tinged pop , this weeks best ! 6.9
The Smile : I love Radiohead but this is god awful plinky plonk oddness : 4
TOTW : very hard to find one ! - Rocket on my feet : St Lucia
Jerry Lee Lewis : odd choice .. Iām sure i would have scored it higher in 1964 but for now i can still feel some of its strength . So 7
Guy
Aldous Harding - slow paced and lacking any umph. At points this sounded like Phoebe from friends (e.g. Leathery Whip) - 5
Horace Andy - Quite enjoyed a bit of dub / reggae. Made a nice change from some of the other genres we listen to more commonly. This man is good at it too. Try Love could be Marley - 6.8
St Lucia - Quality 80s style electro pop. Upbeat and synthtastic. A throwback sound but done very well and an enjoyable listen - 7.5
The Smile : I'm not a Radiohead fan. But this was even worse than that. This one sounded like Ross from Friends in places. As Sam says, just bleeps and nonsense - 4.8
TOTW : Separate World - St Lucia
Jerry Lee Lewis : Wow. Throwback selection going for some classic RnR. But he was rather good at it - 7.4
Simon
Aldous Harding: lacks oomph, as Guy said, and didn't do anything interesting enough to hold my attention. 5.5
Horace Andy: as someone with zero interest in reggae all I can think to say about this is that I didn't hate it. 5.5
St. Lucia: terrible '80s style cheese-fest - I'm embarrassed for them, frankly. 2.5
The Smile: he's not everyone's cup of tea but I thought this was masterful - intricate and intriguing, the best album of the week by a country mile. 8.3
Jerry Lee Lewis: can't fault the performance but it's not really for me. 6
TotW: The Smile - You Will Never Work In Television Again
Jim
Aldous Harding 5
Nice enough sound , at it's best it reminded a little of Kate Bush, but not really my thang and was bored by the end
Horace Andy 7
I liked this. The extra serving of dub on many tracks enhanced the more classic reggae sound. Kept thinking it was going to break into a Leftfield number.
St Lucia 5.5
Some of itās funky, a la sissor sisters, but thereās a fair amount of flacid cheese
Smile 6.5
A mixed bag, starts off OK. Goes a bit too jazzy and off piieste in the 2nd half. Youāll never work in TV.. was a good track
TOTW Horace Andy - Midnight Scorcher
Jerry Lee Lewis 7.5
Whilst it would have been v.cool to be around when he, Elvis and co were kicking the whole R&R thing off I struggle to effectively compare and contrast music from so far back. But it's certainly got balls.
Erol
Aldous Harding - dull and lacking in substance. The title of the first song, āennuiā, sums up how I felt while listening to this. 3
Horace Andy - dub-reggae is not really my thing so I couldnāt get over excited about this. His cover of Massive Attackās āSafe from Harmā is interesting and āTry Loveā is heart-felt but the rest of the album left me a bit underwhelmed. Surprised to see that the Guardian gave this a five star review. 5.9
St Lucia - an enjoyable slice of 80s infused electronica with some chunky synth sounds. A good find. 7.3
Smile - at times, this sounded like a revamped version of King of Limbs. Not Thomās best work and on the first pass, I wasnāt a huge fan but it grew on me on a second spin. Itās often quirky as well as sulky but that was part of its modest appeal. āWe donāt know what tomorrow bringsā is the best track here. 7.3
TOTW - āWe donāt know what tomorrow bringsā by the Smile
Jerry Lee Lewis - an unexpected choice, but as someone who grew up listening to my dadās rock n roll vinyl collection, I quite enjoyed this. Yeah, it sounds dated but it has so much drive. I can imagine how exciting it would have been to hear this for the first time some 60 years ago. 7
Matt
Aldous Harding - on the immemorable side of low key. 4
Horace Andy - afraid I just couldn't get excited about this. Nor bad, just not for me. 5
St Lucia - veered close to 80s pastiche but overall an enjoyable chunk of electronically/funk. 7
The Smile - a mixed bag but some strong tracks. 7
Jerry Lee Lewis - classic revolutionary rock n roll 7.5
TOTW - You will never work in television again, The Smile
Justin
Aldous Harding - low fi with the odd jazz tip on some numbers. Nice. 7
Horace Andy - i like this genre despite not listening to that much. Dub tastic 7.1
St Lucia 80s synths miami vice background music. Love it. 7.2
The Smile - really interesting. Gave it several back to back listens 7.3
Totw The Smile - We don't know what tomorrow brings
Jerry Lee Lewis - rollicking 7.5
Mark
Alduous Harding - odd and unexciting, no idea why this scored so high in Mojo's end of year, I found it boring - 4.5
Horace Andy - wonderful stuff, love all the trippy dub production noises and he's got such a great voice - 8
St Lucia - straight outta the 80s, I was torn between finding it irritating and the kind of thing I'd have secretly loved on Top Of The Pops back in the day - 6.5
Smile - I'm not the world's biggest Radiohead fan, but I got a lot out of this, loads of interesting left turns, clever experimental rock - 7
TOTW - Feverish by Horace Andy
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