SV S's Reviews

This isn't the best Oasis album there is - the songs generally run a bit too long, and the sound is not so quintessentially *them* - but it's got some good hooks that you'll be humming after you're done listening.

The best way to enjoy this album is with a spliff and a friend or two, so you can just space out together. The album makes a good, somewhat psychedelic background thoughtscape.
Review Date: 9/5/2009

(This is a review of the original vinyl.) This is an album you will probably either love or hate, being a noise album rather than a music album. It is very much like being dropped onto a planet inhabited only by sentient machines, and has a cinematic quality, giving it more in common with a film like Fantasia than with a standard music album. If you would like to have your imagination sparked by peculiar noises, this might be an album for you. If you're looking for music, look elsewhere (I suggest Oceanic or Blade Runner!).
Review Date: 2/23/2016

This delightful little record has become one of my all-time favourite albums. What Beat Happening lack in sophistication and virtuosity, they more than make up for with charm, attitude, and ear-tickling melodies.

Calvin Johnson's voice is probably one that you will either love or hate, and I love it! A charismatic, rumbly baritone with a lot of sensuality and personality, though he's not always on-key. Though some of the songs are fairly erotic (particularly the title track), most everything on the album somehow maintains a shimmer of elementary school innocence; you can tell the band is truly having fun and being playful and creative.

I often get songs from this album stuck in my head, and I'm never annoyed about it - they always make me happy. This is a very sweet, funny, cute, catchy, and uplifting record. Enjoy. 5 stars.
Review Date: 11/15/2018

I find this album incredibly irritating. If you're a fan of Bjork's "Post", you might enjoy this one, but I cannot get past the unsinging, unplaying, and unbeat of this music. There aren't any real melodies to be detected, or much of anything memorable. I can't recall any of the songs, despite having just listened to them, because there was nothing to latch on to. This music unfortunately reminds me of a slightly more competent Shaggs.
Review Date: 11/15/2018

This is some absolutely stunning cello music, fleshed out with double bass, flute, Kora, and some African-style percussion. Sophisticated and filled with emotion, each of these pieces could easily be the centrepiece of an Oscar-winning film soundtrack. These pieces paint images in the mind, telling stories that are just hinted at by the titles ("African Path", "Island of Cold", "Departure"). Many of the songs are melancholic or meditative, as suggested by the album title, but reach heights of expressiveness that prevent them from being lethargic or depressive. Highly recommended!
Review Date: 3/9/2016

A truly magical album, from beginning to end. Some keywords to describe it: optimistic, romantic, theatrial, playful, childlike, fairy tale.

If you're ever feeling down, put this album on and chances are you'll feel better. Patrick Wolf is a wise old soul in a young body and he has some beautiful messages to offer (Accident and Emergency), dressed up in the most gorgeous costumes (Magpie), and liberally sprinkled with stardust (Enchanted).

His melodic skills are top-notch, as exemplified by the irresistibly singable title track, Bluebells, and Augustine. Let Patrick take you on a journey through the enchanted forest of his imagination and you won't forget it.

Five stars.
Review Date: 3/20/2017

This album has a specific sort of mood, and if you're a fan of that mood, you'll probably love this. I found it too unsettling to fully enjoy (which says something about the power of the music!).

The mood: ominous, eerie, melancholy, morbid, fateful, desolate, dark.

Beautifully made, just not my style.
Review Date: 1/23/2019

The music of Zimbabwe played on marimba by an American band, and in the original Shona tongue! A fun and uplifting album. Lots of layered parts flowing together, rather like the the ocean.
Review Date: 6/25/2018

Sally Can Wait
The Network Interview Series: Conversations
1997

What is in this package:

-2 discs of interviews with about 82 minutes of content. This includes actual Oasis members speaking, mostly the Gallaghers. Includes audio from TV and radio interviews, and Wibbling Rivalry.
-1 booklet with a band bio and discography of singles and albums up to Morning Glory.
-a list of 15 bits of Oasis trivia
-a few nice photos of the band (plus picture discs)

This is a fun unofficial release about Oasis that will appeal to serious collectors or hardcore fans. No music!
Review Date: 10/18/2015

This album is a hidden classic of psychedelic rock. I still remember the first time I listened to it, and even in my car's noisy interior little sparkles of brilliance shone through, hooking me into listening again.

I've said this in other Verve reviews, but this band's music is incredibly dense, with layer-upon-layer of guitars and vocals creating an ocean-deep wave of sound that is truly overwhelming.

Many albums and songs by other artists don't hold up to the cannabis test, just sounding simplistic, boring, and repetitive, and can really bum a person out, but A Storm In Heaven is just the opposite (and so aptly named!). You might think you know this album inside-out, but when you listen on cannabis it will reveal secrets you've never heard before, like a butterfly on your shoulder whispering the meaning of the universe (Urban Hymns and Forth are also full of crazy, impossible guitar parts that you won't believe really exist until cannabis or another psychedelic reveals them to you - can't recommend it enough).

Even if you don't partake of any magical substances, this album will put you in an altered state all by itself. Ashcroft's lyrics are a poetic, prophetic stream-of-consciousness, delivered beautifully by a powerful voice that was just beginning to bloom here. The vocals dance delicately with the guitars, which are hard to describe, at times thunderous and soaring, other times soft as a drop of water hitting a still pool or a beam of sunlight through a tree's shivering leaves... always thrilling and fresh, as if you've never heard them before. Nick McCabe, the lead guitarist, is truly a genius, easily on par with Jimi Hendrix. Ashcroft gets the credit he deserves, being the more ambitious of the two, but McCabe needs more recognition... his playing is otherworldly. I generally categorise Ashcroft and McCabe with Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, Daltrey and Townshend - dynamic duos who are more powerful when sparking off their creative partner than when they are apart. Salisbury and Jones are no slackers, either - couldn't be with bandmates like theirs!

Pitch-black caverns, supernova explosions, deep ocean forests, shamanic dream worlds, mountainous cloudscapes of sun and wind... find them here. My only complaint with this album is that the songs are not long enough (go watch them live to see their full incandescent glory at this stage in their career: Camden Town Hall 10/23/1992 !!!).

200 stars.
Review Date: 4/28/2016

This album is a hidden classic of psychedelic rock. I still remember the first time I listened to it, and even in my car's noisy interior little sparkles of brilliance shone through, hooking me into listening again.

I've said this in other Verve reviews, but this band's music is incredibly dense, with layer-upon-layer of guitars and vocals creating an ocean-deep wave of sound that is truly overwhelming.

Many albums and songs by other artists don't hold up to the cannabis test, just sounding simplistic, boring, and repetitive, and can really bum a person out, but A Storm In Heaven is just the opposite (and so aptly named!). You might think you know this album inside-out, but when you listen on cannabis it will reveal secrets you've never heard before, like a butterfly on your shoulder whispering the meaning of the universe (Urban Hymns and Forth are also full of crazy, impossible guitar parts that you won't believe really exist until cannabis or another psychedelic reveals them to you - can't recommend it enough).

Even if you don't partake of any magical substances, this album will put you in an altered state all by itself. Ashcroft's lyrics are a poetic, prophetic stream-of-consciousness, delivered beautifully by a powerful voice that was just beginning to bloom here. The vocals dance delicately with the guitars, which are hard to describe, at times thunderous and soaring, other times soft as a drop of water hitting a still pool or a beam of sunlight through a tree's shivering leaves... always thrilling and fresh, as if you've never heard them before. Nick McCabe, the lead guitarist, is truly a genius, easily on par with Jimi Hendrix. Ashcroft gets the credit he deserves, being the more ambitious of the two, but McCabe needs more recognition... his playing is otherworldly. I generally categorise Ashcroft and McCabe with Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, Daltrey and Townshend - dynamic duos who are more powerful when sparking off their creative partner than when they are apart. Salisbury and Jones are no slackers, either - couldn't be with bandmates like theirs!

Pitch-black caverns, supernova explosions, deep ocean forests, shamanic dream worlds, mountainous cloudscapes of sun and wind... find them here. My only complaint with this album is that the songs are not long enough (go watch them live to see their full incandescent glory at this stage in their career: Camden Town Hall 10/23/1992 !!!).

200 stars.

Review Date: 4/28/2016

I'm not really a fan of Firesign Theatre, having picked this up for the Sherlock Holmes reference. It was pretty disappointing as a pastiche, and also as comedy (much too juvenile for me, and lacking coherence). I don't go for jokes about bodily functions, ribald plays on words and phrases, or other 15-year-old boy humour, but if you enjoy those things, this may be for you.

There was not enough silence on this disc to allow the jokes to be effective; the creators simply piled pun after pun on top of each other in an endless stream of noise and irritating voice-acting, with no opportunity to let punchlines sink in before expecting the listener to move on to the next bit. Some of it could have been clever, but the delivery was a good imitation of a raving coke-fiend. Too bad.
Review Date: 5/12/2016

Juvenile and annoying. Like the most irritating free jazz I've ever heard, but with much less coherence and instrumental competence. Might be enjoyable if you want to hear the aural equivalent of a surrealist painting/sculpture. I love visual surrealism, but this makes me want to punch somebody. It sounds like something a group of 17-year-old boys would make if they got hold of a bunch of weed and recording equipment.
Review Date: 9/9/2015

This is a magnificent album, psychedelic/entactogen rock at its best. The key to fully appreciating this music, though, is to listen to the album at least three times before passing judgement; the songs are quite dense and your brain will likely need extra time to parse them. The first time I listened to it, I was underwhelmed, and wondered what people were on about, calling it "great". The second time I listened to it, I thought that I should probably listen once more. The third time I listened to it, I realised I probably had something special in my hands. By the fourth listen, I was hooked; the music had pushed its tendrils into my heart and soul and made itself at home. Once you develop an ear for the Verve you can't turn back!

Key tracks: Bittersweet Symphony, Sonnet, The Drugs Don't Work, Lucky Man (though all the tracks are worthwhile songs - no filler here). McCabe's guitar work is at times soaring, vibrating, shimmering, reflecting, tingling, echoing, rolling... any adjective you can think of that suggests physical sensation or different types of light. Paired with Ashcroft's insightful, cuttingly emotional, and poetic lyrics, you have a gorgeous musical achievement that will be remembered for a very long time.

This is a highly visual, colourful album for me, right up there with Disraeli Gears and In The Court Of The Crimson King in terms of the pictures it puts in my head. It's also one of the few albums that brings me to tears just about every time I listen to it (beware of The Drugs Don't Work and Weeping Willow if you're coming down or in a depressed mood!).

Invest some time and effort in listening to this album and it will reward you many times over. Give it half an ear or a single quick spin, and you'll be missing out on something beautiful!


A Note: Bittersweet Symphony is NOT a cover, as is incorrectly claimed in another review here - the band used a sample from an orchestral version of a Rolling Stones song and got sued by Allen Klein (surprise, surprise!) which is why Jagger/Richards is the credit on the song, despite it clearly being an Ashcroft masterpiece. This was one of the great injustices of music history, without a doubt. There is nothing Stones-like about Bittersweet Symphony.
Review Date: 8/28/2012

Fans of Eno and Vangelis will probably enjoy this album. I certainly did!

This album doesn't generally demand attention, but rewards it richly. The compositions are creative, fresh-sounding, and beautiful. My only complaint is that some of the songs are not long enough ("When Things Dream" should be much longer, in my opinion).

From meditative to almost narrative in a film soundtrack way, these wordless synth soundscapes are the product of a thoughtful, sensitive mind. A very serene, soothing album, though it's not lullaby fodder; it's more energetic than that.

Four and a half stars (you can raise this rating, Mark, by remixing some of these so they're longer! Vapor Drawings 2.0?).
Review Date: 10/18/2015

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