Mediocre. A very underwhelming EP with only one decent track; Savages.

A fabulous follow-up to the band's debut. It takes a definitive musical approach rather than a wide range of genres, but is still very varied. The band's social commentary really shines here, and GodForbid's voice helps deliver the lines.

Track wise, they're all great. I prefer the first half of the record, and Viva Discordia is kind of boring, but that's about it. There's some bangers, some relaxed ones, some psychedelic songs, the whole enchilada.

Sadly, not the band's best record. Far livelier than the past two, taking a more modern and pop approach (might explain the name of the album, heh). Still, there are some great songs like Guys are gross and f2f. Not an awful listen whatsoever.

This is just great music. A fantastic debut for such an unorthodox band. It's quirky, jazzy, comedic, clever, banging, and even somber while still tackling interesting song topics and themes. The instruments are heavily varied, the lead vocalist, GodForbid, really adds to the personality of this album, and the background female vocalist just wraps it up all nicely together.

Songs-wise, all are great tracks. Yada Yada is the only one with real faults here, as it gets really repetitive way too ... read more

This is a fascinating LP. I won't argue that it's the most pleasant listen, but there's something about this record that's so gray and ugly, it just fills you with hopelessness. Of course, there are some songs that feel a bit out of place, like "Charlie's Inferno" (Ironically the best track on this record), but still. The melancholic "Party's Dead" is the perfect way to end such a defeating album.

So, XTC's lowest rated album, huh?

I can see it. It's a super lame record, except for the last third, as XTC records tend to get more exciting there, and this is no exception. Jumping In Gomorrah had a really cool keyboard solo, it's my favorite off this record.

I wouldn't call it XTC's worst, since I wasn't bored or anything while listening, but still. The cover is clever, but even then, it's a predictive type of clever, if that makes any sense.

I relistened to this album, and I still stand with everything I said.

This was one of the most chaotic albums I've heard. At some point I just stopped being able to even hear the lyrics cuz of how much was being said. It was a fun experience, and the more somber moments of the album (like Still) felt like really positive additions to the album. However, I will confess that the songs get a little too chaotic for their own good, like in "race is about to begin." I get that that's the ... read more

The only bad thing I can really say about this album is that the sound effects are a bit bogus, but honestly, that's negligible.
Let's talk about what makes this album great for me: This record has some of the highest highs of any album I've ever heard. Track 5 (admittedly drawn out but whatever), brain damage + eclipse, the actual song part of Time, Money-- bro, these pieces of music are peak prog, only second to some KC songs for me. I played these tracks on my car speaker recently and my ... read more

This album is a quiet masterpiece.
Love the production, love the jazz influences, love the stellar piano, all songs are great, and Zanzibar is a classic.
The songs in this album do feel repetitive at times (My life and Stiletto are good examples), but it doesn't take away from the experience all that much. I personally enjoyed this more than the stranger.

The guitar is hypnotic. It really defines this album, both the performance and the sound of the guitar itself.

The first half of this album sounds very similar. The first 2 minutes of Alrighty Aphrodite sound a lot like the first 2 songs, which are similar to themselves as well, for example. There are some differences to where the similar-sounding songs are tolerable, though, like cool guitar solos and the such.

"Not me" really changed the direction of this album though. From this ... read more

I'm not a big fan of hip-hop. I've always been a "sound first, lyrics after" type of person. Lyrics can exemplify the enjoyment I get out of a song, but only if I already like how this hypothetical song sounds.

That being said, I respect the genre, but the sound doesn't appeal to me. Despite this, I decided to give a rap album a listen. I chose this one because... why not? Kendrick is a great rapper, and I've heard humble before and thought it was alright.

So, for this review, I'll ... read more

Jimi's guitar work is admirable here.

However, the production of the album shows its age, the sound is messy, the songs drag (ESPECIALLY the 10min+ ones), and the sound honestly just blends in so much I could hardly tell when I was listening to another song.

I can absolutely see how this album is influential. However, I don't like it all that much.

Coming to this album only hearing the catchy (but tonally really stupid) "I can't decide", I was expecting to enjoy this album quite a bit. And I did.

The aforementioned hit song isn't the only good track on this record; She's my man, land of a thousand words, I don't feel like dancing, and lights are great tracks, just to name a few.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable record-- but it's so bubbly I feel kind of nauseous listening to it sometimes. Still, would recommend it.

It's good!

Yeah, it's absolutely good. A really great sophomore album that's different from their first, yet still manages to be a pleasant listen. As the first album heavily emphasized song-from-song relations with their seamless transitions, this album focused more on individual songs; some, like Mistletoe, really stand out for me.

Jukebox the ghost completely abandoned any of the charm and talent they had with their first 2 albums on this one, making something so contemporary, so awful, and so "I want money"-like that it made me sick to my stomach. As generic as generic gets. Don't listen to this.

love the jazz approach. A super consistent project with some classic singles and great songs overall. Billy Joel's production is once again phenomenal here. Despite what the score says, this is a damn good album.

Had to relisten to this eventually.

Despite my low album scores, I've been enamored by this band over the past few days. I think that hearing TVU's later albums really put this one into perspective. It's good, it's damn good, and definitely their best. But before I praise this album, I want to keep one of the critiques I had with my old review: the good production dies out very early.

Sunday Morning, I'm Waiting for the man, Femme Fatale, and hell even Venus in Furs were incredibly well ... read more

I did a little relistening ever since I got this on CD.

Wow, it's great. I wouldn't say that this album blew me away or anything, but it is absolutely a fantastic album. Many of the songs grew on me, Let Down and Airbag shrunk on me, but overall, I had a far more positive experience. Karma Police is an absolute banger of a song, the slower stuff works, this album never gets boring. This is definitely overrated, but still a fantastic record nevertheless.

It isn't all that bad, but it still sounds like an album full of radio hits, y'know? It definitely had some cool moments, like the acoustic guitars that came outta nowhere in two songs I admittedly forgot the name of. Smithereens and Legend (the acoustic is phenomenal in that song) are the only songs I actually liked, and nothing else was bad, per se, but I just found it so generic.

But hey, I never really found the album boring, so that's something.

Bonus points for the really good album ... read more

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I guess it's fine. I respect the psychedelic approach here, since it's actually pretty well done for the time this album came out. The track "Toys" is a real earworm. "Frost Circus" is also a really interesting instrumental that I didn't expect coming from XTC at all, but they made it work pretty well.