A wonderful cover of Jamaican band The Paragons with "The Tide is High", an orchestral opening with "Europa", a liveley "Live It Up" with a driving bass run, an stirring funk/rap mix with "Rapture" and a reminiscence to the golden 20th with "Here's Looking at You", what do you want more? Ok, there are not further great tracks on this album, maybe "Do the Dark" deserves a closer listen to. Therefore my rating is the average of the ... read more

Everything on this album is better than "Come on Eileen".

That's really grotesque music.

Elona Gay is an overwhelming song and was something like a hymn for us, that times late teens. Everything else on the album benefited from the halo effect of this fantastic song. Therefore my rating should had been much higher in the past, but listening to the album today it lacks tension and coherence a bit. In the end OMD's second studio album remains a sound successor of the debut studio album six month before.

Paul Simon's fifth solo studio album is a weird thing. It doesn't consist only studio recordings, there are also two live tracks. It's not a real score, the music of the eponoymous film is different to the album. Maybe therefore the ratings for the album are a bit shaped by this circumstance. Disregarded the lack of a golden thread, listening to the single tracks one by one can be a pleasure. In addition "Late in the Evining" is an overwhelming song, one of the best ... read more

Kate remains Ever for Ever.

Once I had the pleasure to see Kate Bush performing "Babooshka" live on stage in the Dortmunder Westfalenhalle. I was deep enchanted by her performance, singing and dancing like a fairy become woman. Her third album Never for Ever demonstrated her status as one of the best singer-songwriter ever, adorned by the fact that the album was the first studio album by a female solo artist to become number one of the UK charts (disregarded compilations).

The sixth studio album of Mike Oldfield contents two interesting instrumental covers (the original songs were also instrumentals) with "Arrival", the title track of the ABBA album "Arrival", written by Björn Ulvaeus / Benny Andersson (as credited, regarding to wikipedia the song is mostly created by Björn) and "Wonderful Land" of The Shadows, written by Jerry Lordan. Everything else on the album are composition by Mike Oldfield, one song as a ... read more

Mike Oldfield's eight's studio one is an album with two totally different sides. On the one side Crises delivers an Oldfield-like progressive rock track over the full length of vinyl's side A. On the other side (side B of the vinyl) there are five shorter and mostly highly accessable, even radio appropriate songs and actually chart hits, in particular on of Mike Oldfield's most popular songs "Moonlight Shadow" with vocals by Maggie Reilly or the other radio hit ... read more

Some very nice songs as "Looking for Clues", "Johnny and Mary" and "Woke Up Laughing" but everything else is rather mediocre.

If you have this album in your collection you live in a happy house.

What a debut! In addition Killing Jokes epoymous album is a groundbreaker for industrial (punk) rock. The half of the songs are remarkable: the opener "Requiem" (I like the single version which is content of the 2005 digital remaster), "Wardance", my top favourite "The Wait" and the dignified closer "Primitive".

The opener is a pretty good song but everything else doesn't really catch me. Maybe "Night Train" is a funky track but with nearly 8 minutes clearly too long.

Even three songs, the disco and make-u-dance hit "Upside Down", the soulful ballad "My Old Piano" and the sweepy-funky "I'm Coming Out" are worth to have this record in my collection. Simply named after her prename Diana is Diana Ross on an apex.

What a sound trip, starting Total euphoria, after a while assisted by Caroline Polachek over a cover which isn't a cover and fortunately with a Beautiful ending. Eight member collective (here we have a bit more than a band) caroline stirrs for almost 40 minutes with eight experimental music pieces on their second album, appropriately named caroline 2, one of the best albums 2025, so far. Caroline 2 is recommendable for people who are open for unusual music similar to Mark Kozelek's ... read more

The talent of the Australian artist Taj Hendrix "Tash" Sulatana is proved by her new EP consisting five songs solo and one together with Dallas Michael John Albert Green (City and Colour). For a first check I recommend the track "Hold On", in addition I like the ending of the EP very much. Maybe not quite that great as her second (and full) album from 2021 Terra Firma but also a remarkable release.

Making Movies by the Dire Straits contents some of my favourite songs of this fantastic band with their guitar caracterized highly recognizable sound, the trade mark of Mark Knopfler. This songs like "Romeo and Juliet" or the opener "Tunnel of Love" are not as popular as the songs of Brothers In Arms but still fresh in my musical mind. The full album doesn't keep up with the above mentioned extraordinary songs therefore I can't rate Making Movies as high as ... read more

Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror by Brian Eno and Harold Budd is a really ambient, dainty, spherical sounding, minimal patterned collection of music with musical borrowings from composers such as Eric Satie (Gymnopedies) or John Cale (listen to his wonderful piano piece "In A Landscape"). I think the above mentioned composers wouldn't be angry if they could listened to the result the two artist have created with their musical legacy.

Donald Fagen's and Water Becker's seventh album was the follower of their best album Aja published three year before and provides seven songs more yacht than jazz-rock, more sophisti-pop than pop rock. The result is very groovy and the albums contents some of the best Steely Dan songs such as the title song "Goucho" or "Hey Nineteen".

Groovy, funky, make-you-dance, moreover Stevie Wonder's nineteenth studio album provides some excellent songs just as "All I Do"; "I Ain't Gonna Stand For It" or "Master Blaster (Jammin'). The little weakness of the album is that it doesn't keep a high level over the full 45 minutes (the opener, "Do Like You", "Cash In Your Face"). In addition "Happy Birthday" is the the best birthday-songs I've ever heard.

"No Self Control", "I Don't Remember", "Games Without Frontiers" and "Biko" are striking examples for the songwriter abilities of Peter Gabrial who created songs for the eternity, absolutely unforgettable and timeless. His third album is another evidence for his stance (Biko) and outstanding position in the musical genre of art rock as solo artist. In addition i like his voice and the kind of singing (Games Without Frontiers) very much. I don't ... read more