The Album Review Club - Christmas Break Until 8th January

[Mancitydoogle]

LISTEN LIKE THIEVES

It appears I’m one of the few that own this album although I’ve not listened to it in decades.I do prefer it to ‘Kick’ and it starts very strong with the first four songs being very enjoyable and fun to listen to again.Unfortunately it then tails off with the exception of ‘This Time’.I never listened to any of their other albums after ‘Kick’ and this hasn’t made me want to.

A nice bit of nostalgia for me, but not an album I want to hear again for some time.
Although the title track is probably my favourite of theirs.

6.5/10

 

[BlueHammer85]

In a hurry today.
Surprised how many have said it is ‘bland’ and ‘boring’ ?! I must be listening to something else.
Lot of funk, High energy, tempo all the way through, love the sax in some of the songs especially for the opening few tracks. Enjoyed the Midnight Oil sounding ‘This Time’ also.
The criticism would be the lack of stand out hits, these felt more like fillers for Kick which set the bar high in retrospect.

it was fun.

7/10

 

[threespires]

Time ran away from me today. Will expand my thoughts later if I get a chance. This was an opportunity to learn about a band I was obviously aware of but knew little about really. In some ways the bits of other albums before and after this one that I sampled this week were more interesting but overall I've enjoyed finding out more. The 8th album that Rob mentioned was quite interesting I thought.

I really didnt get Kick at the time and though this album is still not really my thing I preferred it to that. Just because it's not quite in my wheelhouse it would be churlish to not recognise it's and their qualities, so 6/10 seems right to me.

 

[RobMCFC]

Yikes! Looks like my latest attempt at something non-rootsy has gone the way of the others. 17 votes for Listen Like Thieves by INXS for a lowly average of 5.88.

Looks like I might be back to the big cowboy hat and banjos next time. Whilst that might not necessarily be true, I will never, repeat never, go down the road of crap English bands just for points !!!!!!

 

[RobMCFC]

This week's nominator is @bennyboy, who had this to say about his choice:-

No clues this week,couldn't think of any that would be hard enough to keep it going for a decent length of time

My choice is All Mod Cons......The Jam.
1978 a great year for me musically.
My 3 faves from this year were Live and Dangerous...Thin Lizzy.Some Girls...Rolling Stones reviewed already on this thread and All Mod Cons by the Jam.
This was the lp that got me into the Jam and Paul Weller with The Jam albums that followed all top notch.
Seemingly based on the Ray Davis and the Kinks but I know nothing about their music but there is a cover of a Ray Davis song on this.
Maybe somebody will put them forward in the future.
Paul's writing always came across as working class to me and somebody writing great songs about my age was always going to appeal to me.
The other groups I liked then The Clash, and The Strangers were great but nobody really My age who spoke to me like Weller did.
Track listing

Side one
"All Mod Cons" – 1:20
"To Be Someone (Didn't We Have a Nice Time)" – 2:32
"Mr. Clean"* – 3:29
"David Watts" (Ray Davies) – 2:56
"English Rose"** – 2:51
"In the Crowd" – 5:40
Side two
"Billy Hunt" – 3:01 [UK and 1st US pressings] "The Butterfly Collector" – 3:11 [US reissues]
"It's Too Bad" – 2:39
"Fly" – 3:22
"The Place I Love" – 2:54
"'A' Bomb in Wardour Street" – 2:37
"Down in the Tube Station at Midnight.

It will be interesting to hear other views on this.Not expecting much as Paul seems to get a hard ride on here due to his influences but I still listen to this and other Jam albums today.


Added a video of The Butterfly Collector which was on the US reissue.
One of my Jam favourite's

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

This week's nominator is @bennyboy, who had this to say about his choice:-

No clues this week,couldn't think of any that would be hard enough to keep it going for a decent length of time

My choice is All Mod Cons......The Jam.
1978 a great year for me musically.
My 3 faves from this year were Live and Dangerous...Thin Lizzy.Some Girls...Rolling Stones reviewed already on this thread and All Mod Cons by the Jam.
This was the lp that got me into the Jam and Paul Weller with The Jam albums that followed all top notch.
Seemingly based on the Ray Davis and the Kinks but I know nothing about their music but there is a cover of a Ray Davis song on this.
Maybe somebody will put them forward in the future.
Paul's writing always came across as working class to me and somebody writing great songs about my age was always going to appeal to me.
The other groups I liked then The Clash, and The Strangers were great but nobody really My age who spoke to me like Weller did.
Track listing

Side one
"All Mod Cons" – 1:20
"To Be Someone (Didn't We Have a Nice Time)" – 2:32
"Mr. Clean"* – 3:29
"David Watts" (Ray Davies) – 2:56
"English Rose"** – 2:51
"In the Crowd" – 5:40
Side two
"Billy Hunt" – 3:01 [UK and 1st US pressings] "The Butterfly Collector" – 3:11 [US reissues]
"It's Too Bad" – 2:39
"Fly" – 3:22
"The Place I Love" – 2:54
"'A' Bomb in Wardour Street" – 2:37
"Down in the Tube Station at Midnight.

It will be interesting to hear other views on this.Not expecting much as Paul seems to get a hard ride on here due to his influences but I still listen to this and other Jam albums today.


Added a video of The Butterfly Collector which was on the US reissue.
One of my Jam favourite's

This’ll be fun.

 

[bennyboy]

This’ll be fun.

Aye.lol.

 

[Mancitydoogle]

Looking forward this, The Jam were one of my favourites from the time and a band like The Clash I still listen today.

 

[journolud]

Weller was getting a bit of a slating on another thread a few days ago, unjustly I thought. I can’t say I’ve followed his whole career but he’s a very good songwriter. If I remember right this was my least favourite Jam album back in the day but looking forward to giving it another listen.

I only have their best of downloaded but there isn’t a bad track on that.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

Weller was getting a bit of a slating on another thread a few days ago, unjustly I thought. I can’t say I’ve followed his whole career but he’s a very good songwriter. If I remember right this was my least favourite Jam album back in the day but looking forward to giving it another listen.

I only have their best of downloaded but there isn’t a bad track on that.

He was getting a slating, but I actually liked a lot of his solo stuff.
He’s honest whether you like his style or not. He always was and he’s a good song writer.
Regarding All Mod Cons. First listen done already.
Initial thoughts;
A very good album. I know a lot of the songs being of that vintage myself.
I totally get why a generation of disaffected ‘English Youth’ would be into this.
They are very English however and very much male orientated I would have said. On first listen I’m surprised to find myself asking if it is of it’s time as opposed to timeless, though.

I’ll add more thoughts as I go, but I do anticipate a decent score for this and sorry Rob, but I do find myself thinking with this in mind I may have overscored INXS, by comparison. We’ll see. Maybe, maybe not.