[Tom4784]

La Roux

I think it's a solid album of what I've come to expect from La Roux. It doesn't really push the boat out or do anything completely jawdropping but it has enough good bops to keep it interesting enough although it's not on the same level as the second album. I don't think it's an album I would look to listen to often but it's not one with many tracks I'd skip if they popped up on Shuffle either.

7/10

[Shaun]

Hmm, after four reviews La Roux end up on a sensible 77.

I'll let someone else pick the new album because there's nothing exceptional in today's new releases, and I've earmarked next week's for Dua Lipa since the remix album is released then (we'll just be doing the original though girls x)

Dean, you pick

[Shaun]

Right, Dezzy's messaged me on my phone to suggest this week's album, and it's the fifth from Perfume Genius. 'Set My Heart On Fire Immediately' was released back in May and picked up a ton of rave reviews, sitting prettily at 91 on Metacritic at time of writing.

[Ammi]

...oh....no Phoebe Bridgers, then...it was going to be Punisher next...

[Ammi]

...ignore me, Shaun...ignore me, Dezzy...I’ve just listened to my first track of the album chosen....and I’ll save my Phoebe Bridgers tantrum for when you both deserve it...

[Ammi]

...I really wish with some of these albums that I was familiar with previous albums so I can compare to those as well...but I just can’t give the time to listen to more than the one album we’re reviewing, so it always feels almost out of context...anyway, this album feels as though there have been ‘coming of age’ albums before it and this is an ‘arrival’ album..it feels filled with wish and desire and want and love and lust, in quite an intimate way..?..quite a personal way...?....there are some beautiful songs and he is undoubtedly talented and his vocal range is gorgeous....but I somehow am not sure that I’ll listen to many, if any...of these album tracks again...they’re just something that I didn’t personally connect to...one of the tracks and I can’t recall which one...I think it might have been One More Try...actually sounded quite Elvis Presley-like.....

...some of the stand out tracks include...Whole Life, Describe, Jason and On the Floor...(...but most tracks are incredibly standout, only a few are less memorable...)...

...I’ll go straight in with a rating and say...Set My Heart on Fire Immediately...8/10...

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Ammi

...ignore me, Shaun...ignore me, Dezzy...I’ve just listened to my first track of the album chosen....and I’ll save my Phoebe Bridgers tantrum for when you both deserve it...

I'd forgotten you suggested her, tbh, I am a fickle little farmhand and I offer my apologies

[Ammi]

[Ammi]

.....

[Tom4784]

Perfume Genius

It's a really excellent album that's mostly all highlights with very few lowlights. Most of the tracks are highly listenable and I just don't really have anything bad to say about it aside from nitpicking and saying that it's got a very typical Perfume Genius sound to it and it doesn't really go anywhere his others albums don't but that's a weak criticism when the album is as good as it is.

10/10

[Jake.]

(Have listened a few times and will submit my review tomorrow)

[Shaun]

I only just listened to this today but jesus christ what a walloper I've loved PG since his debut, and he's one of the very, very few acts I've been to see live... he's always mastered the lyrics, and assembled some aching music before, but this might be his best yet. I'd always considered "Put Your Back N 2 It" (his second album) his opus but I may have to reconsider. This has a distinctly more 70s sound; dramatic drums, vaguely psychedelic guitarwork and slotting in somewhere between the Carpenters, Dusty Springfield and John Denver.

My favourites are 'Whole Life', 'Just a Touch', 'Jason' and 'Leave' but honestly there isn't a bad track. I thought Fiona would end 2020 without much competition for album of the year but... maybe we have to reevaluate that too! I give this a 9.5.

[Jake.]

Set My Heart On Fire Immediately Review

I’m glad that I decided to participate in this as it has given me the opportunity to listen to artists (and/or albums) I usually wouldn’t bother with, Perfume Genius being one of them. All in all, it’s pretty glorious. The rawness of the lyrics on display here is something to behold and there isn’t any real dips in quality between each track. It’s a very well produced, honest piece of art.

Highlights: On The Floor, Moonbend, Your Body Changes Everything

Album Rating: 8.8/10

[Shaun]

Right then, Perfume Genius ends up with a strong score of 91. Our next album is going to be "Punisher" by Phoebe Bridgers, since I got the date wrong for Dua Lipa's remixed album (which is now next week, apparently)

[Tom4784]

I'm gonna review this in a few days once I've had another listen to it, I liked it a lot when I heard it a few weeks back but I need to refresh my memory of it.

[Ammi]

...so I think that I’ll just score this album because, yeah, music reviews are not my thing...and I don’t know what to say about an album like this, about a talent like Phoebe’s and about her lyrics...from the very first deep incision into your heart and into your soul of Garden Song to the very last incredible crescendo of I Know the End...it’s just a journey of beauty, of such depth and of incredible lyrics......

...so I guess for a review, I’ll just quote a few lyrics...because they make no review words necessary..and for me, they’re one of the reasons that have made Phoebe, one of the most exciting music artists I’ve felt for a long time...In her career, The End is most definitely not near, it’s beautifully and perfectly continuing a very long journey that I hope to travel with her...

And when I grow up
I'm gonna look up from my phone and see my life
And it's gonna be just like
My recurring dream...


Took a tour to see the stars
But they weren't out tonight
So I wished hard on a Chinese satellite...


We hate Tears in Heaven
But it's sad that his baby died
And we fought about John Lennon
Until I cried
And then went to bed upset...


So she picks a direction, it's ninety to Memphis
Turns up the music so thought don't intrude
Predictably winds up thinking of Elvis
And wonders if he believed songs could come true...


Somewhere in Germany but I can't place it
Man, I hate this part of Texas
Close my eyes, fantasize
Three clicks and I'm home...


....three clicks is all it took from the first moment of Punisher...three clicks for her to get to the very core of your soul...

..Punisher..10/10...

[Ammi]

...oh highlights, yeah...all of them, every track...

[Shaun]

Nathan might propose for that 10

[MB.]

8.5, mainly because she got into a very casual Twitter feud the other week with Eric Clapton

(also because I really like the album, especially Kyoto and ICU, even if it's really predictable that my two favourite songs on the album are the two most upbeat ones)

[Tom4784]

Phoebe Bridgers

It's a consistently strong album with a sound that's rarely adventurous but still great in it's own way. Most of my complaints are ones that I have for a lot of the other albums we've done. Some songs overstay their welcome, and I wish there was more variety in her sound. That being said, the album is pretty great and most of my complaints are just nitpicking tbh.

9/10

[Shaun]

I'm going to start to feel burned out from this soon because Punisher is clearly another [b[9.5[/b] and makes it a three horse race for album of the year (burned out because it is almost certain that nothing we listen to for the rest of the year will match up to 3 we've already tackled, now)... but who knows?

Highlights were I Know the End, Savior Complex, Kyoto, Halloween and Graceland Too... but it's just excellent from start to finish.

This puts Punisher at a big fat 93 and we can now move onto Dua Lipa.

[Ammi]

...the power and force of outstanding music and albums is just too much for Ms Coronaville.......kick her COVID ass off the dance floor...

[Tom4784]

Dua Lipa

It's a great album that really grew on me since release, there's few songs I dislike and a lot of songs that I listen to to a lot. What i like most about this album is that there's more a sense of individuality in this album then there was for her first which I found to be quite generic, competent, but generic. This is the album where she's really coming into her own as an artist, I think.

9/10

[Ammi]

...apologies it’s taken so long, I‘ve just listened to the whole of Future Nostalgia this morning while I was doing morning stuff...hmmmm, I guess it’s a bit like Taylor Swift in that I haven’t listened to that much Dua, other than chart stuff...and obviously I’ve seen her award performances etc, which were all pretty fabulous...but not a whole album as such, in this way...I was already familiar with some of the tracks because that’s the thing with such a popular artist, isn’t it...?...we become familiar very quickly because of how much played, songs can be...anyways, some I hadn’t heard before so I’m just going to walk on by the more familiar...(...but still fabulous...)...ones and give a mention to Break My Heart, Hallucinate, Love Again and Cool...actually they’re all just jolly, jolly good and Future Nostalgia is a jolly, jolly good album...and I think in the future of music when music is being reflected on with nostalgia...?....Dua Lipa will be very much who is thought of...because she’s not just a ‘now’ artist and an artist of the moment....she’s a fabulously talented young lady....I was a bit not sure with a rating because I think that I said 8 for Jessie and What’s Your Pleasure...so I was having a Play Your Albums Right, moment....and should it be higher than or lower than an 8...?...I still don’t know actually but I’m going to say a gorgeous 8.5 for the holy heck of it...


...Future Nostalgia...8.5/10...

[Nicky91]

Future Nostalgia

special bits of wow for me personally: Break my Heart, Don't Start Now, Physical, Cool

am gonna say it again, Dua makes this retro sound feel fresh again


luv the INXS influence in Break my Heart especially (my dad got me into INXS music, i enjoy that music too a lot)

downside i do not enjoy the remixes so far that much


9.0/10