Licensed To Ill – Beastie Boys

I bought this album on a day trip to France with my secondary school. I remember that I was worried the album would be in French, I was somewhat naive. Can you imagine a band attempting to re-write every song for an album in the native language of every country where they wish to make a release?

This album came out and the band caused a fuss because people over the country started stealing VW symbols from the front of cars to wear on necklaces. Yes, that was a real thing in the mid-to-late 1980s. I never stole a car badge and I’m not quite sad enough to dress up as band members however, I did dress in a way to fit in with the metal crew, I dressed to fit. Teenagers, struggling to be different by rebelling along with all the others.

“Fight For Your Right” blazed through the sound waves and I remember being excited at this odd combination of heavy guitars and rapping over the top. It was good and worked really well. For similar amazement see the review of the album Judgement Night. Then, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” happened and it’s simple beat with crushing guitars and stupid solo was another breath of fresh air. The album had to be bought.

“Rhymin and Stealin” was my first and terrible introduction to Led Zeppelin. It had a drum beat sampled from Led Zep IV and I didn’t know that at the time. I wasn’t aware that bands would steal music or samples from other bands and recycle them. When I first listened to Led Zep IV I was rather shocked that the drum beat had me thinking of a rap band a further twenty years into the future.

There’s some classic 80s sexism in this album and I’m pretty sure, while it was a product of its time, it shouldn’t be erased from existence, all of these things need to be understood in the context of the zeitgeist.

If you like your singers white and shouty along with simple heavy guitars, stupid lyrics, and fun samples then this album is for you.

Liberation Transmission – Lostprophets

This is really hard to write and I’m not even sure what I’m going to say. I really like the music of this band and I even went to see them at the Brixton Academy over ten years ago on a really fucking hot summer’s day. It was intensely hot inside the theatre and was a complete test of stamina. It was a really good show and I had a great time. There are four albums by these guys. But I’m still not sure what to write. I’m not sure I even reviewed The Fake Sound Of Progress. There’s a possibility the reviewing system is a little broken as all the albums starting with “The” may have been reviewed already or they may be coming when I get to the Ts. I might have skipped “Fake Sound” deliberately.

There’s some explanation needed here although I’m still struggling with all of it really. Firstly, this is a really good album. I really like it and I thought the Lostprophets brought something new to the table in terms of sound and popular metal / rock.

BUT

The singer is a convicted paedophile. If it’s ok to list the types of bad there is then he is pretty much down at the bottom as a complete sick-fuck. I haven’t listened to a single song by this band since that happened. I don’t even know if it’s OK to listen to their music. I don’t know if it’s OK to admit really liking the songs. I don’t know if it’s OK because the singer is a sick-fuck. It distresses me, just writing this is hard, because I know it’s easy to be taken out of context. It’s easy for something to think the wrong thing about my intentions. But, at the time I thought this was a good band. I guess they still were. It’s just the singer is a sick-fuck.

Let There Be Rockgrass – Hayseed Dixie

Ever wanted your heavy metal and rock to be a little more . . . redneck? This is the album for you. I’m not sure I could go and see them live, this is definitely an album of piss take which just happens to have allowed the band to make a decent living I guess. It’s like the album I have of Metallica songs played as lullabies. Here’s the track listing:

  • Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
  • Fat Bottom Girls
  • Whole Lotta Rosie
  • You Shook Me All Night Long
  • I Believe In A Thing Called Love
  • Ace Of Spades
  • Detroit Rock City
  • Corn Liquor
  • Feel Like Making Love
  • Walk This Way
  • Centrefold
  • I’m Keeping Your Poop
  • Highway To Hell
  • Will The Circle Be Unbroken

A couple of things to note. I spelt Centrefold correctly for UK usage. I’ve not listened to “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” but I suspect that it’s about a jerk-circle.

Let There Be Rock – AC/DC

Nearly anything by AC/DC has to be on the good side of good. This album . . . . . . . I don’t know why but this album has a much dirtier, grungier sound than all the others especially those from the Bon Scott era. I think they turned the grit up and balanced the bass a little deeper. It’s got a gorgeous sound, which, the first time I heard it jarred me a little because it didn’t sound like AC/DC.

Whatever you think about the production you can’t argue with the writing. There is not a bad song on this album. In fact they still play fifty percent of these songs on stage now, Y years later where Y = current year – 1977.

“Go Down”, I explained to a class recently that while they think most rock and metal is about death and destruction most is about love and sex. This song encapsulates that.

“Dog Eat Dog”, feeling blue? Listen to this.

Then the masterpiece “Let There Be Rock” a biblical version of the history of rock. Such high energy and an amazing song. Everything about this should be taught in every school.

“Bad Boy Boogie”, what other song are you going to get an old man to prance around the stage and eventually reveal his arse to the crowd?

“Problem Child”, amazing song, aren’t we all?

“Overdose”, it’s sad.

“Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be”, reminds us all that we should be having fun and that heaven and hell are bullshit (that’s my own take on it).

“Whole Lotta Rosie”, holy fuck this is an anthem of a song.

Get this album, get anything by AC/DC before 1982. It such lovely summer sounding music and mostly about sex. FIVE stars.

Led Zeppelin IV – Led Zeppelin

Of all the Led Zeppelin albums this one is the biggy in my mind. It is the first I listened to and I was blown away by how complex it is and just how much this band influenced later music. I can’t remember the last time I listened to it. My tastes have moved on and I am in another world altogether. The current plan is to review all the albums from before my current aggrotech phase and then go back and review all those I have bought since then. It’s a project.

Led zep 4 – not a bad song on it. Ground breaking and stunning.

Led Zeppelin II – Led Zeppelin

Of the Led Zeppelin albums I own, and hopefully they’ll be done soon, this one I’ve listened to least. Looking at the track listing I can only remember what one song sounds like and that one is “Whole Lotta Love” which is iconic enough to be known without this album along with being a theme from the television show about music.

Led Zeppelin I – Led Zeppelin

This could cause some controversy but I’m not fussed. Opinion is just that. There are critics out there whose job it is to justify their thoughts and these are the people to rate the “excellence” of all forms of art. Whether I agree with them or not doesn’t really matter. I do think that there’s something important about the idea of learning how to appreciate certain aspects of art. It’s hard for me, as a layman, to see how a movie has been put together and what was difficult with it although that might still not make it “good”.

I don’t know how much we can standardise our subjective thoughts. We might take expert opinion and use many of those to form a consensus about certain issues, that seems a sensible approach. Suppose we asked the population the question “what is the best food?”. You might imagine many many types of answers to this and I would need clarification because sometimes a burger is what you need and sometimes cheese on toast is required. These views across the population could possibly be why this country is in this particular political state at the moment. Maybe we shouldn’t ask the population its thoughts on things as the population is quite often wrong.

The plebiscite was wrong about proportional representation and the “leaving the EU” question. In fact, most people didn’t vote. That is what is amazing. This country is heading towards a cliff top at full speed because it is the “will of the people”. Well, fuck you. It was the vague idea of about 35% of the voting age population. The rest of the lazy cunts didn’t vote. People didn’t know what they were voting for. People don’t understand the issues because it is really fucking complicated. Don’t ask the people! We have an elected representation of (hopefully educated and intelligent) people who we let make these decisions based on our behalf. Even when some are wankers, some are thick, some are motivated by unreasonable needs and some are just plain corrupt.

This brings me to this and the next few albums. Because I have been reviewing these albums in alphabetical order by album title it means that most artists are spread out throughout this website. But there is Led Zeppelin who named their first four albums (maybe more) numerically. This means there follows two more communications about the same band. This is slightly annoying.

Led Zeppelin lie in that circle on the Venn diagram of bands I know needed to exist to create the music that inspired all the music that I like but at the same time I find them a little boring. This boredom is precisely because they inspired my kind of music. My kind of music has moved on, it’s evolved, it’s become dirty and dark and is allowed because bands were magical in the early 70s and 80s. Along with Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin inspired the heavy metal bands that formed ten years later. All music is traceable along the ages.

This album has some excellent songs on it. It is historically important. It is highly rated by critics and is important in the history of music. It is summer music. I don’t play it that often.

Lean Into It – Mr Big

This, as far as I know, was the second album by Mr Big. They were a supergroup. They had a massive hit with the dong “To Be With You” which is the last song on this album. Can I remember any of the other songs? Not really. I think the album is fine for a US rock band. It’s just never really hooked me in.

Laughing – Re-Animator

I’m pretty sure I got this album sometime in my third year of university. Although I can’t remember the specifics I do suspect it was in the “metal” section at a music shop. Obviously this was in the days before streaming and even previewing an album. What you bought was what you got.

I’m not sure this is a serious album. I mean musically it’s pretty good and the songs are good but there are plenty of songs with humour in them and start with clips of audio from film etc. If you like heavy slow paced thrash metal then this is a good album for you, assuming that you don’t mind the odd piece of fun.

The following songs are stuck in my head, even after twenty (or more) years.

  • Rude Awakening
  • Kipper ‘n’
  • Research – has French spoken at the beginning
  • Another Fine Mess
  • Monkey See, Monkey Dance
  • Don’t Patronise Me

I guess you could stream this album now, for nothing, listen to it and then dismiss it. Over the last few months I’ve come back to the idea of paying for music properly! Sad old me and my liberal sensitivities.

Killing Joke – Killing Joke

This is the last of the “k” albums. I got this album after getting Pandemonium by Killing Joke which is an awesome amazing album. This one though excites me less so. I don’t often listen to it but there are some highlights.

Requiem, Wardance and The Wait are all excellent songs and The Wait has been covered by Metallica so that gives you an idea of the influence of this band and their music.