Accentuate The Positive - Joe Kennedy Jr. & Jean 'Toots' Thielemans

Advantages: One of the greatest bassists to ever walk the planet
Disadvantages: Jazz isn't for everyone

...1987 he was ejected and made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club. He was refused entry to the club and ended in a nasty confrontation with the bouncer who left Jaco disfigured and brain dead. His family removed him from his life support machine 10 days later on September 21st 1987. The bouncer who killed Jaco was sentenced with second degree murder however only served four months of his sentence. Onto the review of the album… Introducing Jaco Pastorius is how it sounds. The album provides digitally remastered recordings of Jaco’s work. The introducing … series includes music from (at the moment) ten other Jazz musicians including John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Billy Conham and Joe Sample. The album opens on “Three Views of a Secret” and features Jaco playing the Bass, piano and synthesiser with Toots Thielemans on Harmonica and Jack De... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Great Satirical Punk Rock
Disadvantages: A bit heavy for a lot of peoples tastes

...Way back in 2004 when punk rock legend and former Dead Kennedys lead vocalist Jello Biafra teemed up with godfathers of grunge the Melvins to release the superb lp "Never Breathe What You Cannot See", there was talk of being enough material left over to do another EP. The album was superb and enough to wet my palette for a second helping, when news broke in 2005 that the material was finally to be released as an album with new versions and remixes of some of the better tracks on the "Never breathe what you cannot see" lp I was positively salivating at the prospect….. The union between the Melvins and Jello was forged in part by a love of Alice Cooper, so it is appropriate that this album opens with a cover of Alice's "Halo of Flies". Like all good cover versions they have stamped their own identity onto it, producing an incredibly... Read review

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Advantages: More varied influences.
Disadvantages: Not as good as earlier releases.

...Dinosaur Jr's swansong LP is good, if not one of their best. I'd say it vies with Without A Sound for the position of 2nd weakest album after Green Mind, but it's by no means a failure. J Mascis's influences seemed to have expanded between the arrival of this album and the last, and you can hear it in the cheerful bugle accompaniment on "I'm Insane" and the lone plucking of the banjo on "Gettin' Rough". Kevin Shield's also lends his guitar FX wizardry to tracks such as "Loaded", for which we can only be truly grateful, and the lyrics also seem more poignant than usual, as if J had reached a particularly happy turning point in his life. I wouldn't recommend this album to Dino virgins but it's definitely worth getting around to once you've checked out some of the other stuff.... Read review

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