British Oi Is Fighting Back (The Best Of The First 10 Years) [Digipak] - Baker's Dozen

Advantages: Not overlong at 10 tracks, gets better with each listen.
Disadvantages: Opening track not the strongest.

...All the best records take a few listens (at least) to reveal their true nature. On first play this sounded like a typical 2nd album - longer tracks, less up-tempo. A month on this has to be my favourite CD of 2007. Nearly all the 10 tracks have resolved into fantastic, atmospheric (and not always gloomy!) tales of urban life and escape. Great tunes underpin the songs, with the now-trademark steepling guitar riffs standing out most in the choruses. Some not unwelcome echos of The Smiths are to be found in the lyrics, most obviously in the title track, but tracks like Weight of the World and Escape The Nest are really uplifting, the latter also containing the finest moments on the album with its soaring, thrilling chorus. What a live track that promises to be... Recommended! Ok then, what about the digipak? Well if you like a glossy... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: The Classic Album
Disadvantages: If you already own the original you're not gaining much from buying the same album.

...A great album when it was first released in 1997 it was the Follow up album to the debut and self titled album Foo Fighters. Alot better than the debut album some might regard The Colour And The Shape as the Foo Fighters finest work! With the classic songs My Hero, Everlong, Monkey Wrench and Walking After You. With six extra tracks these songs don't really add anything else to an already brilliant album. The only real plus is the Gerry Rafferty cover Baker Street which when covered with heavier guitars and great lead vocals from Dave Grohl it is really a good listen. If you already own the original The Colour And The Shape album you might be wasting £10 on this album on six non-memorable songs, If you don't own this album it is a must have just for the other thirteen original tracks on the album.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Heartbreaking Visceral Concepts, Tormented Vocals, Best Song Of The Year!
Disadvantages: The odd lyrical faux-pas

...and iconoclastic, definitely falling into the latter, genius, category. Lines like "sometimes we remember our bedrooms, and our parents bedrooms, and the bedrooms of our friends. Then we think of our parents, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THEM?" Capitals necessary to convey what a crying, yelping, despairing, pained voice this is! This is a song that if you heard it just the once and had to leave the house, you'd spend all day counting down the seconds til when you could get back and hear the rest of the album! I bought this album on the strength of this one song - its without doubt the best I've heard this year, or last year, or possibly in the last five years... Win sounds like his voice is going to, at any moment, careen out of control, never to return. Either that or he'll drop dead from sheer emotional exhaustion. Great stuff. The weak link has gotta... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful