Buzzin' About - Apples (The)

Advantages: Combination of styles, many great tracks, simple but brilliant
Disadvantages: Some not too good songs, too short

...a brilliant mix of acoustic guitar, pounding drums, and a piano (played by Jack). I really can't do this song justice simply by writing about it, so I will just say it is my favourite on De Stijl and you should listen to it as soon as possible. I'm Bound To Pack It Up was the other half of the duo of songs that made me buy this album. Although not as good as "Apple Blossom," it is still an excellent track and another of my favourites. The mournful violin (played by Paul Henry Ossy) is a suitable addition to the song, and the lyrics are some of the group's best. "The bus is warm and softly lit, and a hundred people ride in it, I guess I'm just another running away." Death Letter was written by bluesman Son House and is the longest track on the album, at 4:30. This is another song with a bluesy feel to it, and Jack does some masterful guitar... Read review

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Advantages: An underrated album that has revealed new strengths over the years
Disadvantages: Some weak tracks don't get any better with age

...It’s always interesting to re-evaluate albums released more than 20 or 30 years ago, albums that were either neglected or written off at the time for one reason or another. Van Morrison’s ‘Astral Weeks’ is a classic example. ‘Extra Texture’, though definitely no ground-breaker, is another. George Harrison’s last recording for the Beatles’ ill-fated Apple label, released in the autumn of 1975 (and the last album on Apple, apart from compilations that winter by John Lennon and Ringo Starr), was grudgingly hailed at the time as not bad – but only by default as its predecessor, ‘Dark Horse’, had been such a disappointment. I didn’t care for it much at the time, but having bought it recently on CD and listened to it properly for the first time for years, it sounds... Read review

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Advantages: A round up of some of the Pumpkins' best songs from the last 12 years
Disadvantages: The final Pumpkins' release :(

...How many times do pick up a magazine and see the words, 'If you buy one album this year, buy this one'? For me, this is that album. 'Rotten Apples' tells the tale of one of the only truly original bands in recent music and listening to it, in some points, feels like sneaking a look at someone's diary. A kind of sensation that you are almost a little dirty for prying. But surely that is one of the factors that makes this album so great. There's nothing fantastic about the layout of the tracklisting. It's sensible and features the majority of the Smashing Pumpkins’ singles in chronological order. I feel that simply because the album has been laid out in this way, it makes it easier to follow the Pumpkins through their journey of the last 12 years. 'Rotten Apples' simply explodes with the opening track 'Siva' in a way very... Read review

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