Fruity Bits Of Ivor Biggun, The - Ivor Biggun

Advantages: excellent quality of song writing
Disadvantages: may be a little depressing

...Travis picked up a Brit award this year for "The Man Who" and Fran Healy won an Ivor Novello award for the song writing. And well deserved they were. The Glasgow band really came to prominence in 1999 with a string of hits such as "Driftwood" and "Writing to Reach You" which were played almost constantly on Radio and MTV. The album is quality from start to finish - it's hard to pick a dodgy song amongst the lot of them. The songs are mainly down tempo and mellow, and the best track on the album is probably "Driftwood". I love the sly little dig at Oasis on "Writing to Reach you" - what's a Wonderwall anyway? Travis have struggled to get where they are, and they're not a one album wonder. Get this album.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: good tune
Disadvantages: annoying

...This song in my opinion isn't as bad as some of the music that thios extremely cheesy group have managed to produce. This has a good tune to it and although the lyrics aren't exactly going to be up for an Ivor Novello, at least they don't say 'We're going to eat pizza'. THis song is good to listen to when you just want to slob around because if you are looking for something interesting to do then frankly I wouldn't bother with this music. The video is also quite good for this video and at least this time the group haven't made a video featuring half naked postitutes walking around for most of it. I wouldn't really recommend this song for anyone to buy, but it isn't bad to listen to on the radio.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average not helpful

Advantages: Always entertaining, sometimes hilarious
Disadvantages: No real disadvantages

...Ivor Cutler's third album for Virgin, originally released on vinyl in 1976, continues his highly idiosyncratic trawl through life with the usual mixture of tall tales, some presented as unaccompanied prose speech, others sung (although the word is used advisedly) with piano or harmonium. It's a long way from the hippie Virgin fare of that era - only his labelmate Robert Wyatt (with whom Cutler collaborated on "Rock Bottom") comes remotely close. Humorists like Spike Milligan and Vivian Stanshall are far more accurate reference points. Ever the miniaturist, Cutler crams over thirty vignettes into the album. The perpetual "Life in a Scotch Sitting Room" has two more extracts included here, both of which are wonderfully bizarre evocations of a childhood of porridge, country walks and learning about the development of Glasgow's sewage... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful