This week's Spin it or Bin it includes the new releases from The Police, Bon Jovi and The Thrills.
Andrea Corr - ‘Ten Feet High’ - Atlantic 2/5 Bin it
Reviewed by Rick Underwood
This is pleasant enough, and Andrea certainly has a lovely voice, but the sweet folky, mysterious quality of some of the Corr’s music seems to have been replaced by rather uniformly bland, overproduced and ordinary pop. Shame. I was hoping for more. This album is not atrocious, but I think it’s definitely one for the stalwort fans only.
Bon Jovi ‘Lost Highway’ Mercury. 2/5 Bin it
Reviewed by Jessie Alison
Oh dear! Come on chaps, where’s you umph gone?
Lost Highway? More like up the creek without a paddle.
This is stodgy, middle aged, middle of the road, easy listening, and about as rock’n’roll as your granny’s knitting patterns. Soft rock ballad ‘Til We Ain’t Strangers Anymore’ with poor Leann Rimes has your toes a-curling rather than a-tapping. I’m sure Bon Jovi can do better than this. They couldn’t do a lot worse.
I can’t believe that this is going to be getting many people’s rocks off. It wouldn’t even get their slippers off… ‘We Got It Going On,’ says one of the tracks. Actually fellas, you really haven’t.. Not this time.
Spin its
Editors ‘An End Has A Start’ Sony BMG 4/5
Reviewed by Mouse
Great songs, eloquent, meaningful lyric and a dense atmosphere of melancholy energy, and Echo and the Bunnymenish vocals and Smithsesque guitar, a great combination of sounds that is distinctively theirs.
From the sorrowful ‘Smokers at the Hospital,’ to the thoughtful ‘An End Has A Start,’ this is intense, haunting, yet surprisingly catchy and singable stuff. The hooks do just that, they hook you - and they don’t let you go...
The Police – ‘The Police’ Universal 4/5
Reviewed by Grace Tiede
This is a fantastic album, and once I started to listen to it, I remembered why they were such favourites of the cool and credible music loving public way back when they started out. ‘So Lonely’ and ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’ are truly marvellous, bleak, anguished young man post punk classics, up there alongside The Undertones ‘Teenage Kicks.’
It’s easy to scoff at the idea, but if they had stopped their career then, they would have been held in legendary regard, rather than the disparaging treatment they get for the terrible crime of having been so successful for so long.
Through this long creative career, they made tracks such as ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me,’ ‘Spirits In The Material World,’ ‘Every little Thing She Does Is Magic,’ and on and so on. Really too many to mention, and so many featured on this album.
This band found their huge fame simply by being good. No tricks, no hype, just basic talent and hard work. Their virtuoso musicianship, musical inventiveness, and the mighty charismatic presence of Sting, meant that they have more than earnt their place at the table of the greats.
With such a back catalogue of sensational music, we can only wait with baited breath at the prospect of new material in the offing, but for now, listen to the old songs with fresh ears, and enjoy them, because they really are great.
The Thrills – ‘Nothing Changes Round Here’ Virgin 3/5
Reviewed by Josh Green
‘Nothing Changes Round Here’ features a moody meaningful piano, a bit like the theme music to ‘Randall and Hopkirk Deceased,’ and an intriguing vocal that recalls a little of Heroes vintage Bowie, this is interesting stuff, with another time another place feel to it. There’s something very likeable about The Thrills, they do what they do, in their own way, and it’s alright. Looking forward to seeing them at Knowsley Hall this weekend.