W/e 13/03/26 - Gnarls Barclay, Morrissey, Snake Eyes, Harry Styles, Genesis

Congrats to snake eyes, our winners this week, and they just nick the TOTW from Harry.

After the top spot changing hands 3 weeks on the trot, TVAM hold onto for now.

Erol has his first 😊 for almost 12 months. Simon swaps his happy face for a ☹️, sharing it with Adam.

Genisis certainly got us all thinking, but failed to really impress so say hi to Jellyfish and, coincidentally, The Smiths on the classics.

Guy

Gnarls Barkley – Thought this was a really good offfering from CeeLo and Danger Mouse. Strong production, a decent mix of sounds and strong, soulful vocals – 7.7

Harry Styles – It’s not bad but it remains fairly light-weight pop. And it annoys me that he claims co-writing credits when he probably just told the others to ‘turn the vocals up’ – 6.5

Morrissey – I used to love The Smiths. But I’ve always found Morrissey’s solo stuff lacking something…namely Johnny Marr’s guitar work. But this is still a decent album – although some of the lyrics don’t live up to the heights of his earlier days – 7.5

Snake Eyes – Decent debut but missing some big, memorable tracks. Started off well but drifted a bit as it went on – 7

TOTW – The Night Pop Dropped - Morrissey

Genesis – Definitely not my cup of tea. Phil Collins was better in his solo career – peaking with Sussudio - 5

Andy

Gnarls Barkley - This is excellent. Soulful, funky, all round interesting 8

Morrissey - N/A

snake eyes - Much more than the hipster punk stuff I expected. Lots of good driving tunes 7

Harry Styles - Another quality offering from probably our greatest ever boy band alumnus (Beatles exempt) It should stand the test of time 7.5

TotW - Cuberbully (Yayo) by Gnarls Barkley

Genesis - It’s all a bit silly but it’s hard to totally hate anything that sounds like Stonehenge (Viv’s keyboard parts in particular) You can see why Marillion are fans 6

Phil (OG)

Gnarls Barkley 7.5

Excellent collection of modern r’n’b songs. Cee-Lo is in fine voice and the arrangements are funky and inventive.

Morrissey 7

If you’d told me that this was an album of two halves, I probably wouldn't have been surprised. What did surprise me was that the good tracks were this good. Boulevard is overwrought but wasn’t his best work ever thus? The night the pop dropped is terrific and I also enjoyed the weirdness of Many icebergs ago. Then there’s the duff stuff. Zoom Zoom the little boy is just cringey and we get a heavy dose of Moz’s legendary bile on the title track and the conspiracy nonsense of Notre Dame. Oh, and just one more thing, Mr Morrissey. If you’re going to cover Roxy Music, why pick one of their worst songs?

snake eyes 7.8

Starts off as a generic punk album but then it blossoms into something much more ambitious. I’m a daydream is high-class shoegaze, Slugs a pretty acoustic ballad and the album’s standout track, Swing away, manages to combine every style they’ve used on the rest of the record. By some distance the best album of the week.

Harry Styles 6.2

Occasional moments of inspiration – American girls being one, Coming up roses another – fail to compensate for an overall air of dullness.

TOTW – snake eyes – Swing away

Classic

Genesis 6.5

Genesis were very popular when I was at uni in the early 70s but I was never really a fan. I was familiar with Foxtrot but this is the first time I’ve heard this album all the way through. It doesn’t really shift my opinion much, I’m afraid.

Justin

Gnarls Barkley - trade mark tuneful soul. 1st half is far superior to second half. 7.4

Morrissey - I only really like the Smith's hits and much prefer the Morrissey solo stuff. Gave this plenty of listens and several possible tunes of the week. Yes Notre Dame is silly as is Zoom Zoom but otherwise I thought there were some classic Morrissey tunes. 7.5

Snake Eyes - This is fine to listen to but found the muffled sound a bit annoying. Would be better with a remaster. 6.6

Harry Styles - Thought I would hate this but some of it has a nice electronic vibe. 6.7

TOTW Morrissey - Headache

Genesis - What a classic. You can't really get more prog. Pretty much a template for Misplaced Childhood. Love the long instrumental sections in the big songs. 9

Sam

Gnarls Barkley: great voice and it’s well made , tho not really my cup of tea. 6.5

Morrisey: setting his politics aside, he still has a good voice . Some of this is decent , tho it does wander a bit . 6.2

Snake Eyes: great start and finish and the middle is an adventure across many musical landscapes… this weeks winner by a mile:8

Harry Styles : put the vocoder down Harry and stick to the dancier numbers . 6.5

TOTW : swing away by Snake Eyes .

Genesis : people say I should like Genesis because I like Marillion. For me Marillion are far superior. This album has it moments but some of it’s amateurish and weak . Sorry Justin . 6

Jim

Gnarls Barkley 6.5

A bit like Gorillaz in that I admired more than loved. Needed more of the hip hop than the smooth soul, as they had on the stonking Line Dance

Morrisey 6.5

This is a few steps away from his solo or Smiths pomp, nice enough but only a couple had glimpses of his swagger, The Night Pop Dropped probably the pick of the bunch.

snake eyes 7.5

I’ll mirror Sam – cracking start and end, a bit light in the middle but overall, I really enjoyed their sophomore offering (did not know this term applied until you used it Phil). The Kicker nearly got my TOTW

Harry Styles 6

It’s OK and picks up in the 2nd half but there’s no out-and-out gems that the likes of BE and TS regularly produce, yet his tour numbers, hysteria and ticket prices might indicate he’s at their level.

TOTW: Gnarls Barkley – Line Dance

Genesis 7

Wowzer this is up to 11 on the progometer! Some craziness but also some cool, big sounds

Simon

Gnarls Barkley: not the sort of record I normally gravitate towards but this is cracking - funky, soulful, great vocals and not a duff track in sight. Quality. 8

Morrissey: much as I liked the Smiths I was never a fan of the solo albums Morrissey put out in the 90s - this is a pale imitation of even those, apart from Amazona the songs are feeble and forgettable and the less said about Mozza these days the better. 4

snake eyes: on an initial listen it didn't really catch my attention but second time round some of the tracks started to stand out - plenty of variety and imagination on show here, i'm a daydream, soup and swing away amongst the highlights. Good stuff. 8

Harry Styles: more or less what I expected - Pop and Dance No More stood out as decent funky electronica but the rest was pretty forgettable. 6

TotW: Gnarls Barkley - Line Dance

Genesis: highly likely that if I'd been 15 years older this is what I'd have been listening to in my teenage years - it's a bit mad and did make me think of Brian Pern/Thotch, but have to say I quite enjoyed it. 6.5

Phil (New)

Gnarls Barkley 6.9

Great music and vocals, not really my thing but an enjoyable listen.

Morrisey 6.1

I like The Smiths, but Morrissey’s solo stuff has never quite clicked for me. That said, this had some good moments and some interesting guitar. 'You’re right, it's time' is a solid track.

Snake eyes 7.8

Enjoyed the 90s grungy sound. All of my TOW contenders on here.

Harry Styles 6

'Aperture' was a good opener, but after that the whole thing had a slightly tired feel to it. My 14-year-old daughter listened along with me and delivered a concise review: “ It's boring!”

TOW Snake eyes - Swing away

Genesis 5

This album has completely removed any nerves or guilt I might have had about what I subject the group to in future “classics.”! Some of the songs reminded me of plastering a big hole in a wall. The filler goes on well at first, then you decide to add a bit more here and there, accidentally drag some out, add another layer, realise you’ve made a mess of it, scrape it back and start again… eventually ending up pretty much where you began, while quietly cursing the ten minutes you wasted fecking about in the middle. They are clearly talented musicians, but wow what a mess.

Having said all that, I really liked 'More Fool Me' which didnt seem to fit with the rest of the album."

Mark

Gnarls Barkley - lovely soulful gospel infused stuff, expertly produced of course and with soaring vocals - 7.5

Morrissey - I still love and regularly listen to The Smiths, and a lot of his early solo stuff was really good too, but he's lost his way (in more ways than one) and seems stuck in a rut of self-pity. Boulevard basically seems to be about him being sick in the Paris streets, and Zoom Little Boy is truly terrible. Occasional flashes of the old melodies and lyrical dexterity, but on the whole a bit of a grind - 6

Snake Eyes - really interesting album, 'grit pop' apparently. Be good if they get booked in a tent at Reading - 7.5

Harry Styles - decent electronic leaning pop, Taste Back and Aperture are great. To be fair, although not as large as Taylor or Beyoncé's he does have a songwriting duo that clearly have a big influence on what he's able to come up with and his sonic direction, and the vocals are still a bit synthetic for me, but overall this is a strong album that deserves to be taken seriously as well as undoubtedly being commercially mega successful, bits of it reminding me of Vampire Weeknd's recent stuff -7

TOTW - I'm A Daydream, by Snake Eyes

Paul

Gnarls Barkley (7)

Good funky soul with a really powerful voice.

Morrissey (6)

Used to like a bit of the smiths and his early solo work but just found this a bit dull. slipped in the region of conspiracy theories with Notre Dame, but could have been much worse!

Snake Eyes (7.5)

Really enjoyed this, fairly strong throughout with a couple of misfires that didn’t work for me, slugs being the prime example.

Harry Styles (6)

Nice but just a bit dull. Better than I thought it would be though.

TOTW - Snake Eyes - swing away

Genesis (6)

Not really familiar with prog, but it’s all very overblown which I guess is the point. But not a genre for me.

Annette

Gnarls Barkley: 7

Morrissey: 6.5

Snakes Eyes: 7.5

Harry Styles: 7

TOTW: I'm a daydream by Snake Eyes

Classic: Genesis - 6

Carlo

Gnarls Barkley – 6.3

Smooth, slightly high-pitched vocals with plenty of rhythm. As Sam said, not really my cup of tea, but I get it.

Morrissey – 7.2

I generally don’t focus much on lyrics, although Morrissey’s were hard to ignore. Surprisingly it didn’t spoil it for me – to be honest I quite enjoyed this.

snake eyes – 6.8

After seeing Andy’s Brighton post I wasn’t expecting this. Not what I imagined, but a pleasantly surprising punky vibe.

Harry Styles – 7.0

I really didn’t want to like this album, but I did. His soft voice makes it a harmless, joyful listen.

TOTW: Morrissey – Many Icebergs Ago

Classic – Genesis – 6.0

A bit disappointing. I like Peter Gabriel, but this was just a little too out there for me.

Erol

Gnarls Barkley - soulful and funky fun. Cracking vocals too. Really strong. 8

Morrissey - his voice still holds up and if you don’t pay too much attention to the lyrics (which I don’t), this makes for a decent listen. He’s still a miserable bugger though. 6.5

snake eyes - moderately decent 90s grunge. Decent, but I didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as Gnarls’ and Harry’s albums. 6.9

Harry Styles - this is entertaining throughout but having watched last Friday’s show on Netflix last night I now see why his fans adore him. As much as it pains me to say it, he’s quite a talent. 8.5

TOTW - Aperture, Harry Styles

Genesis - this is prog rock turned up to 11. Noodling everywhere. Really interesting but a tad dated. 7

Matt

Gnarls Barkley - 7.7

Morrissey - 5.5

snake eyes - 6.6

Harry Styles - 7.8

TOTW - Harry Styles, Aperture

Adam

Gnarls B - smooth grooves. Not as punchy as earlier stuff. 6

Morrisey

Some tuneful stuff in places but again, lacking punch of yesteryear 6

Snake eyes

Best of the bunch this week. Nice grunge rock sound. 8

Harry styles

First track solid but drifts into a bit of pop vaguely after 6

TOTW - harry style aperture

Classic

Some interesting riffs, and a number of extended solos (bring them back I say). Not something I’d ever listened to, an education. 7