The last in a long run of my first pen-drive contained torrents:-

Nas - Illmatic

Not much of a hip-hop fan. But my rock collection is starting to sound trite so on the recommendation of the DOK (a poster on the message board I go to), I got this. This is a nice and mellow collection of rhymes, punctuated by articulate and almost poetic nuances. Might be a bit jazzy, albeit not to the extent of A Tribe Called Quest's first 2 LPs. Pretty ok but floats by rather airily.

Geto Boys - We Can't be Stopped

This is pretty much a spiteful album, with the Boys spitting their vitriolic phelgm at just about everything. The rhymes, though, are rather simplistic and brings to mind the less wordy Public Enemy rants and are chock-full of the f word. I thought the shouted reworked bits of Sly's "Don't call me Nigger, Whitey" a bit distasteful, with no respect to the source material, which is far more worthy that the Boys can muster. Good representation of the Texan sound, although I'll be damned to venture further.

The Ramones - Halfway to Sanity

Just for completion's sake. Again, a poppy retread of the first album, as usual, without the saccharine songs of Joey's usually love-lorn meanderings. Some are reworkings of earlier covers - "Go Li'l Camaro Go" is just "Surfin' Bird" redux. "Bye Bye Baby" is another of Joey's 3 chord wonders.

The Ramones - Mondo Bizarro

And this completes my set. My copy doesn't have "Spiderman". Strange cover here also - The Doors' Take it As It Comes. And also, with the departure of Dee Dee, there are more Joey songs, and as a result, the entire album is poppier and more melodic than your average Ramones. Similar in feel to "Subterranean Jungle" but I prefer the pseudo-metal production of "Brain Drain", their next album.

And one CD:-

Paul Young - No Parlez (double CD 25th Anniversary version)

Relistening to this just makes me wonder why the younger me had such appalling taste in music. One of my childhood favourites, this relisten just points out the shitoid production values, chockful of 80s cliches and the tinny sounds of the instruments. The covers are gruesome, murdering the greatness of the originals. And no, Paul, you can't top Joy Division, Marvin Gaye, Nicky Thomas or Don Covay.

In fact, now he sounds to me like a cross between Kermit the Frog and Minnie Mouse. On the bright side, Paul's own songs, written with his ex-Q-Tip member, Ian Kewley, aren't that bad and "Sex" is a real gem here, with its Devo-ish vocals and fluffy synths. The second disc is mostly a throwaway - 3 12" mixes, a coupla covers that sound painful and a coupla live tracks that just wander listlessly. Only gem here is the acoustic version of Tears for Fears' "Pale Shelter".