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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 12, 2017 1:52:28 GMT -5
The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)Do kids today still listen to The Smiths? Like I was in high school some 10 years after the fact and they along with The Cure, were still the default sadsack music for mopey teens regardless of the fact that we had new sadsack bands who were recording songs with titles like "I Hate Myself and Want to Die," that proved to be only like 7% ironic. Like all good depressed teens I owned the bulk of The Smiths discography, including the album we're going to listen to today, 1987's Strangeways, Here We Come. Let's get mopey! Pre-Existing Prejudices
I've heard this album in its entirety many times in the years that have passed since I was a high school student as well as other albums by The Smiths (and whatever Morrissey songs were played on the local alternarock station). I like The Smiths as a band and this album well enough, but this was always my least favorite album of theirs (my favorite, in case anyone is keeping score, is the collection of b-sides and odds and ends they released in America, Louder Than Bombs). Songs
"A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours" Too much saloon piano. An adequate amount of marimba. Lyrics about ugly people taking whatever they want. Morrissey sounds petty. This was neither depressing or rocking enough to have been of much use to me at age 16. Now it's okay, but still just a song. "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" Fake horn section. Morrissey gets growly like a rock n' roll saxophone. This is a decent enough song even with the fake horns and shit. "Death of a Disco Dancer" Good guitar noise and manic piano plinking in the back half of the song. This song's pretty good. "Girlfriend in a Coma" I hate this. Stupid folk guitars, fake orchestral maneuvers, and shitty lyrics about wanting to murder and maim a woman. "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" This is a great goddamn happy sounding song about being miserable. The melody's great. Morrissey's vocals are top shelf and the guitar solo at the end is so good. "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" I could never tell if the noise in the beginning that was happening over the plaintive piano plinking was supposed to be a murder of crows cawing or people in Hell suffering for all eternity. Downer lyrics and cheesy, string drenched music. This is a bummer of a song ideal for mopey teens but kind of inessential for well adjusted young adults. "Unhappy Birthday" This is so goddamn goofy. Is "I’ve come to wish you an unhappy birthday because you’re evil and you lie," the stupidest lyric ever drafted in the history of pop music? It's got to be up there. "Paint a Vulgar Picture" Morrissey doesn't like the music industry apparently. The biting line "Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package! Re-evaluate the songs! Double-pack with a photograph, extra track and a tacky badge," seems kind of ironic in hindsight when one considers the infinite reissuing and repackaging of Morrissey & Company's own discography. Hand claps end it. "Death at One's Elbow" Hillbilly hoedown bullshit with harmonicas and rockabilly guitars. This is stupid and bad. I dislike it very much. "I Won't Share You" Autoharp and Morrissey whining about not sharing someone. This is not a particularly fine album closing track. It's boring slowcore and not even good depression rock. Final Thoughts
I still am of the mind that this is the worst album by The Smiths. That still makes it better than like 87% of all other albums recorded but if I'm feeling mopey I'll undoubtedly reach for a different Smith's album before I reach for this one. That being said, I'd forgotten how awesome "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before," is, so thanks for making me listen to this again Pitchfork. Best Song: "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" Worst Song: "Death at One's Elbow" Next up on Nudeviking vs. The Endless List of Albums from the Decade of My Birth we listen to The dB's album, Stands for Decibels. I have no idea who or what The dB's are or what the do. Maybe it will rule. Maybe it won't. One thing is for certain though nothing will ever be the same again after listening to it.
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Post by Prole Hole on Dec 12, 2017 9:52:39 GMT -5
I, however, am of a mind that this is the best Smiths album. And by some distance as well. Yes yes, I know we're all supposed to say it's The Queen Is Dead, but it isn't. It's this. I wasn't really a mopey teen when I got into this album, so it's not one i feel obliged to take seriously, and I think coming to it apart from its mopey-teendom allows the sense of humour to shine through much more that it otherwise would. Certainly "I Started..." and "Girlfriend..." are outright funny songs, and clearly neither is meant to be taken seriously. Sure, "Last Night I Dreamt...." is self-indulgent, but there's nothing wrong with a good wallow now and again, and that opening passage before the lyric kicks in feels genuniely powerful in a way that a lot of mope-directed music doesn't (it also feels like a development on from, but connected to, the slice-and-dice sound effects from "Meat Is Murder"). "Stop Me..." is outright brilliant, and I can't not love "Paint A Vulgar Picture", because it has some really terrific guitar work, it's a smartly competent lyric, and some great vocals. And "Death At One's Elbow" feels like a perfect end to their career - whether it is or not I don't know, but I always feel it's Morrissey singing directly at Marr, and actually allowing himself a moment of real honesty, not cloaking what he thinks behind ironic distance or humour. He's admitting that this is what he wants (fame), and that he'll do what he needs to in order to get it and hold on to it. It'a sort of naked honesty we almost never get from Morrissey at any point in his career, which makes me appreciate it even more.
(The Db's have R.E.M.-based connections, FWIW, with Mitch Easter (co-producer of their first two albums) and Peter Holsapple (the "fifth" R.E.M.'er for many a year). I shall say no more for fear of tainting your perceptions.).
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Dec 12, 2017 12:43:29 GMT -5
If you've listened to Flood then you are at least nominally familiar with the dB's because they get a namedrop on "Twisting." At least, that's how I was first acquainted with them. They're pretty cool.
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Dec 12, 2017 20:19:55 GMT -5
As Prole Hole intimated, Nudeviking, no REM without Mitch Easter. I shouted into the darkness about why we should listen to this dB's record for the January 2016 Anniversary Record Club. Stuff that doesn't get mentioned in Pitchfork's Best of elision: Easter's Let's Active is pretty nice, if you like "jangle pop". And, you might wanna investigate Game Theory's works produced by him. Game Theory was loosely affiliated with the 1980s Paisley Underground musical Lorenz attractor in L.A. Which, if you like the jangle pop akin to REM's greatest moments of their first 5 records, should also be perused for The Dream Syndicate, The Rain Parade, and Opal (which gave way to Mazzy Star). My lawn! Even that's been co-opted by the court jester of alt-eristicism Gavin McInnes. Jeez.
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Dec 21, 2017 15:27:35 GMT -5
In my day....sputter, wheeze, we liked Big Dipper a bunch, maybe even a bit more than dBs. They said nobody lissent'em. I say, phooey! Humbug is what it was. I had walked around Volcano Suns afore I bought any Big Dipper. I hadn't looked into the other half of Big Dipper's origin: The Embarassment, until I was on the downward slope of adulthood. Lookee there if'n you wanna see some DIY Power Pop from the late 70s that jangles and spangles at odd angles. What, this has only tangential relation to the upcoming band for review? Nevermind that. Pshaw.
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 2, 2018 19:53:16 GMT -5
The dB's - Stands For Decibels (1981)Happy New Year! It's been a while since I rapped at you about albums of music from the decade known as the 1980s, but I'm certain you all understand. I got caught up with the Christmas Spirit™ and spent the last few weeks listening to Christmasy music and thus had nothing to write about here, but Christmas and New Year have come and gone so it's time to get back to the grind. That grind begins with today's album, Stands For Decibels by The dB's. Pre-Existing Prejudices
I have never heard of this band or this album and thus have no preconceived notions about either. I hope it's good. Songs
“Black and White” Solid jangle pop riffage. The drums are dull thudding. Whether that is because of them being untuned or just poorly recorded I can’t say. There are some random false stops throughout the song that I don’t really care for but it’s otherwise a solid jam. “Dynamite” Fuck yeah rock organ! I dig the vocalist’s sound here for some reason. “She’s Not Worried” These guys clearly listened to a shit tonne of Pet Sounds. I mean if you’re going to rip off a sound it may as well be Pet Sounds. “The Fight” I like the space laser keyboards the happen in the beginning of the song. It’s a pretty decent song about a fight with a wife or live-in girlfriend. “Espionage” Bass and rock organ lead. This is a weird song. “Tearjerkin’” The beginning is great and sounds like the music to some long lost side scrolling beat ‘em up for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The rest of the song isn’t as great as the opening but it’s an okay song nonetheless. “Cycles Per Second” Wild Caribbean drumming and Nintendo keyboards. There’s a lot of bass all up in this. This is kind of a weird song but I dig it. “Bad Reputation” Garage rocking! Honkytonk pianos! This is a fine rock song albeit pretty generic. “Big Brown Eyes” So many bands I listened to in my life had songs that sounded more or less like this. It’s not bad but nothing all that special either. It’s pretty short though. “I’m In Love” These guys are a lot more interesting when they let the rock organs rock and the 80s synths fart all over the place like they do here. When they show restraint with the keyboards they’re just a fine workmanlike jangle pop band. “Moving in Your Sleep” This is a slow jam. It’s competently done but kind of boring until the end where there’s untuned snare drum clubbering and then a 20 second or snippet of awesome synth pop that fades out as quickly as it appeared. “Judy” A jangle pop song about a girl. Sounds kind of like They Might Be Giants. Possible accordions which is probably why I think it sounds like a They Might Be Giants Song. Decent fart synths. Decent guitar solo. When all is said and done this is a fine piece of music. Final Thought
This was mostly a fine album if like me you like guitar based pop music. That being said I’m not entirely certain why this particular album was included on Pitchfork’s list. The paragraph write-up Pitchfork included for this album on the list seems to credit it for begetting R.E.M. and college rock, though that seems suspect to me since R.E.M. existed more or less concurrently, forming as a band prior to this album’s release. Other than that this album is just a decent collection of better than average rock songs. Countless other bands have done the same sort of stuff and done it better. Like I said it’s a fine album but if this were a desert island situation I’d pick a Big Star or R.E.M. or Miracle Legion album over this. Best Song: “Black and White” Worst Song: “Espionage” Next time on Nudeviking vs. Pitchfork vs. The 1980s we take a look at the first rap/hip-hop album to show up on the list: Boogie Down Productions' 1987 album, Criminal Minded. AW YE YE!
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Jan 3, 2018 14:17:39 GMT -5
I respect dBs for their place in music history, and I, as a dim youth, couldn't figure out why Peter Holsapple or Chris Stamey got so much coverage on MTV ca. 1987, or in Spin magazine, for that matter. I like some of the tracks on this record, but I don't feel it places them at Big Star levels of power pop brilliance. I would hazard the guess that this got talked up a bunch at the writers' meetings producing this list, wherein one boastful authority spat out subjective rhetoric to another until a bully lever edged this in over something else.
Here's a funny factoid: Let's Active, Mitch Easter's band, contained Sara Romweber. Sara Romweber is blood sister to Dexter Romweber. Dexter Romweber, also featured in Athens, GA: Inside/Out along with R.E.M. among many others, performed in a guitar/drums duo called Flat Duo Jets - a band providing direct inspiration to The White Stripes (a guitar/drums duo consisting of manufactured brother and sister). Dexter and Sara (true brother and sister) now perform as a guitar/drums duo.
EDIT: Forgot to mention in my MTV recollection: I.R.S. Presents The Cutting Edge. You'll find that a goodly portion of the list shows up on this show throughout its broadcast period.
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Post by ganews on Jan 3, 2018 15:32:49 GMT -5
Dexter Romweber, also featured in Athens, GA: Inside/Out along with R.E.M. among many others, performed in a guitar/drums duo called Flat Duo Jets - a band providing direct inspiration to The White Stripes (a guitar/drums duo consisting of manufactured brother and sister). I'm going to venture that "Dog Pound Hop", below, is how most people might recognize the Flat Duo Jets (I got to see them live ~2005).
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 5, 2018 1:21:21 GMT -5
Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded (1987)So we went through a grand total of twenty-five (25) albums before Pitchfork decided there was a hip-hop album worth placing among the pantheon of The Greatest Albums of the 1980s. For those of you not keeping score there's I think six more rap/hip-hop albums after this on their list, two of which are from the Beastie Boys, so there you go. I'm going to be completely honest with you bud: I don't think I've ever heard Boogie Down Productions. I know that KRS-One was part of the group before he went solo, but other than that I've got no idea what they're about. So let's get on with it and find out together. Pre-Existing Prejudices
Of the six or seven hip-hop albums on this list, this is the only one I don't think I've ever heard before, though there's a chance I might encounter something here and be like "Oh yeah I remember this from Yo! MTV Raps from circa 1988," if any of these songs had music videos or got played on mainstream radio. Songs
"Poetry" James Brown "Soul Power" samples. The record scratching drowns out the vocals and is kind of annoying. According to KRS-One he is the greatest rapper in the history of the universe and he's going to show everyone else how to rap real good. "South Bronx" Boogie Down Productions tell us about where they're from. It's the South Bronx in case the title didn't give it away for you. We are informed that if you say hip-hop started in Queens while in the Bronx you're going to be in for a rough time. We get a hip-hop history lesson over more James Brown samples. "9mm Goes Bang" KRS-One murders dudes in a quasi-reggae song. This is a pretty good jam. I don't know about the history of hip-hop. Is this the first "gangsta rap" song? "Word From Our Sponsor" The fake Emergency Broadcasting System thing in the beginning about being informed of "which jams to play and how loud to blast (my) radio," is great. The song that follows lyrically doesn't cover any ground that a million other hip-hop songs haven't covered about how great hip-hop is and how good this particular hip-hop crew is. "Elementary" Scott La Rock! Go off! Go off! KRS-One raps some more about his favorite thing: how great he is. "Dope Beat" Hahaha "Back in Black" sample. KRS-One raps about maybe being straight edge or something. He claims not to eat meat or smoke crack. Also he is better than everyone at rap. A bunch of people rock the house, turn it out, cut it up, etc. at the end. Scott La Rock. Scott La Rock. "Remix for P is Free" Boogie Down Products inform us that they are ruling hip-hop wherever they are. KRS-One picks up a girl on his bicycle who informs him, "If you buy me a crack, I'll know how to act." He is not pleased by this and leaves her in the dust. More girls try to get him to buy crack for them over quasi-reggae music. "The Bridge is Over" Oh I have heard this before. KRS-One dislikes rapper Marley Marl and calls him and his crew gay. He also says some lady rapper is only good for fucking. This song is kind of gross and is very of a specific time and place. You probably need to read a bunch of shit or listen to a bunch of other songs to understand what this feud was about. To summarize KRS-One and Marley Marl disagree about where hip-hop was born. "Super-Hoe" "Yo, Kris. I really knocked the boots on those two big-butt females last night." "Jeeez!" And so begins perhaps the greatest song about a man armed with naught but a powerful erection fucking his way across New York City in 1986. That man's name was Scott La Rock better known by his nom de guerre, Super-Hoe. He once got interviewed on a radio station in Rochester and ended up fucking the entire female population of the city. He plans to open a school for prophylactics at some point in the future. "Criminal Minded" Uggg...a "Hey Jude" takeoff. KRS-One is going to teach us how to rap or something. He raps about how great he is and takes shots at Run DMC and stuff. Scott La Rock has a college degree and KRS-One is apparently a poet, this makes them superior rappers to ever other rapper that ever rapped a rap in the history of rappers rapping. Final Thoughts
KRS-One is good at the technical skill of rapping, but lyrically too many songs here were about how good he was at rapping so it got kind of old. There's also a problem with rap music that is somewhat less prevalent in rock and pop music, namely that it's very "here and now," in terms of its subject matter. There's a reason that Hip-Hop Genius is a website that exists, because four or five years after a particular song's been recorded few people will understand the stuff that's being referenced. That was very much true here some thirty years after the fact where they were referencing rappers who have more or less become footnotes in the history of hip-hop and night clubs in New York City circa 1985. Unfortunately I don't know enough about this sort of stuff to properly appreciate this album fully and thus my big takeaways are that KRS-One is the best rapper ever and Scott La Rock has a huge cock and loves to fuck. Scott La Rock. Scott La Rock. Best Song: "9mm Goes Bang" Worst Song: "Elementary" Next time on Nudeviking vs. The Best Albums of the 1980s an old foe rears its head when The Mekons return for another album that will most certainly suck nine hundred eighty-two kinds of ass. To be completely honest I kind of just want to skip it, but for the sake of completion I probably won't so next time it's either going to be The Mekons' Fear and Whiskey or Coil's Horse Rotovator if I decide to skip a thing.
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Jan 5, 2018 14:29:30 GMT -5
Nudeviking, ignore KRS-ONE. The real Roxanne Shanté has some fun raps. She has a storied place in the history of hip-hop.
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 8, 2018 19:34:55 GMT -5
Mekons - Fear and Whiskey (1985)The Mekons are back for another round of being one of the 100 most important albums of the 1980s in spite the fact that no one ever heard of them. The last time I encountered them I was underwhelmed to say the least. They were British people doing shitty Americana hillbilly hoedown nonsense with bad singing and lyrics about vampire hookers and 80s British political lyrics. It was not for me. While it's true that you never get a second chance to make a first impression I'm going to attempt to go into this one giving the Mekons a clean slate. There are a lot of bands I do like who have some shit albums in their discography ('sup David Bowie's Black Tie, White Noise?) so maybe the last album I listened to was just an off album by the Mekons. Let's find out. Pre-Existing PrejudicesI did not care for the last album of theirs that I reviewed. It was a lot of fiddles and alt-country building blocks that I care little for. I have not heard any of these songs on this album though and hope that The Mekons Rock n' Roll was an outlier in their discography. Songs"Chivalry" This is so fucking awful. Christ these vocals are the worst thing I've ever heard. The music is random fake sounding fiddles and drum machines over generic college rock guitar riffs. Lyrics about "fear and whiskey," so that's where the album title comes from. This is a terrible way to start an album. DO BETTER MEKONS! "Trouble Down South" You ever hear a squeezebox sound menacing? The Mekons have manage to pull that off somehow. Lyrically it's some garbage spoken word nonsense during the verses where I think they might be reading from a Magnum P.I. script at one point in horrible "American" accents. More fiddles and fake sounding drums. It's okay I guess but goes on too long since nothing happens until a guy rants about shit for the last 30 seconds. "Hard to be Human Again" Harmonicas?! Oh how I loathe harmonicas! Once the harmonicas fuck off we get some sloppy garage band guitar riffs and guys trying to be Bruce Springsteen and failing spectacularly. There's some random backwards guitar fuckery during the bridge. Again, this isn't the worst thing I've ever heard, but a bajillion other bands do this same sort of thing a million times better. “Darkness and Doubt” Slow motion bass licks and moany talk-singing with stupid lyrics lifted from that T-Rex, "Bang a Gong," song. The violin is as screechy as an elementary school orchestra. I have a strong desire to stab myself in the ear with a sharp object. “Psycho Cupid” Some British lady talks about her dad dropping toast and dreams and shit while guitars and fiddles wail impotently in the background and pianos and drums get pounded aimless. Maybe a saxophone is here too. “Flitcraft” The music here sounds like it would have been played during Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary deal. The vocals, on the other hand, sound like they would have come from the street 5 minutes after closing time. “Country” More generic “college rock” riffs and shitty vocals. There’s a harmonica being featured as well to make it more annoying than it already is. “Abernant 1984/5” All these songs are starting to sound the same. I hate this stupid band so much. I really should have just skipped this album. It’s poorly done punk meets poorly done folk music with a smattering of poorly done country music thrown in for seasoning. The result is fucking bullshit. “Last Dance” More screechy violin bullshit. A competent band could probably do a pretty good cover of this that I’d be about since the melody and lyrics and stuff aren’t awful but fuck these Mekons! God how they suck! “Lost Highway” No thank you. More moany vocals and slow motion drumming while someone plays Civil War era ballads badly on a violin. I am thankful that this is the last song on this album because I don't think I could take much more of this. Final ThoughtsNever again. There are about a bajillion more Mekons albums but the two I've now listened to were so boring and poorly done that I have absolutely no desire to listen to another song by them for as long as I live. While occasionally there are albums that I, myself, dislike I can see what someone else might like about them, but this? This I don't get. Like it's too country-western for people who like punk and too punky for people who like country-western and too poorly done for people who like competently performed music. Who does this appeal to? Are there Mekons superfans? People who claim that their favorite band is Mekons? I really can't envision anyone going beyond, "Yeah the Mekons are okay I guess. They have one or two songs that are decent enough." Best Song: "Last Dance" Worst Song: "Psycho Cupid" Next on deck is some band called Coil with an album titled Horse Rotovator. Hopefully it's good and washes away the bad vibes these goddamn Mekons have inundated me with.
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Post by Prole Hole on Jan 9, 2018 6:13:05 GMT -5
The Mekons suck. Some albums suck fractionally less than other albums, but the suckage will never, ever go away. I pity you, good Sir Nudie.
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 10, 2018 3:59:16 GMT -5
Coil - Horse Rotorvator (1986)Coil is one of those bands. I feel like I should have listened to them at some point in my life but don't think I ever did. They were adjacent to a lot of bands that I was into. I know one of the dudes here remixed some Nine Inch Nails songs, but other than that I've got no idea what I'm in for here. Pre-Existing PrejudicesI don't know anything about this album or the songs contained within. Songs"The Anal Staircase" There's a lot going on here. There are children either laughing or crying (it often hard to distinguish) fart synths, regular synths, drum machines, Eurodance synths, British dudes singing, British dudes grumbling like dwarves from the deep. Trent Reznor basically ripped his entire late 80s early 90s shtick off from this song. Pretty solid song with a delightfully ludicrous title. "Slur" I can't tell what any of these instruments are. It's pretty decent though. "Babylero" A nothing song where some lady sings in a language other than English while someone plays a güiro. It's like 50 seconds long and kind of segues into the following track. "Ostia (The Death of Pasolini)" Pier Paolo Pasolini was an openly gay Italian filmmaker probably best known for Salo. In 1975 he was murdered on a beach in Ostia. He'd had his testicles crushed, was run over with a car and burned. This is a song about that murder. I am very much about this song. "Herald" Another nothing song. This time it's a goofy marching band sounding deal with people talking in the background. The band in question is pretty terrible. Like "Babylero," it kind of segues into the next track. "Penetralia" More even than "The Anal Staircase," this song sounds like every 1990s Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson album I owned as a teenage dirtbag. The first half of the song is all industrial noise, chugga chugga guitar riffs, random swinets and violins. The second half adds skronky saxophones and menacing drums. It owns hard. "Circles of Mania" This is a weird song. Canned jazz licks and lyrics about a guy fucking the floor or something. There's frenzied fuck sounds. I don't like this very much. "Blood From the Air" Slow jam about God being a sadist or something. It's a solid song if a bit unnerving. "Who By Fire" This is a cover of Leonard Cohen song. It's a pretty decent cover as far as those things go. "The Golden Section" Spaghetti western trumpets and weird druid moaning and military snare drum rat-tat-tatting and fifes. There's some spoken word thing about Satan and dying I guess. This is a weird ass song. It sounds like the spoken word thing is from a documentary. If that's not true and it was recorded by Coil for this album one the dudes in this band would have made a great BBC documentary narrator. "The First Five Minutes After Death" This is some sinister sounding shit. It sounds like a horror movie. I would not want to listen to this song alone in the dark on headphones. There's weird skittering sounds and stuff pings between channels for a skin crawling listening experience. The spoken word stuff about dying in the previous track really set the stage here for a solid creep out jam session. "Ravenous" Lots of noise here. Some kind of fake harpsichord melody with samples of elephants trumpeting. Guitar noise. I guess the original LP didn't have this song on it and the album ended with the preceding song. This doesn't really add anything to the album here. "The First Five Minutes After Death," would have been a much better album closer. Final ThoughtsThis was pretty great. There were a couple songs I didn't like that much but by and large this album was awesome. It's kind of fun when I find a band or an album on this list that I wasn't familiarly with that so obviously influenced a ton of bands that I was into. This is one of those bands and one of those albums. I will definitely seek out some more Coil when I'm done listening to 70 more albums from the 1980s. Best Song: "Ostia (The Death of Pasolini)" Worst Song: "Circles of Mania" Next time it's more acid country-punk from the Meat Puppets when we take a look at their album, Up on the Sun.
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dwarfoscar
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Post by dwarfoscar on Jan 10, 2018 5:23:56 GMT -5
Coil - Horse Rotorvator (1986)Coil is one of those bands. I feel like I should have listened to them at some point in my life but don't think I ever did. They were adjacent to a lot of bands that I was into. I know one of the dudes here remixed some Nine Inch Nails songs, but other than that I've got no idea what I'm in for here. Pre-Existing PrejudicesI don't know anything about this album or the songs contained within. Songs"The Anal Staircase" There's a lot going on here. There are children either laughing or crying (it often hard to distinguish) fart synths, regular synths, drum machines, Eurodance synths, British dudes singing, British dudes grumbling like dwarves from the deep. Trent Reznor basically ripped his entire late 80s early 90s shtick off from this song. Pretty solid song with a delightfully ludicrous title. "Slur" I can't tell what any of these instruments are. It's pretty decent though. "Babylero" A nothing song where some lady sings in a language other than English while someone plays a güiro. It's like 50 seconds long and kind of segues into the following track. "Ostia (The Death of Pasolini)" Pier Paolo Pasolini was an openly gay Italian filmmaker probably best known for Salo. In 1975 he was murdered on a beach in Ostia. He'd had his testicles crushed, was run over with a car and burned. This is a song about that murder. I am very much about this song. "Herald" Another nothing song. This time it's a goofy marching band sounding deal with people talking in the background. The band in question is pretty terrible. Like "Babylero," it kind of segues into the next track. "Penetralia" More even than "The Anal Staircase," this song sounds like every 1990s Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson album I owned as a teenage dirtbag. The first half of the song is all industrial noise, chugga chugga guitar riffs, random swinets and violins. The second half adds skronky saxophones and menacing drums. It owns hard. "Circles of Mania" This is a weird song. Canned jazz licks and lyrics about a guy fucking the floor or something. There's frenzied fuck sounds. I don't like this very much. "Blood From the Air" Slow jam about God being a sadist or something. It's a solid song if a bit unnerving. "Who By Fire" This is a cover of Leonard Cohen song. It's a pretty decent cover as far as those things go. "The Golden Section" Spaghetti western trumpets and weird druid moaning and military snare drum rat-tat-tatting and fifes. There's some spoken word thing about Satan and dying I guess. This is a weird ass song. It sounds like the spoken word thing is from a documentary. If that's not true and it was recorded by Coil for this album one the dudes in this band would have made a great BBC documentary narrator. "The First Five Minutes After Death" This is some sinister sounding shit. It sounds like a horror movie. I would not want to listen to this song alone in the dark on headphones. There's weird skittering sounds and stuff pings between channels for a skin crawling listening experience. The spoken word stuff about dying in the previous track really set the stage here for a solid creep out jam session. "Ravenous" Lots of noise here. Some kind of fake harpsichord melody with samples of elephants trumpeting. Guitar noise. I guess the original LP didn't have this song on it and the album ended with the preceding song. This doesn't really add anything to the album here. "The First Five Minutes After Death," would have been a much better album closer. Final ThoughtsThis was pretty great. There were a couple songs I didn't like that much but by and large this album was awesome. It's kind of fun when I find a band or an album on this list that I wasn't familiarly with that so obviously influenced a ton of bands that I was into. This is one of those bands and one of those albums. I will definitely seek out some more Coil when I'm done listening to 70 more albums from the 1980s. Best Song: "Ostia (The Death of Pasolini)" Worst Song: "Circles of Mania" Next time it's more acid country-punk from the Meat Puppets when we take a look at their album, Up on the Sun. Great album, and my favorite among the early ones. Slur is basically the first Coil song I heard and I was hooked instantly. I got things started with the very weird Scatology, which is not as good but has hauntingly beautiful moments like 'At the heart of it all'. Other indispensable listenings : the later albums representative of their ambient experimentations. Musick to play in the dark (1999), The Ape of Naples (2005)
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Jan 10, 2018 15:32:27 GMT -5
Nudeviking, super cool that you dug this and saw its influence represented in the late 80s, early 90s "industrial" music. Personally, I only caught Coil in its Love's Secret Domain record that was played around with during my stretch in the University penitentiary. Tweren't bad that record. Rotorvator I listened to briefly but not thoroughly, as an extracurricular sortie, when touring the Nurse With Wound List. As for Mekons, I haphazardly picked up The Mekons Rock'n'Roll a good while back for no reason other than, "Hey, I should pick this up. I don't remember hearing this band though I know I have. [Listens to record] Oh. Maybe one track on a mix somewhere." I guess alt-country, No Depression, and that sort of thing is why these guys get so much representation on this list. I dunno.
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Post by Lurky McLurk on Jan 12, 2018 7:45:07 GMT -5
"How To Skin a Cat" Yup. Noise and glockenspiels and spoken word weirdness about skinning cats and feeding rats to cats and cats to rats that sounds like some Bizzaro mathematics word problem. This is rubbish and was the other song I skipped religiously when listening to this album (this song was the one track on this album that had zero plays according to iTunes since whenever added this album). As someone who has been getting into Hüsker Dü over the last few months, I am glad I am not alone in generally skipping this one. Also yes, "Terms of Psychic Warfare" is fucking aces.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Jan 12, 2018 16:40:50 GMT -5
I'd forgotten how good Horse Rotorvator is. I don't love it, there's a couple of weaker tracks, and it's an unsettling album that I kind of need to be in the right mood to listen to, but there's also some pretty great songs on there, and I should check out more Coil albums.
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 13, 2018 0:55:06 GMT -5
I'd forgotten how good Horse Rotorvator is. I don't love it, there's a couple of weaker tracks, and it's an unsettling album that I kind of need to be in the right mood to listen to, but there's also some pretty great songs on there, and I should check out more Coil albums. That was more or less my take on it as well. It's not the sort of thing I could listen to everyday, but it's definitely one of the better albums I've encountered for the first time since beginning this deal and a strong enough album that I'll definitely be looking into other albums from their discography in the near future.
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 16, 2018 0:18:21 GMT -5
Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun (1985)Time for another Meat Puppets album. I owned several of their albums in the 90s, primarily because of Kurt Cobain, and because I purchased them at a time when CDs cost like $18 after tax, forced myself to listen to them because otherwise it was a waste of money. They were never a band I really liked all that much though though on each of those two albums there'd generally be a couple songs I thought were okay enough to put on a mix tape. Perhaps this is going to be like that. Let's give it a spin and find out! Pre-Existing PrejudicesThis is not one of the two albums of theirs I own so I am not particularly familiar with this collection of songs. I have heard Meat Puppets II and Too High To Die many a time and have a vague idea of what to expect here much to my chagrin. This album has a painting of a coffee cup with what appears to be a pot leaf on it painted on the cover. This makes sense since I think the Meat Puppets like drinking coffee and also smoking the weeds. I think it's therefore pretty safe to assume that many of the songs on this album are going to be influenced by their twin loves of coffee and smoking the weeds. Songs"Up On The Sun" Perfectly acceptable guitar riffs. Curt Kirkwood continues to be a mediocre vocalist at best, but it bugs me a lot less than it did on Meat Puppets II here. Cool UFO noise closes out the song. "Maiden's Milk" For as shit as Curt Kirkwood is/was at singing the dude really knew how to play guitar. Solid guitaring throughout this track. No vocals to speak of. There is some whistling which usually annoys me but it's kind of kept to a minimum. "Away" Mostly inoffensive. Quasi-funk guitar. This is a fine thing to have on in the background while doing something else. Each time this song ends I promptly forget everything about it. "Animal Kingdom" This is a weird song and then it's over. I've decided that the only thing "punk" about the Meat Puppets at this time are how short some of their songs are. "Hot Pink" More clean tone guitars playing arpeggios and bass doing it's thang. This album is fine enough background music but nothing is really jumping out at me or catching my attention. "Swimming Ground" I don't think the Meat Puppets are a band I need to listen to more than one or two songs by at any given time. I find myself bored with their shtick. Nothing on this album is outright bad, it's just kind of same sounding: fast paced vaguely country inspired rock music with sub-par vocals about random shit. "Buckethead" More of the same. Fast guitar stuff and bass all up in my area. Please do something different Meat Puppets of '85. I implore you. "Too Real" "Around here it's all the same." You said it dude. It really is. "Enchanted Porkfist" Fast guitar noodling and moaning about how pistachios turn your fingers red. This is followed by less hasty guitar noodling. "Seal Whales" This is a Meat Puppets song. The riffs sound like they were recycled from the album, Meat Puppets II. It's all instrumental. Not a bad song, but nothing I feel any strong desire to hear again. "Two Rivers" These riffs are pretty good. The first minute or so of this song is easily the best thing on this album. I'd prefer this song if there were no vocals. This seems like a decent song to drive a car too. "Creator" Boring moaning vocals that rhyme "creator" with "alligator." The song just kind of ends, making this a pretty anticlimactic conclusion to an album. Final ThoughtsThis was really boring which for this project is the worst thing an album can be. I'm much rather an awful, rage inducing piece of garbage album than something that's "Okay I guess." This album was, okay I guess. I might have liked it better than Meat Puppets II overall since the lows on this album weren't as low as those lows, but the opposite is also true and the highs weren't as high. This was an album of music songs by a band and maybe that's enough for some people, but for me it was just kind of there, going in one ear and straight out the other. This is probably not worth your time. Best Song: "Two Rivers" Worst Song: Shrug..."Swimming Ground" maybe? Most of the songs were just kind of there. Next time on Nudeviking vs. The 1980s we get the first of like 9000 albums (I assume) by the Replacements. Come along as I review Pleased to Meet Me. NEXT TIME!
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 22, 2018 1:14:44 GMT -5
The Replacements - Pleased to Meet Me (1987)Back in the 1990s, before the rise of the internet, finding new music was a far more daunting task than it is in the present day. Sure you had your MTV, Rolling Stone, and local radio stations that would inform you when various pop singers and mainstream alternative bands were releasing new music and if you lived in the suburbs that was about it. In this environment things like compilation albums and movie soundtracks became vital to discovering new bands. You'd pick up an album because it had a previously unreleased Silverchair song or something and inevitably would end up hearing some band you'd never heard of before. Why am I talking about this? Because of the Singles Soundtrack. Like everyone who went to high school in the 90s I purchased the Singles Soundtrack. It had previously unreleased Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins songs on it as well as the best song Alice in Chains ever wrote. Also present on the Singles Soundtrack were a pair of songs by a guy named Paul Westerberg. One of them, "Dyslexic Heart," was the greatest song I'd ever heard the week I first heard it and it found a place on many a mix tape in the years that followed. At some point I learned that prior to being a guy named Paul Westerberg he was a guy named Paul Westerberg who was in a band called The Replacements, and I went out and purchased what albums of theirs I could at Record Town. Today's album, Pleased to Meet Me, while not the first Replacements album I heard, was one that I've heard in my life. Today we're going to take a listen to it. Pre-Existing PrejudicesI've owned this album for years and thus have heard all these songs before in my life. I have not listened to it in full for many years but have a favorable opinion of this band and this album though I am of the mind that The Replacements albums still to come on this best of the 80s list are better than this. Were I to compile a list of the top 100 albums of the 80s myself I might not include this album, but that's neither here nor there. Songs"I.O.U." Fuck yeah! Riff rock! This is all sleazy rock n' roll riffs and pounding drums. This is great and grand and fantastic. This is a perfect way to kick off an album of rock n' roll songs. "Alex Chilton" Such a Paul Westerberg riff. I assume this is about the dude from Big Star. I've heard this song hundreds of times in my life and it's still great. Why can't more songs be like this? "I Don't Know" Random rock n' roll saxophone and call and response verses with dudes mumbling "I don't know." It's all farting baritone saxophones up in this mug. At least these dudes had the good sense to get someone skilled at saxophone farts to play them unlike David Bowie. "Nightclub Jitters" Smooth jazz crooning. More saxophoning. I don't remember this song existing which makes sense since it seems like something I would have skipped over back in the era of listening to this on CD. It's not particularly good. "The Ledge" Another great song. Good riffs. Awesome guitar heroics. Three thumbs up. "Never Mind" A passable rock n' roll song. On another album I would probably like this song more, but here it's kind of overshadowed by a lot of the other jams. "Valentine" Woo! Rock organ baby! More monster guitar riffs. But that's not all! Paul Westerberg also sings exactly like you'd expect him to sing. "Shooting Dirty Pool" More sleaze guitars. Seems like a George Thorogood song. We've got laser guitars and Van Halen-esque guitar heroics for some reason. This is kind of ridiculous. "Red Red Wine" This is not a cover of the Neil Diamond song made famous by British reggaers, UB40, but rather some random bar band rock jam about drinking wine on a Sunday and not giving a shit what kind of wine it is, provided it's red wine because Paul Westerberg is not a connoisseur. It's a decent enough rock song I guess. "Skyway" Acoustic slow jam about a skyway. Apparently it's not like a subway but does have bums in it when it's cold which sounds exactly like a subway. I had little use for songs like this when I was 14 years old and thus did not recall it being on this album. "Can't Hardly Wait" Decent album closer but this is a far cry from the "We are a punky bar band," sound of their earlier albums. There are strings and horns and stuff and Alex Chilton, the man not the song, shows up to play guitar solos and stuff. This is a big studio rock song from a big studio rock band. It's a good song and also makes me think of that time that Seth Green got stuck in the bathroom at a party while wearing ski goggles for some reason and eventually humped some girl named Denise. Good times. Good times while stuck in a bathroom... Final ThoughtsThere are a couple really, really great songs on this album, but also some songs that barely rise above the level of being "Okay I guess." The Replacements have much better albums than this, but "Alex Chilton," is a goddamn jam and a half that is easily among the best stuff this band has ever done. All in all if you like power pop music you'll probably be about this album since it's got power and pop and songs about power pop artists. AW YE YE! Best Song: "Alex Chilton" Worst Song: "Nightclub Jitters" Fuck my life...next time on The 1980s it's that goddamn racist dweeb, Elvis Costello's, first appearance when I endure an entire album of his goddamn bullshit. I hate Elvis Costello with the heat of a thousand suns but I didn't skip the second Mekons album, so I'm not going to skip this. Join me in shitting all over Trust, next time in this very thread!
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Post by Prole Hole on Jan 22, 2018 4:56:02 GMT -5
I don't remember this being The Replacements best work. I listened to them a bunch in the early 90's at university and remember liking them OK but they were more a band I'd stick a few tracks on a mix tape than explore their entire back catalogue. Even so, I have a feeling... Tim is maybe a better album than this? It's been a LONG time since I sought out The Replacements so I might be misremembering.
Oh dear. Elvis next. All hands, brace for impact! (I quite like early Costello, but Trust isn't my go-to album)
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 22, 2018 5:37:28 GMT -5
I don't remember this being The Replacements best work. I listened to them a bunch in the early 90's at university and remember liking them OK but they were more a band I'd stick a few tracks on a mix tape than explore their entire back catalogue. Even so, I have a feeling... Tim is maybe a better album than this? It's been a LONG time since I sought out The Replacements so I might be misremembering. Oh dear. Elvis next. All hands, brace for impact! (I quite like early Costello, but Trust isn't my go-to album) I like Tim and Let It Be more than this and those were generally my go-to albums when I felt like listening to the Replacements. As for Elvis Costello I never really cared for his radio hits. He kind of struck me as a nerdier version of Sting...with bonus racism thrown in for good measure.
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Post by Prole Hole on Jan 22, 2018 6:03:44 GMT -5
Eh, he made one stupid comment when he was absolutely drunk, and even Ray Charles said, "it's time to move on, he said one stupid thing when we was drunk". He's never done anything else racist (that I'm aware of anyway), and if Ray Charles has forgiven him, it's maybe time the rest of us moved on as well.
I can understand why Costello isn't everyone's cup of tea absolutely, though "Watching The Detectives" is a better song than anything Sting has managed in his entire career (not a high bar, I admit). Sadly, however, you're stuck with Trust, which isn't one that would crack my Top 100 Albums Of The 80's, that's for sure. More when you get there!
Let It Be! That was the other Replacements album I was trying to think of! Thanks Nudie!
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Dellarigg
AV Clubber
This is a public service announcement - with guitars
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Post by Dellarigg on Jan 22, 2018 7:53:36 GMT -5
Costello was in a drunken argument with some of the old guard musicians, members of the Stephen Stills band and Bonnie and Delaney. Back in London at this time, the punks were wearing Swastikas - not because they were Nazis themselves, but to inflame the oldsters. Over to Elvis: “It became necessary for me to outrage these people with the most offensive and obnoxious remarks I could muster to bring the argument to a swift conclusion and rid myself of their presence.”
So, not in the least bit wise, but on the whole I wouldn't call him a hardened racist or anything. And the Get Happy album, featuring Riot Act, is a pretty good act of redemption.
Adding my further two cents: I like him a fair bit, but Trust isn't the album I play most. Get Happy probably would be.
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Post by Prole Hole on Jan 22, 2018 7:58:55 GMT -5
For me it's likely My Aim Is True, but no argument with anyone who would choose Get Happy
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 22, 2018 9:29:08 GMT -5
Costello was in a drunken argument with some of the old guard musicians, members of the Stephen Stills band and Bonnie and Delaney. Back in London at this time, the punks were wearing Swastikas - not because they were Nazis themselves, but to inflame the oldsters. Over to Elvis: “It became necessary for me to outrage these people with the most offensive and obnoxious remarks I could muster to bring the argument to a swift conclusion and rid myself of their presence.” So, not in the least bit wise, but on the whole I wouldn't call him a hardened racist or anything. And the Get Happy album, featuring Riot Act, is a pretty good act of redemption. Adding my further two cents: I like him a fair bit, but Trust isn't the album I play most. Get Happy probably would be. While perhaps not an outright racist the fact that he got punched out by a lady-singer for this incident does indeed cement his "dweeb" status.
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Post by Prole Hole on Jan 22, 2018 10:23:58 GMT -5
Oh nobody's denying the dweeb, that's for sure.
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Jan 22, 2018 20:12:49 GMT -5
Back to the album at play....No Bob Stinson = No The Replacements for me. Yeah, the songs on here are worthwhile and well-written, even memorable. As I gaze into the magnetic swirls of my hard drive, I find that I have kept this. On this record, they'd honed their craft by way of oceans of lager, spirits, and rafts of tobacco, excluding the soon-to-be-dead Bob who was thrown overboard for this musical document. I agree with most all of your sentiments expressed re. the songs, Nudeviking. In the final analysis at the end of the day near the bottom line, Let it Be for me. Tim a close, but unretained in the hard drive final cut that hasn't gone through its deletion measure yet, second. Sorry Ma unmentionable, wastoid hardcore, [note to self] oh shit that needs to get binned too. Stink and Hootenanny unremembered by this older, half-assed participant of life. As a pisstake counterpoint to this album's position on the Pitchfork list, Paste magazine had this at #70. See how close the homogeny of taste appears to cohere to some aesthetic of cool?
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 23, 2018 3:48:07 GMT -5
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Trust (1981)Look at this nebbish fucker! Just look at him! This is Elvis Costello. Of all the artists to appear on the 100 Greatest Albums of the 80s this dweeb is apparently one of the most important since he shows up thrice on this list. Released in 1981 this was an album of songs by a British dweeb prone to drunken racist outbursts. I hate my life. Pre-Existing PrejudicesI do not like Elvis Costello. I never did. He had songs that appeared on the radio. None of them were ever any good. I don't know if I've heard any songs off this particular album, but I hate Elvis Costello's voice and how goddamn boring all his radio singles were. I am not looking forward to this album. Songs"Clubland" I hate this fucker's voice. Musically the guitars sound like shitty white guy reggae. The only good thing going on here is the rock n' roll organ during the choruses. "Lovers Walk" Frantic drums and piano plinking. Fuckin;' Elvis Costello voice all up in this mumbling about gumbo and other other bullshit. It randomly ends. "You'll Never Be a Man" Boring piano man bullshit. Dud. I have no idea how I'm going to get through an entire album of this garbage. "Pretty Words" The verses are not that terrible but then Elvis Costello starts crooning about how "Pretty words don't mean much anymore," and I hate it. "Strict Time" This is just sound. There are drums and pianos and Elvis Costello's voice making voice sounds but nothing here sticks with me in the slightest. "Luxembourg" Ug, 80s rockabilly. Fuck this bullshit. This is awful. I HATE Elvis Costello so goddamn much. Like I was already dreading this album going in but had no idea it was going to be this awful. "Watch Your Step" Bad white guy soul music. Fuck you Elvis Costello. "New Lace Sleeves" Slow crooning with bass and organs. I am so over this goddamn album. Everything is so goddamn slow. Random melodica bleating. "From a Whisper to a Scream" Some other fucker sings on this song. He is a bajillion times better than Elvis Costello. Why can't this other fucker sing instead? He's way better but is probably relegated to being a bass player or whatever for the bulk of this album. Life is not fair. Keep on keeping on bass guy or organist or melodica player or whoever you are good singing guy... "Different Finger" British country-western music. I don't know why but British people doing country-western music is really offensive to me as an American. I don't even like country music but it's like such an American thing that hear British dweebs do it makes me kind of angry. Maybe this is why I also hated the Mekons so much. I don't know. "White Knuckles" Have you ever heard an Elvis Costello song? This song sounds exactly like that song but isn't the song you're thinking of. I kind of like the organ that's super low in the mix. The random laser noises that pop up near the end are good too. The singing and everything else kind of ruin everything though. "Shot With His Own Gun" Boring. Boring. Boring. 1930s style murder ballad I guess. Who cares? I don't and that's for goddamn sure. "Fish 'n' Chips Paper" This is kind of okay I guess. There's an awesome organ part and some decent guitar riffs I guess. I don't know if I'd ever voluntarily listen to this song, but if it was to come on the radio or something while I was driving I probably wouldn't bother changing the radio station. "Big Sister's Clothes" Garbage. A horrible ending to a horrible album. Bonus Tracks!!!!!!Fuck...this is some kind of deluxe version, I'm only halfway done with the review. "Black Sails in the Sunset" Nope. More boring Elvis Costello shit. "Big Sister" I guess this is a version of "Big Sister's Clothes." It's more manic and loud than that version. It's marginally better than the version appearing on the album proper. "Twenty-Five to Twelve" Elvis Costello's vocals are so overpowering on most of these songs which is an awful production choice. I don't like this song. "Sad About Girls" This sounds like something that would play in a dentist office's waiting room. Pass. "From a Whisper to a Scream (Alternate Version)" The other fucker doesn't sing here. It's just Elvis Costello and it's so much worse because of that. BRING BACK THAT OTHER FUCKER! "Watch Your Step (Alternate Version)" Jazzbo drumming and way more pianos than the album version proper. I prefer this to the boring white guy soul shit of that version, but it's still not a great song or anything. "Clubland (Alternate Take)" This take is slower and more boring than the album version. There's Latin piano flourishes all over the place. I don't like this and want to stop listening to this music. "You'll Never Be a Man (Alternate Take)" I don't even know if there's anything different here from the album version. It's still boring piano bullshit. One more shitty song and I'm calling this off. "Slow Down" Generic rock n' roll. This wouldn't have been out of place in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's not great or something that countless others haven't already done way better, but it's probably like the second best song on this entire album. "Big Sister (Alternate Version)" A boring piano version of a raved up version of a boring non-piano version of a song. This is probably the most boring version of this particular song to appear on this album. Also Elvis Costello's voice is particularly shitty here. "Black Sails in the Sunset" Nope. More boring Elvis Costello shit. NOW WITH EVEN MORE BOREDOM! I hate this motherfucker's voice so goddamn much. "Hoover Factory (Alternate Version)" Um...there's no song titled "Hoover Factory" on this album, so I have no idea what this is an alternate version to. This is a shitty song anyway. "Love for Sale" This is a cover of a Cole Porter song. Ella Fitzgerald did a version of it on Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book which is pretty good. This is passable I guess, but I'd rather listen to that version than this one. "Boy With a Problem" Pianos and boredom. I had no idea how much Elvis Costello was boring piano bar bullshit. His radio singles were never this dull. I hated them, sure, but they weren't bad songs you'd hear while drinking whiskey somewhere. "Weeper's Dream" This is completely inessential. It's a minute of someone playing jazz scales and doing random guitar noodling. "Gloomy Sunday" Oh great this is just what I need after like two hours of Elvis Costello...the goddamn Hungarian Suicide Song. Great job Elvis Costello! Again this makes me want to listen to vastly superior versions of this song by other artists. "The Long Honeymoon (Instrumental Piano Demo)" Again I feel like I'm missing something since there's no non-instrumental piano version of this song on this album. It's not bad, but it's only like a minute and a half of someone piano plinking before it ends. Final ThoughtsThere was nothing about this album that I liked and will never purposely listen to any of these songs again at any point in my life. I've somehow managed to burn myself out on Elvis Costello after a single album and thus think I'm going to skip the rest of the Elvis Costello albums on this list. I hate his voice so much and will never think any of his songs are any good because of that fact. Couple that with the fact that his songs are boring as fuck it's a recipe for annoyance at best. Elvis Costello kind of strikes me as the sort of music a person who likes writing about music or thinking about music more than actually listening to music would probably enjoy since there's probably intertextuality with his songs and stuff. "Oh this is a guitar line from a Bo Diddley song and that lyric is a callback to a song by XTC..." and shit like that. That is not why I listen to music and so Elvis Costello does absolutely nothing for me. Best Song: "Pretty Words" Worst Song: "Different Finger" Next time is The Feelies' album, Crazy Rhythms. I don't know what that is. I hope it is not as bad as this album was...or as long.
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 25, 2018 2:20:07 GMT -5
Rest In Power to Best Album of the 80's alum, and human Gollum, Mark E. Smith who died this morning in his house at the age of 60. He is survived by the most convoluted discography in music.
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