Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Dec 27, 2017 16:38:14 GMT -5
I've wanted to do my own discography review for a while now, one that would make ganews and Nudeviking look like simpering schoolchildren-- and I also wanted to do some big public project in 2018 that would require me to write every week. This thread is me nailing two birds with one rock. Or rather, one rock critic. Those of you who've paid attention to my musical opinions will note that I am far more acquainted with the pop and rock of yesteryear than a 90's kid should be. This is 80% the fault of my yippie dad, whose decision to wean his six-year-old daughter on The Mothers and The Fugs may or may not qualify as criminal negligence. But it is 20% the fault of the Russian linguist slash amateur music critic George Starostin, whose website "Only Solitaire" introduced me to dozens of shitty flower power bands and third-rate roots rockers. George's site hosts well over 2,000 album reviews (and this is not counting the additional 2,000 reviews on his blog, posted daily from 2010 to the present day, although there's some overlap), but of those thousands of albums, only a couple dozen are so bad that they've been smacked down with a "truly offensive" rating: As it turns out, there are exactly 53 of these albums... and there are 53 weeks in 2018. Every Monday I'll be posting a review of one of the albums on Starostin's list, seeing whether they're as bad as he says. I'll probably go through them alphabetically by artist. THE LIST10cc: Ten Out Of Ten10cc: Windows In The JungleABBA: Ring RingABBA: Waterloo Alice Cooper: Constrictor Angra: RebirthArt Of Noise: The Seduction Of Claude DebussyBeach Boys: Keepin' The Summer Alive Bee Gees: Life In A Tin Can Bee Gees: Spirits Having FlownBlack Sabbath: Never Say DieBlack Sabbath: Born Again Black Sabbath: Headless Cross Black Sabbath: Tyr Bob Dylan: SavedBruce Springsteen: The Ghost Of Tom Joad The Clash: Cut The CrapCreedence Clearwater Revival: Mardi Gras Electric Light Orchestra Part Two: Moment Of Truth Elton John: Victim Of LoveEric Clapton: August Fleetwood Mac: Live At The Marquee Fleetwood Mac: Mr WonderfulFleetwood Mac: Time Free: Highway Free: Free At LastGentle Giant: Interview Grand Funk Railroad: Survival Grand Funk: What's Funk? Hole: Pretty On The Inside Jeff Beck: Flash Jefferson Airplane: Volunteers Jethro Tull: Under WrapsJethro Tull: Crest Of A Knave Jethro Tull: Rock Island John Fogerty: Eye Of The Zombie King Crimson: Earthbound Kinks: Phobia Led Zeppelin: CodaMoody Blues: Sur La Mer Mr Bungle: The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Paul McCartney: Press To Play Pete Townshend: Psychoderelict Renaissance: Songs From Renaissance DaysRingo Starr: Sentimental Journey Rod Stewart: Foolish BehaviourRod Stewart: Tonight I'm Yours Rod Stewart: Every Beat Of My HeartSoft Machine: Fourth Steve Hackett: Genesis RevisitedSyd Barrett: OpelTraffic: Far From Home Yes: Union
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Post by ganews on Dec 27, 2017 17:01:57 GMT -5
Shows what you know, I already look like a simpering schoolboy. Well, I plan on enjoying at least a handful of these. Not Mr. Wonderful, though.
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Dec 27, 2017 17:23:53 GMT -5
Haha, I hope that we sync up so that I review Time the same week you do.
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Dec 27, 2017 17:31:11 GMT -5
So is The Ghost Of Tom Joad.
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Dec 27, 2017 17:36:18 GMT -5
I've come round to Saved a lot lately as well.
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Dec 27, 2017 19:19:26 GMT -5
So is The Ghost Of Tom Joad. Starostin is infamously not a fan of Springsteen, and I sort of agree with him. (Even though I do like Bruce.)
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Post by Prole Hole on Jan 2, 2018 9:56:27 GMT -5
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jan 2, 2018 10:58:56 GMT -5
This is a most intriguing list and I am eager to hear your take on it - particularly on Art of Noise, Paul McCartney, Credence, ELO, and the Clash. Lord Lucan will be pleased (or displeased) to see a good number of Jethro Tull albums. Good luck with all that Rod Stewart...
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Post by Lord Lucan on Jan 3, 2018 22:34:51 GMT -5
This is a most intriguing list and I am eager to hear your take on it - particularly on Art of Noise, Paul McCartney, Credence, ELO, and the Clash. Lord Lucan will be pleased (or displeased) to see a good number of Jethro Tull albums. Good luck with all that Rod Stewart... The last Tull album I enjoy apart from their Christmas album is Heavy Horses. I’d be unsurprised if the ones listed here are dross, though I don’t remember hearing them. As far as bad titles go, their 1999 release is J-Tull Dot Com.
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Jan 4, 2018 2:33:05 GMT -5
10cc: Ten Out of TenPre-Existing Prejudices: Judging by the prominent pentagram on the cover, I have no choice but to assume this album is the heaviest of metal. Take a gander at that poor man with puffy hair who's about to toss himself off a ledge, presumably as a result of taking in the subliminal barrage of suicide anthems on this monument to the great baphomet. Or maybe not? I have never heard a single 10cc song in my life. My understanding is that these guys are like a transatlantic equivalent of Sparks (another act I am only nominally familiar with), and that one of the members of this band was named Lol Creme, a name that must be a pseudonym. George Starostin's Take: "Hollow, soulless professionalism with no point to make and no fun to offer." My Ten (Out Of Ten) Cents: Ten Out Of Ten begins adequately, if not excellently: "Don't Ask" is a pretty catchy song which mashes white guy reggae, a chorus that wouldn't sound out of place on an ELO album, and a cool guitar solo together into a jerky funk rhythm. It's not an all-time classic or anything, but it's a modest pop number. Unfortunately, it has a big flaw that it shares with every song on the album: stupid, stupid lyrics. This is a kindergarten-level rhyme scheme, and pretty sexist to boot-- I mean, how did the first draft of this song's chorus go, you think? "Who makes you meatloaf? Not me, because I'm a wife-beating oaf?" Okay, I know this is a far cry from the outright misogyny of cock rock, or even the creepy nice guy posturing of Shawn Mendes, Magic, et al. But no, the worst thing here isn't that these lyrics are dumb, it's that they're so banal, like they couldn't even be bothered to write unintentionally funny lyrics. The "couldn't be arsed" quality carries over to the singing of these lyrics. 10cc doesn't partake in the vocal hysterics typical of eighties cheese, which I initially chalked up to restraint, but on the second listen I quickly realized that they just weren't able to put any emotion into their vocals, not even the phony melisma that their contemporaries used in lieu of emotion. Anyway, if the first track made you think this album was going to have some eclectic genre-mashing on a track-to-track basis, the next few tracks will quickly disabuse you of that notion. 10cc have two modes on this album, helpfully illustrated by tracks 2 and 3: they can do bouncy, semi-ironic reggae numbers with bad keyboard tones, as they do on "Overdraft in Overdrive;" and they can do soggy, achingly sincere ballads with even worse keyboard tones, as they do on "Don't Turn Me Away." (The former is much better than the latter, mostly because it's more uptempo and thus ends faster.) Sometimes they even have the gall to merge the two together, as they do on track 4, the abysmal "Memories." The album perks up a little with track five, "Notell Hotel," an AOR slog that I must assume is their attempt at penning a "Hotel California." The song doesn't hold a candle to "Hotel California"-- as far as songs about hotels go, I think even "Hotel Room Service" might be better-- but at least there's some tasty Rhodes piano on there. I wish I could say something positive about the next track, "Les Nouveaux Riches," a ska number lambasting white tourists which is to my knowledge the first pop song to use the word "interbreeding." Unfortunately, the song is almost totally ruined by the lyrics, which are written in a moronic pidgin and sung in a broad Caribbean accent. Someone didn't think this track through."Action Man in Motown Suit" is pretty good though: tasteful, xylophone-laden (!) lite jazz that kind of reminds me of Santana at his chillest, alternating with downtempo funk with saloon piano. Probably the best track on the album. "Listen With Your Eyes" is 10cc doing rockabilly, which is weird for a bunch of Brits, but I guess they're more convincing there than they are as skankers. Then the album goes back to phony-sincere balladeering with bloated Eighties production. "Lying Here With You" is built around irritating pseudo-classical piano crap, while "Survivor" is a more standard power ballad with acoustic guitar and drums that dutifully thwack in at the halfway point, but they both suck chodes, so who's counting? The Final Verdict: This isn't "throw yourself off a building" bad-- but it's close. There are some decent tracks here, and an occasional lyrical flourish that makes you think that maybe these guys are smarter than they let on... but if they're so smart, why are they wasting their time on mushy, irony-free ballads? Ugh. Best Track: "Action Man in Motown Suit" Worst Track: "Memories" Next Week on Diaz vs. Starostin: I get a second helping of 10cc, with their 1983 offering "Windows in the Jungle." Will it be a marked improvement? (Spoilers: no.)
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Post by Prole Hole on Jan 4, 2018 4:42:28 GMT -5
10cc suck. And you are doing Bowlpup's work having to struggle through not one but two albums of theirs.
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Jan 4, 2018 5:00:31 GMT -5
The only interesting thing about this band is that their name is a reference to the average amount of jizz in an ejaculation. But I assume everyone knows that by now, rendering it slightly less interesting.
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Post by Prole Hole on Jan 4, 2018 5:44:46 GMT -5
And there was me innocently thinking it was just a very small engine....
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Jan 4, 2018 7:07:04 GMT -5
And there was me innocently thinking it was just a very small engine.... In that case, have I got news for you about Pearl Jam and The Lovin' Spoonful ...
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Jan 4, 2018 13:57:11 GMT -5
10cc suck. And you are doing Bowlpup's work having to struggle through not one but two albums of theirs. See, I got the impression from this album that they were a once-good band that decayed over time-- am I wrong to think that?
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Jan 5, 2018 1:23:40 GMT -5
I had never heard of 10cc, and with good reason, it appears, because this album is very bad. Listening to Ten Out of 10, I agree that primarily it's a lazy album, and that laziness overshadows any sort of competence or occasional flashes of okay songwriting. I'm also struck by the fact that it feels like it was already a little dated for its time; were it not for the white-guy-reggae-and-ska stuff, I'd have been inclined to place the date of this album seven or eight years before it was actually released. There's also just a lot of stuff that feels derivative of better bands; the vocalist comes across as a poor man's Roger Daltrey at times (particularly on the opening track), there's at least one moment where the guitarist does a shitty, uninspired Brian May impression, "Notell Hotel" is, as you say, a bad "Hotel California" ripoff (also, for a song that I think was supposed to be about unraveling the mystery of the titular hotel, the mood of the song was decidedly non-mysterious), and on top of that, it does that including-someone-speaking-on-the-telephone-in-your-song thing that probably wasn't pioneered by Pink Floyd, but is at least most famous as a recurring element of The Wall, and was done much better by them. In one respect, though, I would quibble with your claim that "Notell Hotel" is far inferior to "Hotel California", in that while "Hotel California's" function as a classic rock radio staple appears to be to convince the listener that they are in a never-ending fever dream of insufferable rock music about excess and vice despite its being under seven minutes long, if "Notell Hotel" had been a classic rock radio staple, it would have done a much better job of convincing me that I was in that very same infinite fever dream despite being a full minute and a half shorter than the classic Eagles hit. Anyway, I think I will take your word for it when you review Windows in the Jungle, because Christ was that awful.
And my vote for album-on-this-list-that's-actually-pretty-good is Never Say Die!.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2018 7:11:41 GMT -5
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Jan 10, 2018 19:59:03 GMT -5
10cc suck. And you are doing Bowlpup's work having to struggle through not one but two albums of theirs. See, I got the impression from this album that they were a once-good band that decayed over time-- am I wrong to think that? Update, because being entirely unfamiliar with this band until last week, I decided to give 10cc's debut album a listen. It was pretty good! A bunch of doo-wop pastiches and Beach Boys sendups with lyrics like "I love to watch those convicts squeal / it's a shame these slugs ain't real!" Don't get me wrong, it starting running out of steam towards the end, but they're a bunch of jokers with chops-- a band after my heart. Then I gave Windows in the Jungle a listen and had my heart broken. But that's a story for another day.
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ArchieLeach
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Post by ArchieLeach on Jan 10, 2018 20:48:08 GMT -5
10cc suck. And you are doing Bowlpup's work having to struggle through not one but two albums of theirs. See, I got the impression from this album that they were a once-good band that decayed over time-- am I wrong to think that? First of all, I thought I was the only person who will read George Starostin compulsively for an hour at a time. He's so offhand and artless, it's like he drank you halfway under the table and now is going to tell you his opinion. He's passionate. I wish he wrote a little more about soul acts. Yeah, there are records on that list I have, and one or two I even like. I don't have Mr. Wonderful, but I have an opinion about it. Today, on the ganews Fleetwood Mac thread, I wrote that I was collecting the Eagles, ELO, and George Harrison in my young days. I consciously left 10cc off of that list for fear of losing all credibility. But 10cc has an important distinction in my life as a music collector - Bloody Tourists was the first cut-out I ever bought, on the basis of the single "Dreadlock Holiday," a minor hit before I learned the significance of reggae. A friend of the family took my newly-divorced mom and her two boys out to a flea market in Atlanta and taught me about record bargains. (I also bought a Japanese pressing of Revolver at Peach's, and ate steak tartare at Burt's Place. That's Burt as in Mr. Reynolds...) Tourists is pablum, as was most of their preceding record Deceptive Bends, also bought as a cut-out. It had "The Things We Do For Love" (little did I know how much I would hear it the following century), a pretty fun "Good Morning Judge" and the clever "I Bought A Flat Guitar Tutor." These two albums were the first the band put out after Godley and Creme split from Stewart and Gouldman. As a foursome, they did upbeat, outlandish parodies until hitting the Big Time with "I'm Not in Love" from The Original Soundtrack. That album has the funny "The Film of Our Love" and the multi-part "One Night in Paris," which may have influenced "Bohemian Rhapsody" and deserves a listen. (I just reread your review - surely you've heard "The Things We Do For Love" and "I'm Not in Love"? The latter has an awesome "making of" documentary on YouTube. Also, Eric Stewart takes a surprising, prominent role in one of the other albums on the list.) My little brother collected all the later 10cc. They are dreadful, although I seem to remember Steve Gadd playing some great drum break on Windows. You didn't ask me, but I share. Good luck on your project. We're rooting for you.
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Feb 17, 2018 2:15:50 GMT -5
10cc: Windows in the Jungle (1983)Pre-Existing Prejudices: Well, Ten Out of 10 was crap, so that colored my opinion going in. Starostin Sez: He quotes the first two paragraphs of his Ten Out of 10 review verbatim, changing only the release date; he then trashes the album for being "repugnantly sentimental trash" and finishes it off by calling it No Windows in the Shithouse. Real bottom-feeder stuff. I'd have gone with something intellectual like, uh, calling the band 1000011001100 because they sound like robots. 1000011001100 being 4300 in binary, of course, because 10cc is 4300 in hexadecimal. Then I'd harangue the shoutbox into calling me clever for a few minutes, and then when they didn't I'd try something classy like "more like ... Win-BLOWS in the BUNGLE." Because I am smart, S-M-R-T. Me, an Intellectual, Sayeth: This wasn't all that bad, actually. Now, keep in mind that I've listened to this album four times in its entirety, so I'm not sure whether this album really is better than its predecessor or whether I've come down with an acute case of Stockholm syndrome. But the fact that I willingly listened to this album more than twice says something. Something other than "Rosa Diaz is a madwoman," I mean. Windows in the Jungle is not a random assortment of pop crap, but a concept album. Like, an honest-to-god concept album with Pink Floydian sound effects and shit. Surprisingly, it actually works: the album isn't a masterpiece or anything, but all the songs work as a coherent whole, built around the thesis established in "24 Hours," the opening track: "the city's a jungle where the strongest survive." "24 Hours" is almost praiseworthy-- it's an eight-minute (!) quasi-prog multi-part suite (!!), and it's surprisingly good. You've got a power ballad, a twangy bit, some jungle noises and honking, some socially conscious lyrics, and it all flows into one another, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. I don't think it's ever really dynamic or fun-- this isn't "Roundabout." But it's adequate, bordering on good. And then the album takes an immediate nosedive. Track two is named "Oomachasaooma (Feel the Love)," and it is as terrible as that gibberish title would imply: five minutes of wimpy wimoweh chants and imbecilic cooing about the power of love, set to intolerable white people reggae. Ew. The ballad "Yes I Am!" isn't as offensive, but it certainly does not warrant the exclamation mark in its title. And it certainly should not be six minutes long holy shit. The next four tracks are better-- and shorter-- and they all sound pretty different, but they all have at least one major flaw. "Americana Panorama" has a solid thumpin' beat and a neat sax riff, but it's held back by enormously dumb America-bashing lyrics. Not that I'm opposed to America bashing, but you can do better than dedicating an entire verse to mocking fast food. Oh, and they praise Richard Nixon for how he "proved you can fool all the people all the time," which might be even dumber. "City Lights" is a solid pop-rocker with some nice, funky verses. Or at least, I thought it was before I realized that it was just a ripoff of Steve Winwood's "Valerie" which came out the year prior. And unlike that other ripoff of Steven Winwood's "Valerie" they didn't even have the decency to include any slutty aerobics sessions. Then you have "Food for Thought," which is another white guy reggae number, but it's only bad by dint of being a white guy reggae number. As far as second-rate Police pastiches go it's pretty fine. And "Working Girls" is a fun number lambasting the casting couch. (As an aside, the drumming on this album really stands out: lots of offbeat fills and syncopation. Which does make some of these tracks more interesting than they'd be if 10cc just used a drum machine, but at the same time giving the distinct impression their drummer is a little tipsy.) Oh, and the album closer exists. The most notable thing about "Taxi! Taxi!" is its outro-- apparently they really thought they were Pink Floyd, because the album ends with the exact same three-chord progression and sound effects that started it. Bookends! The actual track attached to the outro is kind of dumb, though. And it's another eight minutes. Ugh. The Final Verdict: A solid third or so of the album is unambiguously shit, but everything else is adequate bordering on good. I enjoyed it significantly more than I expected to, and even though it shares the previous album's wimpiness, I don't get the same impression that 10cc are consciously trying to squander their talents here. This is in contrast to G.S., who thinks this album is even worse than Ten Out of 10. This is the better of the two by a long shot-- if I'm being generous, I'd even call it good on its own merits. But it's more accurate to say this one's just okay. Next Week (LOL) on Diaz vs. Starostin: It's time to tackle Sweden's greatest contribution to popular culture not named Neneh Cherry as ABBA's Ring Ring gets wrung wrung.
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ArchieLeach
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Post by ArchieLeach on Feb 24, 2018 6:21:03 GMT -5
Yeah, you've got it just about right. I'll just repeat that the drummer is Steve Gadd, most famous for Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" - once you've heard his particular rhythm style, he's instantly recognizable. Stewart and Goldman's work tended to light efforts at themes and concepts. When Godley and Creme were still around the records were more audacious, even wacky. Since you saw some value in their work, I really recommend you check out a couple of tracks from their heyday. First, this is a great documentary about their timeless hit song, "I'm Not in Love": www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq7oGenbp2I And here's their multi-part comedic suite, "Une Nuit a Paris (One Night in Paris)." You'll hear its influence on "Bohemian Rhapsody" right away: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0puHKg_CjQ
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Jul 18, 2018 23:34:58 GMT -5
Well, if pantsgoblin could make a comeback... As it happens, a lot of these albums are just mediocre, which makes them hard to write about. The Art of Noise - The Seduction of Claude Debussy (1999)Pre-Existing Prejudices: I'm a big fan of these guys - Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise? is rightfully regarded as an avantgarde classic and precursor to plunderphonics as a genre, and most of the songs on it are, as they say, "bops." I can't say I'm as familiar with Debussy's oeuvre, which might explain why I don't find this album as offensive as Starostin does... The Presumption of George Starostin: "This is utterly, completely, and infuriatingly horrible. This sucks beyond the slightest possibility of redemption. This is a mockery of everything I ever valued in music, literature, art, physiology, and the life of Mahatma Gandhi. This is a living nightmare that could spoil Hannibal Lector's digestion system. This is the aural equivalent of the worldwide consequences of World War III with special emphasis on the destructive force of the H-bomb. Let's put it straight: I HATE HATE HATE this album. And if this is really "Art Of Noise", then you can probably call Laurie Anderson the Queen of Pop." The Induction of Rosa Diaz: This is one of those albums that by all means should be a complete clusterfuck. Just look at the list of collaborators: the Art of Noise are joined here by actor John Hurt, a coloratura soprano I've never heard of, "I Love You Always Forever" chanteuse Donna Lewis, and an Eric B.-less Rakim. There is absolutely no reason this album should be anything other than an incoherent mess, or a failed thought experiment. But no, it is not an incoherent mess. It's... well, it exists. To its credit, The Seduction of Claude Debussy gels pretty well as a whole, and the fusion of modern classical melodies and chord progressions with conspicuously modern (for 1999) beats doesn't feel silly. The sax solos, the operatic wails, the guest raps... they all kind of work in this context. You can certainly leave this album running in the background and dig the vibes. Some of the tracks are even, dare I say, good. My personal favorite track here is "The Holy Egoism of Genius," which has some intense plucking on what I believe is an upright bass - that's not the sonic texture you'd get on your average techno album. So the formal experiment is a mild success. But to be honest with you guys, I kind of wish it was a rip-roaring full-throated failure. I mean, the concept of this album isn't that far off from the part of Komar and Melamid's "The Most Unwanted Song" where an opera singer raps about Wittgenstein. But that was a joke (albeit a very funny one), while the Art of Noise are dead serious here. Musically this is forgivable, because the music is a good deal more ambitious than your average EDM. Unfortunately, there's also narration here. BAD narration. Embarrassingly bad narration. Whenever John Hurt pops up to exposit in grizzled RP how "Debussy didn't believe in bourgeois conventions" it's practically an invitation to roll your eyes. The Final Verdict: Towards the end of the album, the Art of Noise interpolate the melody from their most famous song, "Moments in Love." Embarrassing BBC docudrama bits aside, the bulk of this album is every bit as innovative and unique now as "Moments in Love" was back in the 80's. Moreso, even. And yet... this album is never going to inhabit the same space in my heart as the goofy Art of Noise that gave us "Close (to the Edit)" and funny Tom Jones collaborations. There's something to be said for music that sounds fun - an adjective alien to The Seduction of Claude Debussy. Best Track: "The Holy Egoism of Genius" Worst Track: "Out of this World" Next Week on Diaz vs. Starostin: Maybe now I'll get to Ring Ring?
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Post by Prole Hole on Jul 19, 2018 6:41:50 GMT -5
Yay this is back! That's all I have to say here, I have never heard this album and AoN aren't an act I am especially familiar with. But keep up the good work, Diaz!
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jul 22, 2018 21:43:29 GMT -5
I too am fascinated by Art of Noise (given the involvement of Paul Morley) and I sought out this album a couple years ago. It is a lot of middling electronica - very much of its era - but not offensive in my opinion. If it had come out 5 years earlier, it probably would have been a hit in the waning days of rave.
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Jul 27, 2018 22:40:24 GMT -5
ABBA - Ring Ring (1973) Pre-Existing Prejudices: What, you didn't spend your seventeenth birthday drunkenly warbling "Dancing Queen" at a karaoke bar? ...No? Just me? Okay. Technically this album is by "Björn Benny & Agnetha Frida" -- as far as I can tell it was never released in America, and I didn't know a single song on the album before I gave it a listen. George Starostin's Call: "There are probably other songs on here, I just forgot all about them - not too different from the rest of this well-intended, but nevertheless garbage. You know, things like this really make one wonder: how the hell do people discover their talent and does it grow inside you or what? Do you have to 'practice' songwriting just as well as you have to 'practice' guitar playing and all that? Or is it a completely different matter? Me dunno. Never ever tried writing songs and wouldn't want to. I'm simply afraid of the possible results. What fun would it be if you write a bunch of songs and release them on an album like Ring Ring?" My Take: Probably the most surprising thing about the music on Ring Ring is how warm and personal it feels relative to the ABBA we all know and pretend not to love. Homey is not the first adjective that comes to mind when describing ABBA's slick disco-inflected pop hits, but this album feels fuzzy and folksy and warm all throughout. Part of this is the instrumentation, which feels retro even by the standards of 1973. But also, the boys get on the mic here. Benny and Bjorn are not good singers by any means, but they're bad in the way your well-meaning next-door neighbor is a bad singer. It's charming, really. Just look at the cover - look how happy they all are to be there! In some ways, this makes the songs here better than ABBA's more popular fare. Take my favorite song here, "Disillusion" (the only ABBA song where Agnetha gets a writing credit). The song opens with a plaintive guitar riff that seems to predict "Cat's in the Cradle," and is clearly tugging for the heartstrings with lyrics like "How can I forget you when my world is breaking down? / You're all I have / you're all I want." But the song doesn't feel maudlin in the slightest, because the arrangement is so tasteful and low-key, with some pleasant piano and quasi-country-western guitar flourishes. Generally, all the songs here have good hooks and arrangements -- and they all clock in at about three minutes, so none of them overstay their welcome. There are some minor issues here that hint that they're not yet the pop juggernauts they'll be in a few years: most obviously, they hit a lot of marks genre-wise, but in a way that reads like them imitating other artists because they don't have a style of their own just yet. Ultimately this works in the album's favor, because you get bubblegum pop like "Love Isn't Easy" shaking hands with folkier material like "Another Town, Another Train" and in some cases pure music hall. Yes, a couple of the tracks here languish: "I Saw It In The Mirror" drags even at 2:41, for instance, and the rockers here are a little lame. More frustratingly, a lot of tracks on this album are a bit too willing to just loop the chorus for two minutes. But at just over half an hour, I can give that a pass. Final Verdict: This was a pleasant surprise. I don't know if I'd ever have listened to ABBA's debut album in any other context, but I'm kind of glad I did. Some of these songs are disposable, but a lot of them are on par with the stuff you know, and there's a sort of thrill to uncovering such obscure material from such an un-obscure group. Definitely the best album I've reviewed so far here. Best Track: "Disillusion" Worst Track: "I Saw It In The Mirror" Next "Week" on Diaz vs. Starostin: Probably not Waterloo, to avoid burnout. Maybe I'll give one of those five zillion Sabbath albums on the list a go?
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ArchieLeach
AV Clubber
I talk too much, I worry me to death
Posts: 289
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Post by ArchieLeach on Jul 28, 2018 8:38:50 GMT -5
ABBA - Ring Ring (1973)
Probably the most surprising thing about the music on Ring Ring is how warm and personal it feels relative to the ABBA we all know and pretend not to love. Homey is not the first adjective that comes to mind when describing ABBA's slick disco-inflected pop hits, but this album feels fuzzy and folksy and warm all throughout. Part of this is the instrumentation, which feels retro even by the standards of 1973. But also, the boys get on the mic here. Benny and Bjorn are not good singers by any means, but they're bad in the way your well-meaning next-door neighbor is a bad singer. It's charming, really. Just look at the cover - look how happy they all are to be there! I'm happy as a Benny that you feel this way, Rosa. It's hard enough being a fan of the hits and misses of the band, trying not to be defensive about my admiration and, yes, love of ABBA's singles. On the Gateway Prole Hole presented to TIF, the case was made that the true depth of the group was found on albums (although PH did not endorse the early albums). I bailed on the research and presented my case for the group using the 40 songs on the Gold and More Gold collections. The title track is the only song from the debut to make it to those collections, so this is a new listening experience for me.
The song "Ring Ring" deserves its title status. It sounds like a lost Carole King song, and it only makes sense that Neil Sedaka helped with the lyrics. It was a swing for the fences, with its full, Spectorized production.
The warmth and intimacy of this record is obvious once you get past the title track. This is very much a DIY record, seemingly recorded quickly with minimal effects. I imagine that listening to this is a similar experience to listening to the first album by the "Louie Louie" garage band the Kingsmen, if you can strip away your knowledge of the future industrial juggernaut of ABBA. You can tell that the men aren't really confident that this is their destiny - all their attention was spent on the title track. That song was their roll of the dice - the rest was just to pad out royalties and build up a repertoire in case they were going on tour. (The expanded edition of the album has an earlier version of "I Saw It in the Mirror" which was produced with more effects; it lacks the personal touch of the remake.)
I can understand why Starostin hated this record. Growing up behind the Iron Curtain, Georgiy Starostin probably heard Euro-folk all the time, and early ABBA must sound a little junky once you've been turned onto classic rock and prog. Post-Pepper rock is expected to be carefully produced and intricately arranged, and it's gotten to the point today where sound sculptures are more revered now than actual performance. If you don't have the distancing mechanism of rock production in place, you darn well better deliver on poetry with some meaning, if you want to be taken seriously.
But listening to this reminds me of my trips to Europe - the random French throwaway you hear in a car once, never to be heard again, but, more deeply, my Dutch grandmother, my soul-mate. My mother says she played piano, a bit of boogie-woogie. We gave her an album of Roy Orbison's hits when I was 12 - she loved the sentimental and moody "Shadaroba." I listened recently to some audio tapes she sent my mother, with her news from home separated by songs by George Jones and Loretta Lynn, and by ABBA (she was hip enough in her 70s to pick a song which had "love me, love my body" in the lyrics).
There's a human scale to Europop. It's a happy song, then a sad song, then a hopeful song, then a "we got to get along together" song. Anti-pep-rally scold me always resisted the last type of these songs, but I've watched the entire American culture shatter because we're afraid to exhibit healthy emotions. I wait for "Me and Bobby and Bobby's Brother" to turn into something romantic, or even sexual, but no, it's about sitting under a tree, climbing a tree, boy we were wild, I miss those days. It's not as dramatic as I expected, but it's probably their lives. It's not my life, but I've got similar memories. It's good to remember the sweet things.
The recordings are as elemental as the emotions, and that's just fine. It's fun to hear early versions of their later trademarks - unusual instrumentation, dialogue between the male and female voices, primitive sound effects here and there. "Nina Pretty Balerina" has a rhythm guitar pattern borrowed from early reggae and a fast repeating electric piano sound jammed together. The song doesn't really work, but you can hear their brains experimenting. "Disillusion" shows their melancholic Scandinavian hearts beautifully, and "I Am Just a Girl" is naked vulnerability. "Another Town Another Train" is a nicely rolling piano ballad with unremarkable lyrics ("We had a groovy time") until it gets to its blue heart - "Guess I must spend my life in railway stations." It moves along quickly, and I am for sad songs which move along.
Bottom line? I feel like I have met these people and their audience. I may go back some other time.
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Post by Prole Hole on Jul 30, 2018 4:22:51 GMT -5
"But the song doesn't feel maudlin in the slightest". This is one of the key aspects that makes Abba's music actually sound like it was written by grown-up's, and it's a vital aspect to what makes their music so successful, especially in their latter days (the last couple of albums in particular). It's also one of the things that stops the music dating, because this doesn't sound like a bunch of teens/early twenties going through the usual motions, but rather reflects an honest understanding of a situation - it's something the band are outright brilliant at, and one of the things they don't get enough credit for. The best example, from the hits, is likely "Knowing Me, Knowing You", which is regretful, and understands the relationship has ended not in the high drama of most breakup songs but instead on a lower-key, it's-just-done register. But, yes, it's never maudlin, just realistic, and for all the mockery Benny and Bjorn sometimes get for their English-as-a-second-language lyrics, they're far, far more canny than they often appear. As for this album - it's not my favourite, as ArchieLeach pointed out, but actually I gave it another spin once I saw this had gone up, and there's no denying it has its charms. One of the things about the more folk-influenced songs here is that they come from a completely different tradition from the standard "rock/pop music" set-up, so the music is based round different, less expected moves, chord progressions etc (this is something the band keep up over their career - "The Piper" from Super Trouper would easily fit on this album, which I mean as a compliment) and that gives it some real charm. "Another Town, Another Train" is a fairly slight song, and there's a vague suggestion of hippy-influenced folk as well as more traditionally Euro-folk ("you and I have a groovy time"), but it lands it's story-of-a-drifter well because it's smartly constructed and, in one of Abba's hallmarks, extremely well produced. The shift from the folksy verses to a slightly more blusey chorus is handled with aplomb, and it's not something that every songwriter could pull off. "Ring Ring" is obviously the song that points where there band are going to go in their earlier, popper form (and it's a great song), but "Disillusion" is just as good a signpost for the darker end of their career as they move towards breaking up, and it's good to see both coming together here. Abba move through a lot of musical forms - folk, pop, disco, electronica - which helps keep the material fresh over the course of their career, but the folk side tends to be overlooked somewhat so it's nice to see it get some credit here. Is this a classic album? Not by a long shot, and though I felt much warmer to it this time round, it's a very minor affair indeed, buoyed by some good performances and, as ArchieLeach says, seeing a band feel out directions for itself. But the idea that this is offensively bad? Absolutely not. (By the way, ArchieLeach, I did the G2G playlist as my way into the band, but if you're interested I'd be happy to put together a deep cuts playlist to give you an inroad into some of their more interesting material without having to slog through every album. Let me know if you want it!)
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ArchieLeach
AV Clubber
I talk too much, I worry me to death
Posts: 289
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Post by ArchieLeach on Jul 30, 2018 6:27:23 GMT -5
(By the way, ArchieLeach , I did the G2G playlist as my way into the band, but if you're interested I'd be happy to put together a deep cuts playlist to give you an inroad into some of their more interesting material without having to slog through every album. Let me know if you want it!) I'd love a deep-cut ABBA play list - thanks!
I've always been surprised by the resistance to "Knowing Me, Knowing You" - no less a rocker than Pete Townshend admired it, and critic's darling Marshall Crenshaw did a cover on one of his live albums.
About the lyrics - I hesitate to criticize them anytime the lyrics sound too facile, as in "Yes, we had a groovy time." It sounds inept, but isn't that what some hippy Don Juan would say as he's finishing up breakfast and looking for his bag? They've been right so often, like the pick-up artist on the dance floor spitting "ain't no big decision" and the defeated woman saying "you've come to shake my hand." Any lyricists who come up with "The history book on the shelf / Keeps on repeating itself" deserves the benefit of a doubt.
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Post by Prole Hole on Jul 30, 2018 10:35:34 GMT -5
ArchieLeach - I'll knock one up this evening and post is here for you. I think part of the resistance to "Knowing Me, Knowing You" is the still-haunting-it legacy of Alan Partridge. Which is understandable, but also fuck that, because it is an amazing song. That crashing 12-string before the chorus, the immaculate vocals that nail the spirt of the song so perfectly, the strobing bass line before the verses, once again beyond-perfect production... Such a heartbroken, emotional song that's never self-indulgent or bitter, but rests instead on regret. It's not a complex lyric but it has a brutal narrative efficiency to it, and there's just something so striking about, "walking through an empty house, tears in my eyes". The song doesn't need to elucidate every detail of what's happened but instead sketches it out in imagery - there's something finite to this relationship and the end point has been reached and travelled past - " here is where the story ends / this is goodbye". All that's left is two people who... just know each other. That's all. It's a career best, easily a top-five Abba song for me. OK i'll stop now.
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Post by Prole Hole on Aug 1, 2018 16:47:40 GMT -5
ArchieLeach - slightly late, but a deep-cut Abba playlist: Tiger - ArrivalSo Long - AbbaHole In Your Sole - Abba: The AlbumI Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do - AbbaThe King Has Lost His Crown - ArrivalI'm A Marionette - Abba: The AlbumDisilluson - Ring RingMe And I - Super TrouperIf It Wasn't For The Nights - ArrivalOn And On And On - Super TrouperUnder Attack - Single, non-album track Andante, Andante - Super TrouperThe Day Before You Came - Single, non-album track The Piper - Super TrouperWhen All Is Said And Done - The VisitorsAnother Town, Another Train - Ring RingSlipping Through My Fingers - The VisitorsArrival - ArrivalLike An Angel Passing Through My Room - The VisitorsA coupe of notes. First, "Andante, Andante" is filthy - absolutely and completely a song about getting fucked, and so wonderful for it. Hurrah! Also, there's a bit of overlap with my "intros" playlist but I think this avoids anything too obvious. Two songs I have to give a particular shout-out to, "I'm A Marionette" and, especially, "The Piper" which feeds into the above discussion about how folk music is such an integral part of what Abba do. And finally, "Like An Angel..." which is an impossible song to sequence when it doesn't follow from the album track before it ("Slipping Through My Fingers"), but which would have/should have been the perfect conclusion to their career. If you'd like a hidden-track bonus, because those are all the rage (assuming it's 1993), then "Dum Dum Diddle" from Arrival gets my vote. It's just not every band that can write a song about someone feeling they've been up-staged by a Stradivarius...
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