Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Aug 21, 2018 23:30:21 GMT -5
Angra - Rebirth (2001)Pre-Existing Prejudices: Angra are a Brazilian power metal band that released some interesting music during the 90's. I have heard exactly two songs by them in my life, both off their debut album, Angels Cry: " Carry On," which is a solid piece of power metal, and their cover of "Wuthering Heights" (!?!?) which is kind of bizarre but hints at why George Starostin singled these guys out in the first place - what metal band does a straight Kate Bush cover?? George Sez: " I simply can't imagine how deep into metal one has to be in order to really like this stuff - and this IS stuff, stuff in the primary meaning of this word, stuff that cannot be dissected into a number of countable songs, stuff that gives power metal its (not undeservedly) bad name, stuff that actually prevents this genre from evolving in any way. And oh yuckie-yuck, the self-importance of it all. I can't imagine what they expect me to do with this self-importance. What, should I take this album to the mountains, dress in a bear skin and greet the rising sun of a new day with hands held high and mighty blasts of 'Millennium Sun' rocking the precipices around me? It sure feels too big for the humble confines of my living room, you know." Rosa's Angra-y Opinion: This is a power metal album released in 2001. The Final Verdict: No, but for real? This is fifty minutes of music in a genre not known for individuality, released at the start of the decade which gave us the loudness wars. The guitar work and drumming are good in the way metal music requires you to be good at guitar and drums, the singing is bad, the keyboard tones are REALLY bad, and none of this matters because they're all compressed together into a monotonous sludge. Blech. None of the individual riffs are inspired, let alone distinct. The many guitar and keyboard solos don't have anything to say beyond "look at me, I can play eighth notes very quickly," but they're fun, and these guys can really play - plus, it's a reprieve from the embarrassing lyrics. Occasionally, as metal bands are wont to do, Angra throw in a non-metal passage to provide a contrast to the rest of the material. Some of these dalliances work: the "tribal" drumming and syncopated guitar strum that open "Unholy Wars" are fun, way more fun than the rest of the song (which goes on for like eight hours). Some of these dalliances are offensive: "Visions Prelude" (the final track on the album, because words don't mean anything anymore) snags a Chopin piece for its melodic base, which mostly reminds me how inadequate this music is. I guess there's stuff like the classical guitar on the title track too? But that's not interesting, "Battery" came out in 1986 and was a million times better than this, not to mention the nine million folk metal bands that are 50% acoustic interlude which I don't know or care about because I'm a dumb normie who doesn't listen to bands whose logos resemble birch trees having an orgy. The best thing I can say about this album is that it compares favorably to the soundtrack from Mega Man X8, which is kind of damning it with faint praise, even if the even numbered MMX games are the ones with the good music for the most part, they're kind of like the Star Trek movies in that regard. So um, yes... this is a power metal album released in 2001. If you're in the mood for a power metal album released in 2001, Angra's Rebirth is for you. But... why listen to this when their debut album is probably much better (to say nothing of their alleged masterpiece Holy Land)? Best Track: Unholy Wars Worst Track: Visions Prelude Next Time on Diaz vs. Starostin: I explain my strategy for getting through the remaining 48 albums in four months. (Spoilers: I will not be reviewing all 48 of these.) And then I review the furthest thing from power metal on this list.
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Aug 22, 2018 13:35:25 GMT -5
You Decide My Suffering
In order to maximize my exposure to the widest variety possible of terrible music, I'm going to be skipping some of the albums by repeat artists. (So no Waterloo, sorry.) That means ten of the following albums will be excluded from my journey, one per artist. And you, denizens of the TIF, will pick which.
Bee Gees: Life In A Tin Can Bee Gees: Spirits Having Flown
Black Sabbath: Never Say Die Black Sabbath: Born Again
Black Sabbath: Headless Cross Black Sabbath: Tyr
Fleetwood Mac: Live At The Marquee Fleetwood Mac: Mr Wonderful Fleetwood Mac: Time
Grand Funk Railroad: Survival
Grand Funk: What's Funk?
Jethro Tull: Under Wraps Jethro Tull: Crest Of A Knave Jethro Tull: Rock Island
Rod Stewart: Foolish Behaviour Rod Stewart: Tonight I'm Yours
Rod Stewart: Every Beat Of My Heart
~~
I'll also be skipping the albums that are italicized on the list in the first post, because I haven't been able to find any of these albums without resorting to torrents or shady online downloads. Apologies to anyone who wanted to hear my take on Bob Dylan's Saved - if any of you know where I can find any of those albums without dark web shenanigans, let me know.
|
|
repulsionist
TI Forumite
actively disinterested
Posts: 3,557
|
Post by repulsionist on Aug 22, 2018 19:23:11 GMT -5
Please exclude
Grand Funk: What's Funk?
Bee Gees: Life In A Tin Can
|
|
ayatollahcm
TI Pariah
The Bringer of Peacatollah
Posts: 1,689
|
Post by ayatollahcm on Aug 22, 2018 21:27:36 GMT -5
I have Saved if there's a way I can figure out how to upload and send it to you.
I'd exclude most of Jethro, Sabbath, and Mac, as well as Grand Funk's What's Funk?, since I find them more boring than anything. Bee Gees and Stewart selections are some of the more strange ones to my ears, especially the first two Stewart ones listed.
|
|
|
Post by Il sole sotto la terra on Aug 28, 2018 13:10:57 GMT -5
I have Saved if there's a way I can figure out how to upload and send it to you. I'd exclude most of Jethro, Sabbath, and Mac, as well as Grand Funk's What's Funk?, since I find them more boring than anything. You kids say no to Grand Funk? The wild shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner? The bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher? The competent drumwork of Don Brewer? Oh, man!
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Sept 8, 2018 22:01:23 GMT -5
Syd Barrett - Opel (1988)
Pre-Existing Prejudices: I don't have a very high opinion of Pink Floyd, largely because they get held up as the REAL musical geniuses of the classic rock era by annoying people and stoners who have convinced themselves that not liking The Beatles is evidence of their intelligence and not obvious contrarianism. But most of those people are talking about the "classic" Waters-era output, not the Barrett stuff. I've heard and basically liked all those albums - I've even seen The Wall live (albeit a surprisingly good production of The Wall put on by high schoolers) - but I also am not familiar with Barrett. Careful With That Pan, Georgiy: "Opel [...] constitutes the perfect ideal for the indie singer-songwriter — I would go as far as to say that I hear the echoes of Opel the album (and ʽOpelʼ the song) in every hipster icon from Jeff Mangum to Conor Oberst." (Note: this is perhaps the single most repellent description anyone has ever come up with for an album.) Shit On, You Crazy Diaz: There is nothing inherently wrong about being a white guy with an acoustic guitar, provided you can actually play... or sing... or write. Syd... Syd can... uh... not really do any of those things. He is a bad, bad singer. His technical skill on the six-string is nothing to write home about - he'll come up with some interesting chord changes, but then he'll suddenly become enamored with one note and aimlessly strum that for a long, long time. (This is why even though the average track here is three minutes long, everything feels so much longer.) And Syd's lyrics are... well, let's be charitable and remember that we don't listen to psychedelia for the lyrics. But yes, most of the songs on Opel are pretty bad, as best illustrated by the "Word Song." Is your idea of good music a guy reciting random words for a minute while half-heartedly strumming D major? No? Too bad. At least that song has the good sense to be short - the first and worst song here is the title track, which is six excruciating minutes and twenty-seven piss-inducing seconds of suspended chords and off-key wailing. I know that this is a compilation of demos and outtakes and not a real album, but these aren't even sketches, they're the oral equivalent of a toddler's crayon scribbles. Accordingly, the best songs on this album are the ones where he has a backing band, or doesn't sing at all, or both. "Swan Lee (Silas Lang)," for instance, has some kinda spooky bass overdubs that make the song kinda work, kinda, and the instrumental version of "Golden Hair" that closes the album certainly is a nice couple of lightly-reverbed fwip fwip repeated quasi-melodic lines (which is a polite way of saying I wouldn't call it a "song" in any meaningful sense). I still would not describe these songs as good or even mediocre, but they do break up the monotony, technically. The Final Cut: You know what this album - and the whole situation surrounding Barrett reminds me of? Not Bright Eyes (blegh), not Bon Iver (bleeegh), not Mount Eerie (bleeeeheeeeeegh). No, I'm reminded of noted non-white guy with an instrument that isn't an acoustic guitar, Wesley Willis, who also gets praised for his "authenticity." Willis was a jovial, kind-hearted man who made some nice doodles of buildings - but let's not kid ourselves here, his music was capital-S Shit. And more to the point, there's something kind of ghoulish about the likes of Jello Biafra passing off this poor dude with intense schizophrenia as THE ULTIMATE OUTSIDER ARTIST instead of footing his medical bills and getting him the help he clearly needed. I feel the same way about poor Syd - like the people marketing him pushed the "gawk at this mad lad!" angle, and his bandmates sat idly by or, in some cases, actively encouraged it. So on top of being void of musical merit, Opel is also pretty icky from a moral standpoint. Best Track: ...uh, "Milky Way" ? Worst Track: "Opel" Next time on Diaz vs. Starostin - I have an axe to grind with the Brothers Gibb - one I will NOT be careful with, Eugene.
|
|
|
Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Sept 9, 2018 0:49:51 GMT -5
You Decide My SufferingIn order to maximize my exposure to the widest variety possible of terrible music, I'm going to be skipping some of the albums by repeat artists. (So no Waterloo, sorry.) That means ten of the following albums will be excluded from my journey, one per artist. And you, denizens of the TIF, will pick which. Bee Gees: Life In A Tin Can Bee Gees: Spirits Having Flown Black Sabbath: Never Say Die Black Sabbath: Born Again Black Sabbath: Headless Cross Black Sabbath: Tyr Fleetwood Mac: Live At The Marquee Fleetwood Mac: Mr Wonderful Fleetwood Mac: Time Grand Funk Railroad: Survival Grand Funk: What's Funk? Jethro Tull: Under Wraps Jethro Tull: Crest Of A Knave Jethro Tull: Rock Island Rod Stewart: Foolish Behaviour Rod Stewart: Tonight I'm Yours Rod Stewart: Every Beat Of My Heart ~~ I'll also be skipping the albums that are italicized on the list in the first post, because I haven't been able to find any of these albums without resorting to torrents or shady online downloads. Apologies to anyone who wanted to hear my take on Bob Dylan's Saved - if any of you know where I can find any of those albums without dark web shenanigans, let me know. Never Say Die! isn't strictly speaking a "good" album per se, but it's quite fun album to listen to imo, unlike Born Again, Headless Cross, and Tyr. The only thing that I find weird about the inclusion of those three albums is that Starosin was able to choose just three among all the non Ozzy/Dio Black Sabbath albums (with maybe the exception of Seventh Star) as being particularly risible, as all of those many albums were fucking awful and bland.
|
|
repulsionist
TI Forumite
actively disinterested
Posts: 3,557
|
Post by repulsionist on Sept 9, 2018 1:43:55 GMT -5
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Sept 9, 2018 11:43:39 GMT -5
The only thing that I find weird about the inclusion of those three albums is that Starosin was able to choose just three among all the non Ozzy/Dio Black Sabbath albums (with maybe the exception of Seventh Star) as being particularly risible, as all of those many albums were fucking awful and bland. Dehumanizer, Cross Purposes, and Forbidden are merely "plain bad," which is why they're missing from this list. Seventh Star is "atrocious beyond all imagination."
|
|
|
Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Sept 9, 2018 14:03:59 GMT -5
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Sept 9, 2018 14:10:57 GMT -5
Yeah, I was deciding between Never Say Die! (classic line-up) and Born Again (because Ian Gillan singing about tequila) for this one. No objection to me going with the latter?
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Sept 17, 2018 23:03:37 GMT -5
Bee Gees - Spirits Having Flown (1979)
Pre-Existing Prejudices: For most people, Saturday Night Fever is a period piece. Maybe you think disco rules. Maybe you think disco sucks. Maybe you think that the cultural backlash to disco in middle America had nothing to do with John Travolta and everything to do with the integrated, gay-friendly club scene that spawned it. But you definitely think that the film is completely irrelevant in 2018 beyond its kitsch value. For you, that's probably true - it's probably not even the most famous movie where John Travolta tears up a dance floor. Unfortunately, I do not have that luxury. You know the street Travolta walks down during the film's opening credits? I grew up three blocks away from there. This film - and the Bee Gees' soundtrack to it - is an inescapable part of our local mythology, for better and for worse. I could write an essay on this film's local impact - I did just that for a film class, incidentally - so here's a Cliff's Notes. Those of you who have watched the film (read: everyone born pre-1963) probably recall it was a pretty grim portrayal of life in working-class Brooklyn, full of drugs, racism, teen pregnancy, and suicide; despite this, south Brooklyn has basically embraced the film for two reasons: one, there still is a huge Italian-American community here, and this is probably the only big-budget motion picture focused on Italian-American life that doesn't involve La Cosa Nostra in any way; and two, older working-class white Brooklynites absolutely love to reminisce on the bad old days of the FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD 70's, back before Rudy Giuliani and Walt Disney and skinny jean hipster chickenshits emasculated NYC. Nothing against skinny jeans, but they have a point: I suspect the image of John Travolta posing in a three-piece polyester suit has done more to curb gentrification in Bensonhurst than any community activism. Of course, it takes about thirty seconds of trawling through comment sections to find the third reason the film is so popular here: unbridled resentment towards the wave of Asian immigration post-1989 that's turned the neighborhood into Brooklyn's Chinatown, and nostalgia for a time when there weren't quite so many Latinos here. This is bizarre on many levels (not the least of which, white people rejecting multiculturalism by embracing disco), and it's worth noting that Brooklyn wasn't exactly all white in 1977 either, and that the article which inspired Saturday Night Fever is by the author's own admission a complete work of fiction that just transplanted British mod culture into an American setting. Let's not think too hard, and just embrace the surreal spectacle of a failed Republican mayoral candidate dosey doe-in' with a Village Person.As for this album, which I (correctly) presume was the followup to the SNF soundtrack, I'd never heard a single song on it before covering this list - although "Tragedy" sounded kind of familiar. Whether You're From Boston Or Whether You're Starostin, You're Sayin': "This is crap. Not just crap - arguably the lowest point in the Bee Gees' entire career, outdoing both earlier lifeless efforts like Life In A Tin Can and later adult contemporary rubbish. I mean, heck, if the album cover isn't enough to piss you off, just one quick listen to three or four of these songs in a row will do the trick." Feel the Rosa Breakin' and God My Ears Are Achin' and We're Sayin': Uh... yeah, this is crap. The interesting thing is that it's not a crappy regressive disco album. Spirits Having Flown is crappy in ways that are actually pretty forward-facing. The synth tones on "I'm Satisfied" sound like something out of Super Mario 64, and "Living Together" opens with twenty seconds of trumpet farts that sound so much like the macho fanfare to a shitty rap track from 2004 that I half expected DMX to show up and drop some bars. (No dice, but according to WhoSampled ten different rappers had the same idea.) And it goes without saying that the soft rock numbers here sound like vaporwave. Ok, I've gone like five paragraphs without mentioning the elephant in the room, so here goes. The falsetto... actually is very much welcome here. I mean, if they tried to sing this stuff straight, it would be intolerably boring. Hell, even if they were good singers, this material is so sterile that there's no way this could sound good. But everything being sung in falsetto makes the album kind of funny, as if all the vocals were overdubbed by a midi trumpet. So a number like "Stop (Think Again)," which would otherwise be seven minutes of downtempo sexx jamz, turns into a duet between an overeager saxophone and a malevolent banshee. And the last thirty seconds of the album are pure gold - set against the backdrop of Water Temple synths, the patented Gibb Brother Vocal Antics sound like the last gasps of oxygen from a dying man's lungs, lured to a watery grave by an evil water sprite. Spirits Having Flown, indeed. (Maybe that's what the cover is supposed to be - the three Gibbs being dragged to hell, after the man downstairs decided to enforce his end of the deal?) As for everything else... uh, I kind of like "Search, Find," but only the chorus which is almost identical to "Brick House." "Tragedy" is kind of fun if you have a high tolerance for camp. "Spirits Having Flown" and "Reaching Out" are a little rootsier, but they're still soaked in the same synths as the rest of the album. And "Reaching Out" is a shitty ballad even with a pretty acoustic guitar backing. Actually, it's especially shitty with a pretty acoustic guitar backing, because that magnifies how stupid the falsetto is when it's the only kitschy artificial thing on the track. The Final Verdict: Ehhh. The main problem this record has is that it occupies the frustrating space between hedonistic disco excess and tasteful folksy pop-rock. The Bee Gees could do both, in my opinion, but not at the same time. The only saving grace is that it's bookended by two pieces of wonderful high camp, and that some of the instrumentation (if we count the brothers' strained vocal cords as instruments - which we should, since this sure ain't my idea of singing) has novelty value. Good for a laugh - but c'mon, it's easy to see why these guys are a laughingstock. If you'll excuse me, I have two slices of pizza to eat simultaneously. Best Track: Let's say "Tragedy" ? Sure, why not. Worst Track: "Reaching Out" Up Next: I cut the crap - literally! - and listen to some REAL music. None of this synthesizer crap - just real hardcore rock'n'roll from a bunch of dirty punks! Overproduction, my ass! Oi!
|
|
|
Post by Prole Hole on Sept 19, 2018 4:33:02 GMT -5
Other than a general, undirected dislike for both disco in general and the Bee Gee's in particular I don't have a lot to add here, except to say that I love these write-ups so very much and I always look forward to reading them. Keep up the good work, Rosa!
Oh I should add Tragedy was a big hit over here in 1999 when a band called Steps (did you get them in the U.S.? They're a shitty manufactured pop group of no note whatsoever) did was amounted to a note-for-note cover of it. I wont link to it - you don't deserve that - but it's one of the most pointless covers of all time, since, other than being sung by a collection of blandly pretty teenagers rather than three 70's dads it is almost indistinguishable from the original. It's on YouTube, if the feeling's gone and you can't go on.
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Sept 19, 2018 16:39:30 GMT -5
Other than a general, undirected dislike for both disco in general and the Bee Gee's in particular I don't have a lot to add here, except to say that I love these write-ups so very much and I always look forward to reading them. Keep up the good work, Rosa! Oh I should add Tragedy was a big hit over here in 1999 when a band called Steps (did you get them in the U.S.? They're a shitty manufactured pop group of no note whatsoever) did was amounted to a note-for-note cover of it. I wont link to it - you don't deserve that - but it's one of the most pointless covers of all time, since, other than being sung by a collection of blandly pretty teenagers rather than three 70's dads it is almost indistinguishable from the original. It's on YouTube, if the feeling's gone and you can't go on. Never heard of 'em. Although, in the Waterloo review I ultimately decided not to do I almost cracked a joke where I said that ABBA stole all their material from the A*Teens, and these guys look and sound exactly the same. 1998 was a good time to be a blandly pretty teenager in pop music. You didn't even have to be pretty. Or sing if you were a boy, apparently: ...wait, I have heard of them! They're the choads who unleashed "5, 6, 7, 8" on the world, aren't they? They're no Rednex, that's for sure. Honestly, though, this cover is giving me newfound appreciation for the Bee Gees' original - the four-on-the-floor here is killing the original song's dynamics. And where is that synth arpeggio during the verses? I actually kind of liked the overdriven robo-gallop there, way more than the poopy chorus - this version doesn't have either. Blech.
|
|
ArchieLeach
AV Clubber
I talk too much, I worry me to death
Posts: 289
|
Post by ArchieLeach on Sept 29, 2018 10:51:27 GMT -5
Bee Gees - Spirits Having Flown (1979) The Bee Gees’ Spirits Having Flown has always inspired strong reactions from the day it was released, most of it negative. This has less to do with the music than with the phenomenon around it. About the music: it’s a good pop record. Giving the record credit for its strengths, there are hooks, memorable melodies, and harmonies. There are songs with impressive use of dynamics, such as the Number One hits “Tragedy” and “Love You Inside and Out.” When the songs aren’t packed with hooks, they flow with an easy sense of development, such as the other Number One hit, “Too Much Heaven.”. Barry Gibb’s special talent as a songwriter was the ability to chop off beats and bars to create interest in the structure. We want music to be symmetrical, to have four beats to a bar and four bars to a line. Like Burt Bacharach and John Lennon before him, Barry would give us phrases that sounded incomplete which we would replay in our minds, searching for the missing beats. (You’ll find an early version of this on the synth break of “Jive Talkin’,” and here it’s on the horns and vocals of “Living Together” and the instrumental of “Spirits (Having Flown).”) For all of its strengths, there’s a strangeness to this record which makes it easy for us to dismiss it one way or another. The swishy beat, the many layers of soft synthesizer, and, most notoriously, the heavy-breathing vocals which shift from soft whispers to gruff light-soul gasps to piercing falsetto, all of these things in service to forgettable lyrics exclusively obsessed with romantic love – there is maybe a lack of seriousness to the record, and certainly a lack of heaviness. It’s out of fashion from everything which came before or after it. I don’t blame any younger listeners if they don’t get it. For those of us who were around back then, the story is a bit more complicated. The Bee Gees’ career had built to a steady stream of hits until they exploded with Saturday Night Fever. There was a lot of luck in that particular success; the group only came up with a handful of songs for the soundtrack, and they were boosted immeasurably by the constantly broadcast image of John Travolta strutting down the street. The brothers, and Barry in particular, capitalized on their luck in spades. Everybody wanted to be produced by Barry and the others, and they all got a piece of the charts - one-hit wonder Samantha Sang, journeyman talent Yvonne Elliman, superstars Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, stalled old-timers like Frankie Valli, Dionne Warwick, and, a little bit later, Barbara Streisand. Little brother Andy Gibb had his own string of sounds-like-the-real-thing hits. More than their direct involvement, however, it was the influence they had on other acts which is hard to comprehend today. The Gibb formula of keyboards playing light boogie patterns and male voices stretched unnaturally high was everywhere. Released around the same time as Fever, the Electric Light Orchestra's Out of the Blue featured several songs, including its three hits, built around electronically enhanced falsetto choruses. Supertramp's Roger Hodgen ditched his folk guitar as he and bandmate Rick Davies released Breakfast in America, which had four keyboard- and high-harmony infused hits. Former biker band the Doobie Brothers adopted the formula for their huge hit, "What a Fool Believes," which signified 1979 as much as 1978 was represented by "Stayin' Alive." There was plenty of other music available, but in those pre-internet days before cable TV was widespread you had to deal with the cultural omnipresence of the Bee Gees and the music they inspired. It got to be a bit much, and the iconography the group presented made them vulnerable to an attack which effectively ended their reign on radio. Their image was of sensitive vulnerability, dressed glamorously and presented with pride. There was no irony in their image; you could imagine them walking the soup aisle wearing tight jeans, satin shirts, and blown-dry hair. By conventional mores, it was a feminine presentation, and it pushed buttons of homophobia already exposed by the backlash against disco. Stephen Holden wrote a review of Spirits in Rolling Stone which began by giving credit to the most attractive aspects of the record but then turned into a screed against the band’s supposed world-conquering ambition. All phenomena have a life cycle, but the collapse of the Bee Gees’ chart run was stunning in its suddenness. Which leads us back to the record, and how to interpret its strangeness. Something gets lost when we think about the Bee Gees – they were child stars in Australia. Child stars often develop an insular view of the world, whether it’s from the constant work at a young age or from coping with heart-wrenching swings of affection and criticism from their audience. Like Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, the young brothers Gibb’s primarily relationship to humanity was as a performer before an audience. There is little wonder that their work was often crowd-pleasing, non-confrontational, universalist. It also had the intimate sound of three brothers who were in each other’s minds. There is a smallness to Gibbs’ music – compare it to the echoing thump and boisterous arrangement of other disco of the era. The aptly-named Blue Weaver’s keyboards were the aural equivalent of dry ice fog softening the spotlight brightness of brothers’ voices, further softening the rhythmic detail. Even the melodramatic “Tragedy” has a small room feel. At their peak, the Bee Gees’ expressions of vulnerability were extreme enough to provoke a strong rejection from the public at large. In some ways, it was the last gasp of baby boomer culture, as the boomers enjoyed their good fortune and let themselves enjoy the chase of romance before settling down. The content of the Bee Gees’ lyrics may have been frivolous, but the package they were wrapped in was provocative. Asking the Bee Gees to be deeper is like asking Chagall to stop painting angels.
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Oct 2, 2018 5:56:49 GMT -5
Damn Archie... stop outdoing me in my own thread :c
(No seriously, keep it up, comments like this are what make listening to this crap worth it!)
|
|
|
Post by Prole Hole on Oct 2, 2018 6:12:54 GMT -5
Just wait till you get to Press to Play!
|
|
ArchieLeach
AV Clubber
I talk too much, I worry me to death
Posts: 289
|
Post by ArchieLeach on Oct 2, 2018 9:13:16 GMT -5
Damn Archie... stop outdoing me in my own thread :c (No seriously, keep it up, comments like this are what make listening to this crap worth it!) I don't want you to think you're writing in a vacuum - those paragraphs about Brooklyn are terrific. Your taking on a stack of offensive records is a gift to humankind, Rosa - we got your back.
For the record, in 1978-9 I was a singer and lead guitarist in a high school rock band. We played "Stairway," and "Sunshine of Your Love," and Foreigner, as well as middle-of-the-road stuff. I always liked the Bee Gees (Main Course is my go-to recommendation) but even mellow me was getting exhausted by their constant presence. I wanted to hear more Joe Walsh, blues rock, California rock - you know, GUITARS!
However, much as I disliked the later disco cash-ins - Village People and whatnot - the whole "Disco Sucks" movement was awful. I liked Donna Summer and Thelma Houston better than Boston and Styx, and the way the Bee Gees got bullied off the radio was brutal.
Those young people who blew up disco records in Chicago, you know what they're doing now? Let's not go into that. But it might be just the right time to talk about the Clash.
[Note: if you're still deciding which records to skip, I'll suggest skipping the Fleetwood Mac live album - Mr. Wonderful covers the same territory.]
|
|
|
Post by Celebith on Nov 7, 2018 21:33:27 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. Crest of a Knave and Rock Island were both solid. Budapest is up there with some of their older work. Said She Was a Dancer is good. It's not like their older work, but it's still good. Rock Island wasn't as good, but I saw them tour for it and it was a great show. I liked Roots to Branches, too, although it was pretty noodly.
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Apr 6, 2019 16:31:35 GMT -5
The Clash - Cut the Crap (1985)
Pre-Existing Prejudices: Growing up, my dad owned every Clash album except Sandinista! and Cut the Crap - the former because he was poor, the latter because he was smart. I'm not much for oi oi oi; thankfully, neither were the Clash, who I think are both smarter and more musically gifted than most of their imitators. Georgiy Don't Like It! Crock the Album, Crock the Album: "I never really thought a band like the Clash could stoop to recording an album with next to no good songs at all on it, but apparently, there are these treacherous loop holes in time, you know, when you've lost a key member of the band, when you've run out of creative inspiration, when you have to consciously return to an image that does not any longer truly suit you, and on top of that, get a producer who's just aching to reduce whatever you offer him to typical mid-Eighties tripe. Since then, Strummer himself had many times publicly denounced the album, calling it his big mistake, and while he might have bought himself an indulgence with these words, the album still remains available - you don't get rid of your past that easily, although I sure would suggest a big "record burning" campaign in this particular case." Give 'em Enough, Rosa: This is "Dictator," the first track on The Clash's 1985 swan song Cut the Crap. Bwuh? Why does the production here sound like a hobgoblin rubbing his dick against a Yamaha? If I didn't know better, I would assume this was a parody, a shitpost variant on one of those Youtube videos where, e.g., Rage Against the Machine lyrics are transplanted onto lounge jazz. But no, this is the real deal. The story of Cut the Crap is well-documented: Mick Jones got fired and Topper Headon was off shooting up, leaving Joe Strummer and manager Bernie Rhodes (neither of whom had written a note of music in their lives) to write and produce an album. This didn't necessarily have to be a disaster: they could engage in some fun culture jamming, and write obvious Top 40 fodder with Strummer's political lyrics on top. Culture jamming, if you will. Hell, some of the tracks are almost that - "Three Card Trick," for instance, which is jaunty reggae with lyrics bemoaning sweatshop labor and neo-fascism. Unfortunately, even Strummer's lyrics are shitty this go around. Some of them are clumsy (the aforementioned "Dictator"); some of them are vapid ("Fingerpoppin," a mindless ode to, um, going clubbing and pointing at hot girls?). But most of them are weirdly self-centered, with Strummer oddly fixated on reminding us that they are the Clash! Literally, because there is a track here called "We Are The Clash." Or the overly literal "Dirty Punk" ("I'm gonna be a dirty punk while my brother dresses clean"). Not that it matters - I can only understand maybe 60% of any given Clash lyric on albums where the production isn't shit, but London Calling could have been in Farsi and I'd have gotten the vibe. The only vibe I get from Cut the Crap is "ah, fuck it." The Final Verdict: I actually think this album is worth listening to once, just for the sheer novelty of seeing one of the most beloved rock groups of all time clash and burn (ha). But make no mistake, it is B.A.D. (ha). Best Song: I'm supposed to say that the only good track on this album is "This is England," but I think "This is England" is bad too and that the song's only saving grace is that the leaden production kinda works in its favor. So let's say "Dictator" which at the very least is so bad it's good. Worst Song: Take your pick of the aforementioned "Fingerpoppin," the ballad (yikes) "North and South," or the couldn't-be-arsed-to-write-a-verse anthem "Play to Win." Next Time on Diaz vs. Starostin: Hm . I don't know, actually. Maybe I'll knock out one of the terrible Rod Stewart albums? Open to suggestions here.
|
|
|
Post by Prole Hole on Apr 8, 2019 8:42:27 GMT -5
WOOOO You're writing this feature again! Love it, keep them coming. And do McCartney's Press To Play next, because I'm really interested in hearing what you have to say about it.
As for Cut The Crap... well I don't really have anything to add. When it comes to punk I'm more Team Pistols than Team Clash, but after a run of extraordinary albums they have... this. I mean, the Pistols had The Great Rock And Roll Swindle too, which is also a bucket of shit, so it's not like it's something unique to the Clash. Anyway this is dreadful, and I have little in the way of wise words to add to what Rosa said. Oh except that she didn't mention that Fingerpoppin is also absolutely hilarious. Once.
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Apr 9, 2019 7:15:28 GMT -5
Rod Stewart - Foolish Behaviour (1980)
Pre-Existing Prejudices: I've actually never heard a Rod Stewart song in my life other than "Young Turks," which I heard on Pete Fornatale's show once and mashed up with Ahmad's "Back in the Day" on a Girl Talk album twice. From reading George's reviews I've been kind of dreading Rod, because his 1986 album Camouflage is the single lowest-rated album of the two thousand or so he's reviewed. Spare the Rod, Spoil the George: "Everything on this album is a significant step down. The lyrics aren't interesting any more, just ranging from trite to atrocious (especially on the title track). The experimentation with song structure and rhythm patterns (however primitive it was earlier) is gone, and replaced by generic, rudimentary disco beats or plain rip-offs. The hits are mostly dreadful, and the minor successful numbers are pointless." You Can't Spell Rosa Diaz Without ROD: If this album made me think anything, it's that I really should be blaming Kurt Cobain and co. for the sorry state of modern rock more than I do. I'm not breaking any ground by saying that Nevermind was a good album that had a brief positive impact but an overall negative effect on mainstream rock music, of course, but I think the negative impact is bigger than "introduced sanitized and marketable suicidal despair to the mainstream" or "spawned Nickelback" (a two-word phrase that gets you on the waiting list at Nuremberg). For one, Nirvana basically took the "and roll" out of "rock," and with it any vestige of the Afro-American influences that gave us the genre. And on the other hand, while Nirvana weren't the first to have a successful album that goes for forty uninterrupted minutes with no stylistic detours or out-of-genre experiences, I certainly think they're responsible for making that the dominant mode of popular rock releases. I mention this because Foolish Behaviour is, despite not being a very good album, sort of admirable from a modern perspective in its willingness to (poorly) ape a lot of musical styles. Would the Stone Temple Pilots open any of their albums with a barroom boogie ("Better Off Dead"), then do a six-minute DISCO number ("Passion"), then (after skipping the title track in a fit of Websterian obstinateness) doing a white boy reggae number ("So Soon We Change") I bet not, buster. That these songs are not very good is almost beyond the point, because it's better to mildly suck in ten different ways than to mildly suck in the same key for 45 minutes. Of course, by the same token, there's absolutely nothing worth recommending here that other artists haven't done better. The backing band is adequate. Rod himself is fine - weirdly, despite his rock-n-roller background I think his voice sounds better the further the songs get from roots-rock, probably because its hint of grizzliness sounds invigorating against, e.g., a cod reggae or sardine-tin rock backing, and a little silly against "authentic" Americana. He can't even pronounce "kill my wife" correctly. I bet he hasn't even hit his wife, let alone killed her. Poseur. Final Thoughts: As you can guess by how I haven't mentioned a single song on this album outside of name-checking all the genres on display, none of the tracks here are very good, and there is nothing to recommend here. And yet, this is merely inoffensive, and we are allegedly some four years away from Rod's nadir. To be continued. Best Song: Either "Better off Dead" or "Passion" depending on whether you prefer generic boogie woogie or generic disco. I'm leaning towards the latter. Worst Song: "My Girl" rhymes "earth" with "deserve." And has the audacity to share its name with a GOOD song. And sucks. Next Time on Diaz vs Starostin: I mock a Macca. Bing bang! Oo, ee, oo wa ah ah ah, bing bang ding and you don't stop the boogie.
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Apr 9, 2019 7:33:14 GMT -5
As for Cut The Crap... well I don't really have anything to add. When it comes to punk I'm more Team Pistols than Team Clash, but after a run of extraordinary albums they have... this. I mean, the Pistols had The Great Rock And Roll Swindle too, which is also a bucket of shit, so it's not like it's something unique to the Clash. Anyway this is dreadful, and I have little in the way of wise words to add to what Rosa said. Oh except that she didn't mention that Fingerpoppin is also absolutely hilarious. Once. You'll be interested to learn that Starostin thinks The Great Rock and Roll Swindle is better than Never Mind the Bollocks. Personally I prefer the Ramones to the Pistols on account of being a good-for-nothing New Yawker - but I'm not a huge fan of either because I don't dig punk's essence. On second thought, maybe "Fingerpoppin" is an oblique reference to their fascination with hip-hop culture? ("Why do these boys stand in groups / Are they urban tribes of fighting troops?")
|
|
|
Post by Prole Hole on Apr 9, 2019 7:51:43 GMT -5
As for Cut The Crap... well I don't really have anything to add. When it comes to punk I'm more Team Pistols than Team Clash, but after a run of extraordinary albums they have... this. I mean, the Pistols had The Great Rock And Roll Swindle too, which is also a bucket of shit, so it's not like it's something unique to the Clash. Anyway this is dreadful, and I have little in the way of wise words to add to what Rosa said. Oh except that she didn't mention that Fingerpoppin is also absolutely hilarious. Once. You'll be interested to learn that Starostin thinks The Great Rock and Roll Swindle is better than Never Mind the Bollocks. Personally I prefer the Ramones to the Pistols on account of being a good-for-nothing New Yawker - but I'm not a huge fan of either because I don't dig punk's essence. On second thought, maybe "Fingerpoppin" is an oblique reference to their fascination with hip-hop culture? ("Why do these boys stand in groups / Are they urban tribes of fighting troops?") The Great Rock And Roll Swindle is absolute garbage. Sorry, Starostin. There's exactly one good thing that came out of it - "Silly Thing", which is an awesome song and which I wish Lydon had sung on - but the rest of it is just trash of the highest order. Lydon was right to bail out. I'm not generally a big punk guy - Pistols yeah, Clash of course, one or two sundries like The Slits, but I always think of the Ramones as being in the new-wave bracket alongside Blondie, Talking Heads et al. And they feel like a much more natural fit when taken alongside bands like The Buzzcocks, the Jam (though I'm not really precious about genre definitions). New wave and post punk is much more my jam than "pure" punk and the Ramones are, obviously, great whatever bracket they get put in.
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Apr 10, 2019 7:27:48 GMT -5
You ok Archie?
|
|
ArchieLeach
AV Clubber
I talk too much, I worry me to death
Posts: 289
|
Post by ArchieLeach on Apr 10, 2019 22:27:35 GMT -5
Rod Stewart - Foolish Behaviour (1980)
Pre-Existing Prejudices: I've actually never heard a Rod Stewart song in my life other than "Young Turks,"... I find it hard to believe this, Rosa - how could you avoid "Stay With Me," "You Wear It Well," "Tonight's the Night," "The First Cut is the Deepest," "Do Ya FREAKING Think I'm Sexy?", "The Rhythm of My Heart".... now I'm putting you on...how could you miss the most-often played song on oldies and classic rock radio (at least it feels like it), "Maggie May"? But even if you've heard Rod Stewart - and I'm pretty sure you have - you are probably too young to understand what he meant in 1980. So here's a crash course.
Rod Stewart started off in various late-60s British blues bands, gaining notoriety on albums credited to guitarist Jeff Beck. Their albums together set the template for Led Zeppelin, but they didn't sell nearly as much. Rod the Mod then took over the helm of the loose and boozy Small Faces from departing singer Steve Marriott, and they were "Small" no more, creating a Stones-like spin on Chuck Berry-infused rock, the kind of music you would want to hear in a bar. But Rod kept one foot out of the Faces, releasing solo albums featuring strong self-penned material. Every Picture Tells a Story was the biggest hit, a masterpiece of roots rock with pounding drums but mostly acoustic instruments, including fiddles and mandolins. "Maggie May" is the most popular, his tale of his adolescent love affair with an older woman, but the title track opens the album with an epic, albeit sexist and racist, tale of chasing tail pursuing love 'round the world. The opening line is every critic's favorite: "Spent some time feeling inferior/Standing in front of my mirror/Combed my hair in a thousand ways/But I came out looking just the same." That's good stuff.
So he had a run of big hits which got progressively slicker until the smash "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy." There he was, borrowing the hook from some Latin song, putting it to an unabashed disco beat (no half-measures like Mick and Keith), squeezing some hot leopard-print covered ass pretty girl (just thinking about his lyrics is making me impolite) on his album cover. There were plenty of us who looked on Stewart with disdain - who ever sold out so thoroughly? It took 40 years for me to hear this song as a funny update of his earlier story songs. It's a fine track, and by the way, it's better than the song he supposedly ripped off.
But some of us weren't ready to give Stewart that small bit of credit back then, as disco records were getting blown up in baseball stadiums. So when Foolish Behavior came out, critics were ready to bash it, and they did. The single release, "Passion," was chilly and mechanical. The most interesting part of this long song - it felt longer than its five-and-a-half minute duration - was when the music dropped down and Stewart proclaimed, "Even the president needs...passion." At this point, in 1980, Jimmy Carter was still president. Our country was suffering from malaise, and our kindly Born Again Christian cardigan-sweatered anti-Nixon said in an interview with Playboy magazine (!) that he had sinned in his lustful thoughts towards woman other than his wife (!!).
Sex was everywhere, but the backlash was growing, and soon Reagan would be president. Our culture's concerns flipped from booty to bucks, and Rod kept cashing in. We lost all respect for him - you could sense that each critic finished his pan of Stewart's most recent platter before the needle even lifted off it. The sense of betrayal, that Rod had sold out the earthy young man of the early hits for the polished jet-setter, was everywhere. But he kept scoring hits, and has never really gone away.
I downloaded The Definitive Rod Stewart for five bucks and have to admit that the dude was in touch with the cultural zeitgust for longer than just about anyone. Like actor Michael Douglas, he has had the knack for tapping into his generation's obsessions. You gave Foolish Behavior an honest listen and gave an appropriate response. I have no desire to actually listen to it. Thank you, Rosa, for your continued efforts.
[Sorry for the technical burp which happened when I tried to write before work this morning.]
|
|
|
Post by Prole Hole on Apr 22, 2019 5:59:16 GMT -5
Is... that cover meant to be Rod looking alluring? Rod sold out - did he, though? I know "The First Cut Is The Deepest" was meant to be the moment when he finally pissed away any remaining "credibility" he had in favour of pure, naked commercialism, but really, that's predicated on the idea he had any credibility to begin with (outside his own fanbase of course). I understand what @archieleach is saying, but growing up in the 70's and 80's Mr Stewart never had any credibility, and songs like "Maggie May" sounded calculated, not authentic - every bit as calculated as later ill-advised wanderings into disco or smooooove jazz or whatever genre was dominant (as someone famously hostile to disco, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" is beyond irredeemable to me regardless of whether it's meant to be tongue-in-cheek or not, and I fully admit that it likely is, but I do appreciate your efforts at a redemptive reading of it). I too thank Rainbow Rosa for your continuing, wonderful efforts in this column!
|
|
Crash Test Dumbass
AV Clubber
ffc what now
Posts: 7,058
Gender (additional): mostly snacks
|
Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Apr 22, 2019 9:45:03 GMT -5
It is Da Ya, dammit. DA YA think I'm sexy. Somehow that makes it worse.
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Jun 8, 2019 18:34:04 GMT -5
Brief update: I am actually going to delay talking about Press to Play because George Starostin has been dutifully trawling through Macca's back catalogue again on his new blog, which gives me the fun opportunity to see what he thinks about the album 20 years after his initial pan. Also because another album on my list suddenly intruded upon my personal life by incredible coincidence.
So the next album I'm doing is actually Never Say Die! by Black Sabbath, which I'm pleased to report is actually pretty good.
|
|
Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
|
Post by Rainbow Rosa on Jan 5, 2020 2:18:44 GMT -5
Black Sabbath - Never Say Die! (1978)Pre-Existing Prejudices:Who among us hasn't heard Sabbath? Even as a kid, I remember classmates singing that parody. You know the one: "I am ice cream man, running over fat kids in my van" and all that. Hell, as I write this Ozzy Osbourne is currently on the Billboard Top 100 (albeit as the guest vocalist on some shitty Post Malone song). As an adult, I'd rank Deep Purple above Sabbath, and Zep for that matter, but I think the three all have their merits and deserve their place in the, uh, "Big Three" of early metal. Is that a thing, like how there's the "Big Four" of thrash? Maybe we pretend Steppenwolf are good so that we can have a nice even Big Four? (We already do that with Anthrax! Kidding, kinda.) That being said, like most people whose familiarity with Sabbath comes from pop culture rather than heavy metal fandom, I'm completely unfamiliar with any of their output post- Master of Reality. Starostin Sez: "Oh yeah, now this is the kind of low-grade garbage that even diehard Sabbath fans should stay away from, unless they arrived at Sabbath from Korn. [...] From the very start - the title track - when it hits you with that stupid onset of power chords instead of a classic Sabbath riff, you really understand that the band had gone a long way since 'Sweet Leaf'. Long way... down."Diaz Disagreez: When people talk about the musical merits of Black Sabbath, usually the first thing people mention is Tony Iommi's knack for coming up with iconic riffs. This is misguided, if you axe me (pun intended) - there's only a finite number of metal riffs you can write, and Iommi only got there first because he had a year to himself. Give a room full of sixth graders guitars and by the end of the day, they'll have written the entire Sabbath riff library. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, even if my dumb eleven-year-old ass independently wrote the riff from "Electric Funeral" within fifteen minutes of first touching a bass guitar. But I think the reason we think of Iommi as this genius riffmeister is that, on the Sabbath tunes everyone knows, every single aspect of those songs exists in relation to Iommi's guitar lines - whether that's Ozzy singing along with the "Iron Man" riff in perfect monophony, or "War Pigs" playing the first two notes of its riff for two minutes so that when that DEH DEH DEEEH finally kicks in during the verses the menace is palpable. Never Say Die! completely breaks with that paradigm - Iommi gets some chances to shine, but most of the time he's playing second fiddle rather than any scorching lead lines. Geezer Butler gets to play the hooks to some of these tunes; Bill Ward gets chances to show off his drumming skills, and even sings lead vocals on one song; even guest keyboardist Don Airey gets to add his mark to this album, contributing some wicked synth tones (!) and classical-jazzy piano flourishes (!!) to the mix. And the album also breaks from the Satanic aesthetic that made Sabbath so famous in the first place, as hinted by that (honestly, pretty dorky) Hipgnosis album sleeve. Is the album better for this? Uh... maybe? Freed from the black hole of Tony's all-devouring riff factory, Never Say Die! gives Sabbath the chance to experiment with genre and instrumentation. Basically every development in 70's rock music gets explored here: microdoses of prog and punk; Bowie and Bolan; even some straight blues. (No disco, though, to Prole Hole 's delight - now, THAT would be a hoot.) And they're modestly successful in all these modes, never embarrassing themselves even as they bring in, e.g., a harmonica. No, the real problem here is twofold: six of the nine songs on this album are five minutes or longer, and they do so despite frequently lacking such basic concepts as "verses" and "choruses," let alone one of those patented Iommi hooks to glue the tracks together. This results in tracks like "Shock Wave," an endless concatenation of bridges that never adds up to a coherent song. And the shorter tracks that bookend the album aren't much better: "Never Say Die" and "Swinging the Chain" are adequate blues-rock numbers at best. That being said, half of those long tracks are genuinely good. "Johnny Blade" is driven by overdriven synth lines and rat-a-tat drum rolls, until it segues into a more straightforward hard rock number that nonetheless kicks some major ass. I'malso partial towards "Junior's Eyes," which is built around a one-two punch of an understated bassline from Butler combined with some corrosive wah-wah chords from Iommi. Apparently the lyrics are about the death of Ozzy's dad? Sure, okay. It's a solid song either way. But in my eyes, the undisputed high point of the album is "Air Dance," a track which I would have no qualms calling The Best Black Sabbath Tune Ever, except for the part where it sounds so totally unlike Sabbath that I can't possibly do so in good faith. It's... well, I guess strictly speaking it's a power ballad in the vein of "Bat Out of Hell," but with none of the bombast that would imply. It's a delicate track which alternates between dainty piano trills and spaghetti-strap guitar licks, which by the end has metamorphosed into a taut jazzy number that you can just feel heading towards the stratosphere. It's like the musical version of Buffy the vampire slayer wearing a leather jacket over her prom dress - a little kitschy, super girly, and yet surprisingly badass. Definitely not a track I'd have expected Black Sabbath to pull off - but this entire album is full of surprises like that, both big and little. The Final Verdict: Look, this is a flawed album, where half the songs are point blank not very good. But I've listened to it... five times now? And never once did I think it was unpleasant, or hackneyed in the ways this sort of music can be hackneyed. (I mean, a track like "Hard Road" is hackneyed, just not in the metal idiom.) I do wonder how much of the hate for this album comes from a particular kind of metalhead for whom heavy = good and poppy = bad. Certainly the softer piano-driven numbers like "Air Dance" and "Over to You" aren't LOUD thread material; I can just imagine some teenage boy longhair complaining in the YouTube comments that this is wussy pussy pissy sissy music for GIRLS! For them, this is probably a disappointing interlude between classic rock radio Sabbath and the horn-flashing heavy metal hysterics of Dio-era Sabbath, to say nothing of Ozzy's solo career and subsequent capitalizing on his whole "prince of darkness" shtick. In that regard, Never Say Die! is refreshingly earnest. Best Song: "Air Dance" and "Johnny Blade" vie for the gold here. Worst Song: "Hard Road" and "Over to You" are both pretty lame. Next Week on Diaz vs. Starostin: I'm not certain what album I'm doing next, actually. But I do know I'm doing it next week, per the thread title. Totes. After all, everyone keeps their New Year's Resolutions! Right?
|
|