Has there ever been an album review thread? One a fortnight, maybe?

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Okay - let's go.

[Sporting]

The Practice of Joy Before Death

A sort of potted overview:

Off-kilter riffs, verging on and touching melodic at times, that kind of vocal delivery typical of grunge, and lyrics which are evidently intelligent but lost in the overall sound. Echoes of the obvious culprits, but also of Happy Mondays (no, really). Not so keen on the more earnest slower tracks (or slower bits of faster songs), a bit too reminiscent of Nirvana-style compositions. Sometimes not sure if melodies and riffs are repeated rather too often, or is it my cloth ears? In general, some interesting stuff, but somewhat samey. Sorry.

Not quite track by track:

Opening track a killer. The album falls slightly down the hill for a while, but not off the cliff. Magnifier is interesting. It reminds me of something else; what? Tell you something, though: much of this is pretty effective exercise music, just right for my treadmill pace (tried and tested observation, no empty metaphor this time around).

Patience is good. More of the “I love you” lyric, heard previously. But the best so far comes with Ol’ Bluehair which snaps and grabs but is over way too soon. Sundial is kind of an instant reprise with 60s psychedelic guitars. Van is listenable, though again with inbuilt earworms.

Happy Cow Farm Family is surely a title considered for a Pink Floyd Ummagumma era song title. Doesn’t really go anywhere, unfortunately. A bit formulaic and boring. Full of intent, though, and at the end some drive. But by now, things are getting a bit bedraggled, and attention wanders. Killer hooks are conspicuous by their absence, and the singer sings as if he’s lying on his bed while doing so.

Rock Collector is the worst track, ponderous and seemingly never-ending. Longest song on the album, and it’s really crap. (None is this is personal, I gather this is established!?)

Last track is somewhat fun and goofy, though, if not one I would put on replay.

By the way, I had never heard or heard of either of the Pond groups.

[scratchmonkey]

Cheers Sporting, was worried I'd killed the thread there for a bit. I didn't want to pick another classic, so decided to pick something that it was unlikely for many people other than myself to have heard -- Pond was a Portland Oregon-area band from the grunge period who didn't quite fit into the "grunge" sound yet tumbled into a major-label deal after this album, and disbanded afterward. I only heard of them because one of my friends at college was from Portland, so we cross-pollinated our collections of local groups. All in all, you can see why they never hit it big; at the same time, I'm sure they put on a good show (Ol' Bluehair is my favorite track of theirs as well).

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Thanks for the reminder I really liked this - it was much more melodic than I expected and found myself humming along to it while I was doing my chores. Like Sporting, I'd never heard of the band or their music before.

Favourite tracks: Side Road; Ol' Bluehair; Glass Sparkles in Their Hair.

[Sporting]

Any more opinions?

[delicatemoth]

I just started listening to it and it's reminded me of what used to be a general difference between UK and US indie rock bands - the Americans would have skilled, polyrhythmic, hyperactive drummers while British bands would (by and large) be lucky to get someone who could do any more than the bare minimum of beat-keeping.

[delicatemoth]

I'm afraid I don't have much else to say about this. I enjoyed the first couple of songs and suspect I'd have liked it quite a lot when it came out, but then it all blurred together rather, pleasant enough but unremarkable. Sorry Pond.

[Sporting]

I'm afraid I don't have much else to say about this. I enjoyed the first couple of songs and suspect I'd have liked it quite a lot when it came out, but then it all blurred together rather, pleasant enough but unremarkable. Sorry Pond.

More or less my opinion too.

[Sporting]

Not many of us but I'm enjoying it, Anyone want to review albums already chosen (no time limit) or suggest something else? I have a couple of ideas but would prefer to let others choose first.

[ad hoc]

I'm still intending to listen to Pond (I started a couple of days ago but before the first track was over my other half started vacuuming - which may have been her review)

But don't let that stop someone for putting up the next offering

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Not many of us but I'm enjoying it, Anyone want to review albums already chosen (no time limit) or suggest something else? I have a couple of ideas but would prefer to let others choose first.

I've got one I want to throw out there - possibly tomorrow morning

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Can we review 'Big Science', by Laurie Anderson? There's been a re-release lately, and it's a genuinely interestingly piece of music from it's time. And it's from a female musician, which we haven't seen yet.

It's on Spotify too.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

But I'm also happy for other suggestions. I like being taken to places, musically speaking

[ad hoc]

No, I'm happy you chose this, because I saw a piece about the re-release last week and thought "I must listen to that" as I've only ever heard Oh Superman. So the timing is perfect

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

This may be too late for most, but Laurie Anderson is talking through Big Science now on Tim Burgess's Listening Party on Twitter.


Of 'O Superman': "We pressed 1,000 copies, and I’d individually mail each one. Then suddenly John Peel started playing it on his radio show and it went to #2 in the UK."

[Amor de Cosmos]

I bought this album as soon as I heard Let X=X which, on balance, remains my favourite track. I haven't listened to it all the way through, or in song order for years, but that's true of my listening habits in general. Didn't think about it until just now, but I probably tend to play her later stuff more than Big Science, especially tracks from Strange Angels and Mister Heartbreak, the chorus of Sharkey's Day is a regular earworm. Are they more timeless? In some ways Big Science seems to be irrevocably attached to the mid-80s and will never really leave there.

[Sporting]

Big Science:

At times, this felt to me like the unused soundtrack for a post-apocolyptic movie. Disembodiment, survivors trying to punch their way through ghosts, disconnected voices and sounds.

The lack of emotion, perhaps much always in the spoken lyrics and usually in the music, is kind of disturbing. As for the lyrics, I had in mind concrete poetry, but there's another poetic genre, the name of which I don't recall, which uses public announcements, telephone messages, pilots' spiels (as on the opening track here) in what is at once a mixture of the mundane and the weird. Like the vocal equivalent of the band Public Service Broadcasting. Metaphor-free but heavy on hidden suggestion.

I had only ever heard the most famous track so most of this was new for me. It's a kind of dance music, but dance music you can't dance to. I think I admire and respect, but could never love it.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

To add a (possibly) final comment. I chose this as it was reissued recently (in beautiful red vinyl), and I read an interview with Laurie Anderson in The Guardian. Listening back, I think it holds its beauty even now - and the underlying themes (technology, America and its place in the world) still resonate. I heard a bit of Talking Heads in there too. Condensed from a 9-hour live performance, the songs use old-school technology (actual loops of tape that had to be laid over her furniture while she was recording) to predict the future. I love it, and bought the vinyl (red, obvs) for my 14-year-old daughter (who also loves it).

[ad hoc]

I didn't really know what to expect of this, but I am really glad I listened to it. I think it's really really good, and holds up really well. In fact I have heard other more recent tracks and albums that really owe a debt to this. The title track especially is, I think, brilliant, and Born, Never Asked, is another standout. If I had a complaint it would be that there is slightly too much sampled talk. Plus, I really hated the last track. The barking, the voice, everything about it. It was a shame to finish on such a low point.

(This doesn;t feel much like a review, but i think I need to go back and listen to it over and over to get to the bottom of it. I'll start now. But skip Walk the Dog.)

[Sporting]

The range of opinions on this is good.

[scratchmonkey]

Preface: I'm a big fan of Laurie Anderson. I did an Electronic Music minor at college, and only got into the program because it was the last year using the very old original facility, and everybody wanted to wait until the next year, when the brand-new music building opened. Because of this, we did a lot of old-school work, including using reel-to-reel tape with cutting and splicing, doing tape loops, manual delays, all sorts of good stuff, including using a bunch of rack-mounted equipment that Laurie Anderson used in her work.

One amazing thing about Big Science is that it still sounds futuristic, nearly 40 years later. The production is crystal-clear, it never seems to muddy up no matter how many layered tracks Anderson throws at you (and boy, there's a lot happening here, in every track). And even with all the analog equipment being used, it sounds incredibly modern, the arrangements being very non-conventional helps, I don't think anybody sounds even remotely similar to Laurie Anderson.

'O Superman' is of course the standout track and her best known work overall. I'm not sure that I can have anything like an objective response to it -- a few days after 9/11, I was driving when a live performance of her doing this was played on the radio. I hadn't reacted very strongly to the event when it had actually occurred; when I heard the performance, I had to pull over and just started bawling on the side of the road, full-on racking sobs, nose running, the works. Something about it cut through all the political bullshit and went straight to the human experience, the loneliness and the connection. And of course the refrain "here come the planes, so you better get ready, get ready to go" was like a hammer blow right to the chest.

I like 'Walk the Dog' a lot, it's very uh, Ween, before Ween was Ween.

[Sporting]

So far we're getting an average of around 5 or 6 opinions on each album, which is fair enough, but any latecomers feel free to dellve back into the thread. More suggestions welcome.

[Sporting]

No-one? For those happy to listen, may I suggest something?

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Sorry - been away working. Pl.ease do, I like the idea of going where I don't normally go

[Sporting]

Is this well known? I really like some of the songs, but not all. Would be great to hear other views.

Des Visages Des Figures: Noir Desir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jC7...U_rDSLqKGXWZ7T