Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Music Revisionism

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    It’s fucking terrible. But I’d still rather jack than Fleetwood Mac. Especially the blooozy version without the vibrating with the Coke lineup.

    Comment


      Early Level 42 were very much in the Brit jazz-funk camp - certainly for their first three albums and until they started having a degree of mainstream commercial success. I saw them live a number of times in the early 80's along with Light Of The World, Morrissey/Mullen, Incognito and (I'd agree with the 'yikes', Jah) Shakatak.

      Comment


        Originally posted by Toby Gymshorts View Post
        There's only one Phantom Power in my life, and it's by SFA.
        It amuses me there are two albums from around the same time called the same thing. Both very good as well.

        Comment


          Originally posted by My Name Is Ian View Post
          My wife had NMH play in her living room when she lived in New Jersey and has that plane/record player hybrid logo tattooed on her chest. It's safe to say that she's a big fan of that whole Elephant 6 Recordings thing. I gave that album a few listens and disliked it so much that I didn't even tell her that I'd given it a go in the first place.
          Well, I had Shriekback appear in my next door neighbour's house, a while back, and it basically killed me and that whole period of my life. So, you know... balance. I am on the mailing list.

          Comment


            Originally posted by WOM View Post
            This is interesting. Can't say you're wrong, or right. I've never spent much time with World Container, because it came after the 'popular drop off' of the Hip and didn't have the radio-ready singles that contribute to the canon.
            You should listen to it repeatedly then until it becomes your favourite album. If 'The Drop Off' doesn't make you snarl in furious joy then you're dead inside. Because I came to the Hip somewhat randomly and a bit late and from a distance, I heard World Container before I heard Phantom Power or any of the other naughties albums - and I can see why interest had waned and they had to bring Bob Rock in to do his stuff.

            Originally posted by WOM View Post
            Your theory on Phantom Power is interesting; it has Bobcaygeon and (of course) Fireworks, which is easily a 10/10 song in my books. It's just perfect. But for power and strength and emotion of being just the right albums at just the right time, it's hard to top FC or DfN. I mean, we actually went to Sam The Record Man on Yonge Street at midnight to buy DfN when it was released. It was a mob scene. That's how big they were here, then.
            Which is the point of revisionism. Divorced from the hype at the time is Day For Night really that great? It's a much more brooding album, but take a song like Ahead By A Century, which is probably better than any of the singles off Day For Night and you can see an evolving sound. (Although that album ain't great.)

            Originally posted by WOM View Post
            Fully Completely is hard to top, though. That was The Hip at the peak of their power, with Another Roadside Attraction and utter ubiquity on the radio.
            Yes, I'd probably agree. I'd say this is the utter peak of them in their first incarnation, which they had built up to through the first few albums. And while it had that hint of much darker stuff which came to dominate, they then ripped up their template to do Day For Night and it took a couple of goes to swing the pendulum back to a more even album: Phantom Power.

            Then they tried to repeat PP twice but failed, and then tried to recapture their early sound on In Between Evolution. That didn't really work, but was much better, so they had another crack at it: World Container.

            They then seemed to enter a fourth cycle with their last 3 albums, all of which were a bit meh.

            Comment


              SAW: definitely a fan of Respectable and the other Wolves Poly student disco faves that'd always get me up included You Spin Me round; White Wedding and another Kylie song no-one's mentioned- What Do I have To Do?

              Comment


                Say I'm Your Number One by Princess is so dissimilar to, say, Sonia, that I often forget that it is SAW at all.

                Comment


                  Originally posted by Felicity, I guess so View Post
                  SAW: definitely a fan of Respectable and the other Wolves Poly student disco faves that'd always get me up included You Spin Me round; White Wedding and another Kylie song no-one's mentioned- What Do I have To Do?
                  The Wednesday night disco fave was Aha "Take on Me" as well.

                  Comment


                    Say I'm Your Number One was SAW? Dammit, that's another goodie for the list...

                    I'll concede that early Level 42 fits the UK jazz-funk definition - I guess they went pop around 1982-83?

                    Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                    It amuses me there are two albums from around the same time called the same thing. Both very good as well.
                    Falling short in the 'very good' stakes, US band Mr Big - not content with having half-inched their band moniker from a seventies UK act - then called one of their live albums Raw Like Sushi, something like nine months after Neneh Cherry had used the title for her high-profile debut record. (Which, rather annoyingly, has reminded me of Buffalo Stance yet again...)

                    Comment


                      I don't get the hate for Shakatak. I get why they or their genre might not be somebody's cup of tea, and I get why one might find them a bit dull. But they were good doing what they were doing, and occasionally they were really good. I'd think they're more "meh" than "yikes".

                      Comment


                        Personally, I always thought that Shakatak sounded like elevator music and couldn't really understand the fuss about them when there was clearly so much better stuff about. As for fans of jazz-funk itself, well, I imagine that they might have been a bit peeved that these rather insipid and formulaic records were always on TOTP rather than the 'real McCoy'.

                        But I'm guessing, of course.

                        Comment


                          Originally posted by My Name Is Ian View Post
                          Right down to that completely gormless "duh-duh-duh" at the very end of it. It's as though they've channelled all the very worst that could be managed from synth production in 1984. It's sub-Casio.
                          Originally posted by Benjm View Post
                          VA makes a strong case for IJCTSILY and ultimately it's pop music and the ears want what they want. Stevie's favouring softer styles in the '80s isn't damning in itself and Prince's funky 1990s also require a good deal of sifting to reveal the nuggets. SW is, as VA and Sam say, a victim of the expectations his earlier work generated.
                          Hahah, see I even like that "duh-duh-duh" at the end, perhaps because of its straight-up gormlessness. It makes me grin.

                          But then, I have really quite straightforward musical tastes in many respects. Benjm's comparison there is apt, because I also didn't get the memo that Prince was vital before about 1990 and shit after, mostly because I was too young to appreciate his '80s stuff at the time and so I only came in in time for the later stuff. To be strictly fair, a lot (a majority, perhaps) of both his earlier and later work does little for me: I acknowledge the 'importance' of his '80s stuff in a sort of abstract sense, and I'm glad it exists, but it has rarely spoken to me particularly. I mean, I love When Doves Cry and Purple Rain and happily listen to the big hits when they come on the radio, but I get that most fans of his would dismiss this attitude for its, well, straightforwardness. I love Gold and The Most Beautiful Girl In The World though as they were the glorious hits (in among a slew of much less songs, which only helped them stand out) when I was 16 or 15 and so 'mean' something to my experience that the earlier ones don't.

                          Elton John is another suitable comparison. Again, I didn't 'get the memo' about how everything pre-1980 is meant to be great and everything after is meant to be sub-par/schlocky/sentimental/over-produced balladry/whatever, much as with Mr Wonder. I came across all the hits from both decades at once, listening to 1990's Very Best Of cassette on the car stereo on family trips across country, and again all I picked up on was that there's a continuum of great tunes across both eras. And indeed I love a lot of his hits from the '90s, as I 'was there' for those as they happened, so to speak, so again they belong to moments in my teenage years where I was actually listening to the charts and getting into music.

                          Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                          Another one of my unpopular opinions is liking a lot of Depeche Mode not despite the very literal and clunky lyrics, but because of them. Including Blasphemous Rumors and Black Celebration. Sometimes the best way to deal with sadness and anxiety, especially when you're young, is just to say it out loud and sit with it.
                          I bloody love Depeche Mode. Blasphemous Rumours indeed works so well precisely because its unvarnishedness, if that's a word, its straightforwardness. There's that word again!

                          Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                          Zooropa is the best U2 album because it captures them right on the cusp of ditching the sound that made them famous and before they actually found a sound that worked. Which makes it a really interesting listen. Plus it's got The Wanderer on with Johnny Cash singing instead of Bono and that's a fab song.

                          Ace of Base's Happy Nation album is often forgotten as the pop album of the early 90s. When people talk about 90s music they never talk about how All That She Wants was ubiquitous in 1993, and how that was a great thing.
                          Oh, yes indeed. That skronky little "duh-da-dada-da-dah" riff that opens All That She Wants, before "She leads a lonely life..." is another thing that will always put a smile on my face when I hear it.

                          I only first heard Zooropa at last around six weeks ago, after having received it this Christmas, believe it or not, having only recently finally got around to putting it on my wishlist – and only some three years after finally getting around to Achtung Baby too. It is a terrific album, despite or because of sounding less like U2 than anything else U2 have done. And it contains my very favourite song of theirs (as noted in threads passim), the sublime Stay (Faraway, So Close). I might have to put it back on the stereo after dinner.

                          Comment


                            Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                            OK, I'll have a go.

                            Zooropa is the best U2 album because it captures them right on the cusp of ditching the sound that made them famous and before they actually found a sound that worked. Which makes it a really interesting listen. Plus it's got The Wanderer on with Johnny Cash singing instead of Bono and that's a fab song.
                            That's fascinating. So "made them famous" meaning the more commercially successful but serious/earnest stuff, and "worked" means not so successful, more dancey/looser? If so I need this album as I always thought Achtung Baby was that tipping point - Mysterious Ways in particular. I do have the 90-00 Best Of and enjoy some of the Discotheque tracks.

                            When Zooropa came out I remember thinking I was just a bit bored with U2, so I've never owned it. Maybe I'm missing out.

                            Comment


                              Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
                              Hahah, see I even like that "duh-duh-duh" at the end, perhaps because of its straight-up gormlessness. It makes me grin.
                              Oh absolutely, it's the best thing about it. I just laughed at it every time they showed the video on the TOTP repeats last year.

                              Listened to I'd Rather Jack earlier for the first time in a very long while. Should come with an advisory warning that the whole thing is absolutely pure unfettered SAW.

                              Comment


                                That video though...

                                Wasn't the term "to jack" already a bit outdated by then? And a bit rich of SAW to complain in lyrics about DJs twice the age of the Reynolds Girls dictating musical tastes!

                                Comment


                                  Isn't the story of how I'd Rather Jack came to be something to do with one of SAW making a bet that they could get anybody to record a single and get it to #1? Problem was that they might have managed it a year or two earlier but by 1989, their powers were already slightly on the wane.

                                  Comment


                                    If we're talking Prince, my revisionism would be that Sign O' The Times is not his best album, and not even in his top 5. (Purple Rain, Parade, Around The World In A Day, Diamonds and Pearls, 1999 since you asked).

                                    Comment


                                      Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
                                      And it contains my very favourite song of theirs (as noted in threads passim), the sublime Stay (Faraway, So Close). I might have to put it back on the stereo after dinner.
                                      I'll see your Stay, and raise you the Underdog remix.

                                      Comment


                                        Interesting Sean, though I can't say it does a whole lot for me – I think I'll stick with the original!

                                        Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                        That's fascinating. So "made them famous" meaning the more commercially successful but serious/earnest stuff, and "worked" means not so successful, more dancey/looser? If so I need this album as I always thought Achtung Baby was that tipping point - Mysterious Ways in particular. I do have the 90-00 Best Of and enjoy some of the Discotheque tracks.

                                        When Zooropa came out I remember thinking I was just a bit bored with U2, so I've never owned it. Maybe I'm missing out.
                                        It works very well as a 'companion piece' to Achtung Baby – they have an unmistakably shared DNA. Zooropa was recorded while they were touring that album, as I recall; I think they were trying to put together an EP, but decided they liked what they were coming up with enough to carry on a produce a whole new album. Based on my brand new expert knowledge of it, I'd say that if you like the one you'll probably like the other.

                                        Or perhaps I should say, as an acid test, if you like Numb (which is on the Best Of 1990-2000) then you're probably in a receptive enough mindset for some of Zooropa's more esoteric diversions. If by "some of the Discotheque tracks" you meant Pop tracks, I've always felt the reworked versions on the compilation do them little favour, by the way. Staring At The Sun still sounds OK, but the remix of Discotheque sounds rubbish compared with the original single.

                                        Comment


                                          The Queen Is Dead is not The Smiths' best album. Meat Is Murder is better apart from the title track. The first album has better lyrics but poor production. The last album disappears up its own rectum, far too self-indulgent by both composers.

                                          Morrissey was always a prick, e.g. in interviews

                                          As per the Chart Music podcast, Blockbuster by The Sweet is better than The Jean Genie.
                                          Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 25-02-2018, 17:50.

                                          Comment


                                            Revisionism: there are people on here what LIKES Bonio and U2..?!!

                                            Comment


                                              I’m certainly more surprised about that than I am to learn that there are OTFers who don’t care for I’d Rather Jack.

                                              Comment


                                                Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
                                                Interesting Sean, though I can't say it does a whole lot for me – I think I'll stick with the original!
                                                More straightforward, perchance?

                                                Comment


                                                  Originally posted by Felicity, I guess so View Post
                                                  Revisionism: there are people on here what LIKES Bonio and U2..?!!
                                                  I don't think there is anyone who doesn't think Bono is a jumped up little prick, but it's fair to say that for a period U2 made some good music. Maybe the fact that Bono is singing it taints it for many.

                                                  Comment


                                                    Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                                    The Queen Is Dead is not The Smiths' best album. Meat Is Murder is better apart from the title track.
                                                    Seconded.

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X