music_collector

Yes please, go ahead and nominate away.

SGR

Wasn't really how Oasis' music was treated.

Then again, they did rip-off riffs quite a bit. But who's kidding who, that T-Rex riff still bangs, doesn't matter who's playing it.



To the broader point, I guess the year of release and how that factors into someone's personal rating all depends on how you're rating the music. If you're doing a straight up rating based on how much you enjoyed the music, it shouldn't matter. But I wouldn't begrudge someone for awarding or deducting a couple points for originality. After all, how well the music is done is a little bit less of an impressive feat if the framework for how to make the music sound good has been around for decades. There are always weird edge cases. Radiohead's Kid A got all kinds of accolades as if they were doing something truly new and revolutionary but what they really did was introduce the sound of Aphex Twin to a rock audience.

Like you said though, it's all subjective.

Lisnaholic

Yeah, I gave Sharon Jones fewer points than I would've done if it had been some undiscovered 60s gem - not that I have any worked-out or consistent policy on rating at all.
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Neverending White Lights

Smooth, accomplished, controlled - there are plenty of positive-sounding adjectives to describe this album, but they would conceal the fact that I really didn't enjoy this album. It seems like it's pulling all the time in a direction that I personally don't want to take: romantic soft rock, with all the rough edges smoothed out. There's no orchestra, but isn't it approaching symphonic rock? Not sure, because that's not a genre I'm familiar with.

Did someone say there are guest vocalists throughout? If so, most of them sounded remarkably similar to my ears: so soft-spoken in their exalted reverence for love. I must admit that I didn't really pay attention to the lyrics, but there seemed to be an awful lot about You, Me and We, which is a red flag for someone who usually steers clear of romantic songs.

Trying to overcome a lack of interest in the singing, I focused a bit more on the music, but things weren't much better: the drumming is a muted kind of non-drumming to me: yes, there's a beat but there's no powerful crack like a guy is actually bashing at a drum irl - even on the more upbeat World Is Darker track. That one was punchier, but only relatively so.
Always, ... My Life Without Me -all these delicate, beautifully-crafted songs went by in a bit of a non-descript blur for me, with Black Is The Color distinguishing itself as being a little more plodding and repetitive than the others.

At only two points in the album did I feel a spark of actual interest: the bells that turn up half-way through The Living, and then the long closer, Warding Off The Spirits , which starts with a solo piano and distinctive voice and then neatly transitions into a genuinely uplifting middle section, if you can ignore the fact that it sounds a little like some Christmas sing-along. Still, it's the best track on the album imo.

Sorry, but this album was not for me, regardless of the artistry that has gone into it.
5/10

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Carpe Mortem

I think release date can make a difference for sure, for the reasons noted by others... but I think it goes hand in hand with taste & education on the genre as well.

I'm not terribly educated on or interested in funk, so the music needs to be pretty damn unique for me to differentiate it and appreciate it, when my listening has consisted of only the most mainstream and assumedly well liked of the genre. Mentally I'm considering it 'funk I've basically heard before', 'funk I've never heard and like' or 'funk I've never heard and don't like'.

Conversely... I could listen to a dozen heavy metal bands spanning several decades that all sound identical, and potentially rave about every single one.

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music_collector

While I try to keep an open mind when listening to the nominees, this factors into my ratings. Rap, hip hop and country aren't my cups of tea, but I will do my best to be objective.

As much as I like the band, it wasn't new or revolutionary.

Regarding Oasis, I couldn't get past Liam's voice. The whole "bigger than the Beatles" and constant soap opera press coverage didn't help me like the band.

music_collector

Hi everyone.

I have to post a review of my last submission, correct?

Is Carpe's album next on the docket?

Trollheart

1. Correct
2. Incorrect. As per the OP, it's Lisnaholic next, then SGR, then Carpe, then me again.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Lisnaholic

Thanks for the reminders, m_c and TH: today's the day my nom is due to be under the knife.

Here's a link that'll play the opening track, and might lead you on to a playlist of all 13 tracks:-



(I would personally recommend that, rather than the "Full Live Album" which also turns up on Youtube)

Tracklist:-
1. Dawna
2. Buena
3. I'm Free Now
4. All Wrong
5. Candy
6. A Head With Wings
7. In Spite of Me
8. Thursday
9. Cure for Pain
10. Mary Won't You Call My Name?
11. Let's Take a Trip Together
12. Sheila
13. Miles Davis' Funeral

1993 was the release date, for anyone planning to facture that kind of info into their rating, ok?

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

SGR

Neverending White Lights - Act II: The Blood and the Life Eternal

Starts off kinda like Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness with a piano ballad - is the main guy in this group a Pumpkins fan? I bet he is.

And then we get to the uh….rocking, I guess? What’s the word when you’re playing guitar but it’s really depressing and not heavy? Eh, whatever. And the singing, sometimes crooning, sometimes love stricken, sometimes bereft of feeling. Sometimes it passes you by, sometimes the song begins and ends in the blink of an eye. Other times, you, like the singer, would rather die. And….where was I….?

Well how about the lyrics?

Love can save a thousand lives
Joy in a world that sweetly cries
For every violent moment it has become
The cure will come, thy will be done
Well its only lonely soul I'm after
The heart is dark but the world is darker

Er…yeah. Not big on this. This kind of sounds like the poetry I wrote when I was a depressed middle school kid. Man, was my poetry deep…

You get some synth sparkles and strings every now and then, like “My Life Without Me”. Synth sparkles….sparkles…what sparkles…? Vampires!? Well they didn’t used to sparkle, but in more recent times they have, primarily in Twilight, the famous book series by Stephenie Meyer. Why do I bring that up? Well, I can’t get that book cover out of my head when I look at this album cover - very similar - I wonder if there was some visual inspiration here, perchance?





Let’s ignore that aside, I suppose.

And then there’s Miss World…Miss World? A Hole cover?! No way…..oh….uhhh yes. So yeah, it’s basically a Hole song without the punch or the attitude. Too quiet, too forgettable, too “background music”. It’s too bad, because the original is a pretty good song. And uh, not to be controversial or anything, but the song isn’t the same when it’s a dude singing “I am the girl…”, I mean, Morrissey this lead singer is not.



Man, this album goes on for a long time. When I heard the first track, and thought of Mellon Collie, I kinda expected to get a similarly colorful soundscape but that really isn’t the case here. It essentially drifts between two tightly knit poles - inoffensive soft rock, and inoffensive soft rock with synths sprinkled on top, all of which sound depressed and detached - songs that rarely ever go anywhere, rarely ever bring you somewhere interesting. There’s no payoff here. It may start off like Mellon Collie, but it plays out more like Adore.

“Always” is okay I suppose, sounding like a weird crossover between mid ‘90s Foo Fighters and mid ‘00s Interpol. At the least, when the percussion picks up pace and the singer starts to get a little more energetic, it sounds like they’re trying to bring you somewhere. There’s some feeling in this song. Again though, by the end, it feels like it’s missing a closing act.

Where is love
Babe I hope it's where we are

Come on now…this qualifies as a chorus? Really?! I’d happily get drunk and belt out the choruses to Whitesnake...but not this…not this.

“Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Heart” is the first song, at least that I’ve noticed thus far, that features a female vocalist. Her voice sounds nice against the sparse piano led instrumental. Much better than the “Where Is loooooove” guy at least. Her voice is contrasted by a different male vocalist - some vocal contrast and interplay, sweet! Does it go anywhere instrumentally? Sorta, but not really.

“Bleeds to an End”? Yeah, more slow singing, more turgid, quiet, slow rock that doesn’t go anywhere worthwhile. There’s lots of interspersed spacey emotional “oooooh wooooooooooooh ooooooooh wooooooh”s though….very deliberate, very flat. It’s the kinda noises you’d make if you were suddenly a reawakened zombie who’s been doused in copious amounts of NyQuil and then thrown on roller coaster filled with loop de loops with the safety bar tightly applied.

Take all my strength
For this heart you’re to blame
Don’t you wait until it all bleeds to an end
Bleeds to an end

Are we gonna slit our wrists here and get this over with or what? Oh wait, never mind, four more tracks left.

There’s a perfect body in a perfect place
When it falls to pieces its nothing I can save

I was a witness, to your secrets
But something happens, something happened

I know I know you can
I know I know you can keep me here in darkness
Keep me here in darkness now

Another reason for me to forget your words
Baby it’s not me who hurts but that was what you said

Tell your secrets
Can you tell your secrets?

I know I know you can
I know I know you can keep me here in darkness
God knows where my heart lives now

You walk a straight line
You get it right on your first try
You get hurt but you don’t cry




I’m refilling my glass with bourbon now. There, I told you my secret. Okay…next track.

“Distance” - same ol’ same ol’. Next track.

“Last of the Great Lovers” - begins with the piano again, then some synth strings. Soft singing. If you could agree, everything’s over for us now. I couldn’t take…I couldn’t take…everything’s over for us now….but there’s one more track. This one at least has some rising synth strings and eventually the song kinda explodes a bit, and by explode, I mean sorta like a teapot that starts whistling - it explodes relative to the standard calm this album has established. So we got another track that at least tries to take us somewhere. To that end, I won’t ruin the experience here by looking at the lyrics.

Okay last track - and…almost 8 MINUTES LONG?! Oh jeez. Oh brother. This better be worth it. If the rest of the album is any indication, it won’t be. “Warding Off the Spirits” eh? Spirits have gotten me this far, I won’t be warding them off now thank you very much. Once again, we begin with the soft piano, and here comes the muted vocals. Two minutes in, we start to hear some guitar, the track changes a bit. Some nice reverb. That bass comes in right on time. And then the rest of the track is supposed to be the crescendo I guess. But the vocalist is so flat it just comes off as disappointing. Damn. Well, that’s that.

Yeah, I don’t know what to say. I wasn’t into this. Listening to this album felt like gliding from a giant flower petal into the spiky underbrush, but you never quite get caught, you just keep falling and getting scratched up. Just when you think something is going to pay off, the song turns its ass around and moons you for your naïveté. You go to slap it, but then it proceeds to quickly turn around, pull up trouser, and tell you that we’re all in darkness and nothing can be saved anyway. It doesn’t matter how many times it shows you its ass, it’s all for naught. It has all the thrills of a typical metro ride in the stinkiest subway in the early morning when you haven’t had your coffee yet but your stomach is still trilling from your overconsumption of booze the previous night and you don’t know whether or not you’ll make it to the next stop before you involuntarily **** your pants. It’s got all the charm of discussing contemporary politics with your mother in law. It has the self-reflective abilities of your average Stokerian vampire. Its like combining Kenny G, Coldplay, and your average emo band that plays at your local bar, adopting the worst aspects of each.

Still…there’s a couple tracks here that almost manage to be interesting or memorable. But the fact that it goes on for over 70 minutes is practically a crime against humanity and its collective eardrums. I guess the mix is okay, the sound doesn’t seem terrible on a technical level. But perhaps, the fact that it goes on for this long and hardly does anything interesting is perhaps an indictment of humanity rather than a crime against it.

So I tell myself
I only wished us well
Life is all we know
But somehow not for sure




2.5/10

SGR

By mechanical vocals, do you mean autotuned vocals? I'm gonna take a wild guess here that you're not a fan of rap music?

Have you ever heard A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory? Humor me.