Trollheart

Welcome back to
Trollheart's

There were some raised eyebrows at my first choice for this section, even though I made it clear it was the two songs I was picking, not the artiste. I don’t know enough about Steve Miller to consign him himself to Room 101, but I did hate those two songs. Anyway, whether you agreed with it or not, or cared, it was and is my choice. This isn’t a democracy. There’s a reason why my username is before the title of this section.

Today’s selection however I feel sure few if any people will have a problem with.


From the earliest days of television there have been talent shows. Before TV even there were talent shows, places where people with, you know, talent, could go and display it, and maybe win a prize. But then Popstars came along, and the whole format changed. Now it was go and audition, and a panel of judges who supposedly knew the business would tell you if you were good enough to go through to the next round, and so on until everyone had been eliminated and a winner emerged. That winner then ostensibly received backing and finance, and possibly a recording contract. Popstars was the first, God help us, giving birth then to the more streamlined and glitzy Pop Idol, which in turn paved the way for American Idol and finally, the big one, the grandaddy turd of reality television, the X Factor.

I remember when they were plugging the X Factor. They said they wanted not just another bunch of singers, but people with --- wait for it --- the x factor, that unknown, unquantifiable quality that made them stand out from the crowd. They were looking for contestants with something special, something you couldn’t quite put your finger on, a je ne sais quoi that would single them out as someone to watch.

Initially, that sort of happened. While my sister was able to make it downstairs in the early stages of her illness I spent almost all my free time with her, and invariably we watched the TV. I was subjected to more soaps than I care to relate, and reality shows such as this. I suffered through, I think, about the first four seasons of the X Factor before she got too bad to come downstairs anymore, but that’s another, sadder story. The point is, my knowledge of this show is not based on the fact that I was ever a fan, but neither is it blind ignorance, in that I have never seen an episode. I have, and I know how it runs, or at least how it ran, up to about 2007, when I gratefully was able to stop enduring it.

Now, I should make this clear: I’m not against someone getting their chance to shine on a talent show. However, it irks me no end that this show, and others like American Idol, are seen as short cuts to fame. Most bands who are worth anything --- solo artistes too --- have come up the hard way: playing the pub circuit, gigs in every local dive that they could get, hawking demos around various record companies, hoping for the talent scout to be in the audience that one fateful night, which is how most of them were discovered. Now, with the rise of X Factor and American Idol, all a prospective star has to do is head on down to the auditions, get the judges to listen to them and if they’re good enough (yeah…) get picked for the selection process.

Not only that, there’s now increasingly an emphasis on “sob stories”, which drives me mad. Or did. When I watched it. I assume it hasn’t changed much. This would be when a contestant would tell a sad story, perhaps about a parent who has passed on, or being a single mother or, in the case of American Idol maybe having spent time in jail, and all the while crying crocodile tears and insisting how much “I want this! This is my life! I’ve nothing else!” etc. It often seems that, talent aside, contestants get through purely on the basis of their sob story, how sorry the judges (or audience, or both) feel for them.

Is that any way to decide who gets a shot at fame? I’ve no problem with sob stories per se, but they should be related AFTER the decision has been made as to whether the auditionee has been chosen, not before. The sob story should have no bearing on the decision, and it often does. Someone who’s not a great singer but who impresses the judges, audience or both with their sad little tale of how they got here and how they “must have this!” will stand a better chance of getting through than someone who happens to be a great singer but has no tale of woe to relate? How’s that fair?

Then of course, it’s not the person who shows us what they’re made of, shows us how good they are. No. Each of the judges mentors a certain section of the finalists, which are split into groups --- boys/girls/bands/whatever --- and gives them the benefit both of their expertise and their resources, essentially training them and moulding them into what they want them to be, or what the show demands. Sometimes there’s a well-known music star as a guest judge, and they too offer their advice, which is okay I guess as long as they don’t end up helping to train them as they do in American Idol, which really goes a step too far.

But the real thing that annoys me about X Factor is that it has now become, after more than ten years of the show, ingrained in the minds of youth that all they have to do to become famous is audition for this show. So why bother gigging any more? Why spend long nights travelling places in vans, to dingy nightclubs and dodgy pubs, playing cover versions or your own songs, trying to get a record deal? Why make all the effort, when you can have it all if you cry enough tears or compliment the judges, or can sing a little? Hey, if your family and friends think you’re a star, you must be one, right? And don’t get me started on all the contestants who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket (like me) and yet still think it’s a great idea to go to the auditions and essentially humiliate themselves on national television! Of course, in the end, the show's vaunted "search for people with the x factor" turned out to be nothing more than a list of generic singers, many of whom don't even deserve the title. So much for being different!

For the “quick-fix”, easy way out. For the simpering, smiling judges whose words can cut to the quick and destroy dreams. For the eternally annoying cliched phrases --- “You killed it!” “You made it yours!” --- and for the seemingly endless stream of no-hopers and to-be one-hit-wonders this show has foisted upon us, most of whom will do little but add to Simon Cowell’s gigantic bank balance, oh and for Cowell himself. And Louis Walsh. For all the bands who try to make it for real and snort at the “instant, manufactured pop stars”. For the lack of intelligence of its audience, who actually think this show is fair and not fixed! For Saturday nights wasted watching this tripe and for every fucking sob story under the sun, oh yes, and finally, for making kids think that Carl Orff’s “O fortuna” is the bloody X Factor theme tune and nothing more.

For all these reasons, and many more, Cowell, Walsh, take your simpering platitudes and your cutting remarks with you as you go. As you’ve said so many times to an unlucky, unwise or, in some cases you would have to think, plain stupid candidate: the door is that way!

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

butthead aka 216

TH, you're right with the last portion of your post. There's lots of reasons for the current state of music. I'm not really one to crawl onto the rooftop just to scream about how much today's music totally suxorz, but it is a shame that actual bands have kind of gone by the wayside. Look around, there is no room in the music space for bands anymore. There's maybe a handful of popular ones and they sing indie-folk-pop (Looking at you Mumford). People want to take it back to the 80s and earlier, but really in the late 90s/early 2000s I think bands started becoming obsolete. Part of that is these reality shows turning waitresses into pop stars in a matter of weeks.

I'm going to stop myself right there with that train of thought for fear of ranting about today's music and sounding like every YouTube commenter I've ever hated. But it just falls in line with society in general; a sense of entitlement and severe lack of work ethic. Why tour in a $600 minivan and play 200 person capacity firehouses when you can just try out for a reality show? That's the mindset nowadays I think and it blows fat cock.

Ninetales

How many people from X-Factor have become household names? It's weird to call it an "easy way" as if the ones who get far havent ever sang before or dont value music as much as those who dont go on the show. It's still incredibly difficult to win the grand prize. Why disqualify them because they didnt take the route you would have? If your dream was to be a singer why WOULDNT you take the oppurtunity to become noticed if it presented itself?

Trollheart

Because it IS the easy way out. Sure, some of these are blessed with a decent voice but they then hand over their career direction to Cowell and his ilk, who make them into stars primarily to make money off them. You should have a work ethic in music, not have everything handed to you: oh look! Here's a studio you can use. Here's a band. Here are some songs you can learn. And here's a music mogul to, ah, mentor you.

Bollocks! None of this in my day. If you wanted to get noticed you got up off your arse and spent time tramping around labels and managers with your demo tape, you did the gigs and you built up a following. Nobody gave you an easy out.

And why am I saying this? It's all in the article, did you not read it? It's mostly down to the, as butthead says, sense of entitlement people, especially young people have. Now if they hear a good singer they don't say oh you should join a band, they say you should go on the X Factor. And half of the so-called stars that thing manufactures like some gigantic printing press aren't worthy of being called such, they're just clones that are produced to a blueprint the record companies and the TV audience want.

Anyhoo, that's my take and it's my journal so I'm taking it and going home.

Oh, and thanks for commenting: first time I think? Welcome. Even if it doesn't sound like it. I like to argue. But always with respect. You prick.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

In the wake of Metal Month (yes I’m still talking about it!) I’ve found myself drifting away generally from heavier music and towards the poppier, more electronic end of the scale, as denoted by my first review following that special. It occurred to me, as I listened to the banality and tedium that was Visage’s latest and greatest (!) album, that it might be an interesting idea or even challenge to go back to the sort of music I used to hate and ridicule when younger and see if there actually is anything there that I missed. Was I just being pig-headed, a dedicated metalhead refusing to listen to any other music? Well no, because I did listen to a lot of artistes who would be considered anything other than metal. I enjoyed some pop music. But the problem with the bigger pop artistes was that all I ever got to experience of them was their singles. This was brought home to me in my review recently of the Pet Shop Boys album. Oh, I hated it (“Actually”) but the point is that I didn’t know that for sure until I had listened to the album all the way through.

My dislike for, and rejection of much new-wave/new romantic/electronic pop music was and is purely based on what I heard in the charts, and on the radio. I never had the interest to delve into their albums --- and at the time, the only real way you could get albums was by buying or borrowing them; no Spotify or even YouTube back then, to see if you liked something before shelling out the cash! --- and perhaps by ignoring these I’ve managed to miss some really good music? Perhaps the singles I heard were not representative of the band, or the singer. It’s often the case: the most commercial, saleable and chartable tracks get chosen for singles, while the ones which are maybe more mature, deeper, less poppy and airplay-worthy get left on the albums, and this can be where the artiste’s greatest work resides.

So over the coming months I’m going to give the music I used to hate a chance. Sort of like the section I did two years ago, when I ran “Stranger in a strange land”. Without the land. Or being a stranger. I may make this into a new series; I haven’t quite decided yet. But I want to kick it off with a look at an electro-pop/new wave icon, for whom I never had much time, and I want to do it in a new


The artiste I want to look at is one whose output I know very little of, but have a passing familiarity with due to the singles he has released. But looking at his career he’s had more than twenty albums over a (so far) more than thirty-year period, so surely somewhere along the way there’s an album I won’t hate? Vain hope perhaps, but then I did love “Are friends electric?” so maybe there’s some chance that I’ll hit a golden nugget, or even a piece of brass in here? To give myself the best chance, I’m taking one from the eighties, one from the nineties and his most recent. I’m even avoiding the obvious, leaving albums like “The pleasure principle” and “Replicas” out of the running. In this way, I hope to gain a better understanding of the man and his music, to at least give him a fair chance before I agree with my younger self that I was right in the first place and should just have stuck with my metal. Sort of.

I, assassin --- Gary Numan --- 1982 (Beggars Banquet)


After his previous album “Dance” had seen him flirt with jazz and dance techniques, it seems Numan went further with the followup. Mind you, he had announced the previous year that he was retiring from live performances, though that would soon change. For “I, assassin” Numan pushed the fretless bass to the forefront, making it the main melody instrument, resulting, apparently, in one funky album! I haven’t heard “Dance” (surprise, surprise!) so I can’t say with any authority how different this one is to that, or indeed to others, and this will be my first actual foray into a Gary Numan album, so it sounds like it could prove to be interesting.

“White boys and heroes” is the first thing I hear, and it’s a slowburner initially, opening with congas and then a low, rising synth line before that fretless bass, in the expert hands of one Pino Palladino, takes over, and then Gary’s voice, which I’ve always found flat, emotionless and cold, comes in. There’s a nice sort of screaming synth line in the chorus which I like, but for me it’s a little too funk-oriented. Not really my thing, but then I was warned. It’s a long track, the longest in fact on the album at just short of six and a half minutes, and I must admit I hear a little of the Thin White Duke in Numan’s delivery. Interesting. I must admit, the fretless bass does get into your soul after a while, and I find myself grooving even despite my intentions. Great bit of sax there at the end really adds to the song, which is, it has to be said, pretty empty, much of it relying on repetition of the chorus line.

Glancing down the tracklist --- fifteen in all --- I note few if any short songs, and “War song”, clocking in at just over five minutes, reminds me of Depeche Mode, but then my experience of electronic/new-wave bands is, as I have already said, sparse to say the least. Nice drum loops in this, and a shot of Duran Duran-ish guitar (like something out of “Girls on film”) but again it’s a little dead, no real heart and I never have and probably never will find Numan an engaging singer. Actually, you know what? Of those fifteen tracks I mentioned seven are additional bonus ones, so I’m not going to include them in the review, which leaves us only eight tracks to get through, two of which we’ve already done. As The Batlord would say, sweet. Again I find “War songs” lacking in ideas, and just fades out on a repetitive instrumental line. There’s an oriental feel to the synth opening of “A dream of Siam” --- well, there would be, wouldn’t there? --- and it’s another six-minuter. But already I like this more, quite a touch of Sylvian and Japan about it, bit of OMD too. Nice sort of birdsong effects, and I wonder if it’s an instrumental. Echoes of “Are friends electric” there in the synth line, and then no, it’s not an instrumental, as Numan comes in with the vocal, though I have to say this time he sounds a lot better. Almost a touch of Peter Gabriel in his voice I feel.

Some effective little piano work then from Roger Mason and that fretless bass is of course all over the track as Palladino sets his musical fingerprints on the music. It’s slower than anything on the album so far, and if I had to choose a favourite track at this point this would be it. The next one up was a hit for him, and “Music for chameleons” (hey there DJ!) has a nice little thumping piece of percussion and a spooky synth run opening it, again slow, the synth reminding me of the opening from a-ha’s “October”. It picks up a little then on the back of drum machine and the fretless, and this time Numan sounds more like Phil Oakey to me, with echoey solid synth lines that sound like they would be very much at home on an Ultravox album. No, I’m not trying to namecheck every electronic band I can; it’s just how the sound reveals itself to me and who it reminds me of. I must admit I find it hard to believe this was a single, as it has undiscovered album track written all over it. And it’s another that runs for six minutes, though I assume it was cut for the single. Well, I see it wasn’t a huge hit for him but it did get into the top twenty. Just doesn’t sound like single material to me. Oh well, what, after all, do I know about this music?

“This is my house” starts off with the same weird, distorted, descending synth lines that make you think you’re at the ocean’s edge or something, then Palladino’s bass takes it and it becomes a mid-paced track with some nice keyboard lines, but as in most of the tracks here I don’t find that Numan’s voice adds anything to the songs, in fact in many cases it seems to take from them, which is not good considering these are his songs. And again, the song runs out of ideas about halfway through and just stumbles on through its almost five minutes, taking us into the title track, which has a nice line in arpeggios going, Numan even rising to the occasion with a vocal that has some emotion in it, even if it is the emotion of an android. Nobody’s going to understand what I mean, but if you hear the song as opposed to the rest of the album you may get where I’m coming from.

Nothing here is terribly fast, but then perhaps that’s the case in new wave/electronic/call it what you will music, though I surely remember “Just can’t get enough”, “Wishing” and “Sailing on the seven seas”, so I know some of it can be fast-paced. Just nothing here is. So far. For a moment then I think I’m listening to “Killer queen”, what with the fingerclicks and the bass, but it’s “the 1930 rust”, which has a blues feel to it thanks to some harmonica from a gentleman who goes only by the name of “Mike”. Oh yeah, he’s also responsible for the rather cool sax breaks on the album. Speaking of which, here he is on both. Funky in a bluesy way. I like this. Add in some very nice fretless and you have another contender for standout of the album.

The closer then is the other big single, hitting the number nine slot when released, though they halved it for the single. “We take mystery (to bed)” is somewhat more the sort of thing I had expected originally to hear from Numan: big chattering brassy synths allied to other sonorous venerable ones, a jumping bassline and altogether a much more uptempo song, with Gary back to his flat, almost disinterested tone. You can see too where they had not to cut too much fat as the last minute or so is again basically an instrumental fadeout, though it does finish the album well.

TRACKLISTING

1. White boys and heroes
2. War songs
3. A dream of Siam
4. Music for chameleons
5. This is my house
6. I, assassin
7. The 1930s rust
8. We take mystery (to bed)

Well, no huge surprises here. I could say I liked maybe two tracks on the album, but then again this was something of a departure for Numan so perhaps not typical of his musical output. I still think his voice is tediously boring and flat, lacking in emotion and seeming quite disinterested really --- I remember what it sounded like on the track “Warriors”, as if he just didn’t want to be there, so he has not endeared himself to me. However perhaps that will change as we make one giant leap for Trollheart and hop in the TARDIS, moving forward fifteen years to what was his eighteenth album, if you can believe it.

Exile --- Gary Numan --- 1997 (Eagle)


A concept album of sorts, this was Gary having a go at religion, debunking or poking fun at long-held Christian beliefs and postulating the idea that God and the Devil were the same creature. Oh come on Gary! Tom Waits had already put forward this theory seventeen years prior, when he grunted “Don’t you know there ain’t no devil?/ That’s just God when He’s drunk!” So hardly a new idea. Still, it may be an interesting album, so let’s give it a go.

Rather predictably, it opens with a sort of choral vocal like angels singing to God, then the vocal when it comes in is very low-key and restrained, the music the same; gentle percussion, soft synth and quiet guitar as “Dominion day” gets going. There’s certainly more an industrial feel to this, less of the squeaky synth and drum machine, and it’s almost rock in places. Some growling (supposedly demonic) to open “Prophecy”, though again Numan falls into the trap (unless it’s intentional) of mixing mythologies, as the opening line mentions Valhalla. Hmm. A slower, more relaxed piece with actually some quite soothing percussion and again a very laidback vocal, driven mostly on the drum pads.

Yeah, definitely much more an industrial feel to this album, sort of like a darker Depeche Mode or maybe The Sisters of Mercy. Kind of U2-like guitar riff opening “Dead Heaven”, then the vocal is almost a rap of sorts, the first time when Numan’s quirky vocal delivery that annoyed me so much on “I, assassin” comes to the fore. A much more stripped-down band this time, with only two others, a keyboard player and a guitarist, helping Gary out, compared to the six on the other album. Gives the whole thing a sparser, leaner feel, which I think suits the music very well. This song kind of reminds me of Lacuna Coil at times too, then “Dark” is one of the two shortest pieces on the album, its brother the following track, both just barely shading the four and a half minute mark. “Dark” is built on a barebones percussion with low synth almost in the background and Numan again emulating Gabriel as he did on the previous album in this section. As there is no credit for drummer I have to assume that’s a Linn or one of those drum machine things; certainly sounds it, very mechanical and automated.
Rob Harris adds some nice guitar riffs to this, pulling the track somewhat out of its murky, brooding theme and then Numan tries another semi-rap, though in fairness it’s not too bad. I much prefer the way he sings on this album so far, his voice in the lower registers but still high enough in the mix that you can hear it and concentrate on it. “Innocence bleeding” then starts very low-key and muted again, some solid piano work adding to the atmosphere courtesy of Mike Smith and again the thing has a very Peter Gabriel sound, perhaps a bit of early Bowie thrown in.

Nothing on this album has so far been what I would consider uptempo, certainly not pop music. If anything it’s possibly dark electronica (darkwave?) and it’s a lot more palatable than almost anything I listened to on his eighties effort. I get the idea of an artiste growing in maturity and experience, and trying new things, expanding beyond his limited musical boundaries and reaching out to encompass and embrace new influences. Can’t fault the man for that. “The angel wars” has a depressingly obvious title for an album which is primarily concerned with the concepts of good and evil, and it starts off a little more boppy than anything else on the album thus far, but it’s still a far cry from “I, assassin”. A slowly rising, droning vocal gets stronger and more insistent as the song goes on, then although the general theme of the album has been pretty laidback I think “Absolution” comes in as the ballad, with a nice relaxed vocal and a slower, more sedate tempo, some nice soft synth and ticking percussion.

“An alien cure” goes back to the industrial rock we’ve been hearing up to now, with a slight upsurge in the tempo, though not much. Bit more to be heard from Harris’s guitar as it shoulders and shoves its way through the banks of keyboards, though again Numan’s vocal on this one annoys me. The song’s okay but to be honest nothing special, and now we’re at the end. The title track opens with some sound effects and a slow percussion, droning synths and Numan keeping up the annoying vocal inflections that make me dislike him more every time he uses them. But it’s a slow, laidback song and a decent closer, quite eerie if a little kind of empty.

TRACKLISTING

1. Dominion day
2. Prophecy
3. Dead Heaven
4. Dark
5. Innocence bleeding
6. The angel wars
7. Absolution
8. An alien cure
9. Exile

Although I enjoyed this album more than the previous, it’s still failed to imbue in me any desire to check out the rest of his discography. It’s not that it’s a bad album, but to coin a phrase, I just ain’t feelin’ it. It’s the sort of music that leaves me generally cold, untouched and fails to evoke any sort of emotional response in me. I haven’t felt like crying, singing along, learning lyrics or even thinking about the songs in the way my usual music affects me. In other words, a great big meh so far.

And with that cheery thought in mind, let’s move on to the final album in this trilogy of tedium.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Ninetales

Why would a record label take you on if they didnt think they could make money off of you? Like it or not that's how business is run, even back with The Beatles. You're oversimplifying how hard it is to actually get to that point while not considering the vast majority that dont get close. It's an incredibly small sample that actually makes it (and even smaller when considering how many actually become famous).

This baffles me. How is practicing for years as a singer and then trying out for a global competition easy? It's the exact same as trying to get noticed through labels, just on TV. You're putting yourself out there. Just because it's publicised more doesnt make it easier.
Do you think the people that win X Factor never practiced or trained for it?

Everyone has a chance to be on X Factor or American Idol or the like. If you dont want to that's your choice. You are actively choosing to not go on because of whatever reasons you have. But it's not entitlement to not want to be in a band. It's crazy to think that everyone who just "wants to get famous" does. In reality not that many do.
I wonder, do you think that winning the lottery means you are a less deserving millionaire? Luck plays a role in everything, but how many of those bands that scrounge around for any small venue show would make it big on X Factor? My guess is it's just as small an amount as the ones that made it from playing shows back in your day.

(also yeah im pretty new to this journal thing, and i dont know if im doing im doing this right haha.)

Trollheart

I suppose I could have gone for any of his later albums. If you want to, as I do, pick one from each decade (seventies excluded as he really only had the two album then, apart from the one with Tubeway Army, and both of them are quite well known) then there are four to choose from in the twenty-first century, leaving aside two reissues. But I thought the best way to wrap this up was to check out his latest offering, and so here it is.

Splinter (Songs from a broken mind) --- Gary Numan --- 2013 (Mortal)


This could be the biggest test for me yet. Twelve tracks --- the most of any Numan album I’ve reviewed up to now --- and nothing much under four minutes. Looks like it’s mostly himself on the album, with a little help from the odd guitarist --- Steve Harris? Not the Steve Harris? From Iron Maiden? I somehow doubt that. This must be checked!

No, as I expected a different Steve Harris, from some folk band called Archive. Phew! Knew the king of metal wouldn’t be seen dead playing on an electronica record! Anyway, moving swiftly on, apparently this is his highest chart position since 1983, which is surprising considering he’s not one of these artistes who don’t release an album for ten years and then hope to capitalise on the sudden influx of fans old and new buying their albums. Numan has been steadily releasing material right through the 1990s and 2000s, with the one prior to this only having hit the shops in 2011. So it’s not like his fans have been starved of his music. Must be good then.

I note too that the album sleeve is quite similar to “I, assassin”, though the music is definitely more in the “Exiles” line, at least from the big heavy industrial opening of “I am dust”. Definitely more powerful than the album just reviewed though, with punching, slamming synthwork and heavy percussion, again we must assume electronically reproduced, as there is no drummer credited. Good strong opening, very much keyboard driven with some good backing vocals. “Here in the black” showcases the talents of guitarist Tim Muddiman, with a very intriguing whispered vocal from Numan, then “Everything comes down to this” is the first Numan song I’ve heard where the man actually shows some emotion, even passion. It’s a powerful song, driven on thick bassy synth and howling keys, then there’s a lot of Japan and some Ultravox in “The calling”, with a rather nice strings-ish synth passage a little way in. Slower too than anything else on the album to datre, though I wouldn’t call it a ballad.

Kind of a rolling, muted, almost jungle rhythm then to the title track, chanting adding to the otherworldly feel of it and also lending it an eastern tinge and it’s another slowish track, driven on kind of marching drums and low, dark piano. Sort of a slow, grindy feel to it. Not bad at all really. “Lost” has a gorgeously dark and doomy bass piano line that builds up really nicely. It’s almost the only instrument accompanying his voice at the beginning of the song. I actually think I may have heard this, or something very similar, and it has a very lo-fi indie rock sound to it. If I heard this outside of this album (as I have mentioned I may already have) I don’t think I would peg it as a Gary Numan song at all. Some nice industrial sounds on it but mostly it’s like one of those indie ballads you hear on dramas like “The Vampire Diaries” and such. Must admit though, I do like it.

A much heavier, growlier feel to the next track, “Love hurt bleed”, with a very eighties-style keyboard riff running through it. Hard guitar and thumping percussion with a real sense of energy and anger, then the overall ominous feel remains for “A shadow falls on me”, with a vocal so falsetto that for a moment I thought Gary had hired a guest female singer! A short song, shortest on the album in fact at just over three minutes, but a decent one, then we’re into “Where I can never be”, with dark, echoing synth and hollow percussion, some nice work on the guitar from Robin Finck, the third guitarist he uses on the album, choosing himself to stick to vocals and keys. It’s a sparse track, but effective and leaves an impression.

“We’re the unforgiven” marches along with menace and purpose, more good guitar striking in between the banks of synths, with a powerful vocal from Numan, then things pick up tempowise for “Who are you” with some fine buzzing synths. Some more whispered vocals from Numan --- he uses these to good effect, sparingly and carefully --- and the album ends on “My last day”, rather appropriately. Nice low-key start with piano and keys, synth noises and a quiet vocal from Numan. Some powerful guitar from Muddiman takes the energy up several notches for a short moment before it lapses back again. A really nice piano passage in the middle as the synths swell in the background, then a sort of violin-like synth joins in as we end on an instrumental fadeout. Very nice.

TRACKLISTING

1. I am dust
2. Here in the black
3. Everything comes down to this
4. The calling
5. Splinter
6. Lost
7. Love hurt bleed
8. A shadow falls on me
9. Where I can never be
10. We’re the unforgiven
11. Who are you?
12. My last day

If I have to pick one of these three as my favourite Gary Numan album I’m definitely leaning towards this, his most recent one, though that said his music is still nothing that grabs me and I’d be uninterested in checking out the rest of his admittedly impressive discography. The three albums chosen here, with over thirty years between their release, certainly show a man who is more than the sum of his parts and deserves a lot more credit for his music and creativity than I had ever afforded him. It’s pretty clear why he’s still so popular even now, and why his music is still listened to over three decades since he started with Tubeway Army and scored that huge hit.

All of this I can readily admit and accept that I had up to now judged him too harshly. However, no matter how good someone’s music may be on its own merits, to interest me and make me a fan I have to like it. It has to speak to me, engage me, interest me. This does not. I enjoyed listening to the albums here more than I did, say, Napalm Death or Possessed, but it was still business rather than pleasure. I seriously doubt I’d listen to another Gary Numan album, but at least now I can give him the credit he deserves, even if I don’t like his particular style of music.

And so, in the ancient Dublin tradition, let me say “Gowan Gary ya good thing ya!”

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Okay let me see if I can address this. First off though, as I said, this is all friendly debate and you're as entitled to your opinions as I am. The moment it gets too personal or turns into anything too serious I'll just say that's it. Don't want punch-ups in my journal!
You look at the lines that form outside the audition centres (or am I mixing this up with American Idol? Meh, same difference) --- sure, not everyone there will be seen (or will they? I've never been that sure about the concept. Does every single applicant get a chance --- even if they're not televised --- or do they whittle it down to a few hundred or whatever?) but all they have to do is sing and they'll be considered. Now sure, singing on TV is hard but nobody gives this kind of chance to a band on the road, gigging day in day out, or working in a studio on a shoestring hoping to attract the attention of one of the majors. It may not be guaranteed, but the sequence CAN be: put on your shoes, go down to the centre, audition, be picked, go through to the next round. For a struggling band there is no such certainty or even possibility. They could be playing for years before being recognised, if ever.
No, it's not, as detailed above. This is like lining up ten struggling bands in front of a major label and choosing one to --- hold on a moment! I have an idea for a reality TV show! --- they know one of them, or some of them, will make it. In reality, a band can go for years and never be recognised or they could end up splitting before hitting the big time. And remember, all these people are doing is singing cover songs. They're not (mostly) playing instruments or writing their own songs. It's the TV equivalent of singing in the shower, just Cowell happens to be there (now THERE'S an image you don't want in your head!) X Factor makes kids think they can become famous overnight --- and some can --- but the flip side is nobody is bothered then to take the harder, honest route of trying to make it on their own merits. Like I said: here's a studio, etc. It's all laid out there for them and all they have to do is turn up and perform. Bah! Kids today!

Yes it is. They think they don't NEED to be in a band, or do gigs, all they need to do is apply. Sure a small percentage only get chosen, but have they worked the hard long nights, had things thrown at them, cut their teeth and learned the ropes? Have they fuck! Half of them wouldn't even know what the inside of a workingman's club looks like! So if they then become famous, what right have they to talk later, in biographies and blogs and interviews, about how they've paid their dues? They haven't. They're like the boss's son or daughter who came right in at the top and hadn't to work for anything in their lives. Pricks.
This bit I don't understand. What has the lottery got to do with anything? Fair play to anyone who wins, I have no problem with that. But how does that even tie into your, or my, argument here?

The other part, yeah of course some bands would not make it on X Factor, which is my point exactly. They wouldn't have what the show was looking for, but they could be ten times better than some of the twats on there, and being picked. Course, they could also be a bunch of talentless wankers.
Yeah you're doing fine. Bit of healthy debate is the lifeblood of all journals. Just ask Unknown Soldier or Batlord...

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Ninetales

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree here as we're kind of going in circles now but I wanted to clear this up:

My lottery analogy was more to emphasize that whether or not you agree with how they got there, they are still millionaires. It shouldnt matter if someone gets their break on X Factor or by touring for months in a VW van. You can succeed or fail either way.

"Fair play to anyone that wins".

Let's just say for ease of argument that going on X Factor is easier. Then you concede that you know of an easier way to become famous. If that's not your goal with respect to being a musician, then fine. But you realized that you could try out. You could be famous. It's the same as buying a lottery ticket. You didnt buy a lottery ticket so you didnt win. But dont complain when someone is announced a millionaire. It's fair game.

Trollheart

Yeah like you say it's probably not gonna happen that we agree, but now that I understand your lottery analogy, here's how I see it.

1. There are two ways to make (potentially) a fortune. Method 1, buy a lottery ticket and win. Same as going on the XF and becoming famous.

2. You can work hard, save, invest wisely, lose some money, recoup losses etc and eventually reap the rewards. This to me equates to getting on the road/in the studio with your band and making it work, or hoping to.

Option 1 = everything is handed to you (you win for the price of a lottery ticket, one time deal, nothing huge involved, just blind luck and chance)

Option 2 = You work for what you get. Nobody hands it to you.

Anyway that's how I see it but like you say we'll agree to disagree.

Must say, I didn't expect this level of debate about the bloody X Factor going in Room 101! Wish I'd had this interest when I used it as a thread subject, quickly sunk! Maybe the next choice will be as controversial.

Or maybe not...

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018