Trollheart

Okay a few more lines before I get into my list.
Urban, I know you can listen to boybands on the radio, TV, whatever. My point in doing that wasn't necessarily to subject myself to terrible music I would normally not listen to (though that of course became a side effect), it was to try to understand the genre, so that when I next slagged boybands off I would know what I was talking about, and have references, not just the hits everyone knew. But you're right: I wouldn't launch into an investigation of screamo metal or hardcore punk or techno really; I just don't have any interest in those genres.

Oh,and it may seem I've been here for five years but I only really returned actively in 2011, so it's only three. Seems like thirty, seems like thirty... (Jesus Christ Superstar reference which probably nobody will get)

[List moved to OP 10.03.17]

And the one I'm starting with is this...


I know they have a new one out but everyone references this so much I thought I should give it a listen. Everyone's free to disagree and argue with me of course on certain/all albums, but obviously my impression won't be swayed by someone saying "but that's a classic!" If I don't like an album, after giving it a fair go, it's likely I never will so please don't any well-meaning member try to change my mind. Hopefully though, some of these will strike a chord and I'll wonder why I never listened to them before.

So, off I go to download "Loveless" and see what, if anything, I've been missing all these years. Wish me luck! I'll post my initial review, as it were, in the next day or so, once I've listened through to it once all the way.

Notes


Note 2: Yes yes I know! I have heard tracks off it, but never the whole album all the way through. Don't know why: I have it, just have never got around to listening to it.

Note 3: Listened to this once in my twenties and hated it, but in fairness I expected to and was biased against it, so will give it a more discerning and tolerant listen when I get around to it.

Note 4: I know it's a greatest hits package, but I don't know enough about Marley to know what his classic album is considered to be? If anyone knows, and has suggestions, let me in on it.

Note 5: Owned this years and years ago but hated it. Will try to understand it and give it a fair hearing.

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The Batlord

What exactly is it that you think the Sex Pistols stand for? I never really thought they stood for much of anything.

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Trollheart

Well, mostly the tearing down of the established rock hierarchy, making music without any talent or class and basically just fucking with people while getting rich in the process. Oh yeah, I don't like punk rock.

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Trollheart

OK I think I can safely say I like ZZ, no big surprise there.
BTW yes US I do know of the Tube and watched it many times. Let's not forget OGWT though! Now THERE was a show...

Anyhoo, on we go and next out of the bag is one I heard once but was too young and stoopid to appreciate, probably, so here's giving it another go with the wisdom (huh?) of another thirty years added on...



My report will be on your desk first thing whenever I feel like it...

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Trollheart

Title: Elephant
Artiste: The White Stripes
Year: 2003
Chronological position: Fourth album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Nothing at all.
Why is this considered a classic? I don't know anything about the White Stripes so that's really not a question I can answer.

My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Good
One track in --- Good
Halfway through --- Great
Finished --- Great

Comments: Everybody raves about the White Stripes, but I've never heard anything by them, so this is all new to me. Pretty impressed so far considering this is just a two-piece. I really like the acoustic You've got her in your pocket and the blues grinder Ball and biscuit and what's this? I think I've heard The air near my fingers before, though I didn't know it was them. Not seeing this elephant on the cover though. Well, sort of, but not really.

Favourite track(s): I just don't know what to do with myself, You've got her in your pocket, There's no home for you here, Ball and biscuit, The air near my fingers.
Least favourite track(s): Little acorns (that story is just so twee) Girl, you have no faith in medicine, It's true that we love one another

Final impression --- Good album, will probably get into it. Not so sure about all the high praise for them though, but as I say, pretty damn good for just two people.

Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?
E really. Maybe F.

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Trollheart

Man I'm working hard on Metal Month II, but it must be time to rejuvenate this ol' journal again, so here first of all is an updated list. Which I'm not going to follow. More after.

The list so far. Albums in GREEN have been reviewed already.

The White Stripes --- Elephant
ZZ Top --- Tres hombres
Lynyrd Skynyrd --- Pronounced...
RHCP --- Californication
David Bowie --- Low
Massive Attack --- Mezzanine
PIL --- Metal box
Peter Tosh --- Wanted dread or alive
Captain Beefheart --- Trout Mask replica
Earth Wind and Fire --- That's the way of the world
Janet Jackson --- Rhythm nation 1814
The Clash --- London calling
Yes --- Close to the edge
Slayer --- Reign in blood
Moby --- Play
Pink Floyd --- Animals (This has been removed as I have already listened to it independently of this journal in the intervening months)
The Smiths --- The queen is dead
REM --- Automatic for the people
U2 --- The Joshua Tree
My Bloody Valentine --- Loveless
AC/DC --- Back in black
Neil Young --- After the gold rush
Paul Simon --- Graceland
Stevie Wonder --- Songs in the key of life
Simon and Garfunkel --- Bridge over troubled water
Bob Marley --- Exodus
Nirvana --- Nevermind
Bob Dylan --- Blood on the tracks
Michael Jackson --- Thriller (I've decided not to bother with this, as really there are only about three tracks on it that I don't know, so it kind of goes against the spirit of what I'm trying to do here. I also looked at Bad, but same thing really. So I think I'll just pass on Jackson; his music is too mainstream and commercial for me not to really have heard, in one way or another, his albums regarded as classics)
Metallica --- Master of puppets (Reviewed for Metal Month '13, so no longer a valid choice. May replace with another Metallica. Suggestions?)
Human League --- Dare!
ELP --- Tarkus (Note 5)
ABC --- The lexicon of love
Kate Bush --- The hounds of love
Waterboys --- Fisherman's blues
Terence Trent D'Arby --- Introducing the hardline according to...
Pulp --- Different class
Judas Priest --- British Steel
The Jesus and Mary Chain --- Psychocandy
Funkadelic --- Maggot brain
Faith No More --- Angel dust
Slowdive --- Souvlaki
Sisters of Mercy --- Floodlands
Talking Heads --- Remain in Light
Arcade Fire --- Funeral
Neutral Milk Hotel --- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Sonic Youth --- Daydream Nation
Wilco --- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Can --- Tago mago
Tom Petty --- Damn the torpedoes
The Antlers --- Hospice
Gang of Four --- Entertainment!
Of Montreal --- Hissing fauna, are you the destroyer?
Pavement -- Crooked rain, crooked rain
The Auteurs --- New wave

I was due, according to the list sequence, to listen to PIL next but I can't be bothered with that at the moment, so I'm choosing one at random. Stay tuned to find out which one! (Yeah, like you care...)

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Trollheart

Way way back in 2013, when I had a lot more hair, a few more brain cells and began this journal (imagine, at that point I had FOUR journals going! I thought I had arrived! ) I mentioned that these albums were getting one shot to impress, but that later on I would attempt to relisten to them and see if my mind had been changed.

That never happened.

Until now.

It seems five years is a long enough time to reconsider my reactions to these albums, so I'm starting what was always going to be called, and why change it now, it's a good name for a section


In point of fact, the first album I reviewed was in 2013, so really we're talking nine years here, almost a decade. Here's what I had to say about it back then.




Title: Loveless
Artiste: My Bloody Valentine
Year: 1991
Chronological position: Second album
Previous experience of this artiste: Nothing
Why is this considered a classic? According to Wiki, this album invented shoegaze as a genre?

My thoughts
My reaction/immediate impression, ranging from Great, Good, Meh to Bad or Still waiting, or perhaps Other if nothing else fits.
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good
One track in --- Good
Halfway through --- Other: frustrated mostly. Some good ideas but hard to make them out under the weapons-grade distortion.
Finished --- Still waiting, but maybe Other, ie frustrated?

Comments: I was trying to place the voice, and now I know. Though this will mean nothing to any of you, he's very very similar to the lead singer from another Irish band, the Stars of Heaven. I'm not mad about the heavy reverb and distortion, which seems even to be on the vocals, though I've read it is or was MBV's trademark. Makes it a little hard to listen to, for me, specially on the second track. Almost like listening to two albums playing at once, one slightly behind the other. Track three is a bit stupid, just a squealing guitar and then some orchestral style keyboard, a short instrumental if you can call it that.

Look, is this backwards masked or something? Because To here knows when (huh?) sounds like that. It's just a mess. I must say I'm beginning to lose patience here people. Is it possible you have to be stoned to appreciate this? Cos it sounds like they are. So far, apart from the opening track, bloody awful. Right, and some growly guitar with a warped effect right at the end. Where's me tea? Sigh. On we go. When you sleep has a nice melody in there somewhere but so much gets twisted and warped it's almost like MBV can't stand to have an ordinary song on this album. Right, now it's settling down a little. Sort of.

Jesus! What do they have against allowing the vocals to be heard? This is really annoying me now. I'm getting angry now, and you wouldn't like me when I'm ... oh wait, I already used that line. Anyway, there does seem to be some good, possibly great music in there somewhere but it's all buried under mountains of distortion, reverb, echo and singing that can't really be made out that it's just become a jumbled mess as far as I'm concerned. Although... I do like that fading out guitar riff that's been running all through the song, and the next one up, Come in alone is actually listenable, with clear(ish) vocals, so that may make it onto my list of, so far, one favourite track. Actually, the previous one might squeeze in too, on the basis of that riff. Maybe.

Yeah, hold the phone: Sometimes is good too; guitar's growly but not drowning out the rest of the music, and the vocal's good. Nice melody. Say nothing, say nothing, fingers crossed... Ah no. Blown a wish brings all the feedback and distortion and hard-to-decipher vocals back. Oh well. Look, I know it's the way they do things, apparently, and I'm not saying anything against that, but it's making it hard for me to enjoy --- damn it, even listen to --- this album. What you want has a vaguely Prefab Sprout feel to it, but again the vox are hard to make out --- yes, yes, I know it's intentional, not bad production. That's the whole problem, and why I don't see this band being a good fit for me.

Favourite track(s): Only shadow, Come in alone, I only said, Sometimes
Least favourite track(s): Everything else

Final impression --- Kind of still waiting: I'll have to take a few more listens, but right now, I'd say good but not great.

Do I feel, at the end,
A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Not at all sure, have to wait and see

Sort C combined with D really. But I don't think I hate it. Or do I?

Okay, okay! Hold your guffaws! I had no idea what fucking shoegaze was, never mind that this was a shoegaze album, perhaps one of the most respected. I was mystified how anyone could listen to this. What do I think now?

Fuck knows.

I have to listen to it again.
I'll get back to you tomorrow.

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ladyislingering

their theme was pretty much "we're mad about stuff but we're not really sure what we're mad about, but we're still mad, did we mention we're mad?"

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The Batlord

Nah, their theme was "Let's piss people off." Why? "Why not?"

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Neapolitan

We are at opposites ends then, I love early Yes up to and including Drama. I don't want to sound too critical but 90125 is not my favorite album, and it boils down also to a certain change in line-up. Long story short - it's a Trevor Raven pop record - no offense. Chris' revolving door policy for other band members is something he thinks is great. But for me not in the case of Yes without Steve Howe.

Maybe early era Yes is something that has to grow on you. I remember every early Genesis album I bought I didn't care for after the first listen. I would pack it away give it a try another time later. It might had taken several tries, but when I became more familiar with the album I enjoyed it more. Why I didn't care much for it the first time around? I don't know. Sometimes Prog can be demanding on the first listening, but if you know the song well the length of the song, and other things don't matter as much any more (and maybe that goes without saying). I think if you do decide to listen to Close to the Edge maybe start off with say Classic Yes first were you get a cross section of the music they did before, during and after the album (CttE). And who knows maybe you'll (secretly) become a fan of early Yes, and listening to the (CttE) album will be more enjoyable and less of a chore.

Honestly I don't care much for the SP either... finding other bands of the era more to my liking.

The Rezillos are still a good choice, they're from Scotland, and music-wise they cut their teeth on R&B and you'll find them excellent musicians, they're not the "I'll spit in your face because I don't know how to tune this guitar and play three chords in the right order" kind of punks either... which is so stereotypical of Punk anyways.

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