The Album Review Club - Week #195 (page 1310) - A New World Record - ELO

[Bill Walker]

I think you'll find having gigged their way through the Australian pub rock scene for nearly a decade before becoming a household name, INXS more than paid their dues! If you don't like their music, I respect that, but to call them manufactured is a bit wide of the mark, sir!

Bang on the button Rob, to call INXS a manufactured teeny pop act is 10 mile wide of the mark :). They well and truly earned their success, and I agree they had a very good front man who sadly died way too soon.

 

[journolud]

To those that have listened to the album so far, a question: was I the only one to find "Swift as the Wind" genuinely disturbing? I mean, we can all laugh and joke about throwaway pop acts or thrash metal or rap or whatever being like nails down a blackboard and finding this or that excruciating. I know that music is supposed to be emotional and prod and poke at us, but something on the vocals on that song really got to me.

I am not saying this for comic effect, I really mean it - I was sitting at my desk working and I actually felt like shrinking into the chair a bit, worried some lunatic might pop out behind me or something. I kept checking how long was left on the track and felt relieved when it had finished. Sounds stupid writing this but I really felt something there.

I’ve heard the album many times before, it used to be a favourite. Not so sure it stands the rest of time having played it today for the first in a long time but not going to commit to my review or score yet. To answer your question though, sort of, I love Swift as the Wind, my favourite song on the album and it often makes my playlists for travel or whatever. I find it the opposite of disturbing

 

[RobMCFC]

I’ve heard the album many times before, it used to be a favourite. Not so sure it stands the rest of time having played it today for the first in a long time but not going to commit to my review or score yet. To answer your question though, sort of, I love Swift as the Wind, my favourite song on the album and it often makes my playlists for travel or whatever. I find it the opposite of disturbing

Wow. I guess it just shows that we all hear things differently then.

 

[OB1]

Fairport album released 1999.
ISB influencing for over 30 years!

“who knows…” is a stunningly beautiful song and very poignant for us FOCs.

Sandy Denny has a lovely voice.

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

I tried a second full play-through but I couldn't take it, so I'll rank it based on my first listen - 3 / 10.

Some of the songs are okay in isolation and I quite liked Waltz of the New Moon and the sitars throughout but it's a tough listen for me as an album.

 

[Mancitydoogle]

I was really hoping for ‘Dixie Chicken’!
but the great thing about this thread it takes you out of your comfort zone and make you listen to albums and genres you might not normally.
Having said that and no disrespect to DLBH after listening to this, had I been at Burnage Grammer in 1968 I would definitely have been in the Tyrannosaurus Rex camp!
I don’t mind folk music, Ive got the odd Richard Thompson album albeit his heavier stuff, but this unfortunately this is something else
I’d heard of the ISB and remember the Album cover but never listened to any of their music.
I really couldn’t take to any of the tracks, ‘the Minotaurs’s song ‘ reminds me of Monty Python’s lumberjack song, ‘Swift as the Wind ‘ although I didn’t find it disturbing was just so hard to listened to.
If I was forced to listen to any track again it would be ‘A Very Cellular Song’
We all have different tastes so I respect DLBH‘schoice , but if the object of the exercise is who can get the lowest rating I’ve a feeling this may win.
unless of course I get a chance to nominate an album, in which case I give you
Lou Reeds ‘Metal Machine Music’!

sadly it’s 2/10

 

[journolud]

A sad realisation that I don't like this album as much as I used to. It's been with me for years, as LP, then CD and more latterly download. I'm currently gathering a new vinyl collection but space is reserved for old favourites that still resonate and new indie stuff, given how much artists are stiffed by the streaming services.

It's not that I look on this like I do my first ex-wife and wonder what did I see in her but it's more a case of the little quirks that used to be so endearing are now, well you know how it goes.

I've found myself on many an occasion when browsing through my music when there is nothing in particular I want to listen to and looking for inspiration hovering over this before deciding on something else. Led Zeppelin incidentally are in the same category and if I'm having any sort of rationalisation process both face the chop (apart from Led Zep 1).

Not that this is all bad, there's lots of bits I like, I love Swift as the Wind but then I'm a bit of a sucker for unintelligible wailing when words have run out, something Morrisey managed pretty well in the Smiths as well. A Very Cellular Song has some lovely parts but overall I find it disjointed, a bit too "hippy" (I'm really over my pagan phase by about30+ years). Interestingly there are a few Christian references but I don't know that the ISB were particularly religious.

I can see why people don't like it but I can also appreciate some of the purer folk elements although that particular genre isn't high up on my list of likes.

To go back to the earlier tortured similes, or whatever they were, if this came on the radio or a random shuffle I wouldn't kick it out of the metaphorical bed but I'd probably be thinking of something ese while listening to it. Or something like that.

It's a 5 out of 10 for me

 

[mancity1]

Bang on the button Rob, to call INXS a manufactured teeny pop act is 10 mile wide of the mark :). They well and truly earned their success, and I agree they had a very good front man who sadly died way too soon.

Excellent song writers in the band and always rated in the top few bands to come from Australia to make a mark over seas.

the Australian music scene is much underrated IMO which had a number of bands that were far more than just poor attempts to mirror what was happening in the UK and the US as far back as the 50's and 60's.

 

[Bill Walker]

Excellent song writers in the band and always rated in the top few bands to come from Australia to make a mark over seas.

the Australian music scene is much underrated IMO which had a number of bands that were far more than just poor attempts to mirror what was happening in the UK and the US as far back as the 50's and 60's.

Agreed.
The Angels, Divinyls, Cold Chisel, Crowded House, Icehouse, Nick Cave. Easybeats were all great imo.

 

[mancity1]

Agreed.
The Angels, Divinyls, Cold Chisel, Crowded House, Icehouse, Nick Cave. Easybeats were all great imo.

I am sure Bill you and I go back much further to The Masters Apprentices , Axiom , The Twilights , The Group , Blackfeather etc albeit the Easybeats were certainly pioneers and yes those bands produced some good stuff.

I went to school with Nick Cave and tried out for the band on drums only because my best mate Simon not listed on Wiki was Mick Harvey's brother but came up short and was in the choir with Mick.

Nick was a real asshole back then and in a way despite his career which I am very pleased for he has kept in touch with his school mates despite living overseas for much of his adult life.

 

[Bill Walker]

I am sure Bill you and I go back much further to The Masters Apprentices , Axiom , The Twilights , The Group , Blackfeather etc albeit the Easybeats were certainly pioneers and yes those bands produced some good stuff.

I went to school with Nick Cave and tried out for the band on drums only because my best mate Simon not listed on Wiki was Mick Harvey's brother but came up short and was in the choir with Mick.

Nick was a real asshole back then and in a way despite his career which I am very pleased for he has kept in touch with his school mates despite living overseas for much of his adult life.

Don't forget Dragon

 

[RobMCFC]

Excellent song writers in the band and always rated in the top few bands to come from Australia to make a mark over seas.

the Australian music scene is much underrated IMO which had a number of bands that were far more than just poor attempts to mirror what was happening in the UK and the US as far back as the 50's and 60's.

Totally agree about Australian music and the fact that it is different to a lot of what goes on in the UK and the US. I think it benefits from growing outside of the UK and US mainstream.

Three of my top 6 in the Best bands/artists voting thread are Aussie/NZ.

As I am running the poll I see the votes rolling in and the Aussies could do with your support (just saying!)

 

[mancity1]

Don't forget Dragon

Tommy Emmanuel was in the band for a short while.

His version of Classical gas is something else.

if you want to hear a bloke who has the guitar ( all forms ) pretty well sorted out check him out.

 

[mancity1]

Totally agree about Australian music and the fact that it is different to a lot of what goes on in the UK and the US. I think it benefits from growing outside of the UK and US mainstream.

Three of my top 6 in the Best bands/artists voting thread are Aussie/NZ.

As I am running the poll I see the votes rolling in and the Aussies could do with your support (just saying!)

Cheers Rob , that is saying something from a person who has such a diverse and extensive knowledge of music as you IMO no doubt have.

I am suitably impressed.

 

[journolud]

Totally agree about Australian music and the fact that it is different to a lot of what goes on in the UK and the US. I think it benefits from growing outside of the UK and US mainstream.

Three of my top 6 in the Best bands/artists voting thread are Aussie/NZ.

As I am running the poll I see the votes rolling in and the Aussies could do with your support (just saying!)

One Aussie and one Kiwi in mine but I suspect from a different era to those you are referencing. Didn’t include any of the Dunedin sound era NZ bands but at least one that just missed the cut

 

[RobMCFC]

Cheers Rob , that is saying something from a person who has such a diverse and extensive knowledge of music as you IMO no doubt have.

I am suitably impressed.

Very kind of you. I think it's fair to say I have a good deal of knowledge about the music I like plus an appreciation of the evolution of rock and pop music in general. But "extensive knowledge" might be pushing it. Thanks all the same.
I do love a lot of Aussie/NZ bands, though - and not just the obvious ones.

 

[PragueBlue]

Bit of a strange one this. On first listening I absolutely hated it and really didn't want to give it a second listen. It almost seemed like some kind of parody record with lyrics that were at times almost laughable.

I did give it a second listen and found that if I didn't focus too much on the lyrics, it was quite pleasant, if perhaps a bit self-indulgent IMO.

It's not an album that I would buy, or perhaps willingly seek out on Spotify but I could imagine that it would grow on me if I did.

A solid 5 for me.

 

[mancity1]

Very kind of you. I think it's fair to say I have a good deal of knowledge about the music I like plus an appreciation of the evolution of rock and pop music in general. But "extensive knowledge" might be pushing it. Thanks all the same.
I do love a lot of Aussie/NZ bands, though - and not just the obvious ones.

I grew up on the Aussie and NZ bands when the pub scene was where they cut their teeth.

Fantastic days , you don't get to see many new bands that way anymore here in OZ anyway and as you allude to some of the much lesser known bands were able to to reach a wider audience back then.

the Aussie music scene of the 60's right through to the early nineties was rich with talent and variety when many didn't have the record deals and ability to tour and record overseas that has been lost and may never return so I consider my fortunate to have witnessed it first hand.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I’m not inherently pre-disposed to dislike psychedelic music, nor folk music, but I am pre-disposed to intensely detest psychedelic folk musicians.

Rejecting society before it rejects them, so many were utterly self-indulgent, fatuous, drug-gobbling dreamers who talked in serious tones about the necessity of change as long as someone else is doing the changing and they were free to do whatever the fuck they wanted.

I’m reminded of Robert Christgau’s comment about Sting, which he also applied to Pete Townsend, and could equally be applied to so many hippies of this era: “We’re not just spirits in the material world – we’re also matter in the material world, which is why things get sticky.”

That said, music doesn’t necessarily have to ground itself in reality, and in fact, reality offers musicians an infinite variety of options to produce art. What’s winning about this record is that the (very possibly horrible) people that made it took advantage of their options, leveraged them, and made something the likes of which I’ve never heard.

In many respects, this is like looking at a beautiful flower, and then picking it, and then deconstructing it to see how its made in all its parts. Inside you find what makes it grow, the seeds for the future, strange shapes and ugliness and bits and pieces and utility, but also colo(u)r and beauty.

But that doesn’t mean I enjoyed this, because I decidedly did not. The opener is odd enough, but the minotaur thing is a show tune. I like exactly one-and-a-half show tunes: “Wait For It” from Hamilton, and the chorus part of “Into the Woods” (RIP Stephen Sondheim). It’s an appalling, cloying, irritating, annoying piece of wank and it damn near ruins the record. I HATED this song. I mean I DETESTED it.

And I am so freaking sick and tired of songs over ten minutes that when I saw how long “A Very Cellular Song” was, I almost gave up. But fortunately “Witches Hat” rebuilt a bit of credibility after the minotaur one, so I stuck around. And I’m glad I did. Yes, this is all dated and strange, but to a certain degree this is a triumph. The old religious standard is actually gorgeous, and the return to the unusual organ breaks and squeaking violin and jumping around vignette to vignette and the bit about amoebas – it’s all so weird and curious, I couldn’t help but derive some enjoyment out of the journey itself, which is maybe the point.

“Mercy I Cry City” is more straight-ahead folk competently performed and partially competently sung (maybe the best thing here), but “Waltz Of The New Moon” is awfully grating. Re: “The Water Song” -- I have no inherent issue with songs about water -- FFS, the most famous song on what was long the number one record on BlueHammer’s list in the other thread is all about water -- but this seemed a throwaway.

I note “Swift As The Wind” is a favo(u)rite of many here, though apparently it scared poor @RobMCFC, but I didn’t find this any more intriguing or attractive aurally than anything else here. But there’s little sitar break right before the chorus of “Nightfall”, and the chorus itself, that nearly rise to the level of beauty. I think maybe this was the one song I wished was longer.

If I’m going to complain about singers like I have before -- whether Geddy Lee, John Wetton or Peter Gabriel -- I’m pretty much trapped into doing so here. The deliberately out-of-tune cacophony doesn’t add to the uniqueness, it detracts. And it’s a shame, because I think a talented vocalist could lift these songs up in a way that wouldn’t detract from their lilt and would add something.

Do I like it? On the whole, I do not. Should I like it? On the whole, I don’t believe I’m supposed to, nor do I believe the artists care. I think the operative question is a meta one -- CAN I like it? In that regard, I very much can. I can because the reach exceeds the grasp. I can because the ideas are interesting despite the execution. I can because the stylistic movement song to song is varied, and the underpinnings are grounded in what the artists know – Scottish folk -- and what they found lying around the house as remnants of their travels -- meaning sitars, finger-cymbals, flutes and their girlfriends.

It's really hard to know how to attach a number value here. There’s a disconnect between the result and the goal, I think. “A curate’s egg” was a wonderful description. I think I will go with 4/10 – there’s not a lot of visceral enjoyment, but there ARE bits, and it is a unique accomplishment, and that should matter.

 

[RobMCFC]

I’m not inherently pre-disposed to dislike psychedelic music, nor folk music, but I am pre-disposed to intensely detest psychedelic folk musicians.

Rejecting society before it rejects them, so many were utterly self-indulgent, fatuous, drug-gobbling dreamers who talked in serious tones about the necessity of change as long as someone else is doing the changing and they were free to do whatever the fuck they wanted.

I’m reminded of Robert Christgau’s comment about Sting, which he also applied to Pete Townsend, and could equally be applied to so many hippies of this era: “We’re not just spirits in the material world – we’re also matter in the material world, which is why things get sticky.”

That said, music doesn’t necessarily have to ground itself in reality, and in fact, reality offers musicians an infinite variety of options to produce art. What’s winning about this record is that the (very possibly horrible) people that made it took advantage of their options, leveraged them, and made something the likes of which I’ve never heard.

In many respects, this is like looking at a beautiful flower, and then picking it, and then deconstructing it to see how its made in all its parts. Inside you find what makes it grow, the seeds for the future, strange shapes and ugliness and bits and pieces and utility, but also colo(u)r and beauty.

But that doesn’t mean I enjoyed this, because I decidedly did not. The opener is odd enough, but the minotaur thing is a show tune. I like exactly one-and-a-half show tunes: “Wait For It” from Hamilton, and the chorus part of “Into the Woods” (RIP Stephen Sondheim). It’s an appalling, cloying, irritating, annoying piece of wank and it damn near ruins the record. I HATED this song. I mean I DETESTED it.

And I am so freaking sick and tired of songs over ten minutes that when I saw how long “A Very Cellular Song” was, I almost gave up. But fortunately “Witches Hat” rebuilt a bit of credibility after the minotaur one, so I stuck around. And I’m glad I did. Yes, this is all dated and strange, but to a certain degree this is a triumph. The old religious standard is actually gorgeous, and the return to the unusual organ breaks and squeaking violin and jumping around vignette to vignette and the bit about amoebas – it’s all so weird and curious, I couldn’t help but derive some enjoyment out of the journey itself, which is maybe the point.

“Mercy I Cry City” is more straight-ahead folk competently performed and partially competently sung (maybe the best thing here), but “Waltz Of The New Moon” is awfully grating. Re: “The Water Song” -- I have no inherent issue with songs about water -- FFS, the most famous song on what was long the number one record on BlueHammer’s list in the other thread is all about water -- but this seemed a throwaway.

I note “Swift As The Wind” is a favo(u)rite of many here, though apparently it scared poor @RobMCFC, but I didn’t find this any more intriguing or attractive aurally than anything else here. But there’s little sitar break right before the chorus of “Nightfall”, and the chorus itself, that nearly rise to the level of beauty. I think maybe this was the one song I wished was longer.

If I’m going to complain about singers like I have before -- whether Geddy Lee, John Wetton or Peter Gabriel -- I’m pretty much trapped into doing so here. The deliberately out-of-tune cacophony doesn’t add to the uniqueness, it detracts. And it’s a shame, because I think a talented vocalist could lift these songs up in a way that wouldn’t detract from their lilt and would add something.

Do I like it? On the whole, I do not. Should I like it? On the whole, I don’t believe I’m supposed to, nor do I believe the artists care. I think the operative question is a meta one -- CAN I like it? In that regard, I very much can. I can because the reach exceeds the grasp. I can because the ideas are interesting despite the execution. I can because the stylistic movement song to song is varied, the underpinnings are grounded in that the artists know – Scottish folk -- and what they found lying around the house as remnants of their travels -- meaning sitars, finger-cymbals, flutes and their girlfriends.

It's really hard to know how to attach a number value here. There’s a disconnect between the result and the goal, I think. “A curate’s egg” was a wonderful description. I think I will go with 4/10 – there’s not a lot of visceral enjoyment, but there ARE bits, and it is a unique accomplishment, and that should matter.

Beautifully written as ever. After your Edinburgh/Mars comment, I was expecting some comedy lambasting but it seems you at least appreciated some of it.

However, I think the writing is on the wall here when even those who appreciate what the album is trying to do award 4s and 5s.