The Album Review Club - Week #196 (page 1316) - Aja - Steely Dan

denislawsbackheel said:
Can you score your own nomination?
If you can I give it 10…
Click to expand...
Sadly not. Seems a bit pointless as everybody would probably be dishing out 10s to their own nomination.

The nominator’s job is to bring an album to our attention and make a case for it - which you did eloquently, by the way. After that, it’s in the hands of the jury .......
 
bennyboy said:
Even though I did not like the album it was a good choice if that makes sense.
I changed my original choice of a classic to one that I think most will not have heard of.
Hope it gets a fair hearing despite it being a fairly recent release and not everybody's cup of tea.
Click to expand...
The thing I like most about this thread is being forced to listen to stuff I never heard before.
So this hippie folkie trippie stuff, Smetana and The Replacements will be in good company with whatever you have to offer.

I don’t think this thread is about winning.
 
Ok it’s late. Here goes. Second listen to The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter.
I’ll set the tone first.
Music to me at the moment is very much about the mood I’m in. So a lot of what I’ve been listening to in the two music threads I’m participating in in here, has not been conducive to the mood I’m in. That includes both the familiar and the unfamiliar.
I’ve had a pretty shitty two months or so and the music that has really given me comfort is not the music I’ve been reviewing.

So I approached the second coming of the hangman’s daughter with little hope of redemption.

However…..

the mood I’m in is…. me having spent the day watching West Ham beating Chelsea, Liverpool struggle against Wolves before pulling a Houdini, City having easily dispatched Watford in second gear and then me watching what turned out to be a quite depressing film in tandem with my missus who is downstairs while I’m upstairs in the bedroom. On her birthday. After cancelling the restaurant. Because I’m in isolation after testing positive for Covid.

Setiously. We watched the same film separately. Her having her wine downstairs and me lying back with mine upstairs.

Ok. Sorry. So the scene is set.
What next? I think. Stick on some music, and who’d have guessed that this was the perfect mood for THBD.
I was thinking……
This guy’s voice is not nearly as bad as I first thought.
This was really relaxing me. Maybe it’s the bottle of wine I’m nearly through, but no, I can see something in this. The voice suited the music and the instrumentation suited the tone although I’m not sure about the overuse of the kazoo.
It was going great up until about halfway through and The Waltz of the New Moon, which awoke me out of my reverie. And I found it difficult to get back in the mood up until the end ‘Nightfall’, which closed the album peacefully.

So what happened?

The album is better than I first gave it credit for. It is of it’s time and probably very dated but for me suffers when it strays into eastern mysticism that really doesn’t suit the guys voice. He was doing well while singing what is probably ‘ye Olde English folk’ type stuff, but he just can’t do that Middle Eastern thing.
The thing is, it still sounds like new age 60’s hippie trip interpretation of folk to me and as such suffers from a lack of tradition and depth that Celtic traditional music has.
I’m glad I played it though.
First half was very peaceful. It’s definitely due an upgrade in my vote. I was heading towards 6 but the second half of the album let it down.
5/10.

Onto Bob Dylan next.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
Ok it’s late. Here goes. Second listen to The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter.
I’ll set the tone first.
Music to me at the moment is very much about the mood I’m in. So a lot of what I’ve been listening to in the two music threads I’m participating in in here, has not been conducive to the mood I’m in. That includes both the familiar and the unfamiliar.
I’ve had a pretty shitty two months or so and the music that has really given me comfort is not the music I’ve been reviewing.

So I approached the second coming of the hangman’s daughter with little hope of redemption.

However…..

the mood I’m in is…. me having spent the day watching West Ham beating Chelsea, Liverpool struggle against Wolves before pulling a Houdini, City having easily dispatched Watford in second gear and then me watching what turned out to be a quite depressing film in tandem with my missus who is downstairs while I’m upstairs in the bedroom. On her birthday. After cancelling the restaurant. Because I’m in isolation after testing positive for Covid.

Setiously. We watched the same film separately. Her having her wine downstairs and me lying back with mine upstairs.

Ok. Sorry. So the scene is set.
What next? I think. Stick on some music, and who’d have guessed that this was the perfect mood for THBD.
I was thinking……
This guy’s voice is not nearly as bad as I first thought.
This was really relaxing me. Maybe it’s the bottle of wine I’m nearly through, but no, I can see something in this. The voice suited the music and the instrumentation suited the tone although I’m not sure about the overuse of the kazoo.
It was going great up until about halfway through and The Waltz of the New Moon, which awoke me out of my reverie. And I found it difficult to get back in the mood up until the end ‘Nightfall’, which closed the album peacefully.

So what happened?

The album is better than I first gave it credit for. It is of it’s time and probably very dated but for me suffers when it strays into eastern mysticism that really doesn’t suit the guys voice. He was doing well while singing what is probably ‘ye Olde English folk’ type stuff, but he just can’t do that Middle Eastern thing.
The thing is, it still sounds like new age 60’s hippie trip interpretation of folk to me and as such suffers from a lack of tradition and depth that Celtic traditional music has.
I’m glad I played it though.
First half was very peaceful. It’s definitely due an upgrade in my vote. I was heading towards 6 but the second half of the album let it down.
5/10.

Onto Bob Dylan next.
Click to expand...
Lovely write up @mancity2012_eamo - we appear to have had a very similar experience with this album.

It sounded completely different to me in the different settings that I was listening to it..........
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
Ok it’s late. Here goes. Second listen to The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter.
I’ll set the tone first.
Music to me at the moment is very much about the mood I’m in. So a lot of what I’ve been listening to in the two music threads I’m participating in in here, has not been conducive to the mood I’m in. That includes both the familiar and the unfamiliar.
I’ve had a pretty shitty two months or so and the music that has really given me comfort is not the music I’ve been reviewing.

So I approached the second coming of the hangman’s daughter with little hope of redemption.

However…..

the mood I’m in is…. me having spent the day watching West Ham beating Chelsea, Liverpool struggle against Wolves before pulling a Houdini, City having easily dispatched Watford in second gear and then me watching what turned out to be a quite depressing film in tandem with my missus who is downstairs while I’m upstairs in the bedroom. On her birthday. After cancelling the restaurant. Because I’m in isolation after testing positive for Covid.

Setiously. We watched the same film separately. Her having her wine downstairs and me lying back with mine upstairs.

Ok. Sorry. So the scene is set.
What next? I think. Stick on some music, and who’d have guessed that this was the perfect mood for THBD.
I was thinking……
This guy’s voice is not nearly as bad as I first thought.
This was really relaxing me. Maybe it’s the bottle of wine I’m nearly through, but no, I can see something in this. The voice suited the music and the instrumentation suited the tone although I’m not sure about the overuse of the kazoo.
It was going great up until about halfway through and The Waltz of the New Moon, which awoke me out of my reverie. And I found it difficult to get back in the mood up until the end ‘Nightfall’, which closed the album peacefully.

So what happened?

The album is better than I first gave it credit for. It is of it’s time and probably very dated but for me suffers when it strays into eastern mysticism that really doesn’t suit the guys voice. He was doing well while singing what is probably ‘ye Olde English folk’ type stuff, but he just can’t do that Middle Eastern thing.
The thing is, it still sounds like new age 60’s hippie trip interpretation of folk to me and as such suffers from a lack of tradition and depth that Celtic traditional music has.
I’m glad I played it though.
First half was very peaceful. It’s definitely due an upgrade in my vote. I was heading towards 6 but the second half of the album let it down.
5/10.

Onto Bob Dylan next.
Click to expand...
Get well soon! And really great review.
 
Definitely a painful first few listens - never come across Scottish psychedelic folk before! But as always, more listens, more appreciation - ‘Very Cellular Song’ the stand out , that first 4-5 mins is really nice - then it kinds of drifts off into nothingness although there is some nice harmonies here and in a few other tracks, find they have good moments when tracks hits the slower/mellow parts.
‘Mercy I Cry’ I liked, nice harmonica and flute.
‘There is a Green Crown’ has nice acoustic, sitar and drums.
Vocals never bother me seen as I’m a Dylan fan!

Can’t say I enjoyed this overall but definitely found it interesting and a grower with some nice moments when the harmonies find a sweet spot.

Great pick though

4/10
 
Results are in for Week #10. Although @denislawsbackheel 's choice bucked the trend by the scores improving as the week went on, they weren't enough to save him from being marooned at the foot of the scoreboard. To be fair, after the start some of us gave the album, it needed snookers even before the weekend.

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter by The Incredible String Band pulled in 15 votes at an average of 4.52.

Still, I think that we can all agree that it was a brave choice that some people enjoyed and it certainly got us talking, which is no bad thing. Just make sure you visit more often and vote on a few more albums @denislawsbackheel.

With that, I'll invite this week's nominator, @GoatersLeftShin, to the stage , who can offer you all a clue to his offering (good luck guessing it, though!). Although as we've now done 10 weeks, I'll be posting a few stats soon.
 
The top 20 posters so far.

Although remember plenty of us in the top 12 have also been nominator for a week so that's 8 of us with an ever-present record.

@Mancitydoogle is the only poster who has voted every week but is not yet on the nominators list. Fancy throwing your hat in the ring for a nomination?

1Mancitydoogle10
2OB19
3Bill Walker9
4FogBlueInSanFran9
5Saddleworth29
6BlueHammer859
7GoatersLeftShin9
8RobMCFC9
9mancity2012_eamo9
10Marklr8
11KnaresboroughBlue8
12Ohholiday(somemightsay)8
13crublu18
14Citizen of Legoland7
15bennyboy7
16manccity16
17journolud5
18Invisible Man's Bandage3
19chesterbells3
20Two Gun Bob3
 
Last edited:
Most generous voters

The average score of every poster who has submitted 3 votes or more.

1Two Gun Bob7.87
2manccity17.67
3chesterbells7.67
4Marklr7.00
5crublu17.00
6Saddleworth26.89
7journolud6.80
8GoatersLeftShin6.78
9mancity2012_eamo6.33
10KnaresboroughBlue6.25
11OB16.22
12BlueHammer856.22
13RobMCFC6.22
14FogBlueInSanFran6.11
15Mancitydoogle5.90
16Bill Walker5.67
17Ohholiday(somemightsay)5.63
18Citizen of Legoland5.57
19Invisible Man's Bandage5.33
20bennyboy5.21
 
RobMCFC said:
The top 20 posters so far.

Although remember plenty of us in the top 12 have also been nominator for a week so that's 8 of us with an ever-present record.

@Mancitydoogle is the only poster who has voted every week but is not yet on the nominators list. Fancy throwing your hat in the ring for a nomination?

1Mancitydoogle10
2OB19
3Bill Walker9
4FogBlueInSanFran9
5Saddleworth29
6BlueHammer859
7GoatersLeftShin9
8RobMCFC9
9mancity2012_eamo9
10Marklr8
11KnaresboroughBlue8
12Ohholiday(somemightsay)8
13crublu18
14Citizen of Legoland7
15bennyboy7
16manccity16
17journolud5
18Invisible Man's Bandage3
19chesterbells3
20Two Gun Bob3
Click to expand...
Sure, I promise it won’t be Lou Reeds ‘Metal Machine music’ although I’m a big Reed fan
 
bennyboy said:
Is there a page with the albums in average score order.Surprisingly I think Oasis is my highest score.
Click to expand...
Page #1 of this thread is updated weekly with the overall leaderboard - that has the average score for each album.
As it's week #10, I'll bung it in here as well.

I can confirm that The Masterplan by Oasis was your top score at 7.5.

Week10 Scoreboard.jpg
 
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