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

threespires said:
Got me thinking about Fashion Nugget as a future nomination! If the greatest cover version in the history of popular music can't convince Rob of the glory of a good cover nothing will.
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They are very talented but a bit like the Presidents Of The United States Of America or They Might Be Giants could have evolved a bit more from the quirky joke stuff I think. Not that I don’t like that stuff — I very much do. But I think they rooted themselves to having a good time. Again, far better that than taking themselves too seriously. To be fair TMBG did evolve some but weren’t as hooky in the new iterations.
 
OB1 said:
Not liking and not being able to appreciate are two different things :)

Steven Tyler can sing; unlike Leonard Cohen ;)
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On the evidence of the album nominated for this thread (or was it BlueHammer’s Top 1100?), Cohen’s lyrics are more misoginystic than Tyler’s.
 
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I absolutely love Rocks and this album would sit easily in my top 10 of all time. It still kicks ass and swaggers like Dua Lipa in a catsuit.
 
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threespires said:
It's a mixture, thread specific and general themes. During the course of the week, the protagonist returns back to the music threads as (mostly) sanctuary from the rest of the madness. The working titles are...

  1. Nomination Day
  2. Match Thread
  3. Atmosphere
  4. Bimbo’s Bathroom
  5. Brick It, Smash It, Torch It, Claim It
  6. Gated Reverb 80's Hell
  7. You Know The Rules (Readers Wives)
  8. You F******g Clown (AKA Politics)
  9. 808 Playlist
  10. Where have all the Bosnians Gone?
  11. How Can You Miss Someone You’ve Never Met?
  12. The Scores Are In
  13. One Love

As concepts go I do accept it's pretty niche.
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I got almost?/about a third? of those references, so I'm feeling almost partial.

(and I'm loving that FFS hidden bonus track too!)
 
I wish I could be like Foggy in the sense of (a) being able to take in the dock of the bay on my commute and more relevantly (b) not giving a crap about the vocals when the music is good.

Because Mr Tyler is doing my head in at times on this. Probably the most egregious example being the opener; a really strong interesting piece of music then ST joins in with a high pitched howl, no problem with that it fits what's going on. Then in short turn he howls again, still no problem with it, he can scream well and it's clearly a preferred form of expressing himself. Ten screams later and it's beginning to sound like some form of musical tourettes.

There's a reason why it works so well when Daltry eventually screams on Won't Get Fooled Again and that's because he hasn't spend the entire previous 8 minutes doing it.

Songs that require prolonged screaming and wailing are fine when it's an integral part of the song but this just feels like I haven't had a scream for 15 seconds so now would be a good time.

I completely accept that someone saying 'FFS dial it in a bit Steven' would have been one of the most futile statements in the history of music but it's winding me up at the moment.

Hoping that with repeated listening I become immune to it cause this has some good stuff on it.
 
threespires said:
Nah, that'll probably be the new one I've started work on, working title Radicalised Fanbase Blues. Could be a banger but if it ever did see the light of day I'd need a justgiving page to cover my legal costs.
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How about the catchy little ditty (with banjos and accordion):-

"If you've given it half a point then you've not had a full listen"
 
Whatever else I ultimately will or won't say about this nomination, the production is bang on for me. There's just about enough of it to make sure it all comes through without stripping it of any of it's source energy. Compared to some of the imo over production we've heard on recent stuff it's properly good. I'll wait till I've listened a couple more times before reading a bit more about it but though I'm no expert on rock, to me this is how a rock band should be recorded and in that sense it's timeless.

I know @OB1 mentioned this is one of the things that's good about it, couldn't agree more.
 
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threespires said:
Whatever else I ultimately will or won't say about this nomination, the production is bang on for me. There's just about enough of it to make sure it all comes through without stripping it of any of it's source energy. Compared to some of the imo over production we've heard on recent stuff it's properly good. I'll wait till I've listened a couple more times before reading a bit more about it but though I'm no expert on rock, to me this is how a rock band should be recorded and in that sense it's timeless.

I know @OB1 mentioned this is one of the things that's good about it, couldn't agree more.
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The production is very good indeed. And the length is spot on too, of both the album and its individual songs. Similar to J.J Cale (I said as much then too), enough to keep interested and wanting more. Feel a bit of a hypocrite after not particularly enjoying the stones album (while appreciating it), but I love this so far.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
More when I write this up, but this is no “Toys In The Attic.”
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I listened to Toys In The Attic earlier today. I'm going to make a, possibly entirely wrong, assumption that you think it's stronger in terms of the song writing and things like the hooks etc. If so I can completely get why someone would feel like that and it's my understanding that this album suffered in comparison to TITA when it was first released. However putting aside relative song quality I really like the overall sound of this album. It's just got an energy that is very appealing.

Comparing the two albums it struck me that if you weren't told, you might assume that Rocks is earlier in their development than TITA which sounds more polished and mature in some ways. But that's what I'm really beginning to like about this album.

It's often the case that early in a bands career what they lack in finesse they make up for in raw energy and excitement and then they transition to a more masterful sound and maturity but in doing that they inevitably lose some part of the goodness of being new and raw. But this album strikes me as a band who have pulled off that trick of having a moment in time where they have the best of both worlds, they are experienced enough to entirely know what they are doing but not at the expense of the excitement and rawness and energy you get from a new band.

At one level this album might seem like a regression but in terms of 'feel' and sonics I think this is getting close to a lightning in a bottle moment and they've done something that a vanishingly small number of bands manage to do.
 
threespires said:
I listened to Toys In The Attic earlier today. I'm going to make a, possibly entirely wrong, assumption that you think it's stronger in terms of the song writing and things like the hooks etc. If so I can completely get why someone would feel like that and it's my understanding that this album suffered in comparison to TITA when it was first released. However putting aside relative song quality I really like the overall sound of this album. It's just got an energy that is very appealing.

Comparing the two albums it struck me that if you weren't told, you might assume that Rocks is earlier in their development than TITA which sounds more polished and mature in some ways. But that's what I'm really beginning to like about this album.

It's often the case that early in a bands career what they lack in finesse they make up for in raw energy and excitement and then they transition to a more masterful sound and maturity but in doing that they inevitably lose some part of the goodness of being new and raw. But this album strikes me as a band who have pulled off that trick of having a moment in time where they have the best of both worlds, they are experienced enough to entirely know what they are doing but not at the expense of the excitement and rawness and energy you get from a new band.

At one level this album might seem like a regression but in terms of 'feel' and sonics I think this is getting close to a lightning in a bottle moment and they've done something that a vanishingly small number of bands manage to do.
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You have nailed it there.

“Toys” does have a more polished sound and 2 or 3 tracks that are outstanding in a way that is not mirrored on “Rocks”.

I should probably give “Toys” a spin before saying too much as I’ve not listened to the whole thing for ages; that is not the case for its stand out songs. “Sweet Emotion” is a playlist staple for example.

I prefer “Rocks” as an album. I think the song quality is more consistent but it is the sound that makes such a difference. The band wrote and then recorded most of the album, using a mobile, at their rehearsal facility The Wherehouse. It gave the music and performances their cohesiveness, and they managed to pull off the trick sounding live and raw whilst being produced in a sophisticated way.
 
Just googled the artist for the Polestar car advert as I recognised the song - female vocalist Sarah Klang with a cover of ‘Dream On’ by Aerosmith- great song that and sounds different to most of their other catalogue especially Tyler’s vocals on that track.
 
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