mancity2012_eamo
Well-Known Member
No Sadds. No interest. I’ve seen how they hold a crowd. Great if you’re a fan. The brother in law loves them and raves about when they played here.
I get it, but still have no interest.
The Album Review Club - Week #194 (page 1303) - Ants From Up There - Black Country, New Road
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
I get it, but still have no interest.
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
I’m no fan of their music but the sheer spectacle was impressive enough to watch.
It certainly beats the football just now.
mancity2012_eamo
Well-Known Member
Oddly enough a mate in work said the same thing. He watched some of it the other night.
He would have been firmly in the same camp as me where Coldplay are concerned, too.
BimboBob
Well-Known Member
I've surprised myself and have given this album another listen, the fourth, whilst typing this review out. I know, how exciting.
Let's get the elephants out of the way first.
1. I don't care if they have copied, borrowed or stolen riffs, lyrics or peanuts, every band does it. Although usually it's bands you grew up with and not the New Seekers. Each to their own.
2. Just because my name is Noel and I support Man City does not give them a free pass. Or a back wash. With a broom.
3. I was living and working abroad when all of the 'Brit Pop' malarky happened so this era passed me by. I was also in my 30's, married and into proper rock. With real hair. No fake trunk stuffed down my tight trousers though.
Right, the album, Definitely Maybe.
Lyrics.
Erm...trite? I'm feeling supersonic, give me a gin and tonic? Sunshine appears in at least two of the songs. Sorry, that should be sunshiiiiine. Building houses out of plasticine, mentioning lasagne a few times, doing it with a doctor in a helicopter as that rhymes, I could go on.
I will say that they won't be the last band to have very average lyrics and yet appeal to the great unwashed.
Musicianship.
Yeah, erm...I likened them to a pub band earlier and this was probably a little unfair. The drummer, for the most parts keeps decent time. I have heard better. Much better, but I've also heard worse. The bass is functional, mostly buried but still there, noodling in the background. The guitars are the glue that holds the album together. I say guitars but I really mean Paul Arthurs. There is a little talent in his strumming. The singing, hmmm, this is where I'm struggling and why the 'pub band' comment from earlier in the thread was made. It's talking with added snarl. But it's bravado snarl, all look at me before running away at the first sign of a real voice.
Once again I'm sticking in the caveat that it's their first album so what do you expect? They obviously got better...I hope.
Songs.
The only one hitting any kind of spot is 'Cigarettes and Alcohol' and that's because there's a slight punk feel to it. It's let down by the singing though. The voice going high on 'Live Forever' makes me laugh. Every time I hear it. So out of place. And very bad. There's a lot of fillers on this album. Up In The Sky, Diggy's Dinner, Married With Children, Bring It On Down, Shakermaker...they seem to be a cut and paste job from the other songs.
And again, other bands have fillers all the time. With every album.
Verdict.
I've not once moved my feet whilst typing this, or nodded along. I did laugh though.
I do understand the place Oasis holds in a certain demographic and I fully respect that. I've tried to be fair, the album has had a lot of listens but I'm still struggling. It's the combination of the really shit voice with mostly banal lyrics coupled with average playing, apart from Mr Paul, that wipes out any enjoyment.
It gets a 5.
Which is considerably higher than I first thought I'd score it.
Let's get the elephants out of the way first.
1. I don't care if they have copied, borrowed or stolen riffs, lyrics or peanuts, every band does it. Although usually it's bands you grew up with and not the New Seekers. Each to their own.
2. Just because my name is Noel and I support Man City does not give them a free pass. Or a back wash. With a broom.
3. I was living and working abroad when all of the 'Brit Pop' malarky happened so this era passed me by. I was also in my 30's, married and into proper rock. With real hair. No fake trunk stuffed down my tight trousers though.
Right, the album, Definitely Maybe.
Lyrics.
Erm...trite? I'm feeling supersonic, give me a gin and tonic? Sunshine appears in at least two of the songs. Sorry, that should be sunshiiiiine. Building houses out of plasticine, mentioning lasagne a few times, doing it with a doctor in a helicopter as that rhymes, I could go on.
I will say that they won't be the last band to have very average lyrics and yet appeal to the great unwashed.
Musicianship.
Yeah, erm...I likened them to a pub band earlier and this was probably a little unfair. The drummer, for the most parts keeps decent time. I have heard better. Much better, but I've also heard worse. The bass is functional, mostly buried but still there, noodling in the background. The guitars are the glue that holds the album together. I say guitars but I really mean Paul Arthurs. There is a little talent in his strumming. The singing, hmmm, this is where I'm struggling and why the 'pub band' comment from earlier in the thread was made. It's talking with added snarl. But it's bravado snarl, all look at me before running away at the first sign of a real voice.
Once again I'm sticking in the caveat that it's their first album so what do you expect? They obviously got better...I hope.
Songs.
The only one hitting any kind of spot is 'Cigarettes and Alcohol' and that's because there's a slight punk feel to it. It's let down by the singing though. The voice going high on 'Live Forever' makes me laugh. Every time I hear it. So out of place. And very bad. There's a lot of fillers on this album. Up In The Sky, Diggy's Dinner, Married With Children, Bring It On Down, Shakermaker...they seem to be a cut and paste job from the other songs.
And again, other bands have fillers all the time. With every album.
Verdict.
I've not once moved my feet whilst typing this, or nodded along. I did laugh though.
I do understand the place Oasis holds in a certain demographic and I fully respect that. I've tried to be fair, the album has had a lot of listens but I'm still struggling. It's the combination of the really shit voice with mostly banal lyrics coupled with average playing, apart from Mr Paul, that wipes out any enjoyment.
It gets a 5.
Which is considerably higher than I first thought I'd score it.
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
It's still on IPlayer. Worth a view even for 10 minutes although its about 100 minutes in total.
Black&White&BlueMoon Town
Well-Known Member
X&Y was the best and after that, it was off a cliff. I saw them live back then, not since.
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BlueHammer85
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- 13 Oct 2010
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- 40,742
Michael J Fox was a nice touch
OB1
Well-Known Member
I’ve never bought a Coldplay album. However, I did make a point of going to see them in concert.
They do indeed put on a show and they have a set of songs that their audience sings the heck out of. The atmosphere at their gigs is superb.
Seeing Michael J. Fox was emotional, both heart warming and heart breaking.
Black&White&BlueMoon Town
Well-Known Member
Onholiday(somemightsay)
Well-Known Member
To be fair, considering this ain't your bag at all giving it 4 listens is more than a fair go.
Plus, I think a score of 1.25 per listen is a very admirable return............. ;-)
BimboBob
Well-Known Member
Should have stuck at one then...
Onholiday(somemightsay)
Well-Known Member
Yeh but even he's hit the skids - he gigged with The Who! ;-)
(All the shite on the Internet, not sure why this was so fucking difficult to find - anyways, top quote from MJF).
'As The Who closed their 12-song set, Fox joined Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend on stage to play guitar on 'Magic Bus'.
"This is almost worth getting Parkinson's for!" he said.'
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
Thank God for this thread, helping me to avoid dealing with what's happening over here . . .
Oasis has one all-encompassing virtue – or, rather, Noel Gallagher does: he can write an absolute whopper of a guitar hook. He’s like a guitar hook bully. He belts you in the face over and over and over with his Epiphone Les Paul until you at last succumb to his unbelievably juicy chord changes and almost clownishly-misplaced feedback and ridiculous stadium echo. You don’t just succumb – you beg for mercy.
I can’t resist hooks. And the songs I like best here have the best ones: the opener (more on that one later), “Live Forever”, “Up in the Sky”, “Supersonic”, “Slide Away”, “Columbia” sort of. Elsewhere the “humo(u)r” of “Married With Children” or the rip-off “Shakermaker” leave me pretty cold. But one of you wrote that “Supersonic” has some of their best lyrics – m’kay, isn’t Elsa a dog that had uncontrollable flatulence in their studio or something? Come on now. Forget meaning anything – this record brings meaninglessness to a level as high as rock and roll can take it – it’s ALL about the sonics, and all about the hooks. This is a POP band, friends. The same way Foo Fighters is, by the way.
So forget the insipidly pointless lyrics, the Liam caterwaul (his singing is BAD on this record – glad he got better), the mundane and underwater rhythm section, the songs that all go on at least 90 seconds too long. Forget “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” – only a band who could not give any less of a flying fuck what you thought about them would have the audacity to open a debut album with THAT song (the balls it takes to sing it unironically – Jesus Christ). Forget the off-stage behavio(u)r. This is Oasis – a band created entirely for, and incredibly well-suited to, a crowd of 100,000. More than U2. More than – dare I say it – Boston. And for that, they should be criticis(z)ed in my book, as I’ve done the same to others. The difference is these guys aren’t faking anything – they ARE twats, they DID focus on commercialization – and the opener says it all. At least they're honest about it.
That said -- look, Oasis is my oldest kid’s favo(u)rite band of all time. I can’t gainsay how they make anyone feel and, as with Radiohead, I have a blind spot as to how and what they blew off Britsound of the day, which makes them more important to you all as Mancs than to a Yank who heard some of their hits on alt radio and liked them fine but never paid them much mind. I’m trying to approach this simply and aurally, which is easier for me. Yeah, it’s been hard to avoid them as City superfans, and yeah, I’d be in line like all of you if they somehow miraculously reformed and went on a final tour. But the fact that the bros’ disagreements cause them to forgo quadrillions after actually creating a band DESIGNED to fill stadiums as its sole purpose – that’s pretty ironic, isn’t it?
I will stand by my firm belief that WTSMG is a better record, because it focuses even more on hook breadth than this one, and because a lot of the distortion that normally I find winning but in DM's case out of place disappears, and because the songs are slightly more deeply felt, and because – since I think they’re a pop band – it’s poppier. This is also why I think “Beautiful Day” is U2’s best song, despite liking a lot of their first six records – because they’re a pop band really. The irony here? My favo(u)rite song is the title track, which sounds like it belongs more on DM!!
Anyhow, the bottom line is I like this record, though not as much as its follow up, which is an 8. Thus DM gets a 7/10.
And now can we please move on from these twats? I think enough has been said. The final irony is that they like being called twats, so . . .
Oasis has one all-encompassing virtue – or, rather, Noel Gallagher does: he can write an absolute whopper of a guitar hook. He’s like a guitar hook bully. He belts you in the face over and over and over with his Epiphone Les Paul until you at last succumb to his unbelievably juicy chord changes and almost clownishly-misplaced feedback and ridiculous stadium echo. You don’t just succumb – you beg for mercy.
I can’t resist hooks. And the songs I like best here have the best ones: the opener (more on that one later), “Live Forever”, “Up in the Sky”, “Supersonic”, “Slide Away”, “Columbia” sort of. Elsewhere the “humo(u)r” of “Married With Children” or the rip-off “Shakermaker” leave me pretty cold. But one of you wrote that “Supersonic” has some of their best lyrics – m’kay, isn’t Elsa a dog that had uncontrollable flatulence in their studio or something? Come on now. Forget meaning anything – this record brings meaninglessness to a level as high as rock and roll can take it – it’s ALL about the sonics, and all about the hooks. This is a POP band, friends. The same way Foo Fighters is, by the way.
So forget the insipidly pointless lyrics, the Liam caterwaul (his singing is BAD on this record – glad he got better), the mundane and underwater rhythm section, the songs that all go on at least 90 seconds too long. Forget “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” – only a band who could not give any less of a flying fuck what you thought about them would have the audacity to open a debut album with THAT song (the balls it takes to sing it unironically – Jesus Christ). Forget the off-stage behavio(u)r. This is Oasis – a band created entirely for, and incredibly well-suited to, a crowd of 100,000. More than U2. More than – dare I say it – Boston. And for that, they should be criticis(z)ed in my book, as I’ve done the same to others. The difference is these guys aren’t faking anything – they ARE twats, they DID focus on commercialization – and the opener says it all. At least they're honest about it.
That said -- look, Oasis is my oldest kid’s favo(u)rite band of all time. I can’t gainsay how they make anyone feel and, as with Radiohead, I have a blind spot as to how and what they blew off Britsound of the day, which makes them more important to you all as Mancs than to a Yank who heard some of their hits on alt radio and liked them fine but never paid them much mind. I’m trying to approach this simply and aurally, which is easier for me. Yeah, it’s been hard to avoid them as City superfans, and yeah, I’d be in line like all of you if they somehow miraculously reformed and went on a final tour. But the fact that the bros’ disagreements cause them to forgo quadrillions after actually creating a band DESIGNED to fill stadiums as its sole purpose – that’s pretty ironic, isn’t it?
I will stand by my firm belief that WTSMG is a better record, because it focuses even more on hook breadth than this one, and because a lot of the distortion that normally I find winning but in DM's case out of place disappears, and because the songs are slightly more deeply felt, and because – since I think they’re a pop band – it’s poppier. This is also why I think “Beautiful Day” is U2’s best song, despite liking a lot of their first six records – because they’re a pop band really. The irony here? My favo(u)rite song is the title track, which sounds like it belongs more on DM!!
Anyhow, the bottom line is I like this record, though not as much as its follow up, which is an 8. Thus DM gets a 7/10.
And now can we please move on from these twats? I think enough has been said. The final irony is that they like being called twats, so . . .
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BlueHammer85
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- Joined
- 13 Oct 2010
- Messages
- 40,742
Superb.
journolud
Well-Known Member
I’m pretty ambivalent about Coldplay, I think I did like their first couple of albums but Fix You is a terrible song, jostles with Imagine for my most hated.
Onholiday(somemightsay)
Well-Known Member
Top write up as usual @FogBlueInSanFran.
The lyrics on early Oasis I find a divisive topic - poor lyrics generally annoy me / distract me from the music itself.
However, there is something almost conflicting if not poetic about '90's Britpop lyrics in that a lot of have a tendency to be absolutely throw away lines which also house a completely unifying quality.
Not on this album but something like Champagne Supernova - look at the lyrics, mean absolutely nothing. Belt them out to an avid crowd and they appear to take on a meaning along the lines of a Bohemian Rhapsody or Whilst my guitar gently weaps etc al.
They are everything and they are nothing all at the same time.
The bit in bold is a great observation - people that appreciate what the Gallaghers have brought to music and British culture, we don't really want them to change / compromise / reconcile for money (of which let's face it would be eye watering). We want them to do it because they have genuinely reconciled and realise they are better together or not at all.
When I watched Liam the other night, it was absolutely brilliant (I'm not overplaying that) - if you like the song's / the album, you will continue to do so, it hasn't aged.
To be honest, I have mooted it before I would be quite happy if they reconcile and enjoy their status. If they don't want to re-group then don't, but come on enjoy what you have achieved and acknowledge each other's contributions..............
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
Pop band/rock band. Please explain what you see as the difference.
threespires
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- 8,687
- Team supported
- City
Good choice of word, much better than "'Supreme' as that word will just make him cry. With justification too.
Bill Walker
Well-Known Member
Is that the original version by William Shakespeare ? ;)
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
A pop band starts off wanting to be popular. A rock band just plays and maybe gets popular.
I’m of the belief that some artists (like athletes) are motivated more by fame and money and ambition, and some more by the simple joy of playing, creating or crafting a message expressed through their art.
In general I respect the motivation of the latter artists more, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love a LOT of what’s created in the primary pursuit of money and fame. The best is when the two come together.
And plenty of artists waft between the two camps, either moving from one to the other or even going back and forth several times. Some, like Kurt Cobain, can’t handle the battle between the two and self-destruct. Others just become shite.
I’ll leave it to those of you who know Oasis better than I to decide how their journey has evolved but there isn’t much question how it started — DM was made for arenas — obviously, right? Just listen to it! — and Noel joined Rain/Oasis assuming he’d drive the band to commercialism.
I should also note that I hear plenty of influences from great bands in Oasis (less Beatles, almost more Who) but that their sound is still their own, timing notwithstanding, and that counts for something.
I don’t think they’re overrated, and I’m of no view on the joy or drawbacks of the scene/craze they created. I think their best songs sound fucking great. Whether they ARE fucking great — well, I’m not quite as convinced there.
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