The Album Review Club - *** Christmas Break Playlist (next album 7/1/26) ***

Just to remind everybody that we haven't actually finished the current week yet.

I know BMR jumped the gun last week, but I wouldn't want to make it a regular thing.

I'll probably do the round-up now as I don't think we'll get any more reviews.
 
It's a hell of a first album nomination for @BlueMoonRisin’.

Rattus Norvegicus by The Stranglers pulled in a whopping 21 votes and scored an average of 7.48, displacing Led Zeppelin from the top 10 in the process. I think we can all agree that there was plenty of good discussion and back and forth this week, so long may it continue.

Next up is @Coatigan, who can give us all some clues rather than making us take shots in the dark :)
 
RobMCFC said:
Just to remind everybody that we haven't actually finished the current week yet.

I know BMR jumped the gun last week, but I wouldn't want to make it a regular thing.

I'll probably do the round-up now as I don't think we'll get any more reviews.
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Agreed and sorry on that, just replying to the ask. I wasn't expecting Coats to answer yet, because that would be some sort of Brutalism.
 
RobMCFC said:
Just to remind everybody that we haven't actually finished the current week yet.

I know BMR jumped the gun last week, but I wouldn't want to make it a regular thing.

I'll probably do the round-up now as I don't think we'll get any more reviews.
Click to expand...

Apologies, thought someone would have ripped the bandaid off quicker there.

Anyway, spires has done it now.
 
Idles - Crawler

We often say on these threads that we want to be 'challenged'. This should hopefully do it.

The album is about as subtle as 9/11. The best way to approach it is like a Peter Howson painting. Or exhibition. From afar, it is a bit of an overly provocative mess. It is intense, grim, crammed with thought and emotion, but if you dare get close enough you will lose yourself in the detail, layers, and delivery. And then something might click, and leave you weak at the knees.

I like the say what you see, shout what u feel song-writing. I like their tone, the ever so slightly de-tuned, just enough to unsettle without instantly spotting it, deep guitar sound that I find quite unique. The indurstrial weight of it all, and mostly their unlimited passion. And amongst all the personal retrospective, there is broader commentey too, and one or two political connotations, like on all their albums.

At least a couple of songs should make you shake your head or shuffle your feet, and shake youtlr tiny tooshie like you don't give a shit.

An album that is amongst my all time loved albums, which for a recent release is quite a feat. And I hope to see more of the discussions we previously had on honesty, believability. If you are going to skip through, I would suggest you skip whole songs and listen to whole songs, rather than halfway through them. Will take a bit of an open mind, will take a bit of effort, but most great or complex music does imo.
 
This makes sense now when you replied - 'Plenty bands still do it ''

Are we looking at a modern day Stranglers here? I'll shall gave it plenty of whirls and be back next week.

*listening to Beachland Ballroom. confirm definitely not a modern day Stranglers. Nice song.
 
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RobMCFC said:
It's a hell of a first album nomination for @BlueMoonRisin’.

Rattus Norvegicus by The Stranglers pulled in a whopping 21 votes and scored an average of 7.48, displacing Led Zeppelin from the top 10 in the process. I think we can all agree that there was plenty of good discussion and back and forth this week, so long may it continue.

Next up is @Coatigan, who can give us all some clues rather than making us take shots in the dark :)
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I nearly chickened out tbh as I didn't know what to write. But as I know quite a bit about the band I thought I'd do it. Google was my friend for stuff I wasn't sure about or simply didn't know.

Glad I put Rattus to debate and I'll glady do another review when it's my turn. Thanks to everyone that took part.

Cheers Rob.
 
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I've heard about 10 Idles tracks and there are 4 or 5 I like. As you know I started the punk/new wave thread having been into both genres from the early days so I quite like the punk sound of them.

However, I've just quickly listened to a few seconds of each track of Crawler and it seems to be all over the place. And them being a shouty 5th gen punk band has me thinking I've heard a lot of their message and chords before.

But over the next week I'll give it at least 3 plays and give it my opinion and rating...
 
Imo this is an excellent change of gear. Nothing wrong whatsoever with revisiting beloved old classics but we should also mix it up with stuff that's both a bit more contemporary and that takes people a bit out of their comfort zone.
 
BlueMoonRisin’ said:
I've heard about 10 Idles tracks and there are 4 or 5 I like. As you know I started the punk/new wave thread having been into both genres from the early days so I quite like the punk sound of them.

However, I've just quickly listened to a few seconds of each track of Crawler and it seems to be all over the place. And them being a shouty 5th gen punk band has me thinking I've heard a lot of their message and chords before.

But over the next week I'll give it at least 3 plays and give it my opinion and rating...
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Ha. So the 'play whole songs and if you skip, skip whole songs' lasted about 4 seconds.
 
My sister got me into IDLES so I've only ever listened on shuffle on Spotify. Be interesting to listen to an older album of theirs as I think the only one I've listened to front to back is the last one Tangk (produced by 6th member of Radiohead Nigel Godrich).

Having seen Car Crash and Beachland Ballroom is on this album though it's going to be a high scorer from me
 
threespires said:
Imo this is an excellent change of gear. Nothing wrong whatsoever with revisiting beloved old classics but we should also mix it up with stuff that's both a bit more contemporary and that takes people a bit out of their comfort zone.
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Yes to all, and something tells me you are not just talking about this week's selection either, though the shoe clearly fits. ;-)
 
Coatigan said:
Idles - Crawler

We often say on these threads that we want to be 'challenged'. This should hopefully do it.

The album is about as subtle as 9/11. The best way to approach it is like a Peter Howson painting. Or exhibition. From afar, it is a bit of an overly provocative mess. It is intense, grim, crammed with thought and emotion, but if you dare get close enough you will lose yourself in the detail, layers, and delivery. And then something might click, and leave you weak at the knees.

I like the say what you see, shout what u feel song-writing. I like their tone, the ever so slightly de-tuned, just enough to unsettle without instantly spotting it, deep guitar sound that I find quite unique. The indurstrial weight of it all, and mostly their unlimited passion. And amongst all the personal retrospective, there is broader commentey too, and one or two political connotations, like on all their albums.

At least a couple of songs should make you shake your head or shuffle your feet, and shake youtlr tiny tooshie like you don't give a shit.

An album that is amongst my all time loved albums, which for a recent release is quite a feat. And I hope to see more of the discussions we previously had on honesty, believability. If you are going to skip through, I would suggest you skip whole songs and listen to whole songs, rather than halfway through them. Will take a bit of an open mind, will take a bit of effort, but most great or complex music does imo.
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Like a few others I guessed this might be an IDLES pick. Interestingly, I listened to the new album on Monday and really enjoyed it. I won’t ask you for your opinion of the new stuff compared to older stuff, but I’d be interested in a weeks time.
Looking forward to giving this a listen. Hopefully if won’t be a deep disappointment and a 6/10 ;)
 
I've had my thoughts on this ready for a bit because @Coatigan had been threatening to nominate it for a while and we have discussed it previously . That said, unlike other weeks I'm not going to pile in with my review/score early doors but will instead await other peoples comments.

I will use the spare time to produce some thread graphs/infographics but again I'll hold fire so not to derail things.
 
I remember Idles from the playlist thread, unfortunately they didn’t do much for me.However this appears to be an album that needs to be played loud and could well be good driving music, I’ve got a 4 hour drive tomorrow so should get a few listens in.
 
Mancitydoogle said:
I remember Idles from the playlist thread, unfortunately they didn’t do much for me.However this appears to be an album that needs to be played loud and could well be good driving music, I’ve got a 4 hour drive tomorrow so should get a few listens in.
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It's not an easy album to pick out the lyrics especially when you're concentrating on driving. I'll listen to each song whilst reading the lyrics as the lyrics are as important as the music to me, sometimes more so.
 
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