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

GoatersLeftShin said:
I'm occasionally partial to a touch of the Pantera/Sepultura/Machine Head etc etc so I'm not afraid of the heavy stuff. However, it has to be done well, with plenty of hooks and riffs.

I just couldn't get into this though. It just washed over me and it just sounds like it was made by AI or something.

It's quite a contrast to the music I've been listening to this week on the 1967 evolution thread and not in a good way.

I'm feeling generous so it's a 2/10 I'm afraid.
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That's it by jove. I was bumbling along wondering why the live doesn't match the album and why I hated it so much and you've hit the nail on the head.

This is an AI studio production with session musicians brought in to play the live gigs. No wonder they wear masks. No wonder there's a wanky back story. It's all a big fucking con.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
 
mrbelfry said:
Top comment. Appropriate spacing between the words although my unfamiliarity with grammar makes me wonder if a ; is more suitable in place of the ,

8/10
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Don't think so. But commas, semi-colons and colons are important. A colon for example can completely change the meaning of a sentece. eg.
- Belf ate his friend's sandwich.
- Belf ate his friend's colon.
 
Coatigan said:
Don't think so. But commas, semi-colons and colons are important. A colon for example can completely change the meaning of a sentece. eg.
- Belf ate his friend's sandwich.
- Belf ate his friend's colon.
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mrbelfry said:
I'm in a comma
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Ok I think Bob the Threadmeister needs to step in here before this goes any further.
 
BimboBob said:
Oh thank you. I have now got Neil Morrissey singing Bob The Builder rattling around in my head.
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Just be grateful that's the only bit of Bob's musical canon you're familiar with. I once had to go and see "Bob the Builder Live". I still sometimes wake up in the night screaming as Wendy's song "I'm a blonde haired girl in a hard hat, don't try to make a monkey out of me" finds its way into a random dream.
 
threespires said:
Just be grateful that's the only bit of Bob's musical canon you're familiar with. I once had to go and see "Bob the Builder Live". I still sometimes wake up in the night screaming as Wendy's song "I'm a blonde haired girl in a hard hat, don't try to make a monkey out of me" finds its way into a random dream.
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The horror of it all. Not sure I would have survived.

It's alright though, as I'm soothing myself with memories of Leslie Ash now.
 
mrbelfry said:
Mid comment. Excessive use of exclamation marks to disguise lack of emotional weight. Emoji at the end has too many eyes. 5/10
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I don't want to sour the thread by getting personal, but you've already self identified as a reactionary and here you are determining what's normal or "too much". This guy seems happy, he's obviously gainfully employed and his colleagues don't seem to worry about his ocular abundance, perhaps you need to consider being a bit more broad minded?

1741942875591.png

You're not wrong about the lack of emotional depth though.
 
threespires said:
I don't want to sour the thread by getting personal, but you've already self identified as a reactionary and here you are determining what's normal or "too much". This guy seems happy, he's obviously gainfully employed and his colleagues don't seem to worry about his ocular abundance, perhaps you need to consider being a bit more broad minded?

View attachment 149755

You're not wrong about the lack of emotional depth though.
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My bro. You're so out of order right now. He's got a job and multiple eyes and my dear old grandma lived most of her life with no employment and one eye like a cyclopsed Morgan Freeman in white face. Could you be any more *ist right now. I'm calling out inequality and you're gaslighting us. Shame. I say once more. Shame
 
mrbelfry said:
My bro. You're so out of order right now. He's got a job and multiple eyes and my dear old grandma lived most of her life with no employment and one eye like a cyclopsed Morgan Freeman in white face. Could you be any more *ist right now. I'm calling out inequality and you're gaslighting us. Shame. I say once more. Shame
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Au contraire mon frere, there's only one person gaslighting here. You've just told us your nan had some form of passing resemblance to Morgan Freeman and yet you claim she was disadvantaged?? Being able to be compared to Morgan Freeman in any way shape or form however nebulous means you've won at life. Wish I could have met her.

(Edit: for clarification of last sentence, not in a Roonyesque way).

(Double Edit: reflecting on what I've written here, I'm giving myself a time out).
 
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Take Me Back to Eden – Sleep Token

A few comments on some of the tracks:-
  • “Chokehold” is a suitably epic, and interesting opener.
  • “The Summoning” – one example of many where the song feels in multiple parts, and not in a good way.
  • “Aqua Regia” was a mellow piece of pop that was OK.
  • “Vore” starts in the most excruciating shouty way possible and then settles into blandness (mixed in with screeching).
  • “Ascensionism” sounds like Metallica have stumbled onto the Frozen soundtrack and agreed to beef up the sound for a song that Craig David is already recording.
Listening to this album has made me feel lazy as a reviewer. I can usually pinpoint examples of why I like an album or why I don’t. But Take Me Back to Eden just feels like one, long, monolithic vocal dirge with the odd bit guitar thrown in. I’m sure there’s probably more to it that I’m getting out of it, but I just felt like it bored me most of the time. As @GoatersLeftShin pointed out, “It just washed over me” – that’s exactly what I was feeling for most of the running time. Maybe a couple of tracks taken out of context would be OK, but a whole album is too much.

At 63 minutes, this is a challenging listen, not helped by the fact that it jumps all over the place style wise. The lasting impression is of an average 21st century R&B album, mixed in with screechy bits that don’t belong. This is a long way from the music I like to listen to, and the instrumental parts that might have made it interesting feel shoehorned in rather than an intrinsic part of the whole. 5/10.

PS: I don’t know whether this is a coincidence, but listening to this album has literally given me a headache two days on the bounce.
 
RobMCFC said:
Take Me Back to Eden – Sleep Token

A few comments on some of the tracks:-
  • “Chokehold” is a suitably epic, and interesting opener.
  • “The Summoning” – one example of many where the song feels in multiple parts, and not in a good way.
  • “Aqua Regia” was a mellow piece of pop that was OK.
  • “Vore” starts in the most excruciating shouty way possible and then settles into blandness (mixed in with screeching).
  • “Ascensionism” sounds like Metallica have stumbled onto the Frozen soundtrack and agreed to beef up the sound for a song that Craig David is already recording.
Listening to this album has made me feel lazy as a reviewer. I can usually pinpoint examples of why I like an album or why I don’t. But Take Me Back to Eden just feels like one, long, monolithic vocal dirge with the odd bit guitar thrown in. I’m sure there’s probably more to it that I’m getting out of it, but I just felt like it bored me most of the time. As @GoatersLeftShin pointed out, “It just washed over me” – that’s exactly what I was feeling for most of the running time. Maybe a couple of tracks taken out of context would be OK, but a whole album is too much.

At 63 minutes, this is a challenging listen, not helped by the fact that it jumps all over the place style wise. The lasting impression is of an average 21st century R&B album, mixed in with screechy bits that don’t belong. This is a long way from the music I like to listen to, and the instrumental parts that might have made it interesting feel shoehorned in rather than an intrinsic part of the whole. 5/10.

PS: I don’t know whether this is a coincidence, but listening to this album has literally given me a headache two days on the bounce.
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That's two mentions of Craig David. Have Vessel (?) and the aforementioned 7 Dayer ever been seen in the same room? With this mask malarkey anything could be going on. If Artful Dodger remix this album at some point I think we'll have our answer.

Two listens in and I suspect my review will be not dissimilar to yours.
 
threespires said:
Au contraire mon frere, there's only one person gaslighting here. You've just told us your nan had some form of passing resemblance to Morgan Freeman and yet you claim she was disadvantaged?? Being able to be compared to Morgan Freeman in any way shape or form however nebulous means you've won at life. Wish I could have met her.

(Edit: for clarification of last sentence, not in a Roonyesque way).

(Double Edit: reflecting on what I've written here, I'm giving myself a time out).
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My grandma would have been flattered. The rest of us would be horrified
 
3 listens down and I think this album is a tale of two (or maybe three) perspectives or purposes.

Firstly, as a solely audio/musical endeavour I must admit it sounds quite vacuous to me. Though there’s a seed of an identity or idea in there, when shorn of all the other stuff it’s not well executed enough to get it over the line. The genre hopping/splicing isn’t the issue, I quite like that at least in principle; it’s that the individual genre components are too sterile, predictable or generic and for me leaves it without any real sense of personality or authenticity. Putting aside some of the lyrics, it’s not painful to listen to and occasionally there’s a nice little snippet and you think they’re onto something, but then it’s not sustained or built upon. So musically it’s not working for me and others have already written about its flaws better than I will. Listening to their cover of Hey Ya really brought into focus Belfry’s observation of its reality tv music show vibe. It was also informative that the next autoplay track was Sam Smith.

However, I’m a middle-aged bloke listening to this cold on the internet. Whereas, if I look at the online comments for much of their music – it’s clear that the band/concept as a whole brings happiness to lots of, often younger, people. What’s striking is the number of comments that seem to address mental health, and seemingly this fandom is a bit of a haven for young people. To a cynical old bloke some of the stuff written seems like archetypal teenage tosh but I’m closing in on 60 and am still spouting crap so who am I to judge? The enjoyment/safety of your tribe has always been a key part of music for people growing up and to me it probably feels even more important and of value for younger people now than in the past. From a cursory glance it all seems harmless in terms of the type of community it/he/they have generated. So, place the music in that context and you can feel a little bit more predisposed to it.

I have no idea whether the motivation for the creation of their Sleep world is a hugely cynical ploy by an individual musician or a genuine attempt by a collective to create a bit of theatre and some communal fun? To the extent this has any substance, it is around that broader context. So, whether this has been cleverly and benevolently created by Sleep Token for the purpose of community or just self-weaved by the fans making something positive from a negative I don’t know. Even if it’s the latter, well done to the fans for taking something a bit basic and polishing it up into something of value to them.

Is music simply the notes and words that come out of the speakers? Or is it more than that? Does it have any intrinsic value until someone listens and responds to it? When I listen to this I hear mostly generic pop, I can’t hear the theatre or community that surrounds it; but I can easily imagine that’s exactly what their fans do hear. I’m choosing to score it taking that into account and that will take it to the halfway mark at 5/10.
 
threespires said:
3 listens down and I think this album is a tale of two (or maybe three) perspectives or purposes.

Firstly, as a solely audio/musical endeavour I must admit it sounds quite vacuous to me. Though there’s a seed of an identity or idea in there, when shorn of all the other stuff it’s not well executed enough to get it over the line. The genre hopping/splicing isn’t the issue, I quite like that at least in principle; it’s that the individual genre components are too sterile, predictable or generic and for me leaves it without any real sense of personality or authenticity. Putting aside some of the lyrics, it’s not painful to listen to and occasionally there’s a nice little snippet and you think they’re onto something, but then it’s not sustained or built upon. So musically it’s not working for me and others have already written about its flaws better than I will. Listening to their cover of Hey Ya really brought into focus Belfry’s observation of its reality tv music show vibe. It was also informative that the next autoplay track was Sam Smith.

However, I’m a middle-aged bloke listening to this cold on the internet. Whereas, if I look at the online comments for much of their music – it’s clear that the band/concept as a whole brings happiness to lots of, often younger, people. What’s striking is the number of comments that seem to address mental health, and seemingly this fandom is a bit of a haven for young people. To a cynical old bloke some of the stuff written seems like archetypal teenage tosh but I’m closing in on 60 and am still spouting crap so who am I to judge? The enjoyment/safety of your tribe has always been a key part of music for people growing up and to me it probably feels even more important and of value for younger people now than in the past. From a cursory glance it all seems harmless in terms of the type of community it/he/they have generated. So, place the music in that context and you can feel a little bit more predisposed to it.

I have no idea whether the motivation for the creation of their Sleep world is a hugely cynical ploy by an individual musician or a genuine attempt by a collective to create a bit of theatre and some communal fun? To the extent this has any substance, it is around that broader context. So, whether this has been cleverly and benevolently created by Sleep Token for the purpose of community or just self-weaved by the fans making something positive from a negative I don’t know. Even if it’s the latter, well done to the fans for taking something a bit basic and polishing it up into something of value to them.

Is music simply the notes and words that come out of the speakers? Or is it more than that? Does it have any intrinsic value until someone listens and responds to it? When I listen to this I hear mostly generic pop, I can’t hear the theatre or community that surrounds it; but I can easily imagine that’s exactly what their fans do hear. I’m choosing to score it taking that into account and that will take it to the halfway mark at 5/10.
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Side point. As I keep telling people, spotify autplays are tailored to the individual. Not strictly a true reflection of the artist and similarities to it, but what the algorithm thinks you yourself might like, based on the selection. They differ by user. So basically, if it played sam smith after this, that's on you mate ;). Or your kids have been using your profile.
 
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