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

Ok. Second listen. Alone this time.
You know what’s ironic?

Female singer song writer, lyricist, with decent up tempo, guitar based folk/pop/rock cross genre appeal, is something that is right up my alley.
But……. I’ve walked up that alley a couple of times now, and she’s not there.

I’m trying to concentrate on the lyrics, even of the many songs I recognise, but can’t get past her voice which in itself isn’t bad, but when she goes into that nasal back of the throat safe place on her higher more emotive sections of what is no doubt personal stuff, she loses me.
And there isn’t enough interest in the backing instruments, something to lift you out of the banal. Is that a fault of the production? The backing musicians? I’m not sure, they’re perfectly good I bet. I just don’t get anything out of the ordinary from it.
The whole lot still blends into……. Meh!

I’m trying to target what it is, that’s holding me back here. I should really enjoy this rather than tolerate it.

Isn’t it ironic.
Her voice for me would better suit an all female post punk in your face establishment takedown, loud, couldn’t care less, take it or leave it, thrash fest.
However she prefers to try and deliver a solo female social commentary that I can’t really follow, because I switch off halfway through each song.

Maybe it’s me Sadds!
I see myself as a serious music listener but can’t concentrate through one album.
Isn’t it ironic!
 
It's an abhorrent thing to point out especially as abuse of the nature she suffered is horrendous but Canada's consent law was 14 at the time I think. Which in itself is pretty disgusting. And I doubt she was the only one. God there are some sick people in this world.

Wow I didn't know that. Just read, only changed in 2008 and the prior law was from 1890's. Incredible.
 
I'd agree it was very funny and also vivid ! Vindication too of Rob's view on using profanity occasionally and sparingly for better effect.

** on the point above, now is probably as good a time as any to share my abandoned idea/experiment for my next nomination. Inspired by SouthamptonBlue's approach with Sleep Token, I thought it might be interesting to put up the biggest selling (or second best depending on source) artist of this century for discussion, so I read up on what the top 5 ranked Taylor Swift albums were and listened to each of them 3 times with a view to nominating the one I thought had most merit. TLDR is that, though I thought there was an album that was very worthy of discussion that imo showcased her strengths and weaknesses (and was very different from the Chappell Roan album) I binned off the idea because I couldn't get past the feeling that where many of her strengths lie are simply too unrelatable to many of us on this thread so we'd probably end up discussing only the negatives.
Stick around, you may see me get vulgar more often if people don't book their fucking ideas up.

For me, Taylor Swift's first few albums are the best - she started off country and then headed towards pop and probably her best album is somewhere around Speak Now. But you're right, there's no point in nominating it for the reasons you state.
 
Well I didn’t have the visceral reaction that some of you seem to have had on first listen but I draw the line at autoplay following it with Spice Up Your Life which might just skew the whole experience for me
 
My pick Car Wheels on a gravel Road by Lucinda Williams is the only female artist in the top 20.
Only 2 in the top 40.
Beth Gibbons being the other.
The Adverts having an female lead singer at 37.
Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads is in the top 20, but point taken.

I'd say that in my most-liked artists list, a very high proportion (relative to many fellows of my dotage) are female. But of the ten records I've nominated to date, only three are female artists or bands with women (Chappel Roan, Breeders and X) -- and they are my three bottom-ranked picks by the assembled masses.

Was going to nominate some pointless British new wave ear candy pap next time up but may move to something more X-chromosome-forward.
 
Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Nadine Morissette is an album that every logical bone in my body hates but which I'm giving a 9. Whatever criticism you want to throw its way will most likely be met with whole hearted agreement from me with the possible exception that it is trite - I'm open to being persuaded though. This is a pop record with all that trite implies.

The production is quintessentially 90's so I get the Friends comparison - both are products very firmly of its time. The only instrument making anything close to a good sound is the occasional acoustic guitar everything else sounds overly compressed and weak. The playing of said instruments is trite. The bass and guitar on You Oughta Know are particularly egregious examples. I note from Wikipedia that this was provided by Flea and Dave Navarro when they were both playing with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I can get behind an argument that Flea is a talented bass player but he's one i find largely unlikeable. His bass line on this is over played as if he's above the material, which he probably is, but it's a Morissette album so have some respect. I did find his bassline less annoying in the remix at the end of the album.

The drums have that awful 90's quasi dance r&b shuffle on large portions and like my criticism of the Embrace album the hands in the air big moments feel unearned musically. They just slap you with little warning or build up but not in an unexpected or surprising way. AND it is kind of trite - in All I Really Want when Morissette sings "why are you petrified of silence; here can you handle this?" and the tracks stops for a second is the most obvious move she could make in this moment. It's also hard to argue that her affectations are annoying and sometimes overpower the music.

BUT this is a great album. Even the much maligned Ironic forces me to yell "it's like rayyyyiaaayyyne on your wedding day" - it's almost a pavlovian response. It bypasses every cynical, snarky idea of what I think music should be and electrifies the little part of my brain that lights up and goes straight to sing a long. Morissette's annoying vocal affectations are numerous but well placed and effective to me for conveying the emotion of the line. She has a couple of variations to keep things fresh. The first couple of lines of the second verse of Perfect are pretty nice before she completely destroys the band. They certainly remind me of Maria McKee's Life is Sweet album (which i seem to keep mentioning recently) but they are less banshee.

Highlight of the album for me is Forgiven which I think serves as a good touchpoint for what I'm responding positively to. I feel like I've spent a month of nominations asking for stuff to be less subtle and more obvious. Well Jagged Little Pill delivers on this and in particular Forgiven. It's refreshingly upfront and obvious and Forgiven nails that post grunge rock thing perfectly - i feel like it's the song where the band almost keep up. The acoustic guitar solo lines are very on brand and nicely placed in the mix to catch your attention as you try and hear the line clearly. Wake Up is also a song that the band mainly delivers on - the bass almost goes into Epic by Faith No More territory. But what the band lack is more than compensated for by the vocal performance and delivery including all the affectations for me. It's delivered with such a boldness and so unapologetically that it totally pulls me in despite my best intentions.

My logical, trying to be cool rational brain, hates this. The chimp part of my brain really enjoys how Morissette varies her delivery across multiple lines (particularly in All I Really Want) and makes sure everything is in large print for the hard of hearing. I think if you didn't speak English you could understand this album but I actually think some of the writing is pretty good. For instance I like the sweater line already mentioned AND if I'm totally honest and unconcerned by what people would think of me I'd actually say I quite enjoy Ironic. I often have more spoons than I need. It's a song that will often come back to my memory despite not having heard it for years and it is eminently sing-a-longable. I think any disagreement here is a sign of snobbishness. You are not Flea and you are not above the material.

It's not a cool album but it is confident and Morissette is, as far as I can tell at least, concerned mainly with being herself, writing about things that have actually happened to her and not making it to hard for me to hear what's she saying - a line like "I confessed my darkest deeds to an envious man" is nicely balanced conveying something obvious but also with some subtext and depth. It's the opposite of jazz so it's a 9 from me, singing into a hairbrush and wondering if i can justify buying a chorus pedal for my bass.
 
You do make some good points here.

However, I tend not to get hung up about lyrics: I don’t think many artists produce consistently good ones.

The vocals did jar a bit at first, I had forgotten how shrieky they could be.

But, this album was a massive seller for a reason. There’s a good deal of catchy hit material here.

7/10
Do you think (genuine question), artists singing in foreign languages would make little to no difference to your experience of music? I often wonder this, generally, when it comes to lyrics that don't capture.
 
Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Nadine Morissette is an album that every logical bone in my body hates but which I'm giving a 9. Whatever criticism you want to throw its way will most likely be met with whole hearted agreement from me with the possible exception that it is trite - I'm open to being persuaded though. This is a pop record with all that trite implies.

The production is quintessentially 90's so I get the Friends comparison - both are products very firmly of its time. The only instrument making anything close to a good sound is the occasional acoustic guitar everything else sounds overly compressed and weak. The playing of said instruments is trite. The bass and guitar on You Oughta Know are particularly egregious examples. I note from Wikipedia that this was provided by Flea and Dave Navarro when they were both playing with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I can get behind an argument that Flea is a talented bass player but he's one i find largely unlikeable. His bass line on this is over played as if he's above the material, which he probably is, but it's a Morissette album so have some respect. I did find his bassline less annoying in the remix at the end of the album.

The drums have that awful 90's quasi dance r&b shuffle on large portions and like my criticism of the Embrace album the hands in the air big moments feel unearned musically. They just slap you with little warning or build up but not in an unexpected or surprising way. AND it is kind of trite - in All I Really Want when Morissette sings "why are you petrified of silence; here can you handle this?" and the tracks stops for a second is the most obvious move she could make in this moment. It's also hard to argue that her affectations are annoying and sometimes overpower the music.

BUT this is a great album. Even the much maligned Ironic forces me to yell "it's like rayyyyiaaayyyne on your wedding day" - it's almost a pavlovian response. It bypasses every cynical, snarky idea of what I think music should be and electrifies the little part of my brain that lights up and goes straight to sing a long. Morissette's annoying vocal affectations are numerous but well placed and effective to me for conveying the emotion of the line. She has a couple of variations to keep things fresh. The first couple of lines of the second verse of Perfect are pretty nice before she completely destroys the band. They certainly remind me of Maria McKee's Life is Sweet album (which i seem to keep mentioning recently) but they are less banshee.

Highlight of the album for me is Forgiven which I think serves as a good touchpoint for what I'm responding positively to. I feel like I've spent a month of nominations asking for stuff to be less subtle and more obvious. Well Jagged Little Pill delivers on this and in particular Forgiven. It's refreshingly upfront and obvious and Forgiven nails that post grunge rock thing perfectly - i feel like it's the song where the band almost keep up. The acoustic guitar solo lines are very on brand and nicely placed in the mix to catch your attention as you try and hear the line clearly. Wake Up is also a song that the band mainly delivers on - the bass almost goes into Epic by Faith No More territory. But what the band lack is more than compensated for by the vocal performance and delivery including all the affectations for me. It's delivered with such a boldness and so unapologetically that it totally pulls me in despite my best intentions.

My logical, trying to be cool rational brain, hates this. The chimp part of my brain really enjoys how Morissette varies her delivery across multiple lines (particularly in All I Really Want) and makes sure everything is in large print for the hard of hearing. I think if you didn't speak English you could understand this album but I actually think some of the writing is pretty good. For instance I like the sweater line already mentioned AND if I'm totally honest and unconcerned by what people would think of me I'd actually say I quite enjoy Ironic. I often have more spoons than I need. It's a song that will often come back to my memory despite not having heard it for years and it is eminently sing-a-longable. I think any disagreement here is a sign of snobbishness. You are not Flea and you are not above the material.

It's not a cool album but it is confident and Morissette is, as far as I can tell at least, concerned mainly with being herself, writing about things that have actually happened to her and not making it to hard for me to hear what's she saying - a line like "I confessed my darkest deeds to an envious man" is nicely balanced conveying something obvious but also with some subtext and depth. It's the opposite of jazz so it's a 9 from me, singing into a hairbrush and wondering if i can justify buying a chorus pedal for my bass.

To your last sentence you can't stand in front of the mirror pretending to be Peter Hook without one, so how is this even a question?
 
To your last sentence you can't stand in front of the mirror pretending to be Peter Hook without one, so how is this even a question?
I'm not sure I have the chops for a chorus pedal. my natural habitat is quarter notes on the low E. I did just have a Marcus Miller V5 arrive today but i'm not sure I'll ever actually pick it up for fear of looking like i think i know what i'm doing. the fifth string has shoes too big for me to fill
 
The drums have that awful 90's quasi dance r&b shuffle on large portions ....

BUT this is a great album. Even the much maligned Ironic forces me to yell "it's like rayyyyiaaayyyne on your wedding day" - it's almost a pavlovian response. It bypasses every cynical, snarky idea of what I think music should be and electrifies the little part of my brain that lights up and goes straight to sing a long.
Great review, and I particularly agree with the above two extracts I've highlighted.
 
Never liked her singing. Or voice. It annoyed me. That was a barrier I could just never get over.

Liked her quirkiness, liked what I felt she was trying to do. Liked that she 'didn't conform'. Which (isn't it ironic) is what made her so MTV marketable. She was very MTV. And MTV was cool. Then she was suddenly a bit un-MTV, and that in itself was cool. Then she was all of a sudden a bit iconic (not ironic).

I liked that she tried to rough up pop. Or tried to bring pop into whatever it was she was doing. There were intriguing thigns I'd pick up in what was on tye radio. Or on MTV. But ultimately, because I couldn't stomach her singing on more than the odd song at a time, I never gave it any time.

Forcing myself to run through this now, and having over the years since this was out, heard much worse singing and voices, it is not as bad as I remember or had expected. And Mary Jane was a real surprise. Till she reverted to type, I had assumed the album ended and it moved onto another artist, and thought, who's that!

There are decent tunes there, expression here and there, some melodic, some poppy, a ballad or two. A well rounded album. Couldn't reach the lyrics, my focus is too scattered. But the music is really worth it, not for persevering with what I ultimately unfortunately find somewhat an unpleasant experience, and down to her singing. Very similar to Lucinda Williams in that sense, there is stuff there for me to like, but can't get past the irritation to try. A 3.5, with an extra 0.5 for being cool.
 
I'm not sure I have the chops for a chorus pedal. my natural habitat is quarter notes on the low E. I did just have a Marcus Miller V5 arrive today but i'm not sure I'll ever actually pick it up for fear of looking like i think i know what i'm doing. the fifth string has shoes too big for me to fill

I once borrowed my sons mates CEB-3 to see if it would mask my crap timing and non existent technique, you'll never guess what...

Everything I ever heard about Sires suggest they are very good VFM.
 
Do you think (genuine question), artists singing in foreign languages would make little to no difference to your experience of music? I often wonder this, generally, when it comes to lyrics that don't capture.

My next nomination doesn't sing in English.
 
The ironic thing about Ironic is how unironically it misunderstands irony — which is ironic itself, because calling something ironic when it is not actually ironic is, ironically, the most ironic thing about it. And ironically, that makes the song more ironic than if it had been genuinely ironic to begin with.
Or just wrong?
 
Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Nadine Morissette is an album that every logical bone in my body hates but which I'm giving a 9. Whatever criticism you want to throw its way will most likely be met with whole hearted agreement from me with the possible exception that it is trite - I'm open to being persuaded though. This is a pop record with all that trite implies.

The production is quintessentially 90's so I get the Friends comparison - both are products very firmly of its time. The only instrument making anything close to a good sound is the occasional acoustic guitar everything else sounds overly compressed and weak. The playing of said instruments is trite. The bass and guitar on You Oughta Know are particularly egregious examples. I note from Wikipedia that this was provided by Flea and Dave Navarro when they were both playing with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I can get behind an argument that Flea is a talented bass player but he's one i find largely unlikeable. His bass line on this is over played as if he's above the material, which he probably is, but it's a Morissette album so have some respect. I did find his bassline less annoying in the remix at the end of the album.

The drums have that awful 90's quasi dance r&b shuffle on large portions and like my criticism of the Embrace album the hands in the air big moments feel unearned musically. They just slap you with little warning or build up but not in an unexpected or surprising way. AND it is kind of trite - in All I Really Want when Morissette sings "why are you petrified of silence; here can you handle this?" and the tracks stops for a second is the most obvious move she could make in this moment. It's also hard to argue that her affectations are annoying and sometimes overpower the music.

BUT this is a great album. Even the much maligned Ironic forces me to yell "it's like rayyyyiaaayyyne on your wedding day" - it's almost a pavlovian response. It bypasses every cynical, snarky idea of what I think music should be and electrifies the little part of my brain that lights up and goes straight to sing a long. Morissette's annoying vocal affectations are numerous but well placed and effective to me for conveying the emotion of the line. She has a couple of variations to keep things fresh. The first couple of lines of the second verse of Perfect are pretty nice before she completely destroys the band. They certainly remind me of Maria McKee's Life is Sweet album (which i seem to keep mentioning recently) but they are less banshee.

Highlight of the album for me is Forgiven which I think serves as a good touchpoint for what I'm responding positively to. I feel like I've spent a month of nominations asking for stuff to be less subtle and more obvious. Well Jagged Little Pill delivers on this and in particular Forgiven. It's refreshingly upfront and obvious and Forgiven nails that post grunge rock thing perfectly - i feel like it's the song where the band almost keep up. The acoustic guitar solo lines are very on brand and nicely placed in the mix to catch your attention as you try and hear the line clearly. Wake Up is also a song that the band mainly delivers on - the bass almost goes into Epic by Faith No More territory. But what the band lack is more than compensated for by the vocal performance and delivery including all the affectations for me. It's delivered with such a boldness and so unapologetically that it totally pulls me in despite my best intentions.

My logical, trying to be cool rational brain, hates this. The chimp part of my brain really enjoys how Morissette varies her delivery across multiple lines (particularly in All I Really Want) and makes sure everything is in large print for the hard of hearing. I think if you didn't speak English you could understand this album but I actually think some of the writing is pretty good. For instance I like the sweater line already mentioned AND if I'm totally honest and unconcerned by what people would think of me I'd actually say I quite enjoy Ironic. I often have more spoons than I need. It's a song that will often come back to my memory despite not having heard it for years and it is eminently sing-a-longable. I think any disagreement here is a sign of snobbishness. You are not Flea and you are not above the material.

It's not a cool album but it is confident and Morissette is, as far as I can tell at least, concerned mainly with being herself, writing about things that have actually happened to her and not making it to hard for me to hear what's she saying - a line like "I confessed my darkest deeds to an envious man" is nicely balanced conveying something obvious but also with some subtext and depth. It's the opposite of jazz so it's a 9 from me, singing into a hairbrush and wondering if i can justify buying a chorus pedal for my bass.
As usual a very fine review, about which I find points of agreement and disagreement.

Whatever one thinks of it on the whole, I am convinced there is one truly great song on this record.
 
I once borrowed my sons mates CEB-3 to see if it would mask my crap timing and non existent technique, you'll never guess what...

Everything I ever heard about Sires suggest they are very good VFM.
Yup I heard the same which is why I picked it up. It cost the same as my cheap Spector did 20 years ago.

The boss is the classic chorus isn't it?
 

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