No.Can we have a VAR review for anyone scoring this under 3 - It simply can't be possible unless you genuinely hate Pop music.
Totally agree.Can we have a VAR review for anyone scoring this under 3 - It simply can't be possible unless you genuinely hate Pop music.
I lived in Canada for a year in the late 80's. It all came to an abrupt end when my girlfriends 17 year old sister joined me in the shower one morning. Both were professional dancers and I was an early 20's led by testosterone buffon. It struck me as weird at the time that her family cared not a jot about the age difference. Wasn't mentioned. Makes sense now.Wow I didn't know that. Just read, only changed in 2008 and the prior law was from 1890's. Incredible.
Eros Ramazzoti?
What a great review and I 1000% KNEW you'd bring up Benmont Tench!!!Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette
This is an interesting choice coming so soon after Aimee Mann’s I’m With Stupid. Totally different sound and vibe, but if I remember correctly, it was the same former work colleague who lent me both of these albums to listen to back in 1995.
“You Oughta Know” is a brilliant song. Whilst it contains a couple of lines that would have Kenneth Williams’ eyebrows reaching for the ceiling, its chorus is delivered with an edgy, goosebump-raising vocal found in few hit singles. It gets the feet moving, the blood flowing and I’m sure the venom-tipped lyrical barb found its target somewhere.
The wailing that features in the opening track returns in the second half of “Perfect” but then the album settles down.
Other songs hit that part of the brain that mrbelfry referred to. Whilst I haven’t heard this album for many years, the choruses for “Right Through You”, “You Learn”, “Head Over Feet” and “Not the Doctor” were instantly familiar, like they were written into the flash memory that connects right up to the part of the brain that craves melody – a nice trick when you pair it with Alanis Morissette’s subject matter.
Let’s talk about that subject matter. If you listened to some of our reviewers, apparently you shouldn’t sing about being ignored, abused, rejected or generally trampled under foot by somebody. This is, of course, nonsense of the highest order. The lyrics to 99% of all rock and pop music refer to love, loss, heartbreak, rejection, so to put certain elements of this whole mess that is love off limits seems a bit strange. It is an uncomfortable listen at times, but maybe if men were a bit less abusive towards, and dismissive of, women in general then an album like this wouldn’t have found its mark. But with those choruses it probably would have.
One bit of criticism that has come up a couple of times that I agree with is the sound and production of the album. There are certainly some good performances on there, buzzing guitar, acoustic guitar and the like, but the whole electronic drum sound and general soupiness does lose it a mark. There was a comment on the Rock Evolution thread the other day about when the peak of recorded rock and pop music was. I don’t have a definitive answer, but certainly by the 90s, the idea of just recording a band and capturing the sound of the instruments as faithfully as possible had gone out of the window. Some would say it started with The Beatles, but the sounds George Martin produced were totally different to what we are talking about in the 90s and beyond. Jagged Little Pill is by no means the worst offender, but it is indicative of the direction of travel for major labels music.
Regardless of whether the things see mentions in the lyrics are ironic, “Ironic” is another fabulous pop/rock song with brilliant vocals in the chorus. As @mrbelfry highlighted in his excellent review, “it bypasses every cynical, snarky idea of what I think music should be ……” Having a go at the song because the things she lists are not really ironic is pretty dumb; it’s almost as if some haven’t heard rock and roll lyrics before.
This album has a bit of everything: choruses to die for, serious subject matter, Benmont Tench on half the tracks, strong performances generally but Alanis Morissette goes a bit wailing banshee a few times, and then there’s the feeling that it could have sounded better with a better producer. Any album with a song as singable as “Ironic” is doing something right. To also have a song as powerful as You Oughta Know” and then back it up with at least half a dozen very good songs is worthy of anybody’s attention. Get me to the dinner party that has music like this playing. A great nomination and worth 8/10.
Why?Totally agree.
I've been close to chucking the towel in with this thread a couple of times in the last few months.
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?
Ok. Understand. If you haven’t tried Hounds of Love it’s probably her most immediate album. The early stuff is an acquired taste mainly because of her voice. Sensual world album is a good example of her songwriting if you can be bothered or have the time.A few studio records (the early ones), then that long thing here. I just find her stuff wispy and gossamer and a little odd and off-putting -- and not enough hooks. It's not her voice. Maybe it's because I like Laurie Anderson and prefer kitschy avant-garde Americans grounded in technology, beats and humo(u)r.
This bunch got it wrong that week.Mate, Kate Bush only made it to mid table. That's how bad this bunch are ;-)
You are absolutely entitled to your view and score -- we all are -- but based on the pretty good breadth in your historic pick set (mid-80s new wavy stuff, Sule Skerry, that WOTW thing) I must say I was a little surprised at how negative you were -- maybe that's what Rob's reacting to also. But you explained it and thus we all go on. Some music doesn't connect on any level, and having never been a 19 year-old woman (let alone Canadian) I can see how the potency of this might hit dramatically differently had I ever been -- especially in the mid-90s.Why?
Just because I have a different opinion from you doesn't mean any of us are in the wrong. Or are right. The joys of music.
My tolerance levels are just a tad tighter than yours.
If you want to carry on with this lovely thread without discent or arguments then you can do so. I'll just stop posting if I don't like it.
And then every album will be 5, my score for an ok album, and upwards.
I first heard her by listening to the Echocentrics, I really can’t remember how I came to hear them. But really it was my son’s habit of playing Brazilian music that led me back to Natalia. I haven’t listened to Thievery Corporation but read about them and will no doubt exploreYou're in Thievery Corporation territory there then? Now wondering how The Richest Man in Babylon would go down as an album nomination.
Now that you say it. I think I DID give Oasis a 4, and this even with the irritation is a better album. Up me to a 4 then Rob please.Can we have a VAR review for anyone scoring this under 3 - It simply can't be possible unless you genuinely hate Pop music.
Connection is a big thing for me. Place and time as well.You are absolutely entitled to your view and score -- we all are -- but based on the pretty good breadth in your historic pick set (mid-80s new wavy stuff, Sule Skerry, that WOTW thing) I must say I was a little surprised at how negative you were -- maybe that's what Rob's reacting to also. But you explained it and thus we all go on. Some music doesn't connect on any level, and having never been a 19 year-old woman (let alone Canadian) I can see how the potency of this might hit dramatically differently had I ever been -- especially in the mid-90s.
I like Fiona Apple. Don’t know Ani Di Franco. Is she good?Great pick @Saddleworth2 the thread is a hive of activity. Think I might need to change my next pick to either Ani Di Franco or Fiona Apple !
Why?Totally agree.
I've been close to chucking the towel in with this thread a couple of times in the last few months.
What we don't have here -- and haven't -- are people who come in and say "Absolute shite -- 1/10" . . . and that's the extent of the post. I love that about this thread.Why?
You can't for example convince me to like this album, any more than I can convince you to like Idles. Might be worth you rereading your own review on that, because it actually captures a lot of what I feel re this one (and I totally get btw).
Something as polarising as their voices/singing, any or all the quality beyond that, is just hard to reach with that to get past, if it irritates the senses.
And that's with me actually liking her persona and style. My review is honest in that way, as most would have been.
I have said it before, and I do mean it. I'd rather an album I put forward get a 2, where someone gave it a real go, and got it (like your review of Idles) but didn't like it, than a skipped through token polite 6 without saying anything meaningful about it.
I therefore assume others would to, and respect albums accordingly, even if the outcome is negativeIte. And I trust people to trust me with that. It is just as it comes through my own prism, at the end of the day.
I like Fiona Apple. Don’t know Ani Di Franco. Is she good?