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

threespires said:
They share some subject matter but Apple's more melodic and more cerebral. Di Franco more DIY one woman and her guitar. More confrontational too i'd say. Don't know if she's mellowed with age but live she used to make Alanis Morissette look like Doris Day.
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I like Doris Day.
Especially in Calamity Jane.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
if you don't like the lyrics or the vocals then the music certainly wouldn't hold your attention mate. I'm not sure what it cost to make but large parts are the author, Ballard and a drum machine. The RHCP contingent only played on a couple of tracks I think. It seems to be an album you either like or have a pretty strong repulsion to. Still, it has produced two great reviews to illustrate each. One from Bimbo and the other from mrbelfry. Each classics of their kind. I might add Mrs S is firmly in the Bimbo camp.
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I’m still firmly in the…… Meh!, camp.
I just drift every time I listen to it, when I know the lyrics need listening to.
I wouldn’t go with the Bimbo review, I’d be more in agreement with MrBelfry, the irony being that he describes exactly why it is ‘Meh!’, but reaches a different conclusion to me.
He concludes it’s great. I conclude, it’s exactly what he’s described.
By the way, I’m thinking of patenting,, ‘Meh!’.
That in here in the music threads to go along with ‘Gobshite’, which I’ve patented for the political threads.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
I’m still firmly in the…… Meh!, camp.
I just drift every time I listen to it, when I know the lyrics need listening to.
I wouldn’t go with the Bimbo review, I’d be more in agreement with MrBelfry, the irony being that he describes exactly why it is ‘Meh!’, but reaches a different conclusion to me.
He concludes it’s great. I conclude, it’s exactly what he’s described.
By the way, I’m thinking of patenting,, ‘Meh!’.
That in here in the music threads to go along with ‘Gobshite’, which I’ve patented for the political threads.
Click to expand...
You know you want to give it a 3. It won't hurt my feelings honest! :-)

I knew it would polarise opinions and its been a good discussion to follow. I think I'll retire to the history thread after this though, its nice and peaceful.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
I’m still firmly in the…… Meh!, camp.
I just drift every time I listen to it, when I know the lyrics need listening to.
I wouldn’t go with the Bimbo review, I’d be more in agreement with MrBelfry, the irony being that he describes exactly why it is ‘Meh!’, but reaches a different conclusion to me.
He concludes it’s great. I conclude, it’s exactly what he’s described.
By the way, I’m thinking of patenting,, ‘Meh!’.
That in here in the music threads to go along with ‘Gobshite’, which I’ve patented for the political threads.
Click to expand...
Maybe I'm just in a good mood this week and like I said i would probably agree with most of the criticism of it but I'm just into her delivery and it's kind of looseness - there is lots of variation in how she delivers the lines
 
mrbelfry said:
Maybe I'm just in a good mood this week and like I said i would probably agree with most of the criticism of it but I'm just into her delivery and it's kind of looseness - there is lots of variation in how she delivers the lines
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I really want to like it. I think your review really sums it up.
As I said my conclusion is exactly what I read from your summation, whereas it evokes something different in you.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
You know you want to give it a 3. It won't hurt my feelings honest! :-)

I knew it would polarise opinions and its been a good discussion to follow. I think I'll retire to the history thread after this though, its nice and peaceful.
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Honestly Sadds, I really don’t want to give it a 3.
I kind of understand where MrBelfry is coming from.
The difference is, I can see that this is a significant piece of work and I don’t dislike her or what she has done with what is essentially ‘Pop’, which in itself is not a genre that I am often comfortable with, because of the frivolous chewing gum nature of so much of it.
Despite the catchiness of much of the choruses on the record, it is evident to us all that this is not chewing gum pop.

It is trying to be much more meaningful, which is something I normally gravitate towards.

Like I said, it should be right up my alley, but I’ve been up there twice now and she wasn’t there. Go figure.
Third time lucky perhaps.

I won’t be scoring it either way Sadds.
Don’t take offence at that either. I haven’t got into the scoring element of this thread since coming back to it.
Your musical taste is your own and debate around it doesn’t require someone giving it 1/10.
 
I nominate my pick and i do not take offence or worry about scores.
Just a bit of fun and a thread that i really like.
I sometimes think though i'm too critical with my low scores but that is just an honest opinion on my part.
The varied scores is what makes this thread as good as it is.
 
Not to distract too much from the album in hand but I wonder what a certain US based thread regular would make of the order here, particularly the number one

www.theguardian.com

The ones we love: all 16 of REM’s albums – ranked!

As their album Fables of the Reconstruction turns 40, we assess REM’s hugely varied discography, from mysterious masterpieces to commercial failures
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
journolud said:
Not to distract too much from the album in hand but I wonder what a certain US based thread regular would make of the order here, particularly the number one

www.theguardian.com

The ones we love: all 16 of REM’s albums – ranked!

As their album Fables of the Reconstruction turns 40, we assess REM’s hugely varied discography, from mysterious masterpieces to commercial failures
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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As we all know, REM broke up in 1991 after Out of Time. After that, the band that pretended to be them were replicons made by same company who made robot Joe Biden when the original Joe died secretly in 2022.

I rank the pre-death REM records as follows:

Life’s Rich Pageant
Chronic Town
Document
Murmur

Actually any of those four are pretty interchangeable. All pretty much perfect.

Then it goes:

Reckoning
Out of Time
Fables of the Reconstruction
Green

Thank you for coming to my TED . . . errrr REM . . . talk.
 
I remember hearing this album when it first came out in the 90s and my girlfriend at the time played it endlessly but were in that 'starting to split up' phase so I started to dislike it as much as her really. For many years after, I associated the album with her so never bothered with it. Besides, the 90s were almost like the 70s with great albums/singles produced on a pretty regular basis so if you missed one it was 'meh' and you just waited a month for another great release.

However, after a few years I started to realise 'You Outta Know' is one hell of a song. It's absolutely brilliant and I started to listen to the album again. It's venomous, funky, rocky and catchy as hell - very few artists are able to make a song as good as that. I don't know if she wrote this about an ex-boyfriend but wow, I'd be constantly looking over my shoulder if an ex wrote that about me!

Anyway, I was kind of listening to it with fresh ears to some extent and I realised that she was entirely right and that this was a once-in-a-decade-good album. Every single track on the album is superb - brilliantly written, brilliantly produced and the lyrics have a real whip and kick about them. Not only that, it's melodic and catchy.

Without question, it's one of the finest albums of the 90s. There's not a bad track on it, every track is strong. I don't quite know why, but it never seems to be mentioned in the same breath as the albums around the same time by Oasis/Blur/Pulp/Beck/Pearl Jam/Nirvana/Portishead/Bjork etc. Maybe it's because it wasn't Britpop or Grunge? No idea really. However, her song-writing on this album is right up there with the female singer-songwriters that @Saddleworth2 mentioned in his review.

It's an easy 10/10 from me and it was also an album I was going to nominate next! Back to the drawing board! :)

PS, please don't give up on the thread @RobMCFC - these music threads have been incredible for exposing us all to albums and music we've not heard before and I've found some great tracks and learnt a LOT from other people. Thanks to everyone who contributes!
 
bennyboy said:
REM top 5 for me.
Lifes Rich Pageant
Document.
Reckoning.
Fables.
Murmur.
Green the start of me losing interest in them.
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Me too (re Green) but I liked OOT because it took some chances that paid off, because of side one and — especially — because of “Texarkana”, one of their best ever songs, which I later interpreted as Mike Mills’ way of saying “Please for the love of Christ, fellas — this was a fun diversion, but can we go back to what we’re good at?” But they never did.

LRP has my favo(u)rite REM song of all time on it — “Hyena” — plus “Superman”, which is in my top 10 all-time covers, plus lots of other great songs.

Anyway — back to AM — played JLP thrice now but the song I like best about a dozen times and the more I hear it the more I like it (the song — I think I’m good with the record).
 
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FogBlueInSanFran said:
As we all know, REM broke up in 1991 after Out of Time. After that, the band that pretended to be them were replicons made by same company who made robot Joe Biden when the original Joe died secretly in 2022.

I rank the pre-death REM records as follows:

Life’s Rich Pageant
Chronic Town
Document
Murmur

Actually any of those four are pretty interchangeable. All pretty much perfect.

Then it goes:

Reckoning
Out of Time
Fables of the Reconstruction
Green

Thank you for coming to my TED . . . errrr REM . . . talk.
Click to expand...

What's some fans problems with automatic for the people? Is it their sold out became successful period that a lot of bands get called on by certain fans?
 
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