The Album Review Club - Week #216 (page 1412) - Together Alone - Crowded House

threespires said:
Hope you're ok with nothing broken etc (and the bike is repairable).

This is a hard album to review if you like it but I imagine quite easy if you don't.
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I'm ok thank you but a near death experience puts life into a different context. I'm sorry I gave you a chufty badge with malicious intent and suggesting that rabbits are easily scared so a frightened one is nothing special.

I find the reviews are much easier to write when I can be snarky and rude
 
mrbelfry said:
I'm ok thank you but a near death experience puts life into a different context. I'm sorry I gave you a chufty badge with malicious intent and suggesting that rabbits are easily scared so a frightened one is nothing special.

I find the reviews are much easier to write when I can be snarky and rude
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I suspect some of your snark goes over my head; but either way I sanctimoniously forgive you for any slights malicious or otherwise :-)

And I'm glad it was only a near death experience...hang on that doesn't sound right but you know what I mean.
 
threespires said:
I suspect some of your snark goes over my head; but either way I sanctimoniously forgive you for any slights malicious or otherwise :-)

And I'm glad it was only a near death experience...hang on that doesn't sound right but you know what I mean.
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I'm almost fifty so tying my own shoe laces can be a near death experience
 
mrbelfry said:
I'm almost fifty so tying my own shoe laces can be a near death experience
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I can speak from experience, try to avoid breaking anything after 50, I incurred the same injury as my youngest about a week apart from each other. It took him six weeks to recover and me nine months!
 
threespires said:
I can speak from experience, try to avoid breaking anything after 50, I incurred the same injury as my youngest about a week apart from each other. It took him six weeks to recover and me nine months!
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I avoid trampolines for this reason although I have broken both of my feet walking down stairs so I'm possibly only safe in a bungalow
 
Vee Vee by Archers of Loaf starts off with a nice desert rock groove keeping it on trend for the Album Review Thread if you keep a long
enough view and exclude contradictory evidence. Some southern rock harmonies introduce us to the band before we are invited to step into the light. Are we about to enter into a super positive life affirming experience? Nah we are about to get Ecclesiastical and everything is meaningless.


Archers of Loaf exist reluctantly if you believe them. In their space everything is rubbish and the worse crime you can commit is trying too
hard. This makes listening to this a deeply ironic experience especially listening to a song like Nostalgia 20 years after its release on a reissue with bonus material. The tricky balance AoL need to strike is to try hard enough to make something enjoyable but not look like you're trying too hard because obviously everything is rubbish. But if you're not trying because everything is rubbish you definitely don't go out of your way to form a band, record a second album and refuse to sell out to a major label because although nothing matters you need to be seen to be saying it because nothing mattering matters.

I get this. It's my vibe also. I don't iron for this reason. Fabric is meaningless and creases don't mean anything but it does establish my identity as someone who thinks it doesn't matter. If it didn't matter I'd leave it to chance and flip a coin every morning. Heads I'm crispy, tails I'm crumpled.

Even this review doesn't matter except I spent a couple of hours listening to some music, then an hour writing the review and then I'll spend a week hoping someone writes something in response. And I have a no edits rule so that it looks like I'm not trying to hard and I'll be self effacing if anyone says something positive about it and deeply crushed if someone points out a spelling mistake. Everyting mattars.

Comparisons to Pavement will be obvious but like them AoL are aware of other music and reference it in a way that I find quite charming at times. Pavement also exist in a space where it is important to look like you're not trying which is why they favour dissonance and confusion. But guys you can achieve the same effect by not turning your instruments and being crap. Neither of these bands took this approach and are working hard to demonstrate they are not working hard or trying.

Unlike Pavement though you get the sense AoL are having to restrain themselves. The vocal lines are shorter and I got a sense they were pinching themselves. The opening line of Harnessed in Slums is fantastic and reminiscent of Tricky by Run DMC but then they pull it back into the familiar dirge. They are heavier than Pavement which I think is designed to make things sludgier and less distinct so that it feels less worked on and worked out. When occasionally they get a bit more experimental and lighter on their feet I find it more interesting but they quickly return to the sludge. Or they use toy sounding instruments like on the album closer. It's all designed to remind you that it's all rubbish.

But a) it's designed and b) you gave it your time. Just those two things alone give everything meaning and worth - the choice and action of doing means it can not be worth nothing. You could have just presented 40 minutes of silence and ultimately the joke is on AoL. It obviously matters to Foggy even if he delights in the nothing matters aesthetic. It's an illusion you bunch of try hards. And now the ultimate irony of giving this a score. 7
 
mrbelfry said:
I avoid trampolines for this reason although I have broken both of my feet walking down stairs so I'm possibly only safe in a bungalow
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got a friend who's an a&e consultant, would be fair to say he's not really a fan of trampolines

Anyway back to the album - I like to be reductive and find single adjectives for bands and/or frontmen at least to anchor any subsequent thoughts but Eric Bachmann is annoyingly slippery in this respect; I suppose slippery is an adjective but like the others I can come up with it doesn't really add any value. So I've moved onto comparisons, partly hampered by lack of knowledge but even here I'm struggling. He reminds me a tiny bit of a few people but he's seemingly more agitated than most of them and where there's someone as agitated they are less ironic/wry. He's an annoying git.

Edit: I've been trying to work out if his agitation is actually at least part real so was looking into him a bit more and it turns out he's married to Vic Chesnutt's niece, Liz Durnett, and I've just listened to some of her stuff. I'm none the wiser but I quite liked it.
 
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mrbelfry said:
Vee Vee by Archers of Loaf starts off with a nice desert rock groove keeping it on trend for the Album Review Thread if you keep a long
enough view and exclude contradictory evidence. Some southern rock harmonies introduce us to the band before we are invited to step into the light. Are we about to enter into a super positive life affirming experience? Nah we are about to get Ecclesiastical and everything is meaningless.


Archers of Loaf exist reluctantly if you believe them. In their space everything is rubbish and the worse crime you can commit is trying too
hard. This makes listening to this a deeply ironic experience especially listening to a song like Nostalgia 20 years after its release on a reissue with bonus material. The tricky balance AoL need to strike is to try hard enough to make something enjoyable but not look like you're trying too hard because obviously everything is rubbish. But if you're not trying because everything is rubbish you definitely don't go out of your way to form a band, record a second album and refuse to sell out to a major label because although nothing matters you need to be seen to be saying it because nothing mattering matters.

I get this. It's my vibe also. I don't iron for this reason. Fabric is meaningless and creases don't mean anything but it does establish my identity as someone who thinks it doesn't matter. If it didn't matter I'd leave it to chance and flip a coin every morning. Heads I'm crispy, tails I'm crumpled.

Even this review doesn't matter except I spent a couple of hours listening to some music, then an hour writing the review and then I'll spend a week hoping someone writes something in response. And I have a no edits rule so that it looks like I'm not trying to hard and I'll be self effacing if anyone says something positive about it and deeply crushed if someone points out a spelling mistake. Everyting mattars.

Comparisons to Pavement will be obvious but like them AoL are aware of other music and reference it in a way that I find quite charming at times. Pavement also exist in a space where it is important to look like you're not trying which is why they favour dissonance and confusion. But guys you can achieve the same effect by not turning your instruments and being crap. Neither of these bands took this approach and are working hard to demonstrate they are not working hard or trying.

Unlike Pavement though you get the sense AoL are having to restrain themselves. The vocal lines are shorter and I got a sense they were pinching themselves. The opening line of Harnessed in Slums is fantastic and reminiscent of Tricky by Run DMC but then they pull it back into the familiar dirge. They are heavier than Pavement which I think is designed to make things sludgier and less distinct so that it feels less worked on and worked out. When occasionally they get a bit more experimental and lighter on their feet I find it more interesting but they quickly return to the sludge. Or they use toy sounding instruments like on the album closer. It's all designed to remind you that it's all rubbish.

But a) it's designed and b) you gave it your time. Just those two things alone give everything meaning and worth - the choice and action of doing means it can not be worth nothing. You could have just presented 40 minutes of silence and ultimately the joke is on AoL. It obviously matters to Foggy even if he delights in the nothing matters aesthetic. It's an illusion you bunch of try hards. And now the ultimate irony of giving this a score. 7
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Must try harder.
 
First listen on plane flying back from Manchester last night and my first thoughts were.... "Rob aint going to like this"
But then I could be wrong.
Three listen in for me and I am loving it. Completely new for me and I am wondering how I have never heard of them before. I'm getting Pixies, Pavement etc and am loving it....Thanks Foggy.
 
LGWIO said:
First listen on plane flying back from Manchester last night and my first thoughts were.... "Rob aint going to like this"
But then I could be wrong.
Three listen in for me and I am loving it. Completely new for me and I am wondering how I have never heard of them before. I'm getting Pixies, Pavement etc and am loving it....Thanks Foggy.
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I do have a reputation for calling out non-melodic stuff, don't I?

I don't hate this, but I've got some things to moan about. At least it's not shouty old rubbish like some of the Pixies stuff.
 
RobMCFC said:
I do have a reputation for calling out non-melodic stuff, don't I?

I don't hate this, but I've got some things to moan about. At least it's not shouty old rubbish like some of the Pixies stuff.
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How very dare you even contemplate to criticise Mr Francis!
I am wagging my finger at you from afar!
 
RobMCFC said:
I can see why most of my selections don’t do well now. I’m definitely out of sync with most people on here.
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I wouldn’t say your selections don't do well.

I'd also hazard a guess everyone here feels the second applies to them a lot or at least some of the time.
 
RobMCFC said:
I can see why most of my selections don’t do well now. I’m definitely out of sync with most people on here.
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I really wouldn't worry. If I just select a random sample of some of the artists that people have picked who didn't even get close to 7/10, like Richard Thompson, Portishead, Sly & The Family Stone, Plant and Krauss or Alison Moorer for example; it's apparent that the taste on this thread is definitely dodgy.

Unrelated, anyone know if Bimbo is ok? Hope so.
 
This is one of those interesting 'time and place' albums. There is zero doubt I would have loved this album in the 90s. Instead, they were one of those names that people mentioned and I heard buts of here and there, but were mostly on a rolling 'to check out properly' list, that never came. It would be like me now expecting Fog to listen to early Samiam with the same vigour he would have back then. We may both acknowledge what we like and what it reminds us of, but that boat of the impact of the new and the context, has sailed.

Saying that, the more I have listened to this album, the easier it has been for me to 'pretend/imagine' or rather 'transpose' myself to that then me, and listen to this album through a sort of an out of body prism. Which in itself is one hell of an enjoyable experience.
 
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