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

RobMCFC said:
Fade Away Diamond Time by Neal Casal scored an average of 6.45 from 10 voters. This is a very respectable score, and whilst it wasn't quite enough for a place in our top 100, it was one place above Radiohead's OK Computer, which is certainly a victory for proper music. Thanks to @Mancitydoogle for the nomination.

As noted before, unless @BlueHammer85 or @BimboBob make a surprise return in the next 7 days, this week's selection will be the last of the current round. @GoatersLeftShin is our nominator.
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Apologies, I did listen to Neal Casal’s album but didn’t get chance to post comments or score but my score would not have moved the needle on the overall score as it was 6.5. Nice album but a bit one paced.
 
Private Music - Deftones

I’ll not lie. I didn’t like this very much.

There’s plenty of guitar here, but not anything that I can hang onto. Lot’s of heavy riffing, but nothing memorable, no dynamite imprinted-in-the-brain chord sequence like AC/DC. No memorable guitar solos. If it’s atmosphere they’re going for, I don’t know what atmosphere that would be.

The vocals range from shouty-shouty to, well, I don’t know what you’d call that on “locked club”. It’s OK in the bridge, in fact it’s enough to make you believe that Chino Moreno has a decent voice, but the half-shouted, for lack of a better word, “commentary” is laughable.

There’s a bit of chugging bass at the start of “ecdysis” and then the shouting starts, and there’s plenty of pro-tools-style guitar with no character. “Souvenir” is the longest track here, clocking in at over six minutes. Let’s see how Deftones fill it. Vocals aren’t bad and there’s a bit of light and shade between the bursts of guitar and an outbreak of melody. It’s not bad, but there’s nothing about it that makes you want to come back.

My only memory of “cXz”, aside from the guitar onslaught, is somebody shouting “constant zero”. “I think about you all the time” is quieter but no more memorable. Not much happens after this although the shouting reaches its zenith in “cut hands”.

Considering this is just over 42 minutes long, it was a hard listen. It felt like over an hour, just waiting for a moment that never materialised. Some clever chord change that took me by surprise or a smart lyric (couldn’t hear what he was going on about most of the time).

I see that the album was produced by Nick Raskulinecz, who produced the final two Rush studio albums. Funny how the guitars sound much better on the Rush efforts, but I guess every band can’t have an Alex Lifeson.

Let’s have a look at the old scorecard:-
  • Memorable guitar solos: 0
  • Memorable guitar riffs: 0
  • Memorable bridges/middle-8s: 0
  • Melody: some
  • Shouting: plenty
  • Songcraft: not much
  • Lyrics: largely incomprehensible
This is like so much modern music in that the art of songcraft has been lost. There’s no attempt to write something memorable and there’s no character to the big, brash guitar sound. When Alex Lifeson, or Angus Young or Mike Campbell or David Gilmour play the guitar, it’s usually memorable. There was not one riff or solo that I could recall once this album had finished. I know this album isn’t made for the likes of me; they’re trying to create an atmosphere and tick some hip boxes, and whilst it’s not the worst album I’ve heard, I’m struggling to comprehend why it topped our album poll when there was so much better material last year (look no further than 2nd place, for example). 4/10.
 
RobMCFC said:
Private Music - Deftones

I’ll not lie. I didn’t like this very much.

There’s plenty of guitar here, but not anything that I can hang onto. Lot’s of heavy riffing, but nothing memorable, no dynamite imprinted-in-the-brain chord sequence like AC/DC. No memorable guitar solos. If it’s atmosphere they’re going for, I don’t know what atmosphere that would be.

The vocals range from shouty-shouty to, well, I don’t know what you’d call that on “locked club”. It’s OK in the bridge, in fact it’s enough to make you believe that Chino Moreno has a decent voice, but the half-shouted, for lack of a better word, “commentary” is laughable.

There’s a bit of chugging bass at the start of “ecdysis” and then the shouting starts, and there’s plenty of pro-tools-style guitar with no character. “Souvenir” is the longest track here, clocking in at over six minutes. Let’s see how Deftones fill it. Vocals aren’t bad and there’s a bit of light and shade between the bursts of guitar and an outbreak of melody. It’s not bad, but there’s nothing about it that makes you want to come back.

My only memory of “cXz”, aside from the guitar onslaught, is somebody shouting “constant zero”. “I think about you all the time” is quieter but no more memorable. Not much happens after this although the shouting reaches its zenith in “cut hands”.

Considering this is just over 42 minutes long, it was a hard listen. It felt like over an hour, just waiting for a moment that never materialised. Some clever chord change that took me by surprise or a smart lyric (couldn’t hear what he was going on about most of the time).

I see that the album was produced by Nick Raskulinecz, who produced the final two Rush studio albums. Funny how the guitars sound much better on the Rush efforts, but I guess every band can’t have an Alex Lifeson.

Let’s have a look at the old scorecard:-
  • Memorable guitar solos: 0
  • Memorable guitar riffs: 0
  • Memorable bridges/middle-8s: 0
  • Melody: some
  • Shouting: plenty
  • Songcraft: not much
  • Lyrics: largely incomprehensible
This is like so much modern music in that the art of songcraft has been lost. There’s no attempt to write something memorable and there’s no character to the big, brash guitar sound. When Alex Lifeson, or Angus Young or Mike Campbell or David Gilmour play the guitar, it’s usually memorable. There was not one riff or solo that I could recall once this album had finished. I know this album isn’t made for the likes of me; they’re trying to create an atmosphere and tick some hip boxes, and whilst it’s not the worst album I’ve heard, I’m struggling to comprehend why it topped our album poll when there was so much better material last year (look no further than 2nd place, for example). 4/10.
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Given you have the bulk of the week left, may I suggest you listen to their White Pony album. Twice, presumably the same as this if I read correctly, for a fair comparison. Even just to humour me, and humour yourself. Might be an interesting experiment, and not a chance you might stumble across again.

Fwiw I get all of what you say, and some of it is hard to disagree with from my so far experience of this album.

I don't expect your views on the singing/tone to change, but interested in the 'songcraft' aspect and how you might compare the two.

Obviously, feel free to tell me to shove it (reference ntended), and listen to something more up your street. But it is a genuine suggestion with genuine interest behind it fwiw.
 
Coatigan said:
Given you have the bulk of the week left, may I suggest you listen to their White Pony album. Twice, presumably the same as this if I read correctly, for a fair comparison. Even just to humour me, and humour yourself. Might be an interesting experiment, and not a chance you might stumble across again.

Fwiw I get all of what you say, and some of it is hard to disagree with from my so far experience of this album.

I don't expect your views on the singing/tone to change, but interested in the 'songcraft' aspect and how you might compare the two.

Obviously, feel free to tell me to shove it (reference ntended), and listen to something more up your street. But it is a genuine suggestion with genuine interest behind it fwiw.
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The mention of White Pony has reminded me what an odd band they are from my perspective. In theory I should like them more from White Pony onwards but actually I quite like a lot of Adrenaline and a few off the second despite loads of bands who sounded similar at the time really getting on my wick. After that I don't mind them but can't really get fully on board despite it being more my cup of tea on paper.

The whole debate around different types of songcraft isn't one we've ever explicitly had even though we implicitly discuss it all the time. I might have a little meander on this in my review.
 
Coatigan said:
Given you have the bulk of the week left, may I suggest you listen to their White Pony album. Twice, presumably the same as this if I read correctly, for a fair comparison. Even just to humour me, and humour yourself. Might be an interesting experiment, and not a chance you might stumble across again.

Fwiw I get all of what you say, and some of it is hard to disagree with from my so far experience of this album.

I don't expect your views on the singing/tone to change, but interested in the 'songcraft' aspect and how you might compare the two.

Obviously, feel free to tell me to shove it (reference ntended), and listen to something more up your street. But it is a genuine suggestion with genuine interest behind it fwiw.
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I’m happy to give it a go if I get the time before my trip.
 
It's in-yer-face-music for sure, full of riffs, meaty baselines and they've captured some excellent drumming with a great mix. And those familiar with their back catalogue will hear motifs from previous songs. This could almost be a greatest hits LP, but given it's all new material after being together for 30yrs that's quite something. It sounds fresh and exciting, yummy yummy.

Put it all together and you get a tight, cohesive set of songs, granted not for everyone, but if you like it loud and heavy, then I can't think why you wouldn't not enjoy this. Hell there's even a love song in there which had me thinking have Deftones gone all Snow Patrol on us? It's layered, if you give it a few plays it opens up, without doubt my album of the year for 2025.

10/10 !!
 
threespires said:
The whole debate around different types of songcraft isn't one we've ever explicitly had even though we implicitly discuss it all the time. I might have a little meander on this in my review.
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Songcraft is an interesting discussion.

Obviously, not every song is going to stick to the standard verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/solo/chorus structure, and nor would I want it to.

But I’d like to think that every artist sets out to achieve something when they write a song. Maybe they just want some moody guitar to set the tone for their murder ballad or horror story, and I suppose that in this case, you could say that this is exactly what Deftones does.

But it doesn’t grab you in the same way that somebody like Soundgarden or All Them Witches does. For me, this is just the absolute definition of plain, vanilla with nothing about it to grab you and drag you back for a second listen. I love guitar but this is just like they’ve picked a few guitar chords from a software package and thrown it together.

Basically, they have no soul.
 
Let’s put it this way: I have a colonoscopy next week and I am looking forward to that more than I am having another go with this record.

I had a listen today and this is far and away the worst record we’ve had on this thread since Sleep Token. It’s irredeemably awful in nearly every way, save the album cover, which I love.

This is a hideous mess of chordless, hookless, tuneless, mindless pomposity and stupidity.

A score later and further commentary, though I might just keep it to a few choice sentences, which is more than it deserves.
 
I normally quite like "shouty", but one listen in and I'm not that impressed so far.
 
RobMCFC said:
Songcraft is an interesting discussion.

Obviously, not every song is going to stick to the standard verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/solo/chorus structure, and nor would I want it to.

But I’d like to think that every artist sets out to achieve something when they write a song. Maybe they just want some moody guitar to set the tone for their murder ballad or horror story, and I suppose that in this case, you could say that this is exactly what Deftones does.

But it doesn’t grab you in the same way that somebody like Soundgarden or All Them Witches does. For me, this is just the absolute definition of plain, vanilla with nothing about it to grab you and drag you back for a second listen. I love guitar but this is just like they’ve picked a few guitar chords from a software package and thrown it together.

Basically, they have no soul.
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I think even if it scores terribly this is a good choice of album partly to discuss the things it doesn't have, what it favours and what impact that has.

As far as I can tell, and like some of the shoegaze bands I like, they don't really have much interest in conventional harmonics. I think they're more interested in texture and in this case rhythm, than they are melody. The chords do exist but hardly anything is ever resolved and that seems entirely intentional rather than not knowing what they're doing. I suppose it's a bit like abstract painting, it might be that they're seeking to say something via tools like depth and application of colour and a particular approach to brushwork rather than anything traditionally figurative. We all have our preferences and tolerances, me and Mrs Spires will happily look at a Chagall together but if it's a Rothko off to the cafe she will go. She loves Degas but I think once you've seen one you've seen them all. She can make a good argument as to why I'm talking absolute crap about Degas in the same way I can about her approach to Rothko. But ultimately they are both still art.

If we consider conventional songcraft to revolve around the cornerstones of riffs, chord progressions and vocal melody in a verse/chorus/versus framework then yes this doesn't display a lot of 'songcraft' but I think they are trying trying to evoke an emotional response via a different route or set of tools. In the same way an abstract artist might try to express themselves by layering six tones of paint on top of each other to get both a specific texture and colour depth into a particular part of the canvas so these guys are with their their open string droning and dissonance and their pedal settings and what not.

It's interesting that you describe it as soulless because the Deftone fans I know are pretty invested which would suggest it does speak to them at an emotional level.

You can ask are these really songs, in the same way that you can go to the Pompidou (albeit not at the moment) and say hmm but is it really art? To which I would say mais oui !


.
 
threespires said:
I think even if it scores terribly this is a good choice of album partly to discuss the things it doesn't have, what it favours and what impact that has.

As far as I can tell, and like some of the shoegaze bands I like, they don't really have much interest in conventional harmonics. I think they're more interested in texture and in this case rhythm, than they are melody. The chords do exist but hardly anything is ever resolved and that seems entirely intentional rather than not knowing what they're doing. I suppose it's a bit like abstract painting, it might be that they're seeking to say something via tools like depth and application of colour and a particular approach to brushwork rather than anything traditionally figurative. We all have our preferences and tolerances, me and Mrs Spires will happily look at a Chagall together but if it's a Rothko off to the cafe she will go. She loves Degas but I think once you've seen one you've seen them all. She can make a good argument as to why I'm talking absolute crap about Degas in the same way I can about her approach to Rothko. But ultimately they are both still art.

If we consider conventional songcraft to revolve around the cornerstones of riffs, chord progressions and vocal melody in a verse/chorus/versus framework then yes this doesn't display a lot of 'songcraft' but I think they are trying trying to evoke an emotional response via a different route or set of tools. In the same way an abstract artist might try to express themselves by layering six tones of paint on top of each other to get both a specific texture and colour depth into a particular part of the canvas so these guys are with their their open string droning and dissonance and their pedal settings and what not.

It's interesting that you describe it as soulless because the Deftone fans I know are pretty invested which would suggest it does speak to them at an emotional level.

You can ask are these really songs, in the same way that you can go to the Pompidou (albeit not at the moment) and say hmm but is it really art? To which I would say mais oui !


.
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That's such a great analogy which I couldn't express, like you eloquently have, the differences between 'standard' songs vs something that sits outside that box.

I was listening to Laura Marling yesterday, a superb musician and songwriter, who is miles and miles away from the Deftones sound. But both are able to get me emotional and move me to somewhere else. After all, isn't that the purpose and the power of art and expression, however it manifests itself?

Chacun a son gout!
 
The Black Shed said:
That's such a great analogy which I couldn't express, like you eloquently have, the differences between 'standard' songs vs something that sits outside that box.

I was listening to Laura Marling yesterday, a superb musician and songwriter, who is miles and miles away from the Deftones sound. But both are able to get me emotional and move me to somewhere else. After all, isn't that the purpose and the power of art and expression, however it manifests itself?

Chacun a son gout!
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A good counterpoint to those, and I'm one of them, who find this an uninspiring listen.

You should come here more often
 
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