The Album Review Club - Christmas Break Until 8th January

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Surely Greatest Power Ballad is oxymoronic?

Power Ballads are a despicable use of musical instruments. Better to chop them up to burn as firewood or shatter them into tiny fragments to build scale models of The Golden Hinde than to let them be used for making Power Ballads.

Here's what I wrote about "Beth" in my Destroyer review:

And, of course "Beth" is a stroke -- does it go in the Hall of Fame for "power ballads"? Is it a founding member? Is there a BETTER one? It's not a sub-genre I like nor care about, but I still find it transports me back to a wonderous innocent time long ago listening to my transistor radio. It's truly a beauty, even with all its pomp. I'll never forget a word. All middle-class American white boys of my precise age know them. And yes . . . that's even a little tear.

I stand by my story: "Beth" is the first true power ballad because it was GREAT power ballad, as I define it (a heavy rock band trying a schlocky light touch singing a song about a girl).

At least for Americans.

 

[RobMCFC]

Next you guys are going to tell me "Black Hole Sun" is a power ballad.

I'm going to start charging you lot for lessons.

Simon Frith, the British sociomusicologist and former rock critic, identifies the origins of the power ballad in the emotional singing of soul artists, particularly Ray Charles, and the adaptation of this style by performers such as Eric Burdon, Tom Jones, and Joe Cocker to produce slow-tempo songs often building to a loud and emotive chorus backed by drums, electric guitars, and sometimes choirs.[42] According to Charles Aaron, power ballads came into existence in the early 1970s, when rock stars attempted to convey profound messages to audiences while retaining their "macho rocker" mystique. The hard rock power ballad typically expresses love or heartache through its lyrics, shifting into wordless intensity and emotional transcendence with heavy drumming and a distorted electric guitar solo representing the "power" in the power ballad.

Sounds like "Black Hole Sun", wonderful song by the way, fits that definition to a tee to me.

 

[BimboBob]

Simon Frith, the British sociomusicologist and former rock critic, identifies the origins of the power ballad in the emotional singing of soul artists, particularly Ray Charles, and the adaptation of this style by performers such as Eric Burdon, Tom Jones, and Joe Cocker to produce slow-tempo songs often building to a loud and emotive chorus backed by drums, electric guitars, and sometimes choirs.[42] According to Charles Aaron, power ballads came into existence in the early 1970s, when rock stars attempted to convey profound messages to audiences while retaining their "macho rocker" mystique. The hard rock power ballad typically expresses love or heartache through its lyrics, shifting into wordless intensity and emotional transcendence with heavy drumming and a distorted electric guitar solo representing the "power" in the power ballad.

Sounds like "Black Hole Sun", wonderful song by the way, fits that definition to a tee to me.

Great song but it's no Jennifer Rush now is it.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Aerosmith - Rocks

Good pick this, Half hour of loud bluesy? power rock and despite the insane amount of guitar and riffs i didn't think any of it was overblown, all very consistent 3-4 min tracks - I struggled to find a best or worst track , rare to have a album that i wouldn't want to skip one track. Similar to The Stones before, their longevity is amazing considering the tempo they play. Anyhow, very much enjoyed and a comfortable...

8/10

 

[threespires]

Great song but it's no Jennifer Rush now is it.

Whenever there's a discussion about something a bit dubious that is (or in the case of power ballads should be) on the margins of society there's always someone who has to take it too far and into the realms of deviancy and in this case that appears to be you BB.

 

[GornikDaze]

Right up my street this one. Huge guitars and a great singer. Always loved Back in the Saddle, but I’ll admit to not having heard this album in its entirety.
As others have commented there are no obvious stand out tracks and it works as an onslaught of belting tune after belting tune so the whole is definitely better than the sum of its parts.
I’m not a huge fan of Steve Tyler, and view him in a similar vein as Mick Jagger. However I do find Aerosmith as a whole entity far easier to listen to than the Stones.
I’d gladly never listen to Walk This Way, Love in an Elevator again, but this album and I suspect others of this era will be getting some serious air time.
Solid 9/10 from me - great pick

 

[Coatigan]

Some time ago someone asked who on this thread we considered ourselves 'aligned with', musically. Ob1 is not really someone I would consider having similar tastes to me, or overlapping on a lot of our top liked stuff. That is in no way any kind of a swipe nor does it have any negative connotation whatsoever. Just my gut take. Yet, a few of the albums he has put forward have really gone down well with me. And this is one of them.

Part of it is probably the element of surprise. I obviously knew of Aerosmith, and their big hits. I knew they went back well before the 90s when they were probably at their most commercially popular. But really, beyond that collection of radio friendly pop-rock hits, walk this way, and the running references in Dazed and Confused, I really didn't pay any real attention to how far back or how wide they went. Oh that, and their Quest for Fame game which I played back in the 90s, which despite having some of the worst and uncool packaging known to gaming, was actually good fun, and arguably technologically out there, for its time.

So not that I was necessarily underwhelmed when this was put forward, but wasn't exactly overwhelmed either. Just generally, whelmed, I guess.

Was expecting more of what I know by them, if anything given it didn't make the same maunstream as their 90s hits, I didn’t go in with huge expectations. But there is a real album in there, and a modest difference in style, with it being more 'hard rock' focused. Somewhere between led zep light, and probably what I would have expected of Van Halen when that album was up. Well put together and produced, good instrumental performances, perfect in length. Singing, I knew what to expect, never particularly minded it before, so it didn't distract me in the way it seemed to do others. Was tempted to listen to Toys, given Fog's focus on comparisons of the two, but decided to actually just rate and take this one in for what it is. My own week is coming up soon, so that might be a good time to try Toys then, without it influencing my thoughts on this one. A good solid 8.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Who’s up next….

 

[Coatigan]

Who’s up next….

Think changeover is tomorrow.

 

[BimboBob]

Who’s up next….

Who's on first.