The Album Review Club - End of Round #9 Break (page 1904)

A few of you have guessed this correctly, so let's get week #7 started early doors.

@Onholiday(somemightsay) posted me his selection a few days ago, and it's Rage Against The Machine's self-titled 1992 debut album. I present his words exactly as they were sent to me.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


View attachment 29579

So here we go - I was still noodling on what I would pick (I didn't want to pick anything too prevalent from the @BlueHammer85 Top thousand list that we have been working through but was surprised by how low this one featured so here goes).

* My 2 year old has just been sick, it's 3:26am so instead of going straight back to sleep I am working on this and the deciding factor on this particular album was this post below by @FogBlueInSanFran in the Top thousand thread (cheers matey). *


The bit in bold is generally a statement I would agree with possibly this one exception;

1."Bombtrack"4:02
2."Killing in the Name"5:14
3."Take the Power Back"5:36
4."Settle for Nothing"4:49
5."Bullet in the Head"5:08
6."Know Your Enemy" (featuring Maynard James Keenan)4:57
7."Wake Up"6:06
8."Fistful of Steel"5:32
9."Township Rebellion"5:22
10."Freedom"6:06

Total length:52:55 (Pulled from wiki)

I can immediately hone in on when I first heard parts of this album, I'm at my mates house and I'm probably about 12 years old. I have highlighted the above term as in fact he was (probably still is) an absolute twat with ginger hair - anyway, I digress.

The music doesn't work for me.

Why's he shouting all the time?
Where are the nicer / brighter sounding guitars?
Why aren't the riffs more melodic?
Why does someone have to be on fire on the cover?
Why is someone trying to fuse rap and metal?
(And I now have a negative association with the person who introduced me to them)

From this point on, this band were completely disregarded by me, wouldn't entertain them, they were radioactive to my ears until I was probably about 23ish where my sister's fella at the time (now husband) pulled me up on my assertion that they were shite and explained what they were singing about.

This conversation had probably been in my head for a few months until I spotted it on sale (most likely in HMV) and I bought for about a fiver).

I am now experiencing the album properly for the first time, still initially a bit heavy for my usual taste but I can immediately recognise that my previous assertions were way off the mark.

** Sorry guys another break from writing, 3:53am and we have just been sick again, and we appear to have traces of undigested fish - try not to be too jealous of my rock and roll living.

So now we have, good riffs, a tight band and they are really singing about something - They have a voice!

I like this snippet that I came across whilst just googling to ensure that I am slightly on point (I'm pretty fucking tired);

'It was 1990, and Tom Morello was a struggling rock guitarist in Los Angeles, with a Harvard degree in social studies. He had a vision to funnel the unrest of the day—the Gulf War, the prospective end of apartheid, the collapse of the Soviet Union—and his galvanizing experiences as a Kenyan-American kid in suburban Illinois into a group that synthesized rock and rap into something inherently rebellious. Or, as he put it in a want ad, he required “a socialist frontman who likes Black Sabbath and Public Enemy'.

These will certainly devide opinion, people may not like their music, people may not agree with their politics etc but they do seem to become more and more relevant the older their music gets.

This isn't the great in depth review that others have provided (some of them have been absolutely terrific to be fair), and I'm not going to give them the big sell, give the album a couple of listens and see where you get.

Anyway, as we started off, this is yet another story of where Onholiday(somemightsay) was wrong.............. ;-)

*** Back to bed now, let's see how much shut eye we get before we are up for the day. Over and out at 4:47am.

Edit: I have self redacted elements of this post as some of it was meandering into American politics which to be fair not only am I not best placed to comment on it, it would most likely de-rail the thread.

Enjoy (hopefully slightly more than Def Leopard)
Top man Rob - much obliged..........
 
A few of you have guessed this correctly, so let's get week #7 started early doors.

@Onholiday(somemightsay) posted me his selection a few days ago, and it's Rage Against The Machine's self-titled 1992 debut album. I present his words exactly as they were sent to me.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


View attachment 29579

So here we go - I was still noodling on what I would pick (I didn't want to pick anything too prevalent from the @BlueHammer85 Top thousand list that we have been working through but was surprised by how low this one featured so here goes).

* My 2 year old has just been sick, it's 3:26am so instead of going straight back to sleep I am working on this and the deciding factor on this particular album was this post below by @FogBlueInSanFran in the Top thousand thread (cheers matey). *


The bit in bold is generally a statement I would agree with possibly this one exception;

1."Bombtrack"4:02
2."Killing in the Name"5:14
3."Take the Power Back"5:36
4."Settle for Nothing"4:49
5."Bullet in the Head"5:08
6."Know Your Enemy" (featuring Maynard James Keenan)4:57
7."Wake Up"6:06
8."Fistful of Steel"5:32
9."Township Rebellion"5:22
10."Freedom"6:06

Total length:52:55 (Pulled from wiki)

I can immediately hone in on when I first heard parts of this album, I'm at my mates house and I'm probably about 12 years old. I have highlighted the above term as in fact he was (probably still is) an absolute twat with ginger hair - anyway, I digress.

The music doesn't work for me.

Why's he shouting all the time?
Where are the nicer / brighter sounding guitars?
Why aren't the riffs more melodic?
Why does someone have to be on fire on the cover?
Why is someone trying to fuse rap and metal?
(And I now have a negative association with the person who introduced me to them)

From this point on, this band were completely disregarded by me, wouldn't entertain them, they were radioactive to my ears until I was probably about 23ish where my sister's fella at the time (now husband) pulled me up on my assertion that they were shite and explained what they were singing about.

This conversation had probably been in my head for a few months until I spotted it on sale (most likely in HMV) and I bought for about a fiver).

I am now experiencing the album properly for the first time, still initially a bit heavy for my usual taste but I can immediately recognise that my previous assertions were way off the mark.

** Sorry guys another break from writing, 3:53am and we have just been sick again, and we appear to have traces of undigested fish - try not to be too jealous of my rock and roll living.

So now we have, good riffs, a tight band and they are really singing about something - They have a voice!

I like this snippet that I came across whilst just googling to ensure that I am slightly on point (I'm pretty fucking tired);

'It was 1990, and Tom Morello was a struggling rock guitarist in Los Angeles, with a Harvard degree in social studies. He had a vision to funnel the unrest of the day—the Gulf War, the prospective end of apartheid, the collapse of the Soviet Union—and his galvanizing experiences as a Kenyan-American kid in suburban Illinois into a group that synthesized rock and rap into something inherently rebellious. Or, as he put it in a want ad, he required “a socialist frontman who likes Black Sabbath and Public Enemy'.

These will certainly devide opinion, people may not like their music, people may not agree with their politics etc but they do seem to become more and more relevant the older their music gets.

This isn't the great in depth review that others have provided (some of them have been absolutely terrific to be fair), and I'm not going to give them the big sell, give the album a couple of listens and see where you get.

Anyway, as we started off, this is yet another story of where Onholiday(somemightsay) was wrong.............. ;-)

*** Back to bed now, let's see how much shut eye we get before we are up for the day. Over and out at 4:47am.

Edit: I have self redacted elements of this post as some of it was meandering into American politics which to be fair not only am I not best placed to comment on it, it would most likely de-rail the thread.

Enjoy (hopefully slightly more than Def Leopard)
Yeah, but they dropped the F-Bomb when they performed Killing in the Name live on the 5 Live Breakfast show when the song beat the X Factor single to No.1 in the charts in 2009.

Also, Tom Morello is an AMAZING guitarist.
 
A few of you have guessed this correctly, so let's get week #7 started early doors.

@Onholiday(somemightsay) posted me his selection a few days ago, and it's Rage Against The Machine's self-titled 1992 debut album. I present his words exactly as they were sent to me.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


View attachment 29579

So here we go - I was still noodling on what I would pick (I didn't want to pick anything too prevalent from the @BlueHammer85 Top thousand list that we have been working through but was surprised by how low this one featured so here goes).

* My 2 year old has just been sick, it's 3:26am so instead of going straight back to sleep I am working on this and the deciding factor on this particular album was this post below by @FogBlueInSanFran in the Top thousand thread (cheers matey). *


The bit in bold is generally a statement I would agree with possibly this one exception;

1."Bombtrack"4:02
2."Killing in the Name"5:14
3."Take the Power Back"5:36
4."Settle for Nothing"4:49
5."Bullet in the Head"5:08
6."Know Your Enemy" (featuring Maynard James Keenan)4:57
7."Wake Up"6:06
8."Fistful of Steel"5:32
9."Township Rebellion"5:22
10."Freedom"6:06

Total length:52:55 (Pulled from wiki)

I can immediately hone in on when I first heard parts of this album, I'm at my mates house and I'm probably about 12 years old. I have highlighted the above term as in fact he was (probably still is) an absolute twat with ginger hair - anyway, I digress.

The music doesn't work for me.

Why's he shouting all the time?
Where are the nicer / brighter sounding guitars?
Why aren't the riffs more melodic?
Why does someone have to be on fire on the cover?
Why is someone trying to fuse rap and metal?
(And I now have a negative association with the person who introduced me to them)

From this point on, this band were completely disregarded by me, wouldn't entertain them, they were radioactive to my ears until I was probably about 23ish where my sister's fella at the time (now husband) pulled me up on my assertion that they were shite and explained what they were singing about.

This conversation had probably been in my head for a few months until I spotted it on sale (most likely in HMV) and I bought for about a fiver).

I am now experiencing the album properly for the first time, still initially a bit heavy for my usual taste but I can immediately recognise that my previous assertions were way off the mark.

** Sorry guys another break from writing, 3:53am and we have just been sick again, and we appear to have traces of undigested fish - try not to be too jealous of my rock and roll living.

So now we have, good riffs, a tight band and they are really singing about something - They have a voice!

I like this snippet that I came across whilst just googling to ensure that I am slightly on point (I'm pretty fucking tired);

'It was 1990, and Tom Morello was a struggling rock guitarist in Los Angeles, with a Harvard degree in social studies. He had a vision to funnel the unrest of the day—the Gulf War, the prospective end of apartheid, the collapse of the Soviet Union—and his galvanizing experiences as a Kenyan-American kid in suburban Illinois into a group that synthesized rock and rap into something inherently rebellious. Or, as he put it in a want ad, he required “a socialist frontman who likes Black Sabbath and Public Enemy'.

These will certainly devide opinion, people may not like their music, people may not agree with their politics etc but they do seem to become more and more relevant the older their music gets.

This isn't the great in depth review that others have provided (some of them have been absolutely terrific to be fair), and I'm not going to give them the big sell, give the album a couple of listens and see where you get.

Anyway, as we started off, this is yet another story of where Onholiday(somemightsay) was wrong.............. ;-)

*** Back to bed now, let's see how much shut eye we get before we are up for the day. Over and out at 4:47am.

Edit: I have self redacted elements of this post as some of it was meandering into American politics which to be fair not only am I not best placed to comment on it, it would most likely de-rail the thread.

Enjoy (hopefully slightly more than Def Leopard)
Reading that back makes me laugh - comparing the detail, scene setting and insight provided by the likes of @KnaresboroughBlue et al, to the through the night ramblings of myself.............. :-)
 
Reading that back makes me laugh - comparing the detail, scene setting and insight provided by the likes of @KnaresboroughBlue et al, to the through the night ramblings of myself.............. :-)
At least you were keeping it real. Full marks for writing all that whilst you were throwing up. When that happens to me, the best I can do is curl up in a ball and whimper.
 
At least you were keeping it real. Full marks for writing all that whilst you were throwing up. When that happens to me, the best I can do is curl up in a ball and whimper.
No to be fair mate is was just the littlest one that was poorly (but she was being sick and then we were obviously having to change bedsheets and clean her up etc). Wasn't going back to sleep so decided to try and utilise my time.

If I'd have been the one being sick I'd have been curled up on the bathroom floor tripping about the X-Files or similar......... :-)
 
Incendiary. In your face with a social and political conscience. Great drums and bass. Brilliant guitarist and in De LA Rocha and man who said it like he meant it. Such a shame he only seems to do guest spots now. First saw them on UK TV on something like The Late Show but couldn't find on YouTube but found The Word performance. Need more bands like this in the world now. 8/10 for me
 
A few of you have guessed this correctly, so let's get week #7 started early doors.

@Onholiday(somemightsay) posted me his selection a few days ago, and it's Rage Against The Machine's self-titled 1992 debut album. I present his words exactly as they were sent to me.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


View attachment 29579

So here we go - I was still noodling on what I would pick (I didn't want to pick anything too prevalent from the @BlueHammer85 Top thousand list that we have been working through but was surprised by how low this one featured so here goes).

* My 2 year old has just been sick, it's 3:26am so instead of going straight back to sleep I am working on this and the deciding factor on this particular album was this post below by @FogBlueInSanFran in the Top thousand thread (cheers matey). *


The bit in bold is generally a statement I would agree with possibly this one exception;

1."Bombtrack"4:02
2."Killing in the Name"5:14
3."Take the Power Back"5:36
4."Settle for Nothing"4:49
5."Bullet in the Head"5:08
6."Know Your Enemy" (featuring Maynard James Keenan)4:57
7."Wake Up"6:06
8."Fistful of Steel"5:32
9."Township Rebellion"5:22
10."Freedom"6:06

Total length:52:55 (Pulled from wiki)

I can immediately hone in on when I first heard parts of this album, I'm at my mates house and I'm probably about 12 years old. I have highlighted the above term as in fact he was (probably still is) an absolute twat with ginger hair - anyway, I digress.

The music doesn't work for me.

Why's he shouting all the time?
Where are the nicer / brighter sounding guitars?
Why aren't the riffs more melodic?
Why does someone have to be on fire on the cover?
Why is someone trying to fuse rap and metal?
(And I now have a negative association with the person who introduced me to them)

From this point on, this band were completely disregarded by me, wouldn't entertain them, they were radioactive to my ears until I was probably about 23ish where my sister's fella at the time (now husband) pulled me up on my assertion that they were shite and explained what they were singing about.

This conversation had probably been in my head for a few months until I spotted it on sale (most likely in HMV) and I bought for about a fiver).

I am now experiencing the album properly for the first time, still initially a bit heavy for my usual taste but I can immediately recognise that my previous assertions were way off the mark.

** Sorry guys another break from writing, 3:53am and we have just been sick again, and we appear to have traces of undigested fish - try not to be too jealous of my rock and roll living.

So now we have, good riffs, a tight band and they are really singing about something - They have a voice!

I like this snippet that I came across whilst just googling to ensure that I am slightly on point (I'm pretty fucking tired);

'It was 1990, and Tom Morello was a struggling rock guitarist in Los Angeles, with a Harvard degree in social studies. He had a vision to funnel the unrest of the day—the Gulf War, the prospective end of apartheid, the collapse of the Soviet Union—and his galvanizing experiences as a Kenyan-American kid in suburban Illinois into a group that synthesized rock and rap into something inherently rebellious. Or, as he put it in a want ad, he required “a socialist frontman who likes Black Sabbath and Public Enemy'.

These will certainly devide opinion, people may not like their music, people may not agree with their politics etc but they do seem to become more and more relevant the older their music gets.

This isn't the great in depth review that others have provided (some of them have been absolutely terrific to be fair), and I'm not going to give them the big sell, give the album a couple of listens and see where you get.

Anyway, as we started off, this is yet another story of where Onholiday(somemightsay) was wrong.............. ;-)

*** Back to bed now, let's see how much shut eye we get before we are up for the day. Over and out at 4:47am.

Edit: I have self redacted elements of this post as some of it was meandering into American politics which to be fair not only am I not best placed to comment on it, it would most likely de-rail the thread.

Enjoy (hopefully slightly more than Def Leopard)
At the risk of upsetting Def Leopard fans this album is far better in all aspects and I am not a rap fan.
 
Firstly, an admission. I'm being rather cruel with my reviews in all these album threads, it's one play only - straight through from start to finish - for everyone; no second plays, no breaks. It's the fairest way to compare in my view but I accept that some artists will improve and some diminish on further listening.

Secondly, some background. I grew up in an atmosphere of 'pending confrontation'. Whilst there was no violence apart from the odd clip round the ear (usually deserved), arguments and raised voices were commonplace. Perhaps it was the same for everyone back in the seventies I don't know, but I choose to avoid confrontation now, in fact it makes me physically ill, so much so that I often have to sleep in order to replenish my energy.

What has this got to do with Rage Against the Machine? Well, it's the fact that there's no break in the shouting on this album. I can listen to some of this and it's really good in places but I struggled with the lack of change in the pace of the songs and did duck out in the last but one track. Maybe their later efforts address this, I'll probably give them a try, but I would struggle to re-play this album in its entirety so this affects the score. Also, and I get this with The Beastie Boys too, but I just can't hear the vocals without picturing Officer Dibble from Top Cat.

5 / 10
 

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