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

denislawsbackheel said:
It’s interesting how tastes differ.
F’rinstance some of the albums on here, Zeppelin, Kiss, Genesis, Gallagher I wouldn’t have in the house. They are the antithesis of music to me.
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Of course, but I think you could make a reasonable argument that in Rory Gallagher's case, he's up there displaying the mastery of his instrument. The blues may not be for everybody and even I think it can be one-dimeonsional at times, but it's musical and it takes it sounds from one of the core elements of all modern music. Leonard Cohen has also done some work that fits into this category, but this album does not display any of this.
 
Bill Walker said:
I would never say that about any music.
I feel it to be an insult to admirers and people who it means something too.
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Yet you’ll label a whole genre as anti-music, not that I necessarily disagree with you regarding Rap.
Well, no, I actually do disagree with you. My young lad listens to rap and although it’s not my taste, he has educated me enough to discern the difference between utter shite and good for the genre.

But I take the point you are making all the same. One man’s 2 in here is another’s 10.

I don’t think I’ve given as low as a 2 in here and it would really have to be utter shite for me to do so.

Musically I won’t be going as low as that with this album, but I find others dragging previous contributions into the present debate as justification for their stance as equally as distasteful. We are all wearing our hearts on our sleeves by entering a review and we have all gotten feedback that we may find harsh, but you just accept that it’s not everyone’s taste and move on.

New album, new discussion.
 
Bill Walker said:
I would never say that about any music.
I feel it to be an insult to admirers and people who it means something too.
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No but denislawsbackheel would; as he did when he gave Destroyer 0/10, which I only remembered after I had scored the album from LC.

The winky emoji was a hint that I was not being entirely serious; although both Cohen albums I have listened thanks to BlueMoon were dreadful to my ears and justified the fact that I have studiously avoided his work since the 70's.
 
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Sat down on my own and played this for the third time this afternoon.
I will say that once again, I found this an album that was….. ‘more tolerable’, for want of a better expression, the more I played it.
But there is just very little in it for me to like. Which is a pity, as Cohen is an artist that I do respect.
The biggest disappointment in this album is that it seems like a total sellout, with the over production that seems so generic to me, that you could put the same backing to almost anything and it would have the same nondescript feel.
In saying that, I just don’t really understand who he is selling out to though. I don’t know who the audience is that Spector is steering this towards.
1977 was the start of punk so where this change of direction for Cohen was going, I have no idea. It seems like a retrograde step to me. It also seems like Spector’s 60’s choral and orchestration is masking how poor the material is.

Not my cup of tea, but I’ll give it a 4.
 
I actually enjoyed it a great deal, especially Iodine, Paper Thin Hotel, Memories and Death of a Ladies Man, which have all been added to one of my playlists. Fingerprints and Don't Go Home with your Hardon were somewhat less appealing and I wouldn't mind if I never heard those 2 again.

It reminds me of Dylan at Budokan in that it's quite a different sound from what one would expect and isn't a favourite of either artist's die hards fans but I actually enjoy both a great deal. In fact I would put Dylan at Budokan in my all time top 10 albums. Death of a Ladies Man doesn't score quite so highly but I look forward to hearing most of the tracks again, with the 2 exceptions already mentioned.

It would be tempting to score it low to get my nomination out of bottom spot but that wouldn't be fair!!

It would have been a 9 without the 2 tracks that I didn't enjoy at all. So a solid 8 from me.

One of my favourites from this thread so far.
 
I've heard a few Cohen songs over the years and haven't really liked them so wasn't hoping for much with this album choice.
let's get straight to the point...it's mostly inoffensive, although I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with my hard on, slow, musically bland and mostly one paced throughout the whole album. Apart from the aforementioned hard on song and Fingerprints.
I was surprised to read that it was released in 77. It has a very late 60's hippy-ish feel to it on first listen but a couple of the songs could have been sung by Brotherhood of Man or any of the other mid 70's dreary bands.

Are the lyrics it's saving grace? No.

Is it of it's time? Yes, yes it is. A brief look at 1977 musically and you'll find Showaddywaddy, Johnny Mathis, Leo Sayer, Manhattan Transfer, The Dooleys etc etc all selling hundreds of thousands of records.

Does it stand the test of time? No.

Is it any good though? To my ears it's passable. I've done my usual listening, headphones, banging it out in the garden room over a cup of tea and sat in my music room. It's washed over me. Nothing has stuck in my head. No tune is making me tap my feet. Nothing has leapt out. As I said above, musically bland.

Litmus test? No, I won't be buying it.

Score? 4.
 
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