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

I’m finally getting a bit of down time to listen in earnest but work is interfering with my review time. Also, I wasted what time I did have writing posts ridiculing Utd after that debacle. So in case I don’t have time to do something more detailed — I really enjoyed this — unique, start-stop, quiet-loud dynamics, with a ton of influences melded together. Love the @Mancitydoogle comment about “black humour vibe” — very much what I hear which lifts the shroud of darkness. The Roxy Music/Avalon rip on “Lucky Day in Hell” is inspired. Love the opener (which I also remember) and “Susan’s House” too, among others. It is a slight bit down tempo for me but 8/10. Want to get a score in and if I have more time tomorrow I’ll write more. Once again @southamptonblue with a quality choice!
 
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You'd have to be living in cave not to have heard Novocaine For The Soul. A tune I like, very much. I also like the stark simplicity of Susan's House, another I remember. I also like Rags to Riches. Not Ready Yet has a nice guitar break which made me shoe gaze for a while. What a strange sight, a 55 year old man shuffling around his music room nodding in some sort of time. It's how I roll baby. My Beloved Monster and Mental also got me standing and shuffling. High scores all round!

Except...

The rest of the album is far too slow for me. I don't mind a few fillers, but these broke up my mood. An album shouldn't do that. It's also a bit too kooky for my tastes. As I've said above, I've enjoyed a few of the songs but overall it's beginning to drag me from shuffling to sitting to lying on the sofa whilst staring at some banal programme on the tv.
So good marks for the start of the album, bad marks for the last 5, except Mental, which would lead it to a score of...

6.
 
Eels – Beautiful Freak

Shorter review because I’ve had a busy weekend, but I quite liked this one. I don’t rate it quite highly as some but I liked the production and quirkiness of the songs. Producer Jon Brion worked a lot with Aimee Mann and it has a similar sound to some of her 90s albums.

No standout tracks but no real duffers either. Somewhere between a 6 and 7 for me, but good enough for a 7.

Nice left-field pick @southamptonblue.
 
Eels – Beautiful Freak

Shorter review because I’ve had a busy weekend, but I quite liked this one. I don’t rate it quite highly as some but I liked the production and quirkiness of the songs. Producer Jon Brion worked a lot with Aimee Mann and it has a similar sound to some of her 90s albums.

No standout tracks but no real duffers either. Somewhere between a 6 and 7 for me, but good enough for a 7.

Nice left-field pick @southamptonblue.
Sums it up nicely for me.
Only started listening today.
3 times and I never skipped any tracks in that 3 times.
Only track I was familiar with was Novocaine for the soul but also liked.
Susan's House,Beautiful Freak,Nor ready yet,and Mental.
Will investigate other albums in the coming weeks.
7/10
 
Enjoyed the throwback and the feeling of being transported back in time with this one. And on the other hand was also quickly reminded why it has been so long since I listened to it. For me, it wears off pretty quickly. An album of its time, a bit overproduced in parts, but a good mood to it. Somewhere between a 5 and a 6, will go 6 for the nostalgia factor.
 
You'd have to be living in cave not to have heard Novocaine For The Soul.


Not only have I never heard that song but I've never heard of the band. But that's a nice song. Something Beatly after about 2 minutes with the slurpy cello's, Strawberry Fields came to mind, like they'd sampled that particular instrument. It didn't seem to have the differing time signatures of SFF though, or the same (what felt like) mesmerising originality and creation of art rock set to a catchy tune.
But yeah, a nice catchy song. I liked it.
Sorry @southamptonblue a lot of the album just didn't appeal to me.
I don't know a bit touchy feely, a bit self indulgent, who knows why some things don't appeal, it's very hard to try to explain these things.
I like Neil Young's touchy feely stuff for example. Neil wrote "On The Beach" which is of course touchy but in a more desperate anxiety ridden fashion, a very artistic conveyance of almost depression at the state of things he saw around him. "You're all just pissin in the wind, you don't know it, but you are"
I didn't "feel" the same sense of whatever it is (human emotion) from this, more light hearted lyrically. Young girls may like it :)

Track 4 Beautiful Freak has a nice vibe, I like the (what sounds like) a Fender Rhodes piano in the opening bars with those whimsical chords. Simple chords but airy. And it's airiness (for want of a better word) continues to the chorus/bridge where it's tonality (key of C Major) arrives.
Before that we're playing around with chords from C Major but not playing the actual home chord. That give's it the whimsical feel, your brain is waiting for it to land on C. It even sounds at times before that a bit nursey rhyme-ish.
I messed about with the chords and used some 7th/9th chords here and there on my keyboard. Made it sound more interesting to me. But I guess the simple approach worked for them.

6/10
 
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Like the album. I actually knew it without knowing I knew it if that makes any sense at all. I dont Really have much to add that hasn’t been said already. On a good day I would go 7 but today it’s a 6. No it’s a 7 as it’s better than my average score :-)
 

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