The Album Review Club - Week #120 - (page 1413) - The Lexicon of Love - ABC

FogBlueInSanFran said:
Overall on a record by record basis it’s better IMO than any record either did (that I’ve heard, which is most of them by both) because both bands through all their many incarnations (which by the way should tell you something about the egos involved) always had at least one and usually more hookless clunker(s) per record.

However, taken across all their output, Genesis had more really great hooky songs than FOW in part due to longevity but also just because they’re all fine musicians who can write. KC did not, and their hooks were effectively confined to the Discipline/Beat/Three of a Perfect Pair period when — what a fucking shock — Adrian Belew (who knows how to write a hook periodically) joined the band.
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Much preferable to King Crimson but I think there are Genesis albums that outrank it.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
My approach is finding records I really like that the top 1,100 didn’t catch. I probably won’t go especially obscure — though there is one forgotten British band from the 80s who didn’t last long who turned out one whale of a record that I think should be rediscovered. I think I’ll stick with Yanks though :).
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Which if you’re unlikely to present for review you should just throw in anyway given we have found accord on some stuff I might just like it
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
My approach is finding records I really like that the top 1,100 didn’t catch. I probably won’t go especially obscure — though there is one forgotten British band from the 80s who didn’t last long who turned out one whale of a record that I think should be rediscovered. I think I’ll stick with Yanks though :).
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Most of the albums that I am likely to offer up won't be in the 1,100 but I felt compelled to start with my favourite album.

My next choice may also be in the Larkin list but I doubt many will have listened to it.
 
OB1 said:
Much preferable to King Crimson but I think there are Genesis albums that outrank it.
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Fair comment. Genesis did a lot of great songs through the whole of their career IMO. I own four or five of their records I think. I take the starch out of them here sometimes because I think along with The Jam they are two of the Brit bands Brits overrate the most. I don’t dislike either of them, mind. But Genesis could be pompous and lightweight and The Jam could be derivative and struggle to create good hooks. Neither were consistently great IMO, but both were consistently good (until near the end).

I might claim — rather heretically — that Brits overrate Bowie too. But that’s different because he really was a bonafide genius on so many levels. So that just because I don’t like his total catalogue sonically quite as much as others do doesn’t mean he’s overrated — it probably means I underrate him. I feel the same about Dylan and Springsteen too on the Yank side by the way. I respect anyone who believes any of them are Artist Kings even if their records don’t appeal to me as much as others. You can see and hear how they were novel and groundbreaking over and over.
 
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Bill Walker said:
OK, I just wondered why you said you prefer them to King Crimson. When they're completely different bands.
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Guitar, bass, drums, singer singing words (sometimes in KC’s case) — they aren’t different at all from a certain point of view. And are therefore eminently comparable when it comes down to whether listening to them is a pleasurable experience. That they elicit a different kind of pleasure (or lack thereof) I’ll grant you.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
I might claim — rather heretically — that Brits overrate Bowie too. But that’s different because he really was a bonafide genius on so many levels. So that just because I don’t like his total catalogue sonically quite as much as others do doesn’t mean he’s overrated — it probably means I underrate him.
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I've read that a couple of times but still don't really understand it.
 
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