The Album Review Club - Week #125 - (page 1524) - Listen Like Thieves - INXS

[GoatersLeftShin]

I had a listen to the album this afternoon and it was ok. Some nice songs, but overall it was just 'nice' and didn't make me think much either way. I'd heard "Stacy's Mom" before and I think it's the best track on the album still. "Hung up on you" was decent too, but overall it just sounded like Busted, McFly or someone like that to me. The melodies were nice enough but it lacked something, it felt a bit lightweight for me. I was waiting for something to stand out but it never really came. I wouldn't switch it off, but wouldn't put it on either and I want more from my music than that.

Overall it gets 5 from me.

It is interesting reading the chat about King Crimson in the same thread as Fountains Of Wayne. KC are a band from 50+ years ago and - in my mind - made a form of music that bands like FOW would never be able to dream of or even attempt. They pushed boundaries, tried new ideas, brought in sounds and chords and techniques that were different at the time.

Of course, FOW are a rock band and do what they do well enough. I had a listen to some of their other albums and the songs follow a pattern - upbeat rocky type songs. Sure, they will do the odd one slower or whatever, but FOW sound like they are happy making the same songs. It's not a criticism of FOW, they do what they do well enough. It's just I'd like something extra, something to get my teeth into. To bring Pantera back into it, whether you like it or not, it's got a very unusual sound and for me, unusual sounds have to be explored. I love rock, prog, rock'n'roll and I think rock music in the 60s and 70s peaked at a high that hasn't been matched since. However, I'm more likely to be shocked and hear an unusual 'sound' from a grime song than one with a guitar in. That's my personal feeling though.

It's more a point that in the 60s, you expected rock bands to push boundaries, create new sounds and try new ideas. I may be classed as an old man, but if I hear music from 1995 or so onwards with guitars in it, there's nothing in there that will shock or surprise me. Rock music and guitar music is too safe nowadays - it needs shaking up.

In terms of prog rock and whether you like King Crimson or not, the impact of the prog on music is important. If you didn't have "progressive ideas" from King Crimson, Moody Blues, early Pink Floyd etc then music would probably look very different. They were pulling in classical musicians and their ideas, jazz musicians and their ideas and blending it all in new ways. Imagine in 62/63 hearing something like "In the court of the Crimson King", "Astronomy Domine" etc - it's unimaginable. They influenced the prog musicians, and other bands, who came after.

I could do with hearing an album that is different... something unusual, something a bit different. Any takers? :)

 

[BlueHammer85]

here we go! Managed to get more listens this weekend and an enjoyable album to run too.
I agree with Rob, the first few tracks are what was expected when this pick was announced - teeny American grungey wheezer style Pop - which isn’t always a bad thing - just find it a bit weak.

‘Stacey’s Mum’ I just have to skip. It’s not a bad song at all just I’ve just heard it so many times. Can’t stand it now.

fortunately and surprisingly - Liam Gallagher (Solo) enters the studio with his merry band of average writers and there’s some real quality in some places

Hackensack’ is really cool, ‘All Kinds of Time’ possibly my favourite one here for the guitars in this - love the outro sound.
‘Elevator Up’ is quality, love the energy.
‘Hung Up On You’ deserves a mention for the country effort. It’s ok.

‘Supercollider’ well …




all in all, enjoyed but just found it weak in to many places and tracks ranged 5/10 to 8/10 - I question anyones motives who would score this as a whole below 3.

Anyway. It’s a 6/10 for me.

Also to add - I really relate to this - it’s sometimes just nice to have a decent easy to listen Pop album

And of course that’s why I selected it — because it’s anti-prog. Because there is still joy in pop music that doesn’t attempt to be groundbreaking or important, that’s merely a function of hooks and rhymes. At least to me


Good pick Fog

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

I completely agree about sometimes listening to pop music which is fun, and to be honest my current next pick is exactly that. It might change of course, but I completely recognise that different albums reflect different moods. As much as I love prog, sometimes I have go to punk just to make me realise why both genres are brilliant at what they do!

A good pop album is a good album, a good prog album is a good album, a good punk album is a good album. You can try to compare them, but its like comparing strikers to goalkeepers for me - an impossible task. However, you can always recognise why they are good at what they do.

 

[Bill Walker]

Everybody's entitled to their opinion but by heck, these two reviews are harsh

But I didn’t describe you nor your review as harsh, mate.

Yes, I know you didnt mate, it was Rob.

Anyway, I dont think it was harsh, this album seems like consumable music, yes, hooks, but it sounds empty.
I can imagine it being used as music in some crappy Rom Com movie, where the guy is packing his suitcase and heading out to the airport to profess his love for his recently lost ex-girlfriend.

I have no problem with people loving this kind of pop but its not for me at all. I actually hate the sound of it. It's had the living shit digitalized and sequenced out of it. I hate drum machines and auto tune.
It's empty.
I know I'm in the minority on here.

I'm not anti-pop at all though, give me the pop of The Kinks, Beach Boys, Beatles, Bowie, T Rex anyday. much better more inventive melodies on the whole.
Pop music keeps repeating itself with each decade, with a different feel to appeal all over again to a newer, younger audience. It's all the same though, just re-arranged and given a new feel.

The last band I was in we played this hit by Jimmy Eat World, sounds like Weezer, sounds like FOW, rinse and repeat.

 

[OB1]

I completely agree about sometimes listening to pop music which is fun, and to be honest my current next pick is exactly that. It might change of course, but I completely recognise that different albums reflect different moods. As much as I love prog, sometimes I have go to punk just to make me realise why both genres are brilliant at what they do!

A good pop album is a good album, a good prog album is a good album, a good punk album is a good album. You can try to compare them, but its like comparing strikers to goalkeepers for me - an impossible task. However, you can always recognise why they are good at what they do.

I love good pop music - well my definition of good pop. Lots of music I like is totally shallow, has no great artistic value although it may be well written and superbly played and produced, but it sounds good to my ears.

I listen to all sorts of music, depending on my mood at any particular time

 

[Saddleworth2]

Quite..

Funny story, my wife wanted to see Buble here so I relented and went with her. after his first number, he chatted a bit and said, "hands up all the men who came here purely because of their wives/girlfriends"

Practically every guy in the place put their hand up...:)

Been there mate. Done that . He does put on a good show though

 

[Saddleworth2]

Yes, I know you didnt mate, it was Rob.

Anyway, I dont think it was harsh, this album seems like consumable music, yes, hooks, but it sounds empty.
I can imagine it being used as music in some crappy Rom Com movie, where the guy is packing his suitcase and heading out to the airport to profess his love for his recently lost ex-girlfriend.

I have no problem with people loving this kind of pop but its not for me at all. I actually hate the sound of it. It's had the living shit digitalized and sequenced out of it. I hate drum machines and auto tune.
It's empty.
I know I'm in the minority on here.

I'm not anti-pop at all though, give me the pop of The Kinks, Beach Boys, Beatles, Bowie, T Rex anyday. much better more inventive melodies on the whole.
Pop music keeps repeating itself with each decade, with a different feel to appeal all over again to a newer, younger audience. It's all the same though, just re-arranged and given a new feel.

The last band I was in we played this hit by Jimmy Eat World, sounds like Weezer, sounds like FOW, rinse and repeat.

Maybe it’s an age thing. Maybe our generation, once you mention pop, thinks immediately about Sparks, Beatles, beach boys, kinks, T Rex, 10cc, Roxy, Bowie, and if we keep going a little longer, Deacon Blue, Prefab Sprout, Squeeze and others. All quite different but all bloody fine pop music.
then someone plays an album with three minute songs in it, calls it sophisticated pop and immediately we set it against our reference library. It’s tough to get excited when there is nothing unique or new in what you are listening to.

 

[Bill Walker]

Maybe it’s an age thing. Maybe our generation, once you mention pop, thinks immediately about Sparks, Beatles, beach boys, kinks, T Rex, 10cc, Roxy, Bowie, and if we keep going a little longer, Deacon Blue, Prefab Sprout, Squeeze and others. All quite different but all bloody fine pop music.
then someone plays an album with three minute songs in it, calls it sophisticated pop and immediately we set it against our reference library. It’s tough to get excited when there is nothing unique or new in what you are listening to.

Yeah you're probably right. This kind of pop seems to always start off with a repeated chops on one guitar chord chord and a singer who sounds a bit like a homo or bi sexual male :) The drums are always sequenced and everything is heavily processed.
Compare it to a Kinks or Small Faces pop record....they sound like theyre in your front room playing live :)

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I can imagine it being used as music in some crappy Rom Com movie, where the guy is packing his suitcase and heading out to the airport to profess his love for his recently lost ex-girlfriend.

Ha ha — speaking of . . . . . From Adam Schlesinger’s wiki page:

In addition to writing and co-producing the title songto That Thing You Do!, Schlesinger composed "Master of the Seas" for Ice Age: Continental Drift, performed by Jennifer Lopez, Peter Dinklage and others. He wrote and produced three songs for Music and Lyrics,[11][12] and his music has also been featured in films such as Shallow Hal (which he scored with Ivy);[13] Robots;[14] There's Something About Mary;[13] Me, Myself & Irene;[15] Josie and the Pussycats;[12] Scary Movie;[16] Art School Confidential;[17] Fever Pitch;[18] The Manchurian Candidate;[19] Because of Winn-Dixie;[20] Orange County;[21] Two Weeks Notice;[15] and others.

 

[mancity1]

how do you score if you listen to it without reference to other music?

You have your own thoughts and ideas as to what you like and don't like , enjoy or don't enjoy , rock along to or don't , sing along to or don't and like the music scale itself sounds and images it creates you form a scale of your own that you relate to.

The point I am making is that if you always try an compare sometimes you miss the message and sounds the artists are conveying to you and the wider audience and how you relate to it.

Music is great in that sometimes unintentionally it relates to you on both a personal and universal level.

I listened to this album with no pre conceived ideas about the band and comparisons to other bands as its easy to do listening to songs like Stacy's Mom that I have heard many times for if I did I might not have listened to the album with an open mind.

I scored it on the enjoyment I got listening to the songs ( some I had to listen to a number of times ) and what I regard is important , like harmony , melody , hooks , riffs , scale , complexity , in other words what makes it worth listening to and would I listen to it over again.

I will and have and its an excellent well written set of songs , a consistent set of songs that tell a simple but relatable message and its simplicity is part of its attraction to me.

Is it a ball buster that means it I will play it to detriment of other music I enjoy of course not but it doesn't have to be.