The Album Review Club - Week #128 - (page 1587) - Pretty Vicious - The Struts

RobMCFC said:
A little change to the schedule between 28th December and 18th January.
Hopefully this is OK with everybody, but feel free to let me know if it doesn't work for you and we'll come up with a solution.

21st Dec - @journolud
28th Dec - @Mancitydoogle
4th Jan - @mancity2012_eamo
11th Jan - @BimboBob
18th Jan - @crublue1
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Still scratching my head for what to pick, but no bother. I’m off until 11th of January anyway.
 
Drive by truckers
Southern rock opera
Did the north and south receive this album differently?

Really good pick @bennyboy - never heard of them previously.

I really like the idea behind the album - it's incredibly ambitious and genuinely interesting (as is how they went about funding the album).

I do wonder whether some element's of the album (predominantly lyrics and context) are lost on me having zero connection to South US - never even holiday'd down there.

It doesn't have a post millennium feel to me (however I'm not sure where I would have guessed it sit).

There are some decent riffs on the album but I don't take to them all (to be fair @FogBlueInSanFran this appears to reflect how you saw it / see it, potentially even adding to the overall shape of the album).

But even tracks like Southern Thing, it doesn't sound great to me as it's not my style but the lyrics hold intrigue.

Three great Alabama icons is a weird one, I would never advocate for bands to produce story telling 'talks', actually it found it insightful (not sure what everyone in the US make of it?) - a bit condescending?

Feels 6.5 (I seem to be landing in and around this a lot recently), I'm going 6/10. There are element's that I would look to reduce the overall album length (granted the artists would argue against that as it is all part of the one 'story').

The idea is slightly greater than the sum of its parts for me but I really enjoyed delving into this particular project..............
 
Put the Christmas tree up today and listened to a lot of music while doing so.
Aretha was first followed by Marvin and Stevie and I then decided to throw the Drive By Truckets back on.

I went through about an hour and a half of decent background music before I realised that I had the wrong album on. It all sounded pretty much the same. I was scratching my head thinking, ‘ where’s that one where he talks through it telling us all about Ronnie and Neil and George’.

I got Danko snd Manuel instead.
They really do seem very samish.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
Put the Christmas tree up today and listened to a lot of music while doing so.
Aretha was first followed by Marvin and Stevie and I then decided to throw the Drive By Truckets back on.

I went through about an hour and a half of decent background music before I realised that I had the wrong album on. It all sounded pretty much the same. I was scratching my head thinking, ‘ where’s that one where he talks through it telling us all about Ronnie and Neil and George’.

I got Danko snd Manuel instead.
They really do seem very samish.
Click to expand...

They're a Southern Rock band and I'm sure most of them make music that sounds similar to one another and across their catalogues; I'd call it identity and as it is a sound and style that I love, it's not an issue.
 
OB1 said:
They're a Southern Rock band and I'm sure most of them make music that sounds similar to one another and across their catalogues; I'd call it identity and as it is a sound and style that I love, it's not an issue.
Click to expand...
No it isn’t an issue OB1.
As I said it was decent stuff.
The Dirty South was the album.
The first time I’ve played that as it was the first time I had played the Southern Opera one previously or any Drive By Truckers for that matter.
I suppose the point I’m making is that if you are not overly concentrating on the concept or lyrics it pretty much sounded the same to me. I can’t say I didn’t like any of it but nothing really stood out for me either.

I guess part of the problem for me on the album I’m supposed to be reviewing is that the sum total of my interest in Lynyrd Skynyrd is Sweet Home Alabama and Freebird, which is great but also too long. And as much as some have a problem with the lyrics of Dixie, I always thought their was no logic in Lynyrd calling out Old Neil, in Alabama.
‘Watergate doesn’t bother me, does your conscience bother you?’

Neil is from Canada, so what’s that all about.
Anyway while others see LS as the pinnacle of Southern Rock, I’m more of an Allmans Bros. and Canned Heat kind of guy.

Anyway I digress.
I find this music quite palatable but like others have said, I find the concept over two albums a little drawn out. I will give the albums another proper listen though.
They are pretty good and deserve that before scoring.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
Anyway while others see LS as the pinnacle of Southern Rock, I’m more of an Allmans Bros. and Canned Heat kind of guy.
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I think of Canned Heat as electric country blues -- and who are way underrated, IMO -- and the Allman Brothers as country artists who played rock and roll. Lynyrd Skynyrd and, say ZZ Top, or Molly Hatchet, are rock and roll bands who happen to be from the south, and that's where I'd put the DBTs too based on this listen. But it's muddy (like the South!)
 
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