BlueHammer85
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As long as I’ve got a record to listen to for a week I don’t care - generic pop , the big hitters, 70s Dad Rock, the obscure - it’s all a good mix.
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The Album Review Club - Week #138 - (page 1790) - 1956 - Soul-Junk
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
You were definitely robbed on The Screaming Blue Messiahs front. Probably my fault for getting in with a glowing review early doors.In order to do the last I'd have to pander.
Quite likely most of my choices in future will be more divergent from this thread's tastes in general. So far the best moment for me was @RobMCFC rapturous review of The Screaming Blue Messiahs, which then turned into a "Meh, sounds like Clash-lite except for 'Clear View' -- 6/10"-fest for most others.
I wanted a record I picked to have the same impact on the assembled masses as Bad\\Dreems or Lucinda Williams had on me, but despite many picks across many decades and many stylistic bounces, I can't seem to find one.
So I'm just going to do stuff I like and stop caring about whether anyone here likes it :).
BlueHammer85
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You were definitely robbed on The Screaming Blue Messiahs front. Probably my fault for getting in with a glowing review early doors.
I really liked that one.
Like it or not, this is a great nomination, thread wise.Just the kind of stuff that gets the debate fuelled nicely.
I'm a bit of a sucker for well made pop music, even though this isn't strictly pop, it's edgy pop in my opinion.
It's hardly ground breaking, most of us have heard a swear word or two, but I do like her attitude, and her clever delivery at times, and I understand (I think) why the young uns would find this refreshing, or a bit rebellious even, given the usual bland fare they are pedalled.
As a fan of female artists such as kae, Billy no mates and mia, amongst others, I can enjoy this for what it is, a genuinely decent record, made for what sounds like, all the right reasons. It's commercially successful, but it doesn't sound quite as commercial as I expected it to.
I know nothing about the artist, but she intrigues enough, which has got to be good.
A few more listens required, and if I'm honest, I'm quite looking forward to it.
I'm a bit of a sucker for well made pop music, even though this isn't strictly pop, it's edgy pop in my opinion.
It's hardly ground breaking, most of us have heard a swear word or two, but I do like her attitude, and her clever delivery at times, and I understand (I think) why the young uns would find this refreshing, or a bit rebellious even, given the usual bland fare they are pedalled.
As a fan of female artists such as kae, Billy no mates and mia, amongst others, I can enjoy this for what it is, a genuinely decent record, made for what sounds like, all the right reasons. It's commercially successful, but it doesn't sound quite as commercial as I expected it to.
I know nothing about the artist, but she intrigues enough, which has got to be good.
A few more listens required, and if I'm honest, I'm quite looking forward to it.
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
Ha ha ha I put an MIA song in one of our "break" playlists and it was lambasted ("Boyz" I think I did). She's gone off the deep end now but her mid-2000-era stuff was really, really good I thought.Like it or not, this is a great nomination, thread wise.Just the kind of stuff that gets the debate fuelled nicely.
I'm a bit of a sucker for well made pop music, even though this isn't strictly pop, it's edgy pop in my opinion.
It's hardly ground breaking, most of us have heard a swear word or two, but I do like her attitude, and her clever delivery at times, and I understand (I think) why the young uns would find this refreshing, or a bit rebellious even, given the usual bland fare they are pedalled.
As a fan of female artists such as kae, Billy no mates and mia, amongst others, I can enjoy this for what it is, a genuinely decent record, made for what sounds like, all the right reasons. It's commercially successful, but it doesn't sound quite as commercial as I expected it to.
I know nothing about the artist, but she intrigues enough, which has got to be good.
A few more listens required, and if I'm honest, I'm quite looking forward to it.
I agree CR is nothing like groundbreaking but I do think she's clever, and her recycling of so much mid-80s pop is especially fun I think. It's some combination of kitschy and catchy -- kit-kat-chy?
I suddenly realis(z)ed New Order is kitschy too, or schlocky at least. Maybe that undercurrent of not taking themselves quite seriously is what I like about both artists.
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FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
Yes, I've been blaming you this whole time. Entirely your fault :) :) :)You were definitely robbed on The Screaming Blue Messiahs front. Probably my fault for getting in with a glowing review early doors.
threespires
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I've just read out Foggy's review at the dinner table (after the youngest left the table!). As after dinner content it's right up there!!
Elder son's response made me laugh..."he's monologuing like Syndrome, do you think you need to organise an intervention?"
Elder son's response made me laugh..."he's monologuing like Syndrome, do you think you need to organise an intervention?"
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
Tell him I have some very good friends at Pixar and have toured the creative labs there; heard rumo(u)rs he was based on me! :)I've just read out Foggy's review at the dinner table (after the youngest left the table!). As after dinner content it's right up there!!
Elder son's response made me laugh..."he's monologuing like Syndrome, do you think you need to organise an intervention?"
You should read him my Moving Pictures review. That was a good one :)
It wasn't lambasted by me, I love that track, and the vid is fun too. Its not something I listen to all the time, but when I visit, it always rewards me.Ha ha ha I put an MIA song in one of our "break" playlists and it was lambasted ("Boyz" I think I did). She's gone off the deep end now but her mid-2000-era stuff was really, really good I thought.
I agree CR is nothing like groundbreaking but I do think she's clever, and her recycling of so much mid-80s pop is especially fun I think. It's some combination of kitschy and catchy -- kit-kat-chy?
I suddenly realis(z)ed New Order is kitschy too, or schlocky at least. Maybe that undercurrent of not taking themselves quite seriously is what I like about both artists.
It's no coincidence I think, that her back story is fascinating. She's certainly a creative force
mrbelfry
Well-Known Member
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is an album about manipulation but I can't quite decide who is manipulating who. Chappel Roan is clearly a talented singer - check out her tiny desk concert if you want evidence of that but it's the bits in-between the songs that make me uncomfortable. Wearing hyper feminity as a mask but undercutting that by clowning it up and leaving lipstick on her teeth annoys the hell out of me.
Clearly Roan has been done dirty by a guy or two. Whether it's the one guy or multiple is unclear but instead of going to therapy she wrote some bangers about being treated badly. In this respect she is Taylor Swifts edgier younger sister. She's also deep in her lesbian era in a way that at least feels more authentic than Katy Perry but no less cliched - the only lesbian fantasy left unexplored in Naked in Manhatten is a pillow fight but in it's defence I think it knows it.
In After Midnight, I think unwittingly, she describes herself as a Cinderella-esque predator waiting for the midnight witching hour to pounce on someone's girlfriend and then her boyfriend? Or someone elses boyfriend? Is she coming out to punish the guy she's still getting off on in My Kink is Karma? In Hot To Go she talks about making music to make someone dance with her. Just who is manipulating who right now and to what ends? Irregardless the guy she's scorning in MKIK definitely believes he's in with a chance of a threesome
Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl ironically sounds like it could have come out at any time over the last 40 years. She revels in being sexualised which is a bit jarring after Casual where she complains that the dude she's being intimate with isn't treating her right. Sex is obviously a recurring theme to which I will return later but she flits between wanting commitment from a man and being a bit less committed with the ladies other than planning that trip to Manhatten. In Casual she isn't happy about having sex in the bathroom but she does applaud this in Pink Pony Club maybe because it's a dude doing it and it annoys his mum. Annoying your mum is bit of a undercurrent.
Ultimately the rebelliousness of this album reminded me a little of the Struts offering we reviewed a few weeks ago. It seems to be progressive and edgy but in Guilty Pleasure she describes a little bit of light BDSM and calls herself a bad girl because she's attracted to someone who smokes weed and watches movies. I guess in one sense young people like to think they've invented everything like sex in cars. I guess we all have collective Back the the Future amnesia.
let me address the thing that is really annoying me though. Chappel Roan is a character being played by Kayleigh Rose Amstutz. Both names are listed on the credits and it's being likened to a David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust situation. Amstutz has talked about how appearing as Roan gives her the confidence to perform - this mask is being seen as a positive. If she instead said that the only way she can get the confidence to perform is by downing two bottles of vodka she might well be operating in the fine traditions of rock and roll but she wouldn't be clapped for it. I personally want to wipe all that make up off, hug her and let her know she is good enough. It's weird that people talk about only finding acceptance when they wear a mask. We should stop celebrating it and fix the nonsense that leads to this stuff.
Ultimately she writes about being manipulated by men and can now only find the confidence to perform as a woman by cosplaying as a man cosplaying as a women. Her hyper feminine expression seems to be ignorant of her own femininity as she filters herself through the feminine expression of men expressing stereotypical and misogynistic ideas of femininity. My God it annoys me so much that it's still men defining how women experience their own womeness but we call it progressive.
When thinking about the explicit lyrics and Prince etc which Foggy mentioned in his review here is my problem. I'm 20 years older than Chappel Roan. When Prince talks about his sexiness I'm not bothered because I'm not sexually attracted to him. When Roan does it's different because I am attracted to (but not attractive to) the ladies and it's a problem primarily because of the age difference. I feel like a voyeuristic creep. So in the end am I being manipulated by her showing a lot of herself OR is she manipulated into showing it for my titillation?
The final thing I'm wondering is if this hits different in the States because they don't have Eurovision. This kind of campy pop stuff feels familiar and there is a long standing relationship with the LGBTQ community and pop music.
Anyway it's a good listen and I'm in a caravan in Cleethorpes so able to race through it quite quickly for the required three listens. Reading back my review is a bit more scathing than how I feel about it. There are some good pop tunes here particularly if you compare it to something like Dear Future Husband by Meghan Trainor. The production stays on the right side of dance pop stuff so gives some weight to the ballady stuff and some nice sounds in the upbeat numbers.
I'm unlikely to listen to this lots because of how creepy it makes me feel and the aesthetic Chappel Roan stuff annoys me but I think it's very very very decent 8/10.
Clearly Roan has been done dirty by a guy or two. Whether it's the one guy or multiple is unclear but instead of going to therapy she wrote some bangers about being treated badly. In this respect she is Taylor Swifts edgier younger sister. She's also deep in her lesbian era in a way that at least feels more authentic than Katy Perry but no less cliched - the only lesbian fantasy left unexplored in Naked in Manhatten is a pillow fight but in it's defence I think it knows it.
In After Midnight, I think unwittingly, she describes herself as a Cinderella-esque predator waiting for the midnight witching hour to pounce on someone's girlfriend and then her boyfriend? Or someone elses boyfriend? Is she coming out to punish the guy she's still getting off on in My Kink is Karma? In Hot To Go she talks about making music to make someone dance with her. Just who is manipulating who right now and to what ends? Irregardless the guy she's scorning in MKIK definitely believes he's in with a chance of a threesome
Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl ironically sounds like it could have come out at any time over the last 40 years. She revels in being sexualised which is a bit jarring after Casual where she complains that the dude she's being intimate with isn't treating her right. Sex is obviously a recurring theme to which I will return later but she flits between wanting commitment from a man and being a bit less committed with the ladies other than planning that trip to Manhatten. In Casual she isn't happy about having sex in the bathroom but she does applaud this in Pink Pony Club maybe because it's a dude doing it and it annoys his mum. Annoying your mum is bit of a undercurrent.
Ultimately the rebelliousness of this album reminded me a little of the Struts offering we reviewed a few weeks ago. It seems to be progressive and edgy but in Guilty Pleasure she describes a little bit of light BDSM and calls herself a bad girl because she's attracted to someone who smokes weed and watches movies. I guess in one sense young people like to think they've invented everything like sex in cars. I guess we all have collective Back the the Future amnesia.
let me address the thing that is really annoying me though. Chappel Roan is a character being played by Kayleigh Rose Amstutz. Both names are listed on the credits and it's being likened to a David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust situation. Amstutz has talked about how appearing as Roan gives her the confidence to perform - this mask is being seen as a positive. If she instead said that the only way she can get the confidence to perform is by downing two bottles of vodka she might well be operating in the fine traditions of rock and roll but she wouldn't be clapped for it. I personally want to wipe all that make up off, hug her and let her know she is good enough. It's weird that people talk about only finding acceptance when they wear a mask. We should stop celebrating it and fix the nonsense that leads to this stuff.
Ultimately she writes about being manipulated by men and can now only find the confidence to perform as a woman by cosplaying as a man cosplaying as a women. Her hyper feminine expression seems to be ignorant of her own femininity as she filters herself through the feminine expression of men expressing stereotypical and misogynistic ideas of femininity. My God it annoys me so much that it's still men defining how women experience their own womeness but we call it progressive.
When thinking about the explicit lyrics and Prince etc which Foggy mentioned in his review here is my problem. I'm 20 years older than Chappel Roan. When Prince talks about his sexiness I'm not bothered because I'm not sexually attracted to him. When Roan does it's different because I am attracted to (but not attractive to) the ladies and it's a problem primarily because of the age difference. I feel like a voyeuristic creep. So in the end am I being manipulated by her showing a lot of herself OR is she manipulated into showing it for my titillation?
The final thing I'm wondering is if this hits different in the States because they don't have Eurovision. This kind of campy pop stuff feels familiar and there is a long standing relationship with the LGBTQ community and pop music.
Anyway it's a good listen and I'm in a caravan in Cleethorpes so able to race through it quite quickly for the required three listens. Reading back my review is a bit more scathing than how I feel about it. There are some good pop tunes here particularly if you compare it to something like Dear Future Husband by Meghan Trainor. The production stays on the right side of dance pop stuff so gives some weight to the ballady stuff and some nice sounds in the upbeat numbers.
I'm unlikely to listen to this lots because of how creepy it makes me feel and the aesthetic Chappel Roan stuff annoys me but I think it's very very very decent 8/10.