The Album Review Club - Week #138 - (page 1790) - 1956 - Soul-Junk

I've painted myself into a corner with the scoring here haven't I ?

Got it on now, it's not the same kind of music per se, but it's got a bit of the freewheeling spirit of acid jazzers like Galliano.
I'm expecting this to replace The Streets at the bottom of the chart so am preparing myself for the worst.

the fact that I couldn't even clearly communicate which album I was nominating is a bad sign (or a performance art piece clearly communicating it on a meta level).
 
He has no life!
Concert last week with my son to see Manchester Orchestra and potentially 4 more artists in the next few weeks, an enjoyable all-day tailgate and US college football game, I've done pretty well over this international "break", thankyouverymuch! (my wife also argues I seem to have too much of one)

"On A Rope, on a rope, got me hanging on a rope!"

And we're all just trying to keep up with you, you know that.
 
The disadvantage of YT only is no lyrics, which when you're dropping couplets like...

Got kicked off the lectern at a worship song summit
My hymns all plummet cause church ladies still can’t hum it

or

Shooting swiss cheese out my nose through the static
Blast them ectoplasmic, Inflict you with the magic

is something of a shame.

Though it's unlikely to displace Faure's Requiem as my favourite spiritual music, Glen Galaxy is definitely out there and I quite like him.
 
The disadvantage of YT only is no lyrics, which when you're dropping couplets like...

Got kicked off the lectern at a worship song summit
My hymns all plummet cause church ladies still can’t hum it

or

Shooting swiss cheese out my nose through the static
Blast them ectoplasmic, Inflict you with the magic

is something of a shame.

Though it's unlikely to displace Faure's Requiem as my favourite spiritual music, Glen Galaxy is definitely out there and I quite like him.
I know what you mean. I’m listening now and would love to know what they’re blabbering about.
Only catching a word here and there.
 
Sorry but this isn't for me I'm afraid.

I think I'm pretty broad minded with music but I do think any great piece of music is either melodic, has a great rhythm, great hooks, sounds different or has great lyrics. It's not an exhaustive list though. However I think this album fails on all accounts.

As I've said before I find a full album of rap a hard listen. You have to do something exceptional like Rage Against The Machine, Public Enemy, Cypress Hill or the Judgement Night soundtrack to keep my attention. This is just like any other album I've heard. I find it more background music than any ambient album!

Lyrically it could be about mass murder, Christians or shooting ho's but it's hard to tell what's being said.

There are the odd parts where I did quite like it but it's nothing I would come back to as there's other albums like this with a similar sound.

Sorry but it's a 2/10 from me and I really don't like scoring this low but I can't find much in it I'm afraid.
 
The disadvantage of YT only is no lyrics, which when you're dropping couplets like...

Got kicked off the lectern at a worship song summit
My hymns all plummet cause church ladies still can’t hum it

or

Shooting swiss cheese out my nose through the static
Blast them ectoplasmic, Inflict you with the magic

is something of a shame.

Though it's unlikely to displace Faure's Requiem as my favourite spiritual music, Glen Galaxy is definitely out there and I quite like him.
Many years ago I did try and create a soul junk website where the lyrics could be crowd sourced. I think the liner notes on the cd had a couple of the songs listed but I've long since donated my cd collection and domain names expired. Part of the challenge of the album is it's nonsense lyrics and i am interested in 2 questions if people want to explore them. How is your enjoyment of an album based on

1) understanding it - explicitly lyrically
2) agreeing with it - does it confirm a worldview or challenge it

Foggy would care more about if it's dancable or not and that's valid also
 
Last edited:
Part of the challenge of the album is it's nonsense lyrics and i am interested in 2 questions if people want to explore them. How is your enjoyment of an album based on

1) understanding it - explicitly lyrically
2) agreeing with it - does it confirm a worldview or challenge it

Foggy would care more about if it's dancable or not and that's valid also
Personally, I am a hypocrite so for Question 1 I will say that lyrics don't matter to me and I find that sometimes they get in the way. It's something I've said on the ambient albums I've nominated! That said, if you're going to put a 'message' out there then make it legible. It might sound common sense, but if Sinatra mumbled and launched 100 words a minute on his songs I doubt he'd have ever made it.

I don't care if the lyrics are immense such as Dylan, Joni Mitchell or if they are completely nuts like some of The Beatles and Zappa recordings. Lyrics suits the music and sometimes the music is more important than any message.

However, If I can't understand it, I'll miss your message so you will need to back it up with some top class melodies, beats and the rest. Rap albums suffer from the 'sameness' as well and you have to be either particular good, different or whatever to be able to hold my attention.

As for Question 2, I am ok listening to any type lyrics with any type of message. I can't honestly think of anything I would genuinely be offended by. Religious lyrics are interesting as it's not a common - to me anyway - theme, especially in rap. Or maybe just in the rap I've heard.

However, I am quite happy to sing Carols, Hymns and Peruvian Gloria's in a church because they are melodic. Hark The Herald Angels is wholly religious and a song I love and it's message and melody trump this. I think that's the important part!

In some ways, lyrics which don't say much probably put me off too. I find some of the lyrics in Coldplay and Oasis' (and plenty of others) songs so one-dimensional that they spoil the music. Some are like they've been written by a 12 year old boy writing his first love song.

I think Foggy has an excellent point about being danceable. Music should make you 'feel something' whether that's wanting to relax, move, think, contemplate, reflect, jump around or sing along then good music has this. There's a reason I can happily draw from music from Beethoven, Debussy, The Beatles, Zappa, Girls Aloud, Pantera, Michael Stearns, Run DMC... but not this album I'm afraid! :)
 
Personally, I am a hypocrite so for Question 1 I will say that lyrics don't matter to me and I find that sometimes they get in the way. It's something I've said on the ambient albums I've nominated! That said, if you're going to put a 'message' out there then make it legible. It might sound common sense, but if Sinatra mumbled and launched 100 words a minute on his songs I doubt he'd have ever made it.

I don't care if the lyrics are immense such as Dylan, Joni Mitchell or if they are completely nuts like some of The Beatles and Zappa recordings. Lyrics suits the music and sometimes the music is more important than any message.

However, If I can't understand it, I'll miss your message so you will need to back it up with some top class melodies, beats and the rest. Rap albums suffer from the 'sameness' as well and you have to be either particular good, different or whatever to be able to hold my attention.

As for Question 2, I am ok listening to any type lyrics with any type of message. I can't honestly think of anything I would genuinely be offended by. Religious lyrics are interesting as it's not a common - to me anyway - theme, especially in rap. Or maybe just in the rap I've heard.

However, I am quite happy to sing Carols, Hymns and Peruvian Gloria's in a church because they are melodic. Hark The Herald Angels is wholly religious and a song I love and it's message and melody trump this. I think that's the important part!

In some ways, lyrics which don't say much probably put me off too. I find some of the lyrics in Coldplay and Oasis' (and plenty of others) songs so one-dimensional that they spoil the music. Some are like they've been written by a 12 year old boy writing his first love song.

I think Foggy has an excellent point about being danceable. Music should make you 'feel something' whether that's wanting to relax, move, think, contemplate, reflect, jump around or sing along then good music has this. There's a reason I can happily draw from music from Beethoven, Debussy, The Beatles, Zappa, Girls Aloud, Pantera, Michael Stearns, Run DMC... but not this album I'm afraid! :)
All fair points and thanks for the comments. This is an album I love and have listened to lots of times and I still struggle to catch the lyrics. I'm not a huge lyrics fan normally and actually taking part in this thread has caused me to examine words that would normally pass me by. That being said I do prefer songs with words in even when Im not paying much attention. I've only recently discovered that Oasis lyrics are widely considered nursery rhyme.

I think the nonsense lyrics in Soul-Junks work appeals to me because they are delivered seriously as if they mean something and it serves as a counter to what I consider to be an over sincerity in Christian music. It's not pastiche or played for jokes it's kind of just frivolous like just for the joy of making sounds and combining words.

I've tried to play this album to lots of people over the years and it hasn't landed with a single person yet so the 2 you gave it seems like a win and you listened to it more than once!
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.