The Album Review Club - Week #141 - (page 1860) - JPEG Raw - Gary Clark Jr.

I enjoyed this one. An obvious sound of the 90s, an era I really liked. Yeah it is not particularly distinctive, and sounds similar to a few bands of the time. They happen to be bands I like. A little grungy in moments. Strong guitars, strong bass, rock throughout.

A band that passed me by. Now I have found that lately, things like that have often left me thinking 'I probably would have liked this back in the day, but it seems to do very little for me now'. Well for whatever reason, this one did not. I found myself liking it now, and enjoying listening to it anew. Will explore more of their stuff. So for that, a strong 8 from me.
 
Tragically Hip - Day For Night

Really enjoyed the reverb guitar layered sound they create on so many of the tracks - deffo reminded me of early REM, Suede and Pearl Jam I picked up also.
More grunge than I expected - the energy and pace on ‘Grace, Too’ and ‘Thugs’ make these great songs, ‘Titanic Terrarium’ another stand out - wish they added a guitar solo in all those ones.
A few pretty forgettable tracks and a couple awful ones.

7/10

Pick of the bunch : Thugs

Bonus Point: Guitar Reverb
 
Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
Day For Night - The Tragically Hip

Musically, I did like this album. 1994 was probably the height of grunge, and musically I found a lot of similarities with later Pearl Jam, not the early "Ten" version we listened to here last fall.

My issue is mainly in lead singer Gord Downie's vocals, and even at times the backing harmonies on some of the tracks. After re-reading @RobMCFC s review, I realized that Gord sounds the most to me like Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil, but I just think Garrett has a more pronounced sound and presence in that band's songs. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just get that feeling in listening to this album.
Click to expand...
I forgot to mention the harmonies - I found some quite annoying, a bit ‘country’ if that’s a thing?!

Anyway what do my ears know :) they’re shot at the moment from seeing The Black Keys in London last night, despite recent studio output, they remain a class live act!!
 
Hated the singer's vocals from the first song all the way through so i was always going to struggle with this.
A couple of decent tunes trying to be REM and Pearl Jam.
Nautical disaster and Impossibilium and that's your lot.3/10.
 
Don't have time to do a full write up.

Massive generalisation alert

The Canadians I have worked with and known share some commons traits, amongst which they were decent people, articulate, emotionally mature and really good at doing restraint and reasonableness; they were less good at doing abandonment. This contrasted with the many dysfunctional fuckwit Americans from a variety of states each with their own version of insane, they were quite stressful to work with, but here's the rub - if you put aside the wanting to kill them bit, they were often more engaging and fun too.

I was reminded of this when the thought occurred to me that for a man singing some angry lyrics, Gord actually sounds quite restrained and reasonable, which I'm not sure works for rock music (unless you lean into it 100% as a signature, like the Cowboy Junkies).

This is well put together, earnest and decent. To me it would benefit from letting go some more.

6/10
 
Never listened to before so once again a broadening of my knowledge.
Started off so well and I really thought I was going to love this. Slowly building and broodyness almost and thought it was going to really launch into something...but then it seemed to just plateau, but Grace Too very much one of best on there along with Nautical Distater/Thugs for me.
Very much got the early REM vibe from them but in the end it didnt really stand out for me. So many started but then seemd to just meander along.
Its a 6 from the Derry jury
 
Going to go 6/10 of the Tragics.

Not big fan of vocals, although they became less of a concern with time. Songs didn’t really stand out but did not offend either. Only had chance of one listen though.
 
Think we are nearly there, I'll give it another half hour or so if there is anyone left that hasn't scored then tally up, and PM rob the list for his spreadsheets.
 
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