The Album Review Club - Week #142 - (page 1874) - Strange Times - The Chameleons

[journolud]

I found this quite hard to listen to really and the various comments about the denseness of the sound would probably explain that. Add to that the variety of styles which others have enjoyed but I found a bit irritating if not disorientating. There were moments, bits of songs that almost grabbed me but also moments that I thought if you stripped it back were pretty mundane. Lyrically have to agree as well that some of it was ordinary.

Not much more I can say, not an artist I was previously familiar with and not one I'm tempted to seek out further. Obviously an album that effort has gone into so unfair to mark it less than 6 but nothing in it to raise it any higher.

 

[mrbelfry]

My big mouth is spectacularly kicking me in the face. I simply can't get what about the children out of my head.

Maybe because I'm not familiar with modern blues I'm not hearing big stylistic changes. Or maybe my palette isn't refined enough. A lot of the other "styles" are heavily influenced by blues anyway.

Despite my feelings around certain lyrics I have found this pretty enjoyable

 

[Coatigan]

My big mouth is spectacularly kicking me in the face. I simply can't get what about the children out of my head.

Maybe because I'm not familiar with modern blues I'm not hearing big stylistic changes. Or maybe my palette isn't refined enough. A lot of the other "styles" are heavily influenced by blues anyway.

Despite my feelings around certain lyrics I have found this pretty enjoyable

As Maktub (itself an arabic word) starts, almost feels like a Tinariwen track. There are not so subtle northern african influences there, the intonation, the broken-up time signature, the background quarter-tone vocals etc. Jpeg raw has a jazz backdrop to effectively an r&b track. Don't Start, back to nomadic beats to a 'modernised' blues song. Who We Are almost has a hip-hop feel to it, with a smooth guitar santana-like weave through it. End of the earth, a 'true' blues ballad. Then it kinda repeats itself a bit and recycles those tricks. But throws in a touch of funk here and there. But that is till more than your average album, in terms of style use.

 

[mrbelfry]

As Maktub (itself an arabic word) starts, almost feels like a Tinariwen track. There are not so subtle northern african influences there, the intonation, the broken-up time signature, the background quarter-tone vocals etc. Jpeg raw has a jazz backdrop to effectively an r&b track. Don't Start, back to nomadic beats to a 'modernised' blues song. Who We Are almost has a hip-hop feel to it, with a smooth guitar santana-like weave through it. End of the earth, a 'true' blues ballad. Then it kinda repeats itself a bit and recycles those tricks. But throws in a touch of funk here and there. But that is till more than your average album, in terms of style use.

Thanks for breaking it down. I can definitely hear the stylistic differences. I wasn't perturbed by them. I haven't heard any of is other stuff which probably leaves me thinking this is just what he sounds like. He did mention in the interview posted earlier that people are surprised he listens to a lot of different stuff and the album reflects that.

I don't detect the wild swings in style - it sounds different from song to song but it's still bass, drums, guitar etc . It feels consistent to me even within those differences. I suspect it's me not having a sufficiently tuned sense of taste

 

[threespires]

As Maktub (itself an arabic word) starts, almost feels like a Tinariwen track. There are not so subtle northern african influences there, the intonation, the broken-up time signature, the background quarter-tone vocals etc. Jpeg raw has a jazz backdrop to effectively an r&b track. Don't Start, back to nomadic beats to a 'modernised' blues song. Who We Are almost has a hip-hop feel to it, with a smooth guitar santana-like weave through it. End of the earth, a 'true' blues ballad. Then it kinda repeats itself a bit and recycles those tricks. But throws in a touch of funk here and there. But that is till more than your average album, in terms of style use.

Yeah. I think the north/west african guitar vibe of the opener is a great way to start the album. It's easy to underappreciate that ability to weave lots of influences and still retain a coherence which more often than not he does. In lesser hands it would be much more dislocated..

 

[threespires]

My big mouth is spectacularly kicking me in the face. I simply can't get what about the children out of my head.

Maybe because I'm not familiar with modern blues I'm not hearing big stylistic changes. Or maybe my palette isn't refined enough. A lot of the other "styles" are heavily influenced by blues anyway.

Despite my feelings around certain lyrics I have found this pretty enjoyable

I knew all along that you cared about the little babies.

 

[Coatigan]

I have to admit, I haven't paid much attention to save the children. It is one of the noted skippable songs for me, so it kinda just fizzled in the background. Might have to revisit.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Gary Clark Jr. - JPEG Raw

Not the best week for me to give this a listen as mostly been bed bound with the sniffles - However, Loved the opening track 'Muktab' , absolute belter! I've played this a few times to the max - Like Lenny Kravitz, Stevie Wonder and The Stones rolled into one.
Would have liked him to stay on track with the rock heavy blues stuff but so many other the tracks veered in all sorts of directions for me that i struggled - It felt like a best of Album from a mixture of his other stuff - Like songs have been recorded in different years.
There is a big sound throughout which i liked and some great guitar stuff, elements of this in 'JPEG RAW' , 'This Is Who We Are' and 'Hyperwave' and 'What About The Children' is a good soul track with that rich Stevie Wonder sound.
Too many other tracks just don't really go anywhere especially the final few, 'Funk Witch U' 'Triump' and 'Habits' - 'Habits' would actually be a lovely song if they chopped the final 4 minutes off.

Cool artist, maybe to cool for me. Good pick.

6/10

 

[bennyboy]

A new artist for me.
Liked the first 3 tracks.
Maktub,JPEG RAW and Dont Start and thought this sounds promising.
Then i thought it lost it's way after that.
So much so as not really getting into another song.
Interesting that Valerie June was the last guest song that i liked the rest did nothing for me.
So after a great start sadly only a 5.

 

[mrbelfry]

I have to admit, I haven't paid much attention to save the children. It is one of the noted skippable songs for me, so it kinda just fizzled in the background. Might have to revisit.

Haha don't bother. I was pushed into having a more vitriolic opinion of it than is justified. In attempting to justify and defend my position I elevated it to Nazi levels of distaste. It's extremely skippable unless you listen to it repeatedly to try and win a pointless internet argument - then it becomes an ear worm