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The Album Review Club - Week #147 - (page 1942) - Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
threespires
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'Threatening', interesting word choice.
Look forward to the graphs!
Well it was you who said it was challenging.
Though to me they just seem like nice middle class lads appropriating a work class voice! :-)
Actually I do hope we get into a discussion about authenticity (and for the record I think Jason Williamson was talking through his arse on this one).
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Well it was you who said it was challenging.
Though to me they just seem like nice middle class lads appropriating a work class voice! :-)
Actually I do hope we get into a discussion about authenticity (and for the record I think Jason Williamson was talking through his arse on this one).
Speaking of authenticity (@FogBlueInSanFran 's domain), people may want to additionaly listen to their song June, for one of the most authentic heart on sleeve musical confessionals out there. And for a sense of how unrestrained they can get. But do prepare yourself, takes a bit of a stomach. Wouldn't advise any heavy lifting after it. Might add a bit of perspective to this album too.
Saddleworth2
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does it have a good beat though?Idles - Crawler
We often say on these threads that we want to be 'challenged'. This should hopefully do it.
The album is about as subtle as 9/11. The best way to approach it is like a Peter Howson painting. Or exhibition. From afar, it is a bit of an overly provocative mess. It is intense, grim, crammed with thought and emotion, but if you dare get close enough you will lose yourself in the detail, layers, and delivery. And then something might click, and leave you weak at the knees.
I like the say what you see, shout what u feel song-writing. I like their tone, the ever so slightly de-tuned, just enough to unsettle without instantly spotting it, deep guitar sound that I find quite unique. The indurstrial weight of it all, and mostly their unlimited passion. And amongst all the personal retrospective, there is broader commentey too, and one or two political connotations, like on all their albums.
At least a couple of songs should make you shake your head or shuffle your feet, and shake youtlr tiny tooshie like you don't give a shit.
An album that is amongst my all time loved albums, which for a recent release is quite a feat. And I hope to see more of the discussions we previously had on honesty, believability. If you are going to skip through, I would suggest you skip whole songs and listen to whole songs, rather than halfway through them. Will take a bit of an open mind, will take a bit of effort, but most great or complex music does imo.
I may do the first say what you see, shout what u feel review during the third listen.
does it have a good beat though?
I may do the first say what you see, shout what u feel review during the third listen.
Very post-punk of you. Embrace the spirit.
Saddleworth2
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hmmm. on second thoughts I'm a more baroque kind of guy.Very post-punk of you. Embrace the spirit.
GornikDaze
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Just had my first listen - no decent beat was heard. I’ll force in the other two listens before my review!does it have a good beat though?
I may do the first say what you see, shout what u feel review during the third listen.
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Crawler - Idles
Before this album was nominated, I was listening to The Doors’ debut album. Like the album under review, that album finishes with a song called “The End”. Like the Idles, The Doors had a frontman who was adored by some and loathed by many, yet what wasn’t in question was the quality of the music played by Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore. The music that sits behind Jim Morrison’s poetic or pathetic words, depending on your viewpoint, is both well played, involving and stands up 50 years later.
Listening to Crawler by Idles was more than the challenge that @Coatigan promised; it brought home to me the dire state of at least some quarters of the music industry.
“MTT 420 RR” was OK, a bit miserablist and mumbly, but the music is suitably dramatic, but, like an annoying fly trapped in your bedroom, the awful vocals that are introduced on “The Wheel” never really go away.
“Car Crash” is, well, no punchline needed and “The New Sensation” is appalling in every conceivable way. “The Beachland Ballroom” was marginally less painful than what had come before.
Despite the awful vocals, “Meds” is probably the band playing at their most interesting. Drums and bass create a good rhythm and there’s even an attempt at some guitar and something that could loosely be described as some middle eastern influence.
The music very much takes a backseat on this album, almost as if the band is saying that it’s all on the lyrics and the vocals. Which would be OK if they had a half-decent singer. For me, any album where the music is relegated to a sideshow would not be to my taste, but an album where the vocals are so excruciatingly awful makes this approach an even worse decision. Joe Talbot is calling attention to the way he is singing rather than what he is trying to say, so any message is lost.
I think commercially, they are a clever band. With the right kind of marketing, they know that this rubbish will attract a following because it’s different. But there are probably a thousand ways you could be different without screaming and growling your way through the musical equivalent of a sheet metal facility operating at full tilt. But singing in a foreign language, adding a few oddball instruments to your musical palette, arranging your music in odd, quirky time signatures or sampling the nocturnal sounds of animals in Chester Zoo wouldn’t sell as well, right? We all know why they are peddling the nonsense, and it’s nowt to do with love n’ hugs.
Incredibly, this album was nominated in the Best Rock Album category at the Grammys, which just goes to show how far what was previously a fine institution has fallen.
Act like a dick indeed. Two listens is enough, and I’m out.
We are down in The Streets territory here, but this album has a little more credibility in that I can listen to some of the echoes and drones made by the band on at least some of the tracks and recognise them as vaguely musical. 2/10.
Before this album was nominated, I was listening to The Doors’ debut album. Like the album under review, that album finishes with a song called “The End”. Like the Idles, The Doors had a frontman who was adored by some and loathed by many, yet what wasn’t in question was the quality of the music played by Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore. The music that sits behind Jim Morrison’s poetic or pathetic words, depending on your viewpoint, is both well played, involving and stands up 50 years later.
Listening to Crawler by Idles was more than the challenge that @Coatigan promised; it brought home to me the dire state of at least some quarters of the music industry.
“MTT 420 RR” was OK, a bit miserablist and mumbly, but the music is suitably dramatic, but, like an annoying fly trapped in your bedroom, the awful vocals that are introduced on “The Wheel” never really go away.
“Car Crash” is, well, no punchline needed and “The New Sensation” is appalling in every conceivable way. “The Beachland Ballroom” was marginally less painful than what had come before.
Despite the awful vocals, “Meds” is probably the band playing at their most interesting. Drums and bass create a good rhythm and there’s even an attempt at some guitar and something that could loosely be described as some middle eastern influence.
The music very much takes a backseat on this album, almost as if the band is saying that it’s all on the lyrics and the vocals. Which would be OK if they had a half-decent singer. For me, any album where the music is relegated to a sideshow would not be to my taste, but an album where the vocals are so excruciatingly awful makes this approach an even worse decision. Joe Talbot is calling attention to the way he is singing rather than what he is trying to say, so any message is lost.
I think commercially, they are a clever band. With the right kind of marketing, they know that this rubbish will attract a following because it’s different. But there are probably a thousand ways you could be different without screaming and growling your way through the musical equivalent of a sheet metal facility operating at full tilt. But singing in a foreign language, adding a few oddball instruments to your musical palette, arranging your music in odd, quirky time signatures or sampling the nocturnal sounds of animals in Chester Zoo wouldn’t sell as well, right? We all know why they are peddling the nonsense, and it’s nowt to do with love n’ hugs.
Incredibly, this album was nominated in the Best Rock Album category at the Grammys, which just goes to show how far what was previously a fine institution has fallen.
Act like a dick indeed. Two listens is enough, and I’m out.
We are down in The Streets territory here, but this album has a little more credibility in that I can listen to some of the echoes and drones made by the band on at least some of the tracks and recognise them as vaguely musical. 2/10.
threespires
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Speaking of authenticity (@FogBlueInSanFran 's domain), people may want to additionaly listen to their song June, for one of the most authentic heart on sleeve musical confessionals out there. And for a sense of how unrestrained they can get. But do prepare yourself, takes a bit of a stomach. Wouldn't advise any heavy lifting after it. Might add a bit of perspective to this album too.
I sometimes wonder what the rest of the band must have felt when he brought that song to them, for all that they no doubt wanted to support him it must have been pretty difficult recording it.
Just had my first listen - no decent beat was heard. I’ll force in the other two listens before my review!
I think there's loads of fun beats in there, had it in on in the office yesterday and my lo-fi hip hop loving junior programmer thought I was having some sort of turn.
You need to 'get up on your feet and get down for a bit' :-)
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threespires
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Crawler - Idles
Before this album was nominated, I was listening to The Doors’ debut album. Like the album under review, that album finishes with a song called “The End”. Like the Idles, The Doors had a frontman who was adored by some and loathed by many, yet what wasn’t in question was the quality of the music played by Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore. The music that sits behind Jim Morrison’s poetic or pathetic words, depending on your viewpoint, is both well played, involving and stands up 50 years later.
Listening to Crawler by Idles was more than the challenge that @Coatigan promised; it brought home to me the dire state of at least some quarters of the music industry.
“MTT 420 RR” was OK, a bit miserablist and mumbly, but the music is suitably dramatic, but, like an annoying fly trapped in your bedroom, the awful vocals that are introduced on “The Wheel” never really go away.
“Car Crash” is, well, no punchline needed and “The New Sensation” is appalling in every conceivable way. “The Beachland Ballroom” was marginally less painful than what had come before.
Despite the awful vocals, “Meds” is probably the band playing at their most interesting. Drums and bass create a good rhythm and there’s even an attempt at some guitar and something that could loosely be described as some middle eastern influence.
The music very much takes a backseat on this album, almost as if the band is saying that it’s all on the lyrics and the vocals. Which would be OK if they had a half-decent singer. For me, any album where the music is relegated to a sideshow would not be to my taste, but an album where the vocals are so excruciatingly awful makes this approach an even worse decision. Joe Talbot is calling attention to the way he is singing rather than what he is trying to say, so any message is lost.
I think commercially, they are a clever band. With the right kind of marketing, they know that this rubbish will attract a following because it’s different. But there are probably a thousand ways you could be different without screaming and growling your way through the musical equivalent of a sheet metal facility operating at full tilt. But singing in a foreign language, adding a few oddball instruments to your musical palette, arranging your music in odd, quirky time signatures or sampling the nocturnal sounds of animals in Chester Zoo wouldn’t sell as well, right? We all know why they are peddling the nonsense, and it’s nowt to do with love n’ hugs.
Incredibly, this album was nominated in the Best Rock Album category at the Grammys, which just goes to show how far what was previously a fine institution has fallen.
Act like a dick indeed. Two listens is enough, and I’m out.
We are down in The Streets territory here, but this album has a little more credibility in that I can listen to some of the echoes and drones made by the band on at least some of the tracks and recognise them as vaguely musical. 2/10.
Blimey, if it's statistically twice as good as The Streets it must be f*******g brilliant ;-)