Bloody hell mate, try? I have it force fed down my good ear on a very regular basis. She is ok but bland and a little derivative imo and there are far better female singer songwriters. I'm trying without much success to get them to listen to a wider group than the three or four they are besotted by. Try and interest a 17 year old in Carol King or Joni though never mind Nina Simone.You should try listening to some Taylor Swift, she is a very good songwriter with an ear for a good melody.
Bloody hell mate, try? I have it force fed down my good ear on a very regular basis. She is ok but bland and a little derivative imo and there are far better female singer songwriters. I'm trying without much success to get them to listen to a wider group than the three or four they are besotted by. Try and interest a 17 year old in Carol King or Joni though never mind Nina Simone.
oh I'm not sure about that. My granddaughter and friends know every song off every album and the lyrics and which boyfriend she was breaking up with that prompted the song. They sing along to all of them. Cry to some. Then tell me they like Billy more anyway. And don't get me started on Olivia. I dare say it's not much different from the adulation for The Beatles/T Rex/Bay City Rollers/Boy Bands albeit the commercial success is far greater. I'm not moaning for sure, they brighten my life immeasurably :-)At one level I think she's "lazy". Whether she's simply just immersed in the business side of things or is more interested in being a broader cultural phenomenon who knows, but I think she's probably more capable artistically than a lot of the rinse and repeat stuff she seems to put out. What I do know from my niece and her friends is that the music itself doesn't seem to actually play a very big part in the fandom, she's long since transcended being a musician into something else.
As long as it’s a Frank Swifty!!I do think I'm being brainwashed though and one day will wake up a Swifty.
A bit like the Spice girls back in the day with my daughter and friends.oh I'm not sure about that. My granddaughter and friends know every song off every album and the lyrics and which boyfriend she was breaking up with that prompted the song. They sing along to all of them. Cry to some. Then tell me they like Billy more anyway. And don't get me started on Olivia. I dare say it's not much different from the adulation for The Beatles/T Rex/Bay City Rollers/Boy Bands albeit the commercial success is far greater. I'm not moaning for sure, they brighten my life immeasurably :-)
I do think I'm being brainwashed though and one day will wake up a Swifty.
As usual it’s a very well written review. Interesting score too. Is it really one of say the best 5% of albums you have ever listened to? Is that how highly you rate it?Modernity is sometimes a bit crap, for example on another thread I’ve just moaned about the destruction of journalistic standards caused by the changes in the news cycle. However sometimes modernity is good too.
I’ve really enjoyed this week’s pick especially coming on the back of the previous one. The Stranglers album was very enjoyable but, to me, very much of its time. The world has moved on in so many ways both for better and for worse. Drugs use is more pervasive and more complex, family life is messier, men can talk about their feelings, and music technology has opened up a world of opportunity to name but a few, not quite random, examples. In comparison to last week, this album feels alive and relevant. I don’t say that to slight last week’s pick, simply to recognise the passage of time and that much music is often reflective of the age in which it is conceived.
Good music should matter. First and foremost, it should matter to the people who make it and then ideally it should find an audience to whom it matters too. It can matter in lots of different ways:
I think Idles manage to do a bit of all of those with this album. Not in an epoch shattering way but nonetheless pretty decently.
- It can matter simply because it’s of an excellent quality and that excellence provides a kind of intrinsic value
- It can matter because it says something meaningful about the human condition both to writer and listener
- Or it can matter because it holds a mirror up to or says something about the times in which is written.
When I first listened to it, I was of the view it wasn’t of the quality of Joy as an Act of Resistance. This was essentially a view based on the fact that a number of the tracks didn’t have the immediacy of many on Joy. Having listened to it more, I think it’s as good as anything they’ve done and like Tangk shows a band still very much in motion. It’s a bit more sophisticated than what came before in that it’s darker and denser both aurally and in subject matter.
Jason Williamson famously called into question their authenticity and cynicism a few years back. At the most superficial level you can understand why he did, but even if you think he had a point (I don't) then by the time of this album it was moot. The tracks on here are born of personal experience and it kind of straddles a line of part biography, part concept album. It doesn’t really matter what background Joe Talbot comes from as this is drawing extensively from his lived experience so how can that not be authentic?
Mostly, I don’t have the same life experiences as him, but it feels (a) authentic and (b) at a meta level (rolls eyes), relatable too. In terms of the content, years ago the Independent called them the ‘iron snowflakes’ and whilst that’s a bit journalistic twatty it sort of does sum them up. When you are a shouty bloke who is shouting about being in touch with his femininity you potentially hold yourself up to ridicule, but I think Talbot doesn’t care and that’s what makes it work. Within the thematic mix, there’s the right amount of reflection about one’s own weaknesses and the shit you’ve done, without it turning into self-loathing. He sounds like a bloke who’s been in therapy because he is a bloke who’s been in therapy so again that strikes me as pretty authentic.
It can be argued that this kind of socially conscious shouty stuff from people their age is naïve and possible even juvenile. Having been through my mid-life comfy phase, I happily find myself disagreeing with that world view the older I get; I like that this bunch of close to middle aged dickheads refuse to become 'grown up' and full-throatily commit to what they want to say.
But at the end of the day none of this stuff matters unless you’ve got decent tunes and for me, they have. Rhythmically they are on it, dynamically they’re great fun and more sophisticated than initially meets the ear and on some of the songs I think there’s some really nice texture. I like the guitar work though it’s really the beats that are driving much of this. I can easily see why his singing isn't for everyone, but I personally think his vocal delivery is more interesting than first meets the eye. For all its vibrancy and at times in your faceness, it’s considered and clearly not just been thrown together. Are the component parts massively original? Not really but like the album itself they are brought together into a cohesive whole and identity. Most of all they play like it matters and they commit to their sound.
Sonically it gets my increasingly arthritic bones going big time. One of the few bands these days that make me want to launch myself into a crowd, which, in principle at least, is never a bad thing. This latter point means it gets an extra half point and takes it to 8.5/10
Must admit, I'm not that keen on the latest stuff where there's more background meddling than instruments, but her first few albums where it was just her and the band are very listenable.At one level I think she's "lazy". Whether she's simply just immersed in the business side of things or is more interested in being a broader cultural phenomenon who knows, but I think she's probably more capable artistically than a lot of the rinse and repeat stuff she seems to put out. What I do know from my niece and her friends is that the music itself doesn't seem to actually play a very big part in the fandom, she's long since transcended being a musician into something else.
oh I'm not sure about that. My granddaughter and friends know every song off every album and the lyrics and which boyfriend she was breaking up with that prompted the song. They sing along to all of them. Cry to some. Then tell me they like Billy more anyway. And don't get me started on Olivia. I dare say it's not much different from the adulation for The Beatles/T Rex/Bay City Rollers/Boy Bands albeit the commercial success is far greater. I'm not moaning for sure, they brighten my life immeasurably :-)
I do think I'm being brainwashed though and one day will wake up a Swifty.
As usual it’s a very well written review. Interesting score too. Is it really one of say the best 5% of albums you have ever listened to? Is that how highly you rate it
Joy has a bunch of great songs but Crawler has more texture and doom sounds. I think in Crawler you can hear a lot of what they've been doing on previous albums become more coherent as they've become better at it. I do like the immediacy of some of the early bangers but they obviously spend a lot of time crafting a vibe. Ultra Mono is for me a slightly better album but I don't think many would agree with me - it's probably more consistent good without quite hitting the highs of Car Crash and Beachland Ballroom (two songs I don't think I'll ever tire of listening to) although Grounds and A Hymn run them close (both pairs have a lot of similarities)Modernity is sometimes a bit crap, for example on another thread I’ve just moaned about the destruction of journalistic standards caused by the changes in the news cycle. However sometimes modernity is good too.
I’ve really enjoyed this week’s pick especially coming on the back of the previous one. The Stranglers album was very enjoyable but, to me, very much of its time. The world has moved on in so many ways both for better and for worse. Drugs use is more pervasive and more complex, family life is messier, men can talk about their feelings, and music technology has opened up a world of opportunity to name but a few, not quite random, examples. In comparison to last week, this album feels alive and relevant. I don’t say that to slight last week’s pick, simply to recognise the passage of time and that much music is often reflective of the age in which it is conceived.
Good music should matter. First and foremost, it should matter to the people who make it and then ideally it should find an audience to whom it matters too. It can matter in lots of different ways:
I think Idles manage to do a bit of all of those with this album. Not in an epoch shattering way but nonetheless pretty decently.
- It can matter simply because it’s of an excellent quality and that excellence provides a kind of intrinsic value
- It can matter because it says something meaningful about the human condition both to writer and listener
- Or it can matter because it holds a mirror up to or says something about the times in which is written.
When I first listened to it, I was of the view it wasn’t of the quality of Joy as an Act of Resistance. This was essentially a view based on the fact that a number of the tracks didn’t have the immediacy of many on Joy. Having listened to it more, I think it’s as good as anything they’ve done and like Tangk shows a band still very much in motion. It’s a bit more sophisticated than what came before in that it’s darker and denser both aurally and in subject matter.
Jason Williamson famously called into question their authenticity and cynicism a few years back. At the most superficial level you can understand why he did, but even if you think he had a point (I don't) then by the time of this album it was moot. The tracks on here are born of personal experience and it kind of straddles a line of part biography, part concept album. It doesn’t really matter what background Joe Talbot comes from as this is drawing extensively from his lived experience so how can that not be authentic?
Mostly, I don’t have the same life experiences as him, but it feels (a) authentic and (b) at a meta level (rolls eyes), relatable too. In terms of the content, years ago the Independent called them the ‘iron snowflakes’ and whilst that’s a bit journalistic twatty it sort of does sum them up. When you are a shouty bloke who is shouting about being in touch with his femininity you potentially hold yourself up to ridicule, but I think Talbot doesn’t care and that’s what makes it work. Within the thematic mix, there’s the right amount of reflection about one’s own weaknesses and the shit you’ve done, without it turning into self-loathing. He sounds like a bloke who’s been in therapy because he is a bloke who’s been in therapy so again that strikes me as pretty authentic.
It can be argued that this kind of socially conscious shouty stuff from people their age is naïve and possible even juvenile. Having been through my mid-life comfy phase, I happily find myself disagreeing with that world view the older I get; I like that this bunch of close to middle aged dickheads refuse to become 'grown up' and full-throatily commit to what they want to say.
But at the end of the day none of this stuff matters unless you’ve got decent tunes and for me, they have. Rhythmically they are on it, dynamically they’re great fun and more sophisticated than initially meets the ear and on some of the songs I think there’s some really nice texture. I like the guitar work though it’s really the beats that are driving much of this. I can easily see why his singing isn't for everyone, but I personally think his vocal delivery is more interesting than first meets the eye. For all its vibrancy and at times in your faceness, it’s considered and clearly not just been thrown together. Are the component parts massively original? Not really but like the album itself they are brought together into a cohesive whole and identity. Most of all they play like it matters and they commit to their sound.
Sonically it gets my increasingly arthritic bones going big time. One of the few bands these days that make me want to launch myself into a crowd, which, in principle at least, is never a bad thing. This latter point means it gets an extra half point and takes it to 8.5/10