The Album Review Club - Week #146 - (page 1935) - Ocean Rain - Echo and the Bunnymen

[Saddleworth2]

First rule Blue moon Music - you are not allowed to express any negative opinions towards Rush Beatles Kate Bush Talking Heads................

Who mentioned Kate? They better have been nice. :-)’

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

Always wary as a "visitor/guest" on here of starting threads as not sure its my place.

Surely we're all visitors/guests to some extent matey...........

 

[crublue1]

Roy Chubby Brown - or am I supposed to wait for the new thread..........

Put me down too, giant haystacks.

 

[BimboBob]

Ok well there are three guitarists (two and a half since Byrne sometimes just sings) on this so you’ll need to narrow that down.

His lack of range as you put it is part of the “art” of the band and this comment is the absolute poster child for why singers don’t matter to me as much as the music.

"Art"?

What a load of pretentious twaddle. If that's the case anyone, armed with a decent backing band, can get in front of a microphone, belt out some unintelligible rubbish, and claim it's "art".

Fucking "art".

Anyhoo...

I'm not a fan of live albums in general and with all the posters on here proclaiming "you should watch it rather than listen to it as it's a work of genius" I've wondered why the album has been nominated in the first place. Especially as the film isn't freely available.

I've had two listens now. That's two more than I wanted. I have never liked this band, no idea why, and it's not because of his voice. Nothing resonates with me. His murdering of Psycho Killer...I see what I did there...makes me not like them even more. Sure the backing singers are good but that's a moot point when the songs are so...light.

Weirdly, in a vinyl collection of over 3000, I don't have any Talking Heads. I had to check as well. Make of that what you will. It made me smile.

It's going to get a 1. Hateful record.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

What a load of pretentious twaddle. If that's the case anyone, armed with a decent backing band, can get in front of a microphone, belt out some unintelligible rubbish, and claim it's "art".

Yeah, mate. They can. People do it all the time.

Whether you like the art is a different question, and the answer is completely up to you.

That said, to the rest of your post . . . I have offered my staunch opposition on this thread to greatest hits and live records before, because the scores in context will almost definitionally be higher than original records. That's why artists produce greatest hits and live records in the first place.

In my own personal ranking of favo(u)rite records, I have separate categories for greatest hits, live records and EPs.

Bluntly, we shouldn't allow them here. That should be part of the rules.

So as much as I like this, when I score it I will will dock it a point to offset the natural grade inflation.

For the record, this is my favo(u)rite live record, my favo(u)rite greatest hits is the now-unavailable-in-any-form Lynryd Skynyrd album Gold and Platinum, and my favo(u)rite EP is REM's Chronic Town with an asterisk for New Order's 1981-1982 which is more a mini-LP than an EP.

 

[Coatigan]

Yeah, mate. They can. People do it all the time.

Whether you like the art is a different question, and the answer is completely up to you.

That said . . . I have offered my staunch opposition on this thread to greatest hits and live records before, because the scores in context will almost definitionally be higher than original records. That's why artists produce greatest hits and live records in the first place.

We shouldn't allow them. That should be part of the rules.

So as much as I like this, when I score it I will will dock it a point to offset the natural grade inflation.

I agree with you on the greatest hits. Don't really agree with live albums, assuming they aren't greatest hits to begin with. Although full live playthroughs of one album aren't that common. Live albums can go either way for me, and usually the extreme end of either.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I agree with you on the greatest hits. Don't really agree with live albums, assuming they aren't greatest hits to begin with. Although full live playthroughs of one album aren't that common. Live albums can go either way for me, and usually the extreme end of either.

While I am sure there are some that aren't, nearly all live albums are definitionally near-greatest hits. Unless a band was going to run through a single-record retrospective -- which is increasingly the fashion, I know -- why would you go and see them if they weren't going to play the songs you loved best?

 

[Coatigan]

While I am sure there are some that aren't, nearly all live albums are definitionally near-greatest hits. Unless a band was going to run through a single-record retrospective -- which is increasingly the fashion, I know -- why would you go and see them if they weren't going to play the songs you loved best?

I've been to see bands live that play through a single album plenty of times. Some playing their debut album, some their most recent, some a loved classic. They'll throw in the odd hit as an encore. Some bands, particularly in the folk scene, tend to release as many live albums as studio ones, as that is how they see the genre being done. I know a couple that have only ever released live albums, threespires happens to own one of them (I think).

 

[antspider]

Agree with greatest hits in album reviews , but as it’s here:
I love it , absolutely love Talking Heads ..
David Byrne , what can I say , erm love him ..
The only thing wrong with this record is that it’s not long enough .
10 out of 10 X

 

[BlueHammer85]

Greatest hits not allowed.
Live album allowed.
IMO.