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

Saddleworth2 said:
we could have a party!
Click to expand...
Not sure Foggy will come after this:

Chappell Roan

I thought Foggy’s gave a heartfelt plea in his review that filled me with such hope for this week’s entry.
Something totally new to me that promises to be individual and edgy.
A fabulous review from MrBelfry and again a heartfelt reply from Foggy had me intrigued again and relieved that I hadn’t jumped in with my own offerings on the subject of this album, after just one listen.
However after two listens and another wonderful review from Rob, I found myself thinking, ‘“I’m glad it’s not just me”.
Ron’s words are resonating with what I got from this offering.
So three listens in and has anything changed?
In short, No!

My overriding emotion is disappointment. I feel almost let down from the wonderful expectations I had. Genuine expectations.
I was rooting for this girl. I was rooting for her alter ego. I was rooting for the album and most of all I was rooting for Foggy.

Remember when milk came in bottles and was left on your doorstep each morning. I remember on cold winter’s mornings collecting the milk from the porch and bringing it in, opening it fresh and pouring the cold cream that had risen to the top onto my mother’s freshly made hot porridge.
It wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste, but the fact of the matter, is that whatever your taste and how use it, the cream always rose to the top.

Then came milk in cartons in the supermarket and they mixed the cream evenly throughout the contents.
The milk was homogenised.

Homogenous, what does it mean.
Various definitions, but generally;
consisting of parts or elements that are all the same. Something that is homogenous is uniform in nature or character throughout. Homogenous can also be used to describe multiple things that are all essentially alike or of the same kind.

Milk is homogenised.what else?
Well something Rob mentioned. Slurry.

Where am I going with this? How can this be described as homogenous when you consider the subject matter. The lyrics.well there’s where part of my confusion lay when reading back the notes I took on each listen.
The fact is on every listen, the lyrics were lost on me.
Yes I heard the odd curse here and there and the sexual nature of her wanting to fuck all around her from time to time, but in all honesty, the meaning was lost in a homogenous technical musical treatment that I’ve heard from so many other acts from Madonna all the way up to Katy Perry, Taylor Swift now and god knows who in between.

This is most definitely not aimed at me, a 61year old, I would like to think eclectically influenced consumer, who is not taken in by style over substance and I don’t believe I ever was. That goes for Prince too, who I’ll openly admit was a talented individual with a fairly unique sound, but I just wanted him to stick to the music.

This girl can sing. There is something there and the album was very listenable, but three songs in and I was yawning thinking is this it. There nothing new here. I’m not easily shocked, I’ve been around since Zappa et al, for Christ’s sake, but this stuff isn’t shocking.
She seems to be emulating dross that I don’t like anyway.
A few expletives don’t make this any less ordinary.

It wasn’t until the song ‘Coffee’ that I said, hold on this is different.
And three listens the same reaction too. The girl actually does have something individual in there.
Again a strange thing to say. Considering how individual she is supposedly trying to be.

I thought ‘Casual’ carried on the revival and then Super Graphic brought us back to the Slurry.
Picture You picked things up again and Pink Pony Club almost broke out of the techno prison.



There is no doubt there is meaning in this album , but it is totally drowned out for me by the lack of individual musical style.

The example I’ll give is the Christine and the Queens album I have on in the background as I type this. Paranoia, Angels, True Love. Explicit stuff in there too but it’s as far away from homogenous pop as you can get.
Won’t be everyone’s cuppa either.

I definitely hear Lana Del Rey in Roan’s voice and would have loved to hear more individual expression in her musical style to go with it.

Another paradox for me is the dishonesty of what she is marketing as honesty, in my opinion. I think she is hiding in this homogenous pop synthesised theme that is bland and ultimately sucked the enjoyment out of this for me.

MrBelfry made a number of really good points but the one that struck me as something I had not put down to Eurovision, but that’s as good an example as you’ll get I suppose.
I don’t know what is normal in America anymore. I grew up thinking that you were the bastions of liberal live and let live attitudes although I’m well aware that it doesn’t apply to everywhere in the states.
But certainly California would be considered liberal.

Ireland certainly has gone through societal changes in my lifetime and I would consider none of the content in this album as shocking whatsoever.
I’m not asking the girl to get over it, but here, Homosexuality was ultimately decriminalised in 1993, followed in 2010 by the expansion of rights for LGBTQIA+ couples with the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. In 2015, Ireland legalised same sex marriage through a referendum – a global first through popular vote.

This stuff isn’t shocking. In fact I see it as not quite cowardly, but certainly not courageous enough to step beyond what she sees as commercially advantageous. I have not checked the back story of the girl as I really have not had my interest raised and I’ve no doubt I’m probably doing her a disservice.

But at the end of the day, I see Foggy as being braver than she is in nominating something close to his own family values, than she is for marketing this as something new.

A generous 6/10. She can sing.

Attachment.png
 
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mancity2012_eamo said:
Not sure Foggy will come after this:

Chappell Roan

I thought Foggy’s gave a heartfelt plea in his review that filled me with such hope for this week’s entry.
Something totally new to me that promises to be individual and edgy.
A fabulous review from MrBelfry and again a heartfelt reply from Foggy had me intrigued again and relieved that I hadn’t jumped in with my own offerings on the subject of this album, after just one listen.
However after two listens and another wonderful review from Rob, I found myself thinking, ‘“I’m glad it’s not just me”.
Ron’s words are resonating with what I got from this offering.
So three listens in and has anything changed?
In short, No!

My overriding emotion is disappointment. I feel almost let down from the wonderful expectations I had. Genuine expectations.
I was rooting for this girl. I was rooting for her alter ego. I was rooting for the album and most of all I was rooting for Foggy.

Remember when milk came in bottles and was left on your doorstep each morning. I remember on cold winter’s mornings collecting the milk from the porch and bringing it in, opening it fresh and pouring the cold cream that had risen to the top onto my mother’s freshly made hot porridge.
It wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste, but the fact of the matter, is that whatever your taste and how use it, the cream always rose to the top.

Then came milk in cartons in the supermarket and they mixed the cream evenly throughout the contents.
The milk was homogenised.

Homogenous, what does it mean.
Various definitions, but generally;
consisting of parts or elements that are all the same. Something that is homogenous is uniform in nature or character throughout. Homogenous can also be used to describe multiple things that are all essentially alike or of the same kind.

Milk is homogenised.what else?
Well something Rob mentioned. Slurry.

Where am I going with this? How can this be described as homogenous when you consider the subject matter. The lyrics.well there’s where part of my confusion lay when reading back the notes I took on each listen.
The fact is on every listen, the lyrics were lost on me.
Yes I heard the odd curse here and there and the sexual nature of her wanting to fuck all around her from time to time, but in all honesty, the meaning was lost in a homogenous technical musical treatment that I’ve heard from so many other acts from Madonna all the way up to Katy Perry, Taylor Swift now and god knows who in between.

This is most definitely not aimed at me, a 61year old, I would like to think eclectically influenced consumer, who is not taken in by style over substance and I don’t believe I ever was. That goes for Prince too, who I’ll openly admit was a talented individual with a fairly unique sound, but I just wanted him to stick to the music.

This girl can sing. There is something there and the album was very listenable, but three songs in and I was yawning thinking is this it. There nothing new here. I’m not easily shocked, I’ve been around since Zappa et al, for Christ’s sake, but this stuff isn’t shocking.
She seems to be emulating dross that I don’t like anyway.
A few expletives don’t make this any less ordinary.

It wasn’t until the song ‘Coffee’ that I said, hold on this is different.
And three listens the same reaction too. The girl actually does have something individual in there.
Again a strange thing to say. Considering how individual she is supposedly trying to be.

I thought ‘Casual’ carried on the revival and then Super Graphic brought us back to the Slurry.
Picture You picked things up again and Pink Pony Club almost broke out of the techno prison.



There is no doubt there is meaning in this album , but it is totally drowned out for me by the lack of individual musical style.

The example I’ll give is the Christine and the Queens album I have on in the background as I type this. Paranoia, Angels, True Love. Explicit stuff in there too but it’s as far away from homogenous pop as you can get.
Won’t be everyone’s cuppa either.

I definitely hear Lana Del Rey in Roan’s voice and would have loved to hear more individual expression in her musical style to go with it.

Another paradox for me is the dishonesty of what she is marketing as honesty, in my opinion. I think she is hiding in this homogenous pop synthesised theme that is bland and ultimately sucked the enjoyment out of this for me.

MrBelfry made a number of really good points but the one that struck me as something I had not put down to Eurovision, but that’s as good an example as you’ll get I suppose.
I don’t know what is normal in America anymore. I grew up thinking that you were the bastions of liberal live and let live attitudes although I’m well aware that it doesn’t apply to everywhere in the states.
But certainly California would be considered liberal.

Ireland certainly has gone through societal changes in my lifetime and I would consider none of the content in this album as shocking whatsoever.
I’m not asking the girl to get over it, but here, Homosexuality was ultimately decriminalised in 1993, followed in 2010 by the expansion of rights for LGBTQIA+ couples with the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. In 2015, Ireland legalised same sex marriage through a referendum – a global first through popular vote.

This stuff isn’t shocking. In fact I see it as not quite cowardly, but certainly not courageous enough to step beyond what she sees as commercially advantageous. I have not checked the back story of the girl as I really have not had my interest raised and I’ve no doubt I’m probably doing her a disservice.

But at the end of the day, I see Foggy as being braver than she is in nominating something close to his own family values, than she is for marketing this as something new.

A generous 6/10. She can sing.

View attachment 129982
Click to expand...
Great review!! Loved the simile/metaphor and how you approached this. Really good stuff!

I think the Eurovision/America issue is a very good one to bring up. The Puritans left your country, and others, and came here. We’ve been saddled with them ever since. So we’re repressed as a nation about campiness and the LGBTQ community. That’s what’s “normal” here — except that this nation has literally every conceivable pocket of difference you can think of. And then on top of that this artist was forced into Christian summer camps — and that created some serious need-to-get-outism (and away-from-motherism) in CR whether because of her sexual orientation or because she just wanted to get the hell out of bumfuck hick Missouri and its stifling dullness, lack of opportunity and familial overhang.

So apart from my kid, to us Yanks generally, the freedom of expression — again, whether an act or not — means more to us culturally because we’re lagging (and probably always will) in our acceptance of sexual and gender identity. FFS we’re arresting women for having out of state abortions. Fuck that shit.

Which brings up another lurking motivation of mine, unsaid and semi-conscious: this record feeds a political narrative I and many others are desperate to see take hold immediately, especially given the alternative. We can’t pretend that isn’t part of the reason for its success too among a broader base than its intended audience (if indeed there was any narrow intended audience).
 
Last edited:
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Great review!! Loved the simile/metaphor and how you approached this. Really good stuff!

I think the Eurovision/America issue is a very good one to bring up. The Puritans left your country, and others, and came here. We’ve been saddled with them ever since. So we’re repressed as a nation about campiness and the LGBTQ community. And then on top of that this artist was forced into Christian summer camps — and that created some serious need-to-get-outism (and away-from-motherism) in CR whether because of her sexual orientation or because she just wanted to get the hell out of bumfuck hick Missouri and its stifling dullness, lack of opportunity and familial overhang.

So apart from my kid, to us Yanks generally, the freedom of expression — again, whether an act or not — means more to us culturally because we’re lagging (and probably always will) in our acceptance of sexual and gender identity. FFS were arresting women for having out of state abortions. Fuck that shit.

Which brings up another lurking motivation of mine, unsaid and semi-conscious: this record feeds a political narrative I and many others a desperate to see take hold immediately, especially given the alternative. We can’t pretend that isn’t part of the reason for its success too among a broader base than its intended audience (if indeed there was any narrow intended audience).
Click to expand...
Four words I was saving, but seems well appropriate now: "we're not going back!"
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
Not sure Foggy will come after this:

Chappell Roan

I thought Foggy’s gave a heartfelt plea in his review that filled me with such hope for this week’s entry.
Something totally new to me that promises to be individual and edgy.
A fabulous review from MrBelfry and again a heartfelt reply from Foggy had me intrigued again and relieved that I hadn’t jumped in with my own offerings on the subject of this album, after just one listen.
However after two listens and another wonderful review from Rob, I found myself thinking, ‘“I’m glad it’s not just me”.
Ron’s words are resonating with what I got from this offering.
So three listens in and has anything changed?
In short, No!

My overriding emotion is disappointment. I feel almost let down from the wonderful expectations I had. Genuine expectations.
I was rooting for this girl. I was rooting for her alter ego. I was rooting for the album and most of all I was rooting for Foggy.

Remember when milk came in bottles and was left on your doorstep each morning. I remember on cold winter’s mornings collecting the milk from the porch and bringing it in, opening it fresh and pouring the cold cream that had risen to the top onto my mother’s freshly made hot porridge.
It wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste, but the fact of the matter, is that whatever your taste and how use it, the cream always rose to the top.

Then came milk in cartons in the supermarket and they mixed the cream evenly throughout the contents.
The milk was homogenised.

Homogenous, what does it mean.
Various definitions, but generally;
consisting of parts or elements that are all the same. Something that is homogenous is uniform in nature or character throughout. Homogenous can also be used to describe multiple things that are all essentially alike or of the same kind.

Milk is homogenised.what else?
Well something Rob mentioned. Slurry.

Where am I going with this? How can this be described as homogenous when you consider the subject matter. The lyrics.well there’s where part of my confusion lay when reading back the notes I took on each listen.
The fact is on every listen, the lyrics were lost on me.
Yes I heard the odd curse here and there and the sexual nature of her wanting to fuck all around her from time to time, but in all honesty, the meaning was lost in a homogenous technical musical treatment that I’ve heard from so many other acts from Madonna all the way up to Katy Perry, Taylor Swift now and god knows who in between.

This is most definitely not aimed at me, a 61year old, I would like to think eclectically influenced consumer, who is not taken in by style over substance and I don’t believe I ever was. That goes for Prince too, who I’ll openly admit was a talented individual with a fairly unique sound, but I just wanted him to stick to the music.

This girl can sing. There is something there and the album was very listenable, but three songs in and I was yawning thinking is this it. There nothing new here. I’m not easily shocked, I’ve been around since Zappa et al, for Christ’s sake, but this stuff isn’t shocking.
She seems to be emulating dross that I don’t like anyway.
A few expletives don’t make this any less ordinary.

It wasn’t until the song ‘Coffee’ that I said, hold on this is different.
And three listens the same reaction too. The girl actually does have something individual in there.
Again a strange thing to say. Considering how individual she is supposedly trying to be.

I thought ‘Casual’ carried on the revival and then Super Graphic brought us back to the Slurry.
Picture You picked things up again and Pink Pony Club almost broke out of the techno prison.



There is no doubt there is meaning in this album , but it is totally drowned out for me by the lack of individual musical style.

The example I’ll give is the Christine and the Queens album I have on in the background as I type this. Paranoia, Angels, True Love. Explicit stuff in there too but it’s as far away from homogenous pop as you can get.
Won’t be everyone’s cuppa either.

I definitely hear Lana Del Rey in Roan’s voice and would have loved to hear more individual expression in her musical style to go with it.

Another paradox for me is the dishonesty of what she is marketing as honesty, in my opinion. I think she is hiding in this homogenous pop synthesised theme that is bland and ultimately sucked the enjoyment out of this for me.

MrBelfry made a number of really good points but the one that struck me as something I had not put down to Eurovision, but that’s as good an example as you’ll get I suppose.
I don’t know what is normal in America anymore. I grew up thinking that you were the bastions of liberal live and let live attitudes although I’m well aware that it doesn’t apply to everywhere in the states.
But certainly California would be considered liberal.

Ireland certainly has gone through societal changes in my lifetime and I would consider none of the content in this album as shocking whatsoever.
I’m not asking the girl to get over it, but here, Homosexuality was ultimately decriminalised in 1993, followed in 2010 by the expansion of rights for LGBTQIA+ couples with the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. In 2015, Ireland legalised same sex marriage through a referendum – a global first through popular vote.

This stuff isn’t shocking. In fact I see it as not quite cowardly, but certainly not courageous enough to step beyond what she sees as commercially advantageous. I have not checked the back story of the girl as I really have not had my interest raised and I’ve no doubt I’m probably doing her a disservice.

But at the end of the day, I see Foggy as being braver than she is in nominating something close to his own family values, than she is for marketing this as something new.

A generous 6/10. She can sing.

View attachment 129982
Click to expand...

Minor correction, Scotland was the first to legalise gay marriage in February 2014. You'll thank me one day when that's a tie breaker in a pub quiz ;)

The rest was a great read.
 
Last edited:
mancity2012_eamo said:
Was that by popular vote.
Did you have a referendum?
Click to expand...

Probably, we seem to have one of those for fucking everything! But I see, well if I win a pub quiz on that detail, I shall thank you instead. It was by popular vote, i.e voting in a party that promoted it and then delivered it.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
Not sure Foggy will come after this:

Chappell Roan

I thought Foggy’s gave a heartfelt plea in his review that filled me with such hope for this week’s entry.
Something totally new to me that promises to be individual and edgy.
A fabulous review from MrBelfry and again a heartfelt reply from Foggy had me intrigued again and relieved that I hadn’t jumped in with my own offerings on the subject of this album, after just one listen.
However after two listens and another wonderful review from Rob, I found myself thinking, ‘“I’m glad it’s not just me”.
Ron’s words are resonating with what I got from this offering.
So three listens in and has anything changed?
In short, No!

My overriding emotion is disappointment. I feel almost let down from the wonderful expectations I had. Genuine expectations.
I was rooting for this girl. I was rooting for her alter ego. I was rooting for the album and most of all I was rooting for Foggy.

Remember when milk came in bottles and was left on your doorstep each morning. I remember on cold winter’s mornings collecting the milk from the porch and bringing it in, opening it fresh and pouring the cold cream that had risen to the top onto my mother’s freshly made hot porridge.
It wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste, but the fact of the matter, is that whatever your taste and how use it, the cream always rose to the top.

Then came milk in cartons in the supermarket and they mixed the cream evenly throughout the contents.
The milk was homogenised.

Homogenous, what does it mean.
Various definitions, but generally;
consisting of parts or elements that are all the same. Something that is homogenous is uniform in nature or character throughout. Homogenous can also be used to describe multiple things that are all essentially alike or of the same kind.

Milk is homogenised.what else?
Well something Rob mentioned. Slurry.

Where am I going with this? How can this be described as homogenous when you consider the subject matter. The lyrics.well there’s where part of my confusion lay when reading back the notes I took on each listen.
The fact is on every listen, the lyrics were lost on me.
Yes I heard the odd curse here and there and the sexual nature of her wanting to fuck all around her from time to time, but in all honesty, the meaning was lost in a homogenous technical musical treatment that I’ve heard from so many other acts from Madonna all the way up to Katy Perry, Taylor Swift now and god knows who in between.

This is most definitely not aimed at me, a 61year old, I would like to think eclectically influenced consumer, who is not taken in by style over substance and I don’t believe I ever was. That goes for Prince too, who I’ll openly admit was a talented individual with a fairly unique sound, but I just wanted him to stick to the music.

This girl can sing. There is something there and the album was very listenable, but three songs in and I was yawning thinking is this it. There nothing new here. I’m not easily shocked, I’ve been around since Zappa et al, for Christ’s sake, but this stuff isn’t shocking.
She seems to be emulating dross that I don’t like anyway.
A few expletives don’t make this any less ordinary.

It wasn’t until the song ‘Coffee’ that I said, hold on this is different.
And three listens the same reaction too. The girl actually does have something individual in there.
Again a strange thing to say. Considering how individual she is supposedly trying to be.

I thought ‘Casual’ carried on the revival and then Super Graphic brought us back to the Slurry.
Picture You picked things up again and Pink Pony Club almost broke out of the techno prison.



There is no doubt there is meaning in this album , but it is totally drowned out for me by the lack of individual musical style.

The example I’ll give is the Christine and the Queens album I have on in the background as I type this. Paranoia, Angels, True Love. Explicit stuff in there too but it’s as far away from homogenous pop as you can get.
Won’t be everyone’s cuppa either.

I definitely hear Lana Del Rey in Roan’s voice and would have loved to hear more individual expression in her musical style to go with it.

Another paradox for me is the dishonesty of what she is marketing as honesty, in my opinion. I think she is hiding in this homogenous pop synthesised theme that is bland and ultimately sucked the enjoyment out of this for me.

MrBelfry made a number of really good points but the one that struck me as something I had not put down to Eurovision, but that’s as good an example as you’ll get I suppose.
I don’t know what is normal in America anymore. I grew up thinking that you were the bastions of liberal live and let live attitudes although I’m well aware that it doesn’t apply to everywhere in the states.
But certainly California would be considered liberal.

Ireland certainly has gone through societal changes in my lifetime and I would consider none of the content in this album as shocking whatsoever.
I’m not asking the girl to get over it, but here, Homosexuality was ultimately decriminalised in 1993, followed in 2010 by the expansion of rights for LGBTQIA+ couples with the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. In 2015, Ireland legalised same sex marriage through a referendum – a global first through popular vote.

This stuff isn’t shocking. In fact I see it as not quite cowardly, but certainly not courageous enough to step beyond what she sees as commercially advantageous. I have not checked the back story of the girl as I really have not had my interest raised and I’ve no doubt I’m probably doing her a disservice.

But at the end of the day, I see Foggy as being braver than she is in nominating something close to his own family values, than she is for marketing this as something new.

A generous 6/10. She can sing.

View attachment 129982
Click to expand...
So you liked it. 6 is an above average score.
 
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