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

[RobMCFC]

That's . . . not helpful :)

Sorry, the chorus really grated with me and set my teeth on edge.

 

[threespires]

Sorry, the chorus really grated with me and set my teeth on edge.

I agree, most annoying sing on there imo. Sounded like cheap parody to me; fortunately it got better though.

 

[GornikDaze]

And this is their/his/her most accessible work? It was a struggle to listen to - been away for a few days and it turns out YT on trains isn’t easy. Not normally a problem on Spotify.
Just found it incoherent in the general sense of the word. Thankfully the Zappa references were for me wide of the mark and the great man’s reputation remains untarnished.
I gave The Streets a 1/10 so as we can go no lower I’ll give this the same. Met an old school mate in London earlier who saw Einstürzende Neubauten recently - I’ll use them to cleanse my ears for the rest of my journey!

 

[mrbelfry]

I'm genuinely sorry I have put so many people through such difficult moments this week. I'm seriously reconsidering what my next pick should be as I feel like I owe you all some reperations. Has anyone nominated Life Thru A Lens yet?

 

[BlueHammer85]

I think the rule has to be on Spotify otherwise select something else.
YouTube is just to inaccessible for a few of us when our only listening time is on the go, travelling etc.

 

[threespires]

I'm genuinely sorry I have put so many people through such difficult moments this week. I'm seriously reconsidering what my next pick should be as I feel like I owe you all some reperations. Has anyone nominated Life Thru A Lens yet?

Just looked up what that album is, you're not funny ya know :-)

There's been a lot of good discussion already so job's a good 'un (admittedly not all of it connected to the album but on the plus side I now know what a kitchen caddy is, so selfishly I'm happy).

Serious question, do you think you got answers to the questions you posed? I haven't seen anyone objecting to the subject matter as such. The overall opacity of the lyrics it seems people have struggled with.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Apparently everyone else hated this record, but I have a bit of a different view.

I didn’t love it, but I certainly liked certain tunes, and as an ensemble of pieces I do appreciate it, and even admire it, and I suspect were one to pull together an hour of the best of what is clearly a prolific and talented artist who could not give less of a crap what anyone thinks, I suspect I would find it very listenable indeed. I respect the passing by of the mass market by an artist who could embrace it if he wished for a message (or is it a “puzzle”, as he put it?).

I’ve expressed my view of hip-hop – and lo-fi hip-hop especially – several times before. I was around in the mid/late 80s to hear the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy burst onto the scene (and both produced great records, as did De La Soul and others), but once (rightfully) copyright laws prevented future artists from sampling anything and everything at will for free, hip-hop became very dry for me musically.

But this isn’t purely hip-hop, and it isn’t dry. It’s varied stylistically, and infused with all sorts of found sounds and synth bits as well as the periodic power chord and avant-jazz horn passages, which means song-to-song it isn’t dull. That said, within each song, I didn’t always find the execution to be as varied – at over an hour, with a lot of songs at 4 minutes plus, there’s a droning that wasn’t always appealing (kind of like a hymn in church).

Tune-wise, there were a few that rang my chimes, not the least of which was “ill-im-i”, which pretty much leaves all Soul-Junk’s hip-hop chops on the table. “Judah” was an unexpected surprise – it reminded me of one of my favo(u)rite indy bands, Superchunk, and after several slow walks through some less-than-interesting territory, it’s bracing in a good way. “Pumpfake” is not only a neat little title, but to run the lyrics over a little bit of string chamber music is innovative. Finally, the closer “Pish Posh”, with its bouncy variations, embraces that house/club sound I often enjoy, and pretty much takes the band’s name to heart.

Though proselytizing comes with very clearly defined negative overtones for me, I had no real issue with the religious underpinning (or drive) because the lyrics and rhymes are often clever, quick and non-stop. As with most hip-hop I like, I always want to go back and track the content bit by bit, like poetry, to pick up the puns and quirks. Once again, the context of the way we do things here – with only a week to review – is a drawback as I just didn’t have the time, and the YouTube format and length wasn’t as easily consumable either.

Shorter, tighter, faster – when Soul-Junk hits these marks, this is intriguing and fun, but when it drones, it’s more ignorable, just as Jesus’ parables are more interesting than his sermons. This record could be skinnied down to a higher score, but as is, it’s between a 5 and a 6/10. But on uniqueness alone, I will go 6/10, and save my half a point YouTube docking for the next record not on Spotify. A bold selection and while I’d hoped for a bit better payoff, it’s still worth my time, even if others want to dismiss it (which is okay too).

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I'm genuinely sorry I have put so many people through such difficult moments this week. I'm seriously reconsidering what my next pick should be as I feel like I owe you all some reperations. Has anyone nominated Life Thru A Lens yet?

Well, I for one was glad to hear it and while some of it wasn't my thing (or that good), there were several passages that very much were. Maybe someone can string together a greatest hits some day -- there's innovation and talent there that is probably spread a bit thinly just because he's got so many records.

 

[mrbelfry]

Apparently everyone else hated this record, but I have a bit of a different view.

I didn’t love it, but I certainly liked certain tunes, and as an ensemble of pieces I do appreciate it, and even admire it, and I suspect were one to pull together an hour of the best of what is clearly a prolific and talented artist who could not give less of a crap what anyone thinks, I suspect I would find it very listenable indeed. I respect the passing by of the mass market by an artist who could embrace it if he wished for a message (or is it a “puzzle”, as he put it?).

I’ve expressed my view of hip-hop – and lo-fi hip-hop especially – several times before. I was around in the mid/late 80s to hear the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy burst onto the scene (and both produced great records, as did De La Soul and others), but once (rightfully) copyright laws prevented future artists from sampling anything and everything at will for free, hip-hop became very dry for me musically.

But this isn’t purely hip-hop, and it isn’t dry. It’s varied stylistically, and infused with all sorts of found sounds and synth bits as well as the periodic power cord and avant-jazz horn passages, which means song-to-song it isn’t dull. That said, within each song, I didn’t always find the execution to be as varied – at over an hour, with a lot of songs at 4 minutes plus, there’s a droning that wasn’t always appealing (kind of like a hymn in church).

Tune-wise, there were a few that rang my chimes, not the least of which was “ill-im-i”, which pretty much leaves all Soul-Junk’s hip-hop chops on the table. “Judah” was an unexpected surprise – it reminded me of one of my favo(u)rite indy bands, Superchunk, and after several slow walks through some less-than-interesting territory, it’s bracing in a good way. “Pumpfake” is not only a neat little title, but to run the lyrics over a little bit of string chamber music is innovative. Finally, the closer “Pish Posh”, with its bouncy variations, embraces that house/club sound I often enjoy, and pretty much takes the band’s name to heart.

Though proselytizing comes with very clearly defined negative overtones for me, I had no real issue with the religious underpinning (or drive) because the lyrics and rhymes are often clever, quick and non-stop. As with most hip-hop I like, I always want to go back and track the content bit by bit, like poetry, to pick up the puns and quirks. Once again, the context of the way we do things here – with only a week to review – is a drawback as I just didn’t have the time, and the YouTube format and length wasn’t as easily consumable either.

Shorter, tighter, faster – when Soul-Junk hits these marks, this is intriguing and fun, but when it drones, it’s more ignorable, just as Jesus’ parables are more interesting than his sermons. This record could be skinnied down to a higher score, but as is, it’s between a 5 and a 6/10. But on uniqueness alone, I will go 6/10, and save my half a point YouTube docking for the next record not on Spotify. A bold selection and while I’d hoped for a bit better payoff, it’s still worth my time, even if others want to dismiss it (which is okay too).

Thanks for giving it a considered review. I value your opinion highly

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Thanks for giving it a considered review. I value your opinion highly

Of course. I am on record wishing we had two weeks to review records, with a new record every week (so you always have two to listen to but two weeks to do them), but I recogniz(s)e that's unwieldy too. I wanted more time -- and a lyric sheet! I think my wife would really like this, btw -- going to play some for her on our drive home from Oregon this weekend and listen again to the whole thing.