GornikDaze
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Agree about the prices. Not seeing Metallica at Download this week for that very reason.
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The Album Review Club - Week #146 - (page 1935) - Ocean Rain - Echo and the Bunnymen
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
GornikDaze
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Apologies I read it as one is too old not the other way round… it’s my eyesight ;)It was more of a rhetorical question this led me to thinking about, than a point or a side. Similar to 'is it music'.
Onholiday(somemightsay)
Well-Known Member
Pics or it never happened........... ;-)Unsurprisingly dance ain’t ma thang. I recognised lots of this album from the ceiling shaking 20 odd years ago when my eldest used to play it at brain damaging volumes and then huff when I told him to turn the bloody stuff down. Despite that, I didn’t hate it on being reacquainted and can well understand it’s attraction for some. Hell I even owned a fat boy slim album once. 5/10.
journolud
Well-Known Member
Can anyone knock off an album of this sort of stuff? At it's worst it just seems that they've randomly selected a twiddly bit on the old Mellatron or whatever it is and then added another jingly motif to endlessly repeat or occasionally a phrase or two. I struggled to like a lot of it but to be fair there were also times when I thought it was OK, well to drive along to.
My ambivalence is pretty much encapsulated in the first track which starts annoyingly before settling into something that sounds like music before then going on too long. After the first couple I was wanting something with a bit more like a traditional song structure, some words and singing but then we had (presumably) Bernard Sumner singing and I wished I hadn't wished for it. The one with the female singer wasn't much better from a vocal point of view but Noel Gallaghers was decent.
I'm skipping between writing this and reading about the album on Wikipedia and interested to read that they had gone for a Spiritualised sound on Sunshine Underground because this had obviously been effective. I've only ever really heard one Spiritualised album but this track did put me in mind of them. Just as I was getting bored with it it shifted gear as well and I wish there had been more like that on the album. I quite liked Get Glint as well but overall this didn't do much for me. I think it's too harsh to say it's without merit, it's not aimed at the likes of me and really there aren't too many albums that are so cynical and lazy that they can be considered without merit. As an exercise though and because I have to rate it and because, well I didn't really like it that much I can only give it 5.
My ambivalence is pretty much encapsulated in the first track which starts annoyingly before settling into something that sounds like music before then going on too long. After the first couple I was wanting something with a bit more like a traditional song structure, some words and singing but then we had (presumably) Bernard Sumner singing and I wished I hadn't wished for it. The one with the female singer wasn't much better from a vocal point of view but Noel Gallaghers was decent.
I'm skipping between writing this and reading about the album on Wikipedia and interested to read that they had gone for a Spiritualised sound on Sunshine Underground because this had obviously been effective. I've only ever really heard one Spiritualised album but this track did put me in mind of them. Just as I was getting bored with it it shifted gear as well and I wish there had been more like that on the album. I quite liked Get Glint as well but overall this didn't do much for me. I think it's too harsh to say it's without merit, it's not aimed at the likes of me and really there aren't too many albums that are so cynical and lazy that they can be considered without merit. As an exercise though and because I have to rate it and because, well I didn't really like it that much I can only give it 5.
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
I’m a little behind this week but will at least have a few comments and score, this band being quite a bit up my street. Will say I had no idea they’d done “Let Forever Be” — instantly recognizable and a song I always liked when I heard it but had never researched!
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
In some ways I kind of feel like that guy on the cover here on this thread, being what I perceive to be one of the only dance music fans who frequents here on a relative basis. So it was a delight to spend some time with this record, especially given how much I enjoy “Dig Your Own Hole.” As with Moby and Fat Boy Slim, there’s a bit of a one-great-record-is-enough element to dance/techno/house/rave (however you want to term this genre) that made me apprehensive, but that turned out not to be an issue in that there were enough terrific grooves and typical CB quirkiness to be at least as enjoyable as DYOH. And the foray into actual songs and some tempo/melody changes beyond all-techno adds a good amount of flavo(u)r and colo(u)r. Highlights are the opener, Let Forever Be (hi Noel), Under The Influence and Out of Control (hi Bernie) though I tend to think all could have been shortened a tad. Sunshine Underground, the title track and Got Glint? also gave me a kick as well as the hit (though I certainly know other CB songs better than Hey Boy Hey Girl). About the only nodder was Asleep From Day. All that said, while this is a very consistent record, there wasn’t a true stand out the way other techno bands often roll out an iconic piece — at least not to my ears. I know I might get thread-banned for saying it, but if Darude can come up with Sandstorm — a song that cannot be extricated from one’s brain after hearing it — I hope for something like that from CBs every time out. Between a 7 and an 8 for me, but I’m rounding up because it’s about bloody time we had some kinetic energy here. Well done @BlueHammer85! 8/10
Hey, who’s up for some clubbing? Let’s gooooo!
Hey, who’s up for some clubbing? Let’s gooooo!
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
While I disagree this was a fun review to read (after I wrote mine). Just to spite you, I’m blasting The Prodigy out my window as I write :) What’s that? LOUDER you say? Okay . . .Surrender – The Chemical Brothers
@BlueHammer85: Did you discover this lot before or after Dylan, The Beatles and Oasis?
When reviewing Leonard Cohen’s Death of a Ladies’ Man on this thread, I said that I had “utmost respect for anybody who can listen to this more than once. This is anti-music.” Well, I’ve saved myself the bother of thinking too much about what to write here because all of that applies again.
However, unlike Cohen’s effort, there’s no flat, dull singing, no embarrassing and misogynistic lyrics and no awful production! In fact, I even recognised and enjoyed (a relative term, obviously) the song “Let Forever Be”. There were a couple of moments in other song where I found myself thinking “that was a clever change of pace”.
Part of my dislike of this album is the lack of proper instruments and that “human performance element”. It’s undoubtedly a great technical achievement, but technological achievement is good in the space race, medical advances and home entertainment, but not in performance art. Obviously, the music comes first, but as I said before, I have to feel that what I’m listening to is from the artists’ heart and has that sense of a real performance with real instruments. There are the occasional “club” tracks that I like (e.g. the sensational Hey! Douglas track I posted above, or the Masterchef p***take by Swedemason) but the tracks on offer here didn’t hit anything like those heights.
A lot of the songs on this album remind me of the “music” that tossers play at two distinct volumes from their car windows (1. Far too loud and 2. Even louder). I have a thing about that, and I think it’s disrespectful. I’ll admit that that has also coloured my response to this album.
’m fine for people to listen to this in a club or at some festival, but if you want to listen to it outside of that, it should be confined to your headphones where you can’t bother anybody else.
I’m glad that I’ve enjoyed some of Blue Hammer’s other selections – I even gave The Smiths a six. But in this case, it’s better than the Leonard Cohen choice but worse than everything else that’s been nominated, so 3/10 it is.
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
I LOVE that song. LOVE it.Now that is a classic.
BlueHammer85
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In some ways I kind of feel like that guy on the cover here on this thread, being what I perceive to be one of the only dance music fans who frequents here on a relative basis. So it was a delight to spend some time with this record, especially given how much I enjoy “Dig Your Own Hole.” As with Moby and Fat Boy Slim, there’s a bit of a one-great-record-is-enough element to dance/techno/house/rave (however you want to term this genre) that made me apprehensive, but that turned out not to be an issue in that there were enough terrific grooves and typical CB quirkiness to be at least as enjoyable as DYOH. And the foray into actual songs and some tempo/melody changes beyond all-techno adds a good amount of flavo(u)r and colo(u)r. Highlights are the opener, Let Forever Be (hi Noel), Under The Influence and Out of Control (hi Bernie) though I tend to think all could have been shortened a tad. Sunshine Underground, the title track and Got Glint? also gave me a kick as well as the hit (though I certainly know other CB songs better than Hey Boy Hey Girl). About the only nodder was Asleep From Day. All that said, while this is a very consistent record, there wasn’t a true stand out the way other techno bands often roll out an iconic piece — at least not to my ears. I know I might get thread-banned for saying it, but if Darude can come up with Sandstorm — a song that cannot be extricated from one’s brain after hearing it — I hope for something like that from CBs every time out. Between a 7 and an 8 for me, but I’m rounding up because it’s about bloody time we had some kinetic energy here. Well done @BlueHammer85! 8/10
Hey, who’s up for some clubbing? Let’s gooooo!
Phew, An 8 might save this from bottom place!
Just on the ‘wasn’t a true stand out’ that sticks in the brain - Surely ‘Hey Boy Hey Girl’ does ? And ‘Out Of Control’ … both unforgettable tunes that are firmly lodged in my brain cells.
Other than that, nice review!
While we wait for the changeover or any final reviews, a bit of a longer term question. How do people feel about a nomination of 2EPs (Vol1 and vol2) in place of one album. The total play time is 52 minutes, and they are kind of part of a set. Or would it have to be just the one or the other at circa 25 minutes each.