The Album Review Club - Week #147 - (page 1942) - Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Clarity: Phoenix Sessions - Jimmy Eat World
Probably a band I should like, but I haven't heard much of them other than their alternative radio hits off the more popular next album from 2001 I/we? struggled to guess.

Maybe I just missed them by 10 years in the 1990s? Jimmy Eat World Spotify Radio has other bands I like including The Smashing Pumpkins, Cold War Kids, The Strokes, Silversun Pickups, and The Killers, so just not sure why I've not checked them out more prior. Thanks to @Coatigan for well thought out clues and a worthy selection prior to that.

Wiki told me via an article review that despite being largely overlooked upon its release, Clarity's critical stature has grown since 1999; and it is now viewed as "the Led Zeppelin IV of emo rock". I don't think I'm there yet, but those are big shoes they're wearing assuming they actually fit!

Vocals-wise, and I'm still not sure what it is, but Jim Adkins' vocals neither offend nor grab me on most of the songs. I also think that's a big part of where some are sensing a sameness to the songs, because musically, this album is quite varied.

The songs I liked the most include:

"Lucky Denver Mint" - nice intro and catchy tune musically with a nice drum-led pace. Not as much lyrically or vocally, despite the band harmonies.

"Your New Aesthetic" - sounds of songs to come with "The Middle" in places

"A Sunday" - very nice tempo change and lyrics, I think Jim's vocals work best on this song vs the louder ones

"Just Watch The Fireworks" - I seem to be gravitating to the slower tracks where Jim's voice isn't trying to keep up with the faster beats and riffs. The solo was well done, a really nice song musically.

"For Me This Is Heaven" - another great all around number

"Blister" - the answer to the question posed within is 'an awfully long time'

"Clarity" - nice drums and guitar featured here, when it is just them in the verses

"Goodbye Sky Harbor" - a strong finale, bass driven, and another track that really worked musically and the vocals complimented it well. A nice way to end the album sans instruments.

I'm not sure it was "amazing" or "wonderful", but I did enjoy the YouTube video and could appreciate the music on the album, especially played straight through live. It's a solid 8/10 for me for introducing a band and album that is well respected in the emo realm and inspired a few of my favorite bands today.

In one week from tonight, Jimmy Eat World will be playing in my area with Fall Out Boy (another 3 word band I've not listened to). I'm not sure I need to get my tickets just yet, but I'm thinking about it.

 

[southamptonblue]

Early to bed (or that was the plan!) Early start tomorrow.....and just remembered for the 2nd week running to vote!
A few good songs, 2 to 4 in particular, overall very listenable, but whilst 'doing something' rather than 100% listening, if that makes sense (i wouldn't crash on the sofa and quietly singalong)...6.5.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Hmmmm...

3 listens in now and I'm still of the opinion that this is really not my bag.

It's the music to the tv series 'Friends'. Which I fucking hate. Badly acted, scripted by hundreds and quite bland. Oh my God...see how one of them suddenly 'smokes'. The horror of it all.

It's the music to the 'Friends' generation. The girls who had a certain haircut, the girls who thought the nasally tall one who voices a giraffe was 'sensitive' and the boys who thought that the two daft lads in it were funny. See how they move in together. Watch how they use facial expressions to convey a complete lack of acting talent. Stare in awe at how 4 such gormless individuals can afford to live in central Manhattan.

Now gasp at how their acting careers plummeted after the show finished. And the winner of the best actor goes to...none of them. Obviously.

Oh yes...the album.

Although not dull, nothing really happens. The blokes voice is probably the most inoffensive voice in the history of music. And yet annoying in a lot of places. And also very samey. It sounds like he's moaning about everything.

The music washed over me, pleasant enough in the background but I don't listen to music that way...I want it to jump out at me, a loud chorus here, a guitar solo there. This does nothing like that. Ever. It's full of whiney vocals and same old same old guitar work.

Any positives? All very talented musicians. I like the drumming on a few songs. The guitar on Your New Aesthetic is not bad. Believe In What You Want has a very strong start...hmmm...very recognisable...and then the whole song drops a level when the inoffensive singing starts. Goodbye Sky Harbour. Jam session filler alert.

I'd have loved to have my ears suddenly pricked up by something when it was blaring around the house yesterday but apart from the Believe In What You Want/No One Knows start nothing else did.

It's nothing to get all riled up about but the whole album just drones on and on and on and on and...you get the picture.

Bit like this review.

4/10

Just to defend Friends for a second — they got so rich they never really needed to work so I can’t gainsay them afterwards, but Jennifer Aniston certainly worked quite a bit afterwards, and I’ll have no criticisms of anyone in “Office Space”, and I actually thought their comic timing as a troupe was quite good, especially in the early years, and, yes, it’s a santiz(s)ed version of New York (where I am now in fact), and yes, an unrealistic one, and, yes, the guys are whin(g)y and annoying, and, yes, the kooky blonde one annoyed me too, and, yes, the manic Courtney Cox character annoyed me even further and anyway let’s discuss Jennifer Aniston again.

 

[journolud]

Well, there's nothing much wrong with this at all. And if that feels lke daming with feint praise maybe that's because it is. but it's not really meant to. There have been other nominations from this genre that haven't made much of an impression and having heard a fair bit of Blink182 through my son's love for them it's stuff I can pretty much take or leave.

This album though has made more of an impression. Whether that's because I've given it more listens, had the opportuntiy to play it louder, it's just better, who knows. It's far from perfect and I'm not likely to keep it on rotation and certain songs fell flat and the vocals aren't the best. But in moments, more than a few I found myself thinking this is OK.

The older I get the less likely I seem to be to be "moved" by music, well this sort of music so the angsty bits didn't really engage me. There are some good tunes in here though and to be fair some decent sentiments. Not sure about the opener but a decent run frm Lucky Denver Mint through to A Sunday, a bit of a sag but Just Watch the Fireworks and Blister ensure it doesn't just fade out and although Goodbye Sky Harbour could do with being a bit shorter it's also a decent ending.

At 54 minutes it's at the top end lengthwise for an album that didn't have me fully engaged. Lose a few tracks and get it down to 40 minutes this would probably have scored a point higher but as it is there's enough to like to give it a 7.

 

[RobMCFC]

Just a quick note, I'll be squeezing the round-up and changeover into a small window in a busy day, sometime between 12.30 and 13.00.

 

[GornikDaze]

Sorry for the brief review - I enjoyed this more than my first listen suggested! Opening track aside it was a decent listen. Solid 7/10

 

[BlueHammer85]

If I was creating some teenage vampire drama series - this would be my go to band. High school cheerleader falling in love with a handsome lad, both kissing under the moonlight before he sticks his fangs in her neck and then Jimmy Eat World come crashing in.
Apologise, got carried away there.

As previously mentioned, ‘Bleed American’ really surprised me how good it was with so many stand out tracks, this offering lacks stand out tracks but overall it is consistently good.

Some tracks do drag on abit and could be a chopped a couple minutes - especially ‘Goodbye Sky Harbor’ which become beyond tedious.
It’s a shame 12.23.95 has Christmas lyrics because it’s a lovely track and reminds me of Noel’s acoustic version of ‘Listen Up’.
‘Ten’, ‘Table For Glasses’ and ‘Just watch the fireworks’ are good enough for Bleed American.
Easy to forget this is all recorded live in one take such is the quality of musicianship.

7/10

 

[Coatigan]

If I was creating some teenage vampire drama series - this would be my go to band. High school cheerleader falling in love with a handsome lad, both kissing under the moonlight before he sticks his fangs in her neck and then Jimmy Eat World come crashing in.
Apologise, got carried away there.

As previously mentioned, ‘Bleed American’ really surprised me how good it was with so many stand out tracks, this offering lacks stand out tracks but overall it is consistently good.

Some tracks do drag on abit and could be a chopped a couple minutes - especially ‘Goodbye Sky Harbor’ which become beyond tedious.
It’s a shame 12.23.95 has Christmas lyrics because it’s a lovely track.
‘Ten’, ‘Table For Glasses’ and ‘Just watch the fireworks’ are good enough for Bleed American.
Easy to forget this is all recorded live in one take such is the quality of musicianship.

7/10

If there is a tv comparison there to be made, that one is probably far better and more appropriate than 'the friends generation', fucking lol. I can't say I am thrilled about it, but yeah I can very much see it.

Once again worth pointing out, it predeates the things it is being compared to that came later.

 

[BimboBob]

If there is a tv comparison there to be made, that one is probably far better and more appropriate than 'the friends generation', fucking lol. I can't say I am thrilled about it, but yeah I can very much see it.

Once again worth pointing out, it predeates the things it is being compared to that came later.

Of course they are a friends generation band. It's soft emo rock from the same era. Could have easily written the theme tune. And it's just as dull.

 

[threespires]

The template that makes a guitar sound not like a guitar even though you can tell it's supposed to be a guitar.
I'll bet there's a preset on ProTools and Ableton and what-not that does this.

Like I said: it doesn't ring, it doesn't buzz, it doesn't chime - it sounds processed in some way. I know a lot of guitar is processed, maybe even all guitar on modern albums, and even going back to 1987, I loved the other-worldly guitar sound on INXS's "New Sensation". But some of these more recent examples just sound horribly industrial and very unmusical.

Maybe McFly or Busted or Green Day invented it. Maybe it was the oft-blamed Foo Fighters: I don't know enough to pinpoint who started it, but I'm pretty sure it's a late 90s invention. Or maybe it's producers taking too heavy a hand in the process. Generally it's not a sound that I like.

You're going to love my next nomination!

(More seriously, I'll be very interested in your views on the production on my next pick and I don't mean that in a trolling way. The treatment of the guitars on it aren't one of the things that it's most known for but I think it's really interesting and one of the things that makes it what it is. Three kinds of organ too!).