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

How can a 9/10 record have songs you skip? You skip 17% of the tunes!

This is kind of my point about "overrated". At the least, it seems grade inflation.

If this is how I scored records, I have like 683 10/10s.

Sorry mate -- I don't mean to be harsh. Maybe it's just me, but any record with songs I'd skip is a 7 at best.

In fairness I think it depends on how many songs are on the album and if you skip out of general apathy instead of dislike.

I attempted to listen to the top 100 albums, got just over half way and had to give up. Too many average songs to get through. I would say albums that have nothing but great songs on are very very rare.
 
It's unbearably whingy, tuneless, hookless, slow, arid like a desert, pointless, ugly and vague.

It's horrifying. All that rock and roll should never be.

In my opinion. :)

If he'd written a line that said "like a Russian man in a tutu atop an iceberg" it'd at least be a simile worth discussing.
But apart from that it's amazing
 
C’mon , whilst this is a very good Fog inspired rant 1/10 is disingenuous and ruins the average score. Play fair!

Why is it disengenous ? Were you inside my head last night when I played it twice?

Why when I have been scrupulously fair about every album I've reviewed have I suddenly done this?

Have I fallen under the svengali like influence of Foggy?

I hadn't played or even property thought about this particular album for years prior to yesterday. I have listened to it quite a bit previously and tried to understand why it is so popular. Everytime I did I found myself disliking it a little bit more.

This is not an underconsidered opinion. If we want to discuss it I'm happy to say why I think it exemplifies the worst of the music industry and ironically actually quite a lot about modern life, particularly where the arts have gone in the last three decades but that will bleed into a political conversation that I suspect most want to keep this thread free from.

I will almost certainly never listen to this album again because what this round has done is remind me that all things considered I hate this album. If that's not a 1/10 I don't know what is.

And Rob for the avoidance of doubt I won't be rowing back so you can put my score in now.
 
The Album Review Club

The moment that many have dreamed of.


The current round of albums is due to conclude with a couple of new nominators. The person scheduled for this week’s nomination has asked for another week to put a write-up together. I then put out a call to the last nominator on the list but have so far not received a reply.

This creates a problem because I don’t want to have an end-of-round playlist with just two weeks of the current round to go. Neither do I want to kick off a new round (because I’m not quite ready!)

But then the perfect solution occurred to me. What would be a good way to make a great thread even better? Here are some relevant comments from a few of the music threads:-

“I'm sorry if I inadvertently helped derail the thread but if it does get nominated by someone I look forward to discussing it.”threespires

"Man, if this thread has a "norm" I'm not sure what it is! And that's what makes it great. And if you choose to select the hands-down most overrated record ever made, that would be fine :)." – FogBlueInSanFran

“I cannot think of another group that I have liked and then went downhill so fast.”bennyboy

“It’s all subjective anyway but the ultimate arbiter will be the Bluemoon vote.” – journolud

"Radiohead for me as a young teen was just a great rock/indie band that stood outside the mix of Britpop" – BlueHammer85

Middle-aged gentlemen and slightly older gentlemen, without further ado, I give you:-

OK Computer by Radiohead.


Editor’s Note

Please note that this is a bonus selection, and not my selection. I look forward to listening and reviewing because I’ve never heard it.

In some ways, this subverts the normal process: we take it in turns to put forward a record that means a lot to us, we bare our souls and try to explain how our lives are intertwined with the songs, and we wait for our fellow forumites to agree with us or point out how we have been wrong all these years.

However, Radiohead, and OK Computer in particular, have come up so often in the various discussions that it somehow feels wrong not to listen to this album as a collective. A little sluggishness on the part of some new nominators, plus some intense discussion ahead of the eagerly awaited return of the Bluemoon Cup, have conspired to produce a glorious window of opportunity.

I was too good an opportunity to turn down, like a beautifully arcing Kevin De Bruyne pass that lands invitingly at the feet of a certain goal-hungry Viking.

OK Computer may have regularly featured in the Champions League places of many a post-year-2000 poll, but how will it fare in the harsh crucible of the Album Review Club league table? As @journolud says, “It’s all subjective anyway but the ultimate arbiter will be the Bluemoon vote.”

So, I look forward to applying a bit of science and cool, calm perspective to prove or disprove @FogBlueInSanFran ’s assertion that this is the most overrated album ever made.

I trust that everybody will take their duty seriously and play nice. Having said that, let battle commence.
He he. I had to come back for this. I did wonder who would be brave/daft enough to propose it and it’s you Rob (under the pretence that it’s a filler you never listen to). Yeah right. At least own your passion man ;-).
If I’m honest, I owned it and liked it when released. Don’t play it anymore but have always been startled at the strong reaction to this band on here. I’m off to give it a few listens again and look forward to reading the hatchet jobs er reviews and will put my own analysis and score in.
 
I will 100 percent will come back to this post because this is my central problem with this band: getting super-rich while feeding the masses the hopeless cynicism you know will sell records while blissfully recording the fucking thing in a mansion owned by a B-actress whilst totting up your millions is the ULTIMATE in true cynicism and reckless selfishness. It’s nearly Trumpian.
So should they have a) written songs about surfing or b) recorded the album in a drug den and given all their proceeds to a charity for fallen teens?
 
He he. I had to come back for this. I did wonder who would be brave/daft enough to propose it and it’s you Rob (under the pretence that it’s a filler you never listen to). Yeah right. At least own your passion man ;-).
If I’m honest, I owned it and liked it when released. Don’t play it anymore but have always been startled at the strong reaction to this band on here. I’m off to give it a few listens again and look forward to reading the hatchet jobs er reviews and will put my own analysis and score in.
Honestly, I've never listened to it.

When I do listen to it, I may recognise one or two, but if that's the case, it will have been because I've heard it in the background on TV or film or when out and about.

I'm genuinely looking forward to hearing it for the first time given the poles-apart responses on this thread over the last few years.
 
This is not an underconsidered opinion. If we want to discuss it I'm happy to say why I think it exemplifies the worst of the music industry and ironically actually quite a lot about modern life, particularly where the arts have gone in the last three decades but that will bleed into a political conversation that I suspect most want to keep this thread free from.
Go on then. I’m genuinely interested.
 
Honestly, I've never listened to it.

When I do listen to it, I may recognise one or two, but if that's the case, it will have been because I've heard it in the background on TV or film or when out and about.

I'm genuinely looking forward to hearing it for the first time given the poles-apart responses on this thread over the last few years.
Hmmm. Methinks you do protest too much.

Rob, it’s ok to be open. We are all friends here. The only way to rid yourself of this is to confront it and share it with your pals - as you have done.

Seriously. I’m interested in your first impressions. But really, how could you have avoided this album. It must have been deliberate surely.
 
Hmmm. Methinks you do protest too much.

Rob, it’s ok to be open. We are all friends here. The only way to rid yourself of this is to confront it and share it with your pals - as you have done.

Seriously. I’m interested in your first impressions. But really, how could you have avoided this album. It must have been deliberate surely.
Before joining these forums 4 years ago, the way I've consumed music was:-

1. Read Q Magazine, and in later years, music sites on the internet.
2. Buy CDs based on a combination of these reviews and how they match my tastes.
3. Avoid anything that's overhyped.

Rule #3 is probably the main reason I've avoided it.

The unwritten rule that almost all UK indie is so far below US/Australian rock in terms of quality and execution is also a major factor.
 

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