Saddleworth2
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- Joined
- 27 Jan 2014
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The Album Review Club - Week #147 - (page 1942) - Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 27 Jan 2014
- Messages
- 21,704
OB1
Well-Known Member
AC/DC make the same song every time ;-) but my love for them has grown over the years and I have all their albums. I have several INXS ones too and saw them live a couple of times.
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 27 Jan 2014
- Messages
- 21,704
Is that a boast or a confession? ;-)
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Definitely a boast. I love INXS and I'm proud of it.
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Moving Pictures - Rush
Although their approaches to rock are wildly different, both Rush and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have similar trajectories in my own musical journey. I owned 2 or 3 of their albums in the late 80s\early 90s, I enjoyed listening to them, but neither were anywhere near my top 10 and I didn’t feel the need to investigate their back catalogue. Seems crazy now, but there you go.
In both cases it took me a long time to appreciate their respective genius: for Tom Petty, it was seeing the best music documentary ever made (Running Down A Dream) and in the case of Rush, reading Q Magazine on a flight to Gran Canaria. There was an interview with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who was talking about their new album, Snakes and Ladders (2007) and I decided it sounded like a decent buy. Crucially, I decided to make it a double purchase, along with Spirit of Radio – a compilation that covers the years 1974 – 1987.
I mention this because it’s crucial to my view on Moving Pictures, but I’ll just finish off by saying that in the years since that purchase I have listened to Rush’s entire back catalogue via Spotify and bought a good number of their albums. My favourites, weirdly, are Hold Your Fire and Clockwork Angels plus their more generally accepted highpoints 2112 and A Farewell to Kings.
No Moving Pictures you say? Well, yes and no. The thing about that Spirit of Radio compilation is that it’s a near-perfect track selection – almost every one of the 16 tracks is pretty much the best cuts from their respective albums (OK, no “Xanadu” but the running time was probably a bit long for a best of, and I’d have chosen one or more of the excellent shorter tracks from 2112, but these are minor quibbles). Moving Pictures gets three tracks: “Tom Sawyer”, “Red Barchetta” and “Limelight” and each of these tracks is superb. I love them all: the brooding synths on “Tom Swayer”, the unbridled joy of the rhythm and power chords in “Red Barchetta” and the crunchy brilliance of “Limelight” – you can play them all ten times in a row without getting bored.
The problem for me is the drop-off between these three and the other four. “YYZ” is a decent instrumental with some nice Middle-Eastern-influenced guitar, and I must admit that I enjoyed “Witch Hunt” and “Vital Signs” on this last listen more than I have ever done before, but “The Camera Eye” still feels like a waste of ten minutes. But nevertheless, I just can’t listen to these four tracks with anything like the enthusiasm I do for the best three.
I can understand why some will be put off by Geddy Lee’s vocals, it’s certainly an acquired taste, but it doesn’t bother me as much as whiny indie vocalists. At the same time, I’m always amazed that Rush’s technical brilliance seems to count against them. Whilst they have their longer self-indulgent tracks that don’t always come off, songs like “Red Barchetta”, “Limelight”, “Time Stand Still” and “Closer to the Heart” (amongst many others) have great melodies, thumping drums, groovy bass and joyous chords that mean you don’t have to be Chopin to get them.
Hearing the three tracks on the compilation has clearly skewed the way I listen to and appreciate Rush and this album in particular. If I’d have been in from the start like @OB1, I would probably have had a different view, but as it is, Moving Pictures has some tremendous plusses, a few solid songs and a few negatives, but 8/10 feels right for this.
Like Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Rush don’t have a single album that would be in my top 20 or 30 (maybe a couple of Tom Petty’s solo albums). Their best material is scattered across their entire catalogue, but both bands have produced so much superb material over the years that they both deserve their places on a very short list of the greatest rock bands of all time.
Although their approaches to rock are wildly different, both Rush and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have similar trajectories in my own musical journey. I owned 2 or 3 of their albums in the late 80s\early 90s, I enjoyed listening to them, but neither were anywhere near my top 10 and I didn’t feel the need to investigate their back catalogue. Seems crazy now, but there you go.
In both cases it took me a long time to appreciate their respective genius: for Tom Petty, it was seeing the best music documentary ever made (Running Down A Dream) and in the case of Rush, reading Q Magazine on a flight to Gran Canaria. There was an interview with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who was talking about their new album, Snakes and Ladders (2007) and I decided it sounded like a decent buy. Crucially, I decided to make it a double purchase, along with Spirit of Radio – a compilation that covers the years 1974 – 1987.
I mention this because it’s crucial to my view on Moving Pictures, but I’ll just finish off by saying that in the years since that purchase I have listened to Rush’s entire back catalogue via Spotify and bought a good number of their albums. My favourites, weirdly, are Hold Your Fire and Clockwork Angels plus their more generally accepted highpoints 2112 and A Farewell to Kings.
No Moving Pictures you say? Well, yes and no. The thing about that Spirit of Radio compilation is that it’s a near-perfect track selection – almost every one of the 16 tracks is pretty much the best cuts from their respective albums (OK, no “Xanadu” but the running time was probably a bit long for a best of, and I’d have chosen one or more of the excellent shorter tracks from 2112, but these are minor quibbles). Moving Pictures gets three tracks: “Tom Sawyer”, “Red Barchetta” and “Limelight” and each of these tracks is superb. I love them all: the brooding synths on “Tom Swayer”, the unbridled joy of the rhythm and power chords in “Red Barchetta” and the crunchy brilliance of “Limelight” – you can play them all ten times in a row without getting bored.
The problem for me is the drop-off between these three and the other four. “YYZ” is a decent instrumental with some nice Middle-Eastern-influenced guitar, and I must admit that I enjoyed “Witch Hunt” and “Vital Signs” on this last listen more than I have ever done before, but “The Camera Eye” still feels like a waste of ten minutes. But nevertheless, I just can’t listen to these four tracks with anything like the enthusiasm I do for the best three.
I can understand why some will be put off by Geddy Lee’s vocals, it’s certainly an acquired taste, but it doesn’t bother me as much as whiny indie vocalists. At the same time, I’m always amazed that Rush’s technical brilliance seems to count against them. Whilst they have their longer self-indulgent tracks that don’t always come off, songs like “Red Barchetta”, “Limelight”, “Time Stand Still” and “Closer to the Heart” (amongst many others) have great melodies, thumping drums, groovy bass and joyous chords that mean you don’t have to be Chopin to get them.
Hearing the three tracks on the compilation has clearly skewed the way I listen to and appreciate Rush and this album in particular. If I’d have been in from the start like @OB1, I would probably have had a different view, but as it is, Moving Pictures has some tremendous plusses, a few solid songs and a few negatives, but 8/10 feels right for this.
Like Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Rush don’t have a single album that would be in my top 20 or 30 (maybe a couple of Tom Petty’s solo albums). Their best material is scattered across their entire catalogue, but both bands have produced so much superb material over the years that they both deserve their places on a very short list of the greatest rock bands of all time.
Protein Junkie
Well-Known Member
stonerblue
Well-Known Member
Fuck me, going round in circles now.
mancity2012_eamo
Well-Known Member
Meh. They’re alright.