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

Saddleworth2 said:
@RobMCFC I'm going to absent myself from this and the other music thread for a couple of weeks until things settle at chez Sadds. I have been trying to listen to music but am getting zero pleasure from it at the moment so its not fair to score anything. Sorry @denislawsbackheel
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No problem, totally understandable. Time to focus on Mrs Sadd and best wishes to you both.

Just drop a note in here or on a PM when you are ready to resume.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
@RobMCFC I'm going to absent myself from this and the other music thread for a couple of weeks until things settle at chez Sadds. I have been trying to listen to music but am getting zero pleasure from it at the moment so its not fair to score anything. Sorry @denislawsbackheel
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Think I was there this summer.
All the best mate.
 
I've not listened to Roy Harper before, but have heard the name so it was nice to hear something by him.

He's clearly a very good songwriter and musician and the songs and album were well put together. I think "How Does It Feel" was the best track on the album. I also thought "Another Day" and "Francesca" were very good too.

I generally enjoyed the album, but didn't feel that there was maybe enough to make me want to play it again. I think I'd need to be in a quiet/reflective mood on a dark winters night to really enjoy this one.

Overall, when I was listening to it I found it was another album where I was thinking he sounded like a Nick Drake and David Gates singer songwriter. That's a compliment, as I love both of these two, but I wasn't sure that Harper enough enough "hooks" in the music to make me want to listen to him over the others.

Overall I'm glad I gave it a go, it's a decent album but I'd have to be in a particular mood to go back to this one.

6/10
 
It certainly helps a lot that I first listened to this record while driving to the airport for an 11 PM flight, when the roads were quiet and dark. This is record for the quiet and dark, and though quiet, it isn't dark. What distinguishes this from other folk-rock (or whatever you want to call the genre) isn't so much the lyrics/topics, nor even Roy's voice, which has a gentle waver that belies some power and quite a bit of earnest emotion underneath it. It's the beauty of the guitar work -- in some places nearly power chords, in others gentle little riffs. The point is that it's never put second to the vocals nor the lyrics, not once. In every song the underlying MUSIC could nearly stand on its own without the words. This isn't Dylan -- it's middle-career Paul Simon, who had to care about guitar work when he lost Art Garfunkel because Pauls' voice is thin, and without Garfunkel, he lost his harmonic soar. Granted, Paul's (IMO) a better lyricist than Roy, but the idea is the same: guitar has to matter too. Folk's a lot less pretentious and more interesting when guitar matters. Granted, sometimes other instruments add texture in spots (the strings on "Another Day", e.g.), but it's why Roy can put "Hells Angels" on the end of this and while it's quite clearly out of place (and not that interesting, though it's okay), you can see how easy the journey is from what comes before to this point. Or take the quirkiness of the guitar on "Song of the Ages" -- something no mere folk singer who focused only on the declamatory would offer up -- not even one attempting to add a bit of pyschedelic flair to already semi-psychedelic lyrics.

These aren't the high points for me, though. The pinnacle is "How Does It Feel", which has such a tremendously glorious Pete Townshend/Roger Daltrey bridge and chorus that I got literal goosebumps. It's so rousing and beautiful. This song is an absolute triumph. I think played it half a dozen times in succession just so I could enjoy it. In fact, it's so good, I didn't want to listen to much else because even though I very much liked "Don't You Grieve" and "Tom Tiddler's Ground", they hit your ears on a pleasant level . . . but not your soul.

I could have done without the monologue before "I Hate The White Man" but it's not because of the content or even because it interrupts the flow -- it just frankly wasn't very interesting. The interspersed studio chatter that horns in once in awhile I kind of like. Todd Rundgren's "Something/Anything" -- a record I love -- is chock full of it, and I think it takes an air of seriousness out, which with folk music is (for me) always a plus (and why I tend to enjoy Dylan's somewhat more comic turns of phrase more than his more "serious" tunes).

Some of the songs here are fine enough ("Davey" e.g.) but not intriguing the ways others are, and I'm not sure I'll play this whole record much as it's not usually mood-supportive, but when I AM ready to lie quietly in a dark room and just kind of disappear into myself, this is very much a record I'll want to have at my eartips.

I really think 7 is my honest score for the entire work. But I can't get over "How Does It Feel", and I'm not sure I will. As such -- 8/10.

Yet another wonderful experience brought about by this thread. Thanks @denislawsbackheel.
 
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His previous album,” Folkjokeopus”, was made up of similar shortish songs. Standouts being She’s the One and the epic McGoohan’s Blues. I prefer the period after “Flat, Baroque and Berserk”. He started making albums with longer epic songs with some outstanding guitar work. In particular I recommend “Stormcock” and “HQ”.
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
I've not listened to Roy Harper before, but have heard the name so it was nice to hear something by him.

He's clearly a very good songwriter and musician and the songs and album were well put together. I think "How Does It Feel" was the best track on the album. I also thought "Another Day" and "Francesca" were very good too.

I generally enjoyed the album, but didn't feel that there was maybe enough to make me want to play it again. I think I'd need to be in a quiet/reflective mood on a dark winters night to really enjoy this one.

Overall, when I was listening to it I found it was another album where I was thinking he sounded like a Nick Drake and David Gates singer songwriter. That's a compliment, as I love both of these two, but I wasn't sure that Harper enough enough "hooks" in the music to make me want to listen to him over the others.

Overall I'm glad I gave it a go, it's a decent album but I'd have to be in a particular mood to go back to this one.

6/10
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Nick Drake did cross my mind.
 
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