The Album Review Club - Week #148 - (page 1953) - Sheer Heart Attack - Queen

[RobMCFC]

Thanks to everybody who took part. I hope everybody enjoyed listening to the playlist. I think it was an eclectic effort and I enjoyed most of what was on offer. The standouts for me were:-

"I Should've Known" - Aimee Mann - I've got the album (which is one of my favourites) and this lead-off track is brilliant.

"Sleeping Satellite" - Tasmin Archer - a great track that I remember fondly from the early 90s.

"All I Know" - Washed Out - An addicative listen, reminds me slightly of Beck.

"The Rat" - The Walkmen - Love the driving organ on this one.

"Remembering" - Avisahi Cohen - Emotional piano piece. Something different.

10 people voted, and only 3 people were brave enough to take a punt at the guesses, so well done to @Coatigan, @threespires and @mancity111

Guessers

1=	threespires	7
1=	Coatigan	7
3	mancity1(11)	5

Songs

	Nominator	Song	Artist	Total
1	journolud	The Rat	The Walkmen	48
2	Mancitydoogle	The Stairs	Family of the Year	40
3	FogBlueInSanFran	All I Know	Washed Out	35
4	bennyboy	I Should've Known	Aimee Mann	35
5	bennyboy	Weightless Again	The Handsome Family	34
6	OB1	Life’s Been Good	Joe Walsh	32
7	GoatersLeftShin	Amoureuse	Kiki Dee	31
8	stoneblue	Draft Daughter’s Blues aka Ootischenia	The Be Good Tanyas	25
9	Mancitydoogle	Just us Kids	James McMurtry	25
10	mancity1	Sleeping Satellite	Tasmin Archer	21
11	GornikDaze	The Wizard	Black Sabbath	19
12	FogBlueInSanFran	Three Of A Perfect Pair	King Crimson	18
13	mancity1	Parchman Farm	Cactus	17
14	RobMCFC	This is a Photograph II	Kevin Morby	15
15	threespires	Don't Fear Me Now	In Tua Nua	15
16	Coatigan	Remembering	Avishai Cohen	14
17	stoneblue	The Magnetic Fields	Strange Powers	14
18	GoatersLeftShin	Peaches En Regalia	Frank Zappa	14
19	threespires	Yuve Yuve Yu	The HU	13
20	BlueHammer85	Legendary	Welshy Arms	13
21	GornikDaze	Life’s A Gas	T-Rex	11
22	journolud	Light of Day	Woods	11
23	BlueHammer85	Live Forever (live acoustic)	Noel Gallagher	11
24	denislawsbackheel	America For Beginners	Latin Quarter	10
25	OB1	No Woman, No Cry (live)	Bob Marley	10
26	RobMCFC	Ft. Walton Wake-up Call	James McMurtry	10
27	Coatigan	Clear The Air	Off With Their Heads	6
28	denislawsbackheel	Heartstrings	Steve Forbert	2
29	Gareth Barry Conlon	Big Time Sensuality	Bjork	1
30	Gareth Barry Conlon	Big Energy	Latto	0

Nominators

	Nominator	Total
1	bennyboy	69
2	Mancitydoogle	65
3	journolud	59
4	FogBlueInSanFran	53

I was going to say that Coatigan wins the Clarkie award - he relentlessly dissed his own selections ...... but then threespires nailed him on both of them anyway!

 

[RobMCFC]

And of course, who picked what:-

threespires	Yuve Yuve Yu	The HU
GornikDaze	Life’s A Gas	T-Rex
RobMCFC	This is a Photograph II	Kevin Morby
stoneblue	Draft Daughter’s Blues aka Ootischenia	The Be Good Tanyas
FogBlueInSanFran	All I Know	Washed Out
mancity1	Sleeping Satellite	Tasmin Archer
journolud	Light of Day	Woods
Coatigan	Remembering	Avishai Cohen
OB1	Life’s Been Good	Joe Walsh
bennyboy	I Should've Known	Aimee Mann
denislawsbackheel	America For Beginners	Latin Quarter
BlueHammer85	Legendary	Welshy Arms
journolud	The Rat	The Walkmen
Coatigan	Clear The Air	Off With Their Heads
stoneblue	The Magnetic Fields	Strange Powers
Mancitydoogle	Just us Kids	James McMurtry
Gareth Barry Conlon	Big Energy	Latto
GornikDaze	The Wizard	Black Sabbath
GoatersLeftShin	Amoureuse	Kiki Dee
OB1	No Woman, No Cry (live)	Bob Marley
BlueHammer85	Live Forever (live acoustic)	Noel Gallagher
mancity1	Parchman Farm	Cactus
Mancitydoogle	The Stairs	Family of the Year
FogBlueInSanFran	Three Of A Perfect Pair	King Crimson
RobMCFC	Ft. Walton Wake-up Call	James McMurtry
Gareth Barry Conlon	Big Time Sensuality	Bjork
threespires	Don't Fear Me Now	In Tua Nua
bennyboy	Weightless Again	The Handsome Family
GoatersLeftShin	Peaches En Regalia	Frank Zappa
denislawsbackheel	Heartstrings	Steve Forbert

 

[threespires]

Given what an eclectic mix it was and whilst we wait for the next album, i'd be interested in people's reasons for their nominations for anyone who can be arsed to share.

In my case for The Hu I came across them as a result of an autoplay and was surprised how relatively popular they are. Still can't decide whether they are bang average with a novelty angle or whether that's me showing my prejudices against music that leans in part into it's own culture. Either way they seem to be doing alright and enjoying themselves.

For In Tua Nua I'm quite interested in bands that don't quite make it. It was a toss up between them and a band called Katydids who also didn't quite break through. In In Tua Nua's case I think they had an identity problem in that they had lots of genre influences but it wasn't ever clear what market they were going for. The other more crass reason was because someone mentioned Wendy James recently and I remembered that at the time people were getting hot under the collar about her I had a thing for Lesley Dowdall, the somewhat more demure lead singer of In Tua Nua!

 

[Coatigan]

I was going to say that Coatigan wins the Clarkie award - he relentlessly dissed his own selections ...... but then threespires nailed him on both of them anyway!

I guessed one of his, so I don't feel too bad about it. I did actually think of putting Tua Nua down for him, but I was left with a couple and Zappa didn't fit elsewhere. Journo also had me sussed out for one of them.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

I chose Latin Quarter because I love Steve Skaith’s repeated ability to produce musical, melodic polemic consistently throughout his career.

I chose Steve Forbert for his cover of George Gerdes song Heartstrings. It was from an online tribute show to Gerdes organised by Loudon Wainwright III after Gerdes death in 2022. Gerdes was a great influence on Forbert, Wainwright, Springsteen and many others. It has never been recorded which is why I could only link to YouTube.

 

[Mancitydoogle]

Sorry I didn’t have time for the guessing part, I think the two songs each was a bridge too far especially as a number of us went off piste.I would have got three correct, one of which I was given.
As to the reasons behind my choices, I’ve been a fan of James McMurtry for years
I think I first heard his song ‘Levelland‘ on Bob Harris.I get the comparisons with Lou Reed which tbh I hadn’t considered before ,although there’s the relatively simple song structures and it’s all about the lyrics which in both cases can be quite humorous.Being an FOC like a number of others on here ,’Just us Kids’ seemed apt.
Family of the Year are one of Mrs Ds favourite bands , they had a hit with ‘Hero’ from the same album, I thought ’The Stairs’ has a very summer vibe to it so ideal for a summer playlist.I was going to nominate them for a future album review,but you can investigate them yourselves now.

 

[Coatigan]

I count 8 guesses there Rob, but still out of 30 that's not something to be particularly proud of. Folk got that much when there were only 16 songs. Some seem more obvious in hindsight.

 

[journolud]

I nominated Woods, a band I first heard on an Uncut sampler CD a couple of years ago, not this particular track but one form the same album and I was absolutely blown away by it. They were quite unlike anything I'd ever heard and I was compelled to investigate further. Their very early stuff is quite low fi and I don't get so much from it but absolutely love their last few albums and thought it only fair to share.

The Walkmen track is a bit of a family favourite. I first heard it on Marc Riley's Radio 6 show where he announced it as possibly the best song ever. I wouldn't quite go that far but I did add it to my playlist on the way to a holiday in Wales. It was then picked up by my son who blasted it out of the shower everyday and often still does. I think it has great energy and attitude. It hasn't opened up the door to the Walkmen for me though, the rest of their's I've listened to has been OK but not outstanding.

I was hoping more for Woods to make a mark here to be honest but do I now mention that the Walkmen have given me my third consecutive win on these playlist threads? No, I won't mention it...

 

[Out on blue 6]

I nominated Woods, a band I first heard on an Uncut sampler CD a couple of years ago, not this particular track but one form the same album and I was absolutely blown away by it. They were quite unlike anything I'd ever heard and I was compelled to investigate further. Their very early stuff is quite low fi and I don't get so much from it but absolutely love their last few albums and thought it only fair to share.

The Walkmen track is a bit of a family favourite. I first heard it on Marc Riley's Radio 6 show where he announced it as possibly the best song ever. I wouldn't quite go that far but I did add it to my playlist on the way to a holiday in Wales. It was then picked up by my son who blasted it out of the shower everyday and often still does. I think it has great energy and attitude. It hasn't opened up the door to the Walkmen for me though, the rest of their's I've listened to has been OK but not outstanding.

I was hoping more for Woods to make a mark here to be honest but do I now mention that the Walkmen have given me my third consecutive win on these playlist threads? No, I won't mention it...

New Woods album out this Friday

 

[threespires]

I chose Latin Quarter because I love Steve Skaith’s repeated ability to produce musical, melodic polemic consistently throughout his career, like everyone else associated with education, I am a dangerous 'red under the bed' seeking to corrupt the next generation with cultural marxism (whatever the fuck that actually is).

Oops, sorry wrong forum.

More seriously, I agree and I think Steve Skaith is hugely underappreciated. I think something like Eddie is a fantastic example of his work, it's neither melodically or lyrically complex but it's bang on the money, very eloquent and spoke to a subject that 30 odd years later we continue to fail at.

I chose Steve Forbert for his cover of George Gerdes song Heartstrings. It was from an online tribute show to Gerdes organised by Loudon Wainwright III after Gerdes death in 2022. Gerdes was a great influence on Forbert, Wainwright, Springsteen and many others. It has never been recorded which is why I could only link to YouTube.

This ended up in my top ten too when it was nowhere near it after the first pass. You have a habit of nominating stuff that lacks immediacy but reveals it's merits through repeated listening.

You're still wrong about Kiki Dee though ;-)