The Album Review Club - Week #191 (page 1286) - Harlequin Dream - Boy & Bear

mrbelfry said:
Ooo he's a real guy! Did you know about him or did you Google baltimore musicians?
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Many years ago I had to occasionally travel to Baltimore for work....but sadly at no point did I hear about let alone encounter Abu the Flutemaker. I googled the Baltimore music scene to check I wasn't misremembering that it was quite a jazzy city, and two or three clicks later there he was. You've got to admit his outlook and 'mission' is pretty cool though.
 
Mancitydoogle said:
Got this when it first came out , I’m a sucker for VU sounding bands.
Still sounds good today even with the Lo Fi production, strangely like others I didn’t buy any of their other output although I like the odd recent single I’ve heard.

7.5/10
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This isn't lo-fi production at all.
Quite the opposite i think.
 
threespires said:
Many years ago I had to occasionally travel to Baltimore for work....but sadly at no point did I hear about let alone encounter Abu the Flutemaker. I googled the Baltimore music scene to check I wasn't misremembering that it was quite a jazzy city, and two or three clicks later there he was. You've got to admit his outlook and 'mission' is pretty cool though.
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Ha I was just thinking, bet Threespires has worked in Baltimore, doing one of the 9 million jobs he seems to have had.
 
Coatigan said:
Ha I was just thinking, bet Threespires has worked in Baltimore, doing one of the 9 million jobs he seems to have had.
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Think of it like trying to get round the 92 league grounds. Sadly I reckon I'm getting a bit too long in the tooth to complete my Continents by getting a gig in Africa. That said if anyone on here has contacts there in need of some very innovative Ed Tech then I'm your man :-)
 
LGWIO said:
On my frequent trips into Donegal I am often left with no radio save for Highland Radio. It does a great job of informing you of mass times and that Finbar has passed his HGV test....but I would also suggest that their average listener would indeed think Enya was cool and cutting edge.

AS for this week I think I may actually have something by The Fall but only as they covered "Victoria". As soon as I saw this I thought it was going to be a tough week for @RobMCFC
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The best line from the Pitch Meeting series of YouTube shorts, describing popular movies; to wit:

The Lord of The Rings -- Return of the King

"Elrond also tells Aragorn what's going on with Arwen."
"Which one is Arwen again?"
"Oh she's the one who's like, you know, if Enya's music was a person."

I've played Totale's Turns (first I heard them -- my college roommate owned it and it took me a bit but I recall thinking it was okay -- kind of similar to PIL's Flowers of Romance which he also owned) and think I recall I Am Kurious Oranj and know "Hit The North", "Roche Rumble" etc.

I feel for @RobMCFC but my empathy is slightly reduced by his Radiohead selection just to provoke discussion (read: irritate me) not long after I picked Screaming Blue Messiahs just because I thought he'd like it :) :)

Seriously, I don't recall Rob really teeing off on a record -- he's normally quite kind and generous. I'd really like to see him let loose on one he doesn't like. C'mon Rob -- time to go medieval as we say!

I can be objective here as -- as I mentioned to Rob earlier -- I kind of have a thing for bands who formed before they learned/as they were just learning to play their instruments.
 
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threespires said:
May I refer the Honourable Member for the Bay Area to the review on page 1184 and respectfully request that he corrects the record.
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Phhht, that doesn't count -- EVERYONE hated that piece of shit.

:) :) :) :)

Edit: I actually gave it a 5 and said in an earlier post that I thought the detractors were far too dismissive, FWIW :)
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Seriously, I don't recall Rob really teeing off on a record -- he's normally quite kind and generous. I'd really like to see him let loose on one he doesn't like. C'mon Rob -- time to go medieval as we say!
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Stick around and you might find out.

I assume the album threespires mentions was The Streets, which I gave 1/10 so must have laid into that one.

There are certain things in music that really get to me in a bad way, The Streets was one and this week’s choice will almost certainly be another.
 
RobMCFC said:
Stick around and you might find out.

I assume the album threespires mentions was The Streets, which I gave 1/10 so must have laid into that one.

There are certain things in music that really get to me in a bad way, The Streets was one and this week’s choice will almost certainly be another.
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While it wasn’t my favo(u)rite, it deserved a better score than this group gave it IMO. I like miniature stories. I likened it to Seinfeld — I.e. a “show about nothing.”
 
RobMCFC said:
Stick around and you might find out.

I assume the album threespires mentions was The Streets, which I gave 1/10 so must have laid into that one.

There are certain things in music that really get to me in a bad way, The Streets was one and this week’s choice will almost certainly be another.
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You are not a fan of poetry then?
 
Mr Grumpy said:
You are not a fan of poetry then?
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Not really, the odd line here and there. But I wouldn’t describe AFDCFF as anything like poetry. It’s too jarring and alienating to make me feel anything. It did make my lip curl into a snarl, but that’s not a good reaction.
 
Live at the Witch Trials by The Fall is an album where all the individual elements sound poo but when added together it creates a compost that is nice and warm in the middle.

Opener "Frigthened" reminded me of Black Sabbath and Inside by Stiltskin but miraculously it was saved by Mark E Smith's vocals and delivery with a little bit of help of the bassline. There are a couple of lines that are fun and delivered with the appropriate inflection. My favourite was "I feel trapped by mutual affection" and this line will be added to the many IDLES lyrics i blurt out randomly ("date night").

Crap Rap 2/Like To Blow starts with my weakness. I will never fail to love a band that shouts themselves out in the intro and they also seemed to succesfully intergrated into the song the noise my car makes when Ive left my head lights on and opened the door. Im assuming potatos in packs are crisps and im here for it. 2 minutes of perfection.

Rebellious Jukebox seems like a fan favourite and has a nice shouty chorus. No Xmas for John Quays seems to be a song about a guy who thinks he is cool because he takes drugs. Without this song theres a good chance the Artic Monkeys dont exist. It is chaotic in all the good ways.

Mother - Sister! is a banger. Is it about suicide? Creepy backing vocals that freak me out everytime. Industrial Estate also slaps in a Jilted John style. There is some of the attitude I felt was missing from The Housemartins album. Has a super 8bit ending. Lovely.

Underground Medecin is also a good time but I'm beginning to suspect the keyboard player is just repeatedly smashing their forehead into the keys. This album was apparently recorded in one day and I wonder if they would have fixed some of this stuff if they had more time.

Two Steps Back has the keyboard player smashing one finger into the keys and some intriguing lyrics. Theres a little bit of me that doesnt want to dig too deep in case Mark E Smith has unfashionable views. Got a kind of futuristic vibe.

No clue what is going on in Live At The Witch Trials but i love every minute. Fantastic name for an album.

Futures and Pasts has a nice groove and again im intrigued by the lyrics. Good drumming on this one.

Music Scene loses the album a point for the misogynistic word. I really hate women being called that word. I find it super demeaning and hate filled. I will clutch my handbag and understand that being offensive is part of the charm i guess. Keyboard player gets bored and imagines they are in the Doors.

It has always been an ambition to explore the world of the Fall but it always seemed complicated. Like trying to learn the alphabet by calculating pi to 100 decimal places. This is my first concentrated foray and it has left me curious. I feel like i need a map or a mentor though. I liked it but im not quite ready to love it. 7-1=6

I've got a busy couple of days coming up so needed to crank the opinions out quick. I may end up liking it more but I think musically it's all pretty familiar and it's unlikely to surprise me in the way the Lau album did. This by the way has a far superior album cover
 
RobMCFC said:
Stick around and you might find out.

I assume the album threespires mentions was The Streets, which I gave 1/10 so must have laid into that one.

There are certain things in music that really get to me in a bad way, The Streets was one and this week’s choice will almost certainly be another.
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The Streets one I could get, why that would be so divisive. This one though, I can't. Not at the moment anyway, one listen in.
 
RobMCFC said:
Stick around and you might find out.

I assume the album threespires mentions was The Streets, which I gave 1/10 so must have laid into that one.

There are certain things in music that really get to me in a bad way, The Streets was one and this week’s choice will almost certainly be another.
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I still think the biggest insult to anything I have read here was from Fog.

When he compared something to Foo Fighters. Boke. Oh the dagger through the heart, would rather have had it compared to decayed dogshit! ;)
 
Coatigan said:
I still think the biggest insult to anything I have read here was from Fog.

When he compared something to Foo Fighters. Boke. Oh the dagger through the heart, would rather have had it compared to decayed dogshit! ;)
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Did I?

I know it may not be popular here but I LIKE Foo Fighters. Might have to nominate a record of theirs in fact. I own the first six I think. But the best one (by a long way) is the The Colour and The Shape IMO, followed by the first one; the remainder are uneven and have gotten increasingly uneven. The last few have been not even uneven -- they are not good. In concert they should just do their best early songs half the show and then play covers the second half -- they are good at that.
 
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