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

Had a listen to this tonight but to be honest, it's a real head-scratcher this one!

There's parts of this that I like but I can't help but feel that he's not quite sure what he wants to sound like though. In my mind, he's trying to aim at something or some kind of style but is either not quite able to pull it off or isn't quite sure what he wants to hit. I was hoping that one of the songs would hit the nail, so to speak, but after the album finished I was left a bit 'deflated' in that there was something missing.

I couldn't quite tell what he was singing about and I had a look at the lyrics but it felt a bit word-soup on being misunderstood or having some 'big problems' to solve. It felt like he was trying to be profound but in all honesty, it could've been anyone writing them as they didn't connect with me.

It's a strange one this as I suspect, in the future, if he can find the sound then it might be one to listen too. There's definitely something there but I felt, for me, the negatives out-weighed the positives. I'm glad I've listened to it though and I wouldn't be surprised to come back to one of his albums later in his career.

4/10
 
Mr Grumpy said:
Well,
1st pass done (headphones).

Ooh.

Starts off ok, but quickly becomes an over extended and over sung gay homage to Lady Chatterley's lover.
One thing the headphones does is puts everything into sharp focus, the lyrics become sickly and the singing becomes irritating. I can't comment on the music because it didn't seem to be of any substance.

The lyrics especially are annoying me and this album is clearly all about the lyrics.
I think they are two much. Had this been a heterosexual album, i would be complaining that it's just outright obscene.
It's a album about shagging dressed up as one about love. Overly clever lyrics just make it worse.

Those are the initial thoughts anyway. I'll give it a few more spins and then post my review.
Click to expand...
Had another spin of this and my views are not changing for the better.
A X-Factor singer, over singing and over promoted with a recording contract.

I agree with everything said by everyone previously.

4/10. Interesting concept but nothing more.
 
RobMCFC said:
Whilst we all agree that it's not really about the scoring, I think it's worth mentioning that AGDCFF's spot at the foot of the table is in serious danger.

Part of me thinks that this is what mrbelfry was aiming for :)
Click to expand...
I scored AGDCFF higher, listened to it AGAIN this past week just to make sure, and I still feel that way. We can't help who was available to score them each week...
 
RobMCFC said:
Whilst we all agree that it's not really about the scoring, I think it's worth mentioning that AGDCFF's spot at the foot of the table is in serious danger.

Part of me thinks that this is what mrbelfry was aiming for :)
Click to expand...

If he wants a race to the bottom I might need to reconsider my decision not to offer up Shatner's Has Been, an album I own and am willing to mount a (sort of) defence of!! His version of Common People made one of the threads somewhere on here last week.

I now have a quandary in that I'm going to score this week's pick somewhat higher than others. If that looks like a perverse attempt to keep bottom spot, it's not, I think this album though a long way from perfect has merit. If I had to guess Belfry's intentions it's about mixing things up and getting a bit of left field discussion going which is good imo.
 
Last edited:
Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
I scored AGDCFF higher, listened to it AGAIN this past week just to make sure, and I still feel that way. We can't help who was available to score them each week...
Click to expand...


Online music magazine Pitchfork placed A Grand Don't Come for Free at number 129 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.
Music magazine NME placed the album at number 16 on their list of "top 50 albums of the noughties"

Universally and by most critics it is pretty much acclaimed. Shame it got a tonking on here.
 
BlueHammer85 said:
Online music magazine Pitchfork placed A Grand Don't Come for Free at number 129 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.
Music magazine NME placed the album at number 16 on their list of "top 50 albums of the noughties"

Universally and by most critics it is pretty much acclaimed. Shame it got a tonking on here.
Click to expand...
The artist would likely see that a badge of honour :)
 
BlueHammer85 said:
Online music magazine Pitchfork placed A Grand Don't Come for Free at number 129 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.
Music magazine NME placed the album at number 16 on their list of "top 50 albums of the noughties"

Universally and by most critics it is pretty much acclaimed. Shame it got a tonking on here.
Click to expand...
Yes, but the objective here is to see if we like the album - does it sound good to us?

The object of Pitchfork is to look cool and attract clicks, and of NME to look cool and sell magazines.
 
RobMCFC said:
Whilst we all agree that it's not really about the scoring, I think it's worth mentioning that AGDCFF's spot at the foot of the table is in serious danger.

Part of me thinks that this is what mrbelfry was aiming for :)
Click to expand...
Genuinely like the album a lot. Whilst it may be an achievement to have the lowest ranked album it would be pretty unfair on people's time and energy to purposefully pick something that I didn't really like just to get that spot :) I hope I demonstrated my good intentions in my nomination post.

There are a couple of albums that I do really like that I think would score ok though I'm hesitant to nominate them because I think most responses would be "yeah its OK. 6" and it would be a little milquetoast week. There is always a chance then that I'll pick low scoring albums but I'll only pick something I like that I think is worthy of the nomination.
 
RobMCFC said:
Yes, but the objective here is to see if we like the album - does it sound good to us?

The object of Pitchfork is to look cool and attract clicks, and of NME to look cool and sell magazines.
Click to expand...
They probably also hear a lot of stuff that sounds the same so probably overrate the novel
 
This is a mixed bag which I've enjoyed a fair amount. By a 'mixed bag' I don't mean in terms of variable song quality as they are fairly consistent; more a combination of good and less good that permeates the whole album.

On the plus side, it's trying to do something interesting sonically. Less obvious chord progressions, interesting harmonies, weird modulations etc. I've already said I think his voice is pretty strong. It is repetitive but I've come to the conclusion that's deliberate and perhaps less pronounced than in first listens. E.g I'm beginning to think that dynamically it's not samey, just very subtle possibly too subtle for it's own good. If you listen hard there is a sense of the songs building. Despite the sparseness being deliberate there's still something missing with the musical accompaniment to his voice. I think musically my biggest bug bear can be summed up by the phrase 'enough with the chromatics' in that he employs a number of nice techniques to create an off-kilter and other worldly sound but sometimes overdoes it which is a shame because it creates a sense of repetitiveness that probably isn't deserved. He does the same thing with some of his vocal tricks too.

Lyrically this left me a bit cold. There's a few elements to this. Firstly I've never felt the need to have the intimate details of someone's sex life laid bare for me whatever their sexuality. It's not the exclusive focus of this album so it's more a minor irritant, though I rather suspect there's some stuff that's simply going over my head. My bigger issue is relatability, not in relation to his sexuality but more about our relative points in life. He's at point in his where he wants to explore and articulate his feelings about love, relationships and sex. Moreover, he's got quite a complicated background with lots of contradictions in play to try and work through and reconcile.

In contrast I'm at the point in life where if I'm offered a night of rampant passion or a cup of hot chocolate, then serious discussion on the quality of the cocoa has to be undertaken before any final decision can be made. Equally my life doesn't seem to have been particularly complex to date either, whether thats because I'm relatively privileged in the scheme of things or a bit repressed who knows? Probably a bit of both. Either way there's a level of intensity and drama in his lyrics that simply doesn't resonate with me. Add in the fact that some of his lyrics and imagery are a bit gauche and I find myself zoning them out quite a lot. They're not detracting, they're just not adding anything which leaves me feeling that as a collection of songs it slightly underperforms. Even so I had no problem putting this on it providing a pleasing soundscape. The musical choices create a bit of tension but after a bit of familiarity I found they settled into a nice faintly 'spiritual' sounding groove.

Though enjoyable enough there's often a sense of him not quite pulling it off so I listened to his second album to see what that was like. Unfortunately on first listen he's dialled it back too much and it seemed more conventional and the worse for it.

I think it's fairly obvious that this is an album of self-exploration both musically and seemingly at some other level. For all it's flaws it's feels authentic and in a world where an algorithmic approach too often snuffs out creativity I think this is to be applauded. What it lacks in relatability (for me) and occasionally in execution it makes up for in terms of ambition which is my basis for giving it 7/10.
 
Last edited:
RobMCFC said:
Yes, but the objective here is to see if we like the album - does it sound good to us?

The object of Pitchfork is to look cool and attract clicks, and of NME to look cool and sell magazines.
Click to expand...

Of course, but for a well renowned critically acclaimed (UK) album - was a shame to see it didn’t click with most on here and sits bottom place imo.
 
mrbelfry said:
They probably also hear a lot of stuff that sounds the same so probably overrate the novel
Click to expand...
Yes, I must admit I’ve come to that conclusion before.

If you are listening and reviewing for a living, there’s only so many indie, rock or country albums you can listen to before getting fed up.

And it be clear, I didn’t really think that you were aiming for the bottom of the table.
 
I'm afraid that I cannot really get past the fact that this lacks any real hooks or tunes or times when any of my body wants to move to it.
Just when you think there may be something there it gets overshadowed by the voice. I also cannot seem to get past him trying to mimic Mariah and her warbling.
I was on nights over the weekend and put this on in the office. A couple of my team mates commented, as I have mentioned that I partake in this thread to them, with the general comment being,"theres not alot to it".
I often feel very hypocritical reviewing albums that I dont particularly get on with, due to my complete lack of musical skill or deep understanding of what it takes to create something. Therefore I usually start with a base mark of 4 to allow for the simple creation of music/tunes and the vocals...Sadly half of that is missing for me here and so its a 2 from the Derry jury. Not one I will be looking to revisit or seek out more of.
 
RobMCFC said:
The object of Pitchfork is to look cool and attract clicks, and of NME to look cool and sell magazines.
Click to expand...
Perhaps, but as I’ve noted before critics have listened to an exponentially higher number of records than we have, and an exponential of an exponential in styles/categories we here tend not to traffic in!
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Perhaps, but as I’ve noted before critics have listened to an exponentially higher number of records than we have, and an exponential of an exponential in styles/categories we here tend not to traffic in!
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree, and mrbelfry also made that point above.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Perhaps, but as I’ve noted before critics have listened to an exponentially higher number of records than we have, and an exponential of an exponential in styles/categories we here tend not to traffic in!
Click to expand...
They also tend to detach themselves from how they like an album, and should in theory rate it as neutrals on its merits on behalf of a general audience. Where as we rate it as individuals mostly based on what we think/feel about it.
 
Last edited:
Just wondering whether @BimboBob will go big tomorrow and claim a few firsts… most recent album, album with the best lyrics, best silent banjo solo etc… On a serious note I’m fully behind the reasons this has been done. Keep those artificially grubby fingers off our music!!

Artists release silent album in protest at AI copyright proposals https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyd3r62kp5o
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top