Two more, and we'll have a full Friends bunch.
The Album Review Club - Week #196 (page 1316) - Aja - Steely Dan
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
so you are a 'torpedo crew' if you dislike an album now?
journolud
Well-Known Member
The Lemonheads- It’s a Shame About Ray
My wife had this in her small but almost perfectly formed vinyl collection when we met . I wasn’t familiar with it and never in our thirty years together has she suggested we play it or download it. Turns out, when I mentioned it was up for review, that she bought it on the strength of Mrs Robinson which is to be fair a pretty good cover. She could have just bought the single though.
I’m a bit dubious about any artist who is most well known for a cover version, although I’m sure they’re not the only ones (now there was a band). Under questioning she was a bit vague about what else the album had going for it before saying something like “you know me, I like to play certain songs” which if that is what she was doing then put her years ahead of her time. Nowadays seems to be the fashion to discard most of an album, something | still find hard to do
So, no clues there but also a bit of relief that if I was going to slate it I wouldn’t be being a bit disloyal to her memories prior me being the most important thing in her life and her musical guide. Or something like that.
Luckily though, I’m not going to slate it. I’m probably going to damn it with feint praise instead. First thing to say is that as with most “expanded anniversary issues” they needn’t have bothered. The additional tracks don’t really add much and were dispended with after the first listen. It’s rare even with a band I really like that I will listen more than once to the outtakes and curios. I mention this only because I think our esteemed nominator had expressed a little disappointment that the focus should be on the album proper only. At least he did get the one bonus track in…
Lots of criticism of this being “Friends music”. I can see where that might have related to some of the other picks we’ve had on this thread but it doesn’t really fit for me here. Sure it’s light but it’s not airless. It’s perfectly listenable if what you want to listen to is something with a few hooks. I’d go along with grunge lite really. Best tracks It’s a Shame About Ray, Rudderless and Alison’s Starting to Happen. Other tracks a bit so so at times but no real stinkers until Frank Mills. I hadn’t realised it was a cover until reading the comments on here but it instantly seemed out of place and a doubly strange choice if the original album ended with it. Not quie the worst cover version I’ve heard in recent weeks but a pretty pointless one really. Thankfully Mrs Robinson then ends the album on a high.
It doesn’t seem too likely that I’ll return to this album, I did listen to some more Lemonheads (the usual random Spotify thing) and reached the same conclusion that this is OK but others do it better. Still, despite what might seem a lukewarm review it is a 7
My wife had this in her small but almost perfectly formed vinyl collection when we met . I wasn’t familiar with it and never in our thirty years together has she suggested we play it or download it. Turns out, when I mentioned it was up for review, that she bought it on the strength of Mrs Robinson which is to be fair a pretty good cover. She could have just bought the single though.
I’m a bit dubious about any artist who is most well known for a cover version, although I’m sure they’re not the only ones (now there was a band). Under questioning she was a bit vague about what else the album had going for it before saying something like “you know me, I like to play certain songs” which if that is what she was doing then put her years ahead of her time. Nowadays seems to be the fashion to discard most of an album, something | still find hard to do
So, no clues there but also a bit of relief that if I was going to slate it I wouldn’t be being a bit disloyal to her memories prior me being the most important thing in her life and her musical guide. Or something like that.
Luckily though, I’m not going to slate it. I’m probably going to damn it with feint praise instead. First thing to say is that as with most “expanded anniversary issues” they needn’t have bothered. The additional tracks don’t really add much and were dispended with after the first listen. It’s rare even with a band I really like that I will listen more than once to the outtakes and curios. I mention this only because I think our esteemed nominator had expressed a little disappointment that the focus should be on the album proper only. At least he did get the one bonus track in…
Lots of criticism of this being “Friends music”. I can see where that might have related to some of the other picks we’ve had on this thread but it doesn’t really fit for me here. Sure it’s light but it’s not airless. It’s perfectly listenable if what you want to listen to is something with a few hooks. I’d go along with grunge lite really. Best tracks It’s a Shame About Ray, Rudderless and Alison’s Starting to Happen. Other tracks a bit so so at times but no real stinkers until Frank Mills. I hadn’t realised it was a cover until reading the comments on here but it instantly seemed out of place and a doubly strange choice if the original album ended with it. Not quie the worst cover version I’ve heard in recent weeks but a pretty pointless one really. Thankfully Mrs Robinson then ends the album on a high.
It doesn’t seem too likely that I’ll return to this album, I did listen to some more Lemonheads (the usual random Spotify thing) and reached the same conclusion that this is OK but others do it better. Still, despite what might seem a lukewarm review it is a 7
threespires
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The Low-Ball Torpedo Crew? I'm now trying to work out who's the Beat Maker, the Hype Man etc?
RobMCFC
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Not at all. 'Twas merely in jest, although you are in the lower reaches of the average scores handed out by current nominators.
I was gobsmacked to discover that one member is below benny and Bimbo.
| # | Member | #Votes | Total | Avg |
| 1 | Shackattack | 4 | 29.5 | 7.375 |
| 2 | threespires | 123 | 875.5 | 7.117886 |
| 3 | mrbelfry | 50 | 345 | 6.9 |
| 4 | GoatersLeftShin | 116 | 799 | 6.887931 |
| 5 | Black&White&BlueMoon Town | 77 | 528.7 | 6.866234 |
| 6 | BlueHammer85 | 151 | 1009 | 6.682119 |
| 7 | RobMCFC | 163 | 1060.5 | 6.506135 |
| 8 | Mancitydoogle | 154 | 997.5 | 6.477273 |
| 9 | OB1 | 129 | 828 | 6.418605 |
| 10 | Coatigan | 135 | 854.5 | 6.32963 |
| 11 | LGWIO | 73 | 455.5 | 6.239726 |
| 12 | journolud | 151 | 941 | 6.231788 |
| 13 | FogBlueInSanFran | 118 | 735.14 | 6.23 |
| 14 | Saddleworth2 | 84 | 502 | 5.97619 |
| 15 | GornikDaze | 100 | 581.5 | 5.815 |
| 16 | bennyboy | 154 | 778.5 | 5.055195 |
| 17 | BimboBob | 120 | 586 | 4.883333 |
| 18 | SouthamptonBlue | 49 | 229 | 4.673469 |
I'd quite like to be in a crew mate. Sounds cool!
BimboBob
Well-Known Member
The Torpedo Crew! TTC. Nice.
In my defense every album starts as a 5. The average score. Then I build around that.
This week's offering has people saying, it's ok...a 7. For me a 7 is quite good, nearly there, I'd buy the album. Quite how an ok album that you wouldn't listen to again gets a 7 bemuses me but that's the beauty of this thread.
Now to find a crew logo...
In my defense every album starts as a 5. The average score. Then I build around that.
This week's offering has people saying, it's ok...a 7. For me a 7 is quite good, nearly there, I'd buy the album. Quite how an ok album that you wouldn't listen to again gets a 7 bemuses me but that's the beauty of this thread.
Now to find a crew logo...
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
I should be lower - 5 is the average on a bell curve. That would truly put me in 'torpedo crew' territory.
Maybe we should class those at the top as 'Happy Clappers' :-)
Put it another way, other than Bimbo and SB, our average mark for every album we have reviewed is 'above average'. Bennyboy is the only one of us that is spot on.
I'm afraid 30 odd years of conducting 1000's of performance reviews using a 1-5 scoring range against a forced bell curve has inexorably damaged me. :-(
BimboBob
Well-Known Member
Nor me. He's been an inspiration, an Idol, someone I've looked 'down' to for quite a while.
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
spot on. I think someone gave it 9 ;-) Which for me put it in the best 10% of albums ever made.
Imagine that.
Saddleworth2
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Not as cool as a Posse fam.
BlueHammer85
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Bottom 3 dislike Music.
threespires
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RobMCFC
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Not at all, but it is one of the best 10 albums put forward on this thread, which is how my scoring works.
Saddleworth2
Well-Known Member
No mate. They simply think (on average) that the nominations they review are, well, average.
If they didn't like music their mean store would be lower than 2.
Saddleworth2
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Can i be the one at the front please. He's the coolest.
threespires
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I'd assume he's the one that spits the lyrics (how do you do, fellow kids). Are you sure you have the flow to back up this request?
BimboBob
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Or Bottom 3 Hooligans Island to give it it's full title.
BimboBob
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But you like David Gray so I'm ignoring this.