The Album Review Club - Week #196 (page 1316) - Aja - Steely Dan

threespires said:
I understand where you're coming from with this and personally it's been interesting to compare this week's pick with last week's.

But I think we have to accept that a thread like this is going to have all sorts of cognitive biases on show and rosy retrospection and a kind of primacy bias will be two of the most prevalent. We pretty much actively encourage people to do this by asking them to nominate albums that 'mean' something to them.

To me that's why this thread is more interesting than say working through Larkin's list. It's people putting stuff in the context of their lives, that's where the interest lies.

If the price I have to pay for that is that everyone displays a load of biases that mean they are regularly wrong about stuff, then I'm willing to forgive them their wrongness for the other things that it brings to the thread :-)
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But the proposer doesn’t get to score. So in some cases their bias is shared by others.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
You and me both. Folk toss 8s around like confetti. There is no way that album should be top ten. An eight should be a damn near perfect album. One that is in your top 20 all time favourites.
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All my top 20 albums would be 10s - given that 1-10 covers every album ever recorded in the history of music, it’s not unreasonable to have a good number that are max scores. 10 doesn’t mean perfect. To me it means above a certain threshold.
 
RobMCFC said:
All my top 20 albums would be 10s - given that 1-10 covers every album ever recorded in the history of music, it’s not unreasonable to have a good number that are max scores. 10 doesn’t mean perfect. To me it means above a certain threshold.
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For me 10 means there's nothing I would change about it. That doesn't necessarily mean it's perfect but that even it's imperfections are part of the charm. Think I've just gone full Swiss Tony...a beautiful album is like a beautiful woman,,,,
 
RobMCFC said:
All my top 20 albums would be 10s - given that 1-10 covers every album ever recorded in the history of music, it’s not unreasonable to have a good number that are max scores. 10 doesn’t mean perfect. To me it means above a certain threshold.
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10 to me means perfection. I have a few 9's in my favourites but I don't think I could score any a 10.
 
RobMCFC said:
All my top 20 albums would be 10s - given that 1-10 covers every album ever recorded in the history of music, it’s not unreasonable to have a good number that are max scores. 10 doesn’t mean perfect. To me it means above a certain threshold.
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I can’t think of more than 4 or 5 albums I would give a ten to. In fact I will have to think hard to name three.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
I can’t think of more than 4 or 5 albums I would give a ten to. In fact I will have to think hard to name three.
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The Bends, OK Computer & Popped In Souled Out?

threespires said:
Dave Hill?

Cheeky fucker.

Edit: And more to the point, how the fuck did you find out that I dress like that at the weekends?
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It was the references to molecules and mosh pits that made me think you had to have a huge forehead
 
RobMCFC said:
All my top 20 albums would be 10s - given that 1-10 covers every album ever recorded in the history of music, it’s not unreasonable to have a good number that are max scores. 10 doesn’t mean perfect. To me it means above a certain threshold.
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Yeah, I’m with you. Perfect doesn’t exist so reserving 10 for that would be pointless. Quite a lot of ranking systems go for stars with 5 stars the top score and a 10 for me is a 5 star album, if that makes sense.
 
BimboBob said:
10 to me means perfection. I have a few 9's in my favourites but I don't think I could score any a 10.
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To me, it is not about perfection, or unskippable songs, musical excellence etc. It is purely how much an album moves me, and based on entirely how/what it makes me feel.

Saddleworth2 said:
I can’t think of more than 4 or 5 albums I would give a ten to. In fact I will have to think hard to name three.
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I'm the same. Any more than that, and a 10 is no longer a 10, it loses its meaning. Too many 10s, none are really 10s, imo. By my own metric above, I should say.
 
A normal distribution curve would see 20% of scores 1-3, 60% 4-7, 20% 8-10.

In fact if you look at the 130 albums rated all but 1 fall in the 4-7 bracket. It’s clear we are loathe to score too high or low.
 
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If I scored an album 10. These would be the ones:

Yes- Close to the Edge
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Kate Bush - The Hounds of Love
David Bowie - Hunky Dory

On a different day my score might change or I might include The Doors -The Doors. Lots more would be 9s.
 
Idles - Crawler

MTT 420 RR

Joe Talbot's morose tone remided me of Hurt by Johnny Cash but Hurt has meaning I can understand unlike this song. Something about a car crash whilst high perhaps? 1/10

The Wheel

I take it that Joe's mother was a hopeless alcoholic in his childhood and Joe too became an alcoholic. I think he's a troubled soul who went to church looking for redemption - "can I get a hallelujah" The Wheel is a cycle he cannot break I think.

5/10

When The Lights Come On

I liked the tune especially the base. Not sure what the song is about.
5/10

Car Crash

I've given up trying to work out what anymore songs are about.

2/10

The New Sensation

6/10

Stockholm Syndrome

3/10

The Beach land Ballroom

2/10

Crawl

4/10

Meds

Good beat on this track

7/10

Progress


2/10

King Snake

4/10

The End

3/10

@Coatigan I said I'd give this album 3 listens, sorry but I managed 1.5 and that was enough. I found this a really hard listen and thankfully I'll never have to play it again.

Conclusion

3.5/10
 
I've listened to the Idles before, not this album though and it was probably at the behest of @threespires if I remember right on this or one of the other music threads. I didn't persevere and first listen of this album suggested this was going to be a slog. Still we are by now contractually obliged to give it three listens.

Surprisingly this was already becoming more palatable on the second go round and by the time I'd listened to it on headphones at the gym and a couple more times besides, mainly in small doses to be fair on short car trips, it was becoming generally comfortable.

It's definitely at the harder edge of what I would;d listen to nowadays, don't think I've played Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables in an age and when a recent nostalgia trip had me listening to the Wall, the band that is not the album I quickly returned to the current age.

This album opens well, MTT 420 RR is pretty untypical I think but a good intro, The Wheel so so and When the Light Comes On good and suggesting the album was ready to get into it's stride. Sadly it was a backward step from there, Car Crash is an unpleasant noise and The New Sensation a good idea poorly executed. I'll throw in Wizz while I'm giving out the brickbats, a pointless and mercifully brief racket.

The middle section though contains three consecutive bangers (I believe that is the word that is in vogue to describe a rollicking good tune). I can tolerate the vocals, no more than that on these three songs it's a perfect fit.

Meds hit me in a similar way to the New Sensation, not as good or clever as it might think it is, Kelechi and Progress OK without pulling up any trees.

King Snake is a joyous thing, it reminded me of shambolic rockabilly style of the Fall. That's a good thing by the way. The End could have gone either way but is a really strong closer, love the sentiments and the rough ess of the vocals made it all the more affecting. For all it's positivity and optimism though I wouldn't want him reading my children (well when they were children) a bedtime story...

While writing this I've got the Spotify top tracks on, while a bit surprised by the variety of sounds I don't think I'm going to become a convert. But I've got a drive to their home city of Bristol coming up and plenty of time to give them a bit more of a listen.

I'd have to say this album is better than I feared. Not sure I'll listen to it in its entirety again but for sure some of the tracks are going to stay on the random playlists. The good bits are better at being good than the bits that fail to hit the mark and for me it's worth a 7
 
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