The Album Review Club - Week #195 (page 1310) - A New World Record - ELO

[OB1]

As an interesting aside whilst Rob unpacks his briefs, which regular contributor's do people feel most closely aligned to musically?
For me it would be @OB1 who seems to have some decent rock roots. @Coatigan for the Indie side and @BimboBob for all round randomness and largely decent tastes.
Apologies for naming the above who may now wish to distance themselves from my comments!

I think we have more similarities in taste than most.

I do like a lot of the music @RobMCFC likes but he delves further into his favourite genres and pulls out gems like that Donato track, which was new to me.

I crossover with quite a few people because I have reasonably broad tastes these days although Classic Rock will always be my main musical love.

 

[GornikDaze]

I think we have more similarities in taste than most.

I do like a lot of the music @RobMCFC likes but he delves further into his favourite genres and pulls out gems like that Donato track, which was new to me.

I crossover with quite a few people because I have reasonably broad tastes these days although Classic Rock will always be my main musical love.

I did enjoy the Donato track - decent guitarist. Not a massive country fan however so exploring deeper might be a struggle!

 

[GornikDaze]

Interesting question.

Probably Threespires for his sheer breadth. One of the only posters I can discuss pretty much anything from celt fiddle folk to tuareg blues. B&W on the indie side, some of the overlaps are scary. You on the heavier side, and of course the Biff'. Doogle for anything dour. And strangely, although at the start it seemed like Rob and my tastes were very different, I have found our opinions and impressions overlapping more than we maybe care to notice.

I think @bennyboy is the original Biff fan on here he likes to keep it under wraps though ;)

 

[bennyboy]

I think @bennyboy is the original Biff fan on here he likes to keep it under wraps though ;)

No it is Rush I keep under wraps.

 

[RobMCFC]

Christmas Playlist Results

A big thank you to everybody who took part in this year's Christmas Playlist.

To our two guests - @Ballymagash Blue and @homerdog - if you want to join in with the regular album reviews, or even put forward an album nomination of your own, you know where we are. Just declare you interest here on the thread or drop me a PM.

One technical note before we start - @LGWIO voted for his own song an I only spotted it at the last minute. Naturally I have excluded these points and bumped all the remaining songs on your submission up one place.

Favourite Song
Congratulations to @bennyboy who nominated the most popular song this year. Now I come to think of it, this song was unlikely to meet the entry criteria, given that it was released many years ago and benny is a big DBT fan! Nevertheless, many people enjoyed it, so well done, dir.

	Nominator	Song	Artist	Points
1	bennyboy	Where the Devil Don't Stay	Drive-By Truckers	64
2	LGWIO	Chocolate samurai	Fantastic Negrito	57
3	journolud	Tropic Morning News	The National	56
4	Coatigan	Troglodyte	Viagra Boys	54
5	Mancitydoogle	Water Underground	Real Estate	54
6	GornikDaze	Redemption	Rival Sons	53
7	RobMCFC	Dance in the Desert (Reprise)	Daniel Donato	51
8	homerdog	Rise	Extreme	49
9	Black&White&BlueMoon Town	Save the World	Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit	48
10	threespires	The Trench Coat Museum	Yard Act	46
11	OB1	This is What I'm Here For	Ian Hunter	44
12	BimboBob	Ultimate Hammer	Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs	31
13	FogBlueInSanFran	Light On	Maggie Rogers	26
14	GoatersLeftShin	Sunshine in 1929	Dominique Dumont	20
15	Ballymagash Blue	The Man in Me	Bob Dylan	6

Best Guesser

Only seven souls were brave enough to take a punt on guessing who picked what. Congratulations to @Mancitydoogle who got 7 nominators correct, including the mystery poster, @GoatersLeftShin.

1	Mancitydoogle	7
2	Black&White&BlueMoon Town	6
3	Coatigan	3
4	BimboBob	3
5	LGWIO	2
6	homerdog	1
7	threespires	0

Hide and Seek Champions

I suppose that it's not such an amazing feat given the low number of entries, but it's worth noting that four posters remained undetected with their nominations:-

@Coatigan, @FogBlueInSanFran, @LGWIO and @RobMCFC

@threespires was correctly picked out by 4 posters, closely followed by @bennyboy and @journolud with 3 each.

 

[threespires]

Right Garth Brooks it is then.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

As an interesting aside whilst Rob unpacks his briefs, which regular contributor's do people feel most closely aligned to musically?
For me it would be @OB1 who seems to have some decent rock roots. @Coatigan for the Indie side and @BimboBob for all round randomness and largely decent tastes.
Apologies for naming the above who may now wish to distance themselves from my comments!

I put @Mancitydoogle down for @RobMCFCs Daniel Donato selection, but I originally had them reversed. I *REALLY* debated that one, but both posters have a wealth of interests and were some of the hardest for me to try and pin down. I wasn't trying to find their songs first, let me just say that.

I feel I have a lot of overlaps with both on the Americana theme. With that said, I also have benefited from many others (@Coatigan, @journolud, @BlueHammer85, @bennyboy, and @BimboBob) here on new influences and overlap. When I think back to the heavier musical influences of my youth, @OB1 is my go-to! ;-)

Heck, even my early Derry entrant list mate, setting the template standard with me, @LGWIO as I suspect once that initial album selection comes out as the next on our list in Jan, there will be some overlap too. Given we're both new here, we're likely still learning where the overlaps are.

 

[bennyboy]

Christmas Playlist Results

A big thank you to everybody who took part in this year's Christmas Playlist.

To our two guests - @Ballymagash Blue and @homerdog - if you want to join in with the regular album reviews, or even put forward an album nomination of your own, you know where we are. Just declare you interest here on the thread or drop me a PM.

One technical note before we start - @LGWIO voted for his own song an I only spotted it at the last minute. Naturally I have excluded these points and bumped all the remaining songs on your submission up one place.

Favourite Song
Congratulations to @bennyboy who nominated the most popular song this year. Now I come to think of it, this song was unlikely to meet the entry criteria, given that it was released many years ago and benny is a big DBT fan! Nevertheless, many people enjoyed it, so well done, dir.

	Nominator	Song	Artist	Points
1	bennyboy	Where the Devil Don't Stay	Drive-By Truckers	64
2	LGWIO	Chocolate samurai	Fantastic Negrito	57
3	journolud	Tropic Morning News	The National	56
4	Coatigan	Troglodyte	Viagra Boys	54
5	Mancitydoogle	Water Underground	Real Estate	54
6	GornikDaze	Redemption	Rival Sons	53
7	RobMCFC	Dance in the Desert (Reprise)	Daniel Donato	51
8	homerdog	Rise	Extreme	49
9	Black&White&BlueMoon Town	Save the World	Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit	48
10	threespires	The Trench Coat Museum	Yard Act	46
11	OB1	This is What I'm Here For	Ian Hunter	44
12	BimboBob	Ultimate Hammer	Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs	31
13	FogBlueInSanFran	Light On	Maggie Rogers	26
14	GoatersLeftShin	Sunshine in 1929	Dominique Dumont	20
15	Ballymagash Blue	The Man in Me	Bob Dylan	6

Best Guesser

Only seven souls were brave enough to take a punt on guessing who picked what. Congratulations to @Mancitydoogle who got 7 nominators correct, including the mystery poster, @GoatersLeftShin.

1	Mancitydoogle	7
2	Black&White&BlueMoon Town	6
3	Coatigan	3
4	BimboBob	3
5	LGWIO	2
6	homerdog	1
7	threespires	0

Hide and Seek Champions

I suppose that it's not such an amazing feat given the low number of entries, but it's worth noting that four posters remained undetected with their nominations:-

@Coatigan, @FogBlueInSanFran, @LGWIO and @RobMCFC

@threespires was correctly picked out by 4 posters, closely followed by @bennyboy and @journolud with 3 each.

An expanded version was released in 2023 so I had to nominate a track from my favourite DBT album.
The expanded version is on Spotify.
My favourite song that I had not heard before was Infinite Surprise by Wilco a great song but in my opinion not as good as Where the Devil Don't Stay.

Drive-By Truckers: The Complete Dirty South

Read Grayson Haver Currin’s review of the album.

pitchfork.com

My top 10.

1...Tropic Morning News....The National.
2...This is What I'm Here For...Ian Hunter.
3...Redemption...Rival Sons.
4...Water Underground...Real Estate.
5...Chocolate Samurai...Fantastic Negrito.
6...Save the World....Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.
7...Troglodyte....Viagra Boys.
8...Dance in the Desert.....Daniel Donato.
9...Light on.....Maggie Rodgers.
10.Ultimate Hammer...Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

The name of a National album. @Black&White&BlueMoon Town has dropped a few hints as to what he nominated. Or he's learnt how to Clarkie.

Ah yes, "learnt how to Clarkie", the best gift of the holiday season to you all! :-)

I guess I do now have Friends In Low Places for a @threespires upcoming inspiration.

It was my pleasure to take on the National for you, and that was one of my correct guesses. I did nearly take "Crumble" from Laugh Track, that was certainly real.

You liking my correction of @Coatigan album swap had my heart skip a few beats, but probably went unnoticed by most!

I don't remember being overly impressed with Jason Isbell when he was up for review on the thread but this track does make me think he is worth another listen.

There was a reason I nominated it for best song for 2023, and try as I might, I could not let go of it. More to come...

A bit tardy with getting my votes in, hopefully not too late and I best get on with that now.

We're both recovering from pretty significant recent surgeries, so I was just glad I was able to keep up as it was in fitting in my PT and walks, etc.

 

[OB1]

My favourite song chosen by someone else was the Extreme track, which I very nearly put forward as my pick.

In the end, I went with something from my most played album of the year; it was supposed to have a coda that was a reprise of another song on the album but Spotify was clearly different to the cd.

 

[OB1]

Right Garth Brooks it is then.

I like Garth, seen him in concert 2 or three times.

 

[LGWIO]

An enjoyable little interlude and as ever thank you to @RobMCFC for the time and effort.
I thought with my reference to not having listened to mych new save for the album reviews I have taken part in, would make my Fantastic Negrito nomination obvious. Clearly you lot are all still too drunk basking in being World champions to notice.
Alas I wont be about on Wednesday for the next album choice, although I may well be heading up the M6 to Cairnryan, but shall be entrusting the guardian of this thread, Rob, with my clues and little write up.
Hope you all have a joyous night tonight and lose every game in the new year.

 

[journolud]

It was my pleasure to take on the National for you, and that was one of my correct guesses. I did nearly take "Crumble" from Laugh Track, that was certainly real.

It was a toss up for me which National track to go for between Crumble and the one I chose.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Best Guesser

Only seven souls were brave enough to take a punt on guessing who picked what. Congratulations to @Mancitydoogle who got 7 nominators correct, including the mystery poster, @GoatersLeftShin.

1	Mancitydoogle	7
2	Black&White&BlueMoon Town	6
3	Coatigan	3
4	BimboBob	3
5	LGWIO	2
6	homerdog	1
7	threespires	0

Congrats to @Mancitydoogle for the most correct guesses. When I saw you got mine and a good number of plausible 2nd guesses I had, I had a good feeling you or I were going to take it.

When I add in my two 1/2 points from the week prior, I'll take a 6 + 0.5 + 0.5 asterisk aided * tie *. :-)

When Rob said I "hit the post on one", I knew it was probably you given the remaining song selections and not seeing any other Jason Isbell. I then knew pinning you and Rob down was going to be tough, and I gave you Rob's track in the end after changing things. I struggled with the list of Hide and Seek Champions listed below, and that's what messed me up in debating you or Rob for that.

Hide and Seek Champions

I suppose that it's not such an amazing feat given the low number of entries, but it's worth noting that four posters remained undetected with their nominations:-

@Coatigan, @FogBlueInSanFran, @LGWIO and @RobMCFC

@threespires was correctly picked out by 4 posters, closely followed by @bennyboy and @journolud with 3 each.

Thank you @RobMCFC for all the hard work put in on this - it was some good fun!

 

[Coatigan]

My favourite song chosen by someone else was the Extreme track, which I very nearly put forward as my pick.

In the end, I went with something from my most played album of the year; it was supposed to have a coda that was a reprise of another song on the album but Spotify was clearly different to the cd.

Ah well, I feel a sense of redemption for putting it down as my guess for you.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Favourite Song
Congratulations to @bennyboy who nominated the most popular song this year. Now I come to think of it, this song was unlikely to meet the entry criteria, given that it was released many years ago and benny is a big DBT fan! Nevertheless, many people enjoyed it, so well done, sir.

I'm a music release year purist, and so while I am a BIG fan of the DBT song that finished #1 from @bennyboy for a number of years, it was much lower on my list due to its release year.

Special mention to the #3 song on our list which was the top released song in 2023 by @journolud. I still prefer Crumble too, but it was #1 on my list of the available songs and my own need to nominate a song released this year as the top.

Tracks 5-7 finished right after that for me for 2023 released songs.

	Nominator	Song	Artist	Points
1	bennyboy	Where the Devil Don't Stay	Drive-By Truckers	64
2	LGWIO	Chocolate samurai	Fantastic Negrito	57
3	journolud	Tropic Morning News	The National	56
4	Coatigan	Troglodyte	Viagra Boys	54
5	Mancitydoogle	Water Underground	Real Estate	54
6	GornikDaze	Redemption	Rival Sons	53
7	RobMCFC	Dance in the Desert (Reprise)	Daniel Donato	51
8	homerdog	Rise	Extreme	49
9	Black&White&BlueMoon Town	Save the World	Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit	48
10	threespires	The Trench Coat Museum	Yard Act	46
11	OB1	This is What I'm Here For	Ian Hunter	44
12	BimboBob	Ultimate Hammer	Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs	31

 

[Coatigan]

My top were

Pigs7
Extreme
Fantastic Negrito
Yard Act
Rival Sons
Maggie Rodgers
National
Real Estate
DBT
Daniel Donato

Be nice if folk put theirs out so we see who liked what by others.

 

[Coatigan]

For anyone intrigued by Viagra Boys, may I recommend their songs Slow Learner, Ain't Nice, Secret Canine Agent, for a similar groove to get the hips going. Ain't No Thief and Research Chemicals are fun too

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Be nice if folk put theirs out so we see who liked what by others.

8 originally from 2023 and then my top 2 from prior years:

1. "Tropic Morning News" - The National
2. "Redemption" - Rival Sons
3. "Dance In The Desert (Reprise)" - Daniel Donato
4. "Water Underground" - Real Estate
5. "The Trench Coat Museum" - Yard Act
6. "RISE" – Extreme
7. "This Is What I'm Here For" - Ian Hunter, Taylor Hawkins, Joe Elliott, Waddy Wachtel
8. "Ultimate Hammer" - Pigs x7

9. Where the Devil Don't Stay – DBT
10. "Light On" - Maggie Rogers

 

[BimboBob]

Hold on...Benny won with a song from years ago that he already knows?

I call foul!