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

[Mr Grumpy]

Aphex Twin hit it's target audience but missed this audience. I commented that was a landmark record at the time.
I have Jon Hopkins albums which I enjoy but I thought the idea of this thread was to put up something personal to you or albums you like irrespective of genre.
I also have Erland Cooper's stuff
The scores don't matter apparently so if you turn one person on to the artists listed that's job done.
I was listening to Steel Pulse Handsworth Revolution last night and I wondered how that would go down on this thread.

I haven't heard steel pulse before?
One for the playlist :)

 

[threespires]

This week is interesting in that we don't yet have the anchor point of why this album is important/liked by the nominator. I'm looking forward to that and it's been an interesting experiment to do it this way round and I'm hoping for a startling revelation. But overall I think I prefer it when the nominator gets stuck into the discussion. Obviously there comes a point where the nominator has to accept they're dealing with imbeciles and has to give up but it's still nonetheless enjoyable :-)))

 

[Mr Grumpy]

This week is interesting in that we don't yet have the anchor point of why this album is important/liked by the nominator. I'm looking forward to that and it's been an interesting experiment to do it this way round and I'm hoping for a startling revelation. But overall I think I prefer it when the nominator gets stuck into the discussion. Obviously there comes a point where the nominator has to accept they're dealing with imbeciles and has to give up but it's still nonetheless enjoyable :-)))

Agreed.
I found it odd that the last album was posted by someone who wasn't the nominator.

The nomination gets it's validity from it's context i feel.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I may be an outlier here.

@BimboBob has said something that caught my attention about the accessibility of music.

When Google Play Music started, IIRC, it came with a free trial period and a very cheap subscription so i signed up. It was an absolute revelation to me. Not only did it give me access to a relatively infinite catalogue (as streaming services generally do), but it gave me the ability to scrobble.
I can't express how much of a industry (and personal) game changer this has been.
YTM and most streaming services now have a "Radio" button. Select a song, or playlist (crucially), or artist, hit the radio button and you get access to the music being played by those associated with those options. The amount of new, wonderful, music of all ages and genres this has unlocked for me has been priceless. It's like having your very own personal omnipotent DJ.
Because of the "Scrobble", i also get new albums highlighted in my discovery feed from my liked artists.
This means i actually listen to more modern music than old.
Music is like cheese. Sometimes it's only consumable when it's fresh out of the dairy, sometimes it needs to mature over time, sometimes it's good no matter when it's opened.
I thought The Strokes album had aged terribly and stank. I thought the Witch trials albums had kept itself reasonably fresh.

I mainly now listen to more modern music because the genre i like best continues to develop and produce excellence.

I'm unsure of what the name for that genre is tbh. It's a little fluid, it's a hybrid of Ambient, Classical, Electronic.

Peter Sandberg,
Max Richter,
John Hopkins,
Martin Sturtzer,
Brian Eno,
The Black dog,
Nils Frahm,
Hans Zimmer,

All kicking out new, evolving and excellent music. (Imho anyways).

My comment about old men pinning [sic] for the past, has it's roots in my thoughts about what album I'm going to put up when it's my turn.

Aphex Twin (!) has been put up here previously and got murdered. Shame because it's a legendary ambient masterpiece. But it utterly misses the target audience. I've been thinking about that. What's the point of offering Caviar and Champagne to a man brought up on chips and bitter?

I have one album in mind for my pick. It's deeply important to me, but honestly, it would be torture to those on this sub who just want rock and roll. This is supposed to be fun lol.
Perhaps this album would be too modern?
I've thought about offering up a classical album as this seems to be utterly missing from the picks. Would this be "Too modern"? Would classical music be too left field for the sub? Imagine that lol. (One could argue that it's absence clearly proves it so).

So, i have the opposite experience of @Saddleworth2 in this thread.

I'm inundated with old stuff but want to hear new stuff. (Well, i would have been had i been in the sub for a bit longer). The most recent offerings are, 2014, 2018, 2002.

I'm also considering an album for my pick which was only just released. I'm unsure as to wether this is a good idea lol.

Music isn't dead. It's doing what it always has and will. Changing.

I think many of us are posting records that have some meaning for us somehow. That takes time and aging to build. The whole pearls-before-swine thing tends to show up most distinctly when genres get narrow, naturally. And yeah FOCs wil act like FOCs. But we have new music threads, old music threads and like 800 Manchester-based music threads on Bluemoon, so there’s a place to discover or rediscover lots of different dynamics.

But I like your cheese analogy. Especially because I’m lactose-intolerant and have a much easier time eating older aged cheeses vs. digesting new, unaged cheese :)

You will see from most of my picks that I have a deeply personal connection to them. To hell what other people think! So you pick whatever album you want. If one person likes it and hadn't heard of it before this thread then it has done its job.

I concur.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Most of my favourite albums comes from the 80s and 90s, which is of course a product of my age.

However, there’s no doubt that objectively the best music, and the biggest advances in music, come from the 60s. You only have to listen to the songs on our Rock Evolution thread for evidence of that (although it was obvious to me before that).

Everything produced since has either (I) nudged music forward a little bit or in a slightly different direction or (ii) tried to be so different that it failed miserably.

I don’t think I agree with this either. On its face, both punk and hip-hop were radical departures from the “norms” of the time and very large leaps forward, though we might credit MC5 for the former which was a 60s band. We could add ambient if you want — largely a 70s development. Disco/dance and electronic too. It’s easy to credit the 60s because of studio-generated innovations vs. live performance as a way to create and bring music to the masses (thank the Beatles of course). I’d say the technology centered the change, and the best creators took advantage.

 

[threespires]

Aphex Twin hit it's target audience but missed this audience. I commented that was a landmark record at the time.
I have Jon Hopkins albums which I enjoy but I thought the idea of this thread was to put up something personal to you or albums you like irrespective of genre.
I also have Erland Cooper's stuff
The scores don't matter apparently so if you turn one person on to the artists listed that's job done.
I was listening to Steel Pulse Handsworth Revolution last night and I wondered how that would go down on this thread.

I worked as a taxidermist just down the road from Handsworth for many years (the taxidermist bit is a lie to preempt Coatigan) and saw Steel Pulse a few times in my younger days. I've been pondering a reggae nomination for a while and they and that album are on the longlist, it's a strong offering, anyone dismissing the likes of KKK and Prediction needs a slap round the chops. We've not had a reggae album yet which is insane really but picking the best one for maximum engagement is tricky. I've discounted the more dancehall ragga side of things and reluctantly lovers rock too but there's still too much good stuff. I don't want to go too obvious like Marley or Tosh as good as they are they're not that personal to me.

 

[Out on blue 6]

I worked as a taxidermist just down the road from Handsworth for many years (the taxidermist bit is a lie to preempt Coatigan) and saw Steel Pulse a few times in my younger days. I've been pondering a reggae nomination for a while and they and that album are on the longlist, it's a strong offering, anyone dismissing the likes of KKK and Prediction needs a slap round the chops. We've not had a reggae album yet which is insane really but picking the best one for maximum engagement is tricky. I've discounted the more dancehall ragga side of things and reluctantly lovers rock too but there's still too much good stuff. I don't want to go too obvious like Marley or Tosh as good as they are as I they're not that personal to me.

It would be good to see one on here tbh but I think we can agree it would be marmite.
Present Arms would be a good pick and would get outside interest

 

[BimboBob]

When I give this LP a spin to people who don’t like Sleep Token (or metal in general) they will pretty much not like what they’re hearing… until Euclid. They’ll kind of respond to Are You Really Okay? and/or Aqua Regia, but for some reason, non-fans proper tune in to Euclid. Oddly, nobody is ever able to articulate why they like it, it’s more about the way the music made them feel, the sound… I dunno, music does funny things to folk.

If by 'AI' you mean the electronic vocal effect, it's just an artistic in-studio choice and they do use backing singers to recreate that live. The coda of ‘Euclid’ is a call-back to the first track on their first LP so it kind of bookends the first 3 records.

I was thinking the whole album was written by A.I. Which explains why it's rubbish and done with a complete lack of passion.

It's one big fucking con. Which is why they wear masks on stage as they are session musicians who have been paid to perform.

Which...due to his? non promotional ideals is very hard to prove otherwise.

It's a record companies wet dream. Hold on, you can make an album for tuppence, tour it on a budget, aim it at 12 year old girls so their parents have to come along as well, meaning loads of merchandise sales because Daddy doesn't want to appear cheap and to keep them all entertained make up a weird but stupid back story that taps into a young girls insecure mind?

Genius. We are in.

 

[threespires]

It would be good to see one on here tbh but I think we can agree it would be marmite.
Present Arms would be a good pick and would get outside interest

Not a bad shout because enough people would remember it and it would generate some (potentially heated) discussion. They are obviously a bit divisive but imo added proper value to the UK music scene. I discovered artists I really love off the back of the Labour of Love records. I think I've mentioned on another thread they were arguably the least together 'big' live act I've ever seen but it had no impact on the level of enjoyment of the audience which was immense.

Re. whether Reggae will be marmite or not, I'm trying to pick something that is close to undeniable !

 

[RobMCFC]

I don’t think I agree with this either. On its face, both punk and hip-hop were radical departures from the “norms” of the time and very large leaps forward, though we might credit MC5 for the former which was a 60s band. We could add ambient if you want — largely a 70s development. Disco/dance and electronic too. It’s easy to credit the 60s because of studio-generated innovations vs. live performance as a way to create and bring music to the masses (thank the Beatles of course). I’d say the technology centered the change, and the best creators took advantage.

The issue is that I neither like or respect punk and hip-hop as musical genres. Like I said in point (ii) - some people took music in a direction that was too radical (for me) to appreciate.

The 60s saw a more natural evolution of popular music that was radical yet maintained the true performance element that is so important to me AND involved electronics (theremin, Hammond, mellotron etc.)

As I say, my personal favourites are from the 80s/90s, but that doesn't stop me from recognising the era of true evolution/genius in pop/rock.

 

[BimboBob]

Not a bad shout because enough people would remember it and it would generate some (potentially heated) discussion. They are obviously a bit divisive but imo added proper value to the UK music scene. I discovered artists I really love off the back of the Labour of Love records. I think I've mentioned on another thread they were arguably the least together 'big' live act I've ever seen but it had no impact on the level of enjoyment of the audience which was immense.

Re. whether Reggae will be marmite or not, I'm trying to pick something that is close to undeniable !

Somebody should do a ska/ ska lite album first to soften up the troups.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

The issue is that I neither like or respect punk and hip-hop as musical genres. Like I said in point (ii) - some people took music in a direction that was too radical (for me) to appreciate.

The 60s saw a more natural evolution of popular music that was radical yet maintained the true performance element that is so important to me AND involved electronics (theremin, Hammond, mellotron etc.)

As I say, my personal favourites are from the 80s/90s, but that doesn't stop me from recognising the era of true evolution/genius in pop/rock.

Well that being the case, I don’t think we can “objectively” say the greatest advances in music occurred during the 60s then, at least creatively :).

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I worked as a taxidermist just down the road from Handsworth for many years (the taxidermist bit is a lie to preempt Coatigan) and saw Steel Pulse a few times in my younger days. I've been pondering a reggae nomination for a while and they and that album are on the longlist, it's a strong offering, anyone dismissing the likes of KKK and Prediction needs a slap round the chops. We've not had a reggae album yet which is insane really but picking the best one for maximum engagement is tricky. I've discounted the more dancehall ragga side of things and reluctantly lovers rock too but there's still too much good stuff. I don't want to go too obvious like Marley or Tosh as good as they are they're not that personal to me.

I’d welcome a reggae record. It’s funny how much reggae-influenced/-tinged music I like, but how little straight reggae I like. Reggae is almost like ambient to me — it suits a time, place and mood that’s very specific for me, one I don’t often find myself in.

 

[threespires]

Somebody should do a ska/ ska lite album first to soften up the troups.

I've actually got some early Toots and the Maytals on my longlist but anything late 70s / early 80s and it'll kick off on here. There's an obvious '79 album that will cause chaos as people will remember their school days and some on here who were in their smelly kaftans, cut off denim and reeking of patchouli will start losing their shit about those of us who simply had much better dress sense :-)))))

 

[threespires]

I’d welcome a reggae record. It’s funny how much reggae-influenced/-tinged music I like, but how little straight reggae I like. Reggae is almost like ambient to me — it suits a time, place and mood that’s very specific for me, one I don’t often find myself in.

Though unsurprisingly not particularly urgent tempos across the piece, the album OOB6 mentioned has an overall urgency to it that imo takes it beyond any ambiance, especially with a little bit of context about the area they come from.

 

[journolud]

Aphex Twin hit it's target audience but missed this audience. I commented that was a landmark record at the time.
I have Jon Hopkins albums which I enjoy but I thought the idea of this thread was to put up something personal to you or albums you like irrespective of genre.
I also have Erland Cooper's stuff
The scores don't matter apparently so if you turn one person on to the artists listed that's job done.
I was listening to Steel Pulse Handsworth Revolution last night and I wondered how that would go down on this thread.

Funnily enough I was also listening to that last night and kind of wishing I'd known a bit earlier they are playing in Manchester tonight (with the Selector) but as I've got City today and saw Michael Kiwanuka the other night sad to say I haven't got the energy to hang around town and then spend another couple of hours standing at a gig.

Great album though, I wasn't really familiar with it even though I had the singles off it and saw the a couple of times at Rock Against Racism events back in the day.

I don't think we've had any reggae in this thread yet have we? Uness I'm much mistaken. I'm partial to a bit of it myself but don't considerr myself knoweledgeable enough to know good from bad and indifferent in the genre.

 

[BimboBob]

I've actually got some early Toots and the Maytals on my longlist but anything late 70s / early 80s and it'll kick off on here. There's an obvious '79 album that will cause chaos as people will remember their school days and some on here who were in their smelly kaftans, cut off denim and reeking of patchouli will start losing their shit about those of us who simply had much better dress sense :-)))))

I'll dust down the saxophone then...

 

[RobMCFC]

Well that being the case, I don’t think we can “objectively” say the greatest advances in music occurred during the 60s then, at least creatively :).

Yes fair point and well made. I wasn’t being objective. No doubt that there are people who think that there were greater advances in the late 70s/early 80s.

We’ll see when we get to that point on the evolution thread. But as a number of people have commented (on that thread) the change in music from 63-67 is quite remarkable. That thread is really paying dividends on understanding why and how that came about, so hopefully this appreciation will extend into the 70s and 80s music.

 

[GornikDaze]

I'll dust down the saxophone then...

Interesting euphemism…

 

[mrbelfry]

I worked as a taxidermist just down the road from Handsworth for many years (the taxidermist bit is a lie to preempt Coatigan) and saw Steel Pulse a few times in my younger days. I've been pondering a reggae nomination for a while and they and that album are on the longlist, it's a strong offering, anyone dismissing the likes of KKK and Prediction needs a slap round the chops. We've not had a reggae album yet which is insane really but picking the best one for maximum engagement is tricky. I've discounted the more dancehall ragga side of things and reluctantly lovers rock too but there's still too much good stuff. I don't want to go too obvious like Marley or Tosh as good as they are they're not that personal to me.

I'm here for the Radiodread nomination