The Album Review Club - Week #197 (page 1330) - Levelling the Land - Levellers

BimboBob said:
This is an album that was cool to like when it came out and if you didn't like it you knew nothing about music. Cool, cool, cool.
Click to expand...

Errrrrrr . . . not in the USA it wasn’t. It was their “pop” record. Their old fans didn’t like it. Some of the critics who loved them before didn’t either.

I can understand liking other of their records better. I do at least in Katy Lied’s case.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: OB1
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Errrrrrr . . . not in the USA it wasn’t. It was their “pop” record. Their old fans didn’t like it. Some of the critics who loved them before didn’t either.

I can understand liking other of their records better. I do at least in Katy Lied’s case.
Click to expand...
Can't Buy A Thrill for me. Very accessible. This offering leaves me cold and has too many musicians.
 
BlueHammer85 said:
By the way I really really enjoyed learning about this album, that Youtube discussion between the two guys breaking down so much of this album with enthusiasm was a pure delight.
Click to expand...
Yeah I watched that before you posted as they appear in my algorithm every now and then due to me mistakenly trying to learn piano a couple of years ago. I rarely understand what they are talking about but they have a good vibe
 
BimboBob said:
This is an album that was cool to like when it came out and if you didn't like it you knew nothing about music. Cool, cool, cool.

See how they fuse one genre with another-ish. Marvel at the depth of musical ability on show. Swoon as you suddenly realise that, like with Rush, great technical nous doesn't transform into a great listening experience.

Once again it's an album of 'look at us, we can write and perform better than you so sit back and listen as we grin at each other everytime we do a perfect note'.

I would guess that a lot of grinning went on during the recording. Apart from whoever was singing because that definitely wasn't 'nailed'.

That aside I prefer their earlier stuff if I'm honest. Less polished. More in line with the sort of 70's unpretentious rock that I like.

This is a vanity project. And doesn't appeal.

3/10
Click to expand...
They didn't do it to sneer at anyone or show off. They couldn't give a shit what anybody else thought and it certainly was not a vanity project. They just made their own unique and completely original music.Millions got it and enjoyed it thankfully,including me and many critics and musicians which I think accounts for their hugely respected status fifty years later.
 
peter.evans said:
They didn't do it to sneer at anyone or show off. They couldn't give a shit what anybody else thought and it certainly was not a vanity project. They just made their own unique and completely original music.Millions got it and enjoyed it thankfully,including me and many critics and musicians which I think accounts for their hugely respected status fifty years later.
Click to expand...

No musician makes a record to sneer at anyone. But that's how it comes across. Compared to previous albums it's devoid of anything that grabs me. I don't doubt the brilliance of the production, it's always been held up as the test for a good system, but it leaves me cold. I'm glad you love it. I don't. That's music.
 
BimboBob said:
No musician makes a record to sneer at anyone. But that's how it comes across. Compared to previous albums it's devoid of anything that grabs me. I don't doubt the brilliance of the production, it's always been held up as the test for a good system, but it leaves me cold. I'm glad you love it. I don't. That's music.
Click to expand...
Oh there are plenty of bands that make records to sneer at people! I hope to nominate one! As I said I can see your perspective and many shared it about this record. I choose to see it as an evolution, or a diversion. Obsessive studio hacks (Tom Scholz, e.g.) often leave me cold too. It helps when you and the 40-odd folks playing your music are talented. And I agree it doesn’t “grab” you the way their other records do too. That’s also a bit of what I was going for here. It borders on ambient in spots. But that’s what I said — it’s so comforting and comfortable, so I love it.
 
Only got time for a quick further comment on the Dan album.

Of all the bands I was late to the party on, Steely Dan are the one that I scratch my head about the most as to why it took me so long. As previously mentioned, I had heard very little of their music - aside from the famous clip of them on the OGWT playing Reelin’ in the Years with Jeff “Skunk” Baxter stealing’ the show as he wailed away on his teeter - until I bought a box set of their complete works in about 1994. I guess I was just too into rawk as a youngun. Never have I been so smitten after the fact.

Playing just the tracks on Aja for the first time allowed me to confirm my expectations of the score for just that album: 9/10. Five tracks I absolutely love and a couple that are just fine.

A few random thoughts on the music, some bits remind me of the best of breed 1970’s TV theme tunes and others of Frank Zappa on a good day. They are surely the most sophisticated of US rock bands. Smoother than a Warren Beatty pick up line for sure but full of interesting music played by a host of top notch musos.
 
Its funny, but after the mention of Ms Akira at commencement of this week I was almost drawn to thinking that this could well have been a soundtrack to the oeuvre of Ms Akira. Being then further reminded of such films with memories of "Peg/Aunt Peg".
From the whole laid back 70s vibe I also had images of SD being the house band on The Love Boat.
Clearly quality music and musicianship, which lent itself nicely to the "musical" abilities of De La Soul. The funk and the jazziness almost making this too much of an easy listen. That in a sense that you could just let it wash over you and lose some of the quality that is there.
I enjoyed "Deacon Blues" & "Peg" the most with me almost feeling the former of those had a slight sound of Billy Joel on the vocals. It would indeed be easy to sit back, relax with a fire and drink scotch whisky all night long to this.
As good as it is it lacked a little bit of "edge"/or rough edges that I quite like in an album. That said it is a quality, enjoyable 8 from the Derry jury.
 
BimboBob said:
No musician makes a record to sneer at anyone. But that's how it comes across. Compared to previous albums it's devoid of anything that grabs me. I don't doubt the brilliance of the production, it's always been held up as the test for a good system, but it leaves me cold. I'm glad you love it. I don't. That's music.
Click to expand...
To me it comes across as sincere ( Deacon Blues, Home at Last ) combined with the unparalleled Dan wit, lyrical brilliance and fabulous musicianship ! Which make it yet another SD classic and one of the greatest albums of all time !
 
Coatigan said:
I'm going to respectfully sit this one out. And come back and revisit it when I can better take it in. This is not the week for it, and its lazy smooth vibe is at odds with the pre chirstmas rush and panic. It maybe should be a relaxing antidote, but it is not. If anything it is a bit of a frustrating sideswipe, that even at a mere 39 minutes, feels like it is dragging and taking up precious time.

Observations on two listens. Love the bass. Some good keyboard work. Good production, maybe too professional. Not a fan of the vocalising, I get the soulfulness it is going for, but I get more Bee Gees than soul. Nice bits of jazz sprinkles, could do with more of it. Although of a genre of a time, sounds incredibly timeless, and could well enough be by a band of today (boldly utilising older styles) as one of the 70s.

I'll leave it there, till I can give it more time, in a better mindset.
Click to expand...

I've listened to it a couple more times since. Don't want to finish the year off caking out of scoring it or being unfair to the thread and poster, so will round it off.

All the ingredients are there. And in the right order, measure. But it is underseasoned. Or overseasoned, can't really tell. Ultimately I'm just not getting the enjoyment out of it that I feel I should be, I can't feel that 'cucina con amore' warmth I crave. Nothing to 'fault' about it, but not doing it for me. I Will come back to it another time, for my own sake, in a different mindset.

Albums like that I've previously given a 5, feel this maybe deserves slightly more for its evident qualities, in particular its bass that carries it. So a symbolic 5.5.
 
BimboBob said:
That aside I prefer their earlier stuff if I'm honest. Less polished. More in line with the sort of 70's unpretentious rock that I like.
Click to expand...

What earlier album do you suggest? Want to give one a go as a counterpoint of curiosity.
 
I think the biggest complement I can pay this album is that it pioneered something that I really hate but did it so well and before others that I can’t bring myself to dislike it. As has been pointed out many times, its production is impeccable. Everything is so super precise and intentional. The choice of separation and cleanliness over warmth and saturation should really get my back up because it does so on a million 80s albums. But this polish wasn’t the often vacuous digital 80’s type it was the analogue 70s and I can’t help but smile at its technical chops to achieve this cleanroom effect.

This is so smoothly executed that it makes George Benson sound like Shane McGowan after a three-week bender. But it’s not just some form of hyper vapid Swiss Tony smoothness. Paradoxically it's freakish level of polish is what actually confers it with some personality and stops it sounding blandly clinical. Absolute shininess is hard to pull off well. Tamatoa was shiny but that was just an attempt to catch fish and ameliorate the gaping hole in his psyche, whereas this is shiny because it exists to be shiny.

I’ve followed the discussion about SD’s lyrical focus and radicalism with interest, and I’ll probably re-listen to some of their stuff with this in mind because I’ve never paid enough attention to have an opinion on this. I think it might be Donald Fagan's vocal limitations that stop me fully engaging. I know some people think his approach complements the overall sound well and I have no issue with vocalists who aren't technical monsters. However whilst on paper the faintly detached style should work perfectly for the music and their type of lyrics, I personally find myself less immersed than I would like to be.

I previously said this was slicker than an otter rolling in lubricant but that’s not where the similarity ends. Otters are brilliant creatures and great fun, but prolonged close exposure doesn’t really endear them to you further because frankly they smell absolutely rank.

And so it goes with this, albeit for different reasons. If I want jazz then I’ll listen to jazz, if I want 'proper' jazz fusion, then I’ll listen to Weather Report; both will give me something more open and more centred around spontaneity than precision engineering and that is more to my taste. But on the odd occasion I want some perfectly crafted and executed jazz inflected pop rock then this is otter like in a good way.

Just as with our little Mustelidae friends, where the fact that I don’t want to live with them day to day doesn’t stop me occasionally marvelling at their brilliance, so it is with this. 8/10.
 
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