Post a controversial music opinion

more like blands amirite

Any musician who has not experienced - I do not say understood, but truly experienced - the necessity of dodecaphonic music is USELESS.

I feel like the Eagles worm has been turning for years now, but still no one is ready to say the Eagles are good. Until now folks. The Eagles are Pretty Good

All duos are terrible.

All solo artists are cowards.

lol

All trios are Norwegian.

All ILM posters are liars

I feel like the Eagles worm has been turning for years now, but still no one is ready to say the Eagles are good. Until now folks. The Eagles are Pretty Good

― strong deutan (rip van wanko), Friday, September 7, 2018 1:03 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I have a constantly running loop of that lebowski clip in my head, but never more than last night when I was in a duane reade after hell commute that was playing take it easy

jmm otm

I feel like the Eagles worm has been turning for years now, but still no one is ready to say the Eagles are good. Until now folks. The Eagles are Pretty Good

― strong deutan (rip van wanko), Friday, September 7, 2018 10:03 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"i can't tell you why" is an amazing song but i can't join you here just yet

the eagles are good

i can't tell you why is really good

other eagles songs i like: hotel california, new kid in town, try and love again, take it easy, peaceful easy feeling, witchy woman

The High Llamas were (are?) a million times better than their 'parents', the Beach Boys.

that's not controversial, it's just wrong

the only good Beach Boy was/is Mike Love.

High Llamas relationship to the Beach Boys was always tangential at best (and related to a very brief period/narrow slice of their catalog) and was way over-emphasized in their press materials.

I would take even the low points of M.I.U. over the High Llamas tbh

No artist at all has a "New Jersey" - a huge event album that ultimately feels a bit hollow & signals a career decline

You could say that about any band that has the opportunity to develop someone else's idea further, if it works for you.

xps

There are a bunch of good Eagles songs. Every one of them was released as a single, so a compilation is all you need. There's not one Eagles album worth listening to all the way through. The Long Run comes closest.

The Beach Boys have, like, two good songs ("Good Vibrations" and "Don't Worry Baby"), and I could happily go the rest of my life without hearing either one of them ever again.

Can't think of any.

Black metal sucks. Even the "good" stuff is bad enough that it's worth handing the whole genre over to the Nazis and walking away. Let 'em have it.

Does it have to be a controversial opinion that we actually hold or are we allowed to just say something we think might wind people up?

Saying a band or genre you don't like sucks isn't controversial or even a wind-up tbh.

that late-90s Brian Wilson worship was so tiresome

Counterpoint: at a Silver Jews show, D. Berman did a sneering routine of saying, "What's the big deal with Brian Wilson? He's so overrated," etc.; which was equally annoying.

It could have been John Prine who wrote "Margaritaville."

Here's an (actually held) controversial opinion: while I've been into the Silver Jews since I first ran across "The Arizona Record" (filed under Pavement on a rack), and I think they have some terrific records, I also think Berman is significantly overvalued as a lyricist by most fans. He has some good one-liners, but his lyrics tend to be strings of "clever" non-sequiturs that only sometimes land. He's seen as some kind of rock poet.

I feel like the Eagles worm has been turning for years now, but still no one is ready to say the Eagles are good. Until now folks. The Eagles are Pretty Good

― strong deutan (rip van wanko), Friday, September 7, 2018 10:03 AM

We have a daily listening thread that'll prove you wrong.

you could make a dud list for most anybody

i remember Howard Stern once had a guy on who claimed it was ok to drink your own urine and he did it daily, so they had the guy pee in a cup and drink it to prove it. it was pretty clear he was not very used to drinking his own urine.

music is a fine hobbie for kids and teenagers but should be outgrown (outside of casual interest) early in adulthood

yes

99% of the music criticism on ILM is actually bad sociology

music is a fine hobbie for kids and teenagers but should be outgrown (outside of casual interest) early in adulthood

There's music for adults and music for children/teenagers. Many adults refuse to a) admit this and b) learn the difference.

apollonian >>> dionysian

xp - rude

90% of piano ballads suck

I heard "Take It to the Limit" on the radio last night and man that song sounds great, I'm pro-Eagles now

This is very, very good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqhYXLVYQJ8

controversial opinion: randy meisner sings "take it to the limit" better than etta james

Retro soul covers of rock songs (Charles Bradley's version of Black Sabbath's "Changes" comes immediately to mind) frequently suck, and are mostly championed by people who don't want to be seen liking the original version.

we definitely need another one of these threads

lots of opinions about people here instead of music what a surprise

*falls off high horse into trough of metallica blackened whiskey*

Probably not controversial, but have just realised that most of the music I don't really get, from The Eagles and Steely Dan through to 80s hardcore punk, yacht rock, hair metal, grunge and most of the US indie music of the last 25 years, it's all straight white American guys with guitars.

Kenny G and Chuck Mangione are the two most influential and important jazz artists of the 20th century and it isn't close.

Yeah, but only if you consider 'important' and 'influential' to be synonyms.

xxp humblebrag much, lol

didn't mean it that way, honest! I listen to a lot of music by straight non-American white guys with guitars for example.

man i love Steely Dan so much

Probably not controversial, but have just realised that most of the music I don't really get, from The Eagles and Steely Dan through to 80s hardcore punk, yacht rock, hair metal, grunge and most of the US indie music of the last 25 years, it's all straight white American guys with guitars.

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, September 7, 2018 5:02 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed 100%, but I've known this basically all my life

My estimation of DB went up when his cycle-across-America blog about 15-20 years ago named a favorite hole in the wall barbecue place in Charlottesville that not even many locals knew about.

his love of cycling and half-decent reissue label are good. I mean he's not a total monster, he just blows.

I personally favour certain albums (the DB/Eno collab)

the one in the 80s with a bunch of samples and Fripp and Bill Laswell is great. the one that sounds like music Sims would make fucking sucks

I don't think it's possible for a band to make several great albums while having a frontman and principal songwriter who "sucks"

well, the Doors. But I explained why, it's because the other people. The idea that Byrne was a "principal songwriter" is David's opinion, but don't take my word for it, read Chris' book.

I think both TH and U2 are classic cases of "band is somehow greater than the sum of its parts"

I agree in case of TH, I mean that's my whole premise: TH were great because of everyone involved. I would go as far as saying I think Eno was more responsible for Remain in Light being good than Byrne was. U2, maybe. But U2 is a frontman and a stunt guitarist the other two guys are pretty forgettable and could be just about anyone and it would still sound like U2. Talking Heads I would actually put in that Beatles / Led Zep category where everyone brought something to the table, the parted-out later projects never ever captured the same magic. I don't think David Byrne is a worthless piece of shitty trash, but he gets ALL the credit for Talking Heads which is false, and his whole career now is this unearned positivity victory lap and that makes me totally ralph

i'd probably take byrne's the catherine wheel (which is his one truly essential solo album) over more songs about buildings and food and certainly over those last three talking heads albums

Not a controversial take.

This Must Be the Place (keyboard line by Jerry).

mmm this is complicated. Byrne played one of those synths.

I don't think David Byrne is a worthless piece of shitty trash

I want to screen print this on a T-shirt and send it to Tina

My controversial take re TH is that I love Tina’s bass lines and I love her flannel forearm-warmers but I have inferred that she is a bad person and I would avoid her if I ever encountered her

I think I love her flannel forearm-warmers better than her bass playing! (Which is fine, and per the thread, perfect for Talking Heads, which in that context makes it more than fine. I mean, related, I don't rate the Edge as a guitar player, but I wouldn't pick anyone else if I was forming a U2 tribute band.)

Is this a controversial take? I prefer the Black Crowes version of "Hard to Handle" over the Otis version.

I think U2 were a good band from 1980 to 2002 or so.

My sincerely held opinion - which I thought I'd already expressed on this thread but it must have been elsewhere - is that the only worthwhile song Art Garfunkel ever sang on is "Bright Eyes".

Sad to think of all those other bass players, somehow making do with chilly forearms

(xpost) As a S&G lover, that is definitely controversial.

Byrne is similar to Roger Waters in which they were the less talented musicians in the band

Yeah, I agree with that; Live in Rome in particular is an incredible performance from everyone, but Byrne's guitar work is a crucial element. That 1980 lineup reminds me of Miles Davis's 1975 band in terms of what I guess I'd call virtuosic aggression. The second disc of the expanded reissue of The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads has some absolute wall-of-fire performances, too.

so back where i'm from, there's a very outspoken subgenre of smiths fans who will argue that the band is clearly brilliant (because of marr's playing+arranging), despite its obvious flaws (morrissey).

as soon as i became familiar with that dynamic, it immediately hit me: hey david byrne is that, all-in-one, for talking heads! i've always thought his guitaring was pretty substantial, mainly for that super compressed jangle on the first few albums. that's a sound whose side i'm on, regardless of who's playing it. definitely prefer vampy heads, and extended jams.

all that being said, and this being the thread that it is, man f'kn talking heads are one of the most overrated bands of alltime. they don't suck, but they never made a front-to-back classic album. some classic singles for sure, but inconsistent as hell.

Both Tina and Chris are lovely people. My fave TH is that “Live In Rome” performance and I listen to “The Catherine Wheel” more than any of their band or other solo records.

nope; naked.

(song titles also begat the better band)

― austinato (Austin), Sunday, October 19, 2025 4:37 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

ok, i give up trying to figure out what band named themselves after one of the tracks on Naked?

The classic family quartet Mommy Daddy You and I.

Let's not forget Big Daddy (Kane).

xxp I'm guessing that's a reference to Radiohead rather than a derivative of Naked titles

https://www.discogs.com/artist/256669-Blind-Mr-Jones

early material produced by neil from slowdive. dreampop flute ― recommended!

i'm mistaken! i guess slowdive was just a loose affiliation, no formal connection. band is still good.

i love music.

50% of the ECM catalog is the aural equivalent of watching paint dry.

The other 50% is THE GREATEST MUSIC EVER

surely some portion is both

Yes, but every ECM album, including and sometimes especially the super boring ones, has a "holy shit - what the fuck just happened?" moment about 2/3 of the way through.

haha otm

a controversial music prediction: confessions 2 will become a classic and a return to form, while inferno will be considered a done by the numbers disappointment

.. i'm probably wrong