Post a controversial music opinion

omg sorry

no it's cool, sorry if i came off more aggressive than intended! (to you as well alfred)

you didn't!

b/c you are of course correct: Russell has an entire career of rarities and outtakes.

no no, i was just baffled because i thought it was in response to my posts, likewise sorry for my exasperated tone. i'm a little embarrassed haha.

rarities/outtakes/demos/incomplete work in general is a really complicated topic that i deliberately sidestepped here lol

but i'll say that a lot of my favorite pieces fall under that umbrella, probably an outsized amount.

Why has no one mentioned Another Thought? lmfao

i do find that WoE is a very cohesive work in a way that the other releases mostly are not.

i certainly went back to it at a very opportune time, it was like the 28th of august, i was feeling claustrophobic in the city, desperately yearning to escape to a bucolic, camp-like environment where i could jump in the lake, and mourning the end of summer and how it passed me by.

and he recreates that setting really well, the echo texture as undulating waves, the open space in the spare arrangements, the wooden timbre of the cello- and his own lackadaisical, carefree tone.

but really i think the album is about finding meaning in life through ritual. and by establishing a child's-eye view, simple rites like wrapping a present or going for a swim become grand, romantic gestures and are very moving. well, to anyone who knows me, it would be very obvious why i relate to this. it mirrors the life i built for myself in my 30's very closely.

i also hear it as elegiac, because its humanity is fulfilled. and can't help but take the summer imagery as symbolic of the finite nature of life, which is not exactly what AR believed.

i only listen to it in the summer.

But here’s the thing— I am not a completist, never have been, particularly with music. Another Thought makes me absolutely lose it, I just put it on and I’m already involuntarily crying. I don’t need more of this, I am okay with everything up until 2010, when I stopped caring about the reissue machine.

Also tho, related to the above, sometimes personal interactions with artists end for reasons that have nothing to do with enjoyment of the music. I love Arthur Russell, but his music wrecks me emotionally.

i get that! honestly, i'm that way with most artists. i'm not big on discographies, usually i get deeply into one release (sometimes it's just a single!), and that's all i need. it might mean the world to me, yet i'm not interested in hearing more from the artist. i've been called "very album-oriented" for that reason. it frustrates my friends!

the thing about the personal interaction with AR i'm describing, through that album, is that i'm projecting a lot of it. i said that i lose more than i gain by assembling the puzzle. well, part of the reason for that is some of what i'm putting into it gets harder to see.

“This is How We Walk on the Moon” horn solo— what is purity except this.

Anyway, I saw the doc’s west coast premiere in SF, Jaxon and a few other former ilxors were there, sat next to Felix (of the titular song), we all went to the afterparty where I danced with some older dudes’ rentboy for the evening, then very late at night, on S. Van Ness, I was propositioned by a guy and went home with him, a whole period of my life was defined by this music. Once it seemed like they were mostly releasing music to capitalize on an increased visibility, I sort of decided to silo myself off from that mechanism and just enjoy what I knew and remembered.

Sorry to blurt, I just felt I needed to explain myself.

silo myself off from that mechanism and just enjoy what I knew and remembered

relate to that 100%, i feel this way often, i think you're being unfair to Knutson/Audika in this particular case but understand the need to preserve what you've already taken from it, i'm expressing something similar.

WoE is like the purity of a child's heart to me

I always forget it is posthumous! xp

re: Another Thought

grown ups are crazy.

yeah, the first record released after his passing xp

yall “Springfield” is maybe in my top 5 AR songs, whoever rates it low needs to relisten stat. Gonna head to the Arthur Russell thread

artists whose best song is an outtake, pt. 1 (i always forget this one isn't technically posthumous)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioyZ5ESV-bU

Giant steps are what you take
This is How We Walk on the Moon
I hope my legs don't break
This is How We Walk on the Moon

Some may say

You Have Did The Right Thing When You Put That Skylight In

Just wanna say Calling Out of Context is not only my favourite AR but maybe a top ten album OAT.

For me it's The World Of Arthur Russell/World Of Echo/Another Thought/Calling Out Of Context/24-24 Music. I can take or leave the others, good as they are.

Not sure how controversial this is but:

Janet Jackson > Michael Jackson

and in the same vein

Hole > Nirvana

thread delivers!

I would agree with the Hole/Nirvana controp but frankly, Nirvana released three pretty good to great records. Hole made two, one of which is merely okay and one of which stands miles above anything Nirvana ever did imho. (Yes, I am talking about LTT)

In other words I call them even

Joe Dolce's "Shaddup You Face" is a profound and insightful analysis of integration issues among emigrant communities, and had more to say in one line than the entire career of Ultravox (who this song famously kept off the UK #1 slot).

"You Can't Hurry Love" by Phil Collins is better than "You Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes. There's a clenched urgency to it which moves me more.

I'm clenching just reading that

xp otm "shaddap you face" rules

I can imagine the thinkpiece, no need to write it out

phil collins on the other hand... ruins any song with his vocal style

hole > nirvana was a classic ilx opinion from back in the day

I'm just wondering which Hole album is the "merely okay" one and which didn't even get counted at all. guessing we can discount Nobody's Daughter (I haven't heard that one) but genuinely can't guess if Pretty On The Inside or Celebrity Skin is the "merely okay" one.

Celebrity Skin is wonderful and almost the equal of LTT.

here I'll challop into this'n then, both hole and nirvana, throughout their catalogues, are aesthetically hamstrung by lead singers whose singing is quite bad & both bands would have been well served by better singers

That's not controversial, it's merely wrong

I don't get why Dionne Warwick passed up the chance to front Hole.

Maybe grungey singers aren't your taste?

she peered into the future and didn't like the outcome she saw

xpost

Kid LAROI performed drunk in a bar (as the rest of the fest was canceled).

That's not controversial, it's merely wrong

Maybe grungey singers aren't your taste?

they're not, actually

i know Celebrity Skin pretty well (good but not in Nirvana's league imo) but never heard LTT afaik. so i just cued up Miss World and Doll parts. Holy shit.

"Gutless"!

^ ah, ok, this is much more comparable to Nirvana than the other 2 songs i heard

i was thinking Doll Parts and Miss World are snatching away the classic rock torch from Guns N Roses or whoever and stamping it out, casts the classic rock worship of certain grunge bands in a very different light, Nirvana not really the best comparison

whatever, this record is amazing.

Kind of wild, those songs were big hits in constant rotation at the time.

I love Live Through This— I have written about it. It changed my life, absolutely desert island disc for me

i was 10 years old at the time and entering into a deep Van Halen phase. still not sure how i missed it.

I have written about it.

feel like sharing (or elaborating)?