TS: "a promise," echo and the bunnymen v. "the promise," when in rome

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I think the problem with Mac's vocals on "A Promise" is not so much that they're whiny, but too unvaried. Rather than managing his upper registering vocals in a dynamic way by playing them off moments of more subdued singing (think "Clay" for example), Mac just pours it on thick from the get go and never lets up. Mac at his best was a greatly expressive singer; this just doesn't come through on "A Promise."

I've always felt that "A Promise", as its lone representative, really undersold the otherwise remarkable Heaven up Here Album on the Songs to Learn and Sing comp. The later best of corrected this a bit, but added "People Are Strange" and the second version of "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo." Oh well.

I still take Echo though!

― D. Bachyrycz, Friday, 27 May 2005 23:45 (eighteen years ago) link

"Rather than whiny, the vocals are typical of a kind of anti-whine that it seemed every singer in Britain agreed to adopt in the wake of Ian Curtis."

Huh?! An "anti-whine" is still a whine. Ian Curtis never "whined."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 28 May 2005 00:14 (eighteen years ago) link

one year passes...

When in Rome, by a country mile! Come on, this isn't even a fair fight. Sure, you'd say Echo and the Bunnymen when you're ordering PBRs at a Decemberists concert, but when you're alone at home in the warm confines of your own conscience, you're a When in Rome man!

But seriously, this is a great song.

― Richard Wood Johnson, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:22 (sixteen years ago) link

thirteen years pass...

I don't think I'll ever get over how stupid the When in Rome lyrics are. It's actually part of the reason I love the song so much, though, because the song addresses how stupid and inadequate the lyrics are.

Anyway, it popped into my head today.

― healthy cocaine off perfect butts (the table is the table), Saturday, 21 November 2020 22:04 (three years ago) link

it lurks on my ipod somewhere which lives in the car - it came on last week.

― kinder, Saturday, 21 November 2020 23:03 (three years ago) link

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