How many Lee Ranaldo records is too many?

Don't really look at Metacritic, but took a peak now. Seems that 10 out of 12 reviews are "positive", giving it a score of 75 or something. Which doesn't mean anything other than that this batch of reviews generally state that it is a decent to good record (or something like that).

Out of curiosity, I looked at the Observer review, which was the other negative review. It was one paragraph long, most of which made no strong statements whatsoever (and seemed pretty positive actually), then the last sentence states that the record is sonically interesting but the lyrics not so much. All of which somehow added up to 2 out of 5 stars. Worthless review.

the gently major-label "Wish Fulfillment"

finally sitting down to listen to this now, sounds good so far. is it the same personnel for the whole album or are there liner notes online somewhere that say who plays on what?

It is not the same personnel other than that I think Steve, Alan, and Lee are on every track. The bassist Irwin Menken plays on most of the songs, but apparently Jim O'Rourke plays bass on a song. Any keyboards are Medeski, so he is easy to pick out, and Nels Cline plays pedal steel (or lap?) and then some straight guitar, which is also pretty easy to pick out. Apparently Bob Bert is on there too. Obviously I did not look at a track-by-track list of who plays on what, and I am not sure that that is available yet, but the record is out now, so maybe Matador has it listed?

i was a bit disappointed with this record on first listen. will have to try again. :( i had hoped to be bowled over by it.

I was expecting to be disappointed, I really wasn't moved by the first couple of songs that circulated (those live clips from the first show), so lowered expectations may have helped. It does make me wish he had done this in the 80s and 90s too though, as it has kinda convinced me that he may have pulled off some great shit without the SY modus operandi hanging over his songs. It makes me think that he may have a better record of this type in him as well, I hope he makes another.

What I like about this record is that it avoids the predictable guitar clashes of his work with Sonic Youth. I agree with the complaints about the lyrics, but other than that it's a very fine arranged and enjoyable record. The PF review is one of their worst. Today's review of the new O'Rourke/Ambarch/Heino cd is an example of how it should be: about the music.

but the record is out now, so maybe Matador has it listed?

Picked up a physical copy yesterday, but unfortunately there is no track-by-track breakdown which is pretty annoying, imo, for a record with a varied cast like this

And yet there's Lee in the Brian Turner interview portion from his WFMU session Tuesday having rhapsodies about how nice it was back in the old days of the album as this magical unit of music-delivery, when you could sit down and read liner notes and look over personnel info and groove on cover art etc...lol.

haha

Yeah, that's too bad, but I do think you can pick out exactly who is playing what on each song, you just have to listen to them to figure it out. Seems like an odd thing to leave out of the liners though.

yeah as a Nels Cline stan i had a similar frustration with an Eleni Mandell album he played on where the liners were not very specific as to what he played on but there were of course some tracks where it was obviously him

I like this better than the Thurston joint from last year!

^^^ me too.

Really loving this album.

yeah this is better than it has any right to be - pretty much confirms my feeling that I mainly stuck with SY for the Lee songs

I read a couple of the negative reviews while listening to the first couple of tracks, and nearly bailed. I'm glad I didn't. This is a good album!

BBC review by Spencer Grady: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/6z5c

i Just. Don't. Get. people who can't write about this record without slighting SY's other work, etc, but i guess i'm pretty avowedly an SY fanboy by this point. this new lee album is thoroughly excellent, some of his best works, as was thurston's demolished thoughts, as was murray street, etc etc

i preferred the thurston album. at least it had tunes whereas this is noodling along. thurston did evolve whereas lee just does not change at all. does the world really need this kind of stuff in the 2010s?

what kind of stuff does the world really need? other than love, sweet love.

I liked new Thurston and Lee both, though they're very different albums. Not the BEST by either, though.

i think maybe if Lee had given the Shelley/Cline/Licht ensemble a band name to credit the album under it would've gone down better as a Wild Flag-type supergroup thing

Lee Ranaldo & The Angels of Licht

haha

just saw this: http://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/8797-lee-ranaldo/

fun article but i wish he'd been a little more personal and idiosyncratic with his selections, obviously Nevermind and Daydream Nation have personal significance for him but i dunno

yeah not terribly surprising stuff in there. liked the anecdote about playing marquee moon in the lecture hall.

Boring list, thought he'd stick a few more interesting albums for the 'guitarist' in there

And Pavement as favourite band of the 90s, jesus

the coda part of 'Fire Island' is lovely, wish it was the whole song

nice piece by Lee on the Dead, mentions a new alb:

http://thetalkhouse.com/features/view/lee-ranaldo-the-grateful-deads-long-lost-concert-documentary-sunshine-daydr#.UkCl8cWAD74.twitter

stream of new rather poppy album:
http://www.clashmusic.com/news/exclusive-stream-lee-ranaldos-last-night-on-earth

Lee finally accepted my FB friend request last month! Thanks, Lee!

really digging Last Night On Earth, only halfway in and am already pretty sure it's an improvement on Between The Tides.

Lee performing on Conan tonight!

i loled at this:

Mike Wolf ‏@thismikewolf 9h
Some might call it Alan Licht's nat'l-TV debut. MT @matadorrecords Lee Ranaldo & The Dust are on tonight's "Conan" (TBS) @leeranaldo

doing a live set on WFMU in about 10 minutes:

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/BT

Nice! His solo records are so underappreciated

playing sometime soon at the bell house with steve gunn & somebody else? might have a guest spot if you'd wanna go morbz.

Ian, pretty sure that Nathan Bowles is drumming for the Steve Gunn band on this tour, and maybe is opening the shows solo as well? Something like that.

New album on Mute tomorrow: Electric Trim.
Interesting roster: Shelley, Sharon van Etten, Alan Licht, Nels Cline, Tim Luntzel, Kid Millions. Lyrics co-written by Jonathan Lethem on six songs.

two tracks:
Circular (Right As Rain) (love this)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNK7N5L6jCk

New Thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2HWSUaqPd4

Trailer for a documentary on the making of the album (more info here: http://montclairfilm.org/events/the-thrill-of-the-creative-process-in-hello-hello-hello/)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNK7N5L6jCk

oh crap, here's Circular (Right As Rain):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2XRnzj-YmE

the album is wonderful. his best solo yet.

Listened once on Spotify. Some really surprising moments. I'm not sure what I think of the spoken bits but the melodic songs are hitting the spot, for the most part. Ranaldo, Cline, and Licht all playing on a Beatlesque pop record seems like a good idea!

"last looks"!