Post a controversial music opinion

There were, at minimum, a couple dozen albums released in '67 which are better than Sgt. Pepper.

That's not controversial.

R.E.M. is actually really boring

wow, thread finally delivers

I liked R.E.M. a lot in high school and they are all smart, nice guys with good taste but man, I just never want to listen to them anymore. Somewhere around Monster I lost all interest. the limited guitar playing and lack of sonic depth, the boring arrangements, the mewling vocals, the poor production choices and terrible mandolin playing and clunky videos, their catalog feels very inert to me.

like at best I can muster a "yeah that song's okay" for a number of tracks. but a whole album? ew, just never in the mood.

Most bands are boring tbh

all bands are excellent

^^^^

rt

not all bands

bandsplaining

All duos are terrible.

All bands except R.E.M. are excellent

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

Honestly Scott I recommend everyone going, the bigger the skeptic you are, the better.

Last night was his first show of the tour I guess? But he did play Troubled Water somewhere, solo, a week ago, this performance wasn’t as good as he was last night but it is still crazy good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TADvrlGLCO8

Like I was in a room with 8000 people in rapt silence while this was happening. He was getting standing ovations repeatedly just during the set and I was absolutely one of the ones on my feet

Maybe the corniness of it all just gets diluted once you’re seeing it in person. Like sports!

Haha my god

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHkKMJ6DCZQ

It’s a homemade harmonizer! “Oh, yeah you can see it was signed by Herbie Hancock, there. And Quincy Jones, there.”

this reminds me I saw DOMi & JD Beck last year (my kid wanted to go, they opened for Polyphia, who are wanky) and that was one hell of a set. I can't see myself listening to these two's record(s), but that was a really good live set; incredibly impressive chops on these really young people, dumb sense of humor, they played a Weather Report song that had an auditorium of gen z people grooving. Weird!!!!

there are some good young musicians out there.their stuff isn't always my bad but it's cool to see young people doing interesting stuff.

i shouldn't sound so mean. it is nice that so many people like it. maybe i would like it if i saw it live!

No Scott it’s ok that you were being mean! I was too. All I knew about Collier was those impressive-but-dorky happy new year videos that I’d share with friends in a mocking way. He just seemed to me like a musical Wesley Crusher. I would’ve never gone to his show except for Kimbra opening! And I had a blast! Idk it makes me feel really good that this is the kind of shit normal people are getting into

lolll @ "a musical Wesley Crusher"

I was also v amused

Haven't formed an opinion on this yet, but it's just nice to see this thread used for "this thing people hate is good actually" rather than "this thing people like is bad actually"

collier is basically all chops no songwriting but it's funny how much he really tries, his songs have all this ambitious proggy modulation in a relatively pop format but then none of it actually comes together in a compelling way. i can imagine he comes across a bit better live though since you can just appreciate his crazy chops and he makes up for his lack of songwriting ability with a bunch of covers. covering "fix you" is part of the problem though - he has no taste! his harmonizer is rather cool though, iirc bon iver use something similar

he has no taste! his harmonizer is rather cool though, iirc bon iver use something similar

robot voice: dOeS nOt cOmPuTe

the tech is cool, collier is not!

collier is basically all chops no songwriting but it's funny how much he really tries, his songs have all this ambitious proggy modulation in a relatively pop format but then none of it actually comes together in a compelling way.

Controversial music opinion: he sounds like this generation's Todd Rundgren

he's much more 'normie' than rundgren

Norm Rundgren. Todd's little cousin.

Kataklysm suck.

My contribution to the thread

I fully expect this guy to be his generation’s Stevie Wonder except perhaps even more popular

I don't see that happening given that he is essentially the age Stevie Wonder was when he made Hotter in July.

Norm Rundgren. Todd's little cousin.

― scott seward, Tuesday, April 23, 2024 4:35 PM

"norm rundcore." todd's little cousin's smarty pants power pop band.

sorry we're venturing off into The most interesting pieces of pop music trivia that you know (that are 100% false) territory but, otoh, #onethread

that thread, forgot if ever knowed by me, made me laugh a little, ty

love that you took this to the controversial thread <3

I don't know what it would take for me to actually go to a Collier show, and I don't know if I want to be convinced that he's actually not that annoying, but I appreciate your report and insights

I believe Collier is benefitting from the other end of the spectrum, maybe; that our ears are thirsting for music that modulates.

you should try listening to more of my recommendations then! modulations, melodic wildness, intricate composition, and all with aesthetic sensibilities that aren't prog jason mraz

Imago you and I agree on so much good music that it’s almost boring discussing it with you, “x is good” “aye yes it is”

My point is that the Jason Mraz approach— and please, Collier hasn’t written anything as ridiculously hooky as “I’m Yours”, fair comparison tho— serves as a workable foundation for his chopswankery and toxic ebullience. It works because of the corniness, not despite it, that being adjacent to “children’s music” is a suitable place for somebody who wishes to exist simultaneously as a pop star and as a music educator, succeeding brilliantly at the latter

A colleague and I were shittexting each other and she asked if I found him attractive. “In a very specific and singular way? I don’t want to hate-fuck him. But I do want to hate-date him, hate-propose to him, hate-marry him, and live on til old age with him, only because it’d be hilarious”

oh i'm very much enjoying your defence and praise of collier here, don't get me wrong. it strikes me, much like 80s Crimson, like seeing (or hearing) it live is the ideal. i like how you describe him as a musical educator more than a composer; there's definitely room in music for children's magicians

How do you rate Bobby McFerrin?

lol

T/S: Instagram Reels Todd Rundgren vs. Prog Jason Mraz vs. The Sweet Release of Death

give me the latter, all of this sounds terrible

I only know the Yo-Yo Ma album. The McFerrin originals are perfectly executed New Age and I could listen to them all day. The rest of the album is not for me

Another good comparison point here re Collier might be the Gallic god himself Jean-Michel Jarre, bringing electroacoustic music to the masses— although one could argue that Collier’s sources (jazz, gospel) are a more problematic thing to bake into cupcakes— but again, Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock and an extremely diverse crown of 8000 elated people would disagree

Mrason Jazz

Also: part of the appeal of Collier, to me, was to attend the concert with the best keyboardist I know, the best guitarist I know, and me being fairly top-drawer myself at harmony and arrangement, and to see this pipsqueak play circles around all of us on our respective foci. Not a minute went by where I didn’t have a “well shit how’d he do THAT?” moment about a particular modulation

Note also that I did listen to 2/3rds of a Taylor Swift album the day before seeing this guy, songs from which make up the entirety of the Billboard 200, seeing something so uncynical, shorn of any victimization or swipes at exes, more content in 30 seconds than that album had in the entire 44 minutes of if I actually listened to; I was in a hopeless place. Desiccated by the Monocultural Uber-Karen. Collier was more Court And Spark than Taylor could ever hope to be.

My guitarist takes issue with the sexlessness of Collier’s presentation, that it renders his songs-about-intimacy meaningless. “I would do shots out of his navel; not in a sexual way, just to get drunk,” I said. “I wonder if we’re feeling now the same way people felt about Elton John before he was a big obvi gay gay. Like confused by the dorkiness if it but charmed nonetheless.” Collier also covered Queen (“Somebody To Love”).

I do appreciate your posts itt fgti

Monocultural Uber-Karen I’m dying

"Dessicated by the Monocultural Uber-Karen" should be on the next Carcass album.

fgti good post, yes. uber-karen, nice. good work.

however, i must say a special thank you for reminding me of the word "dessicate." ask me if i love that word and everything it stands for.

i totally do.

Oh special addendum, we went to a bar after the Collier show and were served drinks by a lovely woman who turned out to be Sahara from the short lived Canadian pop band Sugar Jones

Sahara from Sugar Jones: “Who did you guys see?”
fgti: “Jacob Collier”
Sahara from Sugar Jones: “Who?”
fgti: “British prodigy musical polyglot”
Sahara from Sugar Jones: “What?”
fgti: “white Stevie Wonder”
Sahara from Sugar Jones: “Ohhh, I’m familiar with Jamiroquai”

no Jamiroquai could write at least one good song

Jamiroquai is deeply classic obv

lol jamiroquai

the man NEVER thanked his hat. not once.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErOUi9dXAAA4t1J?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

Thank you Omar that is my new favourite image

revenge of the space cowboy

Thank you Omar that is my new favourite image

― Drowning in TG, he sent me Discipline (flamboyant goon tie included), Wednesday, April 24, 2024 10:05 AM

second.

(orange juice "i can't help myself" was playing upon first glimpse. good soundtrack for that image.)

ha that's a Jim'll Paint It