Post a controversial music opinion

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

three chords and the truth, that's all you really need

that's a quote about classic country songwriting, tbf

Joy Division was the best band of all times. In the early days of ILM this was less controversial, I think.

nah Hello Nasty is their best, I think it's wildly creative album, hard to even tag it as 'hip hop' really

not really a fan of the ones after that - when that anthology came out it was strongly implied they were retiring. their live shows at least still ruled.

I think the Beastie Boys did update their rap style after Paul's Boutique. Their first two albums have a lot of the group-focused approach where they trade single lines back and forth, one guy setting up a rhyme and another finishing it. On Check Your Head and Ill Communication, they did a lot less of that, and lot more taking turns reciting sets of their own lines. Four bars of just MCA, then four of just Mike D, etc. CYH and IC also have a lot less of the move where everybody shouts the word at the end of a line. I suspect both shifts were influenced by the way rap had changed in general by that point.

It's not that the first two albums have no songs where one guy raps a bunch of lines in a row, or that the next two have none of the old school group-focused approach. But there's a clear trend. Compare "Brass Monkey" and "Shadrach" with "So Watcha Want" and "Sure Shot".

Then they shifted back on Hello Nasty, which is interesting. It seems more self-consciously retro at that point.

After that they just paid a bunch of A-list producers to prop up the same old shit

I don't think the Beastie Boys ever used an A-list producer after Rick Rubin, outside of a remix here and there. Unless you count the Dust Brothers because of their stuff with Tone Loc.

yeah I think they are largely self produced after Pauls

You're right. I should have looked that up before posting. I don't know why I thought that was the case. I think I also overstated Money Mark's involvement on "In Sound".

i think that constant self-improvement as musicians (NOT rappers lol) is part of what helped their enduring goodwill among fans+colleagues. also, personal opinions about some of its topics aside, they mostly made really positive vibe music. same kinda energy as people like biz markie.

(note to self: de la soul collabed with both the beasties+biz.)

"dance away" is annoying, bry stop whining challenge

barry white sang it better

My mum loved that song - and Bryan Ferry, frankly - so I must disagree.

out of reach is out of touch

he shd have stuck to doxxing her car's numberplate imo

It goes over well at karaoke, despite American audiences not having a clue what it is; and I like the weird dissonant bass pokes in the verses.

real hedz kno that best roxy-karaoke practice is to screw up yr eyes as u bellow-emote "GROWING POTATOES BY THE SCORE"

The version on the Babylon Berlin soundtrack is so good.

Money Mark? I chatted with his kid at a coffeshop here in Ams a couple of summers ago.

(maybe that belonged in the name-dropping thread)

"Lean On Me" is the single most overrated song of the 1970s

Maybe not most, but def vastly overrated. Always flip the station when that comes on, and that goes for the Timex Social Club version too.

its just overplayed.

my dad has an al jarreau cd that he plays at night and i can hear al's version from my dad's bedroom sometime and i kinda always wonder why al jarreau felt he had to cover a massive 70s hit IN the 70s. its not that different. he did a whole album of bill withers in the late 70s. but my dad just has it on a best-of.

practically alone among early 90s pop rave hits i don't think i get bassomatic's fascinating rhythm

should "Lean On Me" replace "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the US national anthem?

should “lean back” replace “the star spangled banner” as the US national anthem?

practically alone among early 90s pop rave hits i don't think i get bassomatic's fascinating rhythm

appropriately sampled by real lies for 'one club town'

I buy and enjoy about 75% of International Anthem's releases but I can't believe people take Carlos Niño seriously

dying at the CPAC rendition upthread which I somehow missed. holy shit.

oops wrong thread