Post a controversial music opinion

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.

what is "yacht rock"

http://www.yachtrock.com/yacht-or-nyacht-jay-gradient/

iirc early ilm was full of very clever ppl saying ian curtis sounded like kermit the frog and that their lyrics were bad. it would prob be hard to find a single "challenging opinion" that hasn't been aired on ilm at least once over the years.

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