Also, who wrote "I skipped the part about love" first - I take it that was R.E.M.? Or is it a reference to something sooner?
I remember reading an interview with Tom saying that playing R.E.M. while busking in the streets was their worst case scenario, so yes, definately R.E.M.
I think I heard a lot of the songs off WCS via singles a long time before I heard the album itself, so that might be why I hear it as disjointed. I should go back to it really. Hotellounge is probably my favourite dEUS song.
It has two tracks of the Zea-EP, they seem out of place on WCS. OTM regarding Hotellounge.
― EvR, Thursday, 1 October 2020 15:29 (three years ago) link
Off WCS which I'd heard before the album: Suds & Soda (on a comp), Jigsaw You (Live B-side), Via (Single), Hotellounge (Single), Great American Nude (B-side), Secret Hell (B-side)... So it looks like I'd heard most of it in some shape or form before actually hearing it.
― Specific Ocean Blue (dog latin), Thursday, 1 October 2020 15:33 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Tuesday, 13 October 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Wednesday, 14 October 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link
not really surprising
― Specific Ocean Blue (dog latin), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 00:16 (three years ago) link
It is to me, a bit! Thought 'In A Bar' would be second to either of the two others tbf. Good showing, relatively speaking.
― Ilxor in the streets, Scampo in the sheets (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 07:25 (three years ago) link
I honestly think they've been received very differently in the Anglophone world than they have in the rest of Europe. They were never MASSIVE in the UK (although the show I went to see at the Scala in London was busy and the crowd was fervent), but from where I'm standing it was IABUTS that won most people over to them.
― Specific Ocean Blue (dog latin), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 08:44 (three years ago) link
I remember the first album getting some rapturous reviews over here, by the time In A Bar... came out it was one Britpop explosion later and from then on they seemed to be treated as a kind-of-interesting but basically peripheral band. It hasn't occurred to me to listen to any of these in two decades and tbh I'd forgotten about them but revisiting them might be a rewarding project over the next few days.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 14 October 2020 08:48 (three years ago) link
I revisited In A Bar... a few weeks back, playing dEUS to my housemate who hadn't heard them before. Was surprised to find that the songds I used to love (like the title track and Little Arithmetics) hadn't aged so well, while others like Theme From Turnpike which I wasn't that keen on really came into their own.
― Specific Ocean Blue (dog latin), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 08:55 (three years ago) link
I think you're right DL. Holland and Belgium were properly swept away by WCS. Funny you mention 'Little Arithmetics', because I to me that one def stood the test of time. The title song less so. Good idea to play it now to/with someone who's not heard of them before though, I might try that.
(In the end I voted with the heart and went for WCS, first love and all that)
― Ilxor in the streets, Scampo in the sheets (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 09:24 (three years ago) link
Curious what you think Matt DC!
I still love Little Arithmetic, but there's a whimsicalness and a preciousness about parts of In A Bar which made more sense in the nineties (or at least to me in the nineties) than it does now. The other albums don't really do this as much.
I discovered dEUS because our local record shop was giving away WCS-era singles on CD for 50p each, and being a school kid with no money and a hunger for music they were very welcome. I also remember reading an interview with Tom Barman in one of those Volume CD/booklet compilations. My guess is that UKers' interests were piqued by WCS but it was In A Bar that they rushed out and bought.
― Specific Ocean Blue (dog latin), Wednesday, 14 October 2020 10:13 (three years ago) link