Kind of like Sinatra, I think Malkmus also contains multitudes. There's the lazy tuneless drawling Malkmus, but there's also the earnest wistful Malkmus, and the ironic faux-cock-rock yelping Malkmus, and the just taking it straight Malkmus. The history of artless and naive vocals goes back probably to the earliest Folkways field recordings, but I guess its hard to define when the self-conscious and ironic element crept in.
― o. nate, Friday, 14 April 2023 15:40 (one year ago) link
Ecstasy/You Made Me Realise/Glider/Tremolo EPs
>>>>>>>>>>
Isn't Anything/Loveless LPs
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, 21 April 2023 21:44 (one year ago) link
...aaaand I forgot to include Feed Me With Your Kiss in the EPs, should be there.
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, 21 April 2023 21:45 (one year ago) link
interacted with the arrangement in a unique way
This was what made his best material so great. He inhabited a song in a way that was uniquely his.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 21 April 2023 21:49 (one year ago) link
The You Made Me Realise EP was my introduction to My Bloody Valentine, it happened to be the first thing I found by them on Napster back in the dayEverything that I've heard by them since then seems less good to me than that EP
― silverfish, Saturday, 22 April 2023 03:18 (one year ago) link
Isn't Anything and Tremolo would be my desert island picks
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 22 April 2023 03:24 (one year ago) link
Tanglewood Numbers is not only the best Silver Jews album, it’s one of the best indie rock albums of its decade… and would likely be even more highly regarded if it were someone’s debut, and not simply one more installment in a long discography.
― morrisp.fandom.com (morrisp), Sunday, 23 April 2023 19:53 (one year ago) link
if it gets really really badif it ever gets really really badlet's not kid ourselvesit gets really really bad
― corrs unplugged, Monday, 24 April 2023 08:43 (one year ago) link
I can't pick a fave Jews album, but it's def a contender and I think of it as under rated. It was the first one I heard and I was initially put off by "Punks in the Beerlight." When "Animal Shapes" rolled around I perked up.
― Cow_Art, Monday, 24 April 2023 11:31 (one year ago) link
Achtung Baby is a more ROCK lp than The Joshua Tree.
― the pinefox, Monday, 24 April 2023 11:40 (one year ago) link
Zooropa is easily the best U2 album
― Cow_Art, Monday, 24 April 2023 11:48 (one year ago) link
All U2 albums pretty much sound like U2 albums to me. The differences between them are not as interesting to me as the similarities.
Like yes I know there are differences in style but I frankly don't care.
― when you wish upon a tsar (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 24 April 2023 11:56 (one year ago) link
All U2 albums pretty much sound like U2 albums to me.
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Monday, 24 April 2023 12:00 (one year ago) link
Zooropa as best U2 album ain't controversial anymore, I don't think?
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 April 2023 12:07 (one year ago) link
No
― The Lubitsch Touchscreen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 24 April 2023 12:37 (one year ago) link
I guess not? I assume that it is still seen as Achtung Baby's little brother. I don't think it ever got a proper reissue or anything.
But maybe it has become the U2 album for people that don't really like U2.
― Cow_Art, Monday, 24 April 2023 13:21 (one year ago) link
I feel like it is the U2 record for people who like Achtung Baby but think that one is too obvious a choice. So not a challops at this point to say it is the best.
― The Lubitsch Touchscreen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 24 April 2023 13:26 (one year ago) link
go to a U2 concert, interview 1000 fans at random I bet you won't get one who says Zooropa
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 24 April 2023 13:30 (one year ago) link
I don't know who constitutes a "real" U2 fan these days, but I think of my sister, who gave me her copy of Zooropa, went to the The Joshua Tree album tour in 2017, and coughs slightly when I mention how much I love the album she gave away.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 April 2023 13:31 (one year ago) link
Is it the least Bono U2 album? Johnny Cash sings a song, Edge sings a song, Eno's vocals do a lot of the work in "Lemon." You have to go to Passengers to get farther from him, but it has "Elvis Ate America" which is such a heavy dose of Bono.
― Cow_Art, Monday, 24 April 2023 13:36 (one year ago) link
My controversial (?) opinion is that Achtung was a transitional record, the usual U2 schtick (itself not a bad thing) but with some slightly-unusual (for U2) arrangements. Arguably, their "Night & Day" cover, which preceded Acthung by a year, took more risks -- it sounded to me far less like what one expected from U2 than anything on Achtung. And Zooropa was the much fuller realization of what Achtung hinted at.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 24 April 2023 13:38 (one year ago) link
Even if no actual concertgoing fans would say it's the best, there's probably a substantial number of ILX-type appreciators who would. (xp!)
― The Lubitsch Touchscreen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 24 April 2023 13:39 (one year ago) link
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat)
No matter what Bono says now, he and the band thought as much at the time (as quoted in Bill Flanagan's book).
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 April 2023 13:55 (one year ago) link
how is, for example "Zooropa" the song more adventurous than "Zoo Station" other than feeling kind of half written?
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 24 April 2023 14:16 (one year ago) link
The sampled vocals and radio effects, the leisurely opening crawl a la "Station to Station."
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 April 2023 14:20 (one year ago) link
It contains fewer of the U2 signifiers/cliches that we generally associate with them. It's got that 2-minute burbling buildup, a sharp tempo shift, the arrangement is more spare/claustrophobic than "Zoo Station," and there's no obvious/anthemic chorus.
Or, more concisely, what Alfred said.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 24 April 2023 14:25 (one year ago) link
eh I guessI'm listening to this now and it's a lot less out there than I remember. "Babyface" very standard issue stuff with some production touches, the charge being leveled against Achtung. the chorus is so Midwestern bar band.
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 24 April 2023 14:25 (one year ago) link
I didn't expect a song as pop and sarcastic as "Babyface" on a U2 album either. The sequencing is excellent: from there it's a comfortable slide into the electro-inflected grooves of Side One.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 April 2023 14:27 (one year ago) link
uncle!
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 24 April 2023 14:28 (one year ago) link
I've been called worse on Saturday nights.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 April 2023 14:30 (one year ago) link
It's a good call about 'night & day' - an unusual record for them, at the time.
And about ZOOROPA containing a bit less Bono Vox than usual.
― the pinefox, Monday, 24 April 2023 14:31 (one year ago) link
Alfred otm re: the Zooropa sequencing. "Lemon" would be jarring as the opening (or even just the second) track, but by the time it arrives, we're ready.
"Stay" and "The First Time" are the only songs on Zooropa that could have conceivably appeared on an earlier U2 record -- with minor changes to the arrangements -- but they still sound perfectly at home here.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 24 April 2023 14:32 (one year ago) link
It was downright baffling, at least for US listeners. The last big radio hit here was "Angel of Harlem," and "Night and Day" couldn't have been more of a 180.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 24 April 2023 14:34 (one year ago) link
I'll post what I posted on the U2 thread here too:
They tricked themselves eventually into thinking they'd been a rock band and that's what everyone wanted from them, but even their most "rock" albums were more devoted to the groove than any cliches of rock. Which isn't to say the argument about AB doesn't work, it's maybe correct, but I don't think the whole dance/ultramodern aspect was overstated. I do think it's fair to suggest that their image as a serious rock band obscured their true talents, ones already on display before that. There was a reason imo the '90s were so creatively good for them, right down to side projects and soundtrack songs.
I'd amend to say ambient music could be added to the groove part up there.
― omar little, Monday, 24 April 2023 14:39 (one year ago) link
Eno was the one who insisted on the inclusion of "The First One," which floored the band.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 April 2023 14:39 (one year ago) link
er, "The First Time" too
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 April 2023 14:40 (one year ago) link
zooropa is the most interesting u2 album at the very least
can make a case for achtung baby as their best due to it being a little more consistent etc. but i'd still probably take zooropa
― ufo, Monday, 24 April 2023 14:52 (one year ago) link
Gotta believe Eno's seemingly more involved participation in much of No Line on the Horizon is why imo the peaks of that LP are almost a '90s throwback (not "get on your boots" and a couple others obv)
― omar little, Monday, 24 April 2023 14:53 (one year ago) link
i'd be completely okay with erasing the existence of all things "grunge." really just complete trash tbh.
― my beard exists more than i do. (Austin), Sunday, 7 May 2023 04:37 (one year ago) link
tell us what you know about “grunge” then.
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Sunday, 7 May 2023 11:32 (one year ago) link
frankly anyone posting “get rid of (entire genre of music)” should be prepared to say why.
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Sunday, 7 May 2023 11:36 (one year ago) link
Do you like Green River? How about the Melvins? What about Mudhoney? or the bands often listed as inspiration to these groups, like Scratch Acid, the Buttholes, Fang, or Black Flag? The Pixies? if it’s just about hating Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, whatever, have at it, but the nebulousness of the term “grunge” make your words fighting ones, afaic.
― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table), Sunday, 7 May 2023 11:39 (one year ago) link
yeah i hate all that bullshit, table. it's all very trash. sorry?
why? idk, lack of dynamics, tunnel vision syndrome, distaste for diversity. it all seems like easy listening for meglomaniacs and narcissists. i understand not everything needs to be a melting pot, but enough is enough with dudes chugging shittily away at guitars and talking about pseudo philosophy.
90s smooth jazz offers more choices afaict.
― my beard exists more than i do. (Austin), Sunday, 7 May 2023 16:18 (one year ago) link
didn't we already get rid of grunge actual 25 years ago?
i totally get where Austin is coming from. most of my musical tastes and interests can be traced quite neatly back to becoming an obsessive music fan at the height of grunge, and *hating* grunge.
like, we obviously had to get rid of white dudes chugging shittily away at guitars because grunge turned into the dumbest thing ever made. but rock and pop used to be cross-pollinating currents at one time, right? did we fuck up?
― No, 𝘐'𝘮 Breathless! (Deflatormouse), Sunday, 7 May 2023 17:11 (one year ago) link
It was easy to avoid whatever grunge was if you didn't have MTV. Thst stuff barely grazed the pop chart.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 May 2023 17:13 (one year ago) link
Yeah I don’t totally get this historical revision that grunge was mega mainstream… it was called alternative radio, folks
― brimstead, Sunday, 7 May 2023 17:15 (one year ago) link
nothing else to offer, but this was also me-
most of my musical tastes and interests can be traced quite neatly back to becoming an obsessive music fan at the height of grunge, and *hating* grunge.
not everything is for everyone, but it was only (and still is) the grunge fans who project/ed the idea that "THIS MUSIC MATTERS" and i just didn't "get it man."
(meanwhile, i got absolutely ridiculed for being into "shook ones" and outkast. hate to say i was right all along, but uhh.)
― my beard exists more than i do. (Austin), Sunday, 7 May 2023 17:22 (one year ago) link
I dunno Pearl Jam Ten sold 13 million, The Chronic sold 5.7also MTV was a part of mainstream teen pop culture, I don't care if anyone likes grunge but this seems like a particularly silly argument
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 7 May 2023 17:22 (one year ago) link
there were also like tons of kids who were listening to both!
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 7 May 2023 17:23 (one year ago) link
Also “historical revision that grunge was mega mainstream” seems to be in response to something nobody said
― michel goindry (wins), Sunday, 7 May 2023 17:26 (one year ago) link