Post a controversial music opinion

I controversially agree

The current, highly lauded Arthur Russell release, is barrel scraping.

I stopped paying attention years ago, too, but critics were going ape over this--five starts in Mojo, BNM in Pitchfork, etc.

stars

in terms of post-2010 releases Iowa Dream is very good, but I have to agree with Boring about the new one. I was disappointed after the high praise on the AR thread

I'm generally not a fan of anyone's scribblings and demos.

me neither generally, though Russell is something of a special case in that regard

while i think most of the posthumous AR releases have been quality, my favorite stuff of his *by far* is what he released during his lifetime (WoE, Tower of Meaning, various disco tracks).

haven't heard the new one- i'm saving it for my next walk to the beach through the country- but on the basis of the preview tracks on bandcamp, the high praise surprised me very much.

WoE itself is the record that's meant the most to me in the last 5-10 years of my life, and i don't remember the praise for it being so effusive when it was reissued.

i mean what is even the idea of a "proper" arthur russell discography mean? it's all kind of a puzzle

WoE itself is the record that's meant the most to me in the last 5-10 years of my life, and i don't remember the praise for it being so effusive when it was reissued.

― Deflatormouse, Tuesday, July 18, 2023 3:20 PM (eleven minutes ago)

that's interesting. ime WoE is the consensus masterpiece, though I think we've discussed elsewhere on ilm that for some younger listeners the LIOM material is best known

Calling Out Of Context/Love Is Overtaking Me/Sketches For World Of Echo > Iowa Dream/Corn/Springfield/Deer In The Forest > 24-24 Music From The Kitchen and this new one for me

so I think I agree? frustrating b/c I know there's more great stuff in that barrel (Loose Joints specifically)

i don't read p4k really but i just checked and WoE was rated 8.4 (admittedly higher than i thought), Bunny Rabbit got a 9.0

i don't know what this means, if anything. i find these number rankings a little silly, in general

i think LIOM was the first one i heard, i didn't care for it much, First Thought Best Thought was the one that hooked me.

the puzzle thing is interesting, it's not a conventional discography, it probably shouldn't be approached as such. i'm mostly happy to play with the individual fragments, the glimpses i see of a more complete picture diminish more than they enrich, i'm really interested to hear from anyone who's found otherwise. Matt Marble's book is excellent and does a little of that, i suppose.

i'm happy to have shiny new puzzle pieces that don't need solving tbc

hold one up to the light, look at the colors, put it in your pocket for a rainy day you know

what was even released in his lifetime? world of echo I think....some 12 inches like dinosaur L?

i mean to deny yourself "love is overtaking me" because of music business shit like i don't know what to tell you

Some of my favorite Russell jams are on that one.

I love the way this ditty chirps and bops like folk-rock Talking Heads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK3Wl3LcOO8

I would definitely rather listen to LIOM than WoE in most circumstances, which isn't to say it's "better" in some fantastical objective sense

Tangerine Dream's greatest work is the Risky Business soundtrack

Except for the Thief opening scene.

i mean to deny yourself "love is overtaking me" because of music business shit like i don't know what to tell you

wait, what?

i just said i like the open-endedness of the records taken individually that i lose more than i gain trying to compare them. what does that have to do with business?

and what did i even say about LIOM? that i wasn't taken with it immediately, that i don't love it as much as 2 of my favorite albums of all time? both those things are true.

i wasn't taken with WoE immediately either! i heard it, filed it away and revisited years later.

i was talking about albert's saying that he doesn't factor outtakes, rarities into an artist's work

which in the (unique to be sure) case of russell, it feels like an entire career of rarities and outtakes

but i know what he means, like just the classic whatever meh bonus tracks or alt mixes they throw on reissues

omg sorry

no it's cool, sorry if i came off more aggressive than intended! (to you as well alfred)

you didn't!

b/c you are of course correct: Russell has an entire career of rarities and outtakes.

no no, i was just baffled because i thought it was in response to my posts, likewise sorry for my exasperated tone. i'm a little embarrassed haha.

rarities/outtakes/demos/incomplete work in general is a really complicated topic that i deliberately sidestepped here lol

but i'll say that a lot of my favorite pieces fall under that umbrella, probably an outsized amount.

Why has no one mentioned Another Thought? lmfao

i do find that WoE is a very cohesive work in a way that the other releases mostly are not.

i certainly went back to it at a very opportune time, it was like the 28th of august, i was feeling claustrophobic in the city, desperately yearning to escape to a bucolic, camp-like environment where i could jump in the lake, and mourning the end of summer and how it passed me by.

and he recreates that setting really well, the echo texture as undulating waves, the open space in the spare arrangements, the wooden timbre of the cello- and his own lackadaisical, carefree tone.

but really i think the album is about finding meaning in life through ritual. and by establishing a child's-eye view, simple rites like wrapping a present or going for a swim become grand, romantic gestures and are very moving. well, to anyone who knows me, it would be very obvious why i relate to this. it mirrors the life i built for myself in my 30's very closely.

i also hear it as elegiac, because its humanity is fulfilled. and can't help but take the summer imagery as symbolic of the finite nature of life, which is not exactly what AR believed.

i only listen to it in the summer.

But here’s the thing— I am not a completist, never have been, particularly with music. Another Thought makes me absolutely lose it, I just put it on and I’m already involuntarily crying. I don’t need more of this, I am okay with everything up until 2010, when I stopped caring about the reissue machine.

Also tho, related to the above, sometimes personal interactions with artists end for reasons that have nothing to do with enjoyment of the music. I love Arthur Russell, but his music wrecks me emotionally.

i get that! honestly, i'm that way with most artists. i'm not big on discographies, usually i get deeply into one release (sometimes it's just a single!), and that's all i need. it might mean the world to me, yet i'm not interested in hearing more from the artist. i've been called "very album-oriented" for that reason. it frustrates my friends!

the thing about the personal interaction with AR i'm describing, through that album, is that i'm projecting a lot of it. i said that i lose more than i gain by assembling the puzzle. well, part of the reason for that is some of what i'm putting into it gets harder to see.

“This is How We Walk on the Moon” horn solo— what is purity except this.

Anyway, I saw the doc’s west coast premiere in SF, Jaxon and a few other former ilxors were there, sat next to Felix (of the titular song), we all went to the afterparty where I danced with some older dudes’ rentboy for the evening, then very late at night, on S. Van Ness, I was propositioned by a guy and went home with him, a whole period of my life was defined by this music. Once it seemed like they were mostly releasing music to capitalize on an increased visibility, I sort of decided to silo myself off from that mechanism and just enjoy what I knew and remembered.

Sorry to blurt, I just felt I needed to explain myself.

silo myself off from that mechanism and just enjoy what I knew and remembered

relate to that 100%, i feel this way often, i think you're being unfair to Knutson/Audika in this particular case but understand the need to preserve what you've already taken from it, i'm expressing something similar.

WoE is like the purity of a child's heart to me

I always forget it is posthumous! xp

re: Another Thought

grown ups are crazy.

yeah, the first record released after his passing xp

yall “Springfield” is maybe in my top 5 AR songs, whoever rates it low needs to relisten stat. Gonna head to the Arthur Russell thread

artists whose best song is an outtake, pt. 1 (i always forget this one isn't technically posthumous)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioyZ5ESV-bU

Giant steps are what you take
This is How We Walk on the Moon
I hope my legs don't break
This is How We Walk on the Moon

Some may say

You Have Did The Right Thing When You Put That Skylight In

Just wanna say Calling Out of Context is not only my favourite AR but maybe a top ten album OAT.

For me it's The World Of Arthur Russell/World Of Echo/Another Thought/Calling Out Of Context/24-24 Music. I can take or leave the others, good as they are.

Not sure how controversial this is but:

Janet Jackson > Michael Jackson

and in the same vein

Hole > Nirvana

thread delivers!

I would agree with the Hole/Nirvana controp but frankly, Nirvana released three pretty good to great records. Hole made two, one of which is merely okay and one of which stands miles above anything Nirvana ever did imho. (Yes, I am talking about LTT)