SZilla
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Post by SZilla on Aug 3, 2022 22:27:59 GMT
Ok, here's a wacky one - Eiffel 65's Europop album is a Eurodance masterpiece. Every song slaps to this day. There's a song entirely devoted to Playstation 1 and its games and its way better than it had any right to be.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Aug 6, 2022 20:08:32 GMT
Slayer is the worst of the "Big Four" thrash metal bands of the 80s... Metallica and Megadeth are really the only ones I like of that group. My own "Big Four" would replace Slayer and Anthrax with Testament and Overkill.
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Post by Joaquim on Aug 6, 2022 23:03:01 GMT
Slayer is the worst of the "Big Four" thrash metal bands of the 80s... Metallica and Megadeth are really the only ones I like of that group. My own "Big Four" would replace Slayer and Anthrax with Testament and Overkill. I agree with this, including Megadeth being up there with Metallica as the best of the Big Four (Metallica is a lot better tho), but I’m not as negative on Anthrax. I’m not really much of a Slayer fan at all. They just come off to me as trying too hard to be edgy and shocking. Really like a precursor to a lot of later death metal bands and that’s not a compliment at all
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dazed
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Post by dazed on Aug 7, 2022 1:27:28 GMT
tame impala is the best psychedelic musician ever
the new abnormal is the strokes best album (yes even better than 'is this it?') sure it won't have the same impact on the genre as is this it had, but i find both the highs and lows on it are higher than is this it? (which is still a great album)
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 7, 2022 19:17:06 GMT
* It's amazing how voices can make or break a song or album - I would listen to Lucy Ellis sing the phone book and often her songs are so simple they are like nursery rhymes............I would tell Kevin Parker to STFU the second I hear his falsetto.
* It's also amazing how much a producer can make a record - or raise it - Dan Boeckner (Divine Fits, Wolf Parade) is practically a member of Kiwi Jr on their new album Chopper - there hasn't been a more perfect match of band, songs and producer vision in Rock in a long time.
* Alice Cooper never gets credit as influence except in the most obvious ways - on an artist's looks or act - but Radio Birdman cops a lot from him musically in the "Killer" / "Love It To Death" era ........and they weren't the only ones to do it tbh.
* Frankie Cosmos aka Greta Kline - the daughter of Kevin Kline - is a joke and has somehow made a bunch of albums and EPs - she may be the least substantial artist Pitchfork has ever actively pushed down your throat............wrap your head around that statement for a while.
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Post by DaleCooper on Aug 9, 2022 15:36:47 GMT
Built to Spill was the best rock band of the 90s (in close conention with Radiohead). Their three albums There's Nothing Wrong With Love, Perfect From Now On and Keep It Like A Secret is pretty much as good a three album stretch you'll find by any band.
The Rolling Stones is the ultimate best of band - a lot of great songs, no great albums.
Punk rock is generally an uninteresting genre. Lacks the required musicianship to make it worthwhile for me.
Kendrick Lamar is on his way to becoming the most overrated artist of the past 10 years, despite good kid, m.A.A.d city being on of the best albums of the last decade.
The best album Dave Grohl has been a part of is Songs for the Deaf.
Hendrix might be the greatest guitarist (depending on what weighs into this, he will never not be the greatest), but he was comformtably behind someone like Stevie Ray when it comes to actual playing.
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 12, 2022 1:48:56 GMT
* The appeal of modern Country music - whether you like it or not - where any listener, fan or not - can hear and understand the words and the words often tell stories - in 1 listen you know the song. Which is not the case in any other mass genre really (sure, Folk, but that's quite niche now) where the intent is often to obscure your ability to comprehend the song lyrics at all and merely overwhelm your senses. * Billy Idol milked a handful of original songs for 40 years - some of which were minor ffs - so much so it defies logic - he's the male Joan Jett........and like Joan Jett he carried a song from his old band over too * The Cribs are one of the few bands I can think of who made their best album so late in their career (Night Network (2020), their 8th) * When Robert Plant sings "Gotta monkey on my back, mu-mu-mu-mu monkey on my back back back back" -it's the most ridiculous he ever sounded and that dude once sang about squeezing his lemon, a bustle in a hedgerow .........and literally sang the line "Don't want no tutti fruitti, no lollipop - come on, baby, just rock, rock, rock" so that's saying a whole lot
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 18, 2022 12:12:41 GMT
Cat Stevens versions - of songs he actually wrote - of The First Cut Is The Deepest and Here Comes My Baby - are better, simpler, less oversung, more direct and more fully rounded than any other more famous versions - less sappy too in the case of First Cut - which for some reason people think should be a big, weepy ballad. Rod Stewart cuts out a big lyric which changes the meaning of the song ... "but when it comes to being loved she's first" ......which is probably why he did it in the way he did (I guess) - but Sheryl Crow in her Godawful video - is to quote the song "worst" - with her teeth whitener, costume changes, dopey grins, wild horses and her bare feet - where she cuts out the same line - almost like she doesn't even know the song anyway ......and only knows Stewart's version.
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 19, 2022 7:59:18 GMT
* Colleen Green's "Cool" - pacinoyes' #6 of 2021 - you're welcome, btw - is such a subtle, sly parody of Pop music and its tropes, feminism, sexual politics, Indie credibility, relationships - that it may be the most misunderstood album of the MAR era regardless if you "like" it......where people can't discern the joke - or even see the attempt to tell a joke in the first place.
Rarely is a record "too smart" while appearing "too dumb" .....or dismissed as "too simple" when it's this "complicated"......it's Ramones level in a lot of ways....
* David Bowie's "Changesbowie" despite a couple missteps (Blue Jean, wtf) is actually a better, more listenable "album" than any proper Bowie album except for "Ziggy Stardust"
* In small doses The Chats are fine - but 2 songs in a row is enough - sometimes 2 songs in a row is 1 too much
* Harry Styles "As It Was" video is more interesting for everything about it - apart from Harry Styles actual singing - you notice his hair needs to be combed, his red fingernail polish is um, whatever....... his matching red outfit which is pretty cheap looking compared to his nails....... his totally unnecessary and calling attention to itself scarf that wears him rather than the other way around ......... his bad (I guess?) tattoos........ the intriguing A-Ha-like retro synth Pop intro.......... the songs surprising abrupt ending and its brevity ....it needs a great vocal.....it doesn't have one
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 20, 2022 20:15:55 GMT
* Panic At The Disco's Viva Las Vengeance (song) is a total rip off of The Clash - Career Opportunities mixed with Dear Evan Hansen and makes me want to stab myself in the face and the fact that they were going for that exact sound makes it somehow more appalling
* U2's Vertigo is fncking cluttered mess of a song - the sound of a band at their most desperate and dumb - starting off in Spanish (oh edgy!), Spanish background vocal chants - which are multiple and overbearing ........ Bono actually sings "the boys play Rock and Roll" (do they though?), back to Spanish backing vocals (what's Spanish for "please stop"?)
........ the solos (ha!) are positively limp - not even solos actually - more like time-fillers ......it mercifully ends with yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah X 2 iirc............ The only things missing are a tuba, Bono saying "Ka-ching!" and literally throwing in the kitchen sink.......
* Gwen Stefani gets insufferably annoying when she starts talking - singing, fine........ posing, fine ........blah blah blah.......... not so much
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Aug 20, 2022 22:51:19 GMT
* U2's Vertigo is fncking cluttered mess of a song - the sound of a band at their most desperate and dumb - starting off in Spanish (oh edgy!), Spanish background vocal chants - which are multiple and overbearing ........ Bono actually sings "the boys play Rock and Roll" (do they though?), back to Spanish backing vocals (what's Spanish for "please stop"?) ........ the solos (ha!) are positively limp - not even solos actually - more like time-fillers ......it mercifully ends with yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah X 2 iirc............ The only things missing are a tuba, Bono saying "Ka-ching!" and literally throwing in the kitchen sink....... I don’t love the song or anything, but I find it mildly enjoyable. I hadn’t heard it in a while, so when I read your post, I was like “I don’t remember Spanish background vocal chants (aside from the counting at the beginning).” Probably because there’s only two short Spanish phrases in the chorus, so I don’t find it overbearing, just sort of playful embellishment. I never really thought of them as “solos,” but rather just textural coloring that’s representative of The Edge’s understated, minimalist style in general where he often plays those kinds of repetitive chiming timbres. Describing the song as a “cluttered mess” is just kind of funny to me since I’ve always found it to be a pretty simple and straightforward tune. I guess the ending is "merciful" because it's not sí sí sí sí sí sí X 2
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 21, 2022 1:29:45 GMT
* U2's Vertigo is fncking cluttered mess of a song - the sound of a band at their most desperate and dumb - starting off in Spanish (oh edgy!), Spanish background vocal chants - which are multiple and overbearing ........ Bono actually sings "the boys play Rock and Roll" (do they though?), back to Spanish backing vocals (what's Spanish for "please stop"?) ........ the solos (ha!) are positively limp - not even solos actually - more like time-fillers ......it mercifully ends with yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah X 2 iirc............ The only things missing are a tuba, Bono saying "Ka-ching!" and literally throwing in the kitchen sink....... I don’t love the song or anything, but I find it mildly enjoyable. I hadn’t heard it in a while, so when I read your post, I was like “I don’t remember Spanish background vocal chants (aside from the counting at the beginning).” Probably because there’s only two short Spanish phrases in the chorus, so I don’t find it overbearing, just sort of playful embellishment. You know reading that back I didn't phrase that well - I do think the Spanish backing vox is (way) too cute - but I also meant there's too much backing vocals in general not just Spanish - at "hello, hello"; at Vertigo; but then a whole different background chant (wtf) "woah oh oh's" at about 1:15 (5 times in a row!); then repeats 2 more times at the same spot in the chorus in Spanish also I forget to mention the "whoosh rush" sonic trickery effect at 1:45 and Bono's spoken word part because sure why not .........but just wait until I review their song "Lemon"......... j / k
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Aug 21, 2022 3:25:19 GMT
I don’t love the song or anything, but I find it mildly enjoyable. I hadn’t heard it in a while, so when I read your post, I was like “I don’t remember Spanish background vocal chants (aside from the counting at the beginning).” Probably because there’s only two short Spanish phrases in the chorus, so I don’t find it overbearing, just sort of playful embellishment. You know reading that back I didn't phrase that well - I do think the Spanish backing vox is (way) too cute - but I also meant there's too much backing vocals in general not just Spanish - at "hello, hello"; at Vertigo; but then a whole different background chant (wtf) "woah oh oh's" at about 1:15 (5 times in a row!); then repeats 2 more times at the same spot in the chorus in Spanish also I forget to mention the "whoosh rush" sonic trickery effect at 1:45 and Bono's spoken word part because sure why not .........but just wait until I review their song "Lemon"......... j / k The “woah oh ohs” at 1:15 aren’t really distinctive enough to me to feel overbearing (not more than all the other countless pop songs that do that at least), but in the context of the lyrics that precede it, I think it’s appropriate since he’s talking about a girl “swinging to the music, swinging to the music” repetitively, so he’s vocalizing her motion. I think all the other stuff like the “whoosh rush” sonic trickery effect at 1:45 adds some interesting color, and I feel like if you were to take them out it would just make the song slightly more boring to me. Like I said, it’s not a favorite song of mine or anything, so there’s nothing in it that I feel particularly strongly about one way or the other. Though the music video for it is kind of awful...
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 21, 2022 11:43:00 GMT
* Elizabeth Nelson in her review of Graham Parker's masterpiece Squeezing Out Sparks (1979) on Pitchfork today - does some of the best writing on Pitchfork - ever - certainly since they were sold to Condé Nast - about its very best song "You Can't Be Too Strong" which I have written about a lot on MAR. An anti-abortion song - in this case but not an anti-abortion song in general because this specific case overwhelms the general - a tricky line she clearly delineates in her assessment of the song, itself a masterpiece too and not because I agree with her but her writing is dead logical in its persuasiveness.......she still underrates the album (8.8 / 10) but still .....when do I ever say Pitchfork is worth reading at all! It's one of the greatest songs of all-time ..... * Oasis The Masterplan is fantastic obviously - but the depth of it is often taken for granted: It may be better track for track than any album they made - except for Definitely Maybe - at worst it's 3rd in their catalog behind Morning Glory and even that is arguable - and is as essential to their fans to a degree that no other major band - post-1960s - has for B-sides or unreleased tracks etc. So good were they at putting things on B-sides or tossing off non-album songs in '94-96 that The Masterplan is actually missing several gems - that could have been included over what is actually on there. * Not too unpopular but an often repeated opinion that is so totally true it came to be thought of as false but: Guns N' Roses were indeed usually awful at ballads - Patience, November Rain, Don't Cry - all blow. * The Goo Goo Dolls were a terrible band - even when they were "Indie" - but there is no more cringe moment for me than when they sing the girls name " May" in "Slide" (also a song about an abortion btw ^- a far, far, far lesser one) - where it's so jarring you literally wonder if it's a real person or they used the name "May" (or Mae) because they needed a one syllable name and just picked an odd one like they thought "Joan" or "Kim" sounded too common / obvious ........and they totally over thought it......because it rings totally false and sounds like they did.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Aug 21, 2022 21:30:38 GMT
* Not too unpopular but an often repeated opinion that is so totally true it came to be thought of as false but: Guns N' Roses were indeed usually awful at ballads - Patience, November Rain, Don't Cry - all blow. Patience is a masterpiece, and the others are great too...
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 21, 2022 21:54:06 GMT
* Not too unpopular but an often repeated opinion that is so totally true it came to be thought of as false but: Guns N' Roses were indeed usually awful at ballads - Patience, November Rain, Don't Cry - all blow. Patience is a masterpiece, and the others are great too...
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Aug 21, 2022 22:39:19 GMT
Patience is a masterpiece, and the others are great too... The infectious whistling (how can you NOT whistle along), the interweaving of guitars, the acoustic solos, Axl's shift from lower to higher register at the end with backing vocals... it's perfect.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Aug 22, 2022 4:55:28 GMT
Metallica’s Load album is criminally underrated - almost on par with their Black album quality-wise, and better than both Death Magnetic and Hardwired. Not on the same planet as their first four albums of course, but it showed how much range the band had in being able to shift successfully into more of a hard rock mode, mixed with blues and even a country flavor at times. It’s irritating when people put Load and Reload (a much lesser album) under the same hat, as if they're equivalent in quality.
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 22, 2022 20:34:22 GMT
* Mr. Roboto by Styx is the just the goofiest song - it's too much of everything - too cringe, too over the top, too cheap, too Broadway, too obvious, too long, too muso circle jerk..........no, thank YOU very much asshats!
* Automatic For The People - a very highly acclaimed record that I can't stand by my (formerly) beloved REM has one of their last great moments on "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight" - one of that album's high points - where they stretch out the verse to fit the existing musical passage - they neither cut the line, rewrite the words or the music around those lines - but rather they playfully stretch it out and double up on existing words.
They also do this with the word "substantial" too later on a bit - singing "sub, sub, sub, sub-stantial".......neat, unexpected trick:
Tell her - rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Tell her she can kiss my ass Then laugh and say that you were only kidding That way she'll know that it's really, really, really, really me, me
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 23, 2022 7:47:36 GMT
* M.I.A.'s Popular - her comeback song (2022) is sharp, intriguing, funny, mean-spirited and skewering ........the video too .......I didn't hate that.....at all.......not sure it will sell though
* Françoise Hardy is the greatest modern female Pop singer ......... I have said this before but this is the first time today......
* Geoff Palmer & Kurt Baker - have put out utter crap in 2022 across different songs / albums - stopping dead their momentum after a great 2021 - particularly Palmer - my #3 album last year and my cover song of 2020 with Lucy Ellis ........Baker's "Electric Fire" (song 2022) - may be his career low point.....it's excruciating .......and Palmer plays on that too......
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 23, 2022 22:58:36 GMT
* When Iggy Pop sings "Hang on - don't let me go" in The Stooges "No Fun" (1969) - @ 2:15 - it's not the first time that Rock had suggested a mental break - but it feels much different because it not about a girl, or wrapped in a reference to drugs, or a device of poetic distancing (Dylan, Reed, Astral Weeks). The offhand quality of it within a song about boredom.........is.........well........scary because it doesn't seem situational......... it's Punk actually.......
* I've bad-mouthed Guns N' Roses when they do syrupy ballads in this thread but........Mr. Brownstone - more in their rocking wheelhouse - was their best song......and one of the best "drug songs" of the decade - especially one not done by the usual suspects who did them all the time (like Jesus and Mary Chain etc.)
* Don Henley is horrible - and I don't just mean as an artist..... though that too obviously ........ I just mean he's horrible in general.....
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 24, 2022 7:33:46 GMT
* Husker Du's "Whatever" (1984) has a set of lyrics in it that wouldn't have made sense in any generation prior - for any significant Rock band (except maybe The Modern Lovers or The Kinks - and even that is stretching it) - but it would have made perfect sense for many singer-songwriters: "Mom & Dad I'm sorry / Mom & Dad don't worry / I'm not the son you wanted but what did you expect / I made my world of happiness to combat your neglect" - that specific line is kind of the start of Emo ......... arguable maybe, but that's a very Emo line - it's not the only one on Zen Arcade either - and it predated Rites of Spring by several months ........don't blame them though .......that's like blaming Van Gogh for people who just slapped paint on a canvas and called it "Art" ....... blame all the shitty bands that followed Husker Du........
* No Rock artist ever did more in 2 better bands than Bob Mould - even if Sugar had only a brief run (2 albums, 1 EP, in 3 years) and even though he shared writing / singing at nearly (but more than) 50% with Husker Du.....there's a lot of guys in the RnRHof who were in 2 bands - but usually one of them wasn't very good imo (Wings etc, who are not in anyway) or when both bands were good - their specific contribution wasn't as pronounced in either writing / singing (Clapton in Yardbirds / Cream both in etc.)..... * The Smiths "Girlfriend In A Coma" isn't a great song by itself - but everything surrounding the song kind fascinates like it is - the arrangement, the vocal sung in such a way it's hard to know intent, the video (wtf), the absurdity of what Morrissey is saying and how it is being said is a triumphant slap back at Pop music tropes of any era - conflating "meaning it" without "not meaning anything" exaggerated to the point of parody at selling you tragedy (maybe) - in this case - but always needing to be selling you something
It's a slim joke, but it's a pretty funny one........and it's short which helps
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 25, 2022 10:20:01 GMT
* With bands taking so long to record now and the need to tour so much - you almost never get a Rock artist releasing 2 important albums in 1 year ......and from 1965-1985 especially that happened a lot ..........there is no real reason - other than economics - to take so long between records. especiallly since its easier to record.............and economics is always the enemy of Rock and Roll ........or Art in general
* The Foo Fighters have made 0 great albums - not a put-down really - but did you ever see them on a pacinoyes "best of" list? ........well there ya go.....
* Coldplay have also made 0 great albums - this actually is a put-down.........
* The Cars debut album is maybe the best example of a Pop album - that actually was popular btw - that sounds like a greatest hits - yet plays like an album. It is incredible that the record sounds as good and as fresh - as it does in 2022 ....also it goes by incredibly fast - like that album feels like it's 15 minutes long (it's 35 minutes)
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 11, 2022 22:15:09 GMT
* Creedence Clearwater Revival's two 1969 great albums Green River and Willy and The Poor Boys - probably both top 5 of that year - are so good you forget how awesome the non-"radio songs" are - Effigy, Sinister Purpose, Tombstone Shadow etc. - no American great band was misrepresented by "Classic Rock" radio more than CCR was....
* I've talked about Pet Sounds being overrated (in general, but still important) but play it after Paul Butterfield's mind-blowing East-West - both American, both made the same year (1966) and it sounds legitimately funny. It's hard to believe they're played with the same instruments even...
* "Can't Help Falling In Love" is an unfnckuppable song - anybody can do it - and it always works - but there is not a better sung version than Kacey Musgraves - she's pretty awesome anyway - but just because anybody can sing it, doesn't mean we should take it for granted and anybody can sing it like that.
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Post by Joaquim on Sept 11, 2022 22:30:51 GMT
* Not too unpopular but an often repeated opinion that is so totally true it came to be thought of as false but: Guns N' Roses were indeed usually awful at ballads - Patience, November Rain, Don't Cry - all blow. Patience is a masterpiece, and the others are great too... ^agreed. November Rain in particular is my 2nd fav Guns N’ Roses song
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