OT: The Semi-Annual, Taste Optional Music Thread: Post Your Feel-Bad Hit of the Summer

[HandshakeLine]

Yesterday on my drive back to WV I gave Daft Punk's Random Access Memories a listen. It was the first time in years.

I did not like it.

Random Access Memories is a weird album. It was so huge at the time, but it's... not their best, I think. Plus, I think that "Get Lucky" getting so ridiculously overplayed annihilated any desire I have to listen to it now.

 

[Factorial]

 

[Factorial]

 

[Gurglesons]

Watched the David Byrne America Utopia deal. Dude is such a boss.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Nice. This album has really grown on me through the years... might even be my favorite Bowie album. Always super enjoyed the Tom Verlaine/Television cover of "Kingdom Come" on there. Though it's tough to go wrong with any track on that album.



Also some more Osees... maybe the best version of Nite Expo, right here. Also also... Stillers n'at:

 

[HandshakeLine]

Scary Monsters has great songs, but it has that weird super scooped 80s production that gives me massive listening fatigue so I rarely listen to it the whole way though. Definitely a classic though.

Honestly though, my absolute favorite Bowie album is Outside. Totally slept on, killer songs, great production (and it doesn't feel dated) and the booklet that came with the album was INSANE.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Scary Monsters has great songs, but it has that weird super scooped 80s production that gives me massive listening fatigue so I rarely listen to it the whole way though. Definitely a classic though.

Honestly though, my absolute favorite Bowie album is Outside. Totally slept on, killer songs, great production (and it doesn't feel dated) and the booklet that came with the album was INSANE.

Yeah it was an album of it's time, for sure. At least in production choices. But I can usually gloss over that stuff. Hell my favorite Beach Boys album, Surfs Up, sounds like they dubbed the master on to an old Playschool tape recorder and just used that or something. Well... maybe not that bad but still.

I haven't listened to Outside in a while. That was his reunion with Eno, yeah? Bowie had some fascinating stuff going on in the 90s that I kinda missed for many years just because I wasn't paying enough attention.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Yeah it was an album of it's time, for sure. At least in production choices. But I can usually gloss over that stuff. Hell my favorite Beach Boys album, Surfs Up, sounds like they dubbed the master on to an old Playschool tape recorder and just used that or something. Well... maybe not that bad but still.

I haven't listened to Outside in a while. That was his reunion with Eno, yeah? Bowie had some fascinating stuff going on in the 90s that I kinda missed for many years just because I wasn't paying enough attention.

Yeah he got together with Eno again at his wedding, and they decided to make an album about psychiatric patients in Austria. The album also took a lot of influence from NIN and the early 90s industrial scene. It's also a weird concept album about... art murders? Where people get killed and then turned into an art exhibition?

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Yeah he got together with Eno again at his wedding, and they decided to make an album about psychiatric patients in Austria. The album also took a lot of influence from NIN and the early 90s industrial scene. It's also a weird concept album about... art murders? Where people get killed and then turned into an art exhibition?

HA... yeah I'm refreshing myself on it right now. What a truly Bowie/Eno thing to do.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I get how people took it as being self-indulgent in the age of grunge and the faux-indie wave of the 90s, but man, it is just a brilliantly weird album with some great songs on it.

It's got all the theatricality of his 70s albums with a dose more black humor and some really ahead of its time usage of synths and computers.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

I get how people took it as being self-indulgent in the age of grunge and the faux-indie wave of the 90s, but man, it is just a brilliantly weird album with some great songs on it.

It's got all the theatricality of his 70s albums with a dose more black humor and some really ahead of its time usage of synths and computers.

It's funny because that would have been my attitude at the time but now I kinda look at grunge and the faux-indy wave as the self-indulgent offenders of that lot haha. Though obviously I still love em.

 

[HandshakeLine]

It's funny because that would have been my attitude at the time but now I kinda look at grunge and the faux-indy wave as the self-indulgent offenders of that lot haha. Though obviously I still love em.

Yeah, I don't mean any disrespect to the music of the 90s here. (Obviously I'm also a huge fan of it! ) But it doesn't seem to be any less self-indulgent than say, Achtung Baby, Pinkerton, Vitalogy, Black Love or any other number of beloved albums from that period.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

It's funny what a little time and distance will do.

I can't decide if I took myself entirely too seriously back then or not nearly seriously enough.

 

[HandshakeLine]

It's funny what a little time and distance will do.

I can't decide if I took myself entirely too seriously back then or not nearly seriously enough.

Probably a bit of both, if you're like me.

It's funny how albums age though. Pinkerton has some great hooks, but man, that album feels hella cringe right now (and kinda creepy). On the other hand, Black Love's weird pastiche of soul music, drug music, and 90s alternarock feels pretty great, even if it's all about doing cocaine and f***ing in a New Orleans bathroom.

 

[Factorial]

 

[Randy Butternubs]

 

[Factorial]

I worked with the bass player in this band at The Strand booksore for a few months in 1988:

 

[Gurglesons]

Probably a bit of both, if you're like me.

It's funny how albums age though. Pinkerton has some great hooks, but man, that album feels hella cringe right now (and kinda creepy). On the other hand, Black Love's weird pastiche of soul music, drug music, and 90s alternarock feels pretty great, even if it's all about doing cocaine and f***ing in a New Orleans bathroom.

The last Whigs album was pretty good.

Also, Pinkerton still bangs IMO. Blue is the one that sucks.

 

[Factorial]

 

[Gurglesons]

New Springsteen and Italians Do It Better Comp.

Springsteen is mighty impressive. The Zevon cover is incredible. Probably his best since that Bob Seegar cover album he put out. Bout to check out After Dark 3. Johnny Jewel never disappoints.

 

[T1K]

 

[HandshakeLine]

The last Whigs album was pretty good.

Also, Pinkerton still bangs IMO. Blue is the one that sucks.

And the one before that too! Shame about Dave Rosser though, he was a great guitarist.

 

[Factorial]

For fans of the incidental music on Spongebob:

 

[Kristopher Letang]

10/10 masterpiece.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I worked with the bass player in this band at The Strand booksore for a few months in 1988:

Whoa, DNA was awesome. I love my NYC No Wave. Any good stories?