Music: Unpopular Music Opinions

[Spring in Fialta]

I love Nas - specifically Illmatic and It Was Written... - but AZ stole the show every time he rapped on either of those albums. His flow is melodically perfect.

 

[Shareefruck]

Yeah, I'm not well-versed in Beatles mythos/history so I don't know all of the dynamics so it's interesting to hear that McCartney was the one who worked on the loops on Tommorow Never Knows.

I disagree with you - simply because I'm not much of a listening to one album all the way through guy - but I can see where you're coming from. As you said, Sunday Morning was an attempt by Andy Warhol to have a mainstream hit on the album so the song itself does work as the opposite of the more experimental tracks, although a song like I'll Be Your Mirror is still in the same vein as Sunday Morning, although I find SM to be vastly superior. The way Reed sings that dreamy and sweetly childlike '' Watch out! The world's behind you...'' is one of my favorite vocal moments ever.

Sidenote, but does it bother any other VU fans that live versions of songs never seem to never be even close to what they sound of albums? I don't mind - and actually encourage - when bands don't just play a slick, lean set of studio versions of their songs but the studio version of VU songs are so perfect that it'd be nice to have some faithful renditions to watch in a live setting!

I agree that Sunday Morning is a better song than I'll Be Your Mirror, but Nico's voice is just strange enough that it kind of works a bit better with the more experimental stuff, to my ears-- To some degree, I feel that way about I'll Be Your Mirror as well, though. I would have preferred if the entire album had that wild experimental feel to it.

For some reason Here She Comes Now doesn't feel out of place on White Light White Heat to me, though.

---

Regarding live VU performances, The Complete Live at the Matrix was released a few years ago in remastered near-studio quality, and the performances are fantastic, IMO.

It is a more laid-back, loose, and rough-around-the-edges feel than the studio recordings, but I would argue that there's a really beautiful charm to it that's lacking in the studio recordings-- Sweet Jane in particular is superior to the studio version, IMO. Waiting For the Man sounds fantastic with the teeth removed, and there's also a 30 minute laid back version of Sister Ray that I find fascinating.

It's at the very least better than Loaded, IMO.




I think a big part of why their live recordings are generally underwhelming is due to them being a band that nobody gave a rat's *** about at the time. Most bands with great live recordings are famous enough that virtually every live performance gets recorded and only the cream of the crop end up getting released. With VU, it's more like.... once in a blue moon, someone with a tape recorder happens to have the foresight to record a random live performance, and everyone ends up treating it like it's the holy grail even if it's a near-unlistenable recording of a sub-par performance because hey, it's better than nothing. Unfortunate that there aren't really any great live recordings with John Cale still around, though.

 

[Ceremony]

As for the alternative bands. I never said I dislike Radiohead, just they're missing something from their music. It almost at times doesn't feel human or organic to me.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

One more thought that I forgot earlier: I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty is a bad album.

 

[Mikeaveli]

I prefer Frances the Mute over De-Loused in the Comatorium. Although I still hold those two far above the rest of The Mars Volta discography

 

[WerdnaG]

I dont like Radiohead

 

[Sombastate]

I think Nirvana is one of the worst bands ever to reach their status, if not the worst.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Rap sucks.

Radiohead is pretentious, stuck up crap.

Tool has been making the same album over and over for twenty years and counting.

 

[Ben Matlock]

I think Nirvana is one of the worst bands ever to reach their status, if not the worst.

RHCP says hi. Nirvana actually had a couple of enjoyable songs.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

RHCP says hi. Nirvana actually had a couple of enjoyable songs.

I generally agree, though to be honest my arguments generally come down to Kiedes' vocal delivery. In that sense it kind of reminds me of Joy Division where I can don't mind their sound one bit, but I simply cannot get over the frontman's vocals. Can't do it.

 

[Central PA Hawk Fan]

Creed's My Own Prison is a really, really good album.

 

[Ouroboros]

I only called it silly to go along with how you described it ("It is the only arena left where belief in the silliest of fantasies is still possible"). I assumed you meant that that was a feature, not a bug (a sort of embracing campiness kind of thing?). It wasn't a dig.

In reading back what I wrote I think I made a somewhat poor word choice with 'silly'. It doesn't quite encapsulate what I mean I guess, but I'm not going back to edit it at this point. Maybe wondrous would have been better. It's difficult to find the right word to nail down exactly what I mean. So - sorry about that.

I would object to campiness as well, simply because to me that suggests a playfulness or self-awareness which isn't present here. 'Camp' seems to denote a sort of stylized ironic intention to not be taken seriously; a sort of 'so-bad-it's-good' postmodern disaffection. I would describe metal as being the exact opposite of that - a sort of earnest naivete. It's genuine in that sense.

This is where I think metal loses me (and I listened to metal for a pretty long time, and still have a few bands I'll throw on from time to time).

Do I need to feel a deep, personal bond with all music I listen to? No. I don't see any reason why I couldn't get into a band writing songs about demons/angels/nature/war. I think I would just need to feel your passion for writing that music and writing about those topics.

From my perspective, I don't feel the passion for the writing in Metal. I don't feel something compelling those people to write about those things. It just comes across as "this is what you do in metal, so I guess I'm gonna write a song about vikings too!"

Well - the genre has been largely creatively bankrupt for about the last 20 years so we're not necessarily in disagreement here. Lots of bands popping up with no ideas, no spirit, no real passion and no ability - but that's hardly a problem unique to metal.

I can't change how you or anybody else feels about this music - and honestly I don't want to. I'm not proselytizing or trying to convert people. What would be the point of that? It's almost like having a joke explained to you - it would be more meaningful and rewarding to get there on your own.

A new iteration of this thread pops up every few months and it inevitably goes down a familiar path - the same few people saying they think metal is stupid. Normally I don't interject as I generally won't discuss metal with people who don't like it. This time I figured it might be worthwhile to attempt to explain it to people who seem perpetually vexed by it.

 

[Pharrell Williams]

i am listening to ok computer for the first time (it is the first time i am trying to listen to a whole radiohead album) and i like it except for all the parts where there is singing. but the singing is making me hate it.

 

[WhoozYerrDaddy]

The Who was way better than Led Zeppelin.

CCR never got their full due.

Bob Seger ditto.

Neil Diamond, Harry Chapin even John Denver were constantly %#&@ on.

ABBA should have had more success in the US.

Speaking of best female singers, I would have to nominate ABBA's Agnetha Faltskog.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Yeezus is the best album of the 21st century so far.

 

[Pharrell Williams]

Yeezus is the best album of the 21st century so far.

it's not even the best kanye album of the 21st century but i love the boldness of this statement.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

it's not even the best kanye album of the 21st century but i love the boldness of this statement.

It's gonna be one of those albums that's appreciated more as time wears on, IMO.

Or maybe not. I'm still waiting for critical reappraisal to catch up with a few albums from the '70s haha.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

It's gonna be one of those albums that's appreciated more as time wears on, IMO.

Or maybe not. I'm still waiting for critical reappraisal to catch up with a few albums from the '70s haha.

Yeezus is critically acclaimed. I'm not big on Kanye West, but I love the instrumental beat, sample and vocal tone on Bound 2 but Kanye's lyrics just ruin the song completely for me. They're so goddamn bad.

 

[DeYarmond Edison]

Both Another Side of Bob Dylan and John Wesley Harding are better than Blood on the Tracks, IMO-- It's a bit overrated to my ears, and the NY Sessions version of it sounds a lot better than the official release.
I would go as far as to say that all three of Velvet Underground's (well, the full band version anyways) albums are better than every Beatles album besides Revolver, and that the first two were arguably as good or better than Revolver.

My ranking is like this:
White Light White Heat > The Velvet Underground and Nico = Revolver > The Velvet Underground > Rubber Soul > Sgt. Pepper > White Album > Abbey Road

Every Beatles album besides Revolver seems to have one or two glaring flaws or missteps, whereas the first three Velvet Underground albums are basically flawless track-by-track perfection, IMO.

I agree with this for the most part. Especially when it comes to "Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts".

 

[kook10]

I agree with this for the most part. Especially when it comes to "Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts".

Personally I think the main Tangled Up In Blue is a masterpiece and one of my favorites all time. The NY Sessions one is still a great version of a wonderful song, but comparatively uneven in the start and overall less dynamic. It is slow but not delicate so it doesn't sound like a full realization or reworking of the idea.

Speaking of reworking - I've been listening to his awesome Letterman Jokerman over and over lately.

http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/strange-saga-of-dylans-first-letterman-gig.html

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Yeezus is critically acclaimed. I'm not big on Kanye West, but I love the instrumental beat, sample and vocal tone on Bound 2 but Kanye's lyrics just ruin the song completely for me. They're so goddamn bad.

Relative to his other stuff though?

Bound is actually my least favourite track from the album. It's the most conventional of the bunch.

 

[Mikeaveli]

I've actually been warming up to Yeezus lately (I love "On Sight") but I still think when you compare it to other industrial rap albums (Death Grips' "The Money Store" and "NO LOVE DEEP WEB", dalek's "Absence", Techno Animal's "Brotherhood of the Bomb", clipping.'s "midcity" and "CLPPNG", even some of JPEGMAFIA's stuff) it doesn't hold up. It's just really tame and Ye isn't doing anything original on it. Also the lyrics are really bad, as mentioned earlier

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I've actually been warming up to Yeezus lately (I love "On Sight") but I still think when you compare it to other industrial rap albums (Death Grips' "The Money Store" and "NO LOVE DEEP WEB", dalek's "Absence", Techno Animal's "Brotherhood of the Bomb", clipping.'s "midcity" and "CLPPNG", even some of JPEGMAFIA's stuff) it doesn't hold up. It's just really tame and Ye isn't doing anything original on it. Also the lyrics are really bad, as mentioned earlier

I listened to those albums on your recommendation and could not for the life of me figure out what the appeal was. It's definitely not for lack of exposure to avant-garde music either. Struck me as pretty humourless grating racket.

Yeezus blew it away in terms of the quality of ideas IMO, and when we spoke about originality earlier I didn't get a lot of specifics. Which Yeezus songs are derivative, and of what? What are songs like Black Skinhead, Guilt Trip, or I'm In It aping? The only thing Death Grips has on it is extremity, but that's hardly a determining factor in what's better.

I gave it a shot haha. But if Death Grips is the best that the rest of industrial rap has to offer, I think that while Yeezus was far from the first on the block, it's definitely the album that took a lot of uninspiring dreck and formed it into something worthwhile.

 

[Pharrell Williams]

I listened to those albums on your recommendation and could not for the life of me figure out what the appeal was. It's definitely not for lack of exposure to avant-garde music either. Struck me as pretty humourless grating racket.

Yeezus blew it away in terms of the quality of ideas IMO, and when we spoke about originality earlier I didn't get a lot of specifics. Which Yeezus songs are derivative, and of what? What are songs like Black Skinhead, Guilt Trip, or I'm In It aping? The only thing Death Grips has on it is extremity, but that's hardly a determining factor in what's better.

I gave it a shot haha. But if Death Grips is the best that the rest of industrial rap has to offer, I think that while Yeezus was far from the first on the block, it's definitely the album that took a lot of uninspiring dreck and formed it into something worthwhile.

first of all death grips is amazing and one of the best groups of all time BUT maybe try easing into it with something more poppy. this is clipping and they are also good and are less industrial hip hop but have some very intense songs but here's a poppy one to maybe get you interested



and then just listen to CLPPNG after

 

[Ben Matlock]

CCR never got their full due

What CCR (John Fogerty) did during just a handful of years is probably the most impressive peak by a band ever. Out of this world.