I disagree Eric. It's easy to have your opinion of an album inflated by it's attitude or it's lyrics, when if you were judging it solely based on musical skill and craftsmanship, you wouldn't like it.

It isn't a matter of critical like or dislike, it's a matter of your subjective opinion of a piece being affected by aspects external to the music. Take Cake's song 'Comfort Eagle'. My opinion is hugely influenced by the lyrics and attitude, whereas if you took the same music and obscured the lyrics, I'd think it was a bad song.

I noticed Natalie Imbruglia back there. I haven't heard any of her songs besides "Torn", but in hindsight that really was a great song. More pop singers should strive for the emotion and attitude (or lack of "attitude", if you prefer) that she showed in that song. Sure, she's strong and going to get through it, but she was hurt when they broke up, and she's not going to hide it.

Philosopher Eric -- I LOVE "What Are You Going to Do With Your Life?". That is just a lovely record, very melancholy and affecting. I can't tell you how many mix CDs I've made for friends with "History Chimes" on it -- one of my all-time favourite E&tB songs. (All-time favourite: "A Forest").

I'd be interested in knowing more about that Bread tribute. Generally tribute albums don't work, but sometimes they can be great.

Top-notch tribute albums:

"I'm Your Fan" (Leonard Cohen)
"Tulare Dust" (Merle Haggard)
"Return of the Grievous Angel" (Gram Parsons)
"Time and Love" (Laura Nyro)
"Songs of Jimmie Rogers"
"Hank Williams Timeless"
"This is Where I Belong" (Kinks)
"Beautiful Dreamer" (Stephen Foster)

keylimetrev -- Growing up, I remember seeing all those country stars on variety shows like Carol Burnett, Sonny and Cher, etc. I always thought they were awful. Now I realize that those were the great artists of country music history, perhaps occasionally selling out to make a buck, but nonetheless respect was due.

"Torn" as a pretty great track, Sweetie. You should see if you can track down a copy of the original by the band Ednaswap. It came out in around '96 and is about as different from Imbruglia's cover as you can imagine.

quote:

Originally posted by keylimetrev:
Wanting to be 'cool' in my music tastes was such a strong urge for so long that it is a very difficult habit to break.

That's a great and germane observation, klt. The validation that comes with being part of the "in" crowd when it comes to music or anything is beguiling and it's hardly a new phenomenon. Fans of bebop in the 40s were highly dismissive of the music of the 20s, referring to those musicans and their fans as "moldy figs." They were also widely dismissive of the swing stars of the day such as Glenn Miller and the Dorsey Brothers, yet Charlie Parker himself expressed admiration for Jimmy Dorsey on more than one occasion.

Last night over drinks, a friend of mine was telling me about the karaoke party he threw for his birthday. He mentioned that the song "Daydream Believer" with no small derision directed at The Monkees, which is a big no-no with me as I absolutely love The Monkees. He was incredulous, but the fact is that John Stewart's a heckuva songwriter and manufactured or not, The Monkees have a pretty damn well performed and produced catalog.

Another friend saw the Indianapolis Symphony over the weekend. The big draw for the crowd was Beethoven's 9th Symphony, but to get to that classical chestnut, they had to sit through Arnold Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw. It's a challenging piece and my friend tells me there was a lot of uncofortable figeting in the seats. To borrow a page from BtS's book, I can give you any of a dozen reason s why it is a "good" (i.e. well-written, influential, well-performed) piece of music, but I suspect I would have had a hard time making the case to a lot of that audience.

Or, to paraphrase Frank Zappa, if you like it, it's good, if you don't, it's shite.

Now Playing: "Goin' Down" The Monkees The Best of the Monkees <-- see, case in point, I like this, therefore it is good...for me anyway

quote:

Originally posted by Bobthespirit:
I disagree Eric. It's easy to have your opinion of an album inflated by it's attitude or it's lyrics, when if you were judging it solely based on musical skill and craftsmanship, you wouldn't like it.

If I don't consider an album's attitude and lyrics, am I really considering it at all? I look at albums as wholes, and I NEVER focus my attention on the musical craftsmanship. I have musician friends who love Beefheart and Steve Vai and all sorts of others who are highly musically skilled, and I don't care for that stuff one bit. I'll take an album that's cohesively enjoyable over one that's well-played any day. For my money, most of the really entertaining artists I've followed over the years haven't been the best players, singers, or the most polished performers. But something about their music gets me by.

I think you and I have drastically different approached to the criticism and evaluation of music here, bob. I see nothing musically "bad" about "Comfort Eagle." I'm not even sure I know what that means. I don't evaluate the different parts of a song or a record. I'm not sure why I would want to. If a song has a really catchy hook but absolutely hateful racist lyrics, I'm not gonna like it. A song with great lyrics but a horrible tune won't stick with me.

Natalie was a great one hit wonder. I bought that album though and there aren't really any good songs on it but Torn...a few okay ones.

quote:

Originally posted by Peewee:
Philosopher Eric -- I LOVE "What Are You Going to Do With Your Life?". That is just a lovely record, very melancholy and affecting. I can't tell you how many mix CDs I've made for friends with "History Chimes" on it -- one of my all-time favourite E&tB songs. (All-time favourite: "A Forest").

I'd be interested in knowing more about that Bread tribute. Generally tribute albums don't work, but sometimes they can be great.

Thanks for being one of the few who love that Echo record. Damn, it's good. It would certainly be one of the records I would take with me on the theoretical desert island.

The Bread tribute is out on Badman and features Josh Rouse, Ken Stringfellow, Jon Auer (both of the Posies), Cake, Erlend Oye, Rachel Goswell, and others. It's quite an enjoyable collection of low key Bread covers.

Do I get extra bonus points (positive or negative; YOU DECIDE) because I bought and still have ALL the Monkees albums on vinyl AND I saw Bread at the Universal Amphitheatre in the '70s?

UFO's mine, especially their album Light's Out. Also, I only play stuff like Jet and AC/DC when no one's home so they don't know I listen to it.

quote:

Originally posted by whitebrice:
UFO's mine, especially their album Light's Out.

Interesting choice...if I recall correctly, that album got pretty good reviews when it first came out back in 1977.

Having a cover version of Love's "Alone Again Or" didn't hurt.
.

Since it's been a topic of late, I'll have to throw Nine Inch Nails into the pot. Embarrasingly enough, With_Teeth might have creeped into my top 15 or 20. And this after I raked it over the coals…maybe it's just the nostalgia talking.

well, I bought KEAN four months ago and surprisingly, I'm still listening to it! This band is kind of a rip-off(like Thom York meets COLDPLAY) but the songs are pretty addictive...
And it does sound good overall, to me.
(But let's say the singer looks very ugly, old english brown style). Anyway, they're cool.

That's my guilty pleasure these times.

quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
Do I get extra bonus points (positive or negative; YOU DECIDE) because I bought and still have ALL the Monkees albums on vinyl AND I saw Bread at the Universal Amphitheatre in the '70s?

I suggest we all pitch in and buy you a booby prize, like a pair of horn rimmed glasses, a pocket pen-holder and a stamp collection. Or we could all meet you in a mutually convenient school yard and give you a massive wedgie.

Re Keane -- I note that I mentioned the Keane album a number of posts ago, but I agree that it is a perfect guilty pleasure. Basically conventional and stupid, but somehow very enjoyable.

By the way, I mentioned a few posts ago that my favourite Echo & the Bunnymen song was "A Forest". That, of course, is a Cure song!

What I meant was "A Promise" !!

quote:

Originally posted by Peewee:
By the way, I mentioned a few posts ago that my favourite Echo & the Bunnymen song was "A Forest". That, of course, is a Cure song!

What I meant was "A Promise" !!

Glad you caught that. You had almost lost all of the cool points you had gotten from me for starting the song tag thread. I think the song is just called "Promise" though.

Cool points from me, by the way, are non-transferrable but can be exchanged for valuable prizes at a later date!

Here's my guilty pleasure (and it's a doozy):

Significant Other by Limp Bizkit.

It wouldn't be so bad if it was a leftover from my pre-music snob days, but I bought my copy last year. And I still listen to it fairly frequently.

Granted, I always use headphones when I listen (wouldn't want anyone to know that I actually have a copy, much less paid for one, now would I?), but I still think it's a lot of fun--foulmouthed, misogynistic fun, but fun nonetheless.

quote:

Glad you caught that. You had almost lost all of the cool points you had gotten from me for starting the song tag thread. I think the song is just called "Promise" though.

I beg to differ. The song is called "A Promise". You just lost a few cool points there ...

quote:

Originally posted by Peewee:

quote:

Glad you caught that. You had almost lost all of the cool points you had gotten from me for starting the song tag thread. I think the song is just called "Promise" though.

I beg to differ. The song is called "A Promise". You just lost a few cool points there ...

Oops. You're right. I checked that when I got home, and I was wrong. But I lose fewer points than you did for confusing "A Forest" and "A Promise", right?

I think my favorite Echo song is "Bring on the Dancing Horses." Something about that song just gets me every time.

That was always my favourite E&tB song, but then when the remasters came out and I bought the remastered "Heaven Up Here", I fell in love all over again with "A Promise", which I have played hundreds of times since then.

Kid Rock.

Without a doubt my #1 guilty pleasure. I do think Kid Rock's brash attitude, and look make a lot of people miss out on the fact he is a decent musician.

That said, anyone scanning my cds are going to find Kid Rock and scratch their head.

Dishonourable mention: Collective Soul it is getting less and less frequent that i'll put in an album by these guys. But every now and again i'll throw in the self titled, or their fourth album.