Random Music CXXVI: The Woy Eet Eez

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I'm only a few tracks in, but it's a million times better than where I last left off with her discography.
 
It's a mess and could easily lose half a dozen songs, but it's way better than Reputation. I think if you trimmed it down to the best 11 songs it could compete with Red. Cruel Summer, Lover, The Archer and False God are really good.
 
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I also think it’s better than Reputation but a good chunk of the songs lack replay value.

1989 still remains as her peak in the pop genre. Style, Wildest Dreams and Clean still pop up in my playlist every now and then - good stuff.
 
I rarely go to shows anymore, but I'm glad I paid $35+ fees for a cheap seat at the Greek Theatre for Kacey Musgraves. Loved her stage banter; she had such an inclusive, positive attitude, but with the mouth of a sailor (at least 10x saying "fuck" or "fucking").

She has a tight band that's able to do delicate country as well as the more poppier/funkier numbers, and she plays a fair amount of guitar as well.

Setlist included every song from Golden Hour, two each from the previous two albums, a cover of I Will Survive, and an old Brooks & Dunn song that she re-recorded with them on a collection of theirs earlier this year.

Just a great show all around. The crowd loves her, you can feel the devotion. And it was nice to see she sold out two nights, and she told us word of mouth has kept her career going because she doesn't get a lot of play on the radio.
 
So I'm in the process of remaking some mood playlists, and so am whipping through my iTunes sorting songs into different playlists. I got to Pet Sounds and was listening to a couple of tracks. This is an album that has never been a favourite of mine. I find the sound to be quite cloying, honestly, often to an irritating degree. I have the same issue with a lot of pre-1966(ish) music; I've not listened to any Beatles album prior to Rubber Soul (though I know most of the bigger hits), nor any Who albums prior to Who Sell Out, nor do I care much for early Floyd, nor have I listened to Frank Sinatra or a wealth of other artists. (I don't include black American soul music in this 'cloying' definition, however. My knowledge of this era of soul is very poor, but what I have heard is decidedly better than all the 50s-mid 60s pop I've heard.) I also find the whole surfer rock thing the Beach Boys were known for to be very off-putting, almost insidious, I think it's the blatant Americana of it that puts me off.

Anyway. The point is it sent me down a wikipedia wormhole for several hours. My goodness, there's a lot of interesting story to the Beach Boys that I didn't know. I knew about Brian Wilson vs Paul McCartney, Sgt Pepper vs Pet Sounds/Smile. I didn't know about Brian Wilson's looooooooooong history of very poor mental health and addiction. What a fascinating character. I didn't know about Eugene Landy, what a fucking evil prick he sounds like. I didn't know about the deaths of two of their members. I always assumed they were so clean-cut... the impression their music gives off is so innocent that it's hard to envisage them over-indulging like all other musicians did. I also didn't know that both the Beach Boys and Wilson are still touring today, like incessantly... are the BBs playing without Wilson? And Wilson without them?

So yeah, it was one of the better wikipedia wormholes I've been thrown down. And it led me to listen to Smiley Smile, Smile's replacement, which seems to have been a flop at the time but has a reputation as being quite a beloved album, one that was often used to calm people who were having bad LSD trips (I can bloody resonate with that), and even a precursor record to a lot of ambient and experimental music. I listened to it today and thought it was pretty great, actually. Some silly moments but I definitely get why it has a good reputation, the more ambient-y type tracks are really good. It's a great listen.

The one final thing I will say is that it's a shame that I can't recognise songs like Good Vibrations or Wouldn't it Be Nice for what they are, because both of them have been ruined by overuse in Australian TV ads. That's where I know the songs from, and so when I listen to them both I just instantly hear the ads, making me annoyed. Trying to block out that context, they're pretty remarkable songs, and would have seemed truly revolutionary in the mid-60s.
 
cobl04 said:
I've not listened to any Beatles album prior to Rubber Soul ... nor do I care much for early Floyd
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giphy.gif


The one final thing I will say is that it's a shame that I can't recognise songs like Good Vibrations or Wouldn't it Be Nice for what they are, because both of them have been ruined by overuse in Australian TV ads. That's where I know the songs from, and so when I listen to them both I just instantly hear the ads, making me annoyed. Trying to block out that context, they're pretty remarkable songs, and would have seemed truly revolutionary in the mid-60s.
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you should definitely watch the film love & mercy. it's a biopic of brian wilson and it's really great (paul dano does an excellent job as brian). to give you an idea here's the clip from the movie of the making of good vibrations:

 
I've been on a Beach Boys kick for the better part of a year now and haven't regretted a second of it. Just listening through Friends, Sunflower and Surf's Up, their influence on neo-psychedelic music, especially the outsider stuff, is incredible.

Love & Mercy is a great biopic because it actually feels like listening to Brian Wilson's music; it isn't a cold and sterile retelling of his life.
 
Would love to hear from anyone still here who reads this, if they've gone through something similar. I'm really happy these days, life has never been better. But, that often means that when I listen to music that I know that has meant a lot to me, I don't feel it in the same way I used to. And it makes me sad. Like I've lost part of my identity. I also feel that I used to get a lot of my love for music participating in this forum, and now that it's dead, I've lost that, too. And there's really nowhere else I can talk about music in the way that I can here. No one knows the music that I love to the depth that people do here, aside from my partner when it comes to four or five artists.

Anyway.

Tonight I listened to Aladdin Sane... what a fucking tremendous record. I've never really been able to name a favourite Bowie record, as four or five occupy the same air, but Aladdin Sane comes pretty close. I've got a remastered version, on silver vinyl. Gorgeous packaging. There might not be a better run of six songs I've ever heard than Watch That Man through Time. And though it does seem to take a dip over the next three songs, I think that's just due to the quality of the preceding six; Prettiest Star is a wonderfully melancholic, wistful doo-wop love song, and Jean Genie fuckin slaps. Spend the Night Together is the weakest song. And then the closer, my goodness, Lady Grinning Soul. Phenomenal...

What are Bowie's best relatively unknown songs? That is surely one of them. For me... Lady Grinning Soul, Strangers When We Meet, I Can't Give Everything Away (even if I can't listen to it), Bring Me the Disco King, and, of course, Bowie's very best song, A New Career in a New Town.

:heart::heart::heart:
 
Not quite what you were getting at, but I find my enthusiasm for music varies during the year. Summer is an obvious time for it to increase. Outdoor festivals, big international acts are more likely to visit here while it's Winter in the northern hemisphere. Finding more things to do outdoors. Staying up late to watch Rage on a hot January night rather than going to bed because I want to escape the cold. If I lose enthusiasm for something I try to make sure other things are there to take its place, and I know it'll still be there when I want to get back into it again.
 
cobl04 said:
So I'm in the process of remaking some mood playlists, and so am whipping through my iTunes sorting songs into different playlists. I got to Pet Sounds and was listening to a couple of tracks. This is an album that has never been a favourite of mine. I find the sound to be quite cloying, honestly, often to an irritating degree. I have the same issue with a lot of pre-1966(ish) music; I've not listened to any Beatles album prior to Rubber Soul (though I know most of the bigger hits), nor any Who albums prior to Who Sell Out, nor do I care much for early Floyd, nor have I listened to Frank Sinatra or a wealth of other artists. (I don't include black American soul music in this 'cloying' definition, however. My knowledge of this era of soul is very poor, but what I have heard is decidedly better than all the 50s-mid 60s pop I've heard.) I also find the whole surfer rock thing the Beach Boys were known for to be very off-putting, almost insidious, I think it's the blatant Americana of it that puts me off.

Anyway. The point is it sent me down a wikipedia wormhole for several hours. My goodness, there's a lot of interesting story to the Beach Boys that I didn't know. I knew about Brian Wilson vs Paul McCartney, Sgt Pepper vs Pet Sounds/Smile. I didn't know about Brian Wilson's looooooooooong history of very poor mental health and addiction. What a fascinating character. I didn't know about Eugene Landy, what a fucking evil prick he sounds like. I didn't know about the deaths of two of their members. I always assumed they were so clean-cut... the impression their music gives off is so innocent that it's hard to envisage them over-indulging like all other musicians did. I also didn't know that both the Beach Boys and Wilson are still touring today, like incessantly... are the BBs playing without Wilson? And Wilson without them?

So yeah, it was one of the better wikipedia wormholes I've been thrown down. And it led me to listen to Smiley Smile, Smile's replacement, which seems to have been a flop at the time but has a reputation as being quite a beloved album, one that was often used to calm people who were having bad LSD trips (I can bloody resonate with that), and even a precursor record to a lot of ambient and experimental music. I listened to it today and thought it was pretty great, actually. Some silly moments but I definitely get why it has a good reputation, the more ambient-y type tracks are really good. It's a great listen.

The one final thing I will say is that it's a shame that I can't recognise songs like Good Vibrations or Wouldn't it Be Nice for what they are, because both of them have been ruined by overuse in Australian TV ads. That's where I know the songs from, and so when I listen to them both I just instantly hear the ads, making me annoyed. Trying to block out that context, they're pretty remarkable songs, and would have seemed truly revolutionary in the mid-60s.
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A lot to unpack here, and I’ll refrain from the usual “Friggin” comments because it can often be hard to connect to the pop music of previous generations, particularly when one can’t experience the context in real time.

Of course, you should also recognize that you were able to get into jazz to an extent, which is a nut that a lot of younger listeners aren’t able to crack. So it’s not like you’re taking some “I can’t stand all music before 1965!!” position.

I won’t make a case for every act you mentioned because none of them really need my help, but I will address Sinatra as he seems a bit of the odd man out in that list. Musically, it shouldn’t be hard to digest, as it’s not a big leap from some of the jazz you’ve heard. The describer you used was “cloying” which I can’t see applying to the entire breadth of Sinatra’s interpretations of songs over the years. While I’m not suggesting you check out some Bing Crosby to provide context, it’s worth understanding how unique Sinatra was compared to the other crooners of his day and the ones that came before. His phrasing and ability to dance ahead or behind the beat, the overall way he would inhabit the perspective and themes of the songs, was really revolutionary.

If you want to take a stab at trying to gain an appreciation, I’d suggest listening to an album in full; it’s important to know that he was the first pop act to curate an album’s songs around a particular theme. Not in the sense of a concept album, but that before this, albums were just a bunch of random songs put together.

You can read about the process behind the first major one here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Wee_Small_Hours

And this one is more upbeat and fun:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Fly_with_Me_(Frank_Sinatra_album)


This was actually part of a comeback period, as his popularity as a singer had declined, and he seriously pursued an acting career as a detour, culminating in some truly great dramatic performances and an Oscar win. But this mid-50s resurgence is considered to be peak Sinatra as he was singing from a more mature place, having experienced great loss and heartbreak.

This isn’t the stuff I myself can listen to all the time, and a little can go a long way. But they really are landmark works in popular music from a legitimate artist who didn’t write his songs but delivered them better than anyone.
 
cobl04 said:
Would love to hear from anyone still here who reads this, if they've gone through something similar. I'm really happy these days, life has never been better. But, that often means that when I listen to music that I know that has meant a lot to me, I don't feel it in the same way I used to. And it makes me sad. Like I've lost part of my identity. I also feel that I used to get a lot of my love for music participating in this forum, and now that it's dead, I've lost that, too. And there's really nowhere else I can talk about music in the way that I can here. No one knows the music that I love to the depth that people do here, aside from my partner when it comes to four or five artists.

Anyway.

Tonight I listened to Aladdin Sane... what a fucking tremendous record. I've never really been able to name a favourite Bowie record, as four or five occupy the same air, but Aladdin Sane comes pretty close. I've got a remastered version, on silver vinyl. Gorgeous packaging. There might not be a better run of six songs I've ever heard than Watch That Man through Time. And though it does seem to take a dip over the next three songs, I think that's just due to the quality of the preceding six; Prettiest Star is a wonderfully melancholic, wistful doo-wop love song, and Jean Genie fuckin slaps. Spend the Night Together is the weakest song. And then the closer, my goodness, Lady Grinning Soul. Phenomenal...

What are Bowie's best relatively unknown songs? That is surely one of them. For me... Lady Grinning Soul, Strangers When We Meet, I Can't Give Everything Away (even if I can't listen to it), Bring Me the Disco King, and, of course, Bowie's very best song, A New Career in a New Town.

:heart::heart::heart:
Click to expand...


The albums that really hit me emotionally are often because they coincide with something significant in my life, which I imagine is the case for most of us. When I hear them, they take me right back into those headspaces, which is comforting in an odd sort of way, given that most of those albums are horribly depressing.

You already listed two of the Bowie songs I would mention: Lady Grinning Soul and Disco King. I would add Always Crashing in the Same Car. And I might place Aladdin Sane second on his best-of list, behind only Low.
 
cobl04 said:
Anyway. The point is it sent me down a wikipedia wormhole for several hours. My goodness, there's a lot of interesting story to the Beach Boys that I didn't know. I knew about Brian Wilson vs Paul McCartney, Sgt Pepper vs Pet Sounds/Smile. I didn't know about Brian Wilson's looooooooooong history of very poor mental health and addiction. What a fascinating character. I didn't know about Eugene Landy, what a fucking evil prick he sounds like. I didn't know about the deaths of two of their members. I always assumed they were so clean-cut... the impression their music gives off is so innocent that it's hard to envisage them over-indulging like all other musicians did. I also didn't know that both the Beach Boys and Wilson are still touring today, like incessantly... are the BBs playing without Wilson? And Wilson without them?
Click to expand...

Yes on both counts. The "Beach Boys" in their touring incarnations over the past several decades have essentially been Mike Love & Friends - Love being a cousin to the Wilson Brothers and, I guess, the second most important songwriter in the group after Brian. Al Jardine joins them from time to time, and Brian joined them for an anniversary tour in 2012, but it's mostly Mike Love and a band that includes none of the original Beach Boys. Love owns the rights to the "Beach Boys" name, so he can do what he wants. He has historically been one of the most unpopular figures in the history of rock because of his ego, the perception that he rode Brian's coattails, and the "don't fuck with the formula" thing(look it up), so I guess his using the BB brand to sell what is essentially a BB cover band at this point leaves a bad taste in some peoples' mouths.

But I'll tell you, I went to a show last year, and it was a blast. I had been gifted tickets, and I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, but it was great. It may be a cover band at this point, but it's a damn good one. (As an aside, it may interest you to know that Mike Love is the uncle of the basketball player Kevin Love).

As for Brian, he didn't do much of anything in the 80s and 90s, but his version of the Smile album in 2004 gave new life to his career, started a renaissance of sorts, and he's been doing his own thing and touring regularly ever since.
 
cobl04 said:
Would love to hear from anyone still here who reads this, if they've gone through something similar. I'm really happy these days, life has never been better. But, that often means that when I listen to music that I know that has meant a lot to me, I don't feel it in the same way I used to. And it makes me sad. Like I've lost part of my identity. I also feel that I used to get a lot of my love for music participating in this forum, and now that it's dead, I've lost that, too. And there's really nowhere else I can talk about music in the way that I can here. No one knows the music that I love to the depth that people do here, aside from my partner when it comes to four or five artists.

Anyway.

Tonight I listened to Aladdin Sane... what a fucking tremendous record. I've never really been able to name a favourite Bowie record, as four or five occupy the same air, but Aladdin Sane comes pretty close. I've got a remastered version, on silver vinyl. Gorgeous packaging. There might not be a better run of six songs I've ever heard than Watch That Man through Time. And though it does seem to take a dip over the next three songs, I think that's just due to the quality of the preceding six; Prettiest Star is a wonderfully melancholic, wistful doo-wop love song, and Jean Genie fuckin slaps. Spend the Night Together is the weakest song. And then the closer, my goodness, Lady Grinning Soul. Phenomenal...

What are Bowie's best relatively unknown songs? That is surely one of them. For me... Lady Grinning Soul, Strangers When We Meet, I Can't Give Everything Away (even if I can't listen to it), Bring Me the Disco King, and, of course, Bowie's very best song, A New Career in a New Town.

:heart::heart::heart:
Click to expand...

It's interesting how people who love the same artist can see certain albums so differently. For me, Aladdin is ok, but not close to the top of Bowie's catalogue. Even just in the early period, I'd pretty easily take all of Hunky, Ziggy, and Diamond Dogs over Aladdin. It's just sort of, rougher around the edges than the others I mentioned, I think. I know this is on purpose because he was trying to start shedding the Ziggy artifice already, but it's still a harder listen for me. There are a few tracks I dig - Lady Grinning Soul is gorgeous, the Panic In Detroit riff is awesome, monstrous, Jean Genie is classic, Time is cool - but as a whole, it just doesn't hit me as one of his masterworks.

Glad you're digging it though.

As for your question - I'd say Kooks from Hunky Dory, Big Brother, Warszawa, and a lot from the later era...Strangers When We Meet, Disco King, I Would Be Your Slave, Slip Away, Days, I'd Rather Be High, most of the Blackstar album...etc.

Since we're talking Bowie - My dad never got into Bowie properly when he was younger(in the 70s) and thus isn't familiar with most of his work. I'm working on several bowie playlists for him. I'll probably post them here soon(since the Bowie thread is locked and no one's creating a new one).
 
cobl04 said:
Would love to hear from anyone still here who reads this, if they've gone through something similar. I'm really happy these days, life has never been better. But, that often means that when I listen to music that I know that has meant a lot to me, I don't feel it in the same way I used to. And it makes me sad. Like I've lost part of my identity.
Click to expand...

I know it's not quite what you're getting at here, but I don't understand the implied connection between despondency and musical enjoyment. I was a pretty avid music listener during the most depressed and helpless years of my life and the memories I attached to the albums I treasured then are not positive ones. In fact, my mindset at the time has soured some of them a little bit. These days, when I'm feeling stressed or depersonalized for long stretches of time, my connection to music is cut to a powerful degree. I usually just listen to jazz, house or hip hop beats until my life straightens out. On an psychosocial level, I get it. We connect with music in our isolation because it's the only thing there for us, the only thing that can connect us to the sublime and, in that sense, it's the most valuable thing we have. We're emotionally starved and music can feed us in our time of need.

Even so, some of the most transcendent experiences I've had with music came when I was first falling in love and watching my shambles of a life take form. Things were good and I was absolutely loving my music listening experiences. Really got into Big Star and Cut Copy and other emotive, buoyant music that tapped into how I was feeling at the time. And once I settled into a routine in college, I took that passion for music and dedicated it to researching the medium. By 2011, my taste had gotten pretty varied and esoteric. Ultimately, happiness drove me to become a better music fan. I also have made fresh connections with old favorites that helped to override some bad memories. I had a sour, cloudy impression of Steely Dan for years even though I loved them, but moving to LA cast a new light on their amazing discography.

Just this year, I had a really wonderful, happy moment mixing music and domesticity. I was listening to Weyes Blood's excellent Titanic Rising album in the background while I fed my daughter solid food for the first time, and the joy I felt watching her learn and grow while I listened to that truly incredible song Everyday, it reminded me that I don't have to allow music to become stale; it can mesh with my routine and convey the sublime no matter how old I get. I just need to put some effort in. When I returned to the album a couple weeks later, it was like a whole new experience. I had a host of positive associations to attach to the music and it was quite overwhelming emotionally. In that sense, I felt like a teenager again for forty minutes. Prior to that, I had a largely academic appreciation for the record, but giving it the opportunity to be a part of my life paid huge dividends.

Music fandom can mirror a long distance relationship with an old friend. If you disconnect, a good thing can die. But there's a very good chance the spark is still there if you put in the effort. I believe that people lose their hunger for music when they feel they've had enough and only engage with the familiar in a passive way. Music fans are scavengers and sort through a lot of garbage for their sustenance, but you don't stay in the hunt by listening to the same playlists all day.
 
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cobl04 said:
So I'm in the process of remaking some mood playlists, and so am whipping through my iTunes sorting songs into different playlists. I got to Pet Sounds and was listening to a couple of tracks. This is an album that has never been a favourite of mine. I find the sound to be quite cloying, honestly, often to an irritating degree.
Click to expand...

I will not go off on a whole monologue about Pet Sounds and how it's brilliant, because taste is of course personal. But I do consider it my favourite album ever. It has this wonderful combination of joy and melancholy, inventive arrangements and gorgeous harmonies. But is it not (mid-Sixties) rock music, it is pure pop.

The Beach Boys brought vocal harmonies to another level. When they released the Smile Sessions a few years ago, one of the tracks was just a compilation of isolated backing vocal for songs. Again, if you're expecting rock music or otherwise music (and vocals) with a bite, then it may sound cloying. But I think it's 8 1/2 minutes of pure bliss.
 
I slept on the album because it's boring

Nah it's really nice, I just feel like she's been writing the same song for nearly a decade now, only it's better than usual so people are freaking out. I actually prefer her Dan Auerbach-produced album Ultraviolence because it's less mannered and more concise. The new one is pretty good though.
 
Speaking of Americana, Bruce’s album has been a winner for me. Slow burn, but it’s a very accessible record and just really fucking well executed.
 
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