Desert Island Mini - LP Island - Group 1 Listening Thread

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I’ll provide my feedback tomorrow now that I’ve liste see a few times, from there I can start preparing thread 2 for group 2.
 
Iron Yuppie

Impeccable flow as I have generally come to expect. Thought it was a great playlist in general and enjoyed the very 80s initial half vibe, but as LM has already noted and I will echo, it became really interesting in that second half and enjoyed the journey through your track selection, The Raincoats, Peter Gabriel, Au Pairs, all good stuff.

Tourist

I think this is my favourite list out of the group. I think last time round in DI your list was great but had too much of a good thing going on this one has great songs and good variety to it and have played a few times so far during runs etc just for enjoyment.

I'll agree with GAF on enjoying the Taylor Swift and Carly Rae inclusions. Enjoyed the ending with Lupe Fiasco as well. I will also be checking out your own actual album as well now as it was pretty cool as well!
 
Remember to sign the form (optional), not only is it fun data for the end. I’m getting some feedback which is cool.

I'm very excited to come last for the cover thing. No way am I making a cover when I don't have to and Spotify already generates some tiles from album covers for me.

Anyway, I need to get onto listening to these... looks like a good group and I'll start with tourist, shortly.
 
Think of it as a way to recognize those who put the effort in, rather than something for you to lose haha

Apologies for the delays on group 2 everyone, had a series of life things, should hopefully get everything in tomorrow.
 
Alrighty, tourist. I gotta start with a confession. Earlier this year, I checked an old email account and I was surprised to find you had emailed me some weeks earlier about your new album. I got on to listening to it, and quite enjoyed it, and can't believe I did not get around to writing back to tell you so. My only excuse is that I've been too busy and stressed the last few months and any of my closest friends will attest I've been hard to contact outside of Twitter. I'm glad to see you put a song on here—a bold move and it works.

As for the rest, I really enjoyed the start of your list. "Push" is one of my favourite Cure songs, after all. I've learnt that Deep Sea Diver is not the Sydney band I thought they were (I was remembering Deep Sea Arcade), and that track was a real highlight. Perhaps no surprise my pick of the whole list, besides "Push", is "Moon Coin".

From The National onwards, though, I confess this just isn't my bag at all. Outside of future DI lists, I can't imagine I'd ever listen to any of the artists involved in tracks 8-18. The guitar at the end of the Alabama Shakes track got my attention in a positive way, at least. And what the hell is up with the song titles on that Bon Iver album. I thought some of the post-rock and metal bands I listen to gave their songs nonsensical names.
 
Just listened to GAF's list. It's a really enjoyable little list of songs that never overstays its welcome. There are some big favourites of mine here: "Alison" and "Vapour Trail". It has some bands I should've paid attention to more in the past, like Pulp, or who had just slipped a bit off my radar in recent years, like Sonic Youth, so I enjoyed these tracks. I know I've seen the name Longpigs but I honestly could not say if I'd heard their music; "Lost Myself" was great.

Hell, my only real complaint is that there were better closers early in the list than the song that actually closed it, which would've probably gone better in the middle somewhere. "Vapour Trail" is right there as a perfect closer.

Keen to listen to iYup's list but that will have to wait for tomorrow as it's getting late here.
 
iYup, what a fantastic list. The "two songs" of the title are both great tracks, and the whole list has a solid structure and a clear identity. I was impressed that although this is very centred on post-punk and new wave, you managed to create something with a lot of sonic diversity. It's hard to pick highlights, but if I had to, I'd take the middle sequence from Cocteau Twins through to The Raincoats. Really, the only song I didn't care for was the Laurie Anderson one. "The Walk" is a Cure track I'm not particularly into, but you used it well.

All in all, it's going to be hard to beat this for my #1. I had a great time this morning listening to this while I got through some solid reading for work.
 
Thanks Ax, glad you enjoyed it. Seems like you and I have been on the same wavelength these last few DIs.
 
I listened to GAF’s list last night and laughed to myself a bit. When I made my DI list this time, it was based off of a longer list I had nearly ready to go. So I’d had to cut half the songs. Two of the songs that would have been in my list were on your list. Vapour Trail and Love Burns. Best songs by either artist in my opinion. Those two plus El President brought back some serious nostalgia for the end of my teenage years as all those songs were in heavy rotation for me back then. Overall this list was both fantastic and concise and it’s another in a history of extremely strong lists you’ve made.
 
tourist

Part of the issue I had with your last list was that it felt pretty samey across the length of a full DI entry. This entry, on the other hand, really benefits from the restrictions of the mini format. I was into it the whole time and enjoyed most of the songs. Obviously The Cure, Jay Som, Radiohead, Carly is no-brainer stuff for me, but I didn't mind the stuff I didn't know either, though I was admittedly less engaged with tracks 3-7.

You work within a handful of distinct sonic palettes here - upbeat 80s-influenced rock, creeping, murky art pop, clattering hip hop-influenced beats - and they're blended very nicely throughout. I was impressed by a number of the individual sequences as well. The Tourist didn't work overly well for me in the middle of the list, but the way it transitioned into Star Treatment made me quickly forget my issue with it.

One thing I would have done differently is place the HAIM/Taylor/Carly run earlier in the list, perhaps peppering them into that track 3-7 run. Right now, 10 d E A T h b R E a s T feels out of place, but transitioning that into All the Stars makes a ton of sense and maintains some tonal consistency. I think the instinct with putting HAIM/Taylor/Carly later in the list was to inject some energy later on, but I think they benefit the list more by adding some familiar faces in the early going.

Overall, a very enjoyable stretch of songs that showed a lot of skill for sequencing as well.



Always glad to have your feedback as you’re like the king of desert island. Haha! Bummer about those early tracks where you lost interest since I really thought you’d dig Noah Gundersen. Many of your criticisms on where things should go were things I had considered but didn’t feel right about when I tried them.
The only one I wish I’d kept was Bon Iver after Carly Rae, which was one of your suggestions
 
I listened to The Tourist playlist. :) Here are my thoughts:

I thought The Cure’s “Push” was a wonderful opener. However, songs 2-5 were just ok to me. Then it’s like the playlist gain momentum and a soothing vibe spread for a while, songs 6-10. This was definitely my favorite part of the playlist.

And I must say flow and transitions has been very well orchestrated on this playlist. Also, I enjoyed seeing each part of the playlist have a cohesiveness to it. From the soothing indie songs from 1-10, to the R n B of songs 11-13 to the poppy of songs 14-16 to the hip hop of the remaining songs.

I should say that I am not fan of the R n B, poppy or hip hop sections of this list but I can appreciate the diversity and flow of it. I am picky on what I like from those genres. :shrug:

My favorites tracks include songs by Author, The Cure, Noah Gundersen, and of course, Radiohead. Great job The Tourist. :)



Glad you liked the Noah Gundersen and Author tracks. Highly recommend Gundersen’s White Noise and Lover and Author’s Is It Far Or Is It Close if you feel like diving in further with either. Thanks for the feedback!
 
Tourist: similar to what LM said, I felt like this list has considerably more sonic diversity than your last entry, which was great to hear. Push as an opener really works given the propulsive nature of the track, and the flow through the first half is steady even in places where I thought it might not have been at first glance. I already mentioned how much I dug the mini soul/motown inspired section. I'm not a Taylor Swift fan, but not even the biggest hater can deny the hook on Style. Good batch of songs here.



That middle section of Arctic Monkeys, Alabama Shakes, and Childish Gambino is something that has wound up in a bunch of my personal playlists over the last couple years. It got into my head the first time I listened to Tranquility Base that Star Treatment belonged next to Gemini.
 
Tourist, a playlist that has Arctic Monkeys and Taylor Swift? That's hot. Those are probably the two artists I've spent the most time championing on this forum? And I don't think either has showed up on a DI list before.

Jay Som was probably the best discovery for me. I really liked the sound of that. The Cure leading into it was great...Head on the Door might be my favorite Cure album.

Putting your own music on a DI list is an interesting move but I can't hate on it ;)

Overall, this has a bunch of cool tracks (your namesake track, Pink Rabbits, Redbone, Forever, All The Stars, etc)

Good shit by both of you guys. This is fun.


Head On The Door is probably just a tiny rung down from Disintegration for me. For awhile I liked it better but I think it was because of the ubiquitous nature of Disintegration. (Kinda like how I’ve said I like The Unforgettable Fire more than The Joshua Tree even if that’s not entirely true for myself)

As for Taylor, been a huge fan since 1989. The earlier records are harder for me to get into with the country production, but I am digging the redone Fearless. Realized she covered one of my favorite songs from the mid 00s with Untouchable on that. And Arctic Monkeys have been my jam since I first heard Fluorescent Adolescent on the radio way back when.
 
Tourist



I think this is my favourite list out of the group. I think last time round in DI your list was great but had too much of a good thing going on this one has great songs and good variety to it and have played a few times so far during runs etc just for enjoyment.



I'll agree with GAF on enjoying the Taylor Swift and Carly Rae inclusions. Enjoyed the ending with Lupe Fiasco as well. I will also be checking out your own actual album as well now as it was pretty cool as well!


Thanks a ton! Glad you liked the list. And I hope you like the record. I put like my entire being into that over a 23 month span. Haha! I did every vocal, instrument, and I did the mix and master.
 
Alrighty, tourist. I gotta start with a confession. Earlier this year, I checked an old email account and I was surprised to find you had emailed me some weeks earlier about your new album. I got on to listening to it, and quite enjoyed it, and can't believe I did not get around to writing back to tell you so. My only excuse is that I've been too busy and stressed the last few months and any of my closest friends will attest I've been hard to contact outside of Twitter. I'm glad to see you put a song on here—a bold move and it works.

As for the rest, I really enjoyed the start of your list. "Push" is one of my favourite Cure songs, after all. I've learnt that Deep Sea Diver is not the Sydney band I thought they were (I was remembering Deep Sea Arcade), and that track was a real highlight. Perhaps no surprise my pick of the whole list, besides "Push", is "Moon Coin".

From The National onwards, though, I confess this just isn't my bag at all. Outside of future DI lists, I can't imagine I'd ever listen to any of the artists involved in tracks 8-18. The guitar at the end of the Alabama Shakes track got my attention in a positive way, at least. And what the hell is up with the song titles on that Bon Iver album. I thought some of the post-rock and metal bands I listen to gave their songs nonsensical names.


Honestly the second half not being your thing doesn’t surprise me. Haha! But I’m glad you enjoyed the run at the beginning.

And yeah, I tried to email you and Facebook you but I assumed maybe you’d abandoned both. Heh. Glad you enjoyed it!
 
Honestly the second half not being your thing doesn’t surprise me. Haha! But I’m glad you enjoyed the run at the beginning.

And yeah, I tried to email you and Facebook you but I assumed maybe you’d abandoned both. Heh. Glad you enjoyed it!

:up:

Yeah I pretty much have walked away from both, but check in now and then just in case anything like this turns up! I best email you back with my current address. I just wish I weren't so busy, and so dread glancing at my emails, especially outside work hours.
 
I've been listening, just didn't manage to get my thoughts down until now...

GAF

Really interesting list. Not the most cohesive thing in the world, but it does have a general 80s/90s alternative sound that runs through it, which I dig a lot. A lot of tracks I wasn't familiar with that I'm happy to have heard here.

Standouts include Drugstore's "Kill The President"(extremely catchy), Blur's "The Universal"(always hear you guys talking about them, but never listened to much of them myself), Longpigs' "Lost Myself"(which sounds very Pixies-ish to me), and the Strokes' "Ode To The Mets"(is this their musical direction now or is it an outlier?).

The guitar sounds in the Sonic Youth track "Tunic" remind me of some of the more abstract old-school U2 stuff - think "Boomerang II" or something off Passengers.

I'm not familiar with Hayley Williams but that was a lovely track - would have fit my list this go-round pretty well.

Also dug the closing track - it's from 1984 and it sounds like it, in a good way. Love the interaction of the synths and the guitar.

And obviously the Elbow track is a staple of the 00s.

On the whole, I love the alt rock sound that permeated much of the list and I discovered some cool new tracks and artists. Good job!

iYup

This is an early favorite, and it's hard to imagine it not being a contender for the top spot. The first six tracks are perfectly cohesive and create SUCH a vibe.

Would you believe that despite knowing who Flock Of Seagulls are and about the haircuts that get made fun of, I've never actually listened to them? I was pleasantly surprised, wasn't what I was expecting.

The Gary Numan track is KILLER. Such a foreboding atmosphere.

Bowie and Eurythmics are always great, and I enjoyed Voices Carry as well.

The next few tracks - Eno Moebius Roedelius, Cocteau Twins, and The Durutti Column - were, I suspect, mean to be a bridge into the next section? In any case, they did the job well, and I enjoyed them - especially The Durutti Column. Never heard of them, but that was a good track.

I guess some people here thought the next section was the most interesting...but it was the least interesting for me tbh. I think I was just a little frustrated because the cohesion was so perfect in the first half of the list and then you took a left turn. These aren't bad tracks at all, just not as strong as the incredibly strong first half of the list. I did like the jazz-flavored Maximum Joy track a lot.

The list finishes very strong from Laurie Anderson onwards. I didn't know that Cure song but I dig it, and the DM track was a great way to end things.

On the whole, a great list, and sure to be in the upper echelons.

tourist

This one started out very strong - the first seven tracks are a stellar run. There's a wall-of-sound quality that is consistent throughout this opening section. The Cure is always good. I don't know anything about Jay Som, but if this is what they sound like, I may have to give them a try. Really, really enjoyed this track. Deep Sea Diver, Unwed Sailor, Noah Gundersen, and Author were all interesting too.

Hey man, I'm not just saying this - your track "And When We Reach The End" might just be my favorite track on the whole list(well...other than Radiohead, but they're Radiohead after all). Something really abstract and dark about it that just works for me. I was going to ask if you did everything or if there were other people involved, but you've already answered that. That you did everything on this track is really impressive. I'm going to check the album out. Great job.

Unfortunately, after that great opening seven-track run, it gets a bit hit-and-miss for me. The Tourist is classic, I enjoyed Childish Gambino way more than I thought I would, the Taylor Swift/CRJ pairing was a good pop combo, and I enjoyed the closing Lupe track a lot(mostly because of the beautiful sample it's built around...I went as far as to look up what the original song was). On the other hand, I was a bit meh towards Alabama Shakes and Arctic Monkeys, I've never been able to get into The National like you guys have(this track was pleasant enough though), and I compare every HAIM song to The Wire, and none have reached that mark yet for me(though I haven't listened to their latest yet).

I'd rather focus on the positive though. I enjoyed probably at least 12 of the 18 tracks, the flow is pretty good, and the opening 6-7 tracks will probably be one of the strongest stretches of music in this DI. Good job man!
 
Catching up with my comments (though I'm up-to-date with my listening).

Tourist: as LM said, I think this playlist length featured this material really well, as it was quite engaging and never felt like too much. Obviously a lot of stuff that are right down by alley, but I thought it was very smartly sequenced and engaging. I did not at all mind that the list started off with more downtempo tracks and picked it up towards the end, although I will say that the Lupe Fiasco did not work that well for me as a closer. I was expecting some denouement after it, but maybe that's just how I like my playlists.

Oh, and nice song by this band I had not heard of, The American Frontier. I should check out their stuff some more :wink: In all seriousness, I wish you had found a way to close the playlist with your track, which would have worked so well.
 
Catching up here with tourist's list. Moving neighborhoods during the busiest work week of the year has left little time for much else!

I’m making my way through The Cure’s discography but have yet to listen to The Head on the Door in full, but absolutely love “Push.” It’s such a strong, upbeat opener too. I’m mixed on Jay Som’s work but liked this tune and thought it has a similar mix of guitar and synths that segued well from “Push.” The Deep Sea Diver song was fantastic, especially that blistering guitar ending. Her vocal patterns remind me a bit of Bjork too. The Unwed Sailor instrumental was pretty great too.

I enjoyed your American Frontier song and will definitely give your album a listen! Noah Gundersen and Author didn’t do as much for me, though I liked the Edge-like guitar on the latter. But “Pink Rabbits” through “Star Treatment” was excellent. “The Tourist” remains an immensely underrated Radiohead song. Last time I saw them at MSG, they closed the main set with it and every person there was screaming along with the chorus. I still think Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is a wonderfully fun transformation for Arctic Monkeys. It makes for a nice, chill alternative of the future to OK Computer’s anxiety. I also appreciated how deftly your playlist got from “Star Treatment” to Alabama Shakes and Childish Gambino – those three are pretty stylistically different but it works!

The Bon Iver song was a bit of an odd transition from Childish Gambino to HAIM, but HAIM to one of Taylor Swift’s best songs was fantastic. “Emotion” was another fantastic follow-up. Closing with “All The Stars” and “All Black Everything” was a strong, electric way to end things.

Overall, I really liked the variety and energy of your playlist. Thanks for sharing some of your favorite songs and your own art with us!
 
I'm gonna jump in as a listener this time around, since I never finished a playlist. This might be fun actually, just listening. I'm going in order, which means iYup was first.

I don't think it's any secret to those who have heard either my last DI entry or, going further back, Retro Island (!) that I would really enjoy this. A killer start - 'Til Tuesday (and Aimee Mann's solo career) have always been underappreciated, in my opinion. The first album is the most new wave-y thing they did, as their music became more organic in nature after that; the second and third albums are fantastic. I recommend them. And with A Flock Of Seagulls, Wishing is the best thing on the second album, which is a bit inferior to the debut, a classic (but still good in its own right).

The next three songs are in the same vein, and all fantastic of course. Fade to Grey is a longtime personal favorite of mine, and that whole Gary Numan album is awesome.

I like how you changed things up heading into the next section of the playlist. I was unfamiliar with Young Marble Giants, so I'm going to make a point of listening to their works. And I enjoyed how you mixed in some longer, quirky selections to give this a different vibe at times.

The sequencing is superb. Probably my only nitpick was making some pairings a bit too obvious (an Eno-produced Bowie track into an Eno project, Laurie Anderson followed by a Peter Gabriel song featuring...Laurie Anderson!) but those are minor quibbles. I thoroughly enjoyed this and would rate it extremely high.
 
Moving on to GAF.

I actually liked the length of this, packing a nice punch without overstaying its welcome. And some all-time favorites are on this - Alison, Vapour Trail, The Universal, One Day Like This - so it's no surprise I liked it. I'll never tire of One Day Like This.

Not sure how I've never heard Drugstore before. I mean, 90's stuff like that is right up my alley, and with Thom Yorke as a bonus. Will dig deeper into them.

Bonus points for including a Human League song that most people won't know. The album it's from, Hysteria, totally bombed in the U.S. and led to an unfortunate follow-up that was devoid of their synth-pop stylings in favor of a more bland 80's pop outing, but Hysteria was still a decent record that deserved a better fate.

Nicely done.
 
Really liked this entry of yours, Tourist. Thought Push was a great opener, and then the stretch of songs (excluding yours) that I hadn't heard before were very strong. I particularly liked the Unwed Sailor and Author selections.

We get into more familiar territory starting with The National, most of which are all pretty awesome. I'm not particularly keen on Arctic Monkeys, so I could have done without that one, and I do agree with others that Bon Iver could have been placed elsewhere, but nothing too drastic - one spot up between Alabama Shakes and Childish Bambino sounds pretty good to my ears.

I like the last group of songs as they are. Style is probably my favorite off 1989, although I do prefer other Carly songs to the title track. I think one more song after Lupe Fiasco might have closed things out better. I'd have made room by ditching the aforementioned Monkeys song to make it happen, although I can't quite determine what would be best there.

But again, apart from those minor variations, thought this was a great playlist.
 
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