Desert Island Mini - LP Island - Group 2 Listening Thread

[phanan]

On to Group 2 with Cute Irish Bono.

Great choice with Love And Rockets to start. Love And Rockets are a band where I never thought they quite got it right - they've had some good albums, but nothing that I would call an outright classic. But their Best Of is fantastic and pretty much has everything you need from them.

Great selections by Coldplay, Oasis, and Blur on this. You really can't go wrong with any of them, and the albums they are culled from are obviously excellent.

I do agree with others that Taxman is out of place. As predictable as it may seem on the surface, it would have been a great opener followed by Ball Of Confusion. Or even as the second song if you really wanted the opener to remain unchanged. Either way, I think those two together would have worked really well. And this would have allowed the Longwave track to go directly into Cat Stevens, which seems like a nice sequence.

I think there are several tracks on here that kind of suffer from a sameness sound, causing the playlist to meander a bit. You mixed in the aforementioned Coldplay/Oasis/Blur songs to help with that, but it probably could have used a bit more diversity.

That said, I enjoyed the Local Natives song, a band I really haven't taken the time to listen to further, and The Atlantic was intriguing enough that I listened to it twice in a row on the spot (since it was the final track anyway). I really liked that.

 

[LJT]

Sorry been home in Northern Ireland for a bit finally getting to see my family for the first time in a while! Have listened to all the lists while home just need to get some time to type up the comments, but also ready for the next set!

 

[phanan]

LN7 up next.

This started off a bit slow for me, as I don't like Britney Spears and prefer other Outkast songs to this one, but things picked up quickly after that - I essentially really dug everything from And One to the end.

I haven't listened to the Editors in ages. I still think that first album is great, and the second one also had its moments, but they really never went anywhere after that. Papillon was one of the better tracks from the third album though.

I thought this cover of Blinding Lights was pretty good, but it really is hard to top the original, which has become a transcendent pop song.

Someone else mentioned that they didn't think Song For Zula fit in, but I disagree. I think it works really well here. Obviously a tremendous song, and sometimes those types of tracks rise above others, but from a sequencing perspective, I loved it.

Nice touch with the inclusion of A Spell A Rebel Yell - between the EP and the B-sides, there's a great alternate Viva there for anyone to listen to, and it's almost as good as the album itself.

And of course, really enjoyed the synth pop/new wave/electronic stylings of a lot of these tracks. I hadn't heard of several of them, like VHS Collection, Cubicolor, and FM Attack. Really liked those in particular.

Great listen.

 

[Cute Irish Bono]

Hello. I have been busy lately but I am happy that things are slowing down for the rest of this week where I am able to listen to these playlists.

Starting off with LuckyNumber7’s playlist.

The flow has been really well done and it definitely has an upbeat and electronic feel to it. While the first 6 songs weren’t my cup of tea, I really started to settle in to this playlist with the Editors song. I don’t know too much about them but I should check more from them. Then after that, I enjoyed “Regret.” I am a big New Order fan. I enjoyed “Stranger” as well. Never heard of VHS Collection before. I will listen to rest of this playlist today or tomorrow.

 

[phanan]

I can't think of a list Ax has done that I've actively disliked. I've always found them engaging, regardless of the genre, and this was no exception. Perhaps it's because I always find something new within his selections that stays with me, and apart from Hum, Health, and sleepmakeswaves, this was certainly the case again.

I thought the initial run of songs was excellent, especially the opener by Cable Ties, which really set the early tone. What a scorcher to start with. And I hadn't heard the new Hum, but it's amazing that they are back on the scene after all these years.

Starting with Soccer Mommy, the playlist transitioned into more of a dream pop/ electronic vein, which of course is right up my alley. Of this group, Empathy Test was probably my favorite, although I thoroughly enjoyed all of this section. The Aleah song also stood out.

As previously mentioned, Health was one of the bands I do know. I generally like their material, including what you have here, but so far for me they haven't been able to match Stonefist, and I'm not sure they ever will.

I thought the final trifecta of Health, sleepmakeswaves, and The Luxembourg Signal was excellent. When All That We Hold Decays was an excellent closer, and I love the title. I'm going to take a listen to that entire album before the next group begins, it was that good.

Great work as always.

 

[the tourist]

Finally got around to listening to LN7’s list on an afternoon walk today. Even though I knew it was coming, Lucky made me laugh out loud. I’ve never listened to any Editors except the excellent debut so it was nice to hear something else by them. Song For Zula is a song I know I’ve heard. Maybe in a movie soundtrack? I thought it was The War On Drugs, which is a compliment from me. Atmosphere is always great, and as a big fan of the original, that Blinding Lights cover was just wonderful to hear. As was A Spell A Rebel Yell which I probably haven’t heard in a decade and forgot about until it was on your list. Solid choices!

 

[Axver]

Ack, sorry folks, I've been busier than I've ever been in my professional life and just utterly beyond exhaustion. I just wanted to drop in and say a sincere thank you to everyone for the kind comments on the list. Really glad to see people getting something out of it, it's gone down much better than I had anticipated.

I've finally completed everything that has been pressing upon me, so I hope to listen to the other two lists in this group in the coming days and get onto group 3 shortly.

 

[Cute Irish Bono]

On to Group 2 with Cute Irish Bono.

Great choice with Love And Rockets to start. Love And Rockets are a band where I never thought they quite got it right - they've had some good albums, but nothing that I would call an outright classic. But their Best Of is fantastic and pretty much has everything you need from them.

Great selections by Coldplay, Oasis, and Blur on this. You really can't go wrong with any of them, and the albums they are culled from are obviously excellent.

I do agree with others that Taxman is out of place. As predictable as it may seem on the surface, it would have been a great opener followed by Ball Of Confusion. Or even as the second song if you really wanted the opener to remain unchanged. Either way, I think those two together would have worked really well. And this would have allowed the Longwave track to go directly into Cat Stevens, which seems like a nice sequence.

I think there are several tracks on here that kind of suffer from a sameness sound, causing the playlist to meander a bit. You mixed in the aforementioned Coldplay/Oasis/Blur songs to help with that, but it probably could have used a bit more diversity.

That said, I enjoyed the Local Natives song, a band I really haven't taken the time to listen to further, and The Atlantic was intriguing enough that I listened to it twice in a row on the spot (since it was the final track anyway). I really liked that.

Glad you enjoyed it phanan. I know what you mean when you said that there could be more variety in the sound while listening to it. When I listened to it back I definitely heard a cohesiveness to it but there could have been more variety to it.

I should check out a Love and Rockets Greatest Hits. They seem like such a innovative band for their time.

I agree now that you said it, Taxman would have been great as the second song.

You should check out Local Native’s Hummingbird (Garden of Elysian isn’t on there though) but Hummingbird is their best album, in my opinion. And Delay Trees’ album Readymade has an awesome showcase/dream pop sound to it. Delay Trees are from Finland.

 

[Cute Irish Bono]

I listened to rest of LuckyNumber7’s playlist. I enjoyed the second half a lot more because it was more chill in some ways. That Joy Division and Phosphorescent songs were breathtaking, even though I heard them before, in the context of this playlist, it sounded all fresh to me again. And the Coldplay B-side fit nicely in as well. The last song was ok. Kind of brief. I think ending it with the Coldplay would have worked better.

Overall, great job, it gain more of my interest, as I said earlier, as the playlist went on.

 

[Cute Irish Bono]

Listening to Axver’s playlist now. “Dig In” and “Tell Them Where to Go” are beautifully orchestrated songs. I enjoyed the fuzzy guitars and intense vocals but after song 3 it got a little weary for me, just to be honest. I enjoy post-rock in small dosages. It was a refreshing transition when the Soccer Mommy song came on. What a pretty song with her delicate and harmonious vocals. Great inclusion. “You You” sounded nice and very similar to the Soccer Mommy song. However, the Katie Dey song sounded like Bjork and I personally don’t like the vocals of either artists. More thoughts to come. Sorry, I do better listening to these playlists in sections. It works better to take it all in and organize my thoughts better.

 

[Joey788]

I am so behind on these! Going to try to get through all of them in the next few days, starting with Cute Irish Bono.

Love and Rockets is one of those artists I keep meaning to get into but have yet to do so. “Ball of Confusion” was a strong opener and a great way for me to get introduced to their music. Tenth Avenue North was decent and very U2-influenced, though I think you could’ve used another song in-between these two to ease the downshift. I really liked the transition to “42” though – it’s one of the most underrated Coldplay songs.

The next few songs lost me for a bit. I’m not a fan of Oasis and didn’t get much out of “Another Life” or “Your Love is Better.” The playlist got back on track for me with Local Natives. That was a great pick and fit well with Young the Giant. Longwave was another wonderful discovery for me! As for “Taxman,” it includes one of my favorite Beatles guitar solos and I'll never stop being happy to hear it. Revolver remains my favorite of their albums too. Cat Stevens was a good pick, but did feel like a big energy drop after “Taxman.” However, it flowed immensely well with “13.”

“Dead Room” was a shift, but it still worked. I liked its jazzy vibe. “A Long Way” was an emotional follow-up, with lots of passion in his vocals. It worked well when paired with the exhaustion of “No Distance Left to Run.” Then Airborne Toxic Event feels like a hard-won dawn after the previous darkness. “The Atlantic” made for a serene closer, like the release of all the previous songs led to some level of peace. It was a fantastic way to wrap up your playlist.

I enjoyed this for the most part! I thought the flow could’ve been better in some places, but I really appreciated the emotional resonance it had, especially in the back half.

 

[Joey788]

Alright, finally wrapping up Group 2. (This is what happens when you move neighborhoods during the busiest two months of the year at work - doesn't leave much time for DI, sadly!)

LN7
I haven’t heard “Lucky” in about 20 years and I’d forgotten that there’s so much percussion in it. For some reason, my brain had turned it into a full-on ballad. It surprisingly worked well with “Dracula’s Wedding,” which is a choice deep-cut off The Love Below. I’m unfamiliar with Mashrou’ Leila, but I enjoyed this! It reminded me a bit of a Gorillaz tune, like something off Plastic Beach or Song Machine. Can’t say that Sir Sly did much for me though. I think the segue would’ve been smoother from Mashrou’ Leila into Gnarls Barkley.

“Get Innocuous!” is brilliant, of course, one of those songs I never tire of hearing. In fact, this whole segment starting with LCD and through VHS was brilliant. It all fit within that New Order style electronica mold. That’s probably a big generalization but that’s what these artists like LCD, Editors, reminded me of. Plus, even though I liked some (Editors, New Order) more than others (VHS Collection), they all flowed wonderfully together. “Blinding Lights” was a bit of a rough segue, but I did like this cover of The Weeknd,

especially those warped electric guitar. I didn’t like Night Riots at all, but Kid Wave got the momentum back up. “Atmosphere” is classic, but I think another song was needed before it to help the downshift from Kid Wave. “Song for Zula” was an equally great, chill choice.

Cubicolor and FM Attack blended together for me. But I was surprised by the Coldplay song – I’d never heard that b-side before and thought it was pretty fantastic and relaxing. You can see the origins of their most electronic ambient songs like “Midnight” in there. I actually think that would’ve been a great way to close it rather than “Turning Me Up.”

All in all, I really liked this list and its dive into pop of all sorts. It’s not music I usually listen to but was certainly great for me to experience for a bit!

Axver

Cable Ties was one of my favorite discoveries from last year – great, energetic pick to kick this playlist off. I hope they get to tour the U.S. sometime soon. I Like Trains worked immensely well as a follow-up, it’s got that new post-punk vibe that’s been growing in popularity lately that I really enjoy. Stay Inside and Hum did lose me a bit though as it’s not really a style of music I particularly like much, but Phoxjaw was a cool, weird song in the best way.

I did really love that duo of 90s-influenced rock with Peel Dream Magazine and Soccer Mommy. The latter was one of my favorite songs from last year, one that I knew I’d have to learn on guitar as soon as I heard it. It’s just as fun to play as it is to hear. EGOISM had an earworm of a chorus that really made the whole song work. Katie Dey was a wonderful follow-up – I keep meaning to get into her stuff and this track just reinforces that for me. Kučka through Mint Julep were decent picks too. I don’t know if I’d explore them much more but I liked what I heard.

I’ve never heard of Blondfire before but I really like this song! It does feel like it would’ve fit better next to Peel Dream and Soccer Mommy though. Mild Orange wasn’t for me though – those type of spacey, echoing vocals are hit-or-miss for me. But your playlist came back really strong with Aleah and Myrkur, two songs by artists I don’t know that I really loved. While they were stylistically different, they’re definitely in the wheelhouse of some of my favorite type of music –folk-influenced tunes with a strange or dark undercurrent. The HEALTH tune was also fantastic – though I still prefer their Nine Inch Nails collab in terms of recent work. Sleepmakeswaves was good, but would’ve fit better next to Stay Inside and Hum. It didn’t really fit between HEALTH and The Luxembourg Signal, which I felt would’ve flowed really well together, the latter being the light flipside to the former.

I feel like over the years, my musical tastes have expanded and gotten closer to yours in many ways. While the heavier, metal-influenced songs didn’t do as much for me, there was plenty I loved here. This is definitely one of my favorite playlists this time around!