Random Music CXXV: Least necessary thread edition

[martha]

Are the Beach Boys a good band or no?

No.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Not a huge fan either. That being said they could have recorded God Only Knows and retired on its merits alone.

 

[cobl04]

I really like "Hang On To Your Ego".

I think a lot of that music was probably life-changing if you were around at the time, cos it had never been done before. My partner couldn't give a shit about much music older than 15 years.

Like I listen to God Only Knows today and I'm like yeah this song is beautiful but it wouldn't rank inside my top 1000 songs or anything.

 

[Axver]

No.

This, but fully capitalised.

 

[iron yuppie]

They're one of those bands where I think a song is really good for about 30 seconds and then completely lose interest.

 

[DaveC]

god only knows is *very* easily one of the top 10 songs of the 60s. i am not saying this flippantly either.

 

[LemonMelon]

Wow, the Beach Boys are underrated here. Pet Sounds is one of the greatest pop albums of all time. Smile annihilates pretty much any of the neo-psych music it influenced through its purity, warmth and incredible melodic dexterity. The chord progressions they came up with at their peak were out of this world.

Some amazing album cuts:

That's Not Me
I'm Waiting for the Day
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
Cabin Essence
Wonderful
Look (Song for Children)
Child Is Father of the Man
Wake the World
Be Still
This Whole World
All I Wanna Do
Til I Die
Surf's Up
The Night Was So Young

Idk how you listen to these songs and not come away with the band being at least sporadically brilliant. If you've just heard Fun Fun Fun and its ilk, you're missing out. I challenge anyone to listen to tracks 8-12 of the Smile Sessions and not be impressed by what they hear.

 

[bono_212]

Not a huge fan either. That being said they could have recorded God Only Knows and retired on its merits alone.

This is almost exactly how I feel about them as well. I don't care for them in general, but "God Only Knows" is an all-time amazing song that absolutely kills me every time I hear it.

I was mildly disappointed by Pet Sounds, considering it's apparently the #2 greatest album of all time according to Rolling Stone, but on it's own, it's a fun album. I really haven't listened to much else, besides the hits, so I don't come from a very knowledgeable background on this, but I just don't love the surf stuff. BUT the film Love & Mercy really changed how I feel about the artistry of the band. I kinda shrugged off how much of a "genius" Wilson is until I saw that, then I really did get it. So even if they're not my cup of tea, I respect the hell out of at least his contributions to music.

 

[Axver]

I challenge anyone to listen to tracks 8-12 of the Smile Sessions and not be impressed by what they hear.

Anyone?

Are you really quite sure you want me to take up this challenge?

 

[LemonMelon]

Anyone?

Are you really quite sure you want me to take up this challenge?

Surely you can pause your 24/7 loop of Twilight (Demo) for 15 minutes.

 

[Salome]

Wow, the Beach Boys are underrated here. Pet Sounds is one of the greatest pop albums of all time. Smile annihilates pretty much any of the neo-psych music it influenced through its purity, warmth and incredible melodic dexterity. The chord progressions they came up with at their peak were out of this world.

Some amazing album cuts:

That's Not Me
I'm Waiting for the Day
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
Cabin Essence
Wonderful
Look (Song for Children)
Child Is Father of the Man
Wake the World
Be Still
This Whole World
All I Wanna Do
Til I Die
Surf's Up
The Night Was So Young

Idk how you listen to these songs and not come away with the band being at least sporadically brilliant. If you've just heard Fun Fun Fun and its ilk, you're missing out. I challenge anyone to listen to tracks 8-12 of the Smile Sessions and not be impressed by what they hear.

All of this.
Except for the "Wow" at the start.

 

[Axver]

Surely you can pause your 24/7 loop of Twilight (Demo) for 15 minutes.

It's a darkened day for me now, but sure, tracks 8-12 of the Smile Sessions coming right up.

Cabin Essence: what the fuck is this? Is this a song for children? Oh god there's an actual song for children coming. And now fifty seconds in it's a different song. This is a mess. And now we're back to boing boing doing doing fuck off. Holy shit this is truly awful. Ahaha it's time for the rave again. Pity it sounds like they're playing inside a cardboard box. And now it's onto a third song. How the hell am I still on the same track. How the hell is this only 2:45 through? 2 hours 45 minutes more like.

Oh my god there are four more songs to go. I wish this was "over and over".

Wonderful: This passed with little of note. Phew.

Look (Song for Children): I'm wary after that Cabin Essence clusterfuck. This sounds like somebody's b-side. I'm not sure why I'm meant to care. Drums sound a little shit.

Child Is Father of the Man: Feel like I'm still listening to the last song really. Oh wait no it's suddenly sped up. They really aren't very good at changing moods are they. It's just like multiple songs mashed together.

Surf's Up: I was hoping this would at least have some cool surf guitar or something. Nice vocal melody. Why does it just... stop around 0:48? Don't they know where the hell to go with this song? My god, how can a band this awful at songwriting have such an esteemed reputation. Like, just because you've got a halfway passable vocal melody doesn't make you some fucking genius. Hey look it's 1:38 and we can't decide what we're doing so let's just start another song. This is just the golden oldies version of prog metal bands who think that songwriting is changing time signature every 30 seconds and throwing in a mellow section after some blastbeats. Oh my god now this is just some plodding boring quiet shite. Reprise of Child Is Father of the Man, sure, whatever, I don't care any more.

Never suggest I listen to this band ever again, please and thank you.

 

[mikal]

Lol that was awesome

 

[Axver]

Legit wondering if Traviud was trolling by picking those five songs.

 

[mikal]

By the way, Radiohead has a new single out.

 

[mikal]

Legit wondering if Traviud was trolling by picking those five songs.

I agree with your statement about prog rock. A lot of great bands out there but others that try to induce seizures with their music.

 

[cobl04]

By the way, Radiohead has a new single out.

Nah it’s not new, it was a B side from the last record.

 

[mikal]

Nah it’s not new, it was a B side from the last record.

Ahhhh I got all excited, even though my adoration for the has waned over time.

 

[LemonMelon]

It's a darkened day for me now, but sure, tracks 8-12 of the Smile Sessions coming right up.

Cabin Essence: what the fuck is this? Is this a song for children? Oh god there's an actual song for children coming. And now fifty seconds in it's a different song. This is a mess. And now we're back to boing boing doing doing fuck off. Holy shit this is truly awful. Ahaha it's time for the rave again. Pity it sounds like they're playing inside a cardboard box. And now it's onto a third song. How the hell am I still on the same track. How the hell is this only 2:45 through? 2 hours 45 minutes more like.

Oh my god there are four more songs to go. I wish this was "over and over".

Wonderful: This passed with little of note. Phew.

Look (Song for Children): I'm wary after that Cabin Essence clusterfuck. This sounds like somebody's b-side. I'm not sure why I'm meant to care. Drums sound a little shit.

Child Is Father of the Man: Feel like I'm still listening to the last song really. Oh wait no it's suddenly sped up. They really aren't very good at changing moods are they. It's just like multiple songs mashed together.

Surf's Up: I was hoping this would at least have some cool surf guitar or something. Nice vocal melody. Why does it just... stop around 0:48? Don't they know where the hell to go with this song? My god, how can a band this awful at songwriting have such an esteemed reputation. Like, just because you've got a halfway passable vocal melody doesn't make you some fucking genius. Hey look it's 1:38 and we can't decide what we're doing so let's just start another song. This is just the golden oldies version of prog metal bands who think that songwriting is changing time signature every 30 seconds and throwing in a mellow section after some blastbeats. Oh my god now this is just some plodding boring quiet shite. Reprise of Child Is Father of the Man, sure, whatever, I don't care any more.

Never suggest I listen to this band ever again, please and thank you.

I hope that by aiming this angry, misguided treatise in the direction of a lovely song suite about childhood and family, you felt a little closer to your estranged parents.

Spoiler

 

[Axver]

Mate you're gonna have to justify that "lovely" a bit more before I believe you aren't trolling me with the equivalent of telling some U2 sceptic to go listen to the middle trio of NLOTH.

 

[LemonMelon]

I certainly would, as I often err on the side of saying too much, but that comparison between Surf's Up and Get On Your Boots suggests an irreconcilable gap in musical interests that no degree of analysis can positively contribute to.

 

[Hewson]

Spoiler

I think that may be the first time I've seen those 2 with legs.

 

[bono_212]

Even having not heard it myself, seeing axvers response to those songs was pretty disappointing. Again, that comes from a) knowing what went into the writing and recording of them (recommending Love and Mercy a second time here) and B) being aware that the Smile sessions are pretty universally acclaimed.

Just seemed like an attempt to hate from the second the post started.

 

[LemonMelon]

I think that may be the first time I've seen those 2 with legs.

They used them to run away from Axver

 

[DaveC]

like half of axver's complaints are basically invalid too... they're called the smile sessions because they're recording sessions of an unfinished album. of course there's stops and starts and changes because they're fucking writing the songs.

acting like this is a finished product meant for release and then shitting all over it because it's not a finished product meant for release makes about as much sense as listening to the crappy bootlegged achtung baby berlin tapes and then emphatically proclaiming that u2 is utter garbage based on that alone.

 

[lazarus]

I’m still not understanding how anyone thought Axver would appreciate this music, and why time was wasted attempting to get his reaction.

 

[LemonMelon]

Axver is my friend, we've spent time together offline, it's not a big deal either way, etc.

 

[the tourist]

That section from the Smile Sessions is glorious. The guitar from the end of Child Is Father Of The Man has been fairly inspirational to me. Surf’s Up is absolutely fantastic.

Pet Sounds is in my top 10 albums for sure. But yeah, aside from that album I mostly adore the singles. The albums kinda lose me with their filler.

 

[mikal]

My challenge to Interference is to listen to the following Biffy Clyro songs in order:

Different People
Black Chandelier
Victory Over The Sun
The Thaw

And then try to tell me that they’re not the best band of all time.

Disclaimer. If you don’t agree with me, you’re wrong.

 

[LemonMelon]

I'll take you up on that, even if their name is stupid.