Shuttlecock! Part VIII - If God Will Serve His Shuttles

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Laz's continual upset over Boner's lyrics is an unending wealth of amusement. I mean honestly? Did you ever fucking expect any better?

On a side note, this album strikes me in much the same way as Accelerate. Safe, listenable, and musically enjoyable return from the shit-storms of previous albums.
 
impy13 said:
I'm not going to answer this yet, since it's too early to tell and I've lived with VLV for a long time. But I will say its title track is better than "Magnificock," and I haven't even been able to stomach that one since June.
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Well, you're right about one thing: VLV's title track is fucking annoying. I really think that might be my least favorite on the album at this point. That and Violet Hill. Shuttlecock may end stealing from Cockplay and release all of the worst songs as singles. Because no one else has ever done that in the past.
 
I keep checking my email for a cancellation notice from Amazon.uk about the mispriced super-special-deluxe-extravaganza edition ... nothing yet.
 
LemonMelon said:
Well, you're right about one thing: VLV's title track is fucking annoying. I really think that might be my least favorite on the album at this point. That and Violet Hill. Shuttlecock may end up doing the same thing as Cockplay and release all of the worst songs as singles.
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I liked it when I only heard it a couple times. But "Strawberry Swing," "Chinese Sleep Chant," and "Cemeteries of London" are making me lean toward VLV right now.

But I really am not cementing that opinion because I haven't even had this 24 hours, despite five listens. "Courts of Lebanon" is the only thing I love. Title track is up there.
 
LemonMelon said:
OK, NNOTH: better or worse than Viva La Vida?

Oh, I went there.
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I haven't heard a Coldplay song in over five years, so I'm not really qualified to answer. However! I should actually have said that I hadn't "HEARD" a Coldplay song in over five years...until the Grammys, which I stupidly watched.

You want a sad personal truth? Here's one: I enjoyed whatever the hell song they played quite a bit more than I've enjoyed anything on this record, so far. I actually enjoyed that song QUITE a bit, to my surprise, so I'm not saying that I hate everything...but still. I've hated Coldplay for years (there's a reason why a half-decade had passed, between Coldplay songs), you know? And now I like some new(-ish?) song of theirs more immediately than anything on the U2 album? Boo-urns!!!
 
If you shout... said:
I haven't heard a Coldplay song in over five years, so I'm not really qualified to answer. However! I should actually have said that I hadn't "HEARD" a Coldplay song in over five years...until the Grammys, which I stupidly watched.

You want a sad personal truth? Here's one: I enjoyed whatever the hell song they played quite a bit more than I've enjoyed anything on this record, so far. I actually enjoyed that song QUITE a bit, to my surprise, so I'm not saying that I hate everything...but still. I've hated Coldplay for years (there's a reason why a half-decade had passed, between Coldplay songs), you know? And now I like some new(-ish?) song of theirs more immediately than anything on the U2 album? Boo-urns!!!
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Oh snap!

Cocky Martin isn't much of a singer live, so you would probably like the album version more. Their Grammy performance was...OK. I love Lost!, but it was too slow, and they just had to awkwardly jam Jay-Z in there.
 
LemonMelon said:
Oh snap!

Cocky Martin isn't much of a singer live, so you would probably like the album version more. Their Grammy performance was...OK. I love Lost!, but it was too slow, and they just had to awkwardly jam Jay-Z in there.
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Because the Grammys are all about collaborations, you know.

Martin by himself on piano would have been sufficient.
 
Lancemc said:
Laz's continual upset over Boner's lyrics is an unending wealth of amusement. I mean honestly? Did you ever fucking expect any better?

On a side note, this album strikes me in much the same way as Accelerate. Safe, listenable, and musically enjoyable return from the shit-storms of previous albums.
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That's a weak comparison. Accelerate isn't really "safe" because the general public doesn't give a fuck about what R.E.M. is still recording. They buried themselves with those last two snoozefests.

Also, Accelerate has some balls, but that's it. No depth, nothing new. And while No Net isn't Poppycock, I don't think I ever really expected to get that creative again. They get a lot of credit for meeting it halfway.

Bottom line is that Shuttlecock has much more to lose by experimenting, and I wouldn't call this album safe at all. If I'll Go Cock Crazy is the poppiest thing on here, it's still far from simple.
 
phanan said:
Because the Grammys are all about collaborations, you know.

Martin by himself on piano would have been sufficient.
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It's hard to screw up Lost! I really dig that one. But if they were just going to stick Chrissy at the piano, I would have preferred some kind of 42/VLV medley.
 
Bringing Cockplay up reminds me that they did ok in impy's Best of 2008 thread, although I know we didn't tabulate the results.

In fact, just because I'm curious, perhaps I'll do it tonight when I get home, if impy doesn't mind. I think everyone's results were in the thread anyway, except for LMP.
 
Whatever. Point is, both albums are considerably strong than their predecessors, but never really achieve much beyond solid level of quality. It's just funny you're making such a big deal over Boner's writing, which has [/i]never[/i] been particularly good.
 
phanan said:
Bringing Cockplay up reminds me that they did ok in impy's Best of 2008 thread, although I know we didn't tabulate the results.

In fact, just because I'm curious, perhaps I'll do it tonight when I get home, if impy doesn't mind. I think everyone's results were in the thread anyway, except for LMP.
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Sorry about all that. It's been a busy semester and after the loss of the initial spreadsheet, I didn't want to start over. If memory serves, they were somewhere near the bottom of the top ten or the high end of 11-20.
 
Accelerate sounds worse every time I hear it. There's no depth whatsoever. It was refreshing at the time, but I'd rather listen to Document.
 
Lancemc said:
Whatever. Point is, both albums are considerably strong than their predecessors, but never really achieve much beyond solid level of quality. It's just funny you're making such a big deal over Boner's writing, which has [/i]never[/i] been particularly good.
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Why the hell are you even on this forum? Or do you just not care about lyrics at all?

Boner was on a pretty hot streak in the 90's, at least.
 
I feel the same way about Accelerate. Decent, some good fun, a bit of a relief, but there's not much there there.
 
lazarus said:
Why the hell are you even on this forum? Or do you just not care about lyrics at all?

Boner was on a pretty hot streak in the 90's, at least.
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Why am I here? As in on Interference? Because I like U2? Maybe? They make good music. Most of the time. I think the last album's a turd, so what? And no, I don't think Bono is a good lyricist. He did have a good run with Achtung and Zooropa, but that's about it. He was never why I listened to this band.
 
That's odd. I couldn't be this big a fan of any band where I didn't think the lyrics were at least above average, for the most part.

And while I think the lyrics on No Net are hit or miss, when they hit, they're very good.
 
Well, to be honest I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the band anymore, at least not like I used to be 5 years ago or so. Certain artists do different things for me, many I don't particularly care what they have to say textually. When an artist is a particularly great writer though, it certainly helps of course. :shrug:
 
My god, that "birdie, birdie, birdie" section in Unknown Racquet is SO awful. At least when Boner did it in Ultraracquet (Serve My Way) it seemed ironic.

Also, I don't know if I've ever heard such a weak, strained falsetto. Who the fuck heard this on playback and was like "yeah! great take!"??
 
lazarus said:
Also, I don't know if I've ever heard such a weak, strained falsetto. Who the fuck heard this on playback and was like "yeah! great take!"??
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boner has other things to worry about.

it's like you want africans to starve and the seas to boil.
 
lazarus said:
My god, that "birdie, birdie, birdie" section in Unknown Racquet is SO awful. At least when Boner did it in Ultraracquet (Serve My Way) it seemed ironic.
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Seemed. That song is every bit as lame as it appears. I only enjoy the live versions, where it's more raw and not as obviously Shuttlecock on auto-pilot.
 
lazarus said:
My god, that "birdie, birdie, birdie" section in Unknown Racquet is SO awful. At least when Boner did it in Ultraracquet (Serve My Way) it seemed ironic.
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I think that's in "Cock Crazy."

And GFY, ElMel. "Ultraracquet" is a top fiver for me.
 
LemonMelon said:
Seemed. That song is every bit as lame as it appears. I only enjoy the live versions, where it's more raw and not as obviously Shuttlecock on auto-pilot.
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impy13 said:
I think that's in "Cock Crazy."

And GFY, ElMel. "Ultraracquet" is a top fiver for me.
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I really like Ultraracquet, but by that point in AB, it does seem a bit generic musically in terms of the album's sound. Having said that, I like the vocal a lot. It's certainly better overall than Even Better Than The Real Cock, which is my least favorite on there.

And you're right, Impy, the parts I was talking about are on Cock Crazy, not Unknown Racquet.
 
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