Random Music CXXVI: The Woy Eet Eez

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
it's a good series. I think Sean's a bit of a wanker to be honest, I find his interview style to be a bit forced. Great research (though he's obviously got a team of people who don't get credited for this) and great questions, but I think he's extremely overrated. But the series is good fun.
 
Parenting duties have kept me away from this website for too long, but I had to stop by to note what a fucking amazing release day we have today:

- Angel Olsen
- Chromatics (hell fucking yeah)
- Wilco
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Not a fan myself, but I know a lot of you care about Danny Brown and DIIV.

Best music Friday of the year?

Also, does everyone here (minus Axver) love Norman Fucking Rockwell? It's so good.

Miss you all.

Go Yankees.
 
Last edited:
I heard one track from the LDR album on Sirius XMU and wasn't quite sure what to make of it. It meandered a lot, almost like some of those early Destroyer records but without the eccentricity to justify the length.
 
I've been hearing some new Pixies songs on the radio recently, and it makes me think that there may be no other band with a greater disparity between their best and worst work. The reunion stuff has been embarrassingly bad.
 
cobl04 said:
it's a good series. I think Sean's a bit of a wanker to be honest, I find his interview style to be a bit forced. Great research (though he's obviously got a team of people who don't get credited for this) and great questions, but I think he's extremely overrated. But the series is good fun.
Click to expand...
Huh? The show has credits. And the dude is extremely humble. He takes criticism and praise of his hot sauce with equal grace. I don't watch the show much, but this was a surprising post, to me.
 
cobl04 said:
Ashley and I have been waiting fucking years for Dear Tommy though, so bit bummed this is not it.
Click to expand...

Without knowing much about the band other than that I really enjoy a large amount of Kill for Love, is there any reason not to believe they just decided to name the album something other than Dear Tommy in the end?

lazarus said:
I didn’t like the fact that their previous album opened with a cover, and I still don’t like it.
Click to expand...

That's a fucking great cover though. As long as their covers are as good as on Kill for Love and Closer to Grey, I'm happy for them to place them anywhere in the tracklist.

gump said:
Also, does everyone here (minus Axver) love Norman Fucking Rockwell? It's so good.
Click to expand...

:lol:

Perhaps I should listen to it just to see if I surprise you by liking it.
 
Some quick thoughts on new music:

- I was a bit let down by the new Angel Olsen, but it might be my own fault. "All Mirrors" is my song of the year so far. It's so fucking good and I've absolutely thrashed it into the ground. I guess I expected the whole album to affect me the same way, and it doesn't, but the problem might simply be I'm so familiar with the title track that everything else is overshadowed. Or perhaps it really is like My Woman, where I consider "Sister" an all-timer among an album that otherwise generally doesn't blow me away.

- Conversely, I did not expect to enjoy the new DIIV nearly as much as I do. God it's good. I figured this is one band who would either burn out or fade into mediocrity. Instead this is my favourite album of theirs so far.

- New Mermaidens is ace.

- The two Alcest singles have me pumped for the album to drop later this month.

- I saw Yumi Zouma in Christchurch last week and they played four or five unreleased songs. One of them in particular was amazing; if the studio version lives up to the live version, it should go down as one of their best tracks. Pity they didn't announce its title or anything. With a cheeky "don't tell anyone", they implied an album is coming in March 2020.

- And as far as Chromatics goes, I like the first five or so songs of Kill for Love more than any sequence on Closer to Grey, but then that album seriously meanders while Closer to Grey holds up all the way through. Perhaps I should check out more of their discography.
 
Axver said:
Some quick thoughts on new music:

- I was a bit let down by the new Angel Olsen, but it might be my own fault. "All Mirrors" is my song of the year so far. It's so fucking good and I've absolutely thrashed it into the ground. I guess I expected the whole album to affect me the same way, and it doesn't, but the problem might simply be I'm so familiar with the title track that everything else is overshadowed. Or perhaps it really is like My Woman, where I consider "Sister" an all-timer among an album that otherwise generally doesn't blow me away.
Click to expand...

I was just about to post about this album. I gave it the first listen last night and have been listening a couple more times today. I am really loving it. More than My Woman. The string arrangements that are all over this thing are really, really doing it for me. They make the whole thing so deeply evocative. Highlights include All Mirrors(made me want to listen to the album right away, killer single), What It Is, Impasse, and Tonight.

But the closer, Chance, might be song of the year. Just absolutely sublime, her vocals(I don't know if the way she quivers towards the end is on purpose, but it's so affecting), the strings, the sparse keyboards, everything. Breathtaking.

It's really a haunting, gorgeous album. I am struck by how honest the whole thing feels, like she's really putting herself out there.

The record is getting rave reviews so far. I read in a couple that she may at some point release a second version of the album where the songs would be more stripped down, i.e. no orchestral arrangements. Would be interesting to hear, but I love the orchestral stuff so much that I can't see preferring stripped down arrangements.

Anyway, hard to see it not being in my top 3 for the year. Fuck, it's good.
 
My Woman is a much, much more enjoyable full experience to me. There's such an engaging narrative to that record and it pulls me in every time. There's a logical flow to the sequencing and it peaks several times throughout the album instead of just at the beginning.

Meanwhile, All Mirrors has a few astonishing songs and gorgeous, pillowy production that props up rather poor sequencing and some less engaging material. Starting the album with two enormous, epic singles was a bad idea. It's like putting all the best fireworks at the beginning of the show and saving some squibs for the long haul.
 
Axver said:
Without knowing much about the band other than that I really enjoy a large amount of Kill for Love, is there any reason not to believe they just decided to name the album something other than Dear Tommy in the end?
Click to expand...

They're calling this their 7th album, when it's actually their 6th. This is the main reason to believe that Dear Tommy is still out there somewhere.
 
iron yuppie said:
I heard one track from the LDR album on Sirius XMU and wasn't quite sure what to make of it. It meandered a lot, almost like some of those early Destroyer records but without the eccentricity to justify the length.
Click to expand...

While it is long and kind of muted throughout, the whole thing is so delicate and powerfully introspective, full of gorgeous melodies. I catch myself humming to it all the time. Venice Bitch is a good example. It's extra long duration creates a mesmerizing, almost hypnotic effect on the chorus. Antonoff's production is top notch throughout the album.

david said:
I like the new Wilco but I really do miss their old production values.
Click to expand...

I kind of disagree here. I think the production in Ode to Joy is really great. It feels as though in this fourth (third?) phase of their career, there's a tremendous maturity in the songwriting and production, even if it they now seem uninteresting in going for hard-hitting songs like Spiders/Art of Almost/Bull Black Nova that they seemed to craft in virtually every album from YHF (or even Summerteeth) to Star Wars. It's a beautifully understated album, even if at times it makes me miss Nels, who takes a back seat here. I'm catching them a couple of times later this week and am interested in seeing how it translates live.

One and a Half Stars is absolutely gorgeous, by the way.


Axver said:
I was a bit let down by the new Angel Olsen, but it might be my own fault. "All Mirrors" is my song of the year so far. It's so fucking good and I've absolutely thrashed it into the ground. I guess I expected the whole album to affect me the same way, and it doesn't, but the problem might simply be I'm so familiar with the title track that everything else is overshadowed. Or perhaps it really is like My Woman, where I consider "Sister" an all-timer among an album that otherwise generally doesn't blow me away.
Click to expand...

I lean towards the consensus on this one, but will give All Mirrors some more time. It is such a layered album, it will be interesting to hear these songs in their unadorned form, which should come out at some point soon if her plan remains unchanged. All Mirrors, the song, is a fucking blast though.
 
iTunes is no more... let's see what the new service is like. I'm assured my collection is going nowhere, nor is iTunes Match, and I can still burn CDs, so that's all I care about. iTunes was always buggy as fuck so hopefully it's an improvement.
 
lazarus said:
What kind of assholes make a list 3 months before the end of the year?
Click to expand...
The song list is awful too. Classic mix of baffling order, flavor of the month tracks nobody will remember in a year (a track from the new Clairo album over Hard in da Paint, Royals and Hotline Bling? [emoji23] [emoji1787]), lack of a clear criteria for their picks, and some bad top choices for each artist. Does anyone still believe that Thinkin Bout You is the best Frank Ocean song?

On the plus side, Run Away With Me was #36, which is about 30 spots too low but I'll take it.
 
Last edited:
Pitchfork is so exhausting. Their metamorphosis from wannabe taste-makers to shameless pop-culture cheerleaders has been an odd thing to watch.
 
LemonMelon said:
The song list is awful too. Classic mix of baffling order, flavor of the month tracks nobody will remember in a year (a track from the new Clairo album over Hard in da Paint, Royals and Hotline Bling? [emoji23] [emoji1787]), lack of a clear criteria for their picks, and some bad top choices for each artist. Does anyone still believe that Thinkin Bout You is the best Frank Ocean song?

On the plus side, Run Away With Me was #36, which is about 30 spots too low but I'll take it.
Click to expand...

I am not sure how many times I said to myself "this isn't even the best song in the fucking album" while reading that list.

Like, Shut Up Kiss Me is great, but is there anyone who thinks that Sister is not the best song in My Woman?
 
Last edited:
cobl04 said:
iTunes is no more... let's see what the new service is like. I'm assured my collection is going nowhere, nor is iTunes Match, and I can still burn CDs, so that's all I care about. iTunes was always buggy as fuck so hopefully it's an improvement.
Click to expand...

Well, first impression: this is not good. Most of my album covers are not showing up.

I feel about iTunes the way I felt about Windows before switching to Macs 15 years ago.
 
I feel like I may have posted about this album somewhat recently but you know about age and memory so guess I’ll risk it:

Picked up a “this disc may have imperfections but is guaranteed to play blah blah” used copy of Van Morrison’s double live album It’s Too Late To Stop Now (1974) for just $4.99, despite it being the remastered version from a few years ago. It’s a great time to be a CD buyer, that’s for sure.

Anyway, I’ve heard this album before via mp3 and there’s already a consensus that it’s his best live set, but my god is this thing a killer. It proves that he’s one of the greatest of all soul/blues singers, and the band sounds stellar (it was partially recorded at the Troubador in Los Angeles, btw). It’s a great sampling of covers (Sam Cooke, Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson, Ray Charles), his big poppier songs (Domino, Warm Love, Gloria, Caravan), and the more epic, ethereal tracks (Cypress Avenue, St. Dominic’s Preview, Listen to the Lion). Personally I could done with a couple more of his plethora of great originals but he really delivers on those covers.

There’s certainly a lot of competition, but if we omit jazz/orchestral recordings, I don’t think I’m talking crazy by saying this is one of the Top 10 live albums ever released. As a sheer display of vocal prowess and showmanship it’s up there with Judy Garland’s Carnegie Hall album or Sam Cooke live at the Harlem Square Club.

Which is a good jumping-off point for a survey of best live albums here. While I’m more of a studio album guy, I do think there are some live documents that in many ways define their artists. Allman Brothers Live at Fillmore is one that comes to mind.

Maybe I should take that idea to the Lists thread.
 
A Moon Shaped Pool / Let England Shake / Lonerism / High Violet outside the top 100? Come on.

giphy.gif
 
High Violet way too low. Fame Monster way too low. Lost in the Dream too high. The Suburbs dramatically way too low.

But then again it’s a list of opinions so, whatevs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

O
Better late than never “they” say…
Replies
1
Views
317
Headache in a Suitcase
Headache in a Suitcase
P
Staring at the Sun - Sad Bastards Mix
Replies
0
Views
155
PookaMacP
P
Headache in a Suitcase
The Little Things That Give You A Mercy Rip Off
2
Replies
31
Views
3K
lazarus
lazarus
U
Hey there! I finally made an account here!
Replies
2
Views
295
U2_family365
U
Achtung_Bebe
IO: It's been a while...
Replies
2
Views
902
mikal
mikal

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom