The Visual/Music Discussion Thread

[Twiggster]

I will Not be ignored

RIP Ian - 30 years on!

[Twiggster]

Bedtime for me - new job in the morning! Leave you with this:

Night all!

[Dr.Leeds]

Ray Lamontague - Gossip In The Grain

Really enjoyed the top four, disappointed with Ray L admittedly on first hearing, his 'Trouble' album grew on me though & is excellent

"Gossip In The Grain" is a grower too. It has Ethan Johns written all over it though and the horns detract from the "one man, one guitar" stuff that was the highlight of "Trouble", much as the strings in parts of "Til The Sun Turns Black" could easily have been omitted. Love the guy's voice. He can seriously rip your heart out.

[white.riot]

I missed Jools tonight (kicking myself) but I bet Yeasayer stole the show. I well remember their first appearance - took my breath away, as did All Hour Cymbals when released. No doubt someone recommended it way back then. Oddblood is also one of the great albums from the very best of the Brooklyn bands. Someone must have seen the show?

[1964white]

"Gossip In The Grain" is a grower too. It has Ethan Johns written all over it though and the horns detract from the "one man, one guitar" stuff that was the highlight of "Trouble", much as the strings in parts of "Til The Sun Turns Black" could easily have been omitted. Love the guy's voice. He can seriously rip your heart out.

Lovely stuff Dr, both songs from the album 'Trouble' of course

[1964white]

I missed Jools tonight (kicking myself) but I bet Yeasayer stole the show. I well remember their first appearance - took my breath away, as did All Hour Cymbals when released. No doubt someone recommended it way back then. Oddblood is also one of the great albums from the very best of the Brooklyn bands. Someone must have seen the show?

The extended Jools show a must on Friday then WR. I think the then SM tried to claim it when it was included in a list of a 100 albums that had been a cut & paste job. He did give Oddball a more extensive review informing us all that it was disappointing Those were the days

[1964white]

Definitely, although I'm willing to bet I'd be the only person on here to give Duran Duran - Rio 10/10 :mrgreen:

Yes Tele you may be on your own with Rio

[1964white]

Bedtime for me - new job in the morning! Leave you with this:

Night all!

Good stuff

All the best with the new job Billy

[1964white]

Into the midnight hour WR & i were discussing the merits of the Bowie back catalogue & continuing the subject of rating albums we came up with about seven 10 star Bowie albums, bring the Beatles, Stones, Dylan into the equasion & i'm sure we'd be looking at around twenty-five 10 star studded albums amongst the those four legendary artists

Ratings are all personal opinions of course but this got me thinking when GW & Faaip claimed they only have a handful of perfect top-rated albums in their collection

Hey this could bring on another poll, mindst we would have choose albums what the majority of us own

[Martyn]

Into the midnight hour WR & i were discussing the merits of the Bowie back catalogue & continuing the subject of rating albums we came up with about seven 10 star Bowie albums, bring the Beatles, Stones, Dylan into the equasion & i'm sure we'd be looking at around twenty-five 10 star studded albums amongst the those four legendary artists

Ratings are all personal opinions of course but this got me thinking when GW & Faaip claimed they only have a handful of perfect top-rated albums in their collection

Hey this could bring on another poll, mindst we would have choose albums that the majority of us own

The original thread, over on the dark side, was entitled "Which album never dies on you even after 1,000 listens?" That's the criterion I use when I rate an album as a 10.

There is a spectrum of ratings and of attitude towards ratings; at one end you have that idiot Inspectah Duck who raves about someone like Madlib who (his words) "churns out a CD every week", each one of which is clearly the most sublime music ever to be heard on the planet - at least until next Friday's emission - and I'm right at the other end.

None of this is to say that I don't hugely enjoy the hundred or more albums that I'd rate an 8 or 9 out of 10 - of course life would be boring if I only played that half a dozen - but to me a 10 is when an artist (or band) is at his absolute peak. Nobody, even Bowie or Dylan, the Beatles or Stones, has been at his/their peak on seven different albums. IMHO.

Edited to add a question: How can any Beatles album that features a Ringo Starr lead vocal ever be a 10? Discuss.

[1964white]

The original thread, over on the dark side, was entitled "Which album never dies on you even after 1,000 listens?" That's the criterion I use when I rate an album as a 10.

There is a spectrum of ratings and of attitude towards ratings; at one end you have that idiot Inspectah Duck who raves about someone like Madlib who (his words) "churns out a CD every week", each one of which is clearly the most sublime music ever to be heard on the planet - at least until next Friday's emission - and I'm right at the other end.

None of this is to say that I don't hugely enjoy the hundred or more albums that I'd rate an 8 or 9 out of 10 - of course life would be boring if I only played that half a dozen - but to me a 10 is when an artist (or band) is at his absolute peak. Nobody,
even Bowie or Dylan, the Beatles or Stones, has been at his/their peak on seven different albums. IMHO.

Fair Point GW if the albums from an artist are rated now, different story if the albums were rated on release decades ago.
At the time of the early Beatles releases in the 60's their music was innovative & fresh, reviewers & music fans rated their albums then & didn't wait until a few years down the line when Sgt Peppers was issued to determine their peak album rating

[Martyn]

Fair Point GW if the albums from an artist are rated now, different story if the albums were rated on release decades ago.
At the time of the early Beatles releases in the 60's their music was innovative & fresh, reviewers & music fans rated their albums then & didn't wait until a few years down the line when Sgt Peppers was issued to determine their peak album rating

Ah yes - but my point is that I don't really care what review was given in melody maker or NME in 1967, my sole point of reference for my rating of an album is how I feel about it. Could I be on my mythical desert album and never tire of listening to an album? Any album where I figuratively or literally skip a track is less than a 10 (e.g. OK Computer and "Fitter Happier")

By the way, on reflection, I'm going to add Van Morrison's Astral Weeks to my original six.

[The Subhuman]

Fair Point GW if the albums from an artist are rated now, different story if the albums were rated on release decades ago.
At the time of the early Beatles releases in the 60's their music was innovative & fresh, reviewers & music fans rated their albums then & didn't wait until a few years down the line when Sgt Peppers was issued to determine their peak album rating

If Sgt Peppers is the yard stick than they surpassed themselves on at least two occasions, don't get me wrong I like SP but for me not the pinnacle, all Beatles albums though have a track or two I skip past

Still working on my desert island 10 though

[Martyn]

Musing on the original "Which album never dies on you even after 1,000 listens" title, I got to wondering how many albums I have heard 1,000 times, and it's probably only two - Hot Rats and Third. I've had each of them for 40 years (ish), so have I played each of them 25 times a year - once a fortnight? Probably, yes.

That makes them my uber-tens.

[Dr.Leeds]

Ah yes - but my point is that I don't really care what review was given in melody maker or NME in 1967, my sole point of reference for my rating of an album is how I feel about it. Could I be on my mythical desert album and never tire of listening to an album? Any album where I figuratively or literally skip a track is less than a 10 (e.g. OK Computer and "Fitter Happier")

It's a little tricky with ratings. If 10 is perfection then every track needs to be perfect and even the greatest artists struggle to do this. It's even more difficult now in the CD era where the pressure is to use the available space. It was easier back in the good old days to fill 40 minutes of vinyl with perfection and keep the lesser songs for B sides while now a CD buyer feels ripped off if there is less than an hour of music on a CD.

A 30 minute 8 song album without a weak track may well be a 10, but I'm more likely to play an hour long album with 12 great songs and a couple if dodgy ones and will consider that the better album even if, by definition, it can never be a perfect 10.

[Telepres]

I missed Jools tonight (kicking myself) but I bet Yeasayer stole the show. I well remember their first appearance - took my breath away, as did All Hour Cymbals when released. No doubt someone recommended it way back then. Oddblood is also one of the great albums from the very best of the Brooklyn bands. Someone must have seen the show?

My review from Waccoe:

Alicia Keys - Think she suffers from being overplayed. As a result, I tuned out. For her looks, 10, for her performance tonight, 7/10

Yeasayer - Heard the name but never investigated. I've missed out on a lot. Just incredible. That bassist is amazing. 10/10

White Rabbits - Very good. Top percussion. 8.5/10

Jeff Beck - An average performance. His fingerstyle can either be incredible or it can hit a dull note and sound shabby. A few dull notes tonight. 7/10

Creole Choir of Cuba - Bored me shitless. 2/10.


My winner: Yeasayer by some margin.

Yeasayer were very good.

[Telepres]

I missed Jools tonight (kicking myself) but I bet Yeasayer stole the show. I well remember their first appearance - took my breath away, as did All Hour Cymbals when released. No doubt someone recommended it way back then. Oddblood is also one of the great albums from the very best of the Brooklyn bands. Someone must have seen the show?

Watch it on the iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Episode_6/

[Martyn]

It's a little tricky with ratings. If 10 is perfection then every track needs to be perfect and even the greatest artists struggle to do this. It's even more difficult now in the CD era where the pressure is to use the available space. It was easier back in the good old days to fill 40 minutes of vinyl with perfection and keep the lesser songs for B sides while now a CD buyer feels ripped off if there is less than an hour of music on a CD.

A 30 minute 8 song album without a weak track may well be a 10, but I'm more likely to play an hour long album with 12 great songs and a couple if dodgy ones and will consider that the better album even if, by definition, it can never be a perfect 10.

I'm in complete agreement Doc - what you describe there is one of the very many I rate 8 or 9 (or even 9.5) in that it's an album that I'd enjoy hugely. But not a 10, that mark is reserved only for those very few that reach the peak of perfection.

[Martyn]

My review from Waccoe:

Alicia Keys - Think she suffers from being overplayed. As a result, I tuned out. For her looks, 10, for her performance tonight, 7/10

Yeasayer - Heard the name but never investigated. I've missed out on a lot. Just incredible. That bassist is amazing. 10/10

White Rabbits - Very good. Top percussion. 8.5/10

Jeff Beck - An average performance. His fingerstyle can either be incredible or it can hit a dull note and sound shabby. A few dull notes tonight. 7/10

Creole Choir of Cuba - Bored me shitless. 2/10.


My winner: Yeasayer by some margin.

Yeasayer were very good.

Recorded it but haven't yet had chance to watch it. Like you, I haven't heard much Yeasayer and I'm looking forward to them.

[1964white]

And rightly so deserves a 10