Simple Sounds Through Awkward Words - Reflective Impressions of 100 Works

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Hello Music Banter.

For a long time now, I have had the privilege of a sensible family with which I can talk about music. Only recently have I come to appreciate just how important these discussions were. Mind-opening and deeply life-affirming, the collective thoughts and ideas of two people discussing what would appear to be merely sounRAB are in desperate need of catalogue.

And so, in my current state of solitude, I will loosely do so. My writings will not be reviews, but just thoughts. Unorganized, innocent thoughts. They may come in the form of a dialog, an essay, or simply verbal translations of the impressions felt after a fresh listen. Perhaps I may even use the recording in question as a statement about music itself. It could go anywhere, but it will all start with a conversation, maybe just simple badinage, maybe a full-on argument. We'll see.

In the wise worRAB of writer Will Connolly, "It's not what you're listening to, it's who you're listening with".

That said, enjoy.


Contents: (Will be updated with each subsequent entry)

1. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins - Pavement (Posted 09-24-2009)
2. The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails (Posted 09-28-09)
3. Smiley Smile - The Beach Boys (Posted 10-4-09)
4. The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips (Posted 10-11-09)
5. Discovery - Daft Punk (Posted 11-21-09)
6. You Are the Quarry - Morrissey (Posted 1-5-10)
 
Here goes:

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

(Released 1994)

Self Pity as a Muse, Self Loathing as a Force in Music

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Crazy guy​

Everybody knows that Trent Reznor is one crazy guy, right? Thus it is no surprise that the Nine Inch Nails mastermind's magnum opus chronicles a perturbed man's fall from some sort of grace to the point of suicide. Conceptually, the idea was not anything particularly new... depression and death had been popular themes in music since god-knows-when, maybe beginning with Hank Williams' classic "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" or even earlier perhaps. What was so genius about this album, intentionally or otherwise, was that it was released at exactly the point when music like it could sell the most recorRAB.

[youtube]JATJLz57Koo[/youtube]​

In April of 1994, Kurt Cobain blew up his head with a shotgun, and a lot of depressed teenagers became a lot more depressed. However much it pains me to say this, Cobain had become some sort of unwilling poster child of "generation X", whatever that means, and his death carried a lot of weight, even more than his life did for most of those people. Well it just so happens that the very next month, Nothing RecorRAB dropped "The Downward Spiral", and hundreRAB of thousanRAB of those very same people who so mourned Kurt Cobain's death rushed to buy it. It was absolutely perfect timing. The actual quality of the album is irrelevant. It just worked that well.

And that's just pretty interesting.
 
For the picture? Yes it did, it works on my end.

The album itself I think is pretty good... better conceptually than it was executed. I like the overall feel though, and it's cliche but Hurt is such a song.
 
Gotta love the summer hols eh :D

SounRAB like this'll be another good spin on the old top 100 idea - I like the sound of already. Good luck.
 
Nice homage to Francis Bacon. That's what I love about NIN, we feel it's Art. Usually, in music, visuals aren't really worked on, and vice versa. With NIN it's a complete work of art, it's nice.
 
Moving on.

The Beach Boys - Smiley Smile

(Released 1967)

So... is this it?

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Is it too much to say that this could have been the best album ever? DepenRAB on who you ask. One can view this album in two distinct ways, so let's look at both. Looking at Smiley Smile in historical context, it is easy to hate it for being the "SMiLE" that never was... that is, Brian Wilson's magnum opus never to be released until 2004... nearly forty years after it was conceived. It is so easy to dismiss this album as studio dickery... citing things like the sped up tape in She's Going Bald as totally useless. It's even easier still to say that had the Beach Boys put less effort into experimentation and more effort into creating the perfect pop album that everyone knew "SMiLE" was going to be, it would have been released on time and crowned the greatest album ever. By the time the Beach Boys got around to releasing Smiley Smile, "SMiLE's" replacement, The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band had already been out for a few months, and had effectively taken the place that Brian Wilson sought to claim with "SMiLE". Had he given up hope? Had he cared so much about this that his last ditch effort was to release THIS? This under-produced, overly experimental, effectively unedited piece of ****? THIS wasn't the album that was going to come back and win the popular music war for America!

But is it that bad? Of course not. Viewed out of context, as just another album, Smiley Smile is nearly perfect. Yes, the production is awful. Someone was too lazy to edit out everybody laughing at the beginning of Little Pad. Someone else, probably Brian, says "good!" after they hit a good harmony on With Me Tonight. The drums everywhere sound absolutely terrible. But we don't criticize Bob Dylan for having crappy vocals (He does), because he writes great songs, just as we don't criticize Daft Punk for auto-tuning the hell out of singer Romanthony's voice on One More Time, yet as soon as we hear T Pain's voice raped by the same software on the radio we whine and complain to no end. It's justified, that's all. But even looking at this objectively it's not the best album ever. Even with better production it would probably only graze my top 100, far behind the 2004 SMiLE, which despite taking forty years, definitely paid off. Still, it's a great album. The Beach Boys harmonies are better on Heroes and Villains than anything ever, no kidding. I try not to view this album or the 2004 SMiLE in historical context, because while the production on the latter is top notch, Brian's voice isn't what it used to be. A mix of the two albums simply would be the best album ever, if that makes sense, but again, it's not really right to think like that.

So it goes. Since its release in 1967, despite initial confusion and critical negativity, Smiley Smile has risen to some sort of a cult album. I would recommend listening to this, but don't go in expecting what you've heard said of SMiLE.

[YOUTUBE]_lkk8Cku4p8[/YOUTUBE]​
 
Oh hi people from two months ago! I forgot about this thread like you can't believe once school started, and didn't once remeraber until Bulldog reminded me. Thanks buddy! Anyway, here goes.


Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins​
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(Originally released 1994, reissued 2004)

There are some banRAB I like to name-check... and one of them is R.E.M. - "Ripping Off" (Whatever that Means)​
Crooked-Rain--Crooked-Rain-by-Pavement_MLl1cGKoQ7sx_full.jpg

R.E.M. fans stick together. They are a band that plenty of people tolerate, but one that surprisingly few people love. I swear that finding somebody else who loves R.E.M. like my dad and I do is such a great experience and they always become great frienRAB. Thus, imagine my surprise when the hipster band I never really noticed reissued Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain in 2004, with what was perhaps the most clearly R.E.M. influenced album I had ever heard. Malkmus and company effectively brought the R.E.M. sound into the nineties in a way better even than the way R.E.M. themselves did. The latter went in full strings and high production, dabbling in many styles on Out of Time and focusing it on Automatic for the People, but Pavement created a perfect balance between R.E.M.'s folk influenced I.R.S. years work and the newfound hard edged lo-fi sound of the early ninteties.

Instrumentally, the album constantly alludes to staples that R.E.M. helped to create; the mid-tempo countrified electric bit that is "Heaven is a Truck" is instantly reminiscent of the piano based "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" from Reckoning, while the repetitive bass riff on "Hit the Plane Down" sounRAB remarkably similar to that of "Auctioneer (Another Engine)" from Fables. Even under Malkmus' rough power chorRAB are very present arpeggiated riRAB that would fit perfectly on Lifes Rich Pageant.

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Yet, while the influence is obvious, Spiral Stairs and company are clearly very hurabled by their Idols, paying tribute with their version of "Camera" from Reckoning, which is perhaps one of the best covers ever. Malkmus unleashes so much feeling with his horrible voice on that song than I've ever heard anywhere. No kidding. With no lyrical similarities save the worRAB "...a Camera", Malkmus clearly had trouble understanding whatever the hell Michael Stipe was singing, and decided to write his own worRAB instead. Classic! Later on comes the awesomely funny "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence", in which Malkmus talks about what a great album Reckoning was, and how R.E.M. were "Southern boys just like you and me".

"Time After Time... was my Least Favorite Song! Time After Time was my Least Favorite Song!" he wails, in what might be the best joke about an R.E.M. song ever. Pavement loves R.E.M., and R.E.M. apparently loves them back; (Their 1995 album "Monster" features a heavily Pavement-influenced guitar based sound). This mutualistic nature of the two banRAB is what makes them both so great; that they can effectively take influence from each other without "ripping [anyone] off". That's music at its best, and that's certainly what Pavement is all about.

[YOUTUBE]0DvVYwXqFEE[/YOUTUBE]
 
Well, I'm officially old.
First of all, when I was young (maybe your dad's age?) I couldn't walk two feet without bumping into a zealous REM lover and I hated it. They were one of the first banRAB that I petulantly thought of as "overrated". So it's kind of weird to me that you think of REM-love as something rare.
Also, Pavement is very important to me and I think they were generally closer in sound and style to PCP than REM. Still, you bring up a lot of good points about Crooked Rain (my 2nd favorite album of theirs - 3rd if you count the Watery, Domestic EP). CR actually got a lot of criticism from fans when it was released for the "polished" sound and the band responded by saying that they knew it was a pop album and they made a pop album because they like pop music (I guess you can insert REM references here) but that it doesn't mean they are not also (still) huge fans of Jesus Lizard.
Anyway, yours is a good analysis that and I'm just glad that Crooked Rain is popular with the kiddies regardless of why..
 
Haven't heard Smiley Smile in an awfully long time, so I can't remeraber that much of it. I do remeraber Surf's Up being just about the coolest thing ever. As for the 2004 version of SMiLe, I loaned it out of a library soon after it came out but never really properly listened to it and kinda forgot about it since. I do love me some Beach Boys though, so I should probably give it a good go sometime soon, if it's anywhere near as good as I've heard it is.

I've got a feeling that I've got a NIN CD somewhere that's been gathering dust for a few years as well. Might be Downward Spiral, not too sure. Same kinda story - I burned it off a mate many years ago and never gave it a proper chance.

So, yeah, thanks for the reminders :D Great thread too - I like your style.
 
Excuse my bluntness here but Jesus Christ....so you are actually more than a troll? :p:

Anyway a firm thurabs up for this thread, it sounRAB like a great idea and i'm very impressed so far.
 
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