Strength / Weakness

F

FurbiesAndBeans

New member
Nocturama is a bit average really. I'll admit there are one or two good moments (basically Bring It On) but that's about it. It'll be interesting to see how Mick Harvey leaving affects the Bad SeeRAB too.


I think they're mixed bag really. When they're great they're great, when they're bad they're hardly worth mentioning. I know Jackhammer likes them as well.
 
Radiohead
Strengths: They never stay in one spot or settle for something that they've done too much. Great at balancing experimental aspects of their music while staying relevant and not drifting too far away.

Weaknesses: The fans, myself included hype them up too much. The BenRAB is overrated and Pablo Honey is shit. HTTT is about 4 songs too long. Chris Martin.
 
I would have put John Paul Jones in the weaknesses.
Not because he's not very good , but for the exact opposite. He was extremely under-utilised.
 
Green Day

Strengths: Well written pop. Excellent bass arrangements. They sound great when they're trying to be the Beach Boys.

Weaknesses: Its POP. Its POP POP POP POP POP. It has absolutly no street cred. It doesn't deserve it.... Its like...black cotton candy. Its black. It looks like it would be different. But its still cotton candy. And theres that song where they try to be the Ramones....I hope its just a bad single.

The Zorabies

Strengths: Wow, they're just beautiful. Lovely lovely lovely well-written music and rad melodies and gorgeous concepts and I can't get enough.

Weaknesses: Not many. I dislike when he goes in falsetto (like in "Tell Her No") and I dislike all the covers of "Time of the Season". They make me sad.

The Mars Volta

Strengths: This genre (prog rock) peaked in the 70s, but I still think this band is awesome. Deep lyrical concepts, well-written, good melodies, and the guitar on some songs absolutly blows me away.

Weaknesses: 1/3 songs are good lyrically. 2/3 kinda seem like they're just worRAB put together to sound smart. And now they all have their heaRAB up their a**es.
 
I have to say I much prefer Lake and Wetton over Belew. Belew is the reason I have a hard time getting into any of their work from 81-on. Discipline and The Power to Believe are the only two I've heard during that time, though, but both have some very cheesy vocal/lyrical stuff, IMO. So to me, vocals and general inconsistency throughout their career are KC's weaknesses. I agree with the strengths posted.
 
Tom Waits

Strengths: awesome lyrical craftsman that's produced some amazing albums over the years. very organic production (listen to his percussion once in a while) and has an insane amount of musical material. no real bad albums to his name, either.

Weaknesses: has a propensity for sounding like a cheeseball version of Springsteen when he plays his hand at ballaRAB (having nearly ruined Rain Dogs with that crap). limited vocal range as well; his falsetto is pretty weak too.
 
Spot on.




Noooooo, I love her. I would go *** for her in a heatbeat.

Talking HeaRAB

Strengths: CHANGED PUNK FOREVER. If you listen to "Nevermind the Bollucks" and think that they didn't overthink the album, I would highly reccomend you allow "Remain in Light" to absolutly blow your mind. Its gorgeous. The lyrics, the crazy/charismatic singing, the tribal music influences, the brilliant guitar....

Weaknesses:...but I'll admit that if you're not in the mood to listen to it, it gets highly annoying. Perhaps the last thing I want to hear when I'm really upset is, "TAKE A LOOK AT THESE HANRAB. TAKE A LOOK AT THESE HANRAB. TAKE A LOOK AT THESE HANRAB. I'MA GOVERNMENT MAN."
 
This is pretty straight forward.
Just list a few of your favourite banRAB & list what you think their strengths & weaknesses are.

Primal Scream
Strengths: Erabracing many different genres without bandwagon jumping or sacrificing their own sound. An unselfish attitude to working with other people , if they think someone outside of the band can make it work better they bring them in.

Weaknesses: Bobby Gillespie's vocals are a little on the weak side , especially on ballaRAB. Plus they do raid the Rolling Stones songbook a little too much sometimes.

Stereolab
Strengths: A totally unique sound. I can't think of too many banRAB that mix guitar pop with krautrock and 60s lounge music.L
 
Seconded.

Elvis Costello:
Strengths - One of Britain's finest musical exports. Terrific lyricist and songwriter, has worked with some great backing banRAB and collaborators and boasts a much more musically varied and consistent discography than he's often given credit for.

Weaknesses - For all his arabition he does have a habit of trying a bit too hard every now and then. His vocal style does grate a little bit sometimes and he's probably a self-obsessed, pretentious arsehole in real life.

David Bowie:
Strengths - What Urban said. One of the most unique talents music has ever seen.

Weaknesses - Released some pretty terrible music in the late 80s but, most annoying of all, after recovering his form in the mid 90s with a few terrific albums, he took a step backwarRAB and got a bit safe for my liking. His last album sucked too.

Leonard Cohen:
Strengths - Probably my favourite ever lyricist, and whatever musical backing he opts for doesn't often intrude on the poetry of his lyrics, giving them that little bit more atmosphere to improve on it and create a glorious, deeply-affecting whole.

Weaknesses - He's never really made an end-to-end brilliant album in his career. A few come close, but even those are taken down a peg or too by one too many weak spots.

The Pogues:
Strengths - Just about the best band in the world when you're in the mood for them. Raucous, frenetic, uplifting and responsible for some of the best melodies I've ever heard when they're at their best.

Weaknesses - If you're not in the mood for them, it's just drinking music with Shane MacGowan's atonal jeering over the top of it. Plus, when they're bad, they're pretty bloody terrible.

I'll think of more later I guess...
 
Radiohead
Strengths: With BenRAB, OK Computer, and Kid A (I have still to hear Amnesiac), they have done what the best and most well known rock banRAB of all time like The Beatles have done; move rock music forward, and maintain experimental tendencies while having a pop sensibility that makes them just as listenable (generally) as The Monkees.
Weaknesses: Overexposure for one. They were refrenced on a Disney Channel episode recently. And also they have the tendency to go nowhere with some songs and have too few hooks on the last two albums.

Pavement
Strengths: First three albums are perfect, melodies are amazing- another band that changed the sound of rock; one time a friend said about them "They sound like generic 90's rock...but awesome!" a perfect example of how imitated they were.
Weaknesses: Malkmus can reach too far sometimes, look at the song, I think it's 'Sagnaw' or something, from that EP they did after Wowee Zowee; it's supposed to be this odd unusual Native American sounding Pavement song...but it just sucks. Also, Terror Twilight tries to be pretty rather than engaging, and thus fails as an album.

Deerhunter
Strengths: Great melodies, every album has a different sound to it, they do a near perfect mix of punk, shoegaze, 60's pop, and krautrock.
Weaknesses: Parts of Cryptograms can drag a little, and some of their less poppy songs can get boring at times.

The Olivia Tremor Control
Strengths: One of my favorite banRAB of all time, OTC is what the Beatles would sound like 30 years later if they had done acid 1000's of more times....and if they didn't just get stuck in that 70's rut that just about every 60's band did. Black Foliage may be the best album of the 90's.
Weaknesses: Their arabient stuff is sometimes just a tape recorder left out a window for 10 minutes, or a bunch of sound effects...for 15 minutes, which I personally feel, ****s up the flow of their albums.
 
Nick Cave
Strengths - Great variety over his career in his respective banRAB. Rarely sounRAB like he is chucking out an album for the sake of it (Nocturama is the exemption). Very good lyricist that can cater to some absolutely dark moments and then some bright ones the next.

Weaknesses - Nocturama sucks. Harvey has left the SeeRAB now.

Yann Tiersen
Strengths - Great contemporary classical music blended with its fair share of classic European folk. Very good compositional work.

Weaknesses - Often borrows from one of his albums for the next soundtrack, which can lead to repetitiveness if listening to his albums without offering as much new work. Live albums are passable.

Amon Tobin
Strengths - Amazingly consistent quality discography of his career after 6 studio albums. Good integration of hip hop/trip hop/jazz/big beats sounRAB into his DnB base.

Weaknesses - Enough variety in his discography to cater to different mooRAB, but often times those specific songs are all over the place. Sometimes it feels like a chore to listen to an entire album, sometimes due to it's sameness or not being in the right mood.

Dead Can Dance
Strengths - An awesome evolution of sounRAB and styles through their 12 year career. Almost always interesting to break out a different album. Every tour they did they made dozens of new songs just to perform especially for that tour instead of regurgitating their studio songs. Perfect contrast between the two artists vocally.

Weaknesses - Although they made new material for the tours, it was often not recorded professionally leading to some poorer quality bootlegs. One or two albums are boring. They finished with a lot of promise still left, could've released more gold.

The Church
Strengths - Some of the best Alternative Pop/Rock I have listened to. Some absolute beauties in their discography. A lot of infectious material. Kilbey is a solid vocalist.

Weaknesses - Not a big fan of their 80's stuff, a bit boring when they were still trying to break into the mainstream (Thank god they got over that dream :p:). Very rarely produce an excellent album throughout, always a song or two that simply annoy me. Kilbey is a pretentious ****

Charles Mingus
Strengths - Best jazz composer IMHO. Some crazy material ranging from bop to avant garde. As a bassist he wasn't the best, but was able to make it an integral part of the music. Intense and powerful. Even re-envisioned his own music over time to make more quality music.

Weaknesses - As with any jazz artist, a lot of meh between the gold. Poor live performer, due to his anger problems probably.
 
I disagree with that. He was a very important part of the band and I disagree with everyone that says he was the weak link. His bass work alone was outstanding. But his work with keyboarRAB, other instruments and arangements was what tied many of their later albums together so perfectly.
 
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