Music Thread: Page 80 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Music Thread

RocktheCasbah

Daz wrote:
There are bands that get better (or stay at a relatively high level) but they tend not to be the ones who get massive with their first album.

Arctic Monkeys?

I know not everyone would agree with this, but their first album was huge and I think Humbug and AM are excellent pieces of work.

Suck It And See less so.

Daz

Yep fair call. They were actually one band I was thinking of as a bit of an exception. Though they probably aren't as big here in Australia, they have maintained a pretty high level since their first album.

Kel Varnsen

Not bands, but Kanye West and Bruce Springsteen are very consistent.

Daz

Well Kanye is consistently shit, but I'm not sure about Springsteen. Obviously this starts to get pretty subjective depending on whether you focus on commercial or critical success, or a bit of both. Musical tastes obviously play a big part too.

Kel Varnsen

Kanye is bat shit crazy, but a very talented guy. I like all his albums.

Springsteen is just a phenomenon. 18 albums and I like them all:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/bruce-springsteen/10862988/Bruce-Springsteens-albums-ranked-from-worst-to-best.html

If we go back a bit, you could include the Beatles and Rolling Stones as well on that list. Safe, but obvious choices.

RocktheCasbah

I love a bit of Bruce.

Burnwinter

The Stones, at their best, are probably the best of all the aforementioned acts.

Jens

Consistency isn't everything. Bob Dylan was everything but consistent with his albums, yet he is the greatest songwriter of all time.

For consistency is hard to look past The Beatles. Obviously helped by their short career. The Stones I would not call very consistent. AC/DC are consistently balancing between mediocre and decent.

Burnwinter

Art-pop bands like the Beatles, Blur or even the Arctic Monkeys tend to be more consistent, I think.

I'd suggest it's because wry social observation and genre-hopping are more easily reproduced than the raw affect and aggression of straight up rock bands.

Qwiss

Blurs first album is shit though so Dazs point stands.

I'll add Bowie to your main point on genre hopping art rockers though.

As for the Stones their 80s stuff is more miss than hit.

RocktheCasbah

Burnwinter™ wrote:
Art-pop bands like the Beatles, Blur or even the Arctic Monkeys tend to be more consistent, I think.

I'd suggest it's because wry social observation and genre-hopping are more easily reproduced than the raw affect and aggression of straight up rock bands.

Yes, the progression of The Clash from 78-82 would certainly support that argument.

Jens

Armor

The best bands tend to improve with time and hit their peak around album 3 or 4 in my opinion. Well at least my favorite bands do anyway.

Here's one such band that i've been listening a lot to lately, probably inspired by a certain Arsenal player.

Burnwinter

Leisure's really good Qs, don't you like shoegaze? Singles are good too. There's a lot of paint by numbers stuff in the whole MLIR / Parklife / Great Escape sequence.

Rex

Found this vid about Christian double standards absolutely hilarious. 🙂

RocktheCasbah

Burnwinter™ wrote:
Leisure's really good Qs, don't you like shoegaze? Singles are good too. There's a lot of paint by numbers stuff in the whole MLIR / Parklife / Great Escape sequence.

That's a joke, right?

Burnwinter

Not at all.

I like all of those albums, grew up listening to them all ad nauseam. But there's no doubt Leisure's good, Leisure's shoegazey, it has two good singles in "There's No Other Way" and "Bang", and there's filler on all three of the albums that followed.

RocktheCasbah

Apart from Sing, I can't do Leisure at all. There's No Other Way I used to like, it annoys me now. Maybe She's So High is okay.

Filler on MLIR and Parklife? Not sure I totally agree with that, although I could have lived without Turn It On and Far Out respectively.

Burnwinter

There's No Other Way is one of Blur's best tracks, but it's not really a characteristic track for the album. Fantastic song though. I really liked the more direct mode of Damon's lyrics back then—similar stuff on Popscene but then after that he got a fair bit more elliptical.

The album's bathetic crescendoing anthems like Come Together are great.

Modern Life is pretty damn solid, true. I hadn't listened to it in a while. Parklife and TGE both have a slew of three star tracks in amongst the great stuff.

Qwiss

I wouldn't call Leisure a shoegaze album. More a poor baggy/"madchester" (I really hate that term). I suppose it has elements of both. Either way its not a good record. And yeah all Blurs albums have heaps of filler on them.

« Previous Page Next Page »