[Particle Person]

And now it's time for a special Saddam review:

Arcade Fire - Reflektor: This was weird, but good.  I didn't really pay attention to the lyrics, because I had a feeling that whatever they were singing about would just go over my head, but I liked their voices, and the music too.  I preferred the more upbeat songs like "Flashbulb Eyes," and "Normal Person" - the slower ones weren't bad or anything, but I guess they're just not my thing.  Anyway, there we go, yay for Canadian indie rock.

Now it's time for Tommy, Snupes.  DON'T TRY TO AVOID IT.

Are we in the Sadam's Must-Listen-To List (Recommend me albums!) thread?

[Saddam Hussein]

Snupes and I had a special arrangement.  I'm going to be vague because it makes me seem more mysterious and important than I really am.

[Tintagel]

Snupes:  Echoing our earlier IRC convo, I heartily recommend Peter Gabriel 3 (melt).  I also highly recommend Peter Gabriel 2 (scracth), and they're both rather short so if you have time for both, do both.  Melt is my favorite, though.

Fun fact:  Peter Gabriel was the original front man for Genesis, and when he left the band to pursue a solo career.  Former Genesis bandmate Phil Collins plays drums on several tracks on Peter Gabriel 3 - an album which uses no cymbals, and no hi-hats.  On the Gabriel song "Intruder" (track one on Peter Gabriel 3), he played some of the drum track with the engineer's "reverse talkback" mic activated, and the result was so striking that they kept it, and Collins repeated the effect for the distinctive drum groove of "In the Air Tonight" during his own solo career.

Arguably the darkest of all Gabriel's albums, it also contains two of my all time favorite PG songs.  "Games Without Frontiers," and "Biko."

Full album on youtube, but I'm sure you can find a higher quality one:

And as a bonus, a simply phenomenal rendition of "Biko" from 2011. 

[Saddam Hussein]

snupes

review albums

[Snupes]

Gonna try to get to reviewing some things tonight, but it's my birthday so I'm getting a few things I wanna hear outta the way first


Avicii - True: As someone who doesn’t like Avicii much because he’s a generic dance DJ, this was…a surprisingly good album. It took dance into a bunch of weird directions, fusing it with folk, jazz, swing, downtempo melodies and generally just messing around with it. Some of these resulted in really boring songs, and most were, for the most part, just “pretty good”, but there were a few outstanding tracks. Namely the jazz-swing-house fusion “Shame on Me”, and the more downtempo, gorgeously haunting “Hope There’s Someone”. I was pleasantly surprised by this album.

[Saddam Hussein]

SNOOPS!

[Snupes]

I know, I know. :[ I am a working girl now, I have so little time to do things. I worked 12 hours today and my everything is sore. ;o; But I promise the next album I listen to will be Tommy.

[Saddam Hussein]

I am a working girl now

That's interesting.  I never would have thought it of you.

[Crudblud]

I know, I know. :[ I am a working girl now, I have so little time to do things. I worked 12 hours today and my everything is sore. ;o; But I promise the next album I listen to will be Tommy Urgynes.

I approve. And I sympathise, work ruins everything.

[Roundy]

RIP this thread. 

[Ghost of V]

I see you've listened to MBV's Loveless.
That's a great album. You should also try My Bloody Valentine's "Isn't Anything", Lush's "Spooky" or "Split", Swervedriver's "Raise", and Cocteau Twins' "Heaven or Las Vegas". All these albums are similar to MBV's Loveless, each being influenced by that album or vice versa.

Also, every album by The Smiths is a must listen, imo.

I could name several other great albums, but I don't want to overwhelm. If you're interested let me know.

I used to do a similar thing, reviewing albums and whatnot. A lot of that can be found here: http://flyingairplane.blogspot.com
Along with links to download all the music I reviewed.

Oh, and also, here's my Last.fm if you want to add me: http://www.last.fm/user/v_for_violence

Fun fact:  Peter Gabriel was the original front man for Genesis, and when he left the band to pursue a solo career.  Former Genesis bandmate Phil Collins plays drums on several tracks on Peter Gabriel 3 - an album which uses no cymbals, and no hi-hats.  On the Gabriel song "Intruder" (track one on Peter Gabriel 3), he played some of the drum track with the engineer's "reverse talkback" mic activated, and the result was so striking that they kept it, and Collins repeated the effect for the distinctive drum groove of "In the Air Tonight" during his own solo career.

I, too, love Peter Gabriel. Also, Peter Gabriel-Era Genesis is the only Genesis worth listening to, imo.

My favorite PG-Era Genesis song is "The Musical Box". Such an intricate and beautiful song.

[Roundy]

Genesis was too arty when Peter Gabriel was with them.  Him splitting from the group ended up being a great thing for both of them.

[Ghost of V]

Genesis was too arty when Peter Gabriel was with them.  Him splitting from the group ended up being a great thing for both of them.

I agree with you completely. But when it comes to personal preference, there's no debate.

Great or not, I'm still not a fan of Phil Collins and what he turned Genesis into after Peter Gabriel left. Sure, it got them more fans, but popularity isn't everything.

[Saddam Hussein]

Collins's voice grates on me.  He's a fine drummer, but an annoying singer.

[Roundy]

Genesis was too arty when Peter Gabriel was with them.  Him splitting from the group ended up being a great thing for both of them.

I agree with you completely. But when it comes to personal preference, there's no debate.

Great or not, I'm still not a fan of Phil Collins and what he turned Genesis into after Peter Gabriel left. Sure, it got them more fans, but popularity isn't everything.

I do understand.  They became typical 80s pop (maybe the prototypical 80s pop group, in fact) with Phil Collins up front.  It was generally good pop in my opinion.  But it wasn't close to what their original fans would have identified with.

My own opinion is that they sounded pretentious with Peter Gabriel fronting them.  Like they were screaming "Look at this great art we're making!"  And of course no solo Peter Gabriel would mean no "Solsbury Hill", no "Biko", no "Red Rain"... I wouldn't want to live in such a world.

[Ghost of V]

Genesis was too arty when Peter Gabriel was with them.  Him splitting from the group ended up being a great thing for both of them.

I agree with you completely. But when it comes to personal preference, there's no debate.

Great or not, I'm still not a fan of Phil Collins and what he turned Genesis into after Peter Gabriel left. Sure, it got them more fans, but popularity isn't everything.

I do understand.  They became typical 80s pop (maybe the prototypical 80s pop group, in fact) with Phil Collins up front.  It was generally good pop in my opinion.  But it wasn't close to what their original fans would have identified with.

My own opinion is that they sounded pretentious with Peter Gabriel fronting them.  Like they were screaming "Look at this great art we're making!"  And of course no solo Peter Gabriel would mean no "Solsbury Hill", no "Biko", no "Red Rain"... I wouldn't want to live in such a world.

I can see how Peter Gabriel-Era Genesis could be perceived as pretentious. You're obviously trying to make a statement when you shave the middle of your head and make a reverse mohawk... if that's not pretentious then I don't know what is.

I will admit that I like "That's All", and some of the other poppy Genesis songs... but nothing compares to "Supper's Ready" or, like I mentioned previously, "The Musical Box"... with or without the shaved head. 

Can we at least agree that solo Peter Gabriel is leagues ahead of solo Phil Collins? I mean... "Easy Lover"... c'mon...

[Roundy]

Can we at least agree that solo Peter Gabriel is leagues ahead of solo Phil Collins? I mean... "Easy Lover"... c'mon...

Oh yeah, there's no contest.

[Saddam Hussein]

Snupes, post some reviews.  Save us from all this boring pontificating!

[Snupes]

But...ah what the hell, I'll listen to Tommy right now.

[Snupes]

Since I listened to Gee, I Like Your Pancreas forever ago and forgot to put a review of it here, here's one, along with Tommy


Frank Zappa & "Weird Al" Yankovic - Gee, I Like Your Pancreas: Sadly I lost the file where I had my thoughts for each song written down, so I'll write down what I remember, but I liked this. I liked pretty much all the Weird Al songs since I used to be an Al fanatic, and the Frank Zappa songs I liked most were "Dumb All Over", "Big Swifty" and "T'Mershi Duween". I was pleasantly surprised to find some Touhou in there, specifically "The Centennial Festival for Magical Girls" and I liked that one a lot. I thought some of the transitions (my favourite was "Heavy Duty Judy" to "Melanie", though "Broken Hearts Are for Assholes" to "Trigger Happy" was great too) were fantastic, though a few fell short and I don't remember which...but yeah. It was good and you should listen

The Who - Tommy: So…sadly I didn’t really like this. I didn’t think many of the songs were all that special, I’m not terribly fond of the lyrics for the most part and I dunno, it was all just kinda forgettable. :[ For such a bizarre story, I wish they’d been a little more interesting with the music. If all of it got as aurally interesting “Tommy’s Holiday Camp”, it would’ve been a lot more thrilling a listen. My favourites were “Eyesight to the Blind (The Hawker)”, “Cousin Kevin”, “Pinball Wizard” and “Underture”, the first and last being the best of the bunch. So yeah, it was kind of a letdown, I’m sad to say. :[ There were moments of shining in the middle of some songs, but I’m not really a fan of most of the singing style, most of the lyrics and much of the music. It’s just a bit too plain. But maybe I’m crazy or too tired, but yeah. But but but