There are points when I am a certain level of drunk where The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite sounds like the best song ever recorded.
6 Likes
And second favourite, Find The River.
4 Likes
Used to think he was saying Calling Jamaica
*Calling Cheryl Baker
2 Likes
One of my car karaoke staples. Used to find it annoying, now one of my favourites. So joyful
1 Like
COLINāS IRREGULAR
3 Likes
Feels a bit out of step with the thread, man.
1 Like
He did the same in my thread too. My reply:
2 Likes
I mean i donāt want to pile on or make the guy feel bad but i think thereās loads of threads for that sort of stuff and this is kind of a celebration of music that thr community really loves and fine if you think itās boring or whatever, just say so but i dunnoā¦
Iām tired and grumpy and it doesnāt matter anyway.
2 Likes
At some point in the summer, Iām going to attempt a night walk along the Norfolk Coast Path, maybe from Kingās Lynn to Wells if I can manage it, or as far as I can before my knees give in 
Anyway, Iāll need to make myself a playlist, and Automatic will be on there in its entirety. Canāt think of anything more blissful than being in the middle of absolute nowhere* with these songs playing.
*FYI thereās a new stretch of the coast path that has no facilities / side roads / access points for eight or nine miles straight, as close to the wilderness as you can get around here.
9 Likes
I love the video to Drive as well, its quite visceral and violent!
2 Likes
R.E.M. - AFTP
Found it quite emotional listening to this for the first time in many years.
Iāll just go 10)10 and leave it at that.
3 Likes
Finished all 33 minutes of Mountain Jam
8 Likes
Try find Adam Scott in it
Said it on here recently, probably in CCBās thread, but there isnāt a better two song end to an album than Nightswimming and Find The River
9 Likes
AFTP: itās weird listening to an album that you know virtually every second of inside-out but probably havenāt listened to in 20 years, save for when one of the Big Singles gets played on the radio or summat. And itās nearly impossible for me to separate the fact that itās clearly, obviously a magnificent, near-perfect album from itās total cultural ubiquity, the over-familiarity and the slight air of (undeserved, unearned) contempt that comes along with that. That goes doubly, triply so for Everybody Hurts.
Nonetheless: it is brilliant.
2 Likes
You did!
1 Like
I think I copped some flak for talking about this on another thread a couple of years ago but the Dolby Atmos/"Spatial audioā mix of Automatic For The People is one of the rare rock mixes that really, truly brings something new to the experience. Listening out loud on a surround-sound setup, the moment when the orchestra comes in on Drive is just astounding - the band is āin frontā of you while the strings are behind you. itās really powerful. what a song (and what an album)
2 Likes
Automatic is wonderful. Most bands get one record this good at best. Nuts that R.E.M. had several.
Obviously the closing run is amazing but I think I find myself going back to Try Not to Breathe the most.
I was born the year it came out so donāt have firsthand memories but itās an album I associate super strongly with my Mum so that helps
3 Likes
Comes a Time
So I donāt think Iāve listened to this one before. There are a couple of other Neil albums that I like that have taken me a while to get into so I wouldnāt rule out this happening with this one too, but I donāt think I like this one much. Finding the vibe of it not quite there for me, and his voice which is one of my favourites of all time in the right context isnāt quite doing it for me on this one and actually annoying me in places ā Look Out For My Love for instance. Could be a thread in that actually, biggest contrast between how much you like an artists voice at different times. Yeah, think this is pretty boring on the whole, sorry Neil 4/10
Tonightās The Night
Iāve definitely tried with this a few times around the time I was trying to get into Neil Young, and from that classic early run this was always the one I bounced off, to the extent I only recognise the title track at a glance. Same again this time, unfortunately. Thereās moments I like, but thereās a hell of a lot there doing nothing for me and his voice is on the cusp of being annoying again. Oh god, maybe I hate Neil Young! 5/10
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
LALALALALALALALAAAAA. Here we fucking go, this is more like it. Itās probably barely scraping into my top 3 of his, and yet I could definitely make an argument for it being his best, would certainly be where Iād advise people start. Love how tight and bouncy the guitars are, and how that really elevates some songs like Cinnamon Girl and the title track. Round and Round shows how good Harvest was going to be, thereās not much I can add to Down By The River except a general oooft 8/10
Harvest
I feel a bit like Partridge āBest of The Beatlesā saying that Harvest is my favourite Neil Young album, but while I can make a case for On The Beach being technically better I canāt deny how this make me feel and that itās my favourite. That opening run from Out on the Weekend to Heart of Gold is astounding, one of the best opening runs ever. The title track is simultaneously so simple and yet so, so, great. The lines
āDid she wake you up to tell you that
It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup
With the promise of a manā
Are incredibly nostalgic and evocative to me in a way that I literally canāt explain. More variation across its 10 tracks than it could first appear given its reputation as his acoustic album, God I love Harvest 9.5/10
Paul Simon Songbook
As others have mentioned, itās interesting hearing some of these that are so engrained in my mind from S&G (and I wouldnāt say Iām an enormous fan or listen to them that often) thatās just how good they are. Thought the rawer/demo form worked really well for some of the songs like I Am a Rock and A Most Peculiar Man, possibly was lacking something for some of the other tracks like April Come She Will and The Sound of Silence. Enjoyed the other songs too, interesting to hear the evolution of his stuff, always kind of forget how early they were knocking around. Not something Iāll return to much, but enjoyed this as part of the project 6.5/10
Eat a Peach
Knew this wasnāt going to be entirely my thing going into it, and had some trepidation about the running time. Donāt love the vocals on Aināt Wasting Time (what an ironic track title given whatās to come on the album!) but liked the vibe otherwise, liked the wig-out of Les Bres. Melissa is pleasant enough I guess, oh god weāre only 2 minutes from Mountain Jamā¦.dāyou know what, this is fun but Iām only 12 minutes in. I made it all the way! In another āI will never listen to that againā I quite enjoyed listening to that while I worked, to the extent the remaining tracks seemed like a bit of an anti-climax. 7/10 for the first 3 tracks, 11/10 for the audacity of Mountain Jam, 3/10 for the rest, 5/10 overall.
Automatic for the People
Got a bit of a kicking for saying I didnāt love this in the other listening club thread, and a re-listen hasnāt really changed that opinion. Four absolutely stunning, beautiful songs at the top and the bottom end of the album, with a mixture or boring and/or annoying and/or overplayed songs in between. REM will always be a band I collect the best songs from albums to listen to rather than an album band for me, I think. 9/10 for the four songs I like, 3/10 for the rest, balances out as 5.5/10
4 Likes