After the 100th thread (which will be a week on Wednesday I think) Iām going to ask people to submit their top 20 from the list in order so 20pts for your favourite, 19 for your second down to 1pt, then Iāll do a thread with the results and weāll see if we really are all rabid Aretha fans.
Itās a 5 from me. ā¦& Nico and the self titled album are two of my most played records ever since I first heard them aged about 15. Imagine they were utterly thrilling if you were that age when they first emerged. Pale Blue Eyes is the most perfect, bittersweet love song of all time and itās probably in my top 5 out of all the songs.
Always assumed they were over-revered arty wank. Then got hold of the self-titled after hearing pale blue eyes in Adventureland I think and the run of the first 7 songs on that is the strongest of any album I own, I reckon. Finishing on āIām set freeā - what a song. The rest of their albums have unbelievable songs too but that first foray will forever mean that the self-titled is my personal favourite.
None of their albums are perfect, but every moment of music they recorded (leaving aside Squeeze, which is an irrelevance) is challenging, fascinating and important. They are definitely amongst the five or six most influential bands in musical history and it is impossible to imagine alternative music without them.
Listening to their music now what is striking - along with how well it holds up - is the breadth of what they did. When you think of them you tend to think of the more extreme, experimental elements, but in fact their albums contain elements of almost every aspect of rock music. They did drone and noise and feedback, but also limpid, beautiful pop music, delicately moving ballads, straight-up stomping rock music and weird spoken word art pieces. Not everything they did worked but that is because they tried so much. They were never, ever boring.
like with the pixies listened to them so much as a teenager that I havenāt really felt the need to go back since
one of the best rock bands ever tho. was never that fussed by Loaded but all of the first 3 records have been my favourite at one point
God they look like fucking pricks there donāt they, oooh cool sunglasses bro! Responsible for the toxic notion of cult bands being cool as well. Still canāt deny they had some good tunes so itās a begrudging 3/5
