So is good but Melt is my fav
SO has always been a workhorse in the CD changers of many men I have known in my life and I have a fondness for much of it. Iāve not listened to it for a little while and in the intervening years I have heard The Blue Nile, whose debut album dropped 1 month before Gabriel and his great mates starting piecing this one together. Iām not saying he ripped it off but I think some of the vocalisms and more shimmery use of his synth / sequencer arsenal tip their hat to Buchanan et. al.
āSledgehammerā is still the white tennis shoes / high socks jam for the ages, great pontillist guitarring from David Rhodes too. āDonāt Give Upā might have been lightly Partridged but I just love songs that manage to be tender in this way.
I also love how the record is still, at heart, an art-rock/art-pop one, for all of its sheen and world music cred. Laurie Anderson turns up, Tony Levin of King Crimson plays his bloody Chapman Stick, Jim Kerr, not yet a stadium dullard, does some backing vocals. And of course Bill Laswell is here, itās the 80s. This shit sold millions. To get that now you have to consolidate the music all-stars and Jack Antonoff.
I like this record. I respect it. I want major artists to balance this level of artistry and pop forevermore. However, I donāt love it unfailingly - I am not about to buy a convertible because the youngest has finally fled the nest. But a 7 in this day and age is going to beat most in this thread.
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21 was beloved of my sadly departed mum. Well, I say beloved; when Britannia Music Club folded I think it was the only CD she bought after.
I should keep this brief: Adeleās voice is the main obstacle for me. Technique is one of the last things I look for in a vocalist, so her one strength doesnāt help. Itās a foghorn that alternates between two tricks; the top of the mountain bellow and a lower and slightly wolf-ish āoooohhhā.
Much of this is couched in music that suggests old forms of music such as gospel, R&B, MOR - but as if the non-vocal aspects were still in a plastic seal. Whenever something that isnāt Adeleās voice threatens to establish a theme or personality then BAMMO - Adele sings extra hard to squash it.
There are moments that threaten to be interesting - the bridge in āSet Fire to the Rainā where she changes up the vocal rhythm - but itās always a bait and switch to sing the eternal Bond theme in her head in the chorus at the top of a cliff in a hailstorm.
Admittedly itās going to be hard getting a fair shake if youāre covering the Cure, but turning it into one of those Nouvelle Vague cafe music bullshit things - itās double vampirism.
Always found it mad that Paul Epworth, who helped Futureheads establish a personality-filled guitar sound that made them sound a world from their contemporaries, was so quickly in Landfill Music, ASDA music, shortcut music. Not good. 2
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Peter Gabriel - So still has some kind of hidden power over me. I remember we had a VHS with a bunch of his videos on when I was a kid, Sledgehammer, Red Rain, Mercy Street, Donāt Give Up (and Shock The Monkey). I used to watch and listen to that enthralled. My dad passed away when I was 5 and I think some of these tunes really spoke to me on a deep level but I found them very scary, Mercy Street especially. It took me many years to get around to listen to the album after that, I still feel a bit of fear and panic a little bit when I hear some of those tracks calling me back to different life and locked away memories. Super powerful stuff. I think itās a great album in itās own right though.
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BeyoncƩ is so fucking good. Absolutely at the peak of her powers all the way through. 9/10
21 is fine really. Itās not an album Iād ever put on out of choice but Iāve always liked her voice and thought she should maybe do something more interesting with it (see also: George Ezra). Just because a lot of people like something doesnāt make it automatically bad. Someone Like You is a genuinely great song and the fact it was co-written by the same lad that wrote Closing Time and Secret Smile makes it even better. 6/10
Iām sorry CCB I love you but there is absolutely no way youāre getting me to listen to a Peter Gabriel record in the year 2024.
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Maybe next year?
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Depends, what supermarket would you say the music relates to most?
Iāll have it playing at all three of the supermarket triangle, like Zaireeka
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Not going to do a long Beyonce - S/T review but it was interesting to hear part of it after the large wet patch that was the Adele record. There was a whole conversation in the other thread about Kraftwerk and the ways music dates; Beyonceās record here sounds like the music from 2011-2014, that big cinematic drum with clap snare. Thatās not a problem - most artists should push for a true ānowā than a false timelessness.
I guess my main āissueā is I find constant self-aggrandising lyrics hard to take and if pressed would say theyāre often the enemy of good art. To be fair there is some complicating where the compliments-to-self are wrapped up in uglier emotions ie. āJealousā and āMineā - but thereās less of this reflexivity than Iād like. Lines like the āpink skittleā bit in āBlowā is like āalright love yeah you mean your clit, very daringā, I just find a lot of this stropping about embarrassing, ultimately?
Itās fine though. I canāt imagine Beyonce will ever make a record I truly hate because thereās a lot of effort and attention paid to the musicality of the work, but I canāt see her making one I really like either because the cult of celebrity and whiff of cringe I get from her. 5
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Sorry, Iāve entirely neglected this thread. Partly because I lost enthusiasm but partly because Iāve had too much on at work and havenāt had much capacity for anything else.
So:
BeyoncĆ© - I thought this was more impressive than enjoyable from first listen, if that makes sense. Thereās a lot going on across the album, felt more like a mixtape than an album. But sheās an exceptionally talented woman and can pull in a wide range of guests. Glad I listened to it.
Adele - 21 - this is actually a lot more enjoyable than I was expecting. Maybe itās because Iām sat here recovering from a virus, and my guardās down, but itās a pleasant enough listen, itās less of a drag than I was expecting. Reminds me of the radio-friendly, mum-friendly staples that I grew up on. There are occasions where she goes into overdrive and itās a bit unpleasant, but she has a great voice. Whilst itās not the thing I look for in music, I think itās sometimes nice to appreciate someone whoās classically very good.
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Thereās also a bit of Someone Like You that feels like itās lifted from 90s radio staple āStay (I Missed You)ā by Lisa Loeb. Never a bad thing.
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And now Iām onto Peter Gabriel - So. Iām surprised Iāve never heard this album all the way through given how many copies it sold, and how many dadsā car stereos it must have occupied. And also given the similarities to Graceland which was released the same year I believe.
I enjoyed it more than I thought - good melodies and a nostalgic sheen.
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Looking forward to her collaboration with John Virgo
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Letās do another one, then!
ERYKAH BADU - BADUIZM
CoS mini-review
The title of Erykah Baduās impeccable debut album sounds as though sheās trying to start a movement. And in a way, she was. Speaking to MTV News, Badu specified that āBaduizm was designed to get you high.ā Not a passing, artificial buzz, but an all-encompassing journey of mind and self that we likely could never begin to imagine, and ānot a religionā¦an experience.ā
That might seem rather hyperbolic for a collection of songs from an artist who was just releasing her first album. But Badu doesnāt promise paradise or divine truth, just āan experience.ā And Baduizm is an intoxicating one. One of, if not the most, revered albums in the neo-soul subgenre, itās undeniably indicative of its era while still feeling fresh. From the shivering rattle of Questloveās drums on the melodramatic āOther Side of the Gameā to the strutting bass on the defiant āCertainly,ā the sounds and Badu support each other beautifully.
Support is also offered to the listener. Badu is too good of a writer to spoon-feed her message; her struggles and how she relates them are so very understandable without falling into empty, generic platitudes. Not all the feelings are sorted out by the end of it, but Baduizm makes the case that the journey to answers to lifeās biggest questions is just as important as the answers themselves.
This reminds me of hanging out with one of my best friends from uni, and her friends from South-West Wales. Havenāt listened for ages - looking forward to revisiting
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I know a lot of people prefer Mamaās Gun, but this is her best IMO.
Which one did we do for the other thread? That was dead good.
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That was Mamaās Gun
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An hour long?!?
Letās play āgreatest album bingoā and see if anyone mentions the CD bloat of the 90s
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Neo soul album from the 90ās, they always have long-ish instrumental sections in most songs.