Just for kicks and curiosity
For Idlewild I’d probably go with “Every Little Means Trust” from their newest album. It’s just really bland and saccharine where most of their work, even at its most sentimental, is so clever and self-aware. For Suede you could take any of a number of songs from Head Music or A New Morning, but I think “Savoir Faire” pretty much gathers up all of the criticisms people have of Suede and combine them into one song.
What do you all think?
This is tricky. I like practically all the songs by my favourite artists. Maybe…
I’m another big Idlewild fan - for some reason I could never get on with ‘I Never Wanted’ on The Remote Part. They’ve probably written a couple of songs worse than that, but for me it probably just stands out on an otherwise really good album.
Not really my favourite band anymore but this is going to get a mention in this thread sooner or later:
Haha yeah, I Never Wanted definitely stands out. It doesn’t really go anywhere and has no punch to it. For me it sounds genuine enough to put ahead of some of the Idlewild-by-numbers stuff from their later albums, but compared to their excellent first three albums (and Captain), it feels lacking
Not really sure what my favourite band is these days but for the purpose of this thread let’s say it’s Brand New.
Don’t know if it’s fair as their first album was written when they were essentially children, but Last Chance to Lose Your Keys has so much cringe packed into a few short minutes
Six Days by DJ Shadow winds me up. Lovely-sounding tune, but sampling an entire vocal track was a bit much. It made it more of a remix than an original Shadow tune, if you see what I mean.
Vocals draw attention more than any other sound, and this makes Six Days all about one sample in particular, rather than the whole vibe or whatever.
The song itself is a bit on-the-nose too.
That said, the remix is hot fire. The sampled song is cut with new vocals from Mos Def, and it’s on the Walkie Talkie beat, which is great.
This track is amazing as it eschews the typical nihilism of Elliott’s lyrics and makes IPA really poignant closer to the album, especially when paired with the ever so slightly cheesy melody. Sung by anyone else and I would agree. God I haven’t listening to his stuf pf much for ages but I’m starting to miss him again. What a talent!
The Dismemberment Plan - Waiting
It was the teaser track for their comeback album too. I cannot express how crushingly disappointing it was right from the start. Travis has always harboured a bit of a Ben Folds-ish cutesy smutesy side, but in the past the rest of the band never let it surface much. Then they went and made a song which gathered it all up in a little sack and rubbed it in your face. At least the album felt relatively ok compared to this shit heap. Makes me sick.
Future Of The Left - Cosmo’s Ladder
I think this track is the main reason people were so apathetic towards The Plot Against Common Sense. The synth sounds throughout the entire album are grating, but that’s put to good effect with songs like Failed Olympic Bid or Polymers Are Forever (just about) but after a strong three openers, this one was just cringey. Was toying between this and A Guide To Men, but I actually think AGTM has a decent song in there at its core, whereas this one just makes me want to stop the album and listen to something else instead.
i’ve always liked the chorus and guitar riff on Cosmo’s Ladder but otherwise it’s a bit annoying and a perfect example of how grating the synth could be on that album, like you say. always thought this was the weakest song on the record though:
not sure what the worst Fall song is. this is just an extended fart from a band otherwise at their peak:
but i’m sure there’s some embarrassingly lame stuff in the catalogue too that i’m forgetting about. this one nearly qualifies but its levels of shitness are actually pretty funny:
Ugh! My eyes! My ears! That was horrible. I’ve only ever heard it before but that video…
Massage Parlour is awful.
(Ain’t No Pleasingly You is brilliant.)
Anyone else seen them live? Great fun.
Not sure I have a favourite band however out of the main candidates, Fugazi and Unwound pretty much never put a foot wrong bar earlier stuff still being a bit derivative because they hadn’t fully found their sound yet… so maybe Fucked Up, they have a couple stinkers out there like Black Albino Bones or something
