No love for “Bound 2”?
Best music video in recent times: Kanye West - Bound 2 (Explicit) - YouTube
Ah, the one where her hair is blowing the wrong way. Classic dumbness.
Holy crap; this is what is considered “great modern pop music” nowadays? :eek: Is the shitty production some sort of meta-commentary or something?
No. It’s not. Almost no one actually likes Yeezus.
I want to believe you, but it’s rated 4.5/5 on AMG by the site and 4/5 by 1,790 users. The AMG review includes
One of the two user reviews says
:eek:
You gotta be shittin’ me.
ETA: Mahaloth, have you heard Minutemen’s Double Nickels On The Dime yet? One of the 10 best rock albums of all time IMO.
I’ll cosign Double Nickels.
Yeezus has a dedicated fan base that love it hard, and it got some critical love but mainstream hip hop typically views it as a miss. Kanye is doing an industrial/rap fusion that is not actually trend setting as much as it is trend following in the wake of the popularity (relative) of groups like Death Grips.
The people who love it typically love it for the story of the album (the story being that Kanye spends so much time focusing on being a rock star because in reality his life is empty and he’s sad and lonely, then he meets Kim who saves his life. The Life of Pablo’s is more or less the same but done better IMO). I like a couple of tracks. I think Black Skinhead bangs. But generally I don’t like it and while opinion is changing a little the over riding opinion is that it’s not very good.
Saying almost no one likes it was extreme. Let’s call it the album that divides opinion most. Decidedly not mainstream.
Some albums I’ve heard recently and my thoughts on them.
Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch
Die everyone know NIN had an album this year? Skip it. It’s a bore and a waste. Not a single good track in my opinion. A creative failure from Trent Reznor. Here, watch Trent Reznor sing NIN’s last great song on Twin Peaks*
*That sentence sounds so 90’s, but is actually a 2017 thing.
Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials
Wow, what a great album. I’m quite behind on this one, it apparently came out in 2011, but I just heard it for the first time recently. I’m not sure how good a band F+M is, but this album was a great surprise for me. I recommend it.
Only If For A Night is a pretty good track if you are curious.
I’ve added the following to my phone for listening soon.
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
Is there an AC/DC or Rush album you would all recommend? I know nothing of AC/DC or Rush and am interested.
Note: I had to stop with Kanye for awhile. I think too much at once was wearing me down.
AC/DC you HAVE to do two, because Bon Scott died and you should listen to one with and one without him. One needs to be Back in Black, but not until you have listened to a Bon Scott album first. Probably Highway to Hell. Maybe Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Listen to one of those first, then follow it up with Back in Black which is an amazing album, but no Bon Scott and you need to hear Bon Scott to get Back in Black which is essentially a tribute to him.
I’m REALLY curious to hear what you think of Minutemen. It’s so very different from what you seem to like, its super minimalist. You may also like Violent Femmes by the Violent Femmes for a more poppy version of this kind of striped down post punk. Similarly Wire “Pink Flag” would be good.
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
I actually remember Oasis, especially when Wonderwall was everywhere. I had gotten into music some at that point and I kept hearing about the “next gen” Beatles.
Yeah, they have a couple good songs. I know that the one brother is a massive alcoholic(did he ever quit drinking?) and huge jerk.
Definitely Maybe was…well definitely OK. I’m just not a huge Oasis fan, to be honest. I know they’re famous, but I just missed the boat and don’t see much for me here.
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
I need more time with this one, but I am not a fan initially. It’s…not what I expected and I didn’t even have huge expectations. Nor do I know what I expected. I’m not sure this is a good one for people like me and does this qualify as an album a lot of people are familiar with? I know it was top 500 for Rolling Stone, but I wonder how famous it is.
I think for Oasis What’s the story Morning glory is a better album. It has Champagne Supernova and Don’t Look Back in Anger which are easily their two best songs.
For Minutemen, so, you know how in the metal thread Snowboarder Bo told me not to listen to Canibal Corpse right yet because I wasn’t ready. I suspect this is the same. Double Nickles on the Dime is a massively important album and hugely influential. Essentially the entire grunge movement can be traced directly to this album. Specifically it can be traced to a single line in a single track, though that minimizes, unfairly, the influence of the rest of the album. But “our band could be your life” is a phrase that lit a slow fuse which finally exploded when Nirvana released Nevermind. It is impossible to overstate how much this album changed everything.
Also, and a lot of people don’t get this on their first listen because it’s very dry, this IS supposed to be funny. But it’s funny in a very dense and referencing way that may not make any sense without context.
To that end, it’s not the type of album you get in a single listen or even after several. But give it a few listens and you will find that the bouncing lines or “word war” echo in your head late at night, or lines from " A Political Song For Michael Jackson to Sing" start working their way into yore everyday conversations. (the line about guitar solos, followed by a guitar solo?! Come on! Also, it may make you rethink your position on guitar solos.)
So, good homework if you are interested in “getting” it (and you might not be). These are also all huge massive albums, but not always immediately popular. But albums most people will know.
In order they should be listened to
The Stooges - Raw Power
The Ramones - honestly pick a greatest hits. Rocket to Russia if you insist on an album.
The Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks
Wire- pink flag
Contemporaries playing with those same ideas.
Violent Femmes - The Violent Femmes
REM - Murmer.
Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II
The Decedent’s - Milo Goes to College.
Black Flag - Damaged (not my personal favorite but probably the one that makes since for this)
Mission of Burma - VS.
People who the directly influenced by this album
The Pixies - Doolitle
Jane’s Addiction - Nothings Shocking
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mothers Milk for this though Blood Sugar Sex Magik makes more sense for your project.
Pearl Jam - 10
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Nirvana - Nevermind
Fugazi - Repeater
Dinosaur Jr. - you are living all over me.
I believe you have heard some of those band that were direct descendants of Double Nickles on the Dime but I’m not sure. If you have but not in a while, go back and listen again now.
Secondary descendants are literally ever band to be called Indie rock ever include and especially The White Stripes who would not have existed without bands like Minutemen to blaze the trail. Again, not an exaggeration even a little. Without that band (and Black Flag, Mission of Burma, Husker Du and Big Black… Maybe the Butthole Surfers) indie rock as a subgenre of music would not exist.
Also know that popular music at the time was this.
So. Not your thing, that’s OK. It’s very likely not for you. But that’s why it was suggested.
Whoops, the song I referred to as “Word War” is properly titled “Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth.”
I rarely look at the track names.
Also, you could make the argument that more than just Fugazi they were a primary influence on Minor Threat too, which means that they were a generation removed in influence on mid to late 80s hardcore and, by extension, Grindcore and most extreme metal.
You could make that argument. It would be a little bit of a stretch, but just a little one.
BUMP BUMP BUMP BUMP
Hey, I’m back and am thinking of an artist I have not heard much of at all.
David Bowie
The only album recommended in this thread was Ziggy Stardust in post #38 by @Leaffan .
Is that a good place to start with him? Or is there a best-of album that would be a good place to start?
I actually had one album of his. “Outside” from around 1995. I don’t remember much about it, to be honest, though.
Thoughts on where to start with David Bowie?
Online? No!
Go out and buy the LP, just for the newspaper (it folds out, big ‘n’ cool). Then read it, very whimsical and entertaining (I’ve seen those pretty cheap in used record stores, if you’re buying it for the cover and so can live with some scratches and surface noise).
And the Disraeli Gears LP is printed with fluorescent inks. Trippy! But the CD (with basic CMYK inks) is blah compared to the original vinyl. Oh, pick up Cream’s next album, Wheels of Fire for the silver foil cover… and more fluorescent inks inside.
I don’t care if you have a turntable or not. Both of those albums are fine art.
I think Station to Station and Ziggy where my two favorite albums by Bowie.
I think Ziggy is a good place to start. All the albums right around there are pretty solid, but Ziggy is probably the best starting point. I’m a big fan of Bowie and other glam rock of the period: T Rex, Mott the Hoople, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, etc.
I’m astonished that unless my “find” function is faulty, nobody’s mentioned the Kinks yet. the albums Something Else and The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society are the two most essential, I’d say. I’m a big fan of Best-of/Greatst Hits if you’re unfamiliar with a certain artist. The Kinks had so many classic singles that you can’t go wrong with a compilation; even a K-Tal level one is chock full o’ greatness.
Similarly, the Smiths, IMHO, were always a much stronger singles band than an album one, and the discs I’ll play more often of theirs are the compilations like Hatful of Hollow or Louder Than Bombs, which have a lot more variety than the albums (Meat is Murder bores the hell out of me by and large).
And there are some artists who are challenging to say the least, and I’ll fully admit aren’t for everyone. I’m a huge Frank Zappa fan, and have everything he released while he was still alive and then some, but there’s plenty in his discography I would never recommend to a neophyte. All you need is for someone’s first Zappa record to be Thing-Fish and you’ve lost a potential fan for good. That said, Hot Rats is probably his most accessible record, which isn’t to say it’s not a fantastic listen and a perfect jumping-on point. Similarly the one-two punch of Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo could easily make you a convert.
I find it funny that, in a thread titled “albums everybody has already heard”, that posters must post examples of bands that no one has heard. There’s always someone that has to show their music cred by posting the most obscure bands.
Kick - INXS
