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August Album of the Month
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Albums of the Month Blues
Aug 04, 2003, 11:55
I haven’t checked the Unsung forums much in the last couple of years due to losing interest; I love mostly music with a raw edge, be it ultra-famous (eg Black Sabbath or Robert Wyatt) or not so famous (eg GAM 76 – one of the best albums ever). Although all the AOTMs are different, they are connected in their epic intent to freak the One with the Roman Attitude and to be used as tools on a Personal Search. Most of these albums will not do the trick while you are doing the washing up, they need careful Inner Exploration, and the Reviews do indeed lead you near there. Some of those albums will not work until one day you wake up and find out that they do.

Though I consider early Van Halen (1978-80) full of crass stupid choruses (and I think this is made quite clear in the review), there is something in the energy and intricacies of the music that does appeal to me and far outweighs the ridiculous-ness (more than, say, early Kiss (1974-77) who have the crap choruses/lyrics AND often lack the edge in the music). Still, if Van Halen had used his ideas to make more radical music the world would have been a much happier place. An album-load of Eruption would be the perfect companion to LAMF. Another example is the powerful way Unchained begins in and then evolves until it reaches the silly chorus. But once you get over this, it’s fun.

I have always been disappointed that no-one pays much attention to the AOTMs (or rest of reviews for that matter). Only those famous albums that people know will be either praised or slagged off (often without hearing the album in question!!!) and I am sad that people are just not interested in the Exploring of the Rest. Too much hard work? To me, this work is part of the fun. Then again, there will always be a plank who will say I am a snob for wanting to explore what they do not know or have never bothered to explore. Oh, and Montrose in the past produced a similar kind of reaction as Van Halen. In the same way, one cannot deny the saw-guitar works in a similar way. Mind you, if VH’s 1984 had been reviewed we should have started to get worried.

Criticising the AOTMs is perfectly fine by me BUT ONLY as long as it’s based on a proper argument or AFTER hearing the album in question; I gather that criticism in most cases is based on personal appreciation *without* hearing the album first. What I’ve seen lately, also, is too much of a bad attitude which, here I agree with a23, was not part of HH in the past (it rather belongs to forums for inane artists like, say, the Paul Weller or the Beck website). Wake up people. This place has always been different. Newcomers have always praised the good attitude of its people in opposition to the rest of the web which is full of lazy sexual expletives. This said, I will sod off.
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