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Unsung Forum » Dubious selections for Unsung albums... |
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Fitter Stoke 2614 posts |
Feb 13, 2011, 11:43
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I don't really have a problem with dudes posting reviews on 'Unsung' for albums which are otherwise "sung" in commercial, critical - or both - terms. I'm often moved by the love and enthusiasm which pours from the keypads of what are, let's not forget, real music fans inspired not by print-run deadlines or record company freebies. As I've recently pointed out elsewhere in these pages, I get more from a week's worth of 'Unsung' and its attendant forum than a year's worth of the so-called professional music press, much of which really annoys me with both its obsession with fad and fashion and its often vicious negativity. For my own part, I've posted reviews on 'Unsung' for records like Zeppelin's 'Presence', Tull's 'Benefit' and 'This Was', all of which sold bundles but which have never received anything like their critical due. That makes them suitably unsung in my book. Conversely, 'Forever Changes' might well be ever-present in those irritating "albums you must hear before you die" critical lists but commercially remains something of a cult LP. So if someone wants to string together a few lines saying why it means so much to them, where's the harm? I'd far sooner read a real music fan's individual take on a record, whether lauded or slagged, famous or obscure, than much of the inaccurate and cliche-ridden kack I've just been charged £5 for the privilege of reading. And I find I often get to listen to records in a different light after reading a fellow enthusiast's personal take on them, your own excellent review of 'Empires and Dance' for example. Yes, 'Unsung' is at its most effective when its reviews highlight the truly obscure corners of the wonderful world of rock and roll. But let's not get too prescriptive about it, and let's instead relish, and be enlightened by, the totally individual opinions and tastes of what I truly believe to be the most thought-provoking and discerning music lovers anywhere. And all for free.
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IanB 6761 posts |
Edited Feb 13, 2011, 11:51
Feb 13, 2011, 11:50
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machineryelf wrote: Stock Aitken & Waterman started off producing albums with Youth IIRC, that would make a good unsung article, sorting out the SAW gems from the chaff Absolutely, I have a load of songs culled in ones and two from my kids and more mainstream friend's abums going back to TLC and all that. There is a lot of great pop out there just not in album length chunks. SAW did that Brilliant album with Youth and June Montana in 86. It's alright. The singles were pretty good. The rest fillerish. I booked them at the ICA for a New Years Day show in 85 and they were fantastic, if a bit agrieved at having to play to a v small audience of hungover after-the-lord-mayor's-show loyalists. They were a sort of pure pop version of Big Audio Dynamite or Dreadzone.
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keith a 9574 posts |
Feb 13, 2011, 12:49
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Jasonaparkes wrote: I'm all for leftfield takes on something - so a mainstream LP could be selected and I think I've argued that point before. I don't think the reviews of stuff like 'Journeyman' by Eric Clapton really added much to the site. I didn't have a temptation to discover the transcendental joys of 'Bad Love' and 'Pretending' again... Written in Spanish or not, it's odd that an Earth LP out tomorrow is considered "Unsung" - and all the reviews I've read of Dylan Carlson & co's latest have been rather generous. The cliche of "best album yet" is even surfacing... I can understand older Unsung reviews featuring titles that might very well have entered the vomiting inducing "canon" of classic albums as they may have been reissued since, or had a 33 1/3 book or something like that. But more recent reviews on classics seem a bit pointless - a review of Y by The Pop Group seems a bit pointless following its 2007 reissue and the prior excitement of a chapter in Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up & Start Again. Another Pop Group-release or something from Mark Stewart would make more sense. A review of Metal Box, Cut or Chairs Missing, no matter how passionate or well written, probably wouldn't cut the mustard now. Are we being told about a record that is under the radar etc? The moral considerations thing cited below is another reminder...and I'm sure that I've got carried away over something and posted on an LP that in retrospect wasn't that Unsung. The selections may become harder with time, especially as everyone knows everything these days and lots gets reissued...but there are still titles that must be deleted or slipped through the net. I'd rather read those and have a chance of finding something that hasn't already been creamed over en-mass: there are fine Animal Collective albums prior to the last couple that got gushing reviews and found a place in the end of year polls... Fair enough. Bit if I wanted to write about Chairs Missing I would. It might be well known amongst many of us here, but it's hardly Sgt Peppers or Revolver, is it? In fact, I would put money on it that apart from the few people who share a similar taste to me, most of the people in my life will never have heard of it. Indeed, Wire seemed to have slipped through the net for so many people - I've had conversation with people who like their contemporaries like Joy Division and Magazine, but don't know Wire. Bizarrely I've had at least a couple of people who have thought about it a moment and then brought back a distant memory. Not 12XU or the almost hit single that was Outdoor Miner, but have said "Didn't they have one about a lion tamer?" And in the last ten years or so it's been Pink Flag that has been getting all the attention from the media and - until the last couple of years - the band themselves who played sets consisting only of their new material and their debut. I felt that CM and 154 were being overlooked. And I don't think whether Simon Reynolds has included it in his book should be an issue either. Mind you, my copy is still waiting to be read - having had a quick peek and seen him being less than complimentary about certain things I love I'm not about to hold him as some great arbiter of taste! As for the likes of Eric Clapton's Journeyman, well the liklihood in such case is I wouldn't read it and indeed I haven't that one. There used to be the odd thread about what had been reviewed which prompted me to go and have a read but that seldom happens these days so I just go on there occasionally and have a gander (or in the case of a Michael Rother LP I was considering buying I read the review there first - and didn't regret the purchase!). But maybe Journeyman is Unsung. Maybe - just maybe - it's an unsung classic waiting to be discovered. I personally doubt it, but I've been around long enough to see things go full circle. It's all a long time ago, so I can't remember what you had here, but didn't you review things like Tin Drum? That was rated at the time, still is in certain quarters but if the author is moved to write about it and just one person who reads is inspired to buy it then it's job done IMO. And if you don't want to read it - don't!
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Sin Agog 2253 posts |
Edited Feb 13, 2011, 15:32
Feb 13, 2011, 15:20
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At just a handful of reviews a month, deleting reviews might alienate some of the only reviewers Unsung's got. It's not like they aren't coupling the odd Pet Shop Boy review with something tasty like Franco Battiato and Mark Fry (by ON-U-Sound and flashbackcaruso respectively, who seem to be the people you're referring to). The list of albums reviewed over the last couple of years reads pretty interesting to me. I wasn't one of this site's early pilgrims though, so I don't have a reference point.
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Shrimp 1118 posts |
Feb 13, 2011, 18:22
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Then again as I do not frequent these parts much these days what do I care really
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Vybik Jon 7720 posts |
Edited Feb 13, 2011, 19:37
Feb 13, 2011, 19:36
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I wasn't having a go. It's good to see your name back on the board.
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FifePsy 540 posts |
Feb 13, 2011, 22:16
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IanB wrote: machineryelf wrote: Stock Aitken & Waterman started off producing albums with Youth IIRC, that would make a good unsung article, sorting out the SAW gems from the chaff Absolutely, I have a load of songs culled in ones and two from my kids and more mainstream friend's abums going back to TLC and all that. There is a lot of great pop out there just not in album length chunks. SAW did that Brilliant album with Youth and June Montana in 86. It's alright. The singles were pretty good. The rest fillerish. I booked them at the ICA for a New Years Day show in 85 and they were fantastic, if a bit agrieved at having to play to a v small audience of hungover after-the-lord-mayor's-show loyalists. They were a sort of pure pop version of Big Audio Dynamite or Dreadzone. And were Brilliant not managed by Balfe and Drummond?
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Robot Emperor 762 posts |
Feb 14, 2011, 10:06
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And who are we to assume what people already know? I for one have been introduced to loads of stuff I was unaware of thanks to discussions on these pages. Surely it is more enjoyable helping and introducing people to exciting music or books or whatever than feeling smug or worrying about how obscure things are. Who cares? We can but learn new stuff and flag up stuff we are excited by without worrying if we are being obvious or stupid. Be stupid and be surprised how ignorant others are as well, help each other find a way out of the darkness etc. A personal bug bear is when someone new tries to start a thread and if it has already been discussed sometime in the last five years a link is posted to the previous discussion. Not very welcoming. Its fun to talk about stuff and nice to get a considered reply. Lifts us and makes us know that we are not just shouting into the abyss...
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Squid Tempest 8769 posts |
Feb 14, 2011, 10:18
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Robot Emperor wrote: And who are we to assume what people already know? I for one have been introduced to loads of stuff I was unaware of thanks to discussions on these pages. Surely it is more enjoyable helping and introducing people to exciting music or books or whatever than feeling smug or worrying about how obscure things are. Who cares? We can but learn new stuff and flag up stuff we are excited by without worrying if we are being obvious or stupid. Be stupid and be surprised how ignorant others are as well, help each other find a way out of the darkness etc. A personal bug bear is when someone new tries to start a thread and if it has already been discussed sometime in the last five years a link is posted to the previous discussion. Not very welcoming. Its fun to talk about stuff and nice to get a considered reply. Lifts us and makes us know that we are not just shouting into the abyss... Some good points there. I must admit I'm guilty of that "linking to a previous post" thing. I'm usually trying to be helpful, but I suppose it is a bit unfriendly now that I think about it. I do agree that we can't really judge what people are/aren't familiar with. One persons Unsung is another persons Sung!
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Robot Emperor 762 posts |
Feb 14, 2011, 11:06
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Squid Tempest wrote: Some good points there. I must admit I'm guilty of that "linking to a previous post" thing. I'm usually trying to be helpful, but I suppose it is a bit unfriendly now that I think about it. I do agree that we can't really judge what people are/aren't familiar with. One persons Unsung is another persons Sung! There are exceptions of course. How the words "Problems with Remastered Jehovahkill" can fill me with existential despair.
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