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Unsung Forum » Albums that deserve a second chance |
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keith a 9572 posts |
Jan 24, 2013, 08:24
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vince wrote: [quote="Moon Cat"]The Velvet Underground - Loaded. Also in agreement about Bowie's Lodger. It's patchy, sure, and the production is muddy as hell...but...contains two of the finest Bowie tracks ever in Look Back In Anger and Repetition, plus a pair of bloody fine singles in Boys Keep Swinging & DJ. And a fab opening track in Fantastic Voyage. And a great Neu-like beat on Red Sails. I think Lodger is great!
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IanB 6761 posts |
Edited Jan 24, 2013, 10:13
Jan 24, 2013, 09:49
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Squid Tempest wrote: Moon Cat wrote: Yes - Tormato. Seemingly occupying the realm of the unloved amongst many Yes fans, but I enjoy it myself. Ok, it doesn't hit the magisterial heights of "Close to the Edge" or "Fragile", but I'm fond of it, especially as it has "Don't Kill the Whale" on it, which is a TUNE! Magnum - The Eleventh Hour. Seen as an also-ran in the canon of the terminally unfashionable Brummie Pompsters, sandwiched as it is between the mighty "Chase the Dragon & "On a Storyteller's Night", I love some of the songs on this. It's relegation to 'meh'gnum status seems to be as a result of its stodgy (self) production, which indeed doesn't serve some of the songs well. But, as a collection of pomp-rockness, The Eleventh Hour has some top tunes I think! Should I try Tormato then, or do you think I might recoil with Yesnobbishness? It's got Onward as well. Worth it for that alone of you like Soon and To Be Over. They were great on that tour and the one before so while it may not be a classic Yes lp they still had "it" and it is better than anything with R*b*n on it. It actually sounds remarkably like everything they have been releasing since the mid 90s. It is almost like this way of making music was preserved in aspic while they went off to make some money and then they came back to it as if nothing had happened. The main thing wrong with Tormato is that it is a bit safe and there are no moments of genius/madness that you still had on Going For The One. It also sounds like that they were scuppered by the use of some inappropriate studio toys. The drum sound is horrible and the mix is really unintentinally stupid. Thre are some flashes of the old daring but it's like they wanted to be about voices and rhythm and to pretend that they weren't a band of vituosi at all. To do that the songs would need to be stronger and this doesn't have the material that say Wind and Wuthering has. It was like the 80s had come early for Yes in that you can hear exactly where they are headed - for the mid Atlantic and stripped of English eccentricity. When you look at who passed through the ranks after that it is not hard to imagine what Chris Squire's thought processes were. It was all about simplifying things and getting another Roundabout or Your Move on US radio. Which he / they did so I guess he knew what he was doing! So it is a bit of a sad sounding record but with some great bits.
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paradox 1576 posts |
Jan 24, 2013, 12:37
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spencer wrote: Um, um, er..stammer..M-m-mike Oldfield - Ommadawn ..... Van Morrison - Hard Nose The Highway ..... Holger Czukay - On the Way To The Peak Of Normal ..... Neil Young - Hawks and Doves ..... Steve Miller Band - Recall The Beginning..A Journey From Eden .... Spirit - Future Games I'm a huge fan of Spirit, and as the years have progressed, Future Games has evolved in to one of my favourite albums. It seems to divide fans, but I love it.
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Repossessed 79 posts |
Jan 24, 2013, 14:35
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Personally, I tend to rate Wowee Zowee and Meat is Murder as my favourite albums by Pavement and The Smiths, even though most people would go for Slanted and Enchanted/Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and The Smiths/The Queen is Dead, respectively. I don't know, they seem to have a character of their own and flow better when listening to them in their entirety in one sitting. Most people also view Kate Bush's The Sensual World as something of a disappointment after The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. To me, it's a clearly more subdued, intimate, feminine (whatever that means) affair, but just as beautiful.
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Moon Cat 9577 posts |
Jan 24, 2013, 14:41
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spencer wrote: I remember Peel playing stuff off Tormato when it came out, praising it..when they played Glasto he stood at the front of the audience because 'he wanted to remind himself how bad they were' or words to that effect. A little bit of amnesia, perhaps... I think a lot of that amnesia was contagious during the Ponk Wars.
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Moon Cat 9577 posts |
Edited Jan 24, 2013, 14:54
Jan 24, 2013, 14:49
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Seb wrote: IanB wrote: Adolescent Sex - Japan Other than Generation X and maybe Heavy Metal Kids, Japan were easily the most derided majorish band of my youth until they were rehabilitiated by Paul Morley and The Face circa Gentlemen Take Polaroids. First album? No fretless bass or cod oriental touches. It's Diamond-Dogs-goes-disco with long BOC style guitar solos, Lou/ Velvets urban sleeze and decadent silliness. What's not to like? At sixteen it was unimprovable and then I didn't listen to it for maybe 20 years. Coming back to it was thrilling. If only Low had sounded this great. Good call. It's dated beautifully too. Plus, whenever you play it you might get a pleasing feeling of David Sylvian groaning and being embarrassed and ashamed somewhere in the world.
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Moon Cat 9577 posts |
Jan 24, 2013, 15:13
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Black Sabbath - Mob Rules. I guess there's already a bit of an issue amongst some fans as what is and isn't Sabbath as regards the Ozzy vs Dio era. As a fan of both, I've no problem reconciling one with the other mainly because both versions (including the Dio mrk II version) produced such great music. However, when talking of the Dio era a lot of fans will get misty-eyed first over the admittedly awesome "Heaven & Hell" leaving the following "Mob Rules" somewhat in it's wake. This is, IMO, a shame because I think "Mob Rules" is at least 96% as good as it's predecessor and deserves to bask in the same glory. I think with time, and the sad passing of RJ Dio - death is great for reappraisal - it's now getting the nods as a great rock album featuring as it does some of Tony Iommi's most crushing and cyclopean riffage, combined with the melodicism associated with the Dio era (although it's not like Sabbath were alien to a pretty tune or two in the Ozzy daze). "Voodoo" stands out for me as does the devastatingly monstrous riff of "Sign of The Southern Cross", which is basically Godzilla's DNA in music form. So "Mob Rules" isn't, IMO, the poor cousin to the previous album and it was a pleasure and privilege to hear these tunes do what turned out to be a lap of honour when they were toured under the "Heaven & Hell" banner prior to Dio's passing. "Mob Rules" rules! \m/
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keith a 9572 posts |
Jan 24, 2013, 15:27
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Moon Cat wrote: spencer wrote: I remember Peel playing stuff off Tormato when it came out, praising it..when they played Glasto he stood at the front of the audience because 'he wanted to remind himself how bad they were' or words to that effect. A little bit of amnesia, perhaps... I think a lot of that amnesia was contagious during the Ponk Wars. Well yes, but this wasn't exactly the usual case though. Tormato was post-punk, being released late '78 and so wasn't really something one expected to be featured on Peel. I was a regular listener at that time and do seem to recall him playing something off it and though things are hazy after all this time I seem to recall him saying it was better than he expected it to be. Which isn't the same thing as raving about it and then suddenly deciding he didn't like it! So rather than amnesia, it really was a surprise that he played anything by Yes at that time (from the point of view that I'm surprised he even listened to it!). He didn't really play too many pre-punk bands (though there were exceptions such as VDGG and Can). I take your point about revisionism but in this case it's not as if Peel was raving about Tormato and then suddenly slagged them off. From a personal P.O.V. as someone who liked punk / new wave and what was to follow but hadn't consigned my old fart records to the dustbin, me and a few mates thought it was great that YES had released an album called Tomato (because that's what it sounded like). It was so un-Topographic Ocean-like in title, it's simplicity welcoming. Then I found it they had spelt it Tormato and it suddenly seemed a lot less impressive!
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Moon Cat 9577 posts |
Edited Jan 24, 2013, 16:23
Jan 24, 2013, 15:39
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Well, I was more responding to Spencer's cheeky comment, but one does get the impression that a lot of hair was cut and records hidden in Swiss Bank Vaults while the harsh eye of the Punk Polit Bureau was on the case. It's always been a something of a bug-bear/source of amusement to me, depending on what mood I'm in, that something born of a desire for freedom of expression didn't take very long to add its own set of rules and restrictions. Robyn Hitchcock wrote a really good thing on it somewhere in the midsts of time. My first exposure to Tormato was via my dad's copy so I just liked the music and the splatty sleeve. And we had "Don't Hunt the Whale" as a single, which was quite odd as we already had the album I think.
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spencer 3070 posts |
Jan 24, 2013, 16:20
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I think your Peel recollection is pretty much verbatim, Keith. He didn't rave in favour, but did play them when there were plenty of alternatives..and his comments about them at Glasto did come across as a bit of track covering.
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