Contrarian musical opinions.

[Turbo Yannis]

Everything Weezer have released after The Green Album has been shit.

[Emperor Fuckshit]

Yeah, Foo Fighters are boring as fuck. And RHCP have just been releasing the same two singles alternately forever: the 'funky'/'danceable' one and then the 'anthemic'/'ballad-y' one. Horrid.

[JStarr]

RHCP are shit, they're a good singles band, but nowt more, they're albums are mediocre at best and the only member worth a damn is Frusciante.

This I agree with.

Seconded. Frusciante kicked ass all over a couple of songs with Tricky, and I need to go dig up some of this insanely prolific solo material he's supposedly come up with in the last few years.

People keep saying Slashslashslashslashslash whatever, but to be honest Slash's Snakepit sucked and so did Velvet Revolver

And Keith Richards never turned out a whole lot of quality work without Mick Jagger, either, did he? Him + Axl = strength. The two of them apart can't get their heads out of their own asses.

[ROC]

The Foos did a few inspired songs, but I remember that I'm not huge on their past few albums on the whole, and it's just sort of there.

[Skummy]

People keep saying Slashslashslashslashslash whatever, but to be honest Slash's Snakepit sucked and so did Velvet Revolver

And Keith Richards never turned out a whole lot of quality work without Mick Jagger, either, did he? Him + Axl = strength. The two of them apart can't get their heads out of their own asses.

I'd dispute that. Keith's solo material is usually fantastic, while Mick's is always horrible, his work with Tom Waits on Rain Dogs and Bone Machine is fantastic, and he did some fine work with Ronnie Spector. And that's just off the top of my head.

Slash plays the same pseudo-blues riffs in every band he's been in, so you can hardly say he's any "better" in one band or the other, it's just that other people tend to be better around him. Axl's never been good. Like Nerf said, Izzy Stradlin was pretty much the lynchpin in Guns & Roses - he's the reason Appetite is so balls-out rock and roll and a genuinely great album, while everything they've done since lacks that cohesion and is much, much more pretentious, and while Velvet Revolver, despite ploughing much the same furrow, aren't anywhere near as good.

Buckethead is much, much better than Slash. He's somewhat over-rated, but he's fucking brilliant all the same. You can argue that he's released some shit, but that's almost solely because he seems to release everything he ever bloody does, which is an awful lot.

Here are some opinions;

Cadence Weapon is one of the best lyricists of this generation, not just in rap, but in any genre. Just listen to "Tattoos And What They Really Feel Like" if you don't believe me.

Pink Floyd haven't released anything good since A Saucerful Of Secrets, which was itself a poor follow-up to A Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.

Erm...I can't think of anything more. I'll be back.

[METALMAN]

I can't think of any so I'll just comment on others.

Ah Contrarian music opinions:

• Nofx is the best pop punk band of the past twenty years - I've only ever heard one song by them that I didn't really like. Still - only one song.
  
• The Darkness were awesome BECAUSE of their stupidly high pitched OTT singer being something we've not seen for ages in rock - I liked the Christmas song, IBIATCL, and the Sportscene theme tune. Oh and the garden song. The rest were meh.
  
• Pink Floyd were always shit - and have created half their following by listening to the same thing over and over again until it clicks for them - Syd Barrett was good. So is Learning to Fly
  
• the Manic Street Preachers were better than Oasis, Blur and Pulp for being able to put out consistently brilliant music for a much longer period of time. - Yes. Though I didn't like the Holy Bible all that much. Everything Must Go is fantastic, but that's hardly contrarian. I think they faultered a bit after that. Their last album was average at best.
  
• The Foo Fighters are a one hit wonder band, and no-one else realises this - YES!!
  
• Jeff Buckley was never that good and would just be the Jason Mraz or something of today if he was still around. - I like Jeff Buckley a lot. Still find him a tad overrated so fair point. As for Jason Mraz, never heard. He sounds shit going by his name alone though.
  

Everything Weezer have released after The Green Album has been shit.

That is a fact.

Pink Floyd haven't released anything good since A Saucerful Of Secrets, which was itself a poor follow-up to A Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.

Yah, except from Learning to Fly.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Obviously there's a few songs I love by Pink Floyd... but it seems when I try and think of any songs by them I think "I liked the solo in X/I liked the little melody bit in the middle of Y". They're a good band, but they seem to spend far more time building to an awesome point, rather than creating a whole song around it.

King Crimson, as a huge contrast features a lot of experimentation... but mix things up by having lively bits, slow bits and whatnot. They make things interesting because you have absolutely no idea what's coming next... despite it fitting in with what they've already done. I think of the comparison as more like a movie, you don't go into a movie knowing exactly what you want, what the twist will be and that there's going to be a huge special effect that you've seen already 3 times in the trailer.

Pink Floyd seems to bring about the elitist in everyone, reading up on what the story is of an album before listening to it: spoiling everything. I always though music never had a definite story, it was the gap between the listeners knowledge and the storytellers words that made the connection... not the storyteller explicitly telling us what everything is about and that's it. Floyd just tried to do so much, and because they couldn't, had to explain it aswell. The Wall isn't "ironically" about a person can become a Nazi and go about wanting everyone dead, I came to the conclusion that it was Waters own racist views that he could stick into an absolute shite album(bar Nobody's home and Comfortably Numb) yet I don't want to share that opinion with the Floyd fanatics and discuss different variations... it's my conclusion and I don't need to have Water's opinion forced down on me.

Pink Floyd really do seem like they could record absolutely anything and it'd be seen as innovative. A cash machine? running down a corridor? a phone call that needs to be played backwards to hear an unfunny in-joke that doesn't appeal to the listener?

I'm probably rambling on, I used to absolutely love Pink Floyd a few years back but over time I've realised that it's all well and good waiting for an epic part, but if the rest isn't interesting, why should I be bothered? Maybe it's just because I've started to listen to far more music and I just don't have time for them anymore.

Some other points:

Green Day aren't really that bad. They have their target audience of 13 year olds and pretty much exist to get them more into music, much like MCR and Fall Out Boy are doing today. Sure it isn't great stuff, but it doesn't need to be - try telling a 13 year old that they should be listening to Aphex Twin and they'll think you're nuts. The older you get, the more you hate these types of bands but forget how much you may have loved them as a kid and how they may have influenced you if you weren't really brought up on Pearl Jam and Megadeth.

I agree that Leonard Cohen is a far better songwriter than Bob Dylan: he's humorous at times, he's straight to the point, he never contradicted himself (although that may be Dylans fault rather than Cohen's gain) and his work is overall magnificent.... and I guess he gets bonus points for not sounding like an Egyptian with a horrid voice.

Metallica exist on the basis of the cult of personality. Admit it, you got into them by a friend who loved them, and he got into them by a friend who loved them. You never REALLY liked them but thought they were brilliant on the basis of other people's opinions and grew to like them. They're popular because they aren't melodic... which is weird because surely that should be a turn-off? or do people like listening to riffs that don't work on the basis that it's "what metal is"?

[K]

i remember when napster was first around, i was just downloading stuff at random by bands i'd never listen to, i downloaded one track by Pink Floyd, on a 56k modem it took me hours and hours, when it was finished it was a single track about an hour long of nothing but shitty whiny melodic mood music.

i have no idea if it was actually pink floyd, but every time i think of them now i'm reminded of how disappointed i was by that and have had no inclination to listen to them again.

[RoyWill Rumble]

I don't actually mind the Chili Peppers, but lyrically they are fucking bad. John Frusciante, however, is awesome as fuck and Flea is just good at what he does.

[DMN in the House]

KoRn was the best band to come out of the 90s.

Alice in Chains was better than Nirvana.

[RPS]

Rock and roll/rock is incredibly boring

Very few of the bands I listen to and have grown up these days play straight up rock and roll. I will admit that a lot of subsequent genres and bands have been influenced by rock and roll, but to be honest, I just don't find it that interesting anymore. R&B, funk, electronica, hip-hop, new wave, disco and pop are all more interesting to me than rock and roll.

Edited January 15, 2009 by PunkRockPete

[(həd)]

I'm not sure what this thread really is any more, but here are my opinions of things people have brought up, and whatever else I was reminded of at the time...

SLF should most definitely be mentioned in the same breath as the Clash and Sex Pistols. They're fucking amazing.

Kinks fucking rule. I own a whole bunch of Kinks shit and like one Beatles album.

Enter Sandman is epic by both Motorhead and Metallica. I couldn't pick a favourite.

Chinese Democracy is the second best Guns N Roses album behind Appetite, then it's a long road to number three and I don't even care what that is because the rest of them aren't very good.

People keep saying Slashslashslashslashslash whatever, but to be honest Slash's Snakepit sucked and so did Velvet Revolver

Megadeth are far superior to Metallica. And United Abominations is easily almost as good as whatever you think Megadeths best album is. System has Failed was also amazing and I don't get the hate for it.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Foo Fighters are boring.

The best thing Green Day ever did was Cover Teenagers From Mars as The Network

Umm other things I've argued with friends about...

House of Pain were fucking quality and they deserve to be remembered for more than just Jump Around.

The three distillers albums go from best to worst in order of chronology, most certainly not the other way round

Uhm, other stuff.

Keith speaks the truth.

PUT ON YOUR SHIT KICKERS AND KICK SOME SHIT.

[Iain76er]

Evil Empire is RATM's best album.

The last POD album was good.

Er, can't think of anything else, except Dope Nose by Weezer is awesome, so some of yous is wrong.

[Turbo Yannis]

Brain Thrust Mastery is a good album, it just takes a few listens.

[RoyWill Rumble]

It is my personal opinion that Blind Melon is one of the best bands ever. At the very least, they are criminally fucking underrated and much better than a 'one-hit wonder'.

Edited January 16, 2009 by Wills of Jericho

[Lowerdeck]

Pink Floyd... I don't honestly have much from them. Wish You Were Here > Dark Side of the Moon. And the Wall is far too long and far too shit for what it's worth. There's like maybe five good tracks out of it all. Another Brick in the Wall is far far overdone. So: Comfortably Numb, Hey You, Run Like Hell, Young Lust, and maybe Mother... that's pretty much all the Wall is good for.

[New Damage]

Alice in Chains was better than Nirvana.

Musically, most of the grunge bands were. But Nirvana weren't bad to say the least.

Agreed on the Foo Fighters thing. It's not that they're bad, they're largely just boring.

Even though I think this was originally meant to be a "what sticks out like a sore thumb in your music libary thread", I'll go along with the "unpopular opinion" thing...

St. Anger isn't the biggest pile of shit that people make it out to be. Nor is Load/Reload. And the Black Album is overrated.

Nickelback's albums > Nickelback's singles.

Better Living Through Chemistry is possibly Queens of the Stone Age's best song.

However, I now see that Lars Ulrich is in fact a bit of a dick, and his dad is weird.

Edited January 17, 2009 by TheModernWay

[zero]

Metallica exist on the basis of the cult of personality. Admit it, you got into them by a friend who loved them, and he got into them by a friend who loved them. You never REALLY liked them but thought they were brilliant on the basis of other people's opinions and grew to like them.

I always thought Metallica were pretty awesome. I remember hearing "One" when I was about six years old and thought it was amazing... honestly Metallica and Faith No More were the first real bands I ever listened to. But maybe I was just a really weird kid.

And to stay on topic - Load is a fantastic album.

-Metal is dead and has been for a loooooooooooooooooong time.

-There will never be another single band that shakes the entire music industry to its very core. The last time that happened was in 1991 with Nirvana and due to the state of the industry, it will never happen again.

Edited January 17, 2009 by Zero

[New Damage]

And to stay on topic - Load is a fantastic album.

-There will never be another single band that shakes the entire music industry to its very core. The last time that happened was in 1991 with Nirvana and due to the state of the industry, it will never happen again.

Yes, fantastic slow grooving riffs is what I like.

And I've actually thinking of this lately; who will be the next THE band? I mean you had your Zeppelin's and Sabbath's, then the late '80s Guns N' Roses, early '90s Nirvana, but between then and now, it just doesn't seem like anyone has really got to that major stage (worldwide at least).

And uh, if Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavoured Water doesn't go down in history as one of the best albums of the '00s I will start a riot, write a stringly worded letter, think about writing a strongly worded letter but never actually do so.

Edited January 17, 2009 by TheModernWay

[Guest Calm Like A Bomb]

311, known for their songs Down, Come Original, Beautiful Disaster, and All Mixed Up, were and are one of the best bands to come out of the post-grunge era. They blend hip-hop, funk, punk, reggae, and dancehall better than any other band that has tried. They have the best live show I have ever seen, and nobody I have met has said differently having seen them. And yeah, they are better than Sublime.