Random Music Thoughts

[Hellraiser]

My pick for worst cover ever would be former Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen cover of Whitesnake's Still Of The Night. It is a baffling pick of a song to cover as it doesn't fit her singing style at all and the and the cover turns out to be terrible. The weirdest choice they made was messing around with the main riff which is one of the best parts of the song:

 

[GhostMachine]

On 16/05/2023 at 13:03, METALMAN said:

In 1984 Rod Stewart released a cover of 70s dad rock classic (and actual pretty good song) All Right Now and I think it might be the worst cover of a song I’ve ever heard. It is so bad I have a compulsive need to listen to it and have added it to my library. Go and listen to it now.

His version of the Skye Boat Song is also the drizzling shits.

Tarja's version of Alice Cooper's Poison is also awful.

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by GhostMachine

[Benji]

I'm just going to put it out there - OPM's "Menace To Sobriety" is a GOAT album and though they did nothing else decent, that album holds up well even when people just think of them as the "Heaven Is a Halfpipe" guys.

[RPS]

I have listened to Bjork's whole discography. This is my ranking.

10. Biophilla. There is lots of great ideas here, but I find the execution and consistency is hard. It feels at times like ideas are repeated or that it is redundant. Crystalline was the stand out track, but I felt like it was a slog to get through. 

9. Utopia.  I love Arca. I love Bjork. There are moments where that aspirational partnership feels present. I think what lacks is that Bjork and Arca could go so unconventional, but a reliance on the conventional makes it feel less like a partnership and more like a compromise. I loved Sue Me the best. Sounded like a proper collaboration.

8. Volta. I imagine this may be most people's least favorite Bjork album. I love how bizarre and disjointed it is. I felt after Homogenic, Bjork moved towards allowing form and genre define albums. Volta is the rare exception. It's so bizarre. There is crisp and bizarre pop songs, borderline punk songs that assault their audience and some monotonous songs in between. Standout was Innocence. It's Bjork at her most unhinged as it sounds like space invaders are shooting her. 

7. Vulnicura. This album is very intense. Which makes sense as it is Bjorks break up album. There are so many little flourishes of experimention married with the intensity of Bjorks voice and song writing. Quicksand is an outstanding song and a great example of how you can marry breakbeat and strings for an otherworldly experience.

6. Vespertine. I imagine that this is higher for others, but from here out, everything is an exceptional piece of music. In so many the layers and depths to the music. I think the first half is incredibly strong and the final third slightly muted and soft. I really enjoy the songwriting here too. I think Bjork writes from an abstract and personal perspective on this album.

5. Debut. This is Bjorks most straightforward album, which makes sense. It's her first. But it is similar to Post in its grab bag, all over the place structure. It is undeniably a 90s record. I love that it feels like her most playful album. Bjork has a reputation of eccentric, but not always fun. Debut doesn't take itself seriously. Not that taking yourself seriously is an issue it's a large part of why I love her. Bjork takes herself and the craft of making pop music incredibly seriously. But on Debut, she is just having fun.

4. Fossora. This is Bjorks latest album, but I also think her most arresting album in years. Later works of Bjork, while amazing, often times feel dictated by form and sound. On Fossora, Bjork feels less constrained by sounding consistent and more with ensuring that across all songs she conveys a feeling and a message. It also feels as though rather than focusing on a consistent sound, she pulls from each of her periods. I think it's also notable in the track listing - lots of interesting guest features that compliment Bjork rather than attempting to define her. 

3. Medulla. What a stunning achievement. I can understand how this is not everyone's cup of tea. My six year old daughters first reaction when hearing a song was "where are the guitars" but I think she meant the instruments. But only Bjork can make an album so focused on her voice. Using the human voice to guide each track, Bjork leverages the limitations go create something deep and layered. Voices can be your percussion, your strings or your synthesizer. By focusing solely on the voice, you can so centrally focus on Bjorks voice. Each whimper, moan, chant can be savored. It's also the most collaborative album. Tanya Tagag and Rahzel are also so central to the power of each track.

2. Homogenic. The perfection and attention to detail exhibited on Homogenic has been a guiding principle for Bjorks discography. The composition and arrangement of each track is insane to me. Often times popular music relies upon the verse, chorus, bridge structure for two reasons- its likely easier and more accessible. You can focus on three distinct sections that can all blend into together. Bjork achieves something exceptional - Bjork does not feel beholden to structure and form but also sounds just as accessible as other musicians. There is often structure to her songs, but not in the conventional structures and yet it doesn't feel experimental or inaccessible. Bjorks focus on these, plus ensuring each track has an interesting and captivating melody, is what makes Homogenic stand above and beyond.

1. Post. I do sincerely wonder if she named this Post knowing how seminal it was. First thing first - the production on this album is amazing. The crispness of every single instrument is a feat. If you told me this released in 2023, I would believe you. Secondly, it is incredible to me that in 1995, Bjork released such a blend of genres and sounds. The marriage of new sounding synths and drum machines along with traditional instrumentation such as horns or a harpsichord is a feat. Each song has a story, a distinct point of view that could in itself be explored for hours. I do think today, it is apparent that Bjork represents that shift towards a genre-less future. Rather than being defined as a rock or hip hop group, you can take influence from different perspectives and meld them together. Genres and labels are only as constraining as you put weight into them. Bjork views labels and genres as liberating on Post, because they can influence her singular perspective on the songs. Rather than being constrained to what a trip hop song is, Bjork asks how far can I push this so that it stops being trip hop and becomes Hyperballad. 

This was my TED talk on Bjork.

[Malenko]

I enjoyed reading that. I won't claim to know much about Bjork's discography. It's really not for me so I haven't listened to it enough. However, being one of my sister's faves I've actually listened to her music quite a bit.

As a solo artist, the songs I enjoy the most are Crystalline and Declare Independence. I believe both of them belong to albums you rated poorly.

However, I do like all her bands from before she went solo and always recommend for people who like a bit of No Wave and more experimental post-punk and may not be aware she was a part of those bands before.

Her first band Tappi Tikarass and her second (assuming I'm not missing other bands she might have been a part of) Kukl are both really cool. The final band before going solo, the Sugarcubes is still cool but I really only listen to their first album. You can see in their last album she was already thinking of going in a different direction.

 

 

[Skummy]

Towards the end of the Sugarcubes, she did an album called Gling-gló with a jazz trio. I haven't listened to it in ages, and it's nothing remarkable, but her singing some old standards like "I Can't Help Loving That Man" is pretty fun.

Kukl are great fun, though pretty rough around the edges.

She also did an album as a child star, in the late '70s. Never heard it, don't particularly want to, but it's a hell of a career trajectory that you'd only get in a country like Iceland - some eleven year old kid gets an album out because a recording of her singing a song at school gets sent in to the country's only radio station, then fast-forward a decade and Iceland's gone punk mad and she's on her third band. Another decade and she's one of the biggest stars in the world. 

[Benji]

In Your Honor is a fantastic Foos album and I never understood the hate it got. Could it have been shortened into a single album for a more cohesive record? Sure, but I honestly thing that it works as is and there's not really any songs on there that I actively would want to drop.

[RPS]

On 03/08/2023 at 08:27, Malenko said:

As a solo artist, the songs I enjoy the most are Crystalline and Declare Independence. I believe both of them belong to albums you rated poorly.

I actually rated them poorly vis a vis her top albums but even her worst album is an 8/10 from me. 

I think her back catalogue is unwieldy and daunting, but I think there are lots of gems I think you would appreciate. As your post demonstrates, she has an interesting history with more experimental, almost punk like bands and you can see it percolate through. As I said about Post, I think Bjork uses genre as a reference and allows instruments and process to differentiate herself. There is a track on Medulla called "Where is the Line". It reads to me as being very influenced by punk, metal and noise rock. But Medulla is an album constructed solely by voices and vocals. So it is Bjork performing a punk song but she can only use vocals. 

I think this is what differentiates Bjorks from her peers. It's a cliche, but so many artists will do "their break up album" or "this is my pop album". Bjork is like: "okay this is my album about mushrooms and I'll heavily rely upon wind instruments". Yes, there is very Bjork elements (extraterrestrial, pop meets experimental, orchestral arrangements, heavy electronic focus), but it still feels unique. 

[Skummy]

@RPS, have you listened to any Sainkho Namtchylak or Tanya Tagaq? They're both throat singers - though Sainkho is Tuvan and Tanya is Inuit, so the techniques and backgrounds are different - who work with a lot of electronic and experimental elements, and I sometimes feel that they're covering similar ground to what you're describing from Bjork, and Tagaq has collaborated with Bjork in the past.

Your description of Where Is The Line as a Bjork song filtered through punk and metal brings to mind Tagaq's song Colonizer.

 

[The Buscher]

I fired up an old Madden game (Madden 06) on PCSX2 and the first song that came on was No Way Back by the Foo Fighters.  Immediately hit me with a burst of a nostalgia and I actually forgot how much I dug this song, it's not really one they play at gigs anymore.

 

[RPS]

On 15/08/2023 at 04:50, Skummy said:

@RPS, have you listened to any Sainkho Namtchylak or Tanya Tagaq? They're both throat singers - though Sainkho is Tuvan and Tanya is Inuit, so the techniques and backgrounds are different - who work with a lot of electronic and experimental elements, and I sometimes feel that they're covering similar ground to what you're describing from Bjork, and Tagaq has collaborated with Bjork in the past.

Your description of Where Is The Line as a Bjork song filtered through punk and metal brings to mind Tagaq's song Colonizer.

 

Yeah, I have. Tanya is really great. Her last LP was incredible. I also follow her on Instagram.  

[RPS]

Okay, I have listened to all of the Mars Volta. Here is my ranking. 

7. Octaherdon: I think this us objectively the worst, most uninteresting Mars Volta album. It just sort of meanders and the experiments just do not pay off. I like a handful of songs, but I would not voluntarily listen to this album in full again.

6. The Bedlam in Goliath: this album is really great. I think this marks the beginning of a new Mars Volta. Earlier Mars Volta has thar prog, experimental tendencies and newer Mars Volta is more traditional and pop sounding. Bedlam is really good at balancing both parts. On Metatron, we still get voice modulation, insane riffs, over the top solos. But the tracks are shorter, more self contained, often restricted to one idea. It even has there most pop sounding moment - Wax Simulacra. Yes, the guitar solo melts your brain and those drums are out of control. But it still feels like something primed for radio. Exceptional stuff.

5. Amputechture: this album is audacious in every sense of the word. And it's a really interesting follow up to Frances the Mute. Where Frances the Mute was a dichotomy between restraint and excess, Amputechture is full on excess. There are not many moments to believe. I remember listening to the album when it was released and Day of the Baphomets and it does not relent. When you get to the ten minute mark and its just complete noise and chaos before it devolves into some bongo drum madness with Cedric singing about missing children - it's pure madness filled with so many ideas. I think this album is excellent in spite of itself. Each track is amazing and engaging,  but taken together there is zero restraint. You could walk away from this album being overwhelmed. 

4. Noctourniquet: this is such a great album to put on and to see the different places they go. It definitely is proggy and experimental, but with lots of restraint and filtered through a pop lense. The Mars Volta seem like there messiest and more imprecise here. At times, tracks seem like they are coming all together at once with little rehearsal. A great Sunday album to lose yourself in the afternoon.

3. The Mars Volta/Que Dios te Maldiga Mi Corazon: this is the hardest album to rank. It's the most different from all of their albums. Gone are the excessive, over the top, self indulgent moments that make the Mars Volta so obviously them. Each track even has an obvious verse/chorus structure. But it's a truly outstanding piece of music. Complication does not require guitar solos. The layering of the instruments, the melodies, the inclusion of more electronic elements in their music make each a deep pool to explore. You could just isolate one element on each track and just marvel in the way things weave together. 

2. Deloused in the Comatorium/Landscape Tantrums: Deloused is unparalleled craftsman ship. It marries excellent melodies and traditional rock with experimentation and progressive elements so seamlessly. Front to back it is a marvel on how they got everything to with together. When the Mars Volta came out, it was the time period of garage rock and the popification of pop music.  The Mars Volta are not interested in straightforward sounds or ideas. Every track on Deloused is a story, but it is a story where everything blends together and feels attainable.  

1. Frances the Mute: what an achievement in rock music. It feels less like a traditional album and more like an hour long experience. This is Mars Volta at their peak. Each song has so many interesting detours, mixing so many different elements. Whereas on Deloused, they wanted to rock out first, experiment second, on Frances they ponder in the middle of a song can we divert the expectations of our audience. Each time on L'Via L'Viaquez,  you think they are just going to pay off their guitar solos it culminates in more and longer experimentation. That's true of the whole thing together. A song starts to feel sugary and rewarding before they take a detour somewhere else. 

[Malenko]

I love reading your reviews even when I don't agree with them. This time I do agree for the most part although Deloused in the Comatorium is by far my number 1. I don't actually love any of the others but would have Frances the Mute number 2. Bedlam in Goliath may be the one I'd have last even if I agree with your description. Oddly enough it includes Wax Simulacra. I love it but I feel it's so out of place in that album. Last thing, I'd move Noctourniquet to number 3 but it's not something I feel really strong about. The rest of the list is how I'd rank it too.

[RPS]

2 hours ago, Malenko said:

I love reading your reviews even when I don't agree with them. This time I do agree for the most part although Deloused in the Comatorium is by far my number 1. I don't actually love any of the others but would have Frances the Mute number 2. Bedlam in Goliath may be the one I'd have last even if I agree with your description. Oddly enough it includes Wax Simulacra. I love it but I feel it's so out of place in that album. Last thing, I'd move Noctourniquet to number 3 but it's not something I feel really strong about. The rest of the list is how I'd rank it too.

Deloused and Frances are both 10/10, perfect albums. I would imagine that what might make you pick one over the other would be your love of experimention. It's there on Deloused.  They give their audience friction, but for the most part the album feels rewarding. Frances is all friction. It feels like a band making the exact, precise album they needed. Did you ever listen to Landscape Tantrums.  It's the demos of Deloused. It's really good. Almost feels like an At the Drive In album.

Who do you think I should do next, Malenko? I was thinking Black Flag or Dead Kennedys. 

[Malenko]

10 hours ago, RPS said:

Deloused and Frances are both 10/10, perfect albums. I would imagine that what might make you pick one over the other would be your love of experimention. It's there on Deloused.  They give their audience friction, but for the most part the album feels rewarding. Frances is all friction. It feels like a band making the exact, precise album they needed. Did you ever listen to Landscape Tantrums.  It's the demos of Deloused. It's really good. Almost feels like an At the Drive In album.

Who do you think I should do next, Malenko? I was thinking Black Flag or Dead Kennedys. 

I love both. Black Flag may be more interesting for this. Dead Kennedys stuff is great but it's pretty much what you'd expect from the first album to the last. Black Flag has their Hardcore Punk beginnings, then with Family Man they start experimenting with things that you wouldn't hear in the californian Hardcore Punk scene at the time, then with Slip it In they incorporate Metal/Sludge into their repertoire. Then a couple albums later they break up for 25 years and come back with an almost universally disliked album with Ron Reyes who'd been the lead singer for a short while even before they had released any full lengths. I like it but understand why people usually don't.

And you could even include the first 3 EPs 79-81, each with a different lead singer, before Henry Rollins became the "face" of the band. 

 

[VerbalPuke]

5 hours ago, Malenko said:

I love both. Black Flag may be more interesting for this. Dead Kennedys stuff is great but it's pretty much what you'd expect from the first album to the last. Black Flag has their Hardcore Punk beginnings, then with Family Man they start experimenting with things that you wouldn't hear in the californian Hardcore Punk scene at the time, then with Slip it In they incorporate Metal/Sludge into their repertoire. Then a couple albums later they break up for 25 years and come back with an almost universally disliked album with Ron Reyes who'd been the lead singer for a short while even before they had released any full lengths. I like it but understand why people usually don't.

And you could even include the first 3 EPs 79-81, each with a different lead singer, before Henry Rollins became the "face" of the band. 

 

Black Flag would be interesting because pf the different vocalists early on. Everything Went Black is a cool compilation of the same songs but with different vocalists (so Keith Morris, Ron Reyes, Dez Cadena, and Henry Rollins). Hey....might be another thread that this gets reviewed :).

Black Flag and Dead Kennedys feature two of my all-time favorite guitar players. Both achieved such a great tone but in different ways. East Bay Ray is the twangy surf inspired sound I tried to emulate when I started playing. When I first looked for my first guitar I was hoping to find that surfy twang that East Bay Ray fused with punk and made Dead Kennedys such a damn force. 

Gregg Ginns distorted tone is probably the most perfect distorted guitar tone in my opinion. 

So yeah, if you asked my ideal guitar set up it would be those two.

I think doing a look at Jello Biafras work as opposed to just DK could be more interesting due to the variety of artists he's worked with (Lard, MOJO Nixon, Melvins, D.O.A., Nomeansno, and many more). 

[RPS]

Black Flag

??. Family Man: I would categorize this as unranked. It's certainly an interesting idea. But I think segmenting the album the way it was makes it impossible to rank. One half is spoken word. There is one song featuring vocals. The rest are instrumental pieces. Each section is interesting. None of it works together when you are listening to a dozen or so minutes of spoken word. 

7. What The....: I feel of two minds - to both defend this album, but also to agree with all of its criticisms. It's not a bad album to listen too. But what makes a Black Flag album interesting is completely missing. It's just by the numbers hardcore. I feel people hate it far more because of Gregg Ginn than the actual 5/10 music inside. 

6. Slip It In: I am sure having it this low may be a surprise but I feel the sludge influences in the middle are so monotonous.  Rats Eyes and Obliteration back to back feel designed on purpose - a bit punishing and self indulgent. I honestly felt like most 99% ofp people would turn off Rats Eyes midway through and try to get a refund. The LP starts off incredibly strong and The Bars is a great midway distraction.

5. Loose Nut: I was actually pleasantly surprised by this album. I thought it would be more forgettable than it was. But it's a choppy to the point album. As I'll describe below, Damaged is a pretty melodic focused album in comparison to their later albums. Loose Nut feels like them getting back to making more straight forward, melody focused punk music. A bit conventional but not in a boring way. 

4. In My Head: this feels like an interesting compromise between two sides of Black Flag - fast hardcore and methodical sludge metal. I think both are balanced well. Henry Rollins shows restraints on vocals and it feels at times like it's produced purposefully so his vocals are lowered. A very good album.

3. The First Four Years: I have opted to bunch all of the EPs together because they would all be grouped here together. My ranking would be Six Pack > Nervous Breakdown > Jealous Again. It's interesting comparing and contrasting because obviously a few of these tracks turn up later with Henry on vocals. I enjoy that you can hear little teases of the experimentation that will permeate Black Flags catalogue. Ron Reyes was the weakest vocalist, imo, which is funny because he came back in 2013. I don't think any version here matches Henry's vocals, but it's an interesting "what if" thought exercise. 

2. My War: what a great album. It almost tops out Damaged. The album mixes the hardcore sound with the metal and experimental sounds that define theirs later albums. Everyone still feels like they are having fun, but you can feel at times that desire to let a solo go on a few seconds longer than you'd expect.

1. Damaged: this is an album that takes the pure power of Henry Rollins and completely showcases it. Damaged feels so decidedly out of place for all Black Flag. Its an interesting conundrum. What if you release an album that comes to define a generation and after have zero interest in following it up. You can hear the direction they'll head - they have chaotic, off the rails moments that completely disrupt melody. But the melodies still drive the song at the end of the day. Detours occur, but you still get back on track. I also appreciate that Henry Rollins sounds like he's having fun. 

Going to do De La Soul next. 

[Malenko]

I have them rated as: Damaged > My War > In My Head (which you haven't included) > Loose Nut > What The... > Slip It In > Family Man.

As always, I enjoyed reading your analysis and it's very similar to mine. I know very little about De La Soul or anything hip hop not named The Coup to be honest, but I'll still wait for your review and may give a chance to some of it if you sell them well enough.

 

[Benji]

Really loving Gerry Cinnamon as of late. Always got a soft spot for the folk stylings he comes across with.

[RPS]

21 hours ago, Malenko said:

which you haven't included

Oops. Joys of doing this on your phone. Forgot to write about it. 

De La Soul is the type of hip hop act I would recommend to someone with limited hip hop experience. They are interesting because they clearly define themselves as outsiders throughout their careers. So they are both the high water of hip hop but also unlike most mainstream hop hop.