|
Post by kds on Sept 11, 2021 23:07:08 GMT
I know Coldplay were often criticized for being a U2 knockoff.
One of my favorite, actually probably my favorite, U2 song of the last 30 years is City of Blinding Lights, which I think is pretty similar to Clocks.
|
|
|
Post by B.E. on Sept 11, 2021 23:25:15 GMT
I know Coldplay were often criticized for being a U2 knockoff. I had a feeling that wasn't a particularly original observation on my part! But, honestly, I never made the connection myself. Probably because the lead singers each are so distinctive in their own right. One of my favorite, actually probably my favorite, U2 song of the last 30 years is City of Blinding Lights, which I think is pretty similar to Clocks. I'll check it out.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Sept 11, 2021 23:58:14 GMT
Bruce Springsteen's The Rising. I should probably listen to this one today... I remember being excited for that despite not yet being a Springsteen fan. The only album of his I would listen to in those days was Nebraska. But it didn't connect with me at all--which made it absolutely typical of Springsteen albums, actually. I haven't gone back to it much, but having become a much bigger fan since, I ought to revisit it, too. Beyond the obvious reasons of timing.
|
|
|
Post by carllove on Sept 12, 2021 3:38:03 GMT
Speaking of grunge, I really didn't care for the subgenre in real time. But, by 2002, I did come to appreciate Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. And 2002 saw new albums related to both. Jerry Cantrell released his second solo album, Degredation Trip, which was pretty solid. That's all I have right now. But another note of 2002. Pepsi released a soda called Pepsi Blue. I think I was the only one who liked it. And I always associated the blue raspberry drink with the summer of 2002. Well sir, Pepsi re-released it this summer. And it was nice to have a couple this summer to take me back to my early 20s, when things were a little more simple and less nasty and divisive. I always thought that Jerry Cantrell was the creative force of Alice In Chains, so I am going to have to check out Degradation Trip.Also - I had never heard of Pepsi Blue - but now I feel like I need to find it and give it a swig!
|
|
|
Post by jk on Sept 12, 2021 8:34:20 GMT
I thought of another album I loved that year: the Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. I wasn't a big Lips fan until The Soft Bulletin, but then this, their next album, really hit me. It was a success, too, hitting #50 here and #13 in the UK.
Honestly I often thought of the aforementioned Polyphonic Spree as a less interesting, and more aiming at some sort of spiritual bliss, version of the Lips. But that is largely based on the similar voices of the lead singers, as well as the music itself.
My one musical encounter with The Flaming Lips was the 24-hour "7 Skies H3", which I discovered while looking for stuff for a "very very long pieces" thread at another forum. I've dipped into it and unlike purely length-driven pieces ( Bull of Heaven, anyone?) it actually goes places! So if you don't know what to do with your day...
|
|
|
Post by kds on Sept 13, 2021 0:26:54 GMT
Speaking of grunge, I really didn't care for the subgenre in real time. But, by 2002, I did come to appreciate Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. And 2002 saw new albums related to both. Jerry Cantrell released his second solo album, Degredation Trip, which was pretty solid. That's all I have right now. But another note of 2002. Pepsi released a soda called Pepsi Blue. I think I was the only one who liked it. And I always associated the blue raspberry drink with the summer of 2002. Well sir, Pepsi re-released it this summer. And it was nice to have a couple this summer to take me back to my early 20s, when things were a little more simple and less nasty and divisive. I always thought that Jerry Cantrell was the creative force of Alice In Chains, so I am going to have to check out Degradation Trip.Also - I had never heard of Pepsi Blue - but now I feel like I need to find it and give it a swig! Its a very AIC ish sounding album. I really should give it another spin...or Spotify play.
|
|
|
Post by kds on Sept 14, 2021 19:50:15 GMT
The Rising was a pretty good album.
At the time, other than a Greatest Hits album I had, I wasn't really into Bruce. I was just 21, going on 22. I do remember talking with two coworkers. The other was 25, and not into Bruce either. The other was pushing 40, and I remember he said "one day, Bruce will click with you guys." He was right, and it was probably around 30 or so. So, I didn't check out The Rising until then, and really enjoyed it, Waiting on a Sunny Day is a great song.
|
|
|
Post by kds on Sept 15, 2021 13:43:51 GMT
I've decided to also take a look at a fairly recent year in music. That year is......
2010
Yeah, pop music was positioned pretty firmly in the johnny flusher (Tik Tok by Ke$ha was somehow the #1 song....good....God). But, it wasn't all bad.
Active rock wasn't really much better. The Black Keys hit big that year, but that's a band I never really got. Retro sound, but lack of good songs. That puts them on a long list of bands in the 2000s and 2010s. Bands like Shinedown were still carrying that grunge lite torch. However, one active rock band I really like is Avenged Sevenfold. In 2010, they released their album Nightmare. I don't think it was an good as their previous two albums (IMO, they've never topped those), but it's still a very solid listen.
Not surprisingly, most of the albums I'll discuss are from legacy acts. Ozzy Osbourne released his Scream album. It's not exactly top notch Ozzy, but it's good nonetheless.
This will shock...absolutely nobody here, but my favorite release of 2010 was Iron Maiden's 15th album - The Final Frontier. Although, it was the first Maiden album that didn't hook me immediately. Coming off 2006's stellar A Matter of Life and Death, I initially thought The Final Frontier was disappointing. When I saw Maiden early in the summer of 2010, they played El Dorado from the yet to be released album, and I wasn't a huge fan of the lead off single. However, after the album was released in August, repeated listens made the album grow on me. Especially the back end of the album, The Talisman and The Man Who Would Be King especially. Oddly enough, due to repeated listens leading up to my September vacation, I always tend to associate that album with late summer.
The other big metal event that year was the loss of Ronnie James Dio, who died from stomach cancer in May. I remember the Friday night after his passing, I got out all of my Elf, Rainbow, Sabbath, and Dio CDs and had myself a private Dio listening party for about seven hours.
There are other albums that I did not experience in 2010, but were released that year.
Somehow, I completely missed Petty's Mojo album. I only heard it for the first time last year, and I did not care for it.
My favorite band of the last 25 years, Ghost, released their debut Opus Eponymous that year. I'd heard the name Ghost, and I think one of their songs was included on one of the sampler CDs that would come with my mostly Classic Rock Magazine. But, I really didn't take notice until 2011, and got the album later that year (I think for Christmas). That album rarely left my CD player from then until well into spring 2012, only cut short by my plunge into the land of The Beach Boys that summer.
Speaking of the Beach Boys, 2010 saw TWO albums. Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin and Al's Postcard. I didn't get either until around 2015. I think both are good for what they are.
Also, while not technically 2010, Jimmy Buffett released Buffet Hotel (the one T is the correct spelling of the album) in December 2009. Why Buffett would release a new studio album in December is a mystery, and I'm including it here because I highly doubt it got a lot of traction until 2010. But, it's a solid release which includes a shout out to Baltimore on Beautiful Swimmers.
That's all I've got right now. But, here's 2010, discuss....
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Sept 15, 2021 14:04:20 GMT
Before I get into what I did or didn't like that year, I thought I'd take a look at the charts.
Albums: it seems there wasn't a definitive "oh, this is the album of the year" work. In fact, there are by my count 31 different albums that topped the charts that year! They range from the kind of muzak of Susan Boyle, to the TV tween music of the show Glee, to a comeback album from Eminem, to bro-country of Lady Antebellum, to the omnipresent Drake, to pop queens Kesha (sorry, Ke$ha...) and Katy Perry, to indie darlings Vampire Weekend, to the metal of Avenged Sevenfold. Talk about a disjointed collection.
As for singles, here are the top 20 from Billboard's Hot 100. I think I know five of them (4, 11, 15, 16, 17).
No. Title Artist(s) 1 "Tik Tok" Kesha 2 "Need You Now" Lady Antebellum 3 "Hey, Soul Sister" Train 4 "California Gurls" Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg 5 "OMG" Usher featuring will.i.am 6 "Airplanes" B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams 7 "Love the Way You Lie" Eminem featuring Rihanna 8 "Bad Romance" Lady Gaga 9 "Dynamite" Taio Cruz 10 "Break Your Heart" Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris 11 "Nothin' on You" B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars 12 "I Like It" Enrique Iglesias featuring Pitbull 13 "BedRock" Young Money featuring Lloyd 14 "In My Head" Jason Derulo 15 "Rude Boy" Rihanna 16 "Telephone" Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé 17 "Teenage Dream" Katy Perry 18 "Just the Way You Are" Bruno Mars 19 "Cooler Than Me" Mike Posner 20 "Imma Be" The Black Eyed Peas
|
|
|
Post by kds on Sept 15, 2021 14:11:21 GMT
Before I get into what I did or didn't like that year, I thought I'd take a look at the charts.
Albums: it seems there wasn't a definitive "oh, this is the album of the year" work. In fact, there are by my count 31 different albums that topped the charts that year! They range from the kind of muzak of Susan Boyle, to the TV tween music of the show Glee, to a comeback album from Eminem, to bro-country of Lady Antebellum, to the omnipresent Drake, to pop queens Kesha (sorry, Ke$ha...) and Katy Perry, to indie darlings Vampire Weekend, to the metal of Avenged Sevenfold. Talk about a disjointed collection.
As for singles, here are the top 20 from Billboard's Hot 100. I think I know five of them (4, 11, 15, 16, 17).
No. Title Artist(s) 1 "Tik Tok" Kesha 2 "Need You Now" Lady Antebellum 3 "Hey, Soul Sister" Train 4 "California Gurls" Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg 5 "OMG" Usher featuring will.i.am 6 "Airplanes" B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams 7 "Love the Way You Lie" Eminem featuring Rihanna 8 "Bad Romance" Lady Gaga 9 "Dynamite" Taio Cruz 10 "Break Your Heart" Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris 11 "Nothin' on You" B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars 12 "I Like It" Enrique Iglesias featuring Pitbull 13 "BedRock" Young Money featuring Lloyd 14 "In My Head" Jason Derulo 15 "Rude Boy" Rihanna 16 "Telephone" Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé 17 "Teenage Dream" Katy Perry 18 "Just the Way You Are" Bruno Mars 19 "Cooler Than Me" Mike Posner 20 "Imma Be" The Black Eyed Peas
I'm sad to say that I'm familiar with the majority of the songs on this list. I'm not sure I'd really lump Lady Antebellum (now Lady A) in with bro country. I remember I Need You now being actually a pretty listenable ballad, and not the overly loud / processed noise so pretty in bro country. But, my God, I thought Kesha's Tik Tok was an absolute low point in pop. It's still one of the worst fucking songs I've ever heard. Although, the pop world loudly declared "Hold My Beer" and we've gotten some absolute dreck in the last decade.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Sept 15, 2021 14:12:34 GMT
I'll have to look up "Tik Tok" because it doesn't ring a bell at all. Please hold...
EDIT - OK, yep, that's terrible. Autotuning the talking at the intro? Jeezus. She sounds like Avril Lavigne bratty-talking, which is not a compliment. I hate everything about that song. And video.
|
|
|
Post by kds on Sept 15, 2021 14:51:11 GMT
I'll have to look up "Tik Tok" because it doesn't ring a bell at all. Please hold...
EDIT - OK, yep, that's terrible. Autotuning the talking at the intro? Jeezus. She sounds like Avril Lavigne bratty-talking, which is not a compliment. I hate everything about that song. And video.
And that song was everywhere for a while. It was even used as an intro to an episode of The Simpsons. I remember going to Ocean City that summer, hanging out in a bar that was mostly populated by 50-somethings, and somebody played Tik Tok on the jukebox. Everything about that song is annoying. From the intentional misspelling of the title to her half talking / half singing "vocals." And Kesha had a few hits that year that were almost as annoying. I mean, it is really any wonder people were calling Lady Gaga a pop genius, considering some of her peers included Kesha and Katy Perry? Sorry, I can go on and on about the World of Shit that is pop in the 21st Century, but here's one I forgot to mention. 2010 was supposed to mark the beginning of the end for the band Scorpions. They started a "farewell tour," and released Sting in the Tail, as their intended final album. The album was pretty good. But, of course, Scorpions are still around, and have released two albums since. Speaking of German metal bands, 2010 also marked a triumphant return for Accept. After a brief reunion with Udo Dirkschneider, which ended because Udo said he'd only stay with the band if given full legal rights to the name Accept, the band rehired TT Quick, and released the album Blood of the Nations. The new music and new singer won over fans who were ready to......accept the new version of Accept.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Sept 15, 2021 15:05:31 GMT
I'll start off my personal recollections of the year with one of my favorites from the time, one that is relevant to this board, and one that I think actually eventually was lost in the shuffle of then-near-future events: Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin.
This was still pretty fresh off That Lucky Old Sun, and honestly I think in hindsight it's the latter moments of the peak of Wilson's solo career. I thought the entire Smile situation through Gershwin were the high point, the period when he was performing better than he had, his band was really great, they were recording cool things that sounded good and interesting, and they were well regarded.
I realize the music itself isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I do like that kind of music to some extent to begin with. I also thought it fit Wilson very well. While I think his love of Gershwin was probably exaggerated based mostly on that he liked "Rhapsody in Blue," that style of music was obviously in his blood.
The album had its cloying moments of "Beach-Boysification," but such is life. They really pushed that album, and I think it was probably a little bit of a disappointment in terms of its reception. Bringing in Al Schmidt, for example, to do the mix: they were looking for a Grammy. Instead it peaked at #26, but for just one week, and it doesn't seem to have received any certifications (e.g. silver, gold or platinum record status).
That said, the album does sound great. Wilson sings as well as he's sung on a solo album, even though his range is diminished from the early ones. The tracks sound good. Everything sounds good. It's a really good album.
Of course it was soon overshadowed by the Smile Sessions and then the reunion. And then the breakup.
|
|
|
Post by kds on Sept 15, 2021 15:33:27 GMT
I agree that BWRG is a great sounding album. It might be his best sounding solo album, both from a production standpoint and a vocal standpoint. I'm just not a huge fan of the source material, although I will say The Like In I Love You is probably one of my favorite BW solo songs.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Sept 15, 2021 15:36:32 GMT
I agree that BWRG is a great sounding album. It might be his best sounding solo album, both from a production standpoint and a vocal standpoint. I'm just not a huge fan of the source material, although I will say The Like In I Love You is probably one of my favorite BW solo songs. Yes, that is exactly what I assumed was the primary issue for many people: this was music that, whether done in a Beach Boys style or not, is 75 years past its heyday. Now of course music can live on for a long time--we still have fans of Mozart, after all--but it is a bigger request of an audience. And Wilson's core audience was a rock and roll audience. So however good his Tin Pan Alley/Broadway album was, it's just not necessarily something that core audience would be most interested in hearing.
|
|