Hot Take/ Musical Confession Thread!

TenderLovingKiller® said:
If Reed and Cale were influenced by Japanese and African music (something I have never heard described and an influence but sure, I guess it’s possible) and seemingly blended those styles with the Avant-Garde, Classical, Doo-Wop, Jazz, and R&B (well noted influences of both Cale and Reed respectively) then I would say they were even more innovative than I initially thought.
Click to expand...


Has anyone seen the documentary in Apple TV. It was interesting.
 
Sonicpharmacist said:
Idk, I think I’d classify them as highly influential, yet appropriately rated. What they did for the “alternative” scene in the 90’s, through Perry Farrell’s creation of Lollapalooza and Dave Navarro’s inventive guitar work is more highly thought of than their music. That all being said, Ritual De Lo Habitual slays.
Click to expand...
I bought the 2 disc Ritual the other week, and I forgot how much I loved it and how influential it was in my early musical journey.
 
thefsb said:
The Floating Points album Promises that got so much attention last year is worse than boring, it's infuriating. Clearly it's pretty light in terms of musical ideas, but that's not a problem in itself (I'll gladly listen to long Morton Feldman or Éliane Radigue recordings). It's an hour long repetition of C minor arpeggios that keep banging back at any attempts to improvise, forcing the soloist to conform to its mechanical insistence on RESOLVING between one C minor arpeggio and a slightly different one, back and forth in a cloying simulation of emotional tension. No wonder Pharaoh plays so little, there's nowhere to go.

And what a waste of resources. If I had access to the strings of the LSO, a grand master avant-garde sax player, and that bucket list of keyboards and synths, I'd put a bit a bit more work into it, I can tell you. Hire an arranger ffs, like Nels Cline did in his attempt at mood music.

It's actually very rare that music annoys me. If I don't like something I'm usually just, Meh! I don't care for it. Moving on. I actively hate this album almost as much as I hate The Joshua Tree. But at least I cannot find fault in U2's competence as a commercial pop group. They do the job, deleiver the goods, despicable as they may be, just like a Merc is a top-shelf product if you're into Teutonic richmobiles, U2 is top-shelf reactionary romantic bombast. But wtf even is Promises? An assembly of hipster style-points.
Click to expand...
I LOVE Promises. However, I went into it knowing it was more ambient than jazz. Is it Ambient Jazz? New genre? Either way, if you went in thinking it was going to heavily feature Pharoh Sanders then I can see why it's very disappointing. While I appreciate Jazz, and own a dozen or so Jazz records, I didn't know who Paharoh Sanders was before this album, so I had zero expectations what to expect going into it.
 
wokeupnew said:
I LOVE Promises. However, I went into it knowing it was more ambient than jazz. Is it Ambient Jazz? New genre? Either way, if you went in thinking it was going to heavily feature Pharoh Sanders then I can see why it's very disappointing. While I appreciate Jazz, and own a dozen or so Jazz records, I didn't know who Paharoh Sanders was before this album, so I had zero expectations what to expect going into it.
Click to expand...
I think my issue, and it's a minimal one, is that I purposely waited for the vinyl pressing to arrive before listening to it. In the meantime, I read all the fantastic reviews and saw all the hype around it and think I overbuilt it in my head. I imagine it had much less of an impact on me as a result annoyingly but I do still really enjoy it.
 
Selaws said:
I think my issue, and it's a minimal one, is that I purposely waited for the vinyl pressing to arrive before listening to it. In the meantime, I read all the fantastic reviews and saw all the hype around it and think I overbuilt it in my head. I imagine it had much less of an impact on me as a result annoyingly but I do still really enjoy it.
Click to expand...
I avoid hype and reviews on things that I wait for on vinyl. It's a struggle sometimes. There are also things that I absolutely can't wait for and listen to the second I can...
 
Lee Newman said:
I said it over in the New Music Friday thread, but I'll be a little more inflammatory here. The new Beach House is fine if you want sleepy time Pet Shop Boys.
Click to expand...
I thought "huh?" when I first read this but "Superstar" really does sound like a lost Pet Shop Boys song. I was always ambivalent on Beach House until the last two albums, which I love. I love Pet Shop Boys ballads though.
 
I've got two:

1) Every award show (E.G.O.T., MTV, CMT, BET, all of them) is nonsense and a waste of time and to have any sort of feelings about how they turn out is ridiculous to me. It's being invested in the results of a survey you had no part in and affects you in no way.

"We polled these 13 people to see which of these movies was their favourite."
"Aw man, they didn't chose the movie I like, what a travesty."

2) Lin-Manuel Miranda is incredibly overrated and I'm sick of hearing his music. It all sounds like music written for a PBS cartoon to me.
 
Max Sterling said:
I've got two:

1) Every award show (E.G.O.T., MTV, CMT, BET, all of them) is nonsense and a waste of time and to have any sort of feelings about how they turn out is ridiculous to me. It's being invested in the results of a survey you had no part in and affects you in no way.

"We polled these 13 people to see which of these movies was their favourite."
"Aw man, they didn't chose the movie I like, what a travesty."

2) Lin-Manuel Miranda is incredibly overrated and I'm sick of hearing his music. It all sounds like music written for a PBS cartoon to me.
Click to expand...
I feel the same way. Plus it shocks me that almost everyone I follow on twitter seems to be watching the same thing which makes me think "why would you willing watch some 5-hour awards ceremony with 35 commercial breaks just for some celebrities to make some jokes?"

I suppose as fans of movies people want to see their favorite movies and actors/actresses be rewarded but it's mostly pointless.
 
Max Sterling said:
1) Every award show (E.G.O.T., MTV, CMT, BET, all of them) is nonsense and a waste of time and to have any sort of feelings about how they turn out is ridiculous to me. It's being invested in the results of a survey you had no part in and affects you in no way.

"We polled these 13 people to see which of these movies was their favourite."
"Aw man, they didn't chose the movie I like, what a travesty."
Click to expand...

For me personally, enjoying the Grammys comes with a huge asterisk that I know its pointless and arbitrary, but those are just part of why I love them. I find it hard to put into words but the grandness and self importance of this ceremony that is so out of touch is just wild and i find it a lot of fun to play along with them. I know they dont matter and I will never argue against people who dont like them, Its just something I cant help but love and get excited for every year
 
Max Sterling said:
I've got two:

1) Every award show (E.G.O.T., MTV, CMT, BET, all of them) is nonsense and a waste of time and to have any sort of feelings about how they turn out is ridiculous to me. It's being invested in the results of a survey you had no part in and affects you in no way.

"We polled these 13 people to see which of these movies was their favourite."
"Aw man, they didn't chose the movie I like, what a travesty."

2) Lin-Manuel Miranda is incredibly overrated and I'm sick of hearing his music. It all sounds like music written for a PBS cartoon to me.
Click to expand...

Agreed with #1, disagree with #2. I was about 5 years late on the Hamilton bandwagon but now that I’ve seen that and Encanto I find it hard to describe LMM as anything other than a genius. I say he’s properly rated.
 
bettim84 said:
Agreed with #1, disagree with #2. I was about 5 years late on the Hamilton bandwagon but now that I’ve seen that and Encanto I find it hard to describe LMM as anything other than a genius. I say he’s properly rated.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I know I'm an outlier here. I thought Hamilton was fine, not worth all the mania in my opinion. I did not enjoy Encanto very much. The only song I even remember is the annoying one about how they disowned their son/brother/uncle.

Is it weird to anyone else that most Disney movies are about having a really shite mom? I think that's why Onward is my favourite one in recent memory.
 
Max Sterling said:
Yeah, I know I'm an outlier here. I thought Hamilton was fine, not worth all the mania in my opinion. I did not enjoy Encanto very much. The only song I even remember is the annoying one about how they disowned their son/brother/uncle.

Is it weird to anyone else that most Disney movies are about having a really shite mom? I think that's why Onward is my favourite one in recent memory.
Click to expand...
 
I think the Academy should feel lucky that the slap overshadowed all other coverage of Sunday's ceremony because it was a disaster on pretty much all fronts. Not so much talking about who won or who was snubbed or whatever, but the amount of disrespect and disdain shown for anyone who wasn't an actor, director or screenwriter is honestly astounding. I'm not sure when, but I feel like someday Hollywood's treatment of the effects artists who are responsible for 95% of the work on the billion dollar blockbusters that keep their machine running like they're unworthy of recognition will come back to bite them in the ass.

Even outside of that, the entire thing just felt awful and desperate. Even more than previous years, as someone who really does love movies, the whole thing felt insulting. I don't put much stock into any awards show to begin with, but even by the low standards I set for the Oscars, I was disappointed by how unprofessional, self-congratulatory and nasty the whole show was. I think that's a big issue I have with the Will Smith/Chris Rock discourse is that, had that one moment not happened, there wouldn't have been anything distracting people from the blatant disregard one of the most prestigious accolades in cinema (supposedly) has for film as a serious medium.
 
Max Sterling said:
I've got two:

1) Every award show (E.G.O.T., MTV, CMT, BET, all of them) is nonsense and a waste of time and to have any sort of feelings about how they turn out is ridiculous to me. It's being invested in the results of a survey you had no part in and affects you in no way.

"We polled these 13 people to see which of these movies was their favourite."
"Aw man, they didn't chose the movie I like, what a travesty."

2) Lin-Manuel Miranda is incredibly overrated and I'm sick of hearing his music. It all sounds like music written for a PBS cartoon to me.
Click to expand...
I'm not really invested in awards shows, but I have friends that are. For example, when the Oscar best picture nominees come out, they make a list to ensure they've watched all of the films. I believe they want to determine on what will win, what they think should win, etc. all for fun.

Honestly, I feel that sports are the same way that you describe: why do people get so invested in something that they have absolutely no effect on determining the outcome. I've been a moderate Cubs fan since I was a kid (born into it, frankly) and, when they won the series in 2016, I was soooo freaking stressed out, drinking too much while watching, etc. After that, I was kind of like "why am I putting myself through this when I can't change the final result in any way?"
 
mrjoshuamccormack said:
I'm not really invested in awards shows, but I have friends that are. For example, when the Oscar best picture nominees come out, they make a list to ensure they've watched all of the films. I believe they want to determine on what will win, what they think should win, etc. all for fun.

Honestly, I feel that sports are the same way that you describe: why do people get so invested in something that they have absolutely no effect on determining the outcome. I've been a moderate Cubs fan since I was a kid (born into it, frankly) and, when they won the series in 2016, I was soooo freaking stressed out, drinking too much while watching, etc. After that, I was kind of like "why am I putting myself through this when I can't change the final result in any way?"
Click to expand...
I have friends who do that too! Which is fine, they're making a game out of it, almost. I just don't personally understand the investment.

And I agree about sports. I do enjoy attending sporting matches, especially hockey and soccer. I had season tickets for our local soccer team and would for our hockey team... if we still had one... but I'm less invested in the outcome of the matches and more in the experience with friends. I enjoy... or rather, used to enjoy large groups of people. But I have friends who are college football fans of teams literally NO ONE they know has attended. They have tattoos of College logos and they didn't even go to A college, let alone that one. They get heated about their teams and their rivalries. I didn't have school spirit in high school I sure as heck don't have it now and for something I have zero stake in.

I assume that's more about belonging to something though, aligning yourself with other people, team sports on a meta level. Most of the folks I know like this are also hardliners politically too... hmmm... I wonder what the correlation is there.
 
since the grammys are tomorrow

remember that the last black person to win was herbie hancock for a joni Mitchell covers album.. no matter what surprise lets not pretend they are at all progressive (taylor will probably win and kanye will go on a rant and it will just be an ad for the next taylors version)
 
This thread from Sharon Van Etten popped up on my Twitter feed and personally I think more artists (at least, those whose work tends to be more album-oriented) should follow her lead. In most cases I think I prefer getting the album all at once than being drip-fed single after single to the point where once the album comes out I've already heard damn near half the record (looking at you, the Smile). Not only does it take pressure off of one or two songs (taken out of context from the album itself, at that) to sell you on the project, but especially in the age of streaming where everyone has a new album as soon as it comes out, singles sometimes feel superfluous. Because where the purpose of a single used to be similar to a movie trailer (give you an idea of what's in store and whether or not it's something you will personally enjoy), nowadays people can listen to new records as soon as they drop at no extra cost to the monthly rate they already pay, so even if the album ends up not appealing to them, it's not like it set them back monetarily like it would have fifteen years ago. I don't know, I find the conversation interesting. Thoughts?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top