July 2020 Record Challenge (The Raffle Strikes Back)
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gafacaode
Well-Known Member
Day 5 - DIFFERENT STROKES: A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
Pixies - EP2
Was I excited when news of new Pixies music was coming? Hell yes
Did releasing it on 3 separate EPs make sense? Yes, at the time it felt like they were easing into it.
Was I pissed off when they collected the EPs and released them as an album? Yes
Did the music live up to my expectations? No, but, let's face it, the bar was way too high.
Do I hate it? Absolutely not, it may be sub par Pixies but it's still better than tons of new bands.
Pixies - EP2
Was I excited when news of new Pixies music was coming? Hell yes
Did releasing it on 3 separate EPs make sense? Yes, at the time it felt like they were easing into it.
Was I pissed off when they collected the EPs and released them as an album? Yes
Did the music live up to my expectations? No, but, let's face it, the bar was way too high.
Do I hate it? Absolutely not, it may be sub par Pixies but it's still better than tons of new bands.
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Skeletonframes
Active Member
JULY 5
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
Jimmy Buffett - Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
I could have threw a dart at a list of Buffett albums and got one that would have made the casual music-listening crowd cringe, but I chose this one because it has "that" song on it. The one that hit top 10 on the billboard charts and has been the bane of any Floridian bartender's life for the last 40 years.....Margaritaville.
When reviewing this album for Rolling Stone magazine Ira Mayer wrote:
“The drinking tunes, it should be added, probably work in live performance. One can get away with one-liner songs if the picking and mood are right. Here, however, Norbert Putnam's overwrought production and arrangements milk each number of its potential charm, emotion or, for that matter, shit-kicking impact. A few loose country licks would have been more in order than the strings and flutes provided.”
“His songs are depressing. Margaritaville is about getting wasted to hide the pain of a failed relationship.” - PlinyPompei on reddit
The Buffett hate is real, but most people I grew up around don't hate specific albums or songs (Margaritaville excluded); they hate the idea of Jimmy Buffett and his parrothead followers. For no better reason than it's easy to do. Parrotheads are like the over-40 version of juggalos in the eyes of the general public. A rabid fanbase that, although completely pleasant people, are derided to no end just for enjoying something they're passionate about unapologetically. It's almost as if it's "cool" to hate Jimmy Buffett and his persona of the vagabond beach bum dipsomaniac nomad.
“I’m pretty sure the moment you start liking Jimmy Buffett is the moment you give up any hope of improving your life. It’s also the moment you stop caring about things like chord changes or rhythm or sobriety.” - Ben Bowman Ben’s Breakfast Blog
“As previously established, I hate Jimmy Buffett. He's playing with the "Coral Reefer Band." Get it? 'Cause "reefer" means "marijuana."
I shall refuse to play in to your shenanigans, you hack. I will refer to you and your group of drug-addled minstrels as "No-Talent Jimmy the Douche and the Stoned Idiot Jag-weeds Who Couldn't Be Bothered to Get a Real Job." - unknown posted on nbcchicago.com
“His music sucks, his crappy chain restaurants suck, the food sucks, the drinks suck, and the restaurants are full of idiots who are too stupid to do anything creative on their vacation other than go to a chain that they have back home. This is the equivalent of going to the Hard Rock Cafe in some foreign city, why would you ever want to do that? Awful, just awful, avoid at all costs and try to see some of the 'real' Jamaica” - snoogle Tripadvisor review of Margaritaville Ocho Rios
“My parents like jimmy buffet and I find him extremely annoying. He reminds me of a cliche tourist with a tropical button up shirt, a safari hat, smeared sunblock, pink skin, board shorts, sandals and a nikon camera. And when I think of real tropical music I think of raggae like Bob Marley. I don't even know what genre Jimmy Buffet falls under. But his voice annoys me.” - Syckobot on reddit
“I simply cannot fathom how this tropical fruitcake has amassed the veritable empire that he has. And off of WHAT, pray tell? It seems like everybody on God's green earth thinks that the sun itself shines forth from this music, and I swear to everything that is holy--- I don't get it. It's lousy and inane. Oh, I see--- you're just a "cheeseburger in paradise". Eat me, jackass. This bozo in Birkenstocks has his own line of "Margaritaville" tequilla, "Margaritaville" margarita mix, "Margaritaville" shrimp, a friggin' "Margaritaville" cookbook, and a handful of obnoxious theme-restaurants--- from TWO GOD DAMNED SONGS! Can you think of any other instance whereby two feeble songs have spawned so much insipid pop-culture enterprise?” - Dead Sun The Not Quite-So Deadshow
“Buffett is an unremarkable songwriter with a knack for marketing. On his third album, 1973’s A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, the singer and guitarist found a marketable persona as an ordinary jerk from Shit County, Alabama who likes to get tanked on the beach. The album goes like this: He asks the ladies, “Why don’t we get drunk and screw?” He takes a girl to a drive-in theater in his pickup truck, gets her drunk on gin and fucks her, then leaves her “all alone and cryin’.” He and his buddies shoplift peanut butter and sardines. It’s a scumbag’s life, but to Buffett, it’s all a big hoot. 1977’s “Margaritaville” launched his country-with-steel drums shtick into the top ten, and by the 1980s he was filling stadiums with herds of shithouse drunks in Hawaiian shirts.” - Moe Bishop Vice.com
“He writes really cheesy songs about chillin' on islands and shit. It's "Caribbean" music but the fans are all white people. He writes songs like Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise. It's music for dads-- I was a kid in the 90s and my dad and uncles were Parrotheads (what Jimmy Buffett fans are called) and they would dress up to go to Jimmy Buffett concerts in Hawaiian shirts and tape stuffed parrots to their shirts and wear hats with dolphins stapled to them.” - fireswater on reddit
You start to see a pattern in people that dislike the idea of Jimmy Buffett. They attach themselves to the two most play-out songs in his catalogue and take the artist Jimmy Buffett as the face-value of those two songs. One of which probably isn't even about what most people think it's about. Margaritaville is a self-loathing song about coming to the realization that his lifestyle is causing him pain more than any outside source is. But, people just see it as the drinking song where you shout "SALT SALT SALT" on a specific chorus. I mean, ask the casual listener what Cheeseburger in Paradise is about and they'll probably tell you it's about eatin cheeseburgers. But, he says in the opening line he "tried to amend his carnivorous habit" and then the song goes on to say he dreams about cheeseburgers because he's trying to eat better. Not that any of that changes the fact that it's a cheesy (no pun intended) song, but it's supposed to be! And I feel like that's where the disconnect comes in between the Buffett fans and the Buffet haters.
Banana Republics is, in my opinion, one of the most well-crafted singer-songwriter songs ever made. The way that the music and lyrics evokes some thing I've never experienced and sets the tone, setting, and multiple intricate stories in 5 minutes is nothing short of masterful. It's wistful, wishful, and lonesome all at the same time.
...expatriated Americans, feeling so all alone...telling themselves the same lies, they told themselves back home.....
![IMG_0282[1577].JPG](https://s3needlesandgrooves.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/data/attachments/55/55288-591e4e0b68ad6554e3ef7783ba285656.jpg?hash=WR5OC2itZV "IMG_0282[1577].JPG")
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
Jimmy Buffett - Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
I could have threw a dart at a list of Buffett albums and got one that would have made the casual music-listening crowd cringe, but I chose this one because it has "that" song on it. The one that hit top 10 on the billboard charts and has been the bane of any Floridian bartender's life for the last 40 years.....Margaritaville.
When reviewing this album for Rolling Stone magazine Ira Mayer wrote:
“The drinking tunes, it should be added, probably work in live performance. One can get away with one-liner songs if the picking and mood are right. Here, however, Norbert Putnam's overwrought production and arrangements milk each number of its potential charm, emotion or, for that matter, shit-kicking impact. A few loose country licks would have been more in order than the strings and flutes provided.”
“His songs are depressing. Margaritaville is about getting wasted to hide the pain of a failed relationship.” - PlinyPompei on reddit
The Buffett hate is real, but most people I grew up around don't hate specific albums or songs (Margaritaville excluded); they hate the idea of Jimmy Buffett and his parrothead followers. For no better reason than it's easy to do. Parrotheads are like the over-40 version of juggalos in the eyes of the general public. A rabid fanbase that, although completely pleasant people, are derided to no end just for enjoying something they're passionate about unapologetically. It's almost as if it's "cool" to hate Jimmy Buffett and his persona of the vagabond beach bum dipsomaniac nomad.
“I’m pretty sure the moment you start liking Jimmy Buffett is the moment you give up any hope of improving your life. It’s also the moment you stop caring about things like chord changes or rhythm or sobriety.” - Ben Bowman Ben’s Breakfast Blog
“As previously established, I hate Jimmy Buffett. He's playing with the "Coral Reefer Band." Get it? 'Cause "reefer" means "marijuana."
I shall refuse to play in to your shenanigans, you hack. I will refer to you and your group of drug-addled minstrels as "No-Talent Jimmy the Douche and the Stoned Idiot Jag-weeds Who Couldn't Be Bothered to Get a Real Job." - unknown posted on nbcchicago.com
“His music sucks, his crappy chain restaurants suck, the food sucks, the drinks suck, and the restaurants are full of idiots who are too stupid to do anything creative on their vacation other than go to a chain that they have back home. This is the equivalent of going to the Hard Rock Cafe in some foreign city, why would you ever want to do that? Awful, just awful, avoid at all costs and try to see some of the 'real' Jamaica” - snoogle Tripadvisor review of Margaritaville Ocho Rios
“My parents like jimmy buffet and I find him extremely annoying. He reminds me of a cliche tourist with a tropical button up shirt, a safari hat, smeared sunblock, pink skin, board shorts, sandals and a nikon camera. And when I think of real tropical music I think of raggae like Bob Marley. I don't even know what genre Jimmy Buffet falls under. But his voice annoys me.” - Syckobot on reddit
“I simply cannot fathom how this tropical fruitcake has amassed the veritable empire that he has. And off of WHAT, pray tell? It seems like everybody on God's green earth thinks that the sun itself shines forth from this music, and I swear to everything that is holy--- I don't get it. It's lousy and inane. Oh, I see--- you're just a "cheeseburger in paradise". Eat me, jackass. This bozo in Birkenstocks has his own line of "Margaritaville" tequilla, "Margaritaville" margarita mix, "Margaritaville" shrimp, a friggin' "Margaritaville" cookbook, and a handful of obnoxious theme-restaurants--- from TWO GOD DAMNED SONGS! Can you think of any other instance whereby two feeble songs have spawned so much insipid pop-culture enterprise?” - Dead Sun The Not Quite-So Deadshow
“Buffett is an unremarkable songwriter with a knack for marketing. On his third album, 1973’s A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, the singer and guitarist found a marketable persona as an ordinary jerk from Shit County, Alabama who likes to get tanked on the beach. The album goes like this: He asks the ladies, “Why don’t we get drunk and screw?” He takes a girl to a drive-in theater in his pickup truck, gets her drunk on gin and fucks her, then leaves her “all alone and cryin’.” He and his buddies shoplift peanut butter and sardines. It’s a scumbag’s life, but to Buffett, it’s all a big hoot. 1977’s “Margaritaville” launched his country-with-steel drums shtick into the top ten, and by the 1980s he was filling stadiums with herds of shithouse drunks in Hawaiian shirts.” - Moe Bishop Vice.com
“He writes really cheesy songs about chillin' on islands and shit. It's "Caribbean" music but the fans are all white people. He writes songs like Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise. It's music for dads-- I was a kid in the 90s and my dad and uncles were Parrotheads (what Jimmy Buffett fans are called) and they would dress up to go to Jimmy Buffett concerts in Hawaiian shirts and tape stuffed parrots to their shirts and wear hats with dolphins stapled to them.” - fireswater on reddit
You start to see a pattern in people that dislike the idea of Jimmy Buffett. They attach themselves to the two most play-out songs in his catalogue and take the artist Jimmy Buffett as the face-value of those two songs. One of which probably isn't even about what most people think it's about. Margaritaville is a self-loathing song about coming to the realization that his lifestyle is causing him pain more than any outside source is. But, people just see it as the drinking song where you shout "SALT SALT SALT" on a specific chorus. I mean, ask the casual listener what Cheeseburger in Paradise is about and they'll probably tell you it's about eatin cheeseburgers. But, he says in the opening line he "tried to amend his carnivorous habit" and then the song goes on to say he dreams about cheeseburgers because he's trying to eat better. Not that any of that changes the fact that it's a cheesy (no pun intended) song, but it's supposed to be! And I feel like that's where the disconnect comes in between the Buffett fans and the Buffet haters.
Banana Republics is, in my opinion, one of the most well-crafted singer-songwriter songs ever made. The way that the music and lyrics evokes some thing I've never experienced and sets the tone, setting, and multiple intricate stories in 5 minutes is nothing short of masterful. It's wistful, wishful, and lonesome all at the same time.
...expatriated Americans, feeling so all alone...telling themselves the same lies, they told themselves back home.....
MadLucas
Well-Known Member
As a massive Weezer fan, I think Red Album was more divisive.
And anyone who thinks they have a bad discography clearly has never heard White Album or Everything Will Be Alright In The End. Those two are as flawless as their first three.
Yer Ol' Uncle D
Well-Known Member
JULY 5
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
This turned out to be the last record from this band. Most considered it a lukewarm last gasp of a group in the throes of death. I love it.
If this is a band clinging to life, I'm in.
Screaming Trees - Dust
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
This turned out to be the last record from this band. Most considered it a lukewarm last gasp of a group in the throes of death. I love it.
If this is a band clinging to life, I'm in.
Screaming Trees - Dust
ranbalam
Well-Known Member
JULY 5
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy
Not as unloved as Never Say Die, but it's down there among the least revered Sabbath albums, especially in the Ozzy eras.
Personally, I love it. And Tony Iommi's solos on You Won't Change Me make it worth at least a listen.
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy
Not as unloved as Never Say Die, but it's down there among the least revered Sabbath albums, especially in the Ozzy eras.
Personally, I love it. And Tony Iommi's solos on You Won't Change Me make it worth at least a listen.
tvham
Well-Known Member
JULY 5
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
Coldplay- Ghost Stories
Coldplay is a divisive band to begin with but this album seems to have divided people even more. Personally, it’s a top 3 Coldplay album for me even though A Sky Full of Stars sticks out like a sore thumb. Magic is the star here though I’m also a big fan of Another’s Arms and Ink and Midnight.
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
Coldplay- Ghost Stories
Coldplay is a divisive band to begin with but this album seems to have divided people even more. Personally, it’s a top 3 Coldplay album for me even though A Sky Full of Stars sticks out like a sore thumb. Magic is the star here though I’m also a big fan of Another’s Arms and Ink and Midnight.
jamieanderson1968
ninniest jackaninny
JULY 5
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
David Bowie - Tonight
Was reminded of this album the other day when someone was asking about 4th Bowie boxset (Loving the Alien). Considered by many Bowie fans to be in the bottom of his records, often 2nd only to Never Let Me Down. I actually like the album, even with some terrible songs on it. I like Blue Jean a lot, because it tries so hard to recreate the feel of Let’s Dance and Modern Love. But the true saving grace for this album is the song Loving The Alien. I would put that track up in my top 10 Bowie songs any day.
Now if he had just written Absolute Beginners earlier and put it on here instead of God Only Knows…
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
David Bowie - Tonight
Was reminded of this album the other day when someone was asking about 4th Bowie boxset (Loving the Alien). Considered by many Bowie fans to be in the bottom of his records, often 2nd only to Never Let Me Down. I actually like the album, even with some terrible songs on it. I like Blue Jean a lot, because it tries so hard to recreate the feel of Let’s Dance and Modern Love. But the true saving grace for this album is the song Loving The Alien. I would put that track up in my top 10 Bowie songs any day.
Now if he had just written Absolute Beginners earlier and put it on here instead of God Only Knows…
sahomerrocks
Well-Known Member
JULY 5
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
I really struggled with today as I don't think I have a bunch of divisive or derided albums by the type of music nerd that congregates here that isn't super niche (jokey, socially-conscious, christian ska anyone?). But I often see this album pointed to as a cautionary tale of unreasonable blog hype from 15 years ago. I still think it's great. Plus, The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth is a surprising party banger.
DIFFERENT STROKES
A widely disliked or divisive album that you personally love
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
I really struggled with today as I don't think I have a bunch of divisive or derided albums by the type of music nerd that congregates here that isn't super niche (jokey, socially-conscious, christian ska anyone?). But I often see this album pointed to as a cautionary tale of unreasonable blog hype from 15 years ago. I still think it's great. Plus, The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth is a surprising party banger.
Murfocakes
custom title approved by jamieanderson1968
I actually rate Never Let Me Down. Some really great pop songs on it.
jamieanderson1968
ninniest jackaninny
When they re-mixed it for the boxset, I realized how catchy it was and went back to the original and gave it more spins as well.
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
Day 5: Different strokes
Wilco - A.M.
Despite everyone's favourite record club (/s) choosing this as a record of the month, for some extremely strange unknown reason, most Wilco fans would consider their debut to be one of their weakest records, if not the weakest. It's hard to blame them; Tweedy was, by his own admission, still stuck in Uncle Tupelo mode and wanted to beat Jay Farrar at his own game. As a result, it's mostly an unremarkable set of alt-country rockers, and it's hard to believe it's the same band (minus Jay Bennett, of course) as the one that made the experimental Being There next. But I do love most of the songs on here, as well as the youthful energy that bursts out of them. "Box Full of Letters", "Casino Queen," and "Shouldn't Be Ashamed" are live fan favourites for a reason. For me, it probably rates closer to the middle of their discography.
Wilco - A.M.
Despite everyone's favourite record club (/s) choosing this as a record of the month, for some extremely strange unknown reason, most Wilco fans would consider their debut to be one of their weakest records, if not the weakest. It's hard to blame them; Tweedy was, by his own admission, still stuck in Uncle Tupelo mode and wanted to beat Jay Farrar at his own game. As a result, it's mostly an unremarkable set of alt-country rockers, and it's hard to believe it's the same band (minus Jay Bennett, of course) as the one that made the experimental Being There next. But I do love most of the songs on here, as well as the youthful energy that bursts out of them. "Box Full of Letters", "Casino Queen," and "Shouldn't Be Ashamed" are live fan favourites for a reason. For me, it probably rates closer to the middle of their discography.
gaporter
Well-Known Member
Oh there are several Weezer albums I could have gone with here. I went with Pacific Daydream just because it was met with a lot of hate and doesn't have many defenders, but I genuinely think it's pretty good. I liked Red too, but I think it has some defenders just because of how weird it is. I agree that the White Album is underrated, and it's quality honestly may be what made the follow-up being PD so disappointing to some people. The thing with me is I can find something on every Weezer album, even the worst ones, that I like, at least one or two songs hit the mark. I will say though that the Black Album was bad enough that it made me want to jump off the Weezer train altogether, to me that was by far their worst album yet.
Joe Mac
Well-Known Member
Day 5: Different Strokes
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
Time has probably been a lot kinder to this album than the initial reaction was. The whole band was exhausted and fed up by the circus around Rumours and this album, which veered away from the uber successful AM rock formula was very much a reaction against it. Lindsay Buckingham has become very interested in new wave music and production and convinced the whole band to experiment a bit with this huge double album. It was nowhere near as successful or critically revered as Rumours but I absolutely love it, it’s probably my favourite Fleetwood Mac album.
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
Time has probably been a lot kinder to this album than the initial reaction was. The whole band was exhausted and fed up by the circus around Rumours and this album, which veered away from the uber successful AM rock formula was very much a reaction against it. Lindsay Buckingham has become very interested in new wave music and production and convinced the whole band to experiment a bit with this huge double album. It was nowhere near as successful or critically revered as Rumours but I absolutely love it, it’s probably my favourite Fleetwood Mac album.
tvham
Well-Known Member
The title track is SO good.