The 1001 Album Generator Project Thread

Should we do a group project

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  • Poll closed .
Lee Newman said:
this is the soundtrack to some 50's movie about bicycles with subtitles that is in some dark corner of the TCM section of HBO MAX

He's an okay singer, I guess. It might be better if I had a clue what he was singing about and if there weren't weird triangle rhythm sections.

I feel like I need a beret and a cigarette in a long holder thing and that I should spit on filthy Americans like me. SOMEONE GET ME A CROISSANT!!
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Bicycle Thieves? If so, that's a great movie!
 
Lee Newman said:
I have no idea what this is and a quick scan of allmusic and Wikipedia aren’t really helpful.
View attachment 165110

Jacques Brel - Olympia ‘64
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I must say I love this. But I lived in Paris for a long time and this is the kind of music that the French after playing the latest hip hop or electronic would always put on, and everyone would sing along. I think it helps to get the lyrics, which are wonderful. No way he's the (Belgian) Elvis. He's really the classic chanteur, equivalent to Piaf for me. It's v nostalgic music for me, takes me back to kicking the leaves in a Parisian park, turning up to random student parties all over town. All that said, I can see if you're coming at this for the first time and without French it would be v much WTF
 
Poly-Rythmo said:
I must say I love this. But I lived in Paris for a long time and this is the kind of music that the French after playing the latest hip hop or electronic would always put on, and everyone would sing along. I think it helps to get the lyrics, which are wonderful. No way he's the (Belgian) Elvis. He's really the classic chanteur, equivalent to Piaf for me. It's v nostalgic music for me, takes me back to kicking the leaves in a Parisian park, turning up to random student parties all over town. All that said, I can see if you're coming at this for the first time and without French it would be v much WTF
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music of time and place. then. lol
 
i also figured you might have some perspective. I'm gonna let it be for a while. It will be interesting to see how scores change between the two projects. Will I know more french music then? Will I care enough to hunt down the lyrics translated, will I have learned french (AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA that aint happening).... I wonder what my step-mother-in-law thinks of it. She is all nutso about the french.
 
I will say this because after it, I listened to Estrela Acesa by Sessa shortly after the Olympia 64, that it wasn't just the language. In fact, I can often just treat the voice as another instrument. The vocals on Pink Flag only got some critiquing from me after I had acclimated to the music a little more, I didn't notice that he was mumbling until the second listen.

My point is thAt Brel's vocal style was off putting to me (this could be overcome by understanding the lyrics, see Dylan for god's sake) but I also didn't appreciate the instrumentation. His voice over a solo accordion or over a cacophony of triangles was not a pleasant experience. Because I didn't like the music - I started to fixate on his voice which, in addition to singing in a language I do not understand, I also found unpleasant. It was just unpleasant all the way around.

I could see how joining in with a bunch of people to sing along with it could be fun. That's half the fun of Joel's Piano Man anyhow, but I'm not sure I want to hang out with people that actually know all the words to this stuff because they like it.

It's also not just that it is prototypically/stereotypically French, there were aspects of the music that would be quite pleasing in another setting (part of the reason I talked about Bicycle Thieves before is because some of it sounded like hipster foreign movie soundtrack music)... but the music here didn't seem particularly masterful in its conception or performance.

It's the first thing I really just didn't like in the whole of the experience so far. Even counting listening to The Coral in the group thread... at least that felt like an experience - this just felt like auditory torture. I would think blasting this out the front of a tank would be much more effective than AC/DC or Wagner at scaring the hell out of your opponent.

It's possible that additional listens could lead to musical stockholm syndrome like @Poly-Rythmo discussed in the other thread. I mean I threw Welk as an insult. When I was a kid, I was like can we watch anything besides Lawrence Welk? When I happen to come across the show now, it is nostalgic and not as bad as I remember it being when I was a kid - despite the clearly antiseptic approach to jazz that is in place on that show.
 
Lee Newman said:
Sorry @Skalap , don't take it personally.
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Ahahah! i don't and I get how hard it can be to get into Brel's music (and most of his contemporaneous artists like Brassens, Aznavour, Ferré and many others). It's a lot about the lyrics and the emotion they put in the song, not so much about the musical part and the production behind.

From your posts I understand you listened to Amsterdam and Vesoul. I'd recommend Voir un ami pleurer, La chanson des vieux amants, Ne me quittes pas, Ces gens-là. You'll need the read translated lyrics though as the song alone won't help. He really is one of the best with a very personal way of singing.

lyricstranslate.com

Lara Fabian - Voir un ami pleurer (English translation)

Lara Fabian - Voir un ami pleurer lyrics (French) + English translation: Of co
lyricstranslate.com lyricstranslate.com
 
Skalap said:
Ahahah! i don't and I get how hard it can be to get into Brel's music (and most of his contemporaneous artists like Brassens, Aznavour, Ferré and many others). It's a lot about the lyrics and the emotion they put in the song, not so much about the musical part and the production behind.

From your posts I understand you listened to Amsterdam and Vesoul. I'd recommend Voir un ami pleurer, La chanson des vieux amants, Ne me quittes pas, Ces gens-là. You'll need the read translated lyrics though as the song alone won't help. He really is one of the best with a very personal way of singing.

lyricstranslate.com

Lara Fabian - Voir un ami pleurer (English translation)

Lara Fabian - Voir un ami pleurer lyrics (French) + English translation: Of co
lyricstranslate.com lyricstranslate.com
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I listened to the whole thing, man:

Lol
 
10/1001
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message
220px-Grandmaster_Flash_%26_the_Furious_Five-The_Message_%28album_cover%29.jpg

First time listening in full, though I've heard the self-titled track several times.
This one starts very strong with the funky disco "She's Fresh" to ignite the party. Love the Tom Tom Club sample on the follow up "It's Nasty" as well. Unfortunately, the album's rating goes down a full star with the rather kitschy and tacky "Scorpio," hilariously out of place. Both "Dreamin'" and "You Are" are lyrically absurd, mediocre slow burners. The self-titled track holds up well...I guess, though I just wished it would end after "You Are."
Reflecting on the whole, even though the runtime is nowhere near a marathon, it is inconsistent and not that impressive. My least favorite listen so far.

Personal highlights: "She's Fresh," "It's Nasty"
Rating: 2/5 [Mediocre]
 
Skalap said:
You went with the short version. At least you could have listened to the entire set :

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Given that quite a bit of that is not available here in the states, I listened to two extra songs somehow! WHY DIDN’T YOU SHOW ME THIS EARLIER? WHY DO YOU HATE ME? WHAT DID I EVER DO TO UOU?
 
Lee Newman said:
Given that quite a bit of that is not available here in the states, I listened to two extra songs somehow! WHY DIDN’T YOU SHOW ME THIS EARLIER? WHY DO YOU HATE ME? WHAT DID I EVER DO TO UOU?
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It was night in France, I do sleep at night (when the kids allow me to). Listen to Voir un Ami Pleurer, thank me later.

Love you Lee

PS: let me know if you ever come to Belgium, I'll take you to nice bars, drink the best possible beers and we'll sing Brel's songs with locals. We'll take @bfly with us as she probably knows great places to drink sing outside of Brussels.
 
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