The Album Club

[Trollheart]

As you may or may not have heard, we ran this in Music Banter last year and this, and it's reasonably popular, but as most of us seem to be migrating away from MB I thought it might be as well to move the club over to here, so not only can those who already take part continue to do so without the need to log in to MB if they don't want to, but that it can be open to those who have up to now not been aware of its existence.

Here's the skinny.

Anyone who wants to take part let me know and I'll add you to the sign-up sheet. You'll then be eligible to select an album, any genre, any year. Each album will be under the spotlight for two weeks, with the first  week given over to time to listening to the album and the second to commenting on it.

You can write as much or as little about the album as you like, just please remember always to be respectful of people's choices. Except mine. I know you'll all laugh nastily at mine but that's okay, I'm used to it.

First come first choice, so sign up early. Or not at all.

We'll probably rate them, but that will depend on who wants to do that. The main thing is just to get people talking about music again in a fun way.


Note: full members are those who participate in each album chosen, listening to it, reviewing and suggesting their own. Associate members are those who seem to want to take part, but for whatever reason have not been able to give it the time needed. They may pop back in, so we're basically holding their seat, though it's empty at the moment. You can opt to be an Associate member, which means you can just drop in and out as you like, but that also means you're not eligible to suggest an album.


Full members
---------------------
Trollheart (Curating only as of May 18)
Rubber Soul
SGR
Lisnaholic
Mindfulness
Janszoon
DJ Chameleon
Dr Rez **
Toy Revolver
Mrs. Waffles
Guybrush

** Subject to them joining up here.

Associate members
--------------------------------
Fetcher (On hiatus; we hope she'll be back)
Music Collector
Carpe Mortem



Albums already reviewed (thanks to Lisnaholic for the hard work drawing up the list)

Albums Done And Dusted So Far:

Elizium: nominated by SGR: Average rating: 7.5 (first review in post #21)
We Have Fed You All: Batlord: 8.6 (#53)
Tsuchi No Ne: Marie Monday: 6.8 (#83)
Pleasures Of The Harbor: rubber soul: 7.3 (#121)
Program Music I: Lisna: 7.5 (#145)
Time Passages: Trollheart: 7.5 (#156)
The Electric Lucifer: rubber soul: 7.3 (#217)
Sleep It Off: Marie Monday: 8.5 (#233)
Beautiful Midnight: music_collector: 6.3 (#271)
Stepmother City: Lisna: 8.0 (#302)
LIQUID: Lab vol 5: SGR: 8.1 (#340)
Maria McKee: Trollheart: 7.6 (#385)
100 Days, 100 Nights: rubber soul: 7.8 (#409)
Neverending White Light: music_collector:6.6 (#431)
Cure For Pain :Lisnaholic: 6.4 (#472)
Tones Of Town: MarieMonday: 6 (#501)
Protection: SGR: 7.2 (#540)
Sackcloth And Ashes: Carpe Mortem: 8.6 (#572)
Ride The Black Wave: Trollheart: 6.6 (#599)
Paul's Boutique: SGR: 7.2 (#650)
Concrete Blonde: rubbersoul: 8.3 (#682)
From Spain To Spain: Lisna: 5.2 (#695)
Living Things : Mindfulness: 5.6 (#710)
Joy Comes Back : Trollheart: 7.1 (#745)

Current album:


Zerospace - Kidneythieves (DJ Chameleon)

Coming up:

My Head is an Animal - Of Monsters and Men (Mindfulness) - Starts May 30
People's Spring - Warsaw Village Band (Lisnaholic) - Starts June 13
The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers (SGR) - Starts June 27
Changing Landscapes (Zompopa) - Arthur King (Toy Revolver) - Starts July 11

[Toy Revolver]

n

[Lexi Darling]

Requesting permission to come aboard, cap'n!

[Trollheart]

TR, does that n stand for no or in?
Mrs. Waffles, very welcome aboard.

[Mindy]

The Sophtware Slump is on my active playlist right now, I was wondering when you'd bring the album club over here.

[Lexi Darling]

Thank you, glad to be here! So does "current album" mean I should review the Grandaddy album? Or should I wait for the next album since I wasn't a member when it was picked?

[Toy Revolver]

this album reminds me of 4 albums in particular- soft bulletin aeroplane over the sea final cut and animals - sb is my favorite lips record (and i've followed them since their shortly after their debut) aos should be worshipped by all who have heard it- and the final two are my third and first favorite pf records - so that's high company - this record and their debut set them apart from contemporaries like galaxy 500 and on par with pavement (maybe better even) and sebadoh (probably a smudge inferior)

as far as a one man effort that feels like a band what lytle did here is like prince level of diy vision fulfilment

23 years on this is aging wonderfully and will continue more and more to be acknowledged- i've spent more time with the debut so far but i can definitely see this one replacing it as my go to for this band if i keep on living long enough to transition to that organically- that is to say i view this as the better of the two records but i still like the debut a tad better but this has room to grow especially if i make more effort to appreciate it lyrically

i hope everyone who reviews this starts from the perspective that this is great - what's left to explain why

don't make a fool out of yourself taking any other position

[SGR]

don't make a fool out of yourself taking any other position

aeroplane over the sea - aos should be worshipped by all who have heard it

Jeff Mangum taught me that if you can't sing, you should probably stick to poetry.

[SGR]

Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump



So this is an indie rock album with sprinkles of electronics and psychedelia tentatively having something to do technology and its failures and faults? And is that the lead singer from Built to Spill? No? He just sounds like him then. Built to Spill doing their best OK Computer impression.

These heady comparisons don't really have anything to do with the quality of the music. Even if the echoed reverb synth vocals halfway through the first track sound just like the ones at the end of Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)", it's all seemingly competently put together. There's definite layers to the sound. The lead singer is able to carry a tune. And the mix sounds nice too. And yet it all leaves me a bit non-plussed.

One of the more interesting choices they made, in my eyes, was to open the album up with "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot". This track is almost nine minutes long on an album that's nearly 47 minutes in length. If you do the math, this first track accounts for almost 20% of the album's entire run time. It's not like the song is monotonous or bad or anything, but it's definitely not grand or immediate either. I think this was a rather brave choice artistically, but for me, I prefer album openers to be a bit more punchy and direct, if not in sound, then in impact - and by the end of this song, I find my attention starting to wane.

Firstly, I don't really take any issue with the lyrics on this record - in fact, I find them quite interesting, for example, on "Jed the Humanoid" - the band tell a story that, at face value, can be read to be that of an android that was created - and then abandoned. Jed, like Futurama's famous Bender, took to booze in his isolation and eventually killed himself (and his systems) as a result:

"Jed the Humanoid lyrics"

Last night something pretty bad happened
We lost a friend (we lost a friend)
All shocked and broken (all shocked and broken)
Shutdown, exploded (shutdown, exploded)

Jeddy 3 is what we first called him
Then it was Jed (then it was Jed)
Now Jeds systems dead (Jeds systems dead)
Therefore so's Jed (therefore so's Jed)

We assembled him in the kitchen
Made out of this end (made out of this and)
Made out of that end (made out of that and)
Whatever was at hand (whatever was at hand)

When we finished Jed we were so proud
We celebrated (we celebrated)
We congratulated (we congratulated)
At what we'd created (what we'd created)

Jed could run or walk, sing or talk and,
Complile thoughts and (complile thoughts and)
Solve lots of problems (solve lots of problems)
We learned so much from him (learned so much from him)

A couple years went by something happened
We gave Jed less attention (gave less attention)
We had new inventions (had new inventions)
Left for conventions (left for conventions)

Jed had found booze and drank every drop
He fizzled and popped (He fizzled and popped)
He rattled and knocked (He rattled and knocked)
And finally he just stopped (And finally he just stopped)

[close]

Still, it could just as well be viewed as an allegory for parents who neglect their children - and said children turn to booze and drugs and end up meeting an unfortunate fate - this interpretation, I think I like better.

What this album lacks for me is a lasting musical impression. When "The Crystal Lake" starts, 5 seconds in, that guitar riff will have you hooked. This is easily the best track on the record - and if more songs had the energy and pull of this one, it would be better off for it (even if I find the weird oscillating bleep-bloop synths in my left ear to be rather distracting).

The best albums I've ever heard are able to strike a pretty discernible identity through the sum of their parts (songs), but this album comes off a lot looser, and a lot less unified. Instead, it comes off as a jumble of parts, some good, and some forgettable, that could just as well leave the same impression on you if the album was put on shuffle. I don't get any real sense of continuity or contiguity with the original track list. It will go from a song like "Chartsengrafs", sounding like a mixture between Pavement and Wire to the piano led "Underneath the Weeping Willow", sounding more like (late 90s) Nick Cave or Ed Harcourt. And "Broken Household Appliance National Forest" must be the most indie-rock song title I've ever heard.

The album is top-heavy, the first 5 tracks being better than the last 6 ("Jed's Other Poem" is the standout among the back-half, with the ear catching instrumental). But there's something about this record that just doesn't sit right with me - I think it might be a combination of the Built to Spill sounding vocalist who, after 3 listens, has warmed on me a bit - maybe just due to familiarity - and also the feeling the record leaves me with. It just leaves me depressed. It's not the sad kind of depression though - it's the kind of depression you feel when you've been day-drinking since early afternoon, have just had your supper, and now feel like your energy has completely been sapped away and you're left with nothing but the feeling that you've wasted the day away and don't have anything to show for it. The kind of depression that feels more like an unflinching numbness - marked by nothing but overwhelming ambivalence. It doesn't have to do with the general feeling of depression; when I finish listening to Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral, I feel like I've completed a journey. When I finish listening to Low's I Could Live in Hope, I feel sadness and grief. When I finish listening to Joy Division's Closer, I feel like I've finished a suicide note. But when I finish this record, it leaves me with...well, it just leaves me.

All that said, it has merits. Interesting lyrics, some special ideas, and a couple hooks and interesting instrumentals. I think others might get more out of it than I do.

6/10

[Toy Revolver]

i think he sounds more like wayne coyne than doug martsch

[Trollheart]

Thank you, glad to be here! So does "current album" mean I should review the Grandaddy album? Or should I wait for the next album since I wasn't a member when it was picked?

No, now that you're a member you can comment on the current album, and feel free to suggest one, which will then go into the queue. It's FCFS of course so the quicker you suggest, the quicker your album will come up.

[SGR]

Speaking of, I'd like to nominate my next one, which happens to be my all-time favorite album.

Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

[Rubber Soul]

This was Richey Edwards' last album before he disappeared, wasn't it?

[SGR]

This was Richey Edwards' last album before he disappeared, wasn't it?

Technically yes. He disappeared about 5 months after the release of the album. But the Manics did release Journal for Plauge Lovers in 2009 (produced by Steve Albini) that has a similar sound to The Holy Bible and uses mostly lyrics from Richey Edwards' notebooks that hadn't been used up to that point.

[Toy Revolver]

i nominate Changing Landscapes (Zompopa)
by Arthur King it can be found here:

https://arthur-king.bandcamp.com/album/changing-landscapes-zompopa