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Born to be mild
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: 404 Not Found
Posts: 26,970
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The Album Club 2017
Let's give this one a serious try. I did this a few years back with prog rock and it was moderately successful, though it did fold in the end. I'd like to try to resurrect that, but for all genres.
So the idea is simple: every week we pick an album and everyone listens to it, then gives their feedback in whatever way they want - a few words, a full review, a discussion, whatever. In fairness, whosever turn it is to pick the album has to have that album accepted without question, and of course each member, having selected an album, can't choose again until all other members have done so.
That's the basics. If you think you wouldn't have time, keep in mind I am not asking for reviews, necessarily, just that you listen to the album within the given or agreed timeframe and give your thoughts (and they can be as brief or as long-winded as you like) on it.
So, who's in?
We're going into Round Eight very shortly. If you have had your album removed from consideration for this round, and wish to be eligible for the next round, then you need to up your game. Contribute, review and get the chance to select an album, or if you prefer, do whatever you like and remain as just a commenter. It's up to you.
Important note: by joining the club you are agreeing to abide by its rules. Please don't signup if you don't feel you can do this.
The Rules
Spoiler for Rules:
There are now two forms of membership, as below.
Full Member: this is someone who is prepared to listen to all or most of the albums in a round and comment on or review them. Full Members are the only ones allowed put forward an album for consideration for the club, one per round.
Associate Member: Basically anyone who wants to just fall in and out, comment or review here or there, drop Nazi gifs, whine and bitch about me etc. Most of the rules don't apply to Associate Members, but they are not eligible to suggest an album.
1. To be a Full Member you must have your name added to the signup sheet below.
2. Each Full Member may post only one album per turn, this turn determined by their position on the signup sheet.
3. Albums are posted Sunday, to be listened to from Monday.
4. Insofar as possible, each Full Member is asked to listen to every album.
5. From this point on, only those who contribute consistently (Full Members) will be eligible to suggest albums for this or future rounds. These members will be identified by having their names shown in green. I'm calling this the Greenlist. How original, huh?
6 .Each album will be given its own separate sub-thread, and it's here that all reviews, comments, notes and discussions pertaining to that album should be posted. Any unrelated discussion should go in the main thread.
7. All albums selected MUST be available on one or all of these three sources: Spotify, YouTube or Bandcamp. No other sources are acceptable.
The Greenlist
(Current for round eight)
Trollheart
Occulthawk
Frownland
Anteater
Psy-Fi
Neapolitan
Kiii
MicShazam
For those who either find it hard to articulate their thoughts, or just want an easy way out, here's a matrix I used to use in the PRAC, which generally worked quite well. You don't have to use it of course, but if you want to it's there. If anyone wants me to add questions just let me know; I think I covered most of the important aspects though.
Spoiler for Review Matrix:
1. What were your VERY FIRST impressions on listening to the album, say from the first five minutes in?
2. What did you think of the opening track?
3. What did you think of the next track?
4. Did you like the vocalist? Hate him/her? Any impressions? (see note 1)
5. Did the music (only) generally appeal to you, or not? (see note 2)
6. Did the album get better or worse as you listened to it (first time)?
7. What did you think of the lyrical content?
8. Did you like the instrumental parts? (see note 3)
9. What did you think of the production?
10. Did you know of this artiste prior to listening to the album, and if so, did that foreknowledge colour your perception of this album?
11. Is this, generally, the kind of music you listen to or not?
12. Assuming you listened to the album more than once, on repeated listens, did you find you liked the album more, or less?
13. What would you class as your favourite track(s), if you have any?
14. And the one(s) you liked least?
15. If the album in question is a debut, did that fact allow it, in your mind, any leeway, and if so, was that decision justified or vindicated? (see note 4)
16. Are you now looking forward to hearing more from this artiste, if you have not heard any of their other material?
17. Were you surprised by your reaction - positive or negative - to the album?
18. Did the album end well?
19. Do you see any way the album could have been improved?
20. Do you think the album hung together well, ie was a fully cohesive unit, or was it a bit hit-and-miss?
Note 1: I know it's obvious, but if the album is an instrumental or ambient, or otherwise has no vocals, just ignore this question.
Note 2: This used to cause some confusion in the PRAC. Here, I'm not talking about instrumentals. I'm asking if, taking the vocals away, the music itself impressed you or not. In other words, would you be saying "yeah there were good vocals but I hated the music" or whatever?
Note 3: And conversely, this actually refers to instrumental sections on the album, NOT full instrumental tracks, as in, a nice guitar passage in a song, a piano solo, a horn section. That sort of thing.
Note 4: Again, people in the PRAC did not seem to get this very often. Please, fill this in ONLY if the album IS a debut. If not, ignore it and move on.
And here's a more stripped-down version:
Albums discussed and rated so far. Note: I have not ranked these, as, as time went on, less and less people voted which tended to skew the ratings, so they're just shown in the order in which they were originally picked.
Note: the old mcl strikes again, so I had no room to show the index for round four. Not even enough to link it. So I've moved the indices for both round three and four here
Rounds three and four
Album Queue
ROUND 8
Kiii
Distant Satellites - Anathema
Start Date: August 13
Neapolitan
Details - Frou Frou
Start Date: August 20
Psy-Fi
Broken English - Marianne Faithful
Start Date: August 27
MicShazam
Darling of the Afterglow - :Lydia Ainsworth
Start Date: September 3
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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
Last edited by Trollheart; 08-12-2018 at 10:14 AM.
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