The Album Club 2017

[Trollheart]

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:

Spoiler for Mini-Matrix:

Any sort of familiarity with this album/artist, or are both entirely new to you?
Expectations (if any):
Initial impression:
Favourite track(s):
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression:
Chances of listening to further material from this artist?
Rating (not mandatory):
Comments:

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.

Spoiler for Round One:

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride - The Black Ryder (Trollheart)

Old Lady Drivers – OLD (OccultHawk)

Face Tat – Zach Hill (Qwertyy)

Getting Back – Bat-Bike (Frownland)

Mama Womb Womb – God Bullies (bob)

Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy – Mindless Self Indulgence (DwnWthVwls)

Popcorn Fish Guinea Pig – Museum Mouth (Mrs Tristan Rosenstock)

The Gris Gris – The Gris Gris (Goofle)

Showcase – Patsy Cline (The Batlord)

The Funk Capital of the World – Bootsy Collins (DJ Chameleon)

We Are They Who Ache With Amorous Love – Half Japanese (Elphenor)

Ocean Machine: Biomech – Devin Townsend (Anteater)

The Spirit of Apollo - N.A.S.A (Electrophonic Tonic)

World of Funk – Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra (Psy-Fi)

Moondog – Moondog (Innerspaceboy)

Suspira – Miranda Sex Garden (Aloysius)

Pretend – Tapestry'd Life (Exo)

Lugal Ki En – Rings of Saturn (The Identity Matrix)

Seven Swans – Sufjan Stevens (TechnicLePanther)

Spiritualized D - Eternal Elysium (1blankmind)

Choose Your Weapon - Hiatus Kaiyote (Rjinn)

Spoiler for Round Two:

Round Two:

The Divine Comedy – Casanova

Goldmund – Famous Places

Ozric Tentacles – Pungent Effulgent

Agustin Carbonell “Bola” - Bola

Underworld – Barbara, Barbara, We Face a Shining Future

Various Artists – Molam: Thai Country Groove from Isan Vol 2

Curtis Mayfield – Super Fly

Nadia Oh – Colours

Islaja – Ulual Yyy

Tiger Army – Tiger Army

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

[OccultHawk]

N

[Ol’ Qwerty Bastard]

so in

[Frownland]

I'm in too. Let's add World Music and Folk.

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

N

Is that N for No or IN without the I?

Originally Posted by Frownland

I'm in too. Let's add World Music and Folk.

Will do.
I'll also add the traditional signup sheet.

[bob.]

i'm totally in for another round

[DwnWthVwls]

I'm down.

[Tristan_Geoff]

Count me in!

[Goofle]

Ninja.

[Trollheart]

Okay, all you guys are added. Occulthawk, I'm assuming you're in unless you advise otherwise, and have added you onto the list.

My intention is to do this on the basis of the signup sheet, so the first person to join gets the first choice (ie me) then the next and so on. Anyone can submit an album from today (at this point I think we have enough people interested to make this viable even if nobody else joins) and they'll be done in the order you signed up. I'd ask that we concentrate on one album at a time, otherwise chaos reigns. I know some of you love chaos, but it's hard to run something like this smoothly when chaos keeps kicking in the door and messing up all the albums.

So, then, rather than set a bunch of rules, let me ask you some basic questions:

What sort of a time period for listening do you guys prefer? Is a week fair? Or two? I don't want to make it too long a stretch between albums in case people lose interest or forget. I'm for a week myself, but will go with the majority.

Do you in general prefer a loose, freeform idea or the likes of the matrix we used in the PRAC (Prog Rock Album Club), which basically set out a questionnaire - what did you like about the album/favourite tracks/production etc - that you could fill out. A lot of people liked this, as it took much of the work of "reviewing", as it were, out of the process for them. But if everyone would prefer to do their own thing that's cool too.

Can everyone just make a commitment to agree to listen to every album chosen? I don't really want abstentions: if you really hate the album then just say you hated it, but listen to it please.

I'll keep a list of the albums to be done in the OP and tag them as they are done.

If anyone has any ideas/suggestions/questions/complaints, post away.
Oh, and it doesn't have to be a new album by any means. If you've heard it before, then it will be easier to give your thoughts on it. All albums obviously must be available to all, so if it's not on YouTube or Spotify or whatever please supply a link.