Love or Hate?

The Batlord · 12-26-2016, 03:08 PM

Trollheart · 12-28-2016, 10:03 AM

Be afraid.
Be
very
afraid....

Title: Riddle Box
Artiste: Insane Clown Posse
Genre: Hip-Hop
Familiarity: Zero, other than Batty interminably wittering on about them
Recommended by: The Batlord, of course

Expectations: I'll give you a clue: I'm already clicking on “Red” and expecting to use it almost exclusively. I will give these guys one thing though: the concept of the Dark Carnival, the Riddle Box, the Joker's Card and so forth is very impressive. There's obviously a hell of a lot of deep thought gone into this, and if this were any other genre than hip-hop, and if I had not already heard enough about ICP to make me automatically expect to hate them, I would be looking forward to this. The plot would work so well with a prog or power metal band, or even maybe a Black Metal one, all of which I assume I would enjoy much more than I'm expecting to enjoy this. Preconceptions? Certainly, but I think I'm justified in expecting a big fat bleeding Hate here. I suppose stranger things have happened: that horse becoming Pope, for one. But not many.

1. Intro: In pretty gently I guess as we're introduced to (I assume) someone who just crashed his car and died and has now ended up facing the Riddle Box. He's told he has to turn the crank to find out what his fate will be. Nicely set up.
2. Riddle Box: Well **** this is not bad. Like the carnival rhythm and I can make out what's being sung. Quite catchy. Huh? Harmonies are very good.
3. The show must go on: Yeah well the lyric is terrible – these guys will rhyme anything with anything, and sometimes make up words just to get the rhyme – but the relation of the arrival of the Dark Carnival is well done. Still like this on a sort of ironic level. Fun.
4. Chicken huntin' (Slaughter House mix): Pretty violent imagery but assuming it's all for show I guess it's funny. Don't see what this has to do with the Dark Carnival though. This is what I meant in the intro when I said if this was another genre they could do a lot with the story; here it's just kind of on the edges and I don't see the point so far.
5. Interview: Yeah, that's just crap.
6. Toy box: Now we get the story of a serial killer following in his dad's footsteps. Okay, the line “We're sorry, the person you're calling is dead” is funny as hell. The idea of deadly toys coming to life is great, and then it seems they turn upon the killer? The carnival music works well here. Like this one. Goes a bit crazy at the end with some sort of necrophilia?
7. Cemetery girl: The scratching works well with the wolves howling and the lyric is just hilarious. I love the description of the girl decomposing in front of his eyes. Class.
8. 3 rings: Weirdly, what I'm discovering here is that the primary attraction of ICP is their humour. Yes, their lyrics are violent and misogynistic and racist, but they're ****ing hilarious. I guess they're not taking themselves seriously, which makes it easy to laugh with rather than at them. Even the music is not terrible, though I'm mostly judging these songs on their lyrical content.
9. Headless boogie: This one's pretty good too; the idea of amusing yourself with dead bodies is getting a little overused though. The chorus is pretty cool.
10. The Joker's wild: The game show theme here is at least tying in with the idea of judgement via the Riddle Box, but musically it's very similar to the previous track. Lyric is very clever though. Orange or Green? Hmmm.... Green.
11. Dead body man: Now we're upping the ante from necophilia to cannibalism. Decent song to be honest: like the wolves/dogs howling. Lyric is very descriptive. Clever how they turn it back on hunters -”Ya got dead deer heads up on your shelf.”
12. Lil' Somthin' Somthin';: Sort of a soul feel to this, very catchy.
13. Ol' Evil Eye: Bringing in Edgar Allan Poe for the opening lines (in fairness, they credit the old horror writer for this extract from The Tell-Tale Heart instead of just ripping it off). The basic melody (familiar?) in this is good; like the organ and the quotes from Poe too.
14. 12: I like the continuation of the horror idea in this track, especially the thunder and rain effects at the start. Keyboard riff is cool. Dark, ominous feel to this.
15. The killing fields : Oddly, that kind of sounded like uileann pipes at the beginning of this one. I'm sure it wasn't, but yet weird anyway. There it is again. How strange. Kicks back in the idea of the Dark Carnival, sort of, with a nightmarish vision of the afterlife.
16. I'm coming home : Beefheart/Waits vibe to the vocal here. Nice idea in the “I don't need the rich folks/big house/ I know where I come from” lyric. Yeah, pretty decent really again.

End result: What in the sacred name of Peter Gabriel has happened here? I fully expected, intended to hate this, and while I don't love it it certainly was not the torture I had expected. I don't think there was one track I didn't enjoy; the lyrics, while often totally ludicrous and forcing words to rhyme, were usually quite funny and the music, dare I say it, was okay. Having read about the concept of the Dark Carnival, I'm a little disappointed they didn't really use it to its best; it kind of peeped in over the edges, but had I not read up on them and about it I would not have seen any concept going through this album. It's a pity it couldn't have linked things in better. As it is though, really amazed by how much I didn't hate it.

So, Love or Hate? Given my initial expectations, and though I wouldn't listen to it again for fun, I'd have to give it a Love. And nobody more surprised than meself!

**Frownland** · 12-28-2016, 10:12 AM

Do you need any more evidence that ICP is ****e, Batlord?

Ol’ Qwerty Bastard · 12-28-2016, 10:14 AM

the day music banter died

The Batlord · 12-28-2016, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

End result: What in the sacred name of Peter Gabriel has happened here? I fully expected, intended to hate this, and while I don't love it it certainly was not the torture I had expected. I don't think there was one track I didn't enjoy; the lyrics, while often totally ludicrous and forcing words to rhyme, were usually quite funny and the music, dare I say it, was okay. Having read about the concept of the Dark Carnival, I'm a little disappointed they didn't really use it to its best; it kind of peeped in over the edges, but had I not read up on them and about it I would not have seen any concept going through this album. It's a pity it couldn't have linked things in better. As it is though, really amazed by how much I didn't hate it.

Yeah they rarely go into the Dark Carnival thing beyond the album intros, which always felt like a wasted opportunity to me too, but sometimes they do. Really they're just a repurposed gangsta rap group though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Do you need any more evidence that ICP is ****e, Batlord?

Shut up. Just... shut up.

Thelonious Monkey · 12-28-2016, 10:41 AM

I guess this just proves it, ICP are the greatest hip hoppers of all time.

Machine · 12-28-2016, 10:43 AM

I mean I enjoyed your review of the album, but the album itself is a whole different story that I'm already having flashbacks to.

The Batlord · 12-28-2016, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Violet_

I guess this just proves it, ICP are the greatest hip hoppers of all time.

hip hoppers lol

Trollheart · 12-28-2016, 12:02 PM

Blank. · 12-30-2016, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

(Violet) Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf (Needs to be changed as I have already reviewed a QOTSA album here)

You should give this album a chance still. This album is a masterpiece.

12-28-2016, 10:03 AM	#3092 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Be afraid. Be very afraid.... Title: Riddle Box Artiste: Insane Clown Posse Genre: Hip-Hop Familiarity: Zero, other than Batty interminably wittering on about them Recommended by: The Batlord, of course Expectations: I'll give you a clue: I'm already clicking on “Red” and expecting to use it almost exclusively. I will give these guys one thing though: the concept of the Dark Carnival, the Riddle Box, the Joker's Card and so forth is very impressive. There's obviously a hell of a lot of deep thought gone into this, and if this were any other genre than hip-hop, and if I had not already heard enough about ICP to make me automatically expect to hate them, I would be looking forward to this. The plot would work so well with a prog or power metal band, or even maybe a Black Metal one, all of which I assume I would enjoy much more than I'm expecting to enjoy this. Preconceptions? Certainly, but I think I'm justified in expecting a big fat bleeding Hate here. I suppose stranger things have happened: that horse becoming Pope, for one. But not many. 1. Intro: In pretty gently I guess as we're introduced to (I assume) someone who just crashed his car and died and has now ended up facing the Riddle Box. He's told he has to turn the crank to find out what his fate will be. Nicely set up. 2. Riddle Box: Well ** this is not bad. Like the carnival rhythm and I can make out what's being sung. Quite catchy. Huh? Harmonies are very good. 3. The show must go on: Yeah well the lyric is terrible – these guys will rhyme anything with anything, and sometimes make up words just to get the rhyme – but the relation of the arrival of the Dark Carnival is well done. Still like this on a sort of ironic level. Fun. 4. Chicken huntin' (Slaughter House mix): Pretty violent imagery but assuming it's all for show I guess it's funny. Don't see what this has to do with the Dark Carnival though. This is what I meant in the intro when I said if this was another genre they could do a lot with the story; here it's just kind of on the edges and I don't see the point so far. 5. Interview: Yeah, that's just crap. 6. Toy box: Now we get the story of a serial killer following in his dad's footsteps. Okay, the line “We're sorry, the person you're calling is dead” is funny as hell. The idea of deadly toys coming to life is great, and then it seems they turn upon the killer? The carnival music works well here. Like this one. Goes a bit crazy at the end with some sort of necrophilia? 7. Cemetery girl: The scratching works well with the wolves howling and the lyric is just hilarious. I love the description of the girl decomposing in front of his eyes. Class. 8. 3 rings: Weirdly, what I'm discovering here is that the primary attraction of ICP is their humour. Yes, their lyrics are violent and misogynistic and racist, but they're ing hilarious. I guess they're not taking themselves seriously, which makes it easy to laugh with rather than at them. Even the music is not terrible, though I'm mostly judging these songs on their lyrical content. 9. Headless boogie: This one's pretty good too; the idea of amusing yourself with dead bodies is getting a little overused though. The chorus is pretty cool. 10. The Joker's wild: The game show theme here is at least tying in with the idea of judgement via the Riddle Box, but musically it's very similar to the previous track. Lyric is very clever though. Orange or Green? Hmmm.... Green. 11. Dead body man: Now we're upping the ante from necophilia to cannibalism. Decent song to be honest: like the wolves/dogs howling. Lyric is very descriptive. Clever how they turn it back on hunters -”Ya got dead deer heads up on your shelf.” 12. Lil' Somthin' Somthin';: Sort of a soul feel to this, very catchy. 13. Ol' Evil Eye:** Bringing in Edgar Allan Poe for the opening lines (in fairness, they credit the old horror writer for this extract from The Tell-Tale Heart instead of just ripping it off). The basic melody (familiar?) in this is good; like the organ and the quotes from Poe too. 14. 12: I like the continuation of the horror idea in this track, especially the thunder and rain effects at the start. Keyboard riff is cool. Dark, ominous feel to this. 15. The killing fields : Oddly, that kind of sounded like uileann pipes at the beginning of this one. I'm sure it wasn't, but yet weird anyway. There it is again. How strange. Kicks back in the idea of the Dark Carnival, sort of, with a nightmarish vision of the afterlife. 16. I'm coming home : Beefheart/Waits vibe to the vocal here. Nice idea in the “I don't need the rich folks/big house/ I know where I come from” lyric. Yeah, pretty decent really again. End result: What in the sacred name of Peter Gabriel has happened here? I fully expected, intended to hate this, and while I don't love it it certainly was not the torture I had expected. I don't think there was one track I didn't enjoy; the lyrics, while often totally ludicrous and forcing words to rhyme, were usually quite funny and the music, dare I say it, was okay. Having read about the concept of the Dark Carnival, I'm a little disappointed they didn't really use it to its best; it kind of peeped in over the edges, but had I not read up on them and about it I would not have seen any concept going through this album. It's a pity it couldn't have linked things in better. As it is though, really amazed by how much I didn't hate it. So, Love or Hate? Given my initial expectations, and though I wouldn't listen to it again for fun, I'd have to give it a Love. And nobody more surprised than meself! __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

12-28-2016, 10:12 AM	#3093 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,548	Do you need any more evidence that ICP is ***e, Batlord? __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.* d e a f b o x

12-28-2016, 10:43 AM	#3097 (permalink)
Machine moon lake inc. Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: Detroit Posts: 2,125	I mean I enjoyed your review of the album, but the album itself is a whole different story that I'm already having flashbacks to. __________________ boost my ego listen to me stroke my delay pedal ever wanted to hear death grips songs... but they're acoustic? me neither.

12-28-2016, 12:02 PM	#3099 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	__________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

12-28-2016, 10:41 AM	#3096 (permalink)
Thelonious Monkey Caesar is home. Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 876	I guess this just proves it, ICP are the greatest hip hoppers of all time.