MB Album Club 2022

Lisnaholic · 02-15-2023, 11:09 AM

That's a great review,SGR, because it puts Paul's Boutique into context and also guided me towards what I should be looking for in the Beastie Boys.

First up, the lyrics to High Plains Drifter are wonderful: references, jokes, images and a wild story are all piled on top of each other in a road-trip adrenal rush:

Quote:

Originally Posted by SGR

Spoiler for High Plains Drifter lyrics:

Next, on your rec, I took another look at Hey Ladies. Yep, nice cowbell and again the lyrics are well worthy trying to catch. I played the song again, and wondered if it's just the speed of their delivery that is difficult for me. So (thank you, Youtube) I found this:-

Apart from the weird voice quality, I quite liked this speed, tbh. I am still lost on the samples, but found it easier to follow the lyrics. (The "She got a gold tooth..." starts at 3:10). Again they are a dazzling collection of tight-packed ideas, so thanks for teazing them out for us:

Quote:

We learn about: 
A gold-toothed prostitute who knows her trade
A bad breakup that references Vincent Van Gogh’s self-mutilation
A call to an ex in a fit of drunkeness in a nasty phone booth
An act of property destruction against the ex’s house
Suicide after the breakup in a train
A fat mom who serves as rebound sex, happening after the narrator was piss drunk (while referencing the Magilla Gorilla Show theme)
A preference for curvy women with curly long hair
A love of hippy women who are a bit on the self-righteous side

Quote:

When I was a teenager, I used to have a summer job that was a little under half an hour away (driving). So this album became a constant companion - as every time I’d drive to work, I’d finish half the album - and on the way home after the work day, I’d get through the entire second half right as I was pulling into my parent’s driveway (perhaps this is why I like side 2 of the record a little bit more, but side 1 always provided the energy I needed to motivate myself for the day).

This album is denser than a neutron star - and nothing before and nothing since is quite like it. Nothing ever will be, at least not on a commercial level. While it is a pastiche - the album somehow manages to imitate/sample so many different things, it becomes something totally and wholly unique. It is a complete musical chameleon.

I loved this vision of the young SGR ! Thanks. It reminds me so much of how I used to feel about the Trout Mask Replica album: getting pent up and frustrated after a day at High School, then coming home to enjoy an intense album, packed with detail, that most people thought sounded awful - but for me it was my refuge and my rebellion.

SGR · 02-15-2023, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mindfulness

nice review SGR!

Thanks Mindy!

SGR · 02-15-2023, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

That's a great review,SGR, because it puts Paul's Boutique into context and also guided me towards what I should be looking for in the Beastie Boys.

First up, the lyrics to High Plains Drifter are wonderful: references, jokes, images and a wild story are all piled on top of each other in a road-trip adrenal rush:

Next, on your rec, I took another look at Hey Ladies. Yep, nice cowbell and again the lyrics are well worthy trying to catch. I played the song again, and wondered if it's just the speed of their delivery that is difficult for me. So (thank you, Youtube) I found this:-

Apart from the weird voice quality, I quite liked this speed, tbh. I am still lost on the samples, but found it easier to follow the lyrics. (The "She got a gold tooth..." starts at 3:10). Again they are a dazzling collection of tight-packed ideas, so thanks for teazing them out for us:

I loved this vision of the young SGR ! Thanks. It reminds me so much of how I used to feel about the Trout Mask Replica album: getting pent up and frustrated after a day at High School, then coming home to enjoy an intense album, packed with detail, that most people thought sounded awful - but for me it was my refuge and my rebellion.

I'm glad I was able to provide you a little more context to the album Lisna! And I gotta say, I'm really appreciative of the fact that you're trying to understand why some hold the album in such high esteem, even if you yourself don't particularly enjoy it - that's commendable!

I've heard many albums that are critically lauded that I don't really vibe with - but I do try and understand why others like it so much, most of the time (one such album for me would be Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over the Sea).

To provide more info about the "young SGR", I was a ride operator at a children's amusement park at the time, for a number of years. So I'd be going into work listening to this album before I operated a ferris wheel, a train, or a rollercoaster (among many others) - and believe me, this album (and I had multiple others too) was great for boosting my mood in the morning commute to prepare to deal with the customers with a smile (it was always the adults who were the problem, never the kids). If I had gotten into Trout Mask Replica as a kid, I'd have probably adopted "Fast and bulbous!" as a catchphrase I said to friends at random moments in school just to confuse unknowing onlookers.

The Fall were that band for me in college. I'm sure you could imagine how many people would say: "How do you enjoy this? He can't even sing!"

Per your Hey Ladies comments, I think the Beastie Boys might be more difficult to understand as a result of the way they trade off lines so sporadically - it's not just the speed of the rapping, but also the speed at which a different voice comes in. Different voices, different inflections, always shifting. This isn't really the norm in rap music. You wouldn't have this problem with say, Wu Tang Clan, who has 9 members, since they generally have one member complete an entire verse before passing the mic to a different member. It's not as sporadic.

Regarding the samples, just in case you missed the video I posted a few pages back, this 14ish minute video goes through all the samples on the album - first, it shows the sample in the context of the original song - and then it shows how that sample was used in the album. You'll probably feel silly once you see it in regards to missing the sample of The Beatles 'The End'

:

SGR · 02-17-2023, 01:38 PM

How familiar are all of y'all with Beach House? I was considering nominating 'Bloom'.

Trollheart · 02-17-2023, 02:24 PM

Don't know it at all, you'll be totally unsurprised to hear.

rubber soul · 02-18-2023, 04:43 AM

Fairly familiar. I like Beach House. Nominate away

SGR · 02-19-2023, 01:01 PM

Okay, how about compilations from different artists? Is that allowed?

Trollheart · 02-19-2023, 01:57 PM

Ideally, no. I feel that sort of defeats the idea of an album club. Your review would be like this one, don't like that one, meh about this one, love that one... I sort of feel the whole deal here is to see if we would like to get into that artist, and if you present a whole bunch of them together - well, I wouldn't be personally for it. I guess we can leave it to majority decision, but I'd be against it.

rubber soul · 02-19-2023, 02:23 PM

I would be against it too. I don't see a problem with putting up Beach House, SGR. It shouldn't matter whether people have heard it or not.

SGR · 02-19-2023, 03:09 PM

No problemo! I just heard this great compilation album of 70s/80s Brazilian music (compiled by none other than David Byrne!) that I was considering nominating, but that's okay!

Quote:

Originally Posted by rubber soul

I would be against it too. I don't see a problem with putting up Beach House, SGR. It shouldn't matter whether people have heard it or not.

I know haha, but there's a million things I want to nominate - it's just a paralysis of analysis, you know?

02-17-2023, 02:24 PM	#655 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	Don't know it at all, you'll be totally unsurprised to hear. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

02-19-2023, 01:57 PM	#658 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	Ideally, no. I feel that sort of defeats the idea of an album club. Your review would be like this one, don't like that one, meh about this one, love that one... I sort of feel the whole deal here is to see if we would like to get into that artist, and if you present a whole bunch of them together - well, I wouldn't be personally for it. I guess we can leave it to majority decision, but I'd be against it. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

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02-17-2023, 01:38 PM	#654 (permalink)
SGR No Ice In My Bourbon Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: /dev/null Posts: 4,327	How familiar are all of y'all with Beach House? I was considering nominating 'Bloom'.

02-19-2023, 01:01 PM	#657 (permalink)
SGR No Ice In My Bourbon Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: /dev/null Posts: 4,327	Okay, how about compilations from different artists? Is that allowed?