Critical reappraisal
Now that a band can win that BBC Sound of thing and be described as being like Fleetwood Mac and no-one bats an eyelid, which formerly embarrassingly naff band are next up to be readopted as cool?
I remember the (good old) days when Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac and ELO et al were all acknowledged as music for old people, before being rediscovered, ironically at first, and then genuinely. Even Phil Collins had a little flirtation with reappraisal not so long ago. Phil Collins.
Who's next then, Chris de Burgh?
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I'm pretty sure 2014 will be all about evolutionary takes on ragga
I've noticed Limp Bizkit getting muted praise occasionally
Please no.
Probably Mumford too, in the future.
^this
The kids who liked nu-metal are now in their mid-late twenties.
Hopefully no-one notices.
THIS
This always happens. People going on about Hybrid Theory as being "actually really good".
NO! It's OK to admit that you had poor taste and judgement as a teenager! We all did!
Argh.
Actually Hybrid Theory is really good
Good songwriting and production.
I have always maintained that Wes Borland is one of the most innovative guitarists of his generation.
Does that count as muted praise?
Palm-muted praise
It counts as completely beside the point.
Plenty of great musicians have played in terrible bands. Remember Audioslave?
Remember them? I still have a Tom Morello shrine in my cupboard.
It's not really beside the point though, I think Wes Borland is great, therefore Limp Bizkit have SOME merit, therefore in a critical reappraisal they would perform well. Is that not what we're discussing here? Going back to a reviled band and finding out they they weren't so bad?
Your shrine is all Rage Against the Machine, though, right?
It doesn't matter how good the musicians are, if you do shite music then it's shite. No one should be able to get past man-baby Durst screaming at his parents on and on for not letting him out to play in the sand pit. Even with the best riff in the world on it, that song is still utter shit.
His guitar solo on Shotgun is wonderful
oh god that Mumford stuff
i love this quote from my sister, one time listening in the car to some bullshit that came on the radio ... "I just dont GET people that like Mumford & Sons?? I mean, typically, I think everyone's entitled to their own opinion.. but this is just outside all reason & logic. They're not mediocre, or bad, they're FUCKING HORRIBLE." and my sister is the sweetest! it was a surprising (yet apt) sentiment
Still waiting on the day Madness become the default setting for modern indie.
telling lack of ^This-es to this comment
no one says its a good idea, but i can see it happening
Fleetwood mac are good though?
Things that annoy me are when bands are re-remembered as cool by the next generation.
Like Guns and Roses, ffs. When were they ever cool?
When WEREN'T Guns 'N' Roses cool ffs? They made wearing bandanas awesome!
the most dangerous band in the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW7Z20fJH6I
Yeah, they were MASSIVE in the late 80s and early 90s. Bigger than Nirvana.
But not better.
(sorry to state the obvious)
Of course. But they were cool
EXACTLY
Fleetwood Mac - the Buckingham/Nicks era was so awful. GNR were horribly bad too. Go back further (my teen years): Tull, Grand Funk, Sabbath, Chicago, all considered cringe-worthy. Maybe it was because I'm from Detroit, but we had radio DJs with cred & Creem Magazine to keep us straight. I mean, Stooges, MC5 - you really had to bring it.
Dr Hook
please.
gaaaaaaaah
worst band ever.
My dad wrote a song about them.
They played once in NZ, ran out of material and started doing a crowd-response version of 'Old MacDonald"
The Bee Gees.
Interesting thread actually.
The people I know who were into their music in the mid 90s (so they'd be in their early 30s now I spose) are all anti-Fleetwood Mac and Springsteen. Were they horribly uncool back then or something?
The Mac were
probably due to all the cack they released around that era though
Yes, they were horribly, horribly uncool back then
what about all these Americans trying to reclaim terrible UK dance one hit wonders for themselves
Grebo has yet to come around again.
If it does, expect to see white guys with dreadlocks all over the place.
if it's the price we have to pay for long sleeved band tees to become a thing again
then so be it
I hope so. Might see a reincarnation of Crazyhead!!!
at Supersonic
I noticed that one of the guitarists in Gnod had dreads.
evidently grebo is resurfacing through the noise rock underground.
I seriously hope this happens
Pulp
Nah, they were never uncool.
The press love them and always have.
Yeah!
I think the Mac are probably pretty embarassing people
but most people under 30 have never had any experience of them as a current band, I'm not sure there was ever massive dislike for their music so much as them as people.
The two tend to go hand in hand though
Kate Bush had this too.
Not that she was considered naff per se, but the last few years the critical love for her went through the roof, whereas before she'd probably dropped from public consciousness a little.
Michael Jackson's next. You just wait for Jhameel to blow up this year.
I think the fact Aerial was so good
probably fanned the flames of the 2011 fangasm, but there probably is something of the Mac to her comeback, in that her weaker albums and cheesier TV appearences had faded out of memory a lot by then.
This doesn't really apply
since Kate Bush stepped out of the music industry for just over a decade to bring up her son, and then returned with brand new material that has more than made up for the middling stuff she had put out before taking her hiatus. It's not a resurgence of love for old output, it's an artist singularly revitalising her own career outside of any feelings of nostalgia.
At what point in the past 30 years have people stopped liking Jacko's music?
I know his persona went to shit, but no one criticises Bad, Off the Wall, Thriller, etc.
this plus she never saw the light of day in America
really
The Hives
The Hives are and always have been amazing ...
*pretentiousness warning*
I think this stuff connects to a resurgence in intense earnestness not being so dismissed anymore. It's stopping being cool to be so ironically detatched.
Evidence in the growing popularity of earnest artists like Gaslight Anthem & Frank Turner, the popular ridicule of being 'Hipster'.
Potentially as a shift away from the insane post-modern everything so prevalent in our culture, people are going back to the polar opposite, people who cared way too much and in such an over the top way, like Springsteen. So they're far more ok to listen to now than they were when Blur's sarcasm was at the top of our culture.
run
run and don't look back
i see what you're saying
i think it's interesting to note that despite the last few years of ironic detachment in indie, mid-period Blur has NEVER been cool, mainly cos it's so camp. It's not irony in the form of sarcasm and satire that's been cool, it's all this faux sincerity, pretending to be really moved by R Kelly songs etc. It'd be quite nice to have a little bit of genuine earnestness back- it might mean that we're stuck with Mumford esque mainstream acts, but at least within indie artists it might mean a bit less of all that Vice magazine shite and a bit more honesty.
Mid-period Blur being Parklife / The Great Escape?
I can tell you that in 1994 Parklife was pretty fucking cool. That's what cool kids loved and The Great Escape was very popular for a small period before Oasis crushed Blur with the power of MOR.
But that was pretty much the height of BritPop cool.
I think what rainmaker says is broadly correct. I mean, it's hard to think of anything that explains the popularity of Gaslight Anthem but he's come up with the best excuse yet.
some Chris de Burgh stuff is actually good.
I like this one
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0ofp0a-Qwk
Enya
*Enigma
I really like Enigma's second album and the track Voyaguer.
Oh god, I see a pattern here. I like shit.
Don't put Enigma in the same basket with Enya, damn it.
Enigma is actually interesting (esp. the first 2 albums).
yay! yes, the first Enigma album is pretty great too
yai yai yai, oh ai ai o, oh ai yai ohhh ai ai
Probably right actually
A lot of witch house stuff has more than a whiff of Enya about it.
I'm putting a vote in for Dolly Parton
like Springsteen and Fleetwood Mac were, she's genuinely good and popular, but is still kind of uncool. I reckon 2015 is the year when everyone's going to sound like her.
My dad's uncool friend in the late 1980s made him go and see Bruce Springsteen, and he complained for years about having had to go to something so naff. It was only about two years ago he admitted it was good.
she's awesome
Little Sparrow (amongst others) is good, a bluegrass classic.
Yep.
and she's still touring
and excellent live. She's never headlined Glastonbury, has she?
Dunno about how good she is really
but her original version of I Will Always Love You just makes you wonder how the fuck Whitney ever had the nerve to ruin it so spectacularly. It's not like Houston didn't have loads of her own good songs.
yeah, it's such a lovely simple song originally
shame everyone knows it better for the Whitney melismatics.
Parton's Bluegrass album has been a fave for a while.
I'd love to go and see her but it's megabucks.
First Aid Kit are well Parton.
I reckon this is a good call.
let me just tell you why I love/hate Springsteen
on the East Coast, he romanticizes that whole blue-collar, working class nonsense that you either could or could not identify with. In the 80s, he got so popular it was ridiculous. PLus, everyone in a major metropolitan area outside of New York (and the surrounding New Jersey) definitely feels like "oh god would you shut up already about all your JERSEY things??" but come on, that live show is incredible
plus, in my neck of the woods you get to see stadiums full of the most batshit crazy homegrown springsteen fans ever (philly, new york, nj) and it's just a complete spectacle. when he really stops touring (i.e. dies) I will actually sort of miss him
ooh, also, Squeeze
I've just rediscovered Squeeze, and they're BRILLIANT. But punks and post-punks hated them, right?
Weren't the Libertines and their ilk
quite in love with Squeeze? I think their critical reappraisal has come and gone.
oh were they?
I missed that one.
I seem to recall Jools playing piano with them on a Later... in the late 90s.
he plays piano with EVERYONE though
Squeeze didn't really need Jools Holland.
Oh yeah, I meant more that in that period I presumed they'd been acceptable already.
Maybe not.
Wasn't Jools a member of Squeeze at one point?
are you kidding?
No, he was
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jools_Holland
haha no, i mean, how could you not know that?!
I thought everyone knew! Wasn't it through Squeeze that he first gained fame, which allowed him to subsequently become a presenter? Maybe it's not that well known and i'm inadvertently a serious Squeeze fan (i hope not though cos i think they're embarrassingly naff)
I think I did know that, but it seemed a bit odd.
So I wasn't entirely sure whether it was Jools or someone else.
Interesting. I thought at the time maybe he was in the band
when he played with them but he played with so many other bands I thought I'd imagined it.
they were always brilliant
Dire Straits
oh yes
good one.
No wait, no one has EVER re-evaluted Dire Straits in a serious way.
I mean I always contend it's weird that people are massively into Springsteen but still keep Dire Straits in the shit pile.
not YET
I'll start.
The first two albums aren't bad.
They're still pretty dadrock, though.
Most of their stuff is lame
but if you don't like Romeo & Juliet then there's something wrong with you.
Hard for me to be objective.
Was a big fan of that song when I was at school. It's a good song.
Sultans of Swing
is an understated masterpiece. Which is actually quite meta.
Walk of Life's a tune as well
They're the only two songs I know though tbf. Maybe I should DiScover them (hint: I won't).
Well if Communiqué (2nd album) is on Spotify then give it a listen.
While the first album has some great tunes I seem to recall there's also a lot of country-ish stuff, which is a bit 'hmm'. After Communiqué they started to go a bit more stadium with the really long songs.
was just about to post Romeo & Juliet
Supertramp
Fucking hideous abortion of a band, yet they always spring to mind whenever I hear Destroyer or Bon Iver.
And yes I'm one of those who simply can't get over my 80s anti-Springsteen prejudice. I'm sure if I made an effort or saw him live I'd be converted but he was the 1980s equivalent of Nickelback.
Doing this club night has reminded me that I pretty much listen to anything by anyone
So I may not be a good barometer for taste.
But I'd say that pop is in the doldrums and will have to make an effort again soon, meaning much borrowing of the past (like dual harmonies in Bee Gees / Abba).
Pretty sure that people will start to stop liking Status Quo, ELO, T-Rex etc ironically and actually just admitting they're good.
I think it's part and parcel of people apparently liking pop in a non-ironic way.
It's the new culture we have where all music is basically free and the lack of big label support.
I think back to Uni days when an album was regularly about £13. They normally knocked a quid or two off on release day but that's it. You simply couldn't afford to buy albums very often so naturally you became incredibly partisan about music and would have to leave whole genres unlistened.
Older music suffered more because unless your parents happened to have something why the fuck would you spend £16 on a Beatles or Led Zep album that you'd sort of heard a load of times in the background.
I now listen to anything too
whereas at 16 I'd listen to *indie* and would be against things which weren't, while secretly liking some pop music.
I can't tell if this is just due to getting older, or if it is this change where you can instantly listen to anything you like and all genres are blurring. Probably a mix of both, but I'm sure there's a 16 year old equivalent of me right now obsessing over Palma Violets or something and pretending to hate Taylor Swift.
Not sure it's about growing older.
I haven't begun to like pop music any more than I did I don't think, although I'm prepared to admit a liking to more tracks. But not enough to bother buying them.
Certainly I still don't understand why people are still so obsessed with Girls Aloud/Take That/Spice Girls/X-Factor/Steps. I'm basically someone who doesn't get things like that and I think people assume I'm being some kind of weird poseur.
But I am certainly less narrowminded in general. That probably is about getting older. I think you realise how dull so many people in bands are or how little you care about their lives that you tend to forget who makes the music.
I really don't get the love for late 90's pop.
Spice Girls / All Saints, anything like that. There was a tidal wave of shite boy band and girl band pop around then.
If anything I think pop music started getting better when it started taking on a few more cooler electro influences in production around 2003/2004 - I can listen and enjoy Girls Aloud and Justin Timberlake quite easily (Cry Me A River is an absolute classic).
Nah I agree
Most of that era is woeful boybands and pop acts with just one decent track. When people talked about manufactured pop this period was the pinnacle and literally churned out by the week.
But JT, Girls Aloud, Robyn, Richard X, Annie, Sugababes, Rihanna, Gwen Stefani etc all have numerous great singles and often albums in no small part due to having to up their game when indie went mainstream and pop needed a fresher sound. It needs to happen gain.
For me it feels more like the star power made them big.
I listened to Girls Aloud's best of and just found it mostly dull. I mean compare (say) to the first Madonna best-of album. Now *THAT* is fucking amazing popular music.
I think the public also got obsessed with producers and weird things like a great bassline that actually wasn't making a great song, or that's how it felt. So it's as if some songs are bigger than they should be.
That said, this year's three biggies are pretty damn catchy, although as one's from Korea and sounds like a late 80s/early 90s dance track maybe that's saying something about where it needs to go.
i'm exactly the same
a big part of my music listening from this year has been reappraising loads of pop/R&B singles from the 2000s (which I absolutely hated at the time) and realising just how great they are. Sure, I still don't think they stand up to repeated listens or are as long-lasting as something like Pavement, Modest Mouse etc. but as stand alone songs they are so much better than I ever could have imagined. Examples are things like these:
Cassie - Me & You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qgKIaxiPLY
Shanks and Bigfoot - Sweet Like Chocolate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHFFol-8REI
Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwkej79U3ek
I didn't think people listened to Status Quo, ELO, T-Rex ironically...
I thought everyone had already admitted they were good
Elvis Costello, perhaps?
I mean, Costello, especially up to Imperial Bedroom, is undeniably brilliant, but he's still viewed as very uncool. 'Cool' people give me funny looks when I tell them my favourite album is My Aim Is True. So I suppose that it would be more of a popular reappraisal than a critical one. Until I first heard Elvis Costello properly I always thought he was some sort of dad rock artist like Eric Clapton.
Though on the other hand, I'd find it very irritating if EC was suddenly cool and everyone and their dog were jumping on the bandwagon. If hip people are too narrow minded to get into Costello now, then they don't deserve to listen to him at all.
Elvis Costello is a colossal bellend
and he had his little moment in the sun amongst the Guardianista brigade in the 90s when they lapped up some of his worst stuff.
He wrote a nice album for Wendy James
so he gets a pass from me.
Blimey!
well I dunno about him personally, but his 70s and early 80s stuff is great!
have you ever seen his chat show?
there's an episode where he sits with Sting and tries to work out which one of them invented punk. It's ridic
Surely Elvis Costello has gone the other way?
From critical holy cow to universally recognised embarrassment?
Gary Numan
After years of being the White Face clown, he's now quite cool :) Glad I didn't listen to the critics!
Jagged is a very, very good album
The early releases (Tubeway Army, Replicas, The Pleasure Principle, Telekon) are excellent
Surely he had his revival when every other Mighty Boosh episode namechecked him?
"Critical"=\= cool
I can only really speak for springsteen in depth but I don't think there's ever been a time when darkness, born to run, Nebraska etc haven't been regarded as classics. Even if there was probably a period where he wasnt particularly fashionable amongst young people
The same can be said for fleetwood mac
Imagine being a student in the 90s / early 2000s and rejecting clearly-great stuff like that as being uncool, whilst listening to menswear :'''')
Charlatans.
Not that they've ever been slated, but they've been almost constantly overshadowed, yet they've been consistently better than pretty much all of the bands that have been feted ahead of them.
but to go for something a bit more ambitious...
there are a whole slew of late 80s/early 90s bands that have been used as shorthand for naffness.
But I put it to you that the much maligned Jesus Jones have as much to offer as the rather more fondly thought of PWEI.
Utah Saints and Altern8 put out albums that can stand proud alongside output from Coldcut or Orbital.
EMFs second album was way more ambitious and musically worthwhile than Blur's.
Dexys Midnight Runners
I listened to a Phil Collins album once
it was good
Simply Red, I reckon.
oh but
I intend to ensure 'One Step Closer' by Bardo gets critically re-appraised the hell out of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuGPWE1UifI
(came 7th in Eurovision)
Oh, you're not still going on about that are you?
Some comments on that video/song for you:
"Performance from Cheggars Plays Pop". I think it's the most 80s thing I've ever seen.
I'm not sure who I fancy the most, the bloke or the woman
Yes, it does sound a bit like Costello, especially when it goes into the middle eight.
:D I forgot I went on at you about this.
I'm glad I'm not imagining the Costello influence.
Admit it, it's brilliant.
There's echoes of that in loads of current indie, no?
I fucking love ELO and don't give a fuck
Time is probably, no, easily in my top 10 albums of all time.
Time is a wonderful album
anyone who doesn't realize ELO is a seriously great band is clearly damaged
jeff lynne is king
Queen
and a bit of Blondie as well...
I thought Blondie always had cool on their side
Or was it just me that thought they were awesome
Blondie were always cool, except on Rapture.
That rap, christ.
Rapture is cool
There was a documentary on BBC Four a while back
Said some of the Wu-Tang first heard rap music cos of that song.
Queen are the one band which everyone likes
surely?
i really really really really can't stand Queen
i've tried...
...i really have. but i just can't deal. my loss, i know.
Abba
Anyone who's anyone knows Abba have contributed their fair share of classics.
yea but with that naff musical they probably aren't held
in as high regard as they should be. i don't know.
thing is, Haim doint sound like Fleetwood Mac
they sound like Wilson Phillips singing Pat Benatar songs
Level 42
pretty sure...
...they ignited the concept of suicide for me. the sound of late 80's sunday early evenings in middle class suburbia.
10cc are due one
Earth, Wind & Fire
it's hard to predict
everyone 25 or under seems to love Fleetwood Mac now, it's similar to how Kate Bush got treated a while back.
I reckon if U2 go another few years without releasing anything you'll get a bunch of 18-25 year olds going on about how good the 80s U2 records are and how Under A Blood Red Sky is the greatest live album ever.
going on about how good the 80s U2 records are and how Under A Blood Red Sky is the greatest live album ever
fairly accurate assessment - at least up until Live Aid when they decided they didn't want to be PiL-with-tunes anymore and decided to be cowboys instead
im not saying it's not accurate or there isn't a case for that view
it's just I guess they are not that trendy at the moment, as much as they are commercial successful and a world tour right now would sell out almost instantly, but I think as a result of this they are not seen as cool amongst your typical Pitchfork or even NME reader like say Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen or Kate Bush are.
The greatest album ever released by U2 is Achtung Baby (in 1991)
Better than any 80s U2 records.
UB40
First album was/is/always shall be awesome.
Level 42's early stuff is actually pretty good.
Its only natural that stuff gets a reappraised when new ears reach the matterial. But yeah I would have never seen some of it coming when I was younger you'd never hear anyone even talking about people like fleetwood mac or bruce springsteen they just wernt on the radar letalone liked. It was just somthing you'd sometimes find on a top gear comp or something and not far off being chris rea or meatloaf was like that with my peers anyway growing up. But yeah fair doos if people like it now I still dont see it but then its a diffrent environment for the kids today. Wonder when the cut off point was cos I'm not that much older than the teen to 25 year olds that dig him now, so was it some kinda faux par for a 27 year old to like this lot haha and what changed to make it come round. Artists sounding like them, more media coverage, more retro leaning tastes?
wish Steely Dan would get big again
i'm glad we can all listen to glen campbell now
alright, jive bunny
i don't understand that refernce
!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlAkezI3jc4
Are we being trolled here
and you're deliberately confusing Glen Campbell and Glen Miller? Why am I even replying? I liked King of the Road.
U2
plenty of bands will sound a bit like them but no one will acknowledge it.
rarely get away with saying you like U2
unavoidably cliche, but I like their 'early stuff'...
I've cherry-picked some iTunes purchases and own about 15 songs - basically the first album and then a couple of later hits. Couldn't say why, but I just really enjoy the simple, unrefined sound they started with. Can't blame them for moving on but it's fun to imagine what they might have turned out to be if they had gone more garage and less arena.
And yes, a ton of current bands do sound like them but won't admit it.
Hopefully Warren Zevon and Jackson Browne become cool to like soonish
would also be happy with a general reappraisal of proog
like some fucking ELP shit man
or Gong or something
Warren Zevon wrote some f-ing classic songs
which Jackson Browne album would be a good place to start with him?
my favourite one is Late for the Sky
I'm not expert or nuthin tho - I've only heard a couple of his albums
cheers, will try
Cheap Trick
Their Live at the Budokan live album is already held in quite high regard isn't it?
I guess their legacy itself isn't as highly thought of.
their first album is really good
Cheap Trick are massively bummed in power pop circles
Definitely a best of band though imo. There’s a lot of cheese and shite in their back catalogue but Dream Police, Standing on the Edge and One on One are all worth a shout.
Bananarama
This is a very interesting thread
I'm 33, and loved Bruce Springsteen growing up, but was pretty much the only person I know who did. Thinking about it, I think the Streets of Philadelphia (too worthy) and Secret Garden (too saccharin) period was his nadir in the 'coolness' respect. Then came Tom Joad and the reformation of the E-Street band and it was basically upwards from there. I was still very surprised when around seven years ago a bunch of people I knew started coming out as Springsteen fans, and now everyone thinks he's the bee's knees. It's great!
With Fleetwood Mac I'm less clear on what caused the change. It's probably simply that Rumours is an incredible album, and great music speaks for itself once people dispense with their preconceptions.
As for who's next, I think Dire Straits are a good shout. Steely Dan maybe, in a sort of semi-ironic, semi-serious way. Maybe a some prog bands - King Crimson possibly. Someone above mentioned Warren Zevon - I'd love this to happen, but think he may be too unknown in the UK sadly.
Actually, thinking about it, with Springsteen
I think a lot of his big surge in popularity over the last five years is down to his live shows. Widely considered to be one of the best live acts currently around (if not ever).
I love Steely Dan and they wrote some classic tunes.
But I think a lot of teenagers now if they were exposed to them would probably find them a bit, I don't know, over-produced and over-complicated. There's this kind of loucheness to a lot of the Dan's songs that I'm not sure would be appreciated now.
A lot of bands these days are mining the old psychedelic/progressive thing...
Perhaps Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Rush are all going to come into favour again.
God, I hope so.
We could do with a prog rock revival.
check out Physics House Band
ELP> El P
wrong
but can't we have both?
ELP couldn't compose their way out of a dustbin, is their problem. Z-list prog. Yes, on the other hand, were absolutely fucking phenomenal at their best
Tarkus is pretty good
probably ELP's best album
prefer them live tho
could watch Emerson fucking around on his organ forever - stabbing it and doing all that other ridiculous stuff
I do however think that the Best thing he was involved with was the first Nice album - got a couple of early proggy jamz as well as a load of good psychy and quite poppy stuff
I'm with John Peel on ELP.
lcd soundsystem did about 30 seconds of a yes song on their last gig
maybe they're already hep again
I can see Foals acknowledging them as an influence and people getting into them that way
Do cool people like Foals? I guess they must do.
(For the record, I love both Yes and Foals)
I don't know about Foals
I think Everything Everything might have admitted to them as an influence though.
Simple Minds?
Their early stuff is great. People have been saying this for quite a while though, actually.
The fact that their early stuff is not just great but brilliant
is the reason why they don't deserve to be included in this thread
As much as I like Simple Minds I find their early stuff (until New Gold Dream) hard to listen
The singing especially is over the top and quite annoying. It's no wonder that my favorite SM song from that era is the instrumental "Theme From Great Cities".
it's all about 'diminished expectations'
A lot of modern pop/rock/indie that's in the charts is so utterly shite that the stuff we used to consider shite when we were young is actually being considered good in comparison.
REM anyone?
what i meant to say was
how unbelievably nauseating it was to hear sidewinder at almost every party you went to when i had just got out of college. but they are ridiculously talented, even if they had to give up cos they couldnt sell out medium arena tours any more.
I find modt people I know
That are into music but are much younger than me, think REM are a bit shut. They'll come round one day...
mate REM were the first band I got into
and I'm well young and that
That means you're awesome
Well done
Post-"New Adventures..." R.E.M.
will never be reappraised because it ain't so good. I thought that everything before Monster was generally pretty well respected?
I think Up is held in pretty high regard
and was apparently quite a big influence at the time.
I don't recall Up getting much in the way of praise at all.
I liked the single Lotus but it didn't seem to get the heavy rotation that Monster got. I don't think anything by REM after Monster really peaked and got wide critical praise like it did.
Up is starting to be seen in more positive light these days tho
Every year the general census on it seems to become more positive, in a matter of time it'll have its high regards.
(which is great considering it is their best album and all)
I do really wish the world would hurry up and reappraise the rest of the latter day material too though. It's great.
Thinking about this
I'm not surprised that FM 'rock' is making a mark nowadays
let's face it we've had a decade of bitcrushed earbleed bloghouse/shambolic indie heroin nonsense/hyperactive autotuned shouty pop - all on MP3 - and before that we had the CD loudness wars
put a Fleetwood Mac LP on and whatever whiff of cocainebeardery that might have you shaking your head at their frankly pompous shenanigans you CANNOT deny that the very sound of the record is a warm and welcome one; people who can sing and play their instruments competently recorded by producers and engineers who know what they're doing in big expensive studios which big expensive analogue consoles through all time classic tube mics, EQs and preamps, on to 2 inch analogue taps and properly mastered for vinyl by precision mastering engineers and equipment ....
it may be a load of hairy old bollocks but your ears and brain are much more glad of it than 99.9% of what passes for contemporary recording
with* big expensive consoles
2 inch analogue tapes*
basically I think people are getting a bit bored of digital, DIY, fast consumption and anti-virtuosity
Oh right, you're one of those guys
no, not really
but I can certainly see it from that perspective
Iron Maiden?
Have any British Hard Rock bands even been cool? American bands of a similar ilk have had that accolade of coolness, but I'm struggling to think of any British ones.
They have certainly been incredibly successful and influenced a ton of bands.
And I was a massive fan of Maiden up to Somewhere In Time. Still listen to their early stuff.