oenso

needed that kind of review
great work

regret of the week

was expecting this to get murdered but nay a good and well-reasoned review, will at least have a cursory listen.

this is why a lot of people enjoyed their older stuff

there are a lot of bands who sound like foo fighters already.

there was only one band who sounded like biffy clyro.

this is why people are sad.

not so much in a bad way, just had no idea whether it was any good or not. be really interesting to hear what this sounds like.

"well my favourite is undisclosed desires"
"i'm not sure about unnatural selection"
"well, exogenesis makes the album for me"

cringe, cringe, cringe...

good review though, almost made me want to check out a track or two.

made me really want to listen to the maps song, i can almost hear it in my head from your description, i hope it matches up :)

the entire collected works of bananarama, celine dion and leo sayer

probably my favourite record on the list that i'd heard

...it's "do make say think"

"The Twang, Jewelry Quarter

“I know I'll be alright/if you set me free” is a steel-drum/panpipe extravaganza. It's pure. There are three notes and the odd peppering of cod-gospel thirds.

Phil Etheridge, frontman of The Twang, is essentially a two-note non-melody stuck on repeat. This album is like listening to that friend-of-a-friend's friend who can liquidise trumpets.

It's the equivalent of a C-90 sporadically throwing a new thought process; I want you experience two seconds, whereby you think of the ocean.

Truth is that I wanted to find out more. Part as expectant-sadist, part out of genuine curiosity. Was it worth it? Yes, this inspires anyone to form a crop circle in Central Park and is enticing to a single soul over and over and over.

This is trying to change the music-listening world. You need the more-reclusive lucid form, it's mirror-laden...

The Twang 9.2"

and eager to justify/defend an opinion that's pretty much going to be the party line on here.

the twang are almost certainly a music industry experiment to see what happens if the desperate older band with futile dreams of 'making it' actually get their wish granted. to their credit, they probably know they only have a limited shelf-life so they seem to be living the dream while they can.

they were always going to be the sacrifice for harvest this time around though.

perhaps one of the worst album covers of the decade?

"what's the album called?"
"a french kiss in the chaos"
"okay... google image a couple kissing, photoshop a nuclear explosion in there and posterise the colourscheme, collect fee."

to express delight at the peep show homage

"simultaneously electrifying and confusing a rain-lashed audience into baffled rapture."

really paints an excellent picture.

and read the review all the way through, i don't know if i would have done had it been a veritable essay.

the editing was a wise choice, i'm going to investigate this band tonight.

should definitely be a pullquote for them.

that really is terrible

...and i think cat food's kind of missed the point. the writer wasn't saying dynamics were bad, just that an album that only masters one dynamic (/) becomes repetitive and the crescendos lose impact/gravitas.

i haven't heard the record so i can't really say if i agree or not.

but must admit i expected them to get a higher score on here, kudos to neil for an honest and uncompromising take on it.

but that was a superb review, i'll spotify it at the very least.

why didn't they call the record "KNOW YOUR LIMITS"?

good review, the sentence on the economy/calgary was maybe an unnecessary analogy, but overall it's made me want to listen to the band, so kudos :)

talking heads.

nice one :)

therefore i must have thought it was pretty great

i thought they'd made a bit of an effort to go into depth with some of the questions, though i'll admit "why do you like drums?" was a bit of a strange one

and from the limited plays i've had of it, it's actually a really strong record.

kudos for the sean-related banter, made me laff.

into bitch-slaps!

some quite good ones in amongst it all

a review that isn't 7/10!

i'm going to have to check the record out. for those saying it's not his best, what's the best record of his to dip into?

the score isn't really an issue. very well expressed reservations about a sometimes incredible band.

intrigued to hear the record now; i loved world's apart on first listen but then lost interest in it, to the point that i never even heard so divided. need to catch up...

I mean 'loads'. Then again, by a 'career' I'm not talking about 'making it', more doing enough to get by and support yourself. I suppose I'm also thinking of the hundreds of session musicians and thousands of other people who have careers in music who don't necessarily play guitars in bands.

granted it's like all artistic pursuits, if you want to make music for a living one day you normally have to support yourself via other means while you're working on it. it's probably like writing a novel and hoping to be a novellist. it's far from impossible, but you have to either work incredibly hard or have existing connections.

earlier

i'm not sure how true it is though; i think there's always been a scramble for the zeitgeist as you've described, it's just that we don't know much about it because... well... short-term bands from decades ago have been forgotten.

i say blame the internet :)

plenty of people manage it.

a lot more sense with your review :)

does seem a little confused.

"so dull it gets a reprise" gave me question marks.

doesn't really seem to justify the mark, the only real in-depth breakdown is largely positive. can't complain though, i'm fairly indifferent to the prodigy.

today must be the day of the 4/10s!

"In my head I sound like Roger Moore giving a lecture on being important, but in reality it’s more like a baby puking into Renée Zellweger’s mouth."

i quite like these insights into records, thanks :)

that's softened my opinion of them quite a bit :)

i'm initially inclined to go with the pitchfork lashings. it reads a little like you're placating the persona of the band put forward in their rebuttal article, a little like a sympathy piece that wags a finger at pitchfork's cynical attack.

i was inclined to write them off as another fray/script style american commercial group, but this review's convinced me to give them a second listen and see if i can hear what you hear.

mind you, i don't think i could bring myself to enjoy a band with a name that sounds like a longwinded metaphor for a fart.

the review was a positive slant on a pretty average band, so it fits.

though if the best singles compilation of the year only gets 7/10 then 2009 is not going to have the greatest pop harvest.

because they weren't quite watered down enough for your tastes? ;)

i can't hear their music without imagining venn diagrams of demographics trying to find that sweet spot between sounding contemporary and getting that nice balance of an 'edgy' press angle but with the actual content surprisingly non-threatening.

can't dispute that Death is a strong song and the review was well-argued, but i don't really think it's an album of singles, it's an album of the formulaic single-template being repeated over and over, without any really enduring melodies to back it up. the hooks less burrow deep into your skull but instead cack-handedly bludgeon themselves against your forehead.

it's quite telling when every defence of this band is along the lines of "they're decent enough, not doing anything special but I had nothing to complain about when listening."

the reason they get so much stick is because people object to an awkward celebration of the mundane.

ain't bad

just a very average revisitng of banquet?

they named it after that corrs' song?

the sooner BSS make another BSS record the better, the ...Presents series are a classic example of why their collective output is greater than any singular vision. their gathered strengths blur their weaknesses.

maybe that means my WITC refund will come through soon...

work okay for you then?

the only reading i've ever been to. was at the front of the main stage all day on the saturday, though by the end i was exhausted and i think it's where i began to develop an irrational hatred for foo fighters...

haven't been back since, the lineups never looked as appealing, plus my tastes have changed a little bit, but it was a lot of fun.

was the best festival experience i've had so far

i haven't been to that many festivals mind, but i can't imagine anything topping that performance anytime soon