The Music Thread

[S.C.G]

Recently I've been listening to Talk That Talk by Rihanna and I must say that I'm rather impressed as the album easilly surpasses Loud which was enjoyable at first but then got rather repetitive though still remained listenable, but then this latest album was brought out due to the success of it so it's fine.

 

But yes... the single We Found Love I initially thought wasn't bad at first when listened to on its own, upon hearing it in context on the album it actually becomes a rather decent track and this is comign from someone who really doesn't like Calvin Harris; it's mainly his voice that I despise but because he's only adding the backing track to it - with no vocals mercifully - it actually works really well on this track.

 

Anyway, I'm on my third listen or so now and the album is really starting to prove its worth, there are maybe one or two tracks that'll still need more listens but other than that my only complaint is...

'cake! cake! cake! cake! cake! cake! cake! cake! cake! cake! cake! cake!'

 

I want more of it! I suppose it works well as a kind of jokey interlude though but it still leaves me wondering what the whole track would have sounded like; it's not a deal-breaker though and I'd still say the album is well worth purchasing for anyone who has even a passing interest in Rihanna as it's one of her better albums.

[MadDog]

How have I never seen this thread?

 

I love Loud. I'd say Talk This Talk rates pretty close to it, not sure if it's better, but it's very good.

 

Man Down remains my favourite Rihanna song.

[S.C.G]

True... there are a good few tracks on Loud which are really good, Man Down clearly being one of the best, it almost makes me wish the best halves of both albums were combined together as then in theory it'd be better but then it probably wouldn't flow as well though tbh Loud never really did 'flow' to me even though it has some great tracks but Talk That Talk just feels a lot more concise to me.

 

Both albums are great in their own way though.

[MadDog]

I'd say Talk That Talks' tracks sound quite similar, not in a bad way. While Loud has stuff like Only Girl, Man Down and California King Bed, which are all quite different. Skin would fit in great on Talk That Talk though, would slot in nicely.

[Paj!]

TTT is nowhere near Loud as an album, no cohesiveness, too much relative filler. Loud was really well-rounded, every song had it's place.

 

Birthday Cake ruins the album for me, as it's clearly NOT an interlude, just a really random (not in a LOL way) cut-off song.

 

Still some great fun songs, but I'm a little lukewarm to it as a thing.

[Coolness Bears]

Loud is far superior than her new album.

 

On a personal level Rated R is my favourite.

[Ashley]

 

!! Not my favourite album cover ever (although already reading into semantics/comparing with Aim & Ignite) but really excited. Even this teaser gets me pumped!

 

 

@Mr_Odwin (tagging so I don't feel so alone)

[S.C.G]

Well either way Rated R is clearly still her best album - to me at least - I decided to give it another listen today and it feels on an entirely different level to both Loud and Talk That Talk as it feels genuinely well-crafted all the way through.

 

Maybe it's because I listened to Loud a little too much at the time and so now it feels too familiar to me, either way I'm kind of over it as an album but I still love select songs from it.

 

Anyway, I still haven't given Night of Hunters by Tori Amos a listen so that shall be my next priority as I've been hearing that it's rather good, plus 50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush which is also vying for my attention.

[Mr_Odwin]

 

!! Not my favourite album cover ever (although already reading into semantics/comparing with Aim & Ignite) but really excited. Even this teaser gets me pumped!

 

 

@Mr_Odwin (tagging so I don't feel so alone)

 

I'm here Ashley, you're not alone.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Well either way Rated R is clearly still her best album - to me at least

 

I hear you, man. Rated R is brilliant. Feel Good Hit Of The Summer, The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret and Tension Head are fantastic songs.

[S.C.G]

I hear you, man. Rated R is brilliant. Feel Good Hit Of The Summer, The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret and Tension Head are fantastic songs.

 

Flink you troll so well...

 

... but you're also so right, Rated R by Queens of the Stone Age is a fantastic album and one that I've enjoyed many times over much like Songs for the Deaf which I also love; but yes Feel Good Hit of the Summer in particular is a great track, it might only be the same words repeated over but it's brilliantly effective.

 

'Nictotine, Valium, Vicodin, Marijuana, Ecstasy and Alcoholllllllll'

 

'C-C-C-C-Cocaaaaaaaine!'

 

[Fierce_LiNk]

Flink you troll so well...

 

... but you're also so right, Rated R by Queens of the Stone Age is a fantastic album and one that I've enjoyed many times over much like Songs for the Deaf which I also love; but yes Feel Good Hit of the Summer in particular is a great track, it might only be the same words repeated over but it's brilliantly effective.

 

'Nictotine, Valium, Vicadin, Marijuana, Ecstasy and Alcoholllllllll

 

'C-C-C-C-Cocaaaaaaaine!

 

 

Haha.

 

Feel Good Hit is awesome. Seeing that played live is one of those heavenly music moments.

 

Songs for the Deaf is also brilliant. Not sure which one I prefer really, both are just total brilliance.

[ipaul]

Started listening to Talk Talk. They're pretty great.

 

[Paj!]

Bjork's released Moon as a single (I think).

 

 

As a song it kinda does nothing to me...but then as an album, Biophilia is still opening up to me. Chair and I were discussing (and the critical concensus too) that the album feels like this pristine thing, but not THAT moving a listening experience. Like...it's good...in it's way, but not like normal albums.

[S.C.G]

@Paj\! I would have to agree with you on Biophillia as it is something rather precious as a whole but not in the same way as one of her more 'conventional' - I use the word very loosely in Bjork's case - albums such as Homogenic or Post which are pure bliss to listen to but it's still unique and for that reason I really do love it for not just exceeding my expectations by rather completely defying them - and probably everyone elses - so for that I think it deserves a great deal of praise.

[Paj!]

I'm currently going through all the albums I've got/listened to many many times this year in my 2011 review. Worked out I only got:

 

Adele - 21

Beyonce - 4

Bjork - Biophilia

Bon Iver - Bon Iver

Britney Spears - Femme Fatale

David Guetta - Nothing But The Beat

David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time

Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials

Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne

Kate Bush - Director's Cut

Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow

Katy B - On A Mission

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know

Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Patrick Wolf - Lupercalia

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

Rihanna - Talk That Talk

Tori Amos - Night Of Hunters

Tyler, The Creator - Goblin

The Unthanks - Last

 

I've really not been as up for listening to new/upcoming bands or artists these past 2 years or so. More into exploring the back catalogues of older artists. So this list hasn't got (m)any 'bright new things'. Nor is this a list of the best of the year or anything (David Guetta...).

 

EDIT: Femme Fatale may end up being dangerously high on my '2011 Fave Albums' list. I enjoy it so. I feel she's come full circle, and the fact she's a puppet for producers is now her 'niche', and that's fine/cool with the cool kids.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Paj!

[S.C.G]

I've been really enjoying Night of Hunters by Tori Amos recently, one of my favourite albums of the year; one thing is slightly bugging me though... @Paj\! who is that sings on many of the tracks alongside Tori? For whoever it is sounds very talented for such a young age - I assume by the voice - and seems to work really quite well especially on a certain track.

 

'Cyactus Pryuacticccccce'

 

[Coolness Bears]

I've been really enjoying Night of Hunters by Tori Amos recently, one of my favourite albums of the year; one thing is slightly bugging me though... @Paj\! who is that sings on many of the tracks alongside Tori? For whoever it is sounds very talented for such a young age - I assume by the voice - and seems to work really quite well especially on a certain track.

 

'Cyactus Pryuacticccccce'

 

 

It's her daughter Natashya Hawley playing the character of anabelle.

 

Accept on Night of Hunters where it's her niece Kelsey Dobyns who is playing the character of the fire muse.

[Paj!]

I kinda have no opinion on the guest vocals. Like...they're fine, but I feel like I might find them funny/cringey, but not enough to to be bothered to express these feelings. They work.

 

Tash also sings on Tori's xmas album Midwinter Graces (which is bleghh). But again, does fine.

 

I'd just prefer to hear Tori Amos' old voice singing an entire album again. Which I know won't happen...though she's had a bit of a vocal rennaissance on tour lately.

 

 

----

 

Some new things I've heard.

 

1

 

This is like a bad dream. While I was watching I felt like I was tripping. It's truly terrible. I don't understand Will.i.am. Ugh.

 

I love the joke that is J.Lo....but this is...SUMMIN ELSE

 

2

 

Surely the world's most boring video in relation to the intro? Anyway. Not as ICONIC as Whip My Hair, but Nicki's verse is enjoyable, one of her better recent guest verses.

And I tolerate Willow as a 'child singer' cause she feels great, and isn't all sappy.

 

Ok I’m the street fighter, call me Chun-Li

a-a-and it’s goin’ down, l-l-like a bum knee

Built a guest house to put the coupe in

’cause I’m a fireball, Hadouken!

 

3

 

I think I'll buy her album, it's only £7 or something. I'm not stunned by anything I've heard from it, but she reminds me of being younger. Like an old friend I see every few years or something. She comforts.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Paj!

[Diageo]

I'm currently loving this song.

 

[Paj!]

One of the most exciting songs/artists of the year, definitely.

 

Liquorice (her new one) is good too.

[S.C.G]

Currently listening again to Fallen Empires by Snow Patrol which I got as a Christmas present... while it's perfectly listenable and pretty great as an album by them I no longer 'connect' with the band - they used to be one of my 'favourites' lol - indeed I wonder if I ever truly did... I can remember a time when I'd be happy that there was a new album of theirs being released but now I don't really feel a great deal for them.

 

The tracks on their latest album are still perfectly reasonable but fairly formulaic, it's not as if I'm surprised but I just struggle to remember what I actually liked about them to begin with.

 

I definitely feel like I've moved on a great deal from my narrow musical tastes of old which I'm glad of - the 'Trion' are my everything! - but there are always bands that it seems I'll always have a soft spot for.

 

 

*plays some P.J Harvey*

 

'These, these, these are the words, the words that maketh murder.'

[Jon]

It's a fairly depressive album to be fair, better than their last effort I thought. Particularly like 'New York' and 'The President'.

 

 

 

 

Been listening to one of my all time favourite albums a lot recently, Affirmation by Savage Garden. They're a band that's probably unique in the sense there's nothing else like them in my music collection. I grew up listening to that album whilst playing Shenmue on the Dreamcast all those years ago. There's not a song that I don't adore or know the words line by line. They went out right at the peak of their fame because one of them didn't want the limelight and the other wouldn't carry on without him. In the fame hungry world that we now live in, it's refreshing to look back and see that wasn't everything for some people.

[S.C.G]

It's a fairly depressive album to be fair, better than their last effort I thought. Particularly like 'New York' and 'The President'.

 

True, it's pretty great for a Snow Patrol album... as I said it's perfectly listenable and better than a lot of crap that's charting at the moment.

[S.C.G]

Currently in love all over again with Ceremonials by Florence + the Machine I think it just might be my favourite album of 2011...

 

 

... as for 2012, who knows? I'm looking forward to finding out but at the same time I'm not too bothered at the moment as I have plenty of music to listen/relisten to.

 

'Lay me down

pockets full of stone

let the only sound

be the overflow'