ITT: /mu/ in 1984
This is LITERALLY 1984We live in a society
I dunno guys.This was a great album but I have this gut feeling this magic isn't gonna last forever. Stuff ends badly for a lot of metal bands. Do you think it'll happen to them to or are they gonna be fine?
I WANT A NEW DRUGONE THAT WON'T MAKE ME SICKONE THAT WON'T MAKE ME CRASH MY CARONE THAT WON'T MAKE ME FEEL THREE FEET THICK
Madonna is hot.
Marking time (actually a computer marks it for them) they play music's equivalent of baseball's play-me-or-trade-me. I played, now I'm trading. C-
Hey wanna play Ultima on my Apple II?
Imperceptible though the movement has been to many sensitive young people, Springsteen has evolved. In fact, this apparent retrenchment is his most rhythmically propulsive, vocally incisive, lyrically balanced, and commercially undeniable album. Even his compulsive studio habits work for him: the aural vibrancy of the thing reminds me like nothing in years that what teenagers loved about rock and roll wasn't that it was catchy or even vibrant but that it just plain sounded good. And while Nebraska's one-note vision may be more left-correct, my instincts (not to mention my leftism) tell me that this uptempo worldview is truer. Hardly ride-off-into-the-sunset stuff, at the same time it's low on nostalgia and beautiful losers. Not counting the title powerhouse, the best songs slip by at first because their tone is so lifelike: the fast-stepping "Working on the Highway," which turns out to be about a country road gang: "Darlington County," which pins down the futility of a macho spree without undercutting its exuberance; and "Glory Days," which finally acknowledges that among other things, getting old is a good joke. A+
>>130388862so overrated it hurts
Depleted by the kind of corporate strife I thought these guys were too cynical to fall for (which may be why they did), Henry Rollins's adrenalin gives out. The consequent depression is so monumental that even Greg Ginn succumbs, adding only one classic to his catalogue of noise solos ("The Swinging Man") and grinding out brain-damaged cousins of luded power chords behind the three dirges that waste side two. But things do start off manically enough, with the title tune (refrain: "You're one of them") and five minutes of Henry explaining why he smiles so much (which I never noticed). B-
This nigga just dropped album of the century
>>130388806Only Brazilians care about 80s KISS.
>>130389046>>130388806hair metal era KISS were just background noise to play at your local bowling alley. people would go to their concerts because there was no Internet in the 80s and it was something to do, but that incarnation of the band really didn't have an actual fanbase.
>>130388967
If a woman wants to sell herself as a sex fantasy I'll take a free ride--as long as the fantasy of it remains out front, so I don't start confusing image with everyday life. But already she's so sure of herself she's asking men and women both to get the hots for the calculating bitch who sells the fantasy even while she bids for the sincerity market where long-term superstars ply their trade. And to make the music less mechanical (just like Bowie, right?), she's hired Nile Rodgers, who I won't blame for making it less catchy. B
>>130389234>>130388967poor guys getting literally milked to death by SST>five albums in 13 months
Don't reelect Ronald Raygun this November! Peace not nuclear Armageddon!
The girl-group version of Tony Swain and Steve Jolley's black harmony trio, Imagination, Bananarama suffer from Swain-Jolley's characteristically detached mix, which sounds dreamy when Leee Johns is coming on and untouchably dreamlike when these lucky lasses blend their voices in song. They also suffer from the songs, which despite their solid hooks don't give you much to grab onto either. B-
DEATH STRAPPED IN THE ELECTRIC CHAIRTHIS IS THE FINAL CURTAIN CALL I SEE
>>130388779NEEEERRDDDDD
Though Olympic ideology valorizes what Philip Glass vacuously designates "shared humanity," you'd never guess it from the unprecedented procession of pompous asses (more than 200 Oscar and Grammy nominations among them) Lee Guber and Jon Peters have gathered together for this unprecedented display of El Lay hegemony. Only Herbie Hancock suggests by choice of players or style that the concept of international might extend beyond Giorgio Moroder and Foreigner. And only Hancock-Laswell-Susu-Dieng's "Junku" suggests that games involve play as well as the striving egomania summed up so eloquently in this classic Moroder-Zito-Engemann couplet: "Reach out for the medal/Reach out for the goal" (or is it gold?). The Russians were right, folks, and not just because Guber/Peters don't like balalaikas. D+
First time out they sounded so original musically that I made it a spiritual exercise to forgive Gordon Gano his bad personality. But everything you might hum along with on the sequel was invented generations ago by better men than he. And though "Black Girls" may not be racist (or "faggot"-baiting), it takes a great deal of petulant delight in daring you to call it a name. Then again, maybe it is racist. C+
What makes Bowie a worthy entertainer is his pretensions, his masks, the way he simulates meaning. He has no special gift for convincing emotions or good tunes--when he works at being "merely" functional he's merely dull, or worse. With Nile Rodgers gone, the dance potential of the second album of his professional phase is negligible, and he's favoring the tired usages that have been the downfall of an entire generation of English twits. In this setting, not even Leiber-Stoller's long-neglected "I Keep Forgetting" makes much of an impression. C
>>130388862Wearing a colored rag in your pants pocket was a way for gay men to signal if they were a top or bottom. Pink meant bottom, green meant top.
The title track is someone who learned about sex from movies. "Black Coffee" takes this whole antidrug thing too far. "Wound Up" could be tighter. "Rat's Eyes" cries out in agony for Sabbath's chops. "Obliteration" is an ace accompanyist's solo turn. "The Bars" isn't about prison or saloons. "My Ghetto" is an outtake from the rant side of Damaged. "You're Not Evil" is right on. C+
>>130389570It's clearly a faded red baseball cap
>>130389603damn, he actually reviewed all the songs for once
>>130389513The coke was getting to Bowie by this point.
Both sides are unimpeachably sensible and unfailingly pleasant; except for the closer, each of the ten tunes paces proudly by in full confidence that it will set you humming. Yet as reported, the proceedings are a little, shall we say, somnolent, which I blame not just on a voice whose deep satisfactions are best appreciated in the company of brighter and flightier ones but on a drummer who isn't Mick and a bassist who isn't John. B+
>>130389234>>130389603name a better label in the world right now than SST, you literally cunt
Unlike most of her cocharting cofemales, Ullman has undertaken a conscious genre exercise--she plays girl-group tradition for naive if not dumb passivity. The songs new and old are tuneful and right, the production exquisitely not-quite-schlocky, but just-compare her "Bobby's Girl" to Marcie Blaine's original--Ullman sings with too much force and skill to make the conceit convincing. On the other hand, it's probably her musical conscience that saves the project from unmitigated "ironic" condescension. "They Don't Know" did hit at face value, after all. B+
>>130389688The lady who would be eaten by a cartoon.
>>130389570>>130389704idk, let's ask these guys. they might know a thing or two about gay signage.
man i love gommunism
I miss JapanSylvian's solo stuff is good but just doesn't hit the same
>>130389688Sorry Tracey, you're at least 10 years too early for the 60s kitsch revival.
some great records
>>130388998Somewhere in Washington DC at this very moment, Tipper Gore is listening to this album and having an existential meltdown.
>>130389688the early 80s girl group revival fad. yeh it didn't quite capture the spirit of the originals, the times having changed.
THERE'S SOMETHING STRANGEGOIN' AROUND TOWNWHO YOU GONNA CALL?
Definitely reduces the nostalgia-cum-nausea factor that it's women who execute these familiar heart-stopping harmonies, and thank God there's not a trace of Liverpool or even Britannia in the accents. But the value of these songs isn't merely negative--they're thoroughly realized in both the writing and playing. Though the style is as derivative and even retro as on EP, they don't seem to be dabbling any more. Maybe they project such confidence because they know exactly what they want to say: don't fuck me over. A-
This wonderful record feels like product at first--a solid but expedient bunch of songs like The Bells or Coney Island Baby or even Sally Can't Dance. Although the title cut is definitely the centerpiece, and thematic at that, there are no grand statements like "Women" or "Legendary Hearts" and no tours de force like "The Gun" or "Betrayed." And boy, does it sneak up on you. Instead of straining fruitlessly to top himself, Reed has settled into a pattern as satisfying as what he had going with the Velvets, though by definition it isn't as epochal. The music is simple and inevitable, and even the sarcastic songs are good sarcastic songs, with many of the others avoiding type altogether. Think he can keep doing this till he's fifty? Hope so. A
in which they abandon all pretense of being a "rock" band and turn into low effort mompop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtpsSetgzuA
>>130390645that cover art didn't really age well
At his best, Kahn writes like the gifted local organizer he still is sometimes; his political commitment is bound up in the incidents that precede issues. But his modest folkie renown seems to have cut him off from his sources in much the way that superstardom starves pop genius at the root. With one exception (El Salvador as seen by a farmboy-turned-soldier), the best songs here are the most personal: two for the new love of his life, one for a gay coworker. The political stuff is often generalized, conceived to serve an idea, and while he gets away with it sometimes (an antiharassment song that kicks off from the turn-of-the-century "It's the Same the Whole World Over"--smart), he does seem to think that "It's not how large your share is/But how much you can share" is an inspirational couplet. B
Ha ha, whoops.
Ballads aren't Teena's problem--self-expression is. Marvin and Aretha are so abundantly endowed they can afford to meander occasionally, but neither would dare stretch "Out on a Limb" to 6:38. Better Teena should make like Maya Angelou and design her slow ones for the page. On the other hand, Teena's fast ones need no apology, which she may finally have learned doesn't mean they need no hooks. And when she's riding a hit she can take Marvin and Aretha to the bank. B
>>130390538Bob, your angophobia is getting ridiculous
>>130390787Also worth noting that is the first year since 1960 without an Aretha album. She'll be back next year of course, unfortunately with one of her single worst songs.
>>130390794>>130389513See here. He was disappointed that Tonight was too British and no longer had Nile Rodgers on it.
I'd hoped to let this one die in dignified silence--figured you couldn't blame the boy for trying. But as it's now sold over 500,000 RIAA-certified copies, discretion is useless. Anyway, I do blame him for trying. Aside from the eerie vocal resemblance, this is bland professional pop of little distinction and less necessity--tuneful at times, tastefully produced of course, and with no discernible reason for being, more Frank Sinatra Jr. than (even) Hank Williams Jr. Julian seems well brought up, a credit to his long-suffering mom. I suggest he invest his royalties in medical school--or else, if he's so keen on not wasting his genetic heritage, launch a career in the visual arts. C
>>130388616now we truly live in an animal farm
>>130390898nepobabbies get rekt
As minstrelsy goes, this is as good-natured as it gets (and minstrelsy it had better be). The reason why it doesn't quite come off as good-natured can be found in this mysterious observation from spokesperson Flea--"Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash have great raps but not the great music to go along with." Coming from a bassist, that's some serious delusion. B-
dude cocaine and Spandex
>>130388649did you know that they fired their original guitarist because they were jealous of his talent and then stole his riffs to use on this album? true story btw.
>>130391200Fuck off, Dave.
>>130388779computers are for sexless nerds, loser
>>130388616Let Them Eat Jellybeans
Wrapping things up with the 20th Anniversary tour. Lots of secret words, audience participation and fun and games. Caught him at KCMO Memorial Auditorium.
The head Journeyman's cameo on Aid for Africa reminded me of what I'd missed, which was the aural equivalent of gastroenteritis. Pat Boone never learned his lesson, so why should Steve Perry? Oversinging signifies not soul, but will and desperation. Upped a notch for good intentions and in case Sam Cooke has finally taught him a lesson. C
anyone got Judas Priest tix?
True enough, these new-wave art-folkies don't sound like anybody else, including their kissing cousins in R.E.M. Reason one is Robert Buck on "principal guitars devices," all delightful space effects and airily elliptical hooks. But reason two is Natalie Merchant and her equally airy "voice." Not only does Natalie inflect the English language as if she grew up speaking some Polynesian tongue, but she writes lyrics to match, lyrics which from the crib sheet I'd adjudge the most sophomoric poetry-of-pretension to hit pop music since lysergic acid was in flower. Random stanza: "Patrons in attendance/To disarm a common myth/Homage paid to the victor of immortality/Cloaked in bold tones." Jesus. B-
>>130391690>new-wave art-folkiesthe horror!
>>130391690So overrated by Gen Xers who liked the idea that Natalie Merchant looked cute without makeup.
>>130391245OHW but it was a good one hit.
>>130391046An ancient evil awakens.
I hate to belabor the obvious (that's Al's job) but this is Mad Magazine for the ears. Still, Mad does on occasion hit it dead-on, and (with a lot of help from its target) so does "Eat It", while "Polkas in 45" goes Joe Piscopo ten times better, and "Mr. Popeil" exploits Al's otherwise fatal resemblance to Fred Schneider. C+
>>130391882He should have really done "Teach Me Tonight" about 25 years earlier. Dude's turning 69 at the end of the year and sounding like it.
>>130391882>>130391921Then again, Frank might have stopped with L.A. Is My Lady and everyone would be ok with that. Unfortunately, in nine years Capitol will try to wring one last payday out him before he dies. It won't be pretty.
>>130391930As anon said, SST trying to milk these guys for everything they can. Five albums in two years is really unnecessary, I don't even think George Jones did that.
>>130390787>Marvin and Aretha >Maya Angeloufucking retard name dropping blacks that have nothing to do with teenas music
>>130392009country singers also just sang whatever material Nashville writers gave them or they did covers of existing songs, they weren't expected to write enough songs themselves for five albums in two years.
>>130389116Mercury never really gave them much support, which is probably not surprising considering they had Def Leppard, a younger, fresher band.
>>130389570It's a hat, you dumb fuck. Maybe stop staring at guys asses all day and go get your eyes checked.
>>130389234Punks really hate this record it seems
>>130392223nobody outside Texas has heard of Pantera at this point. not even kidding. there was no Internet back then and during the 90s, very few people knew about their hair metal past and it was just vague rumors.
Those still looking for the perfect garage may misconstrue this band's belated access to melody as proof they've surrendered their principles. Me, I'm delighted they've matured beyond their strange discovery of country music. Bands like this don't have roots, or principles either, they just have stuff they like. Which in this case includes androgyny (no antitrendie reaction here) and Kiss (forgotten protopunks). Things they don't like include tonsillectomies and answering machines, both of which they make something of. A+
This not-great George Jones record should reassure anybody who was worried he'd never make another decent one without hitting the bottle again. First side leads off with messages to wives of various periods, second with a Jones-penned chestnut that happens to be the title of his new bio, a great pseudofolksong (or maybe it's real, which is what makes it great), and a very cheerful explanation of why he'll never hit the bottle again. We believe you, George. B
>>130391818Albuquerque is his best number. He has several good originals that are not strictly parodies.
>>130392009Zappa released six albums in 1969-70. Only Mothermania was a greatest hits.
>>130392545the index cards are supposed to represent all his ex-wives lol
With hooks recurring as predictably as zebras on a carousel or heartbeats in a city, the glossy approach the Cars invented has made this the best year for pure pop in damn near twenty, and it's only fair that they should return so confidently to form. They still don't have much to say and they're still pretty arch about it, but that's no reason for anybody to get unduly bothered, and neither is Greg Hawkes's Fairlight. B+
This one makes you listen--its abrupt shapes and electro/symphonic textures never whisper Eagles remake. So thank cocomposer, multi-instrumentalist, and occasional arranger Danny Kortchmar, whose "You're Not Drinking Enough" (Merle Haggard, call your agent) and "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" (T-Bone Burnett, ditto) are at once the simplest and most effective songs on the record. Then blame the turgid lengths, tough-guy sensitivity, and "women are the only works of art" on the auteur, who still thinks perfect love is when you're crazy and she screams. B
What makes these guys so depressing is their definitive proof that instinctive musicality insures no other human virtue. Rival popsters, Bruce and Cyndi included, don't do nearly as much for Arthur Baker's hip-hop dub, which in this context is sly and graceful and goofy and catchy and thrilling, and they even have the good taste to like, you know, soul. Yet if in the end you think the music doesn't connect, you get a gold star--the affluent anomie I wish were only a pop-sociology cliché pervades not just the lyrics but the mix itself. And you want to know something even more depressing? Millions of record buyers either don't notice or like it like that. B
Physical gifts and technical accomplishments tempt a singer to overdramatize--Annie Lennox makes altogether too big a deal of punching the sofa. But even if she isn't, well, "cooler than ice cream" (really), I'm glad she's normal enough to want to be. If it's high-grade schlock you seek, this'll do as well as early Quarterflash. And Lennox has better hair. B
>>130393182>Millions of record buyers either don't notice or like it like that.It's called women.
he never needed those other guys
>>130393379Cuckgau didn't review this one because he thought it was promoting rape.
>>130393402wow what a fag
Dammit, not again. Nadir: The 35th or so remake of "Music, Music, Music."
>>130393276The world needs more tomboy pop
First two tracks are power packed if conventionally anarchic neo-no-wave hostility, though the guitar barrage keeps building. Second side is music to play loud when you feel like going out and stealing a pneumatic drill. Climax is a trash-compacted version of "The Big Payback"--James Brown, white-rage style. A-
>>130388616two more weeks until the soviets nuke us for real this time
>>130393563Cuckgau loves chicks with dyke cuts btw, you'll notice after a bit that he has a very particular type of woman he's into.
>>130392009Black Flag were just coming off of a two year recording ban because of some legal issues so they had a lot of songs and ideas piled up.
>>130391882This one’s alright, but Frank sing over instrumentals could sometimes leave him sounding a little bored.
>>130393571i get it Steve, you love anime
>>130388616still have my Aerosmith Tour '77 T-shirt in the closet. say whatever happened to those guys anyway?
>>130389513The 80s were a miserable time for Bowie. There was nothing in pop or rock he could latch onto until the rise of grunge gave him new inspiration.
Autism
The former CSN fucktoy's final major label album.
I'll swear on a stack of singles that "Turn on the News" could rouse as much rabble as "London Calling" or "Anarchy in the U.K." I play side three for pleasure and side two for catharsis. And I get a kick out of the whole fucking thing, right down to the fourteen-minute guitar showcase/mantra that finishes it off. But though I hate to sound priggish, I do think it could have used a producer. I mean, it was certainly groovy (not to mention manly) to record first takes and then mix down for forty hours straight, but sometimes the imperfections this economical method so proudly incorporates could actually be improved upon. It wouldn't be too much of a compromise to make sure everyone sings into the mike, for instance, and it's downright depressing to hear Bob Mould's axe gather dust on its way from vinyl to speakers. Who knows, put them in the studio with some hands-off technician--Richard Gottehrer, Tony Bongiovi, like that--and side two might even qualify as cathartic music rather than cathartic noise. A-
Like the cocky high speed of the brazenly redundant "Baby I'm a Star," the demurely complaisant "Thank you" that answers "You're sheer perfection" signals an artist in full formal flower, and he's got something to say. Maybe even a structure: the frantic self-indulgence of "Let's Go Crazy" gives way to a bitter on-again-off-again affair that climaxes in the loving resignation of the title song--from in-this-life-you're-on-your-own to in-this-life-heaven-is-other-people (and-you're-still-on-your-own). But insofar as his messages are the same old outrageous ones, they've lost steam: "1999" is a more irresistible dance lesson for the edge of the apocalypse than "Let's Go Crazy," "Head" and "Jack U Off" more salacious than the groundout "Darling Nikki." He may have gained maturity, but like many grown-ups before him, he gets a little blocked making rebel-rock out of it. A-
>>130393889This is nowhere near as great as its reputation suggests.
BTO try one last time before packing it in.
Heavy metal's excuse for existing is its status as the generic expression of a white-male-adolescent underclass, but these five devotees of "the American work ethic" from an affluent Seattle suburb buy none of that--they're into selling. They woodshedded for two years, avoiding the seamy bar circuit in their pursuit of the rock and roll dream, which is of course a big contract. And when they got it they gave two weeks notice on their day jobs like the second-generation managers they are. What EMI paid for was the operatic tenor of Geoff Tate emoting "fantasy" lyrics over hyped-up new-metal tempos, and if you think the brand name panders to sexism and fascism, you're free to set up picket lines for as long as the First Amendment remains in force. D+
>>130394136I WANNA ROCK
>>130394136neat it's the heavy metal Wiggles
As public figures and maybe as people, these imperialist wimps are the most deplorable pop stars of the postpunk if not post-Presley era. Their lyrics are obtuse at best, and if you'd sooner listen to a machine sing than Simon Le Bon, what are you going to do with both? Yet the hit singles which lead off each side are twice as pleasurable as anything Thomas Dolby is synthesizing these days. Which had better teach you something about imperialism. C+
>>130394297>grrr, stop being so British>start being more American and start ripping off black music, dammit
Though a bit upwardly mobile for the highbrow-lowbrows who regard money lust and the death throes of capitalism as two sides of rap's only fit subject--D.J. Run boasted about attending St. John's, of all things--the competitive fatalism of the spare, brutal "It's Like That"/"Sucker M.C.'s" was unforced and dead on, and Eddie Martinez's Hendrix-Funkadelic metal on the expansive "Rock Box" proves that even street minimalists can love guitars. But this does more than fill in around two of the finest singles of the past couple of years. It's easily the canniest and most formally sustained rap album ever, a tour de force I trust will be studied by all manner of creative downtowners and racially enlightened Englishmen. While their heavy staccato and proud disdain for melody may prove too avant-garde for some, the style has been in the New York air long enough that you may understand it better than you think. Do you have zero tolerance for namby-pamby bullshit? Do you believe in yourself above all? Then chances are you share Run-D.M.C.'s values. A-
>>130394297One of the first “too big to fail” blockbusters of the MTV era. It was pretty mid, the band members were all over-indulgent playboys coked out of their minds and barely writing music, but they were so huge that they could’ve farted int a microphone and went double platinum.
>>130394389>I trust will be studied by all manner of creative downtowners and racially enlightened EnglishmenSee what I mean?
>>130391046people give them shit, but early Chili Peppers had a really original sound when you consider the norm of rock at that time
Eno has shaped this record to accentuate Bono's wild romantic idealism, and while I prefer his moral force I have to admit that the two are equally beguiling to contemplate and dangerous to take literally. The romanticism gets out of hand with the precious expressionism of "Elvis Presley and America" (enough to make the King doubt this boy's virility), the moralism with the turn-somebody-else's-cheek glorification of Martin Luther King's martyrdom (death stings plenty where I live). But he gets away with it often enough to make a skeptic believe temporarily in miracles. B+
Side one is pure up, and not only that, it sticks to the ears: their pop move avoids fluff because they're heavy and schlock because they're built for speed, finally creating an all-purpose mise-en-scene for Brother Eddie's hair-raising, stomach-churning chops. Side two is consolation for their loyal fans--a little sexism, a lot of pyrotechnics, and a standard HM bass attack on something called "House of Pain." B+
>>130394512took that long to get to it?
Like Foreigner, they also give up on rock and turn into aimless ballad mush.
...
Aunt Rosie keeps on her annual jazz release. Fortunately, unlike certain contemporaries, she had the decency to not remake her cheeseball '50s pop hits.
The howls of outrage greeting this album come from smart optimists who just realized they'd been had. In fact it's no more cynical than The Flowers of Romance, and since it does maintain a groove as well as glinting sardonically on occasion, it's also more fun to listen to. But that's not to say it's fun to listen to. Where Second Edition throbs and The Flowers of Romance thuds, this shrieks, with some of history's ugliest and most useless horn parts--including the one that ruins "This Is Not a Love Song"--leading the way. C+
>>130394992she had good R&B albums up to '86 but the record label didn't promote them so nobody noticed
>>130388616We made it to 1984. We did it, reddit!
Though there's not much range to her grainy voice or well-meaning songwriting, she and her associates put their project over, and with a fashion model's virtues--taste, concept, sound (cf. "look"). There's no superfluity, no reveling in la luxe, not even an excessive tempo. Which is no doubt why I find myself crediting her humanitarian sentiments, even preferring her "Why Can't We Live Together" to Timmy Thomas's equally spare but naive original. And why those who find "Hang On to Your Love" and "Smooth Operator" seductive (instead of just warming, like me) will think they carry the whole album. B
Holy shit this sounds Amazing, what could possibly go wrong?
>>130394136KISS wannabes.
>>130396539This is a real KISS album. Tho the bitch is crazy there are some hot riffs on this one.
>>130394992I'll see your Latoya and raise you a Pia
>>130396523Oh wow so gay unlike this
>>130389513After Scary Monsters all his best tunes were contributions to soundtracks
>>130394603RS were a rock band?
>>130393984This was actually the best Prince album of 1984
>>130396692you never heard Nine Lives i presume?
The problem with guitar virtuosos is that most of them wouldn't know a good musical concept if they tripped over it, which happens just often enough to keep everyone confused. The exception that proves not a damn thing is Jimi Hendrix, the finest guitarist in any idiom ever. Though he comes close sometimes, this Texan ain't Hendrix. But between earned Jimi cover and lyric refreshment, album two is almost everything a reasonable person might hope from him: a roadhouse album with gargantuan sonic imagination. B+
>>130399351this is Christfag slop. please don't listen to it.
Funk pioneers in the early '70s, crossover pioneers in the early '80s, and don't blame yourself if this impressive double play missed you coming and going--anonymity is their signature. When I undertook a professional reexamination of their latest piece of platinum, I was surprised to recognize all three hits on side one from the radio. Quite liked "Misled," sort of liked "Fresh," rather disliked "Cherish"--and had never wondered who did any of them. B-
Hype is a word I try to use no more normatively than I do guitar--one's almost as intrinsic to rock and roll as the other. And this is a truly great hype. We're not just talking spectacularly entertaining, like the dripping labia of Mom's Apple Pie, or spectacularly profitable, like the Monkees, or both, like the "Thriller" video. We're talking hype as primary signifier, as a carrier of rich, profound, and potentially subversive meanings. I love the hype right down to the album package, and will even grant that the appalling quality of the band's music enriches the meaning further. But that doesn't mean I'm going to be caught dead telling anybody to listen to it. The singles side is okay--"Relax" has proven itself a fetching fuck-mantra, "Two Tribes" is fair-to-middling political art. But on the whole Frankie are a marginally competent arena-rock band who don't know how to distinguish between effeminacy and pretension, like an English Grand Funk gone disco. Follow the ads by all means. Watch the videos. And steal these inner sleeves. C
Morrissey's slightly skewed relationship to time and pitch codes his faint melodies at least as much as Johnny Marr's much-heralded real guitar. What's turned him into an instant cult hero, though, is his slightly unskewed relationship to transitory sex--the boy really seems to take it hard. If you'll pardon my long memory, it's the James Taylor effect all over again--hypersensitivity seen as a spiritual achievement rather than an affliction by young would-be idealists who have had it to here with the cold cruel world. B-
If there's a new way to go Hollywood, Glen'll find it. His latest was about to die a quick death on the charts when Beverly Hills Cop rescued "The Heat Is On." Then Miami Vice queued an episode to "Smuggler's Blues", a far better piece of DMSR, I should add, than anything on this smarmy piece of sexist pseudosoul (the anti-Soviet "Better In America" doesn't count since the main thing that seems to be better is making out). Bingo, instant gold. C
>>130399801The Heat Is On sounds like bad 80s car commercial music.>"THE HEAT IS ON. THE HEAT IS ONNNNN...">"Test drive the new '85 300ZX at your neighborhood Nissan dealer today."
They harmonize with uncanny consanguinity. Their six-piece production is neotraditionalist (which in Nashville means liberal, right?), totally violinless (fiddleless, even). But after defying convention by indulging not a single soppy song on their tryout EP, they've flabbed the follow-up several times. And I bet they get even more complacent. B
Goodnight sweet prince. Shouldn't have tried that sweating on stage stunt and you'd still be here.
Pop is such a plastic concept that to call this a pop comeback just confuses things--with its clean, bold, Martin Rushent sound and confident basic chopswomanship, it shares less with Beauty and the Beat than with, oh, Sports (and less than Bananarama does, too). In other words, it's an AOR move (with top-forty goals assumed). Lyrically, it represents a retreat--no place for sly subcultural anthems among these straightforward love songs (really relationship songs), which while sensible enough are never acute or visionary (or thematically consistent/complementary). And having peeled away several layers of resistance, I find the record thrilling. Its expressive enthusiasm gives me the same good feeling I used to get from their musical godmothers in Fanny--a sense of possibility that might touch women who are turned off by more explicit politics, and that these women are strong enough to put into practice. A-
>>130389688>but just-compare her "Bobby's Girl" to Marcie Blaine's original--Ullman sings with too much force and skill to make the conceit convincing.that's true, it sounded more believable when a literal teenager was singing it
The mildly compelling steady-hooks-all-in-a-row construction suggests that Michael Omartian knows his Ric Ocasek, and it will do just fine for those who get a glow just hearing her rare back and sing. But what made the last album was two undeniably singular singles. This time she leads with a cover. Which Ben E. King rared back and sang better a quarter-century ago. B
Goodnight sweet princess.
Though George Michael seems more swellheaded than one would wish in a superstar (or a coworker), he does take care of business! His Isleys cover is less striking than his ersatz Motown! How many other pretty boys can make such a claim?! B
>>130388779the Macintosh is a cute looking computer and it's nice that you don't have to type commands at a prompt to do things, but there's not really anything useful you can do with it. maybe someday computers will get good enough to look at photo-real porn.
>>130400440I believe I will listen to this album on September 11th 2001.
Since the idea of this deeply cynical movie is to assure teenagers not only that AOR equals youth rebellion but also that they can dance to it, and given AOR's enduring commitment to racial segregation, it seems appropriate to note that the two first-rate songs on this offensively glitzy, offensively hyper soundtrack are by black people. Deniece Williams and Shalamar, in case you didn't know, both available as singles and a good thing too. C
>>130400889>DAMMIT, LISTEN TO BLACK MUSIC>WHY WON'T YOU PEOPLE LISTEN TO BLACK MUSIC?
>>130400889There had been successful pop soundtrack albums before, but 1984 was the year it really became the industry standard. Footloose, Beverley Hills Cop, Woman in Red, Ghostbusters, and Flashdance from the previous year still selling like hotcakes.
>>130394184one of the worst singles of the decade
People give 80s production some shit but 84 was probably the best-sounding year of the decade and not as synthetic as other years.
>>130389603He's not wrong, I still pick this over My War, which was just more Damaged trudgery in greyish tones.
>>130400070generic glam metal slop. they'll be back on the bar circuit in Jersey in two years time.
Gracie keeps up with the times: in 1974 she called her sludge-rock Manhole, and if her silicon-pop title doesn't have quite as sharp a reverse-sexist twist it's because the ensuing decade has done more for her amour-propre than for her IQ. She demonstrates her usual staunchness of principle with an amazingly dumb piece of satire or something which takes on EKGs and electric blankets but not Linn drums. And is that Gracie singing "Through the window through the window/I could almost touch the pane"? Rhymes with "I was in the pouring rain," doesn't it? C-
Take it easy, it's just corporate metal. No point in getting upset over these four grizzled dildos. Still, you'd have at least hoped their merger would provide a good name for a law firm. D-
Her voice was shot even before she split with Ike, ten years ago now, and videotaped evidence belied the dazzled reports that filtered in from the faithful when she began her comeback, two and a half years ago now. Less than converted by her reverent reading of the Reverend Green's "Let's Stay Together," I noted cynically that the album lists four different production teams, always a sign of desperation. Which makes its seamless authority all the more impressive. The auteur is Tina, who's learned to sing around and through the cracks rather than shrieking helplessly over them, and who's just sophisticated (or unsophisticated) enough to take the middlebrow angst of contemporary professional songwriting literally. Also personally--check out how she adapts the printed lyrics of Paul Brady's "Steel Claw" to her own spoken idiom. A-
Future Shock was a pretty good album despite its dink quotient; this is a better album despite its schlock quotient. Where's-the-melody is beside the point, because even when they're just hooks the melodies seem a little obvious, without the physical or intellectual bite of the rhythm tracks (nowhere mightier than on the amazing "Metal Beat," recommended to those who think Trevor Horn is into something heavy). And me, I doubt Herbie should be playing more "jazz"--several of the false moments here are provided by Saint Wayne Shorter himself. The African exotica of Foday Musa Suso and Aiyb Dieng, on the other hand, sounds right at home. As does the South Bronx exotica of D.St. A-
How many bots are in this thread?
It's supposed to be tragic that these long-running pros have walked away from America's rich musical heritage in pursuit of the pop buck, but as someone who's always had his doubts about their historical depth, I think the electrodance they settle on here suits them fine. Certainly Richard Perry has assigned songs that throw the new style in your face--titles like "Automatic" and "Neutron Dance" and "Dance Electric" may offend those who wish they still dressed like the Savoy. All jobs well done, I say. B+
>>130401989I hate that song, I really do.
Who would have thunk it? With Tommy producing again after five years, these teen-identified professionals (mean age: thirty-three) make a great album, with the cleansing minimalism of their original conception evoked and honestly augmented rather than recycled--just like their unjudgmental fondness for their fellow teen-identifieds. This time the commercial direction is more metal than pop, but satanists they ain't: just as Joey came up with punk's most useful anti-KKK song, here Dee Dee comes up with punk's most useful anti-Reagan song. Dee Dee also imitates Bugs Bunny on steroids on two well-placed hardcore parodies and provides the first single's salutory lyrical hook: "I want to steal from the rich and give to the poor." A
