Could anyone like the Rapture album - I mean, *really*?

(I think it's a rub album too - London ILXers without a copy can have mine for the price of 2 pints at a FAP.)

there are a couple of tracks on Echoes i don't like, although even Love Is All is growing on me. i think it's fine and don't get why anyone would dislike it that much.

MORE IMPORTANTLY THE EWAN PEARSON MIXES OF 'I NEED YOUR LOVE' ARE BLOODY SUPERB

it's like comparing Stereophonics and Can

i'd go through it track by track but i simply don't have the time. off the top of my head:

olio = the cure .. everything
the coming of spring = PiL "careering"
killing = a certain ratio "do the du"

(nb: i have seriously gone off the album, and haven't listened to it probably since october. but there's nothing wrong with being seriously infatuated with something for a few months and then never wanting to hear it again.)

(x-post: you sure are up early.)

Jess otm. The only one I ever participated in was Junior Senior, but seriously how can anyone like them?

I'll have to hear Killing again - I know do the du well enough

Which album is "Everything" by the cure on?

Alright alright sorry it's not up to your fucking standards you miserable sniping fucking loser. Sorry its not a fucking Carlin/Morley/Penman/Jess fucking Harvell incisive fifty thousand fucking word thinkpiece on Scritti Fucking Politti - I was just listening to it at work and it's arse. So I wondered what others thought. So I posted. Sorry I fucking ruined your day Jess. I won't fucking bother anymore. No, I can't do REAL GOOD angry polemic. I wasn't fucking trying to do REAL GOOD angry polemic. So why don't you stoop down and give us the benefit of some REAL, REAL good angry polemic yourself if that's what makes your miserable day, you shithead.

I'm the fuckin' publiished author now!

Eastenders 7.30

Carlin confronts Barry Lasagne about a stolen David Sylvain record.

It's the great strength/weakness of rock music isn't it - you have the energy and dynamic created by 3/4/5/x ppl together who broadly agree on what makes good music and know each other, hence 'great live band', but on the other hand there's an ethic of irreplacability - songs have to be written in-house; singing has to be done in-house etc etc.

sniiiffle.

with respect, that is pure foolishness!

hey, there's a car ad on US TV at the moment that has neo-punk-funk on the soundtrack, it sounds just like 'house of jealous lovers' but it's not--different singer. Does anyone know who the band is?

be funny if neo-postpunk became the new electronica vis-a-vis commercials

Aw mama I thought I knew something about music... wtf is 'baile funk'? Not the Mazda ads, anyway.

Here you go Enrique and Chupa answers my qn on it too - I missed that, thanks!

Hey Jimmy what's the French for Va Va Voom?

I am surprised not to see Julio in the background to that advert seeing as it is about JAZZ and all.

Ahem off topic somewhat aren't I. I haven't heard the Rapture album either. I AM A FRAUD!

oh ok then.

Oh, and the Robert Smith comparison is WAY overstated. I've used it myself when describing "Olio" but the Rapture dude is a total amateur by comparison. Smith has a peculiar instrument, but he USES it to great affect. I don't even see the level of skill Smith had on Boys Don't Cry here.

An odd thing to say (that "even", I mean), given that *Boys Don't Cry* contains by far the most skilled music that Robert Smith ever made.

I mean, if this Rapture thing is a Cure album, it's probably the best Cure album SINCE *Boys Don't Cry.* If it's a Gang of Four album, it's the best Gang of Four album since, well, *Songs of the Free* I guess (I haven't heard that one in years, come to think of it. So never mind.) Truth is, it's probably neither. And it's okay. Better than the Interpol album, better than either Liars album, better than the frigging Walkmen or Secret Machines or Calla or whoever. Still hard to get excited about, though. Their own early EP might be better. (None of which is to say that this isn't a pretty stupid thread idea.) My favorite song is still whichever one rips off "Careering."

Slightly worse than the Dinosaur Jr. version. So: it's okay, I guess.

Dan - I seem to remember that we agree on New Order (fave album Movement, no?). But then, yes we do veer away wildly in opposite directions ;)

"Shake Dowwwwnnn"

Damn! I thought I liked it but now it's all become clear - I just fell for the hype. Silly me.

I like their military mach-3 march dance moves though! They would ONLY be better on stage if their singer could play guitar and trumpet at the same time. Ah. Amy Linton, huzzah.

But sorry for being snarky, anyway.

(hahahahaha)

But House of the Jealous Lovers does sound amazing in a house set, or "in a club" to use the old cliche of something sounding amazing in a club. Meaning is injected into the cliche by the fact that I doubt alot of people believe it sounds great in the middle of dance DJ sets cos it is for all intents and purposes a rock song, I know I didn't until I heard it, several times.

I sort of agree with Tom, I like the album alot but I don't like albums alot. I seldom listen to anything except mixes now, the idea of one artist for a whole album isn't that attractive to me. But it is a pretty good album.

I don't really get people complaining about the vocals, I mean who cares really, I can't remember the last time I ever disliked something because of the vocals. Unless it was disliking something because it actually had vocals.

Will they do a remix album I wonder?

N otm, Tiefschwarz remix of Sister Saviour is good, also that DFA one which Matt linked a while back. There are some awful remixes around aswell, cosmos mix of HoJL, yuck.

I quite like the vocal to I Need Your Love, it makes it more interesting in the sense of it being a Rapture single and not just an anonymous 12. Not that there's anything wrong with anonymous 12s but I'm not sure it'd be that interesting without a vocal. I guess it's not that far away from Basement Jaxx or DJ Sneak, if the whole thing oscillated a bit more, maybe bring up the bassline a bit and it'd be a bit like "Fix My Sink".

I see your point about the verse vocal, really it's just the lyrics that annoy me, I know maybe I shouldn't care about lyrics but I still do - HOJL managed to hit this sweet spot with really evocative/effective/meaningless words but a lot of their other stuff I get a horrible feeling is 'about' something.

there's something funny/interesting about the way HoJL was recieved, as I didn't really, until hearing it in a club/mix. it's like they go and try and make a house record and everyone treats it like a rock record anyway. I mean that opening riff is gasping for a quick flick of the crossfader.

But it's like in my initial not getting it I thought "what a poor rock song" and then eventually it's like "ah but this is great when you hear it out". Takes a good DJ though.

"careering" creates it's own upward movement (careering) feel using that spooky synth + a deliberately wrong beat placement, creating the illusion of movement while always coming back to "stuck". it does not sound like another rock song (unlike TCOS, which sounds just like another rock song)

i did however immediately think of another song when hearing TCOS, but it wasn't the Pil song, it was Roxy Music's "ladytron", and i mean the prog-rock-like stubborn synth chords at the end of "ladytron", not the endearing and almost never repeated "cha-cha" section. the chord changes strike me as a particularly obvious par-for-this-rhythym. By that i mean (in both songs) they sound obvious anyway, so maybe they're not the same chords, but both sets seem just as boring.

i find the comparison to Pil's song completely unjustified, that's unless the rapture just sound like PiL by virtue of the rhythym (which is _not_ the same at all unless it's so watered down as to be a fairly useless comparison), the whining lyrics and the use of "synth noises" (albeit completely empty and different noises).

this song has no real forward momentum (unlike "careering" which invents its own whole new verve) and so it just sounds to me like a scrawny third take by one of those countless bands that copied GoF the first time around. It sounds completely passionless and wet to me. no rapture here.

HOJL kind of stands alone on the album in that it's a house track made with rock instruments rather than a rock track with house instruments.

I really enjoy the album as is but it fell short of my top ten (regardless of what my P&J top ten will indicate) because I can never remember the lesser songs afterwards, even the ones I like eg. "Killing".

Thank you! The boy Swygart called me a moron for saying this. IT'S THE SAME DAMN SONG.

(I can't remember)

Erol's done some great stuff with HOJL in the mix - perfect segues into 'You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)' and 'Higher State Of Consciousness' esp.

I actually know people who own The Chair That Squeaks, Mirror, and Out of the Races.. and don't like Echoes.

I also have seen them perform live twice. Note that I live in the dead center of the midwest, so I might just be years behind what's cool.