The One Band You Feel Like You Should Appreciate But Just Can't

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Tindersticks

Tried and tried and tried to get into their debut. Never clicked. Gave up.

― Dave Bush (davebush), Monday, 29 May 2006 01:14 (eighteen years ago)

don't we do this every month?

― helix aspersa (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 29 May 2006 01:17 (eighteen years ago)

The One Band You Feel Like You Should Appreciate But Just Can't This Month

― Dave Bush (davebush), Monday, 29 May 2006 01:19 (eighteen years ago)

Five years ago it was Mogwai. Now I can't be arsed to care about this kind of thing any more.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Monday, 29 May 2006 01:22 (eighteen years ago)

Joy Division

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Monday, 29 May 2006 01:24 (eighteen years ago)

Stryper

― pleased to mitya (mitya), Monday, 29 May 2006 01:28 (eighteen years ago)

Elvis Costello. I just can't get past how much I hate his voice.

― Marcus Barr (Marcus Barr), Monday, 29 May 2006 01:52 (eighteen years ago)

Joy Division seconded.
Also post-Bends Radiohead.

― punis (punis), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:28 (eighteen years ago)

I love Joy Division, but I can't get into New Order.

― The Jazz Guide to Penguins on Compact Disc (Rock Hardy), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:31 (eighteen years ago)

re: tindersticks, move on from the debut to self-titled record number 2.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:33 (eighteen years ago)

I fail to appreciate why the notion that I, or anyone else, should appreciate any particular bit of music makes a goddamned bit of sense at all.

― Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:42 (eighteen years ago)

Bjork. Sorry.

― Neal Bessen (climate_ctrl), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:42 (eighteen years ago)

I'm sorry about Bjork too. Is there anything we can do about her at this late stage?

― Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:51 (eighteen years ago)

She should become the next Van Halen singer.

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:55 (eighteen years ago)

"Well, maybe I'm supposed to like it, but I think this modern art stuff is nonsense."

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:56 (eighteen years ago)

(pats self on back)

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:57 (eighteen years ago)

Minutemen

― Jena (JenaP), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:59 (eighteen years ago)

REM... not even the early stuff.

― hector savage, Monday, 29 May 2006 03:59 (eighteen years ago)

My Bloody Valentine. To the confusion of most people I know, who INSIST I should like them.

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Monday, 29 May 2006 04:02 (eighteen years ago)

Mobb Deep

― Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Monday, 29 May 2006 04:23 (eighteen years ago)

Joy Division.

Maybe it's just a consequence of my D.O.B., but their sound is too empty/spare for me, Ian Curtis's voice mostly bores me (except for that one moment in "She's Lost Control")...just never really did it for me.

Blasphemy (?) but, prefer the second-gen imitators.

― HooSteen, Monday, 29 May 2006 06:31 (eighteen years ago)

You're not alone. There's an interview with Josh Homme from QOTSA where he says he like Interpol better than Joy Division. I don't think I'd go that far, though. I do like some things off Substance.

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Monday, 29 May 2006 06:44 (eighteen years ago)

See I like a song or two on Unknown Pleasures, but...I don't know.

I had this sound in my head of what the "80s protogoth" sorta thing sounded like (because, in my head, Joy Division belong firmly in the 80s)...and I was disappointed that the actual band didn't correspond to the imagined sound. I had a similar disappointment with The Smiths, who I eventually came to like anyway.

The retro second-gen guys did a better job of approximating the sound in my head, which I guess is a consequence of their amalgamation of "80s" influences vs. the specific Influencing Band like Joy Division.

― Hoosteen, Monday, 29 May 2006 06:52 (eighteen years ago)

All the 2nd gen imitators are more u2-bunnymen-cure than JD to be honest. The whole point of Joy Division is the space, the utter consumptive emptiness of the sound, the way they turn "hot" instrumentation into utter cold- not goth really at all, not melancholic or icy, rather like an urban underpass filled with rain and broken glass echoing in the distance. if Goth=edgar allen poe, lovecraft then JD=Ballard, Elliot, Beckett

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Monday, 29 May 2006 09:54 (eighteen years ago)

Low, Galaxie 500.
i mean,they are nice, but i can listen to them only in a specific mood, and even when i do, i cant see the greatness.

― coco the kid, Monday, 29 May 2006 10:19 (eighteen years ago)

I never got into the one Galaxie 500 CD I heard - "On Fire". I liked Luna, though.

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Monday, 29 May 2006 10:21 (eighteen years ago)

also Suicide - i can see why it is considerd an "important" record, and i do think its good in a way, but i wont take it to an isolated island.the monotonic,repetetive thing is way too boring.

― coco the kid, Monday, 29 May 2006 10:25 (eighteen years ago)

Suicide is better in theory than in practice. You can admire "Frankie Teardrop" from afar without ever listening to the fucking thing again.

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Monday, 29 May 2006 10:32 (eighteen years ago)

Pavement

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 29 May 2006 10:35 (eighteen years ago)

Charlie Parker

― xhuxk, Monday, 29 May 2006 11:04 (eighteen years ago)

Starsailor. Seen them lumped with a lot of bands I just love, but I just cannot stand that voice.

Partly the same goes for Stereophonics too.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 29 May 2006 11:23 (eighteen years ago)

Suicide thirded.

― Jacob (Jacob), Monday, 29 May 2006 11:26 (eighteen years ago)

Another vote for Suicide here. For some reason, I was expecting some Primal Scream-type shenanigans but i got talking instead.

Also, I dont understand the heaping praise helped onto the VU.

― Viz (Viz), Monday, 29 May 2006 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

Big Star spring to mind. I'm sure there are loads, though.

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Monday, 29 May 2006 13:40 (eighteen years ago)

This Suicide hate is catching me off guard. I wonder if it's got something to do with age. Granted, it doesn't sound unique in 2006, but it sure did in 1979.

I loved Suicide back then, but if they debuted now, I probably wouldn't care much. It's timing. My appreciation for them today is influenced by the excitement I felt hearing them for the first time at age 17.

― Dave Bush (davebush), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:13 (eighteen years ago)

pavement seconded, wilco

― TAO (daggerlee), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:22 (eighteen years ago)

Bjork has only 2 options left right now - either do an album with Lordi or get remixed by Carl Craig.

― scnnr drkly (scnnr drkly), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:27 (eighteen years ago)

Melvins.

I'm still trying, just read through that S/D thread the other day in search of recommendations.

― sleeve (sleeve), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:28 (eighteen years ago)

Todd Rundgren: suppose to be genius songwriter. i just dont get it,though i like the artista that say he was an influence on them.
and for the same matter: Brian Wilson.i know, i know...sorruy.

― confusion is ex, Monday, 29 May 2006 14:46 (eighteen years ago)

Well if we're being totally honest, I know I'm supposed to love Miles Davis and John Coltrane, but I just can't seem to get into either of them. I'm more of a blues fan than jazz, but when it comes to the latter I get more into Mose Allison and Dave Brubeck. Maybe it's just that I can get into 5/4 time of Allison and Brubeck, but I'm not smart enough to appreciate the complete flexibility in time signature of Davis and Coltrane. :p

And just to be clear, I'm not dissing them in any way. I know they were both musical geniuses (is that the correct plural?), I just can't seem to get into them.

― shorty (shorty), Monday, 29 May 2006 15:00 (eighteen years ago)

There are a lot of artists on this thread I don't really like - MBV, Joy Division, Todd Rundgren, Melvins, Big Star, Low, Elvis Costello, Tindersticks... I just stopped feeling like I should.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 29 May 2006 15:26 (eighteen years ago)

I agree with Big Star, Low and Tindersticks.
More bands and musicians: The Who, Redd Kross, John Cale, Patti Smith...

― Jean Tully de Molinaire (Jean Tully de Molinaire), Monday, 29 May 2006 17:00 (eighteen years ago)

Shorty: Have you tried Miles second quintet mid-to-late 60s stuff? "Filles de Kilimanjaro," "Neferrtiti," "Miles in the Sky." Tony Williams is mostly doing straight ahead 4/4 stuff at a comprehensible tempo, but its still very much straight-jazz-not-fusion.

As re: Dave Brubeck, I have a longstanding grudge against dude.

Story is that Max Roach wrote & performed the first ever jazz tune in 5/4 ("As Long As You're Living") at a jazz festival in Detroit in 1959. Story is that Dave Brubeck's sidemen were at the festival and showed a high level of interest. Months later Brubeck drops "Take Five" and makes the cover of Time ala "OMG JAZZ IN 5/4! BRUBECK REVOLUTIONARY! GREATEST OF ALL TIME?!"

Is it sick that the grudge keeps me from digging on his music?

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Monday, 29 May 2006 17:28 (eighteen years ago)

To be fair Hoosteen, no I haven't listened to that stuff. So many people told me that I should and would love "Kind of Blue" that I guess I've incorrectly used it as a gauge. And again, it's not that I dislike it, I just don't find myself wanting to listen to it like I do with others. Thanks for the tips.

As for Brubeck, I can totally understand how knowledge like that can affect one's outlook on the artist as a person, but I've come to a point in my life where unless that artist or performer is completely hateful I try my best to separate the person from the music.

I'm not always successful though :)

― shorty (shorty), Monday, 29 May 2006 18:19 (eighteen years ago)

Spiritualized

― richardk (Richard K), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:17 (eighteen years ago)

Radiohead. I like Johnny Greenwood alot, and beleive him to be the key member of the band. But I just can't stand York's voice for more than one song.
Also Suicide and Suicidal Tendancies.

― Heath Raymond (Heath Raymond), Monday, 29 May 2006 20:57 (eighteen years ago)

Little Feat.

― eyesteel (eyesteel), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:37 (eighteen years ago)

Dave Brubeck deserves credit for coming up with one of the catchiest jazz songs of all time (actually, wait, didn't Paul Desmond write it?), but the man is stiff as a corpse on the piano. I mean he fucking sucks.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:40 (eighteen years ago)

TREVOR RABIN ERA YES, DOODS

― chaki (chaki), Monday, 29 May 2006 22:01 (eighteen years ago)

Radiohead seconded.
as a matter of fact i dont think i should. i dont care about them.their later work is pretentious shit.

― some like it not, Monday, 29 May 2006 22:06 (eighteen years ago)

Skipping 11 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Havent found a Big Star song I have found to be that catchy or poppy or rocking or anything.

― Period period period (Period period period), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 02:05 (eighteen years ago)

"oh my god, you don't like THE SMITHS!??! how is that even possible?!?!"

― killy ii (baby lenin pin), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 02:08 (eighteen years ago)

I like (some)British rock music from the 70s, I like Brian Eno,
but I can't get into Roxy Music

Re: The Smiths & Joy Division,
I don't like them either, nor do I feel like I should!

― Chris Bee (Cee Bee), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 02:09 (eighteen years ago)

belle and sebastian are a band i feel like i should hate but just can't!

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 04:06 (eighteen years ago)

Big Star are just boring and a bit awful... so 1970's, so many implausible attempts at Manliness. I've never seen a picture of them, but I imagine them as all having really wispy mustaches.

I feel as though I should like the Magnetic Fields, because a lot of people whose taste in music I respect like them, but basically I find every aspect of their music to be absolutely inert and unconvincing. I've heard their earlier albums were better in that respect, but their best-known album leaves me so cold that I can't really find the motivation to check them out.

Repeat previous paragraph, only with "My Bloody Valentine" in place of "the Magnetic Fields".

― Pessimist (Pessimist), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 04:39 (eighteen years ago)

-The beatles
lalalalalafart

-Radiohead
I actually sort of liked their debut but haven't listened to it in 10 years, everything else sounds dull and done much better by many others.

I do like 2/3 of the other bands on this thread.

― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 04:44 (eighteen years ago)

Big Star, Moustache on 1 of 4 members, Alex Chilton on right:
http://web.telia.com/~u18203287/music/sisters.jpg

I'm wondering if all the Big Star haters have heard all three records? "Third/Sister Lovers" is my favorite but a lot of people pick "Radio City". "Implausible attempts at Manliness" is kind of a wtf comment to me, I've never gotten that impression from their music. If anything they're just vulnerable and adolescent sounding power pop. "Music for pussies" as Steve Albini would say.

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 04:48 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know -- maybe it's just the inescapable influence of various kinds of '70s rock. "Adolescent" is definitely a word I would use, but there's a certain edge to them, like they're not comfortable with that, like they want to be Guys (in the Early 1970's Sense). Which I understand is a hopelessly vague and impressionistic description, hence the capital letters, but lyrically, they're so squared off. They sound to me like they don't want to sound too articulate, as though they are trying very hard to convince us and/or themselves that all they really want out of life is to have a girlfriend who they rarely talk to, and on occasion to get drunk at a bar with some not-very-interesting guys, and probably go to work at some sort of job or something. And maybe there's something behind that facade -- I'll admit I have not tried that hard to get into them -- but that's the surface. And I like my adolescent power-pop bands a trifle less prosaic, is all.

That, and the production is so inescapably of that era. I mean, really. It reminds me of my dad.

― Pessimist (Pessimist), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 05:42 (eighteen years ago)

Wow. It still sounds like you're describing a totally different band from the one I like. What about, for instance "Holocaust"? That's not very happy-go-lucky.

Your eyes are almost dead
Cant get out of bed
And you cant sleep

Youre sitting down to dress
And youre a mess
You look in the mirror

You look in your eyes
Say you realize

Everybody goes
Leaving those who fall behind
Everybody goes
As far as they can,
They dont just care.

They stood on the stairs
Laughing at your errors
Your mothers dead
She said, dont be afraid.

Your mothers dead
Youre on your own
Shes in her bed

Everybody goes
Leaving those who fall behind
Everybody goes
As far as they can
They dont just care
Youre a wasted face
Youre a sad-eyed lie
Youre a holocaust.

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 05:50 (eighteen years ago)

(FWIW, to be perfectly honest 90% of my Big Star fandom rests on "Third/Sister Lovers". I sold back "#1 Record/Radio City" long ago, a CD which may have more of the qualities you describe. "Third" has more of a "I think I'm gonna kill myself but I'm trying to cheer myself up but it's not really working but I guess I'll try and hang in here a while" vibe than a "70's Guy with a girlfriend who he rarely talks to, and on occasion gets drunk at a bar with some not-very-interesting guys, and probably goes to work at some sort of job" vibe.)

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 06:00 (eighteen years ago)

Big Star were the greatest.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 06:06 (eighteen years ago)

Phew, I thought I was going to have to do this by myself. Poly, do you get that "Duder" vibe from Big Star? I'm still not totally sure what Pessimist is talking about. Maybe if he named some tracks...

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 06:12 (eighteen years ago)

radiohead. can't stand them.

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:08 (eighteen years ago)

So many bands on this thread, I totally agree with.

I would add... The Clash. I just find them horribly self conscious.

― Treblekicker (treblekicker), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:11 (eighteen years ago)

Clash seconded!

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:12 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not a big fan of Heavy Metal with a sneer, so ...
Sex Pistols!

― Mats Blomqvist (Blomqvist), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:24 (eighteen years ago)

I agree with about half mentioned so far (Joy Division, The Clash, Bjork, The Who, Patti Smith, R.E.M, Sex Pistols), scratching my head till it is raw and bloody at the mention of the Velvets, Big Star, Steely Dan, Can, Suicide, Coltrane, Bird, and Miles, some of the greatest artists of all time, and don't feel I should appreciate Radiohead, Spiritualized, and Belle & Sebastian in the first place.

I'd like to sheepishly add Led Zeppelin, (though I've recently begun a love affair with the oft-maligned "Fool in the Rain") because I never found them nearly as interesting as Sab, Blue Cheer or The Stooges, the three-pronged epitome of visceral rock music as fars as i am concerned.

Will also add Van Dyke Parks, Cream, Television, and Nirvana to the list.

― Lecherous Erick, Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:24 (eighteen years ago)

Van Dyke Parks rules for the Surf's Up lyrics alone. Columnated ruins domino!
Can agree with you on Cream but not Television or Nirvana.

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:34 (eighteen years ago)

I don't get Television. Just seems like credible hippy music for punks - Marquee Moon in particular. However they seemed OK at Glastonbury a few years ago.

― Treblekicker (treblekicker), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:38 (eighteen years ago)

I just like the guitar playing, really.

― Marmotdeth (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:42 (eighteen years ago)

television seconded

― grapple (grapple), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:52 (eighteen years ago)

the clash - thirded!

― FACEBRACE (FACEBRACE), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 11:17 (eighteen years ago)

Scott Walker
The Passage

― nerve pylon (flat_of_angles), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

roxy music seconded

― anonymous celebrity (anonymous celebrity), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:29 (eighteen years ago)

the clash fourthed

― Chris Bee (Cee Bee), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 16:35 (eighteen years ago)

I don't get Television. Just seems like credible hippy music for punks
You make it sound as if it's a bad thing.

― Mats Blomqvist (Blomqvist), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 16:40 (eighteen years ago)

I remember being surprised when I first heard Television that they weren't more punk, that they had long guitar solos and everything, but now I think that's what I like about them.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 16:44 (eighteen years ago)

I can sort of understand why someone would say Charlie Parker. I have a few CDs of his stuff, but if truth be told, I can hardly remember the last time I played them. It's not that I don't think he's talented, it's just that I don't think the recording technology of the day really did him justice. It's hard to appreciate a brilliant improviser who's only allowed about a minute to solo on each song, because the whole track length can't exceed three minutes. I get the feeling he's always being rushed - not allowed to stretch out. I appreciate his compositional sense - those knotty bebop melodies - but I get that just as well or better from early Monk, Bud Powell, Herbie Nichols, etc. So, yes, I think he was brilliant, but I don't think he's well served by his body of recorded work.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 16:56 (eighteen years ago)

I don't believe there's anything I "can't" appreciate; I just need time, and have less time for the stuff I'm prejudiced against. I would hope anyone who doesn't get the Clash will come back to those records one day, just as I'll probably go through my Stones phase in about 10 years, then maybe try to get past my hatred for Jay-Z's voice.

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 17:07 (eighteen years ago)

The whole point of Joy Division is the space, the utter consumptive emptiness of the sound, the way they turn "hot" instrumentation into utter cold- not goth really at all, not melancholic or icy, rather like an urban underpass filled with rain and broken glass echoing in the distance. if Goth=edgar allen poe, lovecraft then JD=Ballard, Elliot, Beckett
-- gekoppel (inabeautifulplaceinthecountr...), May 29th, 2006.

Agree that JD get the "goth" tag hung on them unfairly, they're too austere + modernist to be goth. Oddly enough I brought up Lovecraft when JD were compared with Black Sabbath here: TS: Sex Pistols' "Never Mind the Bollocks" Vs. Black Flag's "Damaged"

― Edward III (edward iii), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

haha dude, my friends and i were driving back from camping over the weekend and listening to an ipod on shuffle and "new dawn fades" came on - one of them immediately asks "is this black sabbath?"

also i think one of the key disconnects here is that people are equating not getting something with not liking it. just cuz you get something doesn't mean you have to like it, and just cuz you don't like something doesn't mean you don't get it - i get the clash just fine, for example, but i still think they blow donkey balls.

― I am ready to kill myself and eat my dog (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 17:45 (eighteen years ago)

i get the clash just fine, for example, but i still think they blow donkey balls.

took the words right outta my mouth
I mean, other than the phrase "donkey balls"

― Chris Bee (Cee Bee), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 17:51 (eighteen years ago)

Half Japanese. (And Jad Fair's hi-larious "How-to-play-guitar" primer makes me wish I could like 'em all the more so.)

― Monty Von Byonga (Monty Von Byonga), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 00:32 (eighteen years ago)

I gotta say (sorry all) Suicide, as well. And I DID hear them in 1979. And yeah they were different for sure, but not in a way I ever got into. And it's sad 'cause I sure respect them for sheer stick-to-it-iveness.

― matt the queeg, Wednesday, 31 May 2006 00:39 (eighteen years ago)

Did someone say they liked Pablo Honey but no other Radiohead? That completely baffles me.

― Josh Smart (smartypants), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 02:40 (eighteen years ago)

Bjork. Sorry.
-- Neal Bessen (noise_o_ram...), May 29th, 2006 1:42 PM. (later)
I'm sorry about Bjork too. Is there anything we can do about her at this late stage?

-- Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (libcryp...), May 29th, 2006 1:51 PM. (later)

Yeah. Everyone tells me, when I play Nurse With Wound or whatever that I'd really like Bjork, but I don't. I think it's her voice. Urgh.

― S- (sgh), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 02:52 (eighteen years ago)

PiL, PiL, PiL.

― rockaction (rockaction), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 17:01 (eighteen years ago)

NWW fan = Bjork fan?! wha

― Chris Bee (Cee Bee), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 17:04 (eighteen years ago)

the fall, whats the big deal?

― JB Young (JB Young), Thursday, 1 June 2006 10:38 (eighteen years ago)

Repetition-ah.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 1 June 2006 11:37 (eighteen years ago)

Led Zep, for sure. I don't deny that they were great - and I would love to have the ability to appreciate what made them great - but I'm a child of punk, and I just can't work my ears backwards in that way. (Same goes for Cream, but I don't really care about not appreciating Cream.) My brain just goes: eww, horrible bloated naff screechy pompous dinosaur rock blah blah zzz.

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Thursday, 1 June 2006 11:59 (eighteen years ago)

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN

― Dan (For Realz) Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 1 June 2006 12:17 (eighteen years ago)

The Pixies & Frank Black

― white boi, Thursday, 1 June 2006 15:50 (eighteen years ago)

So many of the ones above... MBV, Todd Rundgren, Low, most Elvis Costello, Tindersticks, most Beatles (I feel like hte inverse Geir when it comes to the Beatles... Sgt. Pepper's is one of the shittiest albums ever), Scott Walker, Charlie Parker, most other bebop, Radiohead, most Jay-Z, most Tupac, most B.I.G., Television, Steely Dan, the Beach Boys, half of Marvin Gaye (What's Goin' On is the most overrated soul album ever), most of Stevie Wonder, Belle and Sebastian, most John Zorn, the Orb, most Bob Marley...

― js (honestengine), Thursday, 1 June 2006 18:13 (eighteen years ago)

Monty, the Half Japanese to hear if you haven't is, I think. 1/2 Gentleman, Not Beasts.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 1 June 2006 18:22 (eighteen years ago)

I'll second the Fall. It clicks for 3, even 4 tracks. Then I see the overly long albums (not to mention the mounds of material released) and my attention span is broken.

― Jam (1020am), Thursday, 1 June 2006 19:52 (eighteen years ago)

Monty, the Half Japanese to hear if you haven't is, I think. 1/2 Gentleman, Not Beasts.
-- Tim Ellison

Haha, nice try Tim, and I'll take the Brooklyn Bridge too if you're selling! I've owned that one for a coupla years now, and have yet to give it a 4th listening. (But I remember finding "The BAnd Who Would Be King" fairly listenable back in '89.)

― MVB, Thursday, 1 June 2006 20:35 (eighteen years ago)

If anything they're just vulnerable and adolescent sounding power pop.

Nothing wrong about that. Besides, my favourite album is "#1 Album", which contains mainly beautifully melodic powerpop harmonies without any kind of "twist" whatsoever.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 1 June 2006 20:39 (eighteen years ago)

I was accused of being a jerk the other day because I don't appreciate Yo La Tengo. I like a few of their songs all right, but people get so fucking gaga over them. They're good, but they're definitely not obsession-worthy, in my book.

― trees (treesessplode), Thursday, 1 June 2006 21:25 (eighteen years ago)

Sonic Youth.

It's not that I actively dislike them, it's just that whenever I listen to them I'm left feeling that there must be something crucial about them that I'm just not getting. Something makes me keep persevering 'though.

Oh and My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus And Mary Chain.

I just don't get what's supposed to be so great about either of them at all and I don't think I ever will. Sorry.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 1 June 2006 22:09 (eighteen years ago)

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