I've got 3 I'm quite irritated to choose from. I guess I started the 2010+ a round or too late.Seventeen? I can maybe come up with another four. If you guys had voted to extend the draft, I was screwed.
I've got 3 I'm quite irritated to choose from. I guess I started the 2010+ a round or too late.Seventeen? I can maybe come up with another four. If you guys had voted to extend the draft, I was screwed.
Did I mention that I'm not intellectual enough for this music?Listen to that implies a regression, acceptance of an abandonment of critical sense and a letting go to resonate with expression of human passions. A moving and sensual music, it will always remain opened to the sicks of heart!
There are two ways to look at an eponymous album by a band well into its fourth decade of existence: it's either a rebirth or a summation. In the case of Def Leppard's 2015 album -- their eleventh studio set, ..... the record is most certainly the latter, a nifty encapsulation of the group's range, obsessions, and ambitions. At 55 minutes, Def Leppard feels nearly as sprawling as the hour-plus Hysteria -- one of the first albums to ever feel specifically designed to fill out the confines of a CD -- but where that 1987 classic pulsates with the arrogance of a band hungering to conquer the world, this 2015 set is distinguished by the casual authority of a band who remain a band solely for the love of it. Unlike many groups with decades of experience under their belts, Def Leppard aren't particularly concerned with maturity, at least not in the conventional sense where they turn in fuzz guitars and heavy-booted stomps for sepia-toned reflections. They're still pledging allegiance to glam and heavy metal, favoring arena-sized riffs, and slathering their productions with vocal harmonies and guitars. While this self-production lacks some of the finesse Mutt Lange brought to the twin towers of Pyromania and Hysteria -- both are titans of the golden age of big-budget studios, while this is a relatively scrappy 21st century digital production -- this record can still dazzle with its pyramid of overdubs, intricate details that never sound fussy. Most of Def Leppard stays firmly within the band's wheelhouse -- muscular descendants of glitter alternating with power ballads -- and the group is confident enough to flirt with disco ("Man Enough," where Joe Elliott asks his object of affection if she's man enough to be his girl) and electronic beats ("Energized"), which is just enough to give this record an appealingly modern kick. This is a summation of where the band is now: they love the past, both their own and their inspirations, but they're not looking back, they're loving the life they live.
(Def Leppard) became their seventh top ten album after debuting on the Billboard 200 at number 10.
It won a 2016 Classic Rock Roll of Honours Award for Album of the Year.
On 13 December 2018, Def Leppard were named in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Class of 2019. The band won the Klipsch Audio Fan Vote, beating 14 other nominees with 547,647 general public votes (119,803 and 28% more than second vote receiver Stevie Nicks).
The current lineup of the band, along with past members Pete Willis and Steve Clark, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 29 March 2019 at a ceremony at Brooklyn's Barclays Center. Def Leppard were inducted by Queen guitarist Brian May, who said they were "a magnificent rock group, in the classic tradition of what a rock group really is" and "a bunch of magnificent human beings."
Def Leppard - Def Leppard (2015)
People often use words like "intellectual" to describe certain forms of music that is different from what they are accustomed to, often suggesting that they don't get it. Implying such music requires thinking about and needs to be understood does a great injustice to countless genres, artists, and records. People who enjoy such music enjoy it for the same fundamental reasons people enjoy any other style of music. We simply enjoy listening to it. As one of the leaders of modern classical and avantgarde music said, "I love sounds just as they are, and I have no need for them to be anything more than what they are."@whitechocolate's First Five(ish) report card:
This is... a lot. I'm not intellectual enough for this music. I don't really like the idea of thinking that much, while I'm listening to music... At any rate, since I already gave my "real time" thoughts on Trout Mask Replica, I'll just skip to the next four; At this point, whitechocolate has the record for most artists I've never heard of on lock: the only artist/group on his playlist I've ever even heard of is Björk, and I'd never actually listened to a single Björk song until about a half an hour before I started drafting this post.
- Vulnicura: This probably isn't going to make much sense, but I found it beautiful, but not enjoyable. And I don't know whether it's because she's performing in Icelandic (or, at least, it sounds like that) or what, but there's something about Björk's singing cadence that I found really distracting and off-putting.
- Not Available: When I saw that The Residents' biography on Spotify included the passage, "Drawing inspiration from the likes of fellow innovators including [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and Captain Beefheart," I knew that I was in for it. In their write-up, whitechocolate says, "Listening to it is an experience like no other." And, well... I can't argue with that!
- Hopes and Fears: An album so obscure, it's not even on Spotify. Unfortunately for me, I was able to find it on YouTube. I think "The Dividing Line" might be the first song ever to cause me to have an upset stomach.
- A quote taken directly from the YouTube comments: Did I mention that I'm not intellectual enough for this music?
- Kontakte: I did not find this beautiful. Another album with no presence on Spotify, had to listen on YouTube. My conclusion is that avant-garde is above me. Whatever the listener is meant to experience while listening to this is not the sort of thing that I want to experience, when I'm listening to music.
Man, I guess. Except, with other genres of music, they either evoke some sort of emotion in me or, at the very least, I feel like I can comprehend what emotion the artist wants to evoke in the listener, and/or what emotions the artist was experiencing, when they composed their work, even if I don't feel those emotions, myself. Like, I don't like folk music, and I don't really get folk music, but I feel like I at least have a general comprehension of what folk music evokes in other people. Same for country, and most subgenres of metal. I get none of that from avant garde music, which makes me feel like there is some sort of cognitive disconnect between me and the artist.People often use words like "intellectual" to describe certain forms of music that is different from what they are accustomed to, often suggesting that they don't get it. Implying such music requires thinking about and needs to be understood does a great injustice to countless genres, artists, and records. People who enjoy such music enjoy it for the same fundamental reasons people enjoy any other style of music. We simply enjoy listening to it. As one of the leaders of modern classical and avantgarde music said, "I love sounds just as they are, and I have no need for them to be anything more than what they are."
I'm not trying to say the music I like doesn't relate to our experiences. In fact, I would even argue that simply enjoying music for how it sounds and nothing more is a profound experience. It's recognizing the natural, inherent beauty of the world we live in. It's recognizing our natural, inherent ability to perceive beauty. That alone can manifest emotions. It's not unlike just appreciating the beauty of nature, and the simple joy of living within it. That being said there are plenty of specific qualities of the music I selected that we can relate to. Even embracing its sometimes unpredictable, spontaneous nature, as our lives and world often are. Finding beauty amidst uncertainty and chaos is not unlike our lives. Personally, I embrace, and relish in, the abstract nature of our experience. All that being said, the music I selected does set moods, and has a purpose.Man, I guess. Except, with other genres of music, they either evoke some sort of emotion in me or, at the very least, I feel like I can comprehend what emotion the artist wants to evoke in the listener, and/or what emotions the artist was experiencing, when they composed their work, even if I don't feel those emotions, myself. Like, I don't like folk music, and I don't really get folk music, but I feel like I at least have a general comprehension of what folk music evokes in other people. Same for country, and most subgenres of metal. I get none of that from avant garde music, which makes me feel like there is some sort of cognitive disconnect between me and the artist.
That was sort of my point: I don't grok the moods, or the purpose, And it makes me feel kind of dumb because, for the most part, I can grok the mood of an album, even if I don't like it.... That being said there are plenty of specific qualities of the music I selected that we can relate to. Even embracing its sometimes unpredictable, spontaneous nature, as our lives and world often are. Finding beauty amidst uncertainty and chaos is not unlike our lives. Personally, I embrace, and relish in, the abstract nature of our experience. All that being said, the music I selected does set moods, and has a purpose.
Wow.
I’m somewhere between calling this a beautifully-crafted encapsulation of sound and chaos, and declaring all other music dead to me.
View attachment 9821
Fetch the Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple (2020)
OK, my intro is intentionally hyperbolic, because critics have been absolutely fawning all over this thing, including Pitchfork awarding the album its only third ever perfect 10 score. Still I am really rather thrilled with the descent into madness Apple guides me on with Bolt Cutters. (Which, come to think of it, is an especially insane yet appropriate sentence).
A little unorthodox, but because I took this album earlier, and the song is fairly essential to understanding the approach Apple took for Bolt Cutters, this is Hot Knife from The Idler Wheel ... , which acts as the impetus for this entire album.
It's all there: the binaural, layered vocals; the continuous repetition of cryptic lyrics; the absurdly powerful and primal percussion; the cacophony of chaos and noise somehow harmonized into a frenetic chant-like melody. Hot Knife had always been an exhilarating, almost vaudevillian, if somewhat odd inclusion as the closer to Idler Wheel. The rest of the album is a lot more stripped down, letting Apple's lyrics and vocals take center-stage, with the accompanying instrumentals, including household items, present for atmosphere.
Clearly it seems, Hot Knife was the harbinger of what Apple had in mind for the next eight years of experimentation, as she took the foundation of Hot Knife and dialed it up to eleventy billion.
Granted, this is brand new, and I've only had the pleasure to enjoy the album all the way through from start to finish without interruption once, but overall, I've found it brilliant, if a bit uneven. The highs are some of the best work Apple has ever done, surpassing the entirety of her four previously-released album catalogue. Then there are moments that seemed a little under-baked, with the ghost of its mad genius haunting frustratingly close. I also think the album has a much stronger first half, and ends rather abruptly and unceremoniously. Especially jarring for such an intense project. Still, this is an electric storm of a thrill ride.
I would never suggest this be the first album someone new to Apple's work explore as an introduction. But as a well-versed fan of Apple's particular brand, this was sublime.
This tweet sums it up perfectly:
Bess Kalb:
- Fiona Apple was waiting for the entire world to descend into restless melancholic rage and then once we all started pacing our kitchens in our underwear in the middle of the night she was like, “You’re ready.”
Warning: A single NSFW word in this one:
Tracklist
1."I Want You to Love Me"
2."Shameika"
3."Fetch the Bolt Cutters"
4."Under the Table"
5."Relay"
6."Rack of His"
7."Newspaper"
8."Ladies"
9."Heavy Balloon"
10."Cosmonauts"
11."For Her"
12."Drumset"
13."On I Go"
That was sort of my point: I don't grok the moods, or the purpose, And it makes me feel kind of dumb because, for the most part, I can grok the mood of an album, even if I don't like it.
This is a pretty staggering work. I've found Fiona Apple's output a bit more hit-and-miss than many other listeners do, but her last two records are absolute aces.
I know there's a rule about losing your pick if the order goes all the way around again, but I would be in favor of Cojc still getting to make 20 picks considering we're up to the last round anyway and some of us submitted our picks very quickly in the last round. Just throwing that out there. I don't know where you are Cojc, but I hope everything is okay.
Consider me unsettled.I can't speak to most of the albums @whitechocolate selected in this draft, having only listened to a few of them, but a lot of avant garde and experimental music is purposely confrontational. It often seeks to dislodge or unsettle the listener.
I know there's a rule about losing your pick if the order goes all the way around again, but I would be in favor of Cojc still getting to make 20 picks considering we're up to the last round anyway and some of us submitted our picks very quickly in the last round. Just throwing that out there. I don't know where you are Cojc, but I hope everything is okay.
I was more thinking that I hope he is ok.
Wow.
I’m somewhere between calling this a beautifully-crafted encapsulation of sound and chaos, and declaring all other music dead to me.
View attachment 9821
Fetch the Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple (2020)
OK, my intro is intentionally hyperbolic, because critics have been absolutely fawning all over this thing, including Pitchfork awarding the album its only third ever perfect 10 score. Still I am really rather thrilled with the descent into madness Apple guides me on with Bolt Cutters. (Which, come to think of it, is an especially insane yet appropriate sentence).
A little unorthodox, but because I took this album earlier, and the song is fairly essential to understanding the approach Apple took for Bolt Cutters, this is Hot Knife from The Idler Wheel ... , which acts as the impetus for this entire album.
It's all there: the binaural, layered vocals; the continuous repetition of cryptic lyrics; the absurdly powerful and primal percussion; the cacophony of chaos and noise somehow harmonized into a frenetic chant-like melody. Hot Knife had always been an exhilarating, almost vaudevillian, if somewhat odd inclusion as the closer to Idler Wheel. The rest of the album is a lot more stripped down, letting Apple's lyrics and vocals take center-stage, with the accompanying instrumentals, including household items, present for atmosphere.
Clearly it seems, Hot Knife was the harbinger of what Apple had in mind for the next eight years of experimentation, as she took the foundation of Hot Knife and dialed it up to eleventy billion.
Granted, this is brand new, and I've only had the pleasure to enjoy the album all the way through from start to finish without interruption once, but overall, I've found it brilliant, if a bit uneven. The highs are some of the best work Apple has ever done, surpassing the entirety of her four previously-released album catalogue. Then there are moments that seemed a little under-baked, with the ghost of its mad genius haunting frustratingly close. I also think the album has a much stronger first half, and ends rather abruptly and unceremoniously. Especially jarring for such an intense project. Still, this is an electric storm of a thrill ride.
I would never suggest this be the first album someone new to Apple's work explore as an introduction. But as a well-versed fan of Apple's particular brand, this was sublime.
This tweet sums it up perfectly:
Bess Kalb:
- Fiona Apple was waiting for the entire world to descend into restless melancholic rage and then once we all started pacing our kitchens in our underwear in the middle of the night she was like, “You’re ready.”
Warning: A single NSFW word in this one:
Tracklist
1."I Want You to Love Me"
2."Shameika"
3."Fetch the Bolt Cutters"
4."Under the Table"
5."Relay"
6."Rack of His"
7."Newspaper"
8."Ladies"
9."Heavy Balloon"
10."Cosmonauts"
11."For Her"
12."Drumset"
13."On I Go"
While I'm certainly aware of Fiona Apple, her music hasn't really crossed my radar before to the extent that I felt the need to listen to it. At this point I'd filed her previous albums into the category of "things I'll probably never get around to, and I'm okay with that" but I'm intrigued by what you've posted here. I like the densely layered arrangements on this new album. I guess I'm going to have to do some mental re-sorting.
I can't speak to most of the albums @whitechocolate selected in this draft, having only listened to a few of them, but a lot of avant garde and experimental music is purposely confrontational. It often seeks to dislodge or unsettle the listener. As @whitechocolate wrote, an artist sometimes delights in the creation of sounds for which the listener may not be able to divine a reason or appreciation. But other times, I'd argue that an artist simply doesn't want the listener to be able to divine a purpose from the collisions in their work.
I think there's an unfortunate contemporary pop cultural tendency to "get" or "decode" or "unlock" that which doesn't necessarily require a key, or at least doesn't require a singularly-shaped skeleton key that all members of the audience must wield in order to engage in the "right" way. As a result of those ingrained habits, audiences are often defensive when they approach works that seem intellectually daunting. But puzzlement is an apt response to a lot of art! It's a great equalizer, honestly, in turbulent times such as these, to feel dislodged or unsettled by the swirling chaos around us.
Music is an art form, and cultural activity, whose medium is sound. General definitions of music include common elements such as pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics (loudness and softness), and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture (which are sometimes termed the "color" of a musical sound). Different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements.