Vinyl Me Please Essentials

mudketeer said:
I wonder if it's because Bella Donna was the second one they announced of that 3 in a row (Stooges, Stevie and the White Stripes)? That wouldn't make sense with this though as it fits the 2006 clues etc.. and not the "two of the best albums of the 90s" that they're going to also announce.
Click to expand...
If I were to guess I'd assume it was just a second export of the image "bella_donna_vinyl_store_2.jpg" because there was something wrong or needed changing with the first, and then they use a script to handle the resizing of the images that auto-appends the resolution to the end of the file names.

Honestly I'm still kind of surprised they didn't fix the loophole after I did it for Fiona Apple, which seemed to be a pretty large deal/reveal for them. Unless they've got calls tied into the naming structure of their images it should just be a case of adding any four digits (or anything) into the filename. I don't know if people were using the same trick before that, but I never expected it to last to future releases letalone this long later.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
This might be inconsistent from someone that has been ragging on John Mayer but I am fine with Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews and shit like that. I think those guys are who they are no one is gonna go on a diatribe about how technically proficient Jack Johnson at the guitar is if you don’t like his music. He makes laid back folk pop for the Hollister set and that’s fine. I think what probably rubs me the wrong way about Mayer is if you don’t like him it’s because you just don’t get it 🙄. He also parades himself around like he’s Keith Richards and then plays “Daughter” which would be hilarious if he were in on the joke.
Click to expand...

He's an incredible guitarist. I think that side of him can only be appreciated live as the albums are all commercial radio friendly stuff , like the radio station your mom listens to. I've seen him love twice, once on the continuum tour and once on the heavier things tour. Both were date night but I left extremely impressed and that's my opinion as a guitarist.

Vmp would have to do a lot to convince me to pick this up. The MOV press is really awesome, I don't see how it could be bettered. I don't get the colour they've selected either. I guess the only thing they could improve is the jacket but I find his jackets really boring as they're just some pretty boy shots of himself.
 
Vinyl Me, Please and I have wildly differing views on what is "essential".

I'm listening to this album now and there's just something so so boring about it. The guitar work is great, though. I wish he made instrumental albums. I feel like I'm in a coffee shop, not the cool kind that has bagels with rosemary and olive oil and the owner is making all the drinks and talking about how he used to see Archers of Loaf in this building in the 90's, but the kind that smells like old coffee and sounds like the clack of Apple keyboards and the college kids are glaring at me because I'm taking up the table that Sidney and Aden could be sitting at, right now.
 
I'm down. I think Mayer is a good song writer and great guitarist but I never gave him much attention as I had a much more close minded view of music during the years he was big, and pre-streaming services it was a little hard to give things a chance on college kid money.

Despite not being a Mayer fan in the past, I don't really get the hate on this pic. It's impossible for the essentials sub to cater to everyone every month, and although we've already established "essentials" is a dumb name for the track, if there was an album of his that would fit the name it's this one.

I do think it's smart to roll out the next 3 months on this one though. For people that hate the pick, there will hopefully be a couple coming up that make up for it. For people that join for it, there will hopefully be some picks to keep them on the hook. Pretty excited for Thursday.
 
NathanRicaud said:
So, what is it about this one you dislike so much Joe? I remember for Moby, it was because every track from “Play” sounded like a soundtrack for car commercial ad! 😂

Can’t wait to hear why you think this John Mayer album is terrible! 😂
Click to expand...

lol that's a good description of Moby. Moby is actually the last time I swapped, and I have 0 regrets about it. I get why they picked it but I can't get into that album at all.
 
NathanRicaud said:
So, what is it about this one you dislike so much Joe? I remember for Moby, it was because every track from “Play” sounded like a soundtrack for car commercial ad! 😂

Can’t wait to hear why you think this John Mayer album is terrible! 😂
Click to expand...

It’s just boring and it’s not that every song sounds like it’s on a car ad, every song WAS ON A CAR AD! He syndicated all 18 tracks off the album for advertising 🙄. Also he’s a creepy individual as the whole Natalie Portman incident showed.

John Mayer is the latest in a long line of technically proficient musicians who is incapable of writing songs. It’s dull as dishwater. I give no kudos for proficiency without songs to back it up because it renders the proficiency hopelessly irrelevant. I have much more time for more limited musicians who write great songs...
 
Kyuuji said:
The only difference between those two URL's is in the file name and the redundant value you can trim at the end.
prince_among_thieves_vinyl_store_2200x.jpg
continuum_vinyl_store_2_800x.jpg

Before that for each we have:
cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0069/3465/9162/products/

To find the larger size trim the end "?v=" value (or make one up, it doesn't matter), replace the album name and make sure to add the "_2" we noticed earlier.

There's your larger version. Often various sizes of the same image are uploaded to websites to serve at different resolutions or devices to save unnecessary bandwidth loading a 1.5MB image for something 200px wide. When I was checking I was doing it on my iPad where it's harder to grab the main image URL so instead chose one on a release page itself to grab it.

As I noted before, Bella Donna was the first time I spotted the quirk:
products/bella_donna_vinyl_store_2_800x.jpg

It's not something consistent with Essentials releases though..
products/the_stooges_vinyl_store_800x.jpg

..and I'm sure there are other naming convention quirks they might have if you scour the links to the old releases to check.
Click to expand...

Change the 800 or 2200 number to any number, like 592. It changes size to whatever you use up to whatever the max is i.e. 11388 did not work.

Edit: I see where you mentioned the size script earlier.
 
wynn72 said:
lol that's a good description of Moby. Moby is actually the last time I swapped, and I have 0 regrets about it. I get why they picked it but I can't get into that album at all.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I just can’t get into that Moby album either! It’s just not for me at all! ❌

It really does just sound like music that was made for car commercial ads 😂
 
NathanRicaud said:
So, what is it about this one you dislike so much Joe? I remember for Moby, it was because every track from “Play” sounded like a soundtrack for car commercial ad! 😂

Can’t wait to hear why you think this John Mayer album is terrible! 😂
Click to expand...

You are not wrong.

www.vice.com

Moby's 'Play' Becomes The Thriller Of Licensing

In the vegan darkness of his flop album, 'Animal Rights', Moby emerges the other side as an advert soundtracking Titan.
www.vice.com www.vice.com

Bailey's Irish Cream took "Porcelain". As did Nordstrom. "Find My Baby" offered American Express a smooth, grown-up way to express the joys of indebtedness via a young Tiger Woods. "The Sky Is Broken" punted Galaxy, "Everloving" sold pointless chocolate company Thorntons, "Bodyrock" gave its blessing to Rolling Rock. The Volkswagen Polo got "Porcelain" again, Maxwell House had to make do with "Run On", as did Nissan. Bosch and France Telecom opted for yet more "Porcelain", while the makers of the Renault Scenic hoped no one would be too subliminally conditioned into buying coffee or indeed Nissan when they once again heard "Run On". On April 20th 2000, the final, unlicensed track fell: a scrappy little splodge of sound they'd never expected to sell called "7", flogged off to a British indie production company.
Click to expand...
 
Joe Mac said:
John Mayer is the latest in a long line of technically proficient musicians who is incapable of writing songs. It’s dull as dishwater. I give no kudos for proficiency without songs to back it up because it renders the proficiency hopelessly irrelevant. I have much more time for more limited musicians who write great songs...
Click to expand...
So I don’t like Moby “Play”, but I actually enjoy this John Mayer album quite a bit! There’s some really sexy songs on Continuum - I Don’t Trust Myself & Vulture - his falsetto and the thick, breezy grooves on those songs are so sexy!

Waiting On A World To Change is such a unique song for me. It sounds like a lullaby at the start with those twinkle-y pianos and John’s passionate vocals with the funky beat just evoke this cartoonish, happy, cinematic imagery! There’s something really innocent, carefree and sweet about the tone of this track. Its like he’s distracting the kids and the parents, telling them that everything will be OK. But behind doors, behind this lullaby, cartoonish, innocent hopeful song, there’s just so much darkness and messed up shit going on. I don’t know. I really like Waiting On A World To Change in that sense.

I need to listen to this John Mayer album more to digest it, but so far, I’ve enjoyed it! The production is clean but is layered really nicely and I think the breezy sound/tone of this album works, and John Mayer’s sexy vocals are a nice touch too! The song “Belief” is so tight rhythmically and the track is dreamy and velvety, yet has such a sharp, focused groove! I love it!

I’m definitely in for this pick, but totally understand why some people think this is a terrible Essentials pick! Like this is mainstream but I can see also why people, such as yourself Joe, would find this really bland. Music like this I find bland, but these tracks from John Mayer on this album just sound more ahead and innovative!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top