The N&G Listening Club V1 - Archive only

I've been lurking and listening to the AOTWeeks for a few and it's rare that I can sit down and type out a response other than "I liked it" or "Not my thing" which, I believe, would be a disservice to the person who chose the album.

This KISS album, though...

I wore through my Dad's Double Platinum cassettes when I was eight. I dug through every single album of theirs up until the make-up came off (when my Dad stopped buying their LP's... I think being broke with two small kids also played a role, as the only post-1981 LP my parents own is a Julian Lennon album).
Destroyer is just a great songs album, there is not a skip-worthy track for me. It's also the album where the big production value is as welcome as it is well-executed. One could point to the strings on "Beth" and the ending of "Detroit Rock City" as examples, but I think the best example is also my all-time favorite KISS song: "Do You Love Me." I am a sucker for vocal harmonies, and there's TONS of those, with call-and-response melodies... but the piano? The church bells? I am getting chills just thinking about it.
My favorite album by KISS still remains Hotter Than Hell, but this is a close, indisputable second for me.
Fabulous pick, and it's nice to see some of them around here. They rarely get a mention as being a credible power-pop-via-metal band, but they should. And a lot more often.
 
Good choice @Lee Newman . Pretty exciting rock record, custom made for getting teenage adrenaline pumping. Awesome big production and custom made songs for building on the success of Alive! The caretaker in our school retired, and she was called Beth, so I the Kiss song playing behind a montage of photos and pictures from kids.
 
Hey everyone, as I'm about to post the next album, I'm realizing that if I post it right now, it would be post #840, and fall at the bottom of the page (at least that how it ends up looking on my desktop). So I'm gonna post it right after this so it will sit at the top of the next page …
 
Hey all. I'll shamefully admit that I hadn't been following and commenting in this thread after throwing my name in the mix early on when N&G first started. After receiving the message from @Bohnjaggs that I was randomly selected on Friday, I've begun catching up on the thread and I'm psyched to be a more active participant going forward. Well, here we go, I'm looking forward to hearing what you all think.

My choice is Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider (1998). It's available on spotify (link), and I'm assuming other streaming services. Here's the youtube link.

R-814511-1429791913-2951.jpeg.jpg


I could never hope to model the informative depth of the album introductions on this thread, so I'll just offer some of my personal reasons for picking this album. I'd imagine that the album I've chosen might be one that some of you also hold dear, and know a lot about, so please fill in any important details.

One reason I chose this album is because this is a vinyl forum, and if I could purchase any expensive first pressing of an album, it would be the 1998 Parlophone UK pressing of Good Morning Spider. In the US, Plain Recordings has the rights to Sparklehorse's discography, and it's a @#$%ing tragedy. I had to learn the hard way about Plain Recordings, since I bought a turntable in 2014 and started purchasing records I loved before I knew about their horrible reputation. I've read that the first Parolophone pressing from the UK sounds beautiful, and one day I hope to experience it.

Sparklehorse is the creation of Mark Linkous. He played/recorded most of the instruments on this album and his other albums in his home studio. These instruments include: guitar, bass, wurlitzer, piano, optigan, sampler, vibraphone, harmonium, speak and spell, concertina, percussion, and drum machine. He had help in the recording process with strings, cornet, and drums on a couple of tracks. The way the vocals are recorded on the slower tracks of this album always make me feel like I'm in the room with him. I don't know anything about the recording process - I'm just an avid music listener / consumer - so maybe someone knows why that is.

I was in my sophomore year of college when the album came out. It was the CD era, and I'd stop by the local music store every Saturday on my way to my shift waiting tables to chat music and occasionally buy something in anticipation of making some sweet tip money on a busy Saturday night. I don't remember who rec'd Sparklehorse, but thank you to the kind soul who did. This was the first Sparklehorse album I listened to, even though it's his second album. It has everything: hard jams and quiet jams; simplicity and complexity; confounding lyrical metaphors and direct messages. I have too many favorite tracks on this album, but "Chaos Of The Galaxy/Happy Man" probably takes the title of "my most frustrating favorite song" for reasons that will become apparent when you listen to it, if you don't already know it. For me, this album is, and has, everything, and I go back to it frequently.

Linkous ended his own life in 2010. As music fans, we hear these stories far too frequently. This one hit me the hardest.
 
Cool. Sparklehorse is one of those projects that people seem to get excited about that never really did anything for me. I have a couple of things on cd... the first album and the Danger Mouse/David Lynch collaboration, but nothing ever really stuck. Maybe spending some deep time with this one this week will get me there...
 
This is a relatively timeless piece of work that simultaneously wears influences on its sleeve while being nearly impossible to cleanly categorize. Fortunately for me, I knew nothing of Linkous the man or the circumstances of his life until well after he passed which I feel lends an unhealthy filter to the whole body of work and this album in particular. Personally I always find significant parallels to Modest Mouse whose music I strongly favor. It's a stupendously good album at any rate and the themes perfectly fit my tastes at any time.
 
I like this pick. I had heard of Sparklehorse before but had not listenedd to all of this one. Sick of Goodbyes definitely was familiar. My favorite song on here is probably Chaos of the Galaxy/Happy Man Medley...the transition between Pig and Painbirds is great each time I hear it. I'll keep it in rotation for sure. Thanks!
 
I know its not relevant to this week's album, but I wanted to mention that all that time ago (years even?) my suggestion of Death Grips - The Money Store was chosen for the week 9 of this club. Amid the discussion of the album I wanted to write a brief sentence or two describing each song of the album for reference here; and since then it has slowly grown to over 15,000 words and I only just 'finished' it today:

boilerrhapsody.wordpress.com

Album Breakdown: Death Grips – The Money Store

After the first listen, many find Death Grips’ The Money Store daunting and incomprehensible. This is the breakdown I wish I’d had.
boilerrhapsody.wordpress.com boilerrhapsody.wordpress.com

Can't remember who else was around for that era of the club, but we only briefly touched on deeper meanings, so if any of you are still wondering what that album was really about here it is.
 
BoilerRhapsody said:
I know its not relevant to this week's album, but I wanted to mention that all that time ago (years even?) my suggestion of Death Grips - The Money Store was chosen for the week 9 of this club. Amid the discussion of the album I wanted to write a brief sentence or two describing each song of the album for reference here; and since then it has slowly grown to over 15,000 words and I only just 'finished' it today:

boilerrhapsody.wordpress.com

Album Breakdown: Death Grips – The Money Store

After the first listen, many find Death Grips’ The Money Store daunting and incomprehensible. This is the breakdown I wish I’d had.
boilerrhapsody.wordpress.com boilerrhapsody.wordpress.com

Can't remember who else was around for that era of the club, but we only briefly touched on deeper meanings, so if any of you are still wondering what that album was really about here it is.
Click to expand...
@gaporter - this may interest you.
 
Greetings, N&G! The time has come for me to pick an album for the Listening Club. I had a hard time narrowing my choice down to one that I felt I strongly wanted to pick, as well as one I felt would be appreciated by others on the forum. Eventually I settled on a somewhat unexpected choice and one that I'm sure some of you have heard, but hopefully will still provide for some interesting discussion.

The album I have chosen is
Gorillaz - D-Sides
717S0GPuDIL._SL1300_.jpg

I've made no secret of my love for Gorillaz. They were my first musical obsession and one that I've continued to hold very dear. Their first three albums were all cornerstones of my childhood and were in many ways my introduction to various types of music. My parents were mostly rock fans and therefore that was most of what I was exposed to by them. So hearing the debut album and Demon Days for the first time absolutely blew my entire conceptions of music wide open. I've heard the music of Gorillaz classified as many different things but I think trying to label the project under one genre misses the entire point. The most exciting thing about the project to me when I was younger is no two songs sounded alike and it captured my restless imagination. And oddly enough, the album I feel best displays this phenomenon is not even a proper album, but a scrappy little B-sides compilation.

I'm assuming most of the forum is familiar with Demon Days considering its popularity and acclaim. D-Sides, on paper, is merely a collection of tracks recorded during the sessions for Demon Days that did not make the final album. However I feel it also serves as a very interesting companion piece to the perfectionism of Demon Days; one of the most impressive aspects of DD is how it manages to tightly and expertly flow through multiple moods and genres throughout its fifteen tracks, never wasting a second. On the flipside, D-Sides contains a similar genre roulette approach, but with the attitude that these aren't album cuts that will be scrutinized, so the experimentation is much less controlled and allows the musicians involved a chance to stumble into any genre and style just because... well, why not?

And personally I find that inspiring. I can see the less polished nature of D-Sides compared to its sister album being a turn off for some, but I've always had an interest in what goes on behind the curtain of my favorite albums. And D-Sides, whether intentionally or not, seems to provide a very interesting peer into the creation of Demon Days. Can you imagine if instead of the beautiful choral arrangement of "Don't Get Lost in Heaven", we had gotten a whacked out faux-country take of the song on the album instead? Or if the awkward and quirky "People" hadn't been tweaked into a monster dance hit somewhere down the line?

D-Sides is an oddity of an album; there's so many various sound and moods conveyed, whether it's the sinister yet chill "Spitting Out the Demons", the surreal drum machine led "Rockit", the harsh industrial "Murdoc is God" or the hauntingly beautiful "Hong Kong." This is an album that showcases Gorillaz during one of it's most artistically unconventional and creative periods and, for a compilation of "leftovers", is one of my favorite listening experiences anytime I put it on. It also contains my favorite Gorillaz song of all time - I'll let you guess which one!

Also a side note - I'm only considering the first disc ("68 State" to "Stop the Dams") for the purposes of this listening club. You're free to listen to the second disc of remixes if you want but I don't find them nearly as interesting as the original songs.

Streaming links
Spotify:
Apple Music: ‎D-Sides by Gorillaz
 
gaporter said:
Greetings, N&G! The time has come for me to pick an album for the Listening Club. I had a hard time narrowing my choice down to one that I felt I strongly wanted to pick, as well as one I felt would be appreciated by others on the forum. Eventually I settled on a somewhat unexpected choice and one that I'm sure some of you have heard, but hopefully will still provide for some interesting discussion.

The album I have chosen is
Gorillaz - D-Sides
View attachment 29983

I've made no secret of my love for Gorillaz. They were my first musical obsession and one that I've continued to hold very dear. Their first three albums were all cornerstones of my childhood and were in many ways my introduction to various types of music. My parents were mostly rock fans and therefore that was most of what I was exposed to by them. So hearing the debut album and Demon Days for the first time absolutely blew my entire conceptions of music wide open. I've heard the music of Gorillaz classified as many different things but I think trying to label the project under one genre misses the entire point. The most exciting thing about the project to me when I was younger is no two songs sounded alike and it captured my restless imagination. And oddly enough, the album I feel best displays this phenomenon is not even a proper album, but a scrappy little B-sides compilation.

I'm assuming most of the forum is familiar with Demon Days considering its popularity and acclaim. D-Sides, on paper, is merely a collection of tracks recorded during the sessions for Demon Days that did not make the final album. However I feel it also serves as a very interesting companion piece to the perfectionism of Demon Days; one of the most impressive aspects of DD is how it manages to tightly and expertly flow through multiple moods and genres throughout its fifteen tracks, never wasting a second. On the flipside, D-Sides contains a similar genre roulette approach, but with the attitude that these aren't album cuts that will be scrutinized, so the experimentation is much less controlled and allows the musicians involved a chance to stumble into any genre and style just because... well, why not?

And personally I find that inspiring. I can see the less polished nature of D-Sides compared to its sister album being a turn off for some, but I've always had an interest in what goes on behind the curtain of my favorite albums. And D-Sides, whether intentionally or not, seems to provide a very interesting peer into the creation of Demon Days. Can you imagine if instead of the beautiful choral arrangement of "Don't Get Lost in Heaven", we had gotten a whacked out faux-country take of the song on the album instead? Or if the awkward and quirky "People" hadn't been tweaked into a monster dance hit somewhere down the line?

D-Sides is an oddity of an album; there's so many various sound and moods conveyed, whether it's the sinister yet chill "Spitting Out the Demons", the surreal drum machine led "Rockit", the harsh industrial "Murdoc is God" or the hauntingly beautiful "Hong Kong." This is an album that showcases Gorillaz during one of it's most artistically unconventional and creative periods and, for a compilation of "leftovers", is one of my favorite listening experiences anytime I put it on. It also contains my favorite Gorillaz song of all time - I'll let you guess which one!

Also a side note - I'm only considering the first disc ("68 State" to "Stop the Dams") for the purposes of this listening club. You're free to listen to the second disc of remixes if you want but I don't find them nearly as interesting as the original songs.

Streaming links
Spotify:
Apple Music: ‎D-Sides by Gorillaz
Click to expand...


Even though I'd consider myselt a Gorillaz fan, I've never actually listened to D-Sides (or The Fall for that matter ... I'm not sure why. I'm looking forward to listening to this one.
 
gaporter said:
Greetings, N&G! The time has come for me to pick an album for the Listening Club. I had a hard time narrowing my choice down to one that I felt I strongly wanted to pick, as well as one I felt would be appreciated by others on the forum. Eventually I settled on a somewhat unexpected choice and one that I'm sure some of you have heard, but hopefully will still provide for some interesting discussion.

The album I have chosen is
Gorillaz - D-Sides
View attachment 29983

I've made no secret of my love for Gorillaz. They were my first musical obsession and one that I've continued to hold very dear. Their first three albums were all cornerstones of my childhood and were in many ways my introduction to various types of music. My parents were mostly rock fans and therefore that was most of what I was exposed to by them. So hearing the debut album and Demon Days for the first time absolutely blew my entire conceptions of music wide open. I've heard the music of Gorillaz classified as many different things but I think trying to label the project under one genre misses the entire point. The most exciting thing about the project to me when I was younger is no two songs sounded alike and it captured my restless imagination. And oddly enough, the album I feel best displays this phenomenon is not even a proper album, but a scrappy little B-sides compilation.

I'm assuming most of the forum is familiar with Demon Days considering its popularity and acclaim. D-Sides, on paper, is merely a collection of tracks recorded during the sessions for Demon Days that did not make the final album. However I feel it also serves as a very interesting companion piece to the perfectionism of Demon Days; one of the most impressive aspects of DD is how it manages to tightly and expertly flow through multiple moods and genres throughout its fifteen tracks, never wasting a second. On the flipside, D-Sides contains a similar genre roulette approach, but with the attitude that these aren't album cuts that will be scrutinized, so the experimentation is much less controlled and allows the musicians involved a chance to stumble into any genre and style just because... well, why not?

And personally I find that inspiring. I can see the less polished nature of D-Sides compared to its sister album being a turn off for some, but I've always had an interest in what goes on behind the curtain of my favorite albums. And D-Sides, whether intentionally or not, seems to provide a very interesting peer into the creation of Demon Days. Can you imagine if instead of the beautiful choral arrangement of "Don't Get Lost in Heaven", we had gotten a whacked out faux-country take of the song on the album instead? Or if the awkward and quirky "People" hadn't been tweaked into a monster dance hit somewhere down the line?

D-Sides is an oddity of an album; there's so many various sound and moods conveyed, whether it's the sinister yet chill "Spitting Out the Demons", the surreal drum machine led "Rockit", the harsh industrial "Murdoc is God" or the hauntingly beautiful "Hong Kong." This is an album that showcases Gorillaz during one of it's most artistically unconventional and creative periods and, for a compilation of "leftovers", is one of my favorite listening experiences anytime I put it on. It also contains my favorite Gorillaz song of all time - I'll let you guess which one!

Also a side note - I'm only considering the first disc ("68 State" to "Stop the Dams") for the purposes of this listening club. You're free to listen to the second disc of remixes if you want but I don't find them nearly as interesting as the original songs.

Streaming links
Spotify:
Apple Music: ‎D-Sides by Gorillaz
Click to expand...

I gotta say as much as I love D-Sides, I'm glad Demon Days is exactly the way it is. Demon Days also contains MY favorite Gorillaz song, and I'm willing to bet y'all won't guess which one it is...
 
gaporter said:
Greetings, N&G! The time has come for me to pick an album for the Listening Club. I had a hard time narrowing my choice down to one that I felt I strongly wanted to pick, as well as one I felt would be appreciated by others on the forum. Eventually I settled on a somewhat unexpected choice and one that I'm sure some of you have heard, but hopefully will still provide for some interesting discussion.

The album I have chosen is
Gorillaz - D-Sides
View attachment 29983

I've made no secret of my love for Gorillaz. They were my first musical obsession and one that I've continued to hold very dear. Their first three albums were all cornerstones of my childhood and were in many ways my introduction to various types of music. My parents were mostly rock fans and therefore that was most of what I was exposed to by them. So hearing the debut album and Demon Days for the first time absolutely blew my entire conceptions of music wide open. I've heard the music of Gorillaz classified as many different things but I think trying to label the project under one genre misses the entire point. The most exciting thing about the project to me when I was younger is no two songs sounded alike and it captured my restless imagination. And oddly enough, the album I feel best displays this phenomenon is not even a proper album, but a scrappy little B-sides compilation.

I'm assuming most of the forum is familiar with Demon Days considering its popularity and acclaim. D-Sides, on paper, is merely a collection of tracks recorded during the sessions for Demon Days that did not make the final album. However I feel it also serves as a very interesting companion piece to the perfectionism of Demon Days; one of the most impressive aspects of DD is how it manages to tightly and expertly flow through multiple moods and genres throughout its fifteen tracks, never wasting a second. On the flipside, D-Sides contains a similar genre roulette approach, but with the attitude that these aren't album cuts that will be scrutinized, so the experimentation is much less controlled and allows the musicians involved a chance to stumble into any genre and style just because... well, why not?

And personally I find that inspiring. I can see the less polished nature of D-Sides compared to its sister album being a turn off for some, but I've always had an interest in what goes on behind the curtain of my favorite albums. And D-Sides, whether intentionally or not, seems to provide a very interesting peer into the creation of Demon Days. Can you imagine if instead of the beautiful choral arrangement of "Don't Get Lost in Heaven", we had gotten a whacked out faux-country take of the song on the album instead? Or if the awkward and quirky "People" hadn't been tweaked into a monster dance hit somewhere down the line?

D-Sides is an oddity of an album; there's so many various sound and moods conveyed, whether it's the sinister yet chill "Spitting Out the Demons", the surreal drum machine led "Rockit", the harsh industrial "Murdoc is God" or the hauntingly beautiful "Hong Kong." This is an album that showcases Gorillaz during one of it's most artistically unconventional and creative periods and, for a compilation of "leftovers", is one of my favorite listening experiences anytime I put it on. It also contains my favorite Gorillaz song of all time - I'll let you guess which one!

Also a side note - I'm only considering the first disc ("68 State" to "Stop the Dams") for the purposes of this listening club. You're free to listen to the second disc of remixes if you want but I don't find them nearly as interesting as the original songs.

Streaming links
Spotify:
Apple Music: ‎D-Sides by Gorillaz
Click to expand...


Great pick! I think we have a very similar relationship to Gorillaz.
Also very apt to finally get a Gorillaz album as this listening club was created after Plastic Beach popped up in a conversation somewhere and spawned several pages of spontaneous discussion.

Lots of great moments in D-Sides, but I'm kind of glad none of them made it into Demon Days. I don't think I prefer any songs here to any Demon Days songs, or their corresponding versions. Still, I used to obsessively listen to this, maybe even more than Demon Days. Took me way too long to figure out People is just DARE with different vocals.

I agree the remixes aren't necessary for the 'album' experience, but I do want to recommend the DFA and Metronomy ones.
 
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