What was the last classic album you got and weren't knocked out by?

I mean rilly I have to be in the right mood for it but what other Beach Boy would we have gotten such a gloomy and dark album from? I think his unreleased album was even better.

BLACKsummersnight

I prefer even things like Brian's '88 solo album to POB. It doesn't sound dark to me - just like a really boring JJ Cale album. I keep trying to get into it but it just washes over me and I forget I'm listening to it.

i really dislike pacific ocean blue. boring songs and dennis' voice isn't great.

his voice is perfect for the music, raw and rough around the edges. he was never the shimmering smooth-voiced member of the band.

The entire tone of the album was both misogynistic and wimpy. I just did. not. get. it.

its not to everyone's tastes, but i'd argue the album hardly celebrates misogyny, and is focused instead upon dissecting/presenting fucked up male sexuality, with criticism of said sexuality implied.

i tried again with mission of burma a couple weeks ago. i try every few years. just can't hang with them! i like fight song/revolver and that's about it.

Have you listened to Vs.? It's their masterpiece, and much more interesting than Signals, Calls and Marches. Probably my favorite album from that early 80's post-punk/art-rock era.

Workingman's Dead - aside from the singles it's just kind of a sleepy, mopey album that doesn't stay with me.

gotta say Michael Jackson's Thriller. My father threw it at me but he missed.

its not to everyone's tastes,

Obviously not

xpost the album's awesome tho

It's a pretty good album, it's not awesome. It's like "Tusk", it couldn't possibly live up to the hyperbole it receives on ILM and in other quarters, and that annoys people so much they dismiss out of hand.

lol that was an xpost to my MJ's Thriller post, sorry

Oh, ha ha. Now that album is awesome!

I keep giving Trout Mask Replica a chance, but every time I do I dislike it. I like a lot of noisy/experimental music, so I feel like this should be right up my alley. For whatever reason, it's not.

The Slits - Cut

― ilxor, Friday, January 9, 2009 7:52 AM (1 year ago)

A year and a half later I've come around v. nicely to this album, it's great!

Hotel California. Always loved the title track and wanted to hear the rest of the album to see if it matched up. Boy was I mistaken, what a load of crud.

wasted time is worth a listen just to hear were i believe i can fly comes from.

where

I hate the Eagles.

Here's my current addition to this thread (sorry, Gary):

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BR-l63C-2iA/R-ZYBRjA4GI/AAAAAAAAB2k/SDsMhTmIRJ4/s320/Gary+Numan+ThePleasurePrinciple1.jpg

I love "Hotel California" and "Take It To The Limit" but otherwise I'm with you on that one.

xp

You've gotta be kidding ilxor, TPP is a masterpiece.

Trans-Europe Express. I love Kraftwerk lots, but this is the opposite of Radioactivity in that all the songs are long and lumpen.

LOL, it's uncanny how we don't agree about anything.

Going back a bit now, but "What Goes On", always struck me as a bit prissy and pretentious.

Have you listened to Vs.? It's their masterpiece, and much more interesting than Signals, Calls and Marches. Probably my favorite album from that early 80's post-punk/art-rock era.

I would second that. Scott, iirc you're a Throwing Muses fan - have a listen to 'Mica' cos it's sort of a blueprint for their early stuff as far as my ears can tell.

its not to everyone's tastes, but i'd argue the album hardly celebrates misogyny, and is focused instead upon dissecting/presenting fucked up male sexuality, with criticism of said sexuality implied.

I didn't read it as an endorsement of misogyny, I just thought it was a very trite treatment of the subject. In some ways it's certainly a subjective/taste thing as lyrics that deal directly with sex/sexual frustration never really do much for me, except for, like, Prince. I was really surprised how whiny Dulli's voice was considering he's spawned his own subgenre/cottage industry. There is some nice, moody guitar work, etc. going on but the whole thing comes off as a humorless bore of self-loathing. I'm sure the exact same criticism, with a few modifications, could be made of Mark Kozelek's work, but I adore the man. So yeah, subjectivity.

As far as classic albums: anything by Pink Floyd except Piper. I don't even know where to begin. This is a piece of the classic rock canon I will never understand.

I was really surprised how whiny Dulli's voice was considering he's spawned his own subgenre/cottage industry. There is some nice, moody guitar work, etc. going on but the whole thing comes off as a humorless bore of self-loathing.

Really? I'd describe Dulli's work as a lot of things but "humorless" is definitely NOT one of them!

the whole thing comes off as a humorless bore of self-loathing.

Oh man, seriously Dulli can be the funniest fucker in the world sometimes imo. xp

Well like I said, I'm not getting it. Keep in mind Gentlemen is my only exposure.

i dunno how anyone can hear "what jail is like" and not hear a dumptruck-sized dose of self-loathing. i'm not saying dulli's *not* a misogynist -- getting a woman to sing the album's most self-debasing song? -- but he is more complex than being *just* a misogynist.

I wouldn't say Dulli's a misogynist at all. There's a mean humorous streak running through a ton of his work. Everything from "Be Sweet" to "John the Baptist" to his cover of Mary J. Blige's "Real Love" is filled with it.

He does do a lot of the obnoxious tough-guy asshole act, but underneath you can tell that he's really secretly an obnoxious weak-guy asshole. I do love him though.

http://www.kalamu.com/bol/wp-content/content/images/maggot%20brain%20cover.jpg

I have to confess I never understood why "Maggot Brain" was considered such a classic. It starts with a nice enough guitar solo, and ends with a decent groove and some funny sound effects, and between them are several vignettes of funk songs which haven't got the time to develop properly, and which have some bland group vocals. Didn't this band a have proper vocalist, or why does it sound like the whole band is shouting (pretty discordantly) on every tune with vocals?

Okay, I do understand why the guitar solo is considered great by those people who care a lot about guitar solos, but is one solo plus the funny noises enough to make an album classic?

one solo plus the funny noises

Most hilarious reduction of an entire album I've ever read.

Well, that's pretty much all I remember of the album (I haven't listened to it since I bought it). Nothing else on it was that memorable.

i'm not like hugely crazy about the album but "can you get to that" is top ten songs ever.

joni mitchell
tom waits

there must be an obvious classic album for each of these but the stuff ive heard is distinctly not knocking me out one jot.
i like some tom waits but a whole album? oyyyy.

I would agree with you on Joni Mitchell's Blue but it clicked recently after 10 years of trying.

if at first you don't succeed...

i'm not like hugely crazy about the album but "can you get to that" is top ten songs ever.

― difficult listening hour, Monday, January 17, 2011 11:34 AM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark

^yes.

Tom Waits though. Still haven't managed to get to that.

I don't want to derail the thread (as mentioning this album often does) but I don't see what seperates In the Aeroplane over the Sea from like a dozen other indie/folk/pop/whatever albums. To me it's a solid album with some great tracks ("Holland 1945", "Ghost", and "Untitled") but as a whole I don't get the whole aethestic of acoustic guitar over VERY LOUD SINGING.

dude i know aerosmith is banned but have a heart

i don't get My Bloody Valentine, Neutral Milk Hotel, or Pavement -- basically the 90s indie canon is totally unremarkable to me

Whoa, aerosmith is banned? How come?

The Geffen Records years

self-banned iirc

Ah.

And major lolz at that x-post.

You can add me to the NMH-not-getters tbh. I even like a few other E6 bands, but not them.

is there a 'What happened to ________?' thread?

I'm always surprised how boring Can albums are.

― Darin, Tuesday, January 18, 2011 2:22 PM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^

Deee-Lite sorta petered out but Towa Tei's had a pretty extensive career since then. Check out "GBI" which sounds like his own attempt to make a "Groove is in the Heart" type single, but with Kylie Minogue instead.

Cheap Trick "Dream Police" rn

title track is like Sparks via Queen. "Gonna Raise Hell" is the lost Iron "No New York" track.

lost Iron Maiden.

or Judas Priest

oh fuck this is the wrong thread

this album rules. definitely not not knocked out by this

Not so much album since this was a standout track on a compilation surrounded by decent music but nothing that stood out as much to me. I heard the guitar on Skinhead Moonstomp by Symarip which is really surprising. I must have heard it before so surprised i is hitting me as a surprise but it isn't what I would have expected, though not sure what that is.
It's noisy , quasi psychedelic possibly and more about creating distortion with a clean guitar without pedals though possibly with a slide. I think it may sound like guitar of its time in 1970 when I think I might be expecting something more linear or rhythm oriented. I haven't listened to the lp in a while so not sure if there is more of this style elsewhere. Also not checked if this is the standard version or not. But really struck me as a bit other for the song it was a part of.

Had me thinking of Syd Barret or Blixa Bargeld or something . Though more compressed timewise and fitting within the music played but still like totally abstract.

yeah seeing somebody else mentioning they posted to the wrong thread further up the thread I thought this was were knocked out by but its weren't.
Only noticed when it said that four years pass since last message.

Most disappointing "classic" albums I first heard in 2023:

Aerosmith
Honky Tonk Masquerade, Joe Ely
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Flaming Lips
Next, Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Terry Melcher
Too Fast for Love, Mötley Crüe
Sommerabend, Novalis
Ten Years After

Maybe one good song apiece on each of these, at best.

maybe I should be paying about dsotm here?

...posting about...

I love DSOTM but don't care for 'Wish You Were Here'.

I just recently found a CD of Animals on the curb and listened to that for the first time, and think I prefer it to Wish, maybe even Dark Side. But I guess that's for the other thread.

Speaking of long crawls: daaamn that guitar in "Europe is Our Playground"

(I gotta get home and blast it)

wrong thread alfred

oddly wish is the only one that does it for me

wish you weren't here, last classic album that i got and wasn't knocked out by!!!

The concept-era Pink Floyd records are all very different in terms of pacing and structure, and if that doesn't appeal to the listener they can feel torpid. I got bored of Dark Side for that reason, but Wish You Were Here and Animals especially build in very satisfying ways for me.

"Animals" is my pick for this thread tbh