Paper Television vs. Colossal Youth

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http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/drh400/h438/h43807bif16.jpg vs. http://www.songlyricscollection.com/lyrics/y/young-marble-giants/colossal-youth/colossal-youth.jpg

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 2 April 2007 23:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Tie?

― Tim Ellison, Monday, 2 April 2007 23:58 (seventeen years ago) link

colossal youth by 10,000 leagues and i like the blow album fine

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 00:11 (seventeen years ago) link

What strongo said. This is not even a contest.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 00:14 (seventeen years ago) link

omg on what basis? u guys = mad. songcraft is better on paper television but i give ymg plenty of props for vision.

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 00:16 (seventeen years ago) link

lord God if any indie album could be slagged as 'corny'!! (but then I like CY too)

― wanko ergo sum, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 00:17 (seventeen years ago) link

Are these the same somehow? Colossal Youth, but I like them both.

― fffv, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 00:19 (seventeen years ago) link

actually now i'm not so sure. wait, is "final day" on colossal youth? (cross ref with pretend art of forgetfulness thread.) if so, then no contest. if not, then hmmm.

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 00:21 (seventeen years ago) link

I think Final Day was added to the reissue and wasn't on the album proper.

― fffv, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 00:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, single after the fact.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:11 (seventeen years ago) link

This thread makes me cringe.

― mike a, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Paper Television = apples
Colossal Youth = oranges

― mike a, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:13 (seventeen years ago) link

I thinkk there's some stylistic similarity.

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:51 (seventeen years ago) link

But why does it make you "cringe?" Because you don't see any stylistic similarity? Or because have I insulted a great canonical album?

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:52 (seventeen years ago) link

i had to look up what the hell that paper television thing is. now i know.

and i know it's heresy, but colossal youth never did much for me. and i usually eat that kinda stuff up. i've always loved the cover though.

― scott seward, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 02:56 (seventeen years ago) link

"thinkk" + "because have I" = failing to write

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 03:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Here's my impersonation of Blow lyrics:

"I like boys, they rule. But sometimes they suck. Girls rule, I hang out with my friends who are girls. Girls, girls. Boys, boys, twee nonsense. Girls. Some bullshit about doing grocery shopping"

Fin.

― Drooone, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 03:05 (seventeen years ago) link

and i know it's heresy, but colossal youth never did much for me.

:-(

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 03:14 (seventeen years ago) link

i know. maybe i didn't let it grow on me enough. i sold my copy too. if i ever see that cd with all the extra stuff on it cheap i'd probably buy it. i don't know if maria has ever heard it. she loves all that stuff. and i do too, usually. i mean, i love pretty much all things cherry red/rough trade from that time. i love marine girls and raincoats and kleenex and, you know, that stuff.

― scott seward, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 03:21 (seventeen years ago) link

every once in a while, over a period of years, i would play it and it always left me wanting more. or something.

― scott seward, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 03:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, if taste were universal life would be boring etc. etc. To me it's kinda one of those albums that's impossible to hate -- though then again you're not saying you do, just that it's not quite your thing, a different deal.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 03:23 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, i don't hate it. it's charming. i just don't love it like so many other people.

― scott seward, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 03:25 (seventeen years ago) link

it's possible the hype did me in. i mean i had heard about them for years before actually hearing the album. and by then i had a big fan of lots of stuff with a similar vibe, you know?

― scott seward, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 03:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I can see that; I got it back in 1991 or so after only hearing about it for a little while beforehand, so it felt fresher to me, and settled in more easily over the years.

It also helps I think Alison Stratton's done some very interesting work over the years beyond YMG, and not just talking about Weekend here. One late nineties album (with Spike, I think) is one of the more interesting ambient/atmospheric releases I've ever heard.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 03:31 (seventeen years ago) link

I would take Khaela over Alison, albeit grudgingly.

But Jona's production is really "in the box". Meanwhile, YMG were building their synthesizers from science magazine schematics. (At least, that's the legend.)

I'd say it's a tie.

― frilly, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 04:43 (seventeen years ago) link

I am delighted to know I'm not the only one who feels lukewarm about YMG.

― Bimble, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 04:53 (seventeen years ago) link

I just don't hear the comparison at all. The YMG stuff is intentionally quiet, studied and subdued, whereas the Blow are consciously influenced (these days) by modern-day R&B. Entirely different spirit and intent entirely. You could make a more valid comparison to Khaela's early Get The Hell Out of The Way of The Volcano stuff, which is more lonely and minimal.

(full disclaimer: I maintain YMG's unofficial website and am completely non-objective on this matter, so never mind the old guy over here)

― mike a, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 13:29 (seventeen years ago) link

If I try, though:

<i>"I like boys, they rule. But sometimes they suck.</i>
"Brand-New-Life," "NITA," "Searching For Mr. Right"

<i>Some bullshit about doing grocery shopping"</i>
"Eating Noddemix"

― mike a, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 13:31 (seventeen years ago) link

I cannot tell you how strange it is, btw, to realize that Colossal Youth has now been canonized, and that the new listener brings expectations to it that may or may not be met. When I was 15, nothing seemed more obscure or unheard.

― mike a, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 14:27 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, it's been like that for decades. i mean, i started hearing about it in the 80's.

― scott seward, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm a little weirded out by dismissing Blow lyrics as "twee nonsense" -- they are about boys and girls, yes, but I feel like you'd have to be actively avoiding the point not to catch the heavier end of what they get at.

I suppose it's not surprising that people say similar things about Khaela's friend Miranda July and Me and You and Everyone We Know -- the stuff they're concerned with, and the metaphors they use to get at it, are practically identical, I think.

― nabisco, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 19:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Haha, like the parentheses in "Parentheses" versus the "pooping back and forth forever" emoticon in the film!

― nabisco, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 19:43 (seventeen years ago) link

they are about boys and girls, yes, but I feel like you'd have to be actively avoiding the point not to catch the heavier end of what they get at.

Ok, so it's twee, but not nonsense?
So Profound Twee maybe?
I <3 that genre.

― Drooone, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 22:12 (seventeen years ago) link

( I do enjoy listening to the Blow, though)

― Drooone, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 22:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Does it really matter whether it's twee or not?

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 22:17 (seventeen years ago) link

Not really. I'll shut up now.

― Drooone, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, i never got into ymg either.
though i don't like PT as much as i did when i first got into it.
i'd say tie for now.

― Fetchboy, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 22:43 (seventeen years ago) link

If lyrics about relationships between men and women are "twee," then there are like maybe 6 bands in the universe that aren't twee!

― nabisco, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 23:01 (seventeen years ago) link

I would imagine droone was referring more to her delivery and possibly some aspects of the lyrical content.

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 23:09 (seventeen years ago) link

But, you know, TWEE IS A WAY OF LIFE.

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 23:20 (seventeen years ago) link

I mean, wtf is the tendency to criticize cuteness if it's not phony/affected?

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 23:22 (seventeen years ago) link

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