POLL: Jim O'Rourke's Roeg Records

each of them is fantastic in its own way. probably listen to The Visitor the most.

are there Roeg films called the Visitor or Halfway to a Threeway?

the visitor is a reference to man who fell to earth -- not sure about halfway?

it's definitely of a piece with the others though, I was going to call them his 70s homage pastiche records but not sure...

Voted for Eureka but it's a five way tie for best ever. These records are incomparable if you're on O'Rourke's wavelength.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHTDkJ-bQqM‎

While each is perfect, I voted for Insignificance because I’ve listened to it the most.

Why did he deviate from this theme for his other principle album, I’m Happy and I’m Singing and a 1, 2, 3, 4?

Halfway's my fave.

I'm Happy etc is lovely, as different as it is to this stuff.

not sure that he wld call the rock/pop records his 'principle' (sic) albs - things like 'terminal pharmacy' and 'happy days' are just as central to his aesthetic imho

bad timing is a beaut.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I'd agree with that.

I've never got into Insignificance and find it the least interesting of these records.

My ranking: Eureka > Bad Timing > The Visitor > Halfway > Insignificance

I can't stop listening to these.

Bad Timing is one of my all-time favorite albums, but the rest of his catalogue just didn't have that same spark to me, not even The Visitor, which was heavily-hyped at the time as a Bad Timing sequel.

Is your smile so easily worn
Worn away?

The most devastating lyric in pop songs, imo.

I used to have none
Now with you, I've got one...

This is so clearly Eureka, ILM always brings the chuckles.

Eureka out-take:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBlzkEzOZv8

would vote for Halfway to a Threeway now just for "Not Sport, Marital Art," my favorite song of all time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMxhanqvDKY

This is Eureka, closely followed by Threeway - the former, primarily, because there's more of it.

O'Rourke confounds me because if two words will ensure I won't listen to/read/watch something, they'd be arch and goofy and Jim is both of those things, sometimes in excelsis. I wonder if he somehow turns those concepts inside out, if this run of records is precisely his run at the project of turning these concepts inside out and seeing what happens. Probably overthinking it.

I worked out 'Women of the World' on guitar, and the thing is so glorious and daft. I left the simple thumb pattern ticking over in my head all day today and it dawned on me how much it's like Elizabeth Cotten's 'Freight Train'.

Is your smile so easily worn
Worn away?

The most devastating lyric in pop songs, IMO.

Otm.

I vastly prefer Jim's electroacoustic outings to his "albums", but "Bad Timing" is such an incredible thing. I love "Eureka" and "Halfway". "Insignificance" sounds to me like a poorly executed Wilco album, and "The Visitor" drifts by without making an impression. "Simple Songs" is really good, I only actually delved into it over the past few months.

I recall reading an account, don't remember where, of the following, which I will paraphrase from memory. Jim had offered to produce a latter-day John Fahey album, which would end up being Womblife. Production occurred at the same time as Jim was recording Bad Timing. Both albums were completed; but when John heard Bad Timing, he called Jim, and started crying to him over the phone. "It's not fair, your album is better than my album!" I love this anecdote, poor John.

i'm still a bad timing gal. crazy that insignificance won this! he sounds adrift on that thing imo and not in a good way.

his sensibility is hard to describe but singular. he's definitely an ideas and process guy. very ambitious but careful to deflate things at the right moment. lyrically, on some of these records, i hear him trying to square his ambition with more personal concerns? but the visitor is a different sort of thing.

i haven't listened to these in forever. i still check out a new steamroom every once in a while though. i prefer him in his more experimental mode. he's really good at that stuff.

xp to fgti

Lol at that Fahey story. Poor John indeed.

Agree on Insignificance. It's the least interesting and feels half-baked.

I’ve been scrolling through all the Steamrooms systemically and rating them and making notes.

They’re generally super interesting, I only find myself frustrated when there is too much dynamic range to make it entirely “functional”— that is, you need to keep your finger on the volume knob as the loud parts are so so loud, and the quiet parts inaudible.

O’Rourke interestingly enough rates “Happy Days” as one of his best works, but I personally hold that it is perhaps his worst— a similarly extreme (and much more successful) piece of his is found on Steamroom 8, a 1990 film soundtrack to the only film Jim has himself directed, entitled “Not Yet”.

Typing about it would only dilute the experience, I’d encourage everyone with ears to set aside an hour and immerse yourself in it and don’t fuck it up

*systematically, that is, by which I mean, “in order”

i remember really loving "i'm happy, i'm singing and a 1,2,3,4" on mego back in the day - i listened to that one a lot. still sounding good as i check it out again. it's him in laptop mode but still pretty tonal. a lot of emotion in it.

immerse yourself in it and don’t fuck it up

ok ru