Part 2: Stuff you want to like but can't because it sucks.

Rob Babcock · « **on:** 27 Jan 2004, 06:01 am »

My god, the White Stripes are just fucking awful! I don't know when every rock critic in America started smoking crack, but I'm betting it was about 3 months before Elephant came out. This one's the first stinker of a recommendation I've ever gotten from TAS. Based on their glowing yet undeserved praises I did check this one out, but yikes!

I wish I could have the memory brainwiped from me.

Any albums you guys really wanted to like only to be confronted with the painful realization that is blows goats?

nathanm · « **Reply #1 on:** 27 Jan 2004, 11:41 pm »

Slayer "Divine Intervention" and "Diabolis In Musica" and perhaps "God Hates Us All" too, but I don't own that one.

I really wanted to like their newer albums, but the fact is they kinda suck. It's like the grimace-inducing Slayer riff magic took a holiday, Tom decided to heave all pitch intonation overboard and just scream every line and the sound is, well... solid statey. I hate to say it but there's a Nu Metal influence showing itself here as well - something I don't even like to think about. On their latest live DVD performance you can see a distinct musical difference between older and newer material. The newer stuff has little structure, it's very one dimensional.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #2 on:** 28 Jan 2004, 12:32 am »

But South of Heaven is fucking brilliant!

Probably my favorite Slayer album, maybe a little ahead of Reign In Blood.

bob82274 · « **Reply #3 on:** 28 Jan 2004, 06:07 am »

I have a very good track record in terms of buying stuff I will like even if I have never heard it before. But the one album that sticks out in my mind is Steely Dan's Gaucho. Its like listening to Yanni for me.

Thump553 · « **Reply #4 on:** 28 Jan 2004, 06:36 pm »

The shows how people are different-Gaucho and their first album are my favorite Steely Dan albums-I played each endlessly. The rest I never cared for at all.

For me its anything by Radiohead. Sitting through OK Computer just one time was like completing a work project for me.

tom1356 · « **Reply #5 on:** 29 Jan 2004, 02:01 am »

I tried to listen to a Cranberries disc once. It only took about 10 mins.
I want my 10 mins back.

ABEX · « **Reply #6 on:** 29 Jan 2004, 02:09 am »

Cranberries
I always think of them and Enya as orgasm music!

I do not see to much in Dave Matthews.Just not to involving for me.There must be alot of othersmbut cannot think of them right now!

Hantra · « **Reply #7 on:** 29 Jan 2004, 02:52 am »

Quote

My god, the White Stripes are just fucking awful! I don't know when every rock critic in America started smoking crack

OMG. . I totally agree here. And now it's a "Record to DIE For". . hahhaahahaha What a joke.

I wanted hard to like Lord of the Rings, but. . I tried. . I tried hard. I tried watching it 2x, and even in installments. . I just couldn't make it through the longass BORING movie. Hell, I would rather watch Harry Potter, and I hate that crap too. . .

BTW ABEX, you need to hear the new Dave Matthews. I was the same way. . Until hearing the solo stuff. Completely different. . .

Tbadder1 · « **Reply #8 on:** 29 Jan 2004, 04:38 pm »

I think this is a really valuable line of inquirey(sic). To like something but know that it's bad, or to know something is really good but you don't like it, is one of the first signs of maturity. I like Pink Floyd's "The Wall" but I know it's really bad, a rip off intellectually, (see Metropolis) and univentive musically, and lyrically simplistic. It lacks emotional power and it's too self-aware. A kind of "look at me album." Very bad.

The White Stripes I love. They've brought Fat Possum nasty blues to the mainstream, adding an Indie mentality "I'm going to piss of the convetional people", but they're starting to run out of gas and need a new idea quick or they'll simply be repetitive. I think they're doomed.

JoshK · « **Reply #9 on:** 29 Jan 2004, 06:23 pm »

This is an interesting discussion. I think it brings to light some of our own quirks.

I like what Tbadder said, but dammit, why did you have to go and ruin "The Wall" for me?!

I use to hate Radiohead too. All through college I just couldn't get into them. I even had Pablo Honey and gave it away. Then one day in Grad school I started listening to The Bends that a friend loaned me and all of the sudden I loved it. The more I listened to it the more I like the other albums and started to see their 'genuis'. As with any band that is truely good, sooner or later they will get frenzy of rave reviews that think they are the next Beethoven.

Whites Stripes I love but it took me a few times through "White Blood Cells" to get into them. I almost dismissed them but then there was that buzzing in my brain about the guitar riffs that sounded so delta blues influenced that I had to listen again. Then it grabbed me.

I try not to dismiss anything too early or I usually must go back on my words. The opposite is sometimes true too, bands that immediately grab me sometimes loose their appeal quick.

Flaming Lips is another band that I thought was awful at first.

Sonic Youth, though, is the band that fits this title for me. I want to like them but just can't find it in me to figure out what is good about their sound.

PocketPC Addict · « **Reply #10 on:** 29 Jan 2004, 06:52 pm »

Quote from: Tbadder1

I like Pink Floyd's "The Wall" but I know it's really bad, a rip off intellectually, (see Metropolis) and univentive musically, and lyrically simplistic. It lacks emotional power and it's too self-aware. A kind of "look at me album." Very bad.

I'm glad you like it...but for shame

how can you put down The Wall? For me it's the very best rock album ever.

How exactly is it bad? Is it bad because so many people enjoy it so much? Also, I don't understand how it can be an intellectual rip off. Which songs were stolen? Did Waters and Gilmore not write the songs they claimed? Or are you referring to the TV dubs?

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #11 on:** 30 Jan 2004, 04:01 am »

For some reason that's beyond me now, I liked that first "Matchbox 20" album when it first came out. What a headscratcher- that disc is like fingernails on a friggin blackboard to me now.

I can sure see how the Cranberries could get on a persons nerves, but I absolutely love them, especially No Need To Argue. When it was remastered I grabbed it right away- that's one I could listen to twice back to back without getting tired of it. I just love her voice.

The Wall is an album that's starting to sound a little dated, but I think it was more original and relevant back in the days of the Cold War. But I still think it's a Towering Work Of Genius. And it doesn't sound as dated as DSotM (which I can still listen to all day).

IanVan · « **Reply #12 on:** 13 Feb 2004, 05:31 am »

Quote from: Rob Babcock

...
Any albums you guys really wanted to like only to be confronted with the painful realization that is blows goats?

Replacements - 'Tim'.

Guided by Voices - 'ALien Lanes'

Oais - 'Definitely Maybe'

Listening to all 3 of these, all I kept thinking was, 'what am I missing, everyone else says this is so good'? But I tried hard, and found all 3 of them agitating and annoying to listen to.

More recently, in the last 3 weeks alone, I bought 3 flyers that did nothing for me:

McCoy Tyner - 'The Real McCoy'
Cassandra Wilson - 'Blue'
California GUitar Trio - 'The First Decade'

Anyone wanna' trade?