Yep. My favorite, at least. And somehow it feels like the third of a trilogy with To Bring You My Love & Is This Desire, even though they don't really have much in common other than being my 3 favorite PJ Harvey albums.
Well, we all knew the Linkin Park rehab movement wasn't far off...I wasn't necessarily expecting such a positive comment section when it did, though.
I was 16 when it came out and I loathed it, haha. I was so salty when, five years later at Live 8 in Philly, they came out and played with Jay Z (who I had only recently gotten into) through most of his set.
Still, hard to come at the album/band too hard when everyone here is getting all emotionally nostalgic about what it meant to them.
Still the last good album he ever release. I agree that there's some disposable cornball material on there, but at least half sounds great, and "Jesus, I/Mary Star of the Sea" is a masterpiece.
Also agreed that they were fantastic live.
"So this would be the third in the trilogy of stories involving a single character, from ‘Zero’ to ‘Glass,’ and of course you’ll find out who that third character is very soon. But we’re currently working a 33-song opus — basically, if you wannt to call it anything else, it’s kind of a rock opera"
Teenage me from the late-90s: "Hell yes, album of the year for next year, I don't even need to hear it, this is going to rock!"
Me from late 2000, after BC shared the meaning of Machina: "Ugh, drop the lame-ass pseudo-Bible-thumper stories already, Billy! That was the worst part of Machina! But hey, I'll take 33 more SP songs!"
Me post-Zeitgeist - now: "Note to self: avoid bloated new Billy Corgan wank-fest in which he thinks seizing on the least-loved aspect of the band's original run is the way to win back old fans."
That said, more MCIS-era material is still welcome.
I prefer it, but that's such a "lost my edge" thing to say. I always liked Danny best as a feature artist or someone I cherry picked songs from on his previous albums because that hyena yawp of his just wore on me in large quantities, and often full albums of his preferred subject matter would, too. But on uknowhatimsayin¿ he toned it down enough that I really liked listening to it in full album shots - great production, still pretty damn raunchy by most other artists' standards, and a good sight less oppressively self-destructive/staring into the void.
But I get why people would like the more intense earlier stuff.
I used to have a compilation album from them, and there were definitely some really good songs that weren't "Gimme Some Livin" - "This Hammer" and "Every Little Bit Hurts" come to mind. But that said, "Gimme Some Lovin" is just undeniable, one of the all-time feel-good, get-revved songs.
I love the Sturgill and Streams of Thought 3 (less focused than the previous ones, but it doesn't deserve the flack it'll get for having Portugal on it), have enjoyed some of Benny and Morby - but yo, this Wildflowers rereleased is not to be slept on. If you love Tom Petty and especially the original album, that second "disk" of unreleased stuff is must-listen
Awesome. I am beyond thrilled the new Streams of Thought came FINALLY dropped and that it turned out longer than the last two for our patience.
And great interview, too - to hear his perspective on so much of that but also because holy crap, confirmation on that Dangermouse album (good news since Mouse has finally been hot again lately) and this was the first I heard about the Jim James album! What a prospect!
I used to consider myself pretty hardcore - box sets, tons of shows, etc...but they lost me post-classic lineup reunion. Please be Honest stunk, and while everything I've heard since has been pleasant, something just happened in my brain where I can't keep up or distinguish from album to album anymore.
I still try at least 1-2 albums per year and hope one wows me, and I did like Mirrored Aztec pretty well...but I'm still waiting for that moment that brings me back for real.
Still love everything up to '04, Fading Captain series, From a Compound Eye, and at least half of the the classic lineup reunion albums. Still love Bob.
The two advance releases didn't blow me away or anything, but I'll still definitely be giving this some attention this weekend (and it's not going to be lacking for musical competition for that attention).
For now I'll just say Wrecking Ball was an awesome album.
She clearly put a lot of thought into that album cover, huh?
Anyway, this should be a solid week for me - if Streams of Thought 3 finally drops that'll be huge. Looking forward to the Benny album, and the expanded Wildflowers.
I'll check out the OME because I'm definitely a fan of his, but the anime focus worries me a bit in terms of how much I'll connect or pick up.
And the recent feature got me curious about the beabadoobee, but I actually still haven't listened to anything from her yet. I guess I'll check a few of the advance cuts in the next couple of days and see if I'm gonna listen to the album.
The Grey Album is/was awesome...and is kinda what finally got me into Jay Z, lol.
But there WERE a bunch of subpar would-be coattail riders in its wake, they just sucked and are forgotten. I remember, for one example, there was a "Jay-zeezer" Jay Z-Weezer mashup and it was putrid. It seemed like one common failing of the also ran mashups was that they're frequently try to shoehorn too many vocals and hooks from the rock albums in, and they just stuck out like sore thumbs and killed the flow.
I'm a big enough 90s-SP fan (and Black Album fan) that I'll probably cave and check some of this out. But it's kind of annoying it goes beyond MCIS for its SP samples. not because I think it's their best album - not by a longshot - but ya know...just because.
Sylvan Esso's official live album this year was a great decision on their parts. It presented them with a more muscular, fleshed-out sound since it was taken from a tour with an expanded lineup, and it helped me connect with their catalog in a way I hadn't before (even having seen them open up for David Byrne a few years ago). And it got me hyped for Free Love, which isn't a capital-G Great Album, but has 4 or 5 incredible tracks that I'm glad I didn't wait to get into.
All of which is to say I'm always happy when a band these days puts forth the effort to put out a serious/definitive live album statement. Hell, My Morning Jacket is my favorite band and I have plenty of bootleg and official soundboard albums from them, but if and when they finally give an official follow up to Okonokos I will be ALL. OVER. THAT.
As easy as it is for us all to access live content, it's still nice to have shared milestones to refer to rather than hoping you're talking to another person who happens to randomly have a copy of May 14th San Francisco. (or to have watched it on Youtube...however people take in their recorded live content).
They didn't really do much for me up to and including Slave Ambient, though it probably wouldn't hurt for me to revisit it. So that's not the end of the world for me....though getting new, live versions of some of those songs might have changed my take on them. But hey, there IS something pre-Slave Ambient on here, so it's not like they're pretending they only started with Lost in the Dream.
I think "Comes Then Goes" is really good, but I agree that the last two lose me. "Retrograde" is the real dud, but "River Cross" isn't strong enough to really recover from it.
But that said, Top 10 album of the year for me still at this point, and I did not like the previous two at all.
If he was pro-working class and had a couple functioning brain cells he would most certainly not support DT., who has exploited the working class his whole life and now exploits the racism of its worst members.
"Working class" does not get to just mean racist, undereducated, blue-collar white folks who watch a steady diet of FOX News. And even they're exploited and manipulated by the Trumps, Murdochs, McConnells, and Carlsons of the world rather than actually cared for by them.
I think it was the last one I let myself get excited over, but it didn't do much for me. I guess I didn't listen to Chaosmosis since I forgot it existed until I just looked over the recent PS releases.
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