Music Music Nerds

[Jeremy]

Black Sabbath Reach End of Heavy Metal Road With Emotional Final Gig

Now Tony and Geezer need to do reunions with Tony Martin and/or Glenn Hughes

 

[MadamSarcastra]

Singer Aretha Franklin: 'I am retiring this year' after release of new album

 

[PTree15]

So finally the new Steven Wilson album, To the Bone, arrived in the mail over the weekend. I have pretty much loved everything this man has done over the past two-plus decades, but I'm having trouble getting into this one. I've never had a visceral distaste for anything by SW, but there is one track on this album that IMHO is just awful. It's called "Permanating," and it sounds like an ABBA song. Not that I completely despise ABBA (not really a favorite, but they had a few catchy tunes I could tolerate--for maybe a minute!), but I wasn't expecting that from Mr. Wilson, who is an avowed ABBA fan. First off, it just doesn't fit with the rest of the album. Hearing it gave me my first WTF?!?!? moment ever (in a bad way) with SW's material. I'm inclined to make myself a copy without that track. It's just that awful for me.

The rest of it seems, dare I say, rather pedestrian considering the source. I guess my expectations were higher given what he's done solo-wise over the past five years. The guitars and solos seemed rather boring on a lot of the tracks, and there was no discernible bass of any interest. The music just didn't really go anywhere, and I really noticed that a few of the songs seemed too long, which was never a problem with PT ("Russia on Ice," "Radioactive Toy" and "Anesthetize" come to mind) or his previous solo material. And I am really not a fan of this drummer --talk about boring and predictable.

I'm hoping the record will be a grower. Compared with a lot of other pop stuff out there, this is still scads better, but it didn't really grab me the way his other solo stuff or the PT material has done. I will give it a few more spins and see whether I will change my opinion. SW has described this as his most "accessible" record to date and one for which the focus was "disciplined songwriting." He's also on a big label now, so the marketing machine is in full swing. I'm happy for him if he gets tons more exposure and fans with this effort, but so far I'm not that impressed. Thankfully, I have an extensive catalog of the man's work that I can pull out and enjoy. And I will definitely attend concerts if he comes to the U.S. to promote the album. Live SW is simply too good to pass up -- though I might make a beer run if he dares to play "Permanating." It's definitely a love-it-or-hate-it track judging by the online reactions.

 

[Andy_T]

Funny thing ... while I have always been a Jazz fan, and do enjoy Classical Music, I am now also somehow discovering Punk ... 30 years after it happened. Well, never too late, I guess...

 

[Amy SF]

Funny thing ... while I have always been a Jazz fan, and do enjoy Classical Music, I am now also somehow discovering Punk ... 30 years after it happened. Well, never too late, I guess...

I'd be interested to know what specific bands you're listening to.

 

[PTree15]

So finally the new Steven Wilson album, To the Bone, arrived in the mail over the weekend. I have pretty much loved everything this man has done over the past two-plus decades, but I'm having trouble getting into this one. I've never had a visceral distaste for anything by SW, but there is one track on this album that IMHO is just awful. It's called "Permanating," and it sounds like an ABBA song. Not that I completely despise ABBA (not really a favorite, but they had a few catchy tunes I could tolerate--for maybe a minute!), but I wasn't expecting that from Mr. Wilson, who is an avowed ABBA fan. First off, it just doesn't fit with the rest of the album. Hearing it gave me my first WTF?!?!? moment ever (in a bad way) with SW's material. I'm inclined to make myself a copy without that track. It's just that awful for me.

The rest of it seems, dare I say, rather pedestrian considering the source. I guess my expectations were higher given what he's done solo-wise over the past five years. The guitars and solos seemed rather boring on a lot of the tracks, and there was no discernible bass of any interest. The music just didn't really go anywhere, and I really noticed that a few of the songs seemed too long, which was never a problem with PT ("Russia on Ice," "Radioactive Toy" and "Anesthetize" come to mind) or his previous solo material. And I am really not a fan of this drummer --talk about boring and predictable.

I'm hoping the record will be a grower. Compared with a lot of other pop stuff out there, this is still scads better, but it didn't really grab me the way his other solo stuff or the PT material has done. I will give it a few more spins and see whether I will change my opinion. SW has described this as his most "accessible" record to date and one for which the focus was "disciplined songwriting." He's also on a big label now, so the marketing machine is in full swing. I'm happy for him if he gets tons more exposure and fans with this effort, but so far I'm not that impressed. Thankfully, I have an extensive catalog of the man's work that I can pull out and enjoy. And I will definitely attend concerts if he comes to the U.S. to promote the album. Live SW is simply too good to pass up -- though I might make a beer run if he dares to play "Permanating." It's definitely a love-it-or-hate-it track judging by the online reactions.

So I'm still not a fan of this album, but I must say most of the songs translate far better live. His most recent concert leg was off the hook! I still hate "Permanating," but I couldn't make a beer run this time because I was on the rail and I wasn't going to give up that spot. He has acknowledged the battle between fans who love the song and those who hate it, but he makes no apologies for this song. He really likes it, hehe.