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Kvlt! posted:Where do I start with David Bowie? I would say with someone who has a career as wide and varied as David Bowie that maybe a comprehensive greatest hits set would be a good place to start, since it's hard to know exactly what's going to appeal to you. The fact is, the work on Scary Monsters is rather different than the work on "Heroes" which is rather different than Ziggy Stardust. Also, it'd be a good way to get tracks like "Time Will Crawl," which are really good but come from God-awful albums. It's just too hard to say "If you start with Ziggy Stardust and move on from there, you'll like him a lot." He just goes in a lot of wild and different directions. There are some people that respond to only certain eras of Bowie, and then there are others who love the entire catalog. This is a good way to figure out how to start. me your dad posted:I'm ignorant of Elvis Costello. I'd like to explore beyond his well known songs. With Elvis Costello, the albums others listed were good. I also recommend Imperial Bedroom and Blood and Chocolate. Imperial Bedroom has a nice big sound, and is a big step for Costello. The songs are also pretty tight, with great stuff like "Man Out Of Time" and "Human Hands" that show that his wordplay and way with a melody are still as strong as ever. Blood and Chocolate is an absolutely brutal album. The music itself is a little more tougher than Costello's usually is, but it is never rougher than garage rock. But the lyrics on the other hands are just filled with venom and pain. Take "I Hope That You're Happy Now," which is about a man murdering his lover, saying "I know this will hurt you more than it hurts me." Or "I Want You" which is really disarming in it's quietness. It just increases the tension of the song. I'll always wager that Blood and Chocolate is his best album, and if you want to start with him, you should include that album in your initial collection.
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Jul 19, 2015 16:56
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Traveller In Time posted:I think this is the most relevant thread to ask this in. Assuming I have all the studio albums from The Smiths and The Cure what compilations would I need to round out their collections? Mainly looking for some of the bigger singles that never made it onto the albums. For the Smiths, welcome to the hell that is Morrissey. So, Louder than Bombs was a double LP released for the US market that collects most of the non-BBC radio stuff from Hatful of Hollow alongside the non-album stuff from the World Won't Listen, minus "How Soon is Now" because that was on the American version of Meat is Murder, which you may or may not have. So Louder than Bombs will get you there. However, that still leaves out a few tracks. For example, the B-side Jeane, which was released on the back of "This Charming Man" is available on the Sound of the Smiths deluxe edition. Hatful of Hollow has a bunch of BBC radio sessions, though many of the unique songs that weren't on previous albums appear on Louder. The World Won't Listen has an alternate mix of "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby" and a different set of lyrics to "Stretch Out and Wait." And the first disc of The Sound of the Smiths has yet another version of "You Just Haven't..." that runs at a different speed. But let's face it, you got that compilation because you need Jeane. And the 12" single remix of "This Charming Man," which you don't REALLY need, but you should get. Of course, you'll also need to track down the Sweet and Tender Hooligan single to get "Work is a Four Letter Word" and "I Keep Mine Hidden." The first of which was the song that played a big role in breaking up the band. And if you want the original single mix of "Ask," well, you're in luck because you can track down The Very Best of the Smiths and get your grubby little paws on that. Or you can get the Complete Smiths from iTunes or Amazon and basically ensure that you have everything because frankly, trying to get a good collection of the Smith's catalog is almost impossible. But even that misses the original single mix of Ask. Just to drive you a little insane.
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Jul 24, 2015 04:47
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RC and Moon Pie posted:Is there a good starting place for Toto? If you can stand slick 80s Adult Contemporary, Toto IV is really all you would ever need. Although, I don't know how often you would listen to anything but the singles, though.
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Aug 6, 2015 04:44
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Thumbtacks posted:This is more of a meta question for you guys. How often do you think a band's singles are a good place to start? Do you think they're typically indicative of the band as a whole? I guess I'd be curious who you think you're talking about, but in general, the answer is probably going to be yes. 1. Singles are meant to sell records. Record companies don't cull singles from albums and push for airplay because they really want these songs to be heard. They see a marketing opportunity to get people to buy either the album or the single. While there are cases where the single doesn't really represent the album very well (like Harvey Danger's first album, there is really nothing else quite like Flagpoll Sitta on that), for the most part, the band and the record company wants to push out something that will appeal to people who will buy the album. 2. Tracks written as singles still sound like the band or the artist. A great example of this is "Dancing in the Dark." Bruce Springsteen's manager wanted a song that he was sure to be a hit, and pushed Springsteen to write the song. Springsteen wrote a pop anthem that was designed to be a radio hit, but still had the elements of a Springsteen song in there. After all, there's not many pop songs that would include lines like "I ain't nothing but tired." It's really hard for someone to write a song that just doesn't sound like them. 3. Singles are how most of us got into these artists. How do you think I first heard Elvis Costello? I heard "Radio Radio" playing on the radio and thought "Man, I got to hear more from this dude." If singles were a bad way to get introduced to an artist, nobody would release singles. 4. For artists with long careers, singles can give you a sense of where to dig next. Take an artist like David Bowie. It would be impossible for me to just give you one album to start with, since you might love his early stuff more than his later Berlin trilogy era stuff. Singles can give you that long view. 5. There are some bands where the singles are the story. Take an act like New Order. They produced strong albums, but if all you ever got were the albums and you never touched the singles, you'd be missing HUGE tracks like "Temptation" or "Blue Monday" or "True Faith." These are all essential New Order songs, but there were only on singles, and maybe tacked onto albums later in certain markets. Even songs that are on singles, like "The Perfect Kiss," have vastly different single versions. There are people who will say if you only had one New Order album, you should have Substance, a collection of their singles. Especially with bands from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, there was a lot of stuff that was only released as a single and wasn't part of an album. Nowadays, that doesn't happen as much.
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Sep 28, 2015 22:35
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A human heart posted:There's plenty of genres where people listen to singles almost exclusively and albums are unimportant. A great example is Motown. A lot of their sixties albums are mostly unimportant. The good stuff can be found on the 45s they issued.
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Sep 29, 2015 00:31
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Wheat Loaf posted:In the recommendation thread a couple of weeks back, I mentioned that I'm into 2 Tone and mod revival stuff and asked if anyone had any recommendations for American power pop type stuff from the same period, but there haven't been any replies in the meantime. Have you tried Big Star? Nick Lowe is another one to try.
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Dec 28, 2015 05:31
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Wheat Loaf posted:Thanks, I'll try some of those out. The Knack's first album is definitely pretty good with a lot of good hooks. Although, ironically enough, the digital version uses the censored tapes that removes a drug reference on the album (they sing a different lyric somewhere). I'm not sure about Paul Collins Beat, but the English Beat is pretty firmly a ska band, so they're not really comparable.
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Dec 29, 2015 23:10
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For XTC, take your pick of Drums and Wires, Black Sea, English Settlement, or Skylarking. Those albums are their most consistent. If you like more new wave and punkier stuff, Drums and Wires is a good starting point. If you like psychedelic music from the 60s, Skylarking is great. If you just need one, Skylarking is great. It has their first US hit, it has great songs, and it isn't too long like their next few records. But any of what I'd listed is a good starting place.
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Aug 26, 2016 17:16
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I hope you enjoy it. They're one of my favourite groups, but it can be daunting. I'd tell most people to ignore their first two records (the best stuff was released as a single anyway), and then past that, it's all worth it. Don't forget to check out The Dukes of Stratosphere. It was a great side project. They did the EP at their commercial nadir, and the LP after they bounced back, and both are really good. The album is just a great homage/parody of psychedelic music, and Pale and Precious is one of their best songs. More people should listen to XTC.
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Aug 27, 2016 19:15
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The New America is half good. As in half of the tracks are really good. The other half range from acceptable to "I Love My Computer." That's a song I wish on no one. But it was the first time Mr. Brett returned to the band (for one song - I think believe it). The title track is good, and the closer Don't Sell Me Short is one of their best songs. But still, that does mean you have to put up with I Love My Computer, and I don't know if I'm that cruel.
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Jul 1, 2017 22:29
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Zappa is tough - a lot of his material has aged about as well as a bowl of fruit from the 70s would have aged. His sense of humor can be grating and at times it's just a bit much. For example, take Act 2 of Joe's Garage, which may be the worst album I've listen to. I don't ever need to hear keep it greasy ever again. But then act 3 is really amazing, and Watermelon in the Easter Hay is one of the best songs I've ever heard. So when he hits, he hits hard. Freak Out was his first LP and it serves as a sort of a good idea of who he was. Disc 1 is full of dumb little pistaches of pop music (and not dumb in a bad way) that almost seems to be Frank saying "yeah, I can do this. I can write catchy little pop songs with the best of them." Side 3 is him saying "but this is what I can do, and this is miles ahead of that stuff." And then side 4 is pure chaos and a lot of messing about in the studio and wasting MGMs money and at one point an organ plays the riff to Louie Louie. I love it. Probably from there, either Shut Up and Play Your Guitar or a good compilation of his work might do. It's really tough. There's great stuff, but there's a lot of dross. When he hits, he hits hard. When he misses, he misses hard.
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Apr 5, 2018 04:12
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Galore, which collects the singles after Standing On the Beach is good too. And as a bonus, most of the singles released from Disintegration have unique mixes, so you got that to look forward to. I wish Standing on the Beach would be remastered though. Some of those songs sound absolutely dreadful.
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May 18, 2018 17:11
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Schiavona posted:Prince? What do you know of Prince? So, 1999 and Purple Rain probably have his absolute biggest songs that you'd probably know, but honestly, when he gets inconsistent in terms of quality, he never gets boring. But that really doesn't happen until the 90s.
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May 27, 2018 04:54
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There's a 3 CD set featuring all the singles from 88 to 95. There's a bunch of good b-sides you can't get anywhere else, and that will mean you can avoid a few compilations, including Bona Drag and World of Morrissey. Your arsenal is a really good glam rock record, and is pretty strong throughout. For the newer stuff: You Are the Quarry was a pretty good come back, and is mostly strong throughout, featuring a more modest Morrissey. Ringleader of the Tormentors has a few good songs, but they were all culled as singles. Beyond that, it's really dire with bad mixing and unmemorable songs. Years of Refusal is really good, and despite some scary song titles, it's actually not really embarrassing. And then something changed. Morrissey went off the deep end. World Peace is None of Your Business has some good songs, especially on the deluxe edition, but some of the political songs are... disgusting. Like, the title track. I didn't even listen to the last album since he's taken a turn for the far right and I just don't want to deal with a pissy 60 year old singer who is past his prime complaining about how he isn't on top of the charts and then running his mouth saying horrible things about sexual assaults and immigrants. As he said in the 80s: you silly old man... Get off the stage.
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Aug 21, 2018 17:40
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hexwren posted:How about The Move? Ooh, this is my area of specialty. I love, love, love the move. So to start, their albums are all pretty different, since the band was literally all over the place. So there's been a few reissues, and of variable quality, but let's get started. In order of quality: 1. The various singles they released. The Move were really a singles band, and that's where they consistently hit hardest. It's pure pop, and Roy Wood was able to just hit it out of the park with pop songs no matter how off the wall he was going. They may be available as bonus tracks on reissues, but some of them don't use the original mixes. I know the Salvo used god-awful fake stereo mixes. Basically, if it was released before Brontosaurus, it should be mono. But the compilations usually include the correct mixes, as far from what I've seen. Their final single, California Man / Do Ya, is one of the best singles ever released. Just two great songs back to back. And yes, Do Ya, is better than the ELO version. 2. Message From the Country. This was their last album as the Move, and it basically at the time, they were talking any song that used strings and using that for Electric Light Orchestra. Jeff Lynne has more of a voice, and he writes half of the songs here. 3. The Move - psychedelic rock. It's their debut, and is all over the place in a great way. Flowers in the Rain, Fire Brigade, Cherry Blossom Clinic? All killer. Ignore stereo versions. Only half the album was originally mixed into stereo, and some of the stereo mixes are... bizarre. Like, Walk On The Water is entirely mono, except for one backwards sound effect, which is panned left and right. 4. Looking On - Jeff Lynne enters. It's heavy and hard, and I really love it. Feel Too Good is just killer funk, and you can hear Roy and Jeff getting on really well. 5. Shazam - not a bad album. It's just my least favorite. It's filled with long songs, and shows them going beyond the pop they did in the first album. Now, for bonuses. Check out Wizzard's Brew by Wizzard. The reissue includes the non-album singles from the period. The album is noisy an a huge mess, but the singles are just the poppiest songs you can imagine. See My Baby Jive is just pure pop brilliance. Electric Light Orchestra - the first album features the same line up as Message From the Country. It's less pop than future ELO albums, but it's interesting to hear. Boulders - Roy Woods' solo album. As in, he recorded everything, but one instrument on one track. Song of Praise features a chorus of sped up Roy Woods. It's inventive and fun. So I hope that helps.
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Dec 15, 2018 18:19
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And Everything Must Go. The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go is an interesting series of albums. The Holy Bible is basically the lyrics of a severely depressed man and a band trying to write music to fit it. They were more interested in taking a risk than they were in success. It's a challenging album (I mean, the opening song includes the lines "he's a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock," so not everyone's cup of tea), but it's something very unique. There's two versions - the UK version, and the US remix which didn't get released until the deluxe edition ten years later because of the guitarist's disappearance. It's fascinating to hear the US version since they give it a bit more polish. I think the band likes it as well, so it's not like you got to choose between a band approved version and something else. I do think the UK mix of Faster is superior. Everything Must Go is sort of the sequel to the Holy Bible. Half of the songs come from the guy who disappeared, and the other half deal with the aftermath. Then there's Journal for Plague Lovers, which uses up unreleased lyrics.
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Mar 24, 2019 17:21
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For the Class, the proper albums are all pretty good, with their first 3 being really strong. Give 'Em Enough Rope isn't merely okay, it's great with songs like Safe European Home, Stay Free, All the Young Punks. Just classics. You'll also need to get their non album tracks as well, since their singles had a lot of great stuff like White Man in Hammersmith Palais. And the B-sides early on were pretty good. Around London Calling when they start getting into dub, they become less interesting since they're not different songs. Combat Rock has unique B-sides, but the quality isn't there. Cut the Crap is a perfectly titled album that tells you what you should do with it (I don't think it's available anymore). There only exception is "This is England." That song is great. For the Ramones, their first four LPs are really good. End of the Century is a mess, but when it hits, it hits really hard. Phil Spector producing punk. It's still good, but there's some stuff that doesn't work well. Getting a decent compilation for the later stuff is fine.
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Apr 28, 2019 17:22
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Junpei posted:Where do I start with Bad Religion? So I'd probably start with their classic Epitaph albums - No Control, Suffer, Against the Grain. Of those three, I like ATG the best. Beyond that - Generator is a really good album, which also is a bit of a turning point. Greg's voice gets deeper, they have more musical variety. Recipe For Hate is their big break out, but it is a little uneven. It's still worth it. Stranger Than Fiction is really good, although the mix is terrible, with a ton of mid-range and not much else. Let's forget the next few albums happen. There's some good moments, but... Overall they are eh. The New America is actually pretty good. Mr. Brett returns for one song. Half is really strong, the rest is okay, and then there's "I Love My Computer" which may be one of the worst songs I've ever heard. But "Don't Sell Me Short" is probably my favorite song by them. And that's the end of their journey with the major labels. Their next three albums are also really good - Process of Belief, The Empire Strikes First, and New Maps of Hell. They are back in form, with good song writing filled with obscure vocabulary words. At this point, I lose them. I'm not sure how the new stuff goes, but given their general consistency so far, I'd be surprised if it is terrible. How Can Hell Be Any Worse is a good collection of their early stuff, but it's definitely a rough listen. And then there's their second LP - Into the Unknown. Do you wish Bad Religion did more prog rock with lots of synths? If so, prepare to be amazed. Actually, it's good. But in short, go with their post mid-80s Epitaph albums - after that get Stranger Than Fiction, Process of Belief, the Empire Strikes First, a Dreamcast copy of Crazy Taxi, and then the New America. And you'll have a good representation of their material. All Ages is also a good summary of the material before Recipe For Hate. Cemetry Gator fucked around with this message at 04:15 on May 14, 2019 |
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May 14, 2019 04:08
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Junpei posted:Is there more to Smash Mouth than Shrek memes? Is there an actual band under all that? No. They might have had a few good singles, and maybe their first album is worth listening to, but there really isn't much depth to their catalog. They had a few hits, but they're all in a similar style. All Star might actually be the song that sounds the most different and not just a 60s garage rock revival. Get a greatest hits if you want more.
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Jun 21, 2019 03:59
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Kvlt! posted:Tom Waits? Tom Waits can be difficult to get into because he has such a varied career. Rain Dogs is probably my go to starting point. It has a mix of singer songwriter Tom (Time), psycho jazz Tom (Cemetery Polka), and even a massive Rod Stewart hit - Downtown Train. From there, go with Swordfishtrombones if you like the psycho stuff, or Paul Young (he covered Soldier's Things). Or check out Small Change if you want something more singer songwriter like. Also, Nighthawks at the Diner is hilarious and is worth it even if you don't like the songs. Mule Variations is also another decent place to go. It's a great album. From there, just follow where he leads you. You probably won't go completely wrong.
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Aug 2, 2019 17:32
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I mean, my ranking would be 1. Rain Dogs, 2. Heart attack and Vine and 3. Frank's Wild Years. Yes, I know I didn't include those two in my recommendations, but that's because I don't think they do a good job of giving you the full picture of Waits as an artist. Like Ruby's Arms is seriously one of his best songs though
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Aug 2, 2019 23:42
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Also, listen to Japan's Quiet Life LP and you can hear where Duran Duran got their sound. Rio is essentially a musical rewrite of Quiet Life, the song. Until the chorus comes.
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Oct 31, 2019 20:49
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algebra testes posted:21st Century Digital Boy seems like a pretty good track. No Control through Stranger Than Fiction is a really good run. They don't really ever stretch, but that is them at their most consistent. The New America is also half a really good album, half just okay, and then there's "I Love My Computer" which may be one of the worst songs ever. After that, it's pretty much worth it, especially Process of Belief.
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Nov 28, 2019 23:13
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Kvlt! posted:Depeche Mode? Violator is their commercial peak, and is really good overall. I know some of their early records can be a bit rough - Speak and Spell was written by a different person than Martin Gore - and he went on to form Yazoo and Erasure. The two singles compilations do a good job with their early periods, and the album versions ate different so that's a good way to go too.
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Dec 11, 2019 17:05
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Your should also dig into R&B and country music, because those are the roots of rock and roll. I'm not an expert, but here's a very basic list. I hope someone can do a better job than I could ever hope to do. Robert Johnson George Jones (the early stuff like White Lightning) Big Mama Thornton Elmore James
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May 10, 2020 03:59
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Epi Lepi posted:I re-listened to Lies recently for the first time since I was a teenager and yeah when I got to One in a Million I was just like. "Oh. Oh no...." Fun fact - the deluxe remastered version of Appetite for Destruction includes the Lies EP. But they did not include One in a Million. Yeah, even today the band is distancing themselves from it.
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May 23, 2020 00:10
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I also really like Tunnel of Love. Brilliant Disguise is an amazing track, and that whole album is a great follow up to Born in the USA.
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Aug 3, 2020 17:32
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IUG posted:So this is more of a "should I continue with?", but is Sting's stuff looking at if you have all The Police albums? I'm going to assume no though, but haven't ever checked out any of his stuff. I just assumed it was much different from The Police stuff. Sting had a pretty good solo career. He went away from pop-rock, but there's still a lot of stuff with good hooks. All This Time is a great example of how he could write a really catchy upbeat pop song about the death of his father and not have it come out ironic or silly. You've probably heard Fields of Gold a thousand times, it's one of his most popular. It's not like without the rest of the Police, he lost his touch.
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Sep 23, 2020 03:01
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ExecuDork posted:The suggestions for Billy Joel are excellent, I had a couple of his songs stuck in my head a few weeks ago so I bought The Hits (presumably this is the first of his compilation albums, I can't remember the other choices on his website) and I'm very happy. My introduction to Billy Joel was Greatest Hits Volume I and II, which were always sold together. Now I say this because the Hits is missing Uptown Girl! What kind of greatest hits compilation looks at an artist who wrote Uptown Girl and says "yeah, we can skip that?" I'm legitimately angry! Not at you. But at them. The fools with no respect for Uptown Girl. I understand they didn't include Just the Way You Are - Billy hates that song. But loving Uptown Girl?
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Sep 29, 2020 04:07
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Given that she just has 3 albums, you probably could just get what you need from a greatest hits record or getting the first two albums, which will have all the hugely popular things she did.
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Nov 30, 2020 04:58
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hexwren posted:Mink Car is actually really good, it's a full-band nod towards the Lincoln sound...it just sank without a trace because it got no promo support (their label died immediately after its release) and because people were slightly busy the day it came out (September 11, 2001) Yeah, I remember the documentary they had, and that film was so weird because you keep seeing this countdown to 9/11 but they obviously can't acknowledge it. But it's just a little weird and unnerving.
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Dec 2, 2020 04:54
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Junpei posted:The Go-Go's? I know "We Got The Beat" and "Vacation", but not much more. They don't really have an extensive discography. They only released three albums in their initial run, and they had one reunion album. I don't know anything about the reunion LP, but from their first run, the first and the third LPs are the best - Beauty and the Beat, and Talk Show.
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Dec 2, 2020 14:19
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ultrafilter posted:I like every ABBA song I've ever heard, but I haven't heard much. Are the albums worth digging into, or is a greatest hits collection enough? The question is are you comfortable not having the complete ABBA discography at your fingertips? If you are, both Gold compilations would do you well. There's a lot of good tracks on the second Gold one that would suck not to have, like the Visitors.
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Feb 15, 2021 22:45
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I feel like if you like Joy Division, you also need to check out early New Order, since they are basically the same band, minus Ian Curtis.
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Feb 27, 2021 23:19
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JollyBoyJohn posted:I really don't know much about Bruce Springstreen other than his more popular singles - Born in the USA, Dancing in the Dark and Born to Run are the only 3 songs I know off the top of my head, what else should I check out. Bruce really had a strong run starting from his second LP The Wild, The Innocent & the E-Street Shuffle, to 1987's Tunnel of Love. He's had other good stuff since then, but his batting average goes down. But where to start? Born to Run is his breakout success, and would be a great place to start. It's a big panoramic album, filled with characters and a big brash sound that fills up the room. You already know the title track, and the fact that it's everywhere hides just how deft the moves are. It's an amazing cross between Roy Orbison, Phil Spector, and your local bar band. The River was his double album. He was just pushing out material, and this album has a pretty wide range. There's new wave infused rockers like the Ties that Bind, there's bar band antics like Sherry Darling, there's ballads like the River, there's the theatrical Drive All Night, there's him trying to write a song for the Ramones with Hungry Heart (which would be his first top 10 single). There's plenty of songs that could have been hits like "Out on the Streets." There's also a collection called The Ties That Bind which presents the original single disc version of the album (which has a lot of differences even on the songs that appeared in the final version) and a collection of stuff that wasn't released at the time. Loose Ends and Little White Lies just show you what he was throwing away was just as strong as what he was putting into the albums. Born In The USA as an album was huge. It had 7 top 10 singles, so if there's other Bruce songs you know, they might be here. A lot of people are going to mention Nebraska. It is a really good album, but it's different than a lot of his other stuff since it's basically just acoustic demos that he felt he should release. It's a very dark and very sparse album. Atlantic City is probably the only track that suffers by not being turned into an E-Street band song, but otherwise, the sparseness of the album really matches the themes of the song. I would say though it's really a next step after you get into Bruce. As for TWTI&TES, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and Tunnel of Love - they're all really good. Some might say Darkness is his best album. His second album is definitely him still finding his sound, but "Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" is a huge standout. Darkness is a continuation of Born to Run, but overall it's a lot darker. Badlands is Bruce listening to punk, Prove It All Night is the poppiest number here, but the standout is Racing in the Street, which is dark and bold and cinematic, and finds a way to reference Dancing in the Streets and make it sad and depressing. Tunnel was him moving on from the E-Street band, and is probably his most 80s record. But Brilliant Disguise is a huge standout.
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Feb 28, 2021 15:18
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Yeah, the 90s gives us Diamonds and Pearls, and the Love Symbol album. Like, that alone is going to give you some great stuff. Make sure you're listening to the vault material as well - Purple Rain, 1999, and Sign O' the Times have deluxe editions that are really good. Like 1999 and Sign O' the Times come with 2-3x the length of the original albums of vault material, and there's a lot of great stuff. Like If It'll Make You Happy, Wally, Purple Music, all great stuff. And the B-sides and 12" mixes from Purple Rain are all fantastic and essential. Erotic City, 17 Days - those songs actually got loving airplay. Prince is one of those artists who just did whatever he wanted, and you just go along for the ride.
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May 5, 2021 04:09
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If you're going to go with a live album, I would actually suggest The Name of this Band is Talking Heads. Especially the expanded double CD version Rhino did - the second disc is one of my favorite live discs and it's where they started working with some of the people they did on Stop Making Sense. But if their studio albums - I would start with Fear of Music. It's the right balance of weird and angular but still accessible. You got Life During Wartime which is one that got and gets a lot of radio play. You got Byrne perfecting the songs about mundane topics perfectly with Cities. You got great new wave freakouts like Memories Can't Wait, and you got a great ballad with Heaven. I Zimbra just rules. 77 and More Songs About Buildings and People are good albums, but they can be a bit tough because Byrne is still growing as a song writer, and his eccentricities are on full display. There's plenty of great tracks. Remain in Light is a fascinating album. The band has grown a lot, and the album consists of loops and repeating phrases. It's very much a funk record by way of Kraftwerk. There's a lot there to love. Crosseyed and Painless will get you dancing, The Great Curve is just powerfully sexy. Once in a Lifetime showed that they could write pop music even when doing something off the beaten path - it's definitely super accessible. The Overload is Byrne writing a Joy Division song based only on what he ready about the band. Then we get to Speaking in Tongues. Burning Down the House, Girlfriend is Better, Swamp, Slippery People, Naive Melody - these are all great songs. It's more of a mix bag than their other albums, and a few of the tracks go on for far too long. It's a drop overall from what came before, but it's still really good. Little Creatures is where the band becomes more straightforward in their sound. The highlights are still strong, but you feel like more of the songs don't work as well. And She Was, Road to Nowhere, The Lady Don't Mind - these are all great songs. But then you get Little Creatures and Walk It Down and even Television Man, and they're not bad songs, they're just not great. True Stories feels worse for the wear. This is their poppiest album, and when it works, it is on fire. Wild Wild Life and Love For Sale - just great pop singles. People Like Us and Puzzling Evidence - fantastic deep cuts. But you get a lot of songs that feel forgettable. I can't tell you anything about Radio Head, except it gave us the band name. Finally is Naked. This has (Nothing But) Flowers, and is really one of their best songs. It's a little overlong, and the band was really at a rough point all around. Blind is good. Ruby Dear I recall being good. But it's really the David Byrne show at this point.
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May 9, 2021 06:08
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Franchescanado posted:I learned recently that they were chasing their sound and eccentricities with Byrne and Eno’s leadership until Tom Tom Club’s Genius of Love became a cultural phenomenon, before TH ever had a major hit single. After that Tina and Chris are trying to work with TH to make a bigger hit than Genius, so they have more creative control over the sounds and songs, but you also have Byrne and Eno compromising/sabotaging/changing songs in post without Tina and Chris. Where on earth did you hear that? It literally makes no sense with the timing of things. Eno last produced Remain in Light back in 1980, after that, the band didn't work with him anymore. Genius of Love came out in 1981. I know they band was pretty dysfunctional throughout most of the 80s, and I know creative vision was a big part of the conflict.
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May 9, 2021 18:05
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ultrafilter posted:I know David Byrne's had a long solo career, but has any of the rest of the band been recording? Jerry Harrison did a few solo albums, but mainly did production. He worked with Live a lot, produced a song for No Doubt, and has done some guitar work. Tina and Chris I believe did work as Tom Tom Club. They all did a record called No Talking Just Heads.
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May 10, 2021 01:45
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| # ¿ May 8, 2024 16:48 |
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I almost feel like for most people, the greatest hits album would probably do you just as well. They had a lot of great songs, but they were the ones that got on the radio. Unless you fall so head over heels in love with that music, I don't know if the individual albums have songs I would say you're missing out on if you just focused on the hits.
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May 15, 2021 13:36
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