What album are you listening to right now? - Music

CubaZed

satiemaniac wrote:

[After not listening to The Beatles in probably three years, I'm gonna re-listen to their discography since why not? Starting with Please Please Me and I remember liking it a lot when I was really into them. Their odd-numbered pop albums are their best, as I recall. One thing I think is odd that I didn't notice before is that the stereo mixing on this is pretty terrible. The drums and bass are in the left channel with the guitar... somewhere in the back? I know The Beatles and George Martin worked to establish a lot of stereo techniques, so I don't hold it against them, but hot damn. I refuse to do a track-by-track, but pop albums kinda rely on that kind of assemblage so I guess I'll just mention that a lot of this, upon return, is utterly bland and were it not for THE BEATLES cult of personality, these would be roundly criticized as of-the-time filler tracks rather than small hiccups on a climbing of Olympus. "Anna (Go to Him)" - was it ever made by a female vocalist? This sounds like something that either actually was and I'm remembering that or would be really well-suited to someone like Jackie DeShannon. "I Saw Her Standing There," "Do You Want to Know a Secret," and "Boys" are mega-bangers, while "Love Me Do" and "Twist and Shout" are a lot less good than I remember them being and the rest is just "goop" to quote TheHorbgorbler on RYM in her review of Revolver. On to With the Beatles!

I would easily agree with this. The Beatles are considered to be such icons that modern day reviewers often overlook the blemishes on their first four or five albums and my god there are a lot of them. That said I always liked "Please Please Me" the most of their early work though. Something about their energy and desperation to hit it big is so powerful that the muddled production and mistakes almost seem endearing. That urgency is kind of captivating.

NowhereMan

Gender: Male
Age: 30
Location: Nowhereland. (Cheshire/Liverpool)

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Ultraviolence by Lana Del Rey

First listen.

I really want to like this for some reason.
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''Isn't He A Bit Like You and Me?''

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NowhereMan

Gender: Male
Age: 30
Location: Nowhereland. (Cheshire/Liverpool)

CubaZed wrote:

I would easily agree with this. The Beatles are considered to be such icons that modern day reviewers often overlook the blemishes on their first four or five albums and my god there are a lot of them. That said I always liked "Please Please Me" the most of their early work though. Something about their energy and desperation to hit it big is so powerful that the muddled production and mistakes almost seem endearing. That urgency is kind of captivating.

Correct.
_________________
''Isn't He A Bit Like You and Me?''

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Check Me Out! Very Happy

satiemaniac

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With The Beatles by The Beatles

Not nearly as unlistenable as I remember it being, With the Beatles is still far, far too vanilla even by Beatles standards to keep me from skipping through a lot of the tracks after I hear them lay themselves bare in a single verse/chorus. A lot of these are embarrassingly bad, like "Little Child." Fun to hear "Don't Bother Me," which I had honestly forgotten entirely about and hear Harrison setting himself up as a stark contrast to the Lennon-McCartney tracks even at this early stage. The "Please Mr. Postman" and "Roll Over Beethoven" interpretations are kind of embarrassing in comparison to the original performances. "Hold Me Tight" and "All My Loving" are the only ones worth listening to here, ultimately, though.

NowhereMan

Gender: Male
Age: 30
Location: Nowhereland. (Cheshire/Liverpool)

satiemaniac wrote:

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With The Beatles by The Beatles

Not nearly as unlistenable as I remember it being, With the Beatles is still far, far too vanilla even by Beatles standards to keep me from skipping through a lot of the tracks after I hear them lay themselves bare in a single verse/chorus. A lot of these are embarrassingly bad, like "Little Child." Fun to hear "Don't Bother Me," which I had honestly forgotten entirely about and hear Harrison setting himself up as a stark contrast to the Lennon-McCartney tracks even at this early stage. The "Please Mr. Postman" and "Roll Over Beethoven" interpretations are kind of embarrassing in comparison to the original performances. "Hold Me Tight" and "All My Loving" are the only ones worth listening to here, ultimately, though.

I disagree in your suggestion that the covers on here are poor; the beatles made mostly every cover they pursued a lot better than the original. Lennon's vocals in Please Mr. Postman are brilliant.

Not A Second Time is underrated - keep listening Cool

_________________
''Isn't He A Bit Like You and Me?''

#1-#100 https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=3641

#101-#200 https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=49444

Check Me Out! Very Happy

satiemaniac

NowhereMan wrote:

Not A Second Time is underrated - keep listening Cool

I've listened to this album close to a dozen times in my life. I don't think it's a matter of hearing it another time for another Lennon-McCartney throwaway pop ballad to stick. Razz

Also those covers are obnoxiously bland in comparison to their Motown counterparts. The word "castration" comes to mind.

Last edited by satiemaniac on 07/22/2014 23:22; edited 1 time in total

CubaZed

satiemaniac wrote:

Not nearly as unlistenable as I remember it being, With the Beatles is still far, far too vanilla even by Beatles standards to keep me from skipping through a lot of the tracks after I hear them lay themselves bare in a single verse/chorus. A lot of these are embarrassingly bad, like "Little Child." Fun to hear "Don't Bother Me," which I had honestly forgotten entirely about and hear Harrison setting himself up as a stark contrast to the Lennon-McCartney tracks even at this early stage. The "Please Mr. Postman" and "Roll Over Beethoven" interpretations are kind of embarrassing in comparison to the original performances. "Hold Me Tight" and "All My Loving" are the only ones worth listening to here, ultimately, though.

This too. "With The Beatles" was always in the lowest echelon of their albums. I like it slightly more than "Beatles For Sale" though I think that's only for nostalgia reasons (and that I can't stand Eight Days A Week).

Listening to:

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Selected Ambient Works Volume II by Aphex Twin

NowhereMan

Gender: Male
Age: 30
Location: Nowhereland. (Cheshire/Liverpool)

satiemaniac wrote:

I've listened to this album close to a dozen times in my life. I don't think it's a matter of hearing it another time for another Lennon-McCartney throwaway pop ballad to stick. Razz

Doh. That's unfortunate.

Got to appreciate A Hard Day's Night surely?!

The greatest pop album ever; smears of class everywhere. All in 3 weeks.
Definitely their strongest in terms of songwriting and lyrics pre-Rubber Soul.
_________________
''Isn't He A Bit Like You and Me?''

#1-#100 https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=3641

#101-#200 https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=49444

Check Me Out! Very Happy

NowhereMan

Gender: Male
Age: 30
Location: Nowhereland. (Cheshire/Liverpool)

CubaZed wrote:

This too. "With The Beatles" was always in the lowest echelon of their albums. I like it slightly more than "Beatles For Sale" though I think that's only for nostalgia reasons (and that I can't stand Eight Days A Week).

Listening to:

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Selected Ambient Works Volume II by Aphex Twin

I'd have Beatles For Sale as one of their weakest; though I still love it.

Lennon always hated Eight Days A Week - they should have released No Reply as the single release as they were going to.
_________________
''Isn't He A Bit Like You and Me?''

#1-#100 https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=3641

#101-#200 https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=49444

Check Me Out! Very Happy

CubaZed

NowhereMan wrote:

Got to appreciate A Hard Day's Night surely?!

The greatest pop album ever; smears of class everywhere. All in 3 weeks.
Definitely their strongest in terms of songwriting and lyrics pre-Rubber Soul.

Well I mean "A Hard Day's Night" is kind of hyped a bit too much. While there are some real good bangers on there (like "And I Love Her" and "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You"), some of the notable songs are just overplayed to the point of death. It's also got arguably the weakest second side in Beatles history. I think it's massively overrated on most Beatles discography rankings honestly.