I normally hate this genre. Adult alternative. Stuff like 10,000 Maniacs & The Sundays. They always seemed to lack a certain bite. A certain grounding . A risk of floating off into the ether on lightweight balls of cotton fluff. The aural equivalent of kissing your sister. And I knew it well. I pretty much knew I'd typically hit off with a girl if she likes this stuff on the condition that she didn't take her politics (and her self) too seriously.. No this was my niche. Girls who dug NPR & The New Yorker. Girls who were smarter than me. Plus, I love short hair on a girl. Throw a cute beret in there, & I'm pretty much done for. Yup. Slightly artsy, literary types who curl up with the Sunday Times and listen to NPR are my kryptonite in a sense.
Anyways, but this style of music I always found kind of boring or self-satisfied or, the worse - self righteous & weary.
So imagine my surprise when I absolutely fell in love with this little gem that's clearly been influenced by both Natalie Merchant & The Sundays. The vocalist positively channels these song and sings them with so much down home, earnest but tasteful passion & genuine love. While you can't help but be reminded of Natalie Merchant and The Sundays, I like it far better. Translation: I can actually make it through the entire album. Anyways, if you are a fan of Lilith Fair Adult Alternative feather rock, you should really check this out. For me to like it - stuff I normally hate & make fun of- means it must be AMAZING!
I normally hate this genre. Adult alternative. Stuff like 10,000 Maniacs & The Sundays. They always seemed to lack a certain bite. A certain grounding . A risk of floating off into the ether on lightweight balls of cotton fluff. The aural equivalent of kissing your sister. And I knew it well. I pretty much knew I'd typically hit off with a girl if she likes this stuff on the condition that she didn't take her politics (and her self) too seriously.. No this was my niche. Girls who dug NPR & The New Yorker. Girls who were smarter than me. Plus, I love short hair on a girl. Throw a cute beret in there, & I'm pretty much done for. Yup. Slightly artsy, literary types who curl up with the Sunday Times and listen to NPR are my kryptonite in a sense.
Anyways, but this style of music I always found kind of boring or self-satisfied or, the worse - self righteous & weary.
So imagine my surprise when I absolutely fell in love with this little gem that's clearly been influenced by both Natalie Merchant & The Sundays. The vocalist positively channels these song and sings them with so much down home, earnest but tasteful passion & genuine love. While you can't help but be reminded of Natalie Merchant and The Sundays, I like it far better. Translation: I can actually make it through the entire album. Anyways, if you are a fan of Lilith Fair Adult Alternative feather rock, you should really check this out. For me to like it - stuff I normally hate & make fun of- means it must be AMAZING!
Grade: Essential. (A)
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Incredible how much the sound of this album is influenced by the Sundays: both the voices is very similar to the voice of Harriet Wheeler and also the guitar sound is alike. The quality of the songs is good so I'm definitely gonna add it to my top chart of 1991 BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT.... NO WAY this album is even remotely as great as Reading, Writing and Arithmetic by the Sundays which is one of my all-time favorite albums. I can agree that 10000 Maniacs could be ccalled pejoratively adult alternative but no way josé for the Sundays which are one of the best mellow bands ever (at least on that one album) with songs of which the quality is top notch: if we ever get to make a similar forum for 1990...
Incredible how much the sound of this album is influenced by the Sundays: both the voices is very similar to the voice of Harriet Wheeler and also the guitar sound is alike. The quality of the songs is good so I'm definitely gonna add it to my top chart of 1991 BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT.... NO WAY this album is even remotely as great as Reading, Writing and Arithmetic by the Sundays which is one of my all-time favorite albums. I can agree that 10000 Maniacs could be ccalled pejoratively adult alternative but no way josé for the Sundays which are one of the best mellow bands ever (at least on that one album) with songs of which the quality is top notch: if we ever get to make a similar forum for 1990...
The Sundays Vs. The Innocence Mission: The Battle for The Merchant Ivory Kingdom Coming to a BEA Forum Near You in the Summer of 2018
Yeah. I heard that Sundays a gazillion times back in the day. But always at someone else's house in the background. That album was everywhere back in 1990 & it never moved me. Maybe I've changed! lol. We'll see when I get to 1990 this Summer.
One final thing. This Innocence Mission LP gets stronger with every spin. At first I just thought they were entirely derivative of 10000 Maniacs & The Sundays, but while they may be strongly influence by both, the songwriting & singing is exceptional & first-rate.
.... And please give it some love (e.g. rating, comment or both). I think it would be cool if became at least eligible for a chart of the day. It's filled with gems that are deserving of love. I'm like a proud parent. lol.
Anyways, there are really only a few vacancies left to fill, and I thought it'd be fun to fill them with little genre skirmishes.
I'll post the albums and then post my thoughts as I'm having them over the course of 48 hours. The winner gets a place in the chart! The loser... can also get a place in the chart but it will have to knock some other album out! Things are getting vicious in The Mellow Zone. lol.
Keep in mind that most of these albums will already be have been screened at this point. Meaning I already think they're decent for the most part.
I also have another chart called 1991:More Gems for albums that I recommend but don't quite make my top 100.
Keep in mind I wasn't trying to listen to this many albums. It just sort of happened and I was already very familiar with 1991 to begin with. Okay. Enough blabbering.
.... And please give it some love (e.g. rating, comment or both). I think it would be cool if became at least eligible for a chart of the day. It's filled with gems that are deserving of love. I'm like a proud parent. lol.
Anyways, there are really only a few vacancies left to fill, and I thought it'd be fun to fill them with little genre skirmishes.
I'll post the albums and then post my thoughts as I'm having them over the course of 48 hours. The winner gets a place in the chart! The loser... can also get a place in the chart but it will have to knock some other album out! Things are getting vicious in The Mellow Zone. lol.
Keep in mind that most of these albums will already be have been screened at this point. Meaning I already think they're decent for the most part.
I also have another chart called 1991:More Gems for albums that I recommend but don't quite make my top 100.
Keep in mind I wasn't trying to listen to this many albums. It just sort of happened and I was already very familiar with 1991 to begin with. Okay. Enough blabbering.
I must admit I’m not familiair with either of the two because I didn’t think they were very interesting but after reading the reviews on allmusic I’m tempted so I’ll give them a go: just because of the fact that New music (and that included the Black album a bit) was pushing out hardrock/metal shouldn’t mean that there wasn’t any quality produced that year.
Drivin' n' Cryin is straight up American Hard rock influenced by the Athens College Rock scene (I even think someone from REM produced this album) and the American Underground (including bands like The Meat Puppets!). They are not too far removed from The Black Crowes either.
Tesla is straight up American Hard Rock strongly influenced by hair metal and just a wee bit by bands such as Metal Church and the burgeoning thrash movement. But genetically they're not to far removed from an Aerosmith with 90s music production values. The dual guitar attack of Sketch & hammond is incredibly impressive. Those boys can play & I can see why tesla had a strong devoted following even if their songwriting lacks, the guitar playing and earnestness of this band almost makes up for it.
They're both good albums, but obvs Fly Me Courageous is far more my thing. I was never huge into hair metal. In fact hair metal was one of the driving forces that turned me to punk rock in the 80s.
So... Definitely leaning (if not falling over ) to Drivin' n Cryin' at the moment. Just good to great hard rock when you want to get fired up for a Friday night.
Drivin n' Cryin. Nothing shows your allegiance to the American Underground like a CBGB's T-shirt!.
So I've listened to both of them and when I would make my opinion on just the first track of each album I would choose Drivin' 'n Cryin'. Around The Block is a great song with a very catchy riff throughout the whole song. On the other hand the voice in Tesla and the indeed fairly plain songs put me off a bit at first.
But after listening to the rest of the two albums my opinion on both has shifted.
The other songs on Fly Me Courageous are quite samey and I haven't found another track on that album which was as good as the first one. I will still put it in my top chart but it won't win the battle.
On the other hand I quite liked Tesla and being that sucker for good guitar solos that won me over again. Their sound is both Aerosmith (don't really like in general) and Guns 'n Roses (like in general): they even have their own November Rain in What You Give and sometimes they are a bit over the top especially in their slower songs but those guitar solos man: they rock. I'm just listening to Can't Stop and there's another one of those coming on: great.
So it may be a bit hairmetallish, a genre I don't really like either, but Tesla wins for me.
So I've listened to both of them and when I would make my opinion on just the first track of each album I would choose Drivin' 'n Cryin'. Around The Block is a great song with a very catchy riff throughout the whole song. On the other hand the voice in Tesla and the indeed fairly plain songs put me off a bit at first.
But after listening to the rest of the two albums my opinion on both has shifted.
The other songs on Fly Me Courageous are quite samey and I haven't found another track on that album which was as good as the first one. I will still put it in my top chart but it won't win the battle.
On the other hand I quite liked Tesla and being that sucker for good guitar solos that won me over again. Their sound is both Aerosmith (don't really like in general) and Guns 'n Roses (like in general): they even have their own November Rain in What You Give and sometimes they are a bit over the top especially in their slower songs but those guitar solos man: they rock. I'm just listening to Can't Stop and there's another one of those coming on: great.
So it may be a bit hairmetallish, a genre I don't really like either, but Tesla wins for me.
I know, right. They're amazing! the dual attack of Skeoch-Hannon really make Psychotic Suppersomething special. Especially on "Don't De-Rock Me". The twin lead tradeoffs on that song are some of the best I've heard, and I listened to a A LOT of hair metal back in the 80s. I actually really like hair metal more than most. I just got tired of it by the late 80s with the exception of Guns n Roses because Appetite was just on another level. But, I LOVE early Def Leppard, Van Halen, Ratt and stuff like that. lol.
Yeah. I think both albums are quite good. I think the songs on Drivin' n Cryin' become more distinctive with repeat listenings. I have my kids this weekend so we'll see which one they like better. lol. But they're definitely both chart worthy. I agree. 😁
Skeoch-Hannon lighting it up!
Last edited by Repo on 02/18/2018 02:39; edited 2 times in total
And I've listened to a bit more of the albums that both you and Gowi put on your charts:
Between Happiness And Heartache by Breathless
This was a great discovery for me: I would describe them (maybe a bit oddly) as a mix between Interpol and The Psychedelic Furs and that both because of the timbre of the singing as for the music itself. I liked the very melodic nature of this record and especially the two last tracks (Flowers Die and Help Me Get Over It) were outstanding.
Moontime by Anastasia Screamed
This one was a bit of a mixed bag.Overall it was fairly ok but not too great, ie something for the lower parts of my chart.
ok. We were just rocking out to Tesla and Drivin & Cryin' in the car today. The girls & their friend Agatha LOVED Tesla. They thought Drivin n' Cryin was good, but that Tesla was amazing. They were full on head banging & I was getting a little worried about whiplash. So I turned it up of course. lol. They LOVED psychotic Supper and now I'm worried I have three Metal Mavens on my hands .
Anyways, I think that Drivin n Cryin while good can sound a little generic at times while Tesla full on rocks. I think I have 24 hours left on this mission,right? lol. We'll decide for sure tomorrow but right now Tesla is clearly in the lead .
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Repo
dihansse
