I distinctly recall going to see The National at a small-ish London club in 2005 after this album came out, more out of curiosity than anything else. Like many others, it seems, I didn't love Alligator till some time after its release, partly because it sounded a lot like an amped-up-but-not-so-good version of a British band I loved at the time, Tindersticks. I've got to say it was a really poor performance-- Matt spent the entire gig mumbling with his back to the audience. I clearly remember a guy next to me shrugging and saying, "They're average." They were average that night, and I wonder if that was a reaction to their reception at the Clap Your Hands gigs mentioned here, and the expectation that Brit audiences would be just as indifferent. It's hard to reconcile that live version of The National with the one they'd become five years later. There was this sudden explosion in their confidence level, as if the band-- just like most of their listeners-- only became aware of their own strengths very, very gradually.
Missing the point, which is-- is Kanye's swaggering, bullying, arrogant, limelight-stealing kiss-ass behaviour acceptable? And of course the answer to that is, no fucking way. Fascinating artist, repulsive human being.
Ultraviolence is awesome-- a stunning fuck-you to her critics. It's the sound of LDR basically saying, I don't care if you people think I'm a fake, a poor singer, a crappy lyricist or overhyped-- I'm just going to carry on doing things exactly the way I want, but even better. It's perfectly produced, at least half of it's a massive earworm and there is no one remotely like her making music right now. So what's the beef? New album? Bring it on.
There are great songs all over the first three albums but much of the rest of Foo Fighters to me (including this) sounds like the absolute antithesis of the rock underground Dave Grohl actually came from-- just hairy-bollocked "real man" "proper rock" music. When they excel-- an impassioned vocal over a great melody like Times Like These, or reflective songs like Miracle and Walking after You-- they are fantastic. I don't mind Butch Vig (post-Nirvana) and his shiny surfaces-- they work fine for a lot of big-balls rock songs without making them sound too commercial. But there are just way too many Nickelback-y MOR drivetime FF songs like this already.
I am SO glad someone has finally said that about Wonderwall. Oasis wrote a hundred songs better than that one. I just don't get it. And DM is way more consistent than Morning Glory for sure-- the way the momentum is sustained through the album is fantastic, it just never lets up until right at the end.
Yann, I agree wholeheartedly with 90% of what you say but the working class didn't become "repressed" during Thatcher's reign and even less so in Blair's. True enough that the manufacturing industries were radically depleted, but a key tenet of Thatcherism was that anyone who had entrepreneurial spirit and the ambition to succeed was encouraged to realise their dream, regardless of background. And the Gallaghers bought into that ethos as much as anyone. As a result the "working class" in its traditional sense, even the class system as a whole, is now something of an anachronistic concept in our country-- like so many other things the lines have blurred-- you only need to look at the regeneration of our once most depressed cities (including Manchester) for proof. However complacent they became in later years, I'll always take my hat off to the Gallaghers (and their backing band) for this debut which as a 22-year-old in 1994 was pretty much the most thrilling record I'd ever heard, and remains so to this day.
Something really special happened when these guys were playing together-- and this is a writeup worthy of their output-- they had only the most tangential of connections to Britpop and were all the better for it. Life's an Ocean, Space and Time, and Velvet Morning are the ones not on this list that hold up best for me.
In It for the Money is not just one of the best Britpop albums but one of the best albums of the '90s, period. Totally uplifting-- a perfect Friday night record with not a single sliver of filler.
Truth. Not to be too nerdy about this, but I also listen to One Foot in the Grave (partly for comedy value) much more than Guero or Midnite V. I loved the shit out of Modern Guilt, too.
And so is Out of Tune, and so is Puzzles Like You... Totally crazy just to dismiss the band as bland Americana, they were far more sophisticated than that and put out some perfect tunes. I doubt anyone would care about a Slowdive reunion if MBV hadn't come back last year
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