I'm really fond of early (mostly 90s) Smog, and while I can understand a section of people going in to bat for Apocalypse, as far as I'm concerned, Knock Knock is his masterpiece, followed by Dongs of Sevotion and Red Apple Falls. Also there are two songs from a John Peel session on his compilation Accumulation: None that are some of my favorite songs ever, I Break Horses, and Chosen One.
Apologies. I must have missed it. I just remember noticing a lot of coverage for them in the British pres seeing so much about them around these parts. I obviously wasn't paying enough attention!
Weird to see Fontaines DC so high since I don't remember seeing much coverage or mention of them in these pages previously. Also it's exciting to know that Black Midi are about to release a top ten album of the year contender. Kinda hoped Hatchie would be higher.
Well it's quite obvious the band is disappointed that all this material came out this way, and they're making the best of a bad situation. The ethics of listening to leaked material become a whole lot knottier once you know that thievery and blackmail was involved, right?
Not really the forum for such a debate, however, it should be pointed out that just because you believe something strongly does not mean it's true. Perhaps gender essentialism is not bullshit. Also I would say that of all things, the visceral reaction we have to art is more inherent than anything else in our natures, it goes right to the core, so to claim that women's reaction to art is socially conditioned is kind of condescending, and also sounds like bullshit.
More specifically I think it would be like a film critic never talking about a film's colour grading (which, conversely, they barely ever comment on). A lot of late nineties albums suffered from this - even OK Computer is badly over compressed, unfortunately.
If we go ahead and compare this song to, let's say, Borderline, or Holiday, then there's no conceivable scale on which this scores more than a 1/10. She should just go on the legacy circuit like Fleetwood Mac. It would be far less embarrassing.
I prefer By The Way, but when I first heard Scar Tissue one Saturday afternoon on Triple J (Australian radio station) in 1999 my ears pricked up immediately. I wasn't a big fan of the band, so I didn't know who it was, but I knew it was gooood. Those Frusciante guitars were like nothing else on radio. Of course, then the song got picked up by every single radio station ever, and I've now heard the song way too many times. Wish I could hear it for the first time again.
I like to listen to the I Might Be Wrong version while I remember that the AMSP version also exists, so that they both almost coexist in my brain simultaneously. This almost satisfies me.
It's not just about spoiling people's ability to make money off a product, it's about the hours and months and sometimes years that go into creating something exceptional, and when you finally present that product to the world, you want it to be exactly the way you have envisaged it. You don't always want people to see all the drafts and sketches that came before and were discarded, because that destroys the mystique of that finished gleaming work of art. This is the story that an artist tells throughout their life. It's told in the things they do and don't release. It's not about money, it's about legacy.
We need to let artists be able to tell their own stories, instead of having them stolen from them. These rarities/demos/sketches are not part of the story Radiohead are wanting to tell about Ok Computer, so in that way, the story is being stolen from them. It's not some dramatic big deal, but it's a small problem in this age of information, where we all want everything, now.
Well yes, it is completely different of course, except that it is the same in that they are Radiohead's recordings and they should retain the right to release them or not as they see fit. The level of their success and the time since they were recorded does not mitigate that.
Do the right thing and don't do a Jai Paul on Radiohead. A band/artist deserves to be able to release their work to the public at a point they are happy to release it. Think about how you would feel if it was your art.
Wow, 3/10, that was quite a twist! After reading the wild ride that was that essay, I was expecting at least a six.
Also I wanted the Taylor Dane cover.
Surprised no-one mentioned The Bends, Ok Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac
Also, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Pepper, The White Album, Abbey Road. (We're ignoring Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour, because The Beatles themselves didn't regard them as proper albums)
I remember hearing him debut a live version of Calgary on the old Colbert Report, and the song sounded like it was exploding out of itself, from some deep well of inspiration. I miss that urgency in these songs.
He seems to be repeating himself somewhat. These two songs are fine, but they hardly feel essential. More like B-sides or something. They never really take off, or coalesce into something vital.
I have been consistently confused by the levels of critical praise heaped on KC. She's got a lovely voice, and her songs are pleasant, but in general the songwriting is just kind of... fine? Often clunky rhymes, simple obvious chord changes - I really don't hear anything groundbreaking about her (apart from her political stances). I can't be the only one who finds her music kind of average, right?
Jasmine sounds as fresh as ever, and those new songs are absolute killer. Also, that note he's shared is heartbreaking, I hope he can finally get the story he deserves with this release.
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