Will forever remember looking up negative reviews for Black Sabbath in preparation for a throwback review, and finding a Village Voice quote calling it “bullshit necromancy”
Thank'ee and uh yes - RDJ is such an of-its-time ideas album (often endearing, often half-baked?)! I guess Syro didn't have many stakes around it beyond how well it would fare as a legacy album, but ugh it's such a solid digest of the best parts of his sound and I jam bits of it all the time lol. Maybe it deserves a retrospective piece?
"Leave aside the hits and he handily earned his reputation for being overly precious about vapid parlour tunes with the Beatles in the late ‘60s, and his 1970 solo debut was unapologetic both about its homemade trappings and the delight it took in the trivial (for better and for worse)."
I gotta be honest, my initial reaction to Admiral Halsey is that it was the most vapid Paul parlour tune yet (dare I say *sporkcore*), i've warmed to it a bit over a dozen or so listens but I'm still about as much of a Ram skeptic as an avowed Wings fan can be- the key to Wings fandom is never and I mean NEVER leaving the singles aside, and I just don't love any of the singles (though I do like Back Seat of my Car). Would be a whoooole different story if Monkberry had been the single!
Hmm surely one of the great things about reappraisals is that they can sidestep the importance of singles? I feel Ram as a whole brings a much more humane edge to Paul the maniacal granny-catering control freak and (mostly) makes good on that side of his White Album-onwards character, whereas I end up missing both sides in Wings' languid family travel enterprise.
Too Many People, Monkberry and Dear Boy should have been the singles though (in that order)
Jazzed to read your writing again, and pleasantly surprised to read probably the sanest Kid A take I've ever read. Teenaged me was in lockstep with that Goldberg review, having never really gotten the hype for OK Computer and still years away from hearing Pygmalion or Boards of Canada. I was reading Brave New World at the time for a required English credit and that was quite the double whammy to create maximal impact. Retrospectively the music itself feels a little more quaint than it did back then but it will always be a special record.
Totally agree about Drukqs too. Mid career Aphex Twin is such an exercise in music literacy to me that it feels nothing more than academic for the most part. Drukqs has always been the watershed moment that changes that for me.
Main takeaway is don't read the Guardian for music opinions (wait people do that?)
Agreed 100% on mid-career Aphex, I think it's pretty telling how little talk about ICBYD in particular. Hearing it at the time probably had the Autechre effect of excitement over New Sounds, but hmm that one can stay on the shelf.
The Guardian have the occasional zinger (obligatory Laura Snapes mention) but uh yes, definitely not the one. Most Alexis Petridis reviews make my enthusiasm wilt in real time, and I'm presuming you saw their take on the new Boards?
Will forever remember looking up negative reviews for Black Sabbath in preparation for a throwback review, and finding a Village Voice quote calling it “bullshit necromancy”
Great read and great list, sir!
[sic]k! read Hugh, massive effort, massive reward. Hearts etc
Syro > RDJ should be a much more popular take than it is
Thank'ee and uh yes - RDJ is such an of-its-time ideas album (often endearing, often half-baked?)! I guess Syro didn't have many stakes around it beyond how well it would fare as a legacy album, but ugh it's such a solid digest of the best parts of his sound and I jam bits of it all the time lol. Maybe it deserves a retrospective piece?
"Leave aside the hits and he handily earned his reputation for being overly precious about vapid parlour tunes with the Beatles in the late ‘60s, and his 1970 solo debut was unapologetic both about its homemade trappings and the delight it took in the trivial (for better and for worse)."
I gotta be honest, my initial reaction to Admiral Halsey is that it was the most vapid Paul parlour tune yet (dare I say *sporkcore*), i've warmed to it a bit over a dozen or so listens but I'm still about as much of a Ram skeptic as an avowed Wings fan can be- the key to Wings fandom is never and I mean NEVER leaving the singles aside, and I just don't love any of the singles (though I do like Back Seat of my Car). Would be a whoooole different story if Monkberry had been the single!
Hmm surely one of the great things about reappraisals is that they can sidestep the importance of singles? I feel Ram as a whole brings a much more humane edge to Paul the maniacal granny-catering control freak and (mostly) makes good on that side of his White Album-onwards character, whereas I end up missing both sides in Wings' languid family travel enterprise.
Too Many People, Monkberry and Dear Boy should have been the singles though (in that order)
Jazzed to read your writing again, and pleasantly surprised to read probably the sanest Kid A take I've ever read. Teenaged me was in lockstep with that Goldberg review, having never really gotten the hype for OK Computer and still years away from hearing Pygmalion or Boards of Canada. I was reading Brave New World at the time for a required English credit and that was quite the double whammy to create maximal impact. Retrospectively the music itself feels a little more quaint than it did back then but it will always be a special record.
Totally agree about Drukqs too. Mid career Aphex Twin is such an exercise in music literacy to me that it feels nothing more than academic for the most part. Drukqs has always been the watershed moment that changes that for me.
Main takeaway is don't read the Guardian for music opinions (wait people do that?)
Agreed 100% on mid-career Aphex, I think it's pretty telling how little talk about ICBYD in particular. Hearing it at the time probably had the Autechre effect of excitement over New Sounds, but hmm that one can stay on the shelf.
The Guardian have the occasional zinger (obligatory Laura Snapes mention) but uh yes, definitely not the one. Most Alexis Petridis reviews make my enthusiasm wilt in real time, and I'm presuming you saw their take on the new Boards?
"Into the Magic Land sounds like Tortoise (albeit entirely absent of the Chicago band’s sense of swing)."
Jfc.
Excellent write up