"I prefer the early stuff" Vs "Oh, they got so much better"

[kngen]

they played Wiggly World.

Yeah, that was a treat. Would have loved to have seen them play Space Junk - a thought that should have entered my head before I dismissed the chance to see them play AWNM?.

[sutin]

Yeah, that was a treat. Would have loved to have seen them play Space Junk - a thought that should have entered my head before I dismissed the chance to see them play AWNM?.

I think the main thing people remember from the AWNM gig was that they completely fucked up Sloppy. Either Mark or the rest went into the chorus way too early and it was super cringey. Everyone on the stage looked very embarrassed. When the gig was released as bonus tracks on a AWNM reissue, they used a soundcheck version of Sloppy instead.

I don't regret going to that gig, despite having to travel from Belfast and it being a bit of a rip off, but I saw better DEVO shows. Their Dublin show on the 2007 tour was probably the best night of my life.

[Brundle-Fly]

I suppose they could have styled it out by saying they deliberately performed Sloppy sloppy.

[Spiteface]

May as well just say the potentially controversial ones

Pixies/Verve - downhill from the debut album

I like Pixies up to Doolittle.

The Verve... you may have a point.

I used to make the 1st reunion/Urban Hymns the cutoff point, as that started as Richard Ashcroft making a solo album (there's even versions of songs from his first solo album played with The Verve, prior to Nick McCabe coming back).

The rot was setting in on A Northern Soul, though, as that had a few acoustic ballads on it. The best songs on it felt like the music came from them just jamming in a rehearsal room anyway, and I tended to prefer those and the heavier moments (This is Music, Stormy Clouds) over the likes of On Your Own, anyway.

Those first three singles make for a solid album in their own right.

Let's just say Verve were better than The Verve

[RenegadeScrew]

I like Pixies up to Doolittle.

The Verve... you may have a point.

I used to make the 1st reunion/Urban Hymns the cutoff point, as that started as Richard Ashcroft making a solo album (there's even versions of songs from his first solo album played with The Verve, prior to Nick McCabe coming back).

The rot was setting in on A Northern Soul, though, as that had a few acoustic ballads on it. The best songs on it felt like the music came from them just jamming in a rehearsal room anyway, and I tended to prefer those and the heavier moments (This is Music, Stormy Clouds) over the likes of On Your Own, anyway.

Those first three singles make for a solid album in their own right.

Let's just say Verve were better than The Verve

Doolittle is a weird one as (a bit like CSNY Deja Vu) it has tunes that are good enough to be the best on the preceding album (Hey, Gouge Away, Debaser, Our House, Ohio) but it's definitely not as good as the preceding album. 

You pretty much write my opinion on (the) Verve, you will be welcomed warmly in Leith.  Leckie/editing is a big part in those great tunes, and McCabe is incredibly underrated.  Utterly beautiful stuff like 'already there' and outrageous madness like A Northern Soul's title track.

I think A Northern Soul (even when they are jamming) is slightly different, as they seem to have more swagger about them.  Almost like they'd stopped taking acid and started drinking (with Oasis).

[Brundle-Fly]

Costello is a tricky one for me to pin down any single era because he's been sporadically brilliant since 1977 up to the present day IMO. But if a gun was held to my head?  1978 - 1983.

Now, if we're going to be really controversial, I must be in the minority to suggest that although I love Tom Wait's clanking Island era albums, it's his smoky, boozy, jazzy seventies Asylum years I have the greater affection for.

Fuck, re-reading the thread,  I said all this four years ago, like a stale marriage.

[Jockice]

M
Ian Brown's first solo album is better than the Stone Roses debut.

Now there's an opinion you don't hear very often. But is totally true. People have thought I'm taking the piss when I say this but I'm not. I'm also quite fond of his next two albums and think the Stone Roses are second only to The Who in the most overrated band of all time stakes. I don't hate either, I just don't get them at all.

[Jockice]

Has anyone mentioned UB40?
Bit obvious I know but things were going well until Labour of Love.

I never cared much for UB40. Certainly never bought anything by them.  I think my then brother-in-law recorded their first album for me. I think I only played it once or twice. But after seeing the excellent Promises And Lies documentary about them a few years ago, which documents in excruciating detail the rift between the two factions, I investigated their early material, and you know what, some of it is excellent. I'm not really a reggae fan but these guys knew what they were doing. I draw the line at Labour Of Love though. Red Red Wine is one of the worst chart-topping singles ever. Not quite as bad as Dreadlock Holiday but not far off.

And just as I finished typing this, Six Music started playing King. Spooky.

[Jockice]

Costello is a tricky one for me to pin down any single era because he's been sporadically brilliant since 1977 up to the present day IMO. But if a gun was held to my head?  1978 - 1983.

Punch The Clock was his best album. Downhill all the way from then on.

[Puce Moment]

I mentioned Broadcast earlier as an example of a band who, for me, just got better and better exponentially with every release. To the point where the output by them I listen to most these days is a recording of literally their final gig before Trish became ill at the Meredith Festival in Australia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEh6g1MLUWg&ab_channel=spacedcased

Writing that out has made me feel desperately sad, in almost completely selfish ways.