Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 01:50:17 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Samey Artists Who Gets Away With It

Started by Misspent Boners, July 25, 2019, 11:59:29 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

NoSleep

Quote from: Jockice on July 30, 2019, 09:05:41 AM
It's another voice thing there. But unlike Dylan and the Beasties (whose voices ruin whatever they do for me) or Tom Waits (who I don't really have strong opinions on either way) I like Mark E's voice. And I love The Fall. But I can sort of understand people hating them just because of his 'singing.'

Once again... It has nothing to do with MES's voice alone; I simply believe the band constantly tried to make the same album over and over in the 80's; tried to make that album as good as they could each time.

Jockice

Quote from: NoSleep on July 30, 2019, 10:21:22 AM
Once again... It has nothing to do with MES's voice alone; I simply believe the band constantly tried to make the same album over and over in the 80's; tried to make that album as good as they could each time.

I didn't mean (or indeed mention you personally), but I do know people who won't give The Fall a chance because of his voice. One of them is a big Sleaford Mods fan and he even admits that The Fall are more musically diverse. But hates Smith's voice so that's that.

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: mojo filters on July 30, 2019, 08:39:26 AM
I suspect we may never see another record put out under one of Pete's solo projects.

How come?

mojo filters

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on July 30, 2019, 11:02:15 AM
How come?

I'm just going by fragments of correspondence, occasional conversations, plus reports from others he also stays in touch with.

Before he made Indian Giver (recorded and mixed in a week or so, all living in Jim Dickinson's home studio) there was often mention of a regular new Spectrum album in the works, but not sufficiently resourced or backed by a record company.

I think Pete regards Indian Giver as a separate collaborative work, which makes sense given the writing, recording etc circumstances. I may be wrong about this as it's been a long time, but I think the 4 tracks on the War Sucks EP were effectively completed elements of what was originally intended to be the much anticipated new Spectrum album.

When Pete lived in Rugby he built his New Atlantis studio around his impressive collection of EMS synths, operating on at least a semi-commercial basis. I'm not sure if he's created a similar studio setup in Portugal, now he's making his living travelling where needed to produce better resourced artists such as MGMT.

Given his predilection for attention to detail with his own material, I doubt Pete would put out anything without record company support - which he hasn't really had since the last EAR release.

I may be quite wrong, as I haven't heard anything recently so this is all old news. However I suspect if there was anything in the works, it would have been mentioned when he recently played a few select solo European dates - and then enthusiastically reported on the Spiritualized forum, where folks are always extremely keen to keep up with any Sonic Boom news!

pigamus

Quote from: NoSleep on July 30, 2019, 10:21:22 AM
Once again... It has nothing to do with MES's voice alone; I simply believe the band constantly tried to make the same album over and over in the 80's; tried to make that album as good as they could each time.

"Always different, always the same" - didn't John Peel say that?

grassbath

Quote from: Hundhoon on July 30, 2019, 04:45:44 AM
Boards of Canada, i dont have a problem that they sound samey though. Tomorrows Harvest from 2013, sounded barely any different from their first material from Hi Scores in 1995 or 1996.

they did delve into more live sounding acoustic stuff on the Campfire Head phase but only a little, some of their material changes tone they flucctuate between Seefee/Enol and Autchere, some of it is darker some is more mellow but the sound always stays within a familiar boundary where you can always tell its them.

Yeah. Despite being pretty into them at the time, Tomorrow's Harvest annoyed me when it came out, even though it obviously wasn't a bad album. It seemed to prove they were a one-trick pony. Have they even done anything since?

Pauline Walnuts

Oh, I thought that they only had one idea when I first heard Geogaddiaddiaiaiia.

[/Hipster]


Pauline Walnuts

While I'm in irritating hipster mode, talking about Mogwai, it's probably worth mentioning just how many groups at in the mid to late 90s had a sound that is now associated with The Mogwai sound™

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIiqNGLwE_k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2h2RkTDU98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKh6XRoNmEI

Mogwai were a good group , especially live, but they seemed to have a towering reputation that is built more on perseverance than their actual 'back in the day' records.

lankyguy95

The last three or four Architects records are essentially slightly different versions of the same album.

Quote from: Fabian Thomsett on July 26, 2019, 12:03:12 PM
The Ink Spots.
Was waiting for someone to say this. And yet I still listen to them loads.

Quote from: DukeDeMondo on July 30, 2019, 04:02:43 AM
Chelsea Wolfe. I mean, I love her, I think she's fantastic, and it's true that each album has its own sound and feel, but as far as her songwriting goes, there's not always a huge amount separating this song here from that song there. It's not always easy to tell where one album has stopped and another started. Far as that goes.
Hmmm I think that's an odd choice to be honest. Sure, she has her own thing but as you say yourself, each record has its own feel. The first two songs she's released off her new album are both acoustic-based and very different from her last album.

Cuellar



imitationleather

Quote from: Jockice on July 30, 2019, 10:54:12 AM
I didn't mean (or indeed mention you personally), but I do know people who won't give The Fall a chance because of his voice. One of them is a big Sleaford Mods fan and he even admits that The Fall are more musically diverse. But hates Smith's voice so that's that.

Your mate loves Sleaford Mods but won't give The Fall a chance based on the quality of the vocals?

Has he actually ever listened to Sleaford Mods?

Jockice

Quote from: imitationleather on August 02, 2019, 11:33:46 AM
Your mate loves Sleaford Mods but won't give The Fall a chance based on the quality of the vocals?

Has he actually ever listened to Sleaford Mods?

Yip. Owns almost everything by them. Has seen them live several times too. I don't get it either.

Johnboy


chveik


Lordofthefiles

Gary Glitter. Admittedly, he didn't get away with everything.

Electronic.  They even wrote a song about it.

(Was it really worth it for that shit joke?  Actually I think Electronic were pretty varied output-wise, depending on the proportions of input from each member - a bit like those Wilburys songs where you can hear the Roy Orbison bit, the Bob Dylan bit, and so on.  I agree with whoever said The Smiths though, no matter the variation in Johnny Marr's songwriting.  Morrissey's monotone warbling could make Beethoven's 5th sound like all the other Smiths songs.)

HAVANAGILA

Quote from: OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead on August 02, 2019, 09:25:30 AM
Shellac

I love reading Steve Albini interviews... I think he's had a fascinating career... he's had a hand in some of the greatest rock albums ever (with Goat, Rid Of Me and Secret Name being particular favourites), I have great respect for his refusal to "play the game" yadayadayada... but one Shellac album (specifically the marvellous 1000 Hurts) is enough for me. I tried time and time again with At Action Park, and sporadically with the other albums, but they just come across as dry technical exercises for the most part. A real shame as I'm sure they're great fun for their fans.

object-lesson

Quote from: imitationleather on August 02, 2019, 11:33:46 AM
Your mate loves Sleaford Mods but won't give The Fall a chance based on the quality of the vocals?

Has he actually ever listened to Sleaford Mods?

Mark E Smith had a thin voice, which is the problem I have with it. It's fine when he was shouty or talking especially in the '70s/'80s, but when he tries to approximate singing at all it grates on me. The noise the Sleaford Mods bloke makes is just full enough to work and I've never heard him try to get melodic. Pretty subjective thing obviously.

Still how that bloke wouldn't like something like Rowche Rumble would be hard to understand.

object-lesson

Live Skull had two songs, slow and a bit faster, but I still thought they were great. All the songs I've heard by them circled around the same narrow point and it felt like being drawn into an endless drone, which is a good thing when it's not hypnotic. Don't like hypnotic. Loop were hypnotic and all their songs sounded the same in a bad way. Van Vliet was right about that.

billyandthecloneasaurus

Quote from: Jockice on July 26, 2019, 09:24:47 AM
I didn't hear everything he recorded but everything I did hear by Elliott Smith sounded practically the same to me. Was I missing something there or was it just hard luck that I happened to hear similar-sounding stuff?

Nah, his stuff is pretty samey but I still think he made 3 or 4 really good albums.  As it's super miserable and introverted I only really want to listen to him when I'm feeling glum, and the sameyness is quite comforting.

Jockice

Quote from: billyandthecloneasaurus on August 03, 2019, 12:10:41 AM
Nah, his stuff is pretty samey but I still think he made 3 or 4 really good albums.  As it's super miserable and introverted I only really want to listen to him when I'm feeling glum, and the sameyness is quite comforting.

I suspected so. Cheers.

And a big yes to the person upthread who mentioned Bjork. Another of those 'innovative' artists whose voice (and 'hey look, I'm so damned crazy' image) overshadows everything for me. I liked the first Sugarcubes album but can't be arsed with anything she's done since.

Pauline Walnuts

Now, don't get me wrong, I like Boy Harsher, but...

Norton Canes

#143
Heh. Who was it I was listening to last week... was it Black Marble, or Drab Majesty? Whichever, another of those 80's new wave-aping bands that think it's enough to get the tinny synth sound spot on with actually writing any even half-memorable songs

kalowski

I do believe Sunn O))) should be in this thread.

holyzombiejesus

I find Stereolab, after the first 3 or 4 albums, to be really samey. I'm not even sure why I'm buying all the reissues as I only ever played each album once or twice when I bought them the first time round.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on September 11, 2019, 09:54:05 AM
I find Stereolab, after the first 3 or 4 albums, to be really samey. I'm not even sure why I'm buying all the reissues as I only ever played each album once or twice when I bought them the first time round.

saw them a couple of times in the early 90s, but this one show they did, the support was pram, & pram were far far more entertaining, notwithstanding the presence of kath gifford with the 'lab.

Pauline Walnuts

I don't think time has been kind to Stereolab, their early albums, which I liked at the time, came out before Neu! albums new generally available, and after we all heard them it was obvious how derivative they were. When they actually got their own sound it was, well, 'orrible. 60s French Kitsch they didn't even play ironically. I suspect all those post Dots and Loops albums all sound the same, Not sure I even made it to the second side of Chemical Chords.

Well, that's what I think anyway. And I am unanimous in this.



phantom_power

I don't think they sound much like Neu apart from using a bit of drone and motorik drumming, which loads of other bands do as well. I think adding the french pop style vocals and electronica adds enough for it to sound interesting and different.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead on September 11, 2019, 12:55:41 PM
I don't think time has been kind to Stereolab, their early albums, which I liked at the time, came out before Neu! albums new generally available, and after we all heard them it was obvious how derivative they were. When they actually got their own sound it was, well, 'orrible. 60s French Kitsch they didn't even play ironically. I suspect all those post Dots and Loops albums all sound the same, Not sure I even made it to the second side of Chemical Chords.

Well, that's what I think anyway. And I am unanimous in this.

Does a good job of summing up my unspoken feelings towards them - although I don't think they're that similar to Neu either. Played "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music" to death, everything up to "Dots and Loops" got repeated listens, then the new ones would get one listen, then I didn't bother at all (to the extent I wasn't even aware of the existence of "Chemical Chords" or "Not Music").