Artists worst album.
- Thread starter RanD00M
- Start date
To each his own. But Colony of Birchmen is my favourite song by them, so Blood Mountain will always have a spot in my collection. I think Blood Mountain was the easiest to get really into for me which might be part of the reason it's my favourite.Combine Rustler said:
I'm a huge NIN fanRichard Flockhart said:
I went through all of his albums aroudn the same time..its hard to say because I came to apreciate them more after wards Pretty hate machine is probably the one album where I consistantly like all the tracks
but....yeah I guess in that I like less songs from it (Like sunspots though) but I can;t say its bad or anything
my least favorite is actually "broken"
Nor was I. I'm feeling embarrassed now. Outbursts aren't nice. Apologies.Nazulu said:
Ever considered how weird it is that "eclectic taste" is considered abnormal? I'm always a bit confused by people who only like one genre of music. Don't they get bored?
Fairy nuff. I shall agree to disagree.
Yeah, point taken. It looks like I managed to fall into "He Who Fights Monsters" syndrome - too long ranting about elitists. I'll try to avoid that in future.
Basically, sorry I was a dick.
Yeah, by Dubstep I mean it's sort of evocative of it. It's certainly not actual dubstep, like Skrillex or Ephixa, but it's sort of this repetitive synthesiser drone. If you've got a better word that'd be great, I've been looking for a better term for it. You're definitely spot on about the album-it's just nothing new. The apocalyptic militaristic stuff they did a couple of times on Minutes and Thousand Suns (Remember, I've only heard the two tracks though), and the whinier stuff's been a staple of theirs, and here it's just so immature, and it really feels off that they're getting more like whiny teens as they get older. That shouldn't be how it works.AnarchistFish said:
Haven't heard all of Thousand Suns yet. I heard it was terrible, but I really liked Wretches and Kings from it, and I didn't mind the Catalyst either, so it might be good.
This is what I've seen a lot with many bands. Their first album is alright (but it's their first album so you can't expect it to be great) and their second album is a bit better, but their third and/or forth album is where they really hit the sound and feel they were going for and are really good, but then they get bored of that particular sound and decide to change their style in the later albums and it never tends to be as good as their original style.
It's like 3 days later, but I didn't check my quotes. Sue me.
Bonus points on "Burn it Down" for when the Synthesiser is playing the same note as Chester is singing. It's one of the songs on there I like more, but the chorus feels lazy because of this. It makes it feel like there's really very little happening.
I don't think Chester's vocal style can keep up with the synth. Mike's raps can, but Chester's voice breaking and screams really don't work with a synth putting out perfect tones.
you probably wont like thousand suns because its "different" (more electronic) but at lest there I felt liek they were singing about more abstract and interesting themes..."the catalyst" is the end of world (reminds me of Deus Ex or Mass Effect 3) "blackout" is pure insanity
I did like "lies greed misery" if only for the cathatic angry feel
[/quote]
The Catalyst I heard thanks to Medal of Honour. Loved that track. I heard Wretches and Kings recently, loved it. Great revolutionary feel, and I liked how they altered their speech emphasis, sort of gave the words a weird rhythm. "Talka-lottagame-!rest!-andyet you don-know". Weird and awesome. I want to listen to that one. The synth on those doesn't feel like a crutch. During Living things, I was like, did they all break their fingers? Did they sack anyone else capable of playing guitar, or drums? They show up occassionally, but it's infrequent. The Catalyst is pretty much all synth, but it sounds like there's an echo on Chester's voice which brings it more in line with the music (Roads untravelled sort of did this sound). There's multiple layers to the melody and harmony that build. It feels like they've tried to write a song with synths, rather than had Chester sing over an MIDI, which is closer to how I think Living Things sounds. Wretches and Kings is mostly synth too, but I'm not noticing it in the same way, it's got an aggressive feel, and again, it feels like they've got layers. It has more of an industrial feel than a backing for the lyrics feel.
I think my real problem with Living Things is that the backing is this sort of synthesised tone, which sounds pretty similar from track to track (For instance, they get a much bigger variation between the two tracks that I've heard from 100 suns than the entire album of Living Things), and doesn't really have seperate parts, it's got one layer for the melody, and one for the harmony/bass/drum(It seems to cover all of these). I liked Victimized, Castle of Glass was ok, after a fashion, Roads Untravelled did some interesting things with the synthsiser. So they do some interesting things, but it doesn't seem to work overall, and after listening to it, I don't really distinguish between most of the tracks.
I get the violent and angry lyrics, I really do, but it just needs to be a bit more complex, and screwing with the song structure in "Lies Greed Misery" to put that bit of a tantrum in didn't help. If the rap and the chorus aren't going to work together, length and time signature wise DON'T PUT THEM IN THE SAME SONG. It smacks of that songwriting sin of writing your lyrics before your music and forcing the music to serve your poetry, rather than trying to make music.
[/quote]
I don't buy that. That argument's trotted out whenever a band changes style or genre, and it's slack. A band only would become stale if a) Their music genre faded from popularity. If they had integrity, they'd fade with it. If they were say, Adam Levine(Music joke), they'd chase the new sound, because they make music to be popular, not because they believe in it. (Serious though, props to Levine for at least admitting he's shallowly making what he thinks will sell)
b) They repeat themselves. And to be honest, that's what I feel they do here. Linkin Park I've always felt are big on lyrics. They're always audible and intelligible, and they put some effort into them. And here we get crappy second hand imagery, poorly constructed metres, themes they covered better on their previous albums. They've refreshed their sound, maybe, but they've made their lyrics (Which are so exposed on this album), terribly stale, and for a group of people that's getting older, sounding more childish and doing the angst worse than they did when they were younger feels... I guess fake is the word. They should have tried to find something new.
[quote/]
[quote/] Linkin Park lyrics on dubstep. They're welcome to it.[/quote]
I'm beggining to suspect you don't know what dubstep is...HOWEVER i would have to go back through the tracks to make sure (I just dont remember any_
[/quote]
Dubstep's the wrong word. I'm fully aware of that. If you've got a better word for bands which utilise synthesiser in this way, I'm open to it. I used the phrase Dubstep because it described the synthesiser heavy stuff in a mildly better way than techno, which in no way described it. I could call it "Synth-rock" or something, but I don't think anyone would know what I mean. People get the idea when I compare it to dubstep, that it's synthesiser etc, of course, it also gives the impression of schizophrenic beats and themes which aren't really what I'm describing. It reminds me of those sort of synthesised sort of tracks that lots of guys used to put as the background music on Counter Strike tournament videos.
[quote/] Though this post appeared right after Vault's, it's not intended to disagree with her. Post delay.[/quote]
[quote/]
well too bad...cuz your getting my 2cents anyway XD[/quote]
No worries, I just didn't want to imply it was me attempting to savagely attack your opinion. It was me savagely lamenting my choice to buy Living Things rather than Thousand Suns, or pick up one of Rammstein's albums.
I've gone back over it again now that I'm less annoyed about dropping twenty-something dollars on it, and on review, I don't despise it nearly as much as I did a few days ago, and "Hate" would be a strong word for it. It mostly makes me feel indifferent towards it. There's the occassional thing that I like, but there's a lot that I don't care for, and in the end (Reference intended), I just don't get it. It just doesn't grab me. I'm sure there are people out there who it does grab, but to me it feels like a hollow copy of what they're sang before in some new genre I've no ability to define which I have little taste for.
EDIT: Turns out "Synth Rock" is already a thing, and that thing also seems like a poor comparison.
I mean the sort of genericy samey synthesiser tone they have to most of the tracks on there. Synthesiser isn't really my thing, and the way they do it there I find it annoying. I personally and a guitar guy, I like guitar backing, I like creative uses of distortion and whatever. The sort of semi-distorted drone of the synthesiser doesn't do it for me. It's on all of the tracks, and I dislike it equally on most of them. If they're drowning it out, they need to cut back. When you look at some of my favourite songs like "In Bloom" by Nirvana, when the chorus comes, there's no lead Guitar. Cobain's the lead, and he's just singing. It's only bass and drums, and his voice. The guitar only comes back for the chorus, and it rocks. So I guess the trick is to know how to strip it down. I don't think stripping it down to a synthesiser works for any sort of a passionate voice. It leaves it too isolated, whilst providing a tone-corrected note that the singer was trying to subvert.Vault101 said:
Bonus points on "Burn it Down" for when the Synthesiser is playing the same note as Chester is singing. It's one of the songs on there I like more, but the chorus feels lazy because of this. It makes it feel like there's really very little happening.
I don't think Chester's vocal style can keep up with the synth. Mike's raps can, but Chester's voice breaking and screams really don't work with a synth putting out perfect tones.
yeah it did feel like they went back too "I'M REALLY REALLY ANGRY WITH YOU" <-I mean they always seemed to be angry at one specific person
you probably wont like thousand suns because its "different" (more electronic) but at lest there I felt liek they were singing about more abstract and interesting themes..."the catalyst" is the end of world (reminds me of Deus Ex or Mass Effect 3) "blackout" is pure insanity
I did like "lies greed misery" if only for the cathatic angry feel
[/quote]
The Catalyst I heard thanks to Medal of Honour. Loved that track. I heard Wretches and Kings recently, loved it. Great revolutionary feel, and I liked how they altered their speech emphasis, sort of gave the words a weird rhythm. "Talka-lottagame-!rest!-andyet you don-know". Weird and awesome. I want to listen to that one. The synth on those doesn't feel like a crutch. During Living things, I was like, did they all break their fingers? Did they sack anyone else capable of playing guitar, or drums? They show up occassionally, but it's infrequent. The Catalyst is pretty much all synth, but it sounds like there's an echo on Chester's voice which brings it more in line with the music (Roads untravelled sort of did this sound). There's multiple layers to the melody and harmony that build. It feels like they've tried to write a song with synths, rather than had Chester sing over an MIDI, which is closer to how I think Living Things sounds. Wretches and Kings is mostly synth too, but I'm not noticing it in the same way, it's got an aggressive feel, and again, it feels like they've got layers. It has more of an industrial feel than a backing for the lyrics feel.
I think my real problem with Living Things is that the backing is this sort of synthesised tone, which sounds pretty similar from track to track (For instance, they get a much bigger variation between the two tracks that I've heard from 100 suns than the entire album of Living Things), and doesn't really have seperate parts, it's got one layer for the melody, and one for the harmony/bass/drum(It seems to cover all of these). I liked Victimized, Castle of Glass was ok, after a fashion, Roads Untravelled did some interesting things with the synthsiser. So they do some interesting things, but it doesn't seem to work overall, and after listening to it, I don't really distinguish between most of the tracks.
I get the violent and angry lyrics, I really do, but it just needs to be a bit more complex, and screwing with the song structure in "Lies Greed Misery" to put that bit of a tantrum in didn't help. If the rap and the chorus aren't going to work together, length and time signature wise DON'T PUT THEM IN THE SAME SONG. It smacks of that songwriting sin of writing your lyrics before your music and forcing the music to serve your poetry, rather than trying to make music.
and become stale...I dont even see the difference TBH
[/quote]
I don't buy that. That argument's trotted out whenever a band changes style or genre, and it's slack. A band only would become stale if a) Their music genre faded from popularity. If they had integrity, they'd fade with it. If they were say, Adam Levine(Music joke), they'd chase the new sound, because they make music to be popular, not because they believe in it. (Serious though, props to Levine for at least admitting he's shallowly making what he thinks will sell)
b) They repeat themselves. And to be honest, that's what I feel they do here. Linkin Park I've always felt are big on lyrics. They're always audible and intelligible, and they put some effort into them. And here we get crappy second hand imagery, poorly constructed metres, themes they covered better on their previous albums. They've refreshed their sound, maybe, but they've made their lyrics (Which are so exposed on this album), terribly stale, and for a group of people that's getting older, sounding more childish and doing the angst worse than they did when they were younger feels... I guess fake is the word. They should have tried to find something new.
[quote/]
[quote/] Linkin Park lyrics on dubstep. They're welcome to it.[/quote]
I'm beggining to suspect you don't know what dubstep is...HOWEVER i would have to go back through the tracks to make sure (I just dont remember any_
[/quote]
Dubstep's the wrong word. I'm fully aware of that. If you've got a better word for bands which utilise synthesiser in this way, I'm open to it. I used the phrase Dubstep because it described the synthesiser heavy stuff in a mildly better way than techno, which in no way described it. I could call it "Synth-rock" or something, but I don't think anyone would know what I mean. People get the idea when I compare it to dubstep, that it's synthesiser etc, of course, it also gives the impression of schizophrenic beats and themes which aren't really what I'm describing. It reminds me of those sort of synthesised sort of tracks that lots of guys used to put as the background music on Counter Strike tournament videos.
[quote/] Though this post appeared right after Vault's, it's not intended to disagree with her. Post delay.[/quote]
[quote/]
well too bad...cuz your getting my 2cents anyway XD[/quote]
No worries, I just didn't want to imply it was me attempting to savagely attack your opinion. It was me savagely lamenting my choice to buy Living Things rather than Thousand Suns, or pick up one of Rammstein's albums.
I've gone back over it again now that I'm less annoyed about dropping twenty-something dollars on it, and on review, I don't despise it nearly as much as I did a few days ago, and "Hate" would be a strong word for it. It mostly makes me feel indifferent towards it. There's the occassional thing that I like, but there's a lot that I don't care for, and in the end (Reference intended), I just don't get it. It just doesn't grab me. I'm sure there are people out there who it does grab, but to me it feels like a hollow copy of what they're sang before in some new genre I've no ability to define which I have little taste for.
EDIT: Turns out "Synth Rock" is already a thing, and that thing also seems like a poor comparison.
[img/]http://dc584.4shared.com/img/C6i0JH5i/s3/burn_computer.gif[/img]Loonyyy said:
Dubstep isnt the wrong word...the right word is on earth the wrong word is on mars...dubsteap is several thousand light years away
I...just.....I don't mean to insult you, but you got it wrong in such a way that it physically hurts me.....you didn't mean too..I don't blame you,..
youve just killed part of my soul...is all I'm saying
by the way I actually fucking love synths...but anyway I don;t know what youd call is specifically..I mean theres Bass and such..and "electronic"..and synths
[quote/]The Catalyst I heard thanks to Medal of Honour. Loved that track. I heard Wretches and Kings recently, loved it. Great revolutionary feel, and I liked how they altered their speech emphasis, sort of gave the words a weird rhythm. "Talka-lottagame-!rest!-andyet you don-know". Weird and awesome. I want to listen to that one[/quote]
I still find it odd that you liked some of those tracks from thousand suns...yet didnt like the synths...ah well...to be honest alot of the "electronic/synth" didnt come through for me on living things as much
I like Weezer enough to buy every album they release when I happen to notice another has materialized. Serendipitously, the one I missed buying was also their worst by far. Raditude... I mean what happened there? I don't spend a lot of time analyzing music so my justification will be weak and vague. That album was just full of generic pop songs that were indistinguishable from each other. I can't even remember a single track from that album, and I'm fine keeping it that way. I'm so glad my brother bought it so I was able to try (multiple times) it before throwing money out a window. If anyone cares: Pinkerton > Blue > Red > Green > Make Believe > Maladroit > Hurley >>>>> Raditude. Raditude and Hurley have made me question my practice of just buying their stuff. However, I've just found out there's another album, Death to False Metal, which has been compared as being the band's version of River's Alone albums. That has me interested; might get that one.
With Teeth from Nine Inch Nails. I am a huge fan of NIN and Trent Reznor, but I just could not like that album. It sounded too commercial for me I cause. I didn't like the way the drums sounded. I thought it was repetitive and just boring. I was very happy when Year Zero came out and redeem the NIN name. I know a lot of people liked With Teeth, but I didn't like it.
I agree it's mostly shit but Headless Cross and The Eternal Idol are actually pretty good and way better than anything from the Ozzy era after Sabotage, everything else is shit though.Tanis said:
How could anybody hate this track, it sounds like something from an 80's montage!
Or
If Iommi released these two albums under a different name they would be way better received, IMO.
Yeah Skrillex isn't dubstep either. TBH I'd just say they use strong electronic elements cos you can't really assign those segments they use to a particular electronic genre, except maybe electro. I'd call the whole thing electro-rock actually. In fact though, that's the one song I like off the whole album- Lost in the Echo- which has a lot of that. But there's certainly no traces of dubstep on the album at all.Loonyyy said:
I'm a big NIN fan, and The Slip is their worst album IMO and With Teeth has some great tracks (The Hand That Feeds is super catchy and dance-able). Their best is The Downward Spiral with Pretty Hate Machine close behind IMO.Richard Flockhart said:
In my compilation it would have the Unforgiven trilogy... those are still my favourite songs by them out of everything they've doneDense_Electric said:Heh, you know, I came in here to make an "inb4 St. Anger" joke, then I got ninja'd on the very first reply.
Aaaand that's where I have to disagree. Death Magnetic certainly wasn't Ride the Lightning, but it was still a pretty damn good album. If I made a "Best of Metallica" compilation, The Day that Never Comes and All Nightmare Long would both get a spot.Wayneguard said:I expected Metallica to come up but I didn't expect it to be the first replyImthatguy said:
OT: I'll go ahead and add Death Magnetic. It was supposed to be a return to form for Metallica and it's just... awful. These guys used to be the kings of thrash but they just refuse to play thrasy music anymore.
God this sounds stupid, but the Shins Port of Morrow. I LOVED Wincing the Night Away and the Broken Bells stuff James Mercer did, but Port of Morrow didn't gel with me. Same kind of deal with The National and the High Violet album.
ninja'd but oh my god someone else is a fan of ensiferum and wintersun on here (and besides at least passion proof power is good...but one good song does not make up for a meh album)John Nordstrom said:
I agree....more or lessxplosive59 said:
its a shame he didnt do more of that "80's" sounding industrial (downward spiral reflects it a bit)
I think I'd actually like alot more industrial if the "singing" wasn't so much monotone emotionaless growling (like KMDFM or Skinny puppy...KMDFM are slightly better in that regard though)