The Circle of Sound (np: K.O.D. by Tech N9ne)

hmmmmmmm. I’ll say, I had trouble listening to that album. wasn’t a favourite of mine, that’s for sure. well, that’s not entirely fair. i had about 4 listens of it, and i liked it twice, but i listened two more times and had subpar listens. i’ll probably be back in 5 months saying how brilliant it is, but still, i don’t really like it as of right now.

anywho, new album for the month! It is Ram by Paul McCartney. I’ve listened to this one once, and i’ll tell you i really like it. it’s much rockier than McCartney’s first solo album, McCartney, with very little in common. the main difference between the two albums is that i actually really liked the album cover for McCartney. the album cover for Ram however nearly scared me off, almost diverging me to one of his later albums with less, ahem, “colourful” covers.

anyways, to all my canadian brethren, have a happy thanksgiving :smile:

I love that album, I can’t believe i missed this haha

I haven’t listened to it in a while, so I’ll give it a go later and post what I think.

Oh, I’m really feeling Dear Boy It’s got a real Beatles feel. Haunting.

Oh, and let’s not forget Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, brings chills remembering this song. Songs are a time capsule of feelings.

Oh, especially the “hands across the water, hands across the sky” part, and after that. Brings back a lot of memories…

Yeah, I would agree with you on that.

I’m of the opinion that Uncle Albert should close the album, or at least the side, because it’s such a strong song and it has a climatic, endish sort of feel to it.

The album is rather interesting, because it has shades of real poppy music, but then more harder rock type songs mixed in as well. Like, Uncle Albert, and then Smile Away comes up next. Monkberry Moon Delight, Ram On. I like this type of set up on an album, it makes for diversity and greater balance, and usually the album sounds a lot better because of it. Sort of reminds me of Abbey Road a little bit actually, like “She’s So Heavy” with the heavy guitar to the lighter acoustic songs, like “Here Comes the Sun”.

Well put, Monkberry Moon Delight is pure solo McCartney. You could tell that he really was the driving force behind them, you could hear his musical genius in all the Beatles songs.

Funny, because I had this ava before I stumbled upon the Ram topic. :peek:

I would agree for the later Beatles most definitely - he was the one who took the reigns and pushed the band, mainly because George and John and Ringo were wanting to leave the band and do other things. I remember reading a quote that Ringo said it wasn’t “healthy” for them to remain working in the same studio together anymore. I would say that while Paul made them force two of their best albums out, he probably made the relationships so uncomfortable and forced that the band wouldn’t want to return to the studio again. Maybe, MAYBE if John didn’t get assassinated by that nutjob, they would’ve made one in the mid to late 80’s. But still, Paul was the driving force in the late albums for sure. His medley at the end of Abbey Road is probably one of the greatest moments in musical history after all.

Well put.
Yeah, he wanted to continue so bad, but in the end he just had to let it be. They all had their own things going on during that time.

Hey everybody, I’ve been put in charge this month of selecting an album. Of course, i’m having trouble choosing one but I had a few come to mind. After a good listen in my own library I came up with one of my personal favorites:

The second of The Who’s rock operas, Quadrophenia.

From wiki: Its story involves social, musical, and psychological happenings from an English teenage perspective, set in London and Brighton in 1964 and 1965.

I grew up listening to this album. Unfortunatly, back then, I disliked this kind of music because my dad loved it (you might be familiar with this). Anyways, the track listing is here:

Side one

  1. “I Am the Sea” – 2:08
  2. “The Real Me” – 3:20
  3. “Quadrophenia” – 6:15
  4. “Cut My Hair” – 3:46
  5. “The Punk and the Godfather”[4] – 5:10

Side two

  1. “I’m One” – 2:39
  2. “The Dirty Jobs” – 4:30
  3. “Helpless Dancer” – 2:32
  4. “Is It in My Head?” – 3:46
  5. “I’ve Had Enough” – 6:14

Side three

  1. “5:15” – 5:00
  2. “Sea and Sand” – 5:01
  3. “Drowned” – 5:28
  4. “Bell Boy” – 4:56

Side four

  1. “Doctor Jimmy” – 8:42
  2. “The Rock” – 6:37
  3. “Love, Reign o’er Me” – 5:48

Slight edit, please remember it is not allowed to facilitate copyright infringement. :dragon:

Happy listening

Got the album. Just skimmed the wikipedia article on it, and then some reviews. Now I’m listening to it for the very first time.

Ah cool. I have this on vinyl actually, and I’ve listened to it a few times. I really like the thing, but it has fueled many a rant by me and my brother. For instance, Bell Boy, a decent though questionable song considering the quality of the other songs on the album, was put on the album. They put it on there so it would suit the album’s concept of the story that they’re telling. Without it, the album would be stronger, because let’s face it, the song isn’t their greatest piece of work. This frustrates me, because look at Who’s Next. Who’s Next is the Who’s greatest album, and it succeeded because the “concept album” idea failed, and they just strung great songs together, something that they would have been much more adept at doing if they could just let the whole “rock opera” concept down for a while. I’m of the mind that sometimes the concept needs to be looser so as to avoid limiting the quality of the album. Like, on Tommy, does Tommy need to get raped by Uncle Ernie? Honestly, why was that necessary?

Good choice though :razz:

haha, good points :razz:

And Bruno, how do you like it so far?

I really like “I’ve Had Enough”, the song changes three times giving it a good feel. And Doctor Jimmy is amazing. And just listen to John and Keith going crazy in 5:15, Keith’s drumming sounds like a train towards the end.

Edit: What did I do that was not allowed? I forget what I wrote :silent:

It’s that «we’re rock and roll and we’re here to shock you out of your bones» mentality they had during big hundred-year-war that was the 20th century. Concept albums are not the problem, the necessity to cause an impact at all cost is. It’s responsible for Pink Floyd being 4019% worse than it should be. There’s just so much adult whining I can stand, and Roger Waters manages to get past that line on every single album or performance he touches.

Not my favourite album of all times, but some really great songs! :open_mouth:

I don’t usually appreciate albums where I have to pay attention to the lyrics. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fairly lyrics-oriented listener. But I like to be able to get distracted. I like to come back to the song at a later time and listen to something entirely new. It’s like literature, really: who can honestly say that they never skip a paragraph, jump forward to have a peek at some sentences, or at occasion simply read the last page first? Being chained to some linear order makes this album very un-rock-and-roll overall.

But the music is great. Some of these songs, wow, amazing, amazing work — everything comes together in a big, musical, orgasmic «[size=100]YES[/size]!» in songs like punk & godfather, 5:15, and dr Jimmy. Great stuff!

Probably a link to a torrent file, or a tip on how to find one. :tongue:

Oh yeah… that’s right :shy: haha

Glad you like it, oh yeah, The Who is famous for it’s big, musical, orgasmic «YES!» parts.
youtube.com/watch?v=tXYqv_FS9yk

:happy:

Agreed. I can’t listen to the Wall anymore…it used to be my favourite by theres for a while, the anger of it really attracted me. But now, I’m not very angry, (or actually, more like, I’m not AS angry as I was), and basically it’s just a pessimistic romp like all his other albums. Don’t get me wrong, he definitely has his place. Just, it gets old after a while.

Hmm, this comment reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons, past the tenth season for some reason. I stopped watching it for not only because it lost what made it special, but also for this reason, that if you miss the first five minutes of an episode, you have no idea how the characters got into a specific place. Like, lets say, the episode where Homer takes up medical marijuana for his glacoma. At the start of the episode, he beats up a scarecrow that was scaring crows away, making the crows love him and follow him. Eventually, he tells them to go away, and they attack him, and the birds peck at his eyes. He then goes for drugs. See what I mean, it makes no sense.

For me, I’m more like, notice the lyrics, pay attention to the chorus and some of the lyrics somewhat, but don’t really bother with them for the first 30 listens, where I decide if it still has something to offer after that.

Of course, Dr Jimmy has to mention rape. What Who album would be incomplete without a rape reference? :content:

My favourite on the album is Helpless Dancer. I really love the back and forth of it, with Pete in one speaker and Roger in the other one.

Now here’s something that feels straight out of my head! :rofl: Mind stalker! :tongue:

You should really ellaborate on your music appreciacion process one of these days, it sounds like you deal with music in a very particular, a very personal manner.

Which Pink Floyd album (post-Syd) doesn’t mention the loss of a beloved one? :lol:

I hadn’t paid proper attention to it the first time I listened to the album. Was probably reading something or trying to figure out where my sister was (she left without her mobile today, so I wanted to know when she was coming back etc)… Now that you mentioned, I went back to it and, well, it grew on me! This is a really cool song! —not just the call-and-response pattern you mention, lots of things are just right. Very nice. Gotta love the shivery feel the piano and guitar effects provide at different points.

Glad you guys have taken to it, well Bruno at least. haha

Yeah, Jon, I feel the same way about The Wall, you have to be in a certain state of mind to really get into it. Along with Animals, or The Final Cut.

This album grows on me every time I listen to it. (I’ve been listening to it a lot). '73, when this album was released, punk still wasn’t born, even in the US, but it’s like Velvet Underground, you simply cannot ignore the whole punk thing going on full throttle in this album… mixed with, surprise of surprises, elements of prog rock! These guys were reinventing hard rock with this album, this is wild whiskey to the ears, it’s like a Led Zeppelin meets Jethro Tull meets The Clash concept album.

And then there are these little reocurring musical phrases and themes, the shambling piano, the fanfaresque horns, and that leitmotif which Townshend and Daltrey sing to in Helpless Dancer. (I caught myself whistling that tune today, while buttering a toast for breakfast). This kind of things gets me really into the album, it extradicts the album to the rest of my living. I’ve been breathing Jimmy even when I’m not listening to this album, it makes such a strong statement that after listening to it some three times you can’t get it out of your head, it changes your route and your pace for a while. (At least that’s how I deal with music).

Cool! Never expected that, that’s exactly how I feel with it. But I thought that everybody would be turned off by the reacurring “raaaiinn onn mee” :tongue:

I love it in “I’ve had enough” at exactly 1:22 into the song, that part is actually one of my first childhood memories. That’s why I chose this album.

Great!

At the risk of going a little of topic, your comment reminded me of another song, [size=100]REM[/size]'s «Losing my Religion». My dad was obsessed with this song back when I was very little and we lived in the farm, and whenever we actually had to go to the town by car, he would play that album, and this song struck me really hard for some reason. Still today I don’t like to listen to it next to other people, it’s a somewhat personal song to me, it brings very old, dear memories.

Funny, huh? How these songs from our childhoods can, well, hunt us down for life with memories and emotions and wow. Heh.

Another experience of sorts to report. Because today I had Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti play, and as I listened to «Kashmir», it suddenly felt right to listen to Quadrophenia in a different manner. So I changed my play queue to it, and indeed, the fifteen minutes of Zeppelin had changed my mood or something… The album just felt different.

I listened the first side, but as 5:15 started playing I needed to go back from rock to jazz, so I once again tweaked my queue, adding lots of Yoko Kanno & The Seatbelts to it: two hard bops, followed by a blues, a bebop, a bunch of blues and jazz, some rock, some pop, more blues, more jazz, some more rock and then two pieces of soul music.

It was quite a sequence! And Quadrophenia really fit in. I think I’m assimilating its mood or something, I can live by it at times and not live by it at others. I’ve been whistling it’s leitmotif every now and then these days, and sometimes I pace myself on the rhythm of one of its songs, this musical immersion has been a really nice idea. I’ll definitely join the circle of sound next month! :cool_laugh: