The Bear and Badger Musical Appreciation Society - The Bear and Badger

g.man

Facewon wrote:

Hanson new album: String Theory.

Legit great.

Re dos of their tunes, yes, including mmm bop.

They can write a pop tune and bro harmonies are the best.

Come at me.

I'll listen to this. Mmmbop is one of the all time greats.

tin_robot

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Up to Hazards of Love on my big headphones lossless Decemberists journey, which has included EPs and rarities. Such a glorious album. Picaresque has the longest list of top tunes, but as a cohesive whole Hazards is a huge success. I love a concept album on the rare occasions they work, and this is my pick for best in class. I should've booked those tickets

Won't argue with any of that. Hazards is definitely up there as one of the few truly excellent concept albums. (Anais Mitchell's Hadestown is another, which I mention purely because the National Theatre's doing it as a full stage production over Christmas.)

Also, if you've been wading through the B-sides as well, I'd like to make the case that Raincoat Song is the most cruelly overlooked of their tracks. It's a trivial little ditty, but I love it.

Finally - you probably know this already, but The Decemberists have just announced a new EP, off the back of I'll Be Your Girl. I can tell you that having heard 4 of the 5 tracks already, I really like Midlist Author, but I'm less impressed with the others. (Though to be fair, I may not have given them a fair crack of the whip.)

Moot_Geeza

Record Year for Rainfall is lovely, I'd forgotten it existed until just now. I can't remember the story behind those releases off the top of my head but I recognise the cover art (listening on YouTube now, Days of Elaine was another but it's hazy). Lost on a hard drive somewhere, will dig them out at some point. I've got limited access to the deeper stuff on my current MP3 player - just Picaresqueties and The Culling of the Fold (plus albums, live double album and EPs).

Hadestown is great, I re-ripped that in FLAC when I went full Skerret.

Edit: Except you didn't say Record Year, you said Raincoat Song. It's all stored somewhere in the memorybanks I guess.

Gremill

Listening to the new album by The Prodigy - which sounds exactly like you would expect. Its got a couple of absolute bangers on it, a few middling Travis and a couple of forgettable noisy ones. A lot better than I thought it would be though - almost a return to form.

poprock

Got to admit, Light Up the Sky has grown on me, thanks to very heavy rotation on the radio. It’s still Prodigy-by-numbers, but it’s catchy.

g.man

I didn't get on with it at all I'm afraid. We Live Forever is good in an unashamedly retro way, but the rest of it I thought was tripe.

Facewon

New Anderson paak. Hello.

Gremill

g.man wrote:

I didn't get on with it at all I'm afraid. We Live Forever is good in an unashamedly retro way, but the rest of it I thought was tripe.

I think that's why I like it - it sounds like they're trying to recapture their sound on the first 3 tracks - but after that it goes downhill pretty quickly.

g.man

Yeah, I really struggled to get to the end of it.

g.man

Anyhoo, I was raving about the release of the lost Primal Scream album The Memphis Recordings on here recently. Tonight on BBC4 at 9pm, there's a documentary about it. Should be worth a look.

Facewon

That was a good listen. (PS in Memphis)

g.man

Yup. Great album.

[Deleted User]

Trying to cast my mind back ten years. Who was it that liked Metric? Reg?

The new album is all kinds of brilliant. Now or Never Now is my song of the year and I only heard it for the first time an hour ago. Easily their best album since Live it Out.

x

Skerret

never go full skrit

Olimite

Started on the Prodigy album today. Sounds a lot like they wanted to return to the Jilted Generation sound.

poprock

And who wouldn’t?

Gremill

Olimite wrote:

Started on the Prodigy album today. Sounds a lot like they wanted to return to the Jilted Generation sound.

It doesn't last and then gets very samey.

poprock

They wanna relive the glory days as much as their nostalgic fans do.

regmcfly

g.man wrote:

Facewon wrote:

Hanson new album: String Theory.

Legit great.

Re dos of their tunes, yes, including mmm bop.

They can write a pop tune and bro harmonies are the best.

Come at me.

I'll listen to this. Mmmbop is one of the all time greats.

Long time since I was mocked on red Room for following them and Penny and Me. I believe that was yourself, unlikely and Jaco leading the charge.

Facewon

Me? Honestly don't recall that.

Facewon

I mean, when mmm bop was out, I was no fan. But credit where it's due. They aged well.

Facewon

2 tracks in, and if paak keeps this up we have a keeper.

g.man

regmcfly wrote:

g.man wrote:

Facewon wrote:

Hanson new album: String Theory. Legit great. Re dos of their tunes, yes, including mmm bop. They can write a pop tune and bro harmonies are the best. Come at me.

I'll listen to this. Mmmbop is one of the all time greats.

Long time since I was mocked on red Room for following them and Penny and Me. I believe that was yourself, unlikely and Jaco leading the charge.

I've always loved Hanson.

Facewon

Facewon wrote:

2 tracks in, and if paak keeps this up we have a keeper.

Its a keeper.

Amazing. Straight to AOTY contention. And album of the summer gauntlet thrown.

Moot_Geeza

I gave the latest Prodigy album a go after seeing it mentioned on here, thought it sounded a bit Always Outnumbered-ish, rather than Jilted or Fat. A couple of decent tracks, a few tracks that were serviceable but non-memorable, and a smattering of guff. Didn't hate, but doubt I'll listen again, the older albums will do me.

Tempy

Already posted the lead track from this a few weeks ago. Gave the full thing a spin last night. It isn't entirely what I expected, though it mostly followed on from the lead and Gun to the Head. It's quite theatrical, a little vaudeville and by turns silly and haunting.

Musically it isn't the easiest listen as all of the elements seem at odds to each other but Paul Simonon's bass and Tony Allen's drums keep everything moving in a really effective way. Allen especially seems to be able to inject even the most basic of rhythms with something special, which is helpful because Albarn often isn't really singing as opposed to delivering weird stream of conscious musings on the state of the nation, and the other instrumentation is orbiting the main structure as opposed to following along with it neatly.

It all fits the sentiment of the record pretty well, and it was released at almost the perfect time given the last two days of political chaos. There's a guardian review that wonders what the merit of someone like Albarn touring the country and writing an album based on the sights he's seen - is it all a bit Lefty Political Tourism? Maybe, but I think it works overall. He's a great songwriter, and this is only continuing on from the kind of stuff he put out during Parklife, and it shares the tone of This Is a Low, which is for me their best song.

I'm sure it'll grate on people who think Blur are Shite, or hate Albarn and his pretentiousness, but for me at least it hits an uneasy tone that reflects my own feelings about this weird national identity I happened to be bundled into, and about the dismal experience of watching this country lose sight of any of the humour or humility that might have once been plus points.

g.man

I liked their first album, but I didn't care for that new track what you posted recently. I'll probably give the album a listen at some point tho. Disappointed Mick Jones isn't on this one.

Tempy

I can’t imagine it will be for everyone, at all.

poprock

It’s damn near exactly the album that my pals The Indelicates put out a couple of years ago, but because this is Albarn instead it’s a big success.

That’s not a criticism – just that the similarities are striking. They got to the idea first.

This is a good record, so was theirs.

Olimite

Giving the Metric album a listen as I heard someone say positive things about it. May have been here - memory ain't so great anymore.

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