George Harrison - My Sweet Lord
(Jul 28, 2009 - 12:06) | DELTA__9__FOOLS wrote: Simply revolting imo.
Agreeing with you are mgkiwi, Briandel, and a couple of others. I thought of a funny way to express it. If it's from "All Things Must Pass," I wish it would pass, . . . like a word that rhymes with that begins with the letter "g" (as in "george"). He developed a lot from his wallflower start, but in the process he became so open-minded that his brains . . . . You know the rest. And as for repetitiousness, it might be another of those there magical incantations.  
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Peter Gabriel - Ngankarrparni
(Jul 28, 2009 - 11:26) | Excelsior wrote: Repetitive as all hell.
  More so than a mantra! But isn't it true that to be effective, incantations must be repeated a certain no. of times?
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Frida Snell - Bullet With Butterfly Wings
(Mar 12, 2009 - 20:48) | pedrock77 wrote: Always favorable to piano covers, they require quite some know-how to adapt them and and exploit their soft side. Love it!
This cry of angry frustration has no "soft side"!!!! Some songs just don't, ya know? And the whole world is never going to join hands and sing "Kumbaya" (harmony or unison!) either!
All right, now I'll subside.
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Frida Snell - Bullet With Butterfly Wings
(Mar 12, 2009 - 20:41) | snakechaser wrote:
What do you know? For once I agree with manbirdexperiment (what is the product of man and bird anyway?) about hating the song. However, I have to admit that AphidA is right about the grammer. The way people abuse "I" and "me" is a pet peeve of mine.
Your so rite about grammer misteaks. Seem like nowadys grammer erors is just about as prevalent as them iritatin misspelings!!
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Frida Snell - Bullet With Butterfly Wings
(Mar 12, 2009 - 20:37) | It is generally accepted that the musical treatment should accord with the emotional tone of the music and the lyrics. That is not some subjective weird notion; it is commonly accepted (if we're not staging a Brecht/Weill operetta with the deliberate alienation effect).
The only reason I rated this five-day-old-fish of a number above 1 was o/a/o the nice keyboard playing. But then, the lovely keyboard sound is totally opposed to the meaning and rhythm of the song, so maybe the plus and the minus cancel one another out.
Here we have a fine example of how the "It's not bad, only different" mantra is utter bunk. There is a place for value judgments, and this travesty richly deserves excoriation.
"Bullet" had absolutely no need of a cover version-especially by a tinny, scratchy female voice featuring suppressed syllables and atrocious enunciation, and equally lamentable, an anemic level of energy even more enervated than Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed (sometimes), and Bob Dylan rolled into one.
The next time I hear this abominable, cadaverous attempt to render a classic teenage-boy frustration song, I will be rating it lower. Why in the world would the Smashing Pumpkins have been so ill advised as to give this zombie the rights to even try to sing this song?????
If it's a youth-rage anthem, I want to hear it sung by either teenage boys or men in their 20s. Nothing else fits.
The only female I can think of who might have been able to do this song justice would be Joan Osborne. Well, maybe Grace Slick . . . but most emphatically not Ms. Snell.
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Dave Alvin - Highway 61
(Mar 12, 2009 - 17:32) | Impressed with the many listeners who already know this song—How could I have missed it?? . . .
But maybe it's better this way. Dave Alvin's slow, honey/desert voice with the withheld emotionality but sounding full of intellectual comprehension . . . makes this song as scary and spooky as I can imagine its being.
My immediate notes to myself: Dave Alvin - Highway 61 (refers to the Isaac/Abraham story, some modern reflection, maybe; restrainedly spooky, just like Jim White!!) Links to analyses are welcome, as would be ratings of Alvin and White's various recordings.
Discovered Jim White on a CD called something like The Best of the Texas Singer-Songwriters" on the Sugar Hill label. (Don't mistakenly get "Best of the Sugar Hill Years"! It ain't the same album!) Jim's singing voice delivering creepy, scary, madness-imbued lyrics at a suspensefully slow pace. . . a dryness that hints at fires underneath . . . sends chills up and down the arms . . Just test it yourself!
Here is an interesting link: https://www.msu.edu/user/depolo/Playlists/72297.htm
When Jim White sings so mesmerizingly, it takes the listener a while to realize that the protagonists are dangerous, twisted psychopathic personalities . . . (Shudder.) The chill of the first hearing is the best. Get a friend you can grab when you get scared, turn the lights down low but have a candle lit, sit near the music, and do it far away from a house front door on Hallowe'en night!
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Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years
(Mar 12, 2009 - 17:27) | Wish I had heard all of it . . . if it had characteristics of being a good segue to "HIghway 61," I would have been intrigued. Maybe you will play it again on Monday, March 16, between 9 and 5:30 Eastern Time? (Please.)
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The Moody Blues - Visions Of Paradise
(Mar 12, 2009 - 17:19) | lwilkinson wrote:
Other than their very first album which was pretty bad and the solo stuff after their split, I've always been of the opinion that it's actually very difficult to play any "single" song off any album. It's always seemed easier to start and play the vinyl all the way start to finish since the album is like a book. The first chapter sets the mood, the middle chapters hook you in and the last chapter/song completes it.
i don't know about the Moody Blues' first album and the "solo stuff" (yet!), but lwilkinson gives a good image/analogy of what i think was the musicians' intention—every song seems to build on but differ from the one before it. . . i recall fellow DJs on my college radio station expressing your attitude—that
"the album is like a book. The first chapter sets the mood, the middle chapters hook you in, and the last chapter/song completes it."
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Eels - Friendly Ghost
(Jul 15, 2008 - 13:07) | stalfnzo wrote: E is a master. If you don't know the Eels, look up Mark Elliot on Wikipedia. Read about his dad, his life. Great stuff.
Tried to take your advice! Found precious little, and that under a different spelling, and nothing at all about the father. Wish you would revisit and update your advice.
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Rodrigo y Gabriela - Stairway to Heaven
(Jul 15, 2008 - 13:02) | The original was great. It did not need to be noodled with and deconstructed. With the great quantity of jazz, soul, and blues on this station, I do not think it could legitimately be called a rock station, and its subtitle should be changed to represent the reality.
Not an improvement, and not suitable material for dissection and disembowelment. Just don't let me find this vivisectionist in a dark alley.
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Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song
(Jul 09, 2008 - 08:41) | More_Cowbell wrote:
I agree. This was 'our song' back in the day when wife and I were dating and teenagers...still together many years later. Aaah those days.
How many years, More_Cowbell? What is the secret? Making a wise choice in the first place?
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Wes - Awa Awa
(Jun 25, 2008 - 12:13) | prickelpit96 wrote:The choir singing 'Awa Awa' between the strophes is fun! 
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Sigur Rós - Untitled Track 4
(Jun 25, 2008 - 12:03) | The "singing" made my URI ache. I kept wondering when the agonized keening screech would turn into either a tune or a shriek. But it kept on keeping me in suspenseful auditory anguish.
(Where's an emoticon for headache?)
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The Stone Roses - Made of Stone
(Jun 25, 2008 - 09:11) | DoctorHooey wrote:
Saying that a band sounds like another band is not an insult. Music is a continuum of influences and expressions - everyone sounds like each other and distinct from one another. I think for a lot of people it helps them appreciate something MORE, not LESS, to refer to influences. It's also a very basic tenet of critical thinking - hearing similarities helps emphasize differences, and can help one articulate what one likes in a song or artist.
I agree with Dr. Hooey's comment and with his extremely articulate presentation of his reasoning! So good to meet a rational intellectual now and then . . . 
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Travis - Eyes Wide Open
(Jun 25, 2008 - 06:19) | Nice sad song. Like songs that rhyme "cryin'" and "dyin'" and repeat them a lot in a refrain. Good to commit suicide by, or at least to indulge in a fit of sorrow, regret, and self-pity.
Now play a song to sob your heart out to, please.
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Miles Davis - Nature Boy
(Jun 18, 2008 - 18:15) | Abhor this genre more than I can say. Isn't there a jazz-haters' club out there where I can get affirmation of my vexation over pointless, unstructured meandering and the misuse of brass instruments for purposes of seduction? Don't kid yourselves, folks; jazz isn't intellectual, it is a path to the validation of the lack of structure and accountability. And it has the quality of irresolution and trailing off into nothingness. How many people who have conscious purposes in their lives do you know who like jazz?
    
I was about to correlate liking/disliking jazz with political propensities, but instead will refrain.
   
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Rickie Lee Jones - Up from the Skies
(Apr 21, 2008 - 12:58) | Would rate minus zero if that rating existed. This is neither singing nor tuneful; no rhythm. Just sort of an irritating whining.
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Led Zeppelin - All My Love
(Jan 14, 2008 - 14:20) | I cannot recall another song by this group with such a bad excuse for a tuneless tune . . . And lead singer sounds as though he just swallowed a bottle of nongourmet vinegar!
Why play a bad song by a group that had good ones?
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Okkervil River - Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe
(Jan 14, 2008 - 08:48) | These torturers should be *paid* not to . . . "sing" (for lack of a better word) . . . If the lead "singer" had been born mute and stayed that way, it would have been a blessing to society. What misbegotten recording executive signed this band?
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Sarah McLachlan - Building a Mystery
(Nov 23, 2007 - 14:01) | The least magical of her renditions of this song. Please find a better one.
Many intelligent and knowledgeable comments have been posted on this page!
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The Levellers - Too Real
(Nov 19, 2007 - 08:06) | Expect better of this group. Irritatingly monotonous. Unable to discern any tune.
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Dire Straits - Tunnel of Love
(Nov 05, 2007 - 12:10) | Maybe I'm just lucky, but without trying, I have been treated to musical brilliance whenever I hear this band.
Loved the tune from the Broadway play that was used as part of the intro. . . . I wasn't really concentrating, but I think it was from "Carousel"!
What a talented and musically tight group--no lassitude or laziness or sloppiness! I wish I could see them in person!
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Roy Orbison - She's A Mystery To Me
(Nov 05, 2007 - 12:00) | Few lyrics. Those that there are are repetitive, paternalistic, and jejeune. The singing is mostly off key, the vocal quality painfully strained.
With those severe marks against it, any adept instrumentation went unnoticed.
Poor ol' Roy "shoulda stood in bed" the day he recorded this.
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The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
(Oct 12, 2007 - 08:14) | BCarderMA wrote: If I never heard this song anymore, I'd be OK with it. It was slightly interesting the first time for its irritation quotient. Thereafter it was simply irritating for its monotony. Whatever the lyrics may be (incoherent), they wouldn't redeem this cut. Oh, wait. After the first 5 minutes, the song got off the five repetitive notes for a little while. Just a little while, though. So less than mediocre.
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Cake - Never There
(Oct 03, 2007 - 13:04) | celadonstone wrote:
Wow! That's my kind of co-worker!! 
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Janis Joplin - Move Over
(Oct 03, 2007 - 12:43) | Hinkamp wrote: Nobody yet been able to cover her.... Joan Osborne comes the closest.
Yes. About changing the world: If she even changed one heart, wouldn't that have been enough?
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Guster - Satellite
(Sep 17, 2007 - 08:21) | I'm not entirely sure . . . I hesitate to suggest this . . . but is it possible that the sentiment is "You're my satellite"?
It only gets repeated 90,000 times.
Are we on a paucity-of-meaningful-lyrics and superrepetition kick today?
Makes my officemates think I have no brain. Maybe they are right.
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Gotye - Coming Back
(Sep 17, 2007 - 08:02) | Waybo wrote: Whiny samba. Yuck. 2. Yes, certainlybut isn't it also somewhat "Shoegazer" and somewhat "Emo"? Methinks I would be more sympathetic to the emotion, perhaps, did not a certain three-word phrase get sung over and over, ad nauseam.
(Looking for suitable emoticon . . . )
(I'll be darned . . . Has the vomiting emoticon been removed? I do believe so! Perhaps it was exhausted from overuse and was taken to a hospital for a long rest?)
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Siouxsie & the Banshees - Kiss Them For Me
(Sep 17, 2007 - 06:13) | A fine song, but I had to downgrade it a couple of steps because I have heard it too many times and the repetitiveness of the lyrics is getting on my nerves.
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The Lash - The Lucky One
(Sep 17, 2007 - 05:25) | horstman wrote: Whew!
I'm getting dizzy. The instruments bring out my British/Scottish/Irish music blood . . . Read the comment disparaging the singing--but I hadn't even heard any singing. Interesting. Will listen out for it next time around.
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Tom Petty - Saving Grace
(Sep 13, 2007 - 15:11) | dtytler wrote:
Your graphics are such a suitable accompaniment to this song!
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Ian Brown - Keep What Ya Got
(Aug 06, 2007 - 07:51) | Think I see a pattern . . . the musical aspect of a series of rage songs slowly building from the super-laid-back-ness of Ms. Snell? Clearly this is one step up in musical intensity. If this pattern continues, I as a former underground-rock DJ will declare you brilliant.
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Frida Snell - Bullet With Butterfly Wings
(Aug 06, 2007 - 07:49) | Treatment totally in contrast with the content of the lyrics. But the lyrics are some of the best frustrated-victim-rage ones ever, so cannot rate it very low. I am trying to see the severe contrast as irony. (If you play the original, I will rate it very high.) Maybe this rendition is supposed to make us focus more on the individual words . . . because this does have the great virtue of making all the words intelligible! Give Ms. Snell top marks for enunciation.
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Grant-Lee Phillips - See America
(Jul 19, 2007 - 06:40) | Yes, boring, even more than the two before it. Three derivative songs in a row, with this singer both whiny and breathy (two death knells) . . . I can't stand this.
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The Shins - Gone for Good
(Jul 19, 2007 - 06:35) | Sounding so much like several others serves to make this group--at least per this song--unmemorable.
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Bruce Cockburn - Last Night Of The World
(Jul 19, 2007 - 06:35) | The repetition of one musical phrase about four or five times, followed by another of the same, despite the balladic words, really gets monotonous. Bob Dylan got away with that sort of thing maybe because of novelty value. Cockburn does have a better singing voice. Slightly reminiscent of Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, and some other balladeers of the folk-rock era. Sounding so much like several others serves to make Cockburn--at least per this song--unmemorable. So the main thing to recommend Cockburn would have to be the lyrics. They have their own charm.
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John Prine - Illegal Smile
(Jul 16, 2007 - 10:19) | Thank you, Bill, for bringing back the old days . . . There was that brief period amidst the serious political engagement of young people in which some amusing folk-rock songs became quite successful.
My radio-station friends used to always sing along with this at the top of their lungs, as I recall. One of those guys died young; another is a star at NPR; others bought their own radio station; others just stayed rock-music fans; still others branched out into CCM and others got into folk roots music. I myself still hope to start another a capella quartet. I make that resolution every year. But singers who don't live far away are hard to find.
Why don't you follow this up with "Alice's Restaurant" and then with a few other funny ones I don't know?
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Bedouin Soundclash - When The Night Feels My Song
(Jul 16, 2007 - 10:12) | Just got back to my computer to hear the very end of this . . . Is it a capella (unaccompanied vocal) harmonies, at least at the end of it? Just need to make sure it is the one I think it is b4 I rate it. Other comments do not mention a capella! Please somebody clarify for me.
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Afro Celt Sound System - Release
(Jul 16, 2007 - 07:40) | Near the top of list of songs in terms of number of repetitions. Also maddeningly tuneless.
That is, if the title goes with the song I was hearing. I have had a lot of problems lately in which the apparently most recent song at the top of the screen isn't the one I am hearing.
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David Bowie - Heroes (live acoustic)
(Jun 06, 2007 - 11:05) | Last time I rated it a 9. Today I wanted to rate it a 1. Shows clearly how music must match one's mood of the moment!
RP needs to give us a chance to show the range of our ratings of a song. Those with the widest range might indicate something . . . !
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A Filetta - Like a Breath of Air
(Jun 06, 2007 - 10:32) | Is this more Arabic or Egyptian in flavor? I once had a great rock album called "Hard Rock From the Middle East" . . . gotta find it again.
This cut has a bit too much tremolo/warbling. That probably explains why I'm not converting to Islam. . . .
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Eels - Things the Grandchildren Should Know
(Jun 06, 2007 - 10:23) | axolx wrote:
or let's just enjoy the song
Hey, Portland pal, for me the ruminations and speculations heighten the enjoyment--like putting chipotle mustard and green catchup on a veggie burger! We gotta all have fun in our own way!
Let me just add, Life is TOO short NOT to have fun. 
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Eels - Things the Grandchildren Should Know
(Jun 06, 2007 - 10:15) | Could this guy who wants to stay home and avoid people be a victim of Asperger's Syndrome? Or is he a hermit? Or an extreme introvert? Let's think up all the possible psychiatric labels for this man's problem.
Nowadays, the bio-type folk-rock song has sort of fallen out of favor.
If these are Eels, how come only one voice is singing?
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Gotye - Heart's A Mess
(Jun 06, 2007 - 09:00) | How many minutes long? Is the drummer paying the rest of the band extra? This song is so pointless and disjointed! Now a male voice comes in squeaking. Give me the ancient castrati instead. The lead "singer" seems to be the only one who can't sing. They got me, all right. Got me grinding my teeth. Would probably like it if . . . if . . . maybe if I were smoking something. Maybe that is what it was intended to accompany!?
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Tanya Donelly - Whiskey Tango
(Jun 06, 2007 - 08:46) | betterdaze wrote: I like the sound of her voice. Too rich to be annoying. It's not rich, it's poor. Very poor. Mostly whispering and sounds like a child of 6 trying to sound still younger and more vulnerable than that. I wish to affiliate myself with the men who do not like this kind of thing.
On a late-night radio show, I learned that women with childlike speaking voices are usually if not always victims of C.S.A., and I do not mean the Confederate States of America either. That is sad, but it makes my flesh creep all the more, knowing that, when I hear this kind of female singer.
In a book recently, I read that female voices that are lower are heard better by people with hearing impairments. Will come back and edit this to add the title if I locate the book.
Teenage girls with low voices, check out this URL: http://www.shakespearemag.com/winter02/higgins.asp
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Greg Brown - Who Woulda Thunk It
(Jun 06, 2007 - 08:24) | Sounds like one of the "Sugar Hill Singer-Songwriters"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pervading and insidious Texas-type cowboy country-influenced folk-influenced brilliant-electronic-instrumented rock with sinister lyrics more sophisticated than the language used . . . Is this guy a friend of Jim White's? Now I am glad I did not turn the station off after the previous song!
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Miles Davis - One for Daddy-O
(Jun 06, 2007 - 08:21) | starfishNcoffee wrote:
What, are you high? NO, he or she is low, and not alone. How many minutes long, exactly, is this piece???????
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Leonard Cohen - Tower of Song
(Jun 06, 2007 - 07:18) | I prefer his more typical voice . . . this hoarseness and false blackitude does nothing for me. Also, the girl doo-dahs in the background remind me of the worst sexism of the 1900s.
Maybe because the first song of his I ever heard was "Bird on a Wire" and I was riveted by it, I find it hard to like his vocal change.
I also hated the vocal changes of Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell.
But back to this song, and its lyrics . . . pretty good.
This all reminds me of the sentiments of "Garden Party," in which the singer/songwriter complains that fans reject his new look and sound. Ironically, I liked his new look and sound.
This stuff is just all too subjective for anything but fan clubbing. I think I have to find some of those!
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The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
(Jun 02, 2007 - 10:05) | meloman wrote:
Amazing, incredible actually. Pulling our collective legs here, or what?
And a related comment: Some of us would put a wide gulf between the Beatles and the Who. Their main similarity is the "the." I finally realized that for years I was brainwashed, and that there are few songs by the Beatles that I like (a few). OTOH, the Who was rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock. Let other people enjoy their eclectic groups. I like for the shoemaker to stick to his last and stay narrow--but do it with total skill and vigor each time. In a stew, a mixture is fine. Musically, I tend to prefer purity.
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Telepopmusik - Breathe
(Jun 02, 2007 - 09:39) | Agree with Steeler and Jack_Jefferson. Is this "shoegazer" subgenre?
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John Mclaughlin - Peace One
(May 31, 2007 - 12:17) | Mot wrote: This just gets grating after a while.
Yes, I have practically grated my fingernails down to nubs. The good parts are interspersed with too much irritating stuff. Oh . . . light dawns . . . Jazz influence. Turning off for now.
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Delays - Wonderlust
(May 25, 2007 - 16:43) | Nor did I realize it was a man singing falsetto. That makes me like it even less!
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Jimi Hendrix - Machine Gun
(May 25, 2007 - 15:09) | First song I have heard today that is actually revving up my brain to do some fantastic work at the job! Guess I have to have it!
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Iron & Wine - Love and Some Verses
(May 21, 2007 - 06:24) | If the squeaky sliding sound of fingers moving up and down on guitar strings were gone and singing were not so breathy, would have liked this OK.
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Genesis - Firth Of Fifth
(May 21, 2007 - 06:22) | Derivative, too long, lyrics incomprehensible--too many minutes of hammering the electronic keyboard.
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Ben Harper - Homeless Child
(May 14, 2007 - 08:59) | ArbiterOfGoodTaste wrote: Decent enough groove, but come up with a few more words next time Ben. Thanks. I agree. Well put.
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Traffic - Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys
(May 14, 2007 - 08:32) | This version must have a lot more trash than when it originally came out. I do not recall endless stretches of pointless horny meanderings. Not that the lyrics had any value to begin with. Strangle the horn player at birth. Without that part, it might have been a cutting-edge rock song. It has not aged well, though, and the additions have enormous subtractive value. How many minutes long is this torture?
 
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Dave Brubeck Quartet - Blue Rondo a la Turk
(May 10, 2007 - 12:59) | lathyris wrote:
Not to mention the people who would have no problem admitting they never heard the name "Mahler". . .
Let's say that some random person knows all the major names of bands and soloists in the jazz subculture . . .Let's even go further and say that he has had opportunities to listen to a great deal of jazz. Those facts still won't make him less antipathetic to it if he just does not like its musical aspects. Logic compels us.
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Herbie Hancock - Cantaloupe Island
(May 10, 2007 - 12:27) | mudclam wrote: barfalot, don't listen to RP for jazz crap What I share with this fellow listener would be not terminology or mode of expression but a hearty agreement with the content. Thumbs totally down.
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Chorus of Tribes - Into Morocco
(May 10, 2007 - 09:48) | UltraNurd wrote:
Am I the only one who finds someone named "electronicshaman" disliking world electronica amusing? Gave me a little chuckle, anyway :o).
I woulda laughed, but I think the guy was trying for sarcasm when he wrote the crit.
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Stevie Ray Vaughan - Riviera Paradise
(May 10, 2007 - 09:47) | cosmiclint wrote: I could just listen to Stevie noodle all day long :)
So is that what listeners to this meandering (jazz?) turn into . . . noodles?
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The Waterboys - Old England
(Apr 30, 2007 - 13:15) | H-bomb wrote: oh no!!! that nasty sax was not the end!!! it just keeps going! make it stop!
Regret to agree. AMG says this group performs "Celtic rock," but this sounds so far from that that I wondered whether it was the wrong cut.
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Led Zeppelin - The Battle of Evermore
(Apr 30, 2007 - 11:29) | jayvee2 wrote:
Comment to Jayvee2: You got those bananas dancing in the perfect rhythm! It really brought a smile to my face on a rather dull day! Thank you for the effort!  
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Beethoven - Symphony No.5 - Allegro Con Brio
(Apr 30, 2007 - 10:35) | Walrus_Gumbo wrote:
Where is the spelling error in this? 
The spelling error was in the original post by cptbuz.
But also RPParadise made a negative comment about the speed of the piece and preferred versions by Sir George Solti and some other orchestra.
Wonder whether there is some site similar to Radio Paradise for just versions of classical music?
Wonder too whether there is some site like this for just medieval music (my favorite type)?
Even if so, though, unless H.R. 2060 passes, we are out of luck by the millions. I will certainly take note, as a voter, of how those Congress persons vote on measures to impose unbearable and cruel burdens on the freedom of culture on the Internet.
Listeners who live in the USA, please get on track with the cause by going to the RP home page to register your concern with your proper representatives.
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Vienna Teng - Passage
(Apr 24, 2007 - 08:59) | Sunman wrote: Pretty heavy...makes you wonder why she wrote it.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
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Elton John - Where To Now St. Peter
(Apr 24, 2007 - 08:55) | drtjdel wrote:
Then he switched teams. Like Johnny Damon.
Very amusing. However, methinks you have been misled . . . It's a "mondegreen," along the lines of "There's a bathroom on the right" in the song "Bad Moon Rising" (instead of "There's a bad moon on the rise.") I think you'll find mondegreens explained on various sites. The list is enough to give you a stitch in your side. The derivation is one of my favorite word definitions of all time.
Anyhow, if you ignore the invalid lyrics, you can enjoy the singing and the great piano playing--the other instruments are good also.
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Lizz Wright - Hit The Ground
(Apr 23, 2007 - 05:33) | Another woman, like Lucinda Williams be4 her, whom at firs the listener may mistake for a man. Of this genre, this piece seems excellent, and I can make out all the words. Thank you for introducing me to wider music.
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Lucinda Williams - 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
(Apr 23, 2007 - 05:31) | To stay on key is the sine qua non . . . But maybe the vocal "treatment" is intentional. Well, I can't make out the lyrics, but it could be about Jim Jones making many of his followers drink poisoned Kool-Aid. Did you know that some of them actually did not drink the stuff?
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Morphine - Honey White
(Apr 03, 2007 - 08:07) | Ok, this is a musically amazing day . . . I am actually enjoying the use of . . . several--at least two different that I can make out-- brass instruments, horns, in a song that I consider still the the category of rock!
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The Frames - The Cost
(Apr 03, 2007 - 07:50) | Singer sounds as though his voice is about to break and he could bust out weeping any minute. Does that fit the words? I couldn't tell.
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Jon Redfern - I Love The Sun
(Mar 27, 2007 - 13:44) | smokinsean wrote: ...hey!...I didn't know that king of the hill cartoon character played sax!.... Quick, kill it before it multiplies!!
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Jon Redfern - I Love The Sun
(Mar 27, 2007 - 13:44) | smokinsean wrote: ...hey!...I didn't know that king of the hill cartoon character played sax!.... Quick, kill it before it multiplies!!
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Jon Redfern - I Love The Sun
(Mar 27, 2007 - 13:44) | smokinsean wrote: ...hey!...I didn't know that king of the hill cartoon character played sax!.... Quick, kill it before it multiplies!!
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Morphine - Buena
(Mar 27, 2007 - 13:14) | Started great, got bad soon. Split vote on it.
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Patty Griffin - One Big Love
(Mar 27, 2007 - 09:53) | houstoib (bowdlerized below) isn't the only one who dislikes this cut, but Patty Griffin has other songs that are better.
I don't know what RP's fascination is with "whisper" singing females who attempt to hide their horrible singing voice against a monotonous repetitive backbeat.
Kind of *****...
Hope everybody liked both chords of that song. I didn't.
Need to warn him, worse is coming: Hem with "The Fire Thief."
The problem with breathy whisper-singing females who attempt to hide their horrible singing voice (etc.) is, I think, that some people like such, so Bill keeps playing such. There has to be something for everybody and every mood.
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Michael Penn - No Myth (acoustic)
(Mar 27, 2007 - 09:06) | "Romeo in black jeans"--yeah, I get it, and I would like to like Michael Penn, but the vocal quality says to me, "Ah, whatthehell, better sing before I fall asleep."
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Slowdive - Shine
(Mar 27, 2007 - 08:11) | I guess the trance-y people like it. Me, it makes me want to jump out of my skin and sets my teeth on edge--one of those who doesn't cotton to being hypnotized.   Not to the point of drinking poison, though.
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Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
(Mar 27, 2007 - 08:08) | If this is the song with the endless repetition of "They don' love you lak Ah love you," it would be OK except for the female vocalist's grating and unmelodious "singing" and the repetitiveness.
Those background instruments are well played!
What an overhyped band and how disappointing.
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The Who - The Real Me
(Mar 27, 2007 - 07:36) | coloradojohn wrote: Gawd was there ever a scream like Daltry's?
a windmill power-chord like Pete's?
a jammin' bass line like The Ox's?
EXPLODING DRUMS LIKE MOON's?
Turn it up!
Ohmygoodness, the goosebumps are running up and down my arms and even up into my neck! The lead guitar and the bass are both fantastic; maybe the former stands out more for me . . . but yes, all parts of the ensemble are on fire here!
I kept telling myself I would buy and listen to the album Quadrophenia "some day" . . . but that day never came . . . so thank you for helping remedy that musical omission!
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Squirrel Nut Zippers - Blue Angel
(Mar 27, 2007 - 07:32) | Somebody please answer Celadonstone's question--namely:
I was wondering if this song was referencing Marlene Dietrich in one of her early pictures, the Blue Angel.
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James McMurtry - Safe Side
(Mar 27, 2007 - 07:07) | jAMES mCmURTRY IS RIVETING and brilliant. He introduced me to an entire new subgenre via the CD about south Texas singer-songwriters . . . I posted this at the entry for "Levelland":
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1) ChicoCyclist seems to have definitively settled a long-running subjective disagreement b/m/o an appeal to objective realities. Bravo (or brava, perhaps)!
2) James McMurtry is a hybrid, not a "country" musician. His lyrics are ruminative and complex ballads, and the sound is representative of the mood he wants to convey.
I learned about him and Jim White here on RP, and one of the most ear-opening CDs I ever bought was the one that presents a "new generation" of Texas singer-songwriters--something like Best of Texas Singer-Songwriters on Sugar Hill records. I have forgotten how I found it, but there is a lot to like at sugarhillrecords.com, which I looked at before posting this. Enjoy the discoveries, friends.
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Some of their songs really can give you chills, owing to the lyrics as well as the music. Read lyrics by the above men . . . if you like Gothic mysteries or even if you have a bit of human compassion, you will be drawn in, at least drawn into admiration.
Oh, and let me not fail to commend his beautiful Spanish/Mexican articulation, which is almost exactly that of a native speaker!
And soon we need to hear that great segue by the BoDeans, "Fadeaway," don't we? Wow!
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The Shins - Phantom Limb
(Mar 23, 2007 - 09:00) | timrd wrote: pretty good...Carbon Leaf is better Although I must admit that I'm finally hearing The Shins for the first time, I can't agree about Carbon Leaf. I got all the CL CDs I could, which were the most recent three. All three were abysmal. I had gotten excited about CL on the basis of older cuts, wherein there was a good Celtic/rock fusion.
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Beck - Missing
(Mar 22, 2007 - 11:08) | How can this be the same guy who did "Perdedor"?
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Pink Floyd - Fat Old Sun
(Mar 22, 2007 - 10:39) | The camellia lady in the opera who is dying of emphysema or whatever the heck it was sounded a lot more alive than this wimp singing. Maybe that is why Pink Floyd had mostly instrumental songs? Till I heard this one, I had thought I was a PF fan. 
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Euphoria - Delirium
(Mar 22, 2007 - 09:40) | Does this qualify as "shoegazer" music???
If so, remarkable how it has waked me up o/a/o its musical tightness and masterful structure, its clever use of instruments coming in and out . . . Its choice of instruments . . . But especially the sneaky entrances and exits. I really admire these musicians' talent on structure and instruments. I might have to buy their album! The more I listen, the more it fascinates me!! How amazing that such a quiet song can make a listener so much more alert than before!   
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Kaki King - Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers
(Mar 22, 2007 - 09:36) | I was listening but I couldn't hear it, it was so unnotable. When I awoke, I saw the cut's very provocative title. Another case of an extraneous part superior to the song itself (as with the Spoon album cover). 
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Spoon - The Delicate Place
(Mar 22, 2007 - 09:30) | The monotony is putting me to sleep. The beat is good and so is the drumming, but the singing has neither tunefulness nor emotion--though the part with the two voices is good. I am trying to like it, but I keep dozing off. No, it really is boring and the singers are pedestrian.
The album cover is beautiful, evocative, striking. Maybe other songs than this go better with the cover. 
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Bruce Springsteen - The River
(Mar 22, 2007 - 09:25) | This is a heartbreaking song . . . o/a/o the brokenness and emotion so strong in the vocals, the authentic feeling overcoming the few tonal problems . . . The lyrics, prosaic and nonrhyming to the point of amazing, do just what Bruce wants them to do--hit the hearer between the eyes. This is a case of form truly following content . . . The glove so perfectly fits the hand.
I will bet that the listeners who pan this song are all can't-turn-off-political-critiqueing high-T types. They miss out on most of what I think makes life worthwhile, even if I agree with their politics. Being constantly in the analytical side of your brain hurts nobody more than you.
I have never heard any other rocker try to fill Springsteen's niche. The only reason--the only time--one would need to try is when Bruce ceases to create and perform.
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Natalie Merchant - San Andreas Fault
(Mar 21, 2007 - 18:39) | CBJr wrote: Not a fan. :puke: Me neither neither neither. Glad this came on so I could vote it a 1. See, ya gotta find the positive aspect of everythin', right?
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Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
(Mar 21, 2007 - 18:38) | Waybo wrote: Love this song. Probably my favorite Stones album. One of the Stones' worst renditions of a song so overplayed that I cannot tell which level of poor I would place it in.
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Sam & Dave - Soul Man
(Mar 21, 2007 - 18:37) | KevDogRedux wrote: I heard Sam Moore interviewed on NPR. He claims to have always hated this song and having to sing it. I hate it too, and I am thrilled to hear it here so I could give it a 1!
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Guadalcanal Diary - Sleepers, Awake
(Mar 21, 2007 - 17:56) | Sorry I missed hearing this, just barely . . . There is another song by this title that I love . . . Could it be the same?
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Thievery Corporation - Amerimacka (Feat Notch)
(Mar 21, 2007 - 17:31) | hippiechick wrote: Miss Liberty turn inna Jazabelle
All the dreams you go sell, de whole dem turn inna hell
Her bed of roses are filled with thorns
Her righteous robes are tattered and torn
If she had only stood for love, that would have been enough
She wouldn't have to hide her shame
If she had only stood for love, that would have been enough
But now she's burnt us all with her flames
Amerimacka, oh what a beautiful life
Amerimacka, is like licking honey off a knife
Amerimacka, oh what a beautiful sight
Amerimacka, don't be blinded by the light
The land of the free built on slavery
Our consciousness in captivity
Promise land is the liar's den
Your culture of greed has got to end
Now we're laying in the mud, looking up above
Tear wather just ah drop from the sky
They try to keep us in the mud, separating us from love
But me nah go let dem conquer de I
Amerimacka, oh what a beautiful life
Amerimacka, is like licking honey off a knife
Amerimacka, oh what a beautiful sight
Amerimacka, don't be blinded by the light
Thanks for providing the words.
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Tom Petty - Square One
(Mar 21, 2007 - 17:14) | ArbiterOfGoodTaste wrote: Hi, my name is Luka. I live upstairs from you. Yeah, I think you've seen me before... Wait, wait, don't tell me--Tom Petty is being beaten by his woman behind closed doors? Isn't that what the Martina McBride song was about (with genders reversed)? Did I get your point?
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Tom Petty - Square One
(Mar 21, 2007 - 17:12) | Normally a Tom Petty fan, I find this one way too whiny. The words, strangely enough, belie his vocal quality--quite puzzling. Can you have confidence in the words while ignoring the sound conveying them? A conundrum. (Anything I cannot stand, it's a whiny man. )  
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Cream - Those Were the Days
(Mar 21, 2007 - 16:39) | Can't all the superexcited Cream fans get together and have a party? Where are most of us from?
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John Kongos - Tokoloshe Man
(Mar 21, 2007 - 16:22) | pannaramma wrote: You got my vote. Jeez- really bad. Please try again when you are in a different mood--rebellious, cranky, ready to cut loose after an uptight day in a tightlaced office with unimaginative accountant types! You might feel differently!
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Deep Forest - Sweet Lullaby
(Mar 21, 2007 - 16:14) | DownHomeGirl wrote:This sounds like Ewoks singing. 
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Poco - A Good Feelin' to Know
(Mar 21, 2007 - 16:11) | daveesh wrote: holy crap! this is freakin horrible!
Well, it isn't the best that Poco ever did. But you have to give them credit for being at the forefront of rock-music/country-music crossover, right?
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Euphoria - Fire In The Hole
(Mar 21, 2007 - 15:17) | cosinus wrote: Who is it who is doing the impressive sliding on the guitar strings here?
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The Doors - I Can't See Your Face In My Mind
(Mar 21, 2007 - 15:00) | Dayglow wrote: It's always nice to see some Doors that doesn't get the airplay of some of their other songs. Change is good.
True. Almost makes me want to move to California.
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Beck - The New Pollution
(Mar 21, 2007 - 14:17) | AphidA wrote: Good old Beck.
(I can't believe this is 10 years old!!!)
Whaddya mean "old"??? Heard of Jeff Beck?
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Beck - The New Pollution
(Mar 21, 2007 - 14:15) | This can't be the famous Beck described below! can it? The singing is totally without tune and the horns are pointless and the drums are monotonous.
It can't be that famous guy! I like that song, "Loser"! Can this awful cut really be by this person? Also, what about the fact that I heard he committed suicide? Can't find a word about it by Googling . . .
Beck Hansen, the quintessential California slacker, came up among the lo-fi ranks, pushing a blend of country blues, Dylan-inspired wordplay, punk, and hip-hop. His straight-out-of-the-gate 1994 smash, "Loser," made him a star seemingly overnight. Subsequent recordings found him alternately accumulating even more disparate influences in his "mess-thetic" approach (Prince, tropicalia, psychedelia) and scaling down for the occasional back-to-the-roots lo-fi album. He is recognized as one of the preeminent singer-songwriters of his generation.
Biographyb. Beck Hansen, 8 July 1970, Los Angeles, California, USA. Hansen rose swiftly to prominence in 1994 with his exhilarating marriage of folk (Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie) and guitar noise. As a child he loitered around his bluegrass street musician father, living with his office-worker mother and half-brother in some of Los Angeles' worst addresses, picking up on the city's nascent hip-hop scene as a breakdancer. He also spent time in Kansas with his grandmother and Presbyterian preacher grandfather, and with his other grandfather, the artist Al Hansen, in Europe. His guitar-playing, however, was primarily inspired by the blues of Mississippi John Hurt, which he would deliver with improvised lyrics while busking. After dropping out of school at 16 he moved to New York, though he was unable to join in with the local punk scene. On his return to Los Angeles he played his first gigs in-between sets at clubs such as Raji's and Jabberjaw.
His music was now a potpourri of those diverse early influences--street hip-hop, Delta blues, Presbyterian hymns, punk with scat lyrics--and the whole was beginning to take shape as he released his first single, "MTV Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack," the title of which would be made ironic by his future success in that very medium. This was followed by a 12-inch for Los Angeles independent Bong Load Custom Records, entitled "Loser," produced with hip-hop technician Karl Stephenson. Those who might try retrospectively to read something sardonic into this title should be reminded that Beck was, at the time, living in a rat-infested shed: "I was working in a video store doing things like alphabetizing the pornography section for minimum wage." When "Loser" was finally released after a year's delay in the summer of 1993, critics fell over themselves to cite it as an anthem for doomed youth. Vaulted into the pop charts, Beck was suddenly viewed as a baby-faced saviour for the "slacker" generation, a platform he was most unwilling to mount: "I never had any slack. I was working a $4-an-hour job trying to stay alive. I mean, that slacker kind of stuff is for people who have the time to be depressed about everything."
The major labels swooped for his signature. Geffen Records won possibly the most competitive chase for an artist in a decade, though not before David Geffen had telephoned Beck at home, and the artist had already set in motion two more independent records--"Steve Threw Up" for Bong Load and a 10-nch album, A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, on Fingerpaint Records. Despite this, the contract with Geffen was highly unusual in that it allowed Beck to record and release material for other companies should he wish - a right he took delight in exercising. The Mellow Gold debut for Geffen was only one of three albums scheduled for release in 1994. The second, Stereo Pathetic Soul Manure, appeared on LA's Flipside independent, and the third, a collaboration with Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening, emerged on K Records.
Odelay was Beck's next major release in the spring of 1996, and was an outstanding record of great depth and multiple layers. The album reaped numerous Album Of The Year awards in the music press and spawned five successful singles, including "Where It's At" and a Noel Gallagher (Oasis) remix of "Devil's Haircut." His major-label followup Mutations was planned for release on Bong Load, but its downbeat charms were still impressive for what was effectively a stopgap collection. Beck returned to the mix-and-match style of Odelay on 1999"s soul-influenced Midnite Vultures, but following a successful tour to promote the album he entered an unusually quiet period. His return to the studio was typically adventurous, teaming up with producer Nigel Goodrich to record an album of introspective, acoustic-based material. Universally praised on release, Sea Change confirmed Beck as without doubt one of America's most original musical talents.
DISCOGRAPHY: A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight 10-inch album (Fingerpaint 1993)**, Golden Feelings (Sonic Enemy 1993)**, Mellow Gold (Geffen 1994)****, Stereo Pathetic Soul Manure (Flipside 1994)**, One Foot In The Grave 1993 recording (K Records 1995)**, Odelay (Geffen 1996)****, Mutations (Geffen 1998)***, Midnite Vultures (Geffen 1999)***, Sea Change (Geffen 2002)****.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Beck! On A Backwards River: The Story Of Beck, Rob Jovanovic. Beck: The Art Of Mutation, Nevin Martell. Beck: Lord Only Knows, Steve Hamer.
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Led Zeppelin - Nobody's Fault But Mine
(Mar 21, 2007 - 13:43) | Can't discern a tune, but the guitar virtuosity is like . . . Arnold Schwarzenegger with barbells . . . a space shuttle blasting off the pad . . . I don't know what to compare it to, but the sheer physical challenge is incredible to imagine.
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Alice Russell - High Up On The Hook
(Mar 21, 2007 - 13:31) | Too bad I turned RP off after this piece, I could have heard The Shins for the first time. Why did I not want to hear this cut? Here's why:
UNDER THE MUNKA MOON II
Alice Russell
CD
Genres : Soul R&B & Gospel
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Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running
(Mar 21, 2007 - 12:23) | Sometimes mixtures sit side by side in the same dish without ever blending. Especially when too many incompatible spices are used. As in cookery, so in music.
Singing on key would have helped too. :puke: This really does not work. Sorry to have to give it the barf bag. There.
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Mothers of Invention - Trouble Every Day
(Mar 21, 2007 - 12:10) | Johray63 wrote: http://www.omroep.nl/nps/radio/4FM/zappa/
Dear Johray 63: The link you gave us is dead. What did you mean for us to be getting?
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Bob Marley - So Much Trouble In The World
(Mar 21, 2007 - 12:01) | Knowledgeable persons: Please give us summary info and/or links to educate us about the time signature of reggae. Also your opinion about its immediate antecedent and its first child. Thank you.
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Mothers of Invention - Trouble Every Day
(Mar 21, 2007 - 11:54) | This is the cleverest set I have enjoyed on RP--maybe because I love this song so much. (All that phony stuff on sports and all the unconfirmed reports . . . that dirty rotten box . . . Great for TV-haters from all the eras since its beginning!) If you start back three songs with the Allman Brothers' "Trouble No More," you will see the connection nexus of the "trouble" theme, Allman Brothers, Mothers of Invention, and I believe it was the John Butler Trio, which I didn't hear, singing another song on the theme . . . . Oh, yes, then there is the connection from "rats" in this song to the album "Hot Rats."
Speaking of "Rats!"--that is my comment on the huge change of pace taking place now. I like Sara McLachlan fine, but we did need a hiatus between "Trouble Every Day" and her! Maybe the former DJ in me is irrepressibly seeping through . . or jumping up. Down, boy! Down!
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Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
(Mar 21, 2007 - 11:46) | Did the Allman Brothers' "Trouble No More" come first or did the Frank Zappa song with the same memorable central riff precede?
If the former, was Zappa satirizing and intentionally ripping off? If the latter . . . No, the Allman Bros. ripping Zappa off is unthinkable.
Please somebody, some rock-trivia fanatic, help out here. This has been bothering me for many years!
When I Googled, I found a discussion questioning resemblance between the Zappa song and another one at the following Radio Paradise page: John Butler Trio - Zebra (where you can find the title of the Zappa cut, to preclude my having to give it). Since I have never heard the John Butler Trio song, I can only say "the mystery deepens."
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Depeche Mode - Precious
(Mar 21, 2007 - 09:06) | Was really high on this song until I began hearing it at least once a day. Overplaying can ruin an otherwise good cut!
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Breaks Co-op - The Sound Inside
(Mar 21, 2007 - 09:05) | Many thanks to Amazon and DebateG for their contribution of the lyrics. This song makes chills run up and down my arms. The subjective reaction to music is what really counts. This one gave me frissons.
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Sly and the Family Stone - Dance To The Music
(Mar 19, 2007 - 06:46) | Never liked "soul" as a genre, never listed this group as a favorite, normally hate horns . . . BUT this song, with all its shrieks and horns, all its scatting, really really works artistically, because the elements mean what they say, are all on key, are placed tightly, and are done seamlessly.
If I were to rate this, I would give it an 8 some days and a 9 other days. All that despite the extreme overplay it has gotten since it burst onto the music scene.
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Keb Mo - She Just Wants To Dance
(Mar 19, 2007 - 06:42) | The whole set, including Keb Mo, exemplifies "Songs That Talk About Dancing But Make You Want To Slump Instead" . . . If you are going to repeat lyrics ad nauseam, at least make them worthwhile.
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The Kinks - Come Dancing
(Mar 19, 2007 - 06:41) | Hearing The Kinks sing fake-Jamaic on that other cut was plenty, and was better there. This is a waste of time, not exciting Kinks but extremely boring Kinks. The whole set, including Keb Mo, exemplifies "Songs That Talk About Dancing But Make You Want To Slump Instead" . . . If you are going to repeat lyrics ad nauseam, at least make them worthwhile.
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David Bowie - Let's Dance
(Mar 19, 2007 - 06:34) | kazuma wrote: This is one of those rare cases where I prefer the abridged version of a song. That lunatic horn bit near the end doesn't really add anything for me. Yes it is irritating, the song is way too long, and it doesn't even make me want to dance. Consign it to the dustbin of Paradise, please.
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Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
(Mar 15, 2007 - 13:49) | Kite_Flyer wrote: Just not a fan of Tracy's sound.
Funny Story: I had to bring my kids to the record store and show them a Chapman CD after they heard her on the radio, to prove to them that this was NOT sung by a man.
That's not so much funny as obvious and normal. While I'm here, would one of the several who lauded the lyrics please reproduce them for us here so that those of us who could not figger 'em out can judge for ourselves? My best guess is that they are about a sad and despairing life . . .
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Rickie Lee Jones - Running From Mercy
(Mar 15, 2007 - 13:27) | iMacomania wrote:
Me too! :puke:
I found parts of it quite pretty! The only problem is when we hear from the main vocalist, who sounds as though she is about to heave. But again, only part of the time. I am becoming more and more liberal, I see!
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Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye
(Mar 15, 2007 - 11:24) | rachlan wrote:
Yeah, years ago asked someone for the CD for my birthday, and had that grave disappointment. oh well. Guess I wasn't alone.
Me three. Last year I got on a binge and bought every album of every group that every member of The Bangles was ever in . . . and this particular album had few if any good cuts. This is another case of repetition of a poor line of text not improving it.
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R.L. Burnside - It's Bad You Know
(Mar 15, 2007 - 10:53) | She ast me why . . . I jest went on an tole her . . . She ast me why . . . I jest went on an tole her . . . She ast me why . . . I jest went on an tole her . . . She ast me why . . . I jest went on an tole her . . . She ast me why . . . I jest went on an tole her . . . Not very informative, but indeed repetitive. And an amazing lack of energy. Especially when contrasted with the bopping song, by the Spencer Davis Group, that played after it. "It's Bad You Know" is aptly named.
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Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
(Mar 15, 2007 - 08:32) | Question for someone who knows: Isn't this the third remake of this song? It sure sounds like a cover cover.
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Dr. John - Let The Good Times Roll
(Mar 15, 2007 - 08:28) | mgkiwi wrote:A bit down beat - sounds like it needs revving up a bit - I feel like the 'Jerk' can't quite click my fingers to this! 
My favorite thing about this cut is how it delivers objectively upbeat lyrics with such morose singing and lugubrious instrumentation.
To me that constitutes an auditory irony. Either it's a funny and wry joke, or it is a depiction of a depressed mood in which one remembers having felt better and is trying to recapture that, but totally in vain.
Either I am reading a level of sophistication into this number that it doesn't meritor else no one else here sees it. OTOH, it's like poetry to me . . . If I get more out of it than the next person does and the teacher thinks I am reading more into it than it warrants, I am still having a better time intellectually or humorwise than the next guy! Whirled view! I like it!
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The Band - Up On Cripple Creek
(Mar 15, 2007 - 06:54) | The_Enemy wrote:
I think I read somewhere that the US Army court marshaled someone for playing this song to prisoners.
I like other Band songs but that one is just so awful.
Fortunately there was nothing sharp in my office or else I would have harmed myself during that song.
What redeeming social value exists in this song? It glorifies habitual drunkenness, denigrates women by sobriguet and function, and promotes codependency more than any other song I have ever heard. The "singing" is abysmal, sounds like little mastodonsstuck in a tarpit. I couldn't even begin to like any other songs by a group guilty of this one. One of the shameful blots on an otherwise mostly exemplary musical and social era . . .
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Modest Mouse - Dashboard
(Mar 07, 2007 - 13:56) | Sunman wrote:
I Just can't get on board either...tried, but can't.
Me three . . . For some of us, it is hard to disregard infelicitous and apparently inane naming.
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Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
(Mar 07, 2007 - 13:06) | kazuma wrote: 8:47 pm - Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
8:43 pm - Men At Work - Overkill
Interesting combo ... dreams and nightmares. Which is which? Better singing than that of Hootie and the Blowfish. There, I found something positive to say!
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The Kinks - Tired Of Waiting For You
(Mar 02, 2007 - 12:30) | timrd wrote: would rather here "I am not like everyone else"....which was played at the end of a Soprano episode two years ago.
"I'm Not Like Everybody Else" . . . I have never watched The Sopranos, but I understand it is a TV show about the Mafia. When you are in a mob like that, how can you not be like everybody else, at least everybody else in your subculture? I resent the TV show's misuse of the song. There is something amazingly uniform about criminality, it seems to me.
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The Romantics - What I Like About You
(Mar 02, 2007 - 10:27) | ajl_mo wrote: This tune is like chocolate covered caramel popcorn with powdered sugar sprinkled on it. Sure too much is bad for you, but once or twice a year it's indescribably good.
You have a nice way with words. I agree except I would change the caramel to peppermint and add some tiny marshmallows . . .
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Dire Straits - Skateaway
(Mar 02, 2007 - 10:20) | JesseDewey wrote: Does anyone else hear a Lou reed influence?
I certainly do hear it in this cut . . . and yet, not once have I failed to know that a song was by Dire Straits. This band's ability to set itself apart seems to be equal parts vocal and instrumental.
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Harvey Mandel - Wade In The Water
(Mar 02, 2007 - 09:44) | Maybe this is only thrilling in the gut for those who are internally singing the lyrics at the same time. I adore those lyrics, have done so since childhood, so to have the song introduced into rock music in any way does turn me on.  
Despite my admiration for the folk song this is based on, I am able to groove and groove to the electronicized riffing, especially the moving from one speaker to the other. Maybe I will have a square of chocolate (my drug substitute) and keep on nodding my head . . . Oh boy, now it's getting even better!
Excuse the 1970 terminology!
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Michael Franti and Spearhead - Light Up Ya Lighter
(Mar 02, 2007 - 09:25) | Nice reggae beat. Do not like the meaningless background vocal emissions, but the xylophonelike instrument sounded very pretty. Interesting tendentious lyrics . . . "the war on terror is a war on peace" . . . Well, that is simply insane on its face. If only there were a way to give the radical Muslims some serenity pills. Then the nations they inhabit could reach greater success by means of grants from international organizations. Just imagine, if the Western forces no longer experienced roadside bombs and IEDs at all and instead only got signs on the road and messages from the governments saying, "Thank you and goodbye!" Then the Left and the Right could both save face when we retreated (the Libertarians wouldn't care about that). I cannot figure out how to eradicate the insanity of radical Islam at all, but I can tell that "the war on terror is a war on peace" is a modern-day equivalent of several phrases in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. That was one of the greatest semi-SF novels of all time. That and Animal Farm. Four legs GOOD, two legs be-e-e-e-tt-e-r!
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Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
(Feb 22, 2007 - 12:26) | chasech5 wrote: Its a great cover version. I think John Cale's live version with solo piano is the best one--Buckley's voice is a little thin and a little young for the sentiments. This is why Cale and Cohen are better suited for it. Don't know if Johnny Cash ever did it, but he comes to mind as well. This is a song sung best by an older, more strained and ratty voice--one who sounds like s/he has experienced the issues referenced in the lyrics. But its a nice version and well-produced.
This comment was so good I felt no need to write a fresh one, just to recycle this person's insights, with boldfacing.
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Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
(Feb 22, 2007 - 12:24) | maryte wrote:
I agree. But I think we're in the minority.
I agree with you too.
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2raumwohnung - Ich Weiß Warum
(Feb 22, 2007 - 09:46) | Du meine Guete! Nun doch *endlich* etwas aus dem tollen deutschen Rockkulturgut!
Thank goodness! At last a selection from the treasure trove that is the German rock scene!
The singer has excellent clear enunciation!
Now why don't you try to put on some of the better cuts of Subway to Sally, a blockbuster German Celtic-hard-mystery-rock group? Amazing album art, too.
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Traffic - Glad
(Nov 13, 2006 - 05:55) | Who hears "I'm in With the In Crowd"?
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Sniff 'n' The Tears - Driver's Seat
(Nov 13, 2006 - 05:44) | 67nj wrote:
I like the synchronization of the bearded guy and the dancing bananas (turns out that the bananas are slower than the beat; can that be fixed?)! Thank you, posters!
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The Who - Amazing Journey/Sparks
(Nov 06, 2006 - 11:19) | Interesting combination of songs, but the sweet and soft delivery makes me sad; this should be rambunctious and hard-driving! Those renditions are better, for rock-lovers.
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James McMurtry - Walk Between the Raindrops
(Nov 06, 2006 - 09:55) | Why not investigate James McMurtry further? Others like him are great on an album called something like Great Texas Singer-Songwriters, on Sugar Hill Records.
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Afro Celt Sound System - Life Begin Again (w/ Robert Plant)
(Oct 06, 2006 - 13:38) | Someone wrote that this is "one of their worst songs" and another wrote that the influence is Arabic, not Indian. I think that it is remarkably good for a "worst" song, and I have liked Arabian influences in rock ever since Hard Rock From the Middle East, one of my favorite old albums.
It seems that many commenters like the idea but not the cut. I found the concept of Afro-Celt yecchy (high-level musicological terminology), but I found this piece intriguing . . . ! Somebody implied on another song that I was broadening my musical horizons in spite of myself. Guess it's true.
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James McMurtry - Levelland (live)
(Oct 06, 2006 - 13:04) | 1) ChicoCyclist seems to have definitively settled a long-running subjective disagreement b/m/o an appeal to objective realities. Bravo (or brava, perhaps)!
2) James McMurtry is a hybrid, not a "country" musician. His lyrics are ruminative and complex ballads, and the sound is representative of the mood he wants to convey.
I learned about him and Jim White here on RP, and one of the most ear-opening CDs I ever bought was the one that presents a "new generation" of Texas singer-songwriters--something like Best of Texas Singer-Songwriters on Sugar Hill records. I have forgotten how I found it, but there is a lot to like at sugarhillrecords.com, which I looked at before posting this. Enjoy the discoveries, friends.
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Stereophonics - Dakota
(Oct 06, 2006 - 12:43) | coding_to_music wrote:
This is an adorable and funny visual accompaniment to this repetitive song! It seems that the kitten has been drugged into endless pushups by the endless, hypnotic monotony . . . . !
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Jim White - Static On the Radio
(Oct 06, 2006 - 12:39) | Re trumpets: I read some others' comments . . . someone else besides me thinks trumpets superfluous, and that in a song where I failed to notice them! I must be slipping!
Re the music and vocals: I failed to note that this song does have poetic and mysterious lyrics. Sometimes the substrate does prevent one from noting the center of the geode (geologists, please correct me).
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Jim White - Static On the Radio
(Oct 06, 2006 - 12:33) | Please play some of Jim White's musically intriguing, lyrically ambiguous, emotionally gut-wrenching songs to show him at his best. This may be his only song that some people have ever heard--and that would be a pity.
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John Scofield - A Go Go
(Oct 06, 2006 - 12:18) | I didn't really listen at first . . . then I began to wonder about it . . . I couldn't quite place it. I knew it wasn't rock or folk or blues or country or R&B or hip-hop . . . so I looked at the AMG link. By golly, it is that rarity, jazz music that I actually like!
Thank you, Stes!
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Patty Griffin - Carry Me
(Oct 06, 2006 - 11:15) | meloman wrote:
You needn't apologize, but I would like to know WHY you chose to rate this song "sucko-barfo."
meloman wrote the above in response to another listener. Personally, I agree with the person who wrote that Patty Griffin deserves more respect in the industry.
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Björk - Come To Me
(Oct 06, 2006 - 11:09) | SinBlossom wrote: If asked what sort of music Victoria's Secret plays in their stores, I wouldn't have had Bjork high on the list. Hearing this song took me back to when I worked there and heard a tape with this on it on an infinite loop for six months straight. It is etched into my brain, and I didn't even know it til now. Thanks, RP, for showing me my scars!
Some really nice writing, lady!
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Donovan - Catch The Wind
(Oct 06, 2006 - 11:05) | The positive comments below--I simply echo them, because Why reinvent the wheel? My difficulty now is whether to rate it 9 or 10.     
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The Wailin' Jennys - Long Time Traveller
(Oct 06, 2006 - 09:45) | I love love love love love love love love love this incredibly sensitive interweaving of a cappella simplicity. I just want to disappear and be reborn insite this nexus of harmonic voices. The auditory equivalent of a Hawaiian rainbow, an Atlantic September sunset, a kaleidoscope, time-lapse photography of an exotic flower blossoming . . . words fail me now. Existence itself might equate to the degree to which I love this sound.     
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Elvis Costello - Peace, Love and Understanding
(Oct 03, 2006 - 07:14) | I don't know how serious he is about "Peace, Love, and Understanding," or whether he really believes that such are attainable on a large scale, but either way, he can't sing and shouldn't try. Again the attractiveness of his voice for me mirrors the value of his lyrics to me.
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Coldplay - Clocks
(Oct 03, 2006 - 06:55) | Steven_G wrote:
You make it sound like that was a long time ago. Actually, for you, I suppose it was. Hook came out in 1991 when you were but 10 years old. For me, it wasn't that long ago. I was 36 at the time. Seems like just yesterday.
Matter of fact, when you were born (1981 going by your RP profile), I was busy helping keep the country free as a 26 year old working on USAF jet aircraft in Britain.
By the way - you don't have to be so insulting when you make your remarks about fellow RPers.
Steven, 1) you are so right about polite discourse; 2) you are but a spring chicken, not old at all unless you feel that way; 3) you are appreciated by those who have never been in military but whose peaceful lives are enabled by your selfless and courageous service!
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Spacehog - In The Meantime
(Oct 03, 2006 - 06:51) | GNGRBRDMN wrote: Always liked this. Never understood what he was saying though, so I decided to look up the lyrics just now.
No wonder...
"Then all is well and well was all for all..."
"We love the all the all of you..."
What the hell is that? Worst lyrical grammar ever.
Thank you for doing the work for the rest of us. This group is a great segue from Steve Earle, because it is only slightly more tuneful and the nasal "singing" is only slightly better. And again, isn't it funny how so often the indecipherable lyrics are hardly worth reading except as oddities of a possibly drug-induced haze. Sorry, folks, now I will be quiet till I hear something I like.
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Steve Earle - Transcendental Blues
(Oct 03, 2006 - 06:46) | I agree with Patty Ann and Relayer. It's funny how so far when I think the voice is good and I can understand the lyrics, I can also resonate with the world view. This nasal monotony is distasteful. Any man on the street might do better vocally. And I failed to recognize any tune or structure. Sorry, I need both tune and structure to call a piece "music."
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David Bowie - Heroes (single mix)
(Sep 29, 2006 - 12:52) | This is more monotonous and vocally irritating than others by him. Too bad, the subject might be interesting.
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The Band - Chest Fever
(Sep 29, 2006 - 09:45) | hippiechick wrote: This is the song I was trying to think of while Bach was playing! Perfect segue!
Yes, and the preceding three cuts were so well chosen too!
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J.S. Bach - Toccata in D minor
(Sep 29, 2006 - 09:44) | sutcliff wrote:Quicksilver Messenger Service to Audioslave to Bach....I just love RP!
What do you think of the followup selection, The Band's "Chest Fever"? Bill really is a master, isn't he?
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J.S. Bach - Toccata in D minor
(Sep 29, 2006 - 09:42) | The change of pace was electrifying and clever. The organ's quality, though, is not rich enough for my taste. And I would have liked to hear the fugue too.
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Jim White - Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi
(Sep 29, 2006 - 09:39) | hippiechick wrote: I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi.
My girlfriend blows a boozy good-bye kiss.
I see flying squirrels and nightmares of stigmata.
Then awakening to find my Trans-Am gone.
Still, I'm feeling pretty good about the future.
Yeah, everything is peaches but the cream.
I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi,
where things is always better than they seem.
Things is always better than they seem.
I see the guitar that my cousin played in prison,
floating with the tv in the swimming pool.
I'm calling for the owner of the motel,
then noticing the bloodstain on the door.
I'm reaching for the shoes under the bushes,
just in time to hear the sirens sing.
I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi,
where things is always better than they seem.
Things is always better than they seem.
You know freedom's just a stupid superstition,
'cause life's a highway that you travel blind.
It's true that having fun's a terminal addiction.
What good is happiness, when it's just a state of mind?
For in the prison of perpetual emotion,
we're all shackled to the millstone of our dreams.
Me, I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi,
where things is always better than they seem.
Things are always better than they seem.
Sincere thanks. These lyrics prove my point, and this is just one of the amazing cuts on the CD.
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Jim White - Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi
(Sep 29, 2006 - 09:35) | This man Jim White is a unique, deep, dark artist of melancholy and intrigue in the backwoods, in remote areas that most of us listeners are distant from. For their own benefit, I beg the kneejerk critics who dismiss him as "country" to reconsider. His songs are ballads, complex and hauntingly psychological. Maybe not to the level of those we find collected by Cecil Sharpe or Francis J. Child . . . but I am glad I bought the album. I suggest that people who like the dramas of William Shakespeare and Eugene O'Neill especially listen to the whole CD. (All aside from White's amazingly controlled voice, which he deliberately uses for dramatic effect. Also aside from the fact that his songs have tunes and yet are not simple. Also aside from the great command of the instruments, with banjo more delicate than most often heard.)
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Doc Watson - Windy and Warm
(Sep 29, 2006 - 08:58) | Brilliant, beautiful, crisp, flawless guitar playing! What a joy to listen to this master. . . . . . . Had to do some work. Did someone add horns to this song at the end? Maybe it was the beginning of the next song. Work distracted me from paying close attention.
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Miles Davis - Concierto De Aranjuez
(Sep 29, 2006 - 07:58) | hippiechick wrote: I just can't relate to this kind of music. Me neither. And you may not like the followup much better--unless you are in the mood for jazz drumming. Personally I find drums less offensive than horns, so I think we are going uphill now.
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Miles Davis - Concierto De Aranjuez
(Sep 29, 2006 - 07:55) | DragonslayerJS wrote: Sounds to me like a puddle of notes, not going anywhere.
Some people just dislike the meandering of jazz and the pushiness of jazz brass instruments. Maybe this will finally stop and there might be some other genre.
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Quicksilver Messenger Service - Who Do You Love
(Sep 11, 2006 - 10:56) | passsion8 wrote: When I was in 9th grade back in the 70's, I was put up to showing how"cool" I was by some upperclassmen. I went in to the local hardware store, that also doubled as our town's music store, and stuffed 5 albums up under my sweater. Didn't even look who they were. They ended up being:
Bloodrock
Steeleye Span - Below the Salt
Gentle Giant
Amazing Blondel
& Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails
All (minus the Bloodrock) proved to influence me in immeasurable ways, including veering away from top 40 pop, especially the latter. I think it didn't leave my turntable for weeks - stunning CalRock from that era. I just bought the CD last month.
FYI: As for the upperclassmen, 2 ended up spending 2 years in prison for theft and one died in a cocaine rubout in Florida. I got the cool tunes, one of the guys girlfriends, and turned my back on crime.
If you *had* to steal, you were too darned lucky. QMS was amazing, Steeleye Span was so great, and I am quite vexed that after all this time I only discovered Amazing Blondel last week! That album is worth a mint, probably. I only know what I read on AMG, have never heard them, but know I love them. I have not seen a price lower than $25 for any of their recordings!
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The Cure - Letter to Elise
(Sep 11, 2006 - 10:29) | Shesdifferent wrote:Ditto, there has been ALOT of Cure played on RP in the last week or so ?????
These two listeners and jah_blessed have good points. The "melody" is just a monotonous sort of up and down and the singing voices have a wobbly, palatonasal whininess . . . This group has done better.
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The Wailin' Jennys - Starlight
(Sep 06, 2006 - 07:16) | I surely do agree. This is another group of which I now hope to collect all. Thank you for the astute music-appreciation comment!
toker wrote:I love this group. Not only for the lyrics of their songs and the fine instrumental accompaniments, but also for the sweetness of their vocal harmonies. Try focusing while you're listening to the Jenny that is singing alto. You'll hear much more happening than if you focus on the melody...
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James McMurtry - Safe Side
(Jun 19, 2006 - 13:12) | adunn wrote:
the hole is for washing washing blood, vomit, spilt booze off the floor :-|
James McMurtry seems to have a special niche depicting dark, menacing subcultures far from the experiences of most of us who are writing and listening here. I would rather hear lives of fear sung about than experience same. I do not perceive his attitude as being one of superiority. It seems to me that his goal is to convey look-over-your-shoulder lives in which someone is menaced . . . in a tone of warning. Who else does exactly that? Who else does that with such original turns of phrase (yes, you may cite Bob Dylan!).
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Rickie Lee Jones - We Belong Together
(May 24, 2006 - 14:05) | Sorry to hear that, since I keep giving it a 1 whenever I am unlucky enough to hear it.
mojoman wrote:
Well said. Eddie Brickell hadn't even been born when Rickie Lee started her career. This is by far the best of her output.
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Depeche Mode - Dream On
(May 23, 2006 - 11:17) | To the knowledgeable ones: Would each of you care to write at this page your top two favorite Depeche Mode songs, and what album(s) they are on?
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Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond
(May 23, 2006 - 09:18) | How many minutes long is this "rich aural landscape" (musical selection), exactly?
Would like to get all my Pink Floyd-loving old companions together in one room sometime before we lose our hearing and fall apart. Where are you, guys?
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The Cars - Dangerous Type
(May 23, 2006 - 09:16) | geotrash wrote: This tune is painfully repetitive. But it's got a tune! Unlike Portishead's "A Tribute To Monk & Canatella."
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Portishead - A Tribute To Monk & Canatella
(May 23, 2006 - 09:14) | sciphex wrote: Few things are worse than whiney girl rock voices like this... . . . except the irritating, superfluous horns, which are equally responsible for the ruination of the song. Oh, and not to forget--the lack of any tune!
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Morphine - Cure For Pain
(May 23, 2006 - 08:26) | Is the baritone saxophone the only brass instrument on this song, or is there another as well?
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Zwan - Friends as Lovers
(May 19, 2006 - 08:51) | sasa1170 wrote: Please no more of this song, too much rotation! Yes, and parrothead is also right. Who told this guy he could sing???
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Joe Satriani - Oriental Melody
(May 17, 2006 - 12:17) | Enjoy a name like Satriani performing music like this. Who is the great violinist? My only complaint is that this piece is soporificizing. 
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Loreena McKennitt - The Mummers Dance
(May 17, 2006 - 12:06) | William Butler Yeats and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, are two of my favorite poets . . . The instrumentation is always great, but it is hard to make out the words. My thanks to the listener who pointed out that Yeats and Tennyson texts were involved.
Anyone know of international Yeats or Tennyson fan clubs?
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The Wailin' Jennys - One Voice
(Apr 03, 2006 - 15:42) | The voices have a healing quality! I guess I have to get this CD too. As to the guy below to whose eyes it brings tears, good for you! I echo all the kudos below!
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Steely Dan - Aja
(Apr 03, 2006 - 13:44) | physicsgenius is so good at insults that I stole--er, borrowed, one of his from another song to put here! Hey, talent is talent, why should I reinvent the wheel? " . . . this one is like biting your tongue. You notice when it happens, and it is not pleasant, especially the 3rd, 10th, 50th time. It just gets worse every time."
Sad to say, I have never heard a Steely Dan song that I could stand.
To class SD as "rock" is not right, IMHO. Read this:
Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Most rock & roll bands are a tightly wound unit that developed their music through years of playing in garages and clubs around their hometown. Steely Dan never subscribed to that aesthetic. As the vehicle for the songwriting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan defied all rock & roll conventions. Becker and Fagen never truly enjoyed rock with their ironic humor and cryptic lyrics, their eclectic body of work shows some debt to Bob Dylan... Read More...
Then, also on AMG, you read that they are classed as "Genre Styles
Rock
Soft Rock
Pop/Rock
Jazz-Rock
Album Rock" . . . I agree with all of those designations, just take out the "Rock" word each time.
It's a good thing that jazz doesn't give me physical hives, just metaphysical ones!
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Deb Talan - Unraveling
(Apr 03, 2006 - 11:59) | Dianyla wrote: Voice is vaguely reminiscent of Beth Orton in spots.
I prefer this one's sound to that of Ani DeFranco or that of B.O. So am glad to be getting introduced to a talented Talan.
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Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon - Oh Well
(Apr 03, 2006 - 11:58) | Metropolis_Pt_2 wrote: Nice playing, didn't like too much the lyrics
Hey, what lyrics? I missed them. They took up a tiny percentage of the time!
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Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
(Apr 03, 2006 - 11:00) | Folks' comments made me sorry I had missed it while AFK!! Somebody care to post a link?
Also, want to repost another listener's note:
This album came out (on vinyl) in ... 1985! Make that 20 years...
As to the various essays below, is this maybe the song with the most verbiage posted? Really interesting here!
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Sinéad O'Connor - Downpressor Man
(Apr 03, 2006 - 10:58) | Baby_M wrote:
It's things like this make me think maybe Germany got off a little light in 1945. Then I remember the sweet little expat Fraulein who works down the hall, and a lot of other German people I've known through the years, and what the nuns taught me about forgiveness and brotherhood and all that, and I realize you're not supposed to put people in categories like that.
Thank you for your gracious take. There is chagrin among some of us of German descent when just one person makes the rest look like raving lunatics. Please bear in mind that there are people like Stingray in every single country! IMHO, he is just adventitiously German.
As a U.S. citizen all my life, however, who did live in Germany a couple of times, I will agree that Germans who came after the WW2 generation tend to forget how the USA rescued them and to be ungrateful. French people and Italians ditto.
Of the geographically general Europeans (yes, I know that most Brits do not consider themselves that), at least Tony Blair has not forgotten what the USA did to save them. To me, that is so ironic, because the USA came to mother Britain's aid so darned late in the game. Is the moral that the more you do for people, the less grateful they are, and the less you do for people, the more grateful they are? Human nature is so complex and distressing.
Back to younger Germans of the past three decades, I perceived them as largely knee-jerk pacifists, and here is just one more. People who profess pacifism so violently simply torpedo their own case, don't they? At any rate, I just want to plead that each individual German be considered on his or her own merits. Some of us are rational, some of us believe in Ecclesiates 3:1-8.
If vituperation meets with gracious responses, as in this case mostly happened, the vituperator and those fulminated against are really shown in their proper light.
By the way, the phrase about making one's bed in hell is from the Psalms, 139:8, and it is about the impossibility of running away far enough to get away from God.
I want to thank my fellow U.S. citizens for their forbearance in this venue.
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Sinéad O'Connor - Downpressor Man
(Apr 03, 2006 - 10:37) | Interesting lyrics, and perhaps the penetrating, accusatory edge to the voice is the dramatic kick it needs, unpleasant though it be.
Now I have read others' comments. Wow, what a load of info and emotion!
I knew nothing of the Peter Tosh original, I missed hearing the bad language, and I was working on a document while listening. My ignorance allowed me to take a New Criticism view of the song. How lucky for me.
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Tim O'Brien & Darrell Scott - Walk Beside Me
(Apr 03, 2006 - 09:55) | The mandolin playing makes me feel like shedding a few tears. I like to shed tears now and then. The singing fits the song. The haunted, scary undercurrent really works for TIm and Darrell. Maybe you should play more of their work . . .  
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Talking Heads - (Nothing But) Flowers
(Apr 03, 2006 - 09:44) | Its beginning was so bad I had to turn it off. Maybe it gets better later in the song, but for me a song has to start out wonderfully for me to want to hear the rest. Maybe I am too demanding! (Joke!)
Out of remorse, I turned this song back on. It became worse and worse. These guys aren't Hispanic. The popping sound is irr . . . I don't dare finish the word.
In sum, the song is as charming to me as the album cover.
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AfroCelts - Cyberia
(Apr 03, 2006 - 09:13) | I wanted to echo the positive comments below, which I do agree with, but I find myself dozzzzzzinnnngggg offfff . . . .
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The New Pornographers - The Bones Of An Idol
(Apr 03, 2006 - 09:05) | This cut is pseudo-country for sure. Or did country-music stations play it?
In either case, if you liked this but want something better musically, give a listen to this:
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,1622132,00.html
and from www.popmatters.com/music/reviews:
Various Artists
From Hell to Breakfast: A Taste of Sugar Hill's Texas Singer-Songwriters
(Sugar Hill)
US release date: 5 February 2002
by Andrew Gilstrap
PopMatters Associate Music Editor
:. e-mail this article
:. print this article
:. comment on this article
Texas claims to be the best at a lot of things, and quite frankly, it annoys nearly every other state in the Union. One thing that's hard to argue with, though, is the stunning amount of songwriting talent the state produces. Maybe it's the flipside of Minnesota, where a thriving artistic community stems from the fact that, in the winters, there's little you can do besides sit in the basement and create. The wide open spaces of Texas and its border-influenced culture must do something similar to the heart and mind. Only Nashville rivals Texas for songwriting prowess, but only because everyone moves there from somewhere else.
Lyle Lovett's from Texas. So are Joe Ely, Willie Nelson, Radney Foster, and Freddy Fender. Nanci Griffith and Tish Hinojosa? Texas. Doug Sahm, Buddy Holly, and Waylon Jennings? Drinking Shiner Bock and raising a Texas flag in the hereafter. Roll the dice on any significant form of American songwriting, and Texas is likely to show its face.
The Sugar Hill label does a good job of documenting some of the depth and breadth of the Lone Star State's musical terrain. Offering up cuts from legends like Townes Van Zandt, obscure-but-seminal acts like Bad Livers, and up-and-coming artists like The Gourds, From Hell to Breakfast is a satisfying listen. At first, the song choices might seem a little strange -- with few exceptions, these are hardly each artist's best-known songs -- but they make sense after a while. "For the Sake of a Song" began Townes Van Zandt's career and "Snowin' on Raton" perfectly evokes a Texas winter. Terry Allen's "Gone to Texas" and The Gourds' "El Paso" have obvious Texas links, and Robert Earl Keen's "The Road Goes on Forever" (overplayed though it is) closes the disc in grand storytelling style.
In fact, storytelling is probably the disc's greatest theme. Folks like Guy Clark, James McMurtry (novelist Larry McMurtry's son but an accomplished artist in his own right), and Rodney Crowell definitely know how to inject the feel of the open road, the open plains, or an open seat at the bar with considerable skill. The artists on From Hell to Breakfast created a sub-genre all their own, so completely that imitators have left a bucket full of cliches in their wake. Perhaps that's why the Austin Lounge Lizards' "Old Blevins" works so well. Starting off like a poignant story-song about a wizened old man, the song quickly takes a different tack, summing up Blevins' wisdom as "blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah".
The stories on From Hell to Breakfast run the gamut from quiet meditations that are so private you feel like an intruder for hearing them, to honky tonk rave-ups that skewer their subjects with such gleeful precision that you can't help but laugh along. Van Zandt's "For the Sake of a Song" is so layered and subtle that only the passing of years and the accumulation of experiences help you get inside it, while no explanation is needed for Terry Allen's full-throttle Lone Star celebration "Amarillo Highway".
From Hell to Breakfast delivers exactly what it promises: a taste of some of the finest songwriting in Texas. Van Zandt, Allen, Keen, Clark, McMurtry, The Gourds, the Austin Lounge Lizards, and others have all found unique niches reflecting their home's reputation for individuality and self-reliance. If you're not familiar with many of these artists, expect From Hell to Breakfast to whet your appetite for the rest that they have to offer.
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Elvis Costello - Accidents Will Happen
(Apr 03, 2006 - 09:02) | If you like this but want better, try this:
Sugar Hill Records - The Best in Roots MusicFrom Hell To Breakfast: A Taste of Sugar Hill's Texas Singer-Songwriters ... With Sugar Hill's incomparable stable of Texas artists, this is one of the best ...
www.sugarhillrecords.com/catalog/
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Wilco - Can't Stand It
(Apr 03, 2006 - 09:00) | coentje wrote: Yoohoo, I have the honours to be the first bore! I really don't see what is so wonderful about this. Pretty dull stuff.
Just piggybacking to recommend that for some red-blooded U.S. of A. fare, you should seek out the album "From Hell to Breakfast, a Taste of Sugar Hill's Texas Singer-Songwriters." Some truly amazing tuba and banjo playing, but especially the little-used tuba. Or is it a bass horn? Some poignant lyrics, great ballads, inventive tunes, and lots of change of pace. I recommend that everyone own this album and send Sugar Hill a clear message!
The catalog review: From Townes Van Zandt, generally revered as THE Texan music poet, to some of Austin's best recent live acts, The Bad Livers and the Gourds, this compilation covers all the bases of the Texas singer-songwriter tradition. The renaissance man Terry Allen, the witty Austin Lounge Lizards, the current dean of Texas songwriters--Guy Clark . . . this compilation is the perfect introduction to the wealth of great Texas-style music on Sugar Hill Records. Fifteen tracks, a truly TEXAS-sized helping of good music, are on this sampler. With Sugar Hill's incomparable stable of Texas artists, this is one of the best Texas music compilations available anywhere.
Listen to clips here: http://www.sugarhillrecords.com/catalog/pagemaker.cgi?3942
I hope everyone enjoys!
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Patty Griffin - Cold As It Gets
(Mar 31, 2006 - 09:49) | Agree with positive comments about voice except would dispense with the breathy aspects. Singing lessons would help that.
Intelligent lyrics, and intelligent treatment of the words!
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Morphine - You Look Like Rain
(Mar 31, 2006 - 09:47) | Agree with all the negatives below, and add that it and its darned horns go on forever.
I can't explain why I hate the brass, especially the saxophone, so very much. Also dislike woodwinds. Somebody should construct a psychological instrument to explain what likes and dislikes in musical instruments signify. (Pun intended.)
Allmusic.com fails to include "jazz" as a Morphine typing, but it sounds jazzlike to me.
The band broke up in 1999. Not too ssssooooon.
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Bruce Cockburn - The Coming Rains
(Mar 31, 2006 - 09:39) | Darrooon wrote:
Yeah! 
Hey, you got your little green creature to seemingly dance in time to the music and even turn around and around . . . That is really cute.
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Beth Orton - Countenance
(Mar 31, 2006 - 09:26) | dwhayslett wrote:
You mean "huh-her vuh-hoice"? 
She created a headache where there was none before. I join these others who wish she had pursued a diffffffferehehehent lihine of wohork.
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Habib Koité & Bamada - Takamba
(Mar 31, 2006 - 09:07) | Kyrgyzstan, however you spell it, is more my cup of tea than this. This is OK if you want to be hypnotized to sleep, though. Zzzzzzzz . . . .
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The The - I Saw The Light
(Mar 31, 2006 - 08:59) | Doesn't the very beginning of this song sound like "Oye Como Va"? I think it is this song . . .
What about a group with a name like this??!! Got to check this out.
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Big Sugar - All Over Now
(Mar 31, 2006 - 07:34) | bigstory wrote:
Wow, the racial-slur-as-compliment. I'm sure they'd be flattered.
Mediocre. But they are trying, and at least they know who they are.
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John Lee Hooker - I'm In The Mood
(Mar 31, 2006 - 07:33) | Well, John, I'm not. So you're wasting your time on me. Let's see, how can I turn this comment positive? I know! I will just pretend that the lyrics are in a foreign language, so I can bop to the music.
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Amadou & Mariam - M' bifé balafon
(Mar 31, 2006 - 07:28) | I don't like being shouted at. It feels abusive. So what if they are just shouting out into a void? When I hear it, it is being done to me. In case there are any evangelical Christians on this board, this sort of feels like the "preaching" of Tony Evans and Beth Whatsername. Like being punched in the face repeatedly.
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Coldplay - Talk
(Mar 31, 2006 - 07:07) | effba wrote: Wow. They're pretty tolerable as long as he keeps that hideous falsetto under wraps.
My sentiments exactly!
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Conjure One - Center of the Sun (w/ Poe)
(Mar 31, 2006 - 07:03) | I agree with jah_blessed and nick_valensi. I guess we are in the antitrance, anti-anti-intellectual, pro-energy camp.
I also hate the idea of a woman named Poe. Nobody should be allowed to have that name since the death of E.A., and especially not a woman. People who have awful names should go to court and get them changed. It is worth the money.
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The Who - The Rock
(Mar 31, 2006 - 06:55) | madman wrote:This is a fantanstic musical montage from Quadrophenia, possibly my favorite Who album. They were, and still are the best band ever. 
You seem more like a man of great rock taste than a madman to me.
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The Who - The Rock
(Mar 31, 2006 - 06:48) | OK, thanks so much for leaving Morcheeba!!!!! THIS type of music is what I was hoping to hear. 
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Morcheeba - The Sea
(Mar 31, 2006 - 06:47) | Song and style extremely irritating. And it seems to never end . . . Torture.
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Paul Simon - She Moves On
(Mar 30, 2006 - 08:18) | Sorry, I dislike. The drums and background voices and Paul's voice go poorly together, his singing is worse than usual, there is no discernible tune (just meanderings), and there are needless horns.
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Zwan - Riverview
(Mar 23, 2006 - 11:16) | pgarner wrote: why stretch a song out instrumentally if you've got nothing to say?
Because the suspenseful feeling is nifty!
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Tracy Bonham - Something Beautiful
(Mar 16, 2006 - 12:44) | Instrumentation excellent but voice as irritating as fingernails. Hate it when they jump from one range to the other without a transitional range. They need voice lessons.
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Grant-Lee Phillips - Nothin' Is For Sure
(Mar 16, 2006 - 10:05) | Hate falsetto in general. Hate this one in particular--it is even worse than that on Beatles songs. An amazing zchievement (neologism). Sounds neither confident nor melodic to me.
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Matisyahu - Youth
(Mar 16, 2006 - 10:00) | If Jewish performers want to add discordant cultural elements and try to amalgamate, let them try. Yes, I too was irked. I am just plain tired of reggae.
Is this the Jewish rapper who performed in March 2006 on the awful TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live? Because that sounded like clever rap without the ill-conceived reggae.
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Youssou N'Dour - This Dream
(Mar 16, 2006 - 09:13) | I keep rushing to rate it a 1 only to find that I already did that. Why does this have to be played so often?
It might have beautiful lyrics (non-English). The held vocal note at the end of phrase is wonderful. But the rest just irritates, especially the semi-spoken.
Is this properly called "world music"?
Why is it OK for Alpine to criticize but not for me to do so, when my criticisms are analytical and contain no expletives?
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Ray Charles - Let's Go Get Stoned
(Mar 16, 2006 - 09:02) | There is no need for anyone to sing falsetto, ever, at any time, nowadays. The castrati were pre-Middle Ages, I believe. Did they not more than suffice?
The day I can stand to listen to Ray Charles may never come. However, I have at least one good friend who likes to listen to him, so maybe that can preserve me from rancorous outcries.
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Stevie Wonder - I Wish
(Mar 16, 2006 - 08:32) | splacknuck wrote: Yuk! Mega-yuk! I hate Funk and I can't stand Stevie Wonder.
Me too.
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Colin Hay - Hold On To My Hand
(Mar 16, 2006 - 07:22) | An affecting love song, but no tune at all. Is this lounge music? Also, his singing gets worse as the song goes on. I am just curmudgeonly re love songs. Maybe I will feel diff next time I hear this.
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Toots & The Maytals - Pressure Drop (w/ Eric Clapton)
(Mar 15, 2006 - 13:44) | Vogelfrei wrote:
In general, ska is like double-time reggae*. In a four-beat measure, reggae plays an emphasis (such as a guitar note) on beats 2 & 4, while ska plays it on the upbeat of every beat.
There are other distinctions, of course, but I think that's the main one.
*Actually, since ska preceded reggae historically, it would be more accurate to say reggae is like half-time ska.
Thank you, Vogelfrei. This time I raised my rating! Knowledge helps!
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Cat Stevens - Moonshadow
(Mar 15, 2006 - 13:43) | Carly wrote: Harold & Maude. Fond remembrance.... Yes, yes, yes. Simple-sounding and wistful. Thank you for reminding me that it was used in one of the greatest American subcultural movies ever. It also reminds me of a dear college chum, who has been hit by severe medical problems but remains beautiful . . . Here's to my poetical friend Marty! Wish she could sit at a computer to read this.
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Midnight Oil - Antarctica
(Mar 15, 2006 - 12:50) | Good lyrics, enjoying the music . . . in a way . . . It seems . . . evocative, wispy, hard to describe!
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Rolling Stones - Moonlight Mile
(Mar 15, 2006 - 12:38) | Awfully irritating. Lead singer sounds as though he is . . . I won't say it, it is too indelicate. Is it growling or grunting? And the "tune" wanders off to nowhere. Maybe hard-rock groups should eschew singing about moonlight.
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The Dandy Warhols - Sleep
(Mar 15, 2006 - 12:24) | The name of the group is vexing, but the song is heavenly . . . I know that before I complained about another song putting me to sleep, but the melody here is so beguiling that despite the soothing texture, I am staying awake. What great instrumentation and "vocals" . . . (might be synthesized vocals).
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Hooverphonic - We All Float
(Mar 15, 2006 - 12:03) | Not one of the best tunewise from this exceptional group. But I'll bet the words are great. Somebody, please post them?
OK, I'm somebody; here they are.
---------------------------------
The wind is telling stories about us
Writing words with sand and powder dust
Deserted squares and lonesome trees
The wind revealing stories about us
Fall is telling stories about us
Writing words with leaves and powder dust
Multicolored lanes of trees
Mesmerizing stories about us
We all float
on clouds of gold
The mountains make the sun rise
Your rainbow-colored eyes can change the tide . . .
The river telling stories about us
Writing words with water full of lust,
yellow purple green or blue,
Drip by drip revealing things on you.
(I doubt the phrase
"on you" . . . )
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Aretha Franklin - Respect
(Mar 15, 2006 - 12:02) | Always wondered why the genre was called "soul" music when it is actually body music. Mind music it surely is not (vocabulary, phrasing, repetition). The term is a major misnomer in the music arena. I have had this conversation with other rock-music fans . . .
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Massive Attack - Special Cases
(Mar 15, 2006 - 10:58) | Agree with the negatives and the positives, except that I cannot make out the lyrics at all. I need this to put me to sleep effectively. For office work, NOT indicated!
Thanks for following up with a bit more of a wakey-uppy trend with Have a Cigar. I am afraid to do that, but I will let Pink Floyd smoke it for me.
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Mano Negra - Mala Vida
(Mar 07, 2006 - 09:57) | Yecch. Please no more of this stuff. If I wanted Mexican or Spanish, we have several radio channels in my area, and they must be on the Web too. Especially irritating is the background cheering.
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Goldfrapp - Strict Machine
(Mar 03, 2006 - 12:33) | iMacomania wrote: The Seventies are back!
You insult the Seventies. Maybe you mean the Eighties?
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Natalie Merchant - Saint Judas
(Mar 03, 2006 - 12:16) | weevilkinevil wrote: I have generally enjoyed Natalie Merchant's music, but what has she done with her voice? I can understand what she says less than I could before!
I agree, and it seems to go on FOREVER--nauseating combo of whining nasality and sepulchral humming. Actually I sort of like the humming a tiny bit, and the instrumentation is good. Maybe just drop the vocalizing.
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Cesária Évora - Sodade
(Mar 03, 2006 - 10:29) | OK, let's do Portuguese now. The English has been lackluster.
The place in Portugal called Evora is overwhelmingly beautiful in its anciency. What is the connection of this song with that place, if any?
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Jesse Cook - Fall at Your Feet (w/ Danny Wilde)
(Mar 03, 2006 - 10:28) | kazuma wrote:
Definitely. It's a lovely song and I applaud the attempt, but the complex guitar arrangement overwhelms the elegant simplicity of the melody.
What melody? Sounds like repetitive phrases with some fancy semi-Spanish guitar riffs on top.
What happened to the Radio Paradise on which I discovered Toby Keith and The Connells?
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Miles Davis - Freddie Freeloader
(Mar 01, 2006 - 11:04) | dwhayslett wrote:
Why do you keep turning it back on? You seem to hate fully half of what's played.
I like soft and hard rock, folk, country, Celtic, bluegrass, instrumentals other than jazz brass, blues and Southern gospel without brass, some world music including Far and Middle Eastern, classical, to name a few.
But not jazz, not horns, not breathy female vocalists, not falsetto male stylists.
It does seem that over the years I have been listening, the prevalence of the latter has been increasing, like creeping kudzu. Thanks, your advice is rather good.
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Beth Orton - Central Reservation
(Mar 01, 2006 - 10:58) | One irritating step up from Jeff Buckley. She has a unique power to irritate with the breathiness that is all her own.
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Jeff Buckley - Everybody Here Wants You
(Mar 01, 2006 - 10:49) | Horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad singing, from his atonal low range to his atrocious "soul"-type falsetto. Is he a white guy trying to sound black? I just want to strangle him and retroactively gag him. A true torture. All it lacked was horns.
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The Kinks - Victoria
(Mar 01, 2006 - 09:30) | tonypf wrote: For the uninitiated: Check out Kinks Kronicles if it exists anywhere. Fabulous entre to the strongest phase of their career. Of course, this song is on it.
Thank you for the advice. My reposting might send slews of folks looking too, so must rush now!
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Josh Ritter - Man Burning
(Feb 22, 2006 - 12:06) | "I saw her today--I saw her face--It was the face I love--And I knew--I had to run awayay--And get down on my knees and prayay . . . That's how it begins--"
This song's first musical phrases sound exactly like "Needles and Pins," so I as a deejay would put the latter song on immediately next!
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Travis - Happy To Hang Around
(Feb 22, 2006 - 08:34) | Boring and soporific. Maybe it suits certain purposes. Maybe for those in a drug-induced haze. Sorry, I'm irritable because I must take more caffeine and stay awake to work, and this is making me want to doze off pronto!
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Counting Crows - Omaha
(Feb 22, 2006 - 07:47) | robinesque wrote:
It's hard to say. Who did you enjoy in the 1970's?
The straining and emoting - Cat Stevens?
The na-na-na part reminds me of James Taylor (Country Road, His version of "Up on the Roof")
Thanks but no . . . I now think the evocation is of a group or groups from the 1980s and early 1990s. But I also hear more Bruce Springsteen than when I first asked the question about antecedents of this group.
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PJ Harvey - A Place Called Home
(Feb 22, 2006 - 07:12) | It is so irritating when the high register and the low register sound like two different people and there is no good transition across the middle. Also can't stand breathy singing. Breathiness is just plain bad. That's in the high register. The low register is more talking than singing.
Maybe there are actually two singers?
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Peter Tosh - Mystery Babylon
(Feb 22, 2006 - 07:10) | The word "Ahhh-freee-kaaah" has an irritating sound. I wish someone would post the entire lyrics for us to read. Please.
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Counting Crows - I Wish I Was A Girl
(Feb 21, 2006 - 13:14) | Really really not worth listening to. Why not just drop from playlist?
Oh, and the comment under mine reminds me to lambaste the title for its grammatical horrificity.
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Robert Earl Keen - Mariano
(Feb 21, 2006 - 12:06) | A sincere, warm, tuneful voice; a human story to care about. Better than all else I have heard today.
As to the McMurtry comment below, I want both versions!
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Strunz & Farah - Terremoto
(Feb 21, 2006 - 12:04) | I hate this. Generic Mexican guitar showing off for its own sake. Never mind a coherent, cohesive overall composition or structure. Can do without showoffs. Whenever possible, run in the other direction.
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Andrew Bird - A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head
(Feb 21, 2006 - 11:31) | Why do record labels have to keep producing vocalists who cannot carry a tune? This guy isn't even the worst, either. 
At least Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen had a good excuse--they were oral readers rather than singers, so that made them OK . . .
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Colin Hay - Down Under
(Feb 21, 2006 - 11:17) | The tune is pleasant either in this more mellow version or in a hard-rock incarnation.
But I question the refrain: Is it
"Where the women glow
And men thunder"?
Just don't care for gross gender generalizations.
Sometimes it is better for lyrics to be amorphous.
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Morcheeba - Trigger Hippie (remix)
(Feb 21, 2006 - 10:54) | What is the musical value, the authenticity, of mixes and remixes? That type of thing constitutes more engineering and less musicianship. I consider it illegitimate.
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Miles Davis - Mystery
(Feb 21, 2006 - 08:48) | By meloman's standards, I should be forever young and never gray. Fine by me! And also fine by Hermann Schein and his ilk, my brethren!
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Joni Mitchell - Be Cool
(Feb 21, 2006 - 08:47) | From Ms. Mitchell's sucko-barfo period. Hate the breathiness, the atonality and tunelessness, the cocktail-lounge sound, the horns trying to be seductive. Instead, they are just plain irritating. The pointless peroration is so beyond vexatious.
Jazz crud like this should be confined to cocktail lounges where fools waste their time.
(Ray Davis is more pure about it somehow, though I don't want to listen to him either.)
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James McMurtry - Red Dress
(Feb 21, 2006 - 07:17) | Lyrics to this nicely formatted at a Web site you can connect to from "Lyrics" above:
Remember when we'd get together
Burn the candle don't you know
Smoke and drink and live forever
No one there to tell us no
This time I'm gonna kill that bastard
This time I'm not gonna miss~~this time I'm not gonna miss
This time there ain't no doubt about it
Let me be quite clear on this
Out the back and down the alley
Gone to get your bucket spiked
Come back when you think you need me
Come back any time you like
Where'd you get that red dress
Where'd you get that red dress
Yes I'm drunk but damn you're ugly
Tell you one thing yes I will
Tomorrow morning I'll be sober
You'll be just as ugly still
Where'd you get that red dress
I don't know what you got going on
But you know I never seen you with that red dress on
Tell me where'd you get that red dress
Watching out the kitchen window
Right here in this old brown chair
Stack the empties on the table
Toss 'em down the basement stairs
Where'd you get that red dress
Where'd you get that red dress
Remember when we'd get together
Burn the candle don't you know
Smoke and drink and live forever
No one there to tell us no
Comment on comment on my comment: To call a woman ugly whom the singer is also menacing with possible physical aggression is what I meant by "misogynistic."
This phrase smacks of the control freak, too, and it entails a hinted threat: "But you know I never seen you with that red dress on"--translation: "I will punish you for having any independence or being interested in someone else besides me." If he just called her ugly and left her alone and refrained from commenting on a common past that she might want to forget, she wouldn't be in danger.
My definition of misogynism is speech and actions that treat women as objects, as less than human, as less worthy of respect than men, as the just objects of men's will and ill treatment.
Dorothy Parker may have been acerbic, but the man whom the quip is attributed too went beyond the acrid to the insulting.
Have I made my viewpoint clear enough?
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Damien Rice - Delicate
(Feb 17, 2006 - 07:44) | Again this irritating song causes me to turn Radio Paradise off. It hasn't failed yet.
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Led Zeppelin - Trampled Underfoot
(Feb 17, 2006 - 06:34) | All that I woulda said's been said! Except about the "intelligent forum." Even intelligent-forumsters need to cut loose and unbutton and rock out to some form of music. Or would you prefer that we took up drugs instead?
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Arctic Monkeys - Dancing Shoes
(Feb 17, 2006 - 06:29) | Again, am conflicted! This song really rocks. Am not listening to the lyrics. Am ignoring the offensive smoker photo on the album cover.
What great rock instrumentation, hard-rock windup at the end--see conflicted emoticons below.
  
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Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side
(Feb 17, 2006 - 06:26) | Hate the horns. Hate the "colored girls sing," even though I am not a PC person normally.
But aside from those aspects, the song is totally entrancing . . . Why does anyone need drugs when there is music??????????????????????????????
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U2 - With or Without You
(Feb 15, 2006 - 10:29) | Boring, repetetive, singing flat (in the sense of off key)--How can anyone with any musical ear like this thing? Yecch. Also the grammar is poor.
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Amadou & Mariam - Sénégal Fast Food
(Feb 15, 2006 - 09:44) | What, it's not rock music?? Sounded enough like fine rock music for me to give it a high rating!
The other thing I loved was how clearly articulated the words were!! such that even with my limited knowledge of French, I understood almost every word!!!
W#ow#!
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Southern Culture On The Skids - Shotgun
(Feb 15, 2006 - 09:31) | OK, Buzzardcheater, you opened the door to my current gut-bustin' favorite joke (Parenthetical: I heard on the radio that GWB or some staffer said that the incident was not fodder for jokes or for political advantage-taking. Please, what else would he want it to be? He should be happy if it stays at those two attitudes! They could be facing arraignment and calls for the VP to step down!).
It was a cartoon in which a newsroom reporter or editor in the bullpen is calling over to a managing editor in a private office, so that the latter cannot be seen.
The former calls out, "Wow, the vice-president just shot a lawyer!" The latter calls back saying, "I can't believe it! Is there nothing they won't do to improve their approval ratings with the public?"
I loved it loved it loved it. I told it to several strangers on the way in to work. I especially enjoyed doing it in an elevator where they were all trapped into listening!
It felt almost as good as eating a chocolate cookie with dark-chocolate drops in it.
Wonder whether Mr. Sourpuss will *ever* smile again now. I wish he had been *roundly* censured for using expletive language on a Congressman in the halls of Congress. If he was ever an elder-statesman wise type, he must have started on a downhill slide. I cannot hold a brief for people who are mean, and that trumps any political views I might agree with!
Can I write all that here?
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Stevie Ray Vaughan - Cold Shot
(Feb 15, 2006 - 08:54) | I agree with the critic just below this comment, at least as to this song. I will just avoid this particular album. I find that one dud song ruins an album for me, whereas one great song redeems the entire thing.
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Moby - Porcelain
(Feb 14, 2006 - 13:22) | Bizzarefall wrote:
Moby?
what does it sound like?
Well, it sounds like a tube that is trying to get a sound through, but a pair of hands is constricting it just enough to make the effort sound effortful and pained.
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Moby - Porcelain
(Feb 14, 2006 - 13:03) | What instrument is that that sounds so constipated?
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Troggs - Love is All Around
(Feb 14, 2006 - 13:02) | kestrel wrote: Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet! 10 for nostalgia
Ok OK I came to my senses....an 8, so cool!
Kestrel,
I hold out for the 10, because it really is sweet, and it reminds me of a time before I knew things that I have since regretted knowing.
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Troggs - Love is All Around
(Feb 14, 2006 - 13:02) | kestrel wrote: Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet! 10 for nostalgia
Ok OK I came to my senses....an 8, so cool!
Kestrel,
I hold out for the 10, because it really is sweet, and it reminds me of a time before I knew things that I have since regretted knowing.
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Talking Heads - Life During Wartime (Live)
(Feb 13, 2006 - 15:12) | I rated it 9 before, and again I am excited to hear this boppin', energetic, truly-rock piece! When it is really really rockin' rock, I get transported and can ignore the bad grammar!   There's a piano icon (which I really didn't hear on this song), a nice drum symbol, and a wonderful violin symbol--BUT WHERE is the GUITAR symbol when I really really needed it?
Bill, please give us a guitar icon or two to use!!
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Eurythmics - Here Comes the Rain Again (acoustic)
(Feb 13, 2006 - 15:09) | The singing of this person whom so many idolize is overdone: sounds self-obsessed, breathy, and overdramatic. There are other reasons for my distaste that I can't quite put my finger on . . .  What is it? It makes me wince to hear her sing.
Would be happy to join a club of the like-minded.
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Peter Gabriel - Sky Blue
(Feb 13, 2006 - 13:04) | Fi-Roy wrote: This is so middle of the road - not great
and the voice IS whiny
Yes! If I were a big-time record executive, I would make him sign a pledge to quit the whininess!!!!
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Kula Shaker - Tattva
(Feb 13, 2006 - 13:02) | Well, I may just be a benighted Westerner, but this--
Tattva, acintya bheda bheda tattva (4 times)
At the moment that you wake from sleeping and you know its all a dream
Well the truth may come in strange disguises
Never knowing what it means
--sounds like what, if one experienced it, would make one beg to be taken to a mental asylum. Heavens forfend.
Thank you to Mari for her work in finding and presenting us with lyrics, here and elsewhere too!
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Béla Fleck - Magic Fingers
(Feb 13, 2006 - 13:00) | MajorTom505 sort of has a point, but I have a reason: I dislike horns and strings together as the two featured instruments. If the stringed instrument is a plucked banjo, I like the combo less.
But I will not judge this artist's total output by one infelicitous pairing.
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'til Tuesday - Coming Up Close
(Feb 13, 2006 - 08:56) | dharmalover wrote: I don't get it -- where's the energy? This is part of the 80's that should be forgotten.
Charitable comment by dharmalover.
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Liz Phair - Table for One
(Feb 13, 2006 - 08:42) | denizenusa wrote: Music to cut your wrists by. It's unfathomable to me that someone would write this then release it! Stop, please I don't want to hear it.
This comment and ezzyme's made me glad that I couldn't understand the lyrics.
Authenticity is great . . . I just personally don't want this kind right now.
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Liz Phair - Table for One
(Feb 13, 2006 - 08:37) | Too sing-songy and too depressing. What is the purpose of depressing music, anyway? Is there any good reason for it to exist?
I notice that the next song Bill put on picked up the pace a bit--Nirvana's "All Apologies."
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Patty Griffin - Change
(Feb 13, 2006 - 08:34) | Liked it for most of the song. Then the repetition began to be scary . . . as in a scary movie. Maybe she should be tapped for background film music.
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Patty Griffin - Change
(Feb 13, 2006 - 08:34) | Liked it for most of the song. Then the repetition began to be scary . . . as in a scary movie. Maybe she should be tapped for background film music.
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Patty Griffin - Change
(Feb 13, 2006 - 08:34) | Liked it for most of the song. Then the repetition began to be scary . . . as in a scary movie. Maybe she should be tapped for background film music.
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Ry Cooder - The Very Thing That Makes You Rich
(Feb 13, 2006 - 08:21) | I couldn't figure out the lyrics. But I thought that the composition, tune, and instrumentation really rocked!
A rock-music-expert friend just told me that Ry Cooder is very catholic--that is, plays in many subgenres.
If I get this particular album, will I get more of this type of music or not? Ry Cooder experts please advise.
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RX - Imagine / Walk On The Wild Side
(Feb 09, 2006 - 14:24) | I don't care what others say, I like the comforting sound of G.W. Bush's voice, which this performer is imitating--imitating with the purpose of putdown, especially considering the insult of the lyrics.
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Gary Numan - Cars
(Feb 09, 2006 - 13:49) | New man in my life . . . Would like to get to know his music better . . . !
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Billie Holiday - Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do
(Feb 07, 2006 - 14:14) | dionysius wrote:
(Sound of thirteen hands clapping...) Good one! Applause from (almost) all quarters.
I dislike D.R.'s snooty attitude almost more than her dysphonious voice, and wish she had given up radio. Have felt this way ever since I first heard her.
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Medeski, Martin & Wood - Mami Gato
(Feb 06, 2006 - 12:28) | This is like wasting lots of time and money in an overpriced, dimly lit bar for people with more money than sense.
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Young-Holt Unlimited - Soulful Strut
(Feb 06, 2006 - 10:17) | I would not mind not hearing so-called "soul," songs with "Strut" in the title, or unnecessary horns. Horns are occasionally, but seldom, needful. Maybe 1 percent of the time. The rest of the time, they blare and vex.
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Iguanas - Para Donde Vas
(Feb 06, 2006 - 09:47) | Let's get up and dance! Failing that, let's bop up and down while seated in chairs! Work out those shoulder muscles so strained from computer slavery! (I will try to ignore the vexatious and needless brass intrusions.)
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Eels - Souljacker
(Feb 06, 2006 - 09:37) | Name of group and name of album sound so intriguing. Sorry I had to be AFK!
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Shawn Mullins - Cold Black Heart
(Feb 06, 2006 - 09:08) | A rousing clone of Maddy Groves! The lover's name here is Maggie Brown, a good one for what seems to be a version from Appalachia, from the viewpoint of the Lord Arnold figure. Comments on provenance and the similarities between the songs welcome.
Love those ballads of murder, misery, and guilt. They are classic because they appeal to something fundamental in man, deny God though some will.
Instrumentation so fantastic that I hope there is similar stuff in Heaven or I need to wait pretty long before I will be willing to die! Want to just sit in front of such musicians for hours. 
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Jeff Beck - Beck's Bolero
(Feb 06, 2006 - 08:51) | Papa_John wrote: Jeff Beck ROCKS & Bolero ROLLS! Awesome!
What my brotha said. I am proud to have used snippet as intro to my rock radio show years ago (till the management made me change it . . . they really didn't care for real rock there).
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Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
(Feb 06, 2006 - 08:45) | Wonder why the previous time I heard this I gave it a 2 and today I am giving it a 9 instead!?!
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New Order - Waiting For The Sirens' Call
(Feb 06, 2006 - 08:43) | AphidA wrote: This so totally sucks
EDIT: Wow. Was accidentally listening to another station. Wierd. This didn't sound like New Order.
If willb must needs quote poor AphidA, would he please do so along with the all-important EDIT that she added later??!!??
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New Order - Waiting For The Sirens' Call
(Feb 06, 2006 - 08:32) | The photo on the cover really does my heart good. Can just ignore the lyrics and listen to the sound of singing and great instrumentation and pretend I am visiting in Hong Kong with my mother again instead of being here in my current life. Thank you so much. This is like a heartsplint. Love the guitar!
 
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Cat Power - The Moon
(Feb 06, 2006 - 07:55) | Insert icon of someone yawning and falling asleep thrice.
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R.E.M. - World Leader Pretend
(Feb 06, 2006 - 07:47) | Even if his economic theory were not meretricious and even if he had a tangible product to sell . . . Surely I did not read this at the RP site.
geavis wrote:
You can protect yourself from the Bush and Greenspan destruction of the value of the dollar. Buy physical silver (or gold) and you'll be OK when the dollar collapses. Convert your paper dollars to something with real value. Visit my website, spam-url-deleted.com to read A LOT more.
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R.E.M. - World Leader Pretend
(Feb 06, 2006 - 07:41) | Earnest college-boy sentiments. Tune good. Vocal monotonous. No poetry, just prose in the (ungrammatical, pretentious) lyrics. Yet singer comes across as likable anyway.
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The Beatles - I Want You (She's So Heavy)
(Feb 03, 2006 - 16:08) | A Beatles song that I really like for both instrumentation and vocals. I agree with the commenters about its being early heavy metal. I enjoyed the sunny-afternoon-till-sunset-who-needs-drugs comment, too.
What people wrote about the interplay is . . .
. . . right on, maaaann.
And where were you when this song was new? Were you tuning in, turning on, and dropping out?
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Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now
(Feb 03, 2006 - 15:42) | Mari wrote:Now Playing:
Rolling Stones - She's A Rainbow
Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now
Bruce Cockburn - Wondering Where the Lions Are
Bob Dylan - Simple Twist Of Fate
ten,ten,ten,ten,.....can I go to bed now Bill, it's 2.42am where I live thanks.
How interesting, Mari (btw, sleep well! ), your comment posted before I even heard "She's a Rainbow," and the preceding song, "I Can See Clearly Now," had barely started! How can you be hearing songs so much before I do? Where I live, we are just getting off work on a Friday . . . It is 1840 hours. Maybe you are in the Pacific Ocean?
Do let me know, when you wake up!
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Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now
(Feb 03, 2006 - 15:36) | I have always hated and yet slightly been drawn to this song.
Can you say "false optimism"?
This seems to be one of many versions . . . It is more of a pop and mainstream song than RP usually plays. And yet, we love RP for its eclecticism, don't we?
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Cream - Those Were the Days
(Feb 02, 2006 - 14:16) | I absolutely go nuts over those guitar licks!!! And the drumming!!!!!!
I can't move my body emphatically enough!!     Why would I need any drugs when I've got rhythm, I've got music??!!??!!
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Steve Earle - Copperhead Road
(Feb 02, 2006 - 13:55) | A new rock song with a country undercurrent to rock out to!!!! Thanks!! Must buy this group!!
Do I also detect a Cajun undercurrent? Tiny bit?
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Led Zeppelin - Trampled Underfoot
(Feb 02, 2006 - 13:53) | Have bopped to this great rock song for more years than I can remember, and only just now did I learn its name! Must go buy album it originally came out on. Never buy "live" versions because of the distracting audience sounds and especially the applause, nor "best of" versions if I like more than just one song of the group's.
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Jem - Just A Ride
(Feb 02, 2006 - 13:33) | Don't think I have ever heard this (group?) before. Sounds enough like the Bangles for me to really like it!
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Jimi Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary
(Feb 01, 2006 - 06:59) | Some of his excellently instrumented pieces have inept, unfortunate, even slightly risible, phrases. By contrast, this whole song is stupid. I have thought so ever since it was new, so excuse me while I be consistent.
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Sting - Fragile
(Feb 01, 2006 - 06:54) | Soporific. Do not need that on RP. If I wanted to fall asleep, I'd-a stayed home!
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Imogen Heap - The Moment I Said It
(Jan 31, 2006 - 06:49) | Rates a 1 every time I hear it, which is too often. The leap from low register that is too breathy to a high one that is equally offensive leads me to believe that she has no middle register or transitional ability. Maybe I am just doing a sour-grapes thing. Ignore this if you like it. I might like it next time.
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Turin Brakes - Feeling Oblivion
(Jan 31, 2006 - 06:46) | Men singing falsetto in the world of opera: barely tolerable. In the world of rock: please hand me the bottle of emetic.
:puke: 
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Brazilian Girls - Homme
(Jan 30, 2006 - 08:48) | I agree with jamc and Rolf. And if I had wanted to be put to sleep, I would have asked for it. This last set has not been overcome by several cups of coffee, so I really must leave now for something more matitudinal.
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Elbow - Not a Job
(Jan 30, 2006 - 08:44) | Now I am falling asle-e-e-e-e-e-p . . . . and what's with the boneheaded name of this group??!!
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The Beatles - Blackbird
(Jan 30, 2006 - 08:24) | Great song, but so overplayed . . . For a while, in my place of worship, I had to hear it almost every week. It was not played well either. I think if you are going to perform this song, you need to either be the Beatles or do it silently.
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Iron and Wine - Free Until They Cut Me Down
(Jan 30, 2006 - 08:14) | matan wrote: quite repetitive, but nice
Repetitive and repetitive. Good for those who do mantras for hours on end, not good for content- and variety-lovers like me. But I do like the haunted quality of the singers and their harmonies.
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The Police - Walking On The Moon
(Jan 26, 2006 - 08:07) | sandpebble wrote:
Why?
Because I visualize the members of this group and I get a feeling like fingernails on a chalkboard, of a disjunction.
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Stars - Your Ex-Lover is Dead
(Jan 26, 2006 - 08:01) | It started out exciting, but then it got so megaboring that I thought it was MOR (radio announcers' jargon).
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S.E. Rogie - Kpindigbee
(Jan 26, 2006 - 07:59) | See album title. Just another reason I like so many dead men! Especially dead authors.
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Bonobo - Change Down
(Jan 26, 2006 - 07:57) | meloman wrote: What a name for a band! All I can think of is our closest primate cousins.
Yes, and it grosses me out to visualize same. Missed the song--actually, failed to notice it. Maybe that is for the best.
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Dire Straits - Single Handed Sailor
(Jan 26, 2006 - 07:41) | Impossible not to adore the strumming and picking and distinctive sound of this instrumentally brilliant and unique group! I always know when it's Dire Straits. I also like the sense of humor I perceive. True that here is another case of lyrics not all clear, but they do better on that on other songs. So I forgive them this time.
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Counting Crows - Anna Begins
(Jan 26, 2006 - 07:37) | This selection is crummy . . . Maybe this group has done something else that is worthwhile?
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Stereophonics - Moviestar
(Jan 26, 2006 - 07:09) | (Not to be confused with the idiosyncratic Hooverphonic.) This group I would like to hear more of . . . sounds like real rock!
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Nickel Creek - When in Rome
(Jan 26, 2006 - 07:06) | jbtidwell wrote:
I wish Atlanta's country stations would play something like this... its top 40 Country for us
So sorry for jbtidwell in Hot 'Lanta and for brighteyedblasphemer. I left Georgia and the South in general as soon as I could. Guess I also shouldn't move to Michigan (too bad, the parts I saw were pretty.) Intend to live only where the local radio stations are good. For me, that is a good barometer of how at home I will feel.
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My Morning Jacket - The Way that He Sings
(Jan 26, 2006 - 07:03) | Regarding the supposedly fine lyrics, what is the value of "Da-re-omp-bomp-omp, Da-re-om-bom, Da-re-omp-bomp-omp, Da-re-om-bom, Da-re-omp-bomp-omp, Da-re-om-bom, Da-re-omp-bomp-omp, Da-re-om-bom, Da-re-omp-bomp-omp, Da-re-om-bom, Da-re-omp-bomp-omp, Da-re-om-bom, Da-re-omp-bomp-omp, Da-re-om-bom, Da-re-omp-bomp-omp, Da-re-om-bom"?????????????????????? I could strangle ommers like these. (What is that religion in which the adherents chant "Om" or some other nonsense syllable for hours ? I wouldn't be likely to join it.)
Color me impatient, color me western, color me life-is-short-where's-the-damn-content and Where-are-real-words?
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Elbow - My Very Best
(Jan 26, 2006 - 06:33) | The most inane name for a group I have ever heard of . . . even if it is some guy's surname. However, since the singing sounds inane too, the impression is not favorable. Two positive points: the instrumentation (especially since I like good violin playing) is very good, and the singing is on key.
But otherwise it is tedious. I join the sentiments of the other naysayers below. Soporific, repetitive, and derivative. If "his lyrics are like poetry," it's a shame that they are incomprehensible.
Why have it on playlist?
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Carbon Leaf - American Tale
(Jan 25, 2006 - 15:34) | Apparently I rated it Outstanding a long time ago. This is my type of group! You seem to be starting a folk-rock or Celtic-type set! Wish I didn't have to go right now, thereby leaving this computer!
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Janis Joplin - Move Over
(Jan 25, 2006 - 15:32) | red wrote:
Thanks, Red--I bought it ASAP, really cheaply, thanks to you! There is plenty to the criticism of Janis Joplin, yet the total package is riveting. A lot might be in the improbability of it all, the hard-to-get-your-mind-around-it concept of such an outsider, such a self-destructive loser, being such an improbable success in spite of all the verifiable drawbacks. I would rather see the Janises make it big, anyhow, than the sports stars and the rap stars. But that's just me.
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New Order - Love Vigilantes
(Jan 25, 2006 - 15:18) | The lyrics are painful from the perspective of poetic merit . . . but the emotions are nothing if not authentic.
That said, Oysterband did it lots better.
From Googling, found this:
Love Vigilantes
-----------------------------------------------------
Oysterband
From the album Trawler, © 1994
Lyrics by New Order?
-----------------------------------------------------
Oh I've just come
From the land of the sun
From a war that must be won
In the name of truth
With our soldiers so brave
Your freedom we will save
With our rifles and grenades
And some help from God
I want to see my family
My wife and child waiting for me
I've got to go home
I've been so alone, you see
You just can't believe
The joy I did receive
When I finally got my leave
And I was going home
Oh I flew through the sky
My convictions could not lie
For my country I would die
And I will see it soon
I want to see my family
My wife and child waiting for me
I've got to go home
I've been so alone, you see
When I walked through the door
My wife she lay upon the floor
And with tears her eyes were sore
I did not know why
Then I looked into her hand
And I saw the telegram
That said that I was a brave, brave man
But that I was dead
I want to see my family
My wife and child waiting for me
I've got to go home
I've been so alone, you see
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Tracy Chapman - Heaven's Here on Earth
(Jan 25, 2006 - 13:02) | On Sept. 23, 2003, I liked it so much, and now I find it sounds depressing. Partly because the lyrics remind me of the venality and unfaithfulness of (hu)man(kind) . . . NObody could actually believe this and be sane, or else they have never read a history book or known other people. Note, I am not saying I am a Sartrean, either.
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Over the Rhine - Bluer
(Jan 25, 2006 - 12:48) | Almost as bad as the Bad Seeds' "Where the Wild Roses Grow." Thank you for letting it end.
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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Where The Wild Roses Grow (w/Kylie Minogue)
(Jan 25, 2006 - 12:43) | Another piece of little-girl-voice-arrested-development-in-childhood-because-of-child-abuse piece of dreck, dreckier than most because of the addition of the voice of a Humbert Humbert figure. (Yes, I do think that those who call the novel Lolita literature are perverts!)
 
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Tom Petty - American Girl
(Jan 25, 2006 - 10:36) | Love so many Tom Petty songs. But this one . . . the instrumentation is actually great, but the singing isn't . . . and no surprise, I'm vexed by the title's generalization about a certain group, and I hate it when they put in the word "girl." OTOH, I am equal opportunity: I also couldn't stand "Skater Boy" (a.k.a. "Sk8er Boi" or some such).
Ambivalent because the instrumentation os so good.
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Paloalto - Breathe In
(Jan 25, 2006 - 10:14) | I'm perturbed by the misspellings and bad grammar. The claim of "Poetry" cannot excuse those. I could guess that "sufficating" is "suffocating." But what is "signurance"? And I specially object to the misuse of "if" where "whether" is called for. Maybe I am a voice crying in the wilderness, but to some of us, matters such as spelling, grammar, and punctuation are significant.
Who is responsible? . . . the band?
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Anna Ternheim - China Girl
(Jan 23, 2006 - 05:58) | Though I agree with most of the negative comments below, I must emphasize another aspect: the lyrics. I see no purpose in songs that refer to adult females as girls, and the "China" adjective has to be offensive on two counts: the dated adjective is now used just for dishware, and pigeonholing the person by her ethnic group can only serve to diminish and denigrate. I resent "Cinnamon Girl" on similar grounds. Let's just not listen to songs that have "Girl" in the title, whether preceded by an adjective or not. That should take care of it.
  :puke:
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The Doors - Roadhouse Blues
(Jan 23, 2006 - 05:51) | Thank you for playing this in what for us is morning. People who weren't keeping track of rock music when this came out may not realize how groundbreaking it was at the time . . . This was the first glimmer of the genre that many middle-class white teens had ever had. The Doors did rock music a service.
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Moby - Dream About Me
(Jan 19, 2006 - 12:55) | I am almost still awake enough to agree with all the neg comments (esp. against breathy-voiced females) below, so that I can start catching my z's sooner.  Where are those toothpicks when I need 'em?
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The White Stripes - The Denial Twist
(Jan 19, 2006 - 12:05) | Not my favorite song of this "group" (Can two people be a "group"?) . . . any of whose rockin' cuts I could listen to all day.
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Talking Heads - And She Was
(Jan 19, 2006 - 11:55) | Yes! Yes! Yes! The world was movin', She was right there with it, and she was! . . . Rising up above the earth! And so on!
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Pogues - White City
(Jan 19, 2006 - 10:59) | Who came first, the Pogues or Oysterband? I recently bought everything available by the latter, and this sounds like some song on an Oysterband album.
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Apocalyptica - Farewell
(Jan 19, 2006 - 09:58) | Violins, especially rich ones like this, need to be used more in rock music. Now must find out more . . . Wonderful! I am smiling a blissful smile the whole time I hear this song!!!! Must buy the album!
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R.E.M. - Welcome to the Occupation
(Jan 19, 2006 - 09:55) | To Astralistener and Mari,
I like it too, but I find it hardly uplifting--more distressed and regretful and protesting. See the lyrics so kindly reproduced below.
And when I don't agree with the politics but like the sound, I just tune out the words. The musicians benefit in either case!
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Incendio - Duelo de la Muerte
(Jan 19, 2006 - 09:52) | I don't mind Spanish music if it is all instrumental. In this case, I find it fantastic! (For those who didn't hear me before, I wrote that Spanish lyrics irritate me in songs I must listen to at work, because I halfway work on trying to understand them . . . ).
Excellent instrumental piece!
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Rolling Stones - Back of My Hand
(Jan 19, 2006 - 09:49) | Mari wrote:" I see dreams, I see visions
Images I don't understand
I see Goya's paranoias
I can read it like the back of my hand "... ...
Mari, we need you to stick around. You choose the best snippets of lyrics to post for us, and I appreciate the time and thought it takes!!
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XTC - Making Plans for Nigel
(Jan 19, 2006 - 09:06) | I suspect this is hilarious for those who know what it is alluding to!
But in any case, see the great caption by Ludwig7, below (ya gotta see the photo too, which another listener had posted). I hope s/he is working in the publishing field rather than wasting such a talent.
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The Kinks - I'm Not Like Everybody Else
(Jan 19, 2006 - 09:00) | Amazing . . . This morning as I walked to work I was singing this, and was wishing as hard as I could to hear the Kinks perform it today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is among the greatest rock anthems.
It doesn't matter how you dress or what you do for a living--What matters is how much you love this song. Right, Mr. C.?
    
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Marc Broussard - Home
(Jan 19, 2006 - 08:55) | What a great, great, Ur-song! The expression comes from a magazine article called "They're Playing Ur-Song"--I think from Newsweek a few years ago . . .
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Big Country - Your Spirit To Me
(Jan 19, 2006 - 08:41) | Would someone please define the acronym LRC for me?
This song has good poetic lyrics, I know thanks to Mari. Wish the articulation could be better. Except for that, though, what a likeable song! I would class it as soft rock, but it has a little something extra . . . instrumentally, that I can't quite identify . . .
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Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa
(Jan 18, 2006 - 13:15) | Worst song I ever heard. Confiscate their horns! Just abolish this type of jazz.
Funny thing about that. Now, a month and a half later, I was just about to post "Well, I usually don't like horns but I like these" . . . What has gotten into me?
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Terri Hendrix - Gravity
(Jan 18, 2006 - 12:01) | I like opportunities to practice Spanish . . . in conversations. If I wanted to hear Spanish music, I'd be on another station. This is very irritating.
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Matthew Ryan - I Hear A Symphony
(Jan 18, 2006 - 09:02) | I can't hear "I hear a symphony"; all I hear of lyrics is the phrase "You are not alone" over and over. But I know it's not the Kinks or Josh Ritter, which bracket this piece. Somebody, please clear me up?
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Apocalyptica - Ruska
(Jan 18, 2006 - 08:42) | Unlike the two cuts that preceded, this piece is beautiful music!
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Fiona Apple - I Know
(Jan 18, 2006 - 08:40) | I rerated this a 1. If this is what the playlist says, it is tuneless jazz. I will try to listen a third time and edit this comment.
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The Bad Plus - Flim
(Jan 18, 2006 - 08:39) | If only jazz like this could be excluded. It is so pointless and irritating.
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Stereophonics - Maybe Tomorrow
(Jan 18, 2006 - 06:46) | Does the original song really have the misspelling, or is it on the part of Radio Paradise? The day following today has just one m.
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Madness - Our House
(Jan 09, 2006 - 08:20) | I had rated it a 3 . . . until you played it the millionth time.
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Zilverzurf - Rotate & Levitate
(Jan 09, 2006 - 08:19) | te wrote:Just when I thought the song was finished, it just kept on going
Yes, and I can't figure out why people like just jazz horns and syncopated drums. It seems so musically bankrupt.
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Zilverzurf - Rotate & Levitate
(Jan 09, 2006 - 08:17) | Unusual? Because it combines Brazilian horns with irritating repetition? Again with the jazz and brass. Get it away from me, yeccccchhhh! Hate hate hate this type of "music"! Cannot call it music!
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Lizz Wright - Hit The Ground
(Jan 09, 2006 - 07:36) | Looked her up in AMG. Normally I hate "sultry" and "R&B," but I don't hate this! This is more influenced by plain blues, I think. Normally I sound closed-minded, but I guess I'm really not, because I will rate this highly.
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The Magic Numbers - Mornings Eleven
(Jan 09, 2006 - 07:32) | Boring, repetitive. Rock, it ain't! AMG claims it is Adult Alternative Pop/ Rock
Indie Rock . . . but to me it is only pop and barely good enough for that. Good pop would be Herman's Hermits. Are we boycotting melody in the Oughties?
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William Orbit - Water from a Vine Leaf (w/ Beth Orton)
(Jan 06, 2006 - 06:54) | great_one wrote:Water from a vine leaf that is continuously dripping. Very redundant and annoying. Make it go away!
Agree with this comment. In relation to another listener's comment that this piece starts like 'Kiss Them for Me," I would have preferred the Siouxsie song to this. This might be good to fall asleep by, though. I am nodding off right now.
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Yeska - Fideo
(Jan 06, 2006 - 05:54) | I could hardly abhor this more than I do. All it lacks is poorly articulated and off-key singing. It is tuneless jazz and features mostly horns. I would give my eye teeth never to hear those two features together again. Must I keep logging off this channel? I was promised rock music, but my friend must have been going on old information.
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New Order - Temptation
(Dec 19, 2005 - 08:44) | What do you mean, "reasonable film"?!! Only for those who have the stomach for criminal lowlifes. I will never forget (unfortunately) the filmed trip into the depths of the toilet bowl, or the method by which the fuse was ignited. Is there any redeeming social value in imagining the sick fantasies of drug addicts? Only as an emetic!
I really wished that the filmmaker had been aborted. The major problem is that his mother could not have known how he would turn out. That defect needs to be fixed by scientists of the future. To say that that film traumatized me would not be an overstatement. Lowest garbage I was ever forced to sit through. Everyone involved with the film should have been punished and all copies should have been destroyed before they saw the light of day.
Note that I may have this film confused with "The Usual Suspects."
I wish that first-run, mainstream movie houses had not started their descent toward the bottom of the barrel decades ago.
Must stop before the steam from my brain fills the room.
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Mary Gauthier - Mercy Now
(Dec 12, 2005 - 08:42) | phillips wrote: great voice, but crap song. i kept checking to see when it was going to be over. i enjoy some country, but can't she include some other lyrics besides "mercy now?"
Agree mostly with this person's comments, with some amelioration.
At least the front part of the song is not so repetitious. But I quibble with the key the song is set in; set it up a step or two, and she wouldn't have to go below her vocal range and speak-swoop the lowest note in the verse. Also, notice the nice instrumentation. Then give the song a little mercy now. Every single one of us could use some.
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George Harrison - Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
(Dec 12, 2005 - 08:35) | I don't care for whiny men, even if they are famous. And especially when the lyrics might merit some good singing. Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on the guy. But I never did think he could sing in the first place. He was the second-worst singer of the foursome, arguably.
I really wish someone else would cover this song.
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Joan Osborne - Safety In Numbers
(Dec 12, 2005 - 07:21) | Even Joan Osborne's second-rate songs are fantastic, in my book. What a talented voice, that dark, smoky thing that is not quite a growl.
I fantasize about what would have happened if J.O. and the early Joni Mitchell had been contemporaries. One great low, one great high!
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Al Green - Love and Happiness
(Dec 12, 2005 - 07:19) | Abhor the genre, the lack of melody, the whininess of the voices, the generally sleazy topics characteristic of R&B and soul.
However, having said all that, I must agree with the commentators who praised the work of the brass instruments. They are really on target!
I am trying not to turn this genre off every single time. I realize that I have to try to learn to tolerate it.
(Now you have followed up with my heroine Joan Osborne, and I am a whole lot happier!)
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Billy Bragg & Wilco - California Stars
(Dec 05, 2005 - 13:43) | Boring, repetitive, emaciated in the tune department. I downgraded it from the last time, from a 2 to a 1. Fingernails on chalkboard would be preferable. Maybe I am too harsh because my back hurts, but I doubt I will like it more the 33d time I have to hear it. Goodbye now.
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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Over And Over Again (Lost and Again)
(Dec 05, 2005 - 13:40) | Shudders run through me hearing the scarily androgynous voice, and the repeated mantra reminds me of that song I hear at church and hate that is so repetitive, that includes the stupid and inaccurate phrase, "So we lift holy hands." If you want to lure others into a trance state or speak in tongues, either you leave me alone or I will walk out. One way or another, we will part company.
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Echo - Can't Walk Away
(Nov 30, 2005 - 14:09) | Can't stand the "brass"--it is not muted enough for me. But the singing is awful anyway, so it doesn't matter. Let's just not play this.
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The Doors - The Crystal Ship
(Nov 29, 2005 - 07:03) | maryte wrote: Never been a big Doors fan (although I tried) - the lyrics, although sometimes interesting, always seem to have a peripheral misogyny to them - women in their place and all. 'Bout the only one I really like is "Whisky Bar" which, of course, was written by Brecht and Weill You sound like a sister . . . against misogyny and for Brecht/Weill . . . I just try to overlook the misogyny to groove a little . . . Is that selling out?
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10,000 Maniacs - These Are Days
(Nov 29, 2005 - 06:52) | Beautiful lyrics (and nice guitar):
These are the days you'll remember.
Never before and never since,
I promise,
will the whole world be warm as this.
And as you feel it, you'll know it's true
that you are blessed and lucky.
It's true that you are touched by something
that will grow and bloom in you.
These are the days you'll remember.
When May is rushing over you
with desire to be part of the miracles
you see in every hour.
You'll know it's true
that you are blessed and lucky.
It's true that you are touched by something
that will grow and bloom in you.
These are days.
These are the days you might
fill with laughter until you break.
These days you might
feel a shaft of light make its way
across your face.
And when you do
you'll know how it was meant to be.
See the signs and know their meaning.
It's true, you'll know how it was meant to be.
Hear the signs and know
they're speaking to you, to you
Too bad one must listen to Natalie Merchant "sing," though.
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Youssou N'Dour - This Dream
(Nov 29, 2005 - 06:40) | Went to rate this, wondering whether I could create a number lower than 1, only to see I had already rated it a 1 before. I have to keep telling myself, "He is really not doing this just to make you want to pull out your hair." What genre is this, so I can avoid it in the future?
 :puke:
To answer my own question, "World" seems far too general a label!
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Men At Work - Land Down Under
(Nov 29, 2005 - 06:35) | redeyespy wrote: It too takes me back to the early teen years. Somehow I have never tired of that flute, or of any of Men at Work's tunes. Wish more folks would compliment the flute . . . Would someone pls explain Vegemite? I have heard conflicting stories about it.
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Muddy Waters - Rock Me
(Nov 29, 2005 - 06:08) | tonypf wrote: This is pretty good. However, there is great Muddy Waters out there, and this aint it. Bill: I realize this is a little better produced than some of the earlier stuff, but it lacks the real bite that Muddy brought to the scene then. I think your listeners might at least pay attention to the less varnished, more gutsy stuff. Especially the listeners (hard as it is to imagine) who've never heard Muddy. But some people's worst is better than some people's best, n'est-ce pas?
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Muddy Waters - Rock Me
(Nov 29, 2005 - 06:06) | This is great. I think I like blues as much as I dislike so-called "soul" music. One extreme like and one extreme dislike. Muddy Waters may be the avatar or the epitome. Whaddaya think?
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Martha Wainwright - Don't Forget
(Nov 29, 2005 - 06:04) | pamckenna wrote: reminds me a little of patty griffin, maybe the personal and evocative tone of the lyrics, or maybe the melody. So maybe that is why I don't like it.
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New Order - Love Vigilantes
(Nov 28, 2005 - 10:28) | Isn't this a cover version? The other is better. This guy cannot carry a tune. Why do nonsingers get recording contracts? Yecch and bleahh!
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Van Morrison - These Dreams Of You
(Nov 28, 2005 - 09:45) | Re: "The lyrics and music might be great but I just dislike his voice"-- I agree, and to me the horns are like fingernails scratching a blackboard (horns almost never belong in rock songs, and I hate horns most of the time anyway--wonder why?). Another tipoff that I wouldn't like this is that it refers to Ray Charles, who represents a genre I find vexatious. Can't we form some type of club here around these dislikes?
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Depeche Mode - Precious
(Nov 28, 2005 - 08:30) | This darn song is both depressing and addictive . . . It is like an insidious virus, its tune is like a catchy phrase, and all that before even the fact that I can't make out most of the lyrics. Depeche Mode is doing something to me . . . making me buy a new or newish LP recording! Depeche Mode has succeeded with this song; it may become the anthem of some group or movement.
(What is the correct term, now that media are constantly transmuting, for what used to be a long-playing record, a big disk of vinyl with about 12 songs on each side (or 2 to 4, for the avant-garde bands)? What term would encompass both CD-ROMs and cassettes, since rock music (and other music) is still being purveyed on both?)
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Autamata - Goldilocks
(Nov 28, 2005 - 08:23) | Some kind person will surely find and post the lyrics to this?
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Rolling Stones - Heaven
(Nov 28, 2005 - 08:17) | This does not sound like the Rolling Stones I used to know. Gives "branching out" enormous new meaning!
Need help with definitions . . ."to talk smack about" is actually . . . What? Can someone refer me to a slang-defining Web site?
As to "trolling," I had way more success:
Internet troll
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In Internet terminology, a troll is a person who posts inflammatory messages on the internet, such as on online discussion forums, to disrupt discussion or to upset its participants. It can also be used as a verb, meaning to post such messages, and "trolling" (the gerund) is also commonly used to describe the activity.
Wikipedia is wonderful.
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Tracy Chapman - Heaven's Here on Earth
(Nov 28, 2005 - 08:15) | radiojunkie wrote: Quite wonderful. The sound -- AND the words.
You can look to the stars in search of the answers
Look for God and life on distant planets
Have your faith in the ever after
While each of us holds inside the map to the labyrinth
And heaven's here on earth
We are the spirit the collective conscience
We create the pain and the suffering and the beauty in this world
Heaven's here on earth
In our faith in humankind
In our respect for what is earthly
In our unfaltering belief in peace and love and understanding
I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise
Of ordinary people leading ordinary lives
Filled with love, compassion, forgiveness and sacrifice
Heaven's in our hearts
In our faith in humankind
In our respect for what is earthly
In our unfaltering belief in peace and love and understanding
Look around
Believe in what you see
The kingdom is at hand
The promised land is at your feet
We can and will become what we aspire to be
If Heaven's here on earth
If we have faith in humankind
And respect for what is earthly
And an unfaltering belief that truth is divinity
And heaven's here on earth
I've seen spirits
I've met angels
I've touched creations beautiful and wondrous
I've been places where I question all I think I know
But I believe, I believe, I believe this could be heaven
We are born inside the gates with the power to create life
And to take it away
The world is our temple
The world is our church
Heaven's here on earth
If we have faith in human kind
And respect for what is earthly
And an unfaltering belief
In peace and love and understanding
This could be heaven here on earth
Heaven's in our heart
Thank you for troubling to paste the lyrics here, friend! Lovely poetry--though I have little faith in humankind, preferring instead to rely on the faithfulness of God, who doesn't forsake.
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John Lennon - Imagine
(Nov 17, 2005 - 09:15) | Full of dangerous and stupid lies. Man is not inherently noble. John Lennon has now found out whether there is a heaven and a hell. Communism is in conflict with basic human nature. The "tune" is sing-songy. I wish I never had to hear it again. Now I really have to tune in to another channel. This has been a mostly bad morning.
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David Gray - Lately
(Nov 17, 2005 - 09:03) | Wadro13 wrote: I fell in love with white ladder & think now that I may have overplayed it. This song is decent and may grow on me, but I feel that all of his songs have started to mesh into one. His vocal style leaves a little to be desired. But I have to give him props cuz he's been doing his thing for several years!
Please give some more info on White Ladder, since you know it so well . . .
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The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
(Nov 17, 2005 - 09:01) | mxdcec wrote: I remember visiting my girlfriends family for Christmas. She had a sister and brother-in-law that were both bible thumpers.
Well, they began planning a get together at the bible thumpers home, and it increasingly became apparent that I was not invited. I recall this soundtrack running through my brain----BIG MOUTH STRIKES AGAIN, as the bible thumpers kept planning this family values get together.
After the 10th time this song was played in my head, I looked at the bible boy, and asked- Why aren't I invited? He replied, because we don't approve of your life style. (I was living with his sister-in law). This guy was dirt poor and hadn't figured out how to prevent pregnancies.
I responded with a heartfelt "Thank-You".
Sorry to hear all that. You should have been invited as a special guest. OTOH, maybe those people are not the right ones to share the treasures of the Bible with you. As I recall, Jesus was really big on fraternizing with what his society called the biggest sinners. And Paul called himself the biggest sinner of all. Jesus asked only those without sin among them to cast the first stone. YOu could have said that you didn't think much of his lifestyle either.
I suggest that you part company with the girlfriend. There is nothing but a bad future in store when the relatives don't love you. For them to accept you isn't enough. They have to be enthusiastic about you, or you should walk. A bit of advice from someone who has seen lots of relationships bite the dust and other ones succeed.
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The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
(Nov 17, 2005 - 08:57) | I really thought I liked this group. Maybe I am just having a bad day, but I am hard pressed to detect a tune in this one either. Monotonous too, like its predecessor.
I did like the instrumental break and I would like the singer if the song itself had any merit.
Is requiring that a song have a tune too much of a demand, for gosh sakes????????????
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Nickel Creek - Best Of Luck
(Nov 17, 2005 - 08:54) | Not a tuneful song at all--sing-songy and repetitive. The female lead sounds grating and piercing. An irritating song. I had thought I liked this group!
Fingernails on a blackboard.
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The Cure - All Cats Are Grey
(Nov 17, 2005 - 07:54) | They aren't saying that all cats are gray if they are quoting the saw. The saw says that in the dark, all cats are gray. That can be interpreted in various ways, none of them literal.
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Glenn Miller - A String of Pearls
(Nov 17, 2005 - 07:50) | Cynaera wrote: So - was he ever able to get you to dance? I really hope so... It's these memories that keep our dads close in our hearts...
Don't know about randr (who has my deepest sympathy), Cynaera, but I was delighted to dance with my dad, and it was my mom who suggested it, so kudos to her too.
My parents played many albums of this music. I loved to see them dance even more than I enjoyed dancing. Thanks for the sensitive comment about aging parents, Cynaera.
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Diana Krall - Black Crow
(Nov 17, 2005 - 07:03) | Twice as irritating as it was last month! It's gotta be jazz. Why can't we just omit all jazz selections on this channel?
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The Byrds - Eight Miles High
(Nov 17, 2005 - 06:06) | Kurt_from_La_Qui wrote: Holy Cow!
#1 You guys need to scroll back for already discussed questions!
#2 It was the dawning of psychedelic music! That might explain the unique guitar playing. This song is considered the FIRST one.
#3 To all you critics...how about that for ground breaking? :nodhead:
Keep trying, Kurt. People like you give us perspective, which we all need more of.
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The Byrds - Eight Miles High
(Nov 17, 2005 - 06:03) | johnnnynav wrote:
you must be really old. The solo in the middle of the song is just plain awful.
To johnnnynav: That was really not nice ("insensitive" comes to mind). Not only is the solo in the middle full of memories for some baby-boomers, but again we are dealing here with musical tastes. Is "awful" a technical descriptor of any kind? Had you written "certain guitar techniques irritate me" and given a reason, it would have been reasonable and.
But when you dis people for being superannuated in relation to yourself, you may be setting yourself up for an unpleasant old age . . . should you yourself become superannuated. There is no excuse for rudeness to older people.
I would like to see a higher level of politeness across the board in our on-line discourse.
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Coldplay - Clocks
(Nov 15, 2005 - 12:51) | TreborG2 wrote:Oh, Loveline, where art thou now? ...
Just in case you see this, TreborG2, it's on WJFK-FM now, 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. or perhaps now starting at the familiar old 10 p.m. hour.
Adam & Dr Drew ..... used to be on WHFS here in the DC area ... and that station has gone Hispanic ... or I should say Infinity Broadcasting (or should that be Narrow-Casting) decided to turn the once infamous station Hispanic to end competition for the dimwitted medium ground of listeners in this area...
the one last saving grace of HFS was LoveLine ... and this is the closing song every show... that's all this song is to me.. :D
AHA! NOW I remember! I kept wondering where they got the outtro from! Thank you, now I finally know!
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The White Stripes - The Denial Twist
(Nov 15, 2005 - 08:25) | I normally hate songs with phrases like "the girl," but I cannot help getting euphoric whenever I hear the fantastic, distinctive, where-have-you-been-all-my-life sound of The White Stripes. I have yet to dislike a cut of theirs.
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Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - All In A Day
(Nov 15, 2005 - 08:19) | This is back-stretching bouncy rock of a type that makes me smile, breathe, get taller, get more athletic . . . WOW! What great guitar work and talk-singing!
Re other comments, IS the lead singer dead? What happened? When?
Wish I had encountered this group before now!
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Patty Griffin - Little God
(Nov 15, 2005 - 08:12) | Hard to know what I am hearing. Is the beginning of this song like two stations coming in at once, two conflicting songs? That was what it sounded like to me.
I do not find the artistic statement of chaos to be helpful or enlightening. Am thankful that the song straightens out later and seems to find an identity . . . that of a Buddhist (singing voice an a few lyrics) in Saudi Arabia (nstruments and the later wailing)?
Life is so confused. I am not a believer that art must mirror life to the point of irritation.
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Cat Stevens - Sad Lisa
(Nov 15, 2005 - 07:51) | One of the few on this album songs that I like. It is catchy and engaging.
(Eric Clapton is a Christian???)
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Eastmountainsouth - Rain Come Down
(Nov 14, 2005 - 09:47) | pdhski wrote: Anyone else hear Joan Osborne's "Saint Theresa" in the verses here???
Possibly. Those of us who resonate with anguish find it wherever it may be trying to hide.
I think I discovered this band here. Wish I had the time to hear all of their albums. That goes on my To Do list, alas.
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B.B. King & Dr. John - Is You, Or Is You Ain't (My Baby)
(Nov 14, 2005 - 09:02) | Someone else's version is funnier and faster. Aha, below, others mention the same thing.
But even then, I have to be in an extreme mood to find bad grammar funny. Our society has reached such a low point that pro-grammar statements seem to require attendant apology or be considered "unacceptable"!
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Argent - Hold Your Head Up
(Nov 14, 2005 - 08:54) | Hard to believe this anthem had not yet made it onto the RP playlist! It has helped me through so many times when some person was stepping on others to shore up his or her own ego.
I withheld the 10 rating so as to give someone else the joy!
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Toots & The Maytals - Pressure Drop (w/ Eric Clapton)
(Nov 14, 2005 - 08:50) | Please point me to definition of "guitar skronk," and to where "ska" and "reggae" are distinguished. My ears agree that this is not normal reggae. I just disliked it, but heard too little to figure out why.
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Tom Petty - Breakdown
(Nov 14, 2005 - 08:47) | webman wrote: This song has always seemed a little spooky to me. Like, if I met this guy at a party I'd want to keep my distance.
I agree with Webman, craca, and their neighbors. Irritating and whiny, one of his worst.
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Eddie Harris - Listen Here
(Nov 09, 2005 - 14:51) | I wish you would get rid of all this horny jazz. And the extraneous shouts--hoarse to boot . . . I can't call it music; maybe meandering to random musical notes. Yecch.
But wait. On reflection, this is better than most, because it has more structure and the horn player sort of makes it "talk."
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Joni Mitchell - Let The Wind Carry Me
(Nov 09, 2005 - 13:18) | I deplore what happened to this performer. Plunky piano and stupid background vocal timewasters that go nowhere. Poetry has become more prosaic. If we could cut the crud and just have the phrases with Joni's singing, I would like it. Her start was more appealing than the increasing fanciness and sophistication. At least JM didn't start to dress like a cocktail waitress (Judy Collins, whose music also went downhill).
Can't stand what JM's voice does on "A Case of You," but I do greatly like one of her later pieces, "For Free."
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Herbie Hancock - Cantaloupe Island
(Nov 09, 2005 - 11:46) | Again with the awful, meandering horns--and these squeak! The piano plunks! This really can't call itself music! Whatever genre this is, I can really do without. Vexatious. I call it "tunefulphobic"!
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Santana - Soul Sacrifice
(Nov 09, 2005 - 10:29) | WonderLizard wrote:Sitting on the floor in Ned Moore's room at Cloyne Court in Berkeley. One guy was rolling joints at one end of the room and passing them down pretty much nonstop. Ned's roommate had jury rigged a quad system with awesome power. "Soul Sacrifice" all around us and LOUD.
I'm not a pot type, and if I hadn't gotten back after the song was well on I might agree it was too long, but 2 minutes of this was very invigorating and cheering! I had heard this but never knew its name, in that sort of way you get with overfamiliarity.
Please play some other Santana, so I can get a better grip on how I feel--about Santana, that is!
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BoDeans - Fadeaway
(Nov 09, 2005 - 10:26) | Just got back from lunch, frustrated to have missed one by a group I thought I liked . . . but in view of others' comments, please play a different one by the BoDeans soon. Thank you!
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Paolo Conte - Via Con Me
(Nov 09, 2005 - 08:05) | Maybe Bill announced this wrong, but twice I heard him say it was Paolo Conte, yet the lyrics repeated (ad nauseam) "'ts wonderful, 'ts wonderful." Whatever song it was that had those lyrics had use of brass that was irritating, and I am glad it is over.
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Tom Petty - Something Big
(Nov 09, 2005 - 07:43) | Not a great one of his. Does it cost more to pronounce simple English words comprehensibly?
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Yo-Yo Ma - Libertango
(Nov 08, 2005 - 13:18) | Well, here is an Asian who can sensitively and affectionately render homage to the tango. Go figure! I see the connection to the David Byrne attempt to do Latin American, but this succeeds where that didn't. Of course it might also have to do with the fact that this has nary a horn.
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David Byrne - Make Believe Mambo
(Nov 08, 2005 - 13:15) | Unimaginative, irritating pseudo-Mexican crud. (Not to mention that most horn playing vexes me anyway.)White boy, leave the Hispanic music to the Hispanics. That field is so crowded already.
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Dougie MacLean - Ready For The Storm
(Nov 08, 2005 - 13:04) | Great Scottish-sounding instrumentation, delicate violin-playing!
I like the song, as I do most of this performer's pieces, but it is almost ruined for me by having been overplayed on the stations I listen to. Also, despite the positive message, the tune is lugubrious and depresses me.
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Talking Heads - And She Was
(Nov 07, 2005 - 15:08) | Bluebird wrote: And She Was..... this song just makes me smile....thanks Bill :)
I agree . . . This song just makes me want to soar up in the sky too! Now I wouldn't mind if someone tried to explain the lyrics to me, either, though!
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The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There
(Nov 07, 2005 - 15:05) | Remember when this was new. Was shocked by the stertorous breathing, though then I did not know for sure what it was about. How can it be called "soul" when this type of music is the opposite--that is, as earthy as it can be? I am trying to express the ideas discreetly here.
What is the meaning of "funk," as in "funky music"? Isn't that really a more suitable term for this type of suggestive song?
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The Kinks - I'm Not Like Everybody Else
(Nov 07, 2005 - 11:57) | Could it be that those who are irritated by this song are among those who are like everybody else?
Those for whom this touches a deep chord must be us misfits. So sad for us. Some of us kill ourselves. Would that satisfy you?
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The Kinks - Apeman (live)
(Nov 01, 2005 - 05:41) | This was a groundbreaker as well as a piece of humor. It came out long before Caribbean influenced rock music in general, and the fake Jamaican accent was also before its time. Let a great group have a little fun, willya!
But yes, it is an anemic version.
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Madness - Our House
(Oct 28, 2005 - 11:56) | Baby_M wrote: Our house, was our castle and our keep
Our house, that was where we used to sleep
Our house, that was where we parked our jeep
Our house, where we kept our flock of sheep . . .
I like the funny and sentimental lyrics. But the vapid, truncated melody irritates me.
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Diana Krall - Black Crow
(Oct 28, 2005 - 11:36) | I agree with most of the negative comments below. I dislike tinkly piano-bar sound--reminds me of directionless drunkards whiling away another pointless afternoon in overstuffed alcoholic lounges. And the singing seems to pander to that attitude of listlessness, ennui, and anomie.
:puke:
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Van Morrison - Moondance
(Oct 28, 2005 - 08:37) | ktbaynes wrote:
i completely agree.
Me too--probably much worse than DSoTM. Again we see how residents of Columbia, MD, are sharp people, smart folks!
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Joe Henry - Rough And Tumble
(Oct 28, 2005 - 08:05) | Whatever it is, it is either not a style I like or else just irritating me at the moment.
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John Kongos - Tokoloshe Man
(Oct 28, 2005 - 07:37) | Good for rockin' out to . . . fascinating lyrics . . . But at the beginning, the tune greatly reminded me of this:
Charlie Brown
The Coasters
Fe-fe, fi-fi, fo-fo, fum
I smell smoke in the auditorium
Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown
He's a clown, that Charlie Brown
He's gonna get caught
Just you wait and see
(Why's everybody always pickin' on me)
That's him on his knees
I know that's him
Yeah, from 7 come 11
Down in the boys' gym
Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown
He's a clown, that Charlie Brown
He's gonna get caught
Just you wait and see
(Why's everybody always pickin' on me)
Who's always writing on the wall
Who's always goofing in the hall
Who's always throwing spit balls
Guess who (who, me) yeah, you
Who walks in the classroom, cool and slow
Who calls the English teacher, Daddy-O
Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown
He's a clown, that Charlie Brown
He's gonna get caught
Just you wait and see
(Why's everybody always pickin' on me)
---- Instrumental Interlude ----
Who walks in the classroom, cool and slow
Who calls the English teacher, Daddy-O
Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown
He's a clown, that Charlie Brown
He's gonna get caught
Just you wait and see
(Why's everybody always pickin' on me)
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David Gray - The One I Love
(Oct 27, 2005 - 11:45) | When I hear any protestation repeated that much, it gets sickening and I start doubting it.
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James McMurtry - Red Dress
(Oct 27, 2005 - 11:38) | Like the music and instrumentation (I would call it good country blues) . . . but I do abhor the misogynistic lyrics, which seem menacing. I guess that means this piece is a success.
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Nickel Creek - Somebody More Like You
(Oct 26, 2005 - 10:18) | I know I like this group. Thanks for the change from Ray LaMontagne. Your eclecticism is what keeps so many of us coming back! The lyrics are both intelligent and intelligible, and there seems to be a melody. Wow, now they have even added in some *violin*--my favorite instrument--and well done, too! Yay!
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Nickel Creek - Somebody More Like You
(Oct 26, 2005 - 10:18) | I know I like this group. Thanks for the change from Ray LaMontagne. Your eclecticism is what keeps so many of us coming back! The lyrics are both intelligent and intelligible, and there seems to be a melody. Wow, now they have even added in some *violin*--my favorite instrument--and well done, too! Yay!
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Ray LaMontagne - Shelter
(Oct 26, 2005 - 10:15) | Don't like the genre or the cigarettish hoarsish would-be-wailing voice. Another one in which melody suffers abuse or obliteration.
Just read others' comments. How can this song be "stark and powerful" and also "lazy"? Scratches head. No, I don't mean it to stand for "stupid," I mean it to stand for "confusing."
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Air - La Femme D'Argent
(Oct 26, 2005 - 08:26) | So is this "shoegazer" music? Not having gotten any satisfactory answer (or any answer at this site) to my question as to what "shoegazer" is, I would guess that this piece is either that or "ambient" or both.
Of the previous comments, more people dislike than praise the rest of the album. Please keep up that type of comment for the rest of us; thanks.
Why is there an Air Supply and now Air? Any relationship?
Would some cognoscentus please help out here?
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Bettie Serveert - Co-Coward
(Oct 26, 2005 - 08:25) | The song-lyrics site I went to called this song "Dust Bunny," singular.
The lyrics are really mysterious; wish someone would deconstruct them for me.
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John Lee Hooker - This Is Hip
(Oct 26, 2005 - 08:21) | netdiver wrote: This is crap
Your subjective experience is totally justified. Those who like classical music might not succeed in getting those who like this to like classical.
I don't think, though, that this is pure blues, or I would like it more than I do. What genres are also represented in this song?
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Vienna Teng - Feather Moon
(Oct 26, 2005 - 06:43) | Please, everyone, let us breathe in and breathe out. The verb is "to breathe"; "breath" is the noun only.
But English is a tough language to spell, because unlike Spanish and German (but almost as bad as French!), the pronunciation is not your guide!
For example, there is no verb "to smoothe," it is "to smooth," despite the tempting analogy to "to breathe." We all need to study "breath, breathe"; sooth," "soothe"; and "smooth." A good starting point might be dictionary.com. (I started to write about all those, but it got too long.)
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David Bowie - Waterloo Sunset
(Oct 26, 2005 - 06:18) | dionysius wrote: A sad thing. Bowie is a terrific original artist who does inexplicably awful covers of great songs by other people: "Let's Spend the Night Together," "Across the Universe," "Criminal World," "God Only Knows" (and many more) have been Bowie-ized with sorry results, and now this. One of the most simple and sublime pop songs, ever, manhandled with no subtlety or feeling whatsoever. I'm still sure Ray cashed the royalty check, but I'm sure he did it grinning through clenched teeth.
Bowie's original pieces are worth listening to, but these covers need never be heard again. I just reply to this to say, "What he said!"
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Harry Nilsson - Coconut
(Oct 26, 2005 - 06:10) | radiomao wrote: C'mon...not all ear-worm songs are bad!
In addition to this one, I still like Loser by Beck, too.
"...Soy un perdidor
I'm a Loser, Baby,
So why don't you kill me..."
And what about Let's Call The Whole Thing Off:
"You say po-tay-to and I say po-tah-to
You say to-may-to and I say to-mah-to..."
Then, for me, there's the worst one of all:
"You'll look better in a sweater washed on Woolite
Woolite washing makes your sweater look alive..."
I never heard the Woolite one, would like more info on it so I can pursue it. Finally someone who shares my sense of humor! Thank you, fellow listener!
Yes, one sort of has to be in a mood to be amused, I guess. Although I wasn't when it came on, and it made me laugh again.
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Joni Mitchell - Carey
(Oct 26, 2005 - 05:44) | rah wrote:this is the only song i can sing at all in tune
Then you must be amazingly talented, because this piece has no tune--more like jazz, a meandering.
I agree mostly with those who find Joni's voice vexatious, except that on a few songs it is perfect and wonderful. I would recommend "For Free," "I Had a King," "Michael From Mountains," and "Tin Angel." They seemed to be so genuine and sincere.
What do people who dislike this song (and this album, "Blue") have in common? Aversion to perversion? I recall the fan who first played this whole album for me. To me it seemed to be one great blanket of depressiveness and irritation. She was a longtime pot smoker and I wasn't.
(Might there be a correlation between people's relationship to substances and their musical tastes? Do those who like jazz tend to do drugs more and vice versa, because jazz is so unregulated and not beholden to melody? Is there a site where I could go to study and read about such phenomena?)
By contrast, Joni's earliest music seems more direct and unself-conscious. The early songs were more in the folk genre; later her style changed into something or things that I liked less and less.
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The Levellers - Four Winds
(Oct 12, 2005 - 10:32) | This cut reminds me of Oyster Band! I got a CD by this group that was nowhere near this good, so glad to be given a chance at a second opinion! Can't wait to own the CD this song is on!
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Miles Davis - It Ain't Necessarily So
(Oct 12, 2005 - 08:33) | Hate most jazz Hate jazz trumpet Sure he does well at what it is but hate what it is and never want to hear the ilk Thank you it ended
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Sonny Landreth - Broken Hearted Road
(Oct 12, 2005 - 08:20) | Does this guitarist put Frampton and Hendrix and others in the shade, or does someone out there have a candidate for superior to him?
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Kate Bush - King Of The Mountain
(Oct 12, 2005 - 06:33) | Marr wrote: Her voice sounds as good as ever, but this cut sounds (to me) a little on the bland side. Hopefully the rest of the album will be more exciting. Perhaps this cut fits well in the context of the whole album.
(Then "ever" is substandard and irritating!)
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Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On
(Sep 22, 2005 - 13:48) | redeyespy wrote:
Wild overanalyzation. This song is ultra sexy.
Ever been seduced?
Thanks for the chance to answer an advocate. Insulting content like this would send any self-respecting woman running in the opposite direction. Would like to do more analysis for you, but have to work on a project.
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Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On
(Sep 22, 2005 - 12:04) | Thought this would be in a Top Ten of Detestation, but realized that there are so many in this vein that there might be hundreds. This is being followed by an almost equally repugnant piece, by a group called G. Love & Special Sauce, "Love and Harmor" (What is "harmor"?)
This genre is so offensive . . . or are they sending themselves up, lampooning the predatory-male sexism of certain social groups? :P
:x 8O :oops: :verymad:
I wanted to write something about how certain performers' mothers should have gotten abortions subsidized by haters of this genre, or at the very least something about perpetual duct tape for these performers (I cannot call them "singers"), but I feared that to write such things would be way too extreme. So of course I didn't. :tapedshut:
Now we are hearing Toots & the Maytals, which will segue us back into tunefulness, music, and less sexism, I hope.
:) <-o<
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Damien Rice - Delicate
(Sep 20, 2005 - 09:20) | The lyrics have beauty . . . the singing does not. Would like to have the song covered by any of several other singers. The singing was so irritating that I had to rate the song 1.
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The Smashing Pumpkins - Drown
(Sep 20, 2005 - 07:51) | The lead singer should get his mouth duct-taped. Or else get singing lessons. OTOH, maybe he is slyly trying to imitate the guitar sounds. If that is the intention, he does a great job. But his "singing" might irritate some listeners. The instrumentation is talented. The "tune" is meandering and boring, but the instruments create excitement. All in all, a very mixed bag.
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Ray LaMontagne - Forever My Friend
(Sep 14, 2005 - 12:39) | What a terrible voice and inane bongos and ill-fitting synth or similar--irritating guitar despite being well played--Is this supposed to be blues or blue-eyed soul? Can other songs by him be this yecchy? Hope to avoid in future.
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Mindy Smith - Jolene
(Sep 14, 2005 - 12:32) | mrrmt wrote: I had the opportunity to see the white stripes do this live in this little baltimore venue many years ago and it was sooo amazing. it made me love the dolly parton version and their cover. this one is ok. WISH I could have heard the White Stripes do it. This version is very good in the emotion dept and also the vocal quality and tunefulness, though Mindy's voice is not as big as Dolly's. I wonder why Mindy wanted to cover it . . . ? :?: :?:
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Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio
(Sep 14, 2005 - 10:51) | lostindetroit wrote: After reading the comments posted before me, I feel somewhat sheepish in wanting to say nothing more than I like this song.
OK, maybe one more thing. Someone referenced this as "shoegazer" type music, with no theatre. While I can agree to a point, it's irrelevant to how a song hits your heart. The melancholy doesn't find it's way to you with jazz hands, it creeps into you.
Alright, I'm done.
Interesting! Does this song really exemplify "shoegazer" genre? If so, I learned something. I can also understand how someone who *enjoys* feeling melancholy could enjoy this selection. It ain't me, babe.
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Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio
(Sep 14, 2005 - 10:35) | If the song name at top is the one I am listening to--which is not always the case--I have to vote against the monotony and repetetiveness of it . . . relieved only by the shift from a whiny adult male vocal into an unlovely falsetto. I think I am commenting on the right song, though, because I recall liking the Solas selection that apparently preceded. If someone else enjoys this, good!
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Massive Attack - Be Thankful For What You Got
(Sep 07, 2005 - 14:28) | Please just skip this genre. Is it pseudo-soul/pop/R&B with some hip-hop pepper? Yecch, yecch, yecch. Not worth the vinyl. Also ditch the falsettos.
:verysorry: #-o :?
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Kasabian - Test Transmission
(Sep 07, 2005 - 13:45) | Please make it stop. The self-conscious archness/poor taste of the group's name seems to be reflected in its music.
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Solomon Burke - None Of Us Are Free
(Aug 30, 2005 - 13:29) | Franlrc wrote:
You mean "But IS any of us free?
Regardless (not irregardless, by the way), was your comment an attempt to be philosophical or ungrammatical? (I don't really care but I can't resist adding my smartass two cents to everyone else's.) 
The word "any" by itself is ambiguous grammatically. Depends on what surrounds it. No doubt about it, English grammar is slippery. "Any of us" is still a problem, I think, because it might mean two out of nine in some contexts. Gilbert and Sullivan get around the problems by having their choruses sing about "any one among us," so that the subject is clearly plural.
Those who do not find grammar problems fascinating and entertaining, I beg you to ignore rather than flame me. Thank you.
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Solomon Burke - None Of Us Are Free
(Aug 30, 2005 - 13:09) | Some beautiful vocal harmonies and a bopping beat. However, I must insist that even if none of us were free--that is, if it is true that none of us is free--I still think that in some ways, some of us are free.
(Not one of us is free, singular; some of us are free, plural. ;))
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Lemonheads - Mrs. Robinson
(Aug 30, 2005 - 09:48) | The extra instrumentation that rocks heavily makes what was a thoughtful philosophical and sociological commentary by Simon & Garfunkel more exciting by far . . . But the soulfulness is missing; vocalizations sound totally bored--for alienation-effect, perhaps?
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Aimee Mann - Humpty Dumpty
(Aug 29, 2005 - 12:31) | Interesting . . . I like this one by her, but not the others I have heard so far. Will reserve judgment.
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Bob Marley - No Woman, No Cry
(Aug 29, 2005 - 12:26) | mezzanine wrote:
Do you have any friends?
Why attack a person for his tastes? Musical affinities are basically subjective.
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Jimi Hendrix - Little Wing (live)
(Aug 29, 2005 - 12:16) | This song seems to be influenced by jazz, but it is more rock and features guitar instead of horns. The guitar sings like a person. I admire it.
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Miles Davis - Mystery
(Aug 29, 2005 - 12:11) | Most jazz I find quite irritating, probably both because it seems aimless and because its brasses seem to enjoy making noises that sound rude, sarcastic, or suggestive a great deal of the time. I wonder whether it is generally true that certain personality types do not appreciate jazz and other types like it.
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Steve Earle - I'm Looking Through You
(Aug 29, 2005 - 10:36) | Most songs by the Beatles can be improved by other performers' rendering them, except for the Beatles songs whose lyrics and instrumentation are too vapid. I vaguely remember not thinking much of the Beatles (except for a few songs) and because of the widespread adoration being afraid to say so. But I'll bet I have lots of silent company. Still, there are the few excellent pieces . . . This one is OK.
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Thievery Corporation - Indra
(Aug 29, 2005 - 09:41) | basstooner wrote:please, some of us need to stay awake at work :oops:
What this person said! #-o
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Thievery Corporation - Indra
(Aug 29, 2005 - 09:40) | basstooner wrote:please, some of us need to stay awake at work :oops:
What this person said!
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Hevia - Son Del Busgosu
(Aug 29, 2005 - 09:36) | Is this Celtic and Middle Eastern instrumentation with Hindu-chant words from India (thought I heard Rama repeatedly)?
I like the Celtic/Middle-Eastern instrumental liaison. I am still deciding about the lyrics--maybe that makes it too eclectic . . .
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Hevia - Son Del Busgosu
(Aug 29, 2005 - 09:36) | Is this Celtic and Middle Eastern instrumentation with Hindu-chant words from India (thought I heard Rama repeatedly)?
I like the Celtic/Middle-Eastern instrumental liaison. I am still deciding about the lyrics--maybe that makes it too eclectic . . .
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The Beatles - Dig A Pony
(Aug 29, 2005 - 07:44) | Jennnn wrote: Boring and repetitious and bad guitar playing. Other than that, I like it!
Some people agree with you . . . and would add that the singing voice is irritating. It's the lyrics and the nice guitar work that make it so great and poetic.
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Massive Attack - Black Milk
(Aug 25, 2005 - 11:20) | RParadise wrote: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . . uh . . . is it over yet? . . . uhhh . . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Couldn't have put it better than that.
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Pearl Jam - Black
(Aug 25, 2005 - 09:00) | gntlemanartist wrote: I don't know how this man's constipated moaning can be mistaken for music.
This commenter said it better than I could, so I will just quote him.
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Pearl Jam - Black
(Aug 25, 2005 - 08:57) | The "lead singer" should get his mouth taped shut. He is nearly as bad as the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish. Who is he, so I can avoid him?
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Josh Ritter - Other Side (remix)
(Aug 24, 2005 - 09:49) | Sound and singer are fine, but I am tired of sadness and dragginess. Let us have a change of pace and get upbeat, please.
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Coldplay - Don't Panic
(Aug 24, 2005 - 09:47) | Mugro wrote:
Isn't Morphine from Boston?
Yeah, the world series thing definitely makes us crazy around here.  :verymad:
That and winter in May.
Sympathy about your weather, but don't you guys have the highest prevalence rate of intellectuals and literary resources and great universities/colleges per square mile of any area of the country? And don't you have great fresh seafood? Doesn't that go a long way toward making up for long, wet winters and the Big Dig and other things like that?
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Steely Dan - Reelin' In The Years
(Aug 24, 2005 - 09:44) | Here is an explanation I considered useful. If I get no disagreeing explanations, I will consider this roughly "it":
diggy (9/17/99): "Reelin' in the Years" has one of the greatest guitar intros in music history. I used to think the narrator was talking to his girlfriend, but now I realize it is a father talking to his daughter. (CBAT sleeve notes: "How's my little girl?") The three verses are in chronological order. First, she is a teenager and doesn't know the difference between reality and a fantasy. Ask a 13-year-old girl whether she "LOVES" her boyfriend at school. She will say yes and babble on about him for an hour. But the next week, she "LOVES" a different guy. To quote from Bread, teenagers "change their partners like they change their underwear."
In the second verse, she is a college student and quite full of herself. In the third, she gets married, and Daddy feels left behind. The song points out that a young girl/woman runs through life at a rapid pace and rarely notices the years reelin' by. But the father watches his little girl and wishes she and time would slow down --- they grow up too fast.
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Oliver Mtukudzi - Shanda
(Aug 19, 2005 - 11:23) | TonySkiens wrote: If you don't like this song you need one or more of the following:
Better speakers
Better headphones
A Clue
:-)
Do we really need this type of personal attack, when all we are dealing with here is a matter of personal musical preferences?
Nobody is forcing you to agree with them.
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Baka Beyond - Spirit of the Forest
(Aug 19, 2005 - 11:02) | DJac wrote:
Why do I get the sense you folks are not muscians?
Don't know about cptbuz, but I have been musical my whole life.
My critique wasn't so much about music anyway, but about proper use of influences from other cultures. Just brand me an opponent of "sampling" . . . also, as a former teacher, I oppose whatever I see as plagiarism. Proper attribution, fine. Proofreading I also like.
Shall we cease now, so as to end the trend toward the argument ad hominem? Isn't there a guideline for posts at this site to that effect?
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Baka Beyond - Spirit of the Forest
(Aug 19, 2005 - 09:38) | cptbuz wrote:
How bout "crap"?
Well, I was trying to be tactful; actually, every time this comes on, I wonder whether I can get the rating to go down to zero.
I really doubt that the "tribal chant" calling some animals is authentic. It sounds like just a snippet of a longer chant, repeated endlessly. I say that such usage does violence to the source. If I were to hear a tribal chant, I would want the long, full version with all the villagers and the complexity.
Using a snippet this way insults the original and makes a mishmash.
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Wilco - Jesus, Etc.
(Aug 19, 2005 - 09:24) | barndweller wrote: wonderful music....country?...folk?...pop?....who cares what it is...it's good
Actually, I would really like to know what genre(s) this song is. I disagree about the lead singer's voice being raspy! I'd call it whiny.
As to what band it reminds me of, definitely the Beatles. And the suggestion about Ray and Dave Davies, I agree with that one.
But my question about the genre still stands.
?? ??
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Over the Rhine - Fever
(Aug 18, 2005 - 11:15) | curious_cat wrote:
This kindred spirit expressed our reactions better than I! Masterly use of icons!
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Over the Rhine - Fever
(Aug 18, 2005 - 11:10) | Interesting idea to treat this in a laid-back, bluesy way . . . but it did not work.
:-k
If the title is "fever," then somehow feverishness should be conveyed, not ennui and soporific trance! :(
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Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane
(Aug 18, 2005 - 11:08) | th3boon wrote: hmm, i'm always torn when I hear a vu or lou reed cover. to me its one of those sacred things better left untouched. I don't think any vu cover has ever measured up to the original for me.
on this particular account I love the vu extended version from some b-side or other the best. and this isn't bad, but it's just not got me rockin like it should, this song needs to rock.
btw, i've been listening for about 2 weeks now and don't think I've heard any vu, is it on the playlist? if not, well, why?
RIGHT!! "Sweet Jane" needs to kick out all the jams . . . and no one should even try to cover VU songs.
(For those not in the in crowd, "vu" means The Velvet Underground, an avant-garde, undergroundish experimental-rock group from the 1960s and 1970s.)
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Buena Vista Social Club - El Cuarto de Tula
(Aug 18, 2005 - 09:47) | I can't stand too much of this type of thing, and this song is too long. It is so hackneyed and "tipico" that I would not expect to hear it much on RP. A hope and a suggestion.
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Pink Floyd - The Great Gig In The Sky
(Aug 18, 2005 - 09:22) | STOP torturing her and me. Is the wailing at all useful or charming? Totally horrid. Yet there is another song on this album that I like a lot.
The addition of a female voice does not help this group. This cut is worse than fingernails on a blackboard. It does not make me want to support RP.
I would guess that its fans are those who enjoy self-torture. 8O :headshake: :puke: :whip:  
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Joan Osborne - St. Teresa
(Aug 18, 2005 - 09:04) | Please everyone read the lyrics to this. It isn't pretty, it's excruciating and desperately painful. The fact that its tragedy still shocks me and rends me when I hear it repeatedly testifies to Joan's ability to create empathy with her voice.
Other songs on this album are almost as powerful. But two I can think of hammered my head in by means of the opposite type of vocal approach. In Long Black Coat, she creates fear and haunting by understatement. In Pensacola, she evokes flat, barren tawdry hopelessness without overdoing, her restraint almost giving a 3-D photo of the personas of the song and how they relate.
I could give a lengthy analysis of every song on the album, but will spare you for now.
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Urban Species - Blanket (featuring Imogen Heap)
(Aug 18, 2005 - 06:20) | lester wrote: Nice voice -- the woman's is -- really nice. And then there's some other person jabbering on about something, which is, apparently, intentionally intermingled with the song on the same recording.
Not everyone appreciates jabbering or semitalk. I can't stand any more of the breathy females (commenting on Kate Bush and Bird York as well). They sell their sex appeal in place of really singing, and I can't stand it.
Some commenters seem to like songs only for their erotic assistance. That is fine for them, only let's not lie and call it music. It is some sort of pandering instead.
Thankful that the Urban Species cut featuring Imogen H. is not too long! :( :headshake: :D
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Bird York - Haunting You
(Aug 18, 2005 - 06:15) | I can't stand too many more of the breathy females (commenting on Bird York). They sell their sex appeal in place of really singing, and I can't stand it.
Darn, now I have to listen to Urban Species featuring Imogen H. Must turn off now.
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Kate Bush - The Sensual World
(Aug 18, 2005 - 06:13) | tony99 wrote: You know this is adapted from the last chapter of Joyce's Ulysses ?? - Molly's monologue ...
Yesssssss ....
OK! In light of the literary explanation, this song now makes sense (as much as it could). It also explains the dramatic purpose of the breathiness that voice teachers extirpate. But I can't stand too many more of the breathy females. They sell their sex appeal in place of really singing, and I can't stand it. Sad to say, it seems to be a big recent trend in singers of both genders (am listening to Bird York as I write this, and cannot tell the gender of same). Darn, now I have to listen to Urban Species featuring Imogen H. Must turn off now.
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Jeff Buckley - Grace
(Aug 16, 2005 - 14:00) | This guy's screeching is NOT singing. Why would he be paid for inflicting it on other people?
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Tori Amos - Parasol
(Aug 16, 2005 - 12:38) | I have disliked every other Tori Amos selection I had heard so far. But this one I mostly like.
On this one, she sounds so different--more like the lead singers of the folk-revival groups of the 1970s. I could say that I like the verses a lot but the refrain not so much.
I didn't like some of the phrasings--the ones that sounded more like pop music ("the only one that can't be tried," etc., refrain), but I did not understand the criticism of Amos's enunciation. I was able to pick up most of the words . . .
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Philip Glass - Escape!
(Aug 16, 2005 - 12:27) | Wanted to see the film anyway . . . . This music is totally relaxing. I can understand now why this composer is so highly regarded by periodicals such as Newsweek.
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Philip Glass - Escape!
(Aug 16, 2005 - 12:27) | Wanted to see the film anyway . . . . This music is totally relaxing. I can understand now why this composer is so highly regarded by periodicals such as Newsweek.
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Solas - Darkness, Darkness
(Aug 16, 2005 - 12:12) | srn wrote: Please, Please, Please --- there are many better versions of this song -- ones that don't sound like the lyrics are being read off a sheet of paper. This is my spiritual theme-song and this band is killing it.
Please, give us JCY or Robert Plant or Phil Upchurch. Thanks much.
Again, yes, you are so right!
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Solas - Darkness, Darkness
(Aug 16, 2005 - 12:11) | srn wrote: There's nothing dark about this version of Darkness, Darkness; and, to me, little feeling of any kind comes across. Perhaps I've just heard better versions - although not frequently enough. I'm a big lover of female vocalists - and perhaps in a different song I'd like this one, but not here.
I totally agrree. Depressing! As wooden as a robot! How do they manage to convey so little emotion?????? The original moves me. With this one, I just admire the instrumental work.
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Ray Charles - I've Got a Woman
(Aug 16, 2005 - 12:05) | Bill followed this selection with the White Stripes' "Denial Twist." Wish he would explain why. The misogyny is not excusable on account of the sound of the music (which someone said below) . . . not to those for whom the style of music and singing are vexatious to listen to as well.
Sorry that Mr. Charles is dead, for his family and his fans. I heard that one should not speak ill of the dead, and he was doubtless a fine human being. However, I hope that I am allowed to avoid his songs, just as others are allowed to avoid the music I like if it does not appeal to them.
Bill's combinations are sometimes unexpected--the eclecticism is what keeps so many disparate folks coming back here. :highfive:
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Trail of Dead - Russia
(Jul 18, 2005 - 14:15) | Interesting . . . and the lyrics are comprehensible, unlike those of the most recent three selections.
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Kate Bush - Army Dreamers
(Jul 18, 2005 - 14:14) | catmaven wrote: Why does an adult woman have to try to sound like a three-year-old? How grating! Somebody put her into a sandbox and give her some child's toys. Now she has to grace us with "doodle-doodle-doodle-doo"! Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse!
Oh--but wait--now I hear some great violin on a song by Trail of Dead, a song that seems to bear the strange name of "Russia/All White/Best"!
----------------------------------
The fact that the same three songs came together in the same order must mean that we are hearing a recycled playlist. Doesn't it?
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Doves - Snowden
(Jul 18, 2005 - 14:11) | catmaven wrote: I cannot stand a song that repeats "Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah" hundreds of times. If you can't think up any actual words, just be silent and let it be an instrumental! How much insult can our brains take?
The theremin photos below are REALLY wonderful, for anyone newly arrived here!
However, I stand by my year-old comment about the vocals. Again this song is followed by Kate Bush (why?), who is hardly much better but at least does not inundate with "Yeah yeah yeah."
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Kathleen Edwards - In State
(Jul 18, 2005 - 13:32) | Gives new meaning to "boring and repetitive."
:x
Yes, on July 18, 2005, I wrote that, but today (Jan. 25, 2006) I like it . . . anyway! Kinda kindly and comforting-sounding. Another ambivalence icon:
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Tom Petty - American Girl
(Jul 18, 2005 - 13:29) | Thought I liked Tom Petty . . . This song is awful, both instrumentally and vocally. Horns and whining are bad enough independent of one another. What a disappointment. Please do not play this again. :x
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Richard Thompson - Beeswing
(Jul 18, 2005 - 08:14) | Search on "Renbourne" with an "e" at the end.
maryte wrote:I believe this tune is based on "Bogie's Bonnie Belle" - check out the John Renbourn version of the song...quite nice
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Porcupine Tree - Prodigal
(Jul 18, 2005 - 05:08) | n4ku wrote:
:nodhead:
In response to AliGator re hearing "LLL"--heard same; it only took 2 seconds. There are echoes of a couple of other sixties songs too.
#-o :D/ :nodhead:
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Joseph Arthur - A Smile That Explodes
(Jun 07, 2005 - 10:56) | I like vocals I can decipher. In general, too, I cannot appreciate whispering as a substitute for singing. This is a nice way of saying that this vocalization style is tiresome and nonmelodious.
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Oliver Mtukudzi - Ndauvara
(Jun 07, 2005 - 10:54) | Platypus wrote: alright, this one was interesting the first 300 times that I heard it - but now it seems like its being played at least twice a day. i dont know, maybe he's got another song that sounds exactly like this one, and i keep on thinking that its the same song, but either way, the extremely high rotation is driving me up the wall. I agree, and also agree with another listener that it is obtrusive. Provide translation at least, please.
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Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood
(Jun 07, 2005 - 08:06) | Somebody can really seriously bend and warble those ol' git-tar strings! This gives me blues without actually depressing me. Glad you are picking up the pace with this one!
:D
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Susan Tedeschi - You Need to Be With Me
(Jun 07, 2005 - 08:03) | Good at continuing the depressive mood you established with earlier songs. If being made depressed is what one wants, that is excellent. But I hope you pick up the pace soon!
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Mark Knopfler - Postcards From Paraguay
(Jun 07, 2005 - 08:01) | The guitar is great; the voice is mellifluous and never off key. The musical allusions to a favorite country of mine, which I loved being in, are on target. But it is too successful at evoking a sad and depressive mood.
:(
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Kate Bush - Army Dreamers
(Jun 04, 2005 - 11:32) | Why does an adult woman have to try to sound like a three-year-old? How grating! Somebody put her into a sandbox and give her some child's toys. Now she has to grace us with "doodle-doodle-doodle-doo"! Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse!
ANother insult of a song. I have to log out now. I can't bear the horrible singing anymore.
Oh--but wait--now I hear some great violin on a song by Trail of Dead, a song that seems to bear the strange name of "Russia/All White/Best"!
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Snow Patrol - Making Enemies
(Jun 04, 2005 - 11:29) | I cannot be sure whether it is this song or one by Kate Bush that has the offensive singing.
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Doves - Snowden
(Jun 04, 2005 - 11:26) | I cannot stand a song that repeats "Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah" hundreds of times. If you can't think up any actual words, just be silent and let it be an instrumental! How much insult can our brains take?
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Portishead - Sour Times
(Jun 04, 2005 - 11:15) | Did somebody clone Hooverphonic???????? Can somebody say which group came first and whether they know one another?
And why couldn't they simply have named the song "Nobody Loves Me"? Those are the only lyrics that are truly comprehensible.
Couldn't one link from each song be a link to the lyrics (DIRECTED TO BILL)? Only occasionally does a fellow listener provide that, which is really the most important information if one even halfway likes a given song.
Lack of comprehensibility has been my main frustration with rock songs since I first started forcing myself to listen because I thought that doing so would make me into a bona fide teenager. I apparently haven't changed very much since then . . . except that I no longer have to force myself to listen to rock music!
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Josh Ritter - You Don't Make It Easy Babe
(Apr 11, 2005 - 07:49) | Excellent Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan vocal clone but with a little tiny tiny bit of tune here and there. The song could have more tune in it, but it is better than the last 10 or so in that regard.
Now if you would just give us, please, some tuneful singing and instrumentation and clever lyrics, all at the same time!!??!!!??!!!!!
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Mono - Life in Mono
(Apr 11, 2005 - 07:45) | Joyfulchristine wrote: Okay...the tinkly little chimes and breathy do do do do do do do is really getting on my nerves. When is this song going to be over?
Totally agree, Christine! If only all the breathy vocalists' CDs, LPs, and cassettes would autoexplode.
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Hooverphonic - Battersea
(Apr 11, 2005 - 07:34) | Hooverphonic does not impress by borrowing music from other composers. This boring high whine with a nontune and incomprehensible lyrics that goes nowhere is the worst thing I have heard so far from a band whose Magnificent Tree had such catchy and original cuts.
I heard from a record-store owner who is a connoisseur that Hooverphonic's eponymous first album was impressive. I think that Magnificent Tree was the second.
Maybe Hooverphonic is trying to find itself. Wandering and meandering, in my opinion, do not succeed or suit as well as tunefulness, clever lyrics, catchy rhythms, and sass do.
:-k :(
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Rolling Stones - Rocks Off
(Apr 11, 2005 - 06:43) | I thought I liked the Stones. But this song is just screechy singing with too many horns. I just think that brass instruments usually ruin a rock song. This is one of Jagger's worst efforts ever.
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Ocean Blue - Drifting Falling
(Apr 07, 2005 - 07:46) | Irritating brass, weak and tuneless singing, boring and repetitious nontune. Spare us more. :puke:
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St. Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
(Apr 07, 2005 - 07:44) | This group succeeded in ruining this already overplayed song. It sounds like a needle got stuck in a groove. I would break all copies of this if I could. #-o :x
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Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
(Apr 07, 2005 - 07:38) | faramir wrote: What horrible lyrics!
Well, he went down to dinner in his Sunday best
Excitable boy, they all said
And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest
Excitable boy, they all said
He took in the four a.m. show at the Clark
Excitable boy, they all said
And he bit the usherette's leg in the dark
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy
He took little Suzie to the Junior Prom
Excitable boy, they all said
And he raped her and killed her, then he took her home
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy
After ten long years they let him out of the home
Excitable boy, they all said
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy
Faramir, maybe try being less literal minded. Would it be OK with you if the author were trying to admonish placid, unalert citizens that they need to take action to curtail the early antisocial antics of troubled boys before they turn into full-blown criminals? I couldn't applaud enough. Many a school shooter and terrorist might have been forestalled . . . by citizens who refused to make excuses for aggressive actors--not to mention if we got rid of all of our slap-on-the-wrist judges (of which D.C. and Maryland have too many). Is it OK with you if a song tries to awaken our social consciousness?
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String Cheese Incident - Take Five
(Mar 24, 2005 - 07:40) | Speaking of the many Take Five covers, this might be a finer one, but that may not be sufficient justification for inflicting this overplayed tune on us again.
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Stevie Wonder - As
(Mar 23, 2005 - 10:51) | Both Stevie Wonder and Al Green . . . irritate me beyond description. Am looking to form a club of like-minded people. :-& :tapedshut:
I just visited a Stevie Wonder Web site. Let me emend what I wrote above. The lyrics are pretty. It is the musical style that I can't stand.
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Blind Faith - Sea of Joy
(Mar 23, 2005 - 10:36) | radiojunkie wrote: The interesting thing is that when this album first came out, I absolutely loved it and listened over and over and over -- but I remember skipping this song all the time because I couldn't stand it. But hearing it now brought back all kinds of memories, mostly good. And it sounds a heck of a lot better than I used to think it did (could a good pair of headphones and a digital mix somehow be better than a crappy turntable and cheap speakers? I suppose...)
However, even with all that, it's STILL painful to hear some of Winwood's notes on this track.
I agree with all of the above. :nodhead:
But I clearly recall great disappointment at the breakup of Traffic and Cream, two of my top groups of rock of that time, along with Buffalo Springfield. (I tried to ignore the fellow-traveling strain of pseudo-current opportunisms such as "Age of Aquarius.") I remember thinking that Blind Faith was too diffused and unstructured, that the rock-and-roll heart had died. But anyway, . . . They exemplified the times . . . the deterioration into a fatuous globalism . . . They were like a weathervane.
:(
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Calexico - Across the Wire
(Mar 15, 2005 - 08:00) | This seems to be illegitimate gringo pseudo-mex "music." Whatever the original genre was was bad enough. This adds nothing.
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Baka Beyond - Spirit of the Forest
(Mar 15, 2005 - 06:54) | WE must respect traditional chants and their purposes. Perhaps being mixed into an eclectic "song" is not respectful. As to the concept, the juxtaposition with electric violin seems theoretically too foreign. But I can see how some people might really like this. Perhaps it depends on the hearers' mood.
In general, though, I find myself tending to agree with Dave_Mack, mikedill, oldslabsides, dignan2, PhysicsGenius, and drover. This "world music" or "world beat" genre seems greatly overrepresented. We really need to find a better term. How about "multicultural mixup"?
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Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke
(Mar 14, 2005 - 13:18) | The quality has been dropping all afternoon. This irritating piece is the last straw. I can feel it all over . . . vexation. :P :puke:   :verymad:
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Pangea - Water and Fire
(Mar 14, 2005 - 11:48) | MaxEmerika wrote: I was tired of this world-music-samples-over-house-beats stuff before I had finished listening to Deep Forest for the first time. Check out My Life in the Bush of Ghosts to see how it SHOULD be done. I totally agree. This is silly, self-conscious, and just plain irritating.
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The Temptations - Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)
(Mar 10, 2005 - 07:57) | This is slightly less irritating than most of this genre. But I still can't stand the ooh-hoooo-hoooing and the falsetto. I guess I will leave my vote as a magnanimous 2 anyway, though. I wish I never had to hear this genre again.
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Steve Winwood - Different Light
(Mar 10, 2005 - 07:52) | I just wish you had a number lower than 1. Why does someone with a voice like his try to sing? The organ doesn't help much, other than being a distraction.
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Björk - Big Time Sensuality
(Mar 10, 2005 - 07:49) | I agree with PhysicsGenius but want to say that her voice is less irritating than usual (nearly up to the level of One Hand in My Pocket's). And that the disco instrumentation is worthy of a garbage can. Whatever it is, it is awful. Now her voice has gotten awful too. Maybe you could burn this, and I don't mean to a CD either.
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Mindy Smith - Jolene
(Mar 10, 2005 - 07:39) | I like the catch in Mindy Smith's voice and her self-harmonizing, and the instrumentation is absolutely fantastic Middle Eastern. It does sound a little sorrowful, but less sincere and heartrending than Dolly Parton's and probably than the White Stripes' . . . at times it sounds like Smith is merely repeating words for the purpose of showcasing her vocal ability. I want to hear the White Stripes' version. But between this and Dolly's, there is room for both, and this is interesting, but Dolly still reigns supreme.
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Fairport Convention - Come All Ye
(Mar 08, 2005 - 13:48) | colt4x5 wrote: Fascinating, the reactions to this tune. It was a huge part of my life early on but I thought "we" were all gone now, living in the woods of Vermont and the backs of pickups in Moab! Nice to hear the (mostly) warm receptions. Well, we aren't gone, but too dispersed. We need to find a way to gather together again! You might want to visit Cedar Ridge Community Church if you are ever in the vicinity of Spencerville, MD . . . www.emergentconvention.com/2005/convention_info/ec.php
:nodhead: 8)
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Fairport Convention - Come All Ye
(Mar 08, 2005 - 13:43) | Yes, this band belongs in the Folk-Rock Top Ten of All Time. I only gave it a 9 so that I could leave room to give some of their others a 10. How do you Sixties-and-Seventies people like the combo of Western and Eastern instruments? I love it. Was that a sitar I heard or what?
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Neil Young - Dont Let It Bring You Down
(Mar 08, 2005 - 13:28) | When I first loved this song as a college student, thinking I grokked it, I had hardly scratched the surface of love and pain and the whole damn thing. So now it offers even more hope than it did back then.
:nodhead: :-k
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The Coral - Bill McCai
(Jan 22, 2005 - 17:27) | HELPPPPPPP!!! In searching for the lyrics (I loved the ones I was able to hear!), I found the song title variously as "Bill McCai," "Bill Mccain," and "Bill McCain." Please, people, let's be careful about the spelling of proper names! Errors waste hours of other people's time! I nearly gave up! So what is the title of the song, exactly?
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Mythos - November
(Jan 22, 2005 - 16:37) | Pipes wrote: Could have been a good song but the vocalist sounds like she is in dire need of medical attention!
gypsy222 wrote:
Agree!
I agree too! Sickening that a voice this whiny could get a recording contract!
8O :verysorry:
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The Smiths - Ask
(Jan 22, 2005 - 16:16) | Darkmatter wrote:
Brilliant. Does it mean that if we don't all hang together, we will most assuredly all hang separately? Or is it just nuts?
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BoDeans - Good Things
(Jan 22, 2005 - 14:32) | davedog wrote: Thanks for the set of such positive songs. Things seem so negative nowadays, it's good to hear something that reminds me of the "Good Things."
I AGREE with DaveDog, and I seem to love the BoDeans. Maybe I am a perpetual collegian. If so, so be it! :D/
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Patty Griffin - Boston
(Jan 22, 2005 - 13:28) | Yay!!! Finally some real, great ROCK!
I love this woman's rollicking energy! This is real rock music!
:D/ :goodvibes:
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Jeff Buckley - Grace
(Jan 22, 2005 - 13:21) | At least four people below had supernegative commentsl I will just add that this man has other cuts that are less depressive and prettier too. For the previous dozen or so songs, I say
:verysorry: :-s :whip:
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Dave Matthews - Stay Or Leave
(Jan 22, 2005 - 13:17) | Someone below called it "melancholic." YEs, yes, the very word. Also, like the previous song, a lack of singing ability manifests itself. Aren't there any songs with singers? I really hate this wailing. Another minute and you will play that awful woman singing "Rain," the quintessential depressive song.
:-s :verysorry: :whip:
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Blackfield - Pain
(Jan 22, 2005 - 13:13) | WHAT!! Now you are actually playing a song CALLED "Pain"?!?!?! Is this the masochistic set? PLEASE get out of these doldrums! What are depressive songs good for? I do not want to be brought down. WHy are you doing this to us????
:-s :whip: :verysorry:
Please consider the emoticons above to have been applied to the rest of this set by iimputation!
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BT - Satellite
(Jan 22, 2005 - 12:46) | mojoman wrote: Don't drink the Kool Ade!
Good point! Is someone trying to put us into a hypnotic trance? I do not want to be put into a hypnotic trance!!!!
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BT - Satellite
(Jan 22, 2005 - 12:43) | Myrrh wrote: After having heard way too much Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, Tori Amos, hearing something new like BT or Porcupine Tree is always welcome. Then again, I've never been a big fan of rotation; I'd rather listen to more cuts from more artists. Too much of even my favourites only has the effect of ruining them.
I agree with Myrrh. Also, though, I am so tired of the oceanic diffuse vibing soporificism. MUST THIS SOMNOLENCE CONTINUE??
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Sophie Zelmani - Yes I Am
(Jan 22, 2005 - 12:23) | This sounds like an adult woman who got traumatized at age six and never developed an adult voice. Also, why do we have to keep hearing the breathy and sibilant voices, especially those that just sing nonsense syllables?
In the past, Radio Paradise was more intellectual and rock oriented. Or maybe I shouldn't judge on the basis of just one or two sets.
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Sinead Lohan - No Mermaid
(Jan 22, 2005 - 12:21) | In this set, this song is the first step up out of the Depressionville mode we have been in. Thank goodness. This makes me feel like getting up and acccomplishing something instead of hanging myself with the nearest sturdy belt from my clothes closet.
This also gets us away from what some people consider mellow jazz. Please let's cheer it up some!
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Train - Mississippi
(Jan 22, 2005 - 12:17) | What, is this your supersad set, Bill? Where I am it is the middle of the day and I need to be energetic and working. However, I would recommend this set for listeners with a problem of too much elation. This'll bring 'em down good. Or is your station just going further into jazz more and more of the time?
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Train - Mississippi
(Jan 22, 2005 - 12:17) | What, is this your supersad set, Bill? Where I am it is the middle of the day and I need to be energetic and working. However, I would recommend this set for listeners with a problem of too much elation. This'll bring 'em down good. Or is your station just going further into jazz more and more of the time?
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Oi Va Voi - Refugee
(Jan 22, 2005 - 12:15) | I'm often unsure which song is actually playing, but I think this is right . . . So again I write: In a major novel by Philip K. Dick, people of a hypothetical future can dial up the moods they want to be in for an actual schedule of same (*Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?*). If they wanted some scheduled sadness, they could use this one.
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Vince Guaraldi Trio - Cast Your Fate To The Wind
(Jan 22, 2005 - 12:10) | Love the original song, which deserves a 10. The VGT is top notch as far as accessible jazz goes. But it somehow depresses me to hear the combination. I know it works pretty well musically, but somehow the jazz approach adds too much sadness . . . In a major novel by Philip K. Dick, people of a hypothetical future can dial up the moods they want to be in for an actual schedule of same (*Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?*). If they wanted some scheduled sadness, they could use this one.
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Jump - Midnight
(Jan 22, 2005 - 11:53) | The lyrics posted below by a thoughtful listener are wonderful, and the story is too . . . but it takes away from the dignity to burden the listener with 16 tons of "Oh yeah" and "Oooooo-oooooooo." If only those irritations could be eliminated.
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Miles Davis - Freddie Freeloader
(Dec 15, 2004 - 12:37) | There is no way I could abhor this genre more than I do. If only jazz could be confined to a particular time when I do not listen. As it is, I must turn RP off now. :P :puke: :verysorry: :verymad:
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The Beatles - Mother Nature's Son
(Nov 30, 2004 - 11:47) | The whiny voice is painful to listen to. Also I can't stand that many doo, doo, doos. The instrumentation is wonderful, though, and the tune is nice.
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Otis Redding - I've Got Dreams to Remember
(Nov 30, 2004 - 11:25) | I cannot stand anything by Otis Redding or anything in this genre. I would like to know what it is called so I can avoid it in future. Is it "Motown"? "Soul"?
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Tricky - What is Wrong
(Nov 30, 2004 - 08:58) | The voice sure sounds like that of Joni Mitchell (at one point in her career). Who is doing the breathy vocals? What a shame the lyrics are unclear. The few words I understood seemed interesting.
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Joseph Arthur - Stumble and Pain
(Nov 10, 2004 - 09:21) | I agree that "To me it's like emptying a bucket of garden garbage. Contenless. No coherence. Just a bundle of sounds and a voice that doesn't fit to it."
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Radiohead - There There
(Nov 07, 2004 - 14:31) | Wonder why this group provokes such extreme positive and extreme negative reactions?!!
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Miles Davis - The Pan Piper
(Sep 13, 2004 - 12:26) | The answer is negative 10. Still waiting to hear jazz or horns I like. A few rate. Thinking of forming a society of brass-and-jazz-haters. It would probably prevent some mesalliances.
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The Beatles - She Said She Said
(Sep 13, 2004 - 10:36) | This does not seem to be one of the exceptions to my general reaction of yecch to most Beatles songs . . . .
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The Dandy Warhols - You Were The Last High
(Sep 13, 2004 - 08:54) | Yecch falsetto, worst I have heard in ages . . . song interminable and disjointed. Please eject from playlist. Highest irritation factor today!
Or is it just a clever segue into Ryan Adams's So Alive, which is equally bad?
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Unified Theory - Passive
(Sep 13, 2004 - 06:35) | This isn't Jethro Tull?--What about the flute and the tempo? I am sure the labeling is wrong! :?: Please explain this!--Turns out that the "Now Playing" was not updated in time, and the song I was hearing was Reasons for Waiting by Jethro Tull. What can be done about this problem--(not the first time, by the way)?
:verysorry:
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B-52's - Private Idaho
(Sep 09, 2004 - 13:33) | SiniLMan wrote:
I didn't hear the song, but wanted you to know that your work in coordinating the smileys with the letters of "YEAH" was appreciated for its artistry!
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Hooverphonic - Shake The Disease
(Sep 09, 2004 - 13:31) | Discovered Hooverphonic a few years ago, adored The Magnificent Tree album. This song, however, is an irritating miscarriage of a mess. It should never be played again.
:x <-X
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Oliver Mtukudzi - Mai Varamba
(Sep 09, 2004 - 10:10) | If I have to listen to songs in a language I am never going to understand, must the crud be so everlastingly repetitive? Can't it have some higher quality? I am glad I have not yet eaten lunch. I would be losing it by now.
:x : crashcomp:
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Joan Osborne - Everybody Is A Star
(Sep 09, 2004 - 09:43) | Absolutely hate Sly and the Family Stone and their genre. Why would Osborne cover it? I just heard the end of this so cannot evaluate her version. She should cover more Bob Dylan instead and quit trying to pretend black! I hate it when whites try to be fly. :verysorry:
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R.E.M. - Wall of Death
(Sep 09, 2004 - 09:16) | This is a great song . . . for those of us of similar convictions and fans of Richard Thompson's songwriting.
:) 8)
Since the original version got so many raves, would Bill please put it on sometime?
:?:
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Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter
(Sep 09, 2004 - 08:45) | Agree with most of the negative comments below, esp. " this just dragggggggggggggggs onnnnnnn" . . . except that the guitar is kind of nice.
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Indigo Girls - Nuevas Senoritas
(Sep 09, 2004 - 08:07) | lotus_65 wrote:
I'm gonna agree. The last couple of hours have been as slow as death, and I am at work... I CAN'T nap!
THIS really drones!!!!!!!!! I had thought that this was a hard-rockin' group! I have no use for this. :-s 8-< =;
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Eddie From Ohio - Number Six Driver
(Sep 09, 2004 - 08:04) | I hate it when the group name is one gender and the lead singer is another. It prejudices me against the group. I think you have to be in the mood for this type of song. But mostlyl I dislike the attempted mix of styles. Gooood--It's over now.
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Damien Rice - Volcano
(Sep 09, 2004 - 08:01) | ad4tise wrote: AAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!
STOP THE PAIN!
Horrible, just a horrible song!!!
Yes it is . . . but original at the same time. The Damien Rice entry in AMG, though, sounds so good that I will give him another chance. :?
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Cowboy Junkies - Lay it Down
(Sep 09, 2004 - 07:05) | FANTASTIC! Surprised . . . . Would never have expected such a song from a band with this name. Maybe it appeals to all JA fans. :o :D
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Lamb - Soft Mistake
(Sep 09, 2004 - 06:58) | brighthue wrote: Oh, I get it now... Soft Mistake... Soft Machine... :nodhead:
Can you trace the history or otherwise back up your surmise? I would also LOVE to hear Soft Machine!
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Strawbs - Witchwood
(Sep 09, 2004 - 06:32) | Love this group so much! Agree with all the fans below! Miss them! More, please!!
:D
Maybe this group does appeal a lot to those of us who are medievalists, Scadians, Marklanders, medieval reenactors, folk fans, mythopoeic types. SO be it!
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Vienna Teng - The Tower
(Sep 09, 2004 - 06:24) | Thank you for introducing me to Vienna Teng! This is one female singer I can admire! Of course, I expect you to play some of the others today. This day is starting out as wonderfully as yesterday did badly. And next you will be playing those great Strawbs, says the playlist!!!!!!!!! :D =P~
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Joe Henry - Skin And Teeth
(Sep 08, 2004 - 13:47) | Could not rate this very highly--repetitious passages, and vocal too strained and ragged. Sometimes ragged is appealing, but not in this case. Also, ragged voice does not go well with mellow music. Part of it says "Be irritated" and part says "Fall asleep." What an inconsistent drag.
#-o :-k
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Roxy Music - Avalon
(Sep 08, 2004 - 13:43) | I agree with Platypus (again). I would not have thought that Roxy Music could produce such Muzaky drivel.
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Ben Harper - I Want To Be Ready
(Sep 08, 2004 - 08:07) | Wonder whether some listeners might not know: This is a Southern U.S. spiritual from the black/colored gospel-spirituals tradition. I know that a lot of listeners are from other countries. If you like this, why not use Google to explore the genre? Also try the site www.ingeb.org, where American spirituals and their kin in other languages are being collected? Try Googling on some combo of "southern black spiritual."
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Joan Osborne - Man in The Long Black Coat
(Sep 08, 2004 - 07:55) | BoFiS wrote: an excellent song from one of the best debut albums of all time...Joan Osborne shows her stength in vocals and song-writting and proves herself wonderfully
I enthusiastically agree!
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Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
(Sep 08, 2004 - 07:51) | Love the song--rate it 10 +++ Abhor the "singing"--rate it -10. WHy does this guy even try to sing?
<-(
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Tracy Chapman - Say Hallelujah
(Sep 08, 2004 - 07:33) | JokesandJokesandJokes wrote:
Seriously people, this small type writing really sucks. POOPY HEADS!!!
Hey, fella, some technical error crept in--I did not do that on purpose! 8O
:(
Here is what I wrote: Tracy Chapman seems to have the black bluesy gospel sound down perfectly. I love the way it makes me pat my feet. Play it again often.
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Stereophonics - Nothing Precious At All
(Sep 08, 2004 - 07:20) | If only the "singer" had taken more cough syrup before coming into the studio. Bob Dylan's voice is pleasanter. I have to mute this boring, irritating selection. Maybe the "singer" will lose his voice forever and all copies of this will spontaneously combust.
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Urban Species - Blanket (featuring Imogen Heap)
(Sep 08, 2004 - 07:18) | MsJudi wrote:
I do agree. The jazz sound seems the epitome of laziness and laxness--yecch. And what is that irritating thing I.H. does with her/his/its voice--that broken jump/catch makes me wish someone would strangle her/him/it. Just a little mild opinion here.
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Goldfrapp - Human
(Sep 08, 2004 - 07:12) | Reminded me of fingernails scraping down a blackboard in a subway tunnel after a weeklong garbage collectors' strike. That comment needs no emoticons.
However, I will try to hear other songs by this group, in order not to judge by too little evidence.
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Van Morrison - Wild Night
(Sep 08, 2004 - 06:50) | This song is way overplayed. It has irritating, superfluous horns. It is denigrating to women. (I agree with other posters here about "Brown-eyed Girl"--very offensive.) It is catchy and memorable, too, which makes it worse. Is this "brass morning"?
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Bonobo - Change Down
(Sep 08, 2004 - 06:19) | Brass has its place. For me, that place is narrow and seldom. Usually horns irritate me, especially the saxophones, and most jazz drives me up a wall. This piece has a few nice spots, but mostly it fits my category of "Horns plus Jazz--Avoid." WIsh this kind of thing could be segregated into certain nighttime hours when I would not be listening.
:headshake: :-& <-o<
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Bonnie Raitt - Silver Lining
(Sep 07, 2004 - 08:29) | I have a higher opinion of the merits of Bonnie Raitt's voice than Clarinetta does. Now when do you play some Bette Midler, whom I haven't heard in so long? :^o
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Oliver Mtukudzi - Tapindwa Nei
(Sep 07, 2004 - 08:24) | TOtally in philosophical agreement with SuperWeh.
Also, at the risk of sounding politically incorrect, why do I have to venerate every culture? There is some American music I don't care for. If we all liked everything, wouldn't we be pretty undefined?
This is how this song made me feel:
Now do I get drummed out of Radio Paradise? (By the way, blecch on the subliminally contemptuous, euphemistic term "world music.")
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Coldplay - Moses
(Sep 07, 2004 - 08:19) | ty wrote: Does anyone else have a dislike for falsetto singers? I really like the music on most Coldplay tunes, but the inability to hit the intended note without popping up to the falsetto is truly anoying.
--Yes, Ty, there are others. I am one. Let's start a club. It is a sign of a limited range. If i never hear Michael Jackson again, it will be too soon. :x
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Mike Scott - Bring 'em all in
(Sep 07, 2004 - 07:22) | Compelling. Incantational and mystical, but still rock. I think the Findhorn Community people are nuts, but they seem to enjoy their lives . . . I don't like to discriminate in my enjoyment of music on the basis of differing philosophies, because I would miss too much. For example, how about that great song "Ashes of Love"? It is apparently based on Islam, and yet I can put that aside and enjoy its healing properties.
Now Mike Scott is on my "Must Buy" list!
:) :nodhead:
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Fleetwood Mac - Oh Well
(Sep 07, 2004 - 07:13) | Which recreational drug or drugs does this go well with? The flute is nice and so is the guitar, but a more soporific song would be hard to imagine. Maybe, though, it is just the laid-back type of cut that too-busy people like me need. So I will give it another chance. 8-< :goodvibes:
The song went on so long that I had time to go through quite a range of reactions to it. Now I think that maybe I even like it . . . . !
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James McMurtry - Choctaw Bingo
(Sep 07, 2004 - 06:46) | Strange! I am not in favor of sexist lyrics. The strange thing is that every time a cut from Saint Mary of the Woods comes on, I wake up, perk up, liven up, cheer up, and start bopping in time. It is better than drugs, legal, and it doesn't hurt anyone for me to enjoy something that much, is it? This "Choctaw Bingo" is really boppable (although I think I may have heard some offensive lyrics, I am trying not to grasp them). Another listener, below, provided a link to lyrics on this album.
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Morphine - Buena
(Sep 07, 2004 - 06:31) | The musicianship is good and the craftsmanship of song is good too. If only they could get rid of all the brass pieces but the one that bridges between verses.
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Dave Matthews - So Damn Lucky
(Sep 03, 2004 - 08:39) | Wild_Bill wrote: Dave Matthews' music is like the American presidential raceâit deeply polarizes the audience. I think it totally sucks. All of it, dammit! Sure, he can arrange songs and strum a bit of guitar, but that voice is truly disgusting! Yeccccckk!
He's like easy listening music for Gen X and Gen Y.
--WIld Bill, Yes innndeed. In my own words, I find it nauseating that this man could be said to be "singing." We need to form a Dave-Matthews-haters' club. : :-& 8-< <-( :-k =;
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Talvin Singh - Butterfly
(Sep 03, 2004 - 08:25) | Spliff wrote: More like a pesky fly than a butterfly. --I couldn't agree more. Does there have to be such a heavy emphasis on jazz, especially during the workday when we need waking up? I wish you would just create a separate station and stick all the jazz over there. If I never heard most jazz again, I would not mourn. 8O
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Natalie Merchant - Ophelia (live)
(Sep 03, 2004 - 08:15) | Agree with jpbergjr, Flying_Donut, KevDog, and 326. Maybe we could start some sort of club and develop a list called the Mute-It-Now list! :verysorry: :whip: :-$
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Natalie Merchant - Ophelia (live)
(Sep 03, 2004 - 08:15) | Agree with jpbergjr, Flying_Donut, KevDog, and 326. Maybe we could start some sort of club and develop a list called the Mute-It-Now list! :verysorry: :whip: :-$
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Natalie Merchant - Ophelia (live)
(Sep 03, 2004 - 08:14) | Agree with jpbergjr, Flying_Donut, KevDog, and 326. Maybe we could start some sort of club and develop a list called the Mute-It-Now list! :verysorry: :whip: :-$
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Outback - Baka
(Aug 17, 2004 - 10:27) | Good wakeup from the slodgy mellow stuff you were playing up till now!
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Gomez - Bring Your Lovin' Back Here
(Aug 17, 2004 - 10:09) | birdboy wrote:The name of the band is explained at the band's website:
(click here)
go to the FAQ section...
PLEASE NOTE that that URL did not work as of Aug. 17, 2004, on an IE-using IBM-type PC.
:(
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Rufus Wainwright - Go or Go Ahead
(Aug 16, 2004 - 14:28) | Far too bombastic for my taste. Seems so self-inflating. The startling shifts in dynamics are not pleasing. The singer slurs the words too much, though not as much as Hootie and the Blowfish. The positive comment is that I never heard the singer go off pitch in the slightest. But this seems more like Las Vegas stage music than anything else, and I thought that this station avoided that. I guess you don't avoid anything . . . .
Following this song with Delays' "Nearer Than Heaven" was a brilliant segue, though!
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The Connells - '74-'75
(Aug 16, 2004 - 09:44) | A haunting, nostalgic sound fits the lyrics well. Effectively bittersweet.
:goodvibes:
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The Cure - Close to Me (closer mix)
(Aug 16, 2004 - 09:13) | If jazz brass instruments were never to be heard by me again, I would be thrilled. I don't see the purpose. The "music" has no tune and the instruments are more irritating than usual in this context. There is a narrow place that is appropriate for brass instruments, and almost no jazz is not irritating. To me at least. I am tuning out now.
:P :puke: :verymad: :headshake:
And maybe I should go ahead and mention that I detest Bill Clinton too. Now you know what I really think without gloves on. I am tired of hiding my opinions just to keep things smooth.
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Billy Idol - Eyes Without A Face
(Aug 16, 2004 - 08:02) | I agree with apd, Platypus, Kimmer, and especially OldSlabSides. Idol may be a charming actor, but repetitive tuneless meaningless lyric and droning voice (especially in an overplayed song) are enervating to listen to.
:( <-X
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Steven Delopoulos - Another Day
(Aug 10, 2004 - 13:01) | To Starti and others,
Hey, this singer sings way better than Cat Stevens (whom one listenener alluded to) and the other male singers I have heard this afternoon, so consider yourselves very lucky that you haven't been listening during the past hour. This guy, at least, keeps a consistent vocal quality throughout!
This is the best song I have heard yet today . . . . I must say!
O:) :D
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Keb Mo - Let Your Light Shine
(Aug 10, 2004 - 12:57) |
Hate to hear singer strain on the top notes. He loses all melody and sounds squawky. Too bad, because his lower notes are nice. Why the heck didn't they just set the song down a few keys? The instrumentation is very nice by itself, though!
:(
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World Party - She's the One
(Aug 10, 2004 - 12:53) |
OK for a film soundtrack but not worthy of stand-alone listening. Whiny male voices irritate me a lot. If your singer cannot hit the notes with any quality, you should either set it in another key or get another singer. This is like fingernails on a blackboard to me. But if it weren't for the singing, I might notice more how formulaic the accompaniment is. Please, fella, quit the whining.
:( :-&
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Dave Brubeck Quartet - Blue Rondo a la Turk
(Aug 10, 2004 - 12:47) | I understand that some people may appreciate its technical aspects, but to me, a non-jazz-lover, it sounds repetitve. Though it is more interesting and upbeat in some parts, that may be owing to the song it is based on.
In any case, it was way too long.
There are a few pieces called jazz that I like. When I hear any on this site, I will definitely let you know.
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Iron & Wine - Each Coming Night
(Aug 10, 2004 - 12:42) | This is a good song to hear when one is sick
and feeling weak--soothing!
Sort of like Simon and Garfunkel mellow song softened some more. Would like to hear it again.
:nodhead: :grouphug:
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Air - Alone In Kyoto
(Aug 10, 2004 - 11:55) | Normally I am like the hyper person who found this too laid back . . . But today I am so sick--almost too sick to be typing this . . . So discovering this selection was fine.
This song "Alone in Kyoto" is so peaceful, like the person's experience of a rainy afternoon in a Kyoto cemetery . . . ! So I used the emoticons that seemed suitable . . .
Then you followed it with Iron and Wine, "Each Coming Night" (SImon-and-Garfunkel-mellowish softened still more). Great deejaying (from a former one)!
 :nodhead: :grouphug:
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Los Lobos - Malaque
(Aug 06, 2004 - 18:46) | I dislike this whole genre. If I wanted to hear this type of thing, I would tune in the nearest Latino station. The guitar work is fine, but maybe it is too much of a good thing.
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Merrie Amsterburg - Say Good-Bye
(Aug 06, 2004 - 18:24) | This song indeed conveys melancholy effectively. The vocals are interesting for the variations in one person's voice. I can understand about 40 percent of the lyrics, a pretty good percentage for this site, the selections, and my PC--limited auditorally (Is that a word?). I would like to hear more of her. I especially liked the guitar work on this piece.
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John Hiatt - Buffalo River Home (acoustic)
(Aug 06, 2004 - 18:19) | I don't know how original this man is, but his vocal lines do repeat each other a lot . . . He probably sings better than Bob Dylan and a bit better than Tom Waits . . . . despite that, his voice is oddly comforting. If only his tunes were less monotonous. And his twang is sort of teeth-grating. Are you sure this singer shouldn't be classed as country? That little yodel at the end especially makes me suspect so.
:? :-s
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Tom Waits - Long Way Home
(Aug 06, 2004 - 18:15) | I know a large subculture loves Tom Waits, but the poor guy cannot sing. Is his scratchy, raspy voice appealing because it gives people hope that anyone can get a singing contract? Or does it express emotional pain better, for some people, than melodic singing would? I'll give the guy this much, he sounds sincere.
:-k :? :verysorry:
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The Ocean Blue - Cerulean
(Aug 06, 2004 - 18:10) | Am I commenting on the right song? The one I am listening to is boring and repetitive, and I can't discern the words of the lyrics. (Yes, I was right, because I can understand some words in the next song, and they do fit the title.) There is a time and a place for songs to fall asleep to, but this is not it.
:-k
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Muse - Sing For Absolution
(Jul 19, 2004 - 13:11) | Yes, he should sing for absolution! But, like too many RP vocalists, his vocal quality is wince-inducing and off key. Rather than get into a piercing range, he could have simply set the song down a few keys. The instrumentation on this song, though, is invigorating and good quality. I would rather do without the wailing, that's all.
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Muse - Sing For Absolution
(Jul 19, 2004 - 13:11) | Yes, he should sing for absolution! But, like too many RP vocalists, his vocal quality is wince-inducing and off key. Rather than get into a piercing range, he could have simply set the song down a few keys. The instrumentation on this song, though, is invigorating and good quality. I would rather do without the wailing, that's all.
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Tracy Chapman - You're the One
(Apr 06, 2004 - 15:08) | jberko wrote: Call me stodgy, but I just don't get her music... She sounds too depressed to be pissed and too indifferent to be depressed.
No way I could have expressed it better. She comes across as inauthentic. Also it is hard to believe that the voice isn't a man's. Another inauthentic aspect, I guess. I tend to be impatient with the indifferent, so Berko speaks for me too. Except that I deny the charge of stodgy.
:-k
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Tom Waits - Long Way Home
(Apr 06, 2004 - 12:44) | Dirktooth wrote: It's funny, but for a singer with such a raspy voice...his songs can make me feel sentimental for loves gone past so damn quickly.
Maybe he has that condition "dysphonia." At least he sounds less irritating than Diane Rehm. Less nasal. More sincere.
I might get to like this guy.
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Guster - Come Downstairs and Say Hello
(Apr 06, 2004 - 12:38) | Re Guster, AMG says this:
Formed 1992 in West Somerville, Massachusetts
Group Members Adam Gardner Ryan Miller Brian Rosenworcel
Genres Rock
Styles Alternative Pop/Rock, Folk-Rock, Post-Grunge, Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Tones Ironic, Carefree, Literate, Stylish, Intimate, Theatrical, Amiable/Good-Natured, Cheerful, Witty, Sweet, Sentimental, Passionate
I like the rock genre and the styles but not the tones. This song seems to be one long mumble. Maybe I just do not like sensing that someone is trying to force me to relax. Oh, wait . . . now the song is getting better. I will put my evaluation on hold for now.
Wait again--it's getting monotonous and two-notes-per-lyric-lineish.
My confusion shows that I should not count this group out.
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Cranberries - When You're Gone
(Apr 06, 2004 - 12:33) | Song is a throwback to the early 1950s, but more boring and less authentic. Is this group always this plastic?
What is the value of people's listening to a million repetitions of "Doot, doot, doot, doot, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah"? I see none.
Haven't heard a good song all afternoon. But then, tastes differ.
:(
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The Samples - Long Walk Home
(Apr 06, 2004 - 11:57) | Will this superrepetitious boring boring song ever end? Is it for toking to or something? Give me some CONTENT. How many times must we listen to the same phrase? I think I lost count at 50.
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Peter Gabriel - Growing Up
(Mar 31, 2004 - 16:47) | Would like this song if the whiny parts and the repetitive parts were edited out. Oh--wait--now it's getting more lively!
Sort of like two songs in one! :?
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Al Green - Love and Happiness
(Mar 31, 2004 - 15:53) | Have always disliked this guy's waw-waw-waw voice . . . and his sexist attitudes--the pitiful-sounding backup girl singers--and of course the omnipresent intrusive brass instruments.
If I never heard him again, it would be too soon.
People to whom I have told this opinion have suggested that maybe I just don't like this type of music. That may well be. Is it categorized as "soul" music? I think that's what it is.
Anyway, I don't see its value. I gave the song a 2 out of kindness. Not that Al Green cares; he can laugh his way to the bank. (The emoticon is me being hit on the head, not Al Green.) :-& :-s
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BoDeans - Fadeaway (live)
(Mar 30, 2004 - 11:45) | Count mine as a chiming-in on the positive reviews below . . . These guys--what is it? How do they do it? My breaths are becoming shallow, my chest is constricting, I am getting a visceral glimpse of the enormous energy of life, love, music, harmony, bittersweet, empathetic sorrow . . . ; I just don't have the words. An incredible interweaving of beauty and pain. I still can't catch my breath. Maybe if I got an album of theirs I would cease to breathe altogether? (*No one ever accuses me of hyperbole.)
Thank you for introducing me to this group!
:nodhead: :D/ =P~
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Allman Brothers - Trouble No More
(Mar 30, 2004 - 11:32) | Finally playing a band that knows how to rock on out! The Allman Brothers do combine delta, backwoods, blues, country, and rock in an irresistibly exciting way. Thank you so much! :goodvibes: :D/
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Santana - Jingo
(Mar 30, 2004 - 11:29) | Would rather hear Santana than Steely Dan. Thanks for improving.
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Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - A Globe Of Frogs
(Mar 30, 2004 - 11:23) | This guy is not merely tone deaf, a poor singer, or a semi-singer. He is a nonsinger attempting to sing. Next to him, Robert Plant sounds melodious. Put duct tape over his mouth and spare us more. :-$ <-( :-#
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Halloween Alaska - The Four Corners
(Mar 30, 2004 - 11:21) | Not only droningly pointless and tuneless but interminable as well. A couple of times it seemed as though it might end but it didn't. Recycling bin, ASAP, please.
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Steely Dan - The Royal Scam
(Mar 30, 2004 - 11:08) | Mihai wrote: Annoying boring song by an annoying boring artist. Elevator music with sort of beat to it, what is this? It's like you're waiting for the song to start but it doesn't it just keeps on and on and on....
No one could have said it better than that--totally agree with you, Mihal! Cannot figure out why this group was so popular with my generation. Why is the singing so irritating? I know I can't stand horns, so that is part of the aversion. But even the few good guitar licks are short, and they are dropped in irrelevantly. It reminds me of a stew thrown together with whatever ingredients are on hand. Ultimately, though, it's mostly what you said.
Bill, can there be certain hours or days that we could count on to be Steely-free???
 :?:
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Death Cab For Cutie - Expo '86
(Mar 29, 2004 - 21:35) | Puerile, boring, repetitive--then it got irritating. Can I be the only listener who thinks this is worthless? (I don't like the title either. Too in-group.) :-&
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Doves - The Cedar Room
(Mar 15, 2004 - 21:44) | redeyespy wrote:
Sadly, I concur. Really wanted to like this;respect the opinions of my fellow posters. Vapid, way overlong, derivative.
I concur too. It seems to promise to end repeatedly and then disappoint. It would have been better 40% shorter.
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Badly Drawn Boy - How?
(Mar 08, 2004 - 22:00) | Buzzes and grumbles and experimental noises, mixed with repetitious see-sawing and then time-signature-ignoring breathy lullaby sort-of singing that gets a little jazzy. What an inchoate, incompatible, irritatingly disparate mix. Now someone is singing do do do do do and another is making airplane sounds. The slow hook with pauses every word or two is arguably the worst aspect of the song.
:headshake:
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Moby Grape - It's A Beautiful Day Today
(Mar 04, 2004 - 00:36) | Probably could qualify as protohippie music. It is rather nauseous. I think that Moby Grape had a harder-edged version too.
Please do not judge this group by this one song, listeners. Bill, please let us hear others from Moby Grape instead so that a fuller picture can emerge.
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Magnet - Where Happiness Lives
(Mar 04, 2004 - 00:33) | :nodhead:
Any singing teacher worth his or her salt will work to eliminate breathiness right away. It comes from wrong vocal technique and posture. It is always irritating to listen to, especially when you think of all the good singing that could be taking its place.
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Chrissie Hynde - I Shall Be Released
(Feb 29, 2004 - 19:39) | This woman isn't singing, she's sing-talking--but not in her range and not on key.
Then she takes great liberties with the tune, confound her arrogance! The wailing adds nothing of value either.
Why redo something that the originator did so much better?
I liked the one album I bought by Siouxsie. When I get time, will research the connection. :?
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Dead Can Dance - American Dreaming
(Feb 29, 2004 - 19:32) | Is this part of a "repetitive, boring, unimaginative" set? I hate the way Hootie and certain other singers seem to want to nearly swallow the mike and obliterate any articulation. But with such vapid lyrics, who gives a darn.
This song deserves an award for repetitive guitar chords and frequency of singer's going off key.
Bob Dylan could sing better (though he might choose better material).
Oh, now the guy is wailing meanderingly. A jazz scat singer he's not. He's worse.
Now it's over. Thank you, finally. :D
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Eddie Vedder - You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
(Jan 18, 2004 - 00:10) | philarktos wrote:
For those of us who do like Eddie's voice.
At least Eddie sounds seriously hurt, as opposed to the Beatles, who sounded cheerful about hiding their love away! If I must listen to the Beatles' music, I usually prefer it as performed by any artist but them.
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Eagles - Hotel California (live acoustic)
(Jan 17, 2004 - 22:24) | Despite what I said before about "live" versions, I have NEVER heard this song done nearly as well or be as charming as this particular version! I like this as much as I hate the regular version, which I now abhor even more now than I did, and that is saying a LOT. :grouphug:
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Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
(Jan 17, 2004 - 22:15) | The applause of "live" versions hurts the music. This group took so long to get into the song that I had to turn RealPlayer off. Maybe I am too impatient and need to relax. But the word "langweilig" jumped into my mind.
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Ima Robot - Scream
(Jan 17, 2004 - 22:11) | This song might be trying to combine too many different styles. I would have preferred five or so distinct songs, for the different tastes.
When will you be playing Siouxsie Sioux....? To piggyback on another's comment.
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Donovan - Wear Your Love Like Heaven
(Jan 17, 2004 - 22:09) | Aaaahhh, Donovan . . . Play more. Where is he now? Can you find other songs by him? What about the one with the refrain "Ma Jeanne était là"? Donovan was an emblem. Caught the play about the Mamas and the Papas' career in the East Village in NYC. Sometimes knowing too much about the person sort of ruins the music for me.
:-k :grouphug: :goodvibes:
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Death Cab For Cutie - Lightness
(Jan 17, 2004 - 21:42) | The band's name is awful; the music is better. It takes too long to get from one phrase to the next; the lyrics I can make out are not threatening but are sort of inane. I might better listen to other tracks from this group, though, before hardening an opinion. Right now it seems pabulum.
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David Sylvian - River Man
(Jan 17, 2004 - 21:16) | toastee wrote: this is just too boring for me
Is this what is meant by "shoegazer" music? It seems like ambient trance music, for falling asleep to or getting stoned to. There is a place for that kind of music. I prefer rock myself.
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Doobie Brothers - I Cheat The Hangman
(Jan 15, 2004 - 21:34) | The quality of the lead singing voice is sweet and haunting. Who is he? The song itself seems rather diffuse, but maybe it is just too complex for me. Anyway, amazing that such a subtle group ever got radio airplay. They have a great sense of dynamics and drama.
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Jimi Hendrix - My Friend
(Jan 15, 2004 - 18:37) | bluedot wrote: i agree with the comments that say that this has a deep dylan influence and that the "background vocals" are annoying.
Another vote of agreement here. But it is a bit amusing.
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Coldplay - See You Soon
(Jan 15, 2004 - 18:36) | Must be one of the group's worst. How boring and dull! More somnolence. Worse than before, even.
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The Mars Volta - Televators
(Jan 15, 2004 - 18:31) | they NEED to be deloused. call THAT singing? whispering in ear, more like. how did they get recorded? an offense. =;
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Air - Talisman
(Jan 15, 2004 - 18:28) | this would be great for getting stoned to . . . not sure which drug . . . but i need wake-up music to work to! please leave soporific mode soon!
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Peter Himmelman - Fly So High
(Jan 15, 2004 - 18:24) | Started like the Beatles at their boringest . . . but then became amazingly more progressive for a bit! Then back down to the dulldrums . . .
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R.E.M. - Strange Currencies
(Jan 15, 2004 - 17:51) |
I agree with other posters' negative comments about sameness and repetitiveness and lack of excitement. Still, anyhow, I am really enjoying the rocking-chair sound of the guitar and occasional vocal emotional moments. So I would give this a mixed review. If the vocals were stripped out, I would enjoy this as music to unwind to. There is something comforting about it. I can't make out the lyrics, but that is probably just as well!
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Traffic - Dear Mr. Fantasy
(Jan 11, 2004 - 22:38) | Ah, the cutting edge of the late sixties and early seventies . . . more appreciated in retrospect.
Why won't Winwood cross the Big Pond? Aren't there more fans in the Americas than in Europe, including Britain?
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Cake - The Distance
(Jan 04, 2004 - 22:32) | Good rock instrumentation, understandable lyrics, and so amusing as well!
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Porcupine Tree - Pure Narcotic
(Jan 04, 2004 - 22:00) | RE Porcupine Tree, I must join the fans below. Yes, there is repetitiveness, but the group is always on key! THIS is an example of some relaxing music that I enjoy (unlike the Michael Miller cut before it). Wonder whether a lot of the fans enjoyed underground radio in the 1970s?
I am still listening to find a PT song I dislike.
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Michael Miller - Gracetown
(Jan 04, 2004 - 21:56) | I agree with rockasaurus and the other allied detractors, except the instrumentation is nice. The "singing" voice is not just androgynous, it is tuneless and often cracking. The allusion to Quaaludes seems on target. He sounds like someone singing himself to sleep, someone who is not a professional singer. Maybe, though, I just hate relaxation and it's my fault . . . Will listen to other songs on RP to figure that out!
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Patty Larkin - The Cranes
(Jan 02, 2004 - 13:02) | Uncanny how this song starts out with instrumentation I'd have sworn was that of Hooverphonic on a song from the album The Magnificent Tree!
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Porcupine Tree - Even Less
(Jan 02, 2004 - 12:29) | In 2002 someone who was really up to date on rock music said that this group was in the forefront of today's progressive rock music. Is that still true?
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R.E.M. - (don't go back to) Rockville
(Nov 10, 2003 - 21:09) | Flying_Donut wrote: Rockville is about 20 minutes from my house. You REALLY don't want to go to Rockville. Just one gigantic strip mall.
. . . If R.E.M. means Rockville, MD, that is--I know *you* mean the one in Maryland north of DC. Let me suggest a modification. Rockville does center on a string of strip malls on either side of Rockville Pike, the northern continuation of Wisconsin Avenue, which taken down to Georgetown, DC, will bring you to one long road of shops on either side but crowding such as Rockville will never know, and taken northward will lead into Gaithersburg and more strip shopping, but of a lesser quality.
Rockville's strip shopping centers have some of the best-quality places in the entire metro D.C. area, in many aspects of living. And there are more places, easier to get to, than anyplace in overpriced Tyson's and Montgomery Mall, much as I used to love the latter. Rockville offers many cuisines--a great Vietnamese bakery, great Oriental restaurants, and top-notch vegetarianl eateries--as well as fabric and arts supply stores, home-organizing stores, health-oriented groceries, bookstores, lamp stores, furniture stores . . . with signage that is not too unsightly. I like to visit . . . but like you, I would not want to *live* there.
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Crowded House - Private Universe
(Oct 13, 2003 - 19:58) | Someone wrote this, intriguingly: The "uncluttered" version is also very amazing. It's on the Afterglow CD.
So I would ask you to play that.
This has been a great group of segues tonight. Thanks.
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Babatunde Olatunji - Jin-Go-Lo-Ba (Drums of Passion)
(Oct 13, 2003 - 19:55) | I don't have any idea what the words say, but I agree with the sound evocations others have heard, evocations of other bands.
I like to imagine that this song is singing the praises of ginkgo biloba, which so few people can spell or pronounce but which has helped some people feel better (yes, I have read the recent research to the contrary).
It also sounds like some Native American music I was listening to in a documentary on PBS.
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The Cure - In-Between Days
(Oct 10, 2003 - 00:48) | Is the singing a clone of Sting and Robert Plant? I think there might be a cure for the Cure . . . involving moving an indicator leftward a great deal. This song is trying to be exciting, but its lack of tune and lyrics causes it to fail.
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Eels - Rags To Rags
(Oct 10, 2003 - 00:03) | bmarti wrote: Very cool. Shows how hip I am -- I've never heard of these guys. doh!
Me neither. Intriguing. They sound more rough-hewn than commercially slick, to me. A bit repetitive in the way that young fledgling bands like the Beatles tend to sound, but somehow I like the song anyhow.
Would somebody please post a URL link to their history???
:D
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Santana - No One To Depend On
(Oct 09, 2003 - 23:27) | Not readily distinguishable from "Oye como va." I would not mind never hearing Santana again. The "rock" crossover souns merely a guitarish imitatio of Jimi Hendrix.
For dancing it would be pretty good. :2dancingbananas:
For listening, however . . . :-&
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Tracy Chapman - Heaven's Here on Earth
(Sep 23, 2003 - 23:58) | She sounds so heartfelt, yet ruminative. Regardless of the message, which is both depressing and encouraging, the music and the singing are so evocative that I would not even have to understand the words to give it a high rating. It is marvelous how sometimes the voice sounds like a man and other times it sounds like a woman. The ambiguity adds to the mystery of the sound . . . it's a lot like a roomful of incense and waterfall sounds. :)
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The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows
(Sep 23, 2003 - 23:51) | A creatively accoutered, provocative piece . . . of which the lyrics are mostly understandable! Sorry it is not played on regular radio. I guess this is why I come here! :o :)
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Karen Lehner - Full Moon on an Empty Heart
(Sep 23, 2003 - 23:23) | A nuanced, sensitive female singer, with interesting instrumental effects weaving around the voice. Normally I abhor anything remotely jazz, but this is an exception!
:) 8)
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Coldplay - Warning Sign
(Sep 23, 2003 - 23:20) | 10/01/03 Upon hearing this song a second time, I like it more.
9/03 Is there ever an excuse for the sound of a man singing falsetto? I have yet to find one, and this would not be it.
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Joseph Arthur - Redemption's Son
(Sep 23, 2003 - 23:04) | It is a great public service that Porcupinemeat has done by furnishing lyrics! That is the main frustration to me of listening to RP.
WHAT about FURNISHING ALL lyrics for each song as a matter of course, Bill? Could it be done?? :D
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Toni Childs - Zimbabwe
(Sep 23, 2003 - 22:40) | Please, how could this possibly be called "singing"? It sounds as though her voice rolled down a washboard and across some corrugated siding and then went through a long, long underwater pipeline.
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Cocteau Twins - Road, River And Rail
(Sep 23, 2003 - 22:17) | On the strength of this song, I would affiliate with the "It's just aimless wailing" contingent. I could not distinguish any lyrics either. :-& :headshake:
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Johnny Cash - Hurt
(Sep 23, 2003 - 19:09) | dvcarruth wrote:
Please find and post a video that works now. The above link did not open up when I tried it Sept. 23, 2003.
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Cake - Never There
(Sep 22, 2003 - 15:46) | Don't take this seriously nohow. This is basically black comedy. Can't you hear the humor in the tune and the orchestration? It's good to occasionally have a funny, cynical sendup in the mix. If I don't hear it too much, it is welcome now and then. The writer is talented, for sure.
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U2 (with Johnny Cash) - The Wanderer
(Sep 22, 2003 - 12:23) | You can't play too much Johnny Cash. Just don't overplay any one song. I do not think that he and U2 are great together, though--this song sounds so very monotonous. Two tune progressions, the two lines used over and over and over again, for too much of the song.
Also, cannot hear Johnny very well over the instrumentation and the totally pointless "oo-oo" backings. That means I couldn't make out the lyrics, which is rather sad, considering that that was Johnny Cash's forte, and considering the admiring comments of other listeners. I am sorry that the rock contingent did not appreciate J.C. more when he was alive.
:? :headshake:
R.I.P., great American cultural icon!
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Cat Stevens - Angelsea
(Sep 22, 2003 - 12:09) | The people who like this cut and find it "new" and "refreshing" might do well to rent the classic sleeper cult favorite offbeat film "Harold and Maude."
Hearing Cat Stevens perform as part of the soundtrack on that film made me able to appreciate his music far more than before. Without a film to watch, his "tunes" strike me as monotonous. But for that film, his music seemed a perfect choice to convey the era-independent human yearnings for something beyond the constrictions of convention.
SEE "Harold and Maude" at least one time. Is there any other movie that does what that does?
:-k :D
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John Hiatt - Pirate Radio
(Sep 15, 2003 - 08:08) | A fun rock song, appealing to our maverick, loose-cannon personality types. Would like to hear it again! Maybe I would even buy a Hiatt CD!
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Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around
(Sep 12, 2003 - 12:32) | This is one of the best ever, in so many ways. Thanks, Johnny, for making the book of Revelation and some other New Testament verses so singable, and for the goose-bumps recitative and refrain!
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Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke
(Aug 02, 2003 - 15:55) | My only complaint is the lack of a rating lower than 1. :( Must tune out now. Too many irritating songs in a row.
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Björk - Hidden Place
(Aug 02, 2003 - 15:04) | Originally Posted by shevek:
please take her away!
Oh, yes, please. I can feel the same way in a storm-tossed ship. The vocal equivalent of Jackson Pollock or LeRoi Jones.
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Elbow - Powder Blue
(Aug 02, 2003 - 14:11) | Have no use for men singing falsetto. Never saw the point of it. Women and boys do that so much better. If you have a man, let him sing like a man. This grates on my nerves. I never understood the term "shoegazer" before, but now I get it. I do not want to gaze at shoes. I can't tell whether this "singer" is in agony or ecstasy, but I am in nausea. And now to top it off, there are horns wailing in the background. Thanks for stopping.
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The Byrds - Wasn't Born To Follow
(Aug 01, 2003 - 20:27) | One of the great groups of rock. Seminal in use of instrumentation, beautiful harmonies, nothing off key, perceptible lyrics, expertly interwoven harmonies.
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Hooverphonic - Jackie Cane
(Jul 15, 2003 - 09:56) | Yes, there are echoes of Velvet Underground. This song sounds MUCH better faster, though. On my CD it sounds faster than here. Maybe you could speed it up artificially? Other songs also deserve airplay.
The group is sheer genius. :D
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The Cure - Lullaby (extended mix)
(Jul 15, 2003 - 09:44) | Originally Posted by Joyfulchristine:
Good grief.
For some time now, a variety of hard-to-hear growly, whispery, slurpy noises backed by a repetitive beat have been coming from my laptop. I guess it's this Cure song...I'd call it a waste of bandwidth.
Great first sentence--couldn't have been put more succinctly. You only omitted the word "irritating"--unintelligible lyrics always are. Why have lyrics at all if they can't be comprehended?
:???:
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Yerba Buena - Solito Me Quede
(Jul 13, 2003 - 11:22) | Nice if you want this type of music. I like Hispanic music in its place. That place is not a rock-music station. That place is not where I want to be often.
It is not rock. It has those obtrusive horns and that irritating type of drums. It also has a goose honking in the background, which is rather vexing. I am going elsewhere now. There is just too much of this. I see that you are about to segue to reggae, but that after this may not be enough of a turn toward real rock to keep me here. :( :???:
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Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
(Jul 13, 2003 - 10:39) | Originally Posted by KevinM:
I like Weird Al's version "Smells Like Nirvana" better.
Where could I go to hear that?? Thanks.
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Green Day - When I Come Around
(Jul 12, 2003 - 12:14) | I agree with avani. Yes, this song has been way overplayed commercially. But sandwiched in a RP set sets it off and lets me hear it in a fresh way. In the new setting, it seems to have more merit. Not great, not super innovative, but catchy, shoulder-popping, and boppable.
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Chrissie Hynde - I Shall Be Released
(Jul 12, 2003 - 12:11) | Her voice isn't near as emotional as the lyrics call for.
But per se, her voice is very exciting, because she has that strong-woman, high-testosterone sound when she belts. And I can understand her too.
Play something by her that is not a blues song. I think she would be better in a rock anthem.
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Cracker - The Good Life
(Jul 12, 2003 - 12:06) | Hey! Real-life, energetic, driving actual rock music for the first time this afternoon! Thanks!
And I too can understand at least many of the lyrics!
Sorry this had to be my first positive of the afternoon, but it was worth waiting for.
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Yerba Buena - La Gringa
(Jul 12, 2003 - 12:01) | I can do without the Latino-salsa-merengue-cha crossover in my rock music. Cuban "charanga" is great in its place . . . but for me that place is not called "rock music." Good for dance venues.
And I am allergic to brass instruments in rock. To me they are like putting salt in coffee--some more so than others.
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Tykwer/Klimek/Heil - Running One
(Jul 12, 2003 - 11:58) | I think this is trance music--right (I have been away from rock listening for a few years)?
The spooky-sounding talking that can't quite be deciphered through the instrumental line is something I found interesting when I first heard it in earlier days of rock.
Does the technique have a name? What rock group pioneered it?
???
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Idlewild - American English
(Jul 12, 2003 - 11:39) | Is this the whining, self-pitying, self-obsessed set for the day? When will it be over? This song at least has comprehensible lyrics, though, and guys who are really singing (or sing-talking), and they sound unambiguously like male singers. That is getting to be refreshing nowadays.
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Pearl Jam - Black
(Jul 12, 2003 - 11:37) | Soupy and soapy, maybe sappy. Irritating, too-oft-repeated, meaningless oo- refrain; singing sounds like sing-songy bemoaning of one's lot . . . The lyrics are not quite distinguishable . . . I read that this band is considered a clone of more original ones . . . Would like some URLs to follow re this. :(
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Dar Williams - Play the Greed
(Jul 12, 2003 - 10:28) | Voice made me think of Sheryl Crow for sure . . . on the Sunset Boulevard song . . . but the lyrics are dense and intellectual. In either case, we can use social critics in this realm. Didn't care for the moaning refrain, though.
Is today a day for rock with a heavy country and country-blues influence? Theme: Yours To Discover, as they say on Word-a-Day?
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Waifs - Lighthouse
(Jul 12, 2003 - 10:24) | Thanks, raschaffner, for uploading this. It appeals to quirky sense of humor . . . has a subversive cast to it . . . ! It seems done just for the joy of playing and singing.
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Beth Orton - Daybreaker
(Jul 12, 2003 - 10:22) | Agree with mangialone, tazochai, booda. The lyrics that are comprehensible are pedestrian and the "singing" is some sort of bellyaching moan. I did like the instrumental part of the song *very* much, though! So strip out the vocal track(s) and play it again! :D
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Moloko - Familiar Feelings
(Jul 12, 2003 - 10:15) | Originally Posted by AliGator:
Is it me, or is this song way too long? It is.
Even something enjoyable can seem way too long if it is too repetitive.
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Bob Marley - Small Axe
(Jul 08, 2003 - 04:35) | Originally Posted by talus:
I completely Agree
I partly agree. A few do stand out. But their musical simplicity can get monotonous. Why not play B.M. right after something very complicated and cerebral, for a head cleanser?
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Andy Stochansky - Stutter
(Jul 05, 2003 - 08:01) | Originally Posted by beelzebubba:
Yawn.......been there, heard that...more boring, whiny angst --Well put, fellow listener.
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Andy Stochansky - Stutter
(Jul 05, 2003 - 07:59) | I rated it 1 before. I had the same, strong, reaction today. By no stretch of courtesy or fantasy could this straining of vocal cords be dignified with the word "singing." If never heard again on earth would be far too soon. :(
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Blind Boys Of Alabama - Nobody's Fault But Mine
(Jun 25, 2003 - 16:21) | Not surprised that the discerning listeners of RP rate this cut highly. It does raise those neck hairs indeed! This is a truly classic U.S. singing group. Of course, I am a fan of Sacred Harp a capella too, so I will like most groups like this one. What amazing harmonies. The voices weave in and out among one another and create a tapestry without any holes . . . the voices seem to all put their arms around one another. That is what I call a great blending.
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Neil Young - Throw Your Hatred Down
(Jun 25, 2003 - 15:18) | Originally Posted by cooter:
I just don't get the appeal of being preached at. Neil Young is always so self righteous.
"I heard Mr. Young sing about her.
I heard old Neil put her down.
Well I hope Neil Young will remember
a southern man don't need him around anyhow."
Lynyrd Skynyrd (Sweet Home Alabama)
:???: :???:
That particular Young/Skynyrd spat has always sort of gratified and amused me . . . I think because it shows how rock is not the province of just the Yanks or just the Rebs, of only the peaceniks or only the warmongers . . . . It crosses those lines . . . and at least while we are grooving to the music, it wipes those lines out--I must be schiz, because I like both Young and Skynyrd . . . :p ;)
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White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
(Jun 25, 2003 - 15:09) | Originally Posted by lordcruloze:
Not to be confused with Striper.
:)
Good for you for remembering Striper. Were they good enough to be played on Radio Paradise, do you think?
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White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
(Jun 25, 2003 - 13:08) | Originally Posted by jpbergjr:
Reminds me of the Yardbirds, not as good, but they do kick it hard on this song.
So, compeer, let's request Yardbirds.
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White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
(Jun 25, 2003 - 13:06) | What a fantastic followup to the Velvet Underground cut!! I am stamping my feet and frustrated that my PC is volume impaired!! Rockin' on out!! Yeeeeaaaaah!! :D
Sometime please play White Stripes' song about dead leaves and dirt . . . a different mood.
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Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man
(Jun 25, 2003 - 13:03) | Repetitious . . . but also addictive and hypnotic . . . that rebellious, subversive feel I love rock music for . . . Better than any drug . . . (with the exception of caffeine) ;) :p
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Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing
(Jun 25, 2003 - 12:38) | Have deplored Gaye and his ilk, with their fixation on sex, ever since I lived in Atlanta for 3 years and could not escape him.
Please don't worsen the afternoon by playing James Brown now.
Whatever this genre is, I would be so happy to never hear it again.
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Björk - Big Time Sensuality
(Jun 25, 2003 - 12:36) | She's weird, she's outrageous; her success was unlikely. But she is authentic if nothing else. And her singing is far better than her rep had led me to expect. I saw her in a full-length film about a mother who was going blind--both a pathetic story and a pastiche of musical comedy, an unlikely combo I had never seen attempted before. SO authentic an actress that she seemed to be simply living her life on film.
You gotta be happy that someone homely and artless, an anti-Madonna, if you will, could succeed in an art world too permeated by the supeficial and the impossibly thin, face-lifted, airbrushed model types.
I recommend the film highly . . . .
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Dire Straits - So Far Away
(Jun 25, 2003 - 12:30) | Agree with Polecat. Sick to death of hearing this. Every store and restaurant plays it too.
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Cornershop - Sleep On The Left Side
(Jun 25, 2003 - 10:01) | n4ku and tg3k are right . . . I am so close to being asleep after that that no cup of coffee may be strong enough to help.
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Andy Stochansky - Here Nor There
(Jun 25, 2003 - 09:57) | No vocal talent. Unmelodious. Breathy.
What sadist offered him a singing contract? His name and the word "singing" don't belong even in the same sentence. Does he actually believe he can sing?
I had to turn the sound off.
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Jess Klein - Ireland
(Jun 25, 2003 - 09:48) | Haunting, evocative, beautiful. It did make me think of the gray-stone beaches of Galway Bay and the rolling blue-grass hillsides of Kildare and Carlow, all with the sky seeming so very close overhead. Now I miss it so much that I need to work on a plan to return sooner than I thought. Thanks to this song.
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Bob Dylan - One More Cup Of Coffee
(Jun 25, 2003 - 09:32) | Normally I just endure Dylan's vocal cords for the message, and I was a deejay when he was big big big.
This song, though, seems in a league by itself. Fascinating to read that this is a traditional Gypsy song . . . want to know more about that. Possibly the brunette violinist Dylan supposedly picked up on the streets of NYC that day to go record the song with him was a Gypsy herself . . . ? A modern-day mythopoeic vignette.
The first thing I noticed was that Bob Dylan's voice on this cut is just like that of a muezzin, as another commenter implied--and that in itself was a wonderful job on his part!
The poignancy of this song is remarkable for many reasons, including the understatement and the use of an image so many people can relate to in so many societies.
As soon as I can get PayPal to work for me again, I will send something inspired by hearing this song.
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Chris Isaak - Two Hearts
(Jun 24, 2003 - 16:54) | It is a matter of timing . . . .
Please let us have some energizing upbeat rock instead of whispery breathy aching voices and hearts. I am not ready for a tequila happy hour, I am trying to get some work done here! This guy's yodel is charming and sweet, but I am not trying to go to sleep in this time zone--lots more work to do.
Now he has changed from yodeling to singing off key; do you have any singers who both stay on key and are not breathy? I have been away for awhile but came back to give RP another chance to help me get through the work day.
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Crash Test Dummies - Swimming In Your Ocean
(Jun 24, 2003 - 16:50) | Agree with all the negative comments below, several of which were very cleverly expressed . . . I can't add more except for (no smiley seems perfect for that).
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Dust Brothers - This Is Your Life
(Jun 24, 2003 - 08:20) | Originally Posted by FeatFanMike:
What the hell is this crap?
Not a real motivating song for the first thing on a Thursday morning.
If I didn't hear this again, that would be fine.
--What one would need to enjoy this is a taste for perversity, a sense of the ironic, and a Gallic shrug, perhaps. But I couldn't agree with you more.
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Dust Brothers - This Is Your Life
(Jun 24, 2003 - 08:18) | "You have to give up . . . " "You are part of the same decaying animal matter as everyone else" and other suicide-promoting dicta . . . How nice for folks to hear early in the morning. Especially for the depressed . . . The thoughts are interestingly mixed up, but this fare is really too strong for so early in the morning. Please spare us till we have had some coffee and a couple of meals. Although we shouldn't be so decadent that we actually get to have that many meals, I realize. :???: Well, if we can't flagellate ourselves enough, I guess we can count on the Dust Brothers to help us out!
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Blue Man Group - Persona
(May 09, 2003 - 08:47) | If creepy, as another poster said, would be interesting . . . but cannot decipher the lyrics, so it comes across as just a monotonous, lugubrious trance- or sleep-inducing selection. Would you consider linking to a couple of the best lyrics sites on the Web?
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Eels - Woman Driving, Man Sleeping
(Dec 10, 2002 - 11:19) | Originally Posted by Dagno-M:
Thanks, Bill, for the Eels. Please go deep into *Souljacker*, and go back from cuts from *Daisies of the Galaxy* (especially the hidden cut, "Mr E's Beautiful Blues"), *Electro-Shock Blues,* and *Beautiful Freak.*
E is a genius.....
I wanted to back up this knowledgeable rock devotee re hidden cuts--how else will those of us who have been out of the loop for a while catch up?
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Rubyhorse - Evergreen
(Nov 29, 2002 - 21:55) | Yes, yes, generic and unimaginative pop, with spacey moogy stuff that does not fit in the background. If these guys were landscapers, your yard would be a mishmash. ANd they can't sing. Suppress these dormice! This song seems like a ripoff of so many other people's. I feel sick.
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Suzanne Vega - Blood Makes Noise
(Nov 29, 2002 - 21:52) | Blood makes noise by pounding in your ears when you are exercising hard or when you can hear your own heart thumping. :D
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Patty Larkin - Anyway The Main Thing Is
(Nov 29, 2002 - 21:50) | The "singing" is an insult, sort of a throwaway afterthought, or Larkin's groans of pain after using Listerine, perhaps? The horns are the nearly worst of what horns can be--superfluous and out of place. The whole song is a compendium of throwaway afterthoughts, bits and pieces, odds and ends, better called "Inferior Ragbag."
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Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees
(Nov 29, 2002 - 21:18) | Originally Posted by etwilson:
I'm not sure what I'm missing, everyone seems to love Radiohead but I find them completely boring. What's the big deal? :???:
WHen you figure it out, let me know. Maybe it's the sense of nostalgia? :???: THe falsetto is kind of entertaining . . .
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Talking Heads - What A Day That Was
(Nov 29, 2002 - 21:14) | I don't know what this is supposed to be a ripoff of, but the singing sounds like David Bowie if he could sing, so I liked it as a followup to "Ziggy Stardust," wherein the singing is so abysmal. I also like the hook of "Boom, boom, boom," which helped me get out of my somnolence and renew my flagging energy! :p
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Ryan Adams - You Will Always Be The Same
(Nov 29, 2002 - 20:55) | This is not a song. This is a spoken lyric by someone who cannot carry a tune. He does off-key in a newly offensive way to me. Prefer Bob Dylan's monotone. This guy may be very sincere, but he could use a voicbox transplant. Somehow pity is my governing reaction.
Bill, we *really* need icons to show the shedding of tears--one to show the shedding of slow tears, which I would use for this, and another to show a torrent of weeping. Please consider it.
;< (the closest I can come with punc marks)
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Peggy Lee - Fever
(Nov 29, 2002 - 20:49) | Peggy Lee is too lightweight and offhanded for this down-and-dirty, bluesy song. It is better performed by someone who sounds as though s/he had an itch on every inch . . . I heard a rock rendition I thought was great by a male band . . . maybe, among females, Tracy Chapman or Joan Osborne could do it justice.
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Tom Petty - Mary Jane's Last Dance
(Nov 29, 2002 - 20:37) | :p
Neither Tom Petty nor George Thorogood can do any wrong as far as I am concerned. Why I dig them and not Springsteen is that they are always the outside observers, whereas Springsteen comes across as an insider, an apologist. Petty and Thorogood seem to share sort of a raw edge . . .
:p
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Morcheeba - Aqualung
(Nov 29, 2002 - 20:32) | Originally Posted by clarinetta:
Well, Morcheeba is okay but let's think back to who already had a song called Aqualung way before Morcheeba hit the scene. Mr. DJ, please add Aqualung by Jethro Tull to your playlist. Thanks.
Yes, please put me down as an Eek too. Jethro Tull's Aqualung was rockin'-out rock and deserves airplay. What is *this* stuff?--the auditory equivalent of pureed celery.
:???:
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Berlin - The Metro
(Nov 29, 2002 - 20:30) | Has that intriguing Euro sound . . . when they sing the phrase "the Metro," it insinuates a European underground system somehow . . . and the insistent sort of robotic beat reminds me of--What was that German one-hit wonder, called something like "The Dictator"? "The Motivator"? Somebody help me think of it!
:p
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Eels - Mr E's Beautiful Blues
(Nov 29, 2002 - 20:12) | Originally Posted by Johray63:
Hang on Sloopy?
Yes, it does take/? borrow/? rip off/? pay homage to/? Hang On, Sloopy's main riff. . . Lyrics not worth much in either song, but this one is bounceable . . . feels right for that kids' game, Moonbounce!
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Val Davis - Texas Sky
(Nov 29, 2002 - 18:01) | Wow! Predict that Val Davis will be on talk shows and reviewed in Newsweek before the new year 2003 is old!!!!
And he actually posted a note to us listeners here!!
It blows me away. I could almost say I "knew him when"!
+<>?L!@#$%^&*()+
;)
P.S. Val, did you know your LOWEST rating on RP was a 5? That is rare!
P.P.S. Other listeners, please go to his page (link below) to read about his tribulations. He coulda used some prayers, had we but known. He probably still can.
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Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
(Nov 29, 2002 - 17:46) | Originally Posted by srn:
I heard the Rufus version only once. It's great, but this may be better. The smooth guitar playing is a real plus.
Both guys have great voices. I need another listen just to grok the lyrics; and then I need to hear the original. ;)
The song's a showcase of the songwriter's craft. I love the onomatopoeia at the begining - singing out the names of the chord changes as they bring up the intensity.
I know that the word "grok" comes from Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land"; thanks for using it here.
I also agree with finding the singing out the names of the chords as the volume rises is fascinating.
I cannot enter into the debate about Jeff Buckley's version versus those of Cohen, Cole, and Wainwright, because I have not heard any of the others. I hope Bill will play them all so all of us can compare them.
Thanks.
:)
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Grateful Dead - Help On The Way/Franklin's Tower
(Nov 26, 2002 - 14:45) | Originally Posted by Blackjack:
Head banging against a wall befits the strained singing and lack of tunefulness, head hitting. Impressive instrumentation cannot make up for those defects in this song. Maybe, too, I am negatively affected by the meandering riffs that go noplace.
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R.E.M. - I Don' t Sleep, I Dream
(Nov 26, 2002 - 14:43) | Surely not "Rockville" as in Rockville, Maryland? Bill, please play that one!
QUOTE>Originally Posted by Jacques:
I think that their work still exhibits an tremendous amount of musical and artistic integrity. They haven't sold out, and if one group is incapable of doing that, it is them. My favourite R.E.M. track of all time... "Rockville"
just my opinion...
Cheers
Jacques
Radio Paradise: What Radio Could Have Been.
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The Hooters - *** 500 Miles
(Nov 26, 2002 - 10:46) | Originally Posted by RParadise:
Liked the reference to the lone man stopping the tank in Beijing after the slaughter in Tienanmen Square. Interesting use of an old spiritual to make it current.
I agree! :)
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Indigo Girls - Become You
(Nov 26, 2002 - 10:44) | The folky sound of this makes it my favorite of songs by this group that I hear on RP. They sound different from one cut to another, so I still do not have a general evaluation of them. Must look into them more.
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Gomez - Ping One Down
(Nov 26, 2002 - 10:41) | REALLY like the idea of bookmarking songs. Bill, can that be looked into??? It would let us later compile a shopping list, when we are not busy.
Originally Posted by OrsonBallard:
This is great, I'd never heard of them before either.
It's hearing songs like this that make me wish Radio Paradise had a way you could bookmark songs or go back and review your own ratings and comments.
Play more of these guys please, if it's anywhere near as good as this I'd buy.
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Hooverphonic - Club Montepulciano
(Nov 26, 2002 - 09:55) | Must get this CD! Suspect it is as good as Magnificent Tree! I like the group's uniqueness.
Discovered the group in the 1990s in a college-town record store, The Band Box, in Williamsburg, VA, where the owners are very cutting-edge knowledgeable.
Sorry I missed the Massive Attack that preceded.
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Suzanne Vega - Penitent
(Nov 25, 2002 - 11:55) | 10/01/2003 Last year was full of misery for me. Now things are looking up. And I notice that I like this song a lot more than I did. I will rerate it. Yes, music is indeed subjective, and subject to the listeners' mood.
11/25/2002 Annoying is right. Where is any tune at all, in the song or in the voice? Her vocal range might be all of five notes. Since I have this reaction, I suspect this might be pop.
Vega should either speak or sing, but decide! Whenever the song goes a little high, she flats and speaks the words.
Of course, tuning out is an option.
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Kim Richey - This Love
(Nov 25, 2002 - 11:53) | I like the country sound of her voice, and I prefer slightly strident to breathy. I would like to hear more of her. SHe sounds a bit like Sheryl Crow, but she is an individual enough to deserve airplay of her own. Country crossover is an interesting subcategory.
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Tori Amos - Gold Dust
(Nov 25, 2002 - 11:22) | ANother monotonous, breathy female "singer." When they are this breathy, there is no way to really know whether they can sing or not . . . particularly when the song is so close to tuneless . . . I think it had about three different notes in it--the vocal, that is.
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Massive Attack - Teardrop
(Nov 25, 2002 - 11:13) | Although this is a trance song, it seems to be going somewhere. My first impulse was to give it a high rating. Good thing I waited, though, because unfortunately, the breathiness of the female vocals obscured the lyrics and conflicted with the charm of the instrumentation. Her voice would be nice if she could ditch the out-of-breath aspect. It is so irritating that it is starting to outweigh the good points of the song as I listen to it longer. What a shame.
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Ben Harper - Jah Work
(Nov 25, 2002 - 11:08) | This cut seems to have integrity . . . only caught the end of it, but did not hear those darned obtrusive superfluous horns that irritate in Burning Spear, the next band that was played.
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Burning Spear - Hallelujah
(Nov 25, 2002 - 11:06) | I hate mixes on principle, because they dstroy the integrity of the individual songs. In this particular case, I got sick of the refrain after the first 10 repeats. How many times does it repeat itself--666 times? Probably a great musical choice for people toking themselves into a stupor, however!
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Béla Fleck - Moonlight Sonata
(Nov 25, 2002 - 10:01) | Great segue from the preceding song. Admiration. The cut is a nice interpretation of the sonata as well.
:)
The banjo is not alone--it is joined by a violin. Even if you think they do not work well together and that the banjo lacks dynamics, they technically do their job quite well. Experimenting with using alternative instruments to interpret a classic keeps our musical minds from stagnating!
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Porcupine Tree - Point 3 (.3)
(Nov 25, 2002 - 10:00) | It would be better if the ambient wobbling around over the clouds and into the swamp were radically curtailed. Too dreamy to rank with Pink Floyd, whose songs seemed to have some driving purpose. If a cut is this random, it seems to lose its form. And formlessness is jazz, which irks me...
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Leon Russell - Magic Mirror
(Nov 20, 2002 - 09:42) | Please . . . I respect his sincere-sounding pain, but his lack of a singing voice causes *me* pain. How did he get a recording contract?
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Vince Guaraldi Trio - Linus and Lucy
(Nov 20, 2002 - 09:39) | The best version is the chestnut . . . makes a person smile no matter what bad stuff is going on . . . a reminder of the innocence of the Peanuts gang. :)
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Tracy Chapman - You're the One
(Nov 15, 2002 - 11:58) | I find her husky, low voice with a few feminine notes interesting, but she needs more emotional variation, and the song itself has far too much repetition. I prefer the Scots accent of the announcer I just heard. Let's hear some Scots folk-rock, shall we?
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Solas - Dignity
(Nov 10, 2002 - 22:39) | Originally Posted by mrrmaid1:
I am really starting to dig this group. Play more.
I agree! Must study up on this group. Strange that it should sport a Spanish name . . . the sound recalls the lonesome north Scotland grassy highlands I visited far too briefly years ago . . . with echoes of the chill I got when I found out the meaning of "barrow," "tumulus," and the like . . .
Not a sour note in the bunch, not a screech or a strain, not an off beat, perfect interweaving of instrumentation and vocal . . . I can't find anything to criticize here. This song would be great to hypnotize my Scots blood into another sphere.
:D ;)
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Eels - Grace Kelly Blues
(Nov 10, 2002 - 22:34) | A country crossover that crossed over into mellow easy listening . . . I would hardly call this "rock"!
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The Highwaymen - Highwayman
(Nov 10, 2002 - 22:23) | In the tradition of Johnny Cash... and Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson . . . but more rock-like . . . reminds me, too, of the era when the 1960s transmogrified.
The lead singer has a great cavernous, chesty bass-baritone voice. More voices like his, please!
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Indigo Girls - Land Of Canaan
(Nov 10, 2002 - 22:12) | Given the title, this *might* be an intelligent song . . . maybe about geopolitical stuff . . . How exciting!
Ah, no--alas, now I hear "I'm lonely tonight." How hackneyed can you get.
I thought this group had a rep for being cutting edge.
At least the guitar work is . . . scintillating and the singing delivery is stimulating. Now if they could only get some intelligent lyrics . . . I have heard eclectic rock tonight, but little that was
intelligent.
(Mixed emotions here.) :???:
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Tori Amos - Taxi Ride
(Nov 10, 2002 - 22:07) | My ears have trouble with a woman singing so as to sound like a very little girl . . . was she abused in her childhood, perhaps?
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Nirvana - All Apologies
(Nov 10, 2002 - 22:04) | The first phrase of the hook sounds like singing . . . then it turns into straining. Singer has made a fine art out of grating disharmony alternating with boring scatting. He gives the music itself, which is repetitive tunelessness, a run for its money. If you put 100 kindergartners in a room with a MIDI program plus craft paper and crayons . . . something similar might emerge.
Unfortunately, the hook is also catchy and hard to scrape off the walls of one's music memory! Doubly unfortunate, the song has been overplayed everywhere, including here. Sad.
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Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
(Nov 10, 2002 - 21:59) | The beat is good. The lyrics might be amusing if they were comprehensible. The singing . . . is *supposed* to irritate and provoke, right? I would rate it high if it were an instrumental.
:p
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John Hammond - Heartattack and Vine
(Nov 10, 2002 - 21:32) | A great blues-rock cut. Almost can't believe this guy is white . . . besides the old classic blues artists (please play Son House! and Robert Johnson), his singing does remind me of . . . . --of whom my favorite song is "It Wasn't Me."
;)
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T Bone Burnett - Over You
(Nov 10, 2002 - 21:28) | Here is a crossover from country to rock that *really succeeds*! This guy is a master of what he does.
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BoDeans - Fadeaway (live)
(Nov 10, 2002 - 21:19) | Looked forward to its ending . . . for what seemed many many minutes. But then it improved. Strange. I will give them another chance. :)
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Red Hot Chili Peppers - Scar Tissue
(Nov 10, 2002 - 21:11) | Sounds like Californication, only more irritating, if that were even possible. At least this one seems to be a bit less repetitive.
I'd thought that Hootie and the Blowfish had taken "slobbering over microphone so that lyrics are incomprehensible mush" to its apogee, but this group is not far behind . . . .
Thank you to Angelus for citing amiright.com . . . My favorite mondegreen is "There's a bathroom on the right."
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Lucinda Williams - I Lost It
(Nov 10, 2002 - 21:06) | To me this does not sound "underground adult contemporary"--it sounds like derivative country-to-would-be-rock crossover attempt . . . sort of a Sheryl Crow can't-quite-be, and the low voice not as convincing as that of Marshall Tucker (I think that's her name).
Not imaginative, derivative.
:???:
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Squirrel Nut Zippers - Blue Angel
(Nov 10, 2002 - 20:20) | Please change my mistaken rating of 7 to a 1. (It was Richard Thompson I was trying to rate.) Cannot stand that SNZ woman's voice. She is probably doing a sendup of real blues singers, but I would rather hear her chewing bubble gum--which is what her incomprehensibility is pretty much equivalent to. Why not play the real thing instead? (in regard to female singers of blues/jazz/balladry: Edith Piaf, Lotte Lenya, and of course the incomparable Ruth Etting!).
I was right about the sendup part--AMG says this:
creating a tongue-in-cheek salute to '20s and '30s jazz. For younger listeners familiar with the style but not the content of classic hot jazz, the band was good fun, but purists found the group's vaguely campy sense of humor and amateurish technique off-putting.
Yes, I'd say I was put off. Can't get into most jazz, so bad jazz is worse. I love Joan Osborne's rendition of "Long Black Coat," though--cannot for the life of me see how this group is at all like her.
:(
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Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London
(Nov 10, 2002 - 18:44) | Originally Posted by jpfueler:
Lawyers and Roland used to get alot of airplay down here along with Excitable Boy... Now you don't here much more than this..
heh...Bill followed this with Life'll Kill Ya
Yes--I'm so glad he took your suggestion!
Bill, I would like to hear Zevon's "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" played right AFTER the Linda Ronstadt version. Please.
:)
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Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London
(Nov 10, 2002 - 18:41) | I love to sing and tap feet along with this one! Can't do it in front of literalists, though, who think I might really enjoy little old ladies' getting mutilated. The lyrics are so funny, they remind me of some of the lyrics in Threepenny Opera--only Zevon makes less sense . . . I cannot help but smile when I hear this! What a stitch!
:D
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Fairport Convention - Tam Lin
(Nov 10, 2002 - 18:36) | One of the two most classic of classic-rock renditions of a Child ballad (see Child ballads!!). The two giants of the 1970s rock rediscovery of Child ballads (with the root progenitors being Joan Baez and Judy Collins) were Fairport and Steeleye Span. I cannot praise this song loudly enough, except that the loud, passionate, high-energy renditions I heard Fairport give in concert are even better than this recorded version, for my money. I would give almost anything to relive Fairport concerts. They transported me way beyond our galaxy.
The two most exciting songs of the Child-ballad revival were this one and Matty Groves. If you went around the rock-music hallway performers at a sci-fi convention, they would probably agree with that assessment.
:) :D ;)
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Sublime - Santeria
(Nov 09, 2002 - 12:28) | Would like to vote 1 multiple times. Tuneless, offensive, bad singing. Drum the only good thing. None of those guys in the band would exist without a woman. An unfortunate one, perhaps, but one who suffered so that they might be born. How easily they ignore that.
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Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air
(Nov 05, 2002 - 07:28) | SIZE=2>Although the vocal is painfully strained, this is a classic, emblematic, a theme song of that 1960s-1970s era in the USA when some people thought that there was a new spiritual-cultural change about to happen. It was an era of fear of change for some, of hope and wonder for others. But the bedrock of this country--hoping for something better and willing to work toward it--was common to all parts of the political spectrum then and still is today.
My comment for Election Day.
Suggestion: More songs today about elections and such.
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Clinic - Sunlight Bathes Our Home
(Nov 04, 2002 - 12:45) | I don't know about the B-52s, but agree that "Clinic reminds me a teensy bit of Siouxsie & The Banshees." Only more than a teensy bit!!! Mesmerizing and slightly menacing, probably black humor if I could catch the words other than the refrain.
Thanks for introducing me to this group.
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Daniel Lanois - Jolie Louise
(Nov 04, 2002 - 12:16) | Agree with KevDog and Johray63. Love the ironic juxtaposition of misery words with gently bopping happy instrumentation!
Bill, could you eventually get around to "Burnin' Up the Tracks"? I like Cajun.
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Big Daddy - Money For Nothing
(Nov 04, 2002 - 12:08) | The cover--the sendup . . . better than the original in many ways. I would like to get it too!
:p
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Billy Pilgrim - Insomniac
(Nov 04, 2002 - 11:53) | Originally Posted by eproulx:
Man, I love these guys. I wish they'd get back together (Have they?). I'd recommend a song called "Get me out of here" to anyone who's not heard it before. Great piece of music writing.
Bill, Please play "GMOOH."
:)
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Chris Isaak - Solitary Man
(Nov 04, 2002 - 11:51) | Chris Isaak does a charming job covering this Neil Diamond classic. As to this "Elvis"--only Elvis Presley merits first-name-only citation. If that Elvis Costello covered "Solitary Man," who cares.
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Third World - Satta Massagana
(Nov 04, 2002 - 11:15) | Is 8? saying that this song is overplayed on RP? I have not heard it before. Its religiosity cannot bother me, because I cannot make out all the words. It is fine as background for working!
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Live - Lightning Crashes
(Nov 04, 2002 - 09:29) | A song with the "Ur-song," i\n\s\t\a\nt-classic, in-the-blood, visceral-beatness, intestinal gutness of this one can't be hurt by commercial overplaying, for me at least. Love how it builds to crescendo without irritating me. Hurray for genuineness--I had to crank it up!
<"ROckin'-on-out" symbol here!>
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Counting Crows - Omaha
(Nov 04, 2002 - 09:23) | Their sound is derivative, but they are copying some band or bands that I used to enjoy in the 1970s, I think . . . Whom *do* they sound like?
Anyhow, they seem to have genuine feeling, and the straining voice "works" in this case . . .
What bands are they the musical acolytes of?, please help!
Is it Springsteen, for one?
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Patty Griffin - Long Ride Home
(Nov 04, 2002 - 09:19) | Not sure how I feel about this one, but in general, I applaud the excursions into C&W and country or into C&W and country crossover, whichever you call it.
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John Mellencamp - To The River
(Nov 04, 2002 - 09:13) | Doesn't sound countrified to me--sounds vigorous and avant-garde. Please play it repeatedly.
Wish I could have voted 9 multiple times. A rating of 5.3 must mean that the gutsy listeners are now tuned out.
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The Beatles - I'm Only Sleeping
(Nov 04, 2002 - 09:12) | I hate this sound. Sticking on one note almost all the time, straining on the high notes, that cutesy-boy sound . . . some folks like this, but I find it simpleminded and embarrassing. Then they have to add the superffffluous and irritating horns, for insult to injury.
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Midnight Oil - Tone Poem
(Nov 04, 2002 - 09:08) | I have to ignore the politics on this, beecause cannot make out the lyrics.
Soundwise, it sounds like a sophisticated-up "Beds Are Burning" . . . a later remake of it. Sometimes simple, elemental, grungy, and heartfelt are better. Usually they are better. I would ask for "Beds Are Burning" . . . but it is so strong it could get overplay burnout.
Again, I NEED A "pondering" SYMBOL HERE.
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Sneaker Pimps - Blue Movie
(Nov 04, 2002 - 08:45) | I agree with both Melissa and Dundee. In general, when the group has such a name and the cut has such a name, I expect that the lyrics will offend me.
Now that I listen more closely . . . the song at first seems sacrilegious, but now I think it is about hypocrisy among those who proclaim virtuousness . . . a sentiment I have to share despite my aversion to pimps and blue movies.
The song must be some sort of arch social commentary, including maybe some self-mockery and irony. At that intellectual level, I would have to overcome my initial bias against.
Leaving the words aside, it has some intriguing musicality . . . so I will leave the jury out on this group and ruminate.
I need a "hmmmm" symbol to use here, showing pondering.
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Boy On A Dolphin - Nouwe O N'Mazei
(Nov 04, 2002 - 08:38) | Originally Posted by bev:
I really enjoyed this piece and would have bought it, but it seems to be unavailable. :???:
While searching around, however, I found this bit of info: from Amazon.com(UK) review of the album: "...Beautifully crafted arrangements and stunning spanish guitar from Pete Hiley fronted by the voice of John Reilly..." and "...The opening track "Nou we o'n mazei" which Reilly co-wrote with Ivory Coast musician Maurice Zou..."
Anyway, nice to listen to this - hope you'll play it again! :)
bev, if you ever do locate this, others wish you would share the knowledge with us . . . please.
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Boy On A Dolphin - Nouwe O N'Mazei
(Nov 04, 2002 - 08:33) | NJR's comment great insight! Also agree with The_Jake, 8?, hippie, bev.
This song is a bit deeper than some listeners think. It is not just easy listening!!
Please play again when those who don't appreciate it aren't listening. (;))
Really intrigued by the evocations others posted about. Maybe you could play that Simply Red group too?
:)
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Randy Newman - Political Science
(Nov 04, 2002 - 08:28) | Funny if you like political satire . . . I think there should be a balance mandate for the bent of the opinions though . . . How about *that*, Bill? Equal time for pro and con when doing such?
Really enjoy what I learn from other listeners. I should have guessed that I would find a coterie here . . . "eclectic" and "intelligent" are two of my favorite words!
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Breeders - Cannonball
(Nov 04, 2002 - 08:12) | Originally Posted by SweetEmmaRose:
Haven't heard this in a while-- takes me back to the days when I worked at a record store in college and played it constantly. Thanks for playing stuff that is too new for classic rock and too old for any other radio station.
That's why I love Paradise
Good point! Why should era matter if we like the music? This makes me feel amused!!!!!! ANd MOndays need amusement!
I am going to get this album now just because I heard it here. On regular radio, I never get the name of the singer, cut, or album--or at least almost never!!!!!
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Peter Gabriel - I Grieve
(Nov 04, 2002 - 08:01) | As a former UGR DJ, must say this was a superfantastic segue to the Rufus Wainwright "Hallelujah"! It subtly shifts the pace while giving a seamless feel. What great DJing.
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Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah
(Nov 04, 2002 - 07:54) | I found the Wainwright way sweet . . . enjoyed this rendition . . . so maybe Bill would let us hear the Leonard Cohen original, and the Jeff Buckley and John Cale versions too, so that we noninitiates could decide for ourselves??
How about it, Bill???
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Robyn Hitchcock - Balloon Man
(Nov 04, 2002 - 07:50) | Shimmer, you and others may just not like poop--excuse typo! I meant "pop" music. I don't like it usually. BUT you must admit that it provides a background and contrast in texture when an avant-garde immediately follows it--which is what our DJ seems to have so cleverly done.
Think of it this way: If there were no leather, how could you appreciate boiled wool? If there were no deserts, how could you really appreciate mountains? If there were no grits with butter, how could you appreciate chiles rellenos with salsa picante?
:p
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Bryan Ferry - Goin' Down
(Nov 04, 2002 - 07:44) | Originally Posted by Caffeine_Kid:
Here's a perfect example of a reason to do a cover. While it may not have the punch of the original, it offers an interesting arrangement, and Ferry's voice makes anything sound good.
Excuse my ignorance, but WHO was the original performer/composer???
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Tori Amos - Smells Like Teen Spirit
(Nov 04, 2002 - 07:40) | I have to agree with Beachedge_Bill and RonH. Someone wrote that Amos's rendition made the lyrics comprehensible, but I did not understand them because of her breathiness. I talked to a rock-music expert just now who told me all about her tragic life . . . that sounded intriguing, but I doubt I would go out and buy anything by this performer.
:(
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Porcupine Tree - The Sound Of Muzak
(Nov 04, 2002 - 07:20) | This is Mon., Nov. 4, 2002. I feel the same way today . . . except would now like to hear *other* cuts from this group!
Originally Posted by catmaven:
This music is a drug in itself. Ten cheers for Porcupine Tree! The cut combines rocking rhythm, tunefulness, and tranciness. More, More, More! :D
By the way, what is the Razz smiley for?
Quoting Trebor again:
". . . because I haven't found anything else out there that is as diverse, or is as wonderfully listenable to, as Radio Paradise is.--
If nothing else, Bill should be a billionare for being able to program such different pieces of music together and have literally thousands of people who really *WANT* to listen this station and are very thankful for him and his work.--
and I try to thank Bill, Rebecca, and Radio Paradise in just about every post..."
:)
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Sparklehorse - Sad & Beautiful World
(Nov 04, 2002 - 07:05) | Good crossover country-and-western-influenced soft rock. This is the type of thing that is PERFECT for background pleasantness during a workday. The apotheosis of deskwork-listening music. Might be able to listen to this all day long. Nothing irritating in it! :D
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Ellis Paul - Sweet Mistakes
(Nov 04, 2002 - 07:02) | Originally Posted by featherriver:
Strains his voice like he's going through a early morning BM. Ouch!! Sucks or Blows...take your pick.
I agree about the strained voice. Who put him under contract? Either he strains and is too loud or he has that whispery-breathy sound. :???:
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Cat Stevens - Miles from Nowhere
(Nov 04, 2002 - 06:53) | Given Stevens's weird singing voice, this is superior to any of his songs I have yet heard. There are fewer melismatic gyrations, I can understand the lyrics, the music is more sophisticated and varied, and the topic is not inane. How *do* you do it? At a PC, I will choose Radio Paradise every time.
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Solas - I Am a Maid That Sleeps in Love
(Oct 31, 2002 - 14:44) | Originally Posted by Antigone:
Shoot! I missed this ... and I just said here the other day that I'd like to hear MORE, older Solas!
*Exactly* what I would have wanted to write, Antigone!
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Morcheeba - Trigger Hippie (remix)
(Oct 31, 2002 - 12:47) | so singsongy and sleepy--please, this is the worst time of day for that. PLEASE give us some up-tempo stuff. ANd this type of singing voice--derivative, breathy, tuneless--I could do without forever.
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Andy Stochansky - Stutter
(Oct 31, 2002 - 12:23) | Would gladly pay this man to never sing again. Change that to "sing" . . . Painful to hear him strain. How did he get a recording contract? Ow, ow, say ears. Worst singer heard so far today. As a plus, the instrumentation is nothing but soporificizing and unimaginative. :(
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Mary Gauthier - Sugarcane
(Oct 31, 2002 - 12:19) | Sounds like a male country-rock band. Hard to believe I am hearing a woman. Fine and fun, would like to hear it more.
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Shivaree - Goodnight Moon
(Oct 31, 2002 - 11:19) | Thanks for picking up the pace. Coffee alone won't do the trick. You are good at seguing!
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Telepopmusik - Breathe
(Oct 31, 2002 - 11:14) | Even less tuneful than any other tuneless selection. Brrreathy and minimalist in meaning as well as musicality. It would be better if it were just instrumental. Please. We will breathe no matter what we are told. I am fallling asleep. Is this a song to doze off by? In the afternoon, we need the opposite!
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Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man
(Oct 31, 2002 - 09:44) | Originally Posted by KevDog:
Could this possibly have been added at my suggestion? Terrific, gritty, darkly humorous, slice of an unattractive life. One of the greatest albums in rock history. Long live the Velvets!
--Yes, KevDog, well said. Would like to hear other songs by the group, perhaps less monotonous ones.
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Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man
(Oct 31, 2002 - 09:42) | Repetitious but addictive and hypnotic . . . that rebellious, subversive feel I love rock music for . . . but WHY is the singing "Waitin' for My Man" when you have listed it as named "Waiting for the Man"? :???:
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Cracker - Low
(Oct 31, 2002 - 09:39) | This is a diff version than I have heard on commercial radio. It seems cleaner, less gritty. Interesting. In either case, I love the way it combines a keep-body-in-motion beat with downer, critical, depressive, rainy-day lyrics (although I did not understand why "like being stoned" is not a compliment). Acutally, the ambiguity and opacity of the lyrics just makes it more intriguing. Mainly is is a great song for someone who has a major source of chagrin and resentment in his or her life . . . such as an oppressive boss. So it is cathartic!
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Jars of Clay - Flood
(Oct 31, 2002 - 09:28) | This song is so boppable! I am bopping in my chair! And the voices are as tuneful as the tune is catchy. I wish my exercise class could use this one to do an aerobics piece to! I think I am hooked on this song. :) :D
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Tracy Chapman - Say Hallelujah
(Oct 31, 2002 - 08:17) | Tracy Chapman seems to have the black bluesy gospel sound down perfectly. I love the way it makes me pat my feet. Play it again often.
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Bob Marley - So Much Trouble In The World
(Oct 31, 2002 - 08:15) | Both curtisls and trancefussion are right."One-trick pony" is right, too . . . but it is sort of like condiments on food. You might not want hot banana peppers with every meal or even every day, or the same for cinnamon tea . . . but as an occasional spice it is fine. We don't have to hear a lot of it in a row, but he is an authentic voice.
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Josh Ritter - Come and Find Me
(Oct 31, 2002 - 08:09) | Ritter's voice is tuneless, and so is the "tune." He must hold a record for reuse of one note! How did he ever get a recording contract? The instruments would have been fine *alone.* :(
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Indigo Girls - Tangled Up In Blue
(Oct 31, 2002 - 08:00) | Agree with Phaedra and Closede. Indigoes are trying, but they add rockin'-out passages that are discordant with the mood of the song; especially hate the brass section. Having a "live" version is perfect for Indigo Girls, but not for the song, which is not suited to them, or vice versa. Whether you liked the original or not, this violates it. The very worst is the horns, which if I could I would wrap around the players' necks. The second worst is the tuneless shouting. Yes, girls can be as tasteless as boys if they try.
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Porcupine Tree - The Sound Of Muzak
(Oct 31, 2002 - 07:53) | This music is a drug in itself. Ten cheers for Porcupine Tree! The cut combines rocking rhythm, tunefulness, and tranciness. More, More, More! :D
By the way, what is the Razz smiley for?
Quoting Trebor again:
". . . because I haven't found anything else out there that is as diverse, or is as wonderfully listenable to, as Radio Paradise is.--
If nothing else, Bill should be a billionare for being able to program such different pieces of music together and have literally thousands of people who really *WANT* to listen this station and are very thankful for him and his work.--
and I try to thank Bill, Rebecca, and Radio Paradise in just about every post..."
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Delerium - Daylight
(Oct 31, 2002 - 07:48) | I agree with Mary . . . but is it good or bad that I could not distinguish the start and end of this cut from the preceding and the following ones?
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Pink Floyd - Echoes (remix)
(Oct 31, 2002 - 07:45) | Originally Posted by oufason:
Sometimes just hearing a PF treasure like this one, reminds me how excellent these guys were. These guys were not writers, they were composers.
Reply: You are so right; and the ache of the nostalgia gets deep into my gut, too.
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Pink Floyd - Echoes (remix)
(Oct 31, 2002 - 07:44) | Have to post again, because the windup is so exciting. Yes, I could listen to another 6.5 minutes of this. But you did a fantastic segue into Delirium by Daylight, which seems a great followup. I have to echo TreborG2: " . . . because I haven't found anything else out there that is as diverse, or is as wonderfully listenable to, as Radio Paradise is.--
If nothing else, Bill should be a billionare for being able to program such different pieces of music together and have literally thousands of people who really *WANT* to listen this station and are very thankful for him and his work.--
and I try to thank Bill, Rebecca, and Radio Paradise in just about every post..."
Also, I want to thank the other listeners who posted so much knowledgeable info on Pink Floyd and its albums! Dear fellow listeners trancefussion, pcurtner, darklyng, and radiofreephoenix, you are teaching me so much, and I have never met you!! You are a coterie of great rock-music tutors for me! I also agree with whoever said thanks for the cleanness of the track.
Sorry for those who don't like this type of music, but I am hereby requesting the long version to be played sometime.
" . . . because I haven't found anything else out there that is as diverse, or is as wonderfully listenable to, as Radio Paradise is.--
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The Smashing Pumpkins - Drown
(Oct 30, 2002 - 14:28) | Have only heard part of it. Envy those who already know all about alternative endings, CDs, and so on. I like the Moog-synthesizer sound in the background, but it is drowse-inducing . . . wait, now it is getting hardbeat-plus-zingy . . . and now some pulsating guitar . . . my interest is increasing! :p
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Midnight Oil - The Dead Heart
(Oct 30, 2002 - 14:25) | Should've rated this a 6. It is a bit repetitious, but the beat and the buildup are good. The singing is not off key and the tune is suspenseful. The repetitiousness makes it good background music. The trumpet is not obtrusive. I would not mind hearing it again. A catchy beat we can nod our heads to is good for exercising a stiff "computer neck."
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Ben Harper - Excuse Me Mister
(Oct 30, 2002 - 14:06) | Appreciated triviagal's comments on how the apostrophe is misused.
Can't really make out the lyrics. As to voice and tune, they are protesty and sensuous at the same time. Gravelly but still on tune; haunting and pulsating sound. My favorite of the ones I have heard so far, and would like to hear more of this guy. ;)
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Tori Amos - Pancake
(Oct 30, 2002 - 14:02) | Her voice is interesting, especially when it cracks (which it does a bit too often); instrumentation is mellifluous, which is lovely and soothing but contrasts a bit much with the voice--guess that makes it interesting. Would listen to it again . . . but the tunewriter skimped on the variety of notes . . . as has been the trend in the last four songs or so. :p
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Devlins - In Seville
(Oct 30, 2002 - 13:57) | Lead singer seems on key . . . but mellifluous he ain't . . . maybe major problem is that the tune was written with a lot of staying on the same note. The icon is supposed to be me yawning: :oops:
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