Overrated Albums

[bruce]

There are some picks that are totally spot on

http://music.guardian.co.uk/rock/story/0,,2102991,00.html

[John Junk]

Ian Williams on The STrokes.  Priceless.  he said everything I was always too pissed off and/or complacent to say.

[Josh]

Ian Williams on The STrokes.  Priceless.  he said everything I was always too pissed off and/or complacent to say.

I saw Battles on Monday. I liked it!

[Laurie]

Wow, I'm not surprised I totally disagree with the chucklehead from Franz Ferdinand, nor am I surprised that I kind of agree with the fellow from Art Brut. I'll freely admit that I enjoy a few Stone Roses songs from their debut album, but he's right. They're assholes, and they're overrated for what they were.

[John Junk]

"Take Me Out" always sounded like a variation on that Phil Collins song to me.  that song where he goes "It's always the same it's just a shame that's aaallll..."   I also thought it sounded a whole lot like the Strokes.  Go figure!

[Laurie]

Wait... whuuuuuuut? Craig Finn of the Hold Steady, I don't believe anyone thinks highly enough of LA Woman, not enough to overrate it anyway. Your stoner roommate in college does not count as a credible critic.

[Jarno]

Tupac Shakur All Eyez On Me
Nominated by Mark Ronson, producer

This was Tupac's biggest record, and is seen by rap fans as the greatest latterday hip-hop album.

errr no it's not mark

[John Junk]

Who is this guy?  Do you have to be British to have heard of him, or just a yuppie?  His website has a pretty long video of him looking tired in a Rough Trade store in London, talking about what albums come up when he Googles himself.

Ronson blogs about meeting NAS:
"anyway, i thought after being there for 2 hours, i'd go up and say hello to nas. i went up and introduced myself (even though we've met a few times). he was a total dick, barely looked at me....(maybe it was that john-blaze jay-z mixtape i made during the height of the beef)."

Yeah, I'm sure that's it.  Tosser.

[Laurie]

Actually, I just know Mark Ronson as one of those DJs. His sisters are DJs too. One of them was supposedly having some sort of lesbian affair with La Lohan. I don't know.

He's in Miami often enough. I guess he's considering a celebrity DJ. I think he comes from serious money.

[John Junk]

All I know is anyone who calls Eminem the Dylan of rap is on my s-hit list.  Not because I think Dylan is untouchable, or that Eminem is bad.  I don't think either of those things.  It's that the very concept of a Dylan of rap makes no sense whatsoever.  Rap is already about didactic politics and rambling nonsense verse.  All of rap is the Dylan of rap.  Eminem is just a white dude who doesn't suck. 

[johnfgillson]

Everyone should read Kill Your Idols. Although most of the critics are not critics I usually listen to, it's still interesting. Jim DeRogatis is one of those critics I take with a grain of salt but he has an interesting take on Sgt. Pepper.

http://www.jimdero.com/News2004/July4SgtPeppers.htm

[John Junk]

It seems to me that McCartney was being ironic in "Getting Better" and "Fixing A Hole".  Am I alone in this?  You'd think a Gen X pro snarker would pick up on that.  Like his deconstruction of "Getting Better" is actually just my initial interpretation.  Obviously it's not actually getting better.  Only stoners wouldn't see that.  But it also sort of is.  That's why McCartney is interesting, because he's simultaneously optimistic and dark/weird.  Billy Childish was kinda right, but I don't hold those qualities against Paul.  I don't think he poisoned rock or something.  Billy Childish sounds like Power Pop Pop-Pop in that Overrated Albums column.

I'm not feeling this Sgt. Pepper hate.  First Scharpling, then Childish, now DeRogatis.  I still think it's a pretty good album.  "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" eats it, but so does "Tax Man" off of Revolver.  "Tax Man" is one of my least favorite songs ever.  Stupid George Harrison doesn't want to pay his bills once he's not poor anymore.

"Lovely Rita Meter Maid", "Good Morning", and "A Day In The Life" are all awesome.

Saying "Tomorrow Never Knows" is better than "A Day In The Life" is about as cliche'd a music-geek statement as can possibly be made.  Were they having a contest?  Did they unveil "A Day In The Life" and say "Finally!  We have a song more psychedelically better than 'Tomorrow Never Knows'!"?

I agree that Pet Sounds is overrated, and the idea that Pet Sounds or even the proto-light-rock of Forever Changes (which I love, but which is saddled with at LEAST as much extraneous orchestration as Sgt. Pepper) might "rock harder" than Sgt. Pepper is just pure bullshit. McCartney is kind of a granny-lover though. 

Incidentally, in his book The Psychic Soviet, Ian Svenonious, who has vigorously defended the creative contributions of McCartney to the Beatles, wrote an excellent (semi-tongue-in-cheek-but-not-really) essay on how Dylan going electric was a politically reactionary move wherein he traded in the low-glamour social agency of folk music for the big bucks of pop music. 

[buffcoat]

Remember that everybody hates something, and collectively, somebody hates everything.

I'm a cynic's cynic, but I don't get this need to tear down things just because everybody thinks they're great.  Of course nothing is as great as people think that the first VU record is.  But that doesn't mean that it sucks.  Most things that are hagiographied by past tastemakers - the things that last - are actually pretty good. 

Most of this is just hipsters complaining about mass appeal - as though rejection of mass appeal weren't their reason for being hipsters in the first place.  Feh.

"Nobody likes what I like/That's how I like it"

[jed]

I'm with you buffcoat. Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. In the end, even the best albums can't be as good as their most ardent fans claim they are. That fact doesn't call for constant bashing of good stuff. People end up being paranoid about whether or not what they like is really good and I hate that.

[Omar]

Searing blurb from Mr. Coyne!  He likes Bleach and In Utero more than Nevermind.  Yawn.  That read like 3rd-rate Chunklet about decade too late.  Also: if you wear a bunny suit on stage, you can no longer question the cleverness of others.  Go back inside your plastic bubble, Wayne!