Unpopular opinions
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It’s really a matter of context. I’m sure people who started with bands influenced by the Beatles listen to them and don’t get the fuss. As I’ve said before music is infused with the time and world it’s released into. It’s inherent bias one way or the other. I’m perfectly fine with that.
Now can we talk about Aja by Steely Dan? I’m interested to see who doesn’t like it so I can block all your threads.
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At the risk of tendering a Popular Opinion about Popular Music, the Beatles deserve the hype. A hydra of diverse but complementary songwriting brilliance in Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison and in a few short years they went from rock and roll to outer and inner space. Really a remarkable output. I think the earlier stuff (which means only like 4 years before the psychedelic stuff—I think the rapid evolution of their style creates a false perception that their career was longer than it was) might sound cliched and less than innovative to today’s ear, but thinking about the music before and during that time, it was groundbreaking, and perhaps doesn’t sound noteworthy exactly because it inspired so many other artists.
And George’s solo career is especially noteworthy.
Not sure what Ringo did in his solo career to warrant induction into the accursed R&R HoF as a solo artist though.
Back on topic: I absolutely detest KISS and the Ramones are fun for about 1-2-3-4 minutes. Somehow AC/DC made repetitive power chords and 4/4 time much more interesting than the latter.
Think it, be it.
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@Matt said in Unpopular opinions:
Aja by Steely Dan
listened to two songs, got bored, put on Individual Thought Patterns. Happy now. I'll give them another try when I'm in a different mood
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@Matt Steely Dan is one of my favorites, and Aja is most days my favorite Dan record. It is literally perfect.
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@mclaincausey Wings was fantastic as well.
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My only problem w Aja is taking the precautionary pregnancy test after each listen
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@Tago-Mago I’m not sure that’s it. Like, I dig Can and other krautrock, just as I dig a lot of British Invasion stuff, and even the Dead, where I wasn’t around when a lot of it was being created. It’s just diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks as Gary Coleman put it. There could be some issues understanding the cynical/sardonic wit of the lyrics though since they tend to have very American references.
It is perfectly produced, but that’s a feature and not a bug. There are plenty of other albums audiophiles could add to their collection of references. I think this is more of an audiophile problem than an Aja problem.
Wayne Shorter’s solo on Aja (meaning the title track) may be my favorite non-jazz sax solo of all time, and Gadd’s accompaniment on drums is pure magic.
LOL @flannel-slut
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@mclaincausey I may have phrased my response poorly. I was referring to the lack of a following that Steely Dan and Grateful Dead have in Germany.
Regarding music bridging generations, that is certainly true and I didn’t intend to make a sweeping generalisation. Though I will say, as much as I love Can and Krautrock, they are a niche phenomenon in my opinion, who never got the popular recognition that their impact and influence deserved. And the most influential of those bands in my opinion was Kraftwerk, who shed the Krautrock label pretty quickly and want nothing to do with it anymore. And unlike their peers they are fairly universally acclaimed
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@flannel-slut save yourself the effort and just assume you need a plan-b
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I'm sorry. I just couldn't do it. Kid A sucks. Sorry @mclaincausey I don't know how you can subject yourself to that. I did hear some music, but I had to peel back the layers of noise to get to it. It's funny because you and I agree on a lot of music and in life in general, but this is where I draw the line
I'm going to round out this unpopular opinion with something sweeter in the Music thread and attempt to shift the convo about our popular opinions over there.
“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible” - Don Norman
@zeebeeleather
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@Tago-Mago yeah that definitely makes sense. Both of these are very quintessentially American bands, drawing on very little outside of American modes of music and ideas, though Aja pulls in some Asian themes (though “Chinese music “ in the lyrics could be a reference to a derisive term Louis Armstrong attached to bebop) and you’ll hear them use sitar on “Do It Again,” or write a song called Bodhisattva, thought that is more about western faux eastern mysticism, and the Dead had some eastern things going on from time to time, especially in a song like Blues for Allah. Perhaps appreciating them for a German would be like me trying to enjoy polka, which has happened at a polka bar in Minneapolis but would be inconceivable elsewhere.
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@seawolf said in Unpopular opinions:
Kid A sucks
I think there are no other options but to meet on the field of battle at this point but since we are talking nerdy music preferences it's going to need to either be some sort of larping or light saber combat
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As @Giles mentioned, I too have been on a Radiohead kick since this discussion started. Thank you and to all of you who don't like them...
My first thought regarding Snow Patrol was that I didn't know who they were. After looking up a few songs, I have but never set down to an entire album. Recommendations?
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