Not an album but an artist. David Bowie.
I’m really into some artists that cite him as a major inspiration and influence. So it baffles me too.
I find with stuff like this it’s important to understand the context of when it first came out. Had a neighbor say he didn’t get the appeal of the Ramones because a lot of bands sound similar. I told him when the Ramones came out NOBODY sounded like that. Another is David Letterman. By the time he retired he was nothing special but when he first started it was groundbreaking.
How can you say something so controversial, yet so true?!
Bowie isn’t fantastic. Neither is Bill Murrey or Betty White. They are just people that have been grasped onto by social media and exemplified. It helps if they’ve died and get a “martyr” image too.
I mean some Bowie stuff is good, Life on Mars, Lets dance… But he’s just a British Melloncamp.
Similar answer to a different question.
Something that I liked at first but now dislike.
Decades ago (stone cold sober no less) I really liked Pink Floyd.
Now I just find it difficult to sit through. I want something a bit faster pace.
Oh yeah, I get that.
They’re def a band for a bar with old (souled) people that want time dilation.
But sometimes you want to live 2 seconds for every second. That’s not pink floyd.
Villains by Queens of the Stone Age.
…like clockwork (the previous album) is top 3 for me and may be my all time favorite at any given moment. But the follow-up was just not what I was looking for.
Yes!! Exactly this one for me too. I love Clockwork so much, this was weird.
So glad to not be alone on this. It felt unfocused. I think working with Mark Ronson gave Homme a bit too much leeway to make an album that tried to hard to be cool.
It somehow went over the ironic/unironic line that Queens has always danced around.
Like Clockwork has moments that veered towards camp and cheese but never felt insincere or cloying.
Kate Bush “Ariel”. What a disappointment that was.
Joe’s Garage by Frank Zappa
Ok Computer by Radiohead
I’m still not sure if I liked Tommy by The Who or not.
Joe’s Garage, damn. One of my favorites. What didn’t you like about it? Does any other Zappa resonate with you?
I actually haven’t listened to any other Zappa albums, but probably will at some point.
I love the titular track, so I was excited to listen to the whole thing, but I think I found it 30 years too late. I get he was trying to go Reefer Madness style with his Central Scrutinizer telling a parable of how rock music leads to self-destruction, but the jokes just fell flat for me.
Obviously the nice girl who ended up having to do wet t-shirt contests to get home, the gay prison sex, the robot sex, saying Africans don’t have record players, etc. were all supposed to be absurd, but it’s very 70s humor that nowadays feels more denigrating than biting satire. I also didn’t really get him corpsing in the voiceovers: I’m guessing it was supposed to be a reminder not to take the story seriously, but I personally found it distracting.
I did find it cool that he mixed solos from his live shows into his songs, but it wasn’t enough to save it for me. It’s like when you go back and watch older movies or tv shows, and suddenly something just blatantly racist or sexist just pops up and immediately dates it way more than the technical aspects do.
In short, it feels like Zappa is trying way too hard to be edgy, and it sucked the life out of the album for me. The opening song still slaps, though.
I did find it cool that he mixed solos from his live shows into his songs
IIRC all songs on Joe’s Garage except one have the solos recorded separately (xenochrony). You gotta give Watermelon in Easter Hay a second chance, that’s possibly my favorite Zappa song ever.
Apostrophe is a good one to check out next.
