LogFAQs > #889288128

may do another, but do have to cover some things tomorrow

awesome999 posted...

Here's something very relaxing and zen if you're into it

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MCMXC_a.D.

The album art on that used to scare me

Glad to start with something I haven't heard before instead (discounting that I later recognized that this was used during Schmitty's gang ceremony in Always Sunny), since praising Hendrix wouldn't really come as a surprise.

Unfortunately, this album begins with the fairly large hurdle of synth tone and effects that belie the era and technology that birthed ita sound I have never much appreciated. The beats are also fairly simple and largely exist to service the ideas on top. These aspects sadly hinder the album's ability to sell its attempts at seduction.

However, the album does manage to shine when the composition turns toward combining its disparate elements into more active songwriting, and "Back to the Rivers of Belief," one of the stronger pieces here, exemplifies that progressive layering well. The Gregorian chants feel more at home here than they do simply being played for their exotic element elsewhere. The more natural piano excursions within "Callas Went Away" and the closing movement of "Principles of Lust" also stand out. Had these ideas been the focus throughout and the base dance attempts of "Sadeness"/"Mea Culpa" cut then I would think it immeasurably more interesting. I guess that doesn't do much for the meditative aspect though.

2/5

Freddie_Mercury posted...

Trout Mask Replica

Is Don Van Vliet a genius for dementing the blues? It's possible, but even if so then I don't necessarily agree that this is his masterpiece, and there exist interpretations since toward which I find myself more closely attached. I did once fantasize of naming any of my own creative endeavors "Frownland" though.

Detractors of this album likely won't ever trust praise for it, but musical ideas like the psychedelic transitions of "Ella Guru" into the Anthony Braxton-esque improvisations of "Hair Pie: Bake 1" truly excite me. "Sugar 'n Spikes" rediscovers infectious melody amidst the anarchy. "Veteran's Day Poppy" has a lovely sway to it.

The eclectic intent invites moments of misfire as well, unfortunately. Tracks where the chaotic underpinning falls from focus can reveal a lack of real poetics ("The Dust Blows Forward 'n the Dust Blows Back"/"Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish"/"Orange Claw Hammer" all fall flat where tracks like "Well" or "The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica)" instead shine), and though the reduction of the individual abstractions should benefit its ability to continuously experiment, later ideas can instead fall toward redundancy instead. It's definitely bulbous, but not quite tapered.

3.5/5
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And in an infinite regress, tell me, why is the pain of birth lighter borne than the pain of death?