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Post by oh oooh on Mar 27, 2024 20:22:27 GMT
I can't honestly think of ANY album which starts with the weakest track. Why would anyone DO that? It's a CRAZY idea!
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loveless
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Post by loveless on Mar 27, 2024 20:54:43 GMT
I can't honestly think of ANY album which starts with the weakest track. Why would anyone DO that? It's a CRAZY idea! I'm going through my collection right now trying to corroborate some general feeling/sense memory that I have.* *That feeling/sense memory is of someone or other, maybe multiple offenders, leading with "the hit" (or what they believed was going to be the hit) or "the uptempo track" (I don't particularly love "Watch That Man" or "Artificial Energy") - and, while maybe not missing the mark that they or their label was trying to hit, REALLY missing the mark with my very specific tastes. "Caught In a Dream" is probably my least favorite track on Love it To Death, for what that's worth (I don't hate it, just...like it less than all of the others). Ditto Music is Love and If I Could Only Remember My Name. Both of these may very well be a case of "Where else would you have had us put it?". Which is more their problem than mine. To be continued...
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Sneelock
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Post by Sneelock on Mar 27, 2024 21:16:03 GMT
I can't honestly think of ANY album which starts with the weakest track. Why would anyone DO that? It's a CRAZY idea! it IS a crazy idea. creative people lose their objectivity sometimes.
I'm a big Harry Nilsson fan. "Pussycats" opener might not be the weakest track on the album. The "Go Powder" driven covers aren't too great either. still, not only did the cover of "many rivers to cross" open the LP, I'm pretty sure it was the single!
it's dreadfully over produced and Harry's voice is SHOT. You'd have to have put a lot of hours into something like that to be blind to it's faults to such a degree.
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loveless
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Post by loveless on Mar 27, 2024 21:39:10 GMT
And, related - people get attached to things for non-objective reasons ("too close to it", basically). Opening albums, closing albums, choosing the singles, leaving pure gold on the cutting room floor (not so much for legitimate reasons of surplus/objective qualitative issues, then more for misperceived weaknesses/strengths in songs that are prioritized/de-prioritized), some mistaken sense that your newest idea is assuredly your greatest....
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loveless
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Post by loveless on Mar 27, 2024 21:48:40 GMT
...the guy with the worst ideas shouts the loudest (or, you know has a compelling-seeming/persuasively enthusiastic voice in these matters)...
Pussycats is Pussycats, for sure...and, my favorite tracks aren't necessarily album openers or singles (things like "Don't Forget Me") - and as you say it's a cover happy album (I think "Subterranean..." was ALSO a single, so...here we are).
But, yes, for decades when I may have been more ambivalent about Nilsson, before I fell under his spell, "Many Rivers.." REALLY put me off from going any further into Pussycats.
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Post by fonz on Mar 27, 2024 22:20:56 GMT
‘You’re No Good’
VH2
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loveless
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Post by loveless on Mar 27, 2024 22:22:53 GMT
Yes. I did think of this one. "Light Up the Sky" would have really done the business.
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loveless
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Post by loveless on Mar 27, 2024 23:11:06 GMT
And while I don't necessarily consider L.A. Woman an album of "wall to wall winners", something about the way it just sort of abruptly lurches into existence kind of lays out the underlying issues right up front.
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rayge
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Post by rayge on Mar 28, 2024 0:34:27 GMT
And while I don't necessarily consider L.A. Woman an album of "wall to wall winners", something about the way it just sort of abruptly lurches into existence kind of lays out the underlying issues right up front. I felt sure there must be something worse on there, but when I checked the track list - nope, I agree.
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Post by osgood on Mar 28, 2024 8:46:39 GMT
And while I don't necessarily consider L.A. Woman an album of "wall to wall winners", something about the way it just sort of abruptly lurches into existence kind of lays out the underlying issues right up front. I felt sure there must be something worse on there, but when I checked the track list - nope, I agree. Thirded. And extra points for having the other candidate for the weakest track opening the second side.
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Post by riggers on Mar 28, 2024 9:06:58 GMT
My Bloody Valentine's "Soft as Snow" from 'Isn't Anything ' comes to mind for this. It really threw me, having loved the singles that preceded it
I like it now, but 'Feed Me With Your Kiss' or 'When You Wake (You're Still in a Dream)' would have really kicked the album off properly.
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loveless
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Post by loveless on Mar 28, 2024 9:26:00 GMT
My Bloody Valentine's "Soft as Snow" from 'Isn't Anything ' comes to mind for this. It really threw me, having loved the singles that preceded it I like it now, but 'Feed Me With Your Kiss' or 'When You Wake (You're Still in a Dream)' would have really kicked the album off properly. Agreed. It seems random and underqualified, all things considered.
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Post by Stacy Heydon on Mar 28, 2024 10:13:47 GMT
The Changeling is great, one of the album highlights. Energised and propulsive. Could do without L'America or Crawling King Snake on that album though.
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Post by quaco on Apr 2, 2024 0:59:13 GMT
I can't honestly think of ANY album which starts with the weakest track. Why would anyone DO that? It's a CRAZY idea! it IS a crazy idea. creative people lose their objectivity sometimes.
I'm a big Harry Nilsson fan. "Pussycats" opener might not be the weakest track on the album. The "Go Powder" driven covers aren't too great either. still, not only did the cover of "many rivers to cross" open the LP, I'm pretty sure it was the single!
it's dreadfully over produced and Harry's voice is SHOT. You'd have to have put a lot of hours into something like that to be blind to it's faults to such a degree.
Recently had a full listen to the album, and boy, this many years on, "Many Rivers to Cross" comes across as a monster track of eternal struggle. That snare crack! His voice has become a wild beast—he is no longer the clever bank teller with the amazing voice, or the Beatles reunited—and this one proclaims it loud. There are parts where we get a glimpse of its deeper character/damage ("Old Forgotten Soldier"), but this one he's still singing great. "Save the Last Dance..." is its side two mirror image (and both are mirror images of "Mind Games" but that's another story).
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Post by Charlie O. on Apr 2, 2024 1:09:54 GMT
I'm gonna pick an album that is assuredly not widely loved by the Preludin masses. Wild Life by Wings. An album whose low standing, I think, LARGELY stems from the fact that it opens with the two (possibly three? DEFINITELY two) weakest numbers in sequence. It took me decades to even discover the gems on side two (mainly "I Am Your Singer" and "Some People Never Know", but...I am generally pretty into Side Two and the title track). I might marginally prefer "Mumbo" to the title track, and I enjoy the two songs between those, but otherwise - yeah. It's as if he's DEFYING Beatles fans to take his new band seriously.
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