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Post by "APES BLY" on Sept 24, 2020 12:53:53 GMT
One for Ray and Darkness Fish... As far as I'm concerned these two albums represent the absolute peak of solo Beatle activity. ATMP is fine but goes on too long, lacks sonic variety and tends to the dreary a bit too often. Later LPs by these two titans just aren't quite as consistent. What interests me is that if the songs weren't as strong these would be regarded more as 'over-representations' of John and Paul. Parodies, almost. They'd separated and so they were free to go off a little bit more to the left or to the right, wallowing in their own idiosyncracies, being VERY much themselves (melancholy/angry - jaunty/whimsical). But, like I said, that maybe isn't as noticeable because they're such strong musical statements. Choose one, say why.
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rayge
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Post by rayge on Sept 24, 2020 13:05:17 GMT
I bought POB, thought it was a decent album, if a bit overwrought. At least it felt as if the author had something to say beyond Hey-look-at-me-I'm-whacky-thumbs aloft. McCartney had long ago burned off any respect I had for his Little Richard scream with his music hall shenanigans and dumb poetizing, so I never listened to Ram, and I never will.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2020 14:01:26 GMT
I'll tentatively go for Ram, even though I don't know the album well, because 'Back Seat of my Car' trounces anything on the Lennon album ( as does, to a lesser degree,Monkberry Moon Delight).
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Post by daveythefatboy on Sept 24, 2020 14:59:41 GMT
I love both of these albums. But if I have to choose I’ll go with POB.
Back in the days when an album felt like a real statement, there was a sense that POB had set a standard of some sort for what an album m could communicate. That album feels like finding a note in a bottle washed up at shore.
Ram is just pure candy for the ear. But don’t stop to think about it much.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Sept 24, 2020 15:20:21 GMT
POB is the big statement, RAM is the small DIY statement. POB has an emotional weight that seemed anathema to Macca in the 70s. I mean, could they both be more Macca and John respectively? POB has the feeling of therapy, of personal revelation but also offers some kind of cathartic release. It's one of the great albums about growing up into an adult (if you think of the Beatles as being part of some extended adolescene perhaps). Ram doesn't have any of this but its intense melodic charms and more modest ambitions still burn with a similar need to be made although one certainly burns brighter in that regard. One has a lot of colour, the other seems black and white in comparison.
I think Ram has a lot of charm and a lot of times I would prefer to listen to it these days truthfully. It's just an easier place to visit and luxuriate in. POB is a bit like reading someone's diary or summat. Challenging, confronting, sometimes annoyingly gauche. It's one of those confessional artistic statements that is easier to admire than love perhaps but there is a lot that is good and some that is great. I love the production too....stripped down, tough as a old grannies and thick too. God can break your heart. A beautiful song and immensely powerful
I'm going with POB just cos it's meant more to me over the years. Especially when I was younger.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2020 15:24:20 GMT
I genuinely thought this was gonna be Rage against the machine against some other similar type band . Considering what it is about, i wish it was about Rage against another similar band.
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Post by Charlie O. on Sept 24, 2020 17:40:02 GMT
I don't have much to add to what's already been said. These two plus Imagine are, for me, the best of the solo Beatle albums, and I love them all. But if I gotta pick one, it's POB.
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Post by "APES BLY" on Sept 24, 2020 17:41:44 GMT
number 9, number 9...
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Post by Charlie O. on Sept 24, 2020 17:44:22 GMT
Top 100 "Of All Time"?
Swordfishtrombones at number 6?? (It is a great album, but... really?)
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Post by "APES BLY" on Sept 24, 2020 17:48:05 GMT
Yeah, and Imperial Bedroom better than...well, pretty much anything below it?
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Post by Charlie O. on Sept 24, 2020 17:49:46 GMT
Yeah, there's a few oddities in there.
Nice to see The Modern Dance rating so highly, though.
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Post by "APES BLY" on Sept 24, 2020 17:50:01 GMT
Swordfishtrombones hadn't been out that long (2 years at most) - I think they were still awed by his 'reinvention' and the album was still fresh in the writers' minds. Shortly afterwards the NME adopted a policy whereby albums needed to be at least five years old (or something like that) before consideration for a critics poll.
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Post by daveythefatboy on Sept 24, 2020 17:50:37 GMT
Apparently Unknown Pleasures is better than both Pet Sounds AND Kind of Blue.
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Post by "APES BLY" on Sept 24, 2020 17:51:25 GMT
Yeah, there's a few oddities in there. Nice to see The Modern Dance rating so highly, though. Yes! Oh, I bought soooooooo many of these albums blind. Honestly, for a while it was a HUGE influence on my listening habits. And mainly a positive one, too.
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Post by Charlie O. on Sept 24, 2020 17:57:37 GMT
Oh, I bought soooooooo many of these albums blind. Honestly, for a while it was a HUGE influence on my listening habits. And mainly a positive one, too. Yeah, same here. Honestly, how else were you gonna buy them but blind? You weren't likely to hear a lot of these on the radio at the time. If you were lucky you might have friends with similarly adventurous tastes, or you might hear some of them in record stores maybe. I'm grateful that I can now hear most things in advance, and no longer spend vast sums on records that read great in the press (release) but don't actually live up to it. But record buying was more fun then, no doubt about it.
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