You can be an angel of mercy or give into hate

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...

20.06.05 : Threat To Survival - Shinedown (2015)

Had never heard of the band or the album, but the album title and cover didn't suggested we were going to get fluffy songs about puppies and kittens.  And the track titles back this up - "Outcast", "Oblivion", "Dangerous" (maybe an MJ cover?), "Misfits", etc.   And yeah, it's very earnest heavy-ish "rock by numbers" which isn't really my kinda thing - except that I actually didn't mind it at all.  Sometimes you just have to accept that what you're listening to isn't going to change the world or push forward musical boundaries, but it's just a bit of fun - I can imagine they put on a good live show as well.

The channel had an interesting conversation about how because it was catchy, then the chances are that they'd get bored with it pretty soon - does this mean that all the albums I've hated so far I'll come to love if I give them enough time?  (answer - no, I won't).   There were also a surprising number of people that had seem them live - without even remembering doing so, in some cases.  One thing that remained unclear was whether people actually liked them, but it feels like no-one really cared to discuss such matters.

Wikipedia has a few sentences on the album either saying how well it did commercially (it got to #6 in the US album charts) or how badly received it was critically - I'd have to say the comment "There's absolutely no lyrical, emotional, or musical substance" seems somewhat harsh to me.
"Customers also listened to" Seether, Theory Of A Deadman and Pop Evil - and there are no pictures of puppies or kittens on their album covers either.  But, I'd have to say I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting to.

20.06.08 : Good Luck Everybody - AJJ (2020)

No idea what to expect from a group called AJJ - and I had even less idea what to expect when I found out they used to be called Andrew Jackson Jihad.  Oh well, nothing for it but to dive right in.  And this is an odd one and no mistake - we've not had anything like this before.  It very much brought They Might Be Giants to mind - some witty/quirky lyrics backed by some interesting enough music, with minimal production involved.  It's a bit more political than TMBG though - eg "No Justice, No Peace, No Hope" starts "The lake of dead black children that America created is getting fuller than the founding Fathers even wanted".  I didn't mind it, but I'm not quite sure I liked it either - it was an interesting educational experience nonetheless.  It's also definitely one of the newer albums we've had on the listen having just being released in January.

The channel started with a warning that this album was quite rude - but believe me sister, I've heard some rude albums and this ain't one of them.  However, in the same breath it was described as wholesome, which lost me entirely.  Generally though, people liked it - except for the guy that left the channel because he REALLY didn't like it.  Either that or he left BJSS, but it feels funnier to blame this album.

Wikipedia, for some unclear reason, doesn't feel the need to comment on this album despite commenting on every other AJJ album - them's the breaks, I guess.  "Customers also listened to" Pigeon Pit, Crywank and The Oozes - and I can assure you I will not be investigating any of those artists.  I feel I should have liked this album more than I did - maybe a repeat listen might be in order (but it's unlikely to happen).

20.06.09 : Queens Of The Stone Age - Queens Of The Stone Age (1998)

Our first act to appear twice on the list - and I can't claim I was ecstatic to see them again after last time.  But here we go...

Oh dear.  This is worse - whiny self-important dirges.  No thank you, it's very much not for me.  Obviously, you're allowed to like it (and I'll be interested to see what the channel has to say) but I just don't understand why you'd do that to yourself.  Did you have an unpleasant experience as a child?  Were you lacking a mother's love?  I've heard therapy is very reasonably priced these days and can work wonders on even the trickiest of cases - provided you accept you have a problem.  I'd also have to say it has a perfectly horrible album cover.

It seems like the channel likes QOTSA in general, but I'm pleased to say very few people actually said they liked this album, so I'm taking it that everyone agreed with me.  Because that's the way to go through life - if no-one disagrees with you, then OBVIOUSLY everyone agrees with you, right?  It did tempt a couple of people to join the channel though, so it did better in that regard than either of the other albums in this round.

Wikipedia has quite a lot to say about the album, but very little of it was of any interest - the thing that jumped out at me the most was that Josh Homme played a lot of instruments on the album, but was credited as "Carlo" whilst playing bass and keyboards, which just seems an odd thing to do.  The album was reasonably well received critically, but didn't exactly set the world alight commercially (#48 in the UK and #122 in the US charts).

"Customers also listened to" Eagles Of Death Metal, Them Crooked Vultures and Mudhoney - all very much not my sort of thing.  But even allowing for this album not being my sort of thing, I found it very lacking in appeal, I'm afraid - it's definitely not one I'll be revisiting.

An interesting one to judge - it's obviously not going to QOTSA, but the other two both have their merits.  AJJ is more my usual sort of thing but it didn't really click with me, whereas Shinedown is not my sort of thing but I found it surprisingly enjoyable.  So whilst over time I suspect AJJ would find their way into my affections, on the balance of one listen, Shinedown win this one (to my, their and everyone else's surprise, I suspect)

20.06.01 - Two albums I actually know and like!
20.06.10 - Not the trickiest of choices