They took it all with a view to the great fall
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
20.07.14 : The Search - NF (2019)
Growing up in UK in the 70s (as I did), calling yourself NF seems a questionable choice - but given that he's a 30 year old American, I'm guessing we don't quite have the same cultural references. I'd never heard of him, but I've suffered from some particularly awful hip-hop over the past couple of months, so I tend to approach it all with some degree of caution these days. But, overall, I thought this was OK - he's like a slightly less angry Eminem, with a similar level of vocal dexterity. Some of the tracks also reminded me of Mac Miller as well - particularly in the honesty around his struggles. However, whilst I quite liked most of it, I would say that none of the tracks really jumped out at me. And 76 minutes is waaaay too long - some of those hip hop types really have an issue with quality control.
The channel had three thumbs up and a few comments along the lines of "i wasn't expecting to like this, but I did" - it certainly didn't feel like the sort of thing most of the non-silent members of the channel would usually go for. Wikipedia doesn't have an awful lot to say about the album but does draw attention to the fact that the critics didn't go great guns on it - i chuckled at one of them not liking the "overbearing rappity-rap snarl-yell". The public completely ignored all that though and "bought" it in such quantities that it debuted at #1 in the US and got to #7 over here, which I must admit completely passed me by, but such things often do these days (the younger me would be horrified at how little I follow the charts now!). It did pretty well in most countries actually, except for France and the Walloon half of Belgium, where it only got to #158 - there must be some anti-French sentiment on the album that I missed.
"Customers also listened to" a load of people I've never heard of - and Eminem. Overall, I can't see me rushing back to this, but it was way more preferable than a load of other hip-hop stuff I've listened to recently.
20.07.15 : Total Life Forever - Foals (2010)
Ah Foals - with their jangly guitars and whiny vocals, what's not to love? Well, I can appreciate that for a lot of people there's a lot not to love there, but I quite like them - and whilst I hadn't heard this album, I wasn't expecting them to stray too far from their basic formula. And they don't - it's not going to convert anyone, but if you like this sort of thing, then you're going to like this.
The channel enjoyed this one - six thumbs up and a couple of positive comments. Wikipedia appears to have quite a lot to say about the album and then you realise that over half of it is the track listing for the iTunes version of the album which has 49 tracks on it! Most of the rest of it is commenting on how well the album was received both critically, with a lot of people saying it was more mature than their debut, and commercially, with it getting to #8 in the UK charts.
"Customers also listened to" The Maccabees and Wild Beasts, both of whom are most definitely in the same ballpark - and it's a ballpark I quite like, so I was quite happy to revisit it, even if I'd not heard the album before.
20.07.16 : Out Of Exile - Audioslave (2005)
I thought I'd checked out Audioslave back in the day and been generally unimpressed - and listening to them again, that's still pretty much where I am. It's like rock-lite, a watered-down RHCP - I don't mind it, but I just don't see the point to it. It kinda noodled by and was over before I had a chance to do anything more than go "huh?".
The channel had a few strong Audioslave fans who all agreed how their first album was the best thing ever, but there weren't that many comments on this album. Wikipedia argues with the channel and says this album is waaay better than their debut - either way I was amazed that this made it to #1 in the US charts. But what do I know, eh?!?
"Customers also listened to" Soundgarden - nobody expected that now, did they? But this ain't for me, I'm afraid.
NF was a lot better than I was expecting, but Foals carry the round for me - I do like a spot of jangly guitars and whiny vocals.
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