The gold stereo stretches out the sound
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
20.12.17 : Nixon - Lambchop (2000)
I've heard some Lambchop stuff and seem to remember I quite like it, but don't think I've experienced a whole album yet. And yeah, it's perfectly pleasant, if a little fey in places - I remembered "Up With People" from the dim and distant past and the rest kinda just drifted by me. Until "Butcher Boy", the last track where they decided to turn the guitars up and it quite woke me up - but not in a good way. I did like "Petrified Florist" as a track title though.
The channel gave this three thumbs up and lots of positive comments - but mostly from the album's nominator, so that's just cheating! The description of the strings as "lush" though is very apt. Wikipedia basically says that everyone loved it - particularly in the UK. It then also says that it got to #60 in the UK charts - so I'm not entirely convinced EVERYONE loved it. Fair play to the lads though - this was their fifth album and the first one that anyone paid any attention to - and they're still hanging in there.
"Customers also listened to" a load of people I've never heard of except for Bill Callahan who I've met previously and can quite see the comparison. I feel I could possibly get into this if I put the effort in but it feels unlikely that will happen unfortunately.
20.12.18 : K.G. - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (2020)
Our second visit with the King - last time I declared them to be a "pleasant enough retro" sound, but was wondering whether I'd be able to differentiate this album from what I remembered of that one. And no, not really but I think there were some tracks on here that jumped out at me more - I particularly liked "Minimum Brain Size" (some would suggest it would be an appropriate theme tune for me). As with the previous album, it really reminded me of something else in places and I was still unable to drag it from my mind.
The channel gave this one thumbs up and a long discussion about how the furlough for Xmas should be organised for the channel. Wikipedia doesn't have an awful lot on the album but does tell me it's the sonic sequel to Flying Microtonal Banana, their ninth album from 2017. It also tells me that there's also an album called L.W. which pleased me greatly in the "being fair" scheme of things.
"Customers also listened to" a load of people I've never heard of, except for Psychedelic Porn Crumble who popped up last time I bumped into this lot and I'm not going to forget that name, am I? But I'm still not sure what to make of KG&LW - there's a lot of skill there but it just doesn't quite click for me.
21.01.04 : Symphony No. 5 in D Minor - Shostakovich (1937)
And we've made it into 2021 - I'm slowly catching up to the present day! And it was nice to see some classical music on the list, but it's very much an area where my knowledge is lacking, so I'll simply say it was "fine" and move on. I did think it was ridiculously long, but Amazon had just segued straight into Symphony No. 6 and I never noticed, so that's entirely on me.
The channel was very positive both on the Shostakovich and the second choice of First Aid Kit - I was somewhat jealous of the nominator dancing to Little Boots with them (she's another favourite of mine). I've seen First Aid Kit live on a sunny day at Glastonbury - they do exist (sunny days at Glasto, not First Aid Kit) and it was a fantastic experience. Wikipedia has a load of stuff on the album which I don't understand but it does tell me that the premiere was a great success and ovation lasted over half an hour - which just feels like madness to me.
"Customers also listened to" other classical stuff which I don't really know anything about - there's some of it I like, but I can't say this album is obviously my cup of tea at first listen. And I know I could listen to it a million more times and not really understand 10% of what's going on, so I suspect it will stay that way.
Three albums I didn't hate but didn't really feel I got, so it's a tricky one to pick a winner out of. Lambchop is more up my street than either of the other two, so I think it has to go to them - I just wish I enjoyed it as much as I feel I should.
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