Everything about you is how I'd wanna be
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
21.04.14 : Origin of Symmetry : Muse (2001)
One I own, but can't say I revisit often - personally, I view it as a transitional album and I'm more likely to choose either Showbiz or Absolution. It's perfectly listenable but I'm not convinced they really knew what they wanted to be on it - it's like they've found the buttons and knobs to make things go way over the top, but they're a bit scared to use them just yet. However, that doesn't mean there aren't some great tracks on it. "Plug In Baby" and "Feeling Good" are both very fine - but as a whole the album doesn't work as well as others for me. I do like the album cover though - Muse can generally be trusted to put something good together on this front.
Muse feel right up the channel's street and it gave this 3 hands up, 12 thumbs up and a lot of positive comments for both the album and Muse live. Wikipedia explains that the title is all to do with supersymmetry - which I read up on and am none the wiser as to wtaf it's talking about. I also learned about a new instrument - a balaphone, which is apparently used on "Screenager" and is a "gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone". Generally the critics liked it, but I must admit that "Muse are very good at their craft, but the constant overplaying of everything waters it all down immensely" does somewhat ring true to me. It did well enough commercially though, getting to #3 in the UK but only #161 in the US - it feels like it could well have done better over there.
"Customers also listened to" Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian and The Subways (now there's an album that holds a dear place in my heart for several reasons - I might have to write about it some day). Reading the sentences above back, I feel like I've been a bit harsh on this album - "not one of the best Muse albums" is judging it against some very fine albums indeed, so I'll conclude by saying I do like this album - just not as much as some of their other stuff :-)
21.04.15 : Flying Colours : Bliss n Eso (2008)
One I've no idea about - the presence of the word is bliss is nudging me in an ambient direction, but I could be reading too much into it. And yes, I definitely am - although I'm hard pushed to describe exactly what it is. "Melodic hip-hop" - is that a thing? (Wikipedia goes for "Australian hip-hop" which sounds totally made up to me). I didn't mind it at all though - there's a reasonable amount of humour in there and it doesn't feel like they're trying to be something they're not (which has been known to happen in hip-hop). It has some interesting samples and noises in there as well - I also imagine they're a lot of fun live. However, I would have to say it was unlucky that Flight Of The Concords was a recent AOTD entry and I'd be lying if some of this didn't remind me of that album.
The channel gave this two fires, one boom, one positive comment and two new joiners. Wikipedia has a reasonable amount on the album, pretty much all of which is along the lines of "woah, that went down better than expected", getting to #10 in Australia which it appears everyone was very happy about.
"Customers also listened to" 360, Fundamentals, Illy and Hilltop Hoods - all of whom, it won't surprise you to hear, I know absolutely nothing about. I didn't mind this at all though - it was an interesting introduction.
21.04.16 : Gaslighter : The Chicks (2020)
I've met The Chicks in their previous life and found them a bit annoying, if almost the sort of thing I generally like - so let's just hope for a bit more with this one, shall we? I'd also say the presence of some female voices is a welcome change - it's been 27 days since we last had some, which is a bit of a poor run (off to diversity training for the lot of you). And very nice female voices they are, generally singing pleasant sounding songs. I would say there is a bit of whiff of the moral high ground - I'm not saying they haven't earned the right to occupy it, but they do sound a bit smug at times which I can't see causing any of their detractors to question their views. It also doesn't feel like it ever really gets out of second gear - it's all a bit muted. So not awful, but not enough to convert me to a fan, I'm afraid. I also really don't like the album cover.
The channel opened with a strong nomination speech supporting both them and the album - I always like a good pre-match warm-up. The channel responded with five thumbs up, one grin and a couple of positive comments. Wikipedia has a sizeable 137 milliPeppers on the album most of which doesn't appear to massive contribute to anyone's knowledge, except for the crucial information that "the title of the album refers to gaslighting". I sometimes wonder what I'd do without Wikipedia there to explain such intricacies to me (although I did wonder why it was called gaslighting, so obviously checked on Wikipedia to find out it refers to 1938 play "Gas Light" - and I'll give you one guess as to its main plot strand).
Anyways, back to the album - it was very well received critically with everyone raving about it (except for me) and also did well commercially, getting to #3 in the US and #5 in the UK. So it seems like either their fans have forgiven them for being mean to poor ole George W or they've got a whole new set of fans - either way I'm pleased for them because they went through a lot for having perfectly reasonable views which have been treated very kindly by history. "Customers also listened to" The Highwomen, The Wreckers, Ashley McBryde and a load of other women with big hair. For me though, I really want to like them Chicks, but I've not quite made it yet - let's hope the next album get's me there.
So not The Chicks for the win, I'm afraid. And whilst I liked Bliss n Eso and was somewhat meh about Muse's effort, if I'm being honest and I was given a choice of those two albums to listen to, then I'd go for Muse nine times out of ten, so I feel they have to take the round (and I think that makes them the first double winners - their mums must be so proud!)
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