Picket signs for my wicked rhymes
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
I remember this one because I'd never listened to it despite really liking his previous two albums and so I assumed there must have been some reason for avoiding it - but there wasn't and I liked it. As I said at the time
I like and own the previous two, but don't think I've ever even listened to this one. And I've got absolutely no idea why - it certainly feels to have a similar vibe and quality to it. The main thing I didn't like about it was that "Soldier" appeared to include a sample of my microwave, which confused me greatly. It's also possible that "Drips" features slightly tmi. Oh, and it could have lost a track or two as well. Apart from that, all was good...
The channel gave it five fires, one god mode and some surprise this was his first appearance on the list. Wikipedia has a massive 325 milliPeppers on the album - most of it is not exactly essential. It does have an amusing section on the clean version - apparently it was much cleaner than previous clean versions of his albums, which given they featured the word "shit" must have had some people wondering. Additionally, "Drips" (mentioned above) was totally censored, featuring as four seconds of silence. The critics loved the album - bizarrely Wikipedia includes a "reappraisal" section which basically says that they still love it, which isn't really much of a reappraisal now, is it? And the public lapped it up, of course - it only got to #7 in Poland, but in most countries it's just safest to assume it got to #1.
"Customers also listened to" Dre, 50 Cent, Coolio (who appears surprisingly often in these things) and DMX - no major surprises there. I have a soft spot for Marshall though - it's amazing he's still out there and still angry after all those years. I thought this is up there with the best of his stuff and I was glad I was directed towards it.
21.10.28 : Random Access Memories - Daft Punk (2013)
An album I own and have previously written about - I always think I like it, but when I listen to it I find a lot of it drags on. The good bits are pretty good though - which is definitely a Daft Punk trait. Also, with the selection of this album they became the first act to have four choices on the list - I'd have to say they've been surprisingly popular.
The channel gave it six thumbs up, three discos, seven hearts, a lot of lurve and two new joiners. I cover the Wikipedia entry in my previous write-up, but I don't mention how big it is - 562 milliPeppers. I've no absolutely no idea why either.
Another one where I own and like the previous two albums by the band, but had never listened to this one. I seem to recall it was another "good in places but too long" selection but far too long in this case because it took me about a week to listen to it and I never actually got round to commenting in the channel about it. So I shall address that now and say "it was OK".
The channel gave it five chillis, a bit of love and some discussion as to which is their best album (Californication for me). Wikipedia only has 237 milliPeppers on the album - RHCP really have to up their game on including pointless information in their album entries. But, to be honest, I couldn't really be bothered reading most of it. I was somewhat surprised that Storm Thorgerson was involved in the cover design - mainly because he generally produces high quality iconic covers and this is well, a bit shit (it looks like an ironic Douglas Coupland cover). But apparently they rejected all his ideas, so I guess that explains that. Like both the previous albums, this one was massively successful - it even got to #1 in Poland (but only #5 in Spain).
"Customers also listened to" Weezer, Blur, Radiohead and Blink 182 - which seems a somewhat odd mix. I didn't mind this but there's certainly not enough there to drag me away from Cailfornication as my RHCP album of choice. And it really was far too long.
So, a round featuring three albums which got to #1 in both the UK and the US - has the channel gone all commercial on us?!? Sell-outs, the lot of them, I tell ya. However, they're all albums which hit their target audience well whilst also having broad appeal which has obviously translated into commercial success. It's hard to compare them, but I think the album I know best (Daft Punk) probably suffers most from accusations of commercial blandness and I struggle to imagine too many people listen to ALL of Stadium Arcadium on a regular basis, so I'm going with Eminem for the round - I intend to add this to my list of his albums that I pop on from time to time when I've got some rage I need to work out.
21.10.22 - An unexpected winner
21.11.01 - Two previous visits
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