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catscradle Oct. 10th, 2002 01:52 pm)
catscradle Oct. 10th, 2002 01:52 pm)So I'm reading reviews for Peter Gabriel's new release Up, and I'm greatly amused by most of what I'm reading. There are the people that are wondering why it's so dark and there's nothing up beat like Big Time on it, and those that are disappointed that it's a little too commercial and not up to snuff with the now dubbed "Melt" album.
I've got to admit, I'm in the group that simply adores this CD. It's not a commercial album, I don't know what the "Melt" zealots are babbling about, but I can see why fans of So and Us are a little disappointed. If you didn't listen to Peter in the 70's and early 80's, then you probably weren't prepared for the sound coming from Up - and that's okay. You don't have to like all things Peter - He's got different sounds. Though the man writing that Peter needs to go on Prozac may have been pushing it.
Actually - those who think Up is depressing really need to give the album another try and listen to the lyrics in conjunction to the music. What a concept, eh? Seriously, I put this up there with reading for content - if you're not patient, you're going to miss a lot. It's not music you can hum along with or tap your foot to, but you can't dance to Beethoven and that doesn't make him a hack.
It's a dark CD, but it's not nihilistic. It's about life, death, loss, psychosis, hope, gain, not losing faith, going on, fighting the good fight, and that sometimes it's hard to be an adult - it's a good mix of elements - and if you only skimmed through it because the first track, Darkness, scared you - you're missing out.
What disappointed me was Rolling Stone's 2 star review of the CD that was all of a 5 sentence paragraph. For those of you that don't think Rolling Stone sold out years ago, Britney Spears got 4 stars for her "Oops. . . I did it again" CD. Whether you love or hate Peter Gabriel, if you know music at all, you know the man dealt us something a little more complex than Miss Plastic and the average boyband. I'd expect a mag like Rolling Stone to actually review the music at least - tell us something about it - why did they think it was bad? What would make it good? Anything!. The mag is there to tell us something about music - tell us or change the theme.
So I liked Up. Tracks I think stand out: Darkness, Sky Blue, I Grieve, My Head Sounds like That, and my favorite, Signal to Noise. Good stuff. And in an age where few musicians will take risks in fear of the record label dropping them, this is a welcome relief.
Looking forward to getting the new Tori Amos CD next =)
I've got to admit, I'm in the group that simply adores this CD. It's not a commercial album, I don't know what the "Melt" zealots are babbling about, but I can see why fans of So and Us are a little disappointed. If you didn't listen to Peter in the 70's and early 80's, then you probably weren't prepared for the sound coming from Up - and that's okay. You don't have to like all things Peter - He's got different sounds. Though the man writing that Peter needs to go on Prozac may have been pushing it.
Actually - those who think Up is depressing really need to give the album another try and listen to the lyrics in conjunction to the music. What a concept, eh? Seriously, I put this up there with reading for content - if you're not patient, you're going to miss a lot. It's not music you can hum along with or tap your foot to, but you can't dance to Beethoven and that doesn't make him a hack.
It's a dark CD, but it's not nihilistic. It's about life, death, loss, psychosis, hope, gain, not losing faith, going on, fighting the good fight, and that sometimes it's hard to be an adult - it's a good mix of elements - and if you only skimmed through it because the first track, Darkness, scared you - you're missing out.
What disappointed me was Rolling Stone's 2 star review of the CD that was all of a 5 sentence paragraph. For those of you that don't think Rolling Stone sold out years ago, Britney Spears got 4 stars for her "Oops. . . I did it again" CD. Whether you love or hate Peter Gabriel, if you know music at all, you know the man dealt us something a little more complex than Miss Plastic and the average boyband. I'd expect a mag like Rolling Stone to actually review the music at least - tell us something about it - why did they think it was bad? What would make it good? Anything!. The mag is there to tell us something about music - tell us or change the theme.
So I liked Up. Tracks I think stand out: Darkness, Sky Blue, I Grieve, My Head Sounds like That, and my favorite, Signal to Noise. Good stuff. And in an age where few musicians will take risks in fear of the record label dropping them, this is a welcome relief.
Looking forward to getting the new Tori Amos CD next =)
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Well, Steph (yes, hi!), I have to say that back around 1988 I got this book called Rolling Stone Album Index or something which was sort of like a movie guide only for albums, with zillions of albums listed out by artist along with RS's star ratings for all the artists albums and summary reviews. It looked cool at first (esp. to somebody who just loves lists and reference books) but I rapidly lost faith in it because even then, it seems like they just didn't like like anything and reviewers were more fond of finding clever ways to diss stuff than on explaining their reasoning. I got pretty emotional over some of it (hey, I was a teenager!) and finally after a few months I gave the book to a friend so I'd stop looking up albums I'd heard of by favorite artists and finding these scathing reviews. Ick!
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Hey there! Glad to see you with an LJ! Saw
Steph
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Re: RS reviewers
Wiebke