[Rob Instigator]

Originally Posted by jframe

2. Swimsuit Issue - 1
Sounds like vomit.
(ahhh but only a true artist can make sonic vomit so AMAZING!!! I fucking love this song.....)

3. Theresa's Sound-World - 3
Starts off really nice and builds to that amazing guitar thing. Needs to do something cool after that, but instead goes back to the beginning.
(This song does not "need" to do anything. The glory of it is it's weird structure that hints and something yet dies off. Beautiful fucking song. Maybe in my top 5 all time sonic youth songs....)

4. Drunken Butterfly - 2
Starts off okay, and that cool guitar part is fantastic. The "I love you" chorus sounds like constipation.
(has some of my fave short and sweet noise breaks of this album. It took a little to grow on me but I love it LOUD, especially that fat riff chuk-chuk chakachaka chuk-chuk chakachaka chuk-chuk wahdah-wahhhh)

6. Wish Fulfillment - 4
Starts off sleepily nice, like many of the previous songs. But finally gives us a great punch of a chorus.
(My third favorite Lee song ever. 1. Genetic, 2. Mote)

12. Chapel Hill - 4
This starts off great. That music is where it's at. And the vocals are fine. Believe it or not, the chorus is fine, too.
(great straight up rocker)

13. JC - 2
It's okay, but it's the same thing over and over.
(This song is fucking amazing. Listen to it loud on headphones as you stare into a dark early morning night)

I love Dirty.... That tour was amazing, saw them with Pain Teens and Pavement opening up...

[Rob Instigator]

Originally Posted by jframe

like Radiohead's Pablo Honey, REM's Monster, Elvis Costello's Punch the Clock, and Smashing Pumpkin's Adore.

Man, You just listed 4 LP's I dislike very much.....

[noisereductions]

I like Adore a lot, but the rest of those...

Rob we seem to be in agreement on Dirty.

[Mortte Jousimo]

I love Wish Fulfillment more than Genetic...Mote is as great as Wish Fulfillment. Also really love Pipeline/Kill Time, Saucer-Like, Skip Tracer, Hoarfrost, both Karen and Walking Blue.

I don´t also like much Radiohead, R.E.M and Smashing Pumpkins (always hated Billy Corgan´s voice). Elvis Costello is only one I think maybe should listen more...

[Rob Instigator]

I have been a huge REM fan since I heard Pretty Persuasion on MTV and bought all their albums. I stopped giving a fuck around Out of Time because I could sense a sea change in what they were aiming for (they became adult contemporary). I love all their early LP's. Chronic Town EP, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, Life's Rich Pageant, Document and Green.

[evollove]

Punch the Clock and the follow-up Goodbye Cruel World are considered by fans and El Costello himself to be the lowest points of his career. Just saying.

[evollove]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

I stopped giving a fuck around Out of Time because I could sense a sea change in what they were aiming for (they became adult contemporary).

I think you're taking OUT and AUTO for granted, which is understandable after all these years. But they really are (were) surprising, original and very good albums. I agree neither rocks very much, and I think Buck made a deliberate attempt to move from his jangle thing, but they're both classic REM's as far as I'm concerned. The first 8 are part of the rock cannon, I say.

Adult contemporary? Gin Blossoms/Matchbox 20, etc might sometimes sound like REM, but REM never sounded like the Gin Blossoms, if you know what I mean.

But yeah, after AUTO, the best one could hope for was 4 or 5 good songs an album. I still deny the "adult contemp" charge. Simply a bewildering vanishing of great material.

[Rob Instigator]

Out of Time and Automatic have some great songs, but they are not my thang.

[jframe]

Originally Posted by evollove

Punch the Clock and the follow-up Goodbye Cruel World are considered by fans and El Costello himself to be the lowest points of his career. Just saying.

It wouldn't matter to me if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. rose from the dead and claimed that Punch the Clock is his least favorite album of all time. All that matters to me is my emotional reaction to just about every song on that album. That's proof enough for me that I absolutely love that album. And Trust, and Imperial Bedroom. Can't stand his first few albums. Haven't heard Goodbye Cruel World, but if Elvis groups it with Punch the Clock to be a low point, perhaps I might love it.

I went out of my way to specifically mention a few albums I love that get a bad wrap. For the most part, I love the same albums that everyone else does. For example, I love every Beatles album, just like everyone else (though Beatles for Sale is a bit weak).

The only other REM albums I've heard are Green, Out of Time, and Automatic. I only like about 5 songs on those albums, but I like everything on Monster. Perhaps someday I'll find another REM album I love. But I haven't been able to find a decent REM message board to bother about that yet.

I'll be back with some SY album reviews soon. I agree with Mortte that my review of Dirty doesn't do a good job of really describing what exactly it is about each song that I like or don't like. It's really difficult to put an emotional reaction to music into words, and especially a lack of emotional reaction. If I spent enough time meditating on it, maybe I could figure out how to do so. Or maybe I'll be better off not attempting that and just posting some shorter reviews.

[evollove]

I see. It was easy to assume you were just being willfully contrary. Turns out you just haven't heard enough good stuff.

You really should listen to REM's first five albums and then decide where Monster should rank. Any REM message board would say the same. Actually, there's a good time-saving compilation I'd recommend: And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982–1987

If you prefer poppy Elvis to rocking Elvis, maybe check out SPIKE. Overproduced, but interesting instrumentation and really good songs. The follow-up, MIGHTY LIKE A ROSE, has a similar production but the material isn't as good. His 3rd worst album, I think. You might love it.

[selkcip]

androgynous mind is a cool track, and starfield road fucking owns. a nice drum sound on exp jet set, very dry and substantial.. dig the muted quality of the sounds.

[Mortte Jousimo]

I really like also how Sister & Experimental sounds (sear sound studio -sound). RR also sound me much better than Eternal even it has much more modern sounds than those other two.

[Lee is Free]

One of the heaviest reviews I've read in a long time
L

Originally Posted by jframe

I'm the person who posted the original thread saying I didn't like a single song on DDN or Dirty.

When I get around to writing reviews for the SY albums I have heard so far, I'm going to post them so you all can see where I'm coming from (though many of you will obviously completely disagree; some people love raw onions, I can't stand them).

I'm going to start with Dirty. To be nice, I rounded up to 4 on a couple of these songs, so you could technically say I lied about not liking any of them.

I can eventually give a song-by-song review of Experimental, but to keep it long-but-not-way-too-long for now, I'll just say that my overall rating for it is 4.7. I will also admit that I give 2 of the songs a lowly 3 stars.

My system is 1-5:
5: top-notch
4: stands out as a great song
3: ok, possibly "good", but nothing to be really proud of
2: not-so-good but there's at least something good about it
1: nothing good about it
Total score is the average of the top 10.

Total score for Dirty: 2.8

1. 100% - 3
Starts out with a good punch but the chorus is too dull.

2. Swimsuit Issue - 1
Sounds like vomit.

3. Theresa's Sound-World - 3
Starts off really nice and builds to that amazing guitar thing. Needs to do something cool after that, but instead goes back to the beginning.

4. Drunken Butterfly - 2
Starts off okay, and that cool guitar part is fantastic. The "I love you" chorus sounds like constipation.

5. Shoot - 3
Starts off nice. Doesn't go anywhere.

6. Wish Fulfillment - 4
Starts off sleepily nice, like many of the previous songs. But finally gives us a great punch of a chorus.

7. Sugar Kane - 2
That guitar at the beginning is great--and that guitar after the beginning is great. The vocal parts are mediocre.

8. Orange Rolls - 2
Verse sounds like vomiting while constipated. The short, fast chorus has no punch. That one guitar thing is really cool, though.

9. Youth - 2
There's only one small part to this, which repeats a million times. The vocals are rather annoying, but I like the music throughout.

10. Nic Fit - 2
Not much to this, really not so bad for what it is. Good call on making it less than a minute. The lyrics are a bit lacking for my taste.

11. On the Strip - 2
Starts off okay but the chorus sucks.

12. Chapel Hill - 4
This starts off great. That music is where it's at. And the vocals are fine. Believe it or not, the chorus is fine, too.

13. JC - 2
It's okay, but it's the same thing over and over.

14. Purr - 3
I like the intro, and the scream. The song ain't bad. There's obviously punch in there, but it's not sung with enough emotion to really bring it out.

15. Creme - 1
Yawn. Boring, repetitive.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Lee is Free

One of the heaviest reviews I've read in a long time
L

if by "heavy" you mean "conceptually hollow and miserably written" then i totally agree

[EVOLghost]

Well I may not agree with the each critique of each song...but Dirty is probably my least favorite. Not because of material...but sound. SOmething is lacking for me.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by EVOLghost

Well I may not agree with the each critique of each song...but Dirty is probably my least favorite. Not because of material...but sound. SOmething is lacking for me.

i'm not saying everyone should like every song there, but throwing out words like "nice" "okay" "great" "vomit" over & over isn't really "reviewing."

then again, listening to the smashing pumpkins is like listening to constipated vomit

(but for serious...)

[!@#$%!]

and to the original questions:

Originally Posted by jframe

When I was a teenager my sister somehow got a hold of this album and when she played it, it absolutely blew me away

[...]

Where can I find the magic of Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star?

seems to me you're most likely to find it in the fading memory of your teenage years rather than the music itself

Originally Posted by jframe

Does that magic exist on any of the other Sonic Youth albums, or did Sonic Youth just decide to cram it all on that particular album?

EJSTNS has all kinds of elements that connect it to various other records they made, but if you're not in a receptive state right now it will all fall on deaf ears.

---

eta: but i'm gonna go out on a limb now and say try a thousand leaves. if that doesn't work for you then i'd suggest tahiti-- i hear it's a magical place.

 

[Genteel Death]

Both EJSTNS and Dirty are great records. That review, if you can call it that, is pants.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Hey it still was better than anything on Pitchfork

[Genteel Death]

Just as boring, I'll give it that.