Curiously, right now I prefer the instrumentals. My criticism of many of the songs is that they feel undeveloped. They seem like they’re building to a conclusion, but instead they fade-out.
Not yet. I’ve conquered Station to Station and now I’m fighting with Low.
I think you may have to ultimately accept or reject that, rather than discover a previously unrecognized climax/conclusion. When originally released, Bowie, or his press agents, referred to the songs as fragments, so they’re apparently not really meant to “go” anywhere. (Eno frequently gets mentioned in relation to the second side, which to my ear resembles his ambient/instrumental works scarcely at all. I feel his influence more in the fragments on side one, which structurally somewhat remind me of his songs on his mostly instrumental Another Green World.)
The next album, ”Heroes”, may have more of what you’re looking for in the songs. Most of them aren’t exactly the conventional verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, but they do have more of a feeling of direction, or at least forward momentum, to them. I like the instrumental bits in the second half, too, which I suppose may mean you won’t like them…
i find that the albums i end up liking best are the ones i need to listen to for a while until i get them. suddenly something will click, the skies will open, and i’ll go “omg…”
They may not become the albums I like best, but I always especially appreciate it when I finally learn to (more fully) enjoy a work I had previously been (comparatively) unenthused by.
I should preface this by pointing out that I’m not a huge fan of Prince.
I was listening to the Current today and heard Prince’s demo for “the Glamorous Life.” Not to take anything away from Shiela E., but it was one of the best things I’ve heard Prince do. And the arrangement was excellent too — kind of a soul-jazz fusion.
Unfortunately I could not find the track on the Tube of U. It’s too new, I suppose. You’ll have to take my word for it.
Now I really want to hear his version of “Sex Shooter.”
Not a specific musician, but my current streaming service - Amazon Music - has been killing it with the mix on their “Stations”
Most artists have a station that plays music in a similar vein as the selected artist. Similar to Pandora and all those others services out there.
So I had Blondie on my mind this morning, so settled on the Blondie Station. Now on all the other services I’ve used this on you’ll tend to get the same sampling of artists and songs.
But today the cuts were deep. Artists I’d expect - Talking Heads, Pretenders, Spandau Ballet, Police, Cars, Bowie - and none of the usual top ten hits from any of them. I even had to stop what I was doing to come see what was playing when Spandau was on. The song sounded like them but I’m not sure I’d ever heard it before.
Not sure how much longer I’ll keep the service as the UI is meh. And the fact that when I start it up, it will randomly decide I want to hear some of the albums I’ve bought on Amazon. And while a little Mojo Nixon is okay now and again, the fact that I got all their albums for free a few years back on Amazon means I have way more Mojo than anyone has a right to.
I’ve been playing a lot of Rebel Galaxy lately, which has an ‘outlaw blues’ soundtrack that keeps getting stuck in my head. Yesterday I was looking a thread for suggestions of other similar, fitting music to add - southern gothic, outlaw country, rockabilly.
Tonight was family game night; we were playing Ticket To Ride, and my wife and I were taking turns playing Irish and German music like Heilung and The Sidh. Youtube got stuck on one of our autoplay lists (we don’t know whether it was mine or hers), and we found these two Mongolian gems (second is Mongolian + Latvian celtic):
That fits in perfectly with the Rebel Galaxy soundtrack! Going to add it to the travel music lineup once I figure out how.
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This one doesn’t fit the Rebel Galaxy soundtrack as closely, but I might add it as one of the combat tracks.
Now I’m thinking I really need to make a Mongolian + Celtic mixed playlist.
When she starts a song with the line “Why men great till they gotta be great “ and all I can think is about Hamlet and toxic masculinity and she can sing and rap and play flute and takes no shit and gives no fucks.