| Author | Message | ||
     Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 194 Registered: 08-2004 |
Apology Accepted. Despite the fact LB is in my personal top 10 albums of all time, I've always found AA to be very over-rated & it finishes the LP off on a bit of a downer. Many have claimed in the past that it's 1 of the best album closer's there is, but IMO it's quite a weak track for Grant, definitely his worst on the album. | ||
| gareth w Member Username: Gareth Post Number: 52 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Wrong Road. Just sounds like a dirge to me, a Cure backing track from the early 80's. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 174 Registered: 05-2005 |
agreed jerry - always thought this was a fledgeling idea for a song which was fleshed out to be a song just for the hell of it. mine is streets of your town - a song worthy of deacon blue | ||
| kuba a Member Username: Kuba Post Number: 42 Registered: 05-2005 |
Right Here. Dramatically spoiled by the production, and the second weakest track on Tallulah in consequence. | ||
| Alex Bolton Member Username: Alexb Post Number: 25 Registered: 01-2006 |
I've never really understood why Head Full of Steam was a single and like much of Liberty Belle I think it's overrated. There seems to be a tendency to disparage some of the GBs more commercial moments - Streets, Right Here. Fans are always likely to rate the obscure and difficult because it seems more exclusive to them. But I always felt the GBs were more effective when they went for a smoother less difficult sound (not often you say that about a band). They've followed this direction since reformation and with success I think. OA is a "pop" album and yet highly distinctive. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 171 Registered: 04-2005 |
"Boundary Rider"--sounds like an unfinished sketch, both lyrically and musically. I don't get the comparisons to "Cattle and Cane." | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 225 Registered: 05-2005 |
I've come to really like Boundary Rider. I did not like it at all at first. Nor did I get the comparison to Cattle And Cane before, but I do now. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 224 Registered: 03-2005 |
Well, I've already savaged "Head Full of Steam" and "Was There Anything I Can Do" elsewhere on this board. And I still don't comprehend what anybody sees in "Born to a Family" which will get me to the "skip" button faster than anything. Whereas I love "Apology Accepted" and have done since I first heard it. I also liked "Boundary Rider" from the get-go. Another one I can't get enthused about at all: "Lee Remick." Too precious and just not enough of anything else. I'm so glad they've been doing "Karen" instead which I think is great. Another one: "Caroline and I." Totally banal intro and the lyrics don't succeed at telling the story they are supposedly telling; one of Robert's weakest since the reformation. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 74 Registered: 05-2005 |
"Too much of one thing" is just that..... | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 72 Registered: 11-2004 |
Agreed Randy, Definately 'Caroline and I' and I agree with 'Right Here' also. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 241 Registered: 05-2005 |
Could we add a caviat to this thread? Like, most over-rated song live? I think Streets of your town, just DOES not work well live. The studio version to me is played and produced very well given the period it was released. It reminds me retrospectively of ABC. Perfect pop song, you remember certain things about it, like the lovely chorus, the excellent muso style guitar break in the middle eight, the angel-like backing vocals, it sort of ambles along in an uncomplicated fashion, and will always evoke summertime for me. But playing the Tivolli version for instance, it can't translate, all of those elements you remember from the studio version seem to disappear. Thus, for me, they simply go through the motions, of their 'FM' hit... | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 206 Registered: 10-2004 |
for me, there are a few overrated go-betweens songs: right here - pleasant, but trite and predictable bye bye pride - verges on overblown, comes frigtheningly close to MOR, cheezy lyrics, etc.. dive for you memory - the only thing i really like about this one is the lead guitar melody. otherwise, this song is really trite going blind - this song has a certain nagging quality, partly due to grant's rhyming scheme in the verses. i like the lead guitar melody, but i was almost kind of bummed when i learned that on the album, it was not played by grant but by one of the sleater kinney guitarists, which means the song's only good trait was created by an outside party. i'm tempted to say the entirety of 'rachel worth' is overrated, as it's by far their creative nadir, imho. i like magic in here, and he lives my life, but even those are not among my favorites. i really dislike the production, and hell, even the album cover is annoying to me. and going along with spence's request, this is a list of songs that the go-betweens mach II keep playing live which i feel they need to drop: surfing magazines - a mediocre, slight song to begin with, and drawing it out by having the music stop and the audience participate in the "da da, da da..." backing vocals is really annoying. i actually get a little bummed and impatient when they play this one. draining the pool for you - not a bad song, but again, they really draw it out live in ways that wind up being a little irksome for me. the clock - never liked this song to begin with, it always sounded like filler on the album, and that they seem to enjoy playing it live so much is mystifying. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 207 Registered: 10-2004 |
oh, and i forgot one: make her day - energetic, and well played, sure, but this has to be one of the least imaginative songs robert's ever written, and the weakest track on BYBO, imho. it's the kind of song that could've been written by just about any faceless indie pop band over the past 10 years. and it's another one they tend to play live that i really wish they'd drop from their sets. | ||
| kuba a Member Username: Kuba Post Number: 43 Registered: 05-2005 |
I've read somewhere across this board that someone thinks German Farmhouse is great, which is amazing for me, because it's easily the worst song they've done since reforming. Jeff's list of weaker songs which they play live reminded me of that one. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 175 Registered: 04-2005 |
I didn't mention it originally because I didn't think anyone rated it, but I couldn't agree more about "Surfing Magazines," which is featured in every set and inevitably seems to go on forever. Robert must really enjoy playing it, because he can't honestly believe it's one of his best songs, can he? It's criminal that it's on the Tivoli DVD/CD while "Darlinghurst Nights" was bumped. | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 53 Registered: 03-2006 |
Agree heartily about the GBs drawing out "Pool"...the version on the "Sunlight" DVD is interminable, what with the endless repetitions of "I got hired/tired"...what the f____ is up with that, Robert? | ||
| abigail law Member Username: Abigail Post Number: 51 Registered: 06-2005 |
i'll second both born to a family – which i find incredibly patronising - and german farmhouse but i must stick up for caroline & i - one of their best re-formed songs imho | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 47 Registered: 01-2005 |
I was never a huge fan of Streets. As far as one of the newer songs, I'll agree with Too much of one thing as being lame. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 257 Registered: 05-2005 |
I don't think anyone has said that Born to a family was ever that great a song, however I don't mind it. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 211 Registered: 10-2004 |
I love 'Born to a Family.' | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 199 Registered: 05-2005 |
me too | ||
| Alex Bolton Member Username: Alexb Post Number: 29 Registered: 01-2006 |
I agree with Abigail. Born to a Family is horribly patronising. Draining the Pool is rather amusing live, there's a real vitriol about it. German Farmhouse sounds fresh and original - not bad for a reformed band. Friends of Rachel does have really good songs - Magic in Here, He Lives my Life, perhaps it is the production at fault. Surfing Magazines is half a song, starts well but goes nowhere. Right Here isn't cheesy. GM's great strength is his sincerity and emotional directness that would be trite in others. | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 129 Registered: 03-2006 |
Makes you wonder about RF seeing the 'family' for holidays...do they give him grief about the song? "Hey 'Golden Boy'. Pass the potatoes, Mr.Big Shot!". Despite seeing the flaws in the song - it is what it is - I like it quite a bit and wouldn't skip it. Forster sells it with his vocal. Right Here is a beautiful and deeply felt song, yet another of GM's best. Funny aside, I'd heard allusions to a rumor that it was written about friends of GM's who were addicted to funeral parlor chemicals...rumor shmumor, in the liner notes to 1978-90, he directly admits such, which I just noticed when I pulled it out the other day. One more aside: the video for Right Here is both incredibly corny and equally charming...there's a naughty, funny bit where just when the phrase "climb aboard my pony" is sung, they flash to Vickers, who has the word "pony" written on his chin...those wisenheimers. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 227 Registered: 10-2004 |
As for Born to a Family being "horribly patronising", I kind of interpreted it as Robert poking fun at himself, or poking fun at whomever is supposed to be the true narrator of the song. Not condescending to the members of his working class family, but pointing out the folly in his feeling somehow different, and then actually believing that he is somehow superior or destined for greater things. I mean, you can't possibly assume that Robert doesn't have tongue planted firmly in cheek when referring to himself as the "Golden Boy" who "changed the system." Maybe I'm giving him too much credit, but that's how I saw it. And of course I also see it as one of the best songs he's written in years. I really do love it on a musical level. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 207 Registered: 04-2005 |
To be really simplistic about it, I like "Born to a Family" just because there's some musical interplay between the band on it. I'd agree with Jeff that Robert was being at least a little self-mocking with the "Golden Boy" line (though I enjoyed Hardin's holiday scenario). I think a lot of Robert's stuff has an extremely self-aware, dry wit behind it that people mistake for ego or mawkishness. I think he's well aware of how it sounds to other people, and there's a smirk behind it. Grant is much more earnest. |