The Official Pop and Rock Music thread

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

On 17/10/2023 at 4:10 PM, A24 said:

Have been listening to some old Phil Collins Genesis. 

 

Which ones?

 

It's interesting how an ageing, and, obviously, ill man, can still find time to post pictures of himself, on the internet.

[Marian Schedenig 8,211]

19 minutes ago, Thor said:

Vinyl or CD?

 

CD of course. I don't have vinyl equipment (and frankly I don't see the point).

 

I'll have about one week to dig into before Bauhaus Staircase arrives.

[A24 4,346]

16 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

Which ones?

 

It's interesting how an ageing, and, obviously, ill man, can still find time to post pictures of himself, on the internet.

 

The usual suspects: Wind & Wuthering, A Trick Of The Tail. However, I stopped listing to Phil Collins Genesis during Duke. Don't like that one anymore. 

[A24 4,346]

 

Another fine and passionate take on a rock album by classical music engineer and speaker designer Harley Lovegrove. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

8 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I'll have about one week to dig into before Bauhaus Staircase arrives.

 

I've heard good things about this.

It won't be a patch on DAZZLE SHIPS or ARCHITECTURE AND MORALITY, but I'm sure it'll be decent.

 

 

 

8 hours ago, A24 said:

 

The usual suspects: Wind & Wuthering, A Trick Of The Tail. However, I stopped listing to Phil Collins Genesis during Duke. Don't like that one anymore. 

 

No love for ...and then there were three...?

[Faleel 5,360]

https://www.loudersound.com/features/peter-gabriel-guide-to-success

 

Quote

 

One thing that’s constantly speculated upon is the possibility of Genesis regrouping to play the whole of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway live. And Gabriel has something of a surprise for all those who are keen to see this happen.

“I’ve spoken at length with the others about doing something along those lines. But what we’ve talked about is not doing the album live, but using it as the basis for a film or a musical. To take the storyline and develop that into something more coherent. I wouldn’t say that we’re a long way down the line with this idea. However, I would expect this to happen in the not too distant future.

“Would there be many changes to the actual songs? I know people assume I’d want to completely overhaul them. But that’s based on nothing I’ve said. I would expect the songs to remain as they were all those years ago.”

 

 

[A24 4,346]

10 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

No love for ...and then there were three...?

 

It was my first Genesis album which I bought because of the hit and especially because of Tony Banks' synth solo. It was a time when I really want to own a synth. If there was a song with a synth in it, then I was sold!

[A24 4,346]

And Genesis is not Genesis without Steve Hackett ... 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

1 hour ago, A24 said:

And Genesis is not Genesis without Steve Hackett ... 

 

They said that when Gabriel left, but then A TRICK OF THE TAIL happened.

It's fair to say that both Gabriel and Hackett needed to leave Genesis in order to become the artists that they became.

That being said, Tony Smith once said "ultimately, all we lost was Peter's mind", which a) says a lot about what Genesis became, and b) is utter bollocks.

When Steve left, they lost both their soul, and their elegance.

[GerateWohl 4,373]

New Model Army - Sinfonia

 

Usually I find band orchestra collaborations rather embarassing. But there are exceptions. Elton John live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is my all time favourite album of tha kind. But this album is second place now. Brillant arrangements,flawless performances. Probably I wouldn't have needed every applause of the audience during the first minute of a song when they want to express that they recongnized the song. Of course you should be a NMA fan. I am.

[Tom Guernsey 2,287]

2 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

New Model Army - Sinfonia

 

Usually I find band orchestra collaborations rather embarassing. But there are exceptions. Elton John live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is my all time favourite album of tha kind. But this album is second place now. Brillant arrangements,flawless performances. Probably I wouldn't have needed every applause of the audience during the first minute of a song when they want to express that they recongnized the song. Of course you should be a NMA fan. I am.

I don't know NMA at all (but my pop/rock music listening is quite limited) but I do highly recommend Enzso (and Enzso 2) which are big orchestral arrangements of the songs of Split Enz. Not a band I know otherwise, but a friend at work suggested these albums as she thought I'd like them and she was right. The arrangements are terrific and it has an interesting range of singers. Also, I don't know if you like Ben Folds if you like Elton John (I always say Ben Folds is like a slightly more sweary EJ!) but BF's album with the West Australia Symphony Orchestra is great, albeit on available as a DVD with not exactly the greatest sound. The arrangements (and orchestral performance) are a bit variable, but the best ones (Brick and Zak & Sara are probably by favourites) are really great. Shame he never redid the best ones in the studio.

[Sweeping Strings 2,364]

I know Split Enz for being the band that the excellent Crowded House came from, and for their sole UK hit I Got You. 

[Tom Guernsey 2,287]

11 minutes ago, Sweeping Strings said:

I know Split Enz for being the band that the excellent Crowded House came from, and for their sole UK hit I Got You. 

I have heard of them but don't know them otherwise (although I did get their greatest hits to hear the originals out of curiosity) but they have some great tunes that survive well amped up to grandiose orchestral. A couple are done as instrumentals - Six Months In A Leaky Boat is an instrumental that leads directly into History Never Repeats and it's one of those perfectly euphoric moments you sometimes get in music. Absolutely brilliant.

[Marian Schedenig 8,211]

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Also, I don't know if you like Ben Folds if you like Elton John (I always say Ben Folds is like a slightly more sweary EJ!) but BF's album with the West Australia Symphony Orchestra is great, albeit on available as a DVD with not exactly the greatest sound. The arrangements (and orchestral performance) are a bit variable, but the best ones (Brick and Zak & Sara are probably by favourites) are really great. Shame he never redid the best ones in the studio.

 

I haven't heard that yet - in fact I only became aware that it exists at all rather recently. I imagine Folds has much more experience with orchestras these days after his piano concerto and his live concerts & live improvisations with orchestra. A new orchestral album by him would be nice.

 

My clear favourite rock/pop/symphony crossover is Kate Miller-Heidke's (who I first heard as Regina Spektor duet replacement and also opening act on Ben Fold's 2011 tour) collaboration with the Sydney Opera/Melbourne Symphony. The Sydney concert is available on CD, but the only videos I'm away of are from the Melbourne concert. They're the same programme (I think/as far as I can tell from the limited set of Melbourne videos), but the vocal performance and especially the semi-improvised guitar parts differ. I think Sydney is better, but Melbourne has some nice alternates (and video):

 

 

 

Of all collaborations I've heard of this sort, this is probably (and compared to most by far) the one that most idiomatically uses the full symphony orchestra - note that these are all originally pop songs, often with quite heavily produced original arrangements (though she'd already shown flexibility by frequently performing them with just her husband on guitar (as in the orchestral concerts, too) instead of a full band in live concerts). I suppose her background in opera helped there.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

For "Orchestra vs. Rock/Pop", I always find myself defaulting to DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, and CONCERTO FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA.

[Holko 9,532]

Now and Then, the "Last Beatles Song" is coming Nov. 2, with a short documentary about it on Nov.1.

Expanded and remastered versions of the Red and Blue compilations coming on Nov. 10.

 

https://ukstore.thebeatles.com/

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

Great stuff, but, er, @Holko, what's so   about RED and BLUE expansions?

[Thor 7,521]

Not being much of a Beatles fan, I nonetheless had those two albums -- on a cassette copied from my dad's LPs. So I have a soft spot for them. Would be cool to own in physical format at some point.

[Holko 9,532]

9 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Great stuff, but, er, @Holko, what's so   about RED and BLUE expansions?

That they're wasting a year on them instead of proceeding with the real albums.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

Yeah, but it's their 50th anniversaries, this year, so... 

I can't wait to hear a decent remix of RUBBER SOUL. The '87 remix leaves a lot to be desired.

[Schilkeman 964]

42 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

I can't wait to hear a decent remix of RUBBER SOUL.

Based on all the other remixes they've done the last few years, you'll keep on waiting. I never should have left my mono box set behind. One of my stupider moves.

[Marian Schedenig 8,211]

On 20/10/2023 at 1:46 PM, Naïve Old Fart said:

Let me guess: "Their best record since SOME GIRLS" 

 

Finally started listening to it today. And to my delight it's really good! As for "best since Some Girls"… is it better than Tattoo You? Probably not, but maybe? I don't think it's better than Voodoo Lounge, but then that's actually one of my favourites and most people seem to think not half as much of it as I do. In any case, Hackney Diamonds has no need to hide behind them. And its climactic song Sweet Sounds of Heaven is much closer to an epic length 60s Stones gospel song than one could have thought possible in this millennium.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

I'll give it a listen, as soon as.

TATTOO YOU is my favourite Stones record.

I'm also partial to BLACK AND BLUE, EXILE ON MAIN STREET, and LET IT BLEED.

[Thor 7,521]

I'm with you, Marian. VOODOO LOUNGE is my second favourite Stones album, after (obviously) STICKY FINGERS. DIAMONDS isn't on the level of either of those, of course, but excels here and there.

[Marian Schedenig 8,211]

Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers are the two I would name as top favourites. I should spend some time with Black and Blue and some other less famous ones that I'm not really familiar with - I'm ashamed my Stones collection has more gaps than I was really aware of. I built most of it back when the SACD remasters came out in the early 2000s (before that I just had a couple of CDRs), but at some point when I had all the major ones I stopped.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

Damnit!

Thanks to this thread, "Mixed Emotions" is my current earworm 

[Thor 7,521]

 

As previously mentioned, I've Spotify-playlisted all my old mixed tapes, including this one -- called "Get Your Kicks On Route 66" (track listing continues on the other side, LOADS of songs!). I can't remember if it was an actual album or it was culled from different sources, but this was -- and still is -- one of my favourite musical genres. Old-school rock'n'roll, R&B, boogie, that kind of stuff. From Chuck Berry onwards. Alice Cooper, before he went camp. Yet I don't see a lot of discussion about that kind of music on these forums?!

[Schilkeman 964]

School's Out is one of the best rock albums of all time. Chuck Berry and Jim Croce are two of my favorites, as well. 

[Thor 7,521]

Indeed. I remember back in the 90s, when Cooper's "Poison" was a big hit, I always made a big deal out of forwarding my class mates to the OLD Alice Cooper, the REAL one. They had no idea....

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

 

[Holko 9,532]

 

"Peter Jackson has the Mal-machine, because it can just lift anything!"

[mrbellamy 6,293]

Well now I want remixes of "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love"

[Jay 37,374]

It's here

 

 

 

[Thor 7,521]

Pretty nice song. Nothing spectacular or anything, but more an interesting experiment, and kinda staggering that they've managed to create a new Beatles song in the first place, out of the source material. That whole thing gives a relatively straightforward song a particular extra "sheen".

[Jay 37,374]

Ya'll heard the original recording before?

 

 

[Holko 9,532]

It's pretty good, parts of it, especially when Paul joins in, made it feel to me like it's a love song to a dead John from Paul. I'll put this in front of my ripped Anthology 3! The order still goes FAAB>RL>NAT.

[GerateWohl 4,373]

9 hours ago, Jay said:

Ya'll heard the original recording before?

 

Yesterday I could still watch this video. Now it says, it's unavailable.

[Tom Guernsey 2,287]

I have pretty much only a passing interest in the Beatles but I liked it although I couldn't help thinking of this gem from the great Mitch Benn (a bit of the style but perhaps more the sentiment):

 

 

[GerateWohl 4,373]

"Now and Then" is nothing, that the Beatles stand for. 

Beatles were brillant, historically relevant, ahead of their time in many ways.

 

This song is pure nostalgia. And just... some song.

 

But basically it's same with religion. So it might work for the Beatles, too.

[Thor 7,521]

 

Alan Simon is a bit of a frustration point for me. The Frenchman early on attracted Supertramp and Alan Parsons guys for his rock operas/concept albums (and many other prog rock legends too), and some of those albums are on the cheesy side (like GAÏA, the EXCALIBUR albums are better). Yet I need to have them because I'm a Supertramp and Alan Parsons completist. However, this one from 2018 is very good indeed. Synths, guitars, some voices and the haunting solos of Supertramp saxophonist John Anthony Helliwell to paint aspects of the cosmos.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

Sounds like the sort of thing I'd enjoy.

I'll check it out, soon as.

[Thor 7,521]

56 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Sounds like the sort of thing I'd enjoy.

I'll check it out, soon as.

 

Please do. I think you'll like some of it, at least!

 

 

I got inspired after the release and talk of the new song. As I said earlier in the thread, I only ever had two Beatles albums, as I was never much of a fan (which is weird, because I'm a huge fan of many artists that were inspired by them, like the aforementioned Supertramp and Alan Parsons): the red album and the blue album. Both copied to cassette from my dad's LP sets some time in the late 80s. The blue album is definitely my favourite of the two, as they move beyond the happy-go-lucky pop songs of their most popular era, and into quite complex soundscapes.

[Jay 37,374]

Now and Then is alright.  Not very memorable

[Marian Schedenig 8,211]

On 20/10/2023 at 10:27 PM, Naïve Old Fart said:

On 20/10/2023 at 2:15 PM, Marian Schedenig said:

I'll have about one week to dig into before Bauhaus Staircase arrives.

 

I've heard good things about this.

It won't be a patch on DAZZLE SHIPS or ARCHITECTURE AND MORALITY, but I'm sure it'll be decent.

 

I've had it on semi repeat for the past two days now. My original introduction to OMD was some singles/best of tape in the early 90s, so I originally knew them for their catchy melodies. Still haven't fully found my way into some of their more unwieldy experimental things like Dazzle Ships, so The Punishment of Luxury has actually become one of my favourites. And I have to say, Bauhaus Staircase is up there with that. It's an excellent album - a great career cap if it really turns out to be their last one, but at the same time it suggests that it would be a shame to stop there.

 

And two of its highlights, Anthropocene and Evolution of Species go well together with Muse's underrated The 2nd Law (the two-part song, not the album).

[Richard Penna 3,695]

My latest pop music interest: Ellie Goulding.

 

I don't think I'll become a fan anytime soon as her newer material just comes across as fluff to me, but Halcyon Days has some nice songs. I heard 'Explosions' playing in a restaurant in the States last month. I was vaguely aware of her from when the London NYE fireworks used 'Burn' some years ago.

 

Also I'm prepping a video montage for my walking group's AGM, and last night I accidentally stumbled upon My Blood, the instrumental version of which turns out to be perfect for an upbeat section.

[Sweeping Strings 2,364]

I really like 'Anything Could Happen'. 

[Richard Penna 3,695]

More than half of this album is in the 'sort of ok' category for me, and that's one of them. But I've been here before - I go from liking one track to liking the entire album just by training my ears better to the overall sound.

[Jay 37,374]

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

Quality.

[Thor 7,521]

 

Not as strong as his amazing 1976 album REBEL, of course (containing the iconic "Music"), but still damn good as a follow-up third album. If you can only have two John Miles albums, it will be REBEL and this.