SR XX: Aqua Teen Shred Force

welp bedtime

James wrote: CinemaZebra wrote: James wrote: Minimalist in terms of VdGG, I mean.  There's barely any solos of any kind on the album.  Nobody takes the limelight.  It's a full band effort.  Hammill was still awesome, of course but he created the VdGG masterpiece with that. By the way, Gabriel and Bern (an old P.A. member) both agree with me as well. I never said Godbluff was over-the-top in a bad way.  That'd be A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers which they never played live... except once when a Belgian Television company forced them into playing it. House With No Door is amazing, yes but it's not subtle at all.  It's a very grim song and it's obviously so. That's my problem with it. It doesn't take any risks. Each track would work better SEPARATELY on other albums, but when they're all placed on the same record it gets kind of repetitive and old after the first side. It also goes on for, dare I say it, too long. I could care less whether it was a "full band effort" or not, the actual music is what matters to me. That's nice. It also doesn't mean that either you or they are right. Hmmm....I might agree here. A Plague takes some getting used to, and it is among the most inconsistent of VDGG's original tracks. I know Hammill wasn't satisfied. I couldn't disagree more. Still Life is very emotional and abandons all subtlety in terms of that path, setting goals and limits that shouldn't be set. House With No Door is VERY subtle, and yet just prog enough for anyone to like it. It's one of VDGG's best. It does take risks though.  They're very subtle risks. Besides, the biggest risk they took was recording an album like that.  We're all used to Hammill being bombastic and often writing silly lyrics due to that fact.  So it was a refreshing change to hear an album where the lyrics were his best and he didn't go over-the-top too much.  We've all heard what the band could do.  Many didn't like it. Still Life for me is too short.   It's the bands most mature album by a long way. How is A House With No Door subtle?  Come on!   It's in the damned title what it's about. Still Life (the track) on the other hand isn't about what you initially think it is about.  It's about Immortality and how it'd be awful living forever. I think you need to listen to it all a bit more closely.  It's not about the music for me, it's about the emotion from the awesome vocals.  I understand where you're coming from with the music but that's because you probably like music more than lyrics.  I hear new things in Still Life every time I hear it.  I get new meanings too.  There's a hell of a lot of metaphors in it.

Not really. It locks itself in a box and doesn't dare open it.

Taking risks outside of previous releases doesn't effect the quality of the actual music of the actual album.

It's a step in the right direction, I couldn't think of anything better to follow Godbluff.

I don't see how titles effect the subtlety of the actual song. But if they do, Child-Like Faith in Childhood's End is WAY less subtle.

True. That doesn't make the song BETTER, though.

Sorry, you lost me at "it's not about the music for me".

Night Colin.

James wrote: I'm very tempted to stop listening to ROVO.  They're starting to annoy me.

If you didn't like them within the first 1-2 minutes, why did you keep listening this long?

Man, Klossa Knapitatet and Maltid are both amazing albums.

I might play some Silent Hill 2 later, haven't done so for a while. It's epic win.

Any Colour You Like wrote: DisgruntledPorcupine wrote: So it is agreed on the complete ownage of Up the Downstair and TSMS. Motion agreed and passed into lore.

I'm pretty sure being in the Shred makes us more juvenile.

You were complaining at how Still Life sounded all a little sub-par musically and didn't take risks and was too long because it was a little repetitive.  That's because it's a lyrical album, not a musical album.  However, it is also a musical album because all the tracks are of a similar style (yet varied enough for it to never actually get boring or same-ish).  That's why it's such an awesome album.  Godbluff is a little bit off in that regard.  You have the more sedate The Undercover Man/Scorched Earth and then the bombastic Arrow and the odd perfection of The Sleepwalkers.  They don't really all go well together.

It's not just about the titles.  A House With No Door is not remotely subtle in its contents either.  I love it, it's awesome and one of their finest tracks.  It's not as subtle as the tracks from Still Life though.

It does not lock itself in any kind of box.  That's your mind doing that.   How are the lyrics of La Rossa, Pilgrims and Still Life stuck inside a box?

ALL OF US PILGRIMS
LA ROSSA FROM HEAD TO TOE

Though the organ monkey screams
as the pipes begin to spit
still he'll go through the dance routines
just as long as he thinks they'll fit,
just as long as he knows that it's dance, smile...or quit.

That's hardly locked in a box.

I have Coma Divine if I want early PT.  But I don't really want early PT either. 

Newer PT is awful though.  Seriously, it is.