Let's give thanks to whomever shot and uploaded this Ween show attended by Rampop and I back in the day.



 

Couple of newish albums lately.

PJ Harvey - I Inside The Old Year Dying



This was quite a bit more electronic than I was expecting, being produced by Flood, but the material is so obviously strong that I have to kepp coming back to see how it all settles over time.  Optimistically, it's almost like PJ is trying her hand at one of Bjork's more meditative albums, but is it as successfully blissful as that suggests?  Occasionally.





Low - Double Exposure



This is from 2018, and I haven't gotten any new Low since easily a decade prior to that.  This is also much more electronic that I expected, or would like, as I don't feel it justly complements the moody, fuzzy brood of their early classic work.  Even their distortion had an acoustic timbre to it, a physical drone with weight and fire.  These electronic crackles just don't suffice.
 

Just so it's on record, in case there is some kind of tech issue going on, I've been missing a lot of these posts because apparently I can't log onto the site on my phone, and so being under the impression that I was logged in (I wasn't, and probably haven't been for over a week), I never saw any indication that there were "new posts".

 

Jinnistan wrote:

crumbsroom wrote:

 

I've been dipping into these new mixes just put out for the 62-66,67-70 sets.  I'm very disappointed to not get a Rubber Soul box instead, which, using this vaunted A.I. extraction technology, could finally enable a quality stereo mix of the record.  Which, if you're familiar, the British is severe left-right separation, without much center, and the American release spackled some reverb and EQ for its "full dimensional stereo", which is either love or hate among collectors.  Since this slightly expanded 62-66 has about half the Rubber Soul album on it (but, sorry, not "You Won't See Me"), it gives a glimpse of how wonderful such a new Rubber Soul mix could have sounded like that's both mouth-watering and deeply frustrating.

I didn't bother making any purchases with these new sets, so I just downloaded a set to hear how they sound.  The second disc of 62-66, from Help to Revolver, is the highlight for me.  The earlier disc one has its moments, but also some frustrations - the "She Loves You" vocals are curiously muted, and I have no idea why "You Can't Do That" is here instead of "If I Fell" or "I Should Have Known Better".  But it really is miraculous to consider the dynamics that this new Peter Jackson sound technology can give to these 2 and 4 track tapes, or even those tapes where the master reels no longer exist.  It opens up quite a field of possibilities.  What wonders could such tech do for such poorly recorded source tapes as "Dream Baby", "Beautiful Dreamer", the Star Club tapes?  There is one tape from around the summer of 1961, from when the band returned from their second Hamburg visit.  We know the tape exists because McCartney personally purchased it from the owner at auction.  It's probably a hand-held, reel-to-reel recording, probably sounds awful.  But hey.  Who knows?

Really would have liked that Rubber Soul box though.

I've always been under the impression that my copy of Rubber Soul was the American release (as it has all the non-traditional tracks), but it definitely has an extremely severe left/right speaker separation between the instruments. Virtually unlistenable on headphones, which is what I use most of the time now as not to wake my household with my late nights.


 

crumbsroom wrote:

Just so it's on record, in case there is some kind of tech issue going on, I've been missing a lot of these posts because apparently I can't log onto the site on my phone, and so being under the impression that I was logged in (I wasn't, and probably haven't been for over a week), I never saw any indication that there were "new posts".

I don't use the mobile mode, but I think Rock does.  If anyone else is having difficulty logging in through mobile, I'll send a message to Boardhost.

crumbsroom wrote:

It has taken me a long time to get into that Low record. I'm not terribly familiar (at all) with any of their other work, so I can't compare it to what came before, but slowly its slow warbling strangeness has begun to settle on me. Don't love it, but I'm now firmly in the 'like' zone.

Definitely check out the earlier stuff from the 90s, from labels like Vernon Yard and Kranky (the latter ones produced by Steve Albini).  I Could Live in Hope, The Curtain Hits the Cast, Things We Lost in the Fire and EPs like Songs for a Dead Pilot and Murderer.  I think the 2007 Drums and Guns is the last one I had before this newer one, so I don't know at what time in the past decade they decided to shift their sould to something more electronic, but I don't feel it holds a candle.

crumbsroom wrote:

I've always been under the impression that my copy of Rubber Soul was the American release (as it has all the non-traditional tracks), but it definitely has an extremely severe left/right speaker separation between the instruments. Virtually unlistenable on headphones, which is what I use most of the time now as not to wake my household with my late nights.

My original copy is the American mono (my mom's copy) which is my preference.  I've mentioned before, my concept of Rubber Soul necessitates "I've Just Seen a Face", and I think delegating that song to a deep side 2 track on Help is a disservice.  I can appreciate the intended British form of Rubber Soul for what it is, but it'll never be my Rubber Soul.

crumbsroom wrote:

Still have yet to hear a bad Morrison album. Or, honestly, anything less than very good.

I think we've discussed Hard Nose the Highway before.  At my most generous, I don't think I can go higher than merely "good".  Period of Transition is not good.  Out of the 80s albums, I don't think Avalon Sunset is very good, but I haven't listened to all of them.  There's at least a handful of these later Van albums that I simply find boring or unmemorable, including some live stuff.  I'm frankly afraid of picking up any of his more recent stuff due to their poor reputation.

I use Chrome on my phone, and it still won't allow me to log in.
Well, it allows me to enter my email and password, but as soon as I do, it logs me right back out.