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Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

- A local rock station is having a "one-hit wonder weekend". Their commercial featured a montage of the usual suspects: Blind Melon, Spacehog, Marcy Playground, Seven Mary Three, Silverchair, etc. The snippet of Silverchair's "Tomorrow" amused me; here's why:

1. As a moderate fan who enjoys their albums, it's hard to consider them a "one-hit wonder" (although, I can see why they're put in this category - unfortunate as it may be).

2. In Austrailia, Silverchair are the greatest thing since sliced cheese (countless awards, numerous gold records), but over here in the west they're viewed as a Nirvana clone, if they're even viewed at all (most people don't even know that the band is still around). It's funny how a band that's been together for 13/14 years can be viewed so differently depending on where you are in the world.

3. Further to #1, their 2002 album "Diorama" is amazing. Cinematic, orchestral, sweeping, epic. Pick your adjective. Produced by David Bottrill (producer of Tool and King Crimson) and with arrangements courtesy of Van Dyke Parks, it's the album that all of the aforementioned Canadian/American ignoramus' should listen to. Artistically, it's so far beyond their debut record that it's comparable to the difference OK Computer and Pablo Honey.

- Coldplay's new album drops in May or June. Eno is producing, and it's being called "the album people will remember them by". Expectations are high. Just for fun, we should make some predictions now - how will it be ranked by year's end?

a) best album of the year
b) in the top five
c) 5-10
d) 11-20
e) 21-50
f) not at all

- I came across an old newspaper article in which a moderately successful Canadian musician said this about his music listening habits:

"Every record I buy, if it's a good record, will end up being tied to a month. If I buy it in April, I won't listen to it until the next April."

He called it a "soundtrack by month" approach, and said it makes the audio experience all the more powerful because it evokes the memories and feelings connected to the previous listens and the events surrounding his life at the time.

I'm wondering.... does anyone here have certain albums that are tied to specific seasons? (eg. "winter albums", "spring albums", etc.) If so, what are they?

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

you know, i've never really paid all that much attention to silverchair, despite living in australia... maybe i should...

as for coldplay... well i'll decide where it will come when i hear it haha. it would be nice to hear another good album by them.

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

I can think of no better example of what Anthony talks about in #2 than Dexy's Midnight Runners. In the U.K. and the rest of Europe, they're clearly one of the most critically acclaimed bands of their era; all three of their albums are in the AM top 2000. In the U.S., they're a one-hit wonder, and a memorably annoying one at that; the satirical newspaper THE ONION ran a headline just last week that read: "Mugger Chooses Guy Humming 'Come on Eileen'". Anyone who only knows that song (which amazingly managed to hit #1 here in 1983) would, probably, be stunned by SEARCHING FOR THE YOUNG SOUL REBELS. I know I was.

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

Prefab Sprout, too

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

Anthony wrote: Does anyone here have certain albums that are tied to specific seasons?


I have. I never listen to Dodgy's Free Peace Sweet, unless on barbecues in the summer. It's a great barbecue album.

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

Pet Sounds is great on a bitter cold winter day...

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

Joy Division and the Smiths when depressed - no wonder they're 2 of my favourite artists

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

I love listening to favorite albums and trying to remember the magical first few listens.

Like the unforgettable time I heard The Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" for the first time (on a sunday morning, even). I don't know what that song evokes for you, but for me it's from a special place of the same dreamworld as The Beatles' "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" and The Beach Boys' "Surf's Up".

And then hearing "I'm Waiting For The Man" right afterwards, a bit of a shock. At the time, everything other than "Sunday Morning" seemed rough, ragged, underproduced.

"Sunday Morning" was actually produced better, given its status as a single, but now I can't hear the formerly jarring production difference at all. The songs flow seamlessly, but they've lost precious bits of their charm.

"I'm Waiting For The Man" is no longer the sun-soaked crunchy banana-nuanced story that it was before. (You can't hear the banans, nor can you smell them, but you know they're somewhere around the corner. It was the song that made me think of the cover banana the most.)

"Femme Fatale" no longer takes me to a strange, mysterious, dark suite with expensive wine, flowers and perfume, and the promise of danger.

"Venus In Furs," the most mystical song on that album, like some ancient ritual of sin, its words hanging in the air like twirling bonfires, isn't so enchanting anymore.

"Run Run Run" is hard to remember. It always felt gravelly, but more like some sticky candy that fell to the ground, and then you picked it up and it was covered in dirt.

"All Tomorrow's Parties," strange anthem of midnight inside light, and pillows and cushions that are out of place.

And "Heroin." Damn, that was my favorite song on the album by far. I had never heard anything like it. Each drumbeat the beating of your heart, as you live your life meaninglessly, drifting from place to place, never knowing what you're looking for but you're looking for something, and then someday you find something, and from the hazy life you were wandering in before, you fall inside a part of yourself that doesn't even exist in reality. And it's all a lie now, and you know it, and you love it. And then you want to die, but you're tired of life, let alone death. You just want something as usual, and you're reaching for it, and it's what you've always done before, and then you feel good from all the confusion, and you collapse collapsing on yourself inside-out.

Every single second of that song was a miracle of emotion.

"There She Goes," a pop confection so perfect that it took 10 listens to even think it was any good. And then you realize that, despite its simplicity, it's too strange to understand.

And then "I'll Be Your Mirror." Such a beautiful love song, sung by the femme fatale. Because how can you hear "Femme Fatale" and not think it's Nico? So you know the love song is as fake it gets, and that's why it's so wonderful.

"The Black Angel's Death Song". This is where it got so weird. This is like the black angel himself having the little bluedevils we call the blues for short, but he doesn't play the guitar because it would be too easy. Lou doesn't make any sense on this one, but it's not like he's even there.

And finally, "European Son". The one song that never made any sense whatsoever to me. But it's constantly falling apart, and I have no idea what's going on and I'm loving it. It's like a nightmare so cute that you can't help but forgive it.

It's all gone. VU & Nico is just an overblown mess of an album now, and it's lovely, but it doesn't mean anything to me anymore unless I try really hard.

But when I try really hard, it falls into place beautifully.

I just need to remember to do it more often.

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

If you want to kick life into Venus in Furs again, you should read the book, by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the founding father of masochism. It's a great book. I've read it twice.

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

Since this is the grab bag, who gave the Bon Iver album a try? I did, and I love it. A strong contender for my album of the year, and a lot of good albums would have to be released to knock this out of the top 5.

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

Bon Iver, eh? Nope, haven't heard it yet. I'm reading good things though (but isn't it an '07 release?)

"..like Marvin Gaye after a couple trips to the backyard still."

Cool!

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

Yeah, I think he released it himself in 2007 but it was released under a record label this February.

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

I've had high hopes for Coldplay since Parachutes. They seemed ready to take the whiny white boy crown from Radiohead (who moved to electro-dabble) but quickly became the stooges of rock radio. They're like The Killers for people who like Elton John more than Duran Duran. They need a serious creativity injection, even if it means isolating the more pop-friendly fans.

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

jonmarck – I agree (although, Rush of Blood is pretty damn good at times).

The problem with Coldplay is that they took a serious wrong turn with X&Y; they incorrectly assumed that people wanted more of their pop side than their experimental side (which isn’t really that experimental, but it’s on the right track at least), so they released an entire album of MOR fluff.

They need to stop trying to please everyone. Hopefully this is the record where they start.

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

Commenting on Silverchair, I don't think most of their stuff holds up very well today. It all seems really dated except for Tomorrow and that's why they get the one hit wonder tag. Everything else sounds like an imitation of everything else that came out when they released it. They were a pretty interesting story when they came out though. Those songs were pretty good for a band comprised of 15 year olds.

Almost every one hit wonder band still has a good fanbase that will argue that the catalog should be listened to...and they are right most of the time, it's just that it's not interesting enough when there is so much other music out there.

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

John - agreed. Early Silverchair is derivitive and shit (what else do you expect from 15 year olds?!)

If you're not going try Diorama, then at least just sample one song from that album - "Tuna in the Brine". I challenge you to listen to it and tell me it sounds like the same band that put out Frogstomp.

Re: Saturday Grab Bag/Coldplay Album Predictions

I've heard all of Silverchair's stuff. Late Silverchair doesn't sound like early Silverchair but it still hopped on the trends of the time. I'm not saying it's bad. It's ok music it just isn't that surprising that they are a one hit wonder. I actually like some other songs on Frogstomp like Isreal's Song and Pure Massacre more than the stuff on Neon Ballroom or Diorama.