What are you listening to?

[PDH]

Tool - Ænema

[Syt]

Horisont - Odyssey (album)

The retro prog rock genre is getting a bit crowded these days. But this is quite excellent. It's concept-ish, a "space saga," and if you like 1970s hard rock with a bit of retr sci-fi, then this might be worth checking out (it's on Spotify).



And they've made a glorious video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcg8S5nPN-M

[The Brain]

Sweden has a lot of bands.

[Syt]

Every Swede is a member of 3 bands, minimum.

[garbon]

Marina and the Diamonds – Are You Satisfied?

[Admiral Yi]

Speaking of Sweden, anyone else read about the preponderance of middle aged Scandinavians writing current chart hits?  I've read two articles about it, one in The Atlantic and one in the NYT.

[The Brain]

Speaking of Sweden, anyone else read about the preponderance of middle aged Scandinavians writing current chart hits?  I've read two articles about it, one in The Atlantic and one in the NYT.

Like Max Martin and similar? What did the rags say?

[Admiral Yi]

Like Max Martin and similar? What did the rags say?

That the number of Scandinavians is weird and that they just rewrite the same songs over and over.

[The Brain]

Like Max Martin and similar? What did the rags say?

That the number of Scandinavians is weird and that they just rewrite the same songs over and over.

Weird?

[Savonarola]

David Bowie - David Bowie (1967)

Everyone has to start somewhere and Mr. Jones's first album is... different.  The songs lie somewhere between British music hall, British middle of the road music, and just plain Britishness.  The album isn't good, but it isn't dull, thanks largely to the fact that most of the songs seem to have been written by a crazy person.  The most unforgettable track is Please Mr. Gravedigger which is a duet for voice and sound effects.  As a strange coincidence, the album was released the same day as "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

[Savonarola]

Gino Parks - Blibberin' Blabbin' Blues (1961)

Well so long as you're ripping off people, you might as well keep going.  Here Motown makes an almost identical song to Yakety Yak by the Coasters.  This isn't quite as blatant as "Tomorrow and Always," at least they didn't use the same lyrics this time through.  It's actually not a Gino Parks solo record, but a trio of Gino Parks, Henry Lumpkin and Robert Bateman of the Satintones.  Motown had, at this time, thought of making Motown's answer to "The Coasters," which makes their rip-off that much worse.

The B side Don't Say Bye Bye had already been released as a B-side by Ron and Bill for the single "It."  It's sort of an Everly Brothers song as sung by The Coasters.

[Eddie Teach]

Weird?

They should stick to cross-country skiing.

[Tamas]

Just recently found a very touching song from an American rock band Ignite.

Their singer was born in the US from Hungarian parents, and in this singing in Hungarian (with a bit of accent), about good memories of his grandma and the village his family is from, and how we should not forget our roots. Needless to say my immigrant soul can relate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AR3zLYx9XU

[Syt]

Isao Tomita - Star Wars

[Savonarola]

David Bowie - Space Oddity (Album)

This is light years ahead of his first album; while it isn't quite the masterpiece of most of his 70s output, the songs are all good enough that the album is listenable.  You can start to hear his themes develop here; the Messiah figure on "Cygnet Committee" or the fluid persona in "Janine."  There's some duds (the orchestration in "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" ruin the song, I don't care for the Bob Dylan freakout at the end of "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed,") and none of the songs live up to the title track.  Still I think it's a good album overall.