The race is almost run

[mippy.livejournal.com]

OK, I've just had a claws-out argument with someone about The Days of Pearly Spencer. I love it, and told said person. "Mark Almond? Seriously? You are fucking weird. That's a terrible record. Mark Almond? This is some sick joke, right?' Then I was sent an mp3 of Peter Allen's I Go To Rio as my 'punishment', along with 'I played this AND Pearly Spencer on my student radio station as part of 'it's so bad, it's good...' 

I really love Pearly Spencer. I may have to re-evaluate my friendship in the light of this. But never mind that. I love MacArthur Park, because it's so over the top, it's wonderful. I love Pearly Spencer for much the same reasons - sheer melodrama - but sincerely; it's in the same category as ABC's All Of My Heart, PSB's It's A Sin, and some other records by acronym groups. I wouldn't go as far to say 'If you don't understand this record, you don't understand MOI!' and stomp off to my room to play my tapes, but really, it's not kitsch fodder, is it?

So, questions for discussion:

1. Which records can you genuinely not understand people disliking, somehow?
2. 'So bad it's good' - pop snobbism getting in the way of TEH TUNEZ?

Please write on both sides of the paper at once.

 

 

 

Comments

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

dude "days of PS" is aces, as is most of that alBUM, although i think the version of jackie is my fave though.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for marc almond though, i mean, who doesn't???

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Is this the same 'Pearly Spencer' as referred to on the ace nu Kompakt Total 7? By The Modernist?

It's probably my least fave on the compilation but even then it's not that bad...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I always find it RLY fascinating when a quite innocuous record attracts this kind of OMG YOU KITSCHSTER FULES ire.

On ILX recently I mentioned my liking of "Lean On Me" by Red Box and was accused of making some incomprehensible hipster taste-move! RED BOX!

Anyway I honestly can't imagine how people could dislike most of the canonical pop I like. I have a failure of imagination I think because clearly a lot of people do. I think it's more that I can't understand how people could see catchiness (say) as a bad thing.

I don't mind so bad its good really - it's a way into good after all. I prefer so bad it's OMG or so OMG its good, though.

[pink-weasel.livejournal.com]

I genuinely like all of Cliff Richard's records but I regularly encounter people who are too concerned with being cool to even consider listening to one. Their loss.

I'm slightly too embarassed to carry a Cliff Richard handbag though.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Actually this song may not be the best example for this *cough* theory, but still I THINK MAYBE:

For many people, including those Fond of Pop in General, songs that sound, or are, from a slightly, but not very, alien pop tradition can easily sound overkitsch. I'm reminded of the discussion after Tom's Popular entry on "Those Were the Days", where someone who absolutely hated it also hated "Seasons in the Sun". These songs have a quite identifiable national style, meaning among other things that they don't fit in very well with our expectation of what "pop" *should* sound like in our days *or*, possibly, when they came out. Still, they're not alien enough ("Kiss Kiss", "Mundian to bach ke") that they are seen as groundbreaking or exciting, or even properly exotic.

This song in particular is by an Irish folk/rock writer, though -- but with those swirly strings + Almond's cabaret/chanson stylings and history it may possibly hit the same spot with people?

marc (cover version) almond

[(Anonymous)]

Why the hell are people even TALKING about Marc Almond, when all his pathetic cover versions pale into insignificance when compared to the original recordings?? Anyone with half an ear can recognise that the original versions of "Days of Pearly Spencer" and "Tainted Love" wipe the floor with that mincing pratt's efforts. That's all there is to it.