badly-phrased q bcs I am hungover and preoccupied, sorry!

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

alexmacpherson says on his LJ that the Tori Amos album might make his top 5 albums of the year list, but "suspect[s] this is only because it's her". I thought this might be an interesting idea to bat about.

- have you ever bought a record by your favourite act KNOWING that it was going to be a bit crap, but "because it's them" had to have it? I guess this is a question really about dissecting yr loyalties - for example, I buy every album that Kristin Hersh makes. The last few haven't, if I'm honest, been all that good (though the most recent "Learn To Sing Like A Star" has some truly outstanding stuff on it) but I just sort of feel I OWE her for making some of the most important records in my life, and for being amazing generally. And because she has kids to support and is one of the few people around whose work quite literally IS their life, if you see what I mean, and I think she works hard and is dedicated in a way that, for example, Girls Aloud don't SEEM to (note I say SEEM to, I'm sure they work very hard etc etc). My Kristin-love does not extend to buying 50FootWave records though :(


- at what point do you STOP putting up with sub-par offerings? I bought every REM record up to "Monster" (haha I remember being off school that day and walking up to Woolworths to buy it on cassette even though I thought "What's The Frequency, Kenneth" was a bit sh1t). I tried and tried but really couldn't get into it (tho again, there were a few good tracks). The next time they released an album I didn't buy it and haven't bought one since - I don't know if they lost their magic, or if it was me that had changed, or what!

- who (if anyone) will you always ALWAYS buy every single record by, even if they release a Cliff Richard covers album?

Comments

[cis.livejournal.com]

I am one of those people! I find 1000 Leaves nigh-unbearable and while in general Washing Machine isn't a top favourite, 'little trouble girl' really is. Loving NYCG&F has always felt like my own personal lone-loonyism, though: maybe my mental image of the critical consensus is too affected by that pfork review.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

I can't remember anything specific about NYCG+F at all! Not a solitaty hook o a single line. I have a vague recollection of thinking oh god it's Experimental Jet Set II: Negative Star, but that's it.

[cis.livejournal.com]

...Experimental Jet Set's my favourite! We may have isolated something here.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Aha! I don't hate EJS, but to me it felt v.much like a failed attempt to get back to the EVOLish space that they'd lost over the previous four records.

[cis.livejournal.com]

It was the first SY record I ever owned, so it may have set my mental image of what they sounded like; if EVOL's at all like it I'll have to see if I can find a secondhand copy over here (I used to buy a Sonic Youth record every time I went overseas, so it'd be a nice return to tradition). NYCG&F does have a very similar feel to the fragmentary Kim songs on EJS: I think it does them better, in fact, because they're so much stiller, more uneasy. And it's not just her doing them.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

It also marked the point where Kim's songwriting started losing the plot big style.

[mooxyjoo.livejournal.com]

'nevermind' (with the refrain 'what was it anyway')