tree_ wrote:I just wonder if people actually like Ed's voice as it is now, or if it's at least mostly because of their history loving the band, their investments and memories that have clouded their judgment. I wonder how many of you who claim to love Ed's voice in this new song, if it were the first time you were hearing this singer's voice, if you'd feel the same about it. I also wonder if I'm missing something. Maybe there is something in my brain that reacts to a frequency other people aren't hearing or something.
That's an impossible hypothetical question to answer. I'll use Michael Stipe as an example. No Time For Love Like Now is a solo song he wrote a few years ago. Would I fall in love because of REM because of that song? I can't say. But there are things happening in it, even though Stipe is not at the height of his powers, that make my heart swell. Notes he hits, or almost hits, that trigger pleasure centers in my brain. And that's not simply because I like Michael Stipe. He is actively doing the work, and I haven't liked the rest of his limited solo output so it's not automatic. The love is genuine. But it's informed by history
E.H. Ruddock wrote:So this far in to a band's career, and no one can be critical of any of it? You like every single song? So this thread should just be a jizz fest about the song? That seems more like the Pit. I like this song, but I also like hearing why others may not like it. I did like it in 06, but didn't in 13, but do in 24. But I'm not going to like ALL of the songs, does that make me a bad fan? Sorry, but saying one is wasting keyboard miles or brain space just because it may not be their "In My Tree" (awful song btw), is a bad take.
Must you love every song? Certainly not. Is that really what you gleaned from my post?
All opinions welcome, all insights appreciated...Fantastic.
Post after post of the same? Not so much...
yeah
literally nobody is doing what you're saying they're doing, Ruddock; we all hoped that we wouldn't be disappointed, and most of us are unpacking why we aren't disappointed; if that sounds like cult mentality to you, you need to go out and "touch grass", as the kiddos say now
I'm not the one that said cult mentality! It was tree! or someone! I'm just defending people wanting to come here and say they don't like the song. Which I love by the way! Jeez. Tough crowd.
OK fair, but I'm just contesting the idea that those people need defending; we can let them exist without proverbially going ahead of them in the crowd and making everyone part like the red sea to make room for them; and this forum has always had a paranoid-level obsession with not being like the pit, but 80-odd percent of people talking about how much they like something is not the same thing when the nerdy analysis has always been much better here to begin with
Strat wrote:Everything on lightning bolt, and to an extent Gigaton, felt punched in. Each member coming in at their scheduled time to record their part.
This song feels and sounds like a band all playing off eachother live. Compressed and mastered to death or not....
Strat wrote:Everything on lightning bolt, and to an extent Gigaton, felt punched in. Each member coming in at their scheduled time to record their part.
This song feels and sounds like a band all playing off eachother live. Compressed and mastered to death or not....
r u still mad at me
No I love you. You're staying with us in Baltimore
tree_ wrote:I just wonder if people actually like Ed's voice as it is now, or if it's at least mostly because of their history loving the band, their investments and memories that have clouded their judgment. I wonder how many of you who claim to love Ed's voice in this new song, if it were the first time you were hearing this singer's voice, if you'd feel the same about it. I also wonder if I'm missing something. Maybe there is something in my brain that reacts to a frequency other people aren't hearing or something.
Sounds to me like you have some kind of problem with Eddie that's not actually related to how he sounds.
E.H. Ruddock wrote:
I'm not the one that said cult mentality! It was tree! or someone! I'm just defending people wanting to come here and say they don't like the song. Which I love by the way! Jeez. Tough crowd.
Your favorite sushi restaurant is certainly entitled a few off nights over the years, but, if you go there year after year, despite not having enjoyed a meal there in two decades, I might begin to question why you still frequent the place. That's all I was saying.
I think it's fairly reasonable to question why one would waste their energy after a while.
I don't loiter outside of my local restaurants informing patrons that "this place used to be much better." I simply stop going and eat someplace I still do enjoy.
Last edited by oneway23 on Tue February 13, 2024 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
We still make records to be listened to — not that everyone will listen to a record track one to twelve in a row or side A or Side B — but we still make 'em in case somebody does want to listen to it like that, that's how we make em…
tree_ wrote:I just wonder if people actually like Ed's voice as it is now, or if it's at least mostly because of their history loving the band, their investments and memories that have clouded their judgment. I wonder how many of you who claim to love Ed's voice in this new song, if it were the first time you were hearing this singer's voice, if you'd feel the same about it. I also wonder if I'm missing something. Maybe there is something in my brain that reacts to a frequency other people aren't hearing or something.
Sounds to me like you have some kind of problem with Eddie that's not actually related to how he sounds.
Oh, it's the way he sounds. I don't know how he gets away with it.
tree_ wrote:I just wonder if people actually like Ed's voice as it is now, or if it's at least mostly because of their history loving the band, their investments and memories that have clouded their judgment. I wonder how many of you who claim to love Ed's voice in this new song, if it were the first time you were hearing this singer's voice, if you'd feel the same about it. I also wonder if I'm missing something. Maybe there is something in my brain that reacts to a frequency other people aren't hearing or something.
That's an impossible hypothetical question to answer. I'll use Michael Stipe as an example. No Time For Love Like Now is a solo song he wrote a few years ago. Would I fall in love because of REM because of that song? I can't say. But there are things happening in it, even though Stipe is not at the height of his powers, that make my heart swell. Notes he hits, or almost hits, that trigger pleasure centers in my brain. And that's not simply because I like Michael Stipe. He is actively doing the work, and I haven't liked the rest of his limited solo output so it's not automatic. The love is genuine. But it's informed by history
And I think Eddie sounds great on this.
I love this 60 year old rock musician's voice; I don't love it as much as I loved his 30 year old voice, but that went a long time ago; it's not about making a choice between 30 year old Ed, or pure unadulterated shit; we've still got more than good enough
Last edited by Ms Harmless on Tue February 13, 2024 6:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Strat wrote:Everything on lightning bolt, and to an extent Gigaton, felt punched in. Each member coming in at their scheduled time to record their part.
This song feels and sounds like a band all playing off eachother live. Compressed and mastered to death or not....
I agree the interplay is there to hear, but for me it's internalized as an intellectual construct more than a feeling, if that makes sense.
Like, I can listen to the song and say "Oh neat I can hear how their melodic/rhythmic ideas are playing off each other." That's completely different from being able to say "Wow I can actually hear how the dynamics of their playing are in sync."
But do you love it when mikes guitar starts squealing and feedback a few beats before he starts ripping that meaty solo?
spike wrote:fuckin hell, someone make a separate thread to discuss the production values specifically. i can't take it anymore.
My eyes gloss over when I read about production values lol...maybe I'm just an idiot (likely) but I just barely ever notice or think about production value when listening to music. And I hear general complaints about it all the time, not just with PJ but for almost any band of note. But it's never articulated is such a way where it makes a lick of sense to me.
tragabigzanda wrote:I agree with jorge, talking about music -- and I'll add that talking about the technical production aspects of music -- is super fun.
I don't want every artist to sound like an Albini project. I love records by Boards of Canada, Carly Rae Jepsen, Haim, Kendrick Lamar, Daft Punk...
But when a band that built its fanbase on the idiosyncratic musical connection of their personalities, and un-fussed production, to create music that felt immediate and raw, I think it's warranted and downright healthy to say "Why does suck?", and then try to pinpoint why exactly it sucks.
But this song feels EXACTLY "immediate and raw" to me, so while I could gripe about production, I don't really need to, and I am happy that is my experience, even as I have no intention of invalidating your own.
Strat wrote:Guys, you're all fine. I think we're all just trying to tell tree to shut the fuck up. Which is what ends up happening in most threads he posts in across the board.
Jorge wrote:Is anyone really harping against this song so hard? I've only read a couple pages of this thread but there seem to be more posts lamenting negative opinions than actual negative opinions
we all have established our own characters as posters during an album rollout, like it all could be a stageplay; and this is definitely a Jorge post
tree_ wrote:I just wonder if people actually like Ed's voice as it is now, or if it's at least mostly because of their history loving the band, their investments and memories that have clouded their judgment. I wonder how many of you who claim to love Ed's voice in this new song, if it were the first time you were hearing this singer's voice, if you'd feel the same about it.
This is so condescending. We like his voice, now and then.
Strat wrote:Guys, you're all fine. I think we're all just trying to tell tree to shut the fuck up. Which is what ends up happening in most threads he posts in across the board.
