Red Mosquito

Birds in Hell wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:I still say No. 4 is their best-produced album. I think it sounds magnificent.

I also find it seriously unpleasant and virtually unlistenable for any length of time.

Birds in Hell wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:I still say No. 4 is their best-produced album. I think it sounds magnificent.

I also find it seriously unpleasant and virtually unlistenable for any length of time.

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:I still say No. 4 is their best-produced album. I think it sounds magnificent.

I also find it seriously unpleasant and virtually unlistenable for any length of time.

I don't really get this? It's big and deep and booming. Killer-sounding rock music. It doesn't seem to be brickwalled or anything, just loud and heavy.

Birds in Hell wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:I still say No. 4 is their best-produced album. I think it sounds magnificent.

I also find it seriously unpleasant and virtually unlistenable for any length of time.

I don't really get this? It's big and deep and booming. Killer-sounding rock music. It doesn't seem to be brickwalled or anything, just loud and heavy.

I haven't bothered to check out a waveform but it sounds like a complete brick of shit, there's no remote sense of depth or dynamics. It's dry and dead.

Purple sounds absolutely mammoth in comparison.

LoathedVermin72 wrote:Ha, Dumb Love and Coma are my favorites by far.

tragabigzanda wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

Birds in Hell wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:Ha, Dumb Love and Coma are my favorites by far.

Dumb Love is so good.

PHATJ wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:I still say No. 4 is their best-produced album. I think it sounds magnificent.

I also find it seriously unpleasant and virtually unlistenable for any length of time.

I don't really get this? It's big and deep and booming. Killer-sounding rock music. It doesn't seem to be brickwalled or anything, just loud and heavy.

I haven't bothered to check out a waveform but it sounds like a complete brick of shit, there's no remote sense of depth or dynamics. It's dry and dead.

Purple sounds absolutely mammoth in comparison.

Dead on.

tragabigzanda wrote:

PHATJ wrote:A full review of Shangri-La is expected, trag. Just give it a lot of listens. It wasn't the type of album that immediately satisfied me, but as I gave it room to grow, it just perfectly came into focus. Songs that didn't do much for me initially eventually become songs that I now love to listen to. That was a very rewarding experience, and it wouldn't have happened without repeated spins.

So I finally followed through on this. Got a used copy, have given it a few spins over the last couple days. Very mixed feelings on it...

On the one hand, I think the psychedlia-tinged pop they're doing here is some of their best stuff ever. Great melodies, great sense of space.
On the other, the hard rock songs range from awful to pretty good, but don't ever seem to touch their best heavy tracks.

Dumb Love: Man do I HATE this one. It's everything bad about late 90s radio rock, and it's the album opener.

Days of the Week: Man do I LOVE this one. The chord textures are great, the lyrics are pretty solid ("Tuesday, shoot me in the head" is a great line).

Coma: This is middle-of-the-road. I dig the Tom Morello-lite sound on the guitar, and the chorus is pretty good. But overall, it's not amazing.

Hollywood Bitch: Hate the verse, love the chorus. It's sort of a microcosm for my feelings on the entire album.

Wonderful: This is a great one. It's well-worn territory for them, but they find something fresh with the tremolo guitars and background harmonies. It's almost dream-poppy, and it fits them well.

Black Again: It's almost the same song as Wonderful, and that's fine by me. I think I like this one better, but putting these two together feels right.

Hello It's Late: And then a third one in the same vein...and it works! These three mellow, psychedelic pop songs in a row are the high point of the album for me.

Too Cool Queenie: The energy picks up a bit more on this one, but it's still pretty listener-friendly. This is probably my 2nd favorite song right now, after Days of the Week.

Regeneration: This sounds like it belongs on No. 4, which is my favorite STP album. Like this one a lot, I suspect it will continue to grow.

Bi-Polar Bear: Don't really have a good sense of this one yet, will have to keep listening.

Transmissions From a Lonely Room: I sort of dislike this one. It sort of reminds me of a less annoying version of that awful Janes Addiction song that plays over the Entourage credits.

A Song for Sleeping: This is the most divisive song for me. It's a pretty song, and the sentiment is nice. But I can't divorce Scott's lyrics about his son from the statement his wife made after his death; the sentiment rings as completely false to me. I'm sure he did have the emotion of love for his son, but by his wife's account he didn't actively love him, not in the engaged-father sort of way. Knowing that completely drags this song down for me.

Long Way Home: This one is awesome. It's the best heavy song on the record, and it makes for a great album closer.

All things considered, I like this album, but I'll hold off one saying "love" or even "like it a lot." The nice thing is that I bought it on CD, which means it will get a ton of play, because CDs are the only way we can listen to music in our Jeep, and I got rid of 99% of my CD collection a few years ago.

tragabigzanda wrote:

PHATJ wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:

PHATJ wrote:A full review of Shangri-La is expected, trag. Just give it a lot of listens. It wasn't the type of album that immediately satisfied me, but as I gave it room to grow, it just perfectly came into focus. Songs that didn't do much for me initially eventually become songs that I now love to listen to. That was a very rewarding experience, and it wouldn't have happened without repeated spins.

So I finally followed through on this. Got a used copy, have given it a few spins over the last couple days. Very mixed feelings on it...

On the one hand, I think the psychedlia-tinged pop they're doing here is some of their best stuff ever. Great melodies, great sense of space.
On the other, the hard rock songs range from awful to pretty good, but don't ever seem to touch their best heavy tracks.

Dumb Love: Man do I HATE this one. It's everything bad about late 90s radio rock, and it's the album opener.

Days of the Week: Man do I LOVE this one. The chord textures are great, the lyrics are pretty solid ("Tuesday, shoot me in the head" is a great line).

Coma: This is middle-of-the-road. I dig the Tom Morello-lite sound on the guitar, and the chorus is pretty good. But overall, it's not amazing.

Hollywood Bitch: Hate the verse, love the chorus. It's sort of a microcosm for my feelings on the entire album.

Wonderful: This is a great one. It's well-worn territory for them, but they find something fresh with the tremolo guitars and background harmonies. It's almost dream-poppy, and it fits them well.

Black Again: It's almost the same song as Wonderful, and that's fine by me. I think I like this one better, but putting these two together feels right.

Hello It's Late: And then a third one in the same vein...and it works! These three mellow, psychedelic pop songs in a row are the high point of the album for me.

Too Cool Queenie: The energy picks up a bit more on this one, but it's still pretty listener-friendly. This is probably my 2nd favorite song right now, after Days of the Week.

Regeneration: This sounds like it belongs on No. 4, which is my favorite STP album. Like this one a lot, I suspect it will continue to grow.

Bi-Polar Bear: Don't really have a good sense of this one yet, will have to keep listening.

Transmissions From a Lonely Room: I sort of dislike this one. It sort of reminds me of a less annoying version of that awful Janes Addiction song that plays over the Entourage credits.

A Song for Sleeping: This is the most divisive song for me. It's a pretty song, and the sentiment is nice. But I can't divorce Scott's lyrics about his son from the statement his wife made after his death; the sentiment rings as completely false to me. I'm sure he did have the emotion of love for his son, but by his wife's account he didn't actively love him, not in the engaged-father sort of way. Knowing that completely drags this song down for me.

Long Way Home: This one is awesome. It's the best heavy song on the record, and it makes for a great album closer.

All things considered, I like this album, but I'll hold off one saying "love" or even "like it a lot." The nice thing is that I bought it on CD, which means it will get a ton of play, because CDs are the only way we can listen to music in our Jeep, and I got rid of 99% of my CD collection a few years ago.

So glad you checked it out trag. I almost posted in this thread 3-4 times in the last week or two to ask you about it. The heavier songs on this album took a lot more time for me than any of the others. But once they had enough plays and time to settle into my mind, they really started to click. I fucking hated Dumb Love, Coma and Long Way Home for quite a while. Then (out of nowhere) they just clicked, and jumped up massively. I don't know why I hated them, and I don't know what changed, but something surely did. Familiarity maybe.

Glad you are digging Regeneration. The first two plus minutes of that song hit my sweet spot. The lyrics in the bridge are stupid, but I can overlook that. The way the second verse comes out of the first chorus makes me (*looking for boner smiley*)...

Yea, it definitely could be a grower. The only one I really hate is the opener, and the others ones could reveal themselves over time. I will be listening regularly...

But I don't have to listen to the self-titled one now, do I? I've only heard bad things.

Kalevi wrote:I think ST is a charming record with many inartful imperfections