Giuseppe Zangara

Ha, you just named two of the three songs on there I like.

Most of it comes off so phony and fake. Granted, Brian Wilson really was depressed/crazy, but, even knowing that, I've never been able to buy into the lyrical content of Pet Sounds; yes, w/r/t the sound of the album—in both its production and melodies—he knew his way around the studio and a thing or two about songcraft, but he's a very unconvincing actor. This is just a personal distaste; I don't blame anyone for loving the album and can at least see why lots of people do. Just not me.

Also, I know hating on this album is an uphill, largely futile affair, so I generally keep quiet about it whenever it comes up in conversation, other than to say "I don't like it" when asked.

The Hallmark sentimentality of the whole thing, I suppose. I never really cared for the album outside of a few songs, but recent, repeated exposure to it did nothing other than fray my nerves. And yes, I know the vocal harmonies employed on this album were fairly revolutionary at the time, but they do little to disguise what is little more than fluff.

I've recently come to hate Pet Sounds.

On the upside, it was still better than Joanna Newsom, which I paused in order to watch it.

No one's saying there's anything wrong with humor in music, but the "golly gosh isn't Weird Al the best and greatest?!?!?!"-type comments in this thread are ridiculous. And I just watched that video for "Don't Download This Song." The song is like something a particularly clever middle schooler would've come up with.

Edwin did a pretty thorough evisceration up there, so I've little to add other than reiterate that I cannot understand why anyone, post-puberty, still gets something out of him. And I loved Weird Al when I was a kid.

As much as I enjoy Stop Making Sense, the only real improvement over any of the material's studio counterparts is the use of live drums on "Girlfriend is Better." So much funkier than the bloodless Speaking in Tongues take.

What's it to you?

Oh, oops, that came out 9-14-2001. My bad.

The first is half is seriously hampered by those squiggly, cheesy synth lines all throught the songs; just because MES is fucking the girl playing them doesn't mean she should be in the band. So, I like when the synthesizer disappears for most of the second half. And "Blindness" and "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" are pretty great.

The Fall - Fall Heads Roll Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star Smog - Dongs of Sevotion

Did the board do a System Restore back to 2003?

LMDOB is everything that's great about TMR, in about half the time. It hasn't been in print on cd since the late 80s, for whatever reason. Finding it on vinyl (which is what I have) isn't hard if you know where to look.

Since I mentioned 1998 up there, I was inspired to try and think what I considered my all-time favorite album then, had I been asked. I likely would've said Clouds Taste Metallic—which was three years old at the time—however, it's nowhere near a threat to the number one spot now. Not that I think the album hasn't aged well—I still enjoy it—but I'd been exposed to far less music then than now. Youth and/or inexperience definitely plays a part.

So does Weezer! And really, how many songs out there are called "Crazy?" allmusic lists 994 occurences; a lot of those are repeats, sure, but we'll be generous and say six hundred of those are duplicates. That would still leave you with 394 different songs called "Crazy."

Sometimes that high synth on "Red" grates on my nerves, but the guitar tone there is just so rough and gorgeous that it doesn't matter.

People here picking albums that are only a couple of years old, I dunno. It might just be me, but it takes years usually before I can say something is absolutely one of my favorites. I first heard Rain Dogs in 1998, and even though I loved it right away, it wasn't until five or six years later that I could comfortably call it my favorite album. But then I'm rarely at ease with lists that rank things so subjectively.

Right now, I'm leaning toward LTIA, if only for Jamie Muir's percussion work. The clanging, junkyard sound—which I fell for when I first got into Tom Waits so many years ago—has a soft spot in my heart. (I also really love the second part of the title track, which gives "Frame by Frame" serious competition for my favorite KC song.)

When I get home, I'm going to dust off my copy of Lick My Decals Off, Baby. Been awhile, and I always liked it better than Trout Mask Replica. Or at least found it easier to listen to.

Hey, I initially regretted hitting Post New Topic on that Your All-Time Favorite Album thread, but it's getting some decent conversation going, so it worked out well.

I had a fairly big turnaround on Blueberry Boat. Not the good kind, no, as I was initially enamored with its labyrinthine twists and turns and its cheeky melodies and lyrics. After about a month with it, I found my interest waning during the latter portion of the album—not as Wacky And Crazy, those shorter songs—which, in turn, grew into a dissatisfaction with the album as a whole. I couldn't get the idea out of my head that it was all one big joke, that the Friedbergers were in matching top hat and tails, hyped on sugar, shuffling off to Buffalo, writing songs about, well, something. Not sure what, now, as I haven't listened to the album in two years.

Edwin once started this thread and apologized for it a few posts in.