Recent comments in /f/Music

LudwigVonPoodle t1_je9bvm1 wrote

Reply to Lyrics or the music? by meganelizabethjade

I used to try to make sense of lyrics, until I read an interview with a guy from REM (maybe it was Michael Stipe, I don’t remember) who said their lyrics were just words they stuck together because they sounded good together.

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FinishTheFish t1_je9b3xy wrote

Reply to Tell me about the concept of an album that you think is brilliant. by akacoline

Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk

After painstakingly trying to recreate the largely improvised music of the smash hit album The Colour of Spring in concerts, Mark Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene of Talk Talk decided to just give up on touring altogether and create the album they were aiming for all the time. Loose sketches of songs were recorded with drums, guitars and a bit of bass. Then they invited an army of guest musicians to improvise upon the tracks for hours on end. The musicians were given no direction whatsoever, they were free to play whatever they felt like, the only rule was to try and not play the same thing twice. Then after that Hollis and Friese-Greene spent months editing down the material. Some musicians played for hours, while only seconds of their contributions made it on to the record, and some contributors never even made it on to the album.

The result was one of the finest and most unique albums ever created, where every piece of music is improvised, and later carefully orchestrated with digital editing. It inspired a whole genre (post rock) and countless bands from Catherine Wheel to Tortoise. Radiohead obviously took notice, although they are careful to never mention Talk Talk as an inspiration.

The funny thing is, the digitalization of sound, which made this music possible (it would've taken decades if you were to do the editing with tape), also made file sharing possible,which later took all the big money out of the music industry, assuring no one would ever afford to make music this way again, unless bankrolled by someone wealthy.

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qxzqxzqxz t1_je9b34r wrote

Reply to “You’re so Vain” Confusion by TexitorFlexit

I always got the sense that she was meaning the song was about herself and how she couldn’t move on. But, at the same time, he was so full of himself that he couldn’t help but think it was about him.

To me, it’s a great example of a song about how messy we all make our lives. Fantastic stuff.

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Reasonable_Feeling65 t1_je99n4a wrote

Reply to Tell me about the concept of an album that you think is brilliant. by akacoline

Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief Album. Not only did it "fool" you into thinking that the album included an actual tie and handkerchief with the album being the special free prize (I don't want to give away the spoilers), but the album contained two concentric grooves on side 2. So when you dropped the needle on Side 2, you never knew which set of skits were going to play.

The got the idea from carnival games of chance. One of the game was a horse race, and you would bet on the winner. The horse races were announced on records with concentric grooves, so the runner of the race wouldn't know which horse would be the winner. It would be a different outcome every time.

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