There's a cheapo cash-in album on Pickwick from the early 70s, with a title like "Tribe Play The Creative Genius Of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison". And there's this version of "Why", with a guitar imitating Yoko's voice, that's absolutely amazing. Track it down if you can.

I suppose I've listened to this enough by now that I can make up my mind about it...

Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream: B-
It absolutely pains me to give this album anything less than an A+, but it's true, I was disappointed by this album to some extent. What I find interesting about Miguel's breakout full-length is that a glance at the album credits basically lays out what keeps this from being as great as his 100% perfect "Art Dealer Chic volume 1." Absolutely (sorry to use this word again) perfect cuts such as "Adorn" and "Pussy is Mine" were written and produced solely by Miguel. And while there are a couple exceptions, the misfires on the album also have the most co-writers and co-producers. Maybe this is way too intuitive to say, but the songs with 10+ writers and producers tend to sound, well, overproduced. Stadium R&B can work (see The-Dream), and of course there is a certain joy to overproduced pop music at times, but I feel that Miguel is at his best when he is purporting a singular vision. R&B (when good) is a very personal, intimate genre. Even with bombastic stadium R&B like The-Dream, it's great because you can tell it's the work of one guy having a fucking blast in the studio by himself. Or Prince. Prince made some of the greatest R&B ever, and he did it without a lot of outside creative help, because nobody else is like Prince.

Miguel obviously looks up to guys like Prince, and I honestly think he possesses Prince-like potential. But I think he needs to take a cue from Mr. Rogers Nelson and take a more DIY approach. It worked on Art Dealer Chic, and it also works on the less overproduced tracks of Kaleidoscope Dream. I can't give this album anything less than a B- because more than half of the tracks are brilliant. But it's simply not as perfect as Art Dealer Chic.

tl;dr version - the sexy/funky tracks are A+, the ones that sound like Coldplay covers are C-

Pussy is Mine

The front half of On the Corner is as awesome as Miles and his crew ever got.

Swans - The Seer

Since my top ten songs of 2012 is pretty much all Epica, I decided to listen to some albums to mix it up. I'm running low on go-to artists, though, so I resorted to looking at critics' best-of lists. I'd never heard of Swans, but they're from the 80s, and they're called post-punk, and I like "The Killing Moon" and "Friday I'm in Love". This shouldn't be too bad, right?

I hated it. I hate this album. Normally when I'm rating, I'll listen to everything three times. I only endured one listen of every song but "Song for a Warrior", which sounded different and was the most tolerable but was still decidedly not good. I didn't even finish the longer (as in approximately twenty minutes) tracks. There's so much endless, repetitive, painful noise and so little recognizable music. This album is like beating my head against a brick wall until I pass out. Note to self: this is why you don't listen to critics.

1/10

Gira always states he took the moniker Swans as it described the sound he wanted best. Gira's summation of the name follows along the lines of: "Swans are majestic, beautiful looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments."

Swans are one of the greatest and most influential underground bands in existence and shame on you mother fuckers for never hearing them until now.

EDIT - What Gray said, basically

Was mostly directing that at Fincher. But, yeah, Swans are great.

Don't let Rashed see this

anyway i can see someone not liking the seer, but considering this person has been listening to epica and evanescence i would recommend checking out 'white light from the mouth of infinity' and 'the great annihilator' as those are more song-oriented and actually close to the stuff you listen to, fincher. that gothic, neofolk sound with the post punk/noise rock drive.

please don't position yourself as some well above the critics kind though. makes you look silly.

Oh look, another person not "getting" Swans and thus insulting it. Time to get on my Elitist pedestal and start ranting.

I wasn't placing myself above critics, just that I can't trust their recommendations at all. I'd probably be better off picking an album out of a hat.

... or choosing something from a genre that you have active interest in. I don't think anybody would expect someone who hasn't been exposed to post-punk/post-rock/experimental rock to listen to a post-rock/experimental album like The Seer and get instant gratification from it, it's a very convoluted and busy album that requires a lot of dissecting. Maybe post-rock just isn't a genre you'll enjoy (right now) and maybe the Swans aren't a band that will enjoy (right now) but don't discredit them all together and call it painful noise. Listen to something you want to listen to, and don't try to "understand" the praise of something, just find something you enjoy. Maybe Celebration Rock by Japandroids?

Aaah, I remember my first Swans album, anyone that sticks with them long enough will start to see the genious in it though

Well, like I was saying, Wikipedia called Swans post-punk. I did see the post-rock designation on the album, though, and probably should have steered clear. The thing is, it can be hard to pinpoint interesting modern rock albums in the sea of indie rock.



I don't know about the band as a whole, but I will call the album painful noise because it was...painful noise. I acknowledge that to other people it isn't.

I actually did "pick an album out of a hat", so to speak, just out of curiosity/point of comparison. Otherwise, I'm going to listen to a couple gothic metal albums, maybe Lyriel's latest, and maybe something pop (Pink, Rihanna, or Carly Rae Jepsen).