Album Rating: 5.0

I bought into this album straight away, remember being blown away by 'Idioteque' and 'Everything...'



Then 'Amnesiac' came out and that sounded like an effort to break the pressure on them releasing classic albums - thought that one was bang average and still do to some extent. 'HTTT' was similar, just an admission they weren't going to release a classic.



'In Rainbows' was sort of a classic but weird at the time with the free release, seemed really disposable at the time, a real gimmick, not sure all tracks were released together either (now a lot more normal to release music like that). 'King of Limbs' killed all momentum again I think purposefully, seemed like an EP, just a snack.

Album Rating: 4.5

I’m going with this, bearing in mind this is at the time my thoughts have changed.



Pablo Honey - Creep is great but the band are not in the same league as what they are trying to ape. (I never owned it)



Bends - Plastic Trees is absolutely fucking amazing, Street Spirit Likewise and the band are definitely going places but it is all a bit too U2. (Owned it)



OKC - Life changing. Fucking spectacular (have owned numerous copies)



Kid A - The fuck is this absolute bollocks. (Didn’t own it until about 2004 which is around the time I began to appreciate it)



Amnesiac - Further drivel from the cutting room floor. Band had fallen from grace. (Didn’t own it until 2004)



Thief - Christ it’s boring (owned it, opinion hasn’t changed)



In Rainbows - Fucking amazing, band have delivered a record representative of what they are. (Bought it for zero quid, have owned numerous copies)



Limbs - Absolutely love it. A different tack but clearly still able to do the business. (Downloaded then bought physical copy)



Pool - Amazing (owned it)

Album Rating: 3.0

> (Bought it for zero quid, have owned numerous copies)



numerous times zero is still zero dweeb

Album Rating: 4.5

At the time zero quid have owned physical copies ever since. Fister.

Album Rating: 4.0

"relisten to Henry's Dream/Let Love In in their entirety, electrocute yourself every time anything happens in the string accompaniment and you'll start to feel like a slightly more frazzled version of everyone else with a working set of ears who has ever heard those records"



Let Love In is their best album by a mile and even there the melodies/arrangements are the least interesting part. Cope harder

Album Rating: 5.0

"The internet was a very limited tool from ‘97-99.



Very very bare bones"



I was there Zak, email was a massive thing, I was on tons of music mailing lists, newsgroups and used IM extensively. Bear in mind your experience of the internet was different to mine.

Album Rating: 4.5

Maybe in the business world. I only started emailing when I went to Australia for a year in 2001.

Even sorting that out and getting visas, travel insurance and stuff was mainly over the phone.

Album Rating: 5.0

Yeah services were different. But it was hard to talk to anyone about the music I liked, the internet helped a lot because it was a way to connect with america - foreign magazines were horrifically expensive where I was. maybe it's just because i was curious and into computers at the time. i think america was way ahead of everyone when it came to internet usage

Album Rating: 4.2

"the melodies/arrangements"

you considering these interchangeable terms is enough to rubbish whatever neuron-starved clap comes out through the rest of these takes lmao

Seems a bit harsh, John. No reason for that. A slight suggestion would be none more difficult

Album Rating: 5.0

Yeah, like there are simple ideas in Cave's music but they're strong. That's to say nothing of the tasteful yet energetic drum and bass performances.

Album Rating: 5.0

on one hand, you guys did overshoot the actual discussion of "you'd be hard-pressed to find a better 90s alt rock album" but on the other, I'm not gonna turn down a good pre-21st century lifestyles reminiscing session

Album Rating: 4.0

""the melodies/arrangements"



you considering these interchangeable terms is enough to rubbish whatever neuron-starved clap comes out through the rest of these takes lmao"



You realize that a slash between two words doesn't mean those words have equal meaning right? Nice try though

Album Rating: 5.0

well if it ain't CrackJones

Album Rating: 4.2

you're suggesting that same criticism is equally applicable to each, i.e. that they are interchangeable within this equation. misreading that as equal meaning, this plus your first response to the mention of arrangements

> He always writes the most simple and overused melodies

makes for an immediate eye-roll

as tbh does implying that simplicity is a good reason to criticise any given melody lol

Album Rating: 4.0

" He always writes the most simple and overused melodies



makes for an immediate eye-roll"



A lot of his melodies feel to me like I have heard them a thousand times in old blues and folk songs. Almost like they are standards. That's what I mean by that. Simplicity doesn't necessarily mean bad, that's true. It might even be harder to write an original, great & simple melody but when you feel like you heard it a thousand times already then at least for me that's a negative.

Album Rating: 5.0

I can almost guarantee that he doesn't use those melodies in the same context or to the same ends as the stuff you say you're hearing. Like, he's obviously inspired by blues and the like but he's far from actually BEING straight up blues or folk, y'know? I've been hearing blues in one way or another since I was kid and I've never heard anything like Cave. Plus the pentatonic scales of blues are quite limited at face value. The character and the timbre and the emotion of players is what differentiates blues artists from one another, moreso than the notes they're using.



The personality Cave brings to whatever music he's making is very singular. There are certain melodic and textural and vocal idiosyncrasies that break the rules of that more standard stuff he's taking cues from. Sure, a lot of his post 80's work doesn't really reach the dissonances of stuff like The Birthday Party and the earliest Seeds but he's still pretty wild in one way or another for most of the discog.

Album Rating: 4.0

Sure. When I think about it you could probably levy the same criticisms at someone like Tom Waits, who I am a fan of. I guess everything around the melodies etc. just doesn't catch me in the same way

Album Rating: 3.0

caves a tory

Album Rating: 4.0

No one cares. Stop bringing up politics every chance you get. It's cringe