Album Rating: 4.0

I'm almost to Swing so I will give my thoughts then.

Album Rating: 4.0

What?



Don't Follow is essentially is building an image of a man traveling into the middle of no where waiting for death, Rotten Apple is pretty dark, Nutshell he longs for death by the end of the song and No Excuses despite the optimistic look with how the rest of the songs go and how it's delivered I interpret a hint of doubt on:



"You my friend

I will defend

And if we change, well I

Love you anyway"



and with



"We'll walk down the line

Leave our rain, a cold

Trade for warm sunshine"



it sounds his aspirations are pipedreams more than anything. So the majority of this I get dread in terms of tone.

Album Rating: 4.0

That's a really cool interpretation, like really. I get exactly what you mean

Album Rating: 4.0

"The reason the song seems "wakey" or Goofy is because the mind of the character isn't treating it as a big deal anymore, he's excepted and given in to his issues. That's why Layne has that "intoxicated" persona about him in Swing On This, he's essentially a drunken man who lives behind the bottle just to get away from his troubles, and he's no longer fighting his alcoholism. Of course not with Alcohol. "



That's a good way of thinking about it actually, would explain the wackiness. Despite this...I think this song could have been the darkest song of the album and having it being depressing with breaking glass, drinking rambling and a darker tone would have worked so much better.



"Sorry if my interpretation of Swing On This is literally meaningless, IDK i guess that's just how I view it, i'm probably wrong though :]"



It's your interpretation, it is what it means to you. That alone makes it personal to you and I'll take that over a person who can't explain for jack shit why they like something.

Album Rating: 4.0

"who can't explain for jack shit why they like something."

That's me. I have a hard time putting my thoughts into words, lol.

Album Rating: 5.0

Guys, no offence, but I think you are putting waaaay more thought into the lyrics than the actual songwriters did. They mine the same emotional space that AiC's other songs and albums did, but it was not written nor intended as a concept album.

In a way, the entire album was a goof by the band that wrote and recorded it in two weeks. I mean, Cantrell was clearly fucking around when he decided to put strings into "I Stay Away" and to write a literal swing jazz song with "Swing on This". "Whale and Wasp" isn't even a song so much as a song idea. Yet, the band is so good that everything they touched in the early/mid '90s turned to pure gold. Even their solo and side projects are borderline classics.

Yes, AiC writes dark lyrics and dark songs. And there may be more than a bit of truth to some of the lyrics. "No Excuses" and "Nutshell" for instance sound DEEPLY personal. But plotting the journey of a character through the album is way more involved than the album actually tries to be.

Album Rating: 5.0

Nice interpretation ALA, I only ever saw it as AiC trying to experiment a little but that makes sense. Although Ive never analysed the lyrics of that track because to be honest by the time i get to it i usually restart the album.



I trust you've all seen the unplugged concert by now? Its fucking powerful stuff, heres nutshell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBdXLRl2g2E

Album Rating: 4.5

"Guys, no offence, but I think you are putting waaaay more thought into the lyrics than the actual songwriters did."



yeah I don't see what's wrong with that.

Album Rating: 4.0

Yeah, I guess I don't. I mean of course I can explain myself (see: somewhere along the highway thread). I'm just awkward in my wording, and can't come up with something like ALA did.

Album Rating: 5.0

There's nothing wrong with overthinking it. Just a statement of fact. Like the fact that Swing on This is a goofy fun song from a band not known for being goofy on record, even if they were in real life. I can dig it.

Album Rating: 4.0

I've never seen a musician say their work is not up for interpretation

Album Rating: 5.0

That's because it allows them to write intentionally obtuse and fundamentally meaningless nonsense lyrics that people will still find a way to attribute meaning and therefore value to. xD

Album Rating: 5.0

Rotten Apple/Don't Follow best here for me. Nutshell close behind.

Album Rating: 4.0

"I think Calc was referring to people who go "hard har her, urrr wrung stupiiid!" and can't back up their points. You don't do that Full :D"



No I literally mean people who can't give any reasoning to why they enjoy a piece of art. Certain people in my life going "It's just lovely" or just outright refuse to think any deeper had made me annoyed by it. If I ask someone their take on something I enjoy knowing their perceptive and if theirs is so hollow I've learned nothing then I find it annoying because I then find them uninteresting as a person. I get if I asked you in real life it can be very hard to express your point, but if you're on a computer with sometime then I see no excuse for it. I know that's kind of an asshole thing to do for some people but unfortunately that's how I am, I don't try and be a prude with this type of thinking and just force them to make of reasons or insult them for it.



@SitarHero: And this is my 2nd main criticism for this album, they could have done more with the brilliant ideas they had in mind. What we have is still excellent but we have Swing stylistically/musically and Whale musically to weigh it down. To me the very concept of Swing is wrong, and should have been scraped all together.



""Guys, no offence, but I think you are putting waaaay more thought into the lyrics than the actual songwriters did."



Yeah, and that's fine since all because an action can have little thought the implications of it can be huge to some people. It's like that in any scenario in life.



"Sorry I'm way too nerdy guys :/ time to log off"



If you want nerdy talk to me about Buck Tick for an hour ;)

Album Rating: 4.8

Whale is perfect

[2]

[3]

Album Rating: 5.0

I Love this thread, dissecting and analyzing music is what Sputnik should be all about. I definitely don't see it as waste of time, that's what the majority of it was created for in the first place. Its commonplace for people to write papers examining visual art, but I honestly feel that If a pictures worth a thousand words then a songs worth a million (regardless of the lyrics obviously).



Its also worth remembering that there is no right or wrong interpretation of music - my old English teacher used to tell us how once an artist releases their work to the public (in whatever form), their original intent and context is essentially meaningless and it is left completely up to the audience to assign their own meaning and understanding based on their personal history, values and level of comprehension. That's a pretty extreme view to take but one that I agree with it to some extent. In hindsight though he was also a bit of a hypocrite because he would expect us to derive particular themes and metaphors from the literature we studied, but I guess he had to grade us somehow.



I see nothing nerdy about this sort of discussion either, and anyone who says so is probably a bitter simpleton anyway. I don't look like the intellectual type irl (And i wouldn't classify myself as such either) but I definitely prefer the deep conversations over the small talk any day of the week.

Album Rating: 5.0

Whale is perfect [4]. Holy crap! It's the Maggot Brain of Generation X.

Album Rating: 4.0

@Balls: For the most part Sput can't be arsed or too busy grandstanding, and even then there's that one guy with too high of an opinion of themselves that ruins everything. I just think people should be asking themselves why they like or do the things they do, regardless of activity and it's a shame people do it less for music.