Albums 16-20

Albums 11-15      Albums 21-25     Original Post

#16 Frank Ocean, Channel Orange

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

2.       Have I heard of the album?  No

I’m on track four now.  Of the first three, two were less than a minute and contributed nothing.  The one that was a song was unremarkable.  So is the 4^th, at least so far.  “I don’t live in Denver” Cool.

Track five now.  Still not interesting to me.

Don’t get me wrong, it is all low key, mellow, and smooth.  You could use this for elevator music.  But I sense that’s not the vibe he’s going for.  There’s just nothing so far that stands out to me as notable.

Ever imagine a lounge singer singing a song called Crack Rock?  Well, imagine no more, Frank did it.

On Track 12 now, nothing new to report.

Track 15.  Still bored.

Forrest Gump is simply awful.  I guess it’s good that I finally had an opinion about something on this album.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  No way man

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULDN’T?  I had no idea what I was getting into, but if you’d asked me what I thought it would sound like, I wouldn’t have even gotten close.  Also, no.

#17 The Cure, Disintegration

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

2.       Have I heard of the album?  Yes

3.       Have I listened to the album before?  No

My initial exposure to The Cure during my formative years came in the form of the two Goth brothers that had lockers next to me, Hector and Jesus in Junior year.  Pictures of Robert Smith filled their respective abodes, and they pretty much wore the same Cure Standing on a Beach… tees every day underneath their leather trench coats (black, of course).  I’m sure it was quite a visual to those walking down the hall- a congregation of spiky black haired goths with red lipstick standing next to a pile of stoners with long hair, wearing ripped Iron Maiden t-shirts, equally ripped jeans, hi tops or combat boots, and jean jackets with Metallica back patches cadging Marlboro Reds off of each other.  I liked Hector and Jesus OK even though our interactions were basically at a locker a couple of times of day, and I never bothered to try their music.

Over time, I tried a little bit of everything and came to appreciate the bubbly side of The Cure.  This is my first exposure to an actual album, not their Greatest Hits.

It starts off with a mellow groove and flows to an extended intro to Pictures of You.  Or maybe it’s normal, I don’t know, maybe I just don’t remember how the song starts.

It is funny, listening to this so soon after Frank Ocean.  There’s a striking similarity in the “low key” of each sound, but The Cure have a passion to the singing and texture to the music that was really lacking with Ocean. 

I also recognize this is akin to comparing a Transformer and a Go Bot- sure they are both robots that convert to other things, but one was cool and the other…

That analogy made a lot more sense in my head than it does on paper, but I am sticking with it.

Lovesong.  Greatsong.

I am struck by the musical talent here.  The drums on Last Dance are so snappy and tight, driving the song forward without being pushy about it.

Lullaby had something about Spiderman in it?  Did it?  I dunno.  Sounded like it though.

Yeah man, that drummer has something goin’ on on this album.

I think it is funny that they added a thunder like effect to The Same Deep Water As You.  Cause it wasn’t quite gloomy enough before.

Wow that’s quite a diatribe on Disintegration (the song).  Robert goes off there for a minute.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  Sure

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  I knew what I was getting into with this, but I really enjoyed the drums and bass more than I thought I would.