Sir Mustapha
Group: Musicians
Posts: 2802
Joined: April 2003 |
|
Posted: April 15 2005, 20:40 |
|
Quote (Korgscrew @ April 15 2005, 18:34) | We were talking about labels, standard classifications, genres. If you want to make a standard, genre fitting pop album, it won't have a long instrumental track on it, because that's just not what the pop genre's about. In having a long instrumental track, Discovery deviates from the pop genre (and that's not the only way it deviates...). |
Well, The Beatles' self titled "White Album" has "Revolution 9" on it, and it's still considered a pop album. A "Pop album" isn't such a strict thing, you know.
Quote | Why put the To France melody in Talk About Your Life? Well hey, why not? Same thing as quoting parts of Taurus II in Orabidoo and Five Miles Out. It never sounded amateurish to me |
Well, it never did to me, either. But in Discovery, it sure does. The quotation is there, lonely, marooned, injustified, lost in an ocean of good pop music. In Five Miles Out it worked, because that's not a pop album.
Quote |
Quote | That was perfect, but there had to be the To France melody there to make the "cohesion" show. Why? |
Why not?
|
Well, why bother?
Quote | Are you saying that he was doing it to appeal to a broader audience, but put the "(instrumental)" label on The Lake as a warning? |
Exactly. Maybe it wasn't Mike's initiative, but it sure as HELL sounds like that.
Quote | I don't even consider most of them 'songs', really. I see them as pieces of a long instrumental with lyrics inserted at certain areas. |
A ha. That's just the kind of trick that Mike was trying to play with his songs. But to me, that kind of thing sounds contrived as hey. It doesn't feel natural. Just because the trick worked in many albums in the 70's doesn't mean it will work in any pop album. Maybe that was Mike really trying to fight the "mainstream" and trying to remain "himself", but I think Discovery would be much more natural without that "cohesion" stuff. Then, I'd be able to enjoy it for what it is: a pop album, with a 12-minute track at the end to please the "hardcore" fans.
Quote | Poison Arrows is a good example...it starts out quiet and slower paced while Barry is singing some lyrics and as it builds and builds he stops singing and Mike goes on a big guitar solo the first time the song is actually becomes loud, and then it goes back to his singing again. It sounds more (to me) like the structure of an instrumental than an actual song. |
Hmm... I'm not too sure on that. Pop, as a genre, leaves a lot of space for experimentation, you know, and I don't think that starting quiet, getting loud and going quiet again is such an "alien" thing. Surely many bands did that before. I can't mention names here, but I'm sure of that. Say, see how many wacky, unbelievable chord changes and harmonies the Beatles were doing in "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and its brothers, and those songs are no more than excellent pop.
-------------- Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds. Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com
|