New album - best and worst tracks at a glance!

noelindublin · Loudmouth

New album - best and worst tracks at a glance!

musicmania · A Hold of Me

Ok my top 3 are Here's to You, Blow and To Live in Love. I wouldn't say any of the songs are "not up to it" but my least favourites after about 10 listens of the album are Blow Fish and Systematic 6-Pack.

Nick76 · Mary of the 4th Form

Hi, for me the 3 tops are:
1) How i roll
2) She's a lover
3) Blow

down are: Systematic 6-pack and Dazzled by you

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

The good

Blow Fish
Systematic Six Pack
Here's To You
Young and Sober (The ghosts of DUN LAOGHAIRE/TGOSI revisited)

The bad

Silly Pretty Thing - Can't believe that was the single, it's the worst song on the album ....

The indifferent (so far)

The rest, can't say I hate them nor love them. Some of them start like you're going to hate them, but redeem themselves. May go either way on them.

My overall impression is the album is OK, more good than bad, and far better than I expected. Not a patch on anything by the Rats, but as good as any of his solo records, certainly more good songs. I may even consider buying it before it hits the bargain bins.

-- Edited by ArrGee on Monday 7th of February 2011 10:37:32 PM

noelindublin · Loudmouth

The Good- How I ROLL, Blowfish,Shes A Lover, Systematic Six Pack/ Mary Says

The Ok- Silly Pretty thing

The Plain Awful-To Live In Love,Dazzled By You, Blow, Heres To You, Young and Sober

Overall verdict is one of hugh disappointment.The four good songs I rate are not ever Geldof's best. Blowfish and Systematic are experimental type tunes but Geldofs vocals are blended in the mix as to be almost unhearable.

To Live in Love is the most mawkish sentimental dirge he has ever written. Blow is rubbish, Heres To You is just a borrowing of a George Harrison riff and sentimental lyrics. Young and Sober is an abomination- with the cod Irish accent and lazy lyrics.

You wonder is this the same guy who wrote all the Boomtown Rats classics- Compare A Hold Of Me or Hard Times to To Live In Love or Blow. This album, to me, adds very little to Geldof's reputation- Overall there are five good/reasonable tracks and six stinkers.

PS ArrGee- Young and Sober is complete crap- read the lyrics, and its nothing like Dun Laoghaire or GSOD. Basically its Geldof doing a caricature of a country Irish accent and badly telling his life story. Maybe people in England don't notice this- its just ignorance and lazy humour .

-- Edited by noelindublin on Tuesday 8th of February 2011 02:31:14 PM

-- Edited by noelindublin on Tuesday 8th of February 2011 02:32:58 PM

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

noelindublin wrote:
Overall verdict is one of hugh disappointment.The four good songs I rate are not ever Geldof's best. Blowfish and Systematic are experimental type tunes but Geldofs vocals are blended in the mix as to be almost unhearable.

To Live in Love is the most mawkish sentimental dirge he has ever written. Blow is rubbish, Heres To You is just a borrowing of a George Harrison riff and sentimental lyrics. Young and Sober is an abomination- with the cod Irish accent and lazy lyrics.

You wonder is this the same guy who wrote all the Boomtown Rats classics- Compare A Hold Of Me or Hard Times to To Live In Love or Blow. This album, to me, adds very little to Geldof's reputation- Overall there are five good/reasonable tracks and six stinkers.

PS ArrGee- Young and Sober is complete crap- read the lyrics, and its nothing like Dun Laoghaire or GSOD. Basically its Geldof doing a caricature of a country Irish accent and badly telling his life story. Maybe people in England don't notice this- its just ignorance and lazy humour .

I suspect I had such low expectations of the album that it sounds better than expected.

I'd say V Deep ( my least favourite LP) is better, but my litmus test on a Geldof album is would any tracks stand alongside anything by the Rats. By my reckoning, Vegetarians had one, SAD had two and this has four. His next album will be a cracker!

Comparing it with Another Piece of Red and Charmed Lives would be more apt than A Hold of Me, which is the last great Rats single, though no one bought that!

junkyard_smile · The Elephant's Graveyard

Top 3 in no particular order:
How I Roll - springsteenesque
Blowfish - beefheartian
Systematic 6 Pack - musically the most interesting track but as Noel has said vocals are buried way too deep in the mix

Worst 3 in reverse order:
Mary Says - great guitar but geldofs voice is not a sufficiently flexible instrument to do high pitched vocals and destroys what could have been a decent song
Silly Pretty Thing - simply banal, musically, lyrically and vocally
Live in Love - truly awful, just doesn't suit geldof - he should have given it to Jeanne to sing

Notwithstanding the 10 or so years it took since S.A.D. the songs lyrically feel almost throw-aways, needing more work on them. No-one expects Geldof to come up with the epic tales his songs of youth contained (such as Joey, Rat Trap, Mondays, Someone looking, Banana Republic etc etc) but these new ones in the main don't seem to say anything.

A long way behind S.A.D. and V.O.L. in terms of Geldof's solo work.

do the rat · Never In A Million Years

My top 3 are.
1.blow fish.
2.here`s to you.
3.systematic 6 -pack.

worst 2 are.
1.mary says.
2.to live in love.

p.s.I quite like silly pretty thing(sorry arrGee).

Derek The Dane · V Deep

1 Blowfish
2 Here´s To You
3 How I Roll

to to keen on To Live In Love but all in all a very good album.

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

do the rat wrote:

My top 3 are.
1.blow fish.
2.here`s to you.
3.systematic 6 -pack.

worst 2 are.
1.mary says.
2.to live in love.

p.s.I quite like silly pretty thing(sorry arrGee).

Don't be sorry, you have picked out the top three regardless smile

Laibach · Someone's Looking At You

My top 3 are:

Here's To You (should definatly be a single)
Silly Pretty Thing (I'm probably in the minority, but I think its one of the best tracks on the album)
Mary Says

Worst 2:

To Live In Love
Dazzled By You

Scottie · Loudmouth

I Love
Here's To You
How I Roll
Blow
Silly Pretty Thing
Mary says

I like
She's a lover
Dazzled By You
To Live In Love

I can take or leave
Systematic 6 pack
Blowfish
Young and Sober
I personally prefer this album to SAD and there are plenty more recorded tracks.

Nick76 · Mary of the 4th Form

Hi, also i prefer "Sex age & death" to this last cd.
Sex age and death had more very beautiful and original songs with: One for me; Pale white girls; Mudslide; my birthday suite; scream in vain etc
Here sincerely apart: How i roll; Here's to you and blow that are good songs, the rest are medium/low levels...
SAD for me will the best ever Geldof's solo album.
Ciao

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

Still trying to work out best and worst, need a good few listens to get there. But Here's to You is outstanding, my favourite.. Beautiful song and should have been the first single. I like SPT it is cheery, but this one moves me.

ArrGee1991 · Dave

Blowfish and Systematic 6-Pack divide opinion. You love them or hate them. Those that like stuff like Blowfish will hate stuff like Silly Thing. I suspect it illustrates why Geldof will never make a album that anyone truly loves. There's too much range.

Pretty much the same issues afflicted Mondo Bongo and V Deep. Contrast Banana Republic with Another Piece of Red; likewise He Watches It All with Charmed Lives. IMHO the former are absolutley nailed on classics, the latter two piles of sh!t. But doubtless some think the opposite.

That no one has said they like or hate everthing says a lot. Too much compromise. At least most people could hate pretty much everything on Deep In The Heart of Nowhere smile

ArrGee1991 · Dave

Nick76 wrote:
SAD for me will the best ever Geldof's solo album.

It was more consistent, but apart from $6,000,000 Loser and Scream in Vain, I never really liked it. I think the new album is better overall, and his best solo record, but I doubt I'll listen to it too much. I'd rather spin V Deep.

musicmania · A Hold of Me

ArrGee1991 wrote:

Blowfish and Systematic 6-Pack divide opinion. You love them or hate them. Those that like stuff like Blowfish will hate stuff like Silly Thing. I suspect it illustrates why Geldof will never make a album that anyone truly loves. There's too much range.

Pretty much the same issues afflicted Mondo Bongo and V Deep. Contrast Banana Republic with Another Piece of Red; likewise He Watches It All with Charmed Lives. IMHO the former are absolutley nailed on classics, the latter two piles of sh!t. But doubtless some think the opposite.

That no one has said they like or hate everthing says a lot. Too much compromise. At least most people could hate pretty much everything on Deep In The Heart of Nowhere

Well I personally love Deep in the Heart of Nowhere and don't care that I'm in the minority!
But back to the new album. It isn't that I don't like Blowfish or Systematic 6-Pack. Taking them on their own they are excellent tracks but especially with Blowfish Bob's vocals are unrecognisable! Too over produced IMO! It will be interesting to hear how these sound live. Silly Pretty Thing sounded better on The Late Late Show than it does on the CD but it is still amongst my least favourites and I don't think Bob did himself any favours having it as the first single from the album and I think the fact the album as debuted at 87 in the Irish album charts reflects this.

Ian D · House on Fire

Best

1. Blow
2. Mary Says
3. Here's To You

Worst

1. Systematic 6pack
2. Silly
3. Dazzled

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

ArrGee1991 wrote:

Blowfish and Systematic 6-Pack divide opinion. You love them or hate them. Those that like stuff like Blowfish will hate stuff like Silly Thing. I suspect it illustrates why Geldof will never make a album that anyone truly loves. There's too much range.

That no one has said they like or hate everthing says a lot. Too much compromise. At least most people could hate pretty much everything on Deep In The Heart of Nowhere

Interesting, on FB I've asked people to vote for their favourite and I'll do a tally for all 11 in a few weeks. some of the responses so far are 'I can't choose, I like them all'... or similar... Actually I like them all, but as I said on another thread, in varying degrees. It is an eclectic mix of styles and I have eclectic taste in music! wink

I also like DITHON confuse