Geldof album rankings

noelindublin · Loudmouth

Geldof album rankings

junkyard_smile · The Elephant's Graveyard

I'd go for the same order except for HTCPS in 4th and DITHON in 5th. Though this is based on hearing How To only a couple of times, on the basis of which I decided I'd prefer to wait until the price comes down to a fiver before purchasing it. If it's a grower then it could give the Happy Club a run for its money but certainly no higher.

As for releasing the other recorded tracks, I didn't find much to like on the SAD II outakes so am in no rush to hear the current tracks deemed not good enough for the album. Shame that vinyl/cd singles have died a death as Huge Birdless Silence and Hotel 75 were great songs left off albums so you never know there may still be a few gems left.

noelindublin · Loudmouth

I have a personal Geldof top thirty make up of selections from all his albums, b sides and leftovers. Hardly anything from How To Compose makes it into this, but thats just my taste in Geldof music.

Sometimes the songs selected for an album are selected to fit a theme, maybe on How To Compose its being happier and more content with life. Generally most albums try to do this rather than have all sorts of musical and lyrically diverse songs competing without making much sense.

Hard to say if the songs chosen were the best- I personally thought a lot of them were very sentimental and very unGeldof like, if that's a proper word! Find Blow awful.

Good to see that somebody appreciates Hotel 75. Wonder have you heard Talk Me Up or Dig A Ditch- this is how I'd prefer Geldof to sound rather than some of the lame slush of How To Compose. What I'm saying is that I prefer the rockier, more strident type songs.

Suppose we have to take his career in overview rather than concentrate on just one album. I could toss a coin for the last three positions in the rankings-but music in the end is all down to personal taste, which is why it's such a fascinating subject.

junkyard_smile · The Elephant's Graveyard

I'm sure Geldof's rockier days aren't behind him... they'll probably resurface for his next album in about 10 years time by when he'll be back to the angry cantankerous old man. Like he said himself he went into the studio intending to create some Bob Zeppelin style album full of rock numbers and it just didn't turn out that way.

For me he's always pandered just too much to the wrong side of the commercial versus challenging style of record making. If the records were a bit heavier, more 'difficult' to get into, he/the Rats would have the critical acclaim and cult following he so clearly seeks ...but then they would have sold less records.

The ending on Dig a Ditch with its repeated refrains of 'stuck in a groove' is fun but can see why it didn't make an album cut as its style doesn't really fit the mood of the various lps.

Ian D · House on Fire

1. Veggies

2. Happy Club

3. Deep

4. SAD

5. HTCPSTWS

Not much between the top 3 for me. Strong records, hardly a duff track in any of them. As for SAD and Compose i'm afraid they don't get much of a spin. There are 2 or 3 great songs in them each in my opinion and they would get into my top 10, such as Pale White Girls and 1015 and Mary Says, Blow and Here's To You, but the rest of the songs don't have lasting appeal. Some even make me cringe.

Have to admit that i'd take a new CD from the Rats rather than a Geldof CD nowadays. Bob's band maybe talented but they don't have the raw edge of the Boomtown Rats or have a decent backing vocalist!

noelindublin · Loudmouth

junkyard_smile wrote:
I'm sure Geldof's rockier days aren't behind him... they'll probably resurface for his next album in about 10 years time by when he'll be back to the angry cantankerous old man. Like he said himself he went into the studio intending to create some Bob Zeppelin style album full of rock numbers and it just didn't turn out that way.
For me he's always pandered just too much to the wrong side of the commercial versus challenging style of record making. If the records were a bit heavier, more 'difficult' to get into, he/the Rats would have the critical acclaim and cult following he so clearly seeks ...but then they would have sold less records.
The ending on Dig a Ditch with its repeated refrains of 'stuck in a groove' is fun but can see why it didn't make an album cut as its style doesn't really fit the mood of the various lps.

Always thought the Rats walked a fine line between commercial and challenging type of records. Not sure what parts of V Deep or In The long Grass are on the wrong side of being too commercial, as an example. There isn't much point in writing songs people cannot relate to just to gain some vague kudos in the never never land of difficult music. How many bands don't want to sell records?

How To Compose is difficult to get into for me, but does that make it good? I can think of countless overrated albums that I don't get like that recent Glasvegas album and I'M someone who is very open to weird, left field out- there music.

Again on SAD or The Happy Club Bob gives us a take it or leave it. Hardly anything on these albums is commercial-Happy Club veers dangerously close to being a political polemic so that's hardly gonna get them dancing in the night clubs. Room 19 is a lesson in Russian history disguised as a jaunty pop tune- a wolf in sheep's clothing if you like.

I'm well aware of the shortcomings of Geldof's music but as a lifetime Rats fan I always buy his albums to keep in touch with the spirit of the guy who wrote the songs for my favourite band. I have no problem discussing or arguing points and try to take an objective standpoint knowing Geldof's music can blow hot and cold.

Dig A Ditch is, for me, one of the really Boomtown Rats like tracks, and one of his best.

noelindublin · Loudmouth

Ian D wrote:
1. Veggies
2. Happy Club
3. Deep
4. SAD
5. HTCPSTWS
Not much between the top 3 for me. Strong records, hardly a duff track in any of them. As for SAD and Compose i'm afraid they don't get much of a spin. There are 2 or 3 great songs in them each in my opinion and they would get into my top 10, such as Pale White Girls and 1015 and Mary Says, Blow and Here's To You, but the rest of the songs don't have lasting appeal. Some even make me cringe.
Have to admit that i'd take a new CD from the Rats rather than a Geldof CD nowadays. Bob's band maybe talented but they don't have the raw edge of the Boomtown Rats or have a decent backing vocalist!

On the Geldof anthology containing the extras tracks, or SAD 11 there is a really good version of Pale White Girls, the French mix which to me sounds better than the version of SAD. Always think My Birthday Suit is really good so know sure what you think of that song.

I find the songs on Happy Club a bit too political and awkward. I really like My Hippy Angel and the Happy Club title track though and the spoken word poem track House At The Top Of The World.

-- Edited by noelindublin on Sunday 8th of May 2011 01:38:07 PM

JoanOfArc · The Fine Art of Surfacing

I'll be completey honest about the new album, for me there are some good tracks, only couldn't tell you the names of them.

However i feel its quite a personal thing between jeanne and bob that i find a bit hard to relate to. I feel the songs written for her rather than for the people, for us. you or me.

i know that a lot of songs are written from personal experience but often they are things we can all relate to, however i don't feel that quite so much with this album.

i feel its very much about bob and jeanne and their life together which is great and all well and good, i just don't feel for me that i can get into the meaning of some of the songs as much as perhaps other songs i listen to.

having said this the band is extremely together, some good tunes and well bob's voice is just great i think.

just that some of the songs, lyric wise, i feel are more of a simple tribute to his lady and him. and that is fine. but i don't relate to this in my own life. so yes heres to you too. and that is all great and fine. but not normally something i would pay money for.

junkyard_smile · The Elephant's Graveyard

noelindublin wrote:
Always thought the Rats walked a fine line between commercial and challenging type of records. Not sure what parts of V Deep or In The long Grass are on the wrong side of being too commercial, as an example. There isn't much point in writing songs people cannot relate to just to gain some vague kudos in the never never land of difficult music. How many bands don't want to sell records?

I would argue that In The Long Grass is a very commercial album - there certainly isn't anything musically challenging on it, or songs that take 10 listens to get into - but its still a great album at that. Simply it arrived a number of years too late when most people nolonger cared about the Rats. If it had followed the Surfacing lp Drag me Down (a very simplistic song) would have been a monster hit.

V Deep has a few more challenging tracks like A Storm Breaks, though this was tapping into a PigBag / dancefloor vibe rather than coming up with something original.

If the Rats had gone down a rockier rather than poppier route for Tonic and Surfacing then I believe they would have retained a larger hardcore following and Geldof would be able to still tour the uk. But as you say who doesn't want to sell records - the singles Silly Pretty Thing and Crazy prove Geldof would do anything for a hit, but it didn't work so why not go out on a limb and give us an album of more edgy Blowfish and Systematic style experimentation. When you've got as much money as Geldof I reckon the critical acclaim might prove more satisfying than shifting a few more cds.

noelindublin · Loudmouth

I think it basically comes down to why fans want from Bob Geldof- certainly ten songs like Blowfish or Systematic would have satisfied me. Equally ten songs that sounded like or had the excitement and energy of the Boomtown Rats would have met my requirements. It all seems so hit and miss these days.

If a handful of the songs make some sort of emotional sense to the listener then that's in keeping with the general return from most albums I listen to.

Most of the reviews I've seen for How To Compose have been favourable- some gushingly so, to my surprise.

-- Edited by noelindublin on Tuesday 10th of May 2011 02:25:05 PM

JoanOfArc · The Fine Art of Surfacing

my fave album is the one with This Is The World Calling on it. Not sure of name of album. It had more emotion in it i think.

noelindublin · Loudmouth

Bobs first album was called Deep In The Heart Of Nowhere which featured World Calling.

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

noelindublin wrote:
Most of the reviews I've seen for How To Compose have been favourable- some gushingly so, to my surprise.

It's all relative. I think How to Compose is the best solo album, but it's still sh!t. I'd rather listen to V Deep which is the worst Rats LP, and is mostly sh!t, but better than anything any member of the Rats has made after In The Long Grass.

I suspect that the only people who are listening to it on planet earth all congregate here. Or on tw@tface where everything is sanitised (or something like that).

-- Edited by ArrGee on Friday 13th of May 2011 10:37:56 PM

noelindublin · Loudmouth

Its a bit unscientific but the general consensus would rate either SAD or Vegetarians Of Love as Geldof's best solo work. How To Compose would probably rank at number four.

There are probably a lot more people who just listen to the music [occasionally] and don't post in forums. I'd imagine this current album sold perhaps in the low thousands worldwide. It did get to number 39 in the HMV Instore Chart in Grafton St. Dublin when it was released- meaning it sold god knows, maybe ten copies. A prophet is never appreciated in his own land!

JoanOfArc · The Fine Art of Surfacing

hmm sad to say all the Bob Geldof CDs i have (5 of them) don't have album names on them cept How To Compose.....

oshora · CRAZY

Hi,

Do you really think they are mostly about Bob and Jeanne? Perhaps, but I think people can relate to that relationship worldwide.

I like track # 1, 3, and 7 best. I don't think they are about Jeanne, however. Sometimes it is hard to say what an artist is really writing about. They can disguise their lyrics and music so well. Sting is pretty good at doing this! Perhaps a bit about Paula in there? I think he will never be able to forget Paula.

Just my thoughts. smile

O'Shora

noelindublin · Loudmouth

oshora wrote:
Hi,
Do you really think they are mostly about Bob and Jeanne? Perhaps, but I think people can relate to that relationship worldwide.
I like track # 1, 3, and 7 best. I don't think they are about Jeanne, however. Sometimes it is hard to say what an artist is really writing about. They can disguise their lyrics and music so well. Sting is pretty good at doing this! Perhaps a bit about Paula in there? I think he will never be able to forget Paula.
Just my thoughts.

O'Shora

I think track 7 [Dazzled By You] is about Jeanne, while track 3 She's A Lover, alludes to Paula Yates.

Silly Pretty Thing is about Tiger lily Hutchence. The rest of the songs are just rock songs with no particular characters in mind.

oshora · CRAZY

Thanks. That makes sense. I really do like the album. His voice is in great form!

O'Shora