Album Explanation Thread

Post albums you don't get, others try to explain the appeal.

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People mostly like the first track.

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you just don't get it

the explanation is you're a fucking pleb kys

Explain.

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it's like, so there's new things and old things, yeah? this band is all about the new things. the newest things. or they were. it was fresh. very high-tech and cutting edge stuff. neu! was all about the new

this is a biographical accounting of mick jagger

It's sort of anti-rock. Strips it down to a basic, hypnotic groove and floats melodic wisps over it. Sonderangbot and Lieber Honig are the least accessible ones on the album and while I'm not much of a fan of the former, I appreciate how incredibly personal and sad Lieber Honig sounds. It sounds like a man who is emotionally broken and can only convey his deep, introspective sadness through half-articulated sobs, a pared down guitar melody, and a ton of silence.
You might enjoy Neu! 75 more. It tones down the weird experimental sections and is a lot more immediate.

I've never once gotten a response for this, I seriously do not get this album. I love everything else Slowdive has done but this just puts me to sleep every time I try to listen to it

To me this album feels like floating in pillows of noise, it's so warm and cozy. Yet at the same time, so sad and dark. A lot of the songs are pretty slow building and only really hit peak intensity right before they fade out. This is also by far one of the most diverse 90s shoegaze albums, plus it has the most audible vocals, and the lyrics are actually pretty good for the most part.

I listened to it and what the fuck
there's some good parts but most of it is just weird

The album is like Talk Talk's last two except it creates its atmosphere through repetition rather than improvised wandering so if you don't like the Talk Talk albums it would make sense that you don't like Pygmalion either.
During my first listen it felt like I was walking through an incredibly dense fog until Blue Skied An' Clear when the choir came in and it all the sudden lifted and unveiled, uh, a clear blue sky. Talk Talk did the exact same thing on Spirit of Eden.

genius or crazy virgin? Why?

pic related (shitfuck)

its a sleepy album its kind of the point i think

The Caretaker's an empty bliss,etc
Don't remember the name quite right and can't be bothered to look it up.
But to me it's just some old jazz records that sound broken.
It's kinda cool for background ambient music but I can't understand why so many people in here love it so much.

I love the sparsity and the atmosphere of this album. To me it takes the dreamy aspect to a new dimension

someone needs to find the post where an user described this album as tripping while flying thru a german industrial factory and then landing on the beach or something

"The Caretaker conjures a quieter, more introspective spirit, lost in his own mind amidst a low-lit labyrinth of ever-decaying and antediluvian shellac phrases. Sourced from a mysterious collection of 78s, these vague snippets of archaic sonics reflect the ability of Alzheimers patients to recall the songs of their past, and with them recollections of places, people, moods and sensations."

Faust

Why don't you eat carrots?

Daniel is like a broken clock to me, most of his shit is pretty bland at best, but occasionally he makes something so effortlessly great that it feels like an accident. Hey Joe is the I Just Wasn't Made For These Times of indie rock. It's so simple but completely devastating.

I love 1990 though it's more of a curated album than a recording session. It's got some new songs, reused and rerecorded ones, live songs, covers, hymns. The best ideas cherrypicked by god knows who to make a great album instead of spreading them over a million cassettes

It's just so much fun. To me it's "art" music free of any pretensions, just joyful experiments with what rock music can be

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When the weird parts start making sense you'll see its all good parts.

How the fuck do you pronounce Neu! ?

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Its got that chill, poppy aesthetic. Conveys a pretty good sense of coldness, while still being catchy and having good melodies. Listen to optimistic as it's probably one of the catchiest songs on there.

And if you're wondering about why its one of the highest rated albums of all time, its probably the virtue of the fact that Radiohead made a back to back combo of pretty solid albums that appeal to a large swath of people.

Noy I believe

everything by pic related

it's just well written pop music with a lot of character. there's not much to get, it's either your thing or it isn't.

NOY

this is the culmination of IDM's growth and artistry in the 90s meeting with Radiohead's increasingly abstract and obtuse rock music.

Throw in some traces of Can and DJ Shadow and voila, you've got yourself this album. It's notable for how many influences and ideas it fuses into a palatable rock context

it's goofy and fun and very catchy. Not a big fan myself, but that's all i got

definitely isnt, well crafted pop music is on the radio

first 4 albums are a post-Nirvana alternative rock that's far more unhinged and wiry, winding through some real depressed realms

don't listen past Good News

I didn't like it at first, but then i got into Current 93, went back and fucking loved it

that's a pretty limited view of what pop music is desu

I don't know, I got in touch with him through The Beach Boys' SMiLE Sessions which are one of my favorite "albums" ever, so some people recommended me his solo stuff and, I don't know, I just don't get it.
I'm kinda familiar with some of the ideas he is trying to communicate since there are some concepts also used in the sessions, like the americana vibe and stuff, but it just seems so weird, kitsch in some way, but a very eccentric brand

(OP)
sums it up perfectly. I think of Neu! as some kind of minimalistic, eccentric brand of rock and roll, comparable to the likes of The Velvet Underground or early Television, but they manage to attach even more sonic ideas, like the use of time and silence in composition, or the preference for texture over melody/rhythm.

Souvlaki is the sound of being young, sad and drugged. As in the heart broken shy boy, or the apathetic sad girl. It's lyrical themes seem to deal with themes such as drug abuse, sorrow, love, teen angst and melancholy, but in a less melodramatical way then your average emo band. I'm not sure who's the main lyricist, but I think it's Halstead and if it is then I gotta give him some credit. His words are very fragile, mellow, hazy, in a way. Souvlaki sounds very out-there than most of the emotional teenager-core bands, as the album's dreamy instrumentation, with guitars driven directly from Cocteau Twins, but with even more pedalboards, is the perfect compliment for the band's mellow approach at fluke

It offers sweet, poppy, classically influenced and instrumentally varied, colorful songs. Lyrics are also very meaningful. Can be daunting given the track size. Give some tracks in the later listening a try to try and combat this. My personal favorites from the album are "They Are Night Zombies!!", "Casimir Pulaski Day" and "John Wayne Gacy, Jr"

Pop is anything that strives to be catchy desu

think of it more as ambient and maybe youll like it. its not full ambient, sure, but its an album i like to put on while doing things instead of just sitting there.

the intensity and atmosphere. pretty much unparalleled.

the weird parts are what makes it. and the great incorporation of folk influences. the whole album is just fun and crazy.

famous rock man listens to aphex

other 2 people pretty much nailed it.

for me pic related, production wise i can hear that its great and well made but ive never managed to finish it because it seems boring, even when putting it on in the background as ambient ive turned it off shortly after.

just listen to Minutes to Sleep by Francis Harris; same album only 10x better and more tasteful

this is corny

Hallogallo and Negativland sound crazy ahead of their time, the latter especially reminding me of acts like Joy Division and Sonic Youth well before they even formed. Most of the other tracks aren't as impressive IMO but they're still at least interesting in their own way like the metallic drones on Sonderangebot or or the cracked, raspy vocals on Lieber Honig.

Always felt this record was more evocative of dream pop or even space rock but as shoegaze I suppose it's a high point for the more melodic end of the spectrum. Doesn't really bury the listener in sound so much as lifts them up and just holds them there, making for a very chill experience.

The weird is good, user. The album's very conceptual and it never loses its focus, even if what you get isn't always conventionally musical.

Part of it is ambition but a good chunk of it is definitely a band in the right place at the right time using their limelight to blindside listeners. Yes, the band's incorporation of IDM, jazz and krautrock influences was a considerable leap from even OK Computer but it more combines those influences under a cohesive, relatively digestible vision rather than actually innovate on anything. To that end, it's a frontrunner for "babby's first weird music" but that's not to say the music is sincerely without merit as Radiohead certainly do due justice with memorable elements like the jazz freakout on The National Anthem, the distorted vocals on the title track or the muted electronic beat on Idioteque.

Keep in mind that this came out in 1972. It's pretty much post-rock that was made almost two decades before the term was in use. The two actually "songs" on the album are Hallogallo and Negativland, with Hallogallo being the key track imo. Neu! pioneered the "motorik" or "apache beat" style of drumming on this track. I enjoy the contrast of the driving, mechanical drums with the meandering, ambient guitar. However, Neu's best track imo is Fur Immer (Forever) off their second album:

youtube.com/watch?v=V85AjBFDmbI

Listen loud. There's not a whole lot to "get" in my opinion, so if you don't like it maybe they just aren't for you. Nothing wrong with that.

My favorite Neu! album overall is Neu! 75 (which is also arguably my all-time favorite rock record). You might want to try this one. It has everything from the extremely ambient (Leb Wohl) to straight up proto-punk (Hero) and pulls it all off perfectly.

>Neu's best track imo is Fur Immer
Definitely agree, but Negativland is no. 2 for me.

I just don't get why people are labeling it a modern masterpiece

I'm not personally a fan besides Alison, but the appeal is in the walls of guitar and the very melancholic melodies. Very mood based album

Wack as fuck, funny, and some good experimentation in the more prog rock songs

Variety, several moving songs (HTDC, Idioteque), combined genres in a interesting way, high quality throughout, dark atmosphere

Extremely moving and pleasurable lyrics and melodies. Very fun and sequenced well

Crazy structure with really good arrangements. no album except smile sounds like it. can be a mess in a good way. easy to get lost in the frequent shifts in tone

forgot pic

just imagine alone and its dark and there's UFOs landing everywhere

spiderland

For me, it has the feeling of watching one of those old 70mm epic films like Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia. Everything just sounds so huge but not in the boring stadium rock sort of way. It's very alive and colorful and full of spectacle The weird interludes and such catch you off guard at first, but listen to it again with the knowledge of the weirder parts, and I think you'll be able to appreciate all of it more.

Early stuff: Very honest, self-flagellating lyrics. Songs like Edit the Sad Parts feel brutal but very cathartic if you're suffering from depression.
I don't know if Lonesome Crowded West is harder for non-Americans to relate to, but that record perfectly sums up the malaise that one feels seeing urban sprawl/growing corporatization (think: fast food everywhere, trashy strip malls, local-owned stores getting replace with Walmart)

Later stuff: It's a lot poppier and has a more jaded, cynical edge, as opposed to the anger & angst on their early stuff. Different appeal entirely but it's still solid.

It's a very moody album, and generally you have to be in the right mood for moody music. The musicians involved were very young when they recorded it, and the technical/compositional skill for these young guys in a garage rock band is very impressive. Listen to the track Nosferatu Man: notice how most of the song is in 5/4, but flows very well and doesn't feel awkward or stilted?

What other album recorded in 1970 has that much high quality rock, pop, jazz, avant garde, ambient, heavy metal (even though it's only like 2 minutes), psychedelia, folk, and prog?

There are a lot of ideas and contradictions going on in this album. The cold electronics can feel almost like field recordings. The isolation of the more ambient tracks actually give a feeling of familiar connection to the world. Its a very relaxing album to put on in the background and zone out to, but the songwriting and frequent moments of chaos convey a sense of panic.

It also benefits greatly from the time it came out in. A lot of the ideas present on here, like the robotic voice in Kid A and the stormy drum machine on Idioteque, would come to define a large part of the time period before the electronic world declared them obsolete.

You probably just don't like it

Bumped

not even a good thread, stupid tripfag

This is pretty much the only thread that's had a lot of good contributions today

never talk about my thread again

I'm not seeing it.

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I think this album has a really deep and dynamic production to it. It almost feels like every sound you hear, even if it's repetitive, sounds different than before. That is really rare in electronic music. I also really like the atmosphere, it has a lot of downs and ups. The structure of the songs are somewhat postrocky without beeing crescendo-core, just in a sense of electronic music.

guess

Listening to it for the first time right now. Flood I was probably just an idea that they stretched over 14 minutes. It varies on how much you liked or disliked it. I'm halfway through Flood II and it's just nice and dreamy.

Jon Hopkins and Francis Harris are totally different. Not even comparable.

this is weird or i dont get it. it's like two tracks are half decent

I'm at the end of Flood III, and aside from the first two tracks and the first 1/3rd of Flood III, this drone shit was done much better in Dronevil. Really not sure why this album gets all the hubba that it does. Akuma No Uta is better, too.

listen to aegian sea

Listen to Good morning, Captain until it clicks

Its okay if you dont "get" it, this is DAW-autism at its finest. He spends too much time adjusting stuff that even some experienced producers dont catch.

In short, its a very organic and overproduced album and i think you need to be redpilled on production to apprechiate this album.

>easy to get lost in the frequent shifts in tone
yeah this paired with the pastiche aspect where there's always something "off" but i can't point my finger on it, it makes it feel like a dream more than anything that's just simply 'atmospheric'

It's okay I guess but what makes this album a cult classic ?

there's so many layers of percussion and it's all super groovy with a weird memorable vocal style/lyrics

I like the lyrics but he's basically whispering, I don't get it

Its hard for someone to yell out your worst pains..

See:

nobody does.

pls spoon feed

Forgot image

It's the same ideas from F#A#Infinity but with different sounds. The ideas being that life is bleak, uncertain, and beautiful.

I take it you at least like Hallogallo?
Try Neu! 2 or La Düsseldorf S/T for more stuff in the same vein without the weirder bits