clandestino
no llevar papel
no stand out tracks?!? "zoom!" is astonishing
and that's just track one...
and that's just track one...
Best SFA album??
- Thread starter belboid
- Start date
BadlyDrawnGirl
Piano Tuna
Good idea - it's an archetypal grower. When it came out I woke up to it every morning on the alarm timer and it developed into a beautifully crafted tapestry of an album while remaining state of the art modern pop music. I'm with 'spots on this one.ianw said:
BadlyDrawnGirl
Piano Tuna
Hear, hear, hear and hear.Sunspots said:I expect Radiator will win this vote. It usually comes up top in the various fan polls. As I said, I love 'em all, but I chose Rings Around The World 'cos I think that's been their peak so far.
They'd just walked away from the wreckage of Creation, and having signed to a major, were suddenly given the budget to fully realise their grand visions. As a result, I think they just really went for it production-wise with Rings..., which in turn inspired their songwriting and arrangements.
Maybe it was just where my head was at at the time. I'd recently split up with a long-term girlfriend and was utterly devastated. A couple of days later, I put on the new album for the very first time and heard track #1: Alternate Route to Vulcan Street. As is the way with SFA lyrics, there's ambiguity and double-meaning, and the song simultaneously laments failed relationships with both a lover and Mother Nature. The music's achingly melancholy too. And I was really feeling the heartbreak...
Then the album takes off with the pure power pop of Sidewalk Serfer Girl and (Drawing) Rings Around the World, the gorgeous It's Not The End Of The World. There's the typically skewered Receptacle for the Respectable and No Sympathy (-which starts like Bon Jovi, ends up like gabba [!!!] and is all about the Texas death penalty!). There's sweeping orchestral wonder with Shoot Doris Day, Presidential Suite, and the mighty Run Christian, Run which I think really is one of their best songs ever.
I remember going to see them live a couple of times in the days following September 11th, and stuff like Run Christian, Run (-chillingly accompanied by the footage of bombs raining down) suddenly seemed so poignant.
Overall, Rings... is a very emotional album for me, reminding me (-as it probably always will) of a time when my personal and political worlds were both seemingly falling apart like never before. But still I love this album.
-And finally: which other albums can claim to feature guest spots by both a Beatle and a Velvet?!!...
I too recall emerging from a long dark night of the soul (related in my case to thwarted ambition and the relentlessly soul-destroying nature of the job I was doing) when I first got this, and it shining beams of unmitigated sunlight into my life like aural vitamin E (or whatever it is
). 
Totally agree on every point - from the introspective, crystalline beauty and smart wordplay of '...Vulcan Street...' to the usurping-Baccarach-at-his-own-game meister-crafted songwriting of 'Presidential Suite' and 'Run Christian Run' to the irresistable garage-scuzz of the title track to the inspired organised lunacy of the four-songs-and-eight-genres-in-one 'Receptacle...' to the simple, sunny anti-pop poptasticness (if that's a word!) of 'Juxtaposed With U' and 'It's Not The End Of the World' - it was IMO the second work of white pop genius this century after Radiohead's 'Kid A' and without doubt in my all time top ten.
No wonder some of us felt underwhelmed by 'Phantom Power'...
cathal marcs
Well-Known Member
Sunspots said:I remember going to see them live a couple of times in the days following September 11th, and stuff like Run Christian, Run (-chillingly accompanied by the footage of bombs raining down) suddenly seemed so poignant.
Yeah 'Its not the end of the world' always makes me think of September the 11th also
We're on the march wi' Ally's Army,
We're going tae the Argentine,
And we'll really shake them up,
When we win the World Cup,
'Cos Scotland is the greatest football team,
We're representing Britain,
And we're gaunny do or die,
England cannae dae it,
'Cos they didnae qualify!
We're on the march wi' Ally's Army,
We're going tae the Argentine,
And we'll really shake them up,
When we win the World Cup,
'Cos Scotland is the greatest football team
We're going tae the Argentine,
And we'll really shake them up,
When we win the World Cup,
'Cos Scotland is the greatest football team,
We're representing Britain,
And we're gaunny do or die,
England cannae dae it,
'Cos they didnae qualify!
We're on the march wi' Ally's Army,
We're going tae the Argentine,
And we'll really shake them up,
When we win the World Cup,
'Cos Scotland is the greatest football team
lizzieloo said:We're on the march wi' Ally's Army,
We're going tae the Argentine,
And we'll really shake them up,
When we win the World Cup,
'Cos Scotland is the greatest football team,
We're representing Britain,
And we're gaunny do or die,
England cannae dae it,
'Cos they didnae qualify!
We're on the march wi' Ally's Army,
We're going tae the Argentine,
And we'll really shake them up,
When we win the World Cup,
'Cos Scotland is the greatest football team
-Yep, one of the Furries' very best...
This isn't fair, I like all of them... I guess it's got to be radiator then for Herman loves Pauline, Chupacabras and She's got spies, and it has the best cover out of all of them.
Phantom Power is a bit beardy, but it has Slow Life at the end which makes up for all the chin stroking
They are one of the best live bands I've seen, although I think I have been pretty spangled every time I've seen them...
Phantom Power is a bit beardy, but it has Slow Life at the end which makes up for all the chin stroking
They are one of the best live bands I've seen, although I think I have been pretty spangled every time I've seen them...
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
aaah, n bugger...
I remember this happening last time, when I got the Rings Around the World dvd......
Who can tell me where all the blood extra's on he Phantom Power DVD are accessed, I can only find the very basic 'play album' menu!
I almost returned the RAtW one, thinking it was missing bits....
I remember this happening last time, when I got the Rings Around the World dvd......
Who can tell me where all the blood extra's on he Phantom Power DVD are accessed, I can only find the very basic 'play album' menu!
I almost returned the RAtW one, thinking it was missing bits....
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
aha! i've found...some of it at least.
One needs to go into the individua track menu's then you get the opportunity to decide to play the song, the remix, listen to the directors commentary etc. Tho I still havent worked out how you get to play the second remix when there are more than one of them.
Aah well, they're not very exciting anyway.
One needs to go into the individua track menu's then you get the opportunity to decide to play the song, the remix, listen to the directors commentary etc. Tho I still havent worked out how you get to play the second remix when there are more than one of them.
Aah well, they're not very exciting anyway.
