The stream of reviews will probably shorten a bit for the upcoming weeks. I had a week without shifts and with friends who all were outside of the country so spending my days listening, thinking and writing about albums I've already heard and often aren't too excited about wasn't an issue time wise. However now I'm back at work and I'm working on starting a café with a couple of my friends from my facutly club at the university which most likely will also be time consuming. I still hope to finish this list before I'm back behinds books at my university since it will be hard to write more frequently by then. It's a daunting task but I will be trying my best!
Next up is the first Beatles review on the album Revolver, a monumental and historically important record in the tale that is The Beatles. While it isn't the highest rated Beatles record on this list (just one step down from Abbey Road) I do find it important for me to take this one first since it fits these type of reviews a bit better.
When you're speaking of The Beatles discography you often divide it into two parts, either as the Lennon-led era of the albums prior to The White Album or the McCartney-led era of albums that came after. I personally like to dissect their discography into their simple pop stuff that came before Rubber Soul (65) and their more original and innovative records from the time that came after.
Now Rubber Soul was the predecessor to Revolver and it signaled a change in sound for the band. Rubber Soul was less pop-centered and featured more folk influences, which is in my opinion the time when The Beatles decided that they wanted to be something more than the band who's singles saw radio time. Revolver doesn't continue the folk influence but does instead combine the bandmembers incredibly song writing and ear for melody with new unqiue elements and instruments which came to be what made Revolver such a memorable album. It's a record that pleased a huge majority of their fan base and most likely came to win people over in several ways, leading into a new era of The Beatles, a more daring and exciting one.
Revolver begins with the song Taxman, a song about losing all the money you make to the state, the government and the evil taxman, written from similar experiences that the band had experienced through royalties and the like. Taxman utilizes an at the time new production technique which is one of the most common and simple features of today's music production but which was new and exciting at the time, panning a majority of the instrumentals hard left and keeping percussion in the right ear.
A couple of tracks in we reach the Harrison-written Love You To which takes influence from Indian traditional folk music bringing in a sitar to the mix. It's an interesting element that quickly came to be a staple amongst the rest of The Beatles' compositions and just adds to the fact that Revolver was, and still is a many fauceted record with a lot to offer outside of simplistic fun pop songs.
Nowadays I rarely listen to The Beatles even if I have dug through a considerable amount of their discography. Maybe I won't rank this album amongst my all time favorites, but it's hard to deny that it had influence and a uniqueness to itself that I find incredibly admirable for a band who weren't known for much outside of their ear's for melody and their impressive songwriting. It's definitely two traits that are important to have when you're starting a band but it wasn't until Revolver that The Beatles finally proved that they had more to give than just a bunch of hit songs every year, and it wasn't until this era of the late 60's that the band made themselves worthy of the title the worlds greatest band.
"Did he seriously call The Beatles the greatest band?", and yes in fact I did. I don't believe any band has successfully created quality music over such a long time, enchanting and perplexing such a huge crowd and wide range of people and also being able to create something deeper than just simple pop music. Despite their career as a band only lasted 7 years they succeeded in leaving a huge impact on the world of music that is still felt today, 50 years later.
Revolver
The Beatles
7/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Film Review: Stalker [1979]
I had to write about this movie despite only being a couple of hours since I finished viewing Stalker, my first experience with Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. I believe that if I don't atleast attempt to write something about this film it may never leave my head. Atleast that's how I'm feeling at the moment.
Stalker is a story of how a man leads two curious strangers into a closed of, almost alien area called The Zone where the man promises that the strangers shall find a room that grants them any wish they may have. Of course this three hour long story is much more convoluted than this and despite the fact that most of the film is centered around three characthers, the complexity behind them allow for an endlessly deep exploration that I could have enjoyed several more hours of.
It's hard to actually explain what the underlying themes and motifs of this film are since I'm not quite sure myself despite having no problem understanding the narrative or dialog in the film. I'd compare it to Lynch's more modern work (Twin Peaks, Mullholland Drive) in the sense that it's not complicated to tag along, enjoy the ride, and comprehending the gist of the film but it will take me several viewings and an incredible amount of patience to come to terms with what I believe the film is about.
Despite its three hour long run time it honestly feels like a film that is too short for its own best. It doesn't ever start to drag and the overlying tension from the foreign place known as The Zone is always there to pick at both the characthers and the viewer. It's something that keeps you on the edge throughout all of the different stages of the film, from the trio's journey into the zone, sneaking through closed gates, running from the police, to the journey through the colorized, incomprehensible and deadly The Zone which not even the guide known as Stalker seems to fully understand.
I mentioned above the possibly endless exploration of the incredibly deep trio of characthers that unfortunately gets missed because of the lack of play time. I do believe that some narrative could have been skipped in favor for developing more of the philosophical ideas that the group discusses towards the end of the film, touching on things like having hope in a lost word (I'd assume a parallell to the Soviet Union), existentialism human morals. Again, there are endless possiblities for these characthers who work perfectly as spring boards for eachothers ideas and personal views and they're articulated perfectly by their actors who all manage to give flawless performances and create three characters who not only feel real but who also feel more interesting than many of the humans alive who are playing noone but themselves.
There's not really a singular flaw in this film that I can point out after only having viewed it once. Despite all the questions I have I feel satisfied with the ending and how the story enveloped. I don't feel robbed of my time despite how I otherwise would have felt that three hours had been a bit of a time sink and it's already a film I would like to revisit, even now, barely ten hours after having seen it,
I can't see a reason why you shouldn't see this movie. Possibly if you're completely against seeing a film who's narrative doesn't hold your hand all throughout the movie aswell as can't enjoy a film for its artistic merit and the ideas that it might inflict upon you. The characthers are excellent, the setting is haunting, eerie and leaves me curious, the themes and motifs that are touched upon leave me with a desire to learn more and the last hour makes me want to come back. Much like Stalker has the desire to return to The Zone over and over again despite the fact that he never wishes to enter The Room that grants him wishes have I the desire to revisit the film and watch the terror of The Zone once again. Maybe then will the mysteries of The Zone unfold.
Stalker
dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
9.5/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
Stalker is a story of how a man leads two curious strangers into a closed of, almost alien area called The Zone where the man promises that the strangers shall find a room that grants them any wish they may have. Of course this three hour long story is much more convoluted than this and despite the fact that most of the film is centered around three characthers, the complexity behind them allow for an endlessly deep exploration that I could have enjoyed several more hours of.
It's hard to actually explain what the underlying themes and motifs of this film are since I'm not quite sure myself despite having no problem understanding the narrative or dialog in the film. I'd compare it to Lynch's more modern work (Twin Peaks, Mullholland Drive) in the sense that it's not complicated to tag along, enjoy the ride, and comprehending the gist of the film but it will take me several viewings and an incredible amount of patience to come to terms with what I believe the film is about.
 |
| The three main characthers of the movie with Stalker in the middle. |
I mentioned above the possibly endless exploration of the incredibly deep trio of characthers that unfortunately gets missed because of the lack of play time. I do believe that some narrative could have been skipped in favor for developing more of the philosophical ideas that the group discusses towards the end of the film, touching on things like having hope in a lost word (I'd assume a parallell to the Soviet Union), existentialism human morals. Again, there are endless possiblities for these characthers who work perfectly as spring boards for eachothers ideas and personal views and they're articulated perfectly by their actors who all manage to give flawless performances and create three characters who not only feel real but who also feel more interesting than many of the humans alive who are playing noone but themselves.
There's not really a singular flaw in this film that I can point out after only having viewed it once. Despite all the questions I have I feel satisfied with the ending and how the story enveloped. I don't feel robbed of my time despite how I otherwise would have felt that three hours had been a bit of a time sink and it's already a film I would like to revisit, even now, barely ten hours after having seen it,
I can't see a reason why you shouldn't see this movie. Possibly if you're completely against seeing a film who's narrative doesn't hold your hand all throughout the movie aswell as can't enjoy a film for its artistic merit and the ideas that it might inflict upon you. The characthers are excellent, the setting is haunting, eerie and leaves me curious, the themes and motifs that are touched upon leave me with a desire to learn more and the last hour makes me want to come back. Much like Stalker has the desire to return to The Zone over and over again despite the fact that he never wishes to enter The Room that grants him wishes have I the desire to revisit the film and watch the terror of The Zone once again. Maybe then will the mysteries of The Zone unfold.
Stalker
dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
9.5/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
Album Review: Wish You Were Here [1975] #4
My biggest issue with Wish You Were Here as an album lies in the fact that I'm not a huge fan of anglo prog rock as a genre. Bands like Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and Yes have never been my favorites even if I can enjoy most of their greatest releases on a more conceptual level and at best, appreciating their works from a more objective standpoint instead of a personal one.
Wish You Were Here is centered around the two suites of the song Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a song written as a tribute to past member Syd Barrett who unfortunately had to leave the band due to mental illness years prior to both this album and The Dark Side Of The Moon which I wrote about a couple of days back. It's a metamorphing beats that transitions through synths, pads, jazz trumpets, melodic guitar riffs and the occasional call out "Shine on, you crazy diamond!" which I'm not sure is the most fitting choice of lyrics for a song tributed to someone suffering from mental illness.
However the decision to split the song into two different parts, one half for as the opening part of the album and one half making up the closing part was in my opinion a huge mistake. Shine On You Crazy Diamond is what makes up the bulk of Wish You Were Here and it's also what I think is the underlying motif, the grandiose piece that ties it all together. How mesmerizing had it not been if the band had decided to go out on the high note that is Shine On instead of using the track as a way to tie the album together?
The biggest issue about doing something like this is that you create a void that is made up by the three tracks, Welcome To The Machine, Have A Cigar and Wish You Were Here which never really attribute something to the whole of the record and mainly exist as this kind of 15 minute break that just holds up the inevitable ending to the Syd Barrett-tribute that has barely been teased during the opening of the album. Cutting the main force of the album apart also divides the record, leaving a gap that can not quite be healed, no matter how good of a track the misplaced title track is on it's own two feet. It hampers the album, leaving little reason to return when the main forces can be sought up on their own, atleast in today's society.
My other qualm with the record is the fact that I just don't really enjoy Shine On You Crazy Diamond for what it is; a prog rock jam session. As someone who's not a big fan of the genre, I find very little to hold onto with a track like this outside of the way the band incorporates elements from their influences, mainly the early 60's jazz trumpets during the closing part of parts I-V. I wish there was more depth to the four tracks of the album that aren't Wish You Were Here, something that I atleast could find on The Dark Side Of The Moon.
Maybe all of this just stems from my experiences with the genre as a whole and maybe, or even obviously actually, this is a problem that few other listeners has with this record. However I do not see this as a record that even closely compares to The Dark Side Of The Moon, let alone many of the other records that Pink Floyd has put out and Wish You Were Here will most likely not grow on me since my issues with the album are already far too strong for something like that.
It's a fine record if you're already big on similar music, but it's just not for me at all.
Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here
4/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
Wish You Were Here is centered around the two suites of the song Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a song written as a tribute to past member Syd Barrett who unfortunately had to leave the band due to mental illness years prior to both this album and The Dark Side Of The Moon which I wrote about a couple of days back. It's a metamorphing beats that transitions through synths, pads, jazz trumpets, melodic guitar riffs and the occasional call out "Shine on, you crazy diamond!" which I'm not sure is the most fitting choice of lyrics for a song tributed to someone suffering from mental illness.
However the decision to split the song into two different parts, one half for as the opening part of the album and one half making up the closing part was in my opinion a huge mistake. Shine On You Crazy Diamond is what makes up the bulk of Wish You Were Here and it's also what I think is the underlying motif, the grandiose piece that ties it all together. How mesmerizing had it not been if the band had decided to go out on the high note that is Shine On instead of using the track as a way to tie the album together?
The biggest issue about doing something like this is that you create a void that is made up by the three tracks, Welcome To The Machine, Have A Cigar and Wish You Were Here which never really attribute something to the whole of the record and mainly exist as this kind of 15 minute break that just holds up the inevitable ending to the Syd Barrett-tribute that has barely been teased during the opening of the album. Cutting the main force of the album apart also divides the record, leaving a gap that can not quite be healed, no matter how good of a track the misplaced title track is on it's own two feet. It hampers the album, leaving little reason to return when the main forces can be sought up on their own, atleast in today's society.
My other qualm with the record is the fact that I just don't really enjoy Shine On You Crazy Diamond for what it is; a prog rock jam session. As someone who's not a big fan of the genre, I find very little to hold onto with a track like this outside of the way the band incorporates elements from their influences, mainly the early 60's jazz trumpets during the closing part of parts I-V. I wish there was more depth to the four tracks of the album that aren't Wish You Were Here, something that I atleast could find on The Dark Side Of The Moon.
Maybe all of this just stems from my experiences with the genre as a whole and maybe, or even obviously actually, this is a problem that few other listeners has with this record. However I do not see this as a record that even closely compares to The Dark Side Of The Moon, let alone many of the other records that Pink Floyd has put out and Wish You Were Here will most likely not grow on me since my issues with the album are already far too strong for something like that.
It's a fine record if you're already big on similar music, but it's just not for me at all.
Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here
4/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Album Review: The Velvet Underground & Nico [1967] #3
When The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in 1967 it became a commercial flop which quickly led the producer and artist behind the famed album art, Andy Warhol, to quickly jump ship taking with him the singer Nico and leaving Lou, John, Sterling and Maureen to their own devices.
This might seem unfortunate but in my opinion, it isn't quite as surprising as people might find it today and I'll even go as far as to claim that the album was doomed to be a commercial failure from the get-go. '67 was the year after Pet Sounds and Revolver, it was the same year as Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Doors' self titled. It wasn't a year in which the mainstream crowd had a craving for an experimental album containing drug abuse, sex and proto noise rock. People wanted fun psychadelic pop-centered rock music. However it was exactly the kind of record that a man like Andy Warhol would support and while we today can see that it was both incredibly original and innovative, that wasn't something that would be picked up by the major populus until several years later.
The Velvet Underground & Nico is one of my personal favorite albums and definitely my favorite album of the whole Rate Your Music Top 100. It mixes simple songs like Sunday Morning and Heroin with an originality and uniqueness that is nowehere to be found in similar albums from a similar time. Even today it stands as one of the most unique records of all time, even when paired with the bands later releases there isn't really anything that quite compares to what the band achieved with the debut.
And even disregarding the beauty of the more accessible parts of the album, there's still songs like the eight minute proto noise rock jam which is European Son and tracks like Venus In Furs where John Cale's electic violin, an instrument that I don't think can be found in a similar record from the same era, gets to take the front over guitars and drums and shines with its originality.
The lyrical themes of The Velvet Underground & Nico explore different subjects such as drug abuse, sexual deviancy and prostitution among many other things, often disguised under melodies that speak a whole different thing of the mood and subject of the songs. I often see it credited as actually being a conceptual album about the daily life of a heroin addict in the city of New York. Sunday Morning being about the addict waking up and heading out in search of a fix, Here Comes The Man being the addict waiting for their dealer:
He's never early he's always late
First thing you notice is you always gotta wait
And the single Heroin's theme being an obvious end to the story. I personally believe the theory is a stretch and that the idea mainly stems from an interpretation of the different drug themed songs on the album, the aforementioned three being the main ones involved in the theme of heroin addiction, a theme that the band would continue to involve in their music in their following album White Light/White Heat.
Today it's almost 50 years since The Velvet Underground & Nico was released. Andy Warhol is long since gone, The Velvet Underground's long going producer Tom Wilson is also long gone and both Lou Reed and Nico has passed away. It's been almost half a century and this record still holds up as one of the greatest of all time, yet another piece of music history to be found in the top 10 of this list.
I personally adore this record and hold it as one of the greatest pieces of music released, the earliest masterpiece in the genre of rock music and the start of several long going careers that would come to shape the music that we know today.
I keep pointing out that I believe that these records should be required to be heard by anyone interested in music at the end of all these reviews and maybe it's something that could be said for over 75% of the records on this list. It is honestly just 100 records and almost all of them deserve their place on the list. However I will add it once again and I will say that if there's one record that I do believe that everyone owes to themselves to hear from this list, then I personally suggest listening to The Velvet Underground & Nico as it's the, in my opinion, greatest album on this list and also one of the single greatest pieces of music ever created by human hands, and I pray that one day I'll find a record that outshines it in every single way.
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground
10/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
This might seem unfortunate but in my opinion, it isn't quite as surprising as people might find it today and I'll even go as far as to claim that the album was doomed to be a commercial failure from the get-go. '67 was the year after Pet Sounds and Revolver, it was the same year as Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Doors' self titled. It wasn't a year in which the mainstream crowd had a craving for an experimental album containing drug abuse, sex and proto noise rock. People wanted fun psychadelic pop-centered rock music. However it was exactly the kind of record that a man like Andy Warhol would support and while we today can see that it was both incredibly original and innovative, that wasn't something that would be picked up by the major populus until several years later.
The Velvet Underground & Nico is one of my personal favorite albums and definitely my favorite album of the whole Rate Your Music Top 100. It mixes simple songs like Sunday Morning and Heroin with an originality and uniqueness that is nowehere to be found in similar albums from a similar time. Even today it stands as one of the most unique records of all time, even when paired with the bands later releases there isn't really anything that quite compares to what the band achieved with the debut.
And even disregarding the beauty of the more accessible parts of the album, there's still songs like the eight minute proto noise rock jam which is European Son and tracks like Venus In Furs where John Cale's electic violin, an instrument that I don't think can be found in a similar record from the same era, gets to take the front over guitars and drums and shines with its originality.
The lyrical themes of The Velvet Underground & Nico explore different subjects such as drug abuse, sexual deviancy and prostitution among many other things, often disguised under melodies that speak a whole different thing of the mood and subject of the songs. I often see it credited as actually being a conceptual album about the daily life of a heroin addict in the city of New York. Sunday Morning being about the addict waking up and heading out in search of a fix, Here Comes The Man being the addict waiting for their dealer:
He's never early he's always late
First thing you notice is you always gotta wait
And the single Heroin's theme being an obvious end to the story. I personally believe the theory is a stretch and that the idea mainly stems from an interpretation of the different drug themed songs on the album, the aforementioned three being the main ones involved in the theme of heroin addiction, a theme that the band would continue to involve in their music in their following album White Light/White Heat.
Today it's almost 50 years since The Velvet Underground & Nico was released. Andy Warhol is long since gone, The Velvet Underground's long going producer Tom Wilson is also long gone and both Lou Reed and Nico has passed away. It's been almost half a century and this record still holds up as one of the greatest of all time, yet another piece of music history to be found in the top 10 of this list.
I personally adore this record and hold it as one of the greatest pieces of music released, the earliest masterpiece in the genre of rock music and the start of several long going careers that would come to shape the music that we know today.
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground
10/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
Album Review: Loveless [1991] #9
Moving down the line of albums and I've decided to ignore the real order just a tiny bit in favor of actually listening to, and reviewing, the things I really want to hear. It's half past one here where I am and I felt that it was about time I revisited the shoegaze legend that is My Bloody Valentine's Loveless.
Now Loveless is possibly one of the least penetrable records on this list, and especially in the top 10 on this list. It's a record that takes patience and some effort from the listener. It's a record that isn't as easily penetrable as perhaps OK Computer, Abbey Road or In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, but that doesn't take away from the quality of the record.
I first came across My Bloody Valentine's music through Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation and I quickly became interested in their other releases. There was something about the atmosphere and lush feeling of a track like Sometimes that made me crave more. How this wall of sound, built with brick on brick of guitar distortion, thick as mud sitting in the back of your ears as lush, dreamy vocals take the forefront and lead you into a passage of harmony and bliss.
For me this was some incredibly unique, something original which I hadn't previously heard. The influences of brit-rock, alt-rock and other similar rock-oriented genres that were popular in England during the time (early 90's) were obvious of course but it was the general feel and the general interpretation of the music which was done and executed in a way that I personally had never seen before. And even back then, in 1991, it was something unique even if the idea of shoegaze, rock music with an affinity for pedals and experimentation, had been around for a couple years prior.
I discussed shoegaze in general with two friends a couple nights ago. We were talking about an upcoming festival and recommending a friend to get acquainted with, and then of course to view, the band Slowdive who was performing. My friend described the genre of shoegaze to the other friend as "heroin pop" and it was a word that truly stuck with me. Because this is pretty much how My Bloody Valentine's music feels. Like drifting away, without a care in the world when your in a mood that begs you to just lie down and take in different nuances that exist all around you.
It's a blissful genre and it's blissful music. I want to call Loveless beautiful but the word isn't quite fitting since it's not beauty that is at play, it's the collision of brutish guitar distortion, just a quick step away from noise rock blended with somber dream pop, lush and warm, to create some kind of middle road.
It's been over 30 years since Loveless, the most influential and praised of the many shoegaze records of the time (Ride's Nowhere, Slowdive's Souvlaki, The Jesus & Mary Chain's Psychocandy) and to this day noone has quite succeeded in creating something in the same genre that surpasses it. Even to this day, when shoegaze has become almost the new "indie", the trendy genre that the difficult high school kids love, we see tons of look-alikes and bands who attempt to create something similar but just end up sounding like rip-offs.
My personal relationship with Loveless has been a complicated one. I love the beauty of tracks like Sometimes and To Here Knows When but what competely turns me of all of it are the ridiculous melodies, the riffs that are supposed to be the center of many of the tracks on the album and the clash of beauty and harshness that rarely wins me over. Tracks like I Only Said and Come In Alone completely take me out of the atmosphere that the calmer, more focused tracks have taken the album into and I find that this ruins the cohesive feel of the record, making me opt to only return to the more dream pop-esque tracks instead of actually experiencing the album front to back.
Maybe it's all because of the thick skin surrounding Loveless, maybe it's something that I still haven't quite grown into and maybe I'll one day wake up and realize that Loveless is the woman I've loved all my life and it's about time that I seize the day and come to that realization.
Now Loveless is possibly one of the least penetrable records on this list, and especially in the top 10 on this list. It's a record that takes patience and some effort from the listener. It's a record that isn't as easily penetrable as perhaps OK Computer, Abbey Road or In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, but that doesn't take away from the quality of the record.
I first came across My Bloody Valentine's music through Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation and I quickly became interested in their other releases. There was something about the atmosphere and lush feeling of a track like Sometimes that made me crave more. How this wall of sound, built with brick on brick of guitar distortion, thick as mud sitting in the back of your ears as lush, dreamy vocals take the forefront and lead you into a passage of harmony and bliss.
For me this was some incredibly unique, something original which I hadn't previously heard. The influences of brit-rock, alt-rock and other similar rock-oriented genres that were popular in England during the time (early 90's) were obvious of course but it was the general feel and the general interpretation of the music which was done and executed in a way that I personally had never seen before. And even back then, in 1991, it was something unique even if the idea of shoegaze, rock music with an affinity for pedals and experimentation, had been around for a couple years prior.
I discussed shoegaze in general with two friends a couple nights ago. We were talking about an upcoming festival and recommending a friend to get acquainted with, and then of course to view, the band Slowdive who was performing. My friend described the genre of shoegaze to the other friend as "heroin pop" and it was a word that truly stuck with me. Because this is pretty much how My Bloody Valentine's music feels. Like drifting away, without a care in the world when your in a mood that begs you to just lie down and take in different nuances that exist all around you.
It's a blissful genre and it's blissful music. I want to call Loveless beautiful but the word isn't quite fitting since it's not beauty that is at play, it's the collision of brutish guitar distortion, just a quick step away from noise rock blended with somber dream pop, lush and warm, to create some kind of middle road.
It's been over 30 years since Loveless, the most influential and praised of the many shoegaze records of the time (Ride's Nowhere, Slowdive's Souvlaki, The Jesus & Mary Chain's Psychocandy) and to this day noone has quite succeeded in creating something in the same genre that surpasses it. Even to this day, when shoegaze has become almost the new "indie", the trendy genre that the difficult high school kids love, we see tons of look-alikes and bands who attempt to create something similar but just end up sounding like rip-offs.
My personal relationship with Loveless has been a complicated one. I love the beauty of tracks like Sometimes and To Here Knows When but what competely turns me of all of it are the ridiculous melodies, the riffs that are supposed to be the center of many of the tracks on the album and the clash of beauty and harshness that rarely wins me over. Tracks like I Only Said and Come In Alone completely take me out of the atmosphere that the calmer, more focused tracks have taken the album into and I find that this ruins the cohesive feel of the record, making me opt to only return to the more dream pop-esque tracks instead of actually experiencing the album front to back.
Maybe it's all because of the thick skin surrounding Loveless, maybe it's something that I still haven't quite grown into and maybe I'll one day wake up and realize that Loveless is the woman I've loved all my life and it's about time that I seize the day and come to that realization.
Despite my personal qualms with the record I do think that it's one that's worth experiencing, much like The Dark Side Of The Moon and OK Computer. Loveless might not be the most mainstream on the list but it's an album who's influence might be more important today than it has been during these past two decades since its release.
Loveless
My Bloody Valentine
7/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
Friday, June 26, 2015
Album Review: The Dark Side Of The Moon [1973] #2
Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon is most likely the most well known record on the Rate Your Music Top 100. It's an album with almost historic fame and without a doubt the most recognizable and praised album in the genre of progressive rock.
The Dark Side Of The Moon starts of at a slow note, introducing the album through the almost ambient opener Speak To Me which already sets the album apart from their previous album Meddle on which the band had a completely different musical vision. Speak To Me flows into Breathe which flows into another ambient interlude On The Run. This is where the album actually gets going and picks up the pace, leading into the iconic and well known middle section with tracks like Money, Time and The Great Gig In The Sky, a truly great trio of songs that still stand as not only one of Pink Floyd's greatest moments, but also as one of the most notorious in brittish prog rock.
On The Run closes of with the ticking of clocks which are meant to work as the kind of intersection between itself and Time which picks up where On The Run stopped. This is where the album gets going and heads into a more cohesive flow of strong tracks upon strongs track, reaching the aforementioned trifecta that makes up the bulk of The Dark Side Of The Moon.
Time was a very important song to me when I first came across it a bunch of years ago. I was suffering quite badly from anxiety as I came to the realization that some of the time of my life had passed and those were years I'd never reach again. Some kind of middle age-crisis when I was barely 15 but the lyrics on Time really resonated with me during that moment, giving me hope that I wasn't alone in feeling this kind of me. It sounds cliché to bring in personal stories into a review but what I'm trying to do is bring some light to the lyrics of Time which are spot-on and one of the strongest points of the album, atleast lyrically.
Now Time leads into another track that I'd love to talk about which is The Great Gig In The Sky, a quite surprising and honestly misplaced track on this record. I do believe that an underlying theme of the record is coming of age and coming to terms with existance and the mortality of man, a point that The Great Gig In The Sky really hits home despite it's lack of lyrics.
Now this song is interesting because it honestly place on the record. It differs hugely from the other tracks on the record and comes in as this epic show stealer right in the middle of the album, between two of the strongest songs on the album. It doesn't fit the bill but it still works because of how ambigous it is, letting it fit into the thematic idea of The Dark Side Of The Moon. This is yet another track that resonated heavily with me as a confused 14-year old with crappy taste in music and it's a track that I still hold closely. But what I can't get out of my head is why on earth would they place this epic anthem smack dab in the middle of the record when it had been the phenomanl closer to pretty much any prog rock album from the same era.
The Dark Side Of The Moon is a concept and an idea that Pink Floyd executed incredibly well, there's no doubt to that, but it's yet another record on this list that doesn't quite appeal to me. Pink Floyd and progressive rock overall has never been one of my favorites and I doubt that fact will evere change but The Dark Side Of The Moon still stands as one of the most iconic brittish records out there, and even as one the most iconic albums of all time, right up there with Abbey Road, The Velvet Underground & Nico, Pet Sounds and Kind Of Blue.
Yet again, this is a record that's worth your time and from a historical perspective of music history, I do think it's one that most people should have heard atleast ones and atleast have some kind of opinion of.
The Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd
6.5/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
It's a landmark album, not only musically but also stylistically with an album art that's on par with Andy Warhol's famed yellow "It peels off!"-banana that graced Velvet Underground's debut album. The light reflecting prism on top of the black background has become something that most people who aren't even acquainted with Pink Floyd's music would recognize at any moment of the day.
The Dark Side Of The Moon starts of at a slow note, introducing the album through the almost ambient opener Speak To Me which already sets the album apart from their previous album Meddle on which the band had a completely different musical vision. Speak To Me flows into Breathe which flows into another ambient interlude On The Run. This is where the album actually gets going and picks up the pace, leading into the iconic and well known middle section with tracks like Money, Time and The Great Gig In The Sky, a truly great trio of songs that still stand as not only one of Pink Floyd's greatest moments, but also as one of the most notorious in brittish prog rock.
On The Run closes of with the ticking of clocks which are meant to work as the kind of intersection between itself and Time which picks up where On The Run stopped. This is where the album gets going and heads into a more cohesive flow of strong tracks upon strongs track, reaching the aforementioned trifecta that makes up the bulk of The Dark Side Of The Moon.
Time was a very important song to me when I first came across it a bunch of years ago. I was suffering quite badly from anxiety as I came to the realization that some of the time of my life had passed and those were years I'd never reach again. Some kind of middle age-crisis when I was barely 15 but the lyrics on Time really resonated with me during that moment, giving me hope that I wasn't alone in feeling this kind of me. It sounds cliché to bring in personal stories into a review but what I'm trying to do is bring some light to the lyrics of Time which are spot-on and one of the strongest points of the album, atleast lyrically.
Now Time leads into another track that I'd love to talk about which is The Great Gig In The Sky, a quite surprising and honestly misplaced track on this record. I do believe that an underlying theme of the record is coming of age and coming to terms with existance and the mortality of man, a point that The Great Gig In The Sky really hits home despite it's lack of lyrics.
Now this song is interesting because it honestly place on the record. It differs hugely from the other tracks on the record and comes in as this epic show stealer right in the middle of the album, between two of the strongest songs on the album. It doesn't fit the bill but it still works because of how ambigous it is, letting it fit into the thematic idea of The Dark Side Of The Moon. This is yet another track that resonated heavily with me as a confused 14-year old with crappy taste in music and it's a track that I still hold closely. But what I can't get out of my head is why on earth would they place this epic anthem smack dab in the middle of the record when it had been the phenomanl closer to pretty much any prog rock album from the same era.
The Dark Side Of The Moon is a concept and an idea that Pink Floyd executed incredibly well, there's no doubt to that, but it's yet another record on this list that doesn't quite appeal to me. Pink Floyd and progressive rock overall has never been one of my favorites and I doubt that fact will evere change but The Dark Side Of The Moon still stands as one of the most iconic brittish records out there, and even as one the most iconic albums of all time, right up there with Abbey Road, The Velvet Underground & Nico, Pet Sounds and Kind Of Blue.
Yet again, this is a record that's worth your time and from a historical perspective of music history, I do think it's one that most people should have heard atleast ones and atleast have some kind of opinion of.
The Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd
6.5/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Album Review: OK Computer [1997] #1
The reviews on my previous blog were all centered around new, recent releases in the world of music and I was hoping to lose that concept here on my new blog and instead focus on reviewing pretty much anything on which I have opinions that I feel the need to express.
My first encounter with Radiohead was sometime when I was taking my first baby steps into the world of music, new to the exciting Spotify program and constantly browsing around for new good songs to listen to. I came across Creep which seems to be their most well-known song for some incredibly odd reason and I also came across Karma Police which I enjoyed a bit more. However at the time I wasn't a huge fan of Radiohead and for years to come I'd still find their music to be incredibly overhyped by the general population. I still to this day don't find much interesting about the band. Maybe this is from my days as a hardcore Muse-fan, maybe it's from having outgrown brittish alt-rock by the time I actually started listening to their records, or maybe their music just isn't for me.
OK Computer exists as the bridging gap between the more accessible, mainstream Radiohead, the one behind the more popular singles (Creep, High And Dry) and despite being seen as quite ordinary, it still adventures a bit beyond the more straightforward rock music of the late 90's with electronic elements peeking in and out, hinting of the direction to come on Kid A, three years into the future, something especially notable during the ending segment of Airbag or the choir that comes in right in the middle of Exit Music (For A Film).
However despite all these attempts I find it hard to find something to hold onto that isn't prevalent in most alt-rock bands from the same time and place. There's something about Radiohead's music from before Kid A that sounds so dumbed down and simplistic, where the only thing that really seperates Radiohead from your run of the mill late 90's rock band is Thom Yorke's poetic lyrics (a handshake of carbon monoxide), the unnecessary experimentation with tracks like Fitter Happier and the raw emotion that seeps through on a couple of tracks here and there (namely Let Down and No Surprises on this record).
It took me years to go from not being a fan at all to being able to atleast somewhat appreciate OK Computer on a personal level and I doubt I'll ever be able to love it or Radiohead as much as some people think they deserve. For me, Radiohead is the band that will be our generation's Pink Floyd, the modern kind of dad-rock; albums that kids will come across through parents who never ventured outside of the swamps of NME's favorite bands.
But honestly, don't mind my ridiculously grumpy opinions. If you haven't already heard this album, there's a great chance that you might love every second of it and it's honestly worth the fifty minutes it takes to go from Airbag to The Tourist so if you find yourself on a long commute to work or traveling somewhere far this summer, then bring this one and a pair of earbuds for the journey.
Ok Computer
Radiohead
5/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
My most recent idea was to venture through the Rate Your Music Top 100 albums, writing a review and reassessing my old opinions of the works listed on there.
There probably isn't too much appeal for readers to engross themself in these reviews but I personally find it to be an interesting enough, and also challenging enough task to accomplish without letting it take years to finish (despite actually having heard more than 80% of the albums on the list previously).
First of is of course the number one album of all time, according to the ratings and reviews of the user on the site: OK Computer, by brittish alt-rock band Radiohead which I'm sure most are atleast somewhat familiar with.
My first encounter with Radiohead was sometime when I was taking my first baby steps into the world of music, new to the exciting Spotify program and constantly browsing around for new good songs to listen to. I came across Creep which seems to be their most well-known song for some incredibly odd reason and I also came across Karma Police which I enjoyed a bit more. However at the time I wasn't a huge fan of Radiohead and for years to come I'd still find their music to be incredibly overhyped by the general population. I still to this day don't find much interesting about the band. Maybe this is from my days as a hardcore Muse-fan, maybe it's from having outgrown brittish alt-rock by the time I actually started listening to their records, or maybe their music just isn't for me.
OK Computer exists as the bridging gap between the more accessible, mainstream Radiohead, the one behind the more popular singles (Creep, High And Dry) and despite being seen as quite ordinary, it still adventures a bit beyond the more straightforward rock music of the late 90's with electronic elements peeking in and out, hinting of the direction to come on Kid A, three years into the future, something especially notable during the ending segment of Airbag or the choir that comes in right in the middle of Exit Music (For A Film).
However despite all these attempts I find it hard to find something to hold onto that isn't prevalent in most alt-rock bands from the same time and place. There's something about Radiohead's music from before Kid A that sounds so dumbed down and simplistic, where the only thing that really seperates Radiohead from your run of the mill late 90's rock band is Thom Yorke's poetic lyrics (a handshake of carbon monoxide), the unnecessary experimentation with tracks like Fitter Happier and the raw emotion that seeps through on a couple of tracks here and there (namely Let Down and No Surprises on this record).
It took me years to go from not being a fan at all to being able to atleast somewhat appreciate OK Computer on a personal level and I doubt I'll ever be able to love it or Radiohead as much as some people think they deserve. For me, Radiohead is the band that will be our generation's Pink Floyd, the modern kind of dad-rock; albums that kids will come across through parents who never ventured outside of the swamps of NME's favorite bands.
But honestly, don't mind my ridiculously grumpy opinions. If you haven't already heard this album, there's a great chance that you might love every second of it and it's honestly worth the fifty minutes it takes to go from Airbag to The Tourist so if you find yourself on a long commute to work or traveling somewhere far this summer, then bring this one and a pair of earbuds for the journey.
Ok Computer
Radiohead
5/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Film Review: Trudno Byt Bogom (Hard To Be A God) [2013]
Trudno Byt Bogom is a Russian film based on the novel by the two Strugatsky brothers, Arkady and Boris who's sci-fi novels have been adapted to film many times over, this being the second time Trudno Byt Bogom, or Hard To Be A God which is the translated title, becomes a feature film.
This is the final film of Russian director Alexander German, who had been working on this film for over a decade with seven years of filming and almost seven years of editing, which were finalized by his son, Alexander German Jr.
It is without an opus and a great closing chapter for German's films. Firstly it differs a lot from his previous work which mainly have been centered around Soviet life and the personal troubles of the main and surrounding characthers of their stories.
Hard To Be A God however, differs a lot from this formula, having a screenplay adapted from a sci-fi novel which takes place on a completely different planet.
Now I do think that Hard To Be A God works perfectly fine as the closing chapter to German's filmography but I still wouldn't call it a perfect film and it unfortunately suffers quite hard from a couple of issues such as the absolutely impenetrable narrative and the editing issue which has led to a far too long movie and most likely what caused the narrative issues that I have found with this film.
The editing issue isn't too surprising to see when we have a film with over 7 years of documented footage, a director who passed away and a son who had to take over the project and see that his father's film was finished. This has lead to a lot of filler moments that easily could have been taken out as to not obstruct the flow and the cohesive feel of the film. We meet far too many characthers that add nothing to the film, and far too many moments that just remain huge question marks even when the film is over.
This leads me into my main issue with the film: the lost narrative. While the film is 3 hours long, it doesn't give the viewers close to any idea of what's going. Even I who've read up on this movie before seeing it felt completely lost in what was going on during its play time, even reading the plot of the novel it's based upon after seeing the movie made me barely able to piece together the scenes and the characters. I would chalk this issue up to the editing normally, but I do believe it just became such a mess that German opted to ignore the narrative and focus on the different aspects of the film which are all executed phenomenally well.
Firstly we have the acting which is absolutely perfectly done all throughout the movie, especially coming from the main characther, played by Leonid Yarmolnik. Yarmolnik plays Don Rumata, one of many sceientists sent to Arkanar and other cities on this foreign planet to study and document the people living here and to observe their historical development. Rumata may however not show why he actually is in Arkanar and has to live as the peasants that he's surrounded by. The movie is heavily surrounded around Yarmolnik's characther and he gets tons of chances to shine as the hard but just knight of the society that folks in the city seem to both fear and admire.
While Yarmonik shines in most his scenes, the real thing of beauty in Hard To Be A God is the atmosphere and the depiction of a foreign medieval world. The black and white footage along with the grotesque citizens and the detailed interior set pieces is absolutely astonishing. It gives of a dirty feel that makes me want to go wash my hands after I've finished viewing it. It's a piece of art, where shot upon shot has a horrible sense of beauty to itself. Be it shots of Don Rumata's crowded house, the snowy plains of the closing scenes, or the muddy outside, destroyed by rain.
It's a thing of beauty through and through and only the atmosphere, coupled with the camerawork is worth viewing the movie for, if you can get behind the fact that it doesn't play like an ordinary movie, opting for a loss of narrative for more beautiful scenary.
A lot of time and a lot of work have gone into this movie. Unfortunately it's not as perfect as I suppose German had wanted it to be, but it is a thing of beauty and unique beauty at that and that is something I can't hold against it.
Trudno Byt Bogom (Hard To Be A God)
dir. Alexander German
8/10
Anton Öberg Sysojev
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
A Clean Slate
After having my old blog back at Tumblr for almost two years I decided that it was time to move on to a format and site that I felt more comfortable being around. The issue I had with Tumblr was that it didn't feel like my blog and I felt lost in the swamp of reblogs, and pictures and artsy quotes.
It didn't feel natural at all so I opted for something new after having abandoned the site sometime around February when I wrote my last post. It's June now, my program at the university is over for the summer and this week I've been left without a single shift at work which all led me up to this moment:
New Rateyourmusic account, new blog, new favorites chart, new albums to hear, new films to watch and more time to kill. It felt like a splendid time to kickstart what I've been hoping to do for far too long now and it feels great to be on a platform that I'm more comfortable with.
With that said, this blog is going to function as a place where I can vent. A place where I can write out my thoughts and opinions and maybe, hopefully, get to share them with people one day when I'm proud of the work I've put into it. For now it will act as a place where I can practice my writing and get my opinions out of my head and onto something archiveable.
Welcome to the show!
It didn't feel natural at all so I opted for something new after having abandoned the site sometime around February when I wrote my last post. It's June now, my program at the university is over for the summer and this week I've been left without a single shift at work which all led me up to this moment:
New Rateyourmusic account, new blog, new favorites chart, new albums to hear, new films to watch and more time to kill. It felt like a splendid time to kickstart what I've been hoping to do for far too long now and it feels great to be on a platform that I'm more comfortable with.
With that said, this blog is going to function as a place where I can vent. A place where I can write out my thoughts and opinions and maybe, hopefully, get to share them with people one day when I'm proud of the work I've put into it. For now it will act as a place where I can practice my writing and get my opinions out of my head and onto something archiveable.
Welcome to the show!
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