That moment when you stumble upon something AMAZING

[Nitefly]

I have made a musical discovery that I'm so pleased with and passionate about that I simply have to share

For context, I have a pretty broad taste in music with a skew towards riff-based rock. I consider myself very familiar with much loved bands such as the Beatles (beyond the singles) and Pink Floyd. More recently I've started listening to more well regarded pop artists like Billy Joel and Prince, flirting with 'best of' selections which I really enjoy but I rarely get ultra-excited about. In my search, I've also listened to a selection of David Bowie 'hits' which I have found too disjointed to really get into since all the songs come from different eras / albums. But, a couple of songs interested my ears as they sounded unusual so I decided I would explore Bowie a bit further and I ended up selecting "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" on a whim since it had a fun name.

WHAT A ****ING ALBUM!!!!!!!! Where ... just.. WHAT!!?!

I am absolutely stunned that throughout my years growing up with an interest in music and exploring sub-genres, also having a keen interest in guitar, that nobody has told me to listen to this. How?!

(The next paragraph almost sounds like douchbaggy music journalism which wasn't intended... I'm just trying to explain why I like it.)

The best way of describing this album is that it's as if a perfect pop-album was pushed to its limit and became erratic and unhinged. The lyrics have bite and often an unusual delivery, much like something that Roger Waters would pen and sing, but there are often catchy motifs and chants bolstered with backing singers. The music generally is typically toe-tapping, yet undeniably weird. Most notably, the guitar work sounds like a paranoid and furious broken robot, stop-starting and toying with ear-catching 'wrong notes'. I'm pretty sure that Graham Coxon of Blur was heavily influenced by this album (you can definitely hear echoes of this album on many Blur guitar solos like the one on "Coffee and TV"). The guitar also has a wonderful lo-fi sound, completely at odds with the futuristic vibe of the songs, which then lets the bass really fill-out the sound. On a couple of songs, but notably on "Fashion", the bass and backing vocals bring a disco-like feel to the plate making you want to dance. Yet, there are also some creepy, nightmarish moments too with faintly dissonant chord sequences and eerie sound effects (most notably on "Scream Like a Baby").

Honestly, I'm just completely floored. I don't think I've been so excited for an album as I have since Dad gave me his copy of Dark Side of the Moon for a whirl. The best bit about it, perhaps, is that I stumbled upon it all by myself, something which unfortunately I have now robbed from you with hype (sorry). I figure it's better to spread the word of good music than risk anyone missing it.

Definitely check it out!!!

With that all said, does anyone have anything else 'top-tier' that they have stumbled upon, or any stories of their musical journey to share? Or just share your thoughts on that album. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, but we can all relate to the joy of discovering something we love

 

[Nitefly]

This post brings back memories being a kid when your friends raves about a tape and they make you a copy and goes “remember listen to the B side!”

Go and listen to that guitar. How supremely odd it is. I find myself genuinely inspired... can't wait to get my guitar back from storage now!

You going to make me listen to it on Spotify ain’t you?

Is it actually on there? I’ll have to check!

Not sure, it's on Apple Music definitely so I'd presume so.

Your description reminds me a lot of KLF - The White Room and a couple of other sessions they did.

Never heard of The KFL - will check it out

 

[Nitefly]

Your post is akin to my experience listening to King Crimson's "In The Court of the Crimson King" debut album recently.

Crimson always pop up on music forums among aficionados, a very well respected band. Yet I had ignored them, steering away from the more prog side of rock. 21st Century Schizoid Man opens the album and I recognised it from a TV advert, and it's a great track, full of distorted vocal and punkish aggression. I Talk To The Wind then takes the album in a different direction, lilting and sweet. Then you have the coup de grace of Epitaph. That is a stunning track, with it's dramatic drum roll and cymbal crash entrance, Greg Lake's melancholic, tension-building and soaring vocal fitting perfectly throughout. It's an album that has a bit of everything, not a kitchen sink spared. All of the five tracks have their own flavour, the vocal is pitched differently on each. The music runs from Hendrix-esque explosions of guitar, though to jazz-influenced, heavy use of Mellotron, sections of woodwind, classical-style composition, extensive jamming. Every instrument given it's moment: furious, frenetic and dense to calm, light and mellow.

Phenomenal album.

Did you know that the guitarist of the Bowie album I mentioned in the OP is Robert Fripp of King Crimson?

(You probably did, but you didn't mention it!)

 

[Nitefly]

I did not.

In fact, Nitefly, Bowie is completely overlooked in this household. I've never quite managed to break through that particular barrier. However, in respect of your post I was going to give your album a spin anyway, and Fripp alone is reason enough to.

Cool, let me know what you think!!

Think I'll been rocking this album for a while but I do need to give ITCOTCK a whirl myself.

Cheers for your write up and your added detail in the edit, it was great to read.

 

[Nitefly]

@Flaevius @Freakbro

Just a quick update to say that I’ve had a couple of listens to In The Court of the Crimson King. Yes, it’s obviously very good! I think I was put off in my earlier years due to the jazzy intro track. I tend to have a bias against anything jazzy as my impression of jazz musicians themselves is that they are elitist and pompous. Jazz does tend to make appearances in rock music as a sort of a ‘frantic frenzied chaos’, as it does here, which I have warmed up to as it feels removed from that douchebaggery that I associate that sound with.

Speaking of the album as a whole the music generally has a layer of grief to it. As if it’s being played retrospectively to some tragic event, in the aftermath. But a sort of relief too. Bittersweet, or more accurately ‘pretty/sad‘.

It’s amazing how music can evoke those sorts of emotions without lyrics.

I find “I Talk To The Wind” and the title track to be the most interesting. I love the flutes. I have definitely heard the repeating motif from the title track before. That or it’s been copied a thousand times. Really evocative.

At present, Epitaph is probably my least favourite of the five. I find the lyrics a bit direct. I like my melancholy to be more hidden out of sight

Epitaph also reminds me slightly of that disco song by Santa Esmeralda, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood (now most well known from the Kill Bill soundtrack). A completely different sort of song, but it’s funny that similar repeating chord sequence can remind you of songs that are wholly different in character and style.

Meanwhile, I continue to dig the Bowie album. It is so triumphantly, unabashedly weird yet is courageous enough to leave any doubt in the dust... and never before has such oddness made me want to dance around! I’m particularly fond of the title track and it’s outro.

 

[Nitefly]

Honest answer, I'm struggling to gel with this album. The Frippisms give it an interest and there is some good material - I'd echo your views on the title track for instance - but it's failing on the same issues I've previously had with Bowie, there's a characteristic about his vocal I don't enjoy. I have a similar issue with Morrissey and it's difficult to get around.

A bit of a punt here, but you may enjoy Lene Lovich's 1979 debut, "Stateless", if you are unfamiliar with it. It's not as avant-garde as Bowie instrumentally, but there's some great, off-kilter work underpinning the tracks. And Lene Lovich carries that same unashamed sense of experimental adventure that make artists like Kate Bush and Bjork such an interesting listen.

@Freakbro. Edgar Broughton Band up next, once I can tear myself away from the new Lizzy box set. Gave a sample listen to the opener, Evening Over Rooftops and also House of Tournabout and they sit very nicely on my ears. Stopped there, pending being able to engage with the full album, but I can tell straight off it's one I will enjoy.

Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, completely understandable if you have a ‘snag’ with unusual vocals like that, I appreciate that it could be grating.

One band that I have always been unable to enjoy to its full potential is Pearl Jam. I have listened to ‘Ten’ dozens of times and I just really don’t like that (barritone?) style of singing. It blights the music for me. I’m less immediately dismissive of it now, but it requires more ‘work’ to enjoy it.

It's a great album, not his best but certainly up there.

If you are interested in exploring Bowie further I'd recommend listening to the following straight through (i.e no track skipping)

Low (his best and most influential album)
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (the most "hits" on)
Station to Station (cocaine haze perfection)
Hunky Dory

I also really like Young Americans but it is very different to his usual output and whilst the highs are very high (Somebody up there likes me) there are some duds.

Thanks will check those out.

 

[Nitefly]

I'm pleased for you, not for your specific discovery but for that feeling one gets, very rarely, when one discovers an album [or film] which blows the listener away and is simultaneously inspiring, innovative and overbrimming with talent. It's a hugely rare occurrence for me these days, but the last time it happened was probably about ten years ago when I heard Deloused in the Comatorium.

It was, for me, one of those releases that had such an unexpectedly immense effect on me that the experience only happens occasionally in a lifetime.

Cheers buddy. Yes, it’s a great feeling huh?

I actually gave DLITC a whirl at work yesterday but I was too distracted to listen properly. I need to set aside some proper time to listen to all the albums in this thread to do them justice.

I only real feeling towards TMV was hearing the much publicised stories of them being really into heavy / frightening drugs, in a bad way, which is really a rather silly filter to enjoy their music through since all our music heroes were no doubt high as a kite through one point or another.

I also find it hilarious that their bassist is also the bassist of Racer X - that is bizarre

I've never really listened to Bowie that much. Will check it out.

The one album that gave me the same reaction as you is probably Jeff Buckley - Grace. The world lost a truly incredible talent when he died. Funnily enough, it also happens to be one of the albums that David Bowie said he would take with him if he was stuck on a desert island.

Thanks @G-MAN2004. Yes, Grace IS an album I’ve been told to listen to many times and I just haven’t made proper space for it. I recall it being strikingly different than Hallelujah would have you believe. I will make time to listen to it and will, eventually let you know what I think!

@Nitefly I've always avoided bowie, but thanks to this I'll give it a go, i like dischordant suprises in my music, it makes the harmonious bits much sweeter.

I only have Mr Bungle in return for you, they only have 3 proper albums, self titled , disco volante and then california, which if you like the first you certainly enjoy the journey of the second, and the 3rd is a extremely well produced distillation of what they stand for and try and achieve.
They are every genre you can think of melded perfectly together in a chaotic circus but with satisfying and beautiful moments inbetween, the musicianship is unbelievable and all the intruments have attention to detail and fun deep in the parts they play.

Without looking it up, I think Mr. Bungle is somehow related to Faith No More? In which case, I expect them to be incredibly weird! Unlike most albums in the thread, I haven’t actually heard any Mr. Bungle. Your write up sounds good so that’s also added to the list.

Man, I’m creating such a backlog with this thread. I do appreciate all the recommendations. Really nice hearing other similar stories too.

I’ll have to make sure I’m not moving on too fast or I won’t be giving everything a fair chance. I don’t consider that I’ve moved on from any album yet though. Still in my initial spins!