What CD is your biggest regret having just bought?

Is that their 1st album? I've never heard it.

You know what people round hear think of magazine recommendation's.

beethoven missa solemnis, gardiner

overblown, over recorded, just plain overdone.

CD buying regrets, I have a few ...

Frances The Mute by The Mars Volta ...

Bought blindly (magazine rec.) and quite simply the worst thing I've ever bought !

Eventually threw it away as I couldn't even give it away.

About a year ago:

The Bandits - And They Walked Away.

......don't ask......

Pretentious alert...


I never regret buying a piece of music its just another step in learning about what I like and what I dislike, though keep an open mind and you might grow to like what at first seems unlikable.



Dean..

quote:

Originally posted by Consciousmess:
I had to ask this different question!

For me, its the "Yes" album I bought on recommendation from What Hifi?

It is dreadful especially at £10!!

Regards,

Jon

Did you buy the first album 'Yes':


or the third album 'The Yes Album':


The latter is the first album with Steve Howe on it, and has tracks like 'Starship Trooper', it is worth hearing, but the band didn't quite come together until Rick Wakeman joined on the next album 'Fragile'. What I heard of the first album 'Yes' did not impress me much.

On the subject, I must admit that I have recently started to download albums through bit-torrent to try them, unless it is someone I always buy the album by anyway.

One album I did buy, and am very annoyed at is Grace Jones 'Slave to the Rhythm' Island Masters release, as it throws away a huge amount of the original album. It is going back to Amazon, and they are making it clear that it is the Island Masters release, as they had it wrongly listed before. The original album is wonderful.

Cds are so cheap nowadays it's hard to have regrets of any sizable proportions.

How can you regret spending a tenner?


SJB

I tend to agree.

My only regrets are those CD's that I buy a second (or even third...) time, because in the shop I forget that I already have this and am SO tempted.

OK, guess I missed the subject...

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:
Pretentious alert...


I never regret buying a piece of music its just another step in learning about what I like and what I dislike, though keep an open mind and you might grow to like what at first seems unlikable.



Dean..

Parallel or 90 degrees
more exotic ways to die.

I really should have known what to expect

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by Consciousmess:
I had to ask this different question!

For me, its the "Yes" album I bought on recommendation from What Hifi?

It is dreadful especially at £10!!

Regards,

Jon


Did you buy the first album 'Yes':


or the third album 'The Yes Album':


The latter is the first album with Steve Howe on it, and has tracks like 'Starship Trooper', it is worth hearing, but the band didn't quite come together until Rick Wakeman joined on the next album 'Fragile'. What I heard of the first album 'Yes' did not impress me much.

On the subject, I must admit that I have recently started to download albums through bit-torrent to try them, unless it is someone I always buy the album by anyway.

One album I did buy, and am very annoyed at is Grace Jones 'Slave to the Rhythm' Island Masters release, as it throws away a huge amount of the original album. It is going back to Amazon, and they are making it clear that it is the Island Masters release, as they had it wrongly listed before. The original album is wonderful.

Thanks for that message, Jamie, as I couldn't be bothered to go downstairs, find the album and clarify which one it was!!

It was the 3rd Yes album you list, and I bought ot because What Hifi? said it would really compliment a Naim 252 setup, which I recently bought.

It just isnt my sort of music, there is no beautiful harmonies or captivating lyrics. I know music is so much more than this and many factors influence whether it is liked or not, but by my reckoning its a shite album!!

Regards,

Jon

I really like the first album Yes. quite like the second album Time And A Word and love the third album The Yes Album. Still if you don't like it fair enough Yours Is No Disgrace.

We can't all like the same things. I like the first few Genesis' albums especially Trespass and Foxtrot, but I just don't get Lamb Lies Down and after Gabriel left it seems totally banal to me, but I know others disagree. Then again some forum members like Coldplay and Barry Manilow, while I'm not a fan of either.

One man's meet is ....

The CD that I regret buying is a compilation by Man - the sound quality is worse than diabolical that it turned me off a fine band.

ATB Rotf

PS What HiFi is a comic IMHO. I'd never attach any credibility to anything it said.

Have I ever mentioned that I wasn't impressed with................................... other people seem to disagree tho

Just playing 'The Yes Album' and I must say I rather like it.

As a musical recommendation any Yes is difficult, they are very much of their time, and with Jon Anderson's alto 'choirboy' vocals and abstract lyrics there is little to latch onto.

Lyrically Yes are a non starter, the words are just a texture in the music, so if you are looking for meaning, or insight, then it will not be found here.

The album does have some lovely guitar playing, it was Steve Howe's first album with Yes. Bill Bruford was also starting to define his place as a drummer's drummer on this album.

I can see why 'What Hifi?' recommended the album, Eddie Offord's production is wonderfully light and clear, but musically it is purely down to taste.

£10 does seem expensive for this though, second hand at Amazon for £3.45, and new £4.35, I hope you kept the receipt.

ROTF
Glad to someone else find Genesis 'The Lamb ...' a disappointment, mostly three minute songs, a couple of instrumentals, all strung together by a story that makes no sense. I must admit I love 'Wind and Wuthering', but the main attraction for me in Genesis was Steve Hackett's guitar playing, and (I know you will spit) Phil Collins drumming, his playing with Brand X was bringing some jazz fusion complexity and drive to the rhythm section in '76.

quote:

Originally posted by JamieL:
Steve Hackett's guitar playing, and (I know you will spit) Phil Collins drumming

It don't get much better than than IMHO

Slightly off thread..

Two very good things happened when Gabriel left Genesis.

1. It enabled Banks/Rutherford to write without the constraits of Gabriel's wacky lyrics and changing moods, Trick of the Tail is a perfect example of this, nothing like they had done before. Dance on a Volcano/Los Endos bears little resemblance to anything they did with Gabriel. Wing and Wuthering is my favorite album. Pity they went 'poppy' a few years later.

2. After two fairly decent albums Gabriel found what he had been looking for - African/Third World rhythms. His third and fourth albums are imo absolutely awesome and he has continued to work with African/Carribean musicians for his subsequent albums.

Of course we will never know what they would have produced had they all stayed together, maybe a fusion of their own distinctive styles, but i think the split after the 'Lamb' was inevitable.

We are really very fortunate to be able to listen to so much good music from them all.

Nicely said Mike.

Mike

I always accept it is opinion, but I had vinyl copies of those two albums and gave them to another forum member as I realised I would never play them again. I think TOTT was the most disappointing record I ever bought and I agree that it was nothing like Genesis had ever done before. It just seemed like a group going through the motions with their creative leader gone. I agree with you he needed to leave because the group wasn't working anymore and, of course, it had become far too theatrical.

My favourite Genesis elpee is, of course, Trespass; they really sound like a group that has got it all together. For me they never quite matched the The Knife or White Mountain. I think it had the definitive line-up too Peter Gabriel (vocals), Anthony Phillips (guitar), Mike Rutherford (bass), Tony Banks (keyboards) and John Mayhew (drums); it was a great shame this line-up didn't stay together. As they moved on they became less like a group and more like Gabriel plus backing band, which worked well enough on Nursery Crimes and Foxtrot, but seemed to lose something on the still very acceptable Selling England and then to go completely on Lamb. To me the inventiveness had gone.

I had hoped that Banks, Rutherford and Hackett could rekindle this when PG left, but for me it just didn't happen. They sounded like a group pulling in different directions with their new singer trying to dominate without really having the presence, ability or talent of Gabriel. I thought and still think this was to their detriment artistically, but I agree it did no harm commercially - indeed if music is about shifting copy, making money and not about creating something unique and wondrous then they were more successful than ever.

Without recapturing the magic of Trespass, Gabriel has gone on to make some very fine recordings and some dross too (IMHO), but I don't believe if he had stayed with Genesis then it would have affected his output for the better except if the bald drummer had departed instead - that would have been interesting: alas we shall never know.

ATB Rotf

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:
I had hoped that Banks, Rutherford and Hackett could rekindle this when PG left, but for me it just didn't happen. They sounded like a group pulling in different directions with their new singer trying to dominate without really having the presence, ability or talent of Gabriel.

ATB Rotf

The dominant writer on 'Trick of the Tail' was Tony Banks, during the writing they were just rehearsing the tracks with Phil Collins singing, while looking for a new vocalist. The band suggested to Collins that he take over the vocals as they found that what they were looking for was someone to sing the songs how Collins had rehearsed them. Collins took some convincing that he could be their vocalist, according to Amando Gallo's book from 1979.

The writing on 'Wind and Wuthering' was dominated by Steve Hackett, with Collins contributing the least of the band.

It really wasn't until 'Duke', or after, which included a couple of solo compositions by each of the three members that his influence became dominant in the band. 'Misunderstanding' by Collins was released as a single in the US and was a big hit, and that made a template for the band to move towards.

'ABACAB' is wholly band compositions, but Collins singing is very to the fore, and they had ditched David Henchell in favour of Hugh Padgham as producer. Personally I find this album unlistenable, and have the feeling that Hugh Padgham did nothing as producer.

That if any album I own should be listed in this thread. Genesis were no longer a rock band, although 'Ababcab' and 'Dodo' try and the pop songs sound very clumsy to me.

Thanks Jamie

I didn't know the detail - it is the vocals I dislike on TOTT and WAW. So it seems even if Collins had left, I would not have enjoyed the subsequent output.

ATB Rotf

To be fair i should say that i am a huge Gabriel fan however, i agree with what you both say. For me i stopped even thinking about Genesis after 'Duke' (the first Collins solo album!), for many die-hard Genesis fans it was probably very hard to accept that this was the direction that the band were now heading.
I have every respect for Steve Hackett, a brilliant player but i guess the Collins
influence after W+W forced his hand.
I don't agree that Gabriel has 'made some dross too', but then again i wouldn't would i? His last album 'Up' has some magical moments, the dvd of the tour is very good - he still likes his theatrics!
Collins v Gabriel - no contest!

quote:

Originally posted by Mike7:
Collins v Gabriel - no contest!

Well I don't know - I think Collins is a better drummer

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by Mike7:
Collins v Gabriel - no contest!

Well I don't know - I think Collins is a better drummer

quote:

Originally posted by Mike7:
I have every respect for Steve Hackett, a brilliant player but i guess the Collins
influence after W+W forced his hand.

It is interesting to see how blameless Banks and Rutherford are made to be, and Collins the demon. From what I have read, and interviews I have seen, the dominant force in Genesis after 1975 was Tony Banks.

The real tension that made Hackett leave was his relationship with Banks, although Collins not finding the track 'Please Don't Touch' interesting to play during rehearsals was a factor. Being the only one to have made a solo album by 1976, Hackett was also finding the band too constraining.

The other three gave Hackett a lot of freedom on 'Wind and Wuthering', it was by far his biggest contribution to the band, but it was not enough for him, and he felt that he had full albums worth of material to contribute.

Collins later told Hackett that he liked the track a lot, but he wasn't able to get a groove on it in Genesis. He also said that had Hackett stayed a year or two more, until the others had made solo albums, that they would have understood his frustrations of working in a band situation after having made a complete album himself.

Banks mixed Steve Hackett down on 'Second Out' when he left, the mixing was well in progress and he went back and dropped Hackett's playing in the mix.

The Collins solo written 'Misunderstanding' was a major influence on the 80s direction, as was the drumming Collins did on Peter Gabriel's third solo album, engineered by Hugh Padgham. Genesis wanted to have the the drum sound from 'No Self Control', so his sound did become the major part of 80s Genesis, but Banks was always the heart of the band and apparently the most difficult to work with.

Also between '79-80 all three remaining members all made solo albums, and knew that ideas that did not fit the band could be explored elsewhere.

Peter Gabriel did comment to Phil Collins about his first solo album 'Face Value' that it was interesting to have made an album just using the preset sounds on the Prophet synthesisor, Collins replied 'Why, can you actually change the sounds?'