Non-Classical Music Listening Thread!

[SimonNZ]

[ando]

Gonna stick this in the Prince thread. Thanks!

[Bachtoven]

Awesome cover, awesome music.

Glad you liked it. Have you heard Necrophagist? They are a bit more relentlessly brutal than Obscura, but just as good. I don't see how the guitarist who sings in each band can play such complex riffs and sing at the same time!

[Bachtoven]

I've not, now I have. That track is killer!

That's the entire recording, minus one song that got removed for some reason. Sadly, they broke up many years ago.

[71 dB]

I had heard the term "MUZAK", but I didn't know what kind of music it prefers to. Youtube suggested me this video:

I started listening to it in order to get an idea of "MUZAK." Well, this is the kind of sunshiny music I have been into lately. The Carpenters for example clearly combined "MUZAK" with pop. Older movies of the 60's and 70's contain this kind of music, but I never knew what it is called. Now I am wiser. It's funny how we have the word "hissimusiikki" in Finnish language meaning "elevator music", but I didn't really know what kind of music would be played in elevators, because I have never heard any music playing in elevators in Finland. Anyway, this kind of music with bossanova rhythm, soft brass, strings, flute and maybe vibraphone is so relaxing, nostalgic and comfortable. 

[AnotherSpin]

[71 dB]

In general I don't like these BEST OF compilations. The reasons for this are:

- These compilations contain for the most part the hit songs and these compilations can give quite a wrong impression to someone unfamiliar with the artist.

- Record companies keep releasing these compilations instead of the albums! I am so fed up with the situation were the market is FILLED with these cheap compilations while collecting the albums can be pain in the ass. These compilations kind of assume people are happy to have the hit songs only and I take that as an insult. Many artist have very good/interesting songs in their albums that just aren't hits stylistically. If I want those songs, I need to buy the albums! Also, the albums are more or less coherent entities. Best of compilations break those completely when songs are mixed randomly with other songs of different style/era.

- Good BEST OF compilations are possible, but rare. They work best in the case of artists who have only a handful of good songs (which became hits) while the rest is garbage. That's when you want the BEST OF compilation containing the somewhat good songs instead of collection a dozen of albums filled mostly with bad songs. Since I am mostly interested of talented artist who tried hard to produce good songs to fill their albums, most of the time this doesn't really apply, but if there are "one hit wonders" whose hit songs are genuinely great, BEST OF compilation can be a good option.

[AnotherSpin]

In general I don't like these BEST OF compilations. [..]

No problem.

Of course, it's hard to imagine a good compilation of music from bands oriented on album format and recording songs of 20 or 30 minutes each.

At the same time, many musicians didn't ignore the hits, and generated serious profits by selling singles. In this case, a compilation of the best songs is quite logical. Hot Rocks 1964-1971 by The Rolling Stones, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 by The Beatles, for instance. Legend by Bob Marley & The Wailers. James Taylor' Greatest Hits album was his best selling album ever. And so on, examples are plenty.

In serious music, compilation recordings are everywhere. When we listen to a collection of Chopin's nocturnes, or a selection of Scarlatti's sonatas, we are in fact listening to Best of Nocturnes and Best of Sonatas :-)

[71 dB]

No problem.

Of course, it's hard to imagine a good compilation of music from bands oriented on album format and recording songs of 20 or 30 minutes each.

I'm not talking about 20-30 minutes songs. I am talking about 2-5 minutes songs. A typical The Carpenters album has got 10 songs a little more than 3 minutes long on average. 2-3 of those are "hits" and the rest are non-hits. I want ALL of those 10 songs, not just the 2-3 hits that are on the BEST OF compilations.

At the same time, many musicians didn't ignore the hits, and generated serious profits by selling singles. In this case, a compilation of the best songs is quite logical. Hot Rocks 1964-1971 by The Rolling Stones, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 by The Beatles, for instance. Legend by Bob Marley & The Wailers. James Taylor' Greatest Hits album was his best selling album ever. And so on, examples are plenty.

Yes, they are best selling, because most people are happy with the hits only. That's the damn problem! We who want to collect albums are left out! Just compare how many BEST OF compilation there are of the music of Air Supply and how hard many of their albums are to get on CD!

[steve ridgway]

Hot Rocks 1964-1971 by The Rolling Stones

I like this one - but there's absolutely nothing from their best album .

[AnotherSpin]

I'm not talking about 20-30 minutes songs. I am talking about 2-5 minutes songs. A typical The Carpenters album has got 10 songs a little more than 3 minutes long on average. 2-3 of those are "hits" and the rest are non-hits. I want ALL of those 10 songs, not just the 2-3 hits that are on the BEST OF compilations.

Yes, they are best selling, because most people are happy with the hits only. That's the damn problem! We who want to collect albums are left out! Just compare how many BEST OF compilation there are of the music of Air Supply and how hard many of their albums are to get on CD!

I find it hard to understand your difficulties. Does someone prevent you from listening to the albums you prefer? Why do you care what other listeners like? In this case, I was not in the mood to dig through different albums by The Doobie Brothers that I listened to years ago on vinyl, while the "Best of" compilation was just fine.

[AnotherSpin]

I like this one - but there's absolutely nothing from their best album .

Fine album. My favourite is Let it Bleed.

[71 dB]

I find it hard to understand your difficulties. Does someone prevent you from listening to the albums you prefer? Why do you care what other listeners like? In this case, I was not in the mood to dig through different albums by The Doobie Brothers that I listened to years ago on vinyl, while the "Best of" compilation was just fine.

Nobody is preventing me of anything. This is not just about listening to something. I am talking about collecting albums on CD. The copyright owners of course want to exploit their copyrights to cash in. Instead of releasing the albums or better yet, boxsets of albums, they often resort to releasing BEST OF CDs since those tend to sell well. I am not that kind of consumer. That's why I don't like such business model. That's why I am not a big fan of BEST OF compilations.

[AnotherSpin]

Nobody is preventing me of anything. This is not just about listening to something. I am talking about collecting albums on CD. The copyright owners of course want to exploit their copyrights to cash in. Instead of releasing the albums or better yet, boxsets of albums, they often resort to releasing BEST OF CDs since those tend to sell well. I am not that kind of consumer. That's why I don't like such business model. That's why I am not a big fan of BEST OF compilations.

This is exactly what I write: buy what you like and ignore what you don't like. The market is oversaturated many times over, it's not difficult to find what you need, no matter what the copyright owners' policies are. Maybe Finland has a problem with this, only compilations of the best songs are imported? If so, my condolences 

[71 dB]

This is exactly what I write: buy what you like and ignore what you don't like. The market is oversaturated many times over, it's not difficult to find what you need, no matter what the copyright owners' policies are. Maybe Finland has a problem with this, only compilations of the best songs are imported? If so, my condolences 

I doubt you have it any better in Ukraine I have it in Finland. I don't buy much of my CDs domestically. At the moment I have The Carpenter's Passage album and Maureen McGovern's twofer ordered from the US. The former is released in Japan only and imported to the US. The latter is released only in the US. You can't buy those albums anywhere in Europe let alone in Ukraine or Finland! Check it out yourself.

I was insanely lucky with Maureen McGovern as I have said. Otherwise this wouldn't be possible at all!

[AnotherSpin]

I doubt you have it any better in Ukraine I have it in Finland. I don't buy much of my CDs domestically. At the moment I have The Carpenter's Passage album and Maureen McGovern's twofer ordered from the US. The former is released in Japan only and imported to the US. The latter is released only in the US. You can't buy those albums anywhere in Europe let alone in Ukraine or Finland! Check it out yourself.

I was insanely lucky with Maureen McGovern as I have said. Otherwise this wouldn't be possible at all!

Living in Ukraine I didn't have much trouble acquiring the albums I wanted (after collapsing of USSR, of course). Either I ordered CDs and they came to the shop, or I bought them myself from abroad. I stopped buying CDs some time ago, streaming has everything. Including Maureen McGovern.

[71 dB]

Living in Ukrania I didn't have much trouble acquiring the albums I wanted (after collapsing of USSR, of course). Either I ordered CDs and they came to the shop, or I bought them myself from abroad. I stopped buying CDs some time ago, streaming has everything. Including Maureen McGovern.

Streaming services have only the later Maureen McGovern I am not interested of, not the 70's stuff I am actually interested of. Also, streaming in NOT the answer to someone who collects CDs. I WANT PHYSICAL MEDIA!!! Why can't you streamers just get that???

[SimonNZ]

Streaming services have only the later Maureen McGovern I am not interested of, not the 70's stuff I am actually interested of. Also, streaming in NOT the answer to someone who collects CDs. I WANT PHYSICAL MEDIA!!! Why can't you streamers just get that???

If you have an expectation of a local cd store (or even an online seller) that carries everything you could possibly want at all times you are simply dreaming. That has never been the case anywhere ever. Record and cd collectors have always had lists of things they are waiting months or years of diligent checking to present themselves at a reasonable price and then get pounced on. I baffled why you think your experience should be any different. My experience is that I'm kept busy enough and happy enough with whatever presents itself in front of me, even if its not the very top item of my wish list.


TD:



Kate Bush - Before The Dawn

Very impressed by using "Lily" as the opening of the concert, which makes me want to revisit her The Red Shoes album, an album I haven't played in maybe 20 years.

[AnotherSpin]

Streaming services have only the later Maureen McGovern I am not interested of, not the 70's stuff I am actually interested of. Also, streaming in NOT the answer to someone who collects CDs. I WANT PHYSICAL MEDIA!!! Why can't you streamers just get that???

In my case, streaming was the perfect answer for someone who had previously collected CDs - I was able to get rid of the mountains of plastic, at last. Wait, your time will come. And if it doesn't, that's fine too. Whatever.

[AnotherSpin]

Relayer from a set of remixes of Yes albums by Steven Wilson (CD 5). A magnificent transfer! I think this is the first time I've heard a compact disc that not only sounds as good as the original Relayer LP, but also makes me feel confident that I'm hearing this amazing album for the first time. Qobuz streaming.