Björk.
Or, rather, I wish I liked Björk’s music.
The excellent Vulnicura thread confirmed it. I think she’s fascinating, visually stunning – a true artist. I just can’t get along with her music. Nothing about it holds my attention. I’d love to have all her cds lined up on a shelf ‘cos I think she deserves fame and success for her pioneering spirit, originality and risk taking. But I just haven’t been hooked by any post- Sugarcubes stuff. I’m happy watching videos on Youtube, but with the sound down. I’ll read interviews with her, read about her, listen to her speak and hang on every cockney/Icelandic word. I think she’s brilliant, a genius … but a track comes on and I (mentally) turn off.
I don’t think this is an ‘I don’t get …’ or a ‘sell me on …’ post.
Does anyone else feel like this about anyone, not just Björk, from any sphere of the arts?
Glad it isn’t just me, tho’ I fear I hold a prejudice around her talking voice and odd patois of old icelandic cocker-nee as well. And her pixie face, in truth. If her singing didn’t remind me of all those, I’d forgive and love her.
Björk was born and bred in Iceland and lived in London for a number of years when she was still impressionable, hence the accent. Her facial features are Icelandic. You may as well dislike an Italian for their ‘Roman’ nose. Prejudice is the right word.
Not convinced Bjork’s facial features are classically Icelandic. I’ve seen it remarked a few times that she looks slightly Asiatic, and she’s been asked several times in interview whether she has Inuit heritage (which she apparently doesn’t).
All by the by, but thought I’d mention it to demonstrate what a tremendous scholar of Icelandic genetics I am.
Great thread.
All that posturing and shriek warbling. No thanks.
I wish I liked less music. Sometimes I find myself envying those people who *only* listen to one genre.
I feel more or less the same except for the album Debut and Earth Intruders which are both brilliant and odd bits and pieces. Went to the Bjork exhibition in MOMA which was visually stunning but confirmed she is as mad as a box of frogs.
I wish I liked Dylan. Have tried and tried and a friend kindly supplied me EVERY single album he produced – whenever I sit down and give it another go, it just does not fly
I don’t want to miss out something life changing but can’t go with it
Give it time @Thegp. I lived through his ubiquitousness in the 60s, wobbliness in the 70s, religiousness in the 80s, finally then getting it in the 90s (TOOM), before going back and subsequently picking up all his best stuff. Great man.
Sometimes it does take a while.
6 Music are currently repeating the Dylan At 70 series presented by Kris Kristofferson, so all six parts are available on the BBC website. It might be helpful to you to have the music put into some kind of context. You never know! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011cnsc
I really struggle with Throbbing Gristle and their offshoots, okay some Chris & Cosy is pretty cool as is some Coil stuff, thing is I’m fascinated by them. Why?
Dougal or @douglas has several eepees, eelpees and other formats of them and similar geezers just making a white noise. His collection’s worth a fortune, perhaps that’s part of my fascination, it ain’t “the music” which all sounds like 3 infants inside washing machines in the white goods section of Comet.
Of course what you need is Coil “doing” the theme from Are You Being Served.
In the 80s I had a friend who was really in to all that industrial stuff. He used to play it full blast all the time. He worshipped a violent. electronic noise band called Whitehouse who were always the off-putting and horrendous soundtrack to our carpet Subbuteo matches. For some reason i found it especially difficult to “flick to kick” during the track “I’m Coming up your Arse”. And half way through “Lighting Struck my Cock” my 22 match undefeated personal record came to an end. Still rankles a bit.
You just made me laugh out loud and hope I haven’t woken a sleeping Ms Volume.
Here’s some Whitehouse in case anyone isn’t familiar.
That Coil track is wondrous!
Sorry I’m late to this @james_blast but here goes:
I’d guess the attraction is maybe something to do with the nagging suspicion at the back of the mind that they might just possibly be on to something which doesn’t already exist in your record collection. They’ve got transgressive views, occult links, warped aesthetics, and men who have breast implants.
The point about Whitehouse is that they’re pointlessly transgressive, which maybe floats some peoples boats but not mine. TG, Coil, C&C Music Factory, Gimpo’s various incarnations: there’s something genuine behind it all, not just shock jerkery.
But I still like your description too!
Coil are somehow reassuring and unsettling at the same time, which is quite a trick to pull off. They were an intriguing outfit, so esoteric, with a real sense that they were messing about with things you wouldn’t and quite possibly couldn’t understand. Have you read the England’s Hidden Reverse book that was reissued recently? I do fancy it, but I’m also a little worried it might let a bit too much light in on the mystery.
Yes read that book – revised version was a 50th birthday present from my good pal @james_blast – I know what you mean about the danger of it removing the mystery, but my experience was that it did the opposite, it introduced new angles and elements in their albums which I might otherwise have missed. This may have been due to the fact that I was coming to them cold, whereas if you have a large Coil collection before you start reading then maybe you won’t have the same reaction?
The only real downside of the book – from my perspective – is it has far too much of Mr Tibet and his Current 93, which doesn’t do it for me at all. OOAA.
well, I have three or four Coil albums, so I’m not quite coming to them cold, but I’m aware I’ve only scratched the surface of the discography. I bought one Current 93 album (‘Black Ships Ate The Sky’), which I liked, so I bought the next one as soon as it came out. And I hated it. Thus ended my brief dalliance with David Tibet.
… of course, @james_blast, it was only a matter of time before someone took your analogy seriously: Matmos have made an album which is liderallee samples of a washing machine
https://thump2.vice.com/en_us/track/matmos-to-release-album-made-entirely-of-sounds-sampled-from-a-washing-machine
And it’s brilliant. And I’m sure someone reviewed it on here. Unless I dreamt it.
I wish I liked Bruce Springsteen. I find him worthy but dull.
Yes my thoughts exactly. OTOH if I did I’d have to listen to all those albums of boring songs with Bruce singing intensely and sincerely about intense and sincere stuff – oh hang on, that’s right, I don’t like him and really I’m happy I don’t. Maybe that’s another thread….
A Sopranos soundtrack compilation featured Mr State Trooper, which sent me scurrying to check out the Nebraska album it comes from. So that’s what he’s good at, I thought, intimate and acoustic rather than overblown and blustery with a ten-piece band.
I like the idea of Bruce and admire all that cutesy stuff he does when he brings little kids and teenage girls up onstage with their crudely hand-written signs to tug at our heartstrings – bless.
But Springsteen’s music leaves me cold. I’d class it as “post rock”. It’s like a monkey-see-monkey-do take on all the 60s classic rock that went before. Nothing about it is particularly original and although Bruce puts a lot of effort into what he does it’s always 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.
I think you might be the only person in the world who would call Bruce Springsteen post rock!
You’ve obviously never heard his late 90s instrumental record: “Millions Now Living Will Never Drive”.
Featuring classics like “Utah Megasnake”, “The Birth and Death of My 59 Chevy”, “You’re Not Woody Guthrie”, “Main Street Is Not A Cold Dead Place” and the unforgettable “Ford Motor Company Family Day Threshing Machine Picnic Tragedy”.
Bruce Fears Satan
My Father My Boss
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennae To That Giant Exxon Sign
“My Father My Boss” – brilliant!
Also;
“Mary (Glowing Metal Face)”
“Springsteen Fear Downsizing”
“New Paths To Jungleland”
Surely you remember We Shall Overcome: The Sigur Rós Sessions?
There’s only so many songs about riding down the highway to freedom with the wind in your hair and a chick either riding shotgun, or on the back of the bike, that any sane person can stand.
I kind of wish I liked Steely Dan because those who do like them seem to find their music so very rewarding.
It’s not that they’re REWARDING, it’s just that they’re FANTASTIC
I’m wary of turning this into a hate-thread, but I’m afraid that they make me feel ill; genuinely queasy (in fact Queasy Dan was the name given to them by a fellow sufferer on another thread). I know many, many people think that are fantastic and I wish I could join in, but I can’t even be in the same room.
I thought l and h about mentioning Steely Dan in the OP, but I don’t care that I can’t bear them.
Bowie doesn’t *quite* fit – he’s more an ‘I wish I liked him more’ type. Like him loads as a person, very interesting guy, obviously, but whilst I love some of his music there’s a lot I’ve played once and then moved on.
I would take it as a character reference that you don’t like Steely Dan. In fact, bung it on your CV.
I really really really wish I liked Boris Johnson.
Me neither.
The Fall
I’ve tried – I really do like Mark E Smiths attitude, I like the seemingly revolving door of band members (is about 350?), there are even a handful of tracks that I (sort of) like.
I own three or four albums – each bought in the hope that maybe this is “the one”.
The title of the compilation 50000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong just seems to taunt me.
I want to like The Fall, but I just don’t
Patti Smith, Bjork, The Fall etc etc etc etc. I know as a sophisticated man about town I should love them all but no, no, no etc etc etc etc. Steely Dan of course is truly magnificent, Bruce is everything I wished Dylan still was and Noah and his Whale were the best group of the last twenty years. I may possibly be wrong, after all I am Lodestone.
Anal sex. Just can’t get on with it.
Maybe ask your partner to be a little gentler?
Early Patti Smith only!
I feel I missed the boat with Radiohead. If I was 5 years younger I think I could have easily built up a healthy obsession. I like a lot of their stuff – but the compulsion to play their songs again isn’t there. If they’d have caught me In my teens I think it might have been a different story.
I grew up in the 75-85 period and I consider this a golden age of pop music. Glam rock was in its death throes and there was some awful music – but there was still Bowie, Sparks, Bolan and Roxy. Then of course punk happened – indie – 2 tone – electronic – post punk – New Romantics and metal all co-existing in very exciting ways. I didn’t realise it at the time but Live Aid was the end of my total immersion. It felt like Queen, Phil Collins and Dire Straits had reclaimed territory and I considered acts like that old and boring. The US section was much worse. The once fresh and exciting Duran and Simple Minds now seemed hopelessly overblown – they had gone off. It felt like Jonathan King had taken over.
I see no reason to feel obliged to like, or ‘wish’ you liked anything, although there’s no excuse for not giving stuff a try as it’s never been easier, and cheaper to listen to a vast amount of music whenever the mood takes you. If you try The Fall, Bruce Springsteen, Free Jazz or Throbbing Gristle and it’s not doing it for you -move on and try something else, or dig deeper into stuff you do like and see where that takes you.
I tend to trust my instincts, there are certain things I have a nagging feeling I need to check out, even if I don’t like them at first. If the band or artist is still around and touring I always think it’s worth taking a punt to see them if you’re curious – King Crimson were a good example for me – I’m a firm fan since seeing them.
Some bands will just find you eventually. A good example is Cardiacs who I wrote off many years ago as a wacky, knockabout comedy band. Many years later I heard this:
With me, it’s Nirvana: as a young student in 1990, who danced to Teen Spirit at indie discos, I should have liked them more, or even gone to see them when they played to thirty people at the Norwich Arts Centre (how my students today would be in awe of that anecdote) .But I didn’t think they were as good as Husker Du/Firehose,/Pixies/Sonic Youth,/ Galaxie 500, etc., so I never bought their records, nor saw Cobain in his prime.
Good thread this. There are some of the love em or hate em artists that I got straightaway. I started my Dylan obsession aged around 12 and my Tim Buckley one a year or so later. But there are ones that I have always wanted to like, but just don’t, most of them mentioned above.
Every now and again I play their albums to see if I have changed my mind yet, because I really want to be in on them. And yesterday (I must have been in a good mood or the tablets must have been working well!) I think I turned the corner on two of them, Tom Waits and, funnily enough, Bjork.
Bjork really fits the description of what I have recently been getting into, but I just can’t stand kooky and I have always seen her as kooky. I enjoyed listening to her yesterday (can’t remember which album I chose, so it may have been the tablets…), so took the opportunity and downloaded a couple. Similar with Tom Waits, although I already had a couple of his that someone had copied for me and I can remember what I listened to yesterday (Rain Dogs). A copy of Rain Dogs is winging its way towards me, so maybe I should listen to it again early in the morning, before the tablets have kicked in?
Still have The Fall to try to win me round. I really really want to get into them, because all the cool kids love them and I feel like I’m missing out, but to me they just sound like a bad pub band fronted by the local drunk, which from what I have read seems to be about right. I bought that compilation that looks like the Elvis album years ago and give it a try every year or so, but it’s just rubbish. They also have the pleasure of having recorded the worst cover version in my entire record collection. It’s a cover of Legend of Xanadu from the NME Ruby Trax compilation. It’s so far beyond inept that I can’t help feeling it’s just a joke that I don’t get. But I get the urge to try them every now and again, similar to the urge I get occasionally to try a fillet of fish burger from MacDonald’s. With each I always quickly ask myself what I was thinking, because they’re ruddy horrible.
Speaking as a hardened Fall fan, you have to surrender yourself to the battering from that bad pub band and marvel at the ravings of the drunken lunatic. It’s the letting go of all normal sensibilities that is so thrilling. A love of repetition helps, too.
Re: “A love of ‘Repetition’ helps, too.”
You’re right there, Tigger:
“We dig repetition
Repetition in the drums
And we’re never going to lose it
This is the three Rs
The three Rs:
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition”
“A hardened Fall fan” is there any other kind?
The cover of Legend Of Xanadu is pretty darn awful. At the other end of the spectrum, I find their covers of Theres A Ghost In My House and Victoria to be great moments.
The “Elvis” compilation (50000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong) is a permanent fixture on the “Try Again” list.
There is no music I dislike that I wish I did like.
Life’s too short for that sort of wasteful thinking.
I may change my mind about things I used to dislike, or I might come to dislike things I previously liked. That’s perfectly normal and proves I ain’t dead yet.
Bowie. In theory, he sounds great. In practice, the braying, affected voice puts me off. That and the fact that he was apparently unable to pronounce his own surname correctly.
Radiohead is one that I feel like I’m missing out on. seem to tick all the boxes but even OK Computer didn’t do it for me
Oh and Nickelback …I know a lot of Afterworders share this regret with me.
Van Morrison. There, I’ve said it. Always loved Moondance (title track excepted) and His Band and Street Choir. As far as I’m concerned you’ve got all the Van you need right there, never heard anything else that’s made me feel I’m wrong.
It’s not so much that I wished I like him that I don’t really care that I don’t. OOAA I believe.
well that’s you crossed off the Christmas card list Mike !
With you on Moondance.
The Replacements. Evidently they are extremely worthy and influential. But to me they’re just another 80’s American band.
Tom Waits. Can’t get on with him. Music for drunks.
I can’t stand him even when I’m drunk. But, outwith the spirit of the piece, I don’t really care. He can go boil his”beard” for all I care.
I wish I liked Tim Farron. God does, so he musn’t be a buck toothed confession box bothering eejit.