REM : Imitation of life
I’m a bit bored due to a delayed train so…their last great song
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
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I was playing Reveal today. Probably agree.
My favourite answer to this question, debated endlessly with @fentonsteve is of course:
You’re probably right. I could probably cobble together an album’s worth of decent tunes from the last four albums, but would the world really miss them? I doubt it.
From the final Hooky-propelled album, here’s Krafty, which did the Republic thing of having one good lead single and a disappointing LP.
Also the mods will take you down and hurl you out the carriage window at 125 mph for putting a link in the OP….
Aaargh. I really should have known better. Mind you, 125 mph…you’re having a laugh!
Edit. To be fair , I did just follow the instructions, I think. And the link does work.
You’re probably right, but this ain’t bad either.
That’s a good shout, had to check when the greatest hits came out, its 2003 so after Reveal.
Bad Day was first recorded in the 80s, not a fan myself
LNY is the correct answer.
But…also for your consideration:
Supernatural Superserious.
I like LNY better.
Let’s come back after 27 years, drop an absolute banger. That’ll do. Three more albums after this.
Definitely.
I quite liked China Shoes, which featured on a 2011 Word mag cover CD. It was both the only half-decent track, and the last track, on the Panic of Girls album.
Would China Shoes be missed if it hadn’t ever been released? No.
A terrific comeback single, but I can’t help thinking back in the Chinnichap days a scalpel would have been taken to make a 7” edit.
I miss 7” edits and I particularly miss them on 21st century “Greatest Hits” albums that default to album cuts rather than the actual hit single..
Great song but the lyrics are atrocious.
The last truly great PSB chorus:
Oh I don’t know…
this came after and it’s so good, it could have been on Behaviour.
Another cut and dried case:
Can’t see the video @dai but if it’s You Better You Bet the answer is no.
Eminence Front. I do also like YBYB though, probably more than Who Are You
5.15 is the answer. If it was a single.
I’m thinking Manic Street Preachers must fit in here somewhere.
Maybe You’re Love Alone (Is Not Enough) was their last truly great song, but then each subsequent album has at least one or two reasons to doubt that.
And the new one – Critical Thinking – does start on a bit of a “meh” note, but the wide-screen Manics are back (very nearly hitting the heights old, a few more listens may confirm that statement)
Then again, there is this from a couple of years later which runs it close.
It’s Not War Just The End Of Love
I forget the order of albums but Futurology is a fine album, full of good songs.
Absolutely love this.
Some will put the last great U2 track as I Will Follow, and in some ways they’d be right. Or The Fly. But this is the last time I think they offered something great
They put Electrical Storm out the year after (per google) and it is IMO one of their bestest ever tunes. I also think Stuck in a Moment is FAR better than Beautiful Day personally.
I’m calling it: Vertigo and City Of Blinding Lights just shade Beautiful Day.
But this is their last moment of greatness:
The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)
Electrical storm is a blinder as well.
Enjoying this. Again, almost 20 years of albums after this but this is the last truly great tune I think they wrote:
Unavailable
Haven’t heard anything since Spirit of Radio! Guess I am not a real Canadian
Haven’t you heard? Apparently there are no real Canadians, only people who yearn to be American. Those who don’t are all fentanyl pushers.
At least I still have a UK passport. Children of a friend of mine who lives in the US are busy applying for UK ones. Shame about Brexit but there you go
@moseleymoles
That’s not a bad call at all! I could perhaps make a case for Time Stand Still, a melancholic Rush song.
I was going to say a Rush song which makes me feel sad but then some wag would come along and say…
The Kinks – plenty of hits in the 60s, rarely troubled the charts in the 70s, came back in the 80s with one of Ray’s best.
Come Dancing
In 1993 ‘Scattered’ had hit written all over it, and for the first time for years The Kinks seemed to have got their timing right, the song coming out at the very beginning of Britpop, with Blur, especially, trying to sound exactly like The Kinks… and they were touring!
Three problems:
1. A single edit was badly needed (see comment above). I don’t know what the pop music equivalent of the ‘yips’ is in golf, but Ray Davies has had it for over fifty years now.
2. They only put it out as a CD, although the completely uncommercial follow-up appeared on CD and 45.
3. The video looked like the previous year’s ‘Harvest Moon’ by dull ol’ Neil Young (yikes) when it should have looked like a Blur video.
Never a hit by put a great, gratKinks record
Fletcher Memorial Home
Hard to argue against.
High Hopes from Division Bell runs it close in the “last breath of greatness” stakes, but does fall just short
Black Sabbath aint Black Sabbath without Ozzy (and Oz may not be joining the Sabs on stage at Villa Park, only playing a solo set).
Their last great moment was therefore Never Say Die in 1978
That’s such a con, innit? Regardless of the ever-evolving support bill, people have spent utterly ridiculous amounts of money to see and hear a final, full Black Sabbath concert.
Scandalous.
Except that Neon Nights is utterly brilliant.
No other vocalist announced on the bill, so suggestion of a full reunion still there.
Ozzy says he’ll do “bits and pieces”.
My guess – Tony, Geezer and Bill will play with vocals coming from the support acts
Ooh a tribute to the Dave Clark Five?
Given the advanced years of all concerned, more a case of the Tottering sound
Neon Knights!!
Edit. Ah, I see Molesy has mentioned it up there⏫️ and spelt it correctly.
Tis indeed a great song and an excellent album
A bit of a cheat, perhaps, but it was a double A-side. A totally unexpected late-blooming twofer from ABBA, both songs ranking up there with their very best:
Absolutely!
ABBAsolutely, surely?
ABBA-DABBA-DO!
Cliff! Wired For Sound
I can go a bit more recent. This is a decent song that suits his voice.
Holy shit, I love this one too, an utterly brilliant lush synthy ballad.
In a different mode it’s (almost) just as vital as those early, more credible praised tunes, those with the Shads like Move It etc, though obviously a lot more middle-aged
Agreed – he did well with this one.
I really admire this tune but I think their (Page’s) final undeniable masterpiece is Achilles as a tower of stength, an overstuffed incredibly imaginative overdubbed guitar orchestra / sorta successor to the greatness of Stairway.
I’m not sure many people are enthused about ITTOD as a whole but I have always liked it. I could go both ways either this or Achilles but I think Achilles has a “Beat That!” runaway galloping confidence to it whereas In the Evening is a bit more laid back and lesiurely in tempo.
“not sure many people are enthused about ITTOD as a whole”
another rater here – I put it on a par (if not above) Houses Of The Holy, and I think it hangs together better as an album than Presence.
Achilles would be my choice. Amazing track with Page’s best guitar solo.
Another vote for Achilles – best track on their best album (some days anyway: some days it’s Graffiti).
All I can hear with In The Evening is Page’s guitar going out of tune. Almost all of ITTOD is wretched, especially the abysmal Hot Dog, but it’s almost saved by Fool In The Rain, which is ace.
Surely Hot Dog is the worst track in the entire Zeppelin discography?
Dump Hot Dog, replace with Wearing And Tearing, and ITTOD is instantly a better album
This. ⬆️
Accelerate by REM has a fair few decent songs on it, but I think Living Well Is the Best Revenge stands up with the best of them. Especially the live version on the 39 Songs Dublin album. Speaking of which, that’s just a fun album from start to finish. I think people are really harsh on REM.
I would say that people give REM their absolute due as the best band in the world for almost a decade, and that harshness is reserved for the post-BB album such as Up! and Around The Sun where they sound very much like writing and recording isn’t much fun for them, and listening is not much fun for us. Again, you set the bar high people will be disappointed when you fail to clear it.
I know what you mean. I just don’t like the idea of ruling out bands that have peaked but are still doing good stuff, as REM were (some of the time at least; they had a burst of energy from time to time but always delivered the goods live).
REM – embers?
I think they ended on a high with Collapse Into Now. My last highlight would be Mine Smell Like Honey, which is bloody ace played loud, even if it sounds like something Winnie The Pooh says in an unguarded moment. Was really hoping they were going to tour the album, possibly in smaller barns – and then they bloody split up. Not that it was the wrong time, just that I never got to see them.
Probably not an artist who immediately springs to mind, but I’ll nominate Roy Harper’s January Man from the Man And Myth album.
Sadly this –
@lunaman
⬆️ this is a good call
Mott the Hoople. Not having this Mott business!
Their last great single, a few years before the flawed and underwhelming “Electric Cafe” album. You could well argue that their subsequent remixing/remodelling of the catalogue has its merits (I would) but this was the last of the classic songs.