Music Opinion Blog

Opinions and occasional rants about the state of the music scene. The views expressed are entirely my own, and do not represent those of any artists or publications with whom I may be connected.

Musicians Are People Too

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Tim Hall

Another camera in my face
Another hand around my waist
Don’t even know you
– Panic Room, “Freedon to Breathe”

A very insightful post by HippyDave on when fan entitlement goes bad, specifically the backlash faced by Floor Jansen from South American fans when she dared to make some polite requests about boundaries. Some of the quoted fan posts are quite scary, and it’s notable that half of them are from women.

I’m wondering how much this is a South American thing, stemming from differing cultural expectations, and reminded of the recent story about Avril Lavigne stipulating a three-foot separation between her and fans for photos at a meet-and-greet she was charging hundreds of pounds for, because she’d been groped by a fan on a previous South American tour.

That might even explain where the ridiculous-seeming accusations of racism are coming from, but that might just be an excuse for bad behaviour that’s not confined to one part of the world.

As a gig photographer who’s photographed Floor Jansen from the pit, I completely agree about flash photography. It’s bloody annoying, and if you have a half-decent camera you don’t need it anyway.

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Greatest Difficult Second Albums

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Tim Hall

The Guardian asked which second albums are better than debuts?

Everyone knows about the sophomore slump, but some artists have managed against all the odds to produce a second album that improves on their debut. What are your suggestions?

The phrase “Sophomore album” needs to be terminated with extreme prejudice. It suggests either a frame of reference defined around American student-indie, or an ignorant writer who doesn’t know what it means.  Kill it with fire!

But the whole thing strikes me as a silly question, which speaks volumes about the music press and the sorts of acts they favour. The vast majority of bands who go on to have lengthy careers make second albums that are better than the first. They usually go on to make third and fourth albums that a better still. Quite often the first album wasn’t a hit, and the breakthrough came later.

The idea that bands decline after their debut reflects the sorts of bands who get all the media hype; often one-trick-ponies with a single unique selling point, who lack the depth of talent to become more than a so-called “firework act”. One big flash and it’s over.

It would be far more interesting to have asked “Which second albums were the best in in the artist’s career?”

What albums would you suggest?

Posted in Music Opinion | 12 Comments

If Coldplay are “Alternative rock”, then words have ceased to have any meaning whatsoever. What, exactly, are they the alternative to?

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Tim Hall | 9 Comments

The much-leaked announcement that Metallica will be headlining Glastonbury has received predicably mixed reactions. There are indie kids terrified at the prospect of guitars being played loudly rather than strummed, and metal fans claiming Metallica would be wasted on Glastonbury’s audience. But while I have the greatest respect for Dom Lawson, I cannot agree with his assertion that it’s just another half-baked vanity project. If I didn’t know him better I’d have accused him of writing archetypcal Guardian clickbait.

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

Quote of the Day

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Tim Hall

Quote for today comes from Trent Reznor in Rolling Stone.

“I get the sense that a lot of bands today are designing themselves to get a good review in the hip blogs, and that is probably the safest and most cowardly thing you can do as an artist,” added the Nine Inch Nails musician. “If you have something to say, then say it. Express yourself and break the rules.”

He speaks as though this is something new. But of course it’s not; this has being going on since the heyday of the “inkies” in the 1980s. How many untalented and unlistenable bands seemed to exist for the sole purpose of attracting the attention of Sounds’ Dave McCulloch, for example?

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The prog nostalgia shows have been drawing sizable crowds. The likes of Rick Wakeman reviving Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Steve Hackett’s Genesis Revisited tour, and Yes playing three classic 70s albums in full can fill venues as large as The Royal Albert Hall. But just imagine if everyone who went to one of those gigs also bought a ticket for one of the current prog bands.

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Tim Hall | 2 Comments

Nitro – Freight Train

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Tim Hall

The Guardian asked for nominations for worst music videos, so I suggested this.

Yes I know finding bad examples of 1980s hair-metal is like shooting fish in a barrel; it’s a genre that hasn’t aged well with few acts reaching the Sturgeon threshold. But this one is quite exceptional. The O-gauge steam train at the beginning is bad enough, but wait for the moment two and a half minutes in where guitarist Michael Angelo Batio goes the full Nigel Tufnel and then some.

Some people blame Nirvana for killing off the Rock Guitar Solo. But on the evidence of this I think the likes of Michael Angelo Batio have a lot to answer for.

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Britpop: a cultural abomination?

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Tim Hall

I’m seeing so many articles in the media about Britpop to mark the 20th anniversary of Oasis’ first album than I’m coming to the conclusion that an awful lot of music writers are in the throes of mid-life crises. Which is why Michael Hann’s conterblast declaring Britpop “a cultural abomination that set music back” is a welcome corrective.

If C86 had defined indie as music made by white guitar bands, then Britpop finally robbed it of any connection to its original derivation: music produced and distributed independently. Indie had ceased to be an alternative. And if it was no longer an alternative, but a hegemonic force of its own, then what was the point of it?

There were a few decent bands who got themselves lumped in with Britpop; for example, I still listen to Suede’s “Dog Man Star” regularly. But Britpop’s legacy was still a stifling musical conservatism, with a narrow vision of what a guitar band could or should be.

Whatever the merits of Suede or Pulp, nothing good came from the hordes of lumpen Oasis-a-likes that followed in the wake of Oasis and Blur’s chart success. It was all backward-looking and parochial, endless recycling of all the least interesting parts of late-60s guitar pop, exactly the sort of music 70s progressive rock was a reaction against.

Still, some good things came out of it. It was at the height of Britpop that Bryan Josh decided to form Mostly Autumn. But that’s another story entirely.

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Record Store Day

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Tim Hall

Today is Record Store Day. You could of course spend the day buying the albums you loved on vinyl but never owned on CD, or fill in the gaps in the 70s Jethro Tull back catalogue. Or even waste your money on cynical cash-in box sets.

Or instead you could buy some exciting new music released in 2014. At least some of these albums have been seen on the shelves of my local HMV.

  • Panic Room, Incarnate – A little more stripped-back, intimate and confessional than the wide-screen rock of its predecessor, their fourth album is a beautiful work which may take a few listens to fully appreciate its subtleties.
  • Gazpatcho, Demon – Dark and sinister folk-prog from Norway. At times it sounds like Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis fronting The Decemberists, at times there are strong echoes of Marillion. This is another of those records that will reward after many listens.
  • Matt Stevens, Lucid – An ambitious and varied instrumental album that defies easy pigeonholing. The London-based guitarist has been one of the more interesting, innovative and genre-busting artists in the contemporary progressive scene for a while now, and this album sees him raise his game to a new level.
  • Halo Blind, Occupying Forces – Combines indie-rock guitars with progressive rock atmospherics. Shimmering summery pop numbers with a hint of darkness and melancholy flow into one another to build into something more than the sum of the parts.
  • Bigelf, Into the Maelstrom – Imagine the melodic ear of The Beatles, the sense of doom of Black Sabbath, the theatricality of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, the musical ambition of King Crimson, and the lack of restraint of early Queen. That’s what this album sounds like.
  • Morpheus Rising, Exmimus Humanus – Classic old-school twin-guitar hard rock given a modern makeover.

Posted in Music Opinion | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

It’s a shame you can’t even have a strongly positive article about metal in the mainstream press without ignorami in the comments dismissing the entire genre as misogynist. It’s as if some people’s knowledge of metal doesn’t extend beyond thirty year old Mötley Crüe videos. And this is a world where Robin Thicke exists…

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Tim Hall | Comments Off