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Post by jk on Jul 15, 2020 4:48:28 GMT -5
More with mfp on this one than with Alan. There are enough ear-catching things going on, not least the "strings" in the coda, always a nice touch. It's possible that the word "innocuous" was invented for this song. What shall I give it? I know... eight!
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Post by E on Jul 15, 2020 4:54:21 GMT -5
I could listen to Carl sing anything, even the phone book. But not this. Dreary. His worst vocals? 2 - and that's being generous.
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B.E.
Kahuna
Posts: 179
Likes: 131
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Post by B.E. on Jul 15, 2020 7:37:00 GMT -5
… I thought you might be interested to see how we are feeling about "things" so far. I've grouped votes into 3 categories - 0-4 (indicating users who really really don't like the song), 5-7 (people kinda in the middle), 8-10 (voters who in the case of this album should know better). What I'm seeing is that this album is struggling to keep it's head above water and people are feeling pretty meh about it, the only real high point so far has been Come Go With Me! OUCH!
I like this new chart, alansmith. Both the visual and breaking up the favorable 6-7 ratings from the 8-10. MIU certainly does seem to be struggling to keep its head above water - appropriately so.
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Post by filledeplage on Jul 15, 2020 8:06:13 GMT -5
Defo one of the album’s better tracks - I too love that idea of unplugging the phone and pretending nobody’s home. There are lots of great elements to the track though somehow the result is somewhat sappy. But why was this band that had rocked out to tunes about the conquest of the plains, the appalling subjugation of native Americans, steamboats, astrology and astronomy, trending back towards this cosy girl/boy pap? This end of the 1970s is the antithesis of how they started the decade. What a waste. But, hey, an eight for a track on this album. What a frikkin waste. Here is my take on that - those years were so intense - and onerous. It was no surprise that something as frivolous (and I think it is) as disco was a success was throwing off that intensity - no matter whether you were pro-Vietnam or anti-Vietnam war (now we know that it was escalated after JFK was killed) and catching our collective breath that good-or-bad - it was over! What was normal? Sunday was a day of relaxation -until business pushed it to become another weekday. It was a post-war era in the USA.
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Post by Autotune on Jul 15, 2020 8:58:34 GMT -5
A pretty song with a Time To Get Alone feel and a clever chord progression in the bridge. A Carl Wilson lead.
A formula for artistic success indeed!
Except it was a failure. Carl’s vocal sounds whiny, and the overall sound and vibe aren’t quite right. Maybe with a different production and a healthier Carl things could have been different.
This is a 4
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Post by Emdeeh on Jul 15, 2020 9:21:24 GMT -5
"Sweet Sunday..." has got a gentle Carl vocal on it and that's a plus, but not enough to pull up the song itself, which is just kinda there, imo. Gets a 4.
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Post by dant on Jul 15, 2020 9:59:58 GMT -5
I’m a very generous person, so this song will get an 8 from me, it sound decent, though it is a little bit boring. I do like it, by the way.
Also, did you know that the chorus bit uses the same chords as part of Stevie Wonder’s “I just called to say I love you”? I am, of course, referring to the Eb minor/Eb minor Major seventh/Eb minor seventh bit. Finally, if you take all those chords and convert them into major chords, keeping all other notes the same (so just sharpening the minor thirds one semitone to turn them into major thirds), you get the main chords of Six Pence None The Richer’s (Kiss Me).
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Post by Autotune on Jul 15, 2020 11:55:11 GMT -5
Honestly, I hadn’t listened to SSKL for years. Upon relistening now, it seems to me as if they used a rough or demo vocal from Carl. He sounds almost as tentative and distant here as he does on Waves of Love. Maybe, with an extra take, Carl could have pushed the song to soaring highs, much like he did in later years.
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Post by kds on Jul 15, 2020 13:13:38 GMT -5
8 all the way for this breezy song.
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Post by Al S on Jul 15, 2020 20:12:30 GMT -5
… I thought you might be interested to see how we are feeling about "things" so far. I've grouped votes into 3 categories - 0-4 (indicating users who really really don't like the song), 5-7 (people kinda in the middle), 8-10 (voters who in the case of this album should know better). What I'm seeing is that this album is struggling to keep it's head above water and people are feeling pretty meh about it, the only real high point so far has been Come Go With Me! OUCH!
I like this new chart, alansmith. Both the visual and breaking up the favorable 6-7 ratings from the 8-10. MIU certainly does seem to be struggling to keep its head above water - appropriately so. Funny how things are going for Sweet Sunday, I didn't see that coming!
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Post by Al S on Jul 15, 2020 20:27:40 GMT -5
Honestly, I hadn’t listened to SSKL for years. Upon relistening now, it seems to me as if they used a rough or demo vocal from Carl. He sounds almost as tentative and distant here as he does on Waves of Love. Maybe, with an extra take, Carl could have pushed the song to soaring highs, much like he did in later years. Hmmm, not a bad theory. Carl is listed on the AFM sheets as being present only on 3rd & 4th of December - there was a session in November, and another session on 2 December. So either Carl attended on the 2/12 and got a vocal down, or he added a vocal sometime during 3-4 which didn't get clocked (perhaps because it was a first pass only).
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Post by Mikie on Jul 15, 2020 20:34:36 GMT -5
Carl starts falling asleep midway through the song and I start nodding off with him. Sounds like he's on something and his vocal is lackadaisical, probly 'cause he's not into it. Yeah, it's a lazy Sunday afternoon song, Carl sings accordingly, and the background vocals are real good, but I prefer the harmonies of the Honeys version.
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Post by Al S on Jul 15, 2020 20:44:05 GMT -5
There are no words to describe what Mike was thinking of re Sweet Sunday Kinda Love, so let's see what the votes tell us:
1 - 1 vote 2 - 1 vote 4 - 3 votes 5 - 1 vote
6 - 1 vote 7 - 3 votes 8 - 5 votes 9 - 1 vote 10 - 1 vote
That's 65% of you can relate to songs about unplugging the phone (what phones are plugged in these days) in order to grab some extra snore time or trade somethings, or be lulled awake by the songbird like Belles of Paris...
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Post by Al S on Jul 15, 2020 20:58:05 GMT -5
Belles of Paris...jeez.
I know jk gets a bit thingy about the F-bomb, so I'll be nice and use an Aussie slang word (and it's tenses, etc) which is used to describe the original act and a conversational replacement for the f-word - root.
Belles of Paris is a right royale root-up - there may have been some good stuff in the track, but Mike's limp breathy vocal, which must be his most rooted to date, completely ruins any good will the lush strings etc may have intended and the lyrics really lay on beaucoup de merde.
The ah-ah-ahhhh backing vocal is also tres lacking.
Off with their heads.
1.
This video has pictures of the album cover to provide a distraction.
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Post by Will/P.P. on Jul 15, 2020 22:01:24 GMT -5
There are no words to describe what Mike was thinking of re Sweet Sunday Kinda Love, so let's see what the votes tell us: 1 - 1 vote 2 - 1 vote 4 - 3 votes 5 - 1 vote 6 - 1 vote 7 - 3 votes 8 - 5 votes 9 - 1 vote 10 - 1 vote That's 65% of you can relate to songs about unplugging the phone (what phones are plugged in these days) in order to grab some extra snore time or trade somethings, or be lulled awake by the songbird like Belles of Paris... My phone is still plugged in. I only have a landline. I doubt I'm the only one. We do have different opinions on Carl's song. I think it was a breath of fresh air to get side two off to a good start. If this is a first pass vocal, it's a very good take. I go along with what mfp put in his post. I was the 9/10 box.
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Post by kds on Jul 15, 2020 23:23:17 GMT -5
I'm going 7 for Belles of Paris. Nice song, but I much prefer the Christmas version.
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Post by Al S on Jul 15, 2020 23:38:28 GMT -5
It's possible that the word "innocuous" was invented for this song. Yeah, listening to the song makes me want to get innoculated!
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Post by Al S on Jul 15, 2020 23:40:46 GMT -5
Yeah, or maybe he was sucking helium just before takes. Not sure I buy the reduction of cigs theory though. I think the damage was already done. I mean, if he cut back dramatically days/weeks before these sessions, maybe that would help a little bit, but there was a drastic change here. And I think it was just temporary and his mid-70's vocals were back for awhile to stay. There were moments, though...... Do you reckon the production team had the technical nouce to execute the specific manipulations you've listed? I think it was simply the result of Brian's disengagement leading to not making an attempt to sing properly (ie, in an old voice that he couldn't sustain) that ironically led to this faux smooth output.
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Post by Will/P.P. on Jul 15, 2020 23:53:36 GMT -5
Will, how many songs in the 70’s were only released as singles or left off albums? In America, singles were what drove advertising and the sales of albums. The Boys released worse songs than Peggy Sue in that 1976-1980 time frame. Yes, they did allow out worse songs. Those wouldn't be from the Adult/Child sessions. I have a problem with leaving those behind to go back to doing old 50's rock-n-roll songs. If some in the group thought doing so was such a problem that they wanted to sit out the next record, that's a problem. I didn't think it was a good idea to put out such singles in the middle of the disco era, not to mention the early punk movement. Better to play along with the pop trends as many of their contemporaries were doing. I would have waited until I had better material. "Peggy Sue" wasn't about to drive their career too far. Did Al think it was going to be a hit? Another "Rock and Roll Music"? My point is, don't release weak product at all - singles or on records. We might have a completely different view of "Hey Little Tomboy" if it showed up years later on a box-set. Something more than, "hey, they're all singing on this one". I never understood how they could have picked that ' one' out of all the great songs that could have been worked on and improved at the time.
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Post by Will/P.P. on Jul 16, 2020 0:05:02 GMT -5
Here comes another one that I should not have heard until many years later on a bootleg or something.
The lyrics and vocal are, "see Al's description". Pictures are not enough of a distraction. A 4/10 for the
backing track. That's nice enough, but Mike couldn't just let himself stop there.
It was no "Cafe Sur la Rive Gauche". At least that had a beat.
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Post by E on Jul 16, 2020 2:32:22 GMT -5
We're now at the point where you think, surely this can't go on any longer. But you're wrong. Simpering nonsense. Christmas version is better, but even that simpers... 1
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Post by mfp on Jul 16, 2020 3:28:43 GMT -5
C'est tres jolie, mais...
The strings are overbearing and Al's(?) falsetto sounds off in places.
5
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Post by jk on Jul 16, 2020 4:21:05 GMT -5
More with mfp on this one than with Alan. There are enough ear-catching things going on, not least the "strings" in the coda, always a nice touch. It's possible that the word "innocuous" was invented for this song. What shall I give it? I know... eight! Eeek. I see they are real strings, the stuff you scrape (I checked out the performing credits on the album cover in the video of "BOP"). Well that's an even nicer touch. As for "Belles Of Paris", the strings are the strongest point. That said... Six (my rock bottom).
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Post by jk on Jul 16, 2020 4:28:30 GMT -5
Belles of Paris...jeez. I know jk gets a bit thingy about the F-bomb, so I'll be nice and use an Aussie slang word (and it's tenses, etc) which is used to describe the original act and a conversational replacement for the f-word - root. I don't know about thingy. I'm just used to BBF who didn't swear at all (bless her). But root sounds great -- I love foreign swearwords. Let's be honest -- it's hard not to review BB songs of around this time without the occasional "shit" sneaking into the discussion.
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Post by Al S on Jul 16, 2020 5:19:10 GMT -5
We're now at the point where you think, surely this can't go on any longer. But you're wrong. Simpering nonsense. Christmas version is better, but even that simpers... 1 It's worse than a stint in Azkaban.
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