Hmm

[petronia]

helvetius, I think on the whole I like the commercial version of Extraordinary Machine better. ^^; I tried the song by song approach but it was hard to form a judgment that way, especially since the vocal takes aren't the same either. So I just listened to both of them through and the overall effect of the Jon Brion version is too exhausting for me - all those huge menacing thunderclouds of strings vibrating in minor key. (Something to do with how you like Shiina Ringo and I don't. The first version reminds me strongly of Shiina Ringo, but I don't know if it does that for you.) The spareness and funk organ/brass touches and percussion-reliance in the second version makes it more palatable to me; I hear her better, for one thing.

Fiona Apple - O'Sailor (commercial version)
Fiona Apple - O'Sailor (Jon Brion version)

Actually I have this problem with Rufus Wainwright too, often enough. Maybe I'm just not a strings arrangement fan when it comes to singer-songwriter stuff.

Then again there's 2-3 songs where they must've stayed with the Brion production period, it's Fiona Apple who's singing something slightly different in a slightly different way, slightly higher in the mix.

Depeche Mode - The Sinner In Me
Depeche Mode - Precious
Depeche Mode - Lillian

Depeche Mode, Playing the Angel: it sounds like a Depeche Mode album only not exactly, because no DM album has sounded exactly like DM since Alan Wilder left (yes, I know that's unfair, bite me). What with the popmuzik landscape these days one ends up fancying that one's listening to a really good 21st-century darkwave synthpop act inspired by Depeche Mode, if it weren't for Dave Gahan obviously being Dave Gahan and no other. ^^; There's a schaffel stomp like "Personal Jesus", and one that's reminiscent of "Enjoy the Silence" without having the same tune as "Enjoy the Silence" and is only 85% as catchy (not that that's bad), and so forth. There're also some instrumental breaks that show DM's been listening to the same electro-house bobbins as I, eheh. Can't wait to see what remixers they pick for this one.

And for Beru: [download folder]

I've also got all of Family (thanks vonbrigthi ^^;) but not on this computer... yet...

Comments

Doing a Matthew

[helvetius.livejournal.com]

Hm. Personally, I think the organ and brass drag the album down. Most tracks sounding heavy and ponderous where they had this frantic feel to them before. It might be just me, but I think that might have contributed to why I think Apple sounds more "dead" in the retail version. It drives me nuts to think the lush instrumental pieces have been stripped down to basically the same piano chords and random beats. You hear Apple better, but the tracks lose the angry-girl-slightly-off-the-edge feel. (And yes, the Brion version is very much in the style of Shiina Ringo. XD)

That is why it's ♥! It sounds like the DM but updated! Unlike Excitor which simply veered off the road with a new style or any of the boys' single albums. (Somehow, Gahan's album didn't bring DM to mind. Just... Gahan.)

John the Revelator makes me very happy. XD

[marici.livejournal.com]

Thank you -- I usually approve of adding strings, but this will be a fun chance to analyze what they add to the sound for me.

[kit-sin.livejournal.com]

S, we have to do smth about KK. I called today, it's very shitty. I want to help and I will I just need your advice. We have to do smth! Let's talk. Animeclub tonight 7:30pm? Can pick you up.

[bell]

I've been getting so much music later, I feel spoiled. XD But, weird, he doesn't... sound much like himself? The raspy aspect to his voice is missing. I'd come to assume that he was BORN that way!

[disprove.livejournal.com]

Among all their albums, which do you think is DM's best?

Also, took Lillian and Sinner in Me. Thanks.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

My favorite is Songs of Faith and Devotion with Violator running a close second. In fact Violator may be the better album, objectively speaking - if there is such a thing as objectively speaking - but my personal aesthetics tend toward the former. 3rd is Black Celebration, 4th is Music for the Masses. ^^

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I'm actually well on my way to discography completion at this point but I haven't listened to the albums in chronological order, so I can't track any kind of evolution. XD I think he definitely went jpoppier at one point - consensus seems to be Sweet but the song on that with which I'm most familiar is "Yuudachi" (the Boogiepop OP) which is the funkiest confection ever, and uh. XD

Re: Doing a Matthew

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Gahan's solo album was more with the acoustic and less with the distorted analog synths. But it's... man, I still can't say how I feel about the fact that they basically dragged their old kit out of the closet and made an album that splits the difference between SofaD and Violator. It's the sort of thing bands almost never try, and pull off even less often. Half the time it feels like peering through a wormhole to the alternate universe where DM made an extra album in 1989.

The sound means something different now than it did then, is the thing, post-industrial post-"darkwave" post-electroclash post-second coming of the analog synth via everyone from Ladytron to M83. Then it was nothing anyone had heard, now it's an instantly recognizable signifier and artifact of the past. But I'd best not think like that for peace of mind's sake. XD Stripped of extraneous considerations I like it far far better than Exciter and a good deal better than Ultra, which should be enough.