RHP's Songs for a Blue Guitar vs. The Killer's Hot Fuss
So I had only a cursory knowledge of the the two bands involved in this challenge, and I was entirely unfamiliar with both albums. I listened to each in their entirety on lala.com, as I obviously own neither. In an attempt to quantify my feelings, I assigned each song on the albums a rating of 0-5 (using whole numbers only), and then averaged these to the nearest tenth over each entire album.
Songs for a Blue Guitar: Two songs on this album really stood out for me as keepers: the epic "Make Like Paper" and "Long Distance Runaround", both featuring great Neil Young-esque guitar stylings (as already keenly observed by Andrew). Unfortunately, most of the other songs on the album I didn't care for quite as much. Several of them I would classify as "earnest folkster" tunes...Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that a couple times I had flashbacks from the Calvin-era, my 20-year-old-self watching bands like Harrod and Funck emoting both passionately and humorlessly with their acoustic guitars from the stage of the Gezon Auditorium....That was a long time ago, and my tastes have grown in other directions. RHPs are obviously talented musicians...Talented musicians who make art I can appreciate and respect more than outright enjoy. Album rating: 2.7
Hot Fuss: Again, two tracks really grabbed me from this album: the rocking, anthemic "All These Things That I've Done" (with the cool, catchy refrain: "I got a soul but I'm not a soldier!") and the slightly psychadelic closer "Everything Will be Alright" ( a title with a lot of personal weight for me, reminiscent of both Julian of Norwich's famous "All shall be well..." quote and even moreso the way-cool neon installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit reading: "Everything Is Going To be Alright"). While listening to the album as a whole, I was reminded at times of Blur, the Strokes, The Rapture, even U2...all bands I enjoy a great deal. Not that the Killers are entirely derivative...They establish a pretty consistent sound over the course of the album. Perhaps TOO consistent...At times, I wished they had changed the tempo up a bit more or turned on the dance groove a little more funkily. All-in-all, a fine mainstream alternative rock album (Is that an oxymoron? Does anybody really care?) Album rating: 3.0
Winner: The Killers' Hot Fuss
P.S. I hope I have not offended anyone or their musical tastes in these reviews; please know that was not my intent. I worry about hurting people's feelings because I am a sensitive New Age twenty-first century kind of guy. Peace.
Yes, it is an oxymoron, and no, I don't care. You, however, are not a moron. Harharhar.
ReplyDeleteit's always about you, isn't it eric...
ReplyDeleteI have not listened to Hot Fuss by the Killers, so there's no way for me to say whether the right choice was made. However, I did have Songs for a Blue Guitar as #2 on my list, so I should say something, which is that I think the main reason it got all the way to #2 on my list is because I pretty much thought of a list of albums I really like and then shifted them around on my list mostly based on how many times I thought I had listened to them. From about the age of 19-23, I must have listened to Songs for a Blue guitar a thousand times. I went and saw them live around the end of that period and they were awful live. That was pretty much it for me and that album. I never listen to it anymore, maybe once a year, but I sure do have a lot of fond memories of the album from that time period.
ReplyDeleteI listen to Songs For A Blue Guitar at least once every fall. I have not listened to more than a handful of Killers songs, and I'm not sure from which albums, but they were pretty good. So, I'll let this one slide.
ReplyDeleteHey Kevin Holwerda Hommes: what happened to Urban Trader? I miss him.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Kev: I also had Songs for a Blue Guitar on heavy rotation for a long long time. It may now be a relic, but a few things (kick-ass guitar, routine shifts in tempo and volume) save RHP from slipping into earnest folkster irrelevance.
ReplyDeleteOkay, now I'll go listen to my albums like I'm supposed to before I get a warning from the boss.
Urban trader was cool, but I traded him in for the real thing. I'm sorry you miss him Jane.
ReplyDelete