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Post by snakelady on Mar 14, 2019 8:43:01 GMT
Our member (to avoid confusion with the thread title ) I Ain't Complaining had started the interesting head to head polls. Due to work commitments he wasn't able to finish them, so I'll try to do that for him. So here's the next in (more or less) chronological order. Which of the two albums do you prefer ? For me the answer is really easy: AC and by some margin. I actually consider AC the best of the 80s albums. It's not a rock album and as far removed from 70s Quo as it gets, but it's a really good 80s album, if you know what I mean. I used to listen to it frequently. I haven't listen to it for a long time though as the 80s sound does nothing for me anymore. On the other hand - the last time I listend to PR I was surprised how good it actually sounded. Still, the quality of songs on AC is so much better. This is one album deserving remixing or whatever it's called pupcious did with RAOTW.
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Mar 14, 2019 8:59:42 GMT
I ain't complaining? Just being pedantic like a sad old Quo fan I've actually put down that I dislike them both but, admittedly, that's a bit strong. There are one or two tracks on each that I like. There isn't a Quo album that I dislike in it's entirety. Even during these dark days Ain't Complaining was a bit disappointing after the …. Army album for me, which I actually found quite fresh and enthusiastic. Perfect Remedy was a disaster at the time, although one or two songs have grown on me since I've aged and mellowed. The UK chart positions of the singles and both albums gives an indication of what the public thought as well. Perfect Remedy bombed peaking at something like no.49, probably on the strength of what Quo fans thought of Ain't Complaining. All singles from both albums, apart from Burning Bridges, did likewise. The latter, of course, had a novelty Christmas party quality which helped it along. Not a golden period for the band and not a great time to be a Quo fan in terms of recorded material, although the gigs in '88 were outstanding. So, for me unfortunately, two of their all time poorest efforts. And everyone was culpable. No one writing partnership dominated proceedings.
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Post by craydarr on Mar 18, 2019 19:32:16 GMT
I love Ain’t Complaining, always have and always will. There are 1 or 2 tracks that I can do without but on the whole I love the diversity in the tracks.
Perfect Remedy on the other hand is my worst Quo album ever. There are a couple of tracks I enjoy, like Perfect Remedy and Power of Rock and possibly Address Book, but the rest I don’t really like.
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Post by Quoincidence on Mar 18, 2019 20:45:33 GMT
Ain't Complaining is a cracking album and MASSIVELY superior to Perfect Remedy, both song wise and production wise.
I only like 3 tracks from Perfect Remedy... Title Track, Little Dreamer and Power Of Rock n' Roll, whereas I can listen to Ain't Complaining all the way through.
Blondes Don't Lie would have been a great track for Perfect Remedy, had it made it past the demo stage.
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Post by snakelady on Mar 19, 2019 8:15:52 GMT
I love Ain’t Complaining, always have and always will. There are 1 or 2 tracks that I can do without but on the whole I love the diversity in the tracks. Perfect Remedy on the other hand is my worst Quo album ever. There are a couple of tracks I enjoy, like Perfect Remedy and Power of Rock and possibly Address Book, but the rest I don’t really like. Spare Parts and 1982 are worse IMO. From PR I love 1000Years, but consider Power Of Rock a (bad) parody. But otherwise I agree.
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Mar 19, 2019 8:33:03 GMT
Ain't Complaining is a cracking album and MASSIVELY superior to Perfect Remedy, both song wise and production wise. I only like 3 tracks from Perfect Remedy... Title Track, Little Dreamer and Power Of Rock n' Roll, whereas I can listen to Ain't Complaining all the way through. Blondes Don't Lie would have been a great track for Perfect Remedy, had it made it past the demo stage. Opinions are funny. And unpredictable. I never saw that one coming Blondes Don't Lie would have spiced up Perfect Remedy a little but, to be honest, it would have taken some saving. Even the new B-Side tracks were a bit underwhelming. Only Doing It All For You was maybe passable. It was after this that the 'stunts' started to kick in. Perfect Remedy had been such an artistic and commercial failure that something radical had to be done. Rockin' All Over The Years will have put money in the coffers - it was hugely successful - and not long after Rock 'til You Drop took us into new marketing territory Thankfully, the album lived up to the hype.
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Post by Quoincidence on Mar 19, 2019 18:31:32 GMT
Ain't Complaining is a cracking album and MASSIVELY superior to Perfect Remedy, both song wise and production wise. I only like 3 tracks from Perfect Remedy... Title Track, Little Dreamer and Power Of Rock n' Roll, whereas I can listen to Ain't Complaining all the way through. Blondes Don't Lie would have been a great track for Perfect Remedy, had it made it past the demo stage. Opinions are funny. And unpredictable. I never saw that one coming Blondes Don't Lie would have spiced up Perfect Remedy a little but, to be honest, it would have taken some saving. Even the new B-Side tracks were a bit underwhelming. Only Doing It All For You was maybe passable. It was after this that the 'stunts' started to kick in. Perfect Remedy had been such an artistic and commercial failure that something radical had to be done. Rockin' All Over The Years will have put money in the coffers - it was hugely successful - and not long after Rock 'til You Drop took us into new marketing territory Thankfully, the album lived up to the hype. Pip was being rushed by the label to get it released and I think it was well overdue to begin with, so sadly it suffered massively. And yes, it's my honest opinion. Ain't Complaining is a really good album, and the B-sides are great also... but it's just not Quo at all, but the new image they were going for which flopped massively. Not a single track I would skip tbh. Might give it a spin on the turntable in a minute Cheers
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Isaac Ryan
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Post by Isaac Ryan on Mar 19, 2019 18:51:08 GMT
AC for me
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frozenhero
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Post by frozenhero on Mar 20, 2019 17:10:45 GMT
Ain't Complaining is a really good album, and the B-sides are great also... but it's just not Quo at all, but the new image they were going for which flopped massively. Not a single track I would skip tbh. Might give it a spin on the turntable in a minute Cheers That's my problem with AC. Title track starts out well, but then it takes ages until you hear something resembling Quo (Cream of the Crop). Not that the songs in between are bad, but One for the Money sounds like Miami Vice! Compared to that, the b-sides have more of a Quo sound to them. A bit of a similar situation to ITAN really.
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Dark
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Post by Dark on Mar 21, 2019 9:50:06 GMT
Ain’t Complaining, for me it is a great album, totally different from classic Quo in sound and style, but, particularly on side A, full of really great songs. The over produced style lends itself to these tracks, and I think it is a quality AOR album. For my ears, Cross that Bridge & Magic are the only duffers on there. I totally get why it isn’t universally liked, and probably led to Quo fans giving up on the band and not purchasing the follow up, but it is still an album I listen to this day and think is great.
Perfect Remedy has a real highlight in, The Power of Rock, then a few other decent tracks, but none have as much polish or class as the stuff on Ain’t Complaining. I find it a listenable album, I just don’t choose to listen to it that often. The artwork for it is much better than the rubbish photo used for the cover of Ain’t Complaining though ...
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Post by craydarr on Mar 21, 2019 19:07:54 GMT
Listened to PR in the last couple of days and have decided I quite like "The Way I Am" and I have found one thing that is better on Perfect Remedy and that's the cover. Cracking cover and far better than the one on Ain't Complaining. The albums still cack overall though.
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Mar 22, 2019 7:51:43 GMT
Listened to PR in the last couple of days and have decided I quite like "The Way I Am" and I have found one thing that is better on Perfect Remedy and that's the cover. Cracking cover and far better than the one on Ain't Complaining. The albums still cack overall though. I like a man with a reasoned argument And while we're on the subject, I don't like the sleeve of Perfect Remedy at all. It's the start of that whole retro thing they've been promoting ever since ( Don't Stop, Famous in the Last Century, 80's festivals, all that). Even the reunion if we're honest. I've always much preferred going forward to looking back when it comes to music. But I guess it's a business and you need to tap into what you think you can. I actually like the cover of Ain't Complaining but it appears I'm the only one who does. I'll go back and sit in my corner
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Post by snakelady on Mar 22, 2019 8:02:51 GMT
Listened to PR in the last couple of days and have decided I quite like "The Way I Am" and I have found one thing that is better on Perfect Remedy and that's the cover. Cracking cover and far better than the one on Ain't Complaining. The albums still cack overall though. I like a man with a reasoned argument And while we're on the subject, I don't like the sleeve of Perfect Remedy at all. It's the start of that whole retro thing they've been promoting ever since ( Don't Stop, Famous in the Last Century, 80's festivals, all that). Even the reunion if we're honest. I've always much preferred going forward to looking back when it comes to music. But I guess it's a business and you need to tap into what you think you can. I actually like the cover of Ain't Complaining but it appears I'm the only one who does. I'll go back and sit in my corner You do like your corner (and we all know where .. ). I don't mind the AC cover either and going by votes on here, even the best of covers wouldn't have saved PR. It obviously deservedly charted as bad as it did. Actually at the time covers weren't important any more anyway. The CD age had coincidentally started with the new line-up and ITAN for me. With it the importance of an exciting sleeve sadly had vanished. Guess to a degree replaced by the quality of booklets, although Quo's mostly tended to be rather basic.
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Post by kursaal75 on Mar 22, 2019 8:12:04 GMT
I haven't played either album in years and I don't want to disturb the cobwebs that cover them!! :oo:
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Mar 22, 2019 8:33:43 GMT
I agree snakelady . Covers started to take more of a back seat, although they were/are still important in terms of grabbing attention. Ain't Complaining was the last vinyl Quo album I bought before concentrating on CD's. In terms of original release that is. The new market has brought it back to the fore of course. Pretty much all new releases come out on vinyl now. ….except Rossi Rickard of course
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Post by snakelady on Mar 28, 2019 8:49:52 GMT
There's always one .. I'd like to know why though, what makes you prefer PR over AC ? Otherwise this thread will soon be moved to the past cups.
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jsupposin
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Post by jsupposin on Mar 30, 2019 12:57:18 GMT
Finally I go for AC.
Perfect Remedy was a bit dissapintment. Ain't Complaining I liked when released but with the pass of the time for me are at the same level. Very average( Poor) Few songs are OK. Even those songs that I liked of AC; like Everytime, Dont Mind If I do, Magic I skip them most of the time. Best songs of Perfect Remedy ; Man Overboard, The way I am.
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Post by snakelady on Mar 31, 2019 8:48:18 GMT
I've just noticed we've already done this pairing, so we better move on to the next one .. Results weren't too dissimilar btw.
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Post by whoaskedyou on Apr 9, 2019 12:33:16 GMT
AC is probably better but there are a few good songs on PR..they were trying to be a bit different on both..i dig them out every now and then..the one thing I could never understand though is how ANYBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND could pick Not At All as a single let alone how it even got to make it onto the PR album.
Peace and love to all.
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Apr 9, 2019 13:35:53 GMT
Just as a sort of aside to this; for some reason I had Gone Thru The Slips in my head the other day. I have no idea because I can't stand it. Or I thought I couldn't! I ended up playing it and rather liked it. Mellowing with age seems to be instinctive. It cannot be stopped. When I first heard the song, I thought it was mince (Scottish health food ). Funny how things change. Or maybe I'm just reaching maturity now. Better late than never
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Dark
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Post by Dark on Apr 12, 2019 13:47:30 GMT
I was interested to read Rossi’s comments on Ain’t Complaining and Perfect Remedy in his biography. Though stating neither of them were that good, or up to standard, he did seem to favour Perfect Remedy. For one part the production, and the fact that he contributed more to the writing on it.
I always thought the production, though not Quo like, was better on Ain’t Complaining, he is correct that it does sound very of its time, but to me it does sound like an expensive production, if that makes sense. While Perfect Remedy, production wise, just sounds a bit plain, well done, but quite plain. As for the songwriting, I’d say the quality of tunes on AC outstrips PR by quite a distance.
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Apr 17, 2019 12:51:13 GMT
I was interested to read Rossi’s comments on Ain’t Complaining and Perfect Remedy in his biography. Though stating neither of them were that good, or up to standard, he did seem to favour Perfect Remedy. For one part the production, and the fact that he contributed more to the writing on it. I always thought the production, though not Quo like, was better on Ain’t Complaining, he is correct that it does sound very of its time, but to me it does sound like an expensive production, if that makes sense. While Perfect Remedy, production wise, just sounds a bit plain, well done, but quite plain. As for the songwriting, I’d say the quality of tunes on AC outstrips PR by quite a distance. I think Francis - along with most composers I imagine - will make a distinction between songwriting and the composition of the melody or the tune. The melody is ALWAYS the thing I pick up on first. And sometimes that's the only thing I'm interested in with the lyrics becoming a distant second. I agree it's probably a flaw on my part but I have always viewed good lyrics in rock or pop music as an added, but non-essential, bonus. I suspect that anyone who writes songs for a living would totally disagree. Which maybe suggests that no one is right and no one is wrong; it's whatever you prefer. We know that Pip Williams produced both albums but I'm pretty sure he indicated he was unhappy with the final outcome of Perfect Remedy and that it had been released before he'd finished working on it. Certainly it's quite flat by comparison with Ain't Complaining. Personally, I tend to subscribe to the view that the material (i.e. particularly the melodies) on both wasn't that great so it became sort of academic in the end. But, to be fair, having posted above that I've mellowed with the passage of time I should maybe give both albums another proper listen. If I can take to Gone Thru The Slips after 30 years, anything is possible!
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Hello
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Post by Hello on Apr 23, 2019 0:06:14 GMT
even Rossi in the book admits they lost the plot with these two albums trying to copy Def Leppard. Power of Rock stands out and I like the Aint Complain track ... BB is great live and awful on record
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Post by snakelady on Apr 23, 2019 6:48:31 GMT
even Rossi in the book admits they lost the plot with these two albums trying to copy Def Leppard. Power of Rock stands out and I like the Aint Complain track ... BB is great live and awful on record I was actually surprised how much his thoughts on the albums reflect what the more, hmm FF fans think. For a long time I thought AC was really good from a songwriting perspective, it's just these days I can't stand the sound any more. You can still take part in this poll and all the others in the past cups section as we never lock them.
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