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Post by snakelady on Oct 30, 2019 8:18:40 GMT
I do like it as an album in its own right but I don't think I'll get to the raving about it stage. Some of the vocals are what make many of the tracks. The "ooh's" and the "aah's" dotted around songs like the title track and Cut Me Some Slack. I love all that stuff. And they lift some of the tracks out of what might just be the mundane. But - and this is just a personal viewpoint - I think the album lacks something, although I'm genuinely not sure what. It has that Quo stamp on it, like it should. There are numerous (for want of better words) jolly and catchy tunes all the way through from start to finish. But Cut Me Some Slack apart, nothing that is going to blow me away if I hear it within a live environment. I'll repeat what my sister said (and she is a genuine fan of the album to be fair); there are bits in every single song that grab you and you say to yourself " ooh, that's good". But, for me, these are stand-out moments as opposed to complete stand-out tracks. And that might just end up being it's saviour for me in the end. When I've not played it for a while, these little moments will hit me and I suspect my appreciation will grow and take the album from the OK to the pretty damned good. Time will tell The one thing it lacks IMO are longer instrumental parts. I recently listened to HT again after quite some time (years probably) and that difference struck me. And I actually don't think the solos/outros/.. are that long on HT, but they are notably longer. I don't understand why Francis is so averse to them when he's so good with them ? Not every single tune on an album needs to have single format .. A real ballad somewhere in the middle would've broken up the pattern as well.
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mortified
Administrator
This is no' gettin' the bairn a shirt
Posts: 5,563
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Post by mortified on Oct 30, 2019 9:05:28 GMT
I do like it as an album in its own right but I don't think I'll get to the raving about it stage. Some of the vocals are what make many of the tracks. The "ooh's" and the "aah's" dotted around songs like the title track and Cut Me Some Slack. I love all that stuff. And they lift some of the tracks out of what might just be the mundane. But - and this is just a personal viewpoint - I think the album lacks something, although I'm genuinely not sure what. It has that Quo stamp on it, like it should. There are numerous (for want of better words) jolly and catchy tunes all the way through from start to finish. But Cut Me Some Slack apart, nothing that is going to blow me away if I hear it within a live environment. I'll repeat what my sister said (and she is a genuine fan of the album to be fair); there are bits in every single song that grab you and you say to yourself " ooh, that's good". But, for me, these are stand-out moments as opposed to complete stand-out tracks. And that might just end up being it's saviour for me in the end. When I've not played it for a while, these little moments will hit me and I suspect my appreciation will grow and take the album from the OK to the pretty damned good. Time will tell The one thing it lacks IMO are longer instrumental parts. I recently listened to HT again after quite some time (years probably) and that difference struck me. And I actually don't think the solos/outros/.. are that long on HT, but they are notably longer. I don't understand why Francis is so averse to them when he's so good with them ? Not every single tune on an album needs to have single format .. A real ballad somewhere in the middle would've broken up the pattern as well. I think that has been absent from Quo songs for many years and this new album takes it to yet another level. But it's also been a deliberate direction so no point me moaning about it now. Francis can be a fine soloist but he doesn't like that role. I'm not sure he ever has. He even said in the recent Record Collector interview that he was terrified of it when the band first started to get famous. And now that he has total control as producer, he can just put them to one side. But as can be seen with Waiting For A Woman in particular, he can be both economic and brilliant at the same time. The longer outros in particular are something I have always loved about this band. Those driving finishes that you just don't want to end. But increasingly over the years these have been cut out or downscaled to leave 3 or 4 minute snappy, much more commercial tracks. I could name half a dozen songs in recent years where I've said to myself "no, don't fade this one out!!" We could debate this side of things for ages (well, I could ) but short, sharp, catchy melodies is the Quo of today. It always has been. It's just they used to mix it up a bit more. And a ballad? Nah, no thanks
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Dark
High Flyer
Posts: 128
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Post by Dark on Oct 30, 2019 9:55:42 GMT
Have obviously had the album for a while now and given it a decent listen. For me the stand out track is the one they didn’t write, Better Take Care. Though it is slightly let down when Rhino comes in with his vocal part. Other than that I find it has a very infectious chorus and a great rhythm, it has had many repeat plays.
After that, Cut Me Some Slack, Liberty Lane, Out of My Head & Face the Music are pretty enjoyable. Richie has a good voice which really should be used more, particularly live. Going by the Hyde Park performance their gigs would be improved greatly if he took over singing from Rhino.
The sound of the album is a lot better than the last couple of efforts, QPQ & Bula, which I thought were pretty harsh in sound, and quite off putting to listen to as a result. Though some of the incidental lead guitar lines on Backbone sound quite weedy to me, particularly on the opening track.
Out of it I have basically got five songs to put on my MP3 player for continued listening for the moment, which is a decent return compared to everything since Heavy Traffic.
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Post by snakelady on Nov 18, 2019 9:20:53 GMT
Guess we can un-sticky the thread now with it being second impressions in the meantime ..
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Post by I Ain't Complaining on Nov 19, 2019 18:00:10 GMT
Guess we can un-sticky the thread now with it being second impressions in the meantime .. I was thinking this week that it's time we let our first impressions go and I started another thread about our current/second/ongoing thoughts on Backbone! Its coming up to 3 months since it was released!!!
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Post by snakelady on Nov 20, 2019 7:29:25 GMT
Guess we can un-sticky the thread now with it being second impressions in the meantime .. I was thinking this week that it's time we let our first impressions go and I started another thread about our current/second/ongoing thoughts on Backbone! Its coming up to 3 months since it was released!!! Go for it !
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