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Post by Sam on Oct 26, 2019 14:56:47 GMT
My ranking of Quo albums since 2000...
1. Heavy Traffic 2. In Search of the Fourth Chord 3. Quid Pro Quo 4. Backbone 5. Aquostic I/II 6. The Party Ain't Over Yet 7. Riffs 8. Bula Quo 9. Famous In The Last Century
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Oct 27, 2019 13:35:21 GMT
Ranking Quo albums since the turn of the millennium with Backbone in mind is maybe a bit more relevant than trying to make comparisons with earlier output, especially the 70's. I'd probably throw in 1999's Under The Influence to make it a round 20 years if I was doing it. All taste based as always but perhaps a more apt exercise.
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Post by snakelady on Oct 29, 2019 8:23:56 GMT
Hey, don't you diss Bula Quo, Sam. I'd certainly not put QPQ as high up as this. At least half of the album consists of skip tracks - most of the R/Y and P/M tracks. Like Billy I'd certainly add UTI as the starting point to that string of albums. Can't say the band hasn't delivered over the last two decades. I still have problems where to exactly put in Backbone though. Talking about original albums it's certainly better than TPAOY, QPQ or A2. It's among the rest where I struggle. Maybe it's too consistent ?
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Oct 29, 2019 11:41:44 GMT
OK, it's not exactly a definitive poll we've had but I'm getting the impression that Backbone, in the main, is a middling sort of album. Most seem to like it but not as much as a few of it's immediate predecessors. Some will place it ahead of Party and Quid Pro Quo; others won't but they'll put it above different albums. No one has it up there at no.1 over the last 20 years and I think that's significant. Although some initial views had it as the best since Never Too Late. I wonder if that still applies? Or am I being over simplistic and reading too much into opinions? Not that it matters. It is what it is and you like it or you don't. Placing it in some sort of Quo chart is fun but I guess irrelevant in the end.
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jsupposin
Wild Horse
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Post by jsupposin on Oct 29, 2019 12:58:40 GMT
My poll. Aligns with what you think Mortified ...
1. Heavy Traffic 2. In Search of the Fourth Chord 3. Backbone 4. QPQ 5. The Party Ain't Over Yet 6. Bula Quo 7. Aquostic 1 8. Riffs 8. Famous In The Last Century 9. Aquostic 2
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Post by I Ain't Complaining on Oct 29, 2019 17:40:34 GMT
OK, it's not exactly a definitive poll we've had but I'm getting the impression that Backbone, in the main, is a middling sort of album. Most seem to like it but not as much as a few of it's immediate predecessors. Some will place it ahead of Party and Quid Pro Quo; others won't but they'll put it above different albums. No one has it up there at no.1 over the last 20 years and I think that's significant. Although some initial views had it as the best since Never Too Late. I wonder if that still applies? Or am I being over simplistic and reading too much into opinions? Not that it matters. It is what it is and you like it or you don't. Placing it in some sort of Quo chart is fun but I guess irrelevant in the end. I definitely have it up there, at least as good as anything from the past 20 years at the moment. I actually find it very difficult to rank songs or albums, but nevertheless only time will tell where it eventually settles in my chart!
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Post by snakelady on Oct 30, 2019 8:06:01 GMT
Well, I still have it above all of the 80s albums and some from the 70s. Us being unable to really place it actually shows how good the last two decades have been.
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Post by Sam on Oct 30, 2019 17:20:35 GMT
There's a few good tracks on Bula Quo, but some of it I find a bit cringey... So it's one that generally gets played with headphones on. I like Quid just for the fact its a straight, rocking album, but I think Heavy Traffic and Fourth Chord are easily the best they've released over the last two decades. For me Heavy Traffic is up there with their early '70s albums, and Fourth Chord isn't far behind it. I find the thing that sells a Quo song to me is the guitar riff... Songs like 'My Little Heartbreaker', 'The Oriental' and 'Pennsylvania Blues Tonight, where to me it feels like they were built from the riff upwards, with the rest of the song falling into place around that central hook. Then there are other songs where it feels like the riff is a bit of an afterthought... Songs like 'You Never Stop' or 'Looking Out For Caroline'. It's not that these are bad songs at all, they chug along just fine, and may have really good lyrics but I don't find them very memorable. In fact I had to think quite hard just to bring those two examples to mind. Which is why I put the two Aquostic albums fairly low down. They're both an enjoyable listen... But much of the real meat of the songs is handed over to the string section, with Francis and Rick just strumming chords. So the standout albums for me are the ones with buckets of memorable guitar riffs... Heavy Traffic, Fourth Chord, Quid and Backbone.
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Oct 31, 2019 5:47:36 GMT
Heavy Traffic, for me, was a watershed moment. In retrospect at least. And almost like no other. It isn't their best album of all time - although it is up there - but it felt like it officially brought to an end a quite lengthy period of very dubious quality and direction. It was like a line in the sand, which they've only occasionally stepped back over since. Mainly through music company necessity. Everything that's followed, for me, has ranged from the good to the superb.
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Post by I Ain't Complaining on Oct 31, 2019 11:31:44 GMT
Heavy Traffic, for me, was a watershed moment. In retrospect at least. And almost like no other. It isn't their best album of all time - although it is up there - but it felt like it officially brought to an end a quite lengthy period of very dubious quality and direction. It was like a line in the sand, which they've only occasionally stepped back over since. Mainly through music company necessity. Everything that's followed, for me, has ranged from the good to the superb. For me, the Watershed moment was Under the Influence. RTYD was also great but they didn't maintain it, following it with TW and then DS. UTI was very good imo, a massive step back in the right direction, which they then followed up with HT which was even better. And in terms of 'trying' to make a Quo sounding album (oppossed to the 80s albums and TW) they haven't really let us down since (I don't include BQ or the Aquostics in that statement as they were different projects and were 'allowed')!
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Post by craydarr on Oct 31, 2019 11:44:36 GMT
Heavy Traffic, for me, was a watershed moment. In retrospect at least. And almost like no other. It isn't their best album of all time - although it is up there - but it felt like it officially brought to an end a quite lengthy period of very dubious quality and direction. It was like a line in the sand, which they've only occasionally stepped back over since. Mainly through music company necessity. Everything that's followed, for me, has ranged from the good to the superb. For me, the Watershed moment was Under the Influence. RTYD was also great but they didn't maintain it, following it with TW and then DS. UTI was very good imo, a massive step back in the right direction, which they then followed up with HT which was even better. And in terms of 'trying' to make a Quo sounding album (oppossed to the 80s albums and TW) they haven't really let us down since (I don't include BQ or the Aquostics in that statement as they were different projects and were 'allowed')! I actually like DS and TW but I totally agree with what you are saying.
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Oct 31, 2019 11:57:17 GMT
I agree about Under The Influence. It was a massive step in the right direction again. But, for me, following it up with Famous in the Last Century took us back down a road which I'd hoped we'd left behind. So when the excuses were made about the delayed release of Riffs after Heavy Traffic it did feel like they'd put all the nonsense behind them and were moving on with what they wanted to do. And it's sort felt like that ever since. In a career spanning over 50 years, and if we discount the early psychedelic stuff, I find that I'm not 100% keen on maybe only 4 albums of self-penned or original material. And even these have their listenable tracks. I think there's 28 if we include the Aquostic albums. That's pretty amazing in my book. So where Backbone fits into it all is probably irrelevant to me. It's just yet another good album to add to a couple of dozen others. And yet they always sound the same. Don't they?
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Post by I Ain't Complaining on Nov 1, 2019 0:40:49 GMT
I agree about Under The Influence. It was a massive step in the right direction again. But, for me, following it up with Famous in the Last Century took us back down a road which I'd hoped we'd left behind. So when the excuses were made about the delayed release of Riffs after Heavy Traffic it did feel like they'd put all the nonsense behind them and were moving on with what they wanted to do. And it's sort felt like that ever since. In a career spanning over 50 years, and if we discount the early psychedelic stuff, I find that I'm not 100% keen on maybe only 4 albums of self-penned or original material. And even these have their listenable tracks. I think there's 28 if we include the Aquostic albums. That's pretty amazing in my book. So where Backbone fits into it all is probably irrelevant to me. It's just yet another good album to add to a couple of dozen others. And yet they always sound the same. Don't they? I forgot about Famous in the Last Century (which is actually my favourite covers album)! I know I mentioned Don't Stop, but actually we should just be talking about original studio albums imo. Other stuff are 'projects' or money makers, like compilations. Anyway, almost 2 months in and I'm still listening to Backbone almost every day in the car! The only song I skip is Crazy Crazy, and I listen to it from time to time. Imo QPQ and HT both have some stronger songs, but they also have skip tracks, or weaker songs that I still listen to. At the moment BB has 12 songs that I really like, and it has variations in tempo without having a ballad! Although I must admit I do like songs like Blessed are the Meek, Little White Lies and Electric Arena. I just wish BB had a standout song. Something a bit longer, or with a change of pace, or two different riffs, or a long outro (The Power of Rock recorded with the current sound)! But it isn't 1973 and it is what it is...and I still think it's great!
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sutekh
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Post by sutekh on Nov 1, 2019 8:49:42 GMT
Heavy Traffic is the only album from this period that I enjoy. It isn't a bona fide classic by any means but it is very different from anything else released by post-FF lineups and it does have a genuinely retro feel.
The classic Quo shuffle features heavily on HT and it is a blues rock album unlike Backbone which is, aside perhaps from the opening two tracks and Get Out Of My Head, a middle of the road album not too far removed from the sound of bands like ELO. It's based on 3-4 minute pop and country rock songs with short guitar solos and relatively few instrumental breaks.
Heavy Traffic was much more guitar oriented and, apart from the lapse into the softer commercial territory of Jam Side Down, is a pretty consistent blues rock record and easily the closest Quo have come to sounding like the band that made their mark in the 70s.
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Nov 1, 2019 9:22:31 GMT
I had a quick listen to the new ELO album yesterday. Well, "Jeff Lynne's ELO" as they're now called. Just the 1-minute samples you tend to get. Not my cup of tea really. But, to be fair, they do still sound pretty much like the band that went stratospheric in the late 70's. Quo don't but then Quo have always diversified to a greater extent. I'm not sure I agree with everything sutekh says but a lot of it seems valid. I think Backbone is a guitar driven album but I agree that the instrumental breaks are fewer so that when they do come along, they're great at breaking up the sing-a-long, let's all join in feel. There are some truly brilliant moments on Backbone. Maybe just not enough of them.
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Post by snakelady on Nov 1, 2019 9:27:39 GMT
I agree about Under The Influence. It was a massive step in the right direction again. But, for me, following it up with Famous in the Last Century took us back down a road which I'd hoped we'd left behind. So when the excuses were made about the delayed release of Riffs after Heavy Traffic it did feel like they'd put all the nonsense behind them and were moving on with what they wanted to do. And it's sort felt like that ever since. In a career spanning over 50 years, and if we discount the early psychedelic stuff, I find that I'm not 100% keen on maybe only 4 albums of self-penned or original material. And even these have their listenable tracks. I think there's 28 if we include the Aquostic albums. That's pretty amazing in my book. So where Backbone fits into it all is probably irrelevant to me. It's just yet another good album to add to a couple of dozen others. And yet they always sound the same. Don't they? I forgot about Famous in the Last Century (which is actually my favourite covers album)! I know I mentioned Don't Stop, but actually we should just be talking about original studio albums imo. Other stuff are 'projects' or money makers, like compilations. Anyway, almost 2 months in and I'm still listening to Backbone almost every day in the car! The only song I skip is Crazy Crazy, and I listen to it from time to time. Imo QPQ and HT both have some stronger songs, but they also have skip tracks, or weaker songs that I still listen to. At the moment BB has 12 songs that I really like, and it has variations in tempo without having a ballad! Although I must admit I do like songs like Blessed are the Meek, Little White Lies and Electric Arena. I just wish BB had a standout song. Something a bit longer, or with a change of pace, or two different riffs, or a long outro (The Power of Rock recorded with the current sound)! But it isn't 1973 and it is what it is...and I still think it's great! That's more or less how I feel about it too, but I'd not class it as great for it. It's certainly very good and better than I expected, but for great the things you mention are missing. And I've come to really like Crazy Crazy. Took me longer to get used to it, but now it's its different style that appeals to me I suppose. I don't listen to music all that often these days, but yesterday I did a back to back listen with the We Talk Too Much and Backbone albums. WTTM still sounded fresh to me and it got to me just how much I like it. Backbone didn't quite grab me the same way, although I still don't skip a single song .. I suspect that the first will stand the test of time while I'll probably rather return to ISOTFC than BB.
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