Unpopular views about music

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I've got a love/hate relationship with Guns N' Roses. I think my problem is with Axl. Sometimes he really overdoes it on the singing. Stuff like this just sounds like a twangy mess. It's weird because I normally really like his vocals.
 
Dual Rectifier said:
I personally think noise bands and bands, guitarists especially, who, in place of solos, or during bridges, use noisy interludes, are just not good enough at their instruments to play anything different or more melodic.
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Weird, Because I think melody and rhythm are a crutch for the unimaginative.
 
Varg Did Nothing Wrong said:
I think High On Fire's debut album is probably one of their best works. I have been underwhelmed with the direction they've been moving in the past 2-3 albums.
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I'm sorta inclined to agree. Their first The Art of Self Defense makes it pretty obvious that Matt Pike had just finished with Sleep, nice slow sludge. I actually like all their albums, I still think they do unique stuff, and Pike is one of the best in the game. However, there is something about their last two that leaves me cold. The only thing I can really think of though is the producer, Kurt Ballou. It's not that High on Fire play much different, Pike is a little busier, more distorted, but they haven't massively changed their sound that much.

Their first two, the nice heavy thick sounding ones were both produced by Billy Anderson, who produced with Sleep, (early, non world-music)Om, and Mr.Bungle.
worth noting that Blessed Black Wings was the fantastic Steve Albini.

I really think that Kurt Ballou just over mixes the sound, it makes it hard to focus on everything when it's a non-stop assault, the earlier High on Fire work had a lot of breathing room in the mix. Not that any of High on Fires work will win production awards anyways.
 
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Spudnik said:
I'm sorta inclined to agree. Their first The Art of Self Defense makes it pretty obvious that Matt Pike had just finished with Sleep, nice slow sludge. I actually like all their albums, I still think they do unique stuff, and Pike is one of the best in the game. However, there is something about their last two that leaves me cold. The only thing I can really think of though is the producer, Kurt Ballou. It's not that High on Fire play much different, Pike is a little busier, more distorted, but they haven't massively changed their sound that much.

Their first two, the nice heavy thick sounding ones were both produced by Billy Anderson, who produced with Sleep, (early, non world-music)Om, and Mr.Bungle.
worth noting that Blessed Black Wings was the fantastic Steve Albini.

I really think that Kurt Ballou just over mixes the sound, it makes it hard to focus on everything when it's a non-stop assault, the earlier High on Fire work had a lot of breathing room in the mix. Not that any of High on Fires work will win production awards anyways.
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I think the two stand-out albums in their discography (to me) are Art of Self Defense and Death is this Communion.

AoSD is just a lumbering beast and a very bass-heavy production, but the songs all fit the production very well. A song like Master of Fists wouldn't work on the newer albums they've been putting out, it just wouldn't click. But everything on AoSD is very cohesive.

DitC is much "cleaner" and the guitar tone from Pike is a more typical metal tone, but fuck me it's just pure fury. Much more fast-tempo songs on average, Fury Whip is great, Waste of Tiamat has a fucking terrific solo, the combo of Rumors of War and DII is a good two-parter, and the little interludes they put in there with the Eastern motifs (Khanrad's Wall, etc) are atmospheric enough to add to the album.

I really want Pike to go back to whatever gear they used for Art of Self Defense or, if not that, then the producer and gear they used for Death is This Communion (I think that was Steve Albini as well)
 
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I generally don't like Brad Paisley's guitar playing. His guitar tone is really thin and trebly, and he usually just noodles all up and down the scale without ever coming up with a melody. (His guitar duel with Keith Urban on "Start a Band" was great, though.)

That said, I still like most of his catalog in spite of this.
 
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I cringe when people say that they genuinely love Die Antwoord. They make me laugh... like memes do. They're a meme to me. I've never listened to ANY of their music and thought, "Wow. This is good music. I should support their efforts."
 
I think Nirvana's covers are generally better than their original songs.
 
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I hate the cult personality of Beyonce (and to a lesser extent Rhianna have).
I hate their music too, but it's more the circle jerk that whatever music they make is mindlessly revered any any criticism is grounds for execution. If you're into that, then by all means, enjoy it, but anytime someone is above common criticism means there's something amiss.

Still, I can understand Beyonce's power more than Rhianna. All Rhianna does is babble nonsense words and with that song Work she sounds like she's having a stroke. Birthday Cake was an abortion of a project and the fact she works (worked?) with Chris Brown is pitiful. That, and she seems like just a trashy, obnoxious person.
 
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The Who should have called it quits when John Entwistle died.

I saw both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on their respective tours. While both put on a great show, I had more fun at Ringo's show.

Journey's best songs are the lesser known songs. (i.e. The pre-Steve Perry material)

I honestly like Mike Portnoy's post Dream Theater projects more than the latest Dream Theater album.

I enjoyed the Hamilton soundtrack for what it was. But I'll be frank, Linn basically just took the idea of Jesus Christ Superstar and the best bits of 1776 and set it to a hip hop soundtrack. While Hamilton will probably not reach the level as Jesus Christ Superstar (sorry Linn, you just can't compete with Ian Gillan's vocals), it's at least better than 1776.
 
I'm an indie-pop whore and think Twee was the epitome of humankind's music. No one will ever be better than Tullycraft.
 
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What makes metal great is everything it's critically maligned for: it's cheesy, it's not self-aware, its values are anti-postmodern. It's music for nerds and hooligans and rednecks and other rejects, and I'm saying that as affectionately as possible. The metropolitan upper-middle class fundamentally doesn't "get" the genre and when they try to play it, it always sounds like a beefed up version of Slint or some indie rock. Mastodon, Gojira, Deathspell Omega, etc. have very little to do with metal spiritually/culturally speaking (here's the unpopular part of the opinion, probably).
 
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Potatomongrel said:
I cringe when people say that they genuinely love Die Antwoord. They make me laugh... like memes do. They're a meme to me. I've never listened to ANY of their music and thought, "Wow. This is good music. I should support their efforts."
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Ugh. I hate Die Antwoord, not necessarily because their music, though I don't like that either, but how I was introduced to them existing. Several years back I read the website/blog Boing Boing. I thought it was a pretty interesting site, and I was still able to turn a blind eye to their loony ultra-lib postings. However, then the head of Boing Boing, Xeni Jardin discovered Die Antwoord and posted how great they were and every time they so much as farted, it was a fresh top-page article.

I quit reading Boing Boing after a site layout change which was beyond unspeakable. Also after they hired Rob Beschizza, who is such a shit writer I could identify an article by him within the first half sentence. ALSO ALSO when they started a crusade to not use soap during showers:c

Positron said:
I will never pay for a standing-room only concert.
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I absolutely will, because that's what I can afford(:_(
(for real though, i've seen an awful lot of great acts for $20)

punks is hippies said:
What makes metal great is everything it's critically maligned for: it's cheesy, it's not self-aware, its values are anti-postmodern. It's music for nerds and hooligans and rednecks and other rejects, and I'm saying that as affectionately as possible. The metropolitan upper-middle class fundamentally doesn't "get" the genre and when they try to play it, it always sounds like a beefed up version of Slint or some indie rock. Mastodon, Gojira, Deathspell Omega, etc. have very little to do with metal spiritually/culturally speaking (here's the unpopular part of the opinion, probably).
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I'm sure if you said that out in the wild you'd be strung up by the TRUE KVLT types who vse v's instead of u's. I can appreciate the more serious take of the genre, but what got me into metal is total the over-the-top drama it can create. I don't know how you can't laugh at half the songs, especially stuff like Carcass, etc who are basically just audio versions of ultra-gore 80's flicks. It's why Ghoul is one of my top bands, the totally tongue in cheek nature is just fun.

I do like early-ish Mastodon though...mostly. And Gojira is pretty good, though I think you only really need one of their albums, since they all sound incredibly similar.
 
I'm at a point in my life where I enjoy music without vocals. From video game or movie soundtracks to classical, I'm relatively young but I just can't get into any of today's trends and even the stuff I used to love like Metallica and rage against the machine and just too...angry for my to be able to relax to now. Give me beethoven or the skyrim theme etc over just about anything. Well except Irish folk music, I'll always dig that.
 
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