This album is awful.
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You are currently reading a thread in /mu/ - Music
You are currently reading a thread in /mu/ - Music
I don't get the praise. I tried listening to it and it has no melodies or actual musically nice moments, just sounds like weird shit to be weird and no other purpose. Why would I ever listen to this again? It's seriously garbage.
i like the synths on it
What's the /mu/ version of install Gentoo?
By the second track I was too freaked out to continue listening to it.
>>61102841
listen to it louder
>>61102788
>>61102850
stupid babies can't handle postmodernism
>>61102863
>thinks this album is postmodern
stupid babies think they know what postmodernism is
>>61102881
>>61102863
This is a fine example showcasing just how fucking pretentious /mu/ is.
I hate saying this but seriously I think it went over your head. Just listen to more music so you have some context or maybe you just have an undeveloped sense of imagination/creativity.
>>61102940
ikr I love that :)
>the first half of Never Known Questions
>not catchy as fuck
>>61102971
>whipering raspy 'le randum' lyrics in a yoda voice over a shitty 80's synth
>creative
y'all are cute
It took me a long time to really appreciate this album. I think this is very classically arranged, more like a symphony than a rock album. The weird synths, textures, and voices are all purposeful and serve to craft the story and atmosphere of the album. Listening to this album is much like stepping into another universe with distinct beings and nature.
>>61103004
I'm sick of you teenagers dismissing everything you don't understand as nonsense. Listen to more music, and expand your palette beyond /mu/core.
>>61103084
most resident fans are teenagers
residents are mucore
lel if you think that album is being weird for the sake of being weird just wait til you hear their other albums
/mu/ is a weird board
Why are people taking OP seriously? Dude only listened to Residents now, it's clear that he's just starting to get into music
His opinion has no value, stop listening to him
Did you think you could digest this without even listening all the way through once? Did you want to hate it?
>>61103105
no
most of them are 50 year olds stuck in the past
source: being in a residents group on facebook
>>61103084
First of all, I'm 19 and nearly about to turn 20. Not exactly, a "teenager", bucko.
Second of all, this album is purely, utter, nonsense, it takes no talent to create a pile of garbage and just because it's arranged to sound like a shitty Disney movie knockoff with a kooky album artwork doesn't make it valid or interesting. Hence why it hasn't been given any good subsequent reviews years later, it's just "quirky" and "le random XD" to be "cool" for hipsters online.
Find some actual artistic and real music. Miles Davis. Roy Ayers. Erykah Badu.
Fuck off, cunt. Gain some music knowledge.
>>61102977
There are a lot of genuinely nice moments on N/A (the piano and synth solo part in Making Of A Soul is probably my favorite), and as far as Residents albums go, it's not nearly as abrasive as the other albums from this era. I think the only thing that would turn people away is the vocals and the lyrics.
N/A is a bit overrated around here though, and it's probably because Scaruffi loves it the most and people just take his word for it. Pic related is my pick for best Rez album.
>>61103144
>Miles Davis. Roy Ayers. Erykah Badu
oh there's the problem, you're a cUck!!!
>>61103137
nobody but old men would be in a group for the residents what do you expect
>>61103144
So literally a teenager
>>61103183
well you said most residents fans are teenagers so....
>>61103144
not the guy you're talking to but you seem pretty insecure to so hatefully insult someone over a differing music taste. maybe s/he genuinely finds something special about this album that you just don't. big deal. disagree and be done with it.
>>61103144
oh look a oddfuture fan
>>61102788
Don't listen to it.
You know how some kids excell at math and get put in advanced math class, while others are just not so good at it?
You know how some kids excell at sports and get put on teams, while others are just not as good at it?
Listening to music is the same, some people are good enough at it to expose themselves to weirder music, and some are not as good and should listen to the middle of the road stuff.
It doesn't make you a worse person anymore than not being able to play football well makes you a worse person, but you're just not an advanced music listener if you reject music that doesn't have "nice" parts in it.
You can still live a fulfilling life, but try not to say shit like "weird just to be weird" because it makes you sound actually stupid, and not just stuck in remedial music listening.
>>61103299
nice new pasta
>>61103299
average swans fan
fuck off, go listen to more field recordings you elitist pretentious hipster
>>61103144
>not exactly a teenager bucko!
>Literally exactly a teenager
>>61103299
this guy sounds pretentious as fuck but he's right you know
take his advice to heart op, not all music is supposed to sound 'nice'
>>61103171
Miles Davis even does weird better than the residents, but also has musically excellent and better produced albums.
Residents are white trash wiggers in comparison.
>>61103299
>being this insecure and condescending
god damn bro lmao
>>61103333
wasted trips desu
>>61103366
Wrong. You can make "weird" sound good if you're talented enough.
See: Radiohead, Miles Davis, Sonic Youth, Queens of Stoneage, The Doors, etc.
>>61103376
>Residents are white trash wiggers
>>61103418
>See: Radiohead, Miles Davis, Sonic Youth, Queens of Stoneage, The Doors, etc.
All of these are incredibly conventional pop apart from Davis.
Not that the Residents are also pretty much conventional pop.
I like all the artists mentioned in this thread though. It's honestly not hard to get into the Residents.
>>61103418
yes, but not all music needs to sound 'nice' to be good
discounting something for not sounding 'nice' enough is retarded, you'd be dismissing much of modern classical which certainly has lots of high art as a genre
>>61102788
Listen to the Commercial Album
>>61102859
listen to it louder
Thread should have died here: >>61103131
>>61103418
Those are all pretty conventional by the standards of most music out there, but that honestly doesn't matter
In my mind, it's not a matter of being "better" at listening to music, but it just depends on what resonates with you. I adore Not Available, but I completely understand why it wouldn't with someone else. You can enjoy whatever you want, and problems only really arise when you start viewing that artist or band in any objective sense
>>61103144
ooh whats this?
smells like new pasta
>ITT people who think The Residents is actual good deep meaningful music gets pissed off at people who realize it's not deep meaningful music
If you like The Residents YOU need to expand your tastes
>>61103469
It's true. Residents are basically a bunch of untrained monkeys mashing on their instruments. They might as well be a bunch of inbred Hillbillies. They can never compare with knowledgable musicians intentionally manufacturing music to upset norms in precise ways. To call someone cucked for listening to Davis while listening to garbage, you'd have to be one of those white supremacists living in a trailer park who never graduated from college.
>>61103144
>Too young to drink
>not a teenager.
The Residents are garbage.
/mu/ really has shitty taste
>>61103609
where did i imply any of that
also you have no background info on the residents, for all you know davis himself could have been a member
>>61103144
>19
>nineteen
>nineTEEN
>TEEN
>>61103609
(entirely subjective statements)
>>61103609
this
Davis isn't that deep but compared to The Residents he made master works of his music
>>61103333
Nice quads, but I am not saying weirder music is better, and I explicitly said it doesn't make you a better person to have more expanded tastes, but it does make you a more advanced listener, in the most value judgement free sense possible. And I'm not saying "objectively" anything here, but heuristically it's pretty obvious that listening to music that doesn't provide near constant 5-1 resolutions takes a more developed ear just like enjoying strong cheese or escargot takes a more developed palate than a fatty, salty burger that is express designed to hit your basic pleasure centers as hard as possible. Your brain reacts in predictable ways to certain combinations of fats and salt or sugars (bad analogy, because I am not saying pop music is unhealthy) and the food industry knows this and uses it to their advantage. Certain types of harmonic movement, rhythm, and melodic resolutions also have predictable effects on the brain, and the music industry uses those to their advantage too.
Does that make blue cheese better than burgers? No, obviously not. Weird music isn't better than middle of the road stuff, it just doesn't rely on the basic pleasure center hit that conventional music relies on. And some people will seek out the strange flavors and some will just eat burgers and be happy, and nobody is right or wrong. A 19 year old who hates vegetables isn't going to magically like broccoli because a Honduran juggling bbs told them to.
But if you say "people only eat caviar to seem cool" you sound like an idiot.
>>61102788
You're listening to the wrong album OP.
>>61103299
I believe that appreciation of a work of art depends on knowledge. Two people whose knowledge is wildly different will have wildly different opinions on a piece of music. For example, a person who has listened to a lot of music has a different opinion from a person who has listened to very little music (but it doesn't have to be "quantity", it could just be different kinds of music). Therefore, knowledge determines what you like and what you don't like. To a large extent, the "emotion" that music makes you feel depend on what you know (not on the music itself, which is simply a vibration that resonates with your brain's circuits). My experience is that people who have similar knowledge have remarkably similar opinions.
Very often, the "opinion" of a person is simply a reflection of what that person has listened to. The more a person knows, the more likely that her "opinion" is truly "her" opinion. The less a person knows, the more likely that her "opinion" is simply a reflection of whatever marketing/publicity she has been exposed to as she grew up.
If I had to come up with a "theory of musical appreciation", I would probably quote one of the philosophers who influenced me: Abhinavagupta. This Indian thinker (who lived around the year 1000) first formulated a theory that in my opinion is simple and elegant: experiencing the flavor of a work of art requires not only that the work evoke an emotional response, but also that the "experiencer" possess the aesthetic skills required to respond in an appropriate way. The experience of appreciating a work of art is a process of exchange: the artist provides the work of art to be experienced and the "experiencer" provides his aesthetic skills. The appreciation (i.e., the emotional response generated in the experiencer) is not an absolute value: it depends on the aesthetic skills of the experiencer. Those "aesthetic skills" are mostly derived from "knowledge".
>>61102788
no melodies?? I can sing 3 melodies off the top of my head and I've only heard it a few times. Were you listening
Did you not listen to Meet The Residents OP?
That's their best album. And one of the best of all time.
>>61103681
Wow, good job, you can distinguish between facts and opinions. Would you like for me to spell it out for you next time so it's not quite so hard to tell the difference? Why don't I just qualify everything I say in every possible way?
>>61103736
Your basic premise is flawed because I didn't say that, I basically said some people like weird music because they have a natural affinity for musical language in the same way that another kid might excell at math or football.
Literally nothing about anyone's knowledge.
>>61103702
That's BS though because music is entirely subjective and what may be "weird" to one person may be entirely normal to another.
As a matter of fact, most normies aren't exactly as completely "normie" as you'd believe.
I have a female friend who loves some pop music for instance but also loves some really bizarre songs and even some Arcade Fire/My Bloody Valentine, yet again, weird is only a perspective.
>>61103752
>Why don't I just qualify everything I say in every possible way?
Well it would make you seem more like an elitist asshole, definitely lol.
>>61103774
>Your basic premise is flawed because I didn't say that, I basically said some people like weird music because they have a natural affinity for musical language in the same way that another kid might excell at math or football.
while some sort of natural predisposition surely plays a role, let's not discount the role of nurture. kids aren't born mathematical geniuses or top-tier athletes, it's something they work at, something which requires knowledge and experience to work with and build upon. same thing applies to artistic appreciation.
i wasn't trying to challenge you, i was quoting a scaruffi essay to corroborate your point. the most important part is the reference to abhinavagupta's aesthetic theory.
>>61103830
>>61103752
less*
>>61103351
kek, what a kek
>>61103830
And calling someone cucked for listening to Miles Davis isn't elitist? Basically comparing one of the best musicians of the 20th century to some wife fucking mandingo is in no way an attempt to bolster one's own appearance of superiority?
>>61103799
So Arcade fire is "weird" to you?
>>61103911
sure it is, but i never said that. different anon. i'll point that out to him as well if it'll make you like.
>>61103985
No, that's ok. Sorry anon.
>>61103846
Yeah, I kind of jumped the gun a bit, assumed you copy-pasted that to troll me, and skimmed it too quickly.
I agree about nurture, but I don't think that many people all of a sudden get into Xenakis or something past the age of 20. Nurture plays a role in math and football too, but you reach a point in your teens when it's clear you will never win a fields medal or a super bowl ring.
>>61103911
>>61103985
if you like*. sorry i've been drinking.
>>61103911
lmao you've been accusing everyone itt for saying that
you really seem to have taken it to heart
>>61104011
i'm sure it's happened, but yeah, generally it helps to get into these things while you're young and the mind is more neuroplastic.
but the main point is that there's a symbiotic relationship between artist and listener. the artist must be skilled and capable of eliciting the certain ideas and emotions, but at the same time the listener must possess the necessary understanding of music to appreciate and understand the artist's work.
>>61103799
Musical value is subjective, but there exist whole branches of academia to study it, and it's not at all arbitrary what is "weird" in music. There are characteristics that every song in the history of billboard charts share. There are statistically dominant chord patterns, rhythmic and formal structures, types of melodic line, vocal tones and the like that basically don't change. The more something approaches the dominant types of these things, the less weird it is. That doesn't reflect on creativity of the artist, or to say it's easier to make pop, just that it's easy to identify pop when you hear it.
You're mistaking the basic underlying fact that the value of music is 100% subjective for some idea that we haven't been studying it at least since Pythagoras and don't have anything objective to say about it, which is absurd.
At the end of the day the guy who played that Linkin Park song 30,000 times because it was the only song he liked, and the guy who studied music, played it professionally, got a PhD in musicology and collected 20,000 records are both enjoying their own subjective music experience and it's impossible to measure whose was better. That doesn't stop us from considering why two people have such divergent tastes, and what we can learn from it.
I'm the guy who made a thread about the Residents yesterday. I really enjoyed Not Available on my first listen, thanks everybody who recommended it to me. Can't wait to hear it again and explore their other stuff. to the OP, maybe you ought to try some more accessible music before jumping into the Residents? I tried listening to them months ago and didn't get it, but now that I've developed a taste for more left-field stylings their music isn't that difficult to stomach. also, never accuse music of being weird for the sake of weirdness. it just makes you sound like you're unfamiliar with the avant-garde and are confused by it. the Residents might be "weird" but their music is just as valid as any other band's. not all music must sound immediately pleasing... in fact I think that might be the point of a lot of their work. lots of their material is essentially pop music written to be dissonant and atonal. that's oversimplifying it but hopefully you can see my point. a better starting point might be Meet the Residents, Duck Stab, or the Commercial Album.
>>61103609
their shit is precise as fuck what you talkin about
I love this album in first listen, it was the sound I've been trying to find in years.
The second last song got me crying
>>61104261
>At the end of the day the guy who played that Linkin Park song 30,000 times because it was the only song he liked, and the guy who studied music, played it professionally, got a PhD in musicology and collected 20,000 records are both enjoying their own subjective music experience and it's impossible to measure whose was better. That doesn't stop us from considering why two people have such divergent tastes, and what we can learn from it.
It's virtually impossible for someone to enjoy the same song 30,000 times compared to someone who, say, listens to particularly music for the first time and cries from its beauty.
>he didn't cry listening to the climax of never known questions
Are the 7 minutes on the 2011 reissue good? I'm deciding which edition to listen to
>>61103144
you do know that the Residents are a highly critically acclaimed and highly respected avant-garde group? and that they are not quirky and le random. every note and lyric has a reason in their music.
If you don't like it, you don't. but to be fair the album took a while to grow on me but is now one of my favorites.
Whether or not you like the music, it is objectively ground-breaking and genre-defying music that influenced a huge amount of artists.
btw any Residents album took an extreme amount of creativity to make. don't dismiss things you don't understand.
>>61103799
what a retarded post
>>61102788
>Not liking Lousiana's phenomenal pop combo
It's ok Constantinople. It's been a long time, but I'm coming. :^)
>>61103671
>bait
>bAIT
>b8
>8
One of the worst album covers I've ever seen. Fuck that's ugly as shit who thought this was a good idea?
>>61103004
1974 my boy. "Simpsons did it first" kinda thing.
life is just a situation life is just a game
the introduction to Making of the Soul is the best jazz tone I've ever heard
Best way to get into Residents is one of their comp albums, like Petting Zoo, and seeing which era you like more, then going from there.
Each decade...perhaps even every five years they reinvented their sound. It's ill-advised to listen to A album and assume they're all like that. Hell they turned into a straightforward rock band in the Wormwood era. Kicks ass, too.
>>61110102
Residue is the best starting point imo
>>61109098
Amber is a top 3 residents song which is saying a lot considering the insane amount of music they've made.
>>61103144
ctrl-C
Scaruffi gave it a 9/10, it's objectively a masterpiece (of rock music)
>>61106910
You honestly wouldn't notice the difference unless you've heard one version a million times before listening to the other.
I'd start with the vanilla version and get the extended one later though. I did that, but that's only because the extended version didn't exist when I first listened to it.
