MUS
Active topics

  1. THE AFGHAN WHIGS - Gentlemen
    Release date: October 5, 1993


    Dysfunction is the function in the fucked up masterpiece that is Gentlemen. An angst driven, soul trippin’, hip shakin’ journey that is equal parts ugly and dark, sad and beautiful, bruised and empowered; a portrait of conflict and complexity painted in 50 shades of blue…

    Gentlemen is a flowing, fluent twisted, complex and contradictory tale of sex, the tangle, the aftermath and the recrimination. Sociopathic narcissism meets addiction and dependence.

    Villain? Victim? Sometimes the roles are transient. Sometimes they’re non-exclusive. Sometimes you think you are, only to wake up and find you are the other…

    The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
     and was also a part of the 33⅓ music book series exploring influential albums from pop history.

    A solid spot in my All-Time top 10, desert island disc status. And arguably one of the greatest album covers ever.





    * If you happen to dig this, check out their equally awesome album "Black Love"
  2. There are several Afghan Whigs fans around the boards, I guess your album will go down nicely

    I stilll have to review The Church, I won't forget about it.
  3. Yes, Black Love was chosen by Olof way back in the first round of album. I didn't check The Afghan Whigs out any further after listening to that though.
  5. Originally posted by MattG:Next week's selection comes from our user Mr_Trek, who has selected a great 90s rock album for you that is wrongfully overlooked in its genre.

    Black Love - The Afghan Whigs

    [image]

    1.Crime Scene, Pt. 1
    2. My Enemy
    3. Double Day
    4. Blame, Etc.
    5. Step Into the Light
    6. Going to Town
    7. Honky's Ladder
    8. Night By Candlelight
    9. Bulletproof
    10. Summer's Kiss
    11. Faded

    And, a note from Olof....

    My album of choice for you this week is Black Love by The Afghan Whigs. When I started thinking about which album to choose it didn't take that long for me to realize that I wanted to share a Greg Dulli album with ya'll. It was however harder for me to decide which album. This album as well as a few The Twilight Singers, Dulli's post-Whigs outfit, albums were in the mix. Ultimately I decided to just go with the album I like the most, this one. Black Love is probably my second or third most favorite album of all time. It also has what to me is the best opener/closer combo of any album, Crime Scene Part One and Faded. The album has its origins in what was supposed to be a soundtrack to a Greg Dulli movie that never happened and is quite cinematic. Listening to the album, that movie would probably have been a quite dark, film noir-type crime film.

    Please enjoy....Black Love!


    It also has what to me is the best opener/closer combo of any album, Crime Scene Part One and Faded. - Agreed. One of the best, anyway...

  6. Ok. I'm gonna keep this alive even if it ends up being for my own gratification.

    Marillion - Misplaced Childhood, 1985





    The band’s third album, released on June 17, 1985, soared to No. 1 on the U.K. chart on the strength of the hit singles “Kayleigh” and “Lavender” – and proved the commercial success of the previous year’s Fugazi was no fluke. But Marillion also reached their creative zenith on the LP, which remains the cornerstone of the entire “neo-prog” movement.
    Misplaced Childhood is a loosely assembled concept album spearheaded by then-frontman Fish, who weaves together fractured ruminations on adolescence, lost love and the downside of rock stardom. The singer-lyricist reportedly came up with the bold idea during a 10-hour acid trip. Staring at a print by Jerry Schurr called “Padres Bay,” Fish found his inspiration.
    “I was in ‘Padres Bay’ when suddenly I felt a child standing behind me on the stairs,” he said in 1998. “I knew he was dressed as a soldier and vanished as soon as he entered the corner or my eye. Perhaps it was my muse; perhaps it was the drug. It was enough to propel me into reaming off a large scrawl of prose.”
    That cohesive thematic structure is mirrored by the arrangements, which flow elegantly from the artful synth-and-volume-pedal textures of opener “Pseudo Silk Kimono” to triumphant rock closer “White Feather.” Steve Rothery’s New Wave-y riffs give the album a decidedly ’80s sheen, but his Steve Hackett-esque solos keep the songs grounded in the prog idiom. Keyboardist Mark Kelly takes a similar approach, moving from breezy synth pads to intricate melodic runs.
    The lightweight “Kayleigh” became Marillion’s breakout hit, peaking at No. 2 on the U.K. chart. But its straightforward verse-chorus structure and soft-pop chorus gave noodly-minded fans cause for concern. (“Didn’t I break your heart?” Fish croons on the track. The answer, for some fans, was a resounding “yes.”) “One of my most vivid memories of the time was when my wife to be, Jo, asked me to explain how I came up with my musical ideas, picking up a nearby guitar I started improvising what later became the ‘Kayleigh’ riff whilst explaining that I tried to combine melody and rhythm,” Rothery said. “I sometimes wonder if we would have still written ‘Kayleigh’ if she had asked me if there was anything good on the telly instead!”
    But even if Misplaced Childhood sounds seamless, the songs weren’t easy to assemble. “Most of the album was written and arranged, in some cases even down to the solos,” explained keyboardist Mark Kelly. “Being a concept album we attempted to make the music flow seamlessly from one song to the next which presented a few problems. ‘Lords of the Backstage’ originally followed ‘Lavender’ but was moved at the last minute to follow ‘Waterhole.’ I was asked to come up with a link section to get us from ‘Waterhole’ into ‘Lords’ the day we recorded the master. I felt under a lot of pressure and was not happy with the result because it sounds forced to me.”
    The quintet – also including bassist Pete Trewavas and drummer Ian Mosley – recorded the songs at Hansa Studios in Berlin, during a turbulent time for the city. “Now when you think if it, Berlin was a walled city at the time,” Trewavas said. “After all, it was early 1985. If you had enough money you could buy whatever you wanted. There was a great little bar under the studio where we all discovered the most horrible drink in the world (begins with an M by the way). My most memorable moment is probably playing pool with Ian against Depeche Mode and the keyboard player who wore the dress got the winning shot. (I was so embarrassed.) P.S.: He had a fantastic looking girlfriend.”
    One year after the release of Marillion’s fourth album, 1987’s Clutching at Straws, Fish left the band to pursue a solo career. Steve Hogarth joined the line-up for 1989’s Seasons End and has remained frontman ever since. In keeping, Misplaced Childhood continued to hold “a lot of memories from a period that was very exciting and crammed with experiences both dark and magical” for Fish, as he said in an announcement for an anniversary tour in 2015.
    “The lyrics on that album hold a very special meaning to me as they were written by a young man on the cusp of fame and dealt with a lot of personal issues,” Fish added. “It was not only a breakthrough album for the band but also for me as an artist because I was finally discovering my own individual style as a lyricist and singer.”


    Read More: How Marillion Helped Resurrect Prog on 'Misplaced Childhood' | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/marillion-misplaced-childhood/?trackback=tsmclip
  7. I'll join this thread too. I want to broaden my playlists a bit. So far it's U2 and Oasis most of the time.
  9. Listening to the album right now, band and album didn't ring a bell at all. Now I hear Kayleigh and I'm like: aaah, so that's it. Looking forward to the rest of it.
  10. Nice! Always wanted to give them a try...
  11. I'll like to do this. I have favorite albums from artist i don't see here. Currently listening to Gentlemen,then i'll move on to misplaced childhood. I loved The Church alot
  12. I'll like to do this. I have favorite albums from artist i don't see here. Currently listening to Gentlemen,then i'll move on to misplaced childhood. I loved The Church alot