chancellor Wrote:Why is the EP left off this poll, is it assumed that it would be everyone's least favourite album. I love that album, some real gems on there.
The reason I left it out is because it won hands down the last time this poll was done (41% of the votes I think). So I wanted to see what people would vote for if that was excluded.
Also, the biggest reason I started this poll was because people seem to throw random "I hate IVL", "M@W is weak" and "TATH, the Hip's worst album" comments around, so I was curious which one people thought was the weakest... (which seems to be M@W for now - I thought it would be TATH... I'm just glad IVL is in 3rd, cause I love it
).
BTW, is it even possible that someone voted for PP? At least it wasn't DFN or I would have some serious questioning to do.
what 4 ppl think that music at work is better than up to here????
Give your heads a shake.!
Come on, Music@work has some good tunes but the lyrics are way too wordy and abstract, the classic Hip hooks are absent, and the production is too densely layered. That album is 99% studio persperation and 1% actual inspiration. It's exhausting listening.
Am I the only one who think that IVL was an improvement songwriting wise, despite God-awful production?
I certainly can't agree with that!
You know, it's funny, for a long time I swore that M@W wasn't a great album, but then IVL came out and I realised what a REAL poor effort sounded like. I had to put up with two years of IVL being "the new album", during which time I listened to M@W a lot when I was craving newer material. It wasn't until then that I really began to like it!
Sharks is one of the best rock songs ever. Not a Hip-standard, but a great roaring groove nonetheless...and then there's Lake Fever (great lyrics, wonderful folky melody), The Bear (abstract lyrics but great flow), The Completists (an all around great song I could listen to forever), Wild Mountain Honey (again not a signature Hip tune but one I'd call brilliant if it was done by anyone else...the list goes on.
I think if the Hip weren't OUR "Hip" we'd rejoice in the streets singin the praises of M@W if it just dropped out of the sky from a five-piece nobody ever heard before! Would you agree with that, at least?
grooveless touque Wrote:I think if the Hip weren't OUR "Hip" we'd rejoice in the streets singin the praises of M@W if it just dropped out of the sky from a five-piece nobody ever heard before! Would you agree with that, at least?
Without a doubt. But the fact is that it was released by the Hip, who have also released albums that are much better (including IVL, in my opinion).
I'm with you KWT, I think IVL is an improvement from M@W... except I even like most of Gord's vocals on IVL too.
THEY ARE ALL GREAT ALBUMS!
THEY ARE ALL VERY VERY DIFFERENT ALBUMS!
they can't really be compared to each other...IMO
The Darkest Canuck Wrote:couldn't you have just made a favourite album thread with the same choices to see which one was the least popular? this is just such a negative thread IMO.
That's a good idea... the only thing about it is that type of poll doesn't show which album is the least favourite, it shows which album isn't the most favourite. I'm not picking on Road Apples, but if everyone thinks it's a mediocre album, then in a poll of "what's the best album", it would get 0 votes. However, this wouldn't mean it's the least liked album, since in a poll of "what's the least favourite album", it would also get 0 votes.
That's what's interesting about these polls. In the last "favourite album" poll, M@W got 8% of the votes, while in this "least favourite album" poll, M@W is sitting at 47%. It seems so clear that M@W is most people's least favourite album, yet of the remaining 53%, 15% of them (8 / 53) claim it's their favourite! That's why I love polls!
BTW, I tried to make this thread seem as non-negative as possible by labelling it "least favourite album" rather than "worst album" or "what's the one album you can't stand" or anything.
Edit:Hey, you deleted some of your post! Well, that makes mine 100% irrelevent. Sorry.
grooveless touque Wrote:Sharks is one of the best rock songs ever. Not a Hip-standard, but a great roaring groove nonetheless...and then there's Lake Fever (great lyrics, wonderful folky melody), The Bear (abstract lyrics but great flow), The Completists (an all around great song I could listen to forever), Wild Mountain Honey (again not a signature Hip tune but one I'd call brilliant if it was done by anyone else...the list goes on.
Recently, it seems I’ve seen lots to disagree with in your posts, but this one is gold.
I sometimes play Sharks three times in a row, and just can’t get enough of it. The percussion sounds cool as shit under that dusky bassline; the whiny, meandering guitar warbling overtop is simply haunting; and the signature, pulsing crescendo is one of their best ever. Gets me every time.
Also love the other cuts you listed, but I like Train Overnight better than The Bear. Some really captivating songs on this release, IMO..
The Horrible Esthete Wrote:Recently, it seems I’ve seen lots to disagree with in your posts, but this one is gold.
That's precisely why I don't have anything against you personally and I hope I don't make it seem like that. Politics is another world...great music is great music!
Thanks for the endorsement...Sharks sometimes seems forgotten because the album is dismissed wholesale by so many people...
grooveless touque Wrote:That's precisely why I don't have anything against you personally and I hope I don't make it seem like that. Politics is another world...great music is great music!
And vice versa. Not to get all sappy, but I honestly think that your contributions are some of the most valuable to this forum, GT.
Though we are rather polarized on the political spectrum, the fact that we share common ground on TTH simply demonstrates the wondrous, unifying power of art.
Looks like M@W is in the lead for crap-ola. I'm not exactly sure why many people dislike IVL (myself included). I mean, I'll read through the lyrics and they are actually pretty clever; "ulcerating silence", "when bigger boats been done by less water", and "thin and wicked prairie winds". Makes one wonder what are people exactly voting on in polls like these. I just realized I voted IVL (and I dislike it out of all of the others) because of its sound. Not for the album art or the lyrics. Maybe if there was a poll based on the lyrics we'd yield different results. We might even vote for a different album. It draws me back to what people were saying before about album production. I still can't tell between good and bad production. I don't even have a clue. But IVL does have good lyrics but sounds bad in my opinion. I can't figure it out. It has to be the feel I get from the songs. The same is true for M@W... pretty good lyrics there too.
It's been said a hundred times if it's been said once...it just doesn't have the right feel. Since I am not a musician, I cannot comment on the finer points of production...all I know is I blame the production because it's responsible for how songs sound, regardless of the craftsmanship that goes into the songs themselves.
Does anybody else ever feel that the line "bigger boats been done by less water" reminds them of the harbour at St John's? Every single time I hear that line, I picture those cruise ships and big ol' Navy destroyers and such squeezing through the narrow entrance you could spit across. Call me crazy, and it's been said, but that's exactly the impression I get...giant boats taking shelter in such a seemingly unlikely location...but that "unsuspecting"-ness just makes it all the more spectacular to see a behemoth (relative to the size of the narrows) tiptoing its way through...
As one of the more interesting lines on the album I've always wondered what it means to others....?
IVL is one of their best sounding records IMO, the production is top notch, the mix is perfect and gord's vox are at their best.
Lord Brazle, what about the 'songwriting' test? i.e., can you imagine a given song working when played without backing, just vocal and acoustic guitar. To me, a really strong song can stand or fall on that basis. That's the exercise that leads me to reject M@W while maintaining the IVL is a group of good songs foiled by production.
'Wild Mountain Honey'---unlistenable IMHO. But yeah, 'Sharks' is cool (even though it can't really survive the above test).
grooveless touque Wrote:Every single time I hear that line, I picture those cruise ships and big ol' Navy destroyers and such squeezing through the narrow entrance you could spit across...
As one of the more interesting lines on the album I've always wondered what it means to others....?
With that line, "bigger boats been done by less water", I always have the impression of a weakness in the face of some adversity. Kinda like "the meek shall inherit the earth"... a small boat in a very big expanse of water and bigger (and stronger) boats have been destroyed by less. So kinda like the underdog comes out on top or the "geek gets the girl" situation with this little boat doing what the bigger boats couldn't. Maybe not neccessarily the "accomplishment" but the "fight before victory"... A line from some sort of last-minute discouragement before fighting the monster... or maybe doubt of the outcome...