[TJ Elite]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F# A# ∞
King Crimson - Discipline [40th Anniversary Series, CD+DVD]
Peter Gabriel - So
Pink Floyd - The Final Cut [Discovery Edition]
Symbion Project - Contrapasso [numbered and autographed with poster]

 

[DLeeWebb]

 
"Bad As Me" [Limited Deluxe Edition] - Tom Waits
"The Whole Love" [Limited Deluxe Edition] - Wilco
"Reverie" - Joe Henry
"Urban Echoes Vol. 1" - Gareth Pearson
"Break In The Clouds" - Elephant Revival
"Steady As She Goes" - Hot Tuna
"Rumble, Shake, And Tumble" - Wagons
"Tarot Classics" - Surfer Blood
"Divine Providence" - Deer Tick
"West" - Wooden Shjips
"Days" - Real Estate
"Lulu" - Lou Reed + Metallica
 

 

[EddieE]

Beirut - Rip Tide
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust
Melody Gardot - Worrisome Heart
Melody Gardot - My One and Only Thrill

 

[TJ Elite]

Camel - Mirage
Can - Tago Mago
Katatonia - Brave Murder Day [reissue, includes Sounds of Decay EP]
Pink Floyd - More [Discovery Edition]
Van der Graaf Generator - Godbluff

 

[TheWuss]

Hadn't been to the ol' CD store in a while, so I made a pretty big haul...
 
New stuff:
U2 - Achtung Baby (2 CD edition)
Beach Boys - The SMiLE Sessions (2 CD edition)
Beach Boys - SMiLE (2 LP)
The Smiths - The Complete Smiths box set
She & Him - A Very She & Him Christmas
Vince Gill - Guitar Slinger
King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black (40th Anniversary Edition)
King Crimson - Discipline (40th Anniversary Edition)
Iced Earth - Dystopia
Rory Gallagher - Photo Finish (2011 remaster)
 
     
 

 

[LJLee]

Blind Pilot - We are the tide
Joanna Newsom - Milk eyed mender
Seasick Steve - Dog house music
The Observers
The Lemonheads - Its a shame about ray
Otis Redding
 
 

 

[TJ Elite]

Black Sabbath - Sabotage
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold as Love [2010 reissue, CD+DVD]
Lou Reed & Metallica - Lulu [2 CDs]
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
Tom Waits - Bad as Me

 

[TheWuss]

Quote:

Lou Reed & Metallica - Lulu [2 CDs]
 

so, you still bought this one - even after the critics nominated it as "worst album ever" ??
 

 

[Radioking59]

Roy Orbison - The All Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison (MFSL)
Queen - A Night at the Opera (MFSL)
Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (DCC)
Joe Purdy - Julie Blue
Billy Joe Shaver - Restless Wind: The Legendary Billy Joe Shaver 1973-1987

 

[Permagrin]

Roy Orbison - The All Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison (MFSL)
Queen - A Night at the Opera (MFSL)
Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (DCC)
Joe Purdy - Julie Blue
Billy Joe Shaver - Restless Wind: The Legendary Billy Joe Shaver 1973-1987

How's the sound? I just ordered it from MoFi finally, can't wait!

Also noticed they already have SRV Sky is Crying out. That was fast.

 

[Radioking59]

Quote:

How's the sound? I just ordered it from MoFi finally, can't wait!

I've only listened to it once but it sounded great to me. It's much better than the regular CD.

 

[TJ Elite]

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheWuss /img/forum/go_quote.gif

so, you still bought this one - even after the critics nominated it as "worst album ever" ??

 

I wasn't initially interested in the album when I first heard about it, and when I noticed it had come out I quickly browsed through its page on Wikipedia. It had mostly received negative or below average reviews, so I decided there's probably no need to focus any more of my attention on the album. For reasons I can't remember I checked it's wiki page again a couple of days ago and noticed a mention of it being offered for free streaming on its official web page, so I decided to listen listen to a couple of tracks. (I don't know if it's available on Spotify or not, but for some reason I've never warmed up to streaming music unless if it's being provided by the artist in question, and even then I don't usually do it.) I REALLY liked what I heard, and stopped listening after the first three or four tracks so the rest of the album would be a 'surprise' when I'd buy the actual (double) CD. Today I did listen to the first disc, but I'm leaving the second one for tomorrow.

 

Some people have described the album sounding like a demo tape of Metallica jamming with Lou Reed's spoken word poetry dubbed over it. That's not at all what I hear. The album is pretty damn LOUD, thanks to Vlado Meller's mastering (he is easily one of my least favorite mastering engineers), but I could listen to it without any listening fatigue through my 803 Diamonds and it sounded really good (My speaker setup has luckily evolved into one that deals pretty well with compressed dynamics as my ears can tire quite quickly when using sound systems that don't. I might have difficulties listening to this album with my headphones or my computer's speakers.). The album provided huge sound, although there isn't that much left of the dynamics because of the compression/brickwalling. Still there's quite a lot of clarity in all the instruments and even some punch left in the drums. From what I can remember the tracks on the first disc sounded quite well mixed as well. So, from the perspective of sound, I wouldn't say that the albums sounds like a garage or a lo-fi recording. If we talk about the playing, it's not what I'd call 'jamming'. For a metal band that probably doesn't do that much improvisation the songs manage to sound quite coherent most of the time. Well I don't really know how much of the album was planned out in detail and how much practice/time was devoted to individual songs, but I've understood that most of the albums came together quite quickly in the studio. I should mention that the album sounds quite... relaxed. Like all the people involved are enjoying themselves.

 

There has also been talk about this being a project that was done mostly for the sake of art and less for the sake of giving people/fans what they want/expect (This probably applies mostly to Metallica fans.). Sure you can call this an avant-garde release, but I've listened to great albums that are SO much more demanding to listen to and learn to appreciate, that if you called this just another metal release I could easily agree with you. I haven't heard many of Lou Reed's solo albums, so I can't compare Lulu to those, but I do own all of Metallica's studio albums (at least I think so). I'm not a big Metallica fan though. I'm not even sure if I'd even call myself a fan (I haven't decided what makes a person a fan in my books), but I will admit that they have made some good music over the years. I need to get more familiar with their work at some point as I haven't fully digested some of their albums yet, even though I've had most of them for several years now. Based on hearing the first disc 1.5 times, I'd probably rank Lulu above most of Metallica's albums from the 90's and the 00's, but it's way too early to state preferences.

 

I would have more to type about the album, but this reply has already turned out longer than I intended and it's way past midnight here. In addition I'm so sleepy right now that I hope this post is at least somewhat easy to follow. Anyone who is considering buying the album should definitely listen to it first, and those who haven't heard it but have thought about skipping it because of all the negative reviews should also listen to it because in the end that's the only way to find out if YOU like the album or not.

 

 

Edit

I've now listened to the second disc. At first it sounded more demanding than the first disc requiring more attention from the listener. It is also musically quite the opposite to the first half of the album being full of quieter passages and also more moody/atmospheric in general. For the first third of the disc the first disc seemed to be much superior, but once I got used to the vastly different songs I started to appreciate it much more. The contrast between the two discs is quite similar to changing the side of a vinyl on some albums (like The King of Limbs for example. I don't own a turntable, but I usually try to make myself aware of where each side would end if I was listening to an LP.). The last song (Junior Dad) was... marvelous. Without it I think I could give some kind of preliminary rating to the album based on hearing it once (if one of my friends asked me), but because it is on the album I really need to hear the album again from beginning to end to get a better comprehension of the album as a whole. The songs differ from one another quite a lot, but to my slight surprise the album also has more of an overall arc to it than I had initially anticipated.

 

What else... Well, if my earlier description about the general sound of the album made you think I was almost saying that the sound quality is quite good/acceptable, then you've got a slightly wrong impression. In short the album sounds listenable on good equipment (based on what I've heard), but this might be greatly equipment dependent. I'm listening to some of the songs on the album as I'm writing this, and frankly I'd almost rather listen to something else right now (I'm using Genelec 6010As connected directly to my computer). Based on this Lulu would seem to belong to a group of album I can pretty much only tolerate (but enjoy to a great extend as well) when I'm listening to it using my speaker rig. Other albums that seem to belong in the same category include Free Jazz by Ornette Coleman (I love that album but when I try to use any of my headphones or my Genelecs I just don't hear the music, just lots of sound), The Olatunji Concert by John Coltrane (not an easy album to listen to, but VERY rewarding), and many others (not just jazz albums, but those came first to my mind).

 

But I think that's enough about Lulu. 2011 has been a surprisingly good year in terms of new music releases compared to the previous couple of years. I hope 2012 will be even better.

 

[9pintube]

LPs--- Warren Haynes ---"Man In Motion"      Paul Simon -----"Hearts and Bones" on Quiex II limited pressing (killer sound)    Michael Trent------- "The Winner"     Tedeschi Trucks Band---"Revelator"               .Eva Cassidy---"Songbird" (HQ 180) unbelievable record..................CDs.....Indigo Girls---"Beauty Queen Sister".......Lindsey Buckingham--- "Seeds We Sow"

 

[moouers]

Skinny Puppy - HanDover
Low - C'mon
Ladytron - Gravity the Seducer
Trespassers William - Having

 

[Hellbishop]

Lou Reed & Metallica- Lulu
Anthrax- Worship Music
U2- Achtung Baby
Engelbert Humperdink- 16 Most Requested Songs
The Strokes- Is This It?