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Irrelevant_C
The fact that Wenger didn't put Podolski on yesterday, even though Santi was having a poor game, reinforces the idea Wenger may not be too confident in Podolski any more. The seems to be loads of rumours about Draxler who can play LW & would be a brilliant signing imo but would probably also mean Podolski would leave.
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MusiQ3985
You could say every album has a song that might be the crux or hinge upon which the rest of the LP rotates; a lot of critics attempted to level (against) KM '94 that there wasn't another CiM, but then that would make the song not unique in and of itself. On the other hand, if she'd done CiM 9x more, people would have complained. I think the sleeper (s) of the LP are "Surrender" and "Falling," the latter is just so deep, dank & chemical. I guess I went in wanting to see what else the LP offered, that said CiM is amazing, no denying. But you know, the argument you level is how I feel about "Fever" and "More, More, More" and how amazing that one track itself is. I love constructive Kylie convo's!!!
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MusiQ3985
Really? I don't hear that, not with similar numbers (in scope) w/ PYiMP, Dangerous Game, WHtLG and Falling. The record perfectly mixed dance, R&B (acid jazz & hip-hop influenced), adult contemporary in the embraceable pop style. All at once the record is adult without being stuffy, sensual without a whorish after taste, broad without trying to hard & most importantly lean. Just my abridged two cents. P.S.-The pitch is being considered, just got the e-mail!
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MusiQ3985
MusiQ3985 Dude, I've pitched a retrospective about its (KM '94) transformative ability to pull women out of the dance-pop market into the broader pop field (along w/ "Bedtime Stories") to PopMatters. KM '94 is my all-time favorite Kylie record, a favorite record of mine period & bears no blemishes whatsoever. The record is perfect, top to bottom. :) Is that a yes for you, lol?
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Irrelevant_C
A winger would be a bonus, Gnabry & Ox should be able to do the job, but a striker is a must. Honestly Alvaro Morata is not the type of player we should be going for, we need someone who is as good as or better than Giroud. Martinez or Costa are the only real options right now and we should go all out to sign one of them.
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Irrelevant_C
Just as things seem to be looking up, something fucks up. This season feels like deja vu of 2007/08. Just hope we can bring in a few new signings.
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DickBigems
improvement as far as that goes (and this is probably one of my main complaints about her songwriting). The thing you said about Butterfly possibly needing another celebratory-type cut, I feel Daydream has in the song "Always Be My Baby". I think it's cohesive enough, maybe not as much as so as Butterfly, but I'm thinking maybe it benefits from that in a way. And yeah, Daydream does seem to really wind down and get tiresome when "Melt Away" hits. I relistened to both just now and considered the stuff you said, and decided to up my rating of Butterfly a bit.
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DickBigems
Butterfly being all that more personal, though I feel there might be a slight improvement in the songwriting area as she seemed to start getting into more situational concepts (but with the same basic themes of lust/love). Her cover of "The Beautiful Ones" was pretty meh to me, kind of unnecessary. I guess that's my feeling of a few of the songs on the album in general, "why listen to this when I could be listening to something else?" Why listen to "The Roof" when I could just as easily listen to "Shook Ones" or "Whenever You Call" when I could be listening to "When I Saw You". Plus like you said about the reworkings of certain songs. I suppose you have a point about Daydream just as much taking from its predecessor(s) as Butterfly takes from Daydream, but Daydream seems to capitalize a lot more off the previous ideas and is a more significant artistic progression imo. And tbh, I figured Mariah being maudlin was pretty much a given for the most part. Though, I agree, there is some...
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DickBigems
Yeah, I suppose it was pretty wise on her part to not stray too far away from that same sort of formula and kind of try to polish it up to try to right the "wrongs" that were on the prior release. But it just comes off as very complacent to me, kind of a been there, done that sort of thing. I think I just enjoy the arena-sized ballads more than the sultry mild ones. I feel like the ballads on Daydream just have more entertaining build up and are better at displaying Mariah's vocal talents. The singing on Butterfly usually comes off a little more restrained to me at times, and not as sonorous or resounding. Hence the more evident raspiness in her voice. Many of the songs on that album feel like they begin and end on the same note (I enjoy more build up in ballads, particularly in the case of a melismatic singers such as Mariah - actually this is very important). With the exception of "Close My Eyes" (and I'd say "One Sweet Day" is close to matching it), I actually never caught on to...
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DickBigems
I was talking to this person on another forum about the albums in Mariah's discography. I was wondering why do people think Butterfly is better than Daydream. I've seen you say the same on another page in last.fm I believe, I was wondering what your reasons were. Anyway, my thoughts towards that are just that I feel Butterfly borrows a little too much as an entire album structurally from Daydream and doesn't really improve upon anything done before either. I'm thinking maybe I'm off on this, so your perspective could potentially be enlightening. The sometimes subtle hip hop influence on the music doesn't really do anything for me either tbh.
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Irrelevant_C
Firstly we need to clear off Park & loan Frimpong (apparently his contract won't be renewed end of season). Then we need a clinical striker, Jackson Martinez/Diego Costa type, although both seem unlikely at this stage. Currently I'd be happy with any striker who can be rotated with Giroud. As for Schär I would love him at Arsenal but there's almost no chance of a January move as he had a knee-op and is out until February I think. Over January we don't have any really tough fixtures so I'm worried Wenger will feel he doesn't need to strengthen based on those performances, but then when we get to Feb & March we'll struggle. Also Ramsey is out now for however long, we're fortunate that we have a lot of players in that position but Ramsey was our star player first half of the season and I hope someone else will step up and shine now that he's injured. Also, hope you had a good Christmas.
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Cognautic
Ha the Ancient Grecian fight against fate, part heroic part tragic. Just seems like those pesky prophecies and prophets are made to be ignored. And yeah geez, I wonder how appreciated it was back in its contemporary days. I've seen one other sculptor whom a friend showed to me whose figures I like as much, and he's relatively modern. It's a pity I can't remember his name, I'll have to ask him about it later. Incidentally: fucked the final and I'm done with school. Time for some binge drinking.
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DickBigems
Yeah, definitely there's more of an emphasis on feminist themes, but still with the music it's kind of stuck in today's time. Interesting to see how it holds up years later. haha And critics seem to dig the corny ad-libs and spoken word stuff. It was a very well executed album for sure. It's a lot better if you watch all the music videos too though. If you ever get the chance, you should do that.
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Cognautic
From a brief investigation about about a year ago, I think they were a producer duo from Belgium, kinda like Ancient Astronauts in the whole not American producer duo instrumental producing way haha. Aside from that I didn't investigate much farther - it's hard enough as it is to find info about esoteric local acts, let alone foreign ones. And thanks a lot man, I may need it! Yeah I know the feeling, that one hour could make all difference...incidentally since we're talking about art can I enthuse about Laocoon and his Sons? Such an beautiful sculpture, it's hard to believe it exists and isn't computer-generated...
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Cognautic
On another note, though, do you listen to 40 Winks? One of the samples from the Whiskey Blanket tracks reminded me of them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZpiSZhXDI0 They've got a wistful melodic sound, combining a sense of airy, whimsical melancholy with a sort of sonic upbeat spontaneity. They also hit a pretty wide variety of samples and rhythms (although it sounds like they definitely use some live instrumentation), overall some pretty chilled out listening. It's gonna be my studying jam up until my next executioner's walk.
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Cognautic
Well, I just screwed up a math final - I don't know if you got the impression but I'm pretty much an incomparable fucking idiot in the first hour or two that I'm awake, and I do things like not see important details in the paper in front of me detailing that only half the test is multiple choice -_- well it's really just the difference between a C and a B, since I'm also disorganized as fuck so I'll just move on. In 3 hours I have a "Cultural Foundations" final, which is essentially a glorified art history class with a little extra Biblical analysis from an authorial perspective - pretty interesting stuff, I say. I'm doing so last minute cramming for it since the teacher grades VERY specifically. This'll be fun.
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Cognautic
Hey just gave that Whiskey Blanket track a listen - and damn you're totally right this is exactly my kind of stuff. I may just make myself cop this to get it, this may actually end up being on repeat a lot this break. How's school by the way? I'm walking the execution board to my finals tomorrow so it's time for a last hurrah here.
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DickBigems
Yeah, that bridge at the end is terrible. I mean, the whole song is pretty silly. There's a lot of those sort of lyrics on the album haha. I seems as it is very much an act as well, she's very revealing in the music videos and has a bunch of sexual content in the music, which can be kind of off-putting at times. I was thoroughly impressed with it all by the end of hearing and watching it though. I thought it showed tremendous savvy on her part the way she crafted the album. She still doesn't really have a personality though. What makes it savvy is her knowing which artists to collab with and stuff, she really pulled out nearly every stop as far as styles of music go. I mean, you take that "Blow" song for example, sounds like a Justin Timberlake track. Then she has Frank Ocean, Drake, Timbaland, ect. all on the album, she adapts to their styles pretty well, and it still comes off as a pretty cohesive sounding album. I'd like to her your thoughts though, when you do hear it.
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Cognautic
On a last, completely arbitrary note - fuck man, I CANT stop listening to Midnight Marauders. I'm OBSESSED. I always liked it before, even loved, but I've literally never listened to an album so habitually before, it's ridiculous. I probably would have 1000 plays of this if my iphone didn't swallow up and lose scrobbles so much.
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Cognautic
I haven't actually heard the bonus tracks so I'll have to get on that before I actually judge - Asshole definitely grated with me though. Still, I won't say too much before I listen. And I'll def check em out! My listening portfolio has diversified hugely since I got back into music and the beginning of the school year - I find myself enjoying listening to shit like Run-DMC, Eric B. and Rakim, LL Cool J, and EPMD, lots more Jay Dee and a ton of southern stuff that before lacked that "clicking together" quality to me. And Boulder, ha....I had a friend who almost went to school there. Pretty quaint place. I'll get back to you on them in a few hours, I'm actually late for class replying to you...and sorry about my late replies, finals are coming up and I'm in last hurrah mode right now. Or at least I was before two days ago until I caught a fever and a mighty headache.
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Cognautic
Yeah, sometimes I had a hard time getting behind the mix of modern techno-pop and Beastie Boys-esque production. I found the outro to the first track particularly tasteless. And I couldn't agree more about Eminem's experimentation with his flows, but I feel like he's still trying to figure out where he's going as a rapper. I really do dislike this off-kilter syncopated flow he's taken to though; it's not bad but it lacks all the smooth effortlessness that he used to have. "The title MMLP2 is, in a way, misleading - because the album is a summation of his career." I actually couldn't agree more, I've been saying that it's actually a resolution of all three of his personas already, in a way it's like saying he's graduated from the old and he's one consolidated musical artist now. I wonder what the next record he puts out will be like with this in perspective...
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myusername2020
I'm an albums guy too, really enjoy a collection of songs that fit. for me 8-10 songs is what i prefer. A lot of hip-hop albums have about 16+ songs which usually drags on a bit for me but its usually a quality thing
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DickBigems
lol It's all good man. But yeah, I just feel that the praise for R. Kelly needs to be evened out a little more with some well-weighted criticism that's a lot of the reason for that whole thing and I'm glad that you started to point it out on there. No doubt at all that Kelly has talent, just he never fully reached his potential and takes the cop out in his music by telling critics to "shut up" and stuff in his songs instead of holding himself accountable for his mediocre efforts - it almost makes you believe that that's the best he can do haha. And I hope you're talking about the "Ignition" remix because I don't care for the original too much... But yeah, that one criticism was a little off, he does have that "Trapped in the Closet" series which shows a potentially good and original concept (original in it's expansive storytelling not quite down before in the genre), but I think that was a little more weighted to his total contributions in general. He has some musicality to some of...
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Cognautic
No, I didn't. No sweat though it's getting into finals area here so I probably won't get to it in a bit. Did you get my e-mail? Also, what were your feelings about MMLP2? I've seen a pretty wide range of opinions...from modern classic to complete garbage. Funny how polarizing Em can be.
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a_spaceman
Whenever you need me there to help spread the Encore love I'll be there, hideously over-hated album
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myusername2020
Read a comment of yours on Illmatic about rap artists dropping EPs in the early 90s. was wondering if you could give me some names to research? :-)
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jdotperiod
Man, you summed up R. Kelly's last decade perfectly in his shoutbox. I'm listening to Black Panties as I type and I'm not impressed. The talent is still there but the ideas are not. BP reeks of Kelly's attempt to fight against the Urban AC tag that the industry throws on artists his age.
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Cognautic
I've been meandering in the 7-8 range, but I've been having a hard time getting a sense of the album as a whole; half the time I'll be giddy that he's not simultaneously trying to be "old eminem" while excoriating the same persona and supposedly moving on from it like he was on Recovery, and the other half trying to figure out how much the occasional errors detract from the album. Overall I definitely think it's a step in a good direction, he's been making me laugh and feel sympathetic towards him for the first time since The Eminem Show.
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Cognautic
I actually decided I was really happy about MMLP2! There were obvious flaws, those soft rock hooks were really hit or miss, and Eminem's singing is decidedly miss, but overall I felt very happy with how genuine and less pandering the album felt. I felt like Eminem's finally come to terms with the antiquated nature of his old persona and he's finally making jokes and rapping about topics that he wants to rather than trying to grasp that sensitivity to the youth that made him so great. The album's theme of fresh takes on the old, from the production to Eminem's content was really refreshing coming from Eminem. I thought "So Far..." was an anthemic centerpiece to the album, and really summed up the feeling and idea of it well.
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Cognautic
Actually no, for once I'm actually being forced to work on schoolwork so I've been pre-occupied, but I've still got it open and Ive read the abstract - interesting stuff. You should send me the completed project if it's not too hard, I love being able to talk with people about these kinds of things! And no rush, I understand you're having a hard time so I don't want to pester you, I totally get when you just don't have time to keep up with the less essential connections.
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DickBigems
Nah, I think your assessment of the genre is pretty spot on. I was just thinking about this question when I saw some people calling some trap albums like Trap Muzik and Let's Get It: Thug Motivation classics. I was like "Wait, am I missing something here" lol...
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Irrelevant_C
Another winger is a must. Neither Ramsey nor Cazorla are natural wingers and it showed vs Utd. No real width until Gnabry came on and then suddenly we started creating chances. Lots of rumors about Pedro to Arsenal have popped up recently. The transfer would make a lot of sense since he ins't getting much game time and would fit in perfectly.
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Irrelevant_C
A win today would be something else. Liverpool, Dortmund and United in one week?! I don't think it'll happen though, predicting a draw. Can't wait for Podolski and Walcott to come back after international break.
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DickBigems
Can I get your thoughts on trap music in general? I was wondering if you thought that genre has spawned any "classic" albums.
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Cognautic
Oh and I listened to Rigormortiz, and I'm in LOVE. The album's a borderline classic for me; my knowledge of southern gangsta is obviously spotty, but I would put it in a class of elite albums that took that style of production and while staying within the general format applied a wide range of influences. The samples diversity give such a varied range of sounds that the album ends at a perfect length. The fact that it's a precursor to The Diary makes me seriously feel like brushing the dust off Scarface's first too albums and the Geto Boys though, I'm having a hard time justifying giving The Diary classic status and not Rigormortiz, even if DMG's influence is so obvious.
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