SMC - Powderfinger - Internationalist

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  • swede
    swede Posts: 558
    threefish10 wrote:
    Um, DAF is from their second album Double Allergic, Parables For Wooden Ears is their first album, Which in my opinion is very underated, it's their grungiest stuff, released in 94 it has some of their best tracks, like Tail, Sink Low and Save Your Skin to name a few. At least you didn't say Odyssey #5 was their 1st which is what i have heard alot of people say.

    yeh i was gonna say that it was the second album but i find parables to be a bit plain...

    bout the album being all over the place - i actually disagree - i think it fits in well. but at first i was kinda "meh" over the album but as the months rolled by it kept growing and growing on me, a transition that i love is from passenger to dont wanna be left out into good day ray.

    also i actually really dig the last few tunes, yet at first they were the tunes i overlooked. i guess i see them as a nice way to end it - nice n chilled n what not.

    another tune that i think is a ripper is private man - real catchy cool tune in my book. but generally as to specific songs? well i just love the entire album, from start to finish. my absolute faves are hindley street, the day you come, and dont wanna be left out.

    oh and the album was released in 98...

    :)

    thanks for the reviews btw i dont mind negative comments its what its all about :) keep up the honesty! :)!
  • pacifier
    pacifier Posts: 1,009
    swede wrote:
    yeh i was gonna say that it was the second album but i find parables to be a bit plain...

    I've loved powderfinger ever since I first heard (im not good with names, so will write lyrics)....."i'll be the one to pick you up again". That was a while back, around 96 I guess, or when ever it came out. Great band. Personally I think Odessy#5 is probably their real master piece. As for parables... I would kind of agree that it is plain, but not so much plain as, i don't know, it kind of seemed like they were still learning, still becoming who they were, where as all of the rest of their albums they sound like they know who they are. I haven't bought the solo cd as yet, not sure if I will, but I did have the pleasure of seeing them live for the first time ever last year. That was cool.
  • pacifier
    pacifier Posts: 1,009
    psycosmic wrote:
    cool!
    i've listened to vulture street and odyssey number 5 but not this album...

    for some personal reasons, "whatever makes you happy" is my favourite powderfinger song...

    I love this song too. On the old PJ board my name was whateverMYhappy and whatever makes you happy was my sig.
  • swede
    swede Posts: 558
    pacifier wrote:
    I've loved powderfinger ever since I first heard (im not good with names, so will write lyrics)....."i'll be the one to pick you up again". That was a while back, around 96 I guess, or when ever it came out. Great band. Personally I think Odessy#5 is probably their real master piece. As for parables... I would kind of agree that it is plain, but not so much plain as, i don't know, it kind of seemed like they were still learning, still becoming who they were, where as all of the rest of their albums they sound like they know who they are. I haven't bought the solo cd as yet, not sure if I will, but I did have the pleasure of seeing them live for the first time ever last year. That was cool.

    yeh - "pick you up" is that song from double allergic, and yeh in 96 that would have been. great song and great album....

    the solo cd is good in my view - u can def hear strong neil young influence but yeh i like it.

    as for their live show - i actually think they have become better performers - but i dont like the setlists as much since internationalist and double allergic are my fave albums of theirs - odyssey was thrashed too much by radio stations and it became stale for me.. but some songs on there like these days are fantastic.
  • pacifier
    pacifier Posts: 1,009
    swede wrote:
    odyssey was thrashed too much by radio stations and it became stale for me.. but some songs on there like these days are fantastic.

    ah, see, that's where we differ. I haven't listened to the radio since about '96 so I don't know what songs they are thrashing or not. I think that lets you enjoy the music a bit more when you're not forced to listen to it over and over.
  • psycosmic
    psycosmic Posts: 504
    ok, this might get kinda long and confused and all over the place... so please bear with me ;)

    i heard some powderfinger songs before but wasn't really familiar with them... a band named after a neil young tune is alway worth to check out in my book, but - to be honest - my first encounter with powderfinger was a quick one... and while i liked a couple of songs off odyssey number 5 others left me cold... "my happiness", "whatever makes you happy" and "we should be together now" come to mind as the ones i really enjoyed... by the way, doesn't the chorus of the latter one sound a lot like "we're in this together now" by nine inch nails? just listen to these back to back and be surprised...

    it's odd that someone else mentioned the stereophonics... because that's how i felt about powderfinger as well... i can see why powderfinger is very popular in australia, especially amongst people who also like pearl jam... just like the stereophonics, powderfinger make solid rock music that leans a bit too much towards the mainstream and is a bit too bland in places for my taste... still, in the case of the stereophonics, i'd rather call them "pub rock" than "dad rock" because i like some songs and don't really mind them being played in the pub although i wouldn't listen to them at home...

    when i first listened to "internationalist" i couldn't find anything bad about this band... no songs i wanted to skip, i actually enjoyed them all... i can see why people say they're all over the place but at the same time i don't think it interupts the flow of the album... they are heavily influenced by all kinds of rock bands... this isn't necessarily good... but powderfinger learned from the best and they can pull it off...

    after a couple of spins this album really grew on me... i even checked out some more of their back catalogue... they are obviously mainly a mid-tempo rock band... that's what they want to do and they do it exceptionally well... but the songs i enjoy the most are those that are, for the lack of a better description, more melodramatic... i think the slower songs suit them best... i like how "trading places" builds, for example... my favourite part of the album is the ending... the nice campfire harmonics of "over my head"... "capoicity" could be an old radiohead b-side, and i don't mean to put it down by saying b-side, it's a very good song (you should focus on this one, transplant)... then, "lemon sunrise" is the perfect ending... it's difficult to explain what i like about a certain song because most of the time it's the little details that go unnoticed... at 1:12 into the song, i just love how he sings "whatever you say, whatev-(er)" and just swallows the last syllable... listen and you'll know what i mean... i love these kind of moments... the little things, the imperfections... this is very hard to explain... i'm trying not to get too far off-topic but sometime the things that ARE NOT THERE make the song... if you know "crystal" by new order there's a part in the chorus where it goes "here comes love, it's like honey" but in my head i always hear "here comes love (BANG), it's like honey" and "bang" just stands for a single note, a drum hit, horns, whatever, that i totally expect to be there and actually hear even if it's not there... i hear an accentuated note that's not there but it makes the song for me...
    confused? yes, me too :D

    why did i mention all this? well, i'm glad i gave this album some more time to fully appreciate it because - to be perfectly honest with you - i wouldn't have listened to it that much if it wasn't for the SMC and wouldn't have discovered some of the details that are hidden underneath the surface of the shiny production... i still think that some powderfinger songs are over-produced... they are a very good band but not great... i wouldn't want to call some of the album tracks filler because there is no filler just many songs that don't stand out to me... powderfinger to me is one of those bands, Live comes to mind as well, where the albums don't do it for me as a whole but i'd love to make my own compilation of tracks that i think are their best... i listened to fingerprints, their best of album, but even from the little i know about powderfinger i would have chosen a couple of other tracks for my own personal best of...

    thank you, swede, i'm glad i checked this out!!!
    ~~~
    Some days you wake up and sit on a park bench next to an eighty year old Russian architect, and some days you don't. I think this is my new life philosophy.

    http://epplehausradio.blogspot.com/

    pearl jam @ the astoria, london, 20/04/06
  • trappedinmyradio
    trappedinmyradio Posts: 1,189
    okay. finally, a break from the, seemingly, neverending train wreck that is the end of the semester.

    this is sort of the way i thought the album would run for me. i have heard some powderfinger here and there, but never did listen to an entire album. i can see why now. the album doesn't translate for me. there are pieces throughout the album that i like. the biggest problem for me, is that i don't know enough about music to talk about them in words. in some places, the music really talks to me. in other places the melody is intriguing. in some places, the lyrics are good. but, overall, it's not an album that stands out.

    i have a need to be moved throughout an album. i like strings tying everything together and this one is lacking on that front. i'm not trying to say that every album should be a concept album. sometimes, music is just music, for the sake of being music. and, that's fine. but, once again, staying power is lacking.

    in the end, i think the most glaring flaw, for me, with this album, is that i don't like the guy's voice that much. here is a contrasting view: staind - no, the music isn't the same - but, i like aaron lewis' voice and that overcomes a lot of my dislike for the genre his band represents. but, when i don't like a voice, it's really hard for me to get past that and listen to everything else on a consistent basis.

    right now, i'm stuck in a certain style of music. maybe that's the problem.
    I'll dig a tunnel
    from my window to yours
  • A Surprise Left
    A Surprise Left Posts: 743
    "internationalist" is a fantastic album and odyssey is also very good although "my happiness" got overplayed to death here in australia. i've only heard the singles off bernard's solo album thus far.
    The wind is blowing cold
    Have we lost our way tonight?
    Have we lost our hope to sorrow?

    Feels like were all alone
    Running further from what’s right
    And there are no more heroes to follow

    So what are we becoming?
    Where did we go wrong?
  • psycosmic
    psycosmic Posts: 504
    a bump for those who still want to check this thread out...

    after all the confusion who's pick it was this time, who's next?
    ~~~
    Some days you wake up and sit on a park bench next to an eighty year old Russian architect, and some days you don't. I think this is my new life philosophy.

    http://epplehausradio.blogspot.com/

    pearl jam @ the astoria, london, 20/04/06
  • pacifier
    pacifier Posts: 1,009
    psycosmic wrote:
    a bump for those who still want to check this thread out...

    after all the confusion who's pick it was this time, who's next?

    pic for what? Does this have something to do with the SMC written at the start?
  • psycosmic
    psycosmic Posts: 504
    pacifier wrote:
    pic for what? Does this have something to do with the SMC written at the start?

    yes, SMC stands for "Synergy Music Club"... each week, one member picks an album, makes the mp3s available to the other members and the discussion begins...
    just do a quick search for "SMC" and you'll find the most recent albums and also a thread where it's explained in much more detail...
    http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=146246&highlight=SMC

    if you're interested, just pm viggs20 who's kind enough to organize this stuff... but other members will help you out as well...
    ~~~
    Some days you wake up and sit on a park bench next to an eighty year old Russian architect, and some days you don't. I think this is my new life philosophy.

    http://epplehausradio.blogspot.com/

    pearl jam @ the astoria, london, 20/04/06
  • thebetterman
    thebetterman Posts: 657
    i'm still trying to give this one a proper listen, but i've caught all of the songs at one time or another and i like them. The singer has a nice power to his voice. I like the more rocking songs more than there ballads, i wasnt too fond of "Trading Places" but otherwise the album is really good. I too had heard of them from a few of you on the board before, but i had never been able to give them a chance, they arent too easily found over here. But i'm glad i've finally heard them, they're definitely worth checking out more in depth.
    -one thing to remember, always have a good time, all the time
  • viggs20
    viggs20 Posts: 1,296
    pacifier wrote:
    pic for what? Does this have something to do with the SMC written at the start?
    Yeah just check the link psycosmic provided...and let me know if you're interested. I promise you it will be a lot of fun.

    And burnin-candle is up next...so go ahead whenever you're ready.
    "Reality continues to ruin my life." - Calvin & Hobbes.

    www.stopglobalaids.com www.indymedia.org www.ecologyfund.com www.thehungersite.com www.amnesty.org www.pratham.org www.icbl.org www.care2.com/click2donate
  • swede
    swede Posts: 558
    yeh its good stuff thanks for the reviews - the album is prob in my top 10 of all time lol i just love it to death :)

    but yeh i dont mind that its not such a big hit - although i think i expected a few more people to like it! not a prob

    more thoughts would be cool too :)
  • AndySlash
    AndySlash Posts: 3,290
    I finally got a good chance to give this a listen. I've had it in my car since it was first put up here but haven't really been able to listen to it until the last week or so.

    Like the Beatsteaks album, this one grew on me. Highlights of the album for me are The Day You Come, Passenger, Trading Places, Private Man, and Capoicity. The Trading Places/Private Man/Celebrity Head trio in the middle of the album is probably the strongest thing on it. I really like the staccato guitar work on The Day You Come, and the vocals on the chorus are beautiful. Private Man has a nice driving beat and a catchy little guitar bit throughout the song. Capoicity steadily builds and builds to a nice crescendo. Trading Places has a Strangest Tribe vibe to it, and that leads me to my one real complaint about this album- a lot of it sounds derivative of other artists. This usually isn't a bad thing when it isn't readily apparent, but I found myself saying several times, "Oh, this kind of sounds like _________" I listen to so much music that it's almost inevitable that this will happen, and I don't know what their influences are, but it happened more than usual on this album. In addition to Strangest Tribe, they also sound a bit like PJ on Celebrity Head (I hear StBC in that descending note guitar part in the chorus). I also heard a bit of Peter Gabriel and the Smashing Pumpkins/Zwan (read, 'happy' Billy Corgan music). There's more, but I'd have to have the CD with to listen to again and I don't ATM. Anyway, the point is that it's tough to be memorable when your sound isn't terribly unique. Which is too bad, because they seem to be a strong band. I'd like to see them live.
  • swede
    swede Posts: 558
    thats an interesting take as having them as unoriginal - as i find their sound to be very distinct... driven by the incredible vocals of bernard fanning. oh and im pretty sure i have heard that some of their influences range from led zeppelin to pearl jam to neil young etc

    nehow if u went from their first album - parables for wooden ears i would definitely say that their sound then is not very original, sounds extremely soundgarden like... i think thats a reason why they dont like that album anymore, as it didnt have their own feel to it.

    im sure that if u guys keep listening - it will continue to grow on u

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