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Yeah, exactly what you read.
I want you to name your UNFAVOURITE SEVEN Motorpsycho songs. I want you to make your outing and let yourself be spitted in the face by the other fans!
Why 7?
Because 5 is too easy, but 10 is too much work. Seven is a very rock'n'roll number, so I think it's a good one for a top-down chart.
I made something similar years ago, but most of you dodge the question by answering with things like Siddhartino or Beacons and Beams. That's not fair! So, this time, THERE ARE RULES!
RULE 1: NO DIVERTISSEMENTS! I want REAL songs, so no geb-tunes, or one-minute intros, or Storlokke's Unicorn instrumentals. You heard me. I can barely concede on Nathan Daniel's Tune from Hawaii, but that's quite borderline!
RULE 2: NO COVER SONGS! That's another way to dodge the problem… New Day Rising cover? No way!
RULE 3: NO MORE THAN 2 SONGS FROM A SINGLE RELEASE! Don't want a list of Lobotomizer songs from a metal-hater, or a all-Unicorn list from a prog-hater, or all Black Holes from a… uhm… from ME! Be creative!
That's it. If you explain why you choose those songs, that's better.
Debates are welcome!
If we do a good job, we will present it to the band for their 30th anniversary, what a gift!
I'll start then:
– The Wait: Yuck! Such a disjointed, meaningless track. Future tracks would improve GREATLY on this uninspired dreck.
– Lighthouse Girl: Same as The Wait. I get what they're trying to do here, but they don't succeed at all. Please write an actual melody as basic for an epic track. This one is extremely half-assed.
– What if?: What if you didn't write this song, Geb? The second half of IALC is pretty weak, and this one sets the standard. Why they included this one, and not the far superior Little Ricky Massenburg on the album, is beyond my comprehension. Sounds like a rejected Monkees demo.
– The Mirror & The Lie: This really is "mediocrity on display". If Bent had bothered to write an actual melody, this could've been an interesting track. As it is now, it's a 6 min 43 second quiet waste of time. And again: They left Snafu and Fade To Grey on the Serpentine EP, but included this on the album? Sorry guys, poor judgement.
– Whole Lotta Diana: I've loathed this track with a passion ever since it was released. First part is bad cock-rock, second part is a frantic drum-o-rama jam with no purpose. And they just threw those two parts together for seemingly no reason.
– B.S.: I love Phanerothyme. Best album of the pop-period, and a somewhat underrated album over-all. However, this track is the one major flaw. Schmaltzy arrangement, annoying Bent vox. The Jaga horn solo midway is atrocious, but the biggest lapse of taste is Snah's Hawaiian guitar solo. Dæns-band level on that one, and always sends me to the toilet throwing up.
– Sideway Spiral II: Spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral. Ad nauseum.
(un)Honorable mentions: How Was I To Know, Composite Head, Whiskey & Rock n' Roll, Sonnyboy Gaybar, Jumping Flashback, The Visitant
That said, for a band existing as long as MP and being so extremely productive, they have written very few downright BAD songs!
I ll play:
-california dreamin'
-on my pillow
-evernine
-walkin' with j
-august
-the promise
-cloudwalker
And grindstone. It s out of place on TM. The grinding end distracts from the 3 beautiful songs on disc 2. And it s not as good as any of the metal songs on the earlier albums.
– All of the acoustic mellow interludes since Stalemate. West coast soft rock is evil.
– Slow phaseout and all those
– Neverland
– Year zero
@kippenhok: no cover songs…. :wink:
b.s. (bent, how could you?)
gutwrench (the only reason why demon box is not 100%)
kill devil hills (boring boring, if i was a smoker, this would be the time to go out at a gig)
on a plate (chaos of "riffs" – should have been scrapped)
this otherness (can't even remember how the song goes…)
any song of the unicorn (i know i am not allowed to pick the whole album…)
star star star (should have stayed as funk99 on the other fool ep)
So most people couldn't abide by the rules already…and Whole Lotta Diana on a worst of list?? But I'll try to play…
Going chronologically:
1) Beautiful Sister – not a truly bad track, but in the company of almost consistently genius songs on TM, this sticks out like a sore thumb.
2) Star Star Star – white boy funk horns meet uninspired, generic Stones-ey cock rock and feast on their mutual suckiness.
3) Never Let You Out – oh, how I dread all those minutes lost during *every single* 2000-2001 gig where this had to be played. Cute, Geb…real cute.
4) Landslide – I'll give them some credit for apt song title. This from the album that also spawned the abomination that is Go to California, the most ridiculous pastiche song ever written. See, I managed to sneak in my contempt for that song without actually nominating it!
5) What If – someone beat me to the punchline "What If this song was never written". You know that when Neverland is not the chosen weak link on an album, the chosen song is REALLY REALLY WEAK!
6) Year Zero – oh, how I dread all those minutes lost during *every single* 2008-2016 gig where this had to be played. Cute, Snah…real cute.
7) Ratcatcher – please lead this interminable jam over the edge of the cliff and let it fall off into the abyss.
WoW!!!
Year Zero? One of alltime favourite.
IMO this song alone is bigger than discographies of a lots of bands.
I take time to make my list. Unfauvorite no bad songs
Songs of which early (live) versions were actally enjoyable, but then the band made some bad decisions and ruined them in the studio):
Fade To Grey
What If
Ratcatcher (Dora Peach was great!)
Star Star Star
Just unlistenable to these ears:
The Mirror and The Lie (Bent at his worst in every possible way)
Coventry Boy (mostly thanks to Snah's vocal performance)
L.T.E.C. (musically the evil cousin of Star Star Star, sans the greasy horns, and I just can't take Bent's delivery of the nasty, self-righteous lyrics)
Gotta say that I'm very close to Shakti's feelings about some kind of songs, especially the poppish 2000-2001 stuff in each setlist, and Year Zero. But my list is still different:
Truly Fine Citizen – Probably the less "mature" lyrics (euphemism…) from Bent, and in fact I don't think even he is so proud of it. Musical part also is quite meh.
Grindstone – same feeling as kippenhok: not a bad song, but that final part is out of place in the marvelous last three sides of the Monster, and a physical offense to the ear. I know it's exactly what they wanted, but still, I gotta skip it every time!
The Slow Phaseout – the entire "pop" phase of the band is not my cup of tea. This one wins the ballot with some other short uninteresting songs from that period, like The other fool, Neverland, BS or Big Surprise…
Carousel – Apparently everyone has its "very bad Love Cult song", spanning form Mirror&Lie (that is one of my favourite from IALC!) to poor Composite Head, and silly What If… But Carousel is the low point in my opinion: all those strings, all that sort of out-of-place atmosphere… And I've always seen that as a bad attempt of regaining the glory of their "forgotten" masterpiece Radiation Freak, with that very similar structure. But no way.
Before the Flood – I really don't love BH/BC second disc at all, but this one is very very boring to me. It was my "I go smoke a cigarette" song. "Year Zero" is a sort of "Before the Flood 2" for me, but I reckon that's quite better than the original! Still, I feel lucky that I have often dodged it in the tours…
L.T.E.C. – Yes, the blank canvas deserve a double! LTEC is quite a nonsense…
Afterglow: The most uninspired and uninspiring Kenneth-era song.
Honorable mentions to Ratcatcher (yes, the Dora Peach version was much better!) and to Pacific Sonata, really tooooo loooong…
On the other hand I like Whole Lotta Diana a lot, it's one of my favorite in Kenneth's era, but that's the only surprising title I've seen in your list… I mean, there are other songs that I like, but that I can understand they may fill this list. Whole Lotta Diana seems quite a blast to me!
@JERO, @sunchild.holgi: it's just a game, played by people that have an average of 50 Motorpsycho concerts in their curriculum… And an exercise of criticism on a band we all love probably more than any other! And a way to discuss the impact of the various phases that MP have crossed in 30 years.
I will never understand that kind of game. I.M.H.O it´s a bit overbearing. But feel free to rate all the mp stuff. It wont´t change my life. But i think its totaly misplaced in this forum.
at least a little notation:
i saw more than 50 Shows since 95 Wehrschloss Bremen incl. Timothy-Oya, Opera, Slottsfjell and Begynnelser Trondelag. And remember the old Forum in Enger.
Telling Bent or Snah or all the other Psychonauts here, what they did wrong in Song XXX is, Puhhh I don´t know! But think about it. It would be fair, if you all present YOUR Songs and all the other Psychonauts could discuss about in this forum. And we will present it to your 30, 40 or 50 Birthday?
Keep Fair!
Totally agree with sunchild here. Don't go nitpicking like this. I apreciate the Motorpsychic journey as a whole, as an ever growing body of work, even the lesser songs are part of their development toward the greatness they convey to the world today. I strongly believe in the freedom of artists, the freedom even to fail. It's very human to not be perfect, I think in fact that is a beautiful thing of being human and artists may show us so we realise.
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