by WiredOut » 4th Jul 06, 18:34
I was thinking of starting a topic like this.
I've always thought 'Shame On Me', 'Only Love' and 'Top Of The World' were kind of dull (although the latter admittedly works better live). Not awful, just pretty bland.
On a slight tangent, I listen to him more for the melodies, harmonies, lyrics and solos than for extended grungy riffing: I mean I adore the heavy pop'n'roll riffs from 'Shitsville' or 'Do Anything' or screaming guitars of 'Headfuck', but am often left a bit cold by the metal-jazz noodling of sections of, say, 'Drinking In The Daytime', 'Sky Babies', 'OCD' etc.
Still like those songs, but sometimes those extended rifforamas seem to be more about exploring complicated time signatures than conveying much in the way of emotion. To me, anyway.
Going further, I'd actually say that these aspects, combined with the Wildhearts' heavy churning chugging bassy riff sound, is what tends to put a lot of people off the music. I've tried to get many people into them, with varying degrees of success. I think that a lot of people simply can't enjoy or recognise the pop aspects of the songs due to those muddy metal undercurrents. It's simply an unpalatable mixture of sounds to many people.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."