As for the Maroon 5 album mentioned earlier on, that’s a SWEEP if there ever was one. I’m also extremely loyal to bands I like, but Maroon 5 are part of an exclusive club of bands I absolutely cannot stand anymore even though I liked them in the beginning. Sometimes people still bring up Songs About Jane to prove a point about the talent that they may still be hiding somewhere, but after however many crap albums over the course of 10+ years I’ve gone off them so much that I can’t even bring myself to care about the earlier stuff anymore.
It's Me Against The Music: Revisiting/Sorting Out My Music Collection - Round 2!
- Thread starter Mvnl
- Start date
Mvnl
Staff member
Yeah this might be it too.
I’m not sure I find it ‘too much’ of anything but maybe her tone and vocals just get to shine more when put together with the other two? But I think the material is the main issue here.
It’s kinda interesting how some others saying the album’s underwhelming makes me lean more towards letting it go because it undermines that (silly) feel that it’s somehow an album I ‘should’ own. I’m obviously not hanging on to it for somebody else but I think a part of me can think things like ‘well this a PJ darling/pop royalty, it feels right to own it’. (I also felt a bit awkward saying I didn’t really love it all that much because I somehow felt that I should)
I guess there is no such thing as right or wrong here but I am intrigued by how I’m so tempted to hold on to something I don’t even enjoy all that much. I mean.. there’s a few enjoyable songs on there, but…
Mvnl
Staff member
Personally I think I’ll go with chronological because it feels like it makes the most sense. (Even if most of my picks probably fall within a 5 year period)
Mvnl
Staff member
Love how this is pretty much exactly how I feel.
Though I’m hardly one to turn on any act for getting more commercial or anything like that, but the charm that first era had definitely is long gone.
Still feel a bit torn about letting go of it though, not for how I feel about the album right now but for how it once was a little part of the soundtrack of my life which is now.. gone?
(Extremely silly since I can still hear the music if I ever want to, and the cd I owned back then was a burned copy that was no longer with me anyway)
I thought the general consensus on here has always been that it was underwhelming, despite Mutya’s Popjustice Royalty status and people actually wanting to like it? It’s different with Siobhan, whose solo material is obviously highly regarded on here (and has a far more distinctive sound).
Mvnl
Staff member
Hmm, maybe I just assumed. Despite liking the first 2 singles I don't think I really kept up with the era (there's zero posts by me in her thread). I was probably too busy listening to Trip The Light Fantastic and Good Girl Gone Bad (which also plays a part in the album never really becoming one I played a lot).
Siobhan... will be intriguing too. Cause that material never really clicked with me, yet I do own her debut and her sophomore album is half on my wishlist. But that might be another case of 'I feel like I should like this' and 'it's a girl band member' over actually being into it.
Mvnl
Staff member
We're sticking with the solo girl band members for a little because this morning Spotify threw this my way:
With her being a female 90s popstar + having a bunch of pretty nice singles it always seemed like a matter of time before I'd get myself a copy of this compilation but something kept putting me off. There's even been multiple cases of me being able to add it to my card for like 1 or 2 more euros, no extra shipping, and me still choosing not to.
Part of me never being quite sold on Changing Faces is something about it feeling rather budgety. Like those 'Very Best Of Jamelia/Billie Piper/Samantha Mumba' releases the label churns out after an artist is dropped. Which I know is not the case since there was a new single to promote the album, but.. I guess the ghastly yellow back cover didn't help making it look any less cheap?
Plus, replaying the full compilation, the tracklist feels all over the place.
First of all: this may be one of those cases where chronological order might have worked better.
I'm not sure if her early singles had a deliberate throwback sound on arrival, but a lot of them feel older than they actually are. The overall vibe of those is giving me more Lisa Stansfield All Around The World/songs that fit perfectly with Eternal's early output than the material most popstars were releasing in the latter half of the 90s. Which isn't a necessarily a bad thing, but jumping from those to the very 'trying to fit in with what all the pop girls were doing in the year 2000' 2Faced and the also more fresh sounding Stuck In The Middle felt a bit jarring. A random remix of The Slightest Touch being thrown in doesn't help either, although I almost wish it hadn't been listed as such cause it doesn't really sound all that remix-y and is quite the enjoyable addition. (I think having played Steps' version a lot in 2021 helps a lot in making the song sound instantly familiar to me, and Louise's take on it works about just as well)
The biggest issue here are those damn Eternal songs. Their inclusion in general is quite questionable, Louise not exactly being front and centre on any of them (and in some cases even barely being audible). But them being splattered all over the tracklist makes the listening experience feel like I put a random playlist on shuffle instead of listening to a well curated Greatest Hits. And with there being 13 solo tracks on here it doesn't feel like it was all that necessary either.
The actual solo material on here, I might add, all ranges from fine to great. Slower songs like Light Of My Life do less for me than her uptempo smashes, but luckily those hardly dominate the tracklist. New addition Come And Get It is fine too, if inessential compared to the other new songs.
Throwing this on there instead of the Eternal tracks wouldn't have hurt.
I've given this album a fair few quick spins recently (just quickly sampling all tracks on there, usually when deciding whether to add it to my card or not) and each time my conclusion was 'nah'. The last time playing this album actually convinced me to go and buy her 2nd Greatest Hits instead despite that costing me almost 40 euros with all shipping and custom fees involved.
With a new and improved version being released this week, which adds in some very enjoyable recent singles as well as new material and corrects all of Changing Faces' wrongs, there really is no reason for me to still want a copy of this shoddy compilation.
And yet.. the cover's nice, the inclusion of Slightest Touch keeps tempting me, plus it feels like a bit of pop history that maybe still deserves a spot on my shelf, whenever I get another chance of buying it for a euro or two..
(silly me thinking these write-ups would somehow end my indecisiveness!
Wishlistening: Louise - Changing Faces - The Best Of
Changing Faces is an album that's been on my Discogs/medimops wishlist for the longest time. Or at least since 2020's Heavy Love got me into Louise. I owned all of her solo albums before that (got them cheap, probably another case of 'it's a british female popstar from the era I love, so: instant buy, despite not really being invested) but Heavy Love definitely made me feel like I'd been sleeping on her. I liked Let's Go Round Again and Naked when they came out (the latter being at a time it still made me go 'ooh' that she was using a bad word) but I think I only started enjoying them properly once the nostalgia kicked in years later. At the time I don't think I was even aware that she'd been in Eternal (or all that aware of Eternal's existence pre-Bebe Winans duet). A few years later Stuck In The Middle was on one of my first ever burned CDs. I remember playing at a party I DJd at, which in hindsight was a choice (especially with the song not even being released over here), but I guess back then DJing to me was just 'playing the songs I enjoy'?With her being a female 90s popstar + having a bunch of pretty nice singles it always seemed like a matter of time before I'd get myself a copy of this compilation but something kept putting me off. There's even been multiple cases of me being able to add it to my card for like 1 or 2 more euros, no extra shipping, and me still choosing not to.
Part of me never being quite sold on Changing Faces is something about it feeling rather budgety. Like those 'Very Best Of Jamelia/Billie Piper/Samantha Mumba' releases the label churns out after an artist is dropped. Which I know is not the case since there was a new single to promote the album, but.. I guess the ghastly yellow back cover didn't help making it look any less cheap?
Plus, replaying the full compilation, the tracklist feels all over the place.
First of all: this may be one of those cases where chronological order might have worked better.
I'm not sure if her early singles had a deliberate throwback sound on arrival, but a lot of them feel older than they actually are. The overall vibe of those is giving me more Lisa Stansfield All Around The World/songs that fit perfectly with Eternal's early output than the material most popstars were releasing in the latter half of the 90s. Which isn't a necessarily a bad thing, but jumping from those to the very 'trying to fit in with what all the pop girls were doing in the year 2000' 2Faced and the also more fresh sounding Stuck In The Middle felt a bit jarring. A random remix of The Slightest Touch being thrown in doesn't help either, although I almost wish it hadn't been listed as such cause it doesn't really sound all that remix-y and is quite the enjoyable addition. (I think having played Steps' version a lot in 2021 helps a lot in making the song sound instantly familiar to me, and Louise's take on it works about just as well)
The biggest issue here are those damn Eternal songs. Their inclusion in general is quite questionable, Louise not exactly being front and centre on any of them (and in some cases even barely being audible). But them being splattered all over the tracklist makes the listening experience feel like I put a random playlist on shuffle instead of listening to a well curated Greatest Hits. And with there being 13 solo tracks on here it doesn't feel like it was all that necessary either.
The actual solo material on here, I might add, all ranges from fine to great. Slower songs like Light Of My Life do less for me than her uptempo smashes, but luckily those hardly dominate the tracklist. New addition Come And Get It is fine too, if inessential compared to the other new songs.
Throwing this on there instead of the Eternal tracks wouldn't have hurt.
I've given this album a fair few quick spins recently (just quickly sampling all tracks on there, usually when deciding whether to add it to my card or not) and each time my conclusion was 'nah'. The last time playing this album actually convinced me to go and buy her 2nd Greatest Hits instead despite that costing me almost 40 euros with all shipping and custom fees involved.
With a new and improved version being released this week, which adds in some very enjoyable recent singles as well as new material and corrects all of Changing Faces' wrongs, there really is no reason for me to still want a copy of this shoddy compilation.
And yet.. the cover's nice, the inclusion of Slightest Touch keeps tempting me, plus it feels like a bit of pop history that maybe still deserves a spot on my shelf, whenever I get another chance of buying it for a euro or two..
(silly me thinking these write-ups would somehow end my indecisiveness!
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Mvnl
Staff member
So this morning I played myself 2 Martine McCutcheon albums from my doubt pile, the reviews for which may still show up later, but I'm starting to think my current approach is not it.
For one: with one of the albums I kinda already felt 'keeping this' before even hitting play (the other being the exact opposite) and though both playbacks confirmed what I already suspected there's something not quite so productive about playing an album in full when you've already kinda decided it's going (at the risk of any surprisingly decent song making you second-guess yourself) or deciding an album can stay and then praying 'please don't let me down!' with every track.
Plus both the urge of having to take notes while listening as well as the thought of having to do this with 100s of other albums before I'll be 'done' aren't necessarily increasing my enjoyment. In fact even random songs on shuffle now have me evaluating them and I think most music (if not most things in life) is most pleasant when not analysing the shit out of it.
So I think my focus may have to be a bit more on 'getting rid of excess baggage' so I can then just enjoy the albums I actually appreciate from their home on my shelves.
So for now I think I'm gonna have a second look at those 628 'unsure' albums, picking out the ones I deep down already was done with, and only giving a quick sample play to the albums where I genuinely have no idea what's on them.
For one: with one of the albums I kinda already felt 'keeping this' before even hitting play (the other being the exact opposite) and though both playbacks confirmed what I already suspected there's something not quite so productive about playing an album in full when you've already kinda decided it's going (at the risk of any surprisingly decent song making you second-guess yourself) or deciding an album can stay and then praying 'please don't let me down!' with every track.
Plus both the urge of having to take notes while listening as well as the thought of having to do this with 100s of other albums before I'll be 'done' aren't necessarily increasing my enjoyment. In fact even random songs on shuffle now have me evaluating them and I think most music (if not most things in life) is most pleasant when not analysing the shit out of it.
So I think my focus may have to be a bit more on 'getting rid of excess baggage' so I can then just enjoy the albums I actually appreciate from their home on my shelves.
So for now I think I'm gonna have a second look at those 628 'unsure' albums, picking out the ones I deep down already was done with, and only giving a quick sample play to the albums where I genuinely have no idea what's on them.
I do get what you're saying about this compilation. I used to have it and then let it go, but recently rebought it as part of a huge Louise bundle so it's back in my collection. But it's certainly not essential, for the reasons given. I used it to make a more updated Best Of with the Pandora's Box AA-side and various other things (including B-sides). The single (Stuck In The Middle) was huge here, thanks to the Reservoir Dogs video which was cute and clever (and my favourite Louise moment).
Mvnl
Staff member
Oh right, Pandora's Kiss (not box) was an AA-side! That's one single missing on the new tracklist.. meh.
Was it one you regretted letting go of before getting it back?
Curious what else was in your huge Louise bundle! Also wonder if her old albums do it for me now. I remember finding them very ballad heavy but this was before I got on board during her comeback. I somehow actually own a signed copy of her debut, though with secondhand ones it's not like you ever know for sure if she's the one who scribbled on it..
Oops, sorry about the wrong title...it's been 19 years and I forget these things sometimes!
It was just a bundle of all the studio albums from Naked up to the Elbow (?) Beach one, plus two comps and possibly some CD singles. I also got a bunch of Eternals from the same seller. I hadn't really missed the Louise Best Of from my collection but it is one I am quite happy to have again (see also: Atomic Kitten, East 17).
It was just a bundle of all the studio albums from Naked up to the Elbow (?) Beach one, plus two comps and possibly some CD singles. I also got a bunch of Eternals from the same seller. I hadn't really missed the Louise Best Of from my collection but it is one I am quite happy to have again (see also: Atomic Kitten, East 17).
Mvnl
Staff member
Ah yeah East 17's is on my 'check out' pile too. Really just for being a boyband/pop group, but just like Take That (and old Louise for that matter) it was kinda before I really started paying attention to music.
Atomic Kitten... I own 4 copies of their debut alone, so that Best Of is a nobrainer.
I almost wanna ask how and where you found these bundles but maybe I shouldn't, haha
On eBay, there was a seller who briefly had tons of bundles of old pop/rock types....sold by artist, and often working out at 50p per disc. It was a nice easy way to get some of that 90s pop back into my collection, because I did like some of it!
Mvnl
Staff member
(not quite so) Quick Cuts: A (1)
Yesterday I decided to go through the 'doubt' pile again, this time with Spotify at hand to quickly browse through each album when I just needed a short impression of what's on it/if I really care about that.
This time about 75% landed on the 'good to go' pile. Below I did write-ups on a few of them, and then I became a mess again.
Alizée - Gourmandises
Came out around a time I just got a job at a record store, where we were allowed to borrow items (officially not to copy them but.. I doubt I was the only one). At the same time I first met my ex, who's quite the francophile. He asked me to make him a copy of this album. Considering I was 18 years younger than him in hindsight there's some questionable irony in me giving him an album with Moi Lolita on it. I liked that song and its follow-up, as well as the overall sound of this album, but yeah.. this memory's the main thing I think of when I see it now, and it does not scream 'fun reminder to have around!'.
Alcazar - Alcazarized
Though there's some peaks in Save My Pride/Not A Sinner/Someday I overall found this sophomore album quite patchy, and the extremely dark artwork adds little to its appeal. Alcazar feels like the type of act I would like but a lot of the material just doesn't quite click. It's like the production is there but the melodies aren't quite it?
There's also a slight sadness I feel when listening to it, which I can't quite put my finger on, but I think there's probably more fun things to do than navigating those emotions.
However, it does feel very much like a CD I could see myself buying again when craving more cheesy pop on my shelves so maybe this could be one of those releases I keep in a flat sleeve just in case?
Amber - This Is Your Night
This Is Your Night is one of my absolute favourite 90s dance songs, and I wouldn't mind a full of album that.
This however is not quite it.
Adele - 21
An album that for a long time I felt I 'should' own. Because it's a classic and at the time pretty much every song on there felt like a moment. But that moment's gone. Rolling In The Deep and Someone Like You remain classics, but ones I'm fine with just hearing on the radio every year or so.
Anouk - Hotel New York
Gotta admit I'm a bit torn on this one. Girl bopped at the time and after years of quite lowprofile releases this era felt like a huge comeback for Anouk. Still remember how years later a younger coworker thought Girl was her first single, making me feel ancient.
This came out around the time the owners of the bar I'd been working at for years were about to sell the place and the rest of the team (me included) had plans of taking over the place as a collective, to make sure it stayed around. Though this never quite happened we had several meetings about it and I'm pretty sure during one of those this album had just come out/leaked and was playing or being discussed in between all the legal stuff.
I think it took me several years before I actually bought an official version of the album, so this copy itself holds no real memories, but just seeing the artwork/hearing some of its songs does take me back.
Anouk - Who's Your Momma
Another nostalgia filled Anouk release. Came out when I just started working as an assistant manager of a record store in late 2007, then when I became the manager of my own store in 2008 she put out a live release including a lot of these songs, and with this being one of few releases I liked that was actually considered acceptable to play instore it holds quite a few memories of those days. But they're gone aren't they? Ugh, am I gonna be torn about every album now?
Anastacia - Heavy Rotation
The irony of this title! (also the name of one of few memorable songs on here)
I Call It Love was great though. And seeing the artwork gets me strangely sentimental.
Maybe I should go craft a collage out of all of these sleeves since it's not like the CDs are worth much anyway?
Alphabeat - This Is Alphabeat
This feels very of its moment. Like I know for a short while Alphabeat were IT and I loved them. I even went to see them live, although Stine seemed to wish she wasn't there.
But half of the album always felt a bit 'meh' to me while the other half's now very 'yeah, that was fun.. at the time'.
Ugh this is killing me. Like: if nowadays I had to pick any album I'd like to listen to this one would be somewhere near the bottom. I no longer like it all that much. But if I were to have a '2008 week' replaying all its most defining releases this would have to be there. Now one could wonder if and when I'd ever even do such a thing, and whether if I did I wouldn't be better off sticking to releases I actually still enjoy... but this really feels like throwing away part of a year, part of its memories, a little piece of me? It's like going through pics of old friends and forcing yourself to say a definite goodbye to them even though you haven't spoken to them in over a decade anyway?
Maybe I should have another 'doubt' pile for all those releases I don't need on my shelves but am not quite ready to let go of? Or maybe I should listen to Marie's advice to save anything 'sentimental' for last?
Also: once again I made the mistake of sorting these albums (yesterday), then for these write-ups going through them one by one the next day, making me secondguess decisions I'd already made. Why is this so damn hard??
Do I really have to make myself sit through 80 minutes of Alphabeat in hopes a full playback will enlighten me? Didn't exactly work for Mutya, did it? I feel there's a deeper issue here (apart from the very obvious fear of regret) and hoped all of this would make it more clear to me what exactly is making it this hard. But for now it's just frustrating really.
Maroon 5 are an instant bin/skip for me. Up there with Queen & Scouting for Girls as bands I loathe, and there aren’t many of those.
I actually picked up a promo of the ‘Song 4 Mutya’ recently and it’s far and away her best non Sugababes effort. It’s about as much ‘solo’ work as I need from her. Though as Eric said, probably due to Groove Armadas efforts
I know what you mean about listening whilst rating, as opposed to just enjoying the music. I try to rate new albums whilst initially listening (so I have a guide later on for playlists) but often get it very wrong and find I’m bumping ratings after proper ear time. It’s drastically changed opinion of some albums. Also when I listen - pop inevitably sounds better in the sun, if it’s cold bleak and rainy you’ll find me immersed in my Cure albums!
Mvnl
Staff member
Oh yeah circumstances definitely play a part too.
On great days out sometimes songs become new favourites of mine just because there's a moment attached to them.
Sitting down to evaluate an album is not quite the same.
One thing I've been doing for a while now: I have this daily updated smart playlist on my phone that's basically all I play all day (a mix of old & new faves, picks from current albums + songs I consider to be on my 'A-list' and some more) and each day I throw one 'random' (but chosen) album in there. Often go with one that's having its xth birthday that day.
What I've found is my feeling towards the songs when they come up on shuffle in between other material I (largely) appreciate is quite telling. Like most of the time there's a pretty clear 'yay!' or 'yuck'. And the comparison feels meaningful because on its own there's very few albums I don't at least enjoy a little. Hearing songs between others I love does put them in perspective.
It also stops it from feeling like too much of a chore (when I sit down to play and rate a full album I can find myself looking at 'how many songs/minutes left?') and there's quite a few albums where I appreciate the songs more in bitesize portions then having the full hour of sheer angst/cheese/sadness all at once. Of course you can argue there's no point in hanging on to albums that aren't most enjoyable as a whole..
Also not quite sure yet where I stand on skipping when replaying these full albums cause on one hand: why force myself to sit through full songs when I'm tired of them within seconds? But then some material is just not 'instant'/needs more than a 30 second sample to judge, plus skipping all songs I don't love can also lead to me feeling an album is stronger than it actually is.
In general I think a lot of music is most enjoyable when my focus isn't solely on 'consuming music'. But playing it while doing other stuff can also lead to me seeing songs in my listening history where I have no memory at all of hearing them because I was fully wrapped up in what I was doing.
Mvnl
Staff member
Yeah I'm in the Netherlands and I assume shipping would be quite expensive (and the majority of these probably aren't too expensive on Discogs from sellers more nearby?)
Ideally there'd be a collecting fellow dutch fan on here (wouldn't help you though)
From that batch I would probably keep Alizée and ditch the rest.
I really liked Alizée’s albums at the time, but to be honest, I haven’t listened to her in years and genuinely don’t have a clue how her music has held up. Moi…Lolita remains a classic, though.
I definitely agree with what you’re saying about Alphabeat. Some good singles back in the day (Boyfriend was the best, I think), but it all feels strangely inessential now. If I had to choose I would probably get rid of it. There are hundreds of artists I would prefer to listen to instead and even in their heyday they were very much a mid-tier pop group, so yes, another goner.
21 is just…not my thing at all. I guess the “problem” is that she first arrived around the same time as many of my favourite artists (Florence, Bat for Lashes, Susanne Sundfør etc.) who were ultimately doing far more interesting things by creating their own little universe and distinctive soundscapes, so Adele’s brand came off as quite pedestrian in comparison.
And yet the album still made its way into in my collection when someone gave it to me as a Christmas present in 2016, which was a choice! I mean, why go with such a monolith 5 (!) years after its release when there’s 99,9% chance that the recipient either already owns it or simply doesn’t want it? It’s not like there’s an element of “Ooh, let me introduce you to this obscure artist” to this!
I really liked Alizée’s albums at the time, but to be honest, I haven’t listened to her in years and genuinely don’t have a clue how her music has held up. Moi…Lolita remains a classic, though.
I definitely agree with what you’re saying about Alphabeat. Some good singles back in the day (Boyfriend was the best, I think), but it all feels strangely inessential now. If I had to choose I would probably get rid of it. There are hundreds of artists I would prefer to listen to instead and even in their heyday they were very much a mid-tier pop group, so yes, another goner.
21 is just…not my thing at all. I guess the “problem” is that she first arrived around the same time as many of my favourite artists (Florence, Bat for Lashes, Susanne Sundfør etc.) who were ultimately doing far more interesting things by creating their own little universe and distinctive soundscapes, so Adele’s brand came off as quite pedestrian in comparison.
And yet the album still made its way into in my collection when someone gave it to me as a Christmas present in 2016, which was a choice! I mean, why go with such a monolith 5 (!) years after its release when there’s 99,9% chance that the recipient either already owns it or simply doesn’t want it? It’s not like there’s an element of “Ooh, let me introduce you to this obscure artist” to this!