#rolling stone reviews

[autumnsup]

Because I can't seem to help myself with digging up old news articles and interviews this week, here's the original 1998 Rolling Stone review of Velvet Goldmine. It gives all sorts of lovely details about the director, the two main actors, and the making of the soundtrack.

A few of my favorite excerpts:

But Haynes is unafraid to fuck with documented events in order to highlight the vital subtext: glam's combined explosions of possibility in art and in sexual identity.

On what Haynes was trying to accomplish in portraying the musical artistry of 70s glam rock:

“The challenge was to accomplish what I think is so amazing about Bowie and particularly Roxy Music: that combination of highly referenced irony, pushing it to the limit of camp, but also emotionally resonant — at times arrestingly beautiful, at times fucking hard, rockin’ music. How did they ride that delicate wire? Most rock & roll is defined by its authenticity, its ability to shed the surface and the makeup. These artists could foreground the artificiality, make it powerful. That is a trick I tried hard to get into the film — to be full of wit and irony and literary shit but to be moving and enveloping, an emotional trip.”

On how the actors felt about the relationship between Brian and Curt:

"It's great to see a relationship between two guys in a film, where they go through that and split up," says McGregor, who describes Rhys Meyers as "a lovely snog." "In all the madness, they are at least that normal - that they have relationships that fuck up."

"It blew me away," Rhys Meyers raves. "I really wanted Curt and Brian to be in love."

On the story behind Curt Wild's name:

Haynes named the character after Curt Davis, a friend of James Lyons [Haynes' boyfriend at the time] who had died of AIDS. Davis was “this punk guy with a brilliant mind,” Haynes says. “I think he used the name Curt Wild in some of his writing. So we adopted that affectionately.”

@25yearsofvelvetgoldmine

#25yearsofvelvetgoldmine #velvet goldmine #todd haynes #ewan mcgregor #jonathan rhys meyers #rolling stone reviews

[girlreviews]

Review #146: Parallel Lines, Blondie

Man oh man oh man. I love Blondie so much. I found this record in the Windsor Oxfam. I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but I remember what boyfriend was with me so that puts me between 15 and 18. Yeah, same guy. I actually don’t remember if he ended up getting his hands on this record or not. I think I still have it. Will rifle through my collection later to check.

Blondie was in the “being cool” wilderness for some absolutely crazy reason at that point, and nobody really gave a shit about them anymore. When I was 17 or 18 they were playing the Reading Hexagon which is honestly still just such an unbelievable insult I’m still annoyed about it. I’ll circle back to that.

Parallel Lines epitomizes the complete and total coolness and badassery of Debbie Harry. I have never wanted to be someone more than I wanted to be her. So much confidence. Such incredible cheekbones. Such commitment to art. No apologies. The voice of an angel one moment and snarling whimsical warnings, like, hey you, don’t fuck with me, the next. Always standing in front of all of those completely non-descript nobody dudes. Yeah they’re playing the music, but who cares, who are they? It’s all her. She is Blondie.

Can I pick a favorite? It opens with Hanging on the Telephone, in which she is really threatening to rip the phone clean off the wall. It might be that one. But we’ve also got the classic One Way Or Another, which needs no comment, and one of my actual favorites of all time, Heart of Glass which never fails to fuck me up, but like, it’s a god damn disco track? Like sure, yeah, let’s boogie away our heart break. And I did. And I have. And I will. And these are all SINGLES. We aren’t even discussing the actual album tracks yet. Just listen to it. Honorable mention goes to Sunday Girl, which I always really loved. It’s cute and it’s kind of sweet in a very teenage girl kind of way that worked for me since I was in fact, a teenage girl. Also, not on the official album release, but there was a version of that track where the latter half was sung entirely in French and I always really dug it.

Okay so circling back to the Hexagon. This is a weird story and I’m still not sure how I feel about it, to this day. As I said, Blondie were playing a show at the Hexagon. I was absolutely obsessed with them, and Debbie Harry. I was also 17 or 18 and spent every penny I had on going to shows, but those pennies were pretty limited. I worked as a waitress at the pub that was two doors down from my house. It was full of characters. One such character was a regular, he was in his late 40s, was very wealthy, didn’t drive, was single, and spent literally every bit of his spare time in that pub. Think on that. He paid a lot of attention to the various young women that worked there. Was he creepy? No not exactly. But did it make you uncomfortable? Yes it did. Because you never knew when he might make it weird. Everyone liked him well enough. One day out of the blue this guy presented me with five tickets to the Blondie show. I didn’t know what in the hell to say or whether to accept them. Or what it meant. Whether there were expectations attached to them. Whether it was okay to take them. I was uncomfortable. I was 17.

Here’s what happened. My Mom, who sort of knew him too, since he was always there, decided it was fine, because she wanted to go. But for it to be okay, she decided he also had to come. So we went, he came, and a few friends too. The thing is though, she never knew him like I did. I saw him every day. I saw him with the other girls that worked at the pub. I saw him drunk off his ass. I don’t know that I ever would have taken the tickets. Or if I did, I’m not sure I ever would have invited him. I feel a bit queasy about it to this day. I think in the end something really off-base happened one night between him and someone on staff and he got barred. That was usually the way it went with regulars who were there that often.

The other thing to note is that Blondie ended because Debbie Harry was with Chris Stein, who was literally dying of some rare autoimmune disease throughout their last tour. There were other factors at play, but essentially, they broke up because he was too sick and she stayed at his side and became his full-time carer. When he was well, he left her. They are, remarkably, still close friends to this day and still perform together. Just never forget that men are dogs, and that Blondie is and always will be Debbie Harry. I love her. To this day she looks better than I do in a mini skirt and I love that for her.

ETA: I checked and in fact, I do not still have Parallel Lines in my record collection, but I am quite confident it got lost when I moved back to the US. Also, I’m not 100% certain that show was at the Reading Hexagon. I just know it was a shitty venue not worthy of Blondie. This was 18 years ago. You get the idea.

#album review #music #music review #rolling stone top 500 #blondie #parallel lines #debbie harry

[new-york-no-shoes]

I honestly haven’t looked yet but if anyone so much as hints at the idea that Taylor is “moving backwards” (lol) from her work on FolkMore with Midnights I will be calling their attention to this paragraph of Rolling Stones 100/100 instant classic review:

#taylor swift #midnights #Rolling Stones #midnights review #just saying

[chasingaghost]

#green day #billie joe armstrong #mike dirnt #tre cool #saviors #bi song!! #from the rolling stone review

[misspaoline]

"In 2007, Matt Bomer would have been a little too young to play Don Draper on Mad Men. (Jon Hamm has six years on him.) In most other ways, though, he would have been perfect. He has the kind of chiseled, leading man features, and the charisma to match, that make him seem like a man from an earlier time. His breakout TV role, 2009’s White Collar, even contrived a reason to dress him in Rat Pack-era suits, and he’s appeared in a number of period pieces, most notably Amazon’s short-lived adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon. In that show, and in many of his other roles, he’s also demonstrated a great facility for playing men hiding trauma and other secrets deep below that beautiful facade he shows to the world.

With Showtime‘s new miniseries Fellow Travelers, Bomer finally gets to portray a closer approximation of Draper. In the adaptation of Thomas Mallon’s novel, Bomer plays Hawkins Fuller, a mid-century decorated military veteran turned mover and shaker, who will do anything to conceal the truth about himself, who has a terrifying gift for compartmentalization and denial, and who is married to a woman he loves, but is not as attracted to her as she believes."

#rolling stone magazine #review #matt bomer #fellow travelers #hawk fuller #tim laughlin #white collar #jonathan bailey #john hamm

[crjupdates]

carlyraejepsen: Tonight is the night!! The Loneliest Time rises with the moon at 12am, wherever you are 🌝🌚 Reviews are coming in and I’m feeling a litttttle (a lot?!) overwhelmed so all I can say right now is… thank you for giving my album the warmest possible welcome @/rollingstone @/thecut @/consequence @/theatlantic!! I can’t wait for you to hear it!

#carly rae jepsen #crj #carlyraejepsen #the loneliest time #pop music #women in music #music review #category: feature #category: review #category: release #type: text #type: photo #source: socials #source: rolling stone #source: the cut #source: consequence #source: the atlantic #album: the loneliest time #song: the loneliest time #10/20/22 #october 2022 #2022 #🍐 #i'm gonna post the reviews but i don't want spoilers for the album yet!! #queen we love you

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Florida has blocked the College Board from testing a pilot Advanced Placement African American Studies (APAAS) curriculum in the state under Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Stop WOKE” Act. According to a letter obtained by National Review, Florida’s Department of Education’s Office of Articulation said the curriculum “is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”

The pilot course, which has been tested at 60 schools across the United States, aims to expand the advanced coursework offered by the College Board into the study of the African diaspora in the U.S. The course has run afoul of DeSantis’ widespread ban on teaching “critical race theory” (CRT) in K-12 classrooms. CRT is an analytical framework that seeks to dissect the manner in which racism has shaped American legal theory and institutions. The concept has been co-opted in recent years by right-wing reactionaries to fearmonger about any and all discussions of race and discrimination.

The “Stop Woke” act, signed into law by DeSantis in 2022, essentially prohibits instruction on race relations or diversity that imply a person’s “status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, national origin, or sex.” The bill also bans both schools and workplaces from “subjecting any student or employee to training or instruction that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individuals to believe specified concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin.”

In November, U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker issued a temporary injunction on a portion of the law that attempted to place similar restrictions on higher education. Despite several challenges to the law on grounds of First Amendment rights, Florida has continued to lead the charge against comprehensive education on the racial history of the U.S. Several other states have passed similar legislation, including Texas, Idaho, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Oklahoma.

DeSantis has centered his administration around governance through culture war grievances. The governor passed a similar law last year, known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill that granted the state broad powers to implement prohibitions on instruction on issues of gender and sexuality in Florida schools. Under the guise of his anti-CRT crusade, the Governor is reshaping Florida education in the image of the far right, recently announcing a plan to forcibly overhaul the New College of Florida, and transform it into a conservative institution. With increasing pressure on teachers and professors to avoid topics like race and gender lest they face the wrath of the state government, that transformation is effectively taking place though government-enforced censorship.

#us politics #news #2023 #rolling stone magazine #rolling stone #Advanced Placement African American Studies #stop wrongs against our kids and employees act #stop w.o.k.e. act #National Review #Florida #department of education #Office of Articulation #African diaspora #Judge Mark E. Walker #critical race theory #don't say gay bill #parental rights in education #gov. ron desantis #conservatives #republicans #gop

[topoet]

Stereo Stevens

Stereo MC’s Connected (1992) is a fun set of danceable, slightly trippy, vaguely hip-hop cd. Perfect early 90’s music that I still enjoy when it comes up on rotation to be played. I loved the vibe, the video was fun enough that I picked up the stand-alone, on sale, at HMV. Enjoyed but not enough to follow the group. Next on the ’s’ shelf is late-60’s Cat Stevens’ An mp3 collection that includes…

View On WordPress

#Albert King #am writing #Aretha Franklin #Cat Stevens #music #Ontario #photographs #review #sixties #Stereo MC&039;s #The Hollies #The Moody Blues #the Rolling Stones #Toronto

[fridays13th]

these taylor swift lyrics i’m reading… there’s no way some of yall are actually eating ts up on my soul 😭

#rolling stone u will pay for ur crimes (bribed to write a good review)

[asherlockstudy]

Hackney Diamonds

Heads up: this isn’t very positive…

I finally sat my ass to listen to Hackney Diamonds, expecting… honestly not much. I don’t know why, maybe it was instinctual. I never fell for all the praise from the biggest music editors. It saddens me to write this one day after my eternal love’s birthday (yep that’s Keith) but I was right to trust my gut. When I see that the reviews for this album range from a Four from Financial Times to a Five from the Telegraph, and there is a 4.5 from Classic Rock in between, I can’t help but laugh. It is saddening because it feels like a pat on the shoulder to the old fellas, who “still got it”. Supposedly. A younger famous band would be lucky to get a 3 for this album, let’s be real. What frustrates me also is that they said this album is so much better than the “mediocre” A Bigger Bang and… uh… no? A Bigger Bang is a much more inspired and original work than this thing, with much more sophisticated compositions and well thought out lyrics. So below is my list from best to worst, but in truth, I doubt any of these songs will make it to my playlists, maybe the first three, maybe none.

1. Rolling Stone Blues. I read an interview in which Mick spoke almost dismissively about this song, he had a vibe of “oh yeah we put that Waters stuff there to remind nostalgics it’s us, whatever, who cares”. Well, it grieves me to say it is the best song in there.

2. Live by the sword. The critics have been gushing about how the new album sounds like the old them, some even dared make Exile comparisons, Jesus. This is one of the two songs at most that sound like the old them.

3. Whole Wide World. This is the other one. It gave me some vague Paint It Black vibes, like an extremely mediocre copycat but it’s an interesting song on its own right.

4. Tell Me Straight. I was waiting for Keith’s song with hope, I was let down. However the song has more character than most of the album.

5. Dreamy Skies. Some distortion of Far Away Eyes there?

6. Depending On You. This is like a Eurovision “rock” ballad that is super generic but somehow stays with you for a few minutes.

7. Sweet Sounds of Heaven. Whoever compares this song again to Gimme Shelter needs to stop working as a music critic. It’s not all that bad but it’s too mediocre to make such comparisons anything other than crazy.

8. Driving Me Too Hard. Now starts the horror of “Mick thinks he is in a pop-rock boyband” which frankly is the theme of the album.

9. Get Close. Please don’t.

10. Mess It Up. Well I call this self-awareness. The most entertaining thing about this album is listening to the songs they chose to release as singles!

11. Bite My Head Off. So I can’t hear this thing anymore.

12. Angry. Okay I don’t know if Angry is truly the worst, because everything from place eight and lower is a music-less blur in my head, however it deserves last place because they had the abysmal judgement to release it as first single and music video. Unbelievable.

#the Rolling Stones #rolling stones #mick jagger #Keith Richards #negativity #cw negative review #hackney diamonds #music #rock music #rock

[girlreviews]

Review #7: Rumours, Fleetwood Mac

I might have met a person who hasn’t listened to Rumours, but I’ve never met a person who has listened to it and was like “no thanks”. Never. If anyone hates this record get in touch, I just want to talk.

So interesting that such an incredible piece of work that holds up decade after decade, represents a band that during its creation was a damn hot mess. It’s not just a breakup record. It’s a double breakup record. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham had called it quits, and John and Christine McVie were circling the drain, divorcing while they toured Rumours. Hoo-boy can you feel it all. Never has such an overall cheery and upbeat record been so deeply filled with resentment, anger, heartbreak, defeat and getting the fuck over it. You’re just trying to keep up with which song is a fuck you from which band member to the other. Except you can’t, because you end up just getting lost in the music.

Never mind that before all of that, the drummer had an affair with Mick Fleetwood’s wife and all hell broke loose. Line up changes and whatnot. They started as a blues band, y’know? Yet, here we are, with this gorgeous thirty nine minutes of music and a group of people that arguably should seek therapy, rehab, and probably never see each other again. If David Attenborough is a Fleetwood Mac fan — and let’s assume that he is — he would say, “life… finds a way”.

As is often the case I had actually heard covers of a few of the songs as a young’un before ever hearing the originals or ever hearing the full album. Eva Cassidy covered Songbird. It was my childhood friend’s favorite song, and makes me think of her every time I hear it. The Corrs, Irish sibling band, covered Dreams in the late 90s. Their whole thing was a little weird. Jack Dee used to have a bit about the “odd” Corr brother that wasn’t invited to be in the band, Pat Corr. It was pretty funny. That old boss of mine used to say disparaging things about Andrea Corr as if she’d ever have given him the time of day. It makes me want to punch things, even now. I realize in hindsight he used to tear down any Irish woman musician that saw more success than him (see also: Sinéad O’Connor, Delores O’Riordan). They all did see more success, and they all deserved it, with two of them leaving legendary musical legacies even after death. He never made it past a breakfast show that had two knockoff muppets as presenters. I’m not joking.

Let’s talk about Second Hand News, what a charming and odd way to open an album. Buckingham wrote this and he’s generally acknowledged to be a real piece of work (allegedly, John McVie threw a glass of vodka in his face during the making of the record), even now. He insists he “ain’t gonna miss” Nicks when she goes, and that he’s been “tossed around enough”, but it’s pretty clear he ain’t over it. Boohoo, Lindsey. Such light acoustic riffs, luscious harmonies and hefty rhythm throughout with some outro guitar solo just to really make its point.

Dreams is a Stevie Nicks led classic. Let’s talk about Stevie. She’s been my hair inspiration for most of my life. She put out solo shit that was every bit as good as this record. Her voice sounds like that of a woman who has lived a thousand lives. An old, witchy, wise, woman, living in a young, exuberant, beautiful woman’s body. Like smoke on water. She warns Buckingham of his inevitable loneliness… “when the rain washes you clean, you’ll know”. Oof. For as tough and witchy as she is, there’s a real tenderness to her. I’ve always admired her ability to show the world all of her sides, the badass and the vulnerable. Pretty recently she showed us that vulnerable side when we lost Christine McVie. Stevie let her deep grief be known to the world. Whatever had gone on with that band, that was her best friend, and they’ll never sing together again.

This really is one of those where all of the tracks are amazing, but they’re all really different. Some are like standing in an open field of sunflowers, while some are like that part on a rollercoaster where you’re climbing slowly up the incline just waiting for the chaos. The Chain, I think, has to be my favorite for that reason. What I find so interesting is that they’re all credited as writers on this one, so it was an actual team effort, it would seem. First and foremost, the four (five?!) part harmonies in this are so incredible. It’s no softy squishy Simon and Garfunkel shit. These people are pissed, in different keys. It’s POWERFUL. But each instrument also has a voice of its own, the bass line, the guitar solo, the simple drum beat that evolves into a sprint. Whoever was on the tambourine even was going really fucking hard. It takes you on a damn journey. That rollercoaster was wild, let’s go again. And again. And again.

I used to have this record on vinyl and it sadly was one that got lost along the way between the UK and the US. I’ll say, it sounds mighty fine in that format. For a while in and after college, I lived in a shitty house in East London (it’s definitely fancy now but it was a rathole when I called it home). The kitchen ceiling literally caved in once. Anyway, it was me, my then boyfriend, my best girlfriend, and four other dudes. Sometimes we had just one rotating roommate. The point being it was some chaos, not unlike Fleetwood Mac in the making of Rumours. We were all a damn mess. But we were united any time I stuck this record on my turntable, or any time I was doing the dishes and one of the singles came on my absolutely adorable digital radio that looked like a teeny tiny Marshall Amp (add to list of things I wish I still had). I think of the good times in those kinda bad times when I hear Rumours, which is sort of the point of the album, as pointed out by Stevie in 2002:

“If you took out all the bad stuff in the band, the songs wouldn’t have happened. There simply wouldn’t have been a Rumours if everything had been fabulous.”

I’ll take her at her word, anyone with bangs that effortless can really do no wrong.

#album review #music #music review #rolling stone top 500 #fleetwood mac #rumours #stevie nicks

[waugh-bao]

#the rolling stones #charlie watts #keith richards #amazon reviews #life by keith richards #old married band

[heidismagblog]

#rolling stone magazine #rolling stone #music review #marilyn manson #robert pollard #tobin sprout #medeski martin & wood #midnight oil #BR5-49 #the lemonheads #the presidents of the united states of america #counting crows #donovan #supernatural fairy tales #the paul butterfield blues band #suzanna vega #funki porcini #greg brown #ad #herbie hancock #resident evil

[pirateboy]

BREAKING MY SILENCE on hackney diamonds!!! find it really interesting how people are comparing it to the rest of the 'modern' (i.e. post ww3) stones era... some ppl praising it as the best thing since tattoo you or whatever and a return to form after all the 'shit' allbums... other ppl trashing it as a soulless cash grab whilst simultaneously praising the don was albums... yes the production and overall. format of the album is different so i'm not saying it doesn't make sense to have preferences but guys. the quality of the songs is not very different at all. same shit different packaging. i don't understand where any of you are coming from

#uhh my personal opinion on it? #same as everything steel wheels onwards - some good songs but overall flawed albums #not sure how i would compare it to the rest of the albums in that era tho... on one hand for stones i do prefer shorter more concise albums #but at the same time the production of hackney diamonds is so jarring to me i don't like it sorry mr andrew watt :( #gonna actually give a full review at some point tho -_- a very late one but it is coming... #anyways for now. it's ok. don't understand the strong feelings about it cos to ME it feels pretty similar to everything else modern stones #OH i should say tho none of this includes blue and lonesome. obviously bit different being a cover album but i LOVE blue and lonesome!! #the rolling stones #marchibald's

[terrainofheartfelt]

ohkayyyyyy so the thing I've thinking about this list.....

a white guy records something that's fucking weird, and the critics and anthologists call him a genius and an influence. and women and people of color write and record something beautiful and true and the work is treated like it's been done and heard before because it isn't as "groundbreaking".......but what is the ground that's being broken?

#1001 albums project #because the ground of western pop music of the modern era was made by black women...... #just. thinking about this book and that new rolling stone editor's bullshit book and the weird caveated reviews of GUTS. it's all connected #connected by misogyny.

[bobdylan-n-jonimitchell]

Joni Mitchell concert review from Rolling Stone magazine, April 8, 1976.

“Frequently turning her back to the audience and not talking during the first four songs, she made [Bob] Dylan seem accessible.”—Kit Rachlis.

#Joni Mitchell #Nassau Coliseum #Long Island #New York #NY #Hissing Of Summer Lawns Tour #1976 #1970s #Rolling Stone #Rolling Stone Magazine #Article #Concert Review #Kit Rachlis #Bob Dylan #Reference #Bob Dylan n Joni Mitchell