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Post by MrWaistcoat on Nov 5, 2019 12:13:48 GMT
Status Quo have released a very average pop rock album , that has made no impact on the mainstream. Their core audience as usual made it chart. Then off it disappeared. If it makes people happy great. If that's what people want to listen to, well great for them. Its so ordinary unoriginal and quite boring to me. As for its positive reviews. I don't think that is just about its quality. If reviews were just about quality the albums 70-76 would have been critically acclaimed then and now in the mainstream media. Do you believe any Quo album now could possibly have an "impact on the mainstream"? I can't agree that it's without originality. The opening track is Quo yet unlike any other. CMSS has a great riff and unique character , LL is so Quo but unlike any Quo before it. What else sounds like Backing Off or Backbone? To my ears it's only I wanna run away with you that is derivative and without any originality. For a band whose fans disapprove of straying too far from the sound, I find the album impressively innovative within the Quo thing If this is "pop rock" then I'd say its well made, good quality pop rock. And most reviews have said the same. The old media bias against Quo has gone, they are finally getting a proper listen with fairer reviews
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Post by Victor on Nov 5, 2019 12:43:32 GMT
Status Quo have released a very average pop rock album , that has made no impact on the mainstream. Their core audience as usual made it chart. Then off it disappeared. If it makes people happy great. If that's what people want to listen to, well great for them. Its so ordinary unoriginal and quite boring to me. As for its positive reviews. I don't think that is just about its quality. If reviews were just about quality the albums 70-76 would have been critically acclaimed then and now in the mainstream media. Do you believe any Quo album now could possibly have an "impact on the mainstream"? I can't agree that it's without originality. The opening track is Quo yet unlike any other. CMSS has a great riff and unique character , LL is so Quo but unlike any Quo before it. What else sounds like Backing Off or Backbone? To my ears it's only I wanna run away with you that is derivative and without any originality. For a band whose fans disapprove of straying too far from the sound, I find the album impressively innovative within the Quo thing If this is "pop rock" then I'd say its well made, good quality pop rock. And most reviews have said the same. The old media bias against Quo has gone, they are finally getting a proper listen with fairer reviews I largely agree RW, although there are a few things that do remind me of older songs. Running out of time for instance does remind of The party ain't over yet for me, Face the music reminds in places a bit of Breaking away...but not in an irritating way, certainly not such that they are complete copies of other songs. I agree about I wanna run away with you. For me it's not a pop rock album at all. It's a mixture of rock with some pop elements and melody in some places, something they have done for a very long time. But the rock element is certainly back for me more then on most other albums post NTL, UTI and QPQ excepted. Cut me some slack reminds me of another song too but can't find out which one yet.
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Post by paradiseflats on Nov 5, 2019 13:33:22 GMT
Status Quo have released a very average pop rock album , that has made no impact on the mainstream. Their core audience as usual made it chart. Then off it disappeared. If it makes people happy great. If that's what people want to listen to, well great for them. Its so ordinary unoriginal and quite boring to me. As for its positive reviews. I don't think that is just about its quality. If reviews were just about quality the albums 70-76 would have been critically acclaimed then and now in the mainstream media. Do you believe any Quo album now could possibly have an "impact on the mainstream"? I can't agree that it's without originality. The opening track is Quo yet unlike any other. CMSS has a great riff and unique character , LL is so Quo but unlike any Quo before it. What else sounds like Backing Off or Backbone? To my ears it's only I wanna run away with you that is derivative and without any originality. For a band whose fans disapprove of straying too far from the sound, I find the album impressively innovative within the Quo thing If this is "pop rock" then I'd say its well made, good quality pop rock. And most reviews have said the same. The old media bias against Quo has gone, they are finally getting a proper listen with fairer reviews Could they have an impact on the mainstream ? With the right songs and strategy possibly. The problem for them is, the songs they right are simply not very good. If the singles made an impact they would be on Radio 2 for more than a week. They wouldn’t be playing the venues just a few years ago, Francis sneered at for not being good enough for him. I have to say apart from Classic Rock I haven’t seen any reviews of the album. I don’t count website reviews who rely on the bands patronage to move traffic to the site or gain content to move traffic. You clearly like it. I clearly don’t. I don’t hate it, it’s just so pedestrian and boring. I cant go through the tracks as I’ve already forgotten what they sounded like individually. Yes I am an ex Status Quo supporter. In truth I have been for a long time. They are just so ordinary now when once they were extra ordinary. But that’s because the members are not the same.
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Post by frozenhero on Nov 6, 2019 16:13:34 GMT
Do you believe any Quo album now could possibly have an "impact on the mainstream"? I can't agree that it's without originality. The opening track is Quo yet unlike any other. CMSS has a great riff and unique character , LL is so Quo but unlike any Quo before it. What else sounds like Backing Off or Backbone? To my ears it's only I wanna run away with you that is derivative and without any originality. For a band whose fans disapprove of straying too far from the sound, I find the album impressively innovative within the Quo thing If this is "pop rock" then I'd say its well made, good quality pop rock. And most reviews have said the same. The old media bias against Quo has gone, they are finally getting a proper listen with fairer reviews Could they have an impact on the mainstream ? With the right songs and strategy possibly. The problem for them is, the songs they right are simply not very good. If the singles made an impact they would be on Radio 2 for more than a week. They wouldn’t be playing the venues just a few years ago, Francis sneered at for not being good enough for him. I have to say apart from Classic Rock I haven’t seen any reviews of the album. I don’t count website reviews who rely on the bands patronage to move traffic to the site or gain content to move traffic. You clearly like it. I clearly don’t. I don’t hate it, it’s just so pedestrian and boring. I cant go through the tracks as I’ve already forgotten what they sounded like individually. Yes I am an ex Status Quo supporter. In truth I have been for a long time. They are just so ordinary now when once they were extra ordinary. But that’s because the members are not the same. Liberty Lane or Get Out of My Head released by a young "hot" band would be sure-fire hits. At least in the circles that still appreciate well-done music with electric guitars. (Which sadly isn't really mainstream anymore, as the autotuned voices of horrible non-singers coming out of my radio all the time will show you.)
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Post by paradiseflats on Nov 6, 2019 16:29:09 GMT
Could they have an impact on the mainstream ? With the right songs and strategy possibly. The problem for them is, the songs they right are simply not very good. If the singles made an impact they would be on Radio 2 for more than a week. They wouldn’t be playing the venues just a few years ago, Francis sneered at for not being good enough for him. I have to say apart from Classic Rock I haven’t seen any reviews of the album. I don’t count website reviews who rely on the bands patronage to move traffic to the site or gain content to move traffic. You clearly like it. I clearly don’t. I don’t hate it, it’s just so pedestrian and boring. I cant go through the tracks as I’ve already forgotten what they sounded like individually. Yes I am an ex Status Quo supporter. In truth I have been for a long time. They are just so ordinary now when once they were extra ordinary. But that’s because the members are not the same. Liberty Lane or Get Out of My Head released by a young "hot" band would be sure-fire hits. At least in the circles that still appreciate well-done music with electric guitars. (Which sadly isn't really mainstream anymore, as the autotuned voices of horrible non-singers coming out of my radio all the time will show you.) ‘Sure fired hits’. If they were a young hot band. They hopefully would write better material than those two songs. I’m aware that most bands can have hits if the industry wants them to. It wouldn’t be on the quality of the songs. Which are ok nothing more.
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Post by charles on Nov 7, 2019 11:03:44 GMT
I largely agree RW, although there are a few things that do remind me of older songs. Running out of time for instance does remind of The party ain't over yet for me, Face the music reminds in places a bit of Breaking away...but not in an irritating way, certainly not such that they are complete copies of other songs. I agree about I wanna run away with you. For me it's not a pop rock album at all. It's a mixture of rock with some pop elements and melody in some places, something they have done for a very long time. But the rock element is certainly back for me more then on most other albums post NTL, UTI and QPQ excepted. Cut me some slack reminds me of another song too but can't find out which one yet. Backbone (the album) reminds me of Never Too Late at times. I think it's down to the sound of the guitars and Francis's voice.
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Post by Victor on Nov 7, 2019 12:12:54 GMT
I largely agree RW, although there are a few things that do remind me of older songs. Running out of time for instance does remind of The party ain't over yet for me, Face the music reminds in places a bit of Breaking away...but not in an irritating way, certainly not such that they are complete copies of other songs. I agree about I wanna run away with you. For me it's not a pop rock album at all. It's a mixture of rock with some pop elements and melody in some places, something they have done for a very long time. But the rock element is certainly back for me more then on most other albums post NTL, UTI and QPQ excepted. Cut me some slack reminds me of another song too but can't find out which one yet. Backbone (the album) reminds me of Never Too Late at times. I think it's down to the sound of the guitars and Francis's voice. Yes and also some things from 1982 (Dear John, Doesn't matter especially). I certainly hear the NTL influence as well. One of the things that I heard right away is the voice being more in the background again like it used to be on albums like NTL.
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Post by swingseat on Nov 7, 2019 13:00:24 GMT
There are definitely some original touches on Backbone. Waiting for a Woman is a really different slant on a Quo theme and has a truly unique re-work/new idea of their typical sound. Second favorite song. Face The Music is another refreshing song and is a great rock number but manages to not sound at all like a typical Quo rock song. So its a very close third favorite song to Waiting for a Woman.
Liberty Lane has another different feel and is well constructed. Fourth favorite song.
I wish that Better Take Care had been written by them as its such a great song. So in that sense it is obviously wholly unoriginal. But nevertheless it remains my top favorite on the album because re-worked by Quo it makes it addictively catchy and manages to make the original which is already a great song, even better. It should have been/should be a single and definitely played on the tour song list.
I think that if this band do another album they should keep pushing in the direction and feel of the songs mentioned so far. These are as good as the very best songs on a very good album like the 4th Chord, or for example something like Dust to Gold on QPQ. You'll Come Round is another example of Quo rock offering something different to the usual
On the other hand, there are also some borrowed and over used ideas on other songs on the album. It doesn't make them all poor songs, but the imprint of over familiarity detracts from the very good melodies that are in many of them. Cut Me Some Slack for example sounds a bit reminiscent of ideas within Solid Gold to me and means I like it a bit less than I otherwise would. But it is quite good and certainly prefer it to Solid Gold.
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Post by MrWaistcoat on Nov 7, 2019 13:03:21 GMT
I largely agree RW, although there are a few things that do remind me of older songs. Running out of time for instance does remind of The party ain't over yet for me, Face the music reminds in places a bit of Breaking away...but not in an irritating way, certainly not such that they are complete copies of other songs. I agree about I wanna run away with you. For me it's not a pop rock album at all. It's a mixture of rock with some pop elements and melody in some places, something they have done for a very long time. But the rock element is certainly back for me more then on most other albums post NTL, UTI and QPQ excepted. Cut me some slack reminds me of another song too but can't find out which one yet. Backbone (the album) reminds me of Never Too Late at times. I think it's down to the sound of the guitars and Francis's voice.Yeah. Wish John Eden had been involved. The sound is quite good but could have been a lot better. Let's face it, the sound is not nearly as good as NTL or JS. There are real gripes over the drums. Some of the backing vocals (eg falling off the world) would be much better if they were replaced with a guitar lick. There's not many licks outside the solos. At times there's too much production on the vocals, eg FOTW before the solo, or Rhino on BTC. Francis likes adding extra bells and whistles that fans tend not to like.
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Post by Victor on Nov 7, 2019 16:58:50 GMT
There are definitely some original touches on Backbone. Waiting for a Woman is a really different slant on a Quo theme and has a truly unique re-work/new idea of their typical sound. Second favorite song. Face The Music is another refreshing song and is a great rock number but manages to not sound at all like a typical Quo rock song. So its a very close third favorite song to Waiting for a Woman. Liberty Lane has another different feel and is well constructed. Fourth favorite song. I wish that Better Take Care had been written by them as its such a great song. So in that sense it is obviously wholly unoriginal. But nevertheless it remains my top favorite on the album because re-worked by Quo it makes it addictively catchy and manages to make the original which is already a great song, even better. It should have been/should be a single and definitely played on the tour song list. I think that if this band do another album they should keep pushing in the direction and feel of the songs mentioned so far. These are as good as the very best songs on a very good album like the 4th Chord, or for example something like Dust to Gold on QPQ. You'll Come Round is another example of Quo rock offering something different to the usual On the other hand, there are also some borrowed and over used ideas on other songs on the album. It doesn't make them all poor songs, but the imprint of over familiarity detracts from the very good melodies that are in many of them. Cut Me Some Slack for example sounds a bit reminiscent of ideas within Solid Gold to me and means I like it a bit less than I otherwise would. But it is quite good and certainly prefer it to Solid Gold. Agree with you on the things mentioned about those songs above. Waiting for a woman is a very favorite track from the album for me. Face the music is the song I like most of all which should have been on the album and not just a bonus. Ah yes, Cut me some slack indeed reminds of Solid Gold...but there is something else I hear in that song that reminds me and I can't seem to think of which song it reminds me off. Oh and you'll come round is a class track for me, always enjoyed that one big time ! Maybe I differ a bit in what you say about overused ideas...I mean, partly I can understand it...but on this album it wasn't a bad idea at all according to me to bring in some of the things I used to know so well from them because I had been missing them big time. It's why I really enjoy Cut me some slack and I see you're in some trouble. Therefor I think this album is actually a good and balanced mix between older and more original ideas.
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Post by fretbuzzzzz on Nov 7, 2019 18:23:37 GMT
Good points Victor, especially about a good balance and mix between older and more original ideas.
Cut Me Slack has something of 'Reality Cheque' about it.
I wasn't expecting much of this new album but it has surprised me and I keep going back and hearing stuff I had missed initially. Thought I had my two best racks but it changes at the moment.
John Eden has a real knack with guitar sounds, so would have been interesting if he had been asked to engineer and produce. Interesting about what charles and you have said about Backbone having a connection with NTL and 1982. Recorded in a completely different way as different eras and NTL being very much analogue/tape studio territory but I hear what you are saying, as some similarities.
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Post by Victor on Nov 7, 2019 18:39:36 GMT
Good points Victor, especially about a good balance and mix between older and more original ideas. Cut Me Slack has something of 'Reality Cheque' about it. I wasn't expecting much of this new album but it has surprised me and I keep going back and hearing stuff I had missed initially. Thought I had my two best racks but it changes at the moment. John Eden has a real knack with guitar sounds, so would have been interesting if he had been asked to engineer and produce. Interesting about what charles and you have said about Backbone having a connection with NTL and 1982. Recorded in a completely different way as different eras and NTL being very much analogue/tape studio territory but I hear what you are saying, as some similarities. Yep, it was the exact same for me, wasn't expecting anything at all especially with Rick not being there. But the album surprised me big time in a very positive way and it's been a long time since I have gone back to a new album from them so often. Would love to hear it with a production by John Eden. Must say though that Francis did an excellent producing job with this one too aside from a few thngs which could have been better, but there is not much in music that is completely perfect, there's always things even small ones that could have been better...but generally ? Yea, he did a damn fine job.
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Post by fretbuzzzzz on Nov 7, 2019 18:54:06 GMT
Good points Victor, especially about a good balance and mix between older and more original ideas. Cut Me Slack has something of 'Reality Cheque' about it. I wasn't expecting much of this new album but it has surprised me and I keep going back and hearing stuff I had missed initially. Thought I had my two best racks but it changes at the moment. John Eden has a real knack with guitar sounds, so would have been interesting if he had been asked to engineer and produce. Interesting about what charles and you have said about Backbone having a connection with NTL and 1982. Recorded in a completely different way as different eras and NTL being very much analogue/tape studio territory but I hear what you are saying, as some similarities. Yep, it was the exact same for me, wasn't expecting anything at all especially with Rick not being there. But the album surprised me big time in a very positive way and it's been a long time since I have gone back to a new album from them so often. Would love to hear it with a production by John Eden. Must say though that Francis did an excellent producing job with this one too aside from a few thngs which could have been better, but there is not much in music that is completely perfect, there's always things even small ones that could have been better...but generally ? Yea, he did a damn fine job. Agree, a few niggles aside, it is the production or sound of the Backbone album every bit as much as the style of the songs that have surprised and very listenable. I'm fairly sure that John Eden would be fair and modest and say there probably isn't much with Backbone that he could improve upon studio wise.
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Post by asthequoflies on Jun 11, 2020 16:08:51 GMT
Best album since...Quid Pro Quo
Backbone is thoroughly average, much more akin to a Rossi solo album in sound and feel than to Quo. Compared to QPQ and ISOTFC it comes off quite average.
The hype upon release was quite something; as a fan I wanted it to be good, and some of it was. But I wouldnt rate any song as great. A good portion of it unfortunately for me are very dull, boring tracks. Missing that Parfitt guitar, his backing vocal, his energy.
Tracks like Liberty Lane, Cut Me Some Slack and the title track have life to them, a pulse and tracks I like hearing again. One or two others are awful, while other tracks are simply uninspired and very disappointing.
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Post by railroad007 on Jun 11, 2020 18:49:42 GMT
Mrs Mills 'Live' At the Fillmore.
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