Stoney

"We can't expect epoch-making records from a mix of people coming from various musical backgrounds; it's certainly not possible to create empathy among the artists." In reality, the exact opposite is true. People from different musical traditions have always created interesting or at least enjoyable stuff, and there are countless examples (David Bowie and Queen, Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé, De André and PFM, Peter Gabriel and Billy Cobham, just to name the first ones that come to mind). I'd say that, generally speaking, diversity is always positive and fertile with stimuli. If someone is a musician and knows how to make "music," the genre they're specialized in is just a simple variable. I would rather say that we cannot expect epoch-making records from Iommi, who has been playing the same way for 40 years, with the same purpose, style, and attitude. He is the problem, not the guests. Let's say that releasing the three hundredth album of his career wasn't exactly necessary, just as it isn't for us to listen to it...

"But Monica Bellucci, besides taking her clothes off, can't do anything else?" Let her continue, it's not disturbing at all. After all, everyone must always follow their own callings, who are we to stop her?

An old lady enters the pharmacy: "Strong mint." And the pharmacist: "What a hot piece!"

There is a mechanical engineer, an electronic engineer, and a computer engineer in a car. While they are traveling, the car breaks down and stops. The mechanical engineer then says, "It must be a mechanical transmission problem, the belt must have broken." The electronic engineer says, "No way, it's obvious there's an issue with the electronic control unit, a chip must have blown." The computer engineer, however, says, "Excuse me, but what if we all tried getting out and getting back in?"

A friend of mine named Piero S., who knows everything about music, wrote on his website that the Beatles are the biggest frauds ever, and I believe him, so I don't listen to them because I'm afraid.

"Talking about an album like 'Wow' is something difficult." Nah, I could do it in two words and an exclamation point. Wanna bet?

But that’s the problem, @Fuggitivo: if I record an hour of the noise from the excavators working under my house and let you listen to it, by the twentieth time you hear it, you'll have gotten used to it. The challenge is getting you to listen to it twenty times; but to do this, all it takes is for someone to convince you that this is an indispensable work, that the author wants to testify to the decline of the last century, social anxiety, and blah blah. And that record will end up pleasing you.

I understand a) the undeniable historical importance of the group in question, b) the reasons behind their sound/artistic/musical choices, c) the social, historical, and cultural context in which they operated. However, I don’t believe that these three points are necessary to understand an album. One must know about music, not history. I should be able to grasp the message that an artist wanted to convey even 200 years ago and in a historical-cultural context different from my own without having to study a single line. That, if anything, is something that completes the picture, that enhances comprehension, but I don’t think it’s essential. I don’t need to know who Michelangelo was to be moved by La Pietà, and perhaps I don’t even need to have a Christian background to understand who the figures represented there are: there are universal archetypal signs that work perfectly well on their own, and indeed that's what makes it a work of art. But how can I extrapolate the meanings of the VU just by listening to the sounds and dissonances recorded on this album? I can’t; I need someone to tell me how to interpret them by saying "look, they sounded this way for these and those reasons." Perhaps I could have done it myself if I had lived in that particular period, if I had breathed that specific air, if I had frequented those environments, if I had shared the moods and anxieties with the musicians. But outside that niche, communication doesn’t work unless there’s some external help providing the "instructions for use." This seems to me a huge weakness because someone who expresses themselves within a particular context, using a language that only similarly experienced and cultured people can understand, I don’t know if they can be considered an "artist" in the truest sense of the word. And indeed, that the VU are spokespersons of an era is undeniable, that they have been influential as well, that they should be appreciated is for sure, but I don’t believe it’s ignorance to try to downscale their artistic value.

"For this new work, he chooses the path of 'warm electronics,' as he defines it, because, in addition to synths and computers, there is also the soul." Translated: "I don't even know what electronics is, but whatever crap you find in here, don't trust your instincts; think that it's you who doesn't understand its deep sense and listen to it 50 times until you force yourself to like it."

I almost forgot: the rating is for the review that I DIDN'T read and just imagined.