Mike76

"Listened to the new single from the 'supposed' new SP, 'Tarantula': 'Billy Corgan, YOU'RE A PIECE OF SHIT!!'."
But why does Blackdog insult the good Billy, he's such a great artist....

@Lord: Well, I’m not a big fan of the 90s, but if you compare Rage Against The Machine, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Slint, Primus, Prodigy, Blur, Radiohead..... Many of these bands I don’t even like, but I think it’s wrong to say that the 90s are "uniform, standardized." I think it was a decade with more musical "directions," even if that doesn’t make it a better decade than others.

"don't forget the bullshit that contributed to the deterioration of rock or music in general... I remember that before Nirvana there were Guns 'n Roses, Michael Jackson, and other idiots. thank god for giving us NIRVANA" alessioIRIDE. Right, I also prefer Nirvana a thousand times over the crap of Guns 'n Roses, but between Verdena, Silverchair, Hole, and Stone Temple Pilots and Guns 'n Roses, I don't know who is better as a laxative.

"Too schematic, and if you want, too school-like to be a true rock group. The real flaw of all rock since the '90s is the fact that you can perhaps distinguish the bands by the singer's voice, but the music sounds like it's played by session musicians: cold and lifeless, devoid of any nuance, hyper-perfect, inhuman." LORD. Just think that for me, it's prog that is schematic, icy, etc. to be true rock.

In the 90s, I carefully avoided them. Then I recently revisited their last 3 albums. Let’s say diplomatically that with those 3 records (one of which is a double) you could maybe squeeze out a handful of decent tracks for a single respectable album. If someone claims that the latest single is crap, it doesn't surprise me at all; in fact, I would be more surprised by the opposite. More than anything, I wonder how that trash monument "Mellon Collie" is considered a masterpiece by many encyclopedias and rock sites.

The review is unvoteable also because it is not a review but a long consideration. Was it necessary? The album was certainly influential, but I think more for the worse than for the better.

Obviously, there is no definition of "good music" except on a personal level. What attracts me is creativity regardless of the genre, but even that is ultimately subjective; for someone, Al Bano can be creative as well.

P.S: I can't listen to the samples for now, but as soon as I can, I'll let you know what I think.

A million euro question, indeed. Personally, I can say that even though I listen to a lot of experimental and/or "heavy" music, I don't harbor hatred for pop when it is made with intelligence and creativity; on the contrary. I personally love the English new wave, which excellently combined experimentation and melody. Every now and then, my eardrums, battered by industrial and alternative records, crave something light, melodic, and not banal. However, this desire is often frustrated by the overly melodic drivel that comes out of the radio and television. Another reason I listen to less pop than I would like is that, being the quintessential "single" genre, there are very few albums worth buying; creating quality pop is one of the most difficult things since it is the most saturated genre of all. Despite not following the genre for these reasons, it is fair to say that I do hear something I like every now and then, perhaps even coming from the sewer of Sanremo (something by Ruggiero in the past, the latest from Nada, Quintorigo), but I never end up purchasing it (perhaps I’m inadvertently a bit snobbish). The problem with these popular festivals is that you have to dig for gold nuggets among 95% of rubbish, and it’s obvious that many avoid getting their hands (and eardrums) dirty right from the start.

Well, Clouser's two works are pure crap, pompous and hollow. Even "Piggy" doesn’t joke around, it’s a sort of rehash of the grunge calm-noise-calm-noise scheme, which wants to scratch the surface but fails completely. "Hurt" wouldn’t be a bad song but here we go again: Reznor is not a singer. The Foetus remixes of "Mr. Self Destruct" are neither here nor there. The best things come from the excellent Aphex Twin, a great ambient-industrial piece, the best seven minutes of the album, and from Coil's "The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)" which demonstrate class in creating sick atmospheres.