Songs that you remember fondly, but are afraid to revisit now.

[SignoftheDragon]

Because, you know... they might not be as awesome as you remember.

RULES OF THE THREAD:
1) List only one song, by one band/artist. Preferably one that you haven't heard in a good while.
2) Share a short synopsis of what you remember being great/awesome/moving about said song.
3) LET THE FORUM STAND IN JUDGMENT FOR THREE DAYS.
4) Read the mockery/commiseration/supportive posts by your fellow board-mates.
5) Listen to your song, and quote or edit in your own post the results.

Embarrassingly-not-awesome? Held-up-better-than-you-feared? I-WAS-RIGHT-THAT-TRACK-WAS-A-BANGER?

Let's hear what you've got.

[SignoftheDragon]

I'll start with a crossover from another thread.

Fire Maple Song by Everclear. Yes, that Everclear.
It was their first radio single- before they blew up and charted hot and just SUCKED.

But damn- I remember that one song being GREAT. Probably a decade or more since I've heard it.

You have three days to mock me before I listen to it again.

*engage*

[s_mcsleazy]

take it away - the used.

i remember LOVING this song when it first came out in 04.... but i've not listened to it since 05. i really didn't like where the used went musically and i've found so much of that music has ages SOOOO POORLY that i'm afraid to go back and listen to that song. i'd rather just keep the memory of a 14 year old me smoking at the skate part with that playing on a boombox while trying to chat up the older chubby goth girls..... ok so maybe i was cringe as hell.

[marqueemoon]

Great idea for a thread.

My pick is Mesmerise by Chapterhouse

Honestly I remember this as being somewhat forgottable dreck from a band I already had mixed feelings about, and particularly weak compared to what Primal Scream was doing at the time.

In hindsight it strikes me as an uninspired attempt to cash in on the rock-band-makes-vaguely-dancey-song trend that was happening. But I WANTED to like it and at one point I think I convinced myself that I did.

I do have sentimental feelings about this song as I associate it with being in college, not having any major responsibilities, and finally starting to feel comfortable around the opposite sex. One of the more free times of my life really.

Am I way off base about what this song actually sounds like? Does it have any redeeming qualities?

Mock away.

[wooderson]

The (International) Noise Conspiracy - "Smash It Up"

Dude from Refused goes garage rock, pulls out all the stops on a May '68 cosplay but the song was catchy as hell. I don't even disagree with the politics but the combo of Situationist graffiti and Maoist era Godard title cards in the video and dressing like ? & The Mysterians, oof. Plus very little of that era of garage rock has aged well.

[s_mcsleazy]

The (International) Noise Conspiracy - "Smash It Up"

Dude from Refused goes garage rock, pulls out all the stops on a May '68 cosplay but the song was catchy as hell. I don't even disagree with the politics but the combo of Situationist graffiti and Maoist era Godard title cards in the video and dressing like ? & The Mysterians, oof. Plus very little of that era of garage rock has aged well.

agreed. honestly, i feel a lot of the early 00's music hasn't aged well. me and my friends have been doing this thing lately where we look back on albums released between 97-2005 and what we've been finding is a lot of stuff that just doesn't sound right. the reason i actually mentioned the used in my previous post is because that 2nd used album is one of the ones we're going to be listening back to sometime soon. but the upside is, a lot of stuff has surprised us.

btw. this is it - the strokes has aged so poorly imho. that was something we all agreed on. the production still works but the songs just weren't as good as we remembered.

[stevejamsecono]

The (International) Noise Conspiracy - "Smash It Up"

Dude from Refused goes garage rock, pulls out all the stops on a May '68 cosplay but the song was catchy as hell. I don't even disagree with the politics but the combo of Situationist graffiti and Maoist era Godard title cards in the video and dressing like ? & The Mysterians, oof. Plus very little of that era of garage rock has aged well.

agreed. honestly, i feel a lot of the early 00's music hasn't aged well. me and my friends have been doing this thing lately where we look back on albums released between 97-2005 and what we've been finding is a lot of stuff that just doesn't sound right. the reason i actually mentioned the used in my previous post is because that 2nd used album is one of the ones we're going to be listening back to sometime soon. but the upside is, a lot of stuff has surprised us.

btw. this is it - the strokes has aged so poorly imho. that was something we all agreed on. the production still works but the songs just weren't as good as we remembered.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there just wasn't really much in the way of musical freshness to this stuff outside of its novelty at the time where nu-metal and boy bands ruled the airwaves. I really can't see why anyone wouldn't just go back to the original 60s stuff to listen to if they had a choice.

[FrankRay]

I think also producers and engineers became too powerful, and made everything in time and in tune. I may have whinged about this before, but if you listen to almost any analog recording people sound flawed. Take Aretha. She's breathtakingly out of time. That's all gone except in a handful of cases where the artist has the clout to tell the producer to f**k off.

Like the most recent Aldous Harding album. Superficially great, but actually soul-less and antagonistic. There just isn't any way in.

Curiously Aphex gets round this by deliberately programming out of time stuff in. One of the reasons I suspect people really like him, because you have to really work to get in.

[marqueemoon]

Aside from mainstream loudness wars garbage I think the late 90’s and early 2000’s were a great time for music.

I kind of agree about Is This It though. The production choices on that always struck me as more cynically commercial rather than artistic. “Ok, we have some better than average indie guitar pop songs, but how can we really make this stand out?”

[wooderson]

Is This It doesn't sound bad and there are interesting touches but as an album it's just so relentlessly midtempo and devoid of dynamics.

[marqueemoon]

Great idea for a thread.

My pick is Mesmerise by Chapterhouse

Honestly I remember this as being somewhat forgottable dreck from a band I already had mixed feelings about, and particularly weak compared to what Primal Scream was doing at the time.

In hindsight it strikes me as an uninspired attempt to cash in on the rock-band-makes-vaguely-dancey-song trend that was happening. But I WANTED to like it and at one point I think I convinced myself that I did.

I do have sentimental feelings about this song as I associate it with being in college, not having any major responsibilities, and finally starting to feel comfortable around the opposite sex. One of the more free times of my life really.

Am I way off base about what this song actually sounds like? Does it have any redeeming qualities?

Mock away.

It’s been 3 days.

Listening now. Wow that fake piano loop is awful as is that shitty sawtooth bass sound.

The real electric bass line comes in strong, but even that gets boring.

The melody is pleasant enough and the harmonies are decent, but the vocals are thin sounding and kind of buried.

The worst part is when the crunchy guitar comes in and plays the same 4 chords that have been repeating the whole damn time already, but in the least imaginative way possible.

It’s basically a mechanical sounding twee Baba O’Riley verse set to a dull drum loop.

Some of the stuff on Screamadelica sounds dated too, but this is uniquely awful and did not age well at all.

[s_mcsleazy]

Aside from mainstream loudness wars garbage I think the late 90’s and early 2000’s were a great time for music.

I kind of agree about Is This It though. The production choices on that always struck me as more cynically commercial rather than artistic. “Ok, we have some better than average indie guitar pop songs, but how can we really make this stand out?”

that was always a problem BUT i'll tell you what my least favorite thing about that era guitar tone wise was.

THAT guitar tone. you'll know it when i describe it. mesa boogie rectifier, emg pickups (usually in a paul reed smith), tube screamer (optional), heavy compressor and a heavy noise gate to the point where the guitar tone sounds more like static being played at different frequencies. the buttrock guitar tone.

[s_mcsleazy]

ok. so it's been 3 days for mine. the song has a lot of great hooks and clearly is influenced by a lot of the sasscore/90's screamo bands. the guitar in the intro could be right out of an orchid song. the clean vocals....... not the worst i've heard from that era BUT it's not hitting in the same way gerard way's vocals do. his dirtier vocals are good though. the bridge is a little..... cringe. but the trade off between the cleaner vocals trading off between the screams kinda remind me of at the drive in. shame it became such a cliche by 2008. i do like that the vocals aren't pitch corrected like they are nowadays though. honestly, that's one problem i have with a lot of modern "heavy" music. most modern metal is more processed than pop music.

i did go ahead and listen to the rest of that album to make sure it wasn't a fluke. no, it was. it was a fluke. the good parts of take it away aren't really representative of the rest of the album. there's a few acoustic songs which just gave me the boak and the few faster songs on there just felt a bit..... forced.

[SignoftheDragon]

Fire Maple Song by Everclear. Yes, that Everclear.
It was their first radio single- before they blew up and charted hot and just SUCKED.

But damn- I remember that one song being GREAT. Probably a decade or more since I've heard it.

3 days have come and gone- I listened to it.

It's held up decently- not great. It's too bad that Everclear's subsequent (and more successful/prolific) work just took the WORST parts of this song going forward- I can't think of another track in their library where he sings with the same full-throat roar as he gets in this song; just more of the 'poor me' whininess. I mean, I can take it in the context of this one song- especially when it turns to soul-baring rage and high expression.

Just sad that they never got to that level again.

Fire Maple Song remains a gem atop the steaming pile that came afterward. Not a diamond, but something semi-precious; Swarovski? Zirconia?

I'd 'favorite' the song on Spotify, but I know that would dump all sorts of Everclear garbage into my radio feed that I'd rather not have to lift a hand to skip, y'know?

[SignoftheDragon]

take it away - the used.

i remember LOVING this song when it first came out in 04.... but i've not listened to it since 05. i really didn't like where the used went musically and i've found so much of that music has ages SOOOO POORLY that i'm afraid to go back and listen to that song. i'd rather just keep the memory of a 14 year old me smoking at the skate part with that playing on a boombox while trying to chat up the older chubby goth girls..... ok so maybe i was cringe as hell.

These guys are from my (current) hometown, so there's always been a bit of jealousy & annoyance that that band was the one from the scene that got BIG, y'know? (My former bandmates were in a band that headlined local shows with the Used opening- a bit before my time here, but the sourness remained out of support for my doods.)

Actually, I think they're quite a bit of fun- even still. The Provo scene has spun out a huge number of charting artists- before and since. Something about repressive religious environments that stimulates creativity, I guess...