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#431 Re: The Sunset Strip » Most Recent Movie You've Seen » 175 weeks ago
I think that is a minor issue. They spent 100 million on Damon's Ford vs. Ferrari in 2019. Original story with no particular action sequences. Obviously they are still willing to take risk. The problem is they aren't making good movies for the most part. And that all goes back to the advent of realistic special effects and the "theme parkization" of movies. Look at all the upcoming directors today. All of them are Super Hero directors. In a sense, the only reason they exist is because the studios need somebody to direct these movies. In the old days you couldn't get a real director to touch that type of movie with a flag pole. And really, if we're counting the old school directors that are still working, that is still the case. Nolan, Fincher, they have no interest in that crap.
So if all the big money directors are not really doing any real direction, where is anybody going to learn the craft? Knowing how to make a 5 million indie movie doesn't teach you how to make a big, expensive studio movie. This used to be the decisive factor that separated American movies from the rest of the world. They were the only place that could do artistry on a grand scale.
Now, they know how to make a Captain America part 10, but they don't know how to make a Die Hard. Except for the few old timers still going, nobody does anymore. It's like a medieval skill that has simply fallen out of use. If you can sell 100 million tickets with some CGI and a brand name, why make a real movie? There's no need.
#432 Re: Guns N' Roses » Using AI to give Axl Rose´s voice back » 175 weeks ago
It's good but it's still just mimicking. The development will be interesting.
#433 Re: The Sunset Strip » What Are You Listening To? » 175 weeks ago
I don't think it's sad. I'm impressed. He obviously thought he no longer need Pink Floyd to maintain popularity and he failed spectacularly. His first solo album was nothing more than a fart, the second too. When you say it sounds like cheesy 80s that is probably deliberate so he can appeal to the current thing. But that wasn't enough because the album was no good. Then he spent six years on his magnum opus, Amused to Death, and in between that he had a public wind with his the Wall performance when the Berlin Wall fell. But that too was a massive bomb. All the while Gilmour is out there selling millions of copies of his crap albums and enjoying worldwide success with his gaudy tours. Waters must have been fuming, maybe close to a nervous breakdown. Reality hit him in the face with brutal force in those days.
But he didn't lay down. He remembered his only success in those years, his Berlin Wall performance. So he focused on that and built himself up as a live artist. Aided by the fact Gilmour wasn't doing anything with Floyd anymore. Musically he's no longer relevant, but he has managed to make himself relevant as an artist and a performer, and using that public capital, become a very relevant political actor. Say what you will about his speech in the UN, he's clearly relevant in that arena with a lot of young folks looking to him with inspiration.
And for me personally his latest album, the first in 25 years, is clearly his best solo work. Put Gilmour, Mason and Wright (theoretically) in the mix and you have a great modern Pink Floyd album. So he has not only evolved as a performer in his old age, he's also improved significantly with his solo efforts. The Comfortably Numb remake was also incredible, and the little I've heard from the Dark Side remake also intrigues me. For so many years I never cared for any of his solo work because his first 3 albums were so disappointing, but here he is in his late 70s wheeling me in. For me he is about to create a second legacy which is almost as illustrious as his Pink Floyd heyday.
I listen to early Floyd. Not so much the Barrett period and the few albums after that when they were learning to create music on their own, but Atom Heart Mother and particularly Meddle have a lot of great songs. They sound like summer pop albums with cheerful melodies. Then you have Echoes, one of their best songs and clearly the bridge to later material.
All of Floyd's early solo material is a microcosm of what they each brought to the band. Wright with his soundscapes, Gilmour with his guitar, Mason with his rhythm and Waters with his energy and visionary concepts. He shouldn't have left the band.
#434 Re: Guns N' Roses » If GNR releases nothing in 2023, is this the end for you? » 175 weeks ago
With our luck they'll sell it to some corporation and they will do a woke treatment of the material and rerelease it. I can easily see a song like It's So Easy being nigh on illegal to play in 20 years time. They've already started to replace words like "fat" in old books.
#435 Re: Guns N' Roses » 2023 Tour Dates » 175 weeks ago
Decent vocals from Axl.
#436 Re: Guns N' Roses » If GNR releases nothing in 2023, is this the end for you? » 175 weeks ago
Yeah that is true. Thank God for leaks.
The worst thing for me is I don't understand what he's thinking. The songs are ready, he's filthy rich, Slash is back in the band, the label will let him do whatever he wants, and yet there is nothing. He said in that China exchange interview that he still wanted to release new music, so what gives? He could literally fart into a glass with Slash riffing and there would still be public interest, and here he is hogging all these great songs!
#437 Re: Guns N' Roses » If GNR releases nothing in 2023, is this the end for you? » 175 weeks ago
What do you mean by "not let them shine"? Seems to me he let them do pretty much whatever they wanted, then he decided what went where. For me Robin, BH, Bumble etc. all shine when they contribute a great solo.
The problem is he almost never releases anything. Maybe that's what you mean?
#438 Re: The Sunset Strip » What Are You Listening To? » 175 weeks ago
The Wall has always been separate for me. In my Pink Floyd playlist I only have Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and Animals. The three classic Floyd albums with that spacey sound. The Wall is different precisely because Wright and Gilmour are not really involved. Waters dominates the sound. I don't think it's better than the other three, especially not Dark Side of the Moon. It's still very, very good though and worthy of being called a Floyd album.
I'm not going to disagree Dark Side is the best album of all time, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have been even better. "Time" in particular is the song I'm concerned about. I no longer find David Gilmour credible when he sings those lyrics. Money yes, Dogs for sure, but not on this existential song about the inevitability of death. Waters lack of technical ability is more than made up for with emotion, and this song demands it. I'm looking forward to the rerecording but I would prefer to hear him sing it in his young voice.
That Comfortably Numb is an amazing achievement. You would have to be crazy to try and remake such a classic song, and I'm sure he's doing it to spite Gilmour and Wright too. He makes some very good choices. Obviously the guitar solo has to go. You can't make a better guitar solo so why try. Instead he gives us this amazing, Gig in the Sky type vocal line. The more I think about it the more I think it is brilliant. It shouldn't be possible to make a worthy remake of that song, you would expect it to be halfway embarassing to be honest, and yet he pulls it off at 80 years old and motivated by a type of spite you only see in kids. It's like he's telling them, I don't need you, I don't even need to replace you. I can do something completely different on my own and it will be just as good.
Waters did a Q&A with Nick Mason some years back, it's on youtube, and in response to his musical powers he claimed to still be peaking. When I heard that I laughed and to some extent I still do, but now I can see why he might think that. In some respects he has evolved as a musician and is doing it better than ever. His latest album had a couple of very strong songs and this Comfortably Numb remake makes me very excited for the new Dark Side remake as well. The guy is 80 years old! Mick and Keith yeah they are still going, but they don't really give a fuck. This guy does. He's still a kid, eager to learn and to prove himself. That is rare.
#439 Re: Guns N' Roses » Using AI to give Axl Rose´s voice back » 175 weeks ago
I think the main problem with that song is not the voice, but Eric Dover's way of using his voice. He's got good pipes but he lacks the Axl factor on how exactly to make it sound special. On this song the AI can replicate the sound of Axl but not the dynamics if that is the right word.
Question is if the AI will ever be able to replicate subtle things like that.
#440 Re: The Sunset Strip » What Are You Listening To? » 176 weeks ago
Been listening to the Wall after the latest Roger Waters debacle.
Ricky Wright is barely felt on this album and Gilmour's only claim to fame is the solo on Comfortably Numb. For all intents and purposes this is a Roger Waters solo album. But it still feels like a Pink Floyd album. Whereas Gilmour and Wright's Division Bell doesn't feel like Floyd at all despite having the superficial sound.
I think Waters should have had more lead vocals on Dark Side. His voice is simply better despite being technically inferior to Gilmour. He really is the band and always was. This I think Mason accepts which is why he gets on well with Roger, while the other two were always in denial. Waters is still out there at 80 captivating a young audience. Not just musically either, but politically keeping the Floyd spirit alive in the full sense of it, while Dave sits at home, hogging the Pink Floyd brand, donating to global warming and calling Waters a racist on Twitter.
To me it's become obvious who is the fraud.
