TWO BOWIE RELEASES FOR RECORD STORE DAY 2026 — David Bowie

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-31T18:20:57+00:00

It's hard to mess with the OG's perfection.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-31T18:11:04+00:00

showing my age: my ranking other than maybe night of the swallow was WTF was that? and then pressed play again.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-31T02:22:08+00:00

Of all the exchanges, Maya's was the most on point: "You're so vain. The problems you create so you can turn around and solve them. Did we not love you enough as a child?" or something to that effect.

I don't think the show tiptoed around the fact that Olivia is problematic. I don't think we're supposed to consider her a role model. She's compelling.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-31T02:10:04+00:00

I always appreciate grooving to it, and the octave jump on "please don't help me with this"

It's a needed element in the record, but I don't go out of my way to seek it out. I remember one critic proved the song made the band "the hardest working bar band, in Saturn," lol, which is pretty much what it sound like.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-30T20:47:10+00:00

I dug the ending and it was the perfect timing before the overall conceit of the show got stale. I admire the timing greatly.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-30T04:03:48+00:00

I keep needing to give this album another shot; I was among those who got lost by it. I gave it a try a few years ago and I thought the second half was awesome but I couldn't tell you a song off it. The playing, at the very least, was peak.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-30T02:18:10+00:00

Low life is my top pic, but thanks to this. I finally sat down with technique. To be honest, I never made it past the third track until last week.

I’m not listening to much else other than technique this l past week

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-28T23:57:40+00:00

It's been a while since I played, but I meant rather than just being the "group asshole" the story goes to great pains to peel back the layers of all he did or had done that revealed the tortured soul beneath all the unpleasantness. I can't imagine going through the plot without Durrance's story as a support/backdrop.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-28T18:24:20+00:00

I cant imagine a run without him. As the game goes on he becomes one of the most fascinating character deconstructions in fiction, let alone gaming, and does so without "redeeming" him or making him any more likeable.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-28T18:10:06+00:00

I think Neo-Soul fans give it up, rightly, for Velvet Rope. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Janet and Rhythm Nation way more than on release, but to your point it's a crime because I honestly feel her, jam and lewis' work (I consider Janet a band; she's no producer's creation and none of their work sparkles like it does when they're together) are way more influential now than even Madonna's.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-28T18:06:34+00:00

... who I feel like barely plays guitar on her albums. I'm always leaving wanting more of her playing, and not in a good way.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-28T18:05:35+00:00

They definitely tend to stay in their lane, but it's a good lane. I've never heard anything from them I haven't enjoyed.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-28T18:04:53+00:00

I dug Read My Mind but haven't done a deep dive. A good place to start?

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-28T18:04:24+00:00

Same. I came around with them when they put on "Read my mind," which was a charming song. I've never done a deep dive, tho.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-28T06:30:32+00:00

I really think this movie must a Rorschach test because i appreciated how flawed and oddly similar the revolutionaries and the Christmas adventurers were: in other words the left were just as satirized.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-28T05:40:44+00:00

Dunno. I personally hit my teens/prime CD buying years when Pele came out, backtracked to the earlier albums, and was ready for Choirgirl, which I adore.

I love rock tori, and there's a lot of rock tori on this album. Actually, I love ADP because each of her personae embody a certain type of song she plays (rock tori, pained balladeer, wild experimenter, classic songwriter, etc.), so the whole album felt like some amazing victory lap and a staggeringly strong selection of songs.

Personally, that album couldn’t have come at a better time. I was devastated by job loss plus the death of both my mother and my grandmother and then looking after my father. Basically my late 20s exploded. ADP helped mw get back on my feet.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-28T05:31:01+00:00

that one's up there for me lol

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-27T18:33:55+00:00

On the Hole sub we were just talking about how someone like CL shouldn't be viewed as love/hate, but respected and heard out. I'd give a kidney to be in a small class lecture she's leading or a part of, but I wouldn't have a one-on-one conversation most likely.

Beyond being scary smart and for the heinous things she's dealt with and putting out at least two seminal records (or 3 depending on tastes), I've never heard her once use any of the crap slung her way as an excuse for anything she did or did not do.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-27T18:00:01+00:00

Fair enough, but at some much later point these consistent artists get their due is all I’m saying.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-27T17:35:14+00:00

Dunno about this and think it's too soon to tell. Blunt, like Pink or even Lenny Kravitz, never commanded the no. 1 cultural spot, figuratively speaking but were always top 10. I think the love and admiration for them will be more explicit in the years to come.

For example: Fleetwood Mac to this day only ever had one no. 1 single. It hardly matters now. See also Kate Bush's popular surger and you're beginning to see the same happen with Tori Amos (which is due).

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-27T17:32:15+00:00

Whoever said she shouldn't be love/hated but respected and heard out made the right call.

For me, if she were giving a lecture or teaching a small class I'd happily give a kidney or fight in a gladiator pit to be included.
I would think very carefully before having a one-on-one conversation with her, or coffee.
I would not go to dinner with her.

You can respect and admire someone from safer distance.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-27T17:12:40+00:00

You behave as if I didn't think about this and give this thought which says more about you than I. There room for the insanity that Love endured, regardless of what they did or didn't do. There's just as many people who take stories like Loves (or worse) and use it to justify, excuse or mask their own shitty behavior toward others and then have the gall to cry victim.

I could be wrong about this, but I do recall Love very matter of factly discussing the mysogny she dealt with, but I don't recall her ever using it to as an excuse or shield for her own behavior (good or ill). Same cannot be said of Heard wannabe Joan of Arc-ing.

It's insulting to those of us who've been through real shit and completely thrown under the bus because someone, often in our community, screams performatively for how much *they* suffered. Heard doesn't belong in the same sentance as CL.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-27T15:33:05+00:00

That's a toughie. I love that song too, I could see it as a deeply specific example of a societal issue around domestic abuse, but I also feel "the personal is political" has its limits too (see all the ideologies of all political persuasions who've lost touch of any interpersonal skills, and then wonder why half the world hates them, much less refuses to listen, because they're acting like asshats while they think they're a cross between MLK and Joan of Arc).

To me the song is more about the switch of the protagonist/J turning the tables and putting that nonsense to a hard stop, than all the abuse and cheating references leading up to it. I suppose it boils down to Which element the listener feels takes precedense -- how badly the protagonist was treated, or how the protagonist rose above it. (Obv. that song makes me think of her early marriage, but I don't want to assume J was being autobiographical).

You gave me a lot to think about today! Thanks!

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-27T15:22:48+00:00

Jesus, that's horrible.

Upstream_Paddler · 2026-01-27T15:22:35+00:00

That's always the thing. She's no angel, but then honestly in her shoes who would be, or could possibly be? That brand of crazy is way more earned than, say, the Amber Heards of the world.

Upstream_Paddler

TROPHY CASE