Heartland

Sup fellas,

This morning i was listen ( for the 500th time) to FALAA.
And soon it begin with Black Planet i started to think.
It's funny how our musical-ears just envolve with the years, i mean, i remember back when i was 13 and listen to the FALAA Album for the very first time, and when it finish with Some Kind of Stranger, i was like: 'Dude, God singed 45minutes of their most perfect songs in my stereo right now'.
And at the same time, i was pretty sure that The Reptile House EP and all eary-83 stuff are pretty boring.
Now, all those years later, i just think FALAA it's a good album, with awesome songs, but regular performances of it.
Also realized: Sisters 81-83, it's the REAL sisters, TheRatio Essendi.
Btw, IMO, the actual sisters it's the most perfect reincarnation of the Original Sisters.

Tell to me fellas, what you see(or hear) in this discrepancy between The Reptile House and FALAA

Cheers

I always thought the live versions (84-85) of the FaLaA songs were much better than the album versions, so yeah I'm with you on this.
My favourite always was the 81-84 era, allthough I still enjoy myself silly at the gigs these days
The Reptile Hause EP is the finest record they ever released...

Some girls wonder by mistake it's my favourite TSOM record, so I'm absolutely with you on this one

The Reptile House is the best single project that TSOM have done. FALAA doesn't even come close - it's not even the best album they did...

Just goes to show that Andrew was better off doing it himself, with assorted help here and there (Floodland comes to mind)

I do wonder these days what he would come up with for brand new work - and I mean from-scratch stuff, not the "new" songs that have been paraded around for years. Personally, I have immense respect for Chris and the Eureka's recordings, and Ben's project is good too. If Andrew could do some serious work on his own, setting up song structure, and get those two (Chris in particular - sorry Ben) to add something to it, I think we'd be looking at one of the best musical projects of this century.

bearskin wrote:The Reptile House is the best single project that TSOM have done.

I agree to that, though I wouldn't want to miss the Temple of Love single or any other from that era.
And I love FALAA ... a great album and an absolutely exceptional one at the time. Black Planet is surely not Fix, but it has -
like the entire album - such a decided drive ... different but as intriguing as The Reptile House EP or any other Sisters single.
So no preferences in this direction on my part.

Damn. Thought this was going to be a thread where those two records were actually fighting to the death in a pit full of snakes. Can we do one of those?

For the record, FALAA would win by two falls and a submission. And is by far the best thing the band ever did.

bearskin wrote:I do wonder these days what he would come up with for brand new work

Pipeline.

stufarq wrote: Pipeline.

No. that's the worst thing they do live at all. ever. Crappy cover of crappy crap.

bearskin wrote:

stufarq wrote: Pipeline.

No. that's the worst thing they do live at all. ever. Crappy cover of crappy crap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

Anything the girls did between 81 - 85 is perfect. Lp's singles, b-sides, demos, live versions, there's not a single mediocre song at that era.

And Gary Marx was the best guitar player the sisters ever had!

pipeline still better than that disgusting unfunny dancing john. useless piece of crap.

panzerfaust wrote:pipeline still better than that disgusting unfunny dancing john. useless piece of crap.

hihihihi ... ... I like both ... .... but tastes differ. And I'm the one who also dearly likes SSV ... ... ...

I can not even begin to compare the 2 (reptile vs FALAA)
to me they are so different in sound that I even find it hard to believe it is the same band & the same period.

my favourite? depends what time of the day you ask me.

and those covers you are talking about.
covers are a tricky thing, they have to sound good, have to be good songs AND there has to be a reason why you cover them. I can clearly see why would what to cover 'John'
but Pipeline... its a good song and all but it feels a bit cheap.

I agree with Koen - the live versions of the FALAA material around 84/85 are my favourites. The album has it's highlights but if we're comparing FALAA against Reptile House as studio versions, Reptile House wins hands down. As previously stated - it's the finest piece of vinyl I own.

81-83 is the best, no questions.

FALAA has some good stuff on it, but it's too polished, missing that "deranged vibe" that made the early stuff so special.

FALAA is kind of missing a hale Eldritch's savage style and touch. Some very groovy tunes nonetheless, and a distinctive atmosphere of its own.

Is it a fair fight when FALAA outways RH by two to one?!

How about splitting FALAA into sides? Side 1 v RH - RH wins almost without trying. Not that it's not good, it's just disappointing. Whereas the songs beforehand sounded like a band performing as if their lives depended on it, Side 1 sounded more like their career depended on it...


Side 2 v RH - oooh, now there's a battle!!!
SKOS, Logic, Nine while Nine - what a triple whammy! And FALAA itself... If it were those four against RH, it would be a close run thing, however, there's also Possession to think of... and for me, Possession gifts it to The Reptile House. I know many others will love it, but I think it's the weakest song on the record, although probably because it suffers from the company it keeps - if they'd have drafted in A Rock & A Hard Place...

Incidentally, and it's a point others have made much better, I fink the Reptile House benifits enormously from being
baby - in much the same way as Floodland does. It gives it a stylistic theme and coherence, some of the other more collaborative works lack... Maybe.

Anyway, in case I didn't make myself clear or sense - The Reptile House wins!

By popular consent it would appear that RH beats FALAA in a high scoring first semi-final.

But what about the other semi - Floodland v VT. Meandering keyboards in search of a tune v MOR rock posturing recycling someone else's. My verdict : scoreless draw, goes to extra tracks - and a last minute winner/own goal (delete as applicable) from YCBTO.

o.O

Floodland is Eldritch's masterpiece. VT is largely disposable as far as I'm concerned.

When it comes on music- Floodland won, lyrics- VT is much more better.
I can't juden all of three (or four if we take SGWBM)- they are to diferent in form (which is for me great!).

markfiend wrote:o.O

Floodland is Eldritch's masterpiece. VT is largely disposable as far as I'm concerned.

Any album that starts with a sniff and has a song that begins 'Everybody shouts in I Love Lucy' has to be genius!

abridged wrote:

markfiend wrote:o.O

Floodland is Eldritch's masterpiece. VT is largely disposable as far as I'm concerned.

Any album that starts with a sniff and has a song that begins 'Everybody shouts in I Love Lucy' has to be genius!

Even if it should be missing a song titled You Could Be The One ... ...

I'll forgive VT for including Ribbons... but the cock-rock posturing of the rest of the album just bores me. It only really works when the silliness is turned up to eleven... like in YCBTO.

Ah have to disagree: Vision Thing itself is great, as is Dr. Jeep, Something Fast, I Was Wrong, Ribbons, Detonation Boulevard. I think More goes on for too long and maybe YCBTO could've replaced When You don't See Me but VT probably is still me fav Sisters album. Floodland is great apart from Neverland, (which is dull to the nth degree) but I do think Vision Thing is somewhat unfairly maligned. I agree, I think they overdid the whole boys in a band thing a bit but I think that was probably over-compensating after the 'solo' (so to speak) Floodland project.

VT was in like 90% 'solo' work (take a look in booklet- credits)

Bartek wrote:VT was in like 90% 'solo' work (take a look in booklet- credits)

Yeah but VT was written to be toured unlike Floodland. Hence Tony James et al were needed and the whole boys in a band thing, the record covers, the t-shirts and posters was emphasized as never before. Previously only the inside cover of F&L&A had a band pic as far as I remember. Yep I know songs of Floodland are played regularly on tour now but it wasn't the priority at the time.