5 ms·

B-52s first two albums are absolutely brilliant. They were just breaking the rules with their instruments, vocals, songwriting, and recording, and (importantly)

B-52s first two albums are absolutely brilliant. They were just breaking the rules with their instruments, vocals, songwriting, and recording, and (importantly) making great music. To this day, playing side 1 of the first album starting with "Planet Claire" late at night just puts me in a mood that is hard to describe. I feel that they lost their songwriting edge after Ricky Wilson passed away in the mid 1980s and Strickland moved from drums to guitar. The later stuff was very pop oriented and slickly produced and expanded their audience, but it was missing that experimentation and irreverence from their early years.

tech_tuna 5y ago
I never hopped on the Love Shack bandwagon. I'm with you, their first few albums were the best.
- adolfojp 5y ago
  It was an important bandwagon though. I only know of the B52s because of watching Love Shack on TV. Without it many like me would have never learned of the band and would have never listened to their previous albums.
WalterBright 5y ago
> breaking the rules I love the B-52s, but isn't all good music breaking the rules?
- vlunkr 5y ago
  (to anwser with another rhetorical question) I don't know, is it?
- zwieback 5y ago
  I'd say there's good music that doesn't try to break rules. A lot of country music is like that to me, incredible skill, solid songwriting but usually within a very traditional frame.
- tyre 5y ago
  Not really. Kanye West broke the rules. Contemporary hip hop doesn’t exist without him; it’s unimaginable what we’d have. I wouldn’t say Vince Staples did, but he’s an excellent musician. Amy Winehouse, Leon Bridges, Lee Fields and the Expressions are examples of great artists who went “back” to more established rules.
parenthesis 5y ago
Yes, came here to mention Planet Claire and Private Idaho and Mesopotamia as my favourites. I discovered these about twenty years ago when going a Paradise Garage fascination, especially records Larry Levan played that weren't the `obvious' disco / post-disco records (such as some B-52s). Before that, only knew them for Love Shack and Kate Pierson on R.E.M.'s Shiny Happy People.

tech_tuna 5y ago

I never hopped on the Love Shack bandwagon. I'm with you, their first few albums were the best.

adolfojp 5y ago
It was an important bandwagon though. I only know of the B52s because of watching Love Shack on TV. Without it many like me would have never learned of the band and would have never listened to their previous albums.

WalterBright 5y ago

> breaking the rules I love the B-52s, but isn't all good music breaking the rules?

vlunkr 5y ago
(to anwser with another rhetorical question) I don't know, is it?
zwieback 5y ago
I'd say there's good music that doesn't try to break rules. A lot of country music is like that to me, incredible skill, solid songwriting but usually within a very traditional frame.
tyre 5y ago
Not really. Kanye West broke the rules. Contemporary hip hop doesn’t exist without him; it’s unimaginable what we’d have. I wouldn’t say Vince Staples did, but he’s an excellent musician. Amy Winehouse, Leon Bridges, Lee Fields and the Expressions are examples of great artists who went “back” to more established rules.

parenthesis 5y ago

Yes, came here to mention Planet Claire and Private Idaho and Mesopotamia as my favourites. I discovered these about twenty years ago when going a Paradise Garage fascination, especially records Larry Levan played that weren't the `obvious' disco / post-disco records (such as some B-52s). Before that, only knew them for Love Shack and Kate Pierson on R.E.M.'s Shiny Happy People.