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Post by coolbarn on Oct 21, 2014 21:35:07 GMT -5
Thanks for the video - I enjoyed watching that I agree with most people here - most of the songs (except Drug and the interludes) were very strongly written, but many sounded horrible. Thin, weak, and without guts. I'm not a fan of synth-bass, and this album had too much of it. Not to mention they left off one of the best songs the band have ever written - I Believe/All I Need To Know is a very catchy, beautiful sounding track. You know something is wrong when you listen to a song from Big Thing and have to turn the sound up a little, then the next song from another album comes on and almost blows your eardrums out But criticisms notwithstanding it's still one of my favourite Duran albums, certainly one of their better post-breakup efforts.
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Post by mynick7 on Oct 21, 2014 23:20:31 GMT -5
Definitely a favorite! "Too Late Marlene" and "Edge of America" are my 2 favs from that album, but still like all of them, including the title track!
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Post by Dr Of The Revolution on Oct 22, 2014 2:32:52 GMT -5
Thanks for the video - I enjoyed watching that You know something is wrong when you listen to a song from Big Thing and have to turn the sound up a little, then the next song from another album comes on and almost blows your eardrums out That's why replaygain was invented en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayGain
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Post by heskethbang on Oct 22, 2014 4:42:15 GMT -5
I remember being disappointed in this album. For me it was mostly filler, with a couple of decent tracks. Edge of America was a promising sounding track, but it seemed unfinished. There were too many ballads for my 14 year old taste, Palomino, Land (why was this over 6 minutes long?!!), Too Late Marlene, DYBIS. It just didn't sound or feel like Duran. Probably the first grooveless Duran album. Only IDWYL had anything resembling such where as all of Rio barring The Chauffeur and Save a Prayer had tight rhythm section grooves.
I guess what went missing from after Notorious till Astronaut were proper Duran Basslines I can listen to the album today for nostalgia reasons, but not for musical ones.
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Post by coolbarn on Oct 22, 2014 6:02:01 GMT -5
That's why replaygain was invented Have been using Replay Gain for as long as I remember, my friend. It is one of those things that is great in theory, but in real life is merely good, and certainly not perfect. Try playing a high quality FLAC file followed by a crappy 128kb MP3, and tell me even with Replay Gain enabled you don't hear a volume difference. Even with Replay Gain I notice the Big Thing songs don't sound as loud or as meaty as most other Duran tracks. I have a reasonably decent computer setup for my music (Stello U3, Audiolab M-DAC, Audio-GD SA-31 Headphone Amp, Pioneer VSX-920 receiver, Mission MX-2 Bookshelf speakers, Denon AH-D600 Headphones) which is better than your standard computer setup, and even my 42 year old ears can notice a difference. I really like Big Thing. I have fond memories of being really excited of having a new Duran Duran album and seeing I Don't Want Your Love on the music video shows. I also remember writing so many letters to all the TV and Radio stations imploring them to play brand new Duran Duran music when I should have been studying. It was a very nice time in my life, although I was very saddened how they received very little promotion and didn't sell as many albums as previously (back when I cared about that sort of thing). But with hindsight I would love for Duran to re-record the entire album; certainly replacing the drum machines with Roger would make a great start. Not to mention now that JT is sober he could play some really cracking and powerful basslines. Seeing the band have John Frusciante's number he could do the guitar work, which would be interesting to see his twist on Warren's already excellent guitaring on the album (Big Thing is my favourite guitar work by Warren, so diverse. He was capable of amazing work on things like Ordinary World and Come Undone later in his career, but he also contributed to some underwhelming stuff as well). A full-sounding, meaty, loud, Big Thing with a real rhythm-section (and no synth-bass) would be awesome. A guy can dream can't he
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 8:29:44 GMT -5
I also really liked "Follow in my Footsteps" (LeBon) that at one time was called "I am the Medicine". I remember it being on a Big Thing demo and when I heard the final version of it, I felt like it would have fit nicely on Big Thing.
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oakey
PAPER GOD
Posts: 2,600
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Post by oakey on Oct 22, 2014 14:40:30 GMT -5
Big Thing marked the beginning of the end for me. I became a huge fan in 1986 when Notorious was released, and I was at the height of my 'fandom' when BT came out. I very much liked the lead single IDWYL, really appreciated All she wants is and I saw them live, which was great. But after the release of Do you believe in shame? my interest started to wane... I bought Decade on cassette and Decadance on 7", and even purchased Violence of summer. But after that I stopped listening to Duran for over 4 years. I sold my entire Duran vinyl collection as well. Musically, BT is a poor album. The band was at a creative low, which was even emphasized by the discussion and fights the band had over the to be used mixed for Drug. I mean, this track has filler written al over it, why bother! They should have fought about writing better tunes at the time. I regained my interest in the band in the mid 90s, and I still listen to their early albums a lot, but rarely do I play BT. I re-bought all the old vinyls btw
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Post by More Play Time on Oct 22, 2014 16:30:21 GMT -5
THANKS for posting the Big Thing EPK. I never saw this before today. I enjoyed the live music at the start and at the end, but the rest was all fake acting over studio tracks. You can see John is not playing the notes and gives up at one point. JT seems enthusiastic enough, even though much of the Bass was actually Nicks keyboards. On the album, I find Drug is my fav track (for many reasons), followed by T.L.Marlene and Land, then IDWYL. I used to like DYBIS but I cant listen to it now without thinking of Michael Hutchence, and I guess knowing this story will affect me forever. They left off one of the best songs the band have ever written - I Believe/All I Need To Know is a very catchy, beautiful sounding track. You remember the reason? Lets sing it together as a group... 1..2..3... "All the Best Songs are B-Sides, All the Best Lines relatively Unsung," "If Duran Duran ever can be bothered, they will find we knew this all along." Amen I remember being disappointed in this album. For me it was mostly filler, with a couple of decent tracks. I guess what went missing from after Notorious till Astronaut were proper Duran Basslines. Yep, I could not agree more. Only Medazzaland and Ordinary World stand out as tracks with any kind of real bass lines at all. Warren even proved TMI can be played with just an accoustic. I'd love to know what that mysterious song is, contained inside Interlude One - when you slow it down 50%ish. That will forever be one of the greatest Duran Duran secrets... DD Forever?? Greatest?? Secrets?? Ok, just for you, I spent some time today working with the full length track I found on a bootleg. I then decided to filter the bootleg and include the filtered versions as well. The original album track ran for about .34 seconds. The bootleg ran 2:33. But my Youtube video now plays for over 10 mins! :lol:. Part 1 - the original bootleg recording (bad sound) Part 2 - my filtered version (not amazing, but better sounding at least) Part 3 - Bass Filter - as Part 2 but with more bass (but also more crackle) Part 4 - a fake 'choir' version which was made using another audio filter effect Enjoy.
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