APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Discuss Maynard and Billy's side project
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M0G
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by M0G »

xZ1mM3r wrote:I actually like the vast majority of the album. You think they suck because you are comparing them to past APC songs. You are comparing them to other MJK projects I assume. If you take the album as a standalone collection of tracks, it's actually really good.

Yeah By And Down is the same song.. but that doesn't bother me. It feels like it belongs in this album, in this setting. Not in a greatest hits album tacked on the end, or in a live album.

And to be honest I picked 8/10 simply because I knew you picked 7. And I knew I had to like it more than you did cause you just talk shit... So if you talking shit on the album gives it 7 then I have to give it an 8

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Nope when it comes to a review I take the album for what it is and analyze it. Opinions of past works play no part, nor do I let any shred of personal sentiment color my analysis. Perfect example being Meshuggah's most recent album, which I ripped apart and took to task for being sloppy and uninspired.

After another couple of listens now nothing has changed for me with Eat the Elephant. It is a 7 out of 10 album, and just barely at that. Eat the Elephant, Delicious, DLB, and Get the Led Out are entirely forgettable and as I said before I have issue with them putting a copy/paste barely changed version of By and Down on the album. It is incredibly lazy and it surprises me how people are just skimming over it like it is no big deal.
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children
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by children »

Mog, for somebody who claims to despise Bill O'Reilly, you sure do act a hell of a lot like him. That will really piss you off probably lol.

I can feel you shouting over everybody else through the internet, dude. Your opinions are not facts.

7/10 is higher than I expected from you. I would say 8 probably to be honest.

The album is really solid I think. Flows extremely well, in my opinion, and it will only get better from here.
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by lukas »

anyone noticed the ending of "get the lead out" on the vinyl version? it leads the needle into a groove that infinitely loops "get the lead" rather than fading out. pretty cool
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by M0G »

children wrote:Mog, for somebody who claims to despise Bill O'Reilly, you sure do act a hell of a lot like him. That will really piss you off probably lol.

I can feel you shouting over everybody else through the internet, dude. Your opinions are not facts.

7/10 is higher than I expected from you. I would say 8 probably to be honest.

The album is really solid I think. Flows extremely well, in my opinion, and it will only get better from here.
Shouting? Not at all. I think many APC fans are going to look at this album thru rose colored glasses and review it higher than it actually deserves. Many of you really like Maynard, and anything he is involved in you tend to get overzealous about. You are a prime example of this phenomenon.

As for opinions, while everyone is entitled to one, they are certainly not all created equal. Critical analysis is lost on most.

My point is that when reviewing an album you have to remove your personal sentiment. Another example of this is when I reviewed Intronaut's last album. I initially gave it a 7 out of 10 because while each song was individually fantastic, as an album they didn't work. There was no flow and each song sounded like it belonged on a different previous album. There was no central theme to give the album an identity. I later revised my score, giving it a 9, because the songs were just so danm good. Looking back, I regret that. I should have stuck with my initial score.

What I am getting here is that it is possible to greatly enjoy something while being aware that the it, critically, is not a particularly strong piece of work. It is like a Star Wars movie or a Marvel movie. Yeah it might be good fun (occasionally if that is your cup of tea), but you can't compare one of those movies to something like There Will Be Blood or The Departed. There is a level of craftsmanship, pure artistic excellence, that is simply undeniable.

Eat the Elephant is something I am sure many APC fans will enjoy and I respect that. I myself enjoy about half of the tracks on the album. Three of four of them I like quite a bit. But to say it is a GREAT album is simply foolish. A great album requires excellence from beginning to end.

One last thing, to be fair I think we have to look at how we interpret scores when reviewing. For me there is a massive difference between a 7 and 8, just like there is a massive difference between an 8 and a 9, etc etc. When I think of an album rating, 7 would be good, 8 would be great, 9 would be excellent and 10 would be a masterpiece. If I had to go with a five star rating, I would give Eat the Elephant a 3 out of 5.
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by xZ1mM3r »

M0G wrote: One last thing, to be fair I think we have to look at how we interpret scores when reviewing. For me there is a massive difference between a 7 and 8, just like there is a massive difference between an 8 and a 9, etc etc. When I think of an album rating, 7 would be good, 8 would be great, 9 would be excellent and 10 would be a masterpiece. If I had to go with a five star rating, I would give Eat the Elephant a 3 out of 5.
So a 7 is "Good" ... WTF are 1-6 haha.. My interpretation of M0Gs rating system:

1 - Dogshit
2 - Bad
3 - Not Bad
4 - Good
5 - Good
6 - Good
7 - Good
8 - Great
9 - Excellent
10 - Masterpiece

Looks like you reeeaaaalllly stretched the ranks between say 3 and 7 ... Or else your scale is VERY bottom heavy. A Good album comes in at 7?!!?
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Bill Hilly »

I gave the album two listens. One in my truck and the other - full blast with surround sound in my house. I hate to say it, but this is pretty bland and forgettable. It still has some moments that are pretty good. I actually enjoyed Eat the Elephant (the song), Delicious, TalkTalk, The By and Down (remix). The rest is pretty sub-par for me. In 25 years, this the first record that MJK has been a part of that I am not happy with. His track record speaks for itself, and this dud will not change my opinion of his talent. What the hell is that dubstep beat with the sophomoric record scratching on Get the Led Out? This one will not age well. 6/10
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by tys0n »

Get the fuck out of the thread Mog
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M0G
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

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tys0n wrote:Get the fuck out of the thread Mog
Go fuck yourself Tyson
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M0G
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by M0G »

xZ1mM3r wrote:
M0G wrote: One last thing, to be fair I think we have to look at how we interpret scores when reviewing. For me there is a massive difference between a 7 and 8, just like there is a massive difference between an 8 and a 9, etc etc. When I think of an album rating, 7 would be good, 8 would be great, 9 would be excellent and 10 would be a masterpiece. If I had to go with a five star rating, I would give Eat the Elephant a 3 out of 5.
So a 7 is "Good" ... WTF are 1-6 haha.. My interpretation of M0Gs rating system:

1 - Dogshit
2 - Bad
3 - Not Bad
4 - Good
5 - Good
6 - Good
7 - Good
8 - Great
9 - Excellent
10 - Masterpiece

Looks like you reeeaaaalllly stretched the ranks between say 3 and 7 ... Or else your scale is VERY bottom heavy. A Good album comes in at 7?!!?
Didn't bother with 1-6 ...varying degrees of complete shit to mediocre to decent...besides ratings based on a scale of 10 rarely dip below 5, so one could argue a 5 star system is better. Whatever..Eat the Elephant is a 7...just barely...

@Tyson - oh and go fuck yourself, again, just in case you missed it the first time you arrogant cunt
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Busty McCracken »

Did my comment encouraging a bit of argy bargy between these old sparring partners not post correctly or did it get deleted? If so, it's not ok to condone arguing but it's fine to tell someone to go fuck ones self?
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Specter »

tyson, mog- really! Again?! Round 2?

Mog, review albums.
Tyson, keep bringing albums

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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Kittaan »

Let it end there on this thread.

Take it to the Grudge if you want.
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by joeypants »

tys0n wrote:Holy fucking shit, what a fucking album!

I halfarsed listening to the live tracks and songs released thus far as I prefer to sit and listen to an entire album.

This deserves its place as a third proper APC record, it sits perfectly with the other two within evolution of sound yet still sounding like APC.

I enjoyed the second half more than the first, favourite tracks being Delicious, Feathers and Get the lead out.

I have no idea why I wasted my time reading those fucking 'professional' reviews, clearly have never heard APC before.
Tyson nailed it in my opinion. My expectations were in the basement based off snippets. But hearing the whole thing? Kind of blown away (again, lowered expectations and all that)

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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by joeypants »

I mean that last, tasteful heavy bit at the end of hourglass?! My lord. Only APC can muster that one particular sound.
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Ettan »

I love this album. Jesus man everything flows so well, Maynard sounds better than ever. I’m lost for words how much I love it.
- 9/10
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Ettan »

HOLY SHIT
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

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My men!
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by tys0n »

Kittaan wrote:Let it end there on this thread.

Take it to the Grudge if you want.
Fair shake of the sauce bottle Kitto, I just came into this thread this morn and saw ol Moggo shirt fronting poor xZ1mM3r over scoring the album one point higher than he did, went full walk about it as well, poor fella needed to be told to pull his head in and if you mod fellas were doing your jobs I wouldn't have had to said a word, now there is no need to piss on my back and tell me it's raining, strewth, when I see a drongo acting like a drongo I have to call him out on it.
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Kittaan »

Well that mozzie’s often spittin’ the dummy, in’e? Well, no harm, I’m off to brekkie.
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by trilobite »

I dont care how good the album is, that artwork is inexcusable.


The album is good, though. Really fucking good.


It's not Mer de Noms, but it's APC. Sweet, heavy-handed, hazy, harmonic. It's beautiful.

Tyson's right, it's a proper third album. Natural next step. I look forward to hearing it many more times.
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Calfium Jay »

Have now listened a good 5 or 6 times.

All up, it's not bad. I'd give it a Pitchfork score of perhaps 6.8.

Production is nice, but the album as a whole seems to float on by on a cloud without really evoking much thunder and lightning, if you get my drift.

Talk Talk, The Contrarian and Feathers are perhaps mild highlights for me.

Really can't think of much more to say than that....
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Ettan »

I agree with you guys and I think it's the general consensus that the artwork is bad. While I'm not that bothered about it, it still looks bad to look at but w/e no need to bother about it. The music itself makes it up for the artwork IMO.

I really hope they burst out Get the Lead Out in a live setting, sounds like a song that would sound HUGE in a nice venue.

My short review of the album: There is not a single song that I do not like. Maynard sounds better compared to everything i've heard him release since 10k Days, production is great and crisp.
I feel like we got a bit robbed by already having 50% of the songs heard prior to the full album. HOWEVER, hearing the already heard songs in this setting and context changed my perspective of them in a good way and made me appreciate them more.
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Bill Hilly »

After reading all the positive reviews on here, I had to give it a third listen and make sure that the copy I had from Google Play wasn't a decoy album...still 6/10. The music is bordering terrible. Suck it up buttercup.
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Busty McCracken »

Yeah I'd go for a 3 out of 5. Has some solid moments has some weaker moments. I don't love it I don't dislike it. I think in the live setting though the songs will sound great.
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Re: APC - Eat the Elephant Reviews & Discussion

Post by Kittaan »

I’ve listened to it a bunch of times now. I almost always skip multiple songs, which is telling.

There are a few songs that are good start to finish, most have moments, choruses, sections.

There are also some really bad choices musically and compositionally, bordering on the embarrassing. Maynard sounds amazing throughout.

My consensus so far is that with precise editing and splicing, this would have made an amazing EP.

Even the crap songs sounded better live, so I’m sure Ettan will enjoy himself immensely. I wish I could see them again on this tour after hearing the whole album. I also wish I had avoided listening to the tracks they already released.

I’m still cracking up that people on the main Fourtheye page didn’t get the Newbie Attitude joke. Loulz indeed.
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