Well, considering I am bored, the wife is watching the idiot box, I thought I would share some thoughts on Apollo 18.

I hated it for a decade. Really. After TMBG/Lincoln/Flood, I wanted to like this. I didn't. I hated it so much I consigned it to the depths of my vinyl collection. I only dug it out about a year ago, and realised I had misjudged it. Else I have got more tolerant. I also discovered nestling in there 12"s of 'The Guitar' and 'The Statue Got Me High'. I don't recall listening to them. Ever. 'The Guitar' disappointed me as it was all just remixes, no special B-sides like all other TMBG releases.

No so much a reivew as I might have been wrong for 10 years.

Having said that, I liked 'Mink Car' from when I bought it. Or was bought it. On shiny disc, not my beloved black plastic.

Go figure, huh?

Maybe there was something particular you wanted to forget about Apollo 18. An unpleasant association, frinstance. Or maybe you just spilled coffee on it and couldn't be bothered to clean it up. Or you hated Mammal.

Mink car is much easier to get into. ^_^

I love Apollo 18, but I can understand why some people might hate it.
Many of the songs have a slightly nasty edge to them, rarer on previous albums, but you can't carry on with sweet&light forever. Some people don't like the Johns getting other people added

post more later

I must admit, I did find Apollo hard going at first, but John Henry nearly turned me off Them. Close one, that. In fact, I look back on Apollo as one of their finest, and as for nasty edges, TMBG has much nastier edges than A18.

Name one! :D

*cough* I Be An Retarded *cough*

:D

Absolutely Bill's mood is the one I found particularly sinister.

I love Absolutely Bills Mood, it's just mad! (Like me) :D

Is I Be An Retarded actually by TMBG?

I think its just one of those things that They got the blame for wrongly.

TMBG didn't do I Be An Retarded (at least I don't think they did, the Johns aren't that insensitive). I just thought it would be funny to bring it up again in a different topic.

I find ABM absolutely hilarious! B) I don't see it's all that unpleasant.
A really sinister song (I love it) is 'Hide Away Folk Family'. All the lyrics seem to have nasty implications. :mellow:

Yeah, that too. And nothings gonna change my clothes.

Not to say i don't like them.

I think the end of When It Rains It Snows implies something a tad sinister, but who can resist such lullaby-like singing?

:music: There's a nut with a shot gun bang, bang, bang... :music:

^_^

If you're gonna count that as sinister, you'll count everthing by TMBG :D .
I think When It Rains... is spoofing every lullaby that's been.

I to didn't like Apollo 18 when I first got it, maybe it was just that some of the songs started out slow. Then I heard Turn Around live on the clock radio, and wondered where it was from, when the actual song was right under my nose the whole time. Now I listen to the entire album and and enjoy all the songs on it. See the Constellation is probably my favorite song on the album that is not on the DaS Compilation.

I got Apollo as the followup to Flood when it was new, loved it - still love it. But its not as good as Flood or Lincoln. It feels like it was somewhat thrown together in the wake of Flood's huge success.

Lincoln and Flood are the best.

Here's a take on Apollo 18 that I never got (considering my first copy was on cassete tape):

" ..on the Apollo 18 CD were under 30 seconds long. You're supposed to play the disc in shuffle mode and find the randomly-interspersed jingles amusing. "

So thats what Fingertips is seperate tracks on the CD for!

I never actually tried that... not yet anyway. Must do B)

Sometimes it's just annoying. You'll get like one full length song followed by three Fingertips in a row. Of course, there's no way to really control where they wind up on shuffle mode, but it would be nice if there was a way to randomly stick them in between each song.

It's an entertaining idea. I think I would suffer from idente fixe if I tried it.

I like having it mixed like that. At the same time I like the fingertips all in a bunch. Either way, it changes so quick you don't have time to get bored. ^_^