`Tales Of Us` - Reviews By Us

Sartori

Well , I can`t recall the psychoanalyst (?) who said it but to paraphrase as best I recall "another name for a cynic is a realist" , so it wasn`t really meant as a rib poke ;) . I appreciate the difference in how art is perceived and appreciated for people with different backgrounds , our difference is our perception of motive and agenda of Alison and Will . One persons "playing to your strengths" is anothers "here we go again" , but as mentioned a couple of posts back , the songs themselves have to be good , its no use being sponsored by Pritt and being like the English football team - great on paper and shit on anything else ..

iuventus

Sartori said:
Well , I can`t recall the psychoanalyst (?) who said it but to paraphrase as best I recall "another name for a cynic is a realist";

That's when it's perceived from the outside. When one boasts about how cynical he is, it's usually pseudo-intellectualism.

error60091

@saizo: haha!! yeah, saw this but the version where it stops at her legs burning...

matching pink clothes tells me her twerk was more of a script than a fail..

Jozzy81 · Post edited by Jozzy81 at 2013-09-20 16:31:35

One word = Epic

Low

Jozzy81 said:
One word = Epic

That makes for a stunning wallpaper.

cw37frapp

Jozzy81 said:
One word = Epic

Love that shot

stevil

Jozzy81 said:
One word = Epic

this really says it all doesn't it.....the album/performances/films are beyond stellar....

Jozzy81

thanks people for liking my posted photo :-bd

Jozzy81 said:

One word = Epic

thanks people for liking my posted photo
:-bd

Ponygurl

@la_catalina "You can sell your soul to the Devil in so many ways"

...And I'm here to save it. I remember when I saw Prince perform with "The New Power Generation" back in late 90's (?) Everyone was screaming for Little Red Corvette, Purple Rain and other early hits. He literally stopped playing, got pissed off and shouted "This ain't 1984 people!"

Alison has evolved, she's different on every album...because she's a different person. If anything music conveys a message to me, a feeling, an emotion. It is divine communication on so many levels. I'm interested in "what is she saying this time around?" TOU is so subtle, gentle..but some of it's subject matter dark. She likes to sing about dark feelings in opposing tones. (ie...the light, joyous beat of "Rocket" about sending someone away eternally for hurting her.) She has grown here though. She has something to say of importance. I know there is "art for arts sake"...but isn't it better when it relays a truth about something? I am interested in truth. Anything that gets me closer is certainly evolution.

la_catalina

Truth

is a diffucult one. I don't believe there can be much of a case made for 'truth' existing, except in maybe a personal context, and perhaps with regard to some scientific proofs (maybe).

And, considering she's singing with other peoples perspectives on this album, (which is a first for her) she's about as far away from any concept of truth as one can get. . So I don't think she's imparting any great truths here. She's conveying her imagined responses of others,(unless of course she is actually quoting their words) now they may be interesting and perhaps for some, moving, and therefore resonant, to some listeners. This is for you is divine communication.

Divine communication? Not sure I believe in this. I think there are instances where artists sometimes convey an underlaying awareness of (the shared sense of) the unconscious 'Other' that is buried in everyone. That may seem like it's divine but, again, it's very much subjective.

As you say she has a tendency to do the opposite musically to what she's trying convey, A&E does this too, so she indulges in musical sarcasm.

Music and art, are subjective at best, and art for art's sake may strive, or have pretentions to being objective, but overall, it's all points of view. Nowt more. Truth is the same;

Best voice on that is a qoute from a Cherokee artist, he's speaking of one of his uncles who told him's

" There's really not such a thing as truth, but we usually can know when a lie is being told"

Now that IS profound insight!

Sartori

I`ll rewrite my review , its some songs on a cd , some will like it , some will overthink it and place imaginary or real layers on it and still like it or won`t .

Ponygurl

@la_catalina " There's really not such a thing as truth, but we usually can know when a lie is being told"

Yes, but there is truth in the lie. Fear. Truth makes you vulnerable. Even if these collection of songs aren't directly about her, the stories that they are based on have inspired or touched her in some way. I talk about truth because integrity means "the quality of being honest." I think she may be closer to integrity than you actually realise.

la_catalina

I wouldn't disagree with you PonyGurl. I think she's doing what she wants to do and it's clear that the subject matter moves her.

There's a kind of intended integrity at work on the album too, although , here the operative word is 'intended'

I'm going with Sartori on this.

its some songs on a cd , some will like it , some will overthink it and place imaginary or real layers on it and still like it or won`t .

whisperit

la_catalina said:

...considering she's singing with other peoples perspectives on this album...she's about as far away from any concept of truth as one can get. . ... She's conveying her imagined responses of others...

So how does that differ from, say, a novelist? Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina from a variety of "other people's perspectives", he had the audacity to take on the persona of an upper class woman for a start - imagining and representing their emotions, their thoughts, their reality.

Does this make Anna Karenina "as far away from any concept of truth as one can get"?

That's a ridiculous proposition.

Alison is not purporting to represent the actual thoughts and feelings of real people - even in the couple of tracks which appear to be based around real life stories. Instead, she is using the stories as launching off points to explore the business of being human. Crucially, she is doing this from a perspective of solidarity and inclusion - they are "Tales of Us", because we are all human.

No doubt your intentions are sincere, la_catalina. But like someone once said, "here the operative word here is intended". Having to borrow the credibility of Native American "wisdom" to bolster your position is always a sign of a weak argument!

la_catalina · Post edited by la_catalina at 2013-09-25 14:01:13

I am not borrowing anything from a 'Native American' - that name is distasteful to many it is applied to.

" none of the names you call us are names we call ourselves" he, not his uncle said that....but yes I'm guilty of calling him a Cherokee, but I'm sure he won't mind me calling him that, as he uses it ironically himself.

I merely thought his uncle had a great idea, and I give hm credit for it, not wishing to take from a people who have had so much taken from them already. His uncle had a good idea about truth...

You prove to me truth is real and I might believe in it. There is no truth, just endless subjective viewpoints, sometimes there are many of these that are in agreement, this is called consensus, but that is all....an agreement of approximation...

Nor I would ever buy into the largely Western/European New Age notion of 'Native American' Wisdom, a term that is fraught with the disguised racism that intends so well but is a symptom of the same old crap....

Of course Anna Kerenina is far from truth, truth is a fiction, which incidently is what Tolstoy wrote

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