If Live Returned To Their Roots for the Next Album..., ...What "Roots" Should They Return To? Options

[edstipe]

This is purely hypothetical, because there is nothing to indicate that Live would ever try to return to any of their old styles again.

However, I have heard some discussion on this board in the past about Live returning to their "roots," and it got me thinking about what specific roots I would most like to see Live return to. Clearly, their first four albums were incredibly different stylistically from one to the next, so it would be hard to pinpoint any specific "style" of the band's early albums.

So, out of the four albums listed, which style would you most like to see Live return to someday?

(By the way, I cut it off with Secret Samadhi because, although I think TDTH is brilliant, I feel that it is their first record that is more a blending of previous styles than a new style altogether.)

[Alex]

I want to emphasize that I really like Secret Samadhi for what it is, a good album, just not a great album. However, I can't help but think of the lost oppurtunities they had with the band swelling their audience and becoming _THE_ next big band which everyone was predicting after the 1-2 punch of MJ and TC.

I don't know what your basis of judgement is on SS not being a 'great' album. Relatatively, in comparison to MJ and TC, it has a similar balance of strong/weak songs, and it works just as cohesively as an album. The lyrics might not be to everyones tastes, but they're much more about the sound of the words in a musical form than a literary accomplishment.

And I don't think that many people even knew of Mental Jewelry after Live got big with TC. I've heard TC referred to as Lives first album more than once, and many people have had surprised reactions in the past when I've mentioned Lives first album.

I remember being so psyched for SS since it had been nearly 3 years since TC and then hearing Lakini's Juice on the radio and thinking how pretentious it was with the string arrangement. Could never get into that song. Freaks is also another novelty song that they probably hoped would be a "Shit Towne" type of track, yet should have been left as a b-side when it was wisely left off TC.

I think 'pretentious' is a rather redundant term for the description of music... especially in this case. Prententious (and who is anyone to claim that a song is based on pretence...) music is often synomous with overblown, or 'self-indulgent' music (another pretty ridiculous term that's become hip to swing around...).

Lakini's Juice, though I'd definitely describe it as a 'big' song, is hardly pretentious. It, personally, is probably my favourite Live song. I connect with it more than I do a lot of Live's material; and the lyrics play little part in that. I love the string arrangement, and wish Live would do more of that style.

I can see what you mean with the comparison of Freaks to Shit Towne. For me though, the strength of the vocal melody and the somewhat unusual bridge/chorus brings Freaks to a level above that of Shit Towne. The production of Secret Samadhi kind of erases the jokey/novelty sound of it for me anyway.