Pro Patria Mori

[Wabbit]

Listening to it now...
like Lift Me Up and Raindrop on the Sun... high voice on PPM a bit of a shock after
hearing it live without...
Party's over is sad likeit though..... very solo Mac
wasn't sure about Me and David Bowie but it grew on me towards the end...
I like the lyrics on Somewhere In My Dreams....
Yeah overall I like it on first listen....

sorry for new thread but somehow can't post on the other one

[Voodoo Billy]

sorry for new thread but somehow can't post on the other one

I think it may have been sabotaged by our american friends as it was getting a bit too positive.

[crystal89]

Where's Wendy when you need her?

The album is very good. 7/8 out of 10.

[Dave Smith]

I think it may have been sabotaged by our american friends as it was getting a bit too positive.

lol.Too true.yep 7-8/10.Good stuff

[Wabbit]

I think it may have been sabotaged by our american friends as it was getting a bit too positive.

do you know.... I think you're right......I thought I had been banned for a minute...

[CC Ward]

By way of introducktion, I'm a long-time Bunnyfan from the Colonies. I purchased, on a whim, a vinyl copy of Crocodiles in 1980 which saw so much needle-time it needed replaced the next year, which I did on the same day I bought HUH.

So I'm going to address the knee-jerk negativity that has been leveled at Pro Patria Mori, mainly by Amerifans like me:

If one could wear digital files out in the same manner as records, my PPM would already be crackling -- I've played it A BUNCH since getting it Thursday; I fucking HEART this album. No, there are no "kerrang moments" -- but that's OK. One thing about Mac, one of the things that makes him the genius he is, is that he never forgets that edginess alone is not what gets a record stuck in your head and wins it a place in your heart. Mac knows a song needs hooks and texture, and that a record needs unified production values and a singular identity. He obviously didn't feel the need to make it a sequel to The Fountain, and it's clearly not an Electrafixion album, so why should it sound like one?

I'm roughly the same age as Mac. I can tell you that it's embarrassing when our peers put out records that are shameless retreadings of their glory days or laughable attempts at co-opting the current styles. Mac, thankfully, has made a smart and dignified Mac record; he has not given us a pastiche of pierced-peepee-and-full-body-tattoo crap-metal, nor has he done a "Gee, wasn't Ocean Rain swell? Remember '84? It never got any better, did it?" nostalgia-fest wank opera. Nor would he. Which is why I'm a fan; he leaves the looking like a posing cunt biz to Julian Cope, the "Look at me, I swear I'm still relevant!" act to Robert Pollard and the pretentiousness to Sting and Bono. In other words; still the real deal. A rock star's rock star.

PPM's peer list, by my reckoning, includes all the best records by Scott Walker and Richard Hawley -- it playlists well with these guys, as well as being a thematic cousin to Candleland. It's fucking brilliant, in other words.

Standouts: "Fiery Flame", "Raindrop on the Sun" and "Somewhere in my Dreams".

[bunnygod1]

i wouldnt argue with too much of what you said there cc, welcome to VT as well

[JackT]

So I'm going to address the knee-jerk negativity that has been leveled at Pro Patria Mori, mainly by Amerifans like me:

Thanks for the detailed review.

Would you classify your assessment as knee-jerk positivity?

[Malbert]

knee-jerk negativity

I would have passed if I would have known ahead of time it was going to be described as "childrens' nursery rhymes". I got no issues with the music, as I said previously. And I gave it a fair turn before commenting.

[JackT]

I think Mac's lyrics have always had a nursery-rhyme quality. I've described them as "chant-like". Songs like "Heaven Up Here" and "The Puppet" spring immediately to mind.

[Malbert]

I think Mac's lyrics have always had a nursery-rhyme quality. I've described them as "chant-like". Songs like "Heaven Up Here" and "The Puppet" spring immediately to mind.

I just feel like his lyrics are so much simpler now. I'm not a songwriter, so I can't say I know how it feels to crank one out, but it just seems like his use of words is primitive. Others will disagree.....I'm just opining.

[Crystal Days]

You've never cranked one out?

[JackT]

You've never cranked one out?

Malbert can get it whenever she wants it.

[CC Ward]

Thanks for the detailed review.

Would you classify your assessment as knee-jerk positivity?

Oh, no. A philosophical quandary here: Can an assessment actually be reactive? Can I safely engage in philosophical discourse without a conundrum?

But seriously. I didn't, at any point before hearing it, expect that it was going to suck. 'Coz there's only ever been one record by any Bunnymen that ever did, and that was all Burke's doing. So maybe it was a bit of knee-jerk positivity. But if it HAD sucked, I'd have admitted it.

[CC Ward]

I just feel like his lyrics are so much simpler now. I'm not a songwriter, so I can't say I know how it feels to crank one out, but it just seems like his use of words is primitive. Others will disagree.....I'm just opining.

Less metaphorical imagery, to be certain. But it's an interesting change, I think.