Level 42 - superb.

[plastic penguin]

Tastes differ and as the Romans said "I matters of taste there can be no dispute" (De gustibus non est disputandum).

I think there is a natural preference for the music of our youth, mine was the 1960s, and at some point in life most people lose touch with developments in popular culture. I lost touch towards the end of the 1970s. I always try to listen to what is going on but most of it has no resonance with me.

I wonder how much our taste in hifi reflects our taste in music. It seems to me that the majority of people on this forum don't like the same types of music as I do and so for example talk of sub-woofers leaves me cold as I don't need one to listen to a solo lute or a choir singing a 15th century mass.

Chris

That's healthy. If we all like the same thing this world would be drab. In fact we'd all be walking around like robots, and we wouldn't learn anything, surely.

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

Well... you can't over the piece go wrong with 80's music as a whole.... It's WAY better than ANY other era, full stop.

Add to that ... many a song sung ... epecially by females was not as today... it was not all about taking off your clothes and inuendo about body-parts.... today's artists (we'll call em) should act in a like manner instead of so many coming across as tarts.... or like mannered descriptive.

I've kept out of this for as long as I can, now I have to say, there was very little good music in the eighties. Fashion and music wise, it was a dreadful decade.

As for songs not being about sex, or female artists not being tarts, two words, "Relax" and "Madonna".

The eighties was shite.

Come on BBB, there's loads of great and not so good stuff in every decade.

The Smiths, REM, New Order, Talk Talk,Sonic Youth, Pet Shop Boys, Husker Du, The Beastie Boys, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello amongst countless others all released brilliant albums in the 80s. But I'm guessing you were taking aim at the more chart-orientated stuff with which the decade is often associated.

Level 42 were execrable though, I agree. And that's not a matter of taste, it's fact!

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Nice to see BBB giving his usual balanced appraisal.

There was a lot of rubbish in the 70s, the flipside is there was a lot of good stuff too. No different from other decades.

It is a balanced view, because it comes from a lifetime of musical education.

To me, music is about being educated, about being open minded enough to listen to something you've never heard before, something out of your comfort zone, and not a matter of taste.

Taste limits you as a listener. I didn't dismiss all music from the eighties, there are songs and bands I like from the eighties, it was the period of my teenage years.

Level 42 and superb are words I wouldn't associate with each other, this opinion is formed from hearing a lot of their songs, and not a dismissive reaction to their genre. If I heard something I liked by them, I would say so.

So blunt and to the point, yes, but unbalanced, I don't think so.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Well... you can't over the piece go wrong with 80's music as a whole.... It's WAY better than ANY other era, full stop.

Add to that ... many a song sung ... epecially by females was not as today... it was not all about taking off your clothes and inuendo about body-parts.... today's artists (we'll call em) should act in a like manner instead of so many coming across as tarts.... or like mannered descriptive.

I've kept out of this for as long as I can, now I have to say, there was very little good music in the eighties. Fashion and music wise, it was a dreadful decade.

As for songs not being about sex, or female artists not being tarts, two words, "Relax" and "Madonna".

The eighties was shite.

Come on BBB, there's loads of great and not so good stuff in every decade.

The Smiths, REM, New Order, Talk Talk,Sonic Youth, Pet Shop Boys, Husker Du, The Beastie Boys, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello amongst countless others all released brilliant albums in the 80s. But I'm guessing you were taking aim at the more chart-orientated stuff with which the decade is often associated.

Level 42 were execrable though, I agree. And that's not a matter of taste, it's fact!

Charlie, you are undoubtedly a man with an educated ear. Please see my response above to see where I am coming from.

 

[Diamond Joe]

Level 42 were execrable though, I agree. And that's not a matter of taste, it's fact!

A lot of other people of this thread will disagree with you. And BTW how can it possibly be "fact", what nonsense.

 

[plastic penguin]

Well... you can't over the piece go wrong with 80's music as a whole.... It's WAY better than ANY other era, full stop.

Add to that ... many a song sung ... epecially by females was not as today... it was not all about taking off your clothes and inuendo about body-parts.... today's artists (we'll call em) should act in a like manner instead of so many coming across as tarts.... or like mannered descriptive.

I've kept out of this for as long as I can, now I have to say, there was very little good music in the eighties. Fashion and music wise, it was a dreadful decade.

As for songs not being about sex, or female artists not being tarts, two words, "Relax" and "Madonna".

The eighties was shite.

Come on BBB, there's loads of great and not so good stuff in every decade.

The Smiths, REM, New Order, Talk Talk,Sonic Youth, Pet Shop Boys, Husker Du, The Beastie Boys, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello amongst countless others all released brilliant albums in the 80s. But I'm guessing you were taking aim at the more chart-orientated stuff with which the decade is often associated.

Level 42 were execrable though, I agree. And that's not a matter of taste, it's fact!

Charlie, you are undoubtedly a man with an educated ear. Please see my response above to see where I am coming from.

We haven't got an educated ear then? Your responses come across as aggressive and, sometimes, patronising. We all love music for countless reasons, and I even mentioned (much earlier) in the thread this album only usually gets aired once in a blue moon. I was staggered by the sound quality. They were a good band, but nothing more... or less.

 

[MajorFubar]

This thread started off really well, discussing the SQ and mastering quailty of an album from 30 years ago.

Now it's turned into my music vs your music, my decade vs your decade, and as such has now degenerated into a pointless argument with no answer.

If we're talking about personal likes and dislikes (which we didn't start off doing) I think nearly all rap and what they now call R&B is utterly horrid, and if I had to choose between listenening to an hour of opera or drinking a glass of my own wee...pass the glass. But someone else will have a different view, and that's ok too. Diversity is what makes the world go round.

 

[plastic penguin]

This thread started off really well, discussing the SQ and mastering quailty of an album from 30 years ago.

Now it's turned into my music vs your music, my decade vs your decade, and as such has now degenerated into a pointless argument with no answer.

If we're talking about personal likes and dislikes (which we didn't start off doing) I think nearly all rap and what they now call R&B is utterly horrid, and if I had to choose between listenening to an hour of opera or drinking a glass of my own wee...pass the glass. But someone else will have a different view, and that's ok too. Diversity is what makes the world go round.

:clap:

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

This thread started off really well, discussing the SQ and mastering quailty of an album from 30 years ago.

Now it's turned into my music vs your music, my decade vs your decade, and as such has now degenerated into a pointless argument with no answer.

If we're talking about personal likes and dislikes (which we didn't start off doing) I think nearly all rap and what they now call R&B is utterly horrid, and if I had to choose between listenening to an hour of opera or drinking a glass of my own wee...pass the glass. But someone else will have a different view, and that's ok too. Diversity is what makes the world go round.

Diversity makes the world go round, does it? There was me thinking the revolving globe was all down to opinion, invective and wholehearted disagreements.

Yes, I'm being facetious. Regarding geopolitics consensus and tolerance are self-evidently a good thing. But when it comes to matters Level 42, sorry but all reason and fairness fades to nought: they were appalling.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

This thread started off really well, discussing the SQ and mastering quailty of an album from 30 years ago.

Now it's turned into my music vs your music, my decade vs your decade, and as such has now degenerated into a pointless argument with no answer.

If we're talking about personal likes and dislikes (which we didn't start off doing) I think nearly all rap and what they now call R&B is utterly horrid, and if I had to choose between listenening to an hour of opera or drinking a glass of my own wee...pass the glass. But someone else will have a different view, and that's ok too. Diversity is what makes the world go round.

You can not dismiss all rap and modern R&B just from what you have heard. I used to do this, and it limits you to just listening to the same thing over and over, because you know you like it.

Personally, I haven't heard any modern R&B that does it for me, but it doesn't mean I will not listen to new stuff, or stuff I may have missed, that I just might like. I also hated all rap when I was younger, but i came to realise that you can't dismiss a genre of music by what charts, and what gets played on the radio.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

This thread started off really well, discussing the SQ and mastering quailty of an album from 30 years ago.

Now it's turned into my music vs your music, my decade vs your decade, and as such has now degenerated into a pointless argument with no answer.

If we're talking about personal likes and dislikes (which we didn't start off doing) I think nearly all rap and what they now call R&B is utterly horrid, and if I had to choose between listenening to an hour of opera or drinking a glass of my own wee...pass the glass. But someone else will have a different view, and that's ok too. Diversity is what makes the world go round.

But when it comes to matters Level 42, sorry but all reason and fairness fades to nought: they were appalling.

But Charlie, as unlikely as it maybe, there could just be a track you've never heard that isn't awful.

I'm not going to trawl through their albums to find it though, but if I heard one, I wouldn't call it **** if it wasn't.

 

[Frank Harvey]

It is true that we tend to relate to the music that was available when we were growing up, so for me that was 70's-80's. Looking back, I agree there was a lot of rubbish in the 80's, and its this that no one will agree on so there's no point in trying to get one up on each other. Personally, I can understand someone slagging Level 42 if all they heard was from Running In The Family onwards - I think most fans will agree it is their earlier stuff that is superior.

Either way, Level 42 wrote and performed their own stuff, and are still playing live gigs. They are a group of musicians, just like many other groups. I could quite easily state that U2 are a big pile of poo (which is actually my opinion) and are extremely overrated - some will disagree, some will agree. I also think David Bowie and the Rolling Stones are overrated - I'm not going to slag them off because they've been around a long time and are well respected, and they're still performing to huge sell out crowds. But for me they don't seem to have ever produced high quality material representative of their standing within the industry. We like what we like, whether other people feel they're "appalling" or not.

Level 42 are entertaining, host great live gigs, and are made up of decent musicians - one of which (Mark) can play a large number of different instruments. How many musicians can say that? And how many of them have a career that is now in its 4th decade? In fact, come to think about it, there's a very large number of 80's artists who are still around making music - because its what they enjoy, rather than it being a highly paid career. Similarly, how many artists from the past 20 years are still going, whoether successful or not, or just for the love of it? Nowadays, people make music for money, and once they've got some, they're no longer interested.

Similarly, there are people out there who slag off films like Donnie Darko, Fight Club, The Dark Knight etc etc.

Anyway, how about getting back on topic? This is a thread about how good Level 42 are/were. Maybe a new thread could be started about how crap the 80's were, for those that feel that way.

 

[Cypher]

Level 42 is one hell of a band. Best musicians available and fantastic songwriting.

My fave albums ;

Guaranteed (with Allan Holdsworth.........amazing stuff)

Staring At The Sun

but all albums are so good................

 

[MajorFubar]

You can not dismiss all rap and modern R&B just from what you have heard.

I can, simply because I personally don't like that style of singing or music. There's obviously lots who do: artists like Snoop Cents and Fifty Dogg or whatever their names are have sold millions, but it's not for me. Everyone has different tastes, which was the point of my post. Just like Charlie Jefferson's preference is not for Level 42. But unlike him, I don't go saying an artist is rubbish just because I don't like them.

 

[plastic penguin]

Couple of days ago I purchased 'World Machine' on vinyl from a charity shop in the village (50p). It's in superb condition (cover and record).

Gawd, it sounds awesome.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Used to use the track Physical Presence for demo. I used to love the sound of it, particularly the drums in places.

 

[BigH]

Never got into Level 42, they are OK I don't dislike them. I agree with David about music you grow up with there does seem to be something in that. Im a bit older so my teenage diet of music was Pink Floyd, The Who, Led Zepp, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Little Feat, Yes, Tull etc.

After about 1977 I did lose a lot of interest in music.

 

[plastic penguin]

Im a bit older so my teenage diet of music was Pink Floyd, The Who, Led Zepp, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Little Feat, Yes, Tull etc.

After about 1977 I did lose a lot of interest in music.

I was the opposite way round. Grew up with 60s Motown, Stax, The Who, Small Faces.... the 70s, by comparison, was dreary with groups like Smokie, The Sweet, Rubettes, T-Rex... along with EDITED novelty records like Clive Dunn (Grandad), The Wurzels.

There were exceptions such as Minnie Riperton, Kate Bush, Curtis Mayfield, Bowie, early Roxy, Thin Lizzy, Status Quo, Al Green, Marvin Gaye...

The Punk/New Wave stuff revitalised my interest because of the energy. The Jam were reincarnation of The Who and Kinks. Defined my way of life.

 

[mcjwalters]

Am also a fan of Level 42, spoken to Mark King many times, he is a presenter on Isle of Wight radio station,. They are touring Euope at present with a great 80's revival festival that is in UK in August, I think, acts include Mike and the Mechanics, Rick Astley, Boomtown Rats, Thompson Twins, Holly Johnson, UB40, Marc Almond, Roland Gift, Howard Jones, Flock of Seasgulls, Johnny Hates Jazz, Hall and Oats, Billy Ocean, 10cc, Heaven 17, ABC, The Christians etc....

 

[musical0111]

just listening on qobus the level 42 album sounds great as does world michine album .

 

[BigH]

Im a bit older so my teenage diet of music was Pink Floyd, The Who, Led Zepp, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Little Feat, Yes, Tull etc.

After about 1977 I did lose a lot of interest in music.

I was the opposite way round. Grew up with 60s Motown, Stax, The Who, Small Faces.... the 70s, by comparison, was dreary with groups like Smokie, The Sweet, Rubettes, T-Rex... along with EDITED novelty records like Clive Dunn (Grandad), The Wurzels.

There were exceptions such as Minnie Riperton, Kate Bush, Curtis Mayfield, Bowie, early Roxy, Thin Lizzy, Status Quo, Al Green, Marvin Gaye...

The Punk/New Wave stuff revitalised my interest because of the energy. The Jam were reincarnation of The Who and Kinks. Defined my way of life.

Thats interesting, the 70s for me was all about albums, never liked all that singles stuff.

 

[vayta]

My absolute favourite Level 42 album on vinyl is Early Tapes. Love it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Early_Tapes

 

[knaithrover]

awful music awful awful band IMO - just saying.....

Rain Dogs = Album of the 80's

It's all just opinions though, one mans meat is another man's mustard

 

[alchemist 1]

Im a bit older so my teenage diet of music was Pink Floyd, The Who, Led Zepp, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Little Feat, Yes, Tull etc.

After about 1977 I did lose a lot of interest in music.

I was the opposite way round. Grew up with 60s Motown, Stax, The Who, Small Faces.... the 70s, by comparison, was dreary with groups like Smokie, The Sweet, Rubettes, T-Rex... along with EDITED novelty records like Clive Dunn (Grandad), The Wurzels.

There were exceptions such as Minnie Riperton, Kate Bush, Curtis Mayfield, Bowie, early Roxy, Thin Lizzy, Status Quo, Al Green, Marvin Gaye...

The Punk/New Wave stuff revitalised my interest because of the energy. The Jam were reincarnation of The Who and Kinks. Defined my way of life.

You forgot the mighty SLADE..........

 

[stevebrock]

Couple of days ago I purchased 'World Machine' on vinyl from a charity shop in the village (50p). It's in superb condition (cover and record).

Gawd, it sounds awesome.

PP - we agree on something

I did the same - £1 from Langley Mill Records, gobsmacked how good this LP sounds - so rich, with lots of body - that vinyl for ya