5
votes
~music Listening Club 14 - Public Strain
We're at week 14, friends. Here we've got this week's user-voted record: Public Strain by Women!
Taken from @Cleb's pitch:
Noisy post-punk that sounds exactly like the image the cover depicts: Marching your way through a cold wasteland in the middle of a blizzard. It builds a wonderfully hopeless atmosphere and comes together so well.
Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the artist, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with Public Strain. Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and comment at any point in the week!
If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on most platforms here.
I had no idea what post-punk was so had no idea what to expect from this album, and not being a huge fan of punk music (which is basically what I expected to hear) I thought I would dislike it. But I was actually pleasantly surprised and quite enjoyed this very "experimental" feeling album.
It was incredibly discordant with harsh, clashing and often jarring guitar riffs/notes, droning drum beats and overly echoey vocals but yet somehow it was still incredibly pleasant to listen to. It felt a bit like listening to The Beatles as if in a dream (or if they were trapped down a mineshaft ;). My only criticism would be that every song felt pretty similar and I don't think it will have much repeat listenability for me because of that.
p.s. China Steps was by far my favorite track but I don't even really know why.
I'm glad you dove into this despite not knowing what post-punk was, and I'm even gladder that you actually enjoyed it!
I love how discordant and harsh it feels, like I've said before I really love how it feels exactly like the cover looks. I'm not sure I'd say the same thing about it being the Beatles, but it does certainly have some kind of a really unhinged dream-like feeling to it. Every song is pretty similar, yeah, but I think that's mostly due to the 2nd half where the songs start to kind of not-quite completely flow into one another, but feel more connected compared to the first half.
So much so that I have actually gone back and listened to several of the tracks again a few times since then... so I guess I was wrong about repeat listenability... Something definitely struck a chord with me from this album that keeps me coming back to some of the songs. So thanks for sharing it. :)
This is only my second listen, but I really do love this album. I can't wait to listen to it once it starts to look like the cover outside. The "lonely walk through a snowy night" test really helps break in a lot of albums that I otherwise think sound good but can't attach emotion to beyond the feeling of "hey, this is cool!"
And god damn does this sound cool. When I heard this the first time (recently), it was like I actually got the feeling back from when I first listened to a lot of the canonized classic albums, with how it feels like it's just overflowing with nuances that make every listen unique. I guess that doesn't sound all that different from just saying that it seems like it has a lot of replay value, but it feels differently to me.
I love this album a lot. It used to be something that I would have considered in my top 10 favorite albums of all time, and it no longer sits there, but it has a really strong presence in my collection of albums that just seem like such a vivid experience that it might as well be the soundtrack to an event. In this case, I like to think of it as the cover: A trip through a frozen wasteland where you may or may not die at the end.
It's noisy, it's dissonant, a lot of the time it's hard to understand anything being said, and it feels harsh and unforgiving while also feeling like it draws me in. It's an experience somewhat akin to a dream that makes you question whether you're truly awake or not, but never quite doing anything odd enough to make you go "ok this isn't real". In my opinion, the album really pulls itself together in the 2nd half, though the first is great as well, and starts a wonderful string of songs all the way from China Steps to Eyesore. It's a wonderful modern post-punk album.