honestly just love how he's got a career's worth of avant-garde contemporary shit, and just happens to have like, a handful of utterly perfect song-focused albums on the back burner.
@@motherfinestudios nice! Thanks for supporting my laziness. Rabbit hole commence! wow first stab at the search result: watch?v=D0S2aVUUGNs "Wild Sound" by Glenn Kotche Another group is playing but thanks again!
Jim Orrk is honest and weird like David Bowie. He plays guitar like Neil Young. He writes words like Phillip Larkin. He constructs the overall sound of an album with the attention to detail of Brian Eno. He shuns fame and makes for the sake of making, like all the best artists. He produced some of the finest albums of a generation, from Wilco to Joanna Newsom to Sonic Youth. And that's the least of what he does. Everything in this record is perfect, from the landslide drums of the track one to the Keiji Haino noise outro of the ending. A signpost for the future from Japan.
I agree with everything you said....but Jim moved to japan awhile back...and if your going to get onto great Japanese artist check out the truly Cornelius!!!! Hes fantastic
@@barryvestal4330 Yes, that's why i mentioned both Japan and his sometime collaborator, Haino! And as for Cornelius - I'm from the generation that had Point on CD, where you had to remove the jewel case tray under the the disc to reveal a beautiful technicolour secret image. Point is an all-time classic.
I grew up with Jim in the Thrill Jockey arena. These will always be in my top 5. Sometimes God speaks and its the best listening party you've ever had.
I just rediscovered this again today on RU-vid after not listening to it for over a decade, and MAN this totally soundtracked an entire section of my twenties. The nostalgia hit me like a freight train. Such a brilliant record. Shame it's not on Spotify.
This guy just gets down to it, in every way, in so many different genres of music. Remarkable artist. Loved him for decades now. Come back to the US and play some shows!
"It would be so nice if you weren't here, empty air where you use to stand like an empty plate that gets bussed away." This line from Good Times just gets me.
koolaidman52 he'll of a lyric to end this album. This is one huge layered onion of an album. I could peel and peel, and always find new and different takes on this glorious album.
This is super satisfying music. It's definitely made by someone who is both a huge fan of music and someone who is a great musician and knows what satisfies someone who loves music too.
Possibly my favorite album of all time, Jim O'rorurke has always been a master craftsman when it comes to relatable lyrics and catchy melodies. Such a great record too, hopefully it'll come to spotify soon!
Hooked on this since the summer of 2002. This one (and Halfway to a Threeway, and Bad Timing) on CD, repeating forever. I complain about the fact that’s it’s still unavailable to stream...but i listen to it more often because it ain’t.
Maxwell Harris honestly its kind of a blessing its not on streaming services because I don’t over play it. Would love to see it come to spotify or apple music tho
Jim O'Rourke is quite unique in his sound. You can see the cross pollen shit going on between John McEntire of Sea and Cake, when they combined with Gastr Del Sol, which is a great band as well. Jim going solo, though, I feel allowed him to explore sound and instrumentalization on a different level. He obviously used a lot of pedal work, and waxed between gentle melodics and full on rock and roll. It's immensely complex and a pure joy to listen to. Especially on a really good set of headphones.
An album I discovered as a kid and keep coming back to. Every period of life I return to it it has new meaning and enjoyment. One of my favorite straight rock albums of all time. It’s also easy to get people into it, it straight up rocks.
Drank a case of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale unintentionally when listening to this for the first time at my pal’s Barnes’ house and it was like being booted into another cosmos. We did share the case.
This album should’ve been much bigger. He made back to back great albums, got good reviews, but didn’t seem to get the attention he deserved. Maybe that’s why he joined Sonic Youth. Those last few albums with him are pretty great
I've always wondered about this myself. Definitely one of the best albums of the aughts--perhaps even better than Eureka. But--in gets me thinking--was Jim always just trying to be willfully obscure? Obscurely wilful? One of the two, but fame eluding him I never gathered was a sore spot at all.
Never cared about fame and largely discredits these albums in interviews, his real passion is computer music and free improvisation judging by the 10000000 steamroom, noise and improv releases prior to and after those albums
This is such a special record. One for the time capsule. Just copped the repress too after so many years of missing out on a copy. ‘Therefore, I Am’ is the lyrical equivalent of a Larkin poem. Amazing.
@@ebonylightrainvampire6894 Honestly i prefer listening here. Lol. I guess i'm old school...but all my friends are in these comments. There's my wife comparing him to david bowie and my son saying it reminds him of stereolab..he's kinda st8pid
[Verse 1] Me, I'm getting better everyday That's what I said, don't believe what you've heard It's not like I want to be king But I can't help myself, it's just that I am [Verse 2] Sorry, but I found someone new to spend time Instead on you, I spend it with me You see, I've travelled round the world, oh yeah I've seen so many things, why am I talking to you? [Chorus] Why do you hide behind somebody else There's one too many in this room and I think it's you [Verse 3] As you can see, I'm a happy guy Don't need nothin' to get me down, 'cause I'll always have you We are on a sinking ship But I'd like to stay on board and shoot the cannons at you [Chorus] Why do you hide behind somebody else There's one too many in this room and I think it's you
I knew life's secret lay behind the change in Bad Timing's 2nd song, but then this album blew me out of the goddamn water like a shark named Jaws. I forgot how much I loved Jon and Jim until again just now. I love you for the music....
Its a song about someone dying. I got a chemotherapy beginning tomorrow and this song scares the shit out off me too lmao. masterpiece like so much of his other work, I hope he's having his best time in Japan ❤❤❤ Edit: I wonder if the last part is from the inner pov or from the frenetic happening around - "if I were to die with these things gone, I'd be frozen with a smile" ❤❤❤
@@locke_d thanks mate, got my own personal chemical Christmas tree rn, product pumps and infusion bags included lmao The kind of cancer I got has high recovery rates, I am confident that I get out healthy on the other side of the chemo cycles ❤️❤️❤️
Can anyone think of the song he's referencing with the "Woo Hoo" bit? I can only think of Pavement with a similar bit in one their tunes, but I'm sure it goes back further and funnier than that... Cheap Trick? KISS??
what other records of his are like this? I caught "Good Times" playing at the end of the LOVE LIZA film recently and had to have more... Loving this album but looking quickly into his discography I notice that its insanely large and not everything he records is like this obviously. Any tips?
Somewhat similar: Eureka, Simple Songs, Halfway to a Threeway. The Visitor and Bad Timing are instrumental but have sort of similar instrumentation, and are quite good. Pretttty much everything else is much more experimental ambient / noise. Still good but potentially less up your alley. I'd also recommend Wilco's album A Ghost is Born, produced by Jim and certainly inspired by this album.
I second the recommendation on his other Drag City records (I think Simple Songs is pretty underrated). I'd also point you in the direction of Sam Prekop's self-titled effort and in particular Smog's "Red Apple Falls" - Jim O produced both of those albums and you can clearly hear his influence. And I almost forgot - Gastr del Sol's "Camofleur" (his collab with David Grubbs, like Insignificance but with more avant-garde flourishes).
Carl Linveld yeah, love it so much. Can’t stand that “punchy” modern sound. I can already tell that shit is going to age about as well as 80s hair metal
The 90's certainly produced such great and diverse artists, esp in the US americana scene, Smog, Flaming Lips, Wilco, Yo lo tengo, Will Oldham, Jim O'Rourke, Grant Lee Buffalo, 16 Horsepower, Sufjan Stevens, John Grant, Dinosaur Jnr, Sonic Youth, and countless others. Such a rich decade creatively.
Great album. This + Eureka + Bad Timing +’Halfway to a Threeway are melodic gems. Everything else Jim has done is horrible atonal shite (sorry Jim...) but everyday we should give thanks for the beauty that Jim O’Rourke has left with us.
![Jim O'Rourke - Insignificance [Full Album]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
