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Greensleeves is almost 500 years old. I'm sure there were other very popular songs when it came out, but Greensleeves had to staying power to still be here. What do you think is today's Greensleeves? (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Not just a song that can be found in the archives, but one that almost everyone can hum, even today.

(Somebody asked what was meant by "today's...." Throw whatever you want out, somebody tossed out "Love me tender" as being a tune from in the 1860s.)

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Violator is a band asking themselves what they're about and finding a crystal clear answer. The result is deliberately transitional. In going to the extremes, in excising everything that is not strictly necessary, they built a framework for a sound that is distinctly their own, without being more of what they'd already done.

Songs Of Faith And Devotion is bombastic, but all its power is built on that same crisp restraint. Especially in the 90s - it would have been easy to be louder and busier just by adding a little distortion, a little fuzz, a little taste of metal or grunge. Instead they stuck with clean synths and tasteful reverb, but made them fucking hit. (By contrast, see Playing The Angel. Or don't.)

Ultra does the opposite trick, applying that sparse soundscape to more-general instrumentation. It kinda works. Exciter does a better job of it, but still stumbles on tracks like "Dead Of Night" and "Comatose." Good demos! How long until they're complete? Oh. ("Freelove" nearly makes up for all of it.)

Everything after that... look, I actually like Playing The Angel, but I'm the kind of mutant who sincerely argues that Violator was merely okay. And even I can't find any love for Delta Machine.

All their work leading up to Violator was much more organic than how they made Violator. Their masterpiece, in the sense of getting their shit together and being taken seriously, was Construction Time Again, with "Everything Counts" as a tentpole. Some Great Reward was Gore going 'oh we can get real weird with this, huh' and leaning way the hell into the kink and the darkness, god bless him. Black Celebration was the peak of that arc.

Music For The Masses never rises to quite the same level, but in that album you can see the transition forming. "Behind The Wheel" is probably the crescendo of their old sound. Y'know, synthpop where someone's credited for playing the trash can. And then immediately there's "To Have And To Hold," which is maybe one degree too loose for Violator. It is emblematic of the sound they wanted.