[kj] Anniversaries - Brighter 86 / Democracy 96 / Hosannas 06

Tue Apr 12 17:14:36 EDT 2016

Totally with Jamie on this.  The Brighter gigs were amazing - from Reading Festival through to the December Palais gig.  The band were incredibly tight, and the album tracks were far punchier live than the studio mixes might suggest.  That said, I'm still very fond of the studio versions.  OK, so they sound like something released in 1986 (unlike the timeless quality of the first two albums, for instance) but still bona fide eighties Joke.

-----Original Message-----
From: fatpotanga . <fatpotanga at gmail.com>
To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!) <gathering at misera.net>
Sent: Tue, 12 Apr 2016 17:38
Subject: Re: [kj] Anniversaries - Brighter 86 / Democracy 96 / Hosannas 06

Btats is a wonderful album. It was very good live. So there. I think the cd with what were B sides added (victory, ecstacy, goodbye to the village etc)  probably taints the experience a little.
Democracy was a complete disappointment - would love to hear it with all the loops Youth removed but that ain't gonna happen.
Ho's-Anus (as raven once referred to it on here) is killing joke at their most destructive. It's not a bad album (terrible mix - car speaker ffs?!) but for me epitomises the fat drunkenness of the time. If raven hadn't have passed it would have marked the beginning of the end. I didn't like the direction they were headed. The video to the title track is almost as embarrassing as the SOJA rap.
On 12 Apr 2016 17:15, "wessidetempest ." <wessidetempest at hotmail.com> wrote:

BTATS is the most consistent album of the three. My least favorite of that era and I like the songs more live. 

Democracy has some solid songs with some filler and goofy production. You can tell everyone was burned out on each other and Killing Joke as a whole. 

Hossannass is my least favorite even it had some of thee best Geordie riffs ever. It's a "could've been so much more" kind. Record. Songs are to long. Recording stinks. Jaz is probably at his worst vocally and lyrically. You can tell they blew all of the production money on cigars and brandy and whatever else. 

On Apr 12, 2016, at 3:50 AM, C Jr <nomeanswhat at gmail.com> wrote:

BTATS - a good album, some pretty solid songs, despite the 'poppier' sound, production and textures... its heart is in the right place, good lyrics and mood throughout... Neither their best, nor worst... A logic and understandable step in the band's evolution, I'd say.

DEMOCRACY - one of my favorite KJ albums... I love almost everything about it, even the murky production... had Mass and Four Stations made the cut, it would probably be my favorite of the bunch.

HFTBOH - I concur that most of the songs are a bit too long, still, I like the album... it's a step down from 2003's return, but also a necessary transition into Absolut Dissent territory.

Apart from OTG, KJ is yet to disappoint me.

mvh
-Jr.

On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 6:08 AM, T.B. <planetary at socal.rr.com> wrote:

For me, Id rank these three from best to worst as:

Democracy - I actually love about half this album.  The drums are kind of plodding and indistinct, buried in the wall of sound production (that reminds me of Steve Brown's work on The Cult's aborted "Peace" album) on most tracks but the title track, Absent Friends and Lanterns are standouts that I never get tired of hearing. If "Mass" and Four Stations Of The Sun" had made the album instead of a couple lesser tracks, this would rank much closer to Pandemonium.

Hosannas - Probably the closest thing to hearing Geordie's raw demos.  It's far from a good album, but some songs have an almost hypnotic quality, "Judas Goat" being the best example.  I'd almost like to hear this album with no vocals, it would probably work better for me.

Brighter Than A Thousand Suns - I actually went and pulled my original EG cd of this album today and attempted to give it a listen for the first time in several years....  I (still) really do not like anything about this album, the dated production, especially regarding the drums and the synth-heavy angle they took with this album utterly kill this one for me.  I never would have guessed Big Paul played on this album without looking at the credits.  For me, this album is in a dead heat with Outside The Gate as worst KJ album - I suppose it's no shock they are consecutive albums in the bands period of steep creative decline.

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