Take It From The Man

I wish I enjoyed Rolling Stones records as much as I enjoy the mid-90’s BJM records - which are pretty clearly and heavily indebted to the Stones, but, imo, end up being much more than mere facsimiles of the Rolling Stones. Take It From the Man is a great garage/psych record. I also would recommend “Their Satanic Majesties Second Request” (also from 1996), if this one piqued your interest.

This was a surprise. While the write ups had me expecting it to sound very Rolling Stones - and it did - I didn’t expect to like it as much as I do! Monkey Puzzle was a real cowbell jam… terrific!

Yeah, Anton Newcombe has always been a dick, but this record (just like two or three other LPs within BJM's long discography) is iconic enough to justify its presence in a list such as this one. I unfortunately don't have the time to elaborate today, but "take it from the man": this one's most probably a keeper. 4/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums.. 9/10 for more general purposes (5 + 4) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ----- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 54 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 72 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 129 --- Émile. Ça y est, j'ai *enfin* répondu (en deux temps). Tu trouveras ça sous les reviews des disques de Blackalicious et Alexisonfire au dessus.

I too love The Rolling Stones

90’s inspired stones music yes please.

Excellent submission. This is what user submissions are about. Does this deserve to be on the original list? Probably not. But highly listenable. The Bowie song made it, and kept it a 4.

Good stuff. 4 stars.

As far as I know, I hadn't listened to The Brian Jonestown Massacre before. My first take was that "Take It From The Man" sounded very late 60s, Rolling Stones, blues and psychedelic rock inspired. Which would make sense since the band took part of their name from a Rolling Stone member. But it turns out that wasn't really their original sound or direction. The day after listening to this album, I heard the song "Anemone" on the radio. That song has a much more shoegaze style. Supposedly their earlier work was more shoegazey, but "Anemone" is from the album after this one where the psychedelic shift occurred. So I gave up trying to understand the style shifts and considered whether I'd really never heard BJM or heard much about them. It was at that point that I remembered something about a mid-concert on stage fight in Australia. Turns out that was about BJM! It's unclear which band member was at fault. But lead singer Anton Newcombe has been the band's only consistent member over their 35 year history. One other original member has returned to the band, but the rest has a long history of rotating members. Is it something about Anton? BJM had a rep for being transgressive and provocative and pushing boundaries. Fairly normal for young alt rock bands. But maybe they (and Anton) never really outgrew it? (See 2008 songs on their 10th album with the n-word and f-word in the titles.) Which is all too bad. Because I think both their shoegaze style and their psychedelic rock style are pretty good. I enjoyed "Take It From The Man." And enjoyed some of their other stuff (like "Anemone") even more.

I dig it, especially the recording

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Monkey puzzle

Pleasant but not my cup of tea for more than that

What if 90s rock album sounds a bit like late 60s rock album?

We all obviously know this is a Stones album but it's still interesting and worth a listen. Though it's about 20 minutes too long.

Too much like the Stones for me and I don't like the Stones.

Finns en å annan bra låt.

Garage rock, psychedelic rock. Ni fu ni fa.

Wow so insensitive man, not cool

Eh. Mopey, maundering, Brit-influenced pop with a front man overly enamored of his own (mostly self-inflicted) suffering. I also dislike the Dandy Warhols, so. At its core exceedingly average.

The vocals were often overpowered by the volume of the music and it was very difficult to understand the lyrics. Overall this was decent a solid 3.

Not bad

Derivative, but so were The Rolling Stones. If anything, BJM is wearing its influences on its sleeve better than the Stones did. The final song devolving into Sympathy for the Devil "hoo-hoo" over Hey Jude "na-na-na-na" tells you everything you need to know. That's the type of pastiche that makes you smile and feel good. Kind of inconsistent, but fun. A strong 3/5.

Take It From The Man isn't half bad, it sounds pretty BritPoppy even though it's an American act. I liked Since I Was Six, Mary Please (really good) and In My Life, which is a swaggering groovy number that just sounds like 1996 everywhere, it's a very solid and respectable 3/5, creates a good strong sound.

This album feels exhausting. And it suffers from the classic 90s being too long issue. Cut 20-25 minutes off this thing and it could be more listenable. It just feels like the same song repeated over and over again. I get wearing your influences on your sleeve, but it's so tiring after a while. My personal rating: 2/5 My rating relative to the list: 2.5/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Not bad 3

Reminiscent of late 70's music, unexpectedly coming across as unpolished

Not the BJM LP I would've added, but still happy to see them on the list. This album is a bit less experimental and much more straightforward than the hazy psych they're known for, but it still rocks! You can't beat some overdriven, trebley guitar lines over earth-moving bass and drums in my book (especially when the production is so crisp and clean), and there's plenty of that on this LP. Perhaps a bit too much – there's definitely some filler that could've been removed to shorten the lengthy runtime. I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, though, as this scratches an itch for actually good Britrock in the vein of The Stone Roses. Glad to see these guys getting some deserved recognition here and reminding people the British can actually make good music.

This sounds like 1966, not 1996. Pure 60s psychedelia worship: Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, Kinks, The Who. Shameless borrowing, but played with real energy and commitment. There are genuine highlights scattered throughout. “Since I Was Six” channels Space Oddity. “Straight Up and Down” has that Waiting for the Man guitar feel. “B.S.A.” sounds like the Stones in a 90s jacket. “Fucker,” “Cabin Fever,” and “Monkey Puzzle” all stand out too, the latter with a very McCartney-style cowbell that I love. The problem is the length. At nearly 70 minutes, this album should have been a tight 35 to 40-minute LP. The retro worship is committed, but it lacks the grit and danger of the originals. These feel like museum-quality reproductions rather than something with teeth. Too many songs sound like B-sides or retreads that should have been left on the cutting room floor. The band is clearly having a good time, and that energy carries the album further than it deserves. Still, this desperately needed editing. Fun in moments, exhausting overall.

Very Rolling Stones, unsurprisingly, but it genuinely sounds at least 30 years older than it is. Not a bad thing, the Stones are clearly decent, but it's unusual to so deliberately and obviously rip-off another band, especially one so well-known. As a collection of songs, but it is still odd that it exists

I already knew "Methodrone (1995)" and "...And This Is Our Music (2003)" from this band and I was not surprised that this album was also not my cup of tea. Most of the songs are in an early Rolling Stones style (psychedelic and garage rock). This would not be a problem if the songs were really outstanding or if the band was from the same period. Now they are just an echo fading out of another band that once was great.

Not quite sure why you’d want to impersonate one of the greatest bands and fall short of their quality. This band wants to be British so bad. From the album cover to the singing accent it’s all kind of sad. I love the stones but listening to this was weird. I don’t know maybe I’m missing something. 5.5/10

Firstly that is a seriously awful cover. I had to check it was real. Secondly it's like dome kind of sixties pastiche. We'll done but why...

The songs are ok; definitely a fair pastiche of mid-60s Britpop if that term had existed at the time. Yes yes Rolling Stones lite, which is redundant when referring to their early period anyways. More like very-lite. I am, however, questioning how good these boys actually are at tuning - or maybe even playing - their instruments. Actually....not harsh enough: listening to this guy rusty-axe-bludgeon his way through a "guitar solo" is like me listening to myself hack around on my first guitar when I was 14. Keep that hidden away for the sake of the children, my god. Snark aside (sincere as it is...) it's not necessarily objectionable in any way, but not something that holds my interest at all and the longer it went on the more annoyed I was at the playing. 5/10 2 stars. IMO: Belonged in the book? No.

Man if all you've got is biting from 60s psych rock, you should make an album that's half as long

Not my kinda music. Felt like a chore.

Well this in itself was a massacre if I say the truth. I hate his voice I hate his music.