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wax fingers
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Say what you will about this column, too soon for a double take, too pretentious, just as snarky as pitchfork, poor taste or tone – I think the content is spot on. Suburbs would have been a whole lot better with about 5 less songs and while the lyrical message is a relatable and authentic one, sometimes it feels so cliche that it’s almost embarrassing. Of course this wouldn’t even be a topic of discussion if the album hadn’t landed in the top 10 of so many year end lists. Is the critical acclaim of an album a valid reason to be overly critical? Maybe we could enjoy more music if we didn’t think about it as much. Then again, maybe not.
At first the melody reminded me of Ennio Morricone, which is good, and then he started singing and all I could think about was the Dropkick Murphys. That is not good.
I understand you’ve got to support an album with live shows, I just can’t see how shows like this could help the band in any way. I assume anyone that doesn’t already know him would watch this and think it’s garbage.
i’m glad he took his time, seems to be paying off.
Ha, a lot funnier than I thought it was gonna be. Jonathan Krisel is the man.
Oh boy! Gwyneth Paltrow! Please please please please please let it be true!
we’re not disagreeing as much as you seem to think. have another read and try not to get so upset.
I’m not saying that popularity affects how good the music is, rather that popularity affects people’s perception and opinion of the music. Twisted Fantasy is not the first time it’s happened, I wasn’t saying that either. Just that, like the article says, there’s a bit of “unimaginative group think” going on. The album’s good, there’s no denying that, but after so much unanimous praise, the articles start to invalidate each other. What if Arcade Fire was #2 on everyone’s list? That would be a little weird right? You might start to wonder how so many people came to the conclusion that Suburbs was the 2nd best album of the year; how so many people could agree on something so subjective.
Not saying this is true fore everyone either. You may very well whole-heartedly love the album and that’s totally cool.
When such an astronomical number of people think that something is “the best”, especially with something this subjective, you know there’s something wrong. It would be different if the album just showed up in everyone’s top 10, but it was #1 all over the place. Nothing is that good in such a finite unanimous kind of way.
another possible moral: don’t listen to Weezer
It’s hilarious when fans actually get angry or feel betrayed when the object of their affection changes direction. As if the artist owes it to them to continue doing what is expected. On the other hand, many bands get criticized for not evolving. We are never satisfied.
It’s the same thing that happened to Modest Mouse, it happens to a lot of bands. Death Cab worked hard for a long time to get where they are now. They recorded a lot of material before achieving notable commercial success. I’m sure it was a struggle and it turns out, struggle was an important variable in the music. All of sudden you sell half a million records and start banging a hollywood actress and writing sad songs about lost love and insecurity doesn’t come so easy.
There’s some great stuff on that Arcade Fire album, but I think it’s about 7 songs too long.
Happened to see Ariel Pink open for Animal Collective at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, must have been 2004 or so. He had a huge melt down on stage, screaming and yelling at his bandmates, one of which threw his bass on the ground and walked off stage. Pink proceeded to pound on his keyboard with his arms and elbows and yell indiscernible gibberish into the mic. I think there was an “I’ll do it by my fucking self” in there. Eventually he left the stage and the crowd was dead silent. It seemed like a staged act or something and no one knew how to react. AC came on and played one of the best sets I’ve ever seen. Though, I gotta say, I really do enjoy ‘Before Today’.
Agreed. I imagine the David Attenborough intro will prove to be the best track on the album.