That's kind of what I was getting at in 5 Best Songs last week. The album definitely opens up the more you listen to it, but it's still very much more of the same.
When I'm not listening to it, I think, "It's so boring that they did the same thing again!" But I pretty much forget about that when I actually turn it on because it's so pretty and well-constructed.
We called out Swift for her hypocrisy in regards to Etsy in the first paragraph of the article you linked. They are very different things. On the photographer issue, I don't think Swift is being hypocritical or unreasonable. But let's agree to disagree!
Not to speak for everyone on staff, but personally I think that whole thing is kind of stupid? First off, don't sign a contract if you don't agree with what it says -- getting management approval is pretty standard stuff once you're shooting artists in the big leagues, and it's not like this language was hidden or anything. Photographers are typically getting paid once for these photos by whatever publication/service they are shooting for and, at least from Swift's POV, that's where those photos should stay without other approval. It's not like they are not making money off of them at all.
And, as I understand it, the contract states that photogs still retain ownership over their images, but that Swift can use them in a "non-commercial capacity," which basically means she can post them to her Instagram/Tumblr/social media. She can't use them in an ad or anything she'd make money off of, at least not without getting the photographer's permission and paying them for that.
The whole destroying equipment thing is a little weird, but I'm sure that's in there in case of a worst case scenario -- say, she has a wardrobe malfunction on stage. Then the whole "management approval" thing comes into effect so the photographer can't turn around and sell the photos to a tabloid for a million dollars. (Or, if they do, Swift's team would have proper grounds to sue.)
But, yes, the whole open letter thing does seem staged! Oh well.
Oops, you're totally right. Fixed!
And I agree on the Avril comparison in terms of how CRJ is marketed, but I think CRJ is a lot better. But Avril's debut did have at least a few good songs on it, though it didn't age well at all.
Antidotes is kind of different (and the album I am fond of the most, but probably only because I was really young when I listened to it) but TLF and Holy Fire are pretty interchangeable to me!
Granted, I'm not the biggest fan of the band, but I think they are OK.
I get what you meant, but there's no need to make the distinction between "female" rock versus "male" rock -- it's all just rock.
The only thing that's changed is that more people are paying attention -- that doesn't mean there are more or less "girl bands" in the world. :P
Ha, I thought it was old news since the track came out a while ago, but it looks like it's relatively new. Here's a Billboard interview from earlier today.
Here's all the deets I know: The new EP is executive produced by Moroder and Evan Bogart, the son of the founder of Casablancas Records who used to put out Moroder's stuff back in the day (and is putting out this EP). And there are individual tracks produced by Neon Indian and Mess Kid.
Yeah, clarified above that I meant on-demand free streaming.
And I doubt YouTube music is going anywhere, but a lot of those streams (ie lyric videos, etc) are in murky legal territory anyway.
"You Won't Know" was a hard one to leave off, but once I started thinking about it as a narrative/emotional extension of "Limousine," I felt a little better.
Ok, yeah, you got me there. I was thinking more in terms of my experiences with bands/labels -- no one really seems to be doing CDs anymore, it's either tapes or vinyl for official releases.
Yeah, this is also a very important aspect of all this that I didn't get into in my comment.
Here's a decent article that goes into the music side of that line of thinking a little more, if you're interested.
I agree with most of what you're saying, so I can't really argue. I don't actually think Mumford & Sons are a "joke." It was an easy shot to take, maybe I regret it a little -- I've gotten down to a few M&S songs back in the day.
Ultimately, if music moves someone in a certain way, whether it be pop or rock or EDM or whatever, then all the power to it and their fans. Obviously, my job as a ~critic~ is to make subjective decisions as to what I consider "good" or "bad," but I don't pretend to be the be all end all of opinion. But when writing about music, it's a lot stronger to be declarative about something than wishy-washy. If I attached an asterisk to every post saying "oh hey but whatever floats your boat," that would be weak as hell.
I don't think the word aesthetic means anything -- a song is a song, a hook is a hook. There's no more skill in playing a guitar than there is in tinkering in a studio, and there's no difference between what One Direction do and what the Beatles did, in my eyes. Obviously, their creative processes are different and there are a lot more hands in making sure a 1D song comes across, but the end product ends up being just about the same. (And I think Four is a great album, and "Fireproof" a great song as it is.)
It all comes down to what an individual listener prescribes meaning and gives weight to. I personally feel that most modern EDM is shit and all the producers who do it are lazy, and I can write about that (and find evidence to back that up) as such. But I recognize as a whole that maybe I'm wrong, because tell that to the thousands of people who are spilling out of Coachella tents for every DJ set while someone like Perfume Genius gets a middling crowd. We all take away what we can from music, and it's no one's right to say that something like The Hunger Games (to carry on your literary analogy) is not as important as Jane Eyre if it empowers or has an effect on people in the same way.
tl;dr you do you
I rode for it, just didn't end up on the list.
Speaking of Chromatics, did anyone else snag those free posters that Johnny Jewel was giving away a few months ago? I finally got a chance to hang them up in my room and they are cool as hell.
I had a little aside in there that got taken out mentioning that maybe it could still be, but I feel like it lost a lot of momentum - if the video and SNL performance didn't push it over, I'm not sure what will.
It'll be MY song of the summer though :)
I'll play along:
1. Limousine
2. Soco Amaretto Lime
3. Tommy Gun
4. Archers
5. Fork And Knife
Also I didn't mention this in the post because it's all wild speculation, but the new lyric booklets apparently hint at some kind of official release for all of the Devil And God demos.
I get it. Honestly, it hits so hard within the context of the album. The songs before and after it are so killer, and this is just the most perfect song in between. All I can say is that you'll love it soon.
I'll bite: they have six perfect songs, which is more than most bands. Get their whole EP and then listen to "Driver" and "Interference Fits." Other than that, wait for the next album or whatever they do next.
But also I love the Graves interview because I don't care about Radiohead so feel free to discount me or whatever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
of Montreal is one of my favorite bands but, while Aureate Gloom is fine, it's hardly essential. His last two albums have been better explorations of the same sound.
Here's our Q&A with Barnes from last fall where he talks about the new album, if you're looking for something to read about it.
Ay, I was at their Boston Calling set too! It was so great, and it was my first time seeing them live. I want to see them on their own soon, though -- I really wanted to go to those shows where they played two albums back to back, but couldn't get tickets fast enough. A few of my friends went and said it was amazing.
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