Thursday, January 17, 2008
Musical Interlude
My favorite musical discovery of 2007 was Shiny Toy Guns, who love the 80s with that complete lack of irony that could only come from having been in diapers at the time. You know you're getting older when the latest fresh musical strawberries start hurling your own nostalgia back at you. It's sort of like seeing a bunch of BU coeds on the Green Line heading off to an 80s party dressed in their best version of Madonna circa "Like a Prayer" and thinking, "you know, I dressed like that once, and back then it wasn't a costume." Well, OK, not exactly that, in my case, I don't have Madonna's legs, though I think more men have Madonna's legs than women. I take solace in the fact that we have a few years to go before Nirvana starts showing up on Classic Rock radio.
The plus side of getting a little older is that you find yourself a little more at peace with your own tastes, and damn what anyone else thinks. At the top of that "!@#$ the tastemakers" list for me was the Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, which was as overrated as their debut album Funeral was unexpected. One of the reasons I am really looking forward to Bush leaving the White House is that maybe we will get a brief respite from critics praising mediocre pop entertainers for foisting yet another scoop of protest dreck on us. When the Arcade Fire sang "I don't wanna live in America no more," all I could think was, "you're a fucking Canadian, jackass, stop bitching and go back to Montreal." Big majestic serious orchestral rock is getting into Spinal Tap territory, and in those immortal words, "There's a fine line between genius and stupidity." It's as though all of the stupidity and dreary earnestness that AF somehow eluded on Funeral got remaindered onto Neon Bible.
Speaking of poppy trends I didn't get in 2007, I am still mystified by Lily Allen's popularity. For the real thing, my money is on Kate Nash. "Foundations" is a terribly clever and well-constructed little confection of a song, light years ahead of the confused and cartoonish hodgepodge of sounds coming from Allen. It is the difference between a chickadee and a big honking goose. Then again, perhaps the public will tire of nice upper-middle class English girls singing in their equivalent of Jive, but that's almost surely expecting too much of the public.
On a brighter note, Editors delivered a blast of dense, large, and dark rock redolent with notes of Joy Division and the malevolent grandeur of Jim Morrison. It received far less radio play than it deserved, especially compared to Interpol's execrable The Heimrich Maneuver, the popularity of which causes me to seriously question the intelligence of today's young'uns. The title track is so dreadful that even Fred Durst could learn new techniques in retardedness from it.
As for the present, my latest acquisition is Soulsavers, whose new release might best be described as dark Christian electronica done by an English atheist. OK, maybe not the best description, but I suppose that goes a long way towards explaining why I find it a bit fetching. What I haven't figured out yet is how well it will stand up after the initial novelty of their sound wears off. ¶ 8:22 PM
My favorite musical discovery of 2007 was Shiny Toy Guns, who love the 80s with that complete lack of irony that could only come from having been in diapers at the time. You know you're getting older when the latest fresh musical strawberries start hurling your own nostalgia back at you. It's sort of like seeing a bunch of BU coeds on the Green Line heading off to an 80s party dressed in their best version of Madonna circa "Like a Prayer" and thinking, "you know, I dressed like that once, and back then it wasn't a costume." Well, OK, not exactly that, in my case, I don't have Madonna's legs, though I think more men have Madonna's legs than women. I take solace in the fact that we have a few years to go before Nirvana starts showing up on Classic Rock radio.
The plus side of getting a little older is that you find yourself a little more at peace with your own tastes, and damn what anyone else thinks. At the top of that "!@#$ the tastemakers" list for me was the Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, which was as overrated as their debut album Funeral was unexpected. One of the reasons I am really looking forward to Bush leaving the White House is that maybe we will get a brief respite from critics praising mediocre pop entertainers for foisting yet another scoop of protest dreck on us. When the Arcade Fire sang "I don't wanna live in America no more," all I could think was, "you're a fucking Canadian, jackass, stop bitching and go back to Montreal." Big majestic serious orchestral rock is getting into Spinal Tap territory, and in those immortal words, "There's a fine line between genius and stupidity." It's as though all of the stupidity and dreary earnestness that AF somehow eluded on Funeral got remaindered onto Neon Bible.
Speaking of poppy trends I didn't get in 2007, I am still mystified by Lily Allen's popularity. For the real thing, my money is on Kate Nash. "Foundations" is a terribly clever and well-constructed little confection of a song, light years ahead of the confused and cartoonish hodgepodge of sounds coming from Allen. It is the difference between a chickadee and a big honking goose. Then again, perhaps the public will tire of nice upper-middle class English girls singing in their equivalent of Jive, but that's almost surely expecting too much of the public.
On a brighter note, Editors delivered a blast of dense, large, and dark rock redolent with notes of Joy Division and the malevolent grandeur of Jim Morrison. It received far less radio play than it deserved, especially compared to Interpol's execrable The Heimrich Maneuver, the popularity of which causes me to seriously question the intelligence of today's young'uns. The title track is so dreadful that even Fred Durst could learn new techniques in retardedness from it.
As for the present, my latest acquisition is Soulsavers, whose new release might best be described as dark Christian electronica done by an English atheist. OK, maybe not the best description, but I suppose that goes a long way towards explaining why I find it a bit fetching. What I haven't figured out yet is how well it will stand up after the initial novelty of their sound wears off. ¶ 8:22 PM
