With rock and indie that's coming out now. I've been trying to give some attention to the Pitchfork end-of-the-year lists. Uninterested so far, at least in the list of songs. Can't say I'm not trying though. I did go and download each one and put them into a playlist I can listen to in the car, and I will give them all at least a chance while I'm driving around the next couple of weeks. So far I've only listened to a few random tracks. What strikes me most about the music Pitchfork responds to is the shtick involved in it. It seems like these bands go out of their way to think of a phrase, or a rhythm of words, or a "singing" voice, or an instrument, or a title, or some other sorry gimmickry to get their music noticed. A shortcut to making good music is what it strikes me as. Music made to be "interesting." Or music made to get notice to its makers rather than give the listener a real provocative and visceral reaction. Anyway, I guess I feel some torturous need to know what's going on in the genre so I am going to give all these songs a chance, though with each song, if it annoys me too much, it won't get much of a chance. And it's 95% a waste of time, this'll be the last time I feel the need to do so.
On the other hand, my people at Soulbounce put out one choice, not even a list, and I fall in love with them more than ever. Choosing Erykah Badu's "Honey" as their Video Of The Year and giving it a write up that is spot on. Definitely my favorite video of the year, more than likely my favorite song of the year, and one that was on neither of those lists from Pitchfork. Eat it Pitchfork!
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TOTALLY!
ReplyDeleteI actually watched that video when I got home this afternoon since you had been talking about the track. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL! Love it... gotta listen to that album when I get a chance...
The thing that boggles my mind about the pitchfork top 100 was the fascination this year with disco revival... have you listened to the number one track yet? It sucks. Really sucks. I just don't get it... Hercules & Love Affair, whatever... Tracks in the top 20 I was into... Wiley - Wearing My Rolex (dance/grime is a pretty interesting combo), Cut Copy...I surprisingly wasn't that into the Byrne/Eno record, Deer Hunter's okay, M83, got over the Santogold fascination a looooong time ago, but it's still good, and Fleet Foxes obviously.... Now I've got that Beyonce track in my head... those chorus synths are damn catchy, but it's pretty much just a rip of Lip Gloss, right?
Dude, what a relief to be able to exorcise this demon! I have had a fascination with "Single Ladies" for going on a month now, since I was flipping channels and caught her performing at the AMAs. I've watched that video about half a million times. I should definitely be able to do that dance on instinct by now. It hurts me so much the way the entire track seems to lose all gas on the bridge, but other than that I'm on board. And yes, even though that track basically rips off most heavily Beyonce's own "Get Me Bodied," it's also plain ripping off "Lip Gloss." But what isn't? Anything with handclaps, past or future, is ripping off "Lip Gloss."
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, that #1 song is terrible. There is just nothing remarkable about it. I don't get it at all. The one that's made me maddest so far is #3, Hot Chip. The intro to it just made me absolutely furious, I wanted to smash things. It's lucky I gave it another minute or so, because it got slightly better, but I seriously wanted to shove broken glass into my ears for that first minute or so. And yeah, the disco thing I don't get at all. Because these shitheads aren't even going after the disco they should. If all these bands would just emulate "Groove Line" by Heatwave, and do it well, I might get on board. But this is shit disco. It's shitsco. Shitsco, the Crisco of Disco. That's going to be the villain of my comic book.
Wow, that was actually the first time I've watched the video... HAWT! I would pay serious money to see you do that dance... and then "again! again!" - KITH style.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't get Hot Chip either... scary thing is that they, he, or whatever, just did a collaboration w/ Peter Gabriel on a Vampire Weekend song (VOMIT). Gabriel's voice obviously makes it gold for me, but still. What the hell? He needs to concentrate on making albums entirely for me.
Shitsco is an AMAZING term and completely describes that whole genre... I mean, I just don't get it... I think it's entirely the fault of the Scissor Sisters, who I also can't stand.
Update on this: finished the whole thing. Listened to every goddam minute of it even, didn't skip through any. I guess I had to drive a lot. Anyway, yeah, it was awful. Pointless. A waste of a lot of time. But whatever. There was only one song that on first listen I thought showed any semblance of vitality and that was Alphabeat's "Fascination." But by the time I listened to it like three times I was way over that vague first impression phase and now that song annoys me too. So, success.
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