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People (many of whom, myself included, quite like a lot of her music) said that her new song sucks (because it does). Is your world so obsessed with positivity and fuzzy colorful feelings that criticizing someones work is considered being "particularly mean"? Should we qualify our commentary by considering how haaaard she worked on it like we would a 5 year old's painting? She's not a child and acting like she needs extra protection from the ~evils~ of the world is really patronizing.
unfortunately the new Charli XCX is pretty awful and juvenile too, so you're right - not much difference at all.
What is "original" about her talent, exactly?
also what is "This Week in Pop" even for if you're going to be posting individual Taylor Swift updates?
this is fucking awful and anyone over the age of 14 who was able to sit through more than half a minute of it should be ashamed (to say nothing of Stereogum)
Because everyone knows domestic violence is wrong - what are people supposed to bicker about there?
The EP is fine, whatever, but for some reason her whole "friends with famous people" shtick is really turning me off her music. I think part of it is that all four of those songs just feel so crazy unremarkable - the sort of thing that people who would hypothetically have discovered her and become fans when she released a real, interesting album would come back to and be excited to find, but that everyone else would pass off as early work. Instead she's suddenly and inexplicably this super hot thing because she's networked really well and everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon (I mean come on, more interesting/unique/fun pop music shows up on 22tracks every week)
The restraint in her music (and performance) might be interesting to you, but to me it just seems boring. I got 20 minutes into LP1 yesterday and the only time I even registered that music was playing was during Two Weeks (which is great, and it's unfortunate that she doesn't have much else like it).
This sounds like it was written by a computer program trying to synthesize years of indie pop. Totally unemotive and uninteresting.
also: "It didn’t help that the truck he was driving was stolen." I can brush off the heroin and all - these people aren't supposed to be role-models - but that seems like a pretty off-handed dismissal of something kind of important to story of the whole arrest.
Great article. I remember loving Oshin when it came out, but for some reason or another I haven't really spent any time with it since that first summer it was out. I actually saw DIIV twice, opening for Wild Nothing and Japandroids, but neither slot felt like it fit (too abrasive for the first and too left-field for the second) so I'm interested to hear how the new stuff has evolved. I do wonder if Smith and Ferreira encourage some less likable aspects of each other's personalities, but I also try not to give a shit about the people whose music I listen to as long as they aren't really hateful or unpleasant.
If you really think this song really is an "absolute monster" and a "banger" then one of us is losing our minds. Disregarding even the quality of the song (which I think sounds like a children's rhyme on top of boring faux-funk) nothing about this "bangs" in the least
this is unreal. who besides guys with creepy Asian girl fetishes could possibly enjoy listening to what sounds like a child who just inhaled helium babble like that?
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jul/05/alt-j-mercury-prize-this-is-all-yours so yeah, I think they are well aware of that
Whereas the band typically spend weeks agonising over every note, Left Hand Free was written “in about 20 minutes”. Needless to say, the US label loved it. Thom: “I tried to make the drums as cliched as possible, there’s none of my personality in it.” Gus: “I’m doing some kind of organ solo. I don’t know where ‘baby’ came from.” Joe: “And I say, ‘Gee whizz,’ which I’m not sure is a phrase I’ve ever uttered before. I can imagine it appealing to American truckers with Good Riddance To Bin Laden stickers!” “Oh God…” says Gus, a worrying realisation dawning. “Someone’s going to walk onstage to it at an NRA convention.”
holy shit, that Becky G song cannot be serious, can it? the video is barely a step above Rebecca Black in amateurishness and the music is so forgettable that I can't even remember any of it while it's actually playing. also I hope to god Break Free signals the beginning of poptimism's breaking point - that is the lamest fucking bottom of the barrel generic edm "beat" in the world and as fun and great as pop can be I really hope the non-mainstream music press (that includes you, Stereogum) stops giving her press she doesn't need or deserve
It'll be just about as popular as the Ouya too
Um. you need to listen to Haunted again, because that line is definitely on there
Okay tune but those were some piss-poor lyrics
erm, not really. favorite album lists are personal, and Stereogum isn't a person - this list is a collaborative effort which allows people to accept their own genre biases, critique their colleague's lists, then come out with something approaching a "best of" article. a favorite albums list would not have the genre inclusiveness of a more collaborative, "objective" approach. I'm perfectly willing to accept that Noah and the Whale's "First Days of Spring", which is my favorite album ever, would not be represented on many best album lists (and lots of things that might, like OK Computer, I don't particularly enjoy).
I think some critics are suffering from the same Laura Marling fatigue that I am - I'm sure the new album is great, but after seeing her a couple times and listening to the first 3 records pretty frequently I just have no desire at all to check out the new one until I get some sign that it's doing something (anything) new.
where again did I say I didn't like it? I think "Shock to Your System", "Closer", and quite a few other songs on the album are great. My argument is not that it's a bad album at all, but that it doesn't do anything particularly interesting and won't be remembered as one of 2013's best works by anyone but poptimists who define staying power by things like "hooks per minute" and possible singles (which is fine, but seems a dreadfully narrow way of measuring music to me). basically, it would fit more comfortably on a "favorite albums" list than a "best albums" one.
Oh I also think the new Everything Everything was excellent and deserves to be on every end of the year list but it doesn't seem to have gained much traction (especially in the American music press) so I'm hardly surprised not to see it
No idea what makes Sky Ferreira's perfectly pleasant but not particularly musically remarkable album one of the top ten of the year, but I'm much more confused about Heartthrob breaking into the top 20 - it's an okay pop album but it's also easily Tegan and Sara's most disposable and no one will remember it a couple years from now. If you really wanted pop representation, Lorde would have been a much more interesting choice. Big misses imo include These New Puritans and Foals (who didn't get nearly enough love for Holy Fire)
I'd say it's more of a Return of the King of an album - good as is but cutting it down a little would make the good parts so much better and eliminate some of the self-indulgence. Also, I agree - NEEDS MORE REGINE.
sounds a little bit too much like arcade fire/james murphy remixing themselves occasionally (not every song has to end with 2+ minutes of the same phrase repeated ad nauseum) but I'm still very pleased about the whole thing
oh man, Ian Cohen has never been more right than when he said the new stuff sounds like someone doing a Sleigh Bell's parody. I can't even listen to more than a bar or two of Alexis Krause's rapping in Bitter Rivals before I have to turn it off, and I loved the first album (and liked the second).
I'll be the first to admit that I don't know much about the New Pornographers, but even with my limited knowledge I can tell that you overrated "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk" - you could pretty much draw randomly from Challengers and come up with something better than anything from Together
Holy hell, what is wrong with the people at Samsung? I'm all for more open spaces for athletics (and I do love football) but trying to sell expensive pieces of technology by showing a wealthy "developer" buying up residential spaces, rolling in with a wrecking crew, and destroying low cost homes to make room for his own designs is callous beyond belief. I guess after that Radio City Music Hall Galaxy S4 debut I should know that most of Samsung's marketing department is made of tone-deaf halfwits, but they still manage to surprise.
Born Gold's new album is out this week and is really good if you like warped/left-field pop music
I don't think you know what alas means
Ugh, Haim is so, so remarkably bland and rely too much on their "life story" to distract from the lack of anything interesting in their music. It's the sort of thing that flows in one ear at the coffee shop and right out the other - not bad but entirely undeserving of all the attention and hype it has inexplicably garnered.
Something about the two new songs just isn't hitting me the same way that Eyelid Movies and Nightlife did. The instrumentals seem too tense or something - the beat in this song feels like it should go somewhere but it just paces back and forth through the whole song and leaves me cold. Hopefully it's just a reflection of the writing process for this EP and when they get around to putting out a sophomore LP they won't seem quite so removed. Still better than Chvrches though.
"flirty... fizzy, club-happy.... crazy fun" I like Charli decently enough, but at this point what is the difference between her and Katy Perry (who is also fine but people seem ashamed to like)? The only thing I'm hearing is a slight English accent.
I think you're doing a disservice to the second half of Oracular Spectacular - it didn't have the same hits that the first half did, but everything on it was still excellent and worthwhile ("Of Moons, Birds & Monsters" is especially good) and if Congratulations (which I still liked decently enough) had kept that up it wouldn't have been a disappointment at all (especially when I hoped it would be a detour, rather than the beginning of a sharp descent in MGMT's trajectory). You're right about this album though - it's terrible. I thought "Your Life is a Lie" was mediocre the first time I heard it, but compared to the rest of the album it's a godsend. I couldn't believe that I'd listened to 4 different songs by the time it started, the way they all droned together, and nothing that came afterwards was any better. It really is indefensible shit.
Treats is great, and the second album grew on me, but wow after a few bright seconds that new Sleigh Bells song devolves into tuneless faux-rap mess
I'll never know why Great Release never got the recognition it deserved
Everything makes sense but "You Wanted A Hit", which seems totally out of left field. Among This is Happening tracks I would replace it with "Home" or "All You Want", and there are plenty from the first two albums that are significantly more memorable as well.