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saturnian
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Good review. I am a fan of this album. I have somewhat mixed feelings about Boards of Canada overall – I think their music is often beautiful and recognize the talent it takes to make this music, but at times I find it grating and tedious. And I think the same can be said of this album, but I respect it because it feels like they have a realized aesthetic and stick to it throughout the album, and when it hits its mark its really amazing. And more often than not it really does hit the mark. It’s haunting and relaxing at the same time, in a weird way. “Nothing Is Real” is my favorite track so far, it’s hypnotic with the looped synth line and the simple but effective drum pattern.
It just hit me that we will have ourselves a new Kanye album in a week. Very excited for this.
ALSO, are we just collectively ignoring the new Boards of Canada album? Stereogum covered all the marketing hullabaloo leading up to the release, but no mention of the album now that it’s out? I wanna discuss this thing, it’s weird and awesome and kinda off putting all at once!
About 4% of my motivation for posting this comment was to use the word “hullabaloo”
Good to see Empire of the Sun continuing with their “direct to video 90′s movie poster” cover art theme.
Honestly not trying to sound like a New York-centric asshole, but how does a band this big do a US tour and not play a show in New York City??
I gotta say, this article is poorly written, but man these guys are amazing. That stuff about having a more fleshed out live setup to connect with the audience better? Awesome. If you strip away all the masturbatory pretension of Daft Punk’s interviews leading up to RAM, you would probably get a statement something along those lines. And they idolize J Dilla? Are you kidding me? Can I be best friends with Guy and Howard Lawrence?
Seriously great album and a great review. Stimulation is getting a lot of replay for me too, as is Latch. The vocals on Latch are absolutely gorgeous.
I think (or at least hope) you are partially correct, but also
http://www.mixmag.net/words/news/daft-punk-computers-are-not-really-instruments
I cannot wait to listen to this when I get home from work, HOWEVER, I kind of want to say something about Daft Punk’s whole shtick leading up to this album.
I know this is gonna be an unpopular opinion, but I want some honest discussion on this because its been bugging me:
Anyone else think Daft Punk’s sudden “fuck computers and samplers” attitude is kinda bullshit? Like, if they want to ditch the samplers and use live instruments then more power to them, whatever, do your thing man, I have nothing against this move in and of itself. But don’t dismiss the entirety of electronic instruments because a lot of EDM is currently rather bland. I think Daft Punk is one of the best electronic acts out there, but that whole notion is kinda dumb. Aphex Twin made more complex and often times sonically organic sounding music on a laptop in the freakin’ 1990′s, so maybe lets not just cast off the whole notion of samplers/drum machines/computers as “not real music.”
This song doesn’t give basic logic and intelligence the middle finger the way Prometheus did though, thankfully.
a) This is a really awesome song and I listened to it twice on my commute this morning.
b) Anyone else feel like its sorta Daft Punk by the numbers? Like, the vocoder repeating of the “Up All Night to Get Lucky” line is pretty much exactly the same thing they did in “Harder Better Faster Stronger,” and the main guitar loop isn’t exactly something new from them. Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s great. I just hope there are some more innovative tracks on the album (and I have a feeling there will be, based on what Daft Punk has been saying about the album).
I second Drive color vinyl soundtrack. Also Tame Impala EP, which has the stellar “Desire Be Desire Go”
This man speaks the truth
Only listened to the first half so far, but I initially only planned on listening to the first song and then just couldn’t turn it off. Why can’t more pop music be like this?
1) Modest Mouse was my favorite band for many years, and I still have a lot of love for them.
2) Moon & Antarctica is pretty much a perfect album in my opinion
3) Lonesome Crowded West is the only album I would accept being placed above Moon & Antarctica.
And I just realized I left out Tiny Cities Made of Ashes. I can’t decide what it should replace. Guuuhhhhhhhh too many good songs.
1. Broke
2. 3rd Planet
3. Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine
4. Gravity Rides Everything
5. The World at Large
6. Cowboy Dan
7. Heart Cooks Brain
8. Neverending Math Equation
9. One Chance
10. What People Are Made Of
FUCK that was hard
I agree with you. Not really sure how the writer of this article came to that conclusion.
I think he was talking about modes of distribution, but I agree with your point. Neither Gangnam Style nor Call Me Maybe are anything innovative musically. And as far as modes of distribution goes re: parody videos, a) I don’t think any musician puts out music with the intent of it getting parodied on Youtube to gain recognition and b) any artist who gives a shit about their music probably wouldn’t want their music to be known best for all of the parodies of it?
2003 was the best year of the decade? Are we forgetting the year that was 2007? Look at the albums that came out in 2007!
In Rainbows, Sound of Silver, From Here We Go Sublime, Alive 2007, Graduation, Kala, Neon Bible, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, The Stage Names, The Shepherd’s Dog, For Emma Forever Ago, Boxer, The Reminder, Strawberry Jam, Justice, Person Pitch, Untrue
There are probably more I am forgetting, but at least 5 of those albums are among my all time favorites, and From Here We Go Sublime is probably my single favorite electronic album ever.
You get major points in my book for including Lesser Matters. I wish more people listened to The Radio Dept.
The “he” in “put a lot more thought and work into their music than he does” is meant to be Chris Brown, not Chris DeVille, just to be clear.
That is true. I just really hate it when people try and put this crap on the same level as music with actual artistic integrity. And I want to stress again that I am not saying this because Chris Brown is “mainstream.” There are plenty of “mainstream” musicians that I would not be saying this about (Kanye, Drake, Lady GaGa, Beyonce for example, and for the record I don’t care for Drake). But this guy is trying to sell records. He isn’t trying to express something, or make you think about a certain topic or idea, or invoke any real emotional response. His music isn’t genuine. I don’t care if Chris Deville likes Chris Brown’s music, but I do care about him using terms that imply it is on the same playing field as music whose creators actually give a shit about what they are saying or doing and who put a lot more thought and work into their music than he does.
I would respond to this whole thing, but I am still laughing at the writer’s notion that Chris Brown’s music is anything resembling “art.” Since when does selling a bunch of records or getting a lot of radio play constitute quality music or art? I am not saying anything that is “mainstream” is necessarily bad or whatever, but in Chris Brown’s case, can we call a spade a fucking spade here?
How about the very beginning of Players by Slum Village:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqZxQuDadyU
Kinda has a “don’t fuck with me” swagger to it. It’s my personal favorite hip hop song and probably what I would go with. That’s my 2 cents.
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
The other thing about the lyrics on this album, and a lot hip hop, is that what rappers are saying doesn’t matter so much as how they deliver each line, and the rhythm they are able to generate with their voice, how that compliments the beat, and how it contributes to the overall tone of the song. There is a lot more going on in a hip hop song than the freaking lyrics. Sometimes lyrics matter, but a lot of the time I genuinely don’t think rappers want you to focus entirely on the message of the lyrics.