It seems that no day can pass this week without major new album announcement... odd. I love jazzy feel of it, let's hope it's better than the last record which was pretty dull and uninspired, like Steely Dan trying to make decent indie pop but failing miserabily.. or something. I'm not sure I remember even one song from it.
So pretty good year so far, huh? In the next four months new albums from...
(and maybe MBV and Daft Punk!)
David Bowie
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
Atoms For Peace
Autechre
Justin Timberlake
Devendra Banhart
Marnie Stern
Major Lazer
Youth Lagoon
Wavves
The Strokes
The Knife
Yeah Yeahs Yeahs
The Flaming Lips
Phoenix
Vampire Weekend
She and Him
!!!
Dirty Beaches
Neon Neon
Thee Oh Sees
Azealia Banks (?)
Looks good.
The problem is, their last two records are not very good... You can take 3-4 songs from each, of course, but that's it. The rest is very boring filler. I don't eant them to make another Is This It or even Room on Fire, I understand that it's impossible but geez, show us some fucking effort! If a new album will be poor, they are officially done this time.
I tried. I just don't like this band. Some good beats but terrible lyrics (when I can hear them) and the singer has an annoying voice. That Guliani song is classic though, and certainly not bad.
Oh, and the band's name. Yeah, I know who they are. I know how its' pronounced. It's still entirely lame. L-A-M-E.
Hmm, I thought it crossed a line a little between being sexy/plain fun and quite vulgar and kitsch. I just might be too uptight about this stuff, though...
:D Is it really that bad? I read the other day that economy is doing very well there compared to the US overall but, yeah, it doesn't looks like a nice place to live.
You can't deny that Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix was their breakthrough record and one of the most acclaimed albums of 2009 so they got really popular since then. Plus a highly anticipated new album in April.
At least you live in proper first world country (quite remote ,of course, but still great). I live in the Siberian shithole city with the population of 300.000 and doubt I will ever visit ANY foreign country in my life (with miserable salaries and overall poor quality of life here). Can't even buy records because Amazon delivery doesn't want anything to do with shitty Russian Post. So.. it may be even worse.
Don't get the hype... It already got 4.32/5 rating on RateYourMusic. Ridiculous. Sounds just like an average experimental electronic song to me. But it's The Knife so it's supposed to be a masterpice, yeah...I don't understand anything in that kind of music so I judge it only by its catchiness and overall aesthetic appeal.
It's not Heartbeats. It's not even Silent Shout. Meh.
What's weird about Franz Ferdinand? For the band whose last album was released four years ago it's still a very good spot and were they ever really big in the US?
Well, he had a magnificent albums run in the 80s, classic, pop perfection and all... but honestly, I don't know anyone who seriously cares about his 90s and especially 00s stuff. it's not even hit and miss, at most times it's just drivel. I tried to listen to his last album (which was released in 2010) and couldn't make it through the half. I guess he stopped caring about reviews, critical acclaim and all the albums after the Black Album are just for fans only. Fair play, of course.
jesus, whta's wrong with THIS post? don't know there are so many Russians haters there. ...or just don't downvote anything because it's just written by me.
ha, never been to any party in my life and don't plan to. I don't drink (and again don't plan to even begin doing that) and have no friends and all that shite.
actually, see explanation^^^ I thought it was well-written fun piece I found on Rate Your Music. I like VW myself.
Man, this is not my review, I copied it from RYM for fun. I can't write so much words in good English. hence my previous nickname...
Overgeneralizations are never good. I understand, all stereotypes have some basis in reality, or else they wouldn't be stereotypes. The problem with them is that they're generalizations that end up being applied to every member of a group. There are cold and 'miserable' people, like in every other place on Earth, of course, but at the same time I know some of the kindest, intelligent, pleasant and wonderful people every person would like to meet.
Awful, awful band. Just gross. 2010 album is one of the worst I've ever listened to.
That poor girl on the cover. I'd have sued them on principle, putting my face on this thing. It's like finding out that an awkward family photo of you is now being used in a nationwide billboard campaign for Tea Partying or cranial trepanation or some other egregious and disgusting assault on human intelligence.
So just how much came out of the trust fund for the record company bribe? Yes, I'm harping on them for being rich and privileged. And you know why? Because the rich and privileged can do five things. 1, they can help the less privileged, either because they're genuinely good people or because it's the sociopath equivalent of being a good person. 2, they can add positively to a culture in some way. 3, they can keep their big stupid mouths shut and not take credit for the civil rights movement. 4, they can pretend to not be rich and privileged. Or 5, they can open their big stupid mouths and wallets, overthrowing democratically elected leaders in the developing world and making albums like Contra.
But before I explain why some New York indie band's album embodies the worst excesses of American culture I should probably start by talking about their music. Which by the way just transitioned into Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. Does anyone else ever feel like not appreciating this crap makes them look like that one guy who criticized George Lucas' prose ability to his face or that one guy who didn't applaud Stalin for three straight hours? Like there's something wrong with us and we're about to be punished for it in some terrible way? Like not "getting it" automatically expels you from the human race and obnoxious hive mind young people conglomerations everywhere? Maybe it's just me. But see Vampire Weekend are not the unassailable gold statued demigods of music. That distinction goes to the Beatles or Radiohead. Criticizing Vampire Weekend isn't going to get your Wikipedia page vandalized or free promo drip feed cut off. They're just another dumb shit indie band exceeding Earth's mantle-low quality standards and trying to wring magic from all the much better bands before them. So my conclusion is that people are either successfully brainwashed, incredibly dumb, or have the self-esteem of a porn star. Or all three. Actually here's a mental image that sums up Contra. It's like something Mark Mothersbaugh would have submitted to Rugrats if he were drunk, untalented, and very, very stupid. If you thought Kid A was an incongruous mishmash of ideas stolen by intelligent people then Contra is all that minus the tact and brain cells. If you thought Kid A was amateurish and awkward then congratulations, here's a record to make Kid A seem the masterpiece 98.7% of the world thinks it is. Open wide everybody. There is nothing enjoyable about this album! Without the godawful sub-prog rock keyboards, mandatory string parts, and drum machines, all you have are a bunch of irritating and not particularly catchy melodies. With them you have the background music playing on a merry-go-round, or a very ambitious music box. And please, if you find this man's voice truly endearing, let me know why. I've come up with a list of possible reasons.
1. He sounds working class
2. He sounds like he likes Paul Simon
3. He sounds like he's whispering a nursery rhyme into my ear
4. He sounds like my kid brother I lost in a tragic merry-go-round explosion
5. He sounds like my college roommate who had the best weed
6. He sounds like he believes his bullshit
7. He sounds like he likes Animal Collective
8. ?
Then there's the attempt to take the most plastic white boy music possibly conceivable, with this hilarious false sense of class and refinement, and blend it with....African music? I wish Fela were here to yell at you guys. Which brings me to my main point. Sure, a lot of crappy records are released, and then applauded, and then placed in "greatest ever" lists, and that makes me angry, but I find this record infuriating, and it has nothing to do with musical taste. It has to do with simple taste. Yeah, you play them xylophones boys, 'cause the rest of the world doesn't have reason enough to believe Americans are obnoxious, entitled, and completely oblivious to all that's happening outside the confines of their own asses. Most of the music in this vein is about, well, nothing, but do you have to be so crass about it, Vampire Weekend? It's fine if you sing about love and love and....whatever else people like to hear, but the moment you start dabbling in things that bear real weight you had better know what the fuck you're talking about. Do these boys even know what a Contra is? Did their $60,000 education teach them this? Did they find the word in a book and think, "Hey, that's cool! Let's work that into our new album about Love and Nothing!" I do hear these stray references to war and guns and the like, so maybe they saw a documentary. Though I'm not certain because they're interspersed with lyrics about guitars and rock n' roll and other such developing world staples, and also seem to exist in some sort of pre-modern metaphorical fantasy bullshit world. Maybe their degrees were in poetry. Maybe Animal Collective, Paul Simon, and the Contras can all team up and disappear these fellows in their sleep, so that we don't have to endure one more goddamned execrable dorm room atrocity sprouted legs from a bong and run. Do they serve clove cigarettes in hell?
I'm not reacting to simple stupidity or a bunch of rich kids being uncouth here. This record has no relationship to reality whatsoever. It has no right to be acknowledged or appreciated because there is absolutely nothing about it worth commending. It needs to be given a time out in the ivory tower and left to think about what it's done. It's all fun and games until someone has an eye gouged out, Vampire Weekend! It's like a transmission from another world in which nothing bad ever happens and the art police are perpetually on strike. Its sound is lost in some other time only Walt Disney could have dreamt up when he wasn't fighting communism. Have our fantasies been reduced to this shit? Can't we escape into something that's at least better produced and doesn't fling around decontextualized historical references like a monkey flings poo? Imagine all of the much more talented and forward-thinking people who aren't getting $60,000 college educations or record deals. Imagine all of the people being paid in an entire month about half of what Contra retails for. Nobody's "giving up the gun" as long as this shit is "alternative" cultural currency.
I must say though, the strings were quite lovely. Which I do realize is like saying Barack Obama is a very sexy man or ramming jagged chunks of jewel case into your forearms hurts, so not much of a compliment there. Really, any attempt to view this album in terms of its drowsy phlegm-soaked vocals or absolutely hysterical composition is just missing the point. This record is so fucking offensive in so many ways that it just transcends bad and ends up as one of the most notable releases of 2010. Congratulations to the CIA, Pitchfork Media, The United Fruit Company, Manuel Noriega (whose mugshot should've been the album cover), and of course, Vampire Weekend.
Now go and choke yourselves to death on some mustachioed generalissimo's ****, would you kindly?
If ABC, CBS and NBC would broadcast inauguration of the French president, wouldn't it be a little bit weird to you? it's a foreign country, isn't it? So why do European networks broadcast the inauguration of the president of foregn country on the national tv channels? State Department at work.
I'm upset that comments get downvoted just because they are not in general line with Stereogum readers and it looks like it's a trolling when it's not. It's just another opinion. This system is ridiculous - this is how circlejerks are made and it's not a good thing.
Obscure? No, i'm pretty mainstream guy. So, in no particular order.
Elephant. Speakerboxx/The Love Below. Chutes Too Narrow. Hail to the Thief. Boy In Da Corner.
The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place. Ghosts of the Great Highway. The Disintegration Loops II/III/IV. You Are Free. Rounds.
Radio Amor. The Meadowlands. Frengers. The Black Album. Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. That's already 15.
Guitar Romantic. Dear Catastrophe Waitress. 6. Lesser Matters. Transatlanticism.
O. Happy Songs for Happy People. Streetcore. Transfiguration of Vincent. Wonderful Rainbow. Fever to Tell.
Michigan. Room On Fire. Mount Eerie. The Lemon of Pink. Keep On Your Mean Side (though not sure about this). 30!
also, man, what a year..
another hip band everyone will forget about in 5 years or so. yeah, there are nice tunes but it's more style than substance. something to play in the background in the Portland cafes or Urban Outfitters? Toro Y Moi is similar. obligatory 8.0 from p4k, of course. oh, and tits on the cover.
duh.
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