Whoa, left this post for a while and just came back to it.
I stand by what I said. If you're uncomfortable with fame, no one has a gun to your head forcing you to produce radio-pop-centric solo albums, you're doing that because there's a market for it. And I have NO PROBLEM with Sia getting paid, I think she's a talented individual who (once upon a time) made very worthwhile music that captured her catchy, poppier sensibilities, but also contained an artistic heft totally absent from garbage like "Chandelier" and "Titanium".
Listen to "Breathe Me", it's still incredibly powerful and catchy but has a depth of emotion absent from her more recent stuff.
So my issue is with the fact that she's making herself out to be the victim of some big, bad boogeyman that is the music industry, forcing her to churn out music at an unreasonable rate. That's bullshit. If you want some space, take it.
"One more time, we're gonna celebrate, oh yeah, all right, don't stop the dancing, one more time, we're gonna celebrate, oh yeah, all right, don't stop the dancing, one more time, we're gonna celebrate, oh yeah, all right, don't stop the dancing, one more time, we're gonna celebrate, oh yeah, all right, don't stop the dancing, one more time, we're gonna celebrate, oh yeah, all right, don't stop the dancing, one more time, we're gonna celebrate, oh yeah, all right, don't stop the dancing, one more time, you know I'm just feelin' celebration, tonight, celebrate, don't wait, too late, we don't stop, you can't stop, we're gonna celebrate, one more time, one more time, one more time, a celebration, you know we're gonna do it right, tonight, just feeling, music's got me feeling the need, we're gonna celebrate, one more time, celebrate and dance so free, music's got me feeling so free, celebrate and dance so free, one more time, music's got me feeling so free, we're gonna celebrate, celebrate and dance so free, one more time."
See this is the bullshit that I fucking hate. If YOU think that "Rhinoceros" is a better song, or means more to more people, than "1979" you're just propagating the kind of us vs. them mentality that Billy is trafficking in here.
"1979" is when you could sense it all slipping away? "1979" was the greatest moment of the Pumpkins career. I don't necessarily mean "1979" is the best song Billy ever wrote, but it was the moment of cultural saturation he's been chasing ever since. And shit doesn't get popular in a vacuum, "1979" was the perfect synthesis of guitar rock, electro-y chug and churn, and a reassurance that it's OK to be confused, and angry, and alone -- that as long as you were cool with yourself, you were cool. Not even to mention the incredible video, which completely encapsulated restless suburban life in the 90s.
Stop trying to pick a moment when it all started "slipping away" and appreciate what there is.
Out of curiosity have any of you guys heard the Will Stratton album? I'll admit I was in folky dreamy lakeside sad guy mode this year but it's a really pretty record. Check out "The Arrow Darkens".
I'd take it to further and say Hospice is an absolutely essential stone cold classic record.
I have been rewriting that story for the last couple years and it's going to be a novel someday.
It's so, so heartbreaking but somehow uplifting at the same time, it still confounds me.
Aw, what the hell.
1. Antlers - Familiars
2. S. Carey - Range of Light
3. Todd Terje - It's Album Time
4. Sinkane - Mean Love
5. Real Estate - Atlas
6. Run the Jewels - RTJ2
7. Future Islands - Singles
8. Timbre Timbre - Hot Dreams
9. Tove Lo - Queen of the Clouds
10. Will Stratton - Grey Lodge Wisdom
That S. Carey album got slept on in a big way, and it's a goddamn beautiful masterpiece.
This is actually a subject of etymological debate right now Sherri. In cases like bands with a singular name, or sports teams (think, the Miami Heat were/was in Boston this weekend to face the Celtics), it is not absolutely correct or incorrect either way...
If Jai Paul doesn't come with a MASTERPIECE within the next 2 years I will be mad at him forever.
I wish I didn't feel this way, but I can't help it.
You're a perfectionist, I get it, PUT OUT A FUCKING ALBUM.
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