he's doing the thing where his aesthetic is interesting and queer and androgynous but his music is bland and derivative. i'm surprised that one of these songs wasn't a big moment like Sign of the Times, which was at least vocally impressive. this is just so flat
seems like hannah diamond maybe hasn't progressed artistically as the rest of the PC Music folks have, these tracks sound like what was interesting maybe 5 years ago? something interesting happens halfway thru on this one but it's a slog to get there
Yes! I don't think it's enough to disqualify her altogether, but it def should be noted. What's worse is when I told a 20 y.o. coworker of mine, also a musician, about KP's Macy's lineage, he was just impressed and said "No way! That's so cool." When we like the music these privileged folks are making, we're very likely to just ignore that aspect altogether.
i love that he's acting as advertising for PrEP and it hasn't harmed his image at all, given how awful Gilead is and how much they charge for the pills so that black and poor people, especially in the south, aren't able to afford it. i mean pretty soon the patent will be up and generics will be made available but it's great that his fans, who i'm sure would label themselves as politically-minded and progressive, will continue to support an artist who is essentially shilling (for free, no spon money for him!) for a pharma company
but then that list would cannibalize their year-end list traffic and if they aren't getting millions of clicks for both of these packages what's the point of producing ALL THE CONTENT!!!!!???
wow, this was beautiful. wasn't too into Holy Terrain, but after reading the recent Guardian profile and hearing this (+ Cellophane, duh) I'm v excited for this album, and hopefully catching her live
You know, I regretted this comment for how I just vomited out this criticism that was maybe too harsh, but damn. That vid you posted below shows that she can put on a show while still experimenting. And I'm not asking for 2hrs of that. I just want a consistent, well executed vibe. Which was there for the first 30 minutes of the show, with her entrance and the music by DJ Total Freedom. And then she started her set proper by thanking people for 20 minutes? If it had been a shtick, it woulda been great. But it wasn't! It was too sincere to be a shtick, and that would be fine, if so much of her performance weren't about artifice.
Anyway, here's hoping something better comes along. Heard from a rep of hers that the album is pushed to 2020, at least, so.
oh my god, I was there to see the Bjork performance and that was the only good part. Arca totally dropped the damn ball on this by assuming her creative genius guaranteed she would put on a good show.
SHE ASKED AUDIENCE MEMBERS ABOUT THEIR DREAMS. It was like being back in a freshman dorm, stoned and uninteresting. Then, she got 4 members of the audience to dance, which was cool, except she left them up there for like 20 minutes while she did not play songs and did maybe nothing.
I hope Arca realizes 50% of that room was there for free, as part of the press or +1s. Because she is not as infallible as she seems to think and her art has really been trash for the past two years.
Ugh, I nearly cried when reading this.
The amount of affection I have for Christopher Owens is so much more than I've got for most of my favorite musicians; these Girls albums are so special to me. I didn't live in or near any big cities when Girls were around, but I did see him on tour for his first solo album, at an intimate NYC club. The music hadn't been released yet, and the pastiche of the stuff was surprising at the time, but Owens' presence won me over and sold the material. That was probably the last album he made money on, and that kills me.
I think I've developed a real affection for him for the great music he's made, yeah, but also because of his twitter, following him and seeing him tweet about working at a coffee shop, about things he does at a coffee shop that would annoy me if he were my coworker, tweeting without bitterness about having to make a living in this way when he is an artist that was once so respected by so many people. (I feel this way about Cullen Omori, too, but to a much smaller degree. And mostly because Whitney has gone on to so much success while he's been left to wallow with middling reviews of his OK albums.)
There is an unfashionable earnestness about Christopher, a tendency to go cheeseball when left unchecked, which is probably why he hasn't really had a hit since that second Girls album. But all that music they put out, damn. I recently saw a well-known NYC figure--a writer and musician who has been around forever--decrying the fact that Pitchfork gave that first album such a high score. I did not know there were Girls haters out there. To hate on them, to hate on Christopher Owens, seems impossible to me. This isn't going anywhere, could ramble on forever, but thank you for this writeup, thanks for championing this band, and thanks for hoping that Christopher doesn't die. I want for him to make more amazing art but I guess, as this writeup said, making all that great music is more than most can hope for, and it's certainly an accomplishment that doesn't demand a follow-up for its creator to be remembered well.
i need to say this somewhere so i will say it here: ed droste announced on instagram he is quitting music to go to school to become a therapist and boy oh boy
I liked Gone and the Sky collab, but the other releases have been weirdly low-key. And that's fine in the context of an album, but yeah, I agree. They've been a little meh when it comes to generating excitement.
was still riding hard on some Aleve PM when i first listened to this but nah it's pretty barely there. the tired "ladies in fashion with samurai swords" video clearly points to Grimes being out of creative ideas. i suggest she hang it up for a few years and bask in Elon's billions until the burning atmosphere gives her a vision of an apocalyptic concept album
way back when OTR came out, I wanted to hate him. but, I love this guy, damn. part of me wants him to find some songwriters/producers to help him make something great that is longer than 2:30, but it's also kinda nice to have such short jams.
anyway the video is good. when he loses his sense of playfulness, it'll be all over
i definitely admire where she's coming from and am actually into her album, but i just found myself uninterested in watching the whole video because the vocal was so lethargic and the video didn't add much energy (unlike "bad guy," who can resist bouncing dadbod bellies?)
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