I've had this album for months and been waiting to discuss it with people. I think if I can bypass nostalgia, it's my favorite from them. "Incantation" is just amazing to me and the imagery in "Am I An Alien Here" is so classic Krug it's absurd. (Learning how to surf on a machine by the window!?) "Baby Blue" and "Weaponized" as a 1-2 are almost as good as "Sons and Daughters" -> "I'll Believe in Anything." Truly remarkable stuff, and surprising to me, too.
This song is so good!
I have a ~problem~ with the video, as well as the spoken word intro. From refuse floating in open water. It's very similar to Lemonade. I don't mean to equate female artists to female artists, and sonically obviously this is a separate thing. But that intro, some of the costuming, the scene where she smashes things in slow-mo. It's impossible to assume Lemonade won't aesthetically trickle down to other pop music, but there were parts of this that were way too similar.
Anyway, still a good song. I hope it's a hit.
Part of me hopes this song is just a piece in some sort of conceptual puzzle about NYC arts dying because her lamenting Astor's irrelevance is kind of a sham given that Astor had been lobotomized of its eccentricities long before she came to the city.
I mean, I'm hoping this is the case, that somehow it's about Bowie or something, or sympathizing with David Byrne's recent-ish anti-NYC screed re: the lack of artist incubation. Because otherwise it's a little phony. Maybe that's the point, too, given her mention of Hollywood? Mocking the Goodbye to All That trend, if you can still call it a trend?
Or maybe I'm giving her way too much credit and the song is just kind of an disingenuous, boring thing.
if Pitchfork reviewed the album, and did it negatively, would people think it was legitimate or no because of these allegations? as a queer dude who has his own important idols, i see the importance of a band like this but also see that the music kind of sucks, and i'd like to see a pan on Pitchfork for that reason, but I dunno. it's kind of lose-lose-lose for them: lose by not running a review of a band that is dangerous to touch, lose by running a negative review of a band embroiled in scandal, lose for running a positive one of a possibly awful band
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