I'm a little skeptical about how that Lykki Li album will hold up come their year-end list and whether that BNM was done with sincere praise or because they have ulterior motives behind giving it a good review. There's always a handful of 8.4 or less BNM reviews that feel like they're done just to appease their standing with an artist or trend, but come year-end, they're absent altogether. A former Pitchfork writer who now works at SPIN wrote a post on his blog last year about how that was was one of many reasons why he left. He hinted that when he was there, one buzz genre album (rumored to have been Twin Shadow's debut) was deemed as just okay by the writers, but they were pressured into giving it a Best New Music tag for trend and traffic revenue reasons. The Lykki Li album has mixed reception on a universal level (a 76 currently on Metacritic,) and none of the early previews off of it were given Best New Track reviews. They did a big interview with her, but other than that, it didn't seem like they were too excited about the album before Tuesday's review dropped.
He's also probably a decent dude, and imagining the pointless downvotes I get here magnified by the tenfold out in the public in every direction of the Internet for just being a divisive writer on a very popular music site, I try to do my best to empathize for his cagey defensiveness even though it's frown-inducing when one of my favorite bands gets a 6 or below score, which means less people might not listen to it, their album sales may not be as strong, ticket sales may soften, etc. -- the general Pitchfork effect.
First, I'm glad to see the project has dedicated its name to Bad History Month rather than Fat History Month. It sounds better and while Meff probably doesn't care too much about this aspect, it rolls off the tongue better for press marketing's sakes.
As for the song, I thought "Sad History Month" last year was their most amazing and ambitious listen yet. I have to somewhat disagree with you Miles, that I don't think it necessarily abandons everything off the The Lonesome Crowded West trails of their album last year, but the Microphones influence is astute, and I will say this about every Bad History Month every time I talk about them, but it is my Dave Matthews Band is that makes any sense.
I think a lot of the reviews he pans just tend to be outside of the realm of his interest, which isn't necessarily his fault. If it's smart pop-punk, indie- emo / #emorevival, male-oriented sophisticated / sappy indie rock (the National, Sufjan, Mutual Benefit, Sun Kil Moon), pretty experimental electronic music (Baths, How to Dress Well), Drake rap or slick pseudo-indie alt pop-rock (the 1975, Bombay Bicycle Club,) you'll probably find a review score with his byline next to it as favorable. I think a lot of the cynically negative reviews he gets to write would otherwise be more favorable if they were written by anyone else over there, but for whatever reason, he keeps getting assigned / assigning himself to albums that are doomed to get low scores. There's a reason why people see an album review and then see his name next to it and say, "I knew this was going to be a low score before I even clicked it."
Also, he reads these comments and occasionally passive aggressively makes mention of them on Twitter, etc. so just keep in mind that every time you complain about him here, he's going to blame me for it in front of the world.
Yup! Spot on here. I think it might be their best effort to date because all of the ideas they've presented over the years (and done well at that) just come together here, and then some.
I just got to the chapter in American Hardcore about the Misfits, and it surprised me to read that Danzig's legal battling with his old Misfits 'mates were pretty justifiable considering all we hear about him is that he is a dickish rock star: He just didn't want to see the band's name dragged through the mud for the worst after he left, but if they were going to do it, might as well make some money off of it.
Case in point right here.
I felt the newest Tigers Jaw (the band these three guys left in pursue this band) song that came out last week sounded like a grown-up Taking Back Sunday song, so is it crazy that I think Three Man Cannon's return sounds like a grown-up Straylight Run song a la "Existentialism On Prom Night"?
Oh, phew. Thanks. I honestly thought I got banned for either posting the Titus tweets, upsetting Chris' poptimism / Ariana Grande worship or being too critical of the business side of content mining (which I swear, I'm trying to work on but it's tougher some days than not.)
Nope, still banned it looks like. Just posted a comment and it didn't go through. If it does, it'll show up several hours later. Cover up to make it look like I'm not banned?
Very strange. These comments finally showed up after several hours and one confused e-mail from me to the authority. No idea what was going on, but it's getting a bit ridiculous as I thought I have been upholding the rules.
Glad to see someone else here has a problem with "Problem," Donny! For a couple of days, it felt like I was living in some bizarro world where everybody was sheeping onto the Grande-wagon and nobody wanted to come out and say it's not all that impressive. It's the song of the summer alright, but it's the song of the summer for the safe-bet basic bitch crowd. Whoever secures the rights to songs used between breaks on Good Morning America has probably locked that thing down already and is salivating at the chomps to squeeze every penny paid for it for years to come on just like they have "Edge of Glory" and eventually, "Happy."
It's still early. Memorial Day isn't even here yet. Lana could drop something new. Grimes could return right before her festival appearances kick into gear. Or maybe summer just needs a season off for once.
Also Chris, there are many valid, complex personal reasons why I keep coming back to take part in discussing everything here, and I would rather not see you attempting to over-simplify them in a "If you don't like it, leave!" way.
I guess I understand why you might feel personally attacked by my criticism since it runs parallel to your work which in turn reflects on you and your talents, but if you think I am sitting behind a computer screen, seeing the newest post and saying to myself, "Oh, it's a Chris DeVille byline! Let me see how I can trash it," that is misguided on your end. I do respect your right to share an opinion even if I disagree with them and do try to take a step back in understanding that there is a business model being ran (as a former news writer, I know the feeling of literally making gold out of shit content and non-stories just to keep eyes on your product.)
Some of you are judgmental of me on a personal basis where as I try to do my best to judge just the content, and I apologize if it sucks to see me picking it apart, but I do love music just as you do, and it's been very upsetting to see it transform into a commodity by basically everyone and not just Stereogum (who I admit fight harder than others to maintain some semblance of identity through all of that ad-driven b.s.) and be despised on a personal level by the likes of you and a few others here.
So when I say if you want a war, you can have one, I am warning you that you firing on your own army. Let's not do that, dude.
Exactly! Here's how I see it: I think Ariana Grande's success right now was pre-determined regardless of whether she actually put out a just a decent radio hit or an amazing radio hit (and as far as I'm concerned, it's decent -- No better than a Pink song or whatever Rihanna is shoveling out these days. But it's being heralded as the latter. She was on the radar of tastemakers with her debut last year (Pitchfork gave it a decent score), which was admittedly relatively smart mainstream pop compared to say, Katy Perry's latest effort, and ever since, they've all been waiting for the opportunity to start the coronation ceremony in dubbing her the next big thing that could be their new Beyonce.
Now, to me, it seems like with "Problem," people are more interested in saying "this is going to be big!" (see: Scott's comment yesterday ) more so than explaining what exactly is so great about it other than pointing out its very obvious reference points and saying Max Martin is a god because they simply want to be able to say they were on the Ariana Grande bandwagon before the track goes viral with the low common denominator of music listeners and actually does become the annoying song that gets played to death on your mom's MIX FM station and lingers on next winter. I also think part of the allure to Ariana Grande is that listeners -- especially those within the "hip" / commodity-based indie music tastemaker contingent -- want a new pop star to adore. They're still curious about Taylor, but they're also tired of her because she never gives us a break even when she's not putting out msuic. Miley is too silly to be taken seriously. Katy could be better, but she concedes to be whoever her label wants her to be. Same thing goes for Rihanna, and Gaga has been defeated. And Beyonce is "flawless" because she apparently woke up like that, so it's not worth arguing with that.
Is "Problem" this year's summer anthem? Yes, but you can see it a million miles away, and for that, it's to me more like the basic bitch anthem.
Actually, most of this list missed the mark. Fucked Up's "Led by Hand" is missing. Parquet Courts' "Black and White" is missing. BANKS' "Goddess" is missing.
Ah well... I don't relate to 90% of the stuff being written about on here anyway these days.
Oh, for fuck's sakes, fuck this Ariana Grande song. Max Martin can and should do better than hacking up a few very noticeable recent pop songs and sewing them together. I don't know what the love is about. It's predictable as far as "what will become a radio hit" but it certainly isn't special.
This is why independent music is dying because sites like Stereogum have bought into this whole poptimism machine.
Ke$ha, Miley, this Fallin chick -- Does anyone else see a trend here with a 53-year-old Wayne Coyne trying to impress girls who are half his age or more with his hippie rock star antics? Maybe he should form a band with Thurston Moore and they can both have a mid-life crisis circle jerk together.
Titus Andronicus' Patrick Stickles actually ripped @stereogum (technically Tom, the writer of the post in question he was upset about) this morning for making a huge deal about his recent string of pro-Lily Allen / anti-Courtney Love tweets and going a few steps further in editorializing the tweets by calling him "deeply troubled," etc. I'm not holding out to read a "Where's the Beef?" post, but it must have been rather meta for Stereogum to wake up to and it's on Twitter if you want read it.
I think you're missing the points here, sd. Not saying it's a one-and-done album / hit deal with Ariana, as his track record with Katy Perry has demonstrated, and I'll be surprised if he doesn't give another assist to T. Swift on her next album as well, but the main takeaway is that yes, he goes where the money is and therefore, who cares about Ariana Grande -- Max Martin is the true artist behind these songs.
It never ceases to humor me how a bit of cutely-named rebranding did a lot of damage control for Clear Channel, because I remember in the 2000s when they were basically monopolizing the airwaves and shutting down everyone's beloved local alt stations and converting them into pop, hip-hop, country or conservative talk radio, everyone was like "ClearChannel is taking over! Fuck them! We have to stop them!" And now, here we are in 2014, there is frightening amount of consumers who think of IHeartRadio as this great music entity and they even have an entirely pointless awards ceremony to go along with it.
True, but the Max Martin songs tend to be the peak of all those artists' material and from there on out, they coast the airwaves with hits that are mediocre washes of those songs without Martin's sig next to them. And so it's to say, appreciate this version of Ariana Grande goodness now because while it may be the song to blast her into big pop star territory, Max Martin moves on. I'm sure he isn't returning Avril's calls these days...
Oh, please. "Superbass" isn't about Nicki Minaj, it's about the near-perfect production and beat -- all original-sounding -- where as "Problem" is a reductive of three or four other pop songs -- hardly original-sounding.
Nothing about a pop song is about the actual artist -- It's about who they finagled into writing and producing for them. If Ariana Grande is lucky, she'll eventually go from being this year's hot ticket to playing it safe and traveling down the just-okay radio hit route a la Pink, Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson.
I feel like I'm the only person in the world who has a problem with "Problem." I just can't get past the shoplifting of the "Thrift Shop" sax bounce and I guess I just always hated Mariah, so a mini version of her is the last thing I need. As far as purely shellacked mainstream radio pop goes, this song can't hold a candle to anything off Red (by Max Martin standards) nor is it on the level of "Super Bass," "Call Me Maybe" or "Since U Been Gone" in terms of repeat worthiness.
And in five years, Iggy Azalea will be but a forgettable footnote in a long string of overhyped white foreign female rappers in the same way Lady Sovereign has fallen off the face of the earth.
The new Pitchfork interview has so many quotable moments, I don't even know where to start:
CL: ...I've tried to tweet you guys and kiss your ass, but the dude in Portland just doesn't like me. So I'm like, "OK, fine."
Pitchfork: Portland?
CL: Isn't it based in Portland?
Pitchfork: No, we're in Brooklyn and Chicago.
CL: Oh! I see, I see. I mixed it up with "Portlandia".
I think you hit the heart of why I exist and get into arguments frequently around here: Part of it is because sitting behind a computer screen all day in an unhealthy, unsocial office environment doing a job I wish I could move on from festers a negative mood in me, but also subconsciously, I start them so that throughout the day, I have a reason to check, see what was responded and feel like I'm not stuck inside my own head all day.
I'm bored sitting behind a computer screen all day for 9 hours with no one in my office to speak to. It makes me feel less bored to throw comments up onto the Internet in hopes they are responded to for some form of human interaction. Thank you for providing me with some semblance of social activity throughout my work week, even if you disagree with my approach.
"Alfred Sergie" doesn't give you any results in Google, but it does point to an Alfred Hitchcock painting by Sergei Vishinsky. Also notice that the Hitchcock credit reference comes out again in "Nathan John Brown Hitchcock." There's also the "More Random Names" credit and the un-Google-able "William Wolfgang" credit, but it makes me wonder if Tyler, the Creator might somehow be involved, since 'Ye tends to be a fan of his music videos.
Get used to it, I guess. When the post isn't about a new song or album, I have a one-track mind that goes straight to asking, "What value is this piece of writing conveying to me that I can take away and use to better inform my life and knowledge?" and the answer in this case is hardly anything.
"Sounds gospel-like here" - Soundcloud commenter at 0:35 mark
Obviously more interesting lyrical storytelling on Owens' part, but going to the hole using the same aesthetic isn't pulling out any new magic tricks.
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