Buzz, meh, etc..
Sorry to dump this on you, but I reckon a lot of you might actually like these songs more than I do, so you’ll probably have more complaints with my lack of enthusiasm than the actual tracks I post.
This is another of those summary posts of no-more-than-decent bands getting plenty of buzz that just don’t float my boat at all, so I’ve lumped them all in here to spare me having to write reviews of their albums. Not that they’re bad, exactly, but I’m not sure it’s entirely safe to invite them to babysit without the fear that they will soil your little angels’ earbuds forever with some sort of perpetual taint of banal mediocrity. Imagine raising children that bought Coldplay albums. Or Lily Allen. Or The Zutons. Or even that lizard Mark Ronson. Honestly, I’d rather just spend five minutes with a pillow and a heart full of compassion and put the little tykes out of my misery nice and early. That is the danger of allowing Mark Ronson to babysit: the need for mercy euthanasia, assuming the kid didn’t throttle itself with its own shoelaces first.
Anyone still here? Right, good. Here are a pile of albums there is no need at all to go out and waste your money on because they just aren’t all that good.
Feist – The Reminder Well it is growing on me, albeit slowly, but deep down I can’t help think of it as Kate Bush for people who really don’t like Kate Bush very much. That said, it is often pleasant enough, and this is the one I am most likely to change my mind on in future, I think.
Feist – 1234
Bjork – Volta I am quite a big fan of some of Bjork’s work. This one, however, appears to consist of far too much angular shouting for my taste. Really quite off-putting.
Bjork – Hope
The Pigeon Detectives – Wait For Me Reasonable but utterly unremarkable indie-pop. Next.
The Pigeon Detectives – Caught in Your Trap Deleted by the RIAA. Funny how they tend to get the most upset about previews being available for the most mediocre bands, eh. Maybe if the material didn’t show up the vacuity of their hype they’d be less jumpy.
Blonde Redhead – 23 In theory I should like this. I mean, it ticks all the boxes – droning indie guitar, moody female vocals, etc.. but somehow it just doesn’t do it for me at all.
Blonde Redhead – 23
Loney, Dear – Loney, Noir I am John was the pre-release preview track knocking about for this album and a truly excellent song. I like it so much I was infuriated to hear it on the record player in a clothes shop before the album release (ooh, cutting edge buzz music, establish ‘edgy’ cachet – great marketing strategy). The rest of the album is really annoyingly dull by comparison, I am sorry to say. It just does not grab me at all, which is such a disappointment.
Loney, Dear – I am John
Right, now that’s over with, listen to this, because it’s absolutely fucking brilliant:
Broken Records – Russian Song
It’s from my previous post, and I am pretty pissed off that no-one appears interested. If you think the above bands are any good at all, believe me, you need Broken Records.
That was cynical really, wasn’t it, putting these lads on a post with all these mediocre hit-magnets, just to get them more attention. Heh heh heh. Cynical it may be, but it makes me feel all warm inside.
first off, great graphic. : ) second, i agree with you in most part, with one glaring exception.
i love loney, dear. i will admit that “i am john” is the catchiest song on the cd, but in my opinion it may well be one of the top-ten songs of the year for me, so it’s asking an awful lot of the rest of the album to live up to its standards. in addition, there are some other quite lovely songs on that records, including “sinister in a state of hope” and “saturday waits” and “the meter marks ok,” so i wouldn’t write it off completely.
the rest of your choices, well, the only other one i’d argue with is probably the feist, although i have only heard one song off it, which, as we know so well, isn’t always an indication of the rest of the album!
end of rant. : )
Well if you agreed with all my opinions, Marcy, there’d be no need to write your own blog
I will persevere with both Loney, Dear and Feist, but for the time being I am not quite there. Time may tell though, and I’ll be sure to publish an apology if I change my mind.
You know, I’ve always been pretty bored by Feist, but I stuck “1234″ on a mix CD and after forcing myself to hear it about 4-5 times have actually developed a liking for it. Maybe she takes a lot of getting used to? I do like the new Bjork songs I’ve heard, though…
I haven’t listened to the Lonely, Dear record yet but I do like the Feist. Blonde Redhead is fine and I hear they’re good live but missed the show (last Friday in Atlanta). No real interest in the rest.
point well taken! i have a real thing for the kind of music loney, dear makes, and i truly do understand others’ not liking it to the same extent. i met him, you know. he didn’t seem nearly as depressed in person as he does on his records.
i did download the broken records, though, and like it well enough thus far, especially the strings.
I personally love the Blonde Redhead been a fan a long time, I think if you give it a few more listens it will grow on you. Haven’t listened to all the Feist yet but what I have heard is ok, I guess. Have never listened to a Loney Dear track as of yet even amid all the blog hype. And never been crazy of Bjork. That Broken Records is excellent though, thanks for the intro!
Well China, I often find that splitting an album up on a playlist and listening to it in amongst other stuff can be really good like that. I like the Feist one best of the lot, so far.
Most of these I will certainly give a few more listens to though, because I’ve been making my decisions about music far, far too hastily these days.
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