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Post by Pea on Dec 16, 2010 17:16:19 GMT -8
I bought Wincing the Night Away when it first came out and immediately dismissed it and put it on my shelf to gather dust ever since. For some reason a few weeks ago I wanted to listen Phantom Limb and ended up re-listening through the entire album and realized how terrible of a mistake I had made. I've probably listened to it 6 times through since then and it has been like discovering a new favorite album. God damn what a great piece of music. Not only do I doubt they will ever be able to top it, but I doubt they will ever be able to even match the greatness of their previous releases either.
And thank you for saying it, HG, because Broken Bells is probably the safest, most bland project I've heard in recent years. I've listened through the entire CD multiple times only to realize that nothing in particular had jumped out at me over the course of the album. If I wasn't enjoying Cee-Lo's solo stuff so much I would tell Danger Mouse to get the fuck back to Gnarles Barkley.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Dec 16, 2010 17:22:28 GMT -8
Danger Mouse is spreading himself too thin, and starting to wear out his welcome. He's very creative and has a lot of good ideas, but they all sound like Danger Mouse - which is a problem when you're collaborating with and producing for anyone who is willing to pay for you. You start to notice too many similarities -- similarities between bands that have nothing in common except for a Danger Mouse credit in the liners -- and that's when the cracks start to show.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Dec 16, 2010 17:26:23 GMT -8
And I know a lot of people who had a similar experience with 'Wincing'. It's so different from 'Chutes' (which I have a lot of love for, but I think it's a really uneven record). They didn't get what they were expecting out of 'Wincing' and so they never listened to it more than once or twice - which as I say all the time is the kiss of death for a record that requires even a little bit of thoughtful attention.
The same thing happened recently with 'Congratulations', sort of... Although if you want to know what I think, 'Congratulations' is hardly that different from 'Oracular Spectacular' and half of the people who HATED it would have LOVED it if fucking Pitchfork hadn't put it into their heads that it was some massive stylistic departure.
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Post by Geoff on Dec 16, 2010 17:27:49 GMT -8
Oh and I'm almost afraid to mention this, but new Blink-182 album is also coming out. First one in ten years.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Dec 16, 2010 17:31:39 GMT -8
Do you remember the final episode of 'Dinosaurs', where Earl starts working for some big corporation and his carelessness causes an environmental disaster that brings on the ice age? And then the very last time we see the Sinclair family, they are huddled in their living room waiting to die as a blizzard rages outside their window? And Earl is all sitting there explaining to Baby Sinclair what it means that he's going to die, and how it is daddy's fault?
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Post by Horned Gramma on Dec 16, 2010 17:37:17 GMT -8
Sorry. That just seemed more on topic in a thread about 'albums to look forward to' than anything concerning Blink-182.
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Post by know ID yuh on Dec 16, 2010 17:38:10 GMT -8
I was writing my response in my head to what Gramms said about his feelings about the Shins and Broken Bells, but Peatrick basically said what I was going to say.
Having listened to the Broken Bells record at least six times, I can honestly say I don't remember one lyric, one beat, one song title, or anything about the record at all. I ended up selling my ticket to their show last week, because I don't recall ever being less excited about going to a show.
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Post by Pea on Dec 16, 2010 17:40:58 GMT -8
The same thing happened recently with 'Congratulations', sort of... Although if you want to know what I think, 'Congratulations' is hardly that different from 'Oracular Spectacular' and half of the people who HATED it would have LOVED it if fucking Pitchfork hadn't put it into their heads that it was some massive stylistic departure. MGMT put themselves in a strange position by releasing 3 pop singles from an album of otherwise modern psychedelic rock. Congratulations was an obvious next step after Oracular Spectacular, but it was definitely a ballsy "FUCK YOU" to the 75% of their fanbase that only wanted to dance to "Kids" and didn't give a shit about the last 3/4 of the album. I'm fascinated to see what happens next with that band and their popularity.
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Post by Pea on Dec 16, 2010 17:48:01 GMT -8
Having listened to the Broken Bells record at least six times, I can honestly say I don't remember one lyric, one beat, one song title, or anything about the record at all. I ended up selling my ticket to their show last week, because I don't recall ever being less excited about going to a show. The last 54 seconds of "The High Road" is some of my favorite seconds of music from 2010. It's so catchy and soothing, I just can't get enough of it. Other than that, I really can't remember a single thing about that album. It really proves that having a name for yourself can definitely trump the quality of music, no matter what genre you're coming from.
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Rusty
North American Scumfoot
Posts: 710
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Post by Rusty on Dec 16, 2010 18:46:17 GMT -8
. I'm fascinated to see what happens next with that band and their popularity. I totally agree with you. Their next move will undoubtedly be an interesting one. When 'Congratulations' first came out there seemed to be this big backlash, because it didn't have the dance hits off the first half of OS. But as the year comes to a close it seems like a lot of people are accepting 'congratulations' as a really great album.
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Post by Drew on Dec 16, 2010 20:21:38 GMT -8
Weighing in:
The Shins used to be one of my favorite bands. My favorite album of theirs is still Oh Inverted World, and will always be one of my favorites. They had such an awesome energy live, the goofiness of the fat guy on the drums contrasted with Mercer's sort of skinny chic persona, it was just perfect. Chutes was an excellent album as well, and even after making a lot of changes before Wincing it turned out pretty good too. I actually have hope that the next one will be good too, because Mercer has the potential to write the most amazing pop songs, he just resists his urges because he wants to be in another category of songwriter (I remember an interview where he talks about finding touchstones in, like, Mirah and stuff like that (and I fucking love Mirah but that's NOT how the Shins should sound.)) But that dangermouse album blew nuts.
I didn't really like Oracular and really didn't like Congratulations. I'm in that 75% that really only liked to dance to Kids and Time to Pretend. Because those are really fun, infectious songs, and I'm really not into mediocre psych-rock. I prefer dad rock.
Did anyone watch New Pornos instead of MGMT? Carl Newman made a joke, like, "you know they're not gonna play their hit, right?" And he said neither are we, but then they encored with Letter from an Occupant, which made my night.
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Post by Pea on Dec 16, 2010 20:32:12 GMT -8
...and then MGMT played all of their hits as well.
oi
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Post by Drew on Dec 16, 2010 22:58:00 GMT -8
Yeah. I really didn't think they were because it was a huge story when they didn't play anything at Coachella. But I guess they heard the complaints.
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Post by Lump on Dec 16, 2010 23:57:29 GMT -8
Yeah, LOL'd at that AC Newman crack. Kinda wanted to see MGMT though since I love Congratulations (I'm a sucker for surf rock.), though I will punch the next person I see if I have to hear Time to Pretend again. Not necessarily a bad song, but not many more things make me mad than that opening synth line. But New Pornos were one of the main reasons I was there (AND THEY HAD BOTH NEKO AND DAN BEJAR WHICH IS AWESOME. PRIMAVERA HAD NEITHER YO)
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Post by Horned Gramma on Dec 17, 2010 7:25:57 GMT -8
MGMT's set was so much fun, but they went on right before Ween so my excitement level was at its peak for the weekend. We were all marching and dancing our way down from the hill to the very front of the pit, and I was telling everyone there was no way they'd play 'Kids' about two seconds before they ripped right into it.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Dec 17, 2010 10:09:27 GMT -8
Really looking forward to the new Danielson. New track steaming at Poochfuck, it's really good.
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Post by stamper on Dec 18, 2010 10:18:59 GMT -8
Speaking of New albums coming out next year...
For those who are interested, The Decemberists' "The King is Dead" just leaked online. (sorry, HG)
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Post by Pea on Dec 18, 2010 12:14:09 GMT -8
Haha I was about to say the exact same thing. I will (like always) be buying this when it comes out next month but I really just can't resist a good leak. I'm really really enjoying this album so far. It's a stripped down, short 40 minutes of alt-country driven Decemberists tracks. Like I said, I wasn't a big fan of The Hazards of Love at all but this new one has roped me back in. Tons of really sweet swaying melodies which I missed from the last album.
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Post by stamper on Dec 18, 2010 12:24:00 GMT -8
yes, I will totally be purchasing this one.
I think the fans of The Decemberists first couple albums will be considerably pleased with it.
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Post by mothmonsterman on Dec 18, 2010 12:26:10 GMT -8
We should get a new Primus album next year. So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
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