Musical Artists Everyone Seems to Hate That You Love

Anonymous · 2015-09-10T19:25:58-04:00

As an inverse to the Everyone Seems to Love thread, I was curious what musical acts people enjoy here that they feel others rag on just a bit too much. Forgive me if this seems too similar to Guilty Pleasures, but I think there's a distinction between an act being disliked just for being uncool or "trashy" and an act being disliked for myriad other reasons. Maybe we can even convince each other to re-evaluate some of our unfairly maligned favorites! I'll kick it off by saying that I have come across very few people on BEA (actually, I think none is the correct amount, but that's possibly just that others aren't vocal in their affections, so I'm leaving the room for error) who like Polly Bradfield. I did this writeup for her on my Overall chart that covers all the bases of what I like about her and addresses some of the main criticisms I see: Divisive is probably the wrong word to use to describe Solo Violin Improvisations. For one, it is probably one of the most egregious understatements I could make about the record. For two, it's probably more accurately described as completely derided with occasional plaudits from a dedicated small fanbase. Instead of having two big camps shouting at each other about whether it is one of the best or worst pieces of music ever created, it's more often shunned completely by many. The criticisms I've heard of it definitely make sense. It is easy to view such music as intensely navel-gazing bourgeois excess. It is easy to characterize it as amateurish at worst and needlessly obscure if one is not on its wavelength going in and doesn't understand the versatility on display. I certainly don't look down my nose at people who dislike the album, and I don't condescend to them by saying I pity them. It is one of the most "different strokes" records I can think of. But I will attempt to explain away these criticisms and others as briefly as I can. Funnily enough, these main criticisms are completely contradictory in my experience - there is a group that hates this album for being too sparse and a group that hates it for being too much. On the topic of its excess, I don't think it's completely inaccurate to view it as the assault on the senses it likely sets out to be. We're talking about a woman whose only other documented output is an album called Torture Time! here, after all. I do think, however, that it is inaccurate to put it at such a distance from lived experience. This is no transcendental, detached Teutonic meditation from on high. In fact, I'd argue it's one of the most earthy and American records ever made. The playfulness - and make no mistake, all that sawing and scraping and beating is much more playful than it is austere; just look at the visual gag on the album cover! - here betrays whatever high art bona fides are attached to it by listeners who don't typically engage with such material. If it weren't for the long gaps of silence (more on that in a moment), this would be the most sexless erotic album ever made. There's a constant energy on display here, a perpetual forward thrust. It seeks to completely break down the wall between artistic process and audience reception, taking improvisation past its logical constraints and into a direct, libidinous realm. Nothing has spoken more clearly or directly, or at least attempted to, since the jazz greats' most saccharine freak outs. This is not music meant to intimidate, but to excite. It is blueprints of a possible music to come. It is a synthesis of the indeterminate hyper-rationalism of the academic and "academic" avant-garde of the post-war era with the possibly more stripped-down and honest declaration of necessary personal expression that was articulated in modern jazz. If there is obscurity here, it is because Bradfield exposes herself too clearly and causes the same kind of knee-jerk revulsion that one gets when presented with too much personal information from someone in an early meeting. It's too clean, too simple that someone might bare their soul to you without you having to earn it. The lack of artistic distance is unnerving for those anticipating such, and it can be easily misinterpreted. As for the sparseness of the record, the silences in particular, this is just a matter of your outlook on music creation in general. Silence used as framing device is not unique to Bradfield, but it can be difficult to penetrate. It allows her dexterous playing to come through even more brightly when its variety can be ensconced in such moments of free-fall. Trying to bridge the gap between some of her ideas would be an exercise in futility, so she leaves the gaps open wide. Again, we see Bradfield going to an extreme logical conclusion. I am out of space to write on this record, so I will conclude with this - this album contradictorily manages to completely demand the attention of the listener utilizing silences, and for that alone, it is an indispensable document.

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almost every poppy hip-hop artist

only if bea = everyone though

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sp4cetiger wrote:

James who?

My most favorite singer James Otto. 😄 😄 😄

God bless you and him always!!! 😄 😄 😄

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