Disclosure describe their music as "house," and Deafheaven describe their music as "black metal," but neither act demonstrates a working knowledge of how those genres work or sound. I don't think looping a five-second guitar riff with some distortion into a pretty generic hip hop beat with a weird breakdown for the chorus counts as nu-metal. Nu-metal is a horrific genre, but its "rap rock synthesis" or what have you had more to do with guitars emulating synthetic beat production through chugging guitars and heavy drumming than the literal exact opposite of that.
the opinions being discussed here re: the Grimes discussion going down here is very much in line with my own experience. Thanks for articulating it better than me people. I don't know nearly enough about the broader history of Pop (with a capital P) music to draw all the connections but this album's encouraging me to educate myself on the matter which is a miracle in and of itself.
and yeah Scream is in no way shape or form nu-metal (thankfully)
Disappointed there wasn't actually a nu-metal track, 'cause although I can't say I'm particularly knowledgeable about the genre, a lot of the stuff that I like that is also nu-metal (or at least, made by nu-metal bands) has a style that I think would have been interesting to see Grimes adopt. Atmospheric, dramatic, melodic, that totally suits her.
I really enjoyed Charlie's evaluation (and the subsequent discussion). I think it rings true, maybe, and its pretty helpful because I'm conflicted about it as an album, but I'm not really worrying my head over it, lol, some of the songs are pretty sick.
I really enjoyed Charlie's evaluation (and the subsequent discussion). I think it rings true, maybe, and its pretty helpful because I'm conflicted about it as an album, but I'm not really worrying my head over it, lol, some of the songs are pretty sick.
yeah regardless of how much I don't understand the broader context of the album, I can safely say I've really been enjoying jamming to it (I wonder what my family thinks of my baritone sing-along sessions...)
i also think one of Grimes's main strengths as an artist is her ability to queer masculine tropes as part of her larger project of asserting and centering herself in a space dominated by men, so creating an actual nu-metal track would have been much more interesting to me than stopping halfway with SCREAM, which is ultimately completely redundant on the album (as far as loud, in-charge grrl power feat. track) given the much superior track that Janelle Monae was on and messed up the sequencing in my mind to boot.
I'm not a huge fan of Anniemal, but I can't deny that this is one of the best singles of the 2000s. It's just so full of peace and love and emotion. And the Pitchfork review for the album is one of my all-time favorites from the site. Here are the first two paragraphs:
Quote:
Depending on whom you ask-- and even in which country you live-- "pop" can mean a lot of different things. It's a word that's been demonized and marginalized, especially amongst stodgy and often conservative U.S. rock critics. Values, and the means in which they're defined, have been frequent talking points in the past couple of weeks, both in the rockcrit world (thanks to Kelefa Sanneh's recent New York Times Arts cover story on rockism) and in the nation at large (oh, you know). In each case, the conservative factions have framed their dialogue in pretty knee-jerk terms. Most rock critics' views of unity, it would seem, aren't dissimilar to George W.'s-- in the best Christian tradition, it's achieved through converting the heathens and savages. Just as our family values are apparently now defined by bigotry, fear, and ignorance, so too is "phony," "plastic," "inauthentic" pop music.
Well, fuck all that: Just as (to borrow Biblical terms) ideas like love, hope, brotherhood, and charity should be central to American values, pop is music's culture of life. It's a celebration of togetherness, the sound of universal pursuits and needs such as truth and beauty; of seeking a sense of self and, when desirable, giving yourself over to the crowd; of wanting to dance, smile, laugh, love, and be loved-- and it undiscriminatingly expresses it all to loads of people in a few short minutes. Before Sunset's Jesse may have been talking out of his ass when he said his next novel was going to take place within the span of a single pop song, but there's something lovely about the idea. And anyway, maybe it's not so far-fetched to live a large portion of your life in a single song: Anne Lilia Berge-Strand has done it-- though not out of choice.
Anyway, I was also listening to Toilet Door Tits/The Biggest Cock in Christendom by Shit and Shine, which is my favorite release from then. WHY IS IT NOT IN THE DATABASE, GUYS!?!!??!?!?!
Dang, this is the Manowar album I've been looking for. About half of the 28-minute opener is crazy drum soloing, and then all the other parts are the most operatic and sensitive the band has ever been. And that guitar solo is like power metal John Fahey.
Okay, now George switched to an Alex Jones video, so I'm back downstairs listening to one of my favorite Millionaires songs on my iPad.
What amazes me about this tender post-breakup ballad is how Dani shows her proud superiority over the guy without going for the jugular. She remembers the good times they had, and then how saddened she was when they broke up, without any sort of irony or concealed venom. She doesn't miss a chance to comment on how boring and fat the guy is now, but the most startling way she shows her dominance here is through her maturity, a kind that too many music nerds would never connect to The Millionaires. I find their whole discography to be positive and empowering, but here there's no "meanness" for you fuckboys to hide behind.
Okay, so tonight I'm going beddy-bye with some avant-grade jazz, starting with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Les Stances has its moments, but it's too "rawk" for me, and Le Comme La Radio is just them as a backing band to Francoise's art (that's her name, right? I haven't heard that album in years). So I had to do some extra research. After fumbling through parts of A Jackson and Message To Our Folks, I found what may be their true masterpiece:
From there, I read a bit about the World Saxophone Quartet, which taught me about Tim Berne and this equally-amazing live album The Sublime and. Once agains, you busters haven't added it to BEA, which makes me sad
Anyway, I better go to sleep now. I normally use Kenny G or Max Richter to cool down these days, but this was a really fun alternative.
Actually, WAIT! I just found this Michael Snow/Alan Licht/Aki Onda improv album on my iTunes, and it actually sounds really good. It's called Five A's, Two C's, One D, One E, Two H's, Three I's, One K, Three L's, One M, Three N's, Two O's, One S, One T, One W.
I've already heard it hundreds upon hundreds of times since early high school, but I still am figuring out how to describe its beauty. It was written and recorded following a miscarriage Tori had, and the wispy electronic sound does a great job at expressing that feeling of losing something inside of you. The instruments are lush but sparse, especially on tracks like "Liquid Diamonds". Have you ever listened to this album, Tap? I'm curious to see what you think of it.
Anyway, now I'm discovering a new kind of music I haven't heard before: Gaelic psalms. This may be one of my favorite Christian albums now. Absolutely majestic.
don't think I've ever heard that, my sister was into Tori Amos in high school, that was a while ago but I remember not connecting with any of it. might give it a spin sometime, tho I think there's a couple other things mentioned here that I might look into first.
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