even i bought the 45 of come on eileen. that's how huge it was.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 14:46 (twelve years ago) link
They played "Come On Eileen" at my teen dance club on "progressive night" and all the skinheads would do their weird little dance in a circle.
― Laura Lucy Lynn (La Lechera), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 14:47 (twelve years ago) link
definitely heard it a bunch on college radio at the time before it got huge. like madonna.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 14:48 (twelve years ago) link
Did the Pet Shop Boys live glamorous playboy lifestyles or just fantasize about this? I seem to imagine them as pretty dour people who always carry a macintosh, but I think I remember Tennant saying in an interview that a lot of his music was inspired by a wish to live the Studio 54 lifestyle but never having the chance to. So this is an imaginary culture being sold back and forth across the Atlantic from decade to decade.
― Laughing Gravy (dog latin), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 14:51 (twelve years ago) link
Tennant and Lowe said about twenty years ago that the stereotypes are "largely true." Tennant's apt to stay in with a glass of wine and a Shostakovich CD while Lowe clubs a few nights a week. They're older now though.
Tennant is really a folkie in a not-so-good disguise.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 14:59 (twelve years ago) link
Bejar's not idolising Tennant. He's idolising Ferry, and Screamadelica. These are who he's name checking. We need Mark S to bring the "sounds like" vs "influence" slapdown.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 20:35 (twelve years ago) link
dour people who always carry a macintosh
Usually dour people I see are carrying Dell laptops.
― Gonjasufjanstephen O'Malley (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 20:41 (twelve years ago) link
lowe - "i'm a mac"tennant - "i'm a pc"
― dave coolier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 20:50 (twelve years ago) link
lol
I don't think I can answer this poll because my favorite song literally changes with every listen.
― Gonjasufjanstephen O'Malley (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 20:52 (twelve years ago) link
Oops. I thought this was the other Kaputt one.
from deep sea skiving to screamadelica. oh england...so much to answer for.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 21:08 (twelve years ago) link
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, February 8, 2012 12:35 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
and new order. are we really content saying that bejar is "idolizing" these artists and sounds, though? i get the impression that he's using 80s signifiers as a shorthand for the "cinematic" superficiality that ultimately alienates the narrator. this interpretation seems to follow from what judith described earlier: emptiness and longing reflecting emptiness and longing.
― Little GTFO (contenderizer), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 21:18 (twelve years ago) link
i get the impression that he's using 80s signifiers as a shorthand for the "cinematic" superficiality that ultimately alienates the narrator. this interpretation seems to follow from what judith described earlier: emptiness and longing reflecting emptiness and longing.
"superficiality that ultimately alienates the narrator" is accurate yet too negative a spin on the vibe at work, I think.
I feel it's more akin to, if you're single or you've just broken up or whatevs, romantic films with happy endings making you as sad those with unhappy endings (lol this makes me think of Jewel's "You Were Meant For Me").
It's not the "emptiness" of the desire that gets the narrator down so much as the impossibility of bringing it to life.
I know there have been times in my life when I've listened to, say, Hats, and I've felt that way, the impossible swell of emotions didn't same fake but it seemed sharply otherworldly, a plenitude in the music that threw into relief a lack in life.
So in a way Kaputt is like listening to someone listening to Hats.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 21:57 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, that's how i'd read it, too. i don't think that's at odds with the idea that the 80s are being used to shorthand superficiality, the conjuration of heightened worlds that can be seen but not inhabited and the alienation that arises from the discontinuity.
― Little GTFO (contenderizer), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 22:08 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, I agree with that. I don't mean idolising in the way a teenager would. It's a tool in many ways. I don't doubt he loves Avalon though.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
He adores this sound palette. He loves it. There's no irony or machination there. But he knows how to use it, too, what it signifies.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 22:11 (twelve years ago) link
So in a way Kaputt is like listening to someone listening to Hats.do you mean that literally? in the sense that bejar makes music after having listened to and being influenced by hats? hats by the way is probably the one album in the ilm canon which i never "got" at all. there too the singer's voice is very hard to swallow. and the slow & lush music seems even more shallow. kaputt is much easier to digest than hats. just the idea of having to listen to hats drives me nuts.
― alex in mainhattan, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 22:11 (twelve years ago) link
"So in a way Kaputt is like listening to someone listening to Hats."
oh my god you are demented. but in a good way. its a cool thought.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 22:19 (twelve years ago) link
i used to embarrass myself a bit listening to that first blue nile album alone in my room as a kid. i had been taught to keep those emotions in check. i wasn't used to hearing declarations of love that were that loud. and naked. i never really learned how to be completely naked. but i appreciated others who were bold in that way.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 22:21 (twelve years ago) link
i never listened to the lyrics of blue nile. the maudlin voice was like a wall in between the words and my ear. are they really that confessional? usually i love songwriters who seem to be totally open in their songers. like neil young or joni mitchell for example.
― alex in mainhattan, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 22:29 (twelve years ago) link
songs
― alex in mainhattan, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 22:31 (twelve years ago) link
Buchanan is a very stark, emotional lyricist, aye.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 22:56 (twelve years ago) link
do you mean
So in a way listening to Kaputt is like listening to someone listening to Hats.
because otherwise - maybe i am splitting hairs here - you are comparing a work, an artefact with an activity. there is a logical fallacy looming there.
― alex in mainhattan, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 23:09 (twelve years ago) link
Listening to Destroyer is like knitting a hat
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 8 February 2012 23:12 (twelve years ago) link
kaputt is a hat listening to a hathaving fun with destroyer...
― alex in mainhattan, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 23:19 (twelve years ago) link
yes. of course. And I don't mean it literally sounds like that, I was talking about what I perceive to be the album's general emotional content and narrative thrust.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 8 February 2012 23:54 (twelve years ago) link
i mean, keep up
― judith, Thursday, 9 February 2012 00:44 (twelve years ago) link
fuck listening to a hat!
/obvious joke
― Laughing Gravy (dog latin), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:00 (twelve years ago) link
everyone on this thread is wrong
― junior dada (thomp), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:03 (twelve years ago) link
even if that means i'm saying mutually exclusive positions with no middle ground are both wrong. they are both wrong. go away. you're wrong.
― junior dada (thomp), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:04 (twelve years ago) link
there's an album called hats?!?!
fuck all of you who like it
― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:13 (twelve years ago) link
wait what is your job again?
― judith, Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:14 (twelve years ago) link
nothing to do with hats
― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:15 (twelve years ago) link
it's an album by The Blue Nile, lex. superior chill '80s sounds.
― omar little, Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:16 (twelve years ago) link
i know what my favoured chill sounds are and they're not what destroyer fans recommend smh
― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:17 (twelve years ago) link
vibe with me, brother (may i call u brother?)
― omar little, Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:18 (twelve years ago) link
(i've vaguely intended to get into the blue nile for about a decade now but this episode may have killed that faint intention completely)
― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:18 (twelve years ago) link
would u ask mariah if u could call her brother?!?!
you are definitely not mariah.
― judith, Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:19 (twelve years ago) link
can we all agree that 'let england shake' is considerably more of an indie rock album than 'kaputt'? it's strange that lex is spending so much energy defending indie rock.
― iatee, Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:20 (twelve years ago) link
oh lex you sure are incorrigible, arent you
― ⚓ (gr8080), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:24 (twelve years ago) link
I think Let England Shake is more in the tradition of major label outsiders than indie rock.
― timellison, Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:35 (twelve years ago) link
pj harvey is obviously not indie rock enough for you p4k disciples
― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:39 (twelve years ago) link
way more rock than kaputt and made a *concept album* about..."war, man"
― iatee, Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:40 (twelve years ago) link
in England anything that sells less than 1 mil or spends fewer than 20 weeks in the chart counts as indie iirc
― unlistenable in philly (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:42 (twelve years ago) link
way more rock than kaputt
what ISN'T more rock than that mimsy weakling nonsense
― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:45 (twelve years ago) link
cool, lex is going to tell us what rocks
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:48 (twelve years ago) link
so you're saying that rockin is a good attribute
― iatee, Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:48 (twelve years ago) link
I'm not even sure it's more rock. Because the electric guitar is more prominent? If Destroyer is not soft-ROCK, than what is it?
― timellison, Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:48 (twelve years ago) link
lex i think once you let go of the notion of "rock" = the pinnacle of music you can experience kaputt in the proper context (a context that oft involves, ime, a girl by your side and a full pitcher of sangria though ymmv)
― omar little, Thursday, 9 February 2012 02:49 (twelve years ago) link