Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

tbh contrary to Alfred I tend to kind of hate it when modern country apes modern rock. the stilted attempts at doing funk-rock beats and whatnot. blech

I mean you can put some chuck berry wiggle in there (and country has done that for generations) but when you start doing 90s rap drum fills I kinda wanna turn it off

that being said the backwards country-funk breakdown on the Simpson record is awesome

also i think classic country had more of an appreciation for really really good pedal steel players, and i like that. it's just not a part of modern country to the extent that it used to be. pedal steel players weren't the major stars obviously but the songs really showcased their playing, apart from the vocals the pedal steel is usually the emotional heart of a classic country song imo

listening is an immensely personal and experiential process; I don't mean to suggest that faceboook-ish rant should be anyone/everyone's preferred means. it just grates when folks glibly dismiss whole, fast-moving bodies of active and vital culture is all. a lot of this on my end is baggage from a household where there was strictly definable GOOD and BAD music and no room for interpretation.

There's plenty of pedal steel in the Womack album, it's also very present in some tracks of Lambert and Presley albums.

if you're still fussing over why the #1 song in that spin country list isn't for you then you're completely beyond help and don't deserve any music at all tbh

― lex pretend, Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:06 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lex i generally admire your writing and presence but sometimes you write horseshit like this

― marcos, Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:11 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol also i don't know if it's worth the time unpacking this, but are you referring to the subject matter of the song? because you can write and record a shit-sounding song about a noble and worthy topic, it's been done before and i shouldn't feel any great allegiance to the song just because the topic is important

it just grates when folks glibly dismiss whole, fast-moving bodies of active and vital culture is all

i too am driven batshit by such thinking, especially regarding music.

lex is not worth unpacking

xp

is fast-moving a virtue

i think of "fast-moving" as a sign that multiple minds are influencing, re-shaping and exploring new ways for the art to be heard, so i would say generally yes.

fast-moving = evolving in this context (i think) and it certainly can be a virtue imo, idk if it is one by default

that sounds like a tagline for Spotify more than anything else

(was an xp)

i guess fast-moving could be a definer for math rock too

idk I just have no faith in capitalism's endless NEW PRODUCT MUST HAVE rationale, I don't think it has anything to do with the vitality of an artform and everything to do with naked demands of commerce.

I listened to that Kira Isabella song and eh it's totally leaden, there's no strong melodic hook, the chorus is terrible, features plenty of that *we are rocking* thing that modern country does that I find grating. Lyrics/sentiment eh okay they are timely and admirable (altho tbh there is a long history of this kind of song in country, I don't think it's particularly novel beyond some of the specifics). most interesting thing to me tbh is her dishy south asian (?) guitar player lol

xp

most interesting thing to me tbh is her dishy south asian (?) guitar player lol

precisely the thing to notice in this particular song

I know rite

I'm not really clear on what there is to recommend that song beyond it's topicality marcos otm

the melody is pretty gorgeous and it's really well arranged? like the way the strings recede in parts of the verse? idk

and the lyrics are well observed. For months I thought the song was merely good because her perfunctory voice bothered me; now the perfunctory quality helps the song: the kind of horror observed/done to average high school girls.

I like everything about it except her voice. Which is a bit of a problem when it comes to me loving the song.

also i think classic country had more of an appreciation for really really good pedal steel players, and i like that. it's just not a part of modern country to the extent that it used to be. pedal steel players weren't the major stars obviously but the songs really showcased their playing, apart from the vocals the pedal steel is usually the emotional heart of a classic country song imo

dunno how you're defining "classic" but Rosanne Cash, Dwight Yoakam, Garth, etc eschewed pedal steel for a buncha songs

Instruments don't define genres.

polka tho

Well there's the lyrical details, the narrative pacing, the controlled outrage, the avoidance of melodrama or closure, the chorus melody, the relief of the middle eight, the way the ominous cello comes in just as the car door swings open, the way her voice growls a little on "internet"… It's just great storytelling.

the way her voice growls a little on "internet"

new world description

it's pretty powerful how if you're casually listening it might seem like it's telling a hackneyed high school fairytale à la early taylor swift and then reveals itself to be about something completely different at the exact point the listener starts suspecting something might not be right

I am distracted by this sounding like I heard it on Nashville sometime this year

the lyrics are good, the melody is decent. her voice is not great, and the production and arrangement is typical of country in that it remains the biggest stumbling block for me w/that genre.

iirc the video cops out by exposing and shaming the rapist at the end. The song is brutal about the high-school caste system, hence the emphasis of the title and chorus. The real horror isn't the rape but the way the whole school is complicit in letting him get away with it. And I like that her voice is unremarkable. It gives it an underplayed, plainspoken quality instead of rage or melodrama.

Was just about to post before Lex did that it's like a nightmare version of a Taylor Swift scenario.

Obv the song gets a lot of its power from playing with Taylor's formula and standing it on end

there is an alternative video without the "happy" ending (not sure which came first and can't find it now). the ending of this one makes for a weird and bitter lurch into fantasy, in that it underlines how this would never happen (as the lyrics make clear)

I dont try to hear the best in everything and I dont try to hear something just because its being talked about, in fact just the opposite, I find it stressful. Ive no idea if Lex was or wasnt being proud about not having heard something or other, but why should he have to hear it? The idea of listening to a bunch of talked about records so you can have your own opinion on something you wouldnt otherwise even think about just gives me a headache

The song is brutal about the high-school caste system, hence the emphasis of the title and chorus. The real horror isn't the rape but the way the whole school is complicit in letting him get away with it.

yes, and her performance being so plain and uncathartic casts her - and therefore the listener - into this role of the bystander. listening to her narrate the events is like watching it happen and being unable (unwilling?) to stop it.

fwiw, quarterback improves on multiple listens

lex describing a pop song like being unwilling to stop a rape is posts vmic

what you mean now I have to listen to something more than once? I don't have time for that, there's something else that just came out I have to listen to right now

xp

lol whiney

Totally with forksclovetofu on the goal of becoming steadily more open-minded. The radio-frequency that was once WFNX, in Boston, turned into a Clear-Channel EDM station a while ago, and I decided NOT to take it off my car preset, and indeed ended up hearing a lot of stuff I liked (and plenty I didn't, and way too much repetition). And then some time later it switched again, to Modern Country, and I still kept it for a while. I didn't last quite as long with Modern Country as with EDM, as the repetition seemed even worse, and the songs I hated I really hated (I have a personal antipathy for songs that act coy about drinking). But still, I heard a bunch of songs I thought were great. Miranda Lambert's "Automatic" is likely in my top 10, and Eric Church's "Give Me Back My Hometown" might make my top 20. And I voted for "Cop Car" in the P&J last year, for that matter. And digging deeper into current country music outside of the meager radio rotation, I found lots of other great stuff. I mean, stuff I personally enjoyed in the same way, and with the same intensity, that I enjoy pop or metal or anything else.

And yet, I hated "Happy" as much as I've hated anything since "The Whistle Song". Open-minded doesn't mean indiscriminate.

FYI it was actually incredibly easy to ignore The War On Drugs until the point at which they started appearing in every list, and I say that as someone who likes them. American indie music is not exactly culturally prominent over here unless it's the Arcade Fire or someone.

Fuck open mindedness, music is supposed to be fun, not work. It's ok to not have an opinion about music. Saer otm.

"Happy" genuinely makes me happy.

i'm team "Not Happy" personally; there's a weird subsection of music (Drake, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry) that I simply can't connect with no matter how much I listen.

This whole "open minded" attitude is just anathema to me. What do you even value anymore? "It's all good!". smh

im team pissed off with happy

Not trying out new sounds also gets boring - I might be happy enough just listening to the 5000 shoegazy synth/balearic revival/psychedelic rock albums that come out every year but after a while the virtues of monotony tend to fade. There's definitely a bunch of stuff that I'll never really be into (no success so far with modern country) but every so often I'll just open a random ILM thread and check out whatever people are talking about there.

This whole "open minded" attitude is just anathema to me. What do you even value anymore? "It's all good!". smh

lol this is not how it works

Having an open mind != "it's all good"

Having an open mind = "even though I will probably hate this, I will listen to it anyway because it might be good" and even that has its limits

yeah only after you have accepted that all music is atrocious can you find enlightenment xp

I'll listen to anything at least once and am careful not to make blanket judgments about genres or artists with which I am unfamiliar. At the same time, I have pretty clear aesthetic preferences, a lot of which comes down to basic sonic characteristics tbh, and I'm comfortable defending those.

xp