Chairlift - Bruises (This year's "Heartbeats"/"Young Folks")

the song is a bit of a mess but jesus put the knives back in the drawer, its not THAT bad.

It's not that good either, particularly considering that this is the first single from the record, and their first single for about three years or something?

Poor Turrican. I think it's a bop

Also this is not "radically different" for Polachek at all, "No Angel" is nearly 2 years old

i like this song a lot in concept but there is something that hurts my ears on the mix and i can't quite pinpoint it but i think its something about a weird and tinny autotune factor on her voice in the chorus? anyone? you can hear it a lot on the end of the "Getting what you want can be dangerous" line...

Yeah, Something could well have been an anomaly, but we won't know for absolutely sure until Moth comes out. The first Chairlift album is definitely patchy without a doubt, but I still think it has its highlights amongst the so-so stuff on there. What's frustrating for me is that when I play the first Chairlift album and Something back-to-back, the leap in quality is immediately apparent. In fact, I'd definitely say that Something saved their arses, because I got the impression that they were dangerously close to being written off, and if Something hadn't delivered they undoubtedly would have been. It would have "see ya later Chairlift, we'll eternally remember you for 'Bruises', there's the door" and then many years later "God, does anyone remember Chairlift? 'Bruises' anyone? LOL!"

Now, you'd think that a band who had just managed to save their bacon by putting out a great second album would take heed of this fact and try and at least acknowledge that they'd found a particular musical area that they were good at, one that managed to not only bring in a lot of fans but also achieved the feat of changing opinions of them at a critical juncture. People who would have written them off were now suddenly paying attention, saying "hang on, this record is actually quite good, I think I'll stick around and see where they go from here"

Instead, what they seem to have done - and again, this is based solely on 'Ch-Ching' and I'm hoping the rest of the forthcoming record will change my mind - is completely ignore that their previous record snatched them from the jaws of extinction and moved into an area that not only are they (in my opinion) not particularly good at, but also (again, in my opinion) features none of the qualities that I found appealing about this band and what initially drew me in.

If the new record is more in the vein of 'Ch-Ching', I think it'll probably bring in some new fans, but I suspect that many will also fall off, and to do that at the moment when people are seriously starting to pay attention is, in my opinion, a fucking stupid move.

― Turrican, Friday, October 16, 2015 3:05 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

jeez louise, a pretty good band released a mediocre song. it's happened before.

So there's a new track, possibly even more of a pop move than Ch-Ching. I like both though.

These two tracks seem to mainly be dialing back some of the more 80s retro elements that were all over Something. They sound more "current" to me.

The individual sounds on "Romeo" are as 80s retro as anything they've released. There's just more evident digital audio workstation touches to give it that hyperisolated 21st century gloss.

http://www.vogue.com/13363580/chairlift-caroline-polachek-wedding-snug-harbor/

But, what is this year's Heartbeats/Young Folks?

The definitive list of songs used by Apple Inc. in commercials, keynote addresses, presentations, and other marketing materials

http://www.vogue.com/13363580/chairlift-caroline-polachek-wedding-snug-harbor/

― wizzz! (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 December 2015 02:08 (15 hours ago)

Huh, turns out I've read her dad's book on the Opium Wars! Still trumped by today's "Haruomi Hosono's grandad survived the Titanic" revelation, mind.

I dislike the new track as much as I do 'Ch-Ching', to be quite honest with you. I'll still listen to the album when it's released, but I'm definitely not excited about it. My expectations have been lowered by a considerable amount of notches, and I'm actually preparing for the album to be... well, shite.

nice wedding, though.

Yes. Wedding articles. In Vogue.

https://putyourboogerinmypocket.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/fonzi.jpg

It actually looks like a boring wedding. Serious question: Are weddings in the US usually this low key? I mean small gatherings of 50+ people, fancy dinner a little dance and everybody goes home? I just saw Rachel Getting Married a couple of days ago and that's a very small wedding too. In Latinamerica weddings of under 150 guests are considered small.

I see the average wedding budget in the US is $20,000 according to this: http://www.soundvision.com/article/wedding-statistics-in-the-united-states

I've seen friends of mine who have spent half of that in the dress alone :S

I love this new song, it's up there with "I Belong In Your Arms", I think I want them to go full pop.

i like low key weddings, and there isn't anything obviously objectionable about caroline polachek's. maybe it's just resentment that she is beautiful and smart and talented and rich*, but the whole immaculate tastefulness of it (and the fact that it was even covered in vogue) grates on me.

* that said, the person her husband most resembles is macaulay culkin

i can't say that i really /like/ ch-ching very much, but it is an earworm, and it's growing on me a little.

in retrospect chairlift's first album really seems like a false start, even if it did generate some buzz and revenue. i wonder if she's embarrassed by it now.

the new song ("romeo") feels kind of melodically emaciated. the verses seem entirely pro forma, and the shift to the chorus feels really willful. i feel like all the digital manipulation--all the parts of the song feel edited to within an inch of their lives--is just trying to distract from the lack of melodic ideas. but who knows maybe it'll grow on me.

a better word for it would be "inert"

this is some of the most joyless music i have heard in a minute

in retrospect chairlift's first album really seems like a false start, even if it did generate some buzz and revenue. i wonder if she's embarrassed by it now.

― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, December 3, 2015 11:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The first Chairlift LP is definitely patchy, but it has some decent stuff on it. I'm more embarrassed about this new stuff I'm hearing, tbh.

it just seems to have come from different people entirely (yes, i know they had a third member who is now gone). the whole affect, the sensibility, is profoundly different -- much less arty, less arch (though still arch).

I quite like 'Romeo'. Production is a bit annoying, hopefully that's mainly due to shitty laptop speakers. But feels a bit like in early 2000s when everyone was putting like fake 'scratchy dj' sounds in, lots of slightly irritating little tics.

this album is really, really good btw

Just caught up with all the new songs on Spotify yesterday. Very excited for the album now.

Have never heard them, but this NYT interview/article has me curious

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/arts/music/chairlift-on-the-arias-beats-and-jazz-grooves-that-fed-moth.html?_r=0

good to see mishio ogawa's name about. wha-ha-ha & haniwa are two of the best bands ever (chakra's not bad either) & clicking through to the link I see there are three later ogawa solo albums I didn't even know about (and that aren't on discogs)

this album is... not good. it is stunningly not good. (this from someone who liked ch-ching)

lol what do you dislike about it? idk i love the horns and the post-disco guitar and etc. also "crying in public" is so gorgeous

joyless/inert sums it up well, plus "some of these tracks were either very bad ideas or very bad takes, and yet they *are* ideas, which is more than can be said elsewhere

haha i don't get that feeling from it at all. oh well

like only "ottawa to osaka" and "unfinished business" strike me as shapeless and hermetic maybe, and those are growing on me

yeah "ottawa to osaka" was one of the very bad ideas

Having heard all of the tracks previewed so far from this record, it's fair to say at this stage that this record isn't going to be for me. Oh well, at least Something still remains a killer record, but as far as I can see, my enthusiasm for this band stops right here.

yeah this album is kind of a mess

I really liked "Moth to the Flame," "Crying in Public" and "Ch-Ching," iffy on "Romeo." vv curious to hear the rest.

this is ok on first listen but nowhere near Something really. 'kind of a mess' is accurate though. no idea what they were going for on Ottawa to Osaka. i like the breezy feeling on some of the tracks, wasn't really expecting that from the singles, sort of wish they did more with that.

i obv love messes

the instrumentation on "polymorphing" and "show u off" <3

I had never heard of this band until 2 days ago and I've listened to Moth about 10 times already and currently spinning it an 11th time

It's so infectious. Show U Off and Moth to the Flame are faves

there are some decent tracks here, I still like Ch-Ching and Romeo a lot, but it is definitely a disappointment compared to Something. The overall vibe is a bit too sappy for me and there just aren't as many huge hooks as I was hoping for.

This Is also the first time I listened to them and I'm feeling some Haim vibes. Is it just me?

Love the first half but it loses me on the second. The last two songs in particular are such a disappointing end to the album. Can't remember a single thing about them.

aw i love the last song, it's so spacious and twisting

Okay, so I did listen to the album, and yes it is as terrible as I suspected it would be. A shame, as I was eagerly awaiting this record.