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

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.

i'm genuinely surprised by how divisive this record is. huh

i mean i sort of get it

it doesn't sound like something very much at all and on many of the tracks they kind of go for this kinda petrified electro pop but i am so down with that aesthetic, especially when it is married to massive hooks ("polymorphing," "moth to the flame," "show u off"). hard for me to conceive of these as "terrible" in any sense

- "crying in decent" is good but they have a high bar to clear with "i belong in your arms" and this doesn't clear it; similarly "romeo" is aimed square at my musical tastes and yet somehow misses
- "ottawa to osaka" is the song equivalent of lost in translation, i.e. japan as backdrop for sluggish love affair and "whoa, we're so foreign here"
- I'm sure the last half of "show u off" was very fun to record but christ it never should have been released to the public
- there really aren't that many hooks here at all?

"Ottawa to Osaka" is a half step or two from being R&B but the choice to sing in a rather plummy way makes the thing fussy.

the spoken stuff at the end of "show u off" is fun idk. everything in that song is a hook

if it's reeeeeaaaaalll

Tentative thumbs up for this. "Crying In Public" is great. The drawbacks are that I can't really hear "Show U Off" without thinking "this is good but I'd much prefer to hear a Knowles sister singing", and on a number of the tracks the transition from the chorus back to a verse or the middle 8 has been done quite clumsily.

"this is good but I'd much prefer to hear a Knowles sister singing" was my complaint about "Ch-Ching" too.

I could definitely see some successful covers coming out of this

half of this is quite good though not really on the same level as Something, but the other half ranges from clunky missteps to meandering nothings of songs

There are elements of this album I do like, I'll admit. For example, the outro to 'No Such Thing As Illusion' when it settles into the electronics and fretless bass is pure ear candy to me. Thing is, it's not joined to a particularly great song. 'Crying In Public', on the whole, is probably the only track on the record which I would consider to be a well-written song. 'Ottawa To Osaka' sounds like it would have fit in snugly on the first album, and I don't mean that as a compliment. The vocal on the chorus to 'Unfinished Business' makes me want to rip my rare off. 'Polymorphing' is probably the most successful of the "hope you like our new direction" stuff, but as good as 'I Belong In Your Arms', 'Amanaemomesia', 'Wrong Opinion', 'Met Before' etc.? God, no. 'Moth To A Flame' and 'Show U Off' are particularly crapola.

'Moth To A Flame' and 'Show U Off' are particularly crapola.

ha these are my two favorite songs on the record! good times

xpost:

*rare=ears. Fucking autocorrect.

'Look Up' is a pretty weak opener too. Basically, I just can't believe that, after four years, this was the best that they could come up with. A real mish-mash of confused ideas, ill-advised experiments and pandering bullshit.

there are two great melodic phrases in "no such thing as illusion" and i like that they don't add anything to that, they just sort of inhabit the mood of the song for six minutes. it rules

It's no 'Guilty as Charged'

yeah it really isn't their previous record

You're right about that. The previous one was actually good!

lol

Relistening to Something disappointed me. A fan of those keyboard crunches, discrete and discreet guitar, and Caroline Polachek's swoops may miss how many of those tracks are mere perfumed air. She's not a consistent songwriter. The best stretch on Moth, as Brad pointed out, is in the middle.

yeah i've always found something uneven so i guess i'll never agree with turrican here

and "I Belong In Your Arms" is one of my tunes of the decade.

I agree that she's not a consistent songwriter, but I definitely think that Something is their most consistent record.

Moth to a Flame is definitely one of the highlights on this but it'd be one of the weaker ones on Something, which has always seemed consistent enough to me (certainly in comparison to Moth!)

"Moth to the Flame" is sweet but I can't shake the impression that they're trying to recapture the euphoria of the Talabot/Pional IBIYA remix

yeah wow halfway through this and really not liking it at all. Romeo is pleasant enough, probably a couple of others I'd listen to a bit more but otherwise, nup
I prefer if bands with ultimately a patchy output concentrate all their good ones onto one album so that's good I guess.

I so wish the whole album was as good as Romeo and Crying in Public.

I like the stabs at R&B. I could live without the bits that sound like Sade after yodeling classes.

This would have been a fantastic EP.

hugely disappointing album with a few good and no great songs

I could live without the bits that sound like Sade after yodeling classes.

― Lurkers of the world, unite! (Sanpaku), Saturday, February 6, 2016 7:44 PM (Yesterday)

yes this description is perfect

How much are you betting that their next album is going to be their "argh! sorry we alienated a good portion of our fanbase... come back, come back!" record?

idk all three of their records are pretty different from each other

I've kept:

Romeo
Moth to the Flame
Show U Off

I've kept 'Crying In Public' and pretty much destroyed the rest.

Are you not into this album Turrican?

Hahaha... does it show? :D

This has grown on me a lot over a handful of plays. Romeo and Moth To The Flame tower above it all still though.

i'm listening to Moth for the first time and enjoying it quite a lot. No strong opinions yet, but seems solid.

Does she have to do that voice thing on every line? It was quite cool and endearing on the last album but now it's like a perpetual fixture.

I will say this: The album artwork makes me want to enjoy it a whole lot more than it probably deserves.

I've always found their lyrics to be clunky. Not always in a really bad way, but sometimes they really grate.

Moth to the Flame and Romeo are good.
The 'he's that kind of man, mama' bit is unnecessary and distracting though.

I really like the reggae-ish one.

I'd forgotten about this record, and now that I've been reminded of it I'm gonna forget about it again.

Chairlift
June 14 – Tuesday - 7:00pm – Red Hook Park, Brooklyn – FREE SHOW

'crying in public' is so prefab sprout