Dirty Projectors

it would be "fun" to read a group intvw between Longstreth, JS, and Downtown Boys

I've tried to engage with DL one-on-one about serious stuff, but he's such a brainiac and he's clearly spent weeks upon weeks building up internal logic structures to excuse himself, explain himself, preserve the idea of his own genius. Maybe I'm just not on-the-ball enough to call him on his bullshit irl but it's like trying to play tower defence against a racist and misogynist Harvard graduate who knows every possible loophole

man who clearly spent weeks upon weeks building up internal logic structures to excuse himself is a pretty good summation of the new songs imo

“Complex plans and high ideals but he treats people poorly/Is a ceaseless ambitiousness proxy for a void he’s ignoring?” is the opening line from one of the tunes of his new album.

God that Insta post was fucking cringey.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/magazine/the-dirty-projectors-go-solo.html?_r=1

In between the previous record and this new one they did a fabulous duet version of Climax by Usher. Seemed loaded with significance at the time and now seems even more like an obvious portent of a breakup (album).

That's on the JJJ session for their Like A Version slot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-_K-IbJYvE

It's streaming. And it's weird. A song like 'Work Together' is definitely new, but...

i love that this and the new xiu xiu record are coming out on the same day. longstreth is such a fucking asshole, the lyrics on this thing are absurd.

tbf JS is probably also an asshole but a much more interesting one imo

well like for instance the xiu xiu record ends with vaginal davis reading a list of lines jamie wrote about pictures of underage prostitutes he found on backpage and then reported - i think like most of his records, there's an enormous amount of empathy and a concerted effort to connect and acknowledge aspects of the human condition that are ignored even in the arts. the songs are really good, i think it's the best thing he's done in a while, but he puts out a lot of albums. this dirty projectors record is really immaculately produced, the music is really cool on most of it, but it's the most hilariously offensive and unintentionally mean set of lyrics i've ever seen. nagl, but sort of amazing and again hilarious

god i wish jamie's tweet was still up

christ the hours i've wasted looking for some trace of it

This is the first Dirty Projectors album I've been remotely excited to hear (that "Own Little Bubble" song is gorgeous, and the supporting cast is A+) but the guy is so toxic right now I don't even want to go near it.

Are the lyrics really that bad? I have a very low tolerance for one-sided, recriminatory lyrics pointed at an identifiable person, but the buzz around this is so bad you'd think the guy made a men's rights record. Or a Sun Kil Moon record.

There really are some awful, awful lines on this. But it's not as bad as Sun Kil Moon.

the lyrics are just very tin-eared, like i can't believe DL thought putting this out was a good idea - dirty laundry!

Are the lyrics really that bad? I have a very low tolerance for one-sided, recriminatory lyrics pointed at an identifiable person, but the buzz around this is so bad you'd think the guy made a men's rights record. Or a Sun Kil Moon record.

A couple of them stick out as being particularly bitter and they are, indeed, not a good look, others just seem more about wearing his pain about on the outside in a somewhat clunky manner, and the narrative album arcs away from the bitterness to acceptance by the end of it, which makes the lines in Keep Your Name (at the start) seem somewhat contextualized.

he probably (hopefully) knows those lyrics are nagl. this album is good.

I reviewed it and my thought was he was trying really really hard to express some really deep contempt while still thinking at the back of his brain "NO, NO MISOGYNY, CAN'T DO MISOGYNY." but also, like, dude, "your heart is saying clothing line / my body said Naomi Klein, No Logo"? really? really dude.

(said review: http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=22989)

I like the 'no logo' shout, it makes it seem like a Kanye rap. Also, the next lines are pretty great: "We shared kisses and visions / But like KISS' shithead Gene Simmons said: / A band is a brand and it looks that our vision is dissonant"

I think my main problem is that he keeps calling her a sellout. It really does seem to mostly be about wearing his pain on the outside, but he keeps hitting that beat over and over and over so it becomes much uglier.

oh, that Naomi Klein line is awful! katherine otm - also the lyric sheet says "Drinking a Fifth For My Ass"

Given the prevalence of misogyny on social media the easily quoted sellout stuff just seems so ill-thought out and cruel.

What's wonderful bout thinking about these people is that Longstreth's at best OK and often awful singing makes his words indecipherable anyway.

I disagree. I thought the lyrics on Swing Lo Magellan were quite good, and most intelligible

haven't heard the new one, except I liked the song w/ dawn. but of course I'm biased bc ILM made me a dawn stan back in the diddy dirty money days

DL's singing sounds good but also like every phrase is overdubbed

I like the 'no logo' shout, it makes it seem like a Kanye rap

oh no you made me hate it more

that part is bad, true

but cool your heart is amazing

Great review, Katherine. I was just thinking about how I don't envy the critics who review this. It's a total mine field.

Awesome review, Katherine :)

is this out yet?

it's on Spotify, will listen tomorrow.

Amazing work Katherine

ya that's really good writing... Dirty Projectors SHANKED

i'm too scared to revis Bitte Orca (which i adored at the time) but, his singing definitely got worse, right?

he's repeatedly attempted to explain the lyrics in interviews with claims that they aren't always as autobiographical and direct as they seem and that he was trying to take a somewhat abstract approach to the breakup, but i don't think that approach was successful at all.

Cool Your Heart & Little Bubble are nice but the rest feels so unfocused and messy, even ignoring the lyrics.

someone should compile all the worst lines from reviews of bjork's last album and construct a DP review from them

Everyone needs to take lessons from Kevin Barnes in how to air that laundry

a state of emergency

x-post: I don't know is calling girls 'faggy' or threatening to get her beat up was ever a better look...

hey man it was 2007, things were crazy... george w bush was still in office, "what what in the butt" had just gone viral, and we were still two years away from GAPDY...

yeaaaahhh as an occasional fan I would caution against using Kevin Barnes as any kind of behavioral model (I think he'd agree tbh)

Ha, I've often wondered if Barnes realizes how unacceptable Hissing Fauna is by today's standards. He made two and a half albums as a trans black person named Georgie Fruit and no major outlet called him out on it.

One thing he did get right though is making a breakup album(s) with clear affection for the ex in question. Hearing about the crisis that results from losing your support system is way more interesting than the Longstreth/Drake ex-shaming approach.

joining the chorus of "outstanding review, katherine"

i find the preoccupation with the lyrics strange and a bit suspect, but then again i'm a straight guy. looking forward to listening to the whole albumin

they're pretty hard to ignore

Ha, I've often wondered if Barnes realizes how unacceptable Hissing Fauna is by today's standards. He made two and a half albums as a trans black person named Georgie Fruit and no major outlet called him out on it.

― Evan R, Thursday, February 23, 2017 9:41 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think about this all the time. not just wrt Of Montreal, but in general how much problematic shit hipsters got away with only 10 years ago that they would get dragged for now

yeah i mean Dan Deacon has a song called "I Have AIDS" on his first album

the recruitment of Kanye and Tupac and Roberta Flack and Molly Bloom as the unvolunteered Greek chorus of a mundane twentysomething relationship

screaming

amazing rvw katherine