Warpaint

this is really pretty

That it is.

Gorgeous, subtly unsettling stuff here. I'm really going to enjoy this album if I remember to return to it.

This is a great album. Can't wait to own it on vinyl.

So this is basically what I imagine Savages might sound like when they grow up. Something very Too Pure about it.

You know, like Laika or Long Fin Kilie?

First album I'm really enjoying this year. They have this great balance of having obvious reference points but mix them in a way so it doesn't matter, at least to me.

Tried in vain to get tix for tonight's show in Brooklyn

I get the same kind of vibe from Warpaint as I do from early Verve... in the sense that my preferred listening mode for them is lights off, headphones on, horizontal, relax and just focus on nothing else. New album is no exception.

A couple of things:

1. The album is definitely frontloaded to my ears. I don't think the album really keeps up the momentum of the first 7 tracks, although 'Drive' is definitely one of my favourite things on here.

2. 'Go In' strikes me as being the weakest track here. It's the one track on the album which I'm struggling to care for, and might rank as one of the weakest things Warpaint have ever recorded.

3. The 10th track is called 'CC', meaning that on the track listing, it's listed as '10. CC'... is this some kind of witty pun/in-joke on the band of the same name?

Overall though, I'm liking this record more than their first one, and I liked that one plenty enough!

had a quick listen to the stream, gonna get proper copy as that only revealed.... it's gonna take a lot more listens (like the first). Do hope it's a grower,I couldn't love them more based on their past stuff.

agreed. I LOVE the Fool, messy weird production and mix choices included; but this isn't grabbing me the same way. There isn't anything on here as memorable as the best moments of the Fool. But it might have other charms, which will show up over time.

Stella's album

Still really liking this a lot, and it opens up nicely with repeat listens. The last three or four songs might be my favorite stretch of the album. They're much tighter and more pointed than the dubby opening tracks; it's a really satisfying payoff. "Son" just floors me.

i read

"soon" just floors me

there and had to think about old threads from around 2001/2002 when ned wrote about the last song from loveless...

Huh, between that and the 10CC thing it makes me wonder if the similarity is intentional, and if there are other track title tricks going on here. Most of the song titles are short, vague and not necessarily indicative of the songs.

The anticipation is killing me today. Could only listen to the guardian stream through my office earbuds, of which only one bud is functioning.

this thread made me listen to this band (the fool) for the first time

holy shit this band is great, where have i been.

for some reason i thought they were more of the 2 ding-dongs and some old keyboards indie synth bullshit like chvrches and chillwave type shit

this is really striking, such great basslines and drumming

preview from the chris cunningham doc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHKPdYX_OLQ

xp some good stuff on the exquisite corpse ep too so check that out. i'm hoping this is the album where they kinda put it all together.

this album rules.

eagerly anticipating dog latin and imago's opinions on it exactly one year from now

It will get nudged from the 77th slot by a new Deafheaven album.

Oh, if only Deafheaven were putting out a new album this year :P

Oof. I@n Coh3n really didn't like this.

Even those sympathetic to what Warpaint are doing have all but admitted this album lacks hooks, grooves, or even a pulse most of the time

I've only given it one cursory listen but it did seem very lethargic and druggy. That's kind of their vibe, tho.

I've listened to it a few times. There are some songs that feel like filler to me (Go In, off the top of my head), but I'm happy with most of it! Definitely fewer guitars than I'd been hoping for though.

I initially thought the review was especially and unnecessarily mean-spirited but then I remembered how much I hate this band

Why do you hate this band?

that pfork review is pretty brutal.

album is 'nice' but I feel like it's a little too nice. and I dislike the 'disco' song immensely.

that Pitchfork review really can't decide whether to knock the album for being too hip or too out of touch.

I'd never heard (or heard of) Warpaint before this album, so maybe there's a stigma I'm missing?

the criticisms are 'no hooks' and 'weak vocals', and the review acknowledges that the strengths are playing and production. maybe the problem is that they're not a pop band, but had the misfortune of getting the budget + hype as if they were?

failed pop record vs successful art rock record i guess

btw does anyone else have the embarrassing habit of checking an artist's twitter when they get a shitty pfork review to see if they acknowledged it in any way?

I hadn't, but I might start.

Oh, I thought you were hinting that there was something there.

ha sorry. nah almost everyone is too cautious for that these days, but every now and then it's entertaining.

there is often a lot of this type of action going on in the RA comments section.

seeing is a rare feat. not surprised dude couldn't see the goodness.

Why do you hate this band?

― I can still taste the Taboo in my mouth when I hear those songs (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, January 22, 2014 11:15 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Saw them live before their first record came out and couldn't remember ever seeing a band with less personality making a bigger impression on a room full of smitten indie dudes; guys who probably couldn't tell a rack tom from a djembe talking about band's "amazing drummer," etc. I listened to The Fool though, because I wanted to see if I was missing anything, and found it bland and lacking anything resembling an original idea. Conspicuously "disaffected" LA malegaze shit no one will care about in three years.

What does "malegaze" mean?

Wow.

Like, seriously, I have the most completely legitimate teengirl reason to HAAAAAAAAAAAATE Warpaint with the heat of a thousand suns jealous Beliebers, so I have been avoiding this album, but it keeps seeping into my listening space (through Tumblr, through sodding *ads* on YouTube) with this insistent whispering of "Go on, you knooooooowww you want to adore us. We are pretty much made from your ILM posts about wibbling dronerock circa 2001, just go on and drink the potion, we have cooooookies...."

So if you hate them because "other dudes like to look at them" for real, grow up and go away.

But really, please come back and explain at length what you mean by "malegaze" because if you can take a political concept like "the male gaze" and turn it into a diss against female musicians rendering their art as meaningless because men apparently sometimes look at them, I would really like to hear the logic behind that convolution.

I hoped I'd read it wrong because that term could be applied to any female musician that some male fans enjoy looking at, ie all of them.

To be uncharacteristically serious for a moment, you know, every time I start to think that I'm being heavy-handed and OTT with my whole semi-parodic satire of "refuse to judge critically acclaimed male indie-rock sacred cows by any other criteria than their haircuts" thing... I come back and read posts like that, and realise that no matter how far I go, it will never be far enough, it will never be quite as far as the way that men treat female musicians every fucking day. Which takes a little bit of the fun out of it.

I have been off ILM too long. I had forgotten.

I am gonna go discover the new Warpaint album on mine own, because this kinda discourse has just become so wearing.

I'm baffled by that.

Not BB or DL, obviously.

The Fork review was pretty wrong-footed, I felt, as would be any review of this album that complains that the drums are mixed as a lead instrument and that the bass carries the melodies. And: so? That's partly what makes the band so interesting. Though I suppose what he hammers as trip hop or whatever is what I heard as Too Pure. Same era, I guess. I know that writer is pretty smug about hating on anything from LA, his beat, but really, he's hating on this record for the wrong reasons. There are cases to be made both pro and con, but this doesn't quite work it out. Like, you know, landing Flood and Godrich as an implied criticism. Most bands wish, you know? I'd take this band's intriguing lack of charisma over Savages compelling redundancies any day. The latter is less boring but somehow still ... boring. But maybe I'll take the stronger con side re: Warpaint after I see them next month.

I do want to understand Cunningham's obsession, though. He's pretty selective.