Warpaint

I like this one a lot more than the previous one, which I think I played twice before going "well that's neat" and then ignoring it

Intro -> Keep It Healthy -> Love Is to Die ropes me into a full album listen every time. I can tell this is informed by dub bc my instinct is to play it at a party. and those dearest to me tell me that they hate the sleepy dub music I always try to play at parties.

a lot of my critic friends and music lover friends (including ones that liked the first Warpaint album, which I still haven't heard) wrote this LP off after just a listen or two

This is truly an album that takes more than one or two listens to get. I kept listening beyond that because I liked the mood of it, but it took me more than two listens to grasp what they were trying to do and begin to differentiate the songs from each other.

I'd love to see a poll asking is this a good album y/n. I'm still crazy about it, and it seems like most of this thread is, too, but a lot of my critic friends and music lover friends (including ones that liked the first Warpaint album, which I still haven't heard) wrote this LP off after just a listen or two. As much as I'd disagree with a 5.7 score, I think it might be the consensus.

― Evan R, Tuesday, February 18, 2014 2:07 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think everyone was expecting them to tighten up. the other album and ep have some cool stuff but lots of dull moments. they sort of flipped the script by loosening up, a lot. thus you get these reviews working of a preconceived narrative.

i mean i was expecting them to tighten up too and i posted in this thread to that effect, but it didn't take me more than one listen to realize they were up to something else entirely and it was something i was more or less down with.

This would be a very boring album if they tightened it up.

Anyway, I thought I detected a bit of anti-L.A. backlash and resentment in a few of the reviews when this came out, which I thought was weird and unfair. Bands using inflated budgets to make expensive, unexpected, non-commercial albums was one of the most exciting things about the '90s imo

loving this! listened to it several times yesterday on spotifify, after buying the vinyl as an apt decoration. it's loose and a bit abstract but by no means songless, hookless. vibe can suffice, and while this thing's got that in spades, it's not trying to get by on mood alone. "love is to die" got stuck in my head on the first pass and has stayed there locked in tight (weird key jump tho). "biggie" and "disco/very" are pretty immediate too. i'm not gonna claim it's got a lot of pop potential, cuz it clearly doesn't, but that's hardly a sin, right?

a bit surprised on my initial listen by the all the slits drop. opening tracks put me in mind of the xx more than anything else, a blurred out version anyway, along with recent blonde redhead albums and perhaps the raincoats (if we have to reach for gender-matched postpunk equivalents). by the time "disco/very" and "go in" roll around, of course, the slits comparisons start to make sense, but that's only part of what the album's up to.

are there any good positive reviews of this record i can read? it's such a self-evidently good record to me.

i know! like if you like post-punkish type music how can ppl not like this???

in fairness, I feel the same way about Savages and half of you guys were not about that album at all

savages isn't bad per se, but just such slavish duplication & i never ended up wanting to listen to it.

i might have been to harsh on them, i shouldn't discourage England when they have a big indie band that at least tries not to be as weak as wet toilet paper.

this feels pretty distinctive

w ums on this

i was reading the liner notes this morning and realized that one of them is married to chris cunningham, who took the photos used in the album art.

Gonna listen to Savages for the next hour now just to spite you all!

i was reading the liner notes this morning and realized that one of them is married to chris cunningham, who took the photos used in the album art.

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, February 19, 2014 4:03 PM

WE DON'T TALK ABOUT THIS OR BB GET VERY VERY VERY UPSET.

Cunningham has also filmed a forthcoming documentary about the making of the album.

wld watch

HOW DARE CHRIS CUNNINGHAM MARRY A DIRTY DRONEROCK BASSIST THAT ISN'T ME. HOW DARE HE.

Wait, no, sorry, I forgot, I'm married to Interpol's haircuts now, never mind.

i love the fact that they got all these a-list music dudes involved so they could make a completely insular and weird record. well done, ladies!

o weird, did not know that! i did notice jenny's thank you to "cc" while reading the liners ("my beautiful husband and best friend"). stuck out because she's the only band member to so pointed thank a significant other.

does this mean that the song "cc" is about chris? suppose it must...

xp back to cad on the thank yous

OMG, women in having individual tastes independent if their "a-list music dudes" partners shocker!

i was talking about flood and nigel godrich more than cc but please feel free to never respond to my posts

xpost

that's not what anyone said

i guess i'm surprised that any album involving flood and nigel goodritch in 2014 could be actually interesting

yeah that too, lol

You mentioned neither Flood nor Nigel Goodrich before that post, CAD, but talked about her husband at length. I am a post-reader; I am not a mind-reader!

you read what you want to read

I also worried when I saw Flood was producing because in recent years I've come to associate him with horribly misjudged glossy crossover attempts (Glasvegas, Editors etc) but I forget that he's often just a great facilitator - almost transparent in the way that he helps get the artist's ideas across.

yeah i forgot he did the last pj harvey record which was fantastic of course, and totally in keeping with your use of "transparent"

wonder how much (if any) james blake influence seeped into this record

yeah i forgot he did the last pj harvey record which was fantastic of course, and totally in keeping with your use of "transparent"

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, February 19, 2014 10:33 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^oh really? ok that was great

yeah, i love LES and didn't realize it was a flood production. guess i like his work more than i thought.

he also did To Bring You My Love which is my fave

Flood (ft Warpaint)

Flood needs to just do the straight up dub album he's always had up his sleeve (at least since his lower profile 80s work like Bird Wood Cage.

this album would lend itself pretty well to dub or remixes of any kind really

i guess i'm surprised that any album involving flood and nigel goodritch in 2014 could be actually interesting

I think Godrich is a more talented producer than Flood, but I don't really understand this comment at all.

i was skipping around on this while driving around in the snow and finally realized what made disco/very seem so familiar to me--it is one of the few songs not made by liars that sounds like it could have been made by liars. the vocal sneer on the "we'll kill you line" (and the line itself) is so angus andrew.

also, no boston date on their tour, dammit.

So good live. Amazing rhythm section even when the bassist is ill. And surprisingly tight in terms if not really jamming things out; I was half fearing full Grateful Dead jamness but 90% was played exactly as on record, which has altered my perception of their compositional deliberation somewhat.

did they do the I Feel Love cover?

No! Didn't know that was a thing. Sadface.

They did it in Brighton in January, it was immense.

How did Flood manage to get Stella to sound like Larry Mullen Jr?

Saw 'em live in DC last night. Some songs I loved (atmospheric, nice guitar sound, effective bass), some (mostly ones that emphasized faster programmed beats from the keyboard underneath, rather than the drummer) seemed underwritten.

I mean some songs seemed quickly written and less than fully developed idea-wise--lets just add miscellanous sounds ontop of these beats, while others felt more fully composed and developed.

I thought my wife would like this, but she said it sounded like an indie version of Lorena McKennitt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7Ke9Org9U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7Ke9Org9U

I see the resemblance. It's the drums + breathy reverbed vocals.

This is better with the lights out

or long walks at nite in cool temps

or in a bus on the motorway in the pouring rain