tbf JS is probably also an asshole but a much more interesting one imo
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 20:59 (seven years ago) link
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
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:08 (seven years ago) link
god i wish jamie's tweet was still up
christ the hours i've wasted looking for some trace of it
― devvvine, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:10 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Evan R, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:12 (seven years ago) link
There really are some awful, awful lines on this. But it's not as bad as Sun Kil Moon.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 21:35 (seven years ago) link
the lyrics are just very tin-eared, like i can't believe DL thought putting this out was a good idea - dirty laundry!
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 22:10 (seven years ago) link
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.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 23:42 (seven years ago) link
he probably (hopefully) knows those lyrics are nagl. this album is good.
― Sufjan Grafton, Wednesday, 22 February 2017 23:57 (seven years ago) link
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)
― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Wednesday, 22 February 2017 23:58 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:03 (seven years ago) link
oh, that Naomi Klein line is awful! katherine otm - also the lyric sheet says "Drinking a Fifth For My Ass"
― flappy bird, Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:08 (seven years ago) link
Given the prevalence of misogyny on social media the easily quoted sellout stuff just seems so ill-thought out and cruel.
― devvvine, Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:09 (seven years ago) link
What's wonderful bout thinking about these people is that Longstreth's at best OK and often awful singing makes his words indecipherable anyway.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:10 (seven years ago) link
I disagree. I thought the lyrics on Swing Lo Magellan were quite good, and most intelligible
― bernard snowy, Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:35 (seven years ago) link
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
― bernard snowy, Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:40 (seven years ago) link
DL's singing sounds good but also like every phrase is overdubbed
― Sufjan Grafton, Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:46 (seven years ago) link
I like the 'no logo' shout, it makes it seem like a Kanye rap
oh no you made me hate it more
― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:50 (seven years ago) link
that part is bad, true
― Sufjan Grafton, Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:54 (seven years ago) link
but cool your heart is amazing
― Sufjan Grafton, Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:55 (seven years ago) link
Great review, Katherine. I was just thinking about how I don't envy the critics who review this. It's a total mine field.
― Evan R, Thursday, 23 February 2017 00:55 (seven years ago) link
Awesome review, Katherine :)
― Everything Moves Towards The Sun (Ross), Thursday, 23 February 2017 01:06 (seven years ago) link
is this out yet?
― Bee OK, Thursday, 23 February 2017 03:09 (seven years ago) link
it's on Spotify, will listen tomorrow.
― Bee OK, Thursday, 23 February 2017 03:11 (seven years ago) link
Amazing work Katherine
― fgti, Thursday, 23 February 2017 04:18 (seven years ago) link
ya that's really good writing... Dirty Projectors SHANKED
― flopson, Thursday, 23 February 2017 04:28 (seven years ago) link
i'm too scared to revis Bitte Orca (which i adored at the time) but, his singing definitely got worse, right?
― flopson, Thursday, 23 February 2017 04:33 (seven years ago) link
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.
― ufo, Thursday, 23 February 2017 04:44 (seven years ago) link
someone should compile all the worst lines from reviews of bjork's last album and construct a DP review from them
― mookieproof, Thursday, 23 February 2017 05:41 (seven years ago) link
Everyone needs to take lessons from Kevin Barnes in how to air that laundry
― imago, Thursday, 23 February 2017 12:18 (seven years ago) link
a state of emergency
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 February 2017 12:38 (seven years ago) link
x-post: I don't know is calling girls 'faggy' or threatening to get her beat up was ever a better look...
― Frederik B, Thursday, 23 February 2017 12:50 (seven years ago) link
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...
― flappy bird, Thursday, 23 February 2017 14:28 (seven years ago) link
yeaaaahhh as an occasional fan I would caution against using Kevin Barnes as any kind of behavioral model (I think he'd agree tbh)
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Thursday, 23 February 2017 14:33 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Evan R, Thursday, 23 February 2017 14:41 (seven years ago) link
joining the chorus of "outstanding review, katherine"
― ornate orchestral arrangements (DJP), Thursday, 23 February 2017 14:43 (seven years ago) link
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
― k3vin k., Thursday, 23 February 2017 14:53 (seven years ago) link
they're pretty hard to ignore
― flopson, Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:07 (seven years ago) link
― 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
― flopson, Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:09 (seven years ago) link
yeah i mean Dan Deacon has a song called "I Have AIDS" on his first album
― flappy bird, Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:11 (seven years ago) link
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
― lex pretend, Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:12 (seven years ago) link
there was this one thread, i think about jay-z, discussing the phenomenon where an artist's contemporary horribleness retroactively taints their early work, because with hindsight you can hear the rot setting in. that dynamic seems in place here for me ... this is foregrounding all my latent distaste for dude and his thing
― pre millennial tension (uptown churl), Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:16 (seven years ago) link
just re-read, so dope. channeling early-ilx density + vitriol
― flopson, Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:21 (seven years ago) link
this is.....not great but lolling at everyone falling over themselves to kill the guy from dirty projectors
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:37 (seven years ago) link
GAPDY shall fall, one by one
― imago, Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:39 (seven years ago) link
karen o will turn out to be a spider-squasher
I feel like I have to give this a chance because I liked the last couple of albums, but I also think I'm going to end up regretting it
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:40 (seven years ago) link
I legit love Dirty Projectors. I think what really gets under my skin about this is not just the fact that I think the thesis of this record is tantamount to abuse, but that there is a larger weirder paradigm represented, the paradigm of "successful"-musicians-responding-poorly-to-a-bear-market. Everything about that Tumblr post and every Kanye- and Tupac-reference, it just screams of a person clinging to their perceived relevancy of yesterday instead of existing in the present-tense, and allowing their divestment from industry expectation to be a liberating force, artistically. I guess I just wish somebody as talented as DL clearly is would work to prove to all of us that his music is necessary in 2017. This is part of the reason why I have so much respect for Sufjan I guess, who I didn't ever love at his zenith, but became really passionate about as he continued to burn every previous record as he went
― fgti, Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:41 (seven years ago) link
great post
― imago, Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:45 (seven years ago) link
putting aside the content that really nails it, this record was made by someone who thinks it's still 2008 and also desperately needs an editor
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 23 February 2017 15:46 (seven years ago) link