i do like how it really bursts open with I Shall Love 2 as the finale to the difficult first side, and then the second side is a little more straight forward. it's like you've finally reached another world after a long journey
― ufo, Sunday, 28 October 2018 13:03 (five years ago) link
I shall love 2 seems like a continental divide. From then on the waters seem to flow into another direction. But somehow to get there is quite hard and i have not yet succeeded in listening to the 2nd half.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Sunday, 28 October 2018 13:54 (five years ago) link
This is great! Every JH album is great in its own way, I'm not sure I get the sentiment that this is somehow her masterpiece or a big step up from HYIMW or Ekstasis. Early days though.
― A Box of After Dinner Comics Shipped to Your House Each Month (seandalai), Sunday, 28 October 2018 14:02 (five years ago) link
It's much grander in scope than its predecessors. I've managed to listen through twice. I haven't digested it, but I'm looking forward to getting to know it much better
― Duke, Sunday, 28 October 2018 15:11 (five years ago) link
OMG @ 'Les Jeux To You'.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 28 October 2018 15:25 (five years ago) link
This sounds awesome so far, closer to the kind of album I was ready for after Loud City Song. Every song seems to have at least a few moments as huge as "Maxim's I" ~0:56 or "Boy in the Moon" ~4:28.
― geoffreyess, Sunday, 28 October 2018 15:30 (five years ago) link
i placed an order for this but haven't rec' it yet. is "underneath the moon" a roches cover?
― affects breves telnet (Gummy Gummy), Sunday, 28 October 2018 17:44 (five years ago) link
*rec'd
I've only listened to this once and it's going to take a while to get to grips with it but I'd have to say it's her best work yet. She gets better with every album and there's not many artists you can say that about
― paolo, Sunday, 28 October 2018 20:57 (five years ago) link
After the first listen I was pretty much dumbfounded, and left with a sense that I had listened to something extremely dense, almost completely bereft of hooks, that doesn't make for easy entry, but also a sensational piece of musical exploration. I'm looking forward to getting further and deeper inside this record.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Monday, 29 October 2018 10:14 (five years ago) link
Nerdy fact: "Whether" used to be called "Heijinian" (and was based around staccato piano) when I first heard her play it live back in 2016. That night she also performed a slower ballad called "Where R U" on the setlist, but I don't remember it enough to match it to any of the songs on Aviary.
― ˈʌglɪɪst preɪ, Monday, 29 October 2018 14:01 (five years ago) link
Keep the nerdy facts coming! I'm loving the allusions to women poets.
― pomenitul, Monday, 29 October 2018 14:26 (five years ago) link
I need to listen to this a second time, but I felt like I was listening to a kind of Restorative School Of Magic counter-part to The Drift's spells of darkness and destruction.
Which is to say, both Holter and Walker have elected to create a style of music that, instead of composing songs with either already-existing or here-are-some-new-ideas approaches to melody/hooks/lyrics/whatever, they stop "writing songs" and push the very concept into the abstract-- thus the lack of hooks or melodies and the obliqueness of the lyrics-- to create a listening experience where the essential qualities of the material are found in the production and sonic composition rather than any "songs"
Hard to describe maybe? I'll listen a few more times and think about it more
― fgti is for (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 29 October 2018 15:22 (five years ago) link
i think the second side is pretty full of melodies, even if the vocals are a little pushed back in the mix
― ufo, Monday, 29 October 2018 16:00 (five years ago) link
I am listening to this for the first time today, in a bit of an anxious mood and it isn't exactly soothing, but loving it anyway - should come back to it when in the right mood.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 29 October 2018 16:02 (five years ago) link
my LP just showed up and man no one was lying about the packaging, forgot it came with a signed photo too <3
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Tuesday, 30 October 2018 00:11 (five years ago) link
this is fucking magnificent
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Tuesday, 30 October 2018 03:53 (five years ago) link
Honestly cannot believe how stunning “Turn the Light on” is
― josh az (2011nostalgia), Tuesday, 30 October 2018 04:18 (five years ago) link
every time i find myself thinking "oh the hooks have all disappeared i am in a wilderness of tones" a hook usually appears
i love this album
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Wednesday, 31 October 2018 00:26 (five years ago) link
oh and yeah the back half is full of bangers i guess
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Wednesday, 31 October 2018 00:43 (five years ago) link
Although every song on this is very different from every other song, I feel justified in saying that it’s like an entire album of songs like Jane Siberry’s “Bird In The Gravel”.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 31 October 2018 08:01 (five years ago) link
otm
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Wednesday, 31 October 2018 12:18 (five years ago) link
I’m a bit afraid to listen to this as I feel very proprietary about Ekstasis and I don’t want this to be better.
― Max Florian, Wednesday, 31 October 2018 13:23 (five years ago) link
Tim F otm a very specific and correct otm
― fgti is for (flamboyant goon tie included), Wednesday, 31 October 2018 14:15 (five years ago) link
Humbug.
Let Jeux To You HD good though
― imago, Friday, 2 November 2018 14:28 (five years ago) link
*Les
Rest of the album gave me anxiety. So much...music, so much content, and none of it exciting. I felt throttled and exacted. I don't like her song structures or melodies. I don't understand her art. Glad you're all enjoying yourselves though - I just don't get it!
― imago, Friday, 2 November 2018 14:30 (five years ago) link
I feel the same and its a blessed relief when the luxurious sound of "I Shall Love 2" comes around
I've only listened to this album twice though tbf so it'll take a while for its charms to become apparent
― . (Michael B), Friday, 2 November 2018 14:33 (five years ago) link
“A bit too extra, for imago” should be the sticker on the album cover
― coetzee.cx (wins), Friday, 2 November 2018 14:50 (five years ago) link
it still makes zero sense to me that lj doesn't like her
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Friday, 2 November 2018 14:51 (five years ago) link
i mean i get it but also when i listened to this record i thought "maybe this is the one for lj" :(
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Friday, 2 November 2018 14:52 (five years ago) link
To my mind, there was at least a 75% chance that he would proselytise for it but the quarter won out.
― pomenitul, Friday, 2 November 2018 14:53 (five years ago) link
I'll certainly listen to it again, as much to work out why it doesn't work for me as to try and get something out of it
I think I liked the short second track as well tbf. I'm not sure she can pull off things that aren't pop. Talk Talk feels like a really big stretch
― imago, Friday, 2 November 2018 15:42 (five years ago) link
Talk Talk is just the easy reference point people immediately reach for when they hear music with woodwinds and a sort of hushed atmosphere, it doesn't sound like Talk Talk to me.
― Matt DC, Friday, 2 November 2018 15:49 (five years ago) link
It's like when people compared Field of Reeds to Talk Talk and it's just like, Jesus, listen to other music!
― Matt DC, Friday, 2 November 2018 15:50 (five years ago) link
there’s way more space and delay on talk talk records, this is v composed and full and constantly thrumming
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Friday, 2 November 2018 15:55 (five years ago) link
there’s a lot of space on this record too but imo it’s used very differently
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Friday, 2 November 2018 15:57 (five years ago) link
haha I made the exact connection to field of reeds when reading this thread! Not so much the talk talk thing as the general casting around for reference points, just felt similar to me.
― coetzee.cx (wins), Friday, 2 November 2018 15:57 (five years ago) link
There's a lot more repetition on Talk Talk records as well, this is almost constantly roving into new areas.
― Matt DC, Friday, 2 November 2018 16:01 (five years ago) link
much of this fell straight into my kaitlyn aurelia smith 'saying little with a lot' unhappy place tbh, if you want a comparison you'll probably find more flattering or accurate. something about lush maximalism
― imago, Friday, 2 November 2018 16:03 (five years ago) link
i think she's saying quite a lot, the experience of the record is like a brain unloading itself (or, true to its title, like being in an atrium of squawking thoughts)
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Friday, 2 November 2018 16:05 (five years ago) link
admittedly this is a quality shared by most of my favorite records this year (the mewithoutyou record lyrically is like a brain unloading itself)
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Friday, 2 November 2018 16:06 (five years ago) link
The title is the cherry on top of the “huh lj doesn’t like this”
― coetzee.cx (wins), Friday, 2 November 2018 16:07 (five years ago) link
speaking of titles, she and KAS have the same irritatingly arch way of titling things too. 'ekstasis', 'euclid', 'i would rather see', 'i am curious, i care'
― imago, Friday, 2 November 2018 16:08 (five years ago) link
This is fascinating so far. Full of surprising turns.
― jmm, Friday, 2 November 2018 16:08 (five years ago) link
and yeah I'm sure she's saying plenty. I just can't hear any of it. I'm saying 'it's not you, it's me' this time
― imago, Friday, 2 November 2018 16:09 (five years ago) link
Don't much care for KAS for the very reasons you mention, yet I enjoyed my first encounter with Aviary – its maximalism did not strike me as an empty form carefully concealing itself.
― pomenitul, Friday, 2 November 2018 16:12 (five years ago) link
love JH but this was a racket for me on first listen
― ||||||||, Friday, 2 November 2018 16:12 (five years ago) link
I'll give it another chance now/this evening
― imago, Friday, 2 November 2018 16:12 (five years ago) link
fgti was otm upthread when he compared this to Scott Walker's late works, a far apter point of comparison than Talk Talk.
― pomenitul, Friday, 2 November 2018 16:16 (five years ago) link