oh FFS
― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve), Tuesday, 28 May 2019 20:51 (five years ago) link
I can't recall the last time I've actively hated an album as much as I Am Easy to Find.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:05 (five years ago) link
All these intermittently intriguing signifiers for compositional sophistication wasted on utterly meaningless melodies sung over and over with the smug conviction that they are worthy of our attention. A vanity musical, all of it.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:07 (five years ago) link
And the requisite major-key arpeggios meant to intimate a new, wiser, less egotistical 'me' post-midlife crisis, augmented by charmless guest vocalists so as to remind us that this is the sound of trve adulthood (only grownups will understand), of hope won through – well, what, exactly? There is no pushback, no counterpart, just the sound of a band honing their ability to deceive themselves and, I assume, their listeners.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:19 (five years ago) link
(I still hold Alligator and Boxer in high regard, so this isn't me dismissing The National outright.)
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:20 (five years ago) link
good bc nothing else you said made any sense
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:22 (five years ago) link
i'm sorry i keep ruining this thread everyone but i'm v tired of taste edgelordiness on this board
Is it so hard to entertain the possibility that we may not hear things the same way?
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:23 (five years ago) link
it's a record about trying to deal with the end of life, i feel like most of the songs are about the apocalypse, and there is almost no hope in it whatsoever
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:24 (five years ago) link
so i can't see getting anything about "adulthood" from the text
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:25 (five years ago) link
it's possible for us to hear things differently but you have described a record that i am easy to find is not
unless you mean the music signifies "adulthood," which, not even sure how music can do that
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:26 (five years ago) link
except from projection without and like radio formats
https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/6c550c251a6fa4a15acc5a3890081b6e
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:26 (five years ago) link
sometimes one just really dislikes stuff and needs to vent, I guess that's the theoretical difference between this thread and "post a controversial musical opinion" which sounds more like what you (justifiably) dislike (imo)
(originally I started this thread for imago to complain about year-end poll albums fwiw)
that being said I think spirited defenses are also totally legit here and thank you for that Brad, but let's not begrudge people their genuinely felt hatred
― Ambient Police (sleeve), Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:30 (five years ago) link
sorry that first "you" was an xp to Brad
i mean i've even used this thread to hate hyped-up records that i can't hear anything in but is remains v bizarre to me for someone down with alligator and boxer to loathe the new national, the posts smack of bringing ideas to a record that the record itself doesn't contain, and that shit makes me furious? for some reason?? these days???? feel like i'm refighting old battles on ilxor dot com pretty regularly lately
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:33 (five years ago) link
anyway a good thing for me to do is actually shut up and not open this thread, sorry pomenitul
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:34 (five years ago) link
By the way, I care very little for lyrics in general, unless they leap out at me, but I do think the emotions this record exudes on a non-verbal level are very much in tune with the kind of music aimed at signifying psychological growth and hence maturity in dramas about unravelling families and how they ultimately make up by setting aside or accepting their personal demons.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:38 (five years ago) link
Now, you may disagree with this, and I don't blame you, but I find it interesting to read about how others experience the music I love (or loathe), as there is something fascinating about the sense of estrangement it can impel.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:40 (five years ago) link
So I find it quite striking that you would describe the record in ontological terms (it *is* or *isn't* this or that), because your description is the furthest thing from my own time with the album. One of us may be wrong sub speciae aeternitatis, sure, it's not impossible, but I wouldn't dare venture that far.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:41 (five years ago) link
the national are def up there w/the worst bands i've ever heard, i enjoyed when that one poster called them 'featureless' like 8 times in one or two posts a little while ago because that is smack dab otm. no clue what the new album sounds like but i assure you it's awful
― lumen (esby), Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:43 (five years ago) link
it's good music for sad dads
― Mordy, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:45 (five years ago) link
― calstars, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:47 (five years ago) link
someone whose opinions are 2edgy4u
― Mordy, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:47 (five years ago) link
I'm not a dad but I'm a complete sucker for sad melodies so maybe I wouldn't dislike this record so much if it lived up to the band's reputation for melancholy. Once again, lyrics are nearly meaningless to me, so that might explain why.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:48 (five years ago) link
Not a big national fan but they don’t evoke my loathing like “vampire weekend” does
― calstars, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:53 (five years ago) link
all 'indie' music is just an absolute affront
― lumen (esby), Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:53 (five years ago) link
sad dad music to me is Dan Fogelberg and “leader of the band”, which my dad would sadly listen to. (I have no opinion on the national)
― omar little, Thursday, 30 May 2019 22:57 (five years ago) link
all 'indie' music is just an absolute affront― lumen (esby), Thursday, May 30, 2019 3:53 PM (thirty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― lumen (esby), Thursday, May 30, 2019 3:53 PM (thirty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― blue light or electric light (the table is the table), Thursday, 30 May 2019 23:33 (five years ago) link
brave
― Jeff the grown man (voodoo chili), Thursday, 30 May 2019 23:39 (five years ago) link
Wtf is an edge lord?
― calstars
the entire genre of "power electronics"
if imago is going to come back to this thread time and again like a dog to his vomit i'm at least going to try to mix it up with my own mean-spirited complaints every once in a while
― Flood-Resistant Mirror-Drilling Machine (rushomancy), Thursday, 30 May 2019 23:46 (five years ago) link
― omar little
wait, "leader of the band" the lewis taylor song? because i like that one.
― Flood-Resistant Mirror-Drilling Machine (rushomancy), Thursday, 30 May 2019 23:47 (five years ago) link
it was smart to draw all these dudes in here, someone close the place up like one of those Ghostbusters traps
― alpine static, Friday, 31 May 2019 03:44 (five years ago) link
so you can have your little anodyne paradise
― imago, Friday, 31 May 2019 08:45 (five years ago) link
This is the quarantine, the sanatorium where the afflicted undertake scream therapy to overcome their critical condition.
― pomenitul, Friday, 31 May 2019 10:01 (five years ago) link
indeed
― imago, Friday, 31 May 2019 10:04 (five years ago) link
As a side note, 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all' is a proverb that has very little currency in certain other cultures, where people are subconsciously encouraged to express their opinion even (at times especially) when it is negative.
― pomenitul, Friday, 31 May 2019 10:04 (five years ago) link
by "certain other cultures" do you mean the entirety of the internet
― Flood-Resistant Mirror-Drilling Machine (rushomancy), Friday, 31 May 2019 10:12 (five years ago) link
I mean longstanding cultures where that happens irl as well.
― pomenitul, Friday, 31 May 2019 10:17 (five years ago) link
Btw, what's so awful about power electronics?
― pomenitul, Friday, 31 May 2019 10:19 (five years ago) link
Aside from the fact that it's awful in the archaic sense.
― pomenitul, Friday, 31 May 2019 10:20 (five years ago) link
This thread is fairly polite considering how much totally shit music gets an easy ride on ILX these days.
― FernandoHierro, Friday, 31 May 2019 10:37 (five years ago) link
This is a safe space for haterz, so let it flow.
― pomenitul, Friday, 31 May 2019 10:47 (five years ago) link
Me, every time I see that D0ja C4t thread pop up:[insert appropriate meme]
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Friday, 31 May 2019 14:46 (five years ago) link
sorry, i was just making a joke. i think it's great that this thread exists and that anyone is free to hate The National. it's statements like "all 'indie' is an affront to humanity" that annoy me, and there's been lots of that in here the past few days.
but, as Brad said, i can also stay away.
― alpine static, Friday, 31 May 2019 15:48 (five years ago) link
all 'indie' is an affront to humanity
Obvious troll is obvious and shouldn't be fed, etc.
― pomenitul, Friday, 31 May 2019 15:50 (five years ago) link
i think that my bias is really more against bands like the National and Vampire Weekend, etc., and certain other groups producing inoffensive pap. i like plenty of independent punk and metal, and continue to be obsessed with certain electronic music, so it's mostly that what is heavily marketed and lauded as "indie" just sounds like garbage to me. like fourth-rate David Byrne sans any interesting lyrics.
― blue light or electric light (the table is the table), Friday, 31 May 2019 16:26 (five years ago) link
inoffensive pap
certainly seems to offend some...
― Jeff the grown man (voodoo chili), Friday, 31 May 2019 16:40 (five years ago) link
I guess it could be argued “indie” as a genre in terms of marketing has been co-opted by this “Morning Becomes Eclectic” NPR type of very basic competent morning commute dadrock.
― omar little, Friday, 31 May 2019 16:45 (five years ago) link