Post a controversial music opinion

Sleaford Mods are pretty terrible tbh. They're part of a venerable and profoundly corny UK tradition of miserabilism, stodgily reiterating what a shithole this country (as if we're not all aware of and suffering from its many problems) is without offering anything in the way of transcendence. Half Man Half Biscuit are ten thousand times more valuable than they ever could be. I listened to the new Slowthai album yesterday and that was unrelentingly, self-indulgently, cornily miserable too. The worst bit is that loads of critics and fans essentialise important UK music as this now

carly rae jeps also a critc prank

OTM

i like grace slick's voice even as deployed in the great society (the grebt society, call it by its name) :(

my controversial opinion is it's boring to compare every English group who talk sings as if they have anything to do with each other

I love Carly Rae Jepsen, tho maybe to add to the challops of this thread, I genuinely believe that “Comeback” is better than any of the other songs on Dedicated or Dedicated Side B.

I think that one reason I hate SMs, tho, is also that I frankly don’t care for the bands they supposedly sound like— I’m one of those who has never understood why The Fall are so good and important.

Now we're getting to the good stuff!

Mind you, I don’t hate The Fall, I just don’t get the hype

I have listened to five Sleaford Mods songs now. It reminds me of LCD Soundsystem more than anything, but cleverer in the lyrics and stoopider in the production. I like old crank lyrics like Cathal Coughlan but I like it less when it's the English doing it. It's fine? I know they're popular and I am happy for Rough Trade that they have a meal ticket band

I think I conflate Sleaford Mods and Idles (have only really heard a tune or two from each).

I have listened to five Sleaford Mods songs now. It reminds me of LCD Soundsystem more than anything

lol ... this makes me feel otm re my aversion to LCD Soundsystem, which is like dork rock for dudes who code who are too cool for They Might Be Giants which is the ur-dork rock for dudes who code

the emperors new clothes routine is so myopic and tired

I had to grow a little older before “losing my edge” sounded funny and not obnoxious

lcd soundsystem production is overrated, they really could have used more expensive ass digital plug-ins to smooth out the analog fartiness

Lol, that's a wild thought

confession: i have never heard an entire lcd soundsystem album.

subsequent controp: lcd soundsystem is fucking awful.

idk it's like entitled white dude whining about no longer being a cool entitled white dude ... but with self-awareness ... and i just prefer the self-awareness to result in dude s-ing tfu ... or like get into bluegrass guitar or modifying zithers to make dance music idk

xp Austin -- I've only heard Losing My Edge and the "playing at my house" song ... so my take is very challopsy here ... but neither have the charm of Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell

the dude is annoying as hell, i have never listened to an lcd sound system album but early 00s DFA production is still the shit

maybe my timeline is off but didn't he "retire from music" to open a wine bar at some point?

warning: gross flippant language the whole bamboolzing of the music press he pulled off was very fyre fest in attitude. people like that in music are as upsetting to me as people like ted nugent. just ugh, it's all "music for and by insufferable chodes" afaic.

I was not a fan of LCD Soundsystem - no animosity, just not on my radar screen - but I did watch the documentary on their "last" show. I remember wondering why they needed so many people on stage.

Maybe it was part of the live musit ethos of the time, like Arcade Fire or Polyphonic Spree or Lumineers whatever, where there are like 15 people up there poking earnestly at instruments; however, the main bones of the sound they are making could easily be replicated by a reasonably skilled quartet.

conspiracy theory: the whole band was a cia money laundering effort. don't ask me how.

I get way way less of a skeevy vibe from the Sleaford. Mods dudes compared to James Murphy

oh totally

I still like "Losing My Edge" and "41:33" but meh to the rest of LCD

It isn't a competition, you can dislike them both

lol

I agree with your "miserabilist" critique btw

tons of other DFA stuff rules tho, like that amazing Pixeltan 12"

man ty guys so much for validating my longterm hatred of lcd lol. there was a point where every person i knew was trying to defend to them to me in some form or another and it's always been straight up dreadful music to me.

a positive controp: all whistle solos are good. even if the song is otherwise trash, the whistle solo is still worth hearing.

(sorry not trying to derail current discussion, just something i needed to get off my chest. i feel much better!)

LCD was a "band" that only made even the slightest sense in the context of Manhattan but was somehow pushed nationally. I mean, their "farewell show" was at Madison Square Garden, meanwhile I'm pretty sure they were playing largish clubs everywhere else in the country.

man ty guys so much for validating my longterm hatred of lcd lol. there was a point where every person i knew was trying to defend to them to me in some form or another and it's always been straight up dreadful music to me.

a positive controp: all whistle solos are good. even if the song is otherwise trash, the whistle solo is still worth hearing.

(sorry not trying to derail current discussion, just something i needed to get off my chest. i feel much better!)

so much irritation just gone at a stroke if that song never existed

More like Pubes Like Jagger

LCD Soundsystem were useful in that period in 2003-2005 when many of my friends discovered New Order; it's also possible to like the first two albums and loathe "Losing My Edge" as a tired joke even in 2002.

not a whistle solo i recall. . .

[please to remember: i have lived parts of my life in a metaphorical dark cave with my eyes shut and my hands over my ears.]

(listens)

ahh no, this doesn't count on a technicality. that's a whistle riff not a solo. also proves my point: too much whistle = no bueno, one rad solo = thumbs up friend, great job!

(also yes, obvious dud eerrrrr.... whatever the level below dud is; abomination?)

xpost to alfred: i would often retort to those who were trying to proselytize me on them that lcd was a newer, shittier version of new order, which was (i also offered, probably very smarmily) something that they could have the newer, shittier version of the real deal if they weren't such "hipsters" (sirens call was new at the time).

The instrumental mix of “yeah” is truly incredible, the one with vocals is godawful

i think my controp at the time was that lcd was making worse versions of old new order records. i told people that they remembered new order was still putting out albums, right? if that's what you want, go to the source.

(oh the singer isn't very good though. . .)

I just love that DFA drum sound + dirty bass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i80H1TNWyY0

New Order is definitely my first choice for worse versions of old New Order records

I'm pretty agnostic on LCD, they had a handful of songs I liked but never really seek them out

Their tracks just don't have much soul or funk and for some reason really speak to the polo shirt Coachella crowd

^ shirtshaming

I stopped caring after LCD's supposed triumphant final show here in 2010. Murphy looked like any out-of-shape middle-aged dude jumping up and down in a fit.

initial run of lcd singles still classic

become very tiresome during and after sound of silver

oh but “someone great” is an incredible song, i’ll give him that

I dig "Home."

real emotional trash > any pavement album

I had more than a couple friends in the late '00s prefer Malk to Pavement too.

malkmus's best songs were with pavement but all those albums range from somewhat to wildly inconsistent, while real emotional trash is just great jams from start to finish

I still like "Losing My Edge" and "41:33" but meh to the rest of LCD

This is my camp. I quite honestly rate "Losing My Edge" as an all-time great single, I did so in 2002 and still do. I have little-to-no tolerance for all other LCD. I would probably prefer to leave a space than subject myself to "North American Scum" and/or "Daft Punk" and/or "All My Friends". Bad songs! The worst is when, too, people rated such terrible music so highly and I just didn't understand why they did so and still don't

My best friend has probably more adventurous tastes in music than I do, and generally is a few chapters ahead of me at all times in every genre except classical. He tried to convince me that LCD's third album is "actually terrific" and so I listened to it a few times and I can safely say that it is, without hyperbole, the worst album ever recorded in history, and competes with Schnittke's first symphony as the worst piece of music ever conceived

The most weirdly insulting thing about that album is the forthright "covers" of "White Light White Heat" and "Heroes", two songs I have never particularly rated that highly (but sure, they're good songs), and hearing them twisted and dis-improved as LCD did put me in this unbelievably awful position of multiple strains of feeling:

1. I hated the song I was listening to
2. I was finding that I liked the song the track was "covering" less, in addition to this
3. I found myself feeling weirdly 'protective' of the original material, like I was a docent asking James Murphy to please sir don't smear shit on the painting
4. I found myself feeling complicated in my feelings of 'protectiveness' because I'm not a huge fucking fan of either "Heroes" or "White Light White Heat", and it feels weird and bad when you're put into a position of having to care more about something than you actually do, like you've been drafted into a war that you don't want to fight

I do REALLY like "what DFA were trying to do", though. I love that Rayna and Delia album. I love that they signed planningtorock. I loved the shit out of their vol. 2 compilation. I literally actually cried a little bit when listening to the Liquid Liquid re-work, I loved it so much, and got so excited about the prospect of new Liquid Liquid material (which never came, but ah well).

it's also possible to like the first two albums and loathe "Losing My Edge" as a tired joke even in 2002.

And this is the opposite of my camp.

And the opposite of camp.

they have a fair few good songs but no great albums. by the third album he was largely out of ideas and settling for more directly ripping from others, instead of at least coming up with interesting combinations - "all my friends" being new order + eno was great. even the best track on it ("dance yrself clean") is a blatant rip, just of something much more obscure ("jaimaca running" by the pool) than most of his reference points.

it's a shame they ended up there because they do sound genuinely inspired on like, "beat connection", "yeah", etc. - shame they couldn't keep that up