😁🥹 porter robinson - SMILE! :D 🥹😁

heavily influenced by pete wentz and matty healy. destined for cult classic status. do i even need to say that this is one of the best albums of the year?

his last album was excellent but this one's nowhere near as good

Yeah of the four I've heard (including the Virtual Self EP) this is comfortably my least favourite

from what i understand it's alienating his fanbase ... it lines up perfectly as his folie a deux/notes on a conditional form "artist's best album that is nonetheless widely believed to be their worst"

as singles i was sorta unmoved by the meta commentary on rock stardom, conversation w/ the fan aspect of it all but as a full length i actually think it gets at something honest about the two way nature of parasocial pop star/fan relationships that is typically glossed over, or rendered in more simplistic terms, in most music about fame. the way the perspective is kinda constantly pinging back and forth from star commenting on fan vs fan commenting on star (really star as fan commenting on star) feels to me like a more real level of processing that dynamic, even as it's dressed up in this whole arch meta narrator character thing. cheerleader, perfect pinterest garden, kitsune maison freestyle are effective for me in this way ... and then by contrast the two more emotionally straightforward tracks at the end really work for me too

ultimately i just think it's great ear candy tho ... the build up of "russian roulette," sticking the landing on "kitsune maison," the tender guitar tone that softens "perfect pinterest," that synth tone he uses the whole album cutting thru the shoegazy haze of "is there really no happiness?," the thoroughly wonderful homage to the 1975's debut that is "cheerleader." for me it lands as an electronic producer really bringing something to the table from a production perspective in making an abrupt turn into rock music

i don't think it really holds together that well stylistically, "year of the cup", "kitsune maison freestyle" and "mona lisa" all drag it down and the chorus to "cheerleader" is viscerally annoying.

i don't really hear that much of a similarity to the 1975 beyond a somewhat similar lyrical style & "perfect pinterest garden" feels kinda like them except if they did it it'd sound much fuller? it's frustratingly thin

"is there really no happiness?" is so good

the verses of "cheerleader" are almost like direct quotation, but i think there's also other stuff on the album that feels very specifically 1975 influenced i.e. the final song which has a very similar acoustic jangle to songs on 'notes' incl the way the banjo kinda peels away from the main guitar sounds. but don't listen to me, listen to the man himself!

Porter Robinson revealed that The 1975 was one of the sources of inspiration for his latest album.

“i'd also say the last verse of "Part of the Band" is soooo fuckin beautiful and meaningful -- i feel that influence on the outro of Kitsune Maison Freestyle”#The1975… pic.twitter.com/qwLWSwlhOR

— The 1975 TH (@the1975_thteam) July 30, 2024

"Give Yourself a Try" made me a fan of The 1975 -- the way it opens with the hook (my constant songwriting addiction) and the suspended happysad nostalgic feel of the chords reaaaalllyyy stuck with me.

"suspended happysad nostalgia" is a concept he returns to lyrically throughout the album

I love this album.

Gives me similar vibes to Ade’s ‘Midnight Pizza’ from a few years back.

tim :)

the super ravey DDR’d out climax of “russian roulette” gets me every time

“kitsune maison freestyle” has been buzzing around my head for two days.

This is becoming my favorite album of the year

My 10 yo son got me into it actually. We've got tickets to see PR next month.

<3

ugh this fucking ROCKS

yesssss. been waiting for this post

the whole gang's here ;_;

where were you all for his last album!!!

I like Nurture but connect a lot harder with Smile. I dunno, to me they feel like the work of different acts, the first trying to be Air France but with a clumsier touch (sometimes winningly so), whereas the latter feels like it’s part of a project of redemption of the kind of yearning, populist EDM-rock hybrids that I mostly dislike but sometimes hit me hard in ways I cannot fully account for (e.g. Sigala’s “Lasting Lover”).

I can’t confidently disaggregate how much the attraction for me is precisely because of the music’s willingness to stare into the abyss of bad taste.

Though everyone who likes Smile really should check out Midnight Pizza - the real most underrated album of 2021 (or the decade so far, possibly).

I don't think I'd even have recognized this album as Porter Robinson if I didn't already know

pretty sure i heard nurture and i'm with tim, this is just... like.... remember that thread about neiked's "sexual"? something about this sort-of-embarrassing sound just ensnares me

i like 'nurture' ... his talent & curiousness as a listener/producer are evident. it feels heavily influenced by a certain era of indie to me -- air france is one (perhaps generous) reading -- i hear more passion pit... there's the "all my friends" piano reference at one point. i think for me, even putting aside the fact that 'smile' is pulling from reference points that really align w/ my taste (as outlined in the OP), i think the more conventional songwriting structures actually flatter him, and the way the electronic production comes thru (i.e. the keyboard melody on "knock yourself out", the climax of "russian roulette") just works better for me as a way of putting his personal stamp on pop-punk/emo than as the basis of entire albums. "is there really no happiness?" to me feels like the song most similar to 'nurture' and i just think it's a more refined & effective version of that style. i understand the criticisms of 'smile' ... as w/ a lot of albums i love, it rides along lines of bulls-eyeing my taste and being somewhat repellent to a lot of other people. again, it slots right next to the 1975 & fall out boy in my head.

also, you know, i'm just reading this morning about chappell roan telling her fans that they're being weird and invasive & i really do feel like 'smile' is speaking to a concrete and very important era of pop (the stan era) that i think is largely avoided in the music of the pop stars of said era. i'm not gonna say that this album is like some genius revelatory examination of fame, but it does hold a certain weight to me as a genuine examination of the current day relationship between star & listener when it can immediately juxtapose i.e. the eras tour, taylor swift acting as if the relationship she cultivates w/ her fans is normal etc. he does get a bit on the nose during the "perfect pinterest garden" chorus ("somebody's gotta say the things i'm trying not to say") but i do feel like i.e. "knock yourself out" is really effective pop writing about the cycle of emotions that encompasses pop stardom... the way the verse hinges on the dual meaning of "sick":

Don't know my schedule on the fifth
Bitch, I'm Taylor Swift
Got a hundred million on my wrist
Physically sick
Crying at the airport
"I'm sorry, can I get a pic?"
Telling me a sad story
Another reason not to quit

or the way that the outro lays out the mix of insecurity, notoriety, wealth, ego, substance abuse, mania etc that eventually blows up the lives of many celebs. you can tell that he both loathes the ppl he is talking about while also obviously placing himself w/in their lineage, which i think makes it effective as criticism:

I wear a big smile, got a drink in my hand
I got a face tattoo, I'm not a regular man
You gotta hold on, I'll tell you 'bout it again
I got a brand new feeling in the back of my head
I wear a big smile, got a drink in my hand
I drive a new Bugatti, not a Mercedes Benz
You gotta hold on, I'll tell you 'bout it again
I got a brand new feeling in the back of my head

i also don't think it's over the top to note that you can read stuff like this (and frankly much of the entire album) thru the lens of an EDM wunderkind critiquing a lifestyle and culture that led to things like avicii getting his gallbladder removed ("physically sick") and then of course ODing. is there lots of great art, especially by an insider, that wrestles w/ *that* specific era of music/pop culture?

even something like "cheerleader" which is a bit more conventional in terms of the perspective has lines like "she's got hearts in her eyes / she draws me kissing other guys" that are just funny or otherwise memorable to me

"Fuck you, you don't deserve me," the bus went totally silent

only realized on second listen that "russian roulette" references the infamous jet pitchfork review

what a journey that song is btw

porter robinson makes faustian bargain in order to write and record a good owl city record

i appreciated his knowledge of pitchfork lore

this guy loves the 1975 huh

Though everyone who likes Smile really should check out Midnight Pizza - the real most underrated album of 2021 (or the decade so far, possibly).

― Tim F, Tuesday, August 20, 2024 9:30 AM (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

wow @ "another weekend"