on other things... Fact Magazine's Top 100 songs of 2007 is way better than pitchfork's:
http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/da/66290
― Moka, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 21:27 (sixteen years ago) link
but I can't shake the notion that in the end, it's little more than the musical equivalent of a magic-eye picture
Fandango otm here.
-- Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 09:41 (12 hours ago) Link
is this a criticism? cuz anything that can manage to be the musical equivalent of a magic-eye picture is, putting aside whether it is enjoyable or good or whatever, at least interesting.
― artdamages, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 21:57 (sixteen years ago) link
think this is more interesting than a stereogram but agree that it's an ambient album and that 'i'm not' is probably the highlight but could do with some strings
― blueski, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 23:01 (sixteen years ago) link
xpost I don't think magic eye pictures deserve acclaim. I think they are shticky and just because you can cross your eyes to see the picture doesn't mean that that picture is a work of art. Goodie, you can decipher the Panda Bear album. But that doesn't make it any good.
― Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 23:27 (sixteen years ago) link
i don't know, i think this album is fucking great. i hardly think it relies on any "shticky" gimmicks, rather, it's a pretty sonically adventurous album that has a ton of layers that reveal themselves pretty generously with each play. as a lot of its positive reviews have already stated (better than i can), it does a fucking excellent job of synthesizing some really great pop melodies with a lot of sonic experimentation (more than you'll find in most of this year's acclaimed indie records) and pretty brilliantly juxtaposes a ton of interesting influences - dub, psychedelia, 60s pop, ambient music, electronic music, etc. i don't want to sound like press release here and i also don't want to just say "good influences = good music", but this album is pretty fucking cool and i'm very happy it's getting all the acclaim it is.
― Mark Clemente, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 23:52 (sixteen years ago) link
magic eye posters look all squiggly and nondescript at first glance. it is only through concentration and crossing your eyes that something emerges.
― artdamages, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 23:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Besides, what's so cryptic about this album? The melodies are obvious, most of the lyrics are easy to understand. It's fun to listen to.
― filthy dylan, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:04 (sixteen years ago) link
ya i dont get what the secret picture is here. most of the songs are pretty hooky.
― s1ocki, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:06 (sixteen years ago) link
It's more like putting shit in your ears, waiting for it to harden, then forcefully extracting the hardened shit from your ears.
― The Reverend, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:07 (sixteen years ago) link
lol
― Mark Clemente, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:07 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought I loved this record, but now that Pitchfork loves it I'm not so sure...
― polyphonic, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:11 (sixteen years ago) link
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/61NZPNFHCFL._SS500_.jpg
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:14 (sixteen years ago) link
http://cache.idolator.com/assets/resources/2007/03/ryan.jpg
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:15 (sixteen years ago) link
How many people who like this have heard "Here Comes the Indian"?
― abanana, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:15 (sixteen years ago) link
That album is good and this album less so but when you say it like that it sounds all indie dick comparing.
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:17 (sixteen years ago) link
If you want a shit gimmick/musical magic eye/whatever, Pullhair Rubeye is your man. Eeurgh.
― Telephone thing, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:18 (sixteen years ago) link
Panda Bear is the auditory equivalent to the physical experience of putting your hand in a blender. It hurts immediately, cause it's hard to shove the top of the blender on when your hand is still attached to your arm. Then around the third track, it becomes more painful when you turn the blender on and your fingers get sliced to ribbons. By the fifth track, the gutted finger smoothie becomes pretentious.
― Mordechai Shinefield, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:26 (sixteen years ago) link
i dont like this album much either but this guy mordechai seriously loves my chemical romance and hanna montana so like dont listen to him.
― chaki, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 00:44 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah I guess if you liked those you probably wouldn't like this.
― filthy dylan, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 01:24 (sixteen years ago) link
OTM - that record was fucking ridiculous, in a bad way. Panda Bear also fucking ridiculous, but in a good way. Also, since it hasn't been said - the smoothie analogy above is terrible.
― stephen, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 01:41 (sixteen years ago) link
^^^yes. reverend's forceful extraction of hardened shit >>>>>>>>>>> mordechai's finger smoothie
― Mark Clemente, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 01:48 (sixteen years ago) link
this album is like a ham sandwich
― artdamages, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 02:24 (sixteen years ago) link
Ham sandwiches are delicious. This album is not. So no, this album is not like a ham sandwich.
― The Reverend, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 02:34 (sixteen years ago) link
"search for delicious"
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 19 December 2007 02:35 (sixteen years ago) link
I also seriously like Bob Dylan and Iron + Wine. Wtf is with the assumption that if you like one kind of music you can't like another? I hate Panda Bear on its own terms, not on some aesthetic principle that only MCR can be good.
― Mordechai Shinefield, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 02:59 (sixteen years ago) link
1. everyone likes bob dylan. 2. iron and wine fans probably wouldnt enjoy person pitch. 3. everything you write on ilm would expect me to believe that this kind of record wouldnt be up your ally.
― chaki, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 03:06 (sixteen years ago) link
expect = lead
― chaki, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 03:07 (sixteen years ago) link
iron and wine fans probably wouldnt enjoy person pitch.. maybe. my girlfriend loves both though.
― Mark Clemente, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 03:08 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.desktoprating.com/wallpapers/animal-wallpapers-pictures/panda-bear-wallpaper.jpg
― Mordechai Shinefield, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 03:10 (sixteen years ago) link
aww
― Mark Clemente, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 03:11 (sixteen years ago) link
1. everyone likes bob dylan.
RONG
― Paul in Santa Cruz, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 03:24 (sixteen years ago) link
@chaki, also, while I have lots of questionable taste, much of that taste comes from listening to things with open ears. I've listened to Person Pitch about a dozen times now, hoping I'll suddenly "get it." It doesn't get better. Maybe I need to listen to it with someone who likes it, who is willing to deconstruct it for me as we listen. Because it just hurts my ears.
And this isn't proof of anything, but every friend of mine that I've played it for hasn't enjoyed it either. So I don't know who the audience for this album is, but it's no one I personally know. (Which is to say: Maybe if I knew people who liked this music, they'd be able to communicate their love of it to me.) But recommend a track and give me a brief explanation of why you like it, and I swear, I'll listen to it and give it a fair shake.
― Mordechai Shinefield, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 03:25 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't like Bob Dylan, but I like him more than I like Panda Bear.
― The Reverend, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 03:26 (sixteen years ago) link
y'all were hating on this over on the year-end thread also. if you have really listened to it a dozen times then I salute you, that's more than I would do with a record I didn't like. FWIW, I think of it as much more of a psych/experimental thing than an indie rock album. then the long static parts make much more sense - "Good Girl" is probably my favorite just because of the way it sounds, not because of any specific structural or harmonic reasons. it's all about the explosions as I said way upthread.
― sleeve, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 03:51 (sixteen years ago) link
I just relistened to Good Girl. I still don't get it. I can't understand what he's saying, it sounds like there are animal noises in the background, and the song is fairly precipitous musically. I feel like I'm hearing the same beat over and over in short 2 second intervals. And it keeps getting layered (swishing noises, what sounds like machine beeps, in the background I think I can hear some kind of sci-fi spaceship noise, and what sounds like the wash cycle on a washing machine). Frankly, it gives me a huge headache. It's not as bad when all that background noise falls away (around 2:30 in the song), but then it just sounds like he's singing gibberish, and you can just sense the annoying background about to burst forward.
― Mordechai Shinefield, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 04:10 (sixteen years ago) link
iron and wine fans probably wouldnt enjoy person pitch.
?!?
― St3ve Go1db3rg, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 04:27 (sixteen years ago) link
I feel like I'm hearing the same beat over and over in short 2 second intervals. And it keeps getting layered
There may be a rather large swath of music that isn't up your alley.
― Z S, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 04:36 (sixteen years ago) link
Mordechai, there is thing, called "dance music", have you heard of it?
I love this album. Am a bit surprised that Pitchfork's albums of the year have been my albums of the year (this year equal favourite with Studio) two years running. Have I become more pitchforky since I started writing for them perhaps.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 07:42 (sixteen years ago) link
maybe pitchfork has become more tim f.
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 19 December 2007 07:45 (sixteen years ago) link
I can't understand what he's saying, it sounds like there are animal noises in the background, and the song is fairly precipitous musically. I feel like I'm hearing the same beat over and over in short 2 second intervals. And it keeps getting layered (swishing noises, what sounds like machine beeps, in the background I think I can hear some kind of sci-fi spaceship noise, and what sounds like the wash cycle on a washing machine).
if these are things you dislike in music, you and i have very, very different taste
― max, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 09:04 (sixteen years ago) link
max how do you feel about skye sweetnam?
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 19 December 2007 09:16 (sixteen years ago) link
DLD91287 (2 hours ago) 0 Reply | Spam Well..I am happy there is an artist out there that actually speaks the truth about people! Skyesoldier00 (57 minutes ago) 0 Reply | Spam Yes, Skye truly is an inspiration in a world full of money grubbing self centered fools!
― max, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 09:26 (sixteen years ago) link
Not to bang on - actually, fuck it, to bang on and on and on and on and on - I'd like this an awful lot more if it wasn't so flat and one dimensional sounding, physically; I like the ideas, I like the melodies, I like the sonic juxtapositions and the actual 'tunes'. I don't like the fact that I can't climb inside it, that it feels like a plank of wood or pane of glass or sheet of steel. I can't put it on and feel it flow around me in three dimensions. Hence, ambient. Which I feel is a shame, because there's a lot of pop in this record, I just can't touch it.
― Scik Mouthy, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 09:27 (sixteen years ago) link
i know some soldiers in here where they at? where they at?
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 19 December 2007 09:28 (sixteen years ago) link
Are you fucking kidding me?
― Mordechai Shinefield, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 14:52 (sixteen years ago) link
It's just that your description of "Good Girl" makes it sound like a great dance track.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 14:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Except for the part where it's awful. I don't found dance track vocals incomprehensible, the don't find them layered to the point where I get a headache, and I don't find the rhythm impossible to keep track of. In fact, I find dance tracks all the opposite of that.
― Mordechai Shinefield, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 14:55 (sixteen years ago) link
the = then
― Mordechai Shinefield, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 14:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Unless, of course, by dance you mean something entirely different than dance music. I consider dance music something you can dance to.
― Mordechai Shinefield, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 14:57 (sixteen years ago) link
to shove aside the pitchfork year end list and the inevitable debates that will occur here in regards to it, at least Panda Bear had the only End of the Year Guestlist that was worth looking at. like 36 lists of pure, unadelterated almost masturbatorily 'pitchfork' lists, 3 that were good, and then his, which included both Pantha du Prince AND the Enjoi video!
― mehlt, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 14:58 (sixteen years ago) link