Future Islands - On The Water

am I right that the argt being presented here is "you whipper-snappers don't know the roots of this music"

I thought that was it, but after reading da croupier's latest replies, I'm more confused than ever

croup, I'm not sure why you're hung up on the notion of this performance being "amateurish"—the band is perfectly tight, & Sam goes all-in on his schtick despite having an audience of mostly indifferent non-fans... which is basically the definition of "professionalism"? like, when I think of "amateurish" TV performances, I think of 90s alt-rock bands mumbling thru their one hit as if they were just dragged out of bed and thrown on the Letterman stage by major label hired goons.

... maybe you woulda liked them better when they sounded like New Order, idk

man they're way more meatloafy than sprinsteeny, thank god

haven't watched the letterman yet but it's probably awesome, only saw them once a few years ago and it was one of my favorite lead singer performances ever, he was like a campy hamlet belting every line to poor yorick

nice description. definitely gives that feel on letterman when he lifts his right arm up. it's all very theatrical, but he seems so genuinely in it that it's mesmerizing. felt like young sufjan seeing idioteque on SNL with this performance.

Saw the Letterman clip and to me its kinda of an amateurish take on Simply Red

am I right that the argt being presented here is "you whipper-snappers don't know the roots of this music"

nope

lol xpost

Local band done good. Lovin it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is yr argt dc, I'm not getting it either. Also just watched/loved this

My argument is that it struck me as Paul young karaoke. Amateurish vocals over eighties synth soul. After that its just variations of saying "sorry but tough shit" to Bernie's various qualms with that estimation.

I never said the kids gotta learn, just that the kids gotta toughen up if they're gonna boo Hoo when cranky old farts in other towns aren't "zomg these guys are from a college town, transcendence!"

Fair enough. Mostly loved how it looked exactly like a guy singing along to something in his room bt onstage

amateurish vocals says da croupgeir

I used to be with it, but then they changed what *it* was. Now what I'm with isn't *it*, and what's *it* seems weird and scary to me. It'll happen to you...

can you elaborate on what makes herring's vocals amateurish? he doesn't sound pitchy to me. it's about the quality and strength?

Dude can def sing, tho. Just awesome to see no polish or selfconsciousness, given that I've seen many indie bands play live

lol you guys

Otoh listened to their new single and wasn't interested, so

can i say "unpolished" without bruising your souls or is that still too harsh a take

when someone calls something amateurish, it sounds like they might have a good idea of what'd qualify it as such. i just thought you may have had some more interesting information about what made his vocals amateurish.

there was some of that on the Haim thread that I found interesting.

fyi if you're going to respond with "oh really, sir, are you a musicologist?" when someone says these guys sound like a rando singing 80s shit you better hope this little shimmy is the peak of their mainstream awareness

I am not making a "hey man I'd like to see you try argument", I just honestly thought you might have some more insight to add to one of your posts.

but it sounds like you meant "unpolished" so I get it now. and I realize there is no way for me to convey this information via post without sounding sarcastic, but I am not being sarcastic.

i mean, yeah, if you're genuinely assuming everybody on ilx has a technical "insight" to back up terms like "amateurish," lemme tell ya that's not the case.

I have no problem with calling Sam's vox "unpolished", but "amateurish" comes pre-loaded with a "professional" opposing term, which in this case (as you've made clear) is Paul Young—the problem is that I can't tell whether you genuinely think the music would be improved by singing that sounded more like Paul Young, or if he is just a red herring you're using to draw attention away from the fact that you dislike this musical style in toto.

Dude I'm describing what i hear. People can decide for themselves whether they agree with the description, and whether its something they would or would not want to hear. And if you don't like someone sounding dismissive or reductive in their description of a performance on letterman, sorry but tough shit.

So glad that Letterman performance has made finally made American indie safe for overenthusiatic amateurish dorky dudes who can't really sing.

I like overenthusiastic dorky dudes who can't really sing - Fred Schneider is one of my biggest life heroes - but this seemed kinda sub-Har Mar Supertar to me. Meh.

He's a better singer than Bryan Ferry and that's good enough for me

Ouch.

its so weird and sad when music nerds confronted with a vocalist who has a unique and/or unusual voice just go with "cant sing"

like, he is singing. his voice is singing songs he wrote.

"Confronted" would imply I've actually listened to it, I was just mocking the discourse.

cool.

he can sing. but can he sing?

he sings on-key and quite well, gr80 otm. people generally don't know anything at all about singing tho and by good singing often mean "did it sound like somebody doing the national anthem at a ballpark"

otm. is timbre the correct word for what is turning people off? bc I agree that the pitch seems good.

i guess discussions of pitch are kind of ridiculous. we could find out if he was singing off-pitch by mixing his vocals with a near-perfect reference (like a synthesizer), recording the experiment (say on a talkshow), and then listening for a beat frequency.

a lot of the disparaging terms itt are the things that I really like about this band. like say Dan Deacon or Andrew W.K. they are one of those groups to which the first question is always "are they serious about this?" and the answer is "yes, and it's awesome"

It's the singer's job to sell the song, and if you didn't buy it, claims of "amateurism" though not precisely correct are not off-base, imo. I appreciate the "I never got into his voice" dismissal because it assumes a certain position of philistinism on the critic's part

That said, this was a vocal grand slam for a network TV appearance

last 2 posts very otm

I don't recall saying he was off pitch. People at karaoke aren't necessarily off pitch. Can I say he sounds like a goofball? Or is that another Pandora's box?

sure.

So weird to think of people getting upset about a loose hammy performance of a corny synth song on letterman with anything less than considered respect

Being treated with anything less, I mean

yeah it really is bizarre that instead of a bunch of "actually this is just amateur Paul Young" thinkpieces people saying "woah that was a great performance"

totally agree, man

people ARE saying