Dirty Projectors

No one piled on the bad writing btw it was in response to ppl calling it great writing

people just said they liked or appreciated the piece, they weren't nominating it for a pulitzer

(I also think there is often an unspoken undercurrent of media politics behind a lot of what gets called good vs. bad writing, both in the personal and institutional senses, but that is an elephant that can just stay there in the room)

I appreciated the piece as well, even though I thought it had a fundamental flaw. For me it showed how the album mostly works as a resonant piece about being a shithead during breakups. And I appreciate everything katherine has written as well, along with most of what fgti has. katherine's writing has really underscored how lucky I am that the resonance for me with this album mostly has to do with dark nights in my own head (and that's what the screwed voice in Keep Your Name sounds like for me, btw, like a voice inside his head) and one or two text messages I immediately regretted and had to apologize for, and not stuff done to me. + it made it really clear that that doesn't have to do with luck at all but privilege.

There was another great point in your singles jukebox writeup, katherine, which is that it's not just misogynistic and problematic, but also really fucking boring to hear him wallow in despair and self-pity and male agression. But that's also why I think it's wrong to claim Robin Thicke is the only comparison, or that he should learn something from Geordie Fruit. This shit is commonplace to all indie, and to hone in and pile up on Longstreth misses how much like fifty other acclaimed indie albums this thing is.

And that include earlier Dirty Projectors albums, btw. It was kinda always weird that their relationship was chronicled by Dave on their albums, and that she never got to speak on her own. The problem was there from Bitte Orca onward.

Bump.

So I have been listening to this a lot, which has surprised me, because I've found Longstreth pretty much intolerable since the press release for Rise Above, which was just horrific.

Everyone got that Keep Your Name is roleplaying right? He's the one who kept the name and who searched for fame. Also, noting that he wrote a hit for her is like a bare minimum of contempt a breakup album is supposed to include.

Not everyone got that, and while I have thought about if that's the point, if so, it's kinda badly delivered.

It was my assumption from the off that the bits with the pitch-shifted voice in KYN are being delivered to Longstreth, not by him.

pitch-shifting is used so often now that I don't see it as representative of anything but a lack of imagination

That's... not normally how things work... There's also guitars on one track. Real lack of imagination.

Normally if one use of an effect becomes codified, it becomes easier to see it as meaning that. And honestly the pitch-shifting in Keep Your Name sounds like the pitch-shifting in Blame Game and countless drug songs: A loss of personality, the subconscious speaking. Listening to the 'What you want is FAAAAME' it doesn't work as something being said to him. Not to my ears. It escalates in the way a discussion doesn't, it sounds much more like someone sitting alone and getting angry.

the difference is that guitars are a basic instrument that has been used for centuries and in rock for decades, and that this particular form of pitch shifting is a fleeting trend that has become ubiquitous in the past years

cf. the fleeting technological trends of the synthesizer, the sampler and the drum machine

pitch shifting = using the computer as a basic instrument

no shit, but this is a specific *kind* of pitch-shifting that is an overdone, often thoughtless effect. it's like paint vs. avocado-colored paint

idk, I really like the pitch-shifting on KYN (especially the pitched-down parts), it doesn't feel thoughtless to me. Bon Iver-esque auto-tune/vocoder harmonies feel more played out.

I will say the album is produced really well - love when the vox go double-tracked on Keep Your Name. The blown out horns on Up in Hudson are sweet, too.

Boy the entire aesthetic of Future, who has two number one albums this year, sure is an "overdone, often thoughtless effect"

key word is "often"

this is sweet, song exploder on my favorite song from the record, real geek shit http://pitchfork.com/news/72377-dirty-projectors-dissects-up-in-hudson-on-song-exploder-kanye-bowie-and-more-listen/?mbid=homepage-more-latest-and-video

yeah it was super interesting to see how he put it together and how much input tyondai braxton had.

guess i'm glad he thinks the guitar coda goes on way too long, too

that's the best part though

I checked for Mauro Refosco after listening to this and I see that he's now making $$$$ slumming it as the Red Hot Chili Peppers' touring percussionist. Cool to know that's him on the Atoms for Peace record though, I had assumed that was all Joey Waronker.

Performing 'Cool Your Heart' on Fallon last night with D∆WN, Tyondai Braxton and The Roots.

Looks like the drummer who took over from Brian McOmber after Swing Lo Magellan (I think it's Michael Johnson) is playing with him also.

https://youtu.be/MZ8U7uDXSOg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYq5Ch-FFcs

is it just me or does the guitar line very strongly evoke "Blue Pedro"

Lol, it's already getting slammed in Pitchfork. I absolutely love it on first listen, but it does sound a bit like a song I'll tire of quite quickly.

Is this still a solo project? I was pretty done after he fired the rest of the band.

Hasn't it been a solo project always, like before he even had that band?

Maybe so, I liked the band more than I like him

yeah it started as a solo project, so imo fair for him to use the name now even when it's just himself. but this one has a band

I saw them play last summer and the band was Nat Baldwin on bass, Mike Johnson drumming (who took over when Brian McOmber left after recording Swing Lo Magellan), Olga Bell doing loads of stuff and singing, Mauro Refosco on percussion, Ty Braxton on modular synth and laptop and a brass section.

Judging by the new press photos, Nat Baldwin and Mike Johnson are still playing in the group, and not sure who the other members are.

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5ae9c394eaa03d5ad95c5c23/2:1/w_790/Dirty-Projectors.jpg

Absolutely knew Pitchfork would skewered it because they missed their opportunity to do it on the last album, which was retrospectively deemed problematic, plus Longstreth had that godawful Instagram post about 2009 and this album has a Robin Pecknold duet on it.

*skewer

I remember it being deemed problematic before it came out, which is fair, because it is. it has its moments musically but it's really pathetic lyrically

Agreed it was certainly flagged by some before (myself included – I still skip Keep Your Name each time) but not Pitchfork, which is amongst the reasons they're going to go for a pile-on on this one.

Dirty Projectors announce the new album Lamp Lit Prose out July 13 on Domino. Produced by Dave Longstreth at his studio Ivo Shandor in Los Angeles, the new album features guest appearances from SYD, EMPRESS OF, AMBER MARK, HAIM, ROSTAM, ROBIN PECKNOLD, and DEAR NORA, as well as longtime DPs’ rhythm section Nat Baldwin and Mike Johnson.

That's in the mail out... I can't put any of those names with the faces in the pics

https://www.jambase.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/dirty-projectors-2018-crop-1480x832.jpg

rest of the band is "Felicia Douglass (percussion/vocals), Maia Friedman (guitar/vocals), and Kristin Slipp (keyboards, vocals)"

he's trying so hard to be breezy and accessible but it rings false to me

Sounds great to me, on board for this

Is Keep Your Name really all that "problematic"? Are bitter breakup songs toxic masculinity now?

I guess all the potential takes on it were already kinda hashed out upthread. But IDK, I kinda feel like the otherwise positive social justice bent of our age has led to some really superficial listening.

'up in hudson' too. i just found it boring more than anything else, and it really weighed down and distracted from the (often very good, even great) music. especially 'up in hudson'

Nah man alive people are just bitter - good shit

Problematic in the sense that he sounded like a dick when he sang "What I want from art is truth, what you want is fame" really, even though I'd say it makes much more sense in that song that that is being said to the song's narrator rather than by him.

I also just didn't like how that song sounded with everything slowed down. I still generally enjoy that album. Lots of great stuff on it.

Lamonti otm he didn’t need to throw amber under a bus

He should just retiitle the project it won’t dirty projectors without amber

Okay, at this point I'm kinda impressed. Is it just me or does half the instruments sound like they're being played backwards? Strings, harmonica, and that weird robotic guitar sound. And yet it all fits rhythmically, in a way that is just lightyears beyond anything else happening in indie-rock. Not that it says that much, but still.

Problematic in the sense that he sounded like a dick when he sang "What I want from art is truth, what you want is fame" really, even though I'd say it makes much more sense in that song that that is being said to the song's narrator rather than by him.

I also just didn't like how that song sounded with everything slowed down. I still generally enjoy that album. Lots of great stuff on it.

― in twelve parts (lamonti), Friday, 4 May 2018 06:04 (seven hours ago) Permalink

Right this is what I'm talking about, I mean it's very much at least open to that reading. Also, I think it's ok to have songs in which the narrator sounds like a dick. It's also an example of why I dislike the word "problematic"--it becomes this way of blurring the space in between just being a bit of a jerk and being racist, misogynistic etc., an inconclusive innuendo that make something "not ok" without quite having to justify why.

He should just retiitle the project it won’t dirty projectors without amber

― done and dusted (Ross), Friday, May 4, 2018 1:08 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It was Dirty Projectors before Amber.