2017 Arcade Fire LP

^ that all feels very real to me, but maybe because I was in college and Pitchfork was at its peak taste-making powers and it’s hard to see objectively around those two major forces

*xp to DL

Saw the band Monday night and they were great, as usual. The high-concept BS of the marketing campaign was largely abandoned (short some occasional fake ads or goofy pre-recorded used car salesmen schtick to buy merch), and the in-the-round setup worked pretty well. The band's theatricality remains really effective, and their passion (affected or not) is pretty infectious. Still don't like the new songs, but they definitely sound better when there are less of them to listen to. I do wish the band were smarter, which would make its attempts to act smart more effective (a la Peter Gabriel or someone equally presentation-aware), but they sure know how to put on a cathartic show.

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

this is really not good lol

hoo boy

....

good god this is lame

"inspired by the current climate of the country, with a hopeful message to the youths"

poor youths. this is teh cringe.

embed still is sufficient lol

have never seen a band with a more mid life crisis vibe

should have retired after The Suburbs

this isnt that bad, it sounds like slower andrew wk

also reminds me of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GhPUAVgHZc

this isnt that bad

I mean yeah on the surface it's a decent song musically speaking, but devvvine really nails it with the "midlife crisis rock" label. Win Butler has sounded desperately try hard since Reflektor, and Everything Now was straight cringe and utterly, lyrically tone deaf. I'll admit this is a marginal improvement though but I wish they'd focus inward again.

priors: i dont have any strong emotional attachment to their earlier work, so i have no expectations

i'm just not really sure who this is speaking from the perspective of or who it's speaking to

i know they said it's a message for the youths but it is not speaking their language and it is not clear what the message is

nope, nevermind, I get what you meant about midlife crisis rock, that's it otm