Just got back home in Houston after traveling in Japan for a week. I had loaded lots of new music on the Nano, but the only thing i listened to the entire trip was This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You) on repeat. It was perfect for airports and wandering unfamiliar streets. Dozing on the plane and waking up to it. The album just gets better and unfolds itself the more it plays.
I enjoyed FLOTUS a lot, but I agree that this beats it easily.
― Cow_Art, Sunday, 7 April 2019 19:34 (five years ago) link
god i LOVE this album, warm bath otm
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 11 June 2019 09:51 (four years ago) link
still quite possibly my aoty
― ufo, Tuesday, 11 June 2019 09:59 (four years ago) link
a great choice
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 11 June 2019 14:10 (four years ago) link
it is fighting with copeland and cate le bon for me rn and it may win
it's amazing that this thing is so smooth and beautifully-formed yet doesn't achieve that by traditional means at all. the songs are constructed as if they were overlapping waves, arriving from and flowing out into every direction at once
cw: i'm bringing up rym but i find it hilarious that they hate this record bc i think it sounds like... properly "new" music? never heard anything like this before, and it's carried off so successfully, with such a sure hand
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 11 June 2019 14:16 (four years ago) link
the spin review really nailed it https://www.spin.com/2019/03/lambchop-this-is-what-i-wanted-to-tell-you-review/
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 11 June 2019 15:54 (four years ago) link
Sheesh Brad, you weren't kidding. It's a fabulous review. It gets right what all the others seemingly don't understand. It highlights why Wagner's turn to auto-tune isn't just a gimmick but is taking his music to a whole new level:
"Rather than cloaking or recasting the Nashville songwriter’s singing, the vocoder-style effect enhances and highlights its various aspects, like the sun hitting the same objects in a living room at different times of day."
This is a metaphor so beautiful and true I wish I'd written it.
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 11 June 2019 22:11 (four years ago) link
yeah it's really funny how much rym hates it seemingly just for "wtf why does he have autotune on his voice" when its one of the most interesting and best uses of it as an effect i've ever heard, works so wonderfully with the music. helps that the songs are so wonderful too.
― ufo, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 04:18 (four years ago) link
what if you just dgaf about the creative deployment of the effect and just plain hate the sound of autotune? Like the way people hate slap bass and banjos? Because that would describe me and also why I find this album unlistenable (I loved FLOTUS)
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 13:09 (four years ago) link
Then peace be with you, friend
― One Eye Open, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 13:15 (four years ago) link
otm, hating the sound of an instrument or an effect is a very personal reaction that has little to do with whether the music works or not, thankfully there are so many lambchop records that do not use autotune
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:10 (four years ago) link
well FLOTUS had the same effect everywhere too so idk but i love the way it sounds a lot more on this album
― ufo, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:11 (four years ago) link
FLOTUS also uses autotune on most of the songs, doesn't it?
― Tim, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:13 (four years ago) link
yes
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:14 (four years ago) link
and i'd also agree it sounds even better on the new one
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:15 (four years ago) link
LOL, I thought you all *were* talking about FLOTUS and that FLOTUS *was* the new album! I guess I'm too far out of the Lambchop loop, sorry Lambchop.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:15 (four years ago) link
So loving FLOTUS and not being able to tolerate the sound of autotune seem like tough things to reconcile?
― Tim, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:26 (four years ago) link
(NB I haven't heard the new one yet and am very excited to do so because I too loved FLOTUS but I thought the autotune on that was amazing and surprising.)
― Tim, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:27 (four years ago) link
i mean i'm just guessing at paul's position (which i find unreasonably dismissive but i was trying to be nice) but it might help that flotus is a bunch of vocodered scribbles and fragments bound by two enormous songs, whereas this (is what i wanted to tell you) is a collection of songs where the vocoder is conveying clear lyrics and melodies that, by nature of the effect, end up oblique and wandering
again, not sure where the problem is
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:32 (four years ago) link
also that "in care of" is an old school lambchop song that happens to have kurt singing through a vocoder and almost nothing on this qualifies as an old school lambchop song
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:34 (four years ago) link
I liked FLOTUS in spite of the autotune (and tbf when I think of FLOTUS I mostly just think "The Hustle"), but when I heard the new album it occurred to me that FLOTUS was not just an anomaly and that "oh, I see, this is what Kurt does now" and it just grated on me. But I still love this band and will continue rooting for them, I just can't deal with that sound
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:44 (four years ago) link
True that The Hustle kind of towers over FLOTUS. I dig the new record, but I can def relate to the feeling of a band you like taking a left turn on a new album and liking it while simultaneously feeling "if this is their new thing I might be out"
― One Eye Open, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:50 (four years ago) link
yes, that's exactly otm
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 14:58 (four years ago) link
Autotune isn't a vocoder. A vocoder preserves certain aspects of the voice and applies them to a different carrier, so the mechanical carrier (e.g. a synth) sounds more human. Autotune flattens out those uniquely human aspects and makes the human sound mechanical.
― The Pingularity (ledge), Wednesday, 12 June 2019 15:04 (four years ago) link
i mean they're not completely dissimilar and if you like both that's fine, but there's good reason not to conflate the two.
― The Pingularity (ledge), Wednesday, 12 June 2019 15:16 (four years ago) link
yeah i'm aware of that, i read how to wreck a nice beach xp
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 12 June 2019 15:16 (four years ago) link
kurt's use of the technology feels way more vocodery to me than the wide range of possibilities suggested by the word "autotune"
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 12 June 2019 15:20 (four years ago) link
and it's still an instance of something human being exported to something mechanical
Autotune flattens out those uniquely human aspects and makes the human sound mechanical.
feel free to correct me if this definition is scientifically accurate but i wouldn't say autotune flattens uniquely human aspects of the voice at all, it exposes a lot of instabilities in the voice that performance can cover up
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 12 June 2019 15:25 (four years ago) link
but I can def relate to the feeling of a band you like taking a left turn on a new album and liking it while simultaneously feeling "if this is their new thing I might be out"
― One Eye Open, Wednesday, June 12, 2019 10:50 AM (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Sun Kil Moon - Benji
― Evan, Wednesday, 12 June 2019 15:29 (four years ago) link
xp clearly we're in ear of the beholder territory here, i don't hear it like that but I'm not going to try to talk you out of it if you do!
― The Pingularity (ledge), Wednesday, 12 June 2019 15:35 (four years ago) link
Just listened to the album for the first time lol, I am very happy for you people who can appreciate the autotune because that excepted, some of the songs are obviously so good; but I just can't get over it. When the last (non-autotuned) song came on I almost wept.
― The Pingularity (ledge), Thursday, 13 June 2019 09:12 (four years ago) link
just did a double feature of In A Silent Way followed by This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You) and man, do those two records sound good together. Especially with all the ghostly muted trumpet floating in & out of the mix on the Lambchop, a perfect pairing.
― “Hakuna Matata,” a nihilist philosophy (One Eye Open), Monday, 19 August 2019 17:27 (four years ago) link
kind of love this remix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2-6PrVDQKc
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 30 October 2019 15:18 (four years ago) link
So they released a 13-minute cover of Wilco's Reservations. First listen and it's kinda just there but will try a couple more times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grKBBCdlOCc
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Sunday, 20 September 2020 19:56 (three years ago) link
wasn't sure of the new covers LP... but god i've not listened to This (Is What I Wanted to Tell You) enough in the last year. I think I overplayed it in 2019 so needed a break. it's so great.
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 21:16 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzNWfgRFjhY
new album Showtunes out May 21
the concept this time is he composed demo piano tracks with a midi editor instead of writing with a guitar, and it also features James McNew of Yo La Tengo as a band member (https://www.lambchop.net/ press release is here)
"chef's kiss" is pretty nice, a similar-ish feeling to the last album but he's shifted around which bits of the sound feel more and less organic. some people will be delighted he dropped the vocal processing but personally i could have listened to a whole career of albums with it
― ufo, Tuesday, 16 March 2021 13:04 (three years ago) link
This (is what I wanted to tell you) was so good that it will be difficult to beat though
― ufo, Tuesday, 16 March 2021 13:06 (three years ago) link
really lovely and interesting
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 16 March 2021 13:28 (three years ago) link
That's hit home. His voice is beautiful at this pitch. Not wishing age on him but I think Wagner's voice will be extraordinary in later life.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Tuesday, 16 March 2021 19:44 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP8SGpb0PTc
fuck yeah!!!!!
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 12 April 2021 15:50 (three years ago) link
sounds like the lambchop discography collapsing on itself
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 12 April 2021 15:51 (three years ago) link
my goodness
those horns!
― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Monday, 12 April 2021 15:55 (three years ago) link
oh wow
― ufo, Monday, 12 April 2021 16:13 (three years ago) link
lol & otm. yeah their progression is very much like "i've been burning and re-ripping CDR copies of the same lambchop album for 20 years, and i think the drive is starting to fail." in the best way.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, 12 April 2021 16:50 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQIFEjqnqCQ
another gorgeous new one
― ufo, Tuesday, 18 May 2021 21:06 (two years ago) link
pretty good album, though not quite as perfectly to my tastes as the last one
― ufo, Friday, 21 May 2021 01:09 (two years ago) link
did no one else care about this album at all?
https://toneglow.substack.com/p/tune-glue-011-kurt-wagner-lambchop
great interview with wagner here
― ufo, Saturday, 5 June 2021 07:30 (two years ago) link
Not sure it's as good as the last, and feels like it will take some time to settle in - but i've really enjoyed first few listens
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Saturday, 5 June 2021 19:19 (two years ago) link
That’s a terrific interview.
― Dan Worsley, Sunday, 6 June 2021 06:47 (two years ago) link