Post a controversial music opinion

Their first two albums are incredible and I have no time for anything else they have done.

That's prob my favorite NP song (not that I'm a huge fan), and I agree that's a rough take, but... y'know, it's TV. Try the album track!

I love their first two albums and haven't really listened to them since. I did hear a song of theirs on the radio the other day that sounded pretty good.

There was a v. good version of "The Laws Have Changed" on Letterman but I can't seem to find it.

slow wonder is great! just put it on while cooking recently

the bejar tunes are kinda my favorite, I guess that's the wrong way to approach nps

The mixing in that clip does them no favors.

I will say that as the records got more complex & layered, as on Twin Cinema, the one they were promoting on Conan, they would eventually bring on more members/players like Kathryn Calder to fill out the sound, and that presented way better.

I think after all this time I've decided I only like letter from an occupant and nothing else.

for the love of a god

Carl was nervous about remembering to sing "replaced" instead of "shitfaced"

ha inspired by this i put on slow wonder and learned that in 20 years all were very well remembered by me, but my brain had refiled them into my new pornos brainbrary.

like miracle drug is clearly NP. always has been always will remain. changing metadata in mp3s now.

mass romantic >>>>>>> twin cinema

that isn’t controversial afaic

but then again i am one of the ones who loves the first two records and has never really given the others as much of a chance

I was really into Twin Cinema when it came out but it hasn't managed to hold up the way the first two albums have. Everything after that is just kind of ok for me, I've listened to all of them at least once I think and they are enjoyable enough, but there was never enough there to keep me coming back.

twin cinema has great songs, but isn't one of the absolute best albums ever made like mass romantic

they have some other good stuff but like a lot of bands i am not often in the mood for them and when I am it's 100% going to be mass romantic I listen to

My controversial Newpies opinion is that Challengers is the best one.

https://imgflip.com/i/8l68u6

I haven't listened to them in a while but my favorite is Electric Version. Twin Cinema isn't bad but I remember it came out around the same time as Destroyer's Rubies and Neko Case's Fox Confessor and I preferred both of those.

man i gotta think of something else controversial and get you guys off this stuff....brb.

the controversies have changed

Electric version is best, but mass romantic is next

state of poptimism reminds me of those tv shows in the 90s presenting the funniest commercials

the actual commercial breaks are godawful

I relistened to Twin Cinema yesterday. It loses a lot of steam after Spanish Techno. That’s when they start experimenting with their sound and doing more obvious gimmickry. I found myself skipping tracks. If they just moved up the last Bejar song to right after Spanish Techno and ended with that it would be a stronger album.

(that's cause it's not even as good Brill Bruisers. it's not even as good as Whiteout Conditions. it's not bad or anything, they have a lot of strengths).

Neko Case >>>>>>>> New Pornographers (ugh that name, why)

I relistened to Twin Cinema yesterday. It loses a lot of steam after Spanish Techno.

Agreed, yet it's their best anyway. Most of their albums lose steam.

brimstead i genuinely like neko case.

no opinion re:np

I love Neko Case, but sometimes I wonder at her need to use as much reverb as she does.

because, much like herself, reverb is fucking awesome. they go hand in hand, those two.

Mass Romantic is their best record, this is objective fact afaic.

modern vampires of the city sounds like old beulah. or the miles kurosky solo album.

(not meant as a dis. ezra even sounds like miles sometimes. just doesn't seem like a very cool reference to make. idk maybe elephant6 stuff has cred with vw fans?)

Neko Case will have a wonderful Best Of, but she has a Morrissey-ish sense of melody (which is to say not a great one, based more on intervals relentlessly seeking the root note than on an actual line) so her albums get monotonous. I prefer her singing covers, or songs that other people have written — such as Andy by Mike O’Neill from Canadian Amp, or the Newps’ stuff. (O’Neill has the opposite problem: he’s a wonderful writer but a reedy singer. I wish they had just formed a partnership long ago. They would have been unstoppable.)

Neko put out a digital Best Of... in 2022! It's idiosyncratic!

https://open.spotify.com/album/0KGcCenSL9QAN9mhonWfx5?si=o9IQzmtmRkiqxXlk-yzJeQ&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A0KGcCenSL9QAN9mhonWfx5

No "Margaret v. Pauline", no credibility

i really have to stop this horrifying discussion. okay i got one:

The Beastie Boys were the Sha Na Na of rap.

i thought of this because i heard some 90s song of theirs the other day and i thought: wait, rappers weren't allowed to sound like 1985 in the 90s! how come the beastie boys got to? and heck into the 21st century even. regular older rappers would have been laughed out of town. they either adapted or perished. but i guess the beastie boys were special. and by the 90s not considered a part of the regular rap game anyway if they ever were. so they became more like indie rock with 1985-style gen x rapping on top and "hip" production. sui generis novelty rap. also, they invented rap metal. but we won't blame them for that. also, they were the sha na na of rap. except not really because they didn't come after the fact like sha na na. okay they were the weird al of rap. because even polka musicians had to progress over time but weird al didn't have to because he was so funny! okay, you're right, funny trumps everything. (and i'm not saying that the beastie boys weren't technically proficient rhymers just saying that they still used those old cliches that marked them as 80s rappers and they never felt the need to do boom bap collabs with onyx in an attempt to look/sound current. yesyesyallandyadon'tstop...they WERE funny. they still make me laugh.)

i suppose if you start out as "goofy white skater kids pretending to be run dmc" you can go anywhere you want from there. i think i'm gonna listen to nothing but 80s gone 90s for the rest of the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ZbxQR4SYA

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

so good...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw_FbHGMM08

Fat Boys did a good Ice Cube in the 90s...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ06EDSa7pk

I've probably mentioned this before, but none of the dyed-in-the-wool rap fans I knew growing up - which would have been the majority of my friends at the time - had any love for the Beasties. They weren't actively hated or anything, they just simply weren't part of the conversation. To the heads trading Funkmaster Flex tapes and watching Rap City, the Beastie Boys may as well have been the Gin Blossoms. I liked them and I still do, but then, I was more into Nirvana and Sonic Youth than Mobb Deep and Biggie, which probably underscores scott's point

yea I don't think Beastie Boys were really part of the hip-hop scene as it were but I wouldn't say they were novelty, at least not past the first album. they did a lot of real interesting things musically and developed their own instantly recognizable style which was imitated in its own way (mostly poorly). they were way more Beck than Weird Al.

Early Beasties were absolutely part of the rap scene, "Boyz N tha Hood" was directly inspired by the Beasties, and NWA used to rap over Beastie Boys music in the early days

Chuck D and PE were huge fans, Ad Rock got LL Cool J signed by giving Rubin his demo tape

another important thing that I think is underrated in terms of BB in the core hip hop market is their falling out with Def Jam and eventual signing with Capitol really cost them a lot of momentum. Hip hop years were like dog years back then, and the difference between dropping their second album in '89 vs it coming out in '87 or '88 was a big deal.

i agree about their early def jam days and turning rick on to LL and all that. they definitely had some 80s cred.

but it is really more about hearing their later stuff occasionally and thinking: oh man i can't believe they were still rapping like that! its funny. i mean into the 2000s! the beats and music could sound cool though for sure. i still wish their was an instrumental version of paul's boutique that i could buy on CD.

yeah I'm only referring to the 90s when I became familiar with them, back in the 80s they were definitely part of a scene which was way more novelty as a whole

Hip hop years were like dog years back then, and the difference between dropping their second album in '89 vs it coming out in '87 or '88 was a big deal.

makes me think of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, they were so ahead of the curve in 1982 but three years later seemed to be a decade behind somehow

the one dude probably did some good for Tibet but I have no use for them

the best beastie boys album is the instrumental one that copied the perry+kingsley album cover.

(mean that genuinely, btw. this groove is rather infectious, there's a song with "bobo" in the title, + oh hey another killer beat.)