music in the year of the rat
I was going to write a post complaining about 2008's crop of music, but after reviewing a few more year end lists in addition to the first two that prompted my ire (Rolling Stone, NPR) it's clear that I was just listening to the wrong things.
It's not entirely my fault — people were getting excited about some pretty boring stuff. I wasted a lot of time on new acts that focused on nostalgic sounds, folksiness or acoustic arrangements. That's fine — the world needs a way to fill its Starbucks compilation CDs, after all. But I'm only interested in that stuff in small doses, and this year offered a surplus that was so vast as to be off-putting: Bon Iver, The Dodos, She & Him, The Ting Tings, Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes were inescapable. It would be naive to pretend that bands can or should avoid being informed by the past, but many of these acts wore their influences (e.g. Paul Simon, the guy who invented reverb) on their sleeves a bit too prominently for my taste. And the rest were just flat-out wussy. I prefer music that makes me feel young, especially now that I'm not anymore.
Other, more established acts released albums that were pretty okay, but less than mindblowing. The Hold Steady treaded water entertainingly; Mates of State inched forward rather than blasting upward; Wolf Parade finally reemerged but failed to match their debut; and Kanye made a great album that no one would be calling great if it were by, say, Imogen Heap. Also the Killers, Death Cab and Coldplay all released albums that I'm told are pretty good, but which I'm content to ignore until their component tracks show up in Rock Band.
There were two albums that both made it to my iPod and seemed to actually possess some vitality: the ones from Girl Talk and Lil Wayne. Not coincidentally, both underscored how doomed the old recording industry system is. On the one hand you've got Gregg Gillis, whose work is fresh, engaging, and commercially unreleasable thanks to our intellectual property regime. On the other you've got an album that frankly seems just okay*, but which was seized upon in order to anoint a deserving new talent who'd done his reputation-making work on mixtapes and other artists' releases — although admittedly a huge commercial success, Tha Carter III was a rallying point as much as it was a collection of songs.
Anyway, I've now got a formidable list of 2008 albums to acquire: Titus Andronicus, Frightened Rabbit, TV On The Radio, Deerhunter, the Walkmen (sorry Amanda) and Gaslight Anthem (sorry Spencer). That's a lot of music to get through before the new year, but I'm optimistic that the exercise will leave me feeling cheerier about 2008 and the musical downturn that'll inevitably be brought on by the coming Democratic administration (less suffering means worse art, or so the theory goes).
* I won't pretend that I know much about hip hop, but I find it hard to believe that anyone can make it all the way through "A Milli" when wearing headphones. On the other hand, the parts of "Lollipop" that aren't stupid are genius.
Comments
I listen to 'A Milli' on my iPod like at least once a day. And I have for months. Plus the freestyles, particularly Jadakiss'. It's a go-to if ever I'm unmotivated to walk the dog especially.
Well, fair enough. Like I said, I'm an interloper when it comes to rap. I just can't take that perpetually-looped sample, though.
A Milli's sample is painfully annoying. Have you seen the video though? He made it in between shots while filming another video.
I opined on many of these selections in my new blog (my google reader shared items feed)--all three readers found it quite fascinating.
What's the URL for your shared items feed? I don't use Google Reader.
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/03844435849782475135
Aha! Well, having read your reactions, it sounds like we mostly agree, although I think Coldplay's Rush of Blood to the Head is really a pretty solid album, and that Vampire Weekend is utterly deserving of the backlash. There is no sane world in which those guys should have hit bigger than Los Campesinos (who admittedly haven't lived up to the promise of their debut single at all).
I just don't think that Vampire Weekend is a big enough thing to warrant the reaction--they are a slight, minor new band with an enjoyable album. All the hype on either side is out of perspective, I think.
I don't know Los Campesinos, but suffice it to say that every year there are artists more deserving of the spotlight than most of the ones that get it. Although I only ever hear the ones who get in the spotlight, because I no longer have a sweet govt job that allows me to spend all day trying to discover new music. Alas.
VW are a bigger deal than you may realize. They sold out back-to-back nights at 9:30, you know.
Tom: I thought you should know that you've officially slept on the same couch as at least one member of Titus Andronicus. (Admittedly, not at the same time.)
Aw, man. Now I'm not going to be able to steal his MP3s!
Still: what I've heard is good. I'm excited to have shared the same furniture.
It's posts like these what remind me how out of touch I am with what the kids listen to these days.
Tommy it is good to hear that you like The Gaslight Anthem... do you remember I tried to get you to see them in DC almost a year ago!
They are really good friends of mine, and I am glad to see they are having so much success.
I am currently running a contest for them through my Non-profit organization Volunteering Rocks! check out the write up they did about it on their myspace page
http://www.myspace.com/thegaslightanthem
I will say this--"Lost!" on Viva La Vida is a pretty great song, despite its cheesy lyrics and boring chorus.
Hey Scott! Yeah, I do remember that night. I should've gone. It's funny to be reminded that you're friends with the band -- so's my other friend Spencer. Small world, etc.
Back in July when they came through Wurzburg Brian took a break inbetween songs and said "Were going to do something special tonight... we have a good friend in the audience tonight, Scott, come on up, you're singing a song!" I got to sing 1930 (my favorite TGA song), it really was an amazing experience.
Can pass the word on to Spencer to check out the TGA forum, there are lots of videos and live recordings there.