Like many of the match-ups in the MDM, it becomes hard to judge different styles. Comparing these two albums is like comparing apples to Radiohead (I, or someone else, may have used that joke in the last tournament, but if so I forgot, and besides, there are newbies here). In Rainbows isn’t a groundbreaking Radiohead album, but that is probably why I like it. Finally the jag-offs just sit and make some good music without everything being a nudge, nudge wink, wink see-what-I-did-there you weren’t expecting that were you moment. It’s just a really fantastic rock record. I still don't like Thom Yorke, but this is the least grating I've ever found his voice to be.
Explosions in the Sky are great. They seem fairly derivative of Mogwai, but I love Mogwai. (Side note – I’m going to see Mogwai in Chicago on April 30th if anyone wants to join me). I’m going to call this type of music ‘epic noise’ and EITS do epic noise very well. And, as previously stated, I love Friday Night Lights. And yet, I have trouble advancing this album. You know it will be loud. Then you know it will be quiet. And then at some point it will get loud again suddenly. The biggest question is whether the drums and guitar will come in together, or a few bars apart, and how staccato they will be. Mogwai, on the other hand, may have thrown a sample of an answering machine or some such shit in there, just to keep it real.
So I’m giving the nod to In Rainbows. My apologies to Karl.
FYI - if you type 'rainbows' into Google, the first predictive text is not 'rainbows' but 'rainbows and unicorns'
ReplyDeleteThis will sound lame, but Explosions in the Sky is all about feeling and thinking about it too much ruins it. Maybe that makes it not-so-great music, but I'm sad to see it go. Not that it would have gone much further...
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of Mogwai, but I'm a huge fan of their new album title: "Hardcore will never die, but you will". Now in my top 10 album titles
ReplyDeleteMostly echoing Bruce: I kinda agree with your assessment of EitS, but I still love it. I've made the "good as background music" argument before. Maybe this time I'll just say: The best movies have three acts and two major plot points. Very predictable structure.
ReplyDeleteHere's a quiz:
ReplyDeleteHum one melody from an Explosions song.
Can you do it? If so, I'm impressed. The only one I can do is the theme song of FNL, which incidentally was written by the same guy who wrote the music for the West Wing.
Here's my point: those guys know how to work with dynamics, texture, etc. I'm just not sure they can write an actual song. But maybe that's not important.
WHY are you so HUNG UP on MELODY
ReplyDeleteI'm listening to Kathleen Edwards right now, so I can't call it up in my mind, but I'm pretty sure "First Breath After a Coma" (From EITS's "The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place") is one of the most common songs for me to have in my head. The weird thing is that, no, I don't think I typically have the melody in my head. I have the whole thing and when I try to vocalize it it's frustrating because I can't sing a whole band at a time.
ReplyDelete