I think that good people are like good albums; not everyone is going to like you just cause you're good. That being said, I like these good albums. Never heard them before and this is why I love Music Death Match. This was a really fun match. Both albums were strong, light on guitars, youthful, inspired, not for all occasions (but what is?) and they both have pleasing album covers that have great bodies folded up on them - front and center. But what did I really think of them?
Hercules and Love Affair. Sounds so tough. I mean, come on... Hercules! and Love Affairs? Don't even get me started. Don't EVEN get me started. There really is some fresh ideas on this album. It's all about the crotch. Make it move. Make that drink taste a little saucier. Make that sweat pour a little saltier. Make that super drunk babe over in the corner look a little more drunky. And it works. I mean, I was playing spider solitaire whilst listening and all of a sudden, the Queens are all winking at me. "Watch you looking at?" I says. Wink Wink, they say. You get the idea. We. Got. It. On. To. Hercules! So what did it for me? The bass lines and the beat. Simple. The vocals were okay most of the time. Super other times. The horns reminded me too much of Groove Armada and the datedness (word?) of them. But the bass lines were super pooper funky disco, picked with the largest pick in the world. It was like the bass player said to the recording engineer, "I don't care if you can hear the notes! Can you hear the pick?!"
All jerking off aside, some of this album got on my nerves. Not the best album to listen to whilst playing spider solitaire (which I plan to do whilst listening to all these match ups) but I imagined myself on a dancefloor with a powdered nostril and a wad in my back pocket. It worked, although, in the end, I went home alone and masterbated... thrice!
Now, let's get to the rad cool stiffy: M83, Saturdays = Youth. What a trippy fun album. it was such a good listen. (especially whilst spider solitairing) Not a perfect album, but a perfectly flawless one, except for the terrible lyrics. I thought, if there's one thing you can rely on with electronic music, it's the clever lyrics. But, no. Not here. Halfway through I had to restart the album cause I had gone in expecting superb lyrics, so I had decided to ignore everything else. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
All being a jerk aside, some of this album was heaven. It's not a party album. It's more of a birthday party album. I had a birthday party once. It could have used this album. I didn't think that there were any new ideas or sounds, but there didn't need to be. It was just... cool. Like a trip to the cabin with some buds and buds. Like the sunday morning after a friday night party. Like a phone call from your oma, where she says, "I want to tell you about the first time I went skating." I didn't know I wanted that phone call, but I got it, and it was... cool.
I like M83's album cover better, but Hercules wins, cause they (he?) came to party.
I've got to say, I'm very disappointed with this pick, but I don't hold it against the picker since this was a tough match-up for round one. I'm mainly disappointed because I wanted to see M83 go on and read other people's comments about it.
ReplyDeleteSince that's not going to happen, I want to just say a few earnest things about M83, Saturdays = Youth before we consign it to the dust-bin.
1. This is a John-Hughes concept album in which there are no references to John Hughes' films or actual music from his movies. That's kind of amazing, I think, even if you just chalk it up to an experiment in affectation.
2. Saturdays=Youth is the title. Here too, this is a whole album devoted to making you feel like it's Saturday. Not Friday. Saturday. And it absolutely nails it.
3. I think the lyrics are supposed to be cheesy, though I'm not entirely sure.
4. I would grant that, musically, this is kind of an indulgent, melodic version of electronic stuff that makes it the equivalent of, say, Explosions in the Sky. But I think given reasons #1-2 above, the indulgent melodic stuff has content, not just wankage. More importantly - and here's where I'm earnestly making an argument - its moments of transcendence are only interesting insofar as they perpetually call attention to the album's nature as pastiche. I.e., this is an album solely designed to make late 20's and 30-somethings feel good about themselves and their particular version of history, and to have an-ironic relationship to their nostalgia.
And I feel like that would be an example of an answer to dickhead-Jeff's question about what makes something prototypically post-2005: We're getting shit like this!
I must admit that no album/artist has nailed the 80s in such a cool way as M83 did. I really did love it. Today I felt like I might have made the wrong choice, but then I'd remember something really cool about Hercules.
ReplyDeleteTo me, it was like comparing a girl you're really into and want to respect and get serious about (M83) to a girl you wanted to disrespect and get silly with (Hercules), and on a night like last night, I felt like getting dirty I guess.
Of course I'm going to feel different this morning!
It being a Saturday, I listened to M83 this morning. It really is a great record--so different from their early shogazery stuff, but still awesome.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Saturdays=youth rules and we all agree and Dwight is super wrong! (that's Dwight right?)
ReplyDelete