“Steamboat Willie”-style insects running a freakish post-apocalyptic assembly line. There is no other way to say it: this is one of the creepiest videos we’ve ever seen. Cool, but creepy.
The song, though, is one of our favorites from Editors’ most recent album, In This Light and On This Evening. Kind of like a modern-day “Being Boiled”…with eyeball-removing insects. Yikes.
Embedding is disabled for us American Anglophiles, so to see the video, you’ll have to click here. Trust us, it’s worth a look. Bonus points if you go back for seconds.
In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I do not for one second understand the critical and music geek slurpfest that LCD Soundsystem has basked in since its inception. And the thing is, I should understand it. They like the same bands I like. They play the kind of music I like to listen to. But I do not like LCD Soundsystem. From where I’m standing, they are quite possibly the most overrated band alive today. Indeed, this is how I ended my review of their last album, Sound of Silver:
“The band never rises above their influences, and James Murphy can’t sing. In the end, though, none of that matters. All that matters is that LCD Soundsystem is cool, and if you like them, then you’re cool, too.”
So…are you cool?
Fortunately, I gave up on being cool a few years ago, and let me tell you, that was a wonderful thing. Trying to stay hip is hard – there is a very popular blogger whose name I could cite as an example of someone bending over backwards to maintain their hipster cred, but I won’t; she’ll find out the hard way soon enough – and here’s the thing that aging, former hipsters don’t tell you: you’d be amazed to discover how much better music sounds when you stop acting so pious and elitist about it. Does that mean I’ve lowered my standards? Not at all. It simply means that I couldn’t care less what anyone thinks of my musical tastes anymore. And that includes anyone tempted to use the comment section below to tell me how stupid I am, so don’t waste your time.
Now, back to LCD Soundsystem, the cool band of the moment. This is the second one-take video I’ve seen this week (Slow Club’s is the other), showing that the OK Go ripple effect is in full swing. The clip begins amusingly enough, with the aforementioned singer who can’t sing standing in front of a test pattern screen, trying to sing while guys in animal costumes (dogs? Panda bears?) pester Murphy, Al Doyle (at least I think it’s Doyle) and Nancy Whang as they try to sing along to the track. Pretty soon, the inappropriate touching gives way to truly obnoxious behavior. Nancy gets egged, but not before getting a bullhorn blasted in her ear. Doyle gets hit with fire extinguishers, stripped and has trash dumped on him. Murphy and Whang are duct taped together and written on with markers. The subtext is not hard to read: LCD Soundsystem are the drunk girls, and the guys in suits are frat boy douchebags. The video ends with everyone partying and completely defacing the set.
The clip will definitely get people talking, and while I get and appreciate the point it’s trying to make, it’s still pretty ugly. Besides, the video’s moral, as it were, will be lost on the majority of its audience anyway. Doyle is even seen drinking with the animals at the end, which sends all sorts of mixed messages. Do the drunk girls deserve what they get? Hmmmm.
Ah, but no one’s going to talk about the video’s message. All anyone cares about is that this band that is perceived as cool made a “controversial” video that got the blogosphere buzzing. Their fans will line up to tell them how wonderful they are, and the press will say that it’s the best record since their last record. And in the end, I’m aware that I’m contributing to this phenomenon, even though this piece is in dissent.
But for God’s sake, man, someone had to step up and say it – LCD Soundsystem are just not that good. They probably could be, if they tried a little harder. But this, this is just piss take music, all arch, pretend irony and posturing without an ounce of genuine emotion. If some band with a lower hipster rating released this song, everyone would say it was shit. And the song isn’t shit, per se, but it’s not awesome, or even good. It’s just music by a band lucky enough to be popular with the cool kids. Imagine how popular they’d be if they actually put some effort into it.
RIYL: Lily Allen, The Pigeon Detectives, Regina Spektor
It’s got to be annoying to win a Brit Award for your debut album, only to draw a hundred unfavorable comparisons to Lily Allen in the process. Of course, among the current batch of pop chanteuses, Allen’s no slouch, but just because Kate Nash is young and boasts an adorable British accent, that doesn’t mean she deserves to be lumped in with her – or anyone else.
Now three years removed from her debut – and the ripe old age of 22 – Nash has re-emerged with My Best Friend Is You, which bends over backwards, and every other which way, to build a case for Nash as a sharply eclectic songwriter who’s equally at home channeling the Shirelles and Rosie Thomas. In other words, the album is a mess, and although it seems safe to assume Nash planned it that way, that doesn’t make Best Friend any more of an engaging listen.
It’s got its moments, to be sure – the album kicks off with the sparkling one-two punch of “Paris” and “Kiss That Grrrl,” both of which emphasize Nash’s way with jaunty pop hooks and sunny melodies; the latter, in fact, is one of the best things she’s done, thanks in part to Bernard Butler’s Phil Spector production. “Don’t You Want to Share the Guilt?” unspools a breezy blend of chimes, acoustic guitars, and a plaintive electric lead, framing a portrait of a relationship in decline with Nash’s trademark bittersweet lyrics.
Toward the end of “Guilt,” though, Nash launches into a babbling stream of spoken-word nonsense, and you can sense the screws coming loose at the joints, and things fall apart completely with “I Just Love You More,” which sounds like the Breeders getting high with the Cure and forgetting to turn off the recorder. Blink and the album does a sharp U-turn back into catchy pop territory for the first single, “Do-Wah-Doo,” and then there’s “Take Me to a Higher Place,” which kicks off with a Dexys flourish, and then…well, you get the idea. Nash is as brave and restless as any young artist, bristling with ideas and eager to share them all. Her willingness to go out on a cracked limb with her sophomore release is commendable, but listening to stuff like the borderline atonal “I’ve Got a Secret,” or the inane “I Hate Seagulls,” it’s hard not to wish Nash’s label still had a strong A&R person or two – someone who could have kept Best Friend‘s weaker bits in the vaults, where they belong. During “Mansion Song,” Nash spits out, “I want to be fucked and then rolled over.” Once Best Friend meets its fate in the marketplace, she might get her wish in more ways than she intended. (Geffen 2010)
If there’s a more consistent hard rock band out there than Sevendust, I sure haven’t found them. These guys, even after losing a founding member in Clint Lowery (who makes his studio return here), for five years, continue to produce stellar material, and Cold Day Memory should please their ever-growing fan base. Though not quite as solid as 2001’s Animosity (their masterpiece, in my opinion) or the much-angrier Home, this release deserves to be in the upper echelon of the Sevendust catalog.
Faithful fans know these cats always start an album off with a bang, and “Splinter” is no exception. Clint Lowery, returning after five years off to work with Dark New Day and Korn, makes his presence immediately felt with superb background vocals and his signature guitar riffs. “Forever,” the first song from the album officially released online, is a beast unto itself. Lowery, along with guitarist John Connolly, bassist Vinnie Hornsby, and drummer Morgan Rose, are as tight rhythmically as I’ve ever heard them. It’s as if Lowery never left. The signature melodic choruses really kick into gear on songs such as “Unraveling” (the first single), “Last Breath,” “Confessions,” and “Here and Now.”
The true separator for Sevendust over the years has been singer Lajon Witherspoon. He’s had the most soulful and diverse voice in the genre since the band burst onto the scene in the late ’90s, and he hasn’t lost a step on Cold Day Memory. He’s what makes the band’s sudden changes between brutal and beautiful possible – and successful.
Fans as well as the uninitiated will find little to complain about with this release. A part of me was really hoping for something a little more experimental – what they did with “Burn” on Alpha was truly transcendent for them, and I’d love to see them build upon it at some point – but nevertheless we still have another dozen solid Sevendust songs. That alone is superior to a lot of the other stuff out there. (7Bros. Records/ILG)
The song is called “There Goes My Love” by The Blue Van, a Danish blues-rock van. The commercial has been all over the airwaves lately, but if you’ve been living under a rock (or are just really good with the 30-second skip button on your DVR remote), take a listen:
The song is from the band’s third album, Man Up. I reviewed their first two efforts, The Art of Rolling and Dear Independence and enjoyed them both. Here are a few highlights from their first two releases:
