Stuff I Hate #2: Album Edition
June 19th, 2009Here I go with another bitching post. I know these oppinions won’t appeal to many people out there but I kindly ask them not to read it and get upset, just download the songs they are fond of. Many of the records of 2009 are brilliant, there are some good ones, mediocres and there are really bad ones. This post is dedicated to this last category.
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
I hate this album very much. This is like if The Knife played world music. I’ve tried to listen to a couple of their previous 
albums and I didn’t succeed but it never annoyed me this much. Of course, the hype is part of it but there are some traits inherent in the music like the vocals and the super-irritating manner of singing, the various instruments combined in an awfully intellectual way, the whole ‘we are very NYC but deeply sensitive and indie and we don’t wanna be popular we just open up a bit’-attitude that kill me. And it’s not like I’m coming from an Ed Banger direction or something, I listen to music like this but this is just an amazing example how to gather together everything that can suck: R’n'B + Björk anyone? No thanks. Dirty Projectors might create an exciting new whatever but I for one don’t need to be excited this way. Why can’t they play some untraditional lo-fi rock music? Or something that feels real?
Dirty Projectors - Temecula Sunrise [mediafire] // [ysi]
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Oh yeah, Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest is another instance of a band that gained an underground hero status via mediums 
like Pitchfork. I never liked them. However, I tried to listen to the album without prejudice and I didn’t succeed. I had to tell myself I was right from the beginning. I can’t like something that makes you overthink an otherwise simple folk-tradition. Folk, remember, nomen est omen. Now, Grizzly Bear is pop, ok, they have nice acoustic indie stuff, I bet the lyrics are moving and interesting, etc but one just can’t ignore all the mannerism that dominates the sound. It’s utterly powerless and therefore a failure. You can propose that this is art or art pop or whatever but still, something’s missing. Something is lost between the jingles, circus drums, ‘aaahhh-ahhhh’s and the struggle for being ‘proper’. There are much better way to engage in intellectual activities than this record but I’ll definetly mention it if I’m gonna write a 100 page book on the metaphysics and tragedy of folk pop.
Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks [mediafire] // [ysi]
Tiga - Ciao!
Every dance-freaks favourite Canadian gay-guy, Tiga, is back with Ciao! to light up the dancefloor, discoballs of 2k9. Utter 
failure. The album is full of heavy moments, sexyness, fashion-allusions (might be popular on the catwalks this year) and other meaningless glamorous projections. So empty and pointless. Despite that Soulwax polished it up a bit, it still feels outdated which is especially embarassing when it comes to this highlife-fashion-blabla atmosphere. Tiga’s electro is unable to compensate for this. There are no really banging tunes neither nice soft ones in the La Roux or Little Boots way. There are many annoying experimental noise-parts instead which might work on a dancefloor full of people on different kinds of drugs but nearly everything works there, doesn’t it? I’m not saying this album is the worst album ever but it’s definetly worse than Sexor and I’ll never listen to it at home and I seriously doubt that it’ll force any moves out of me in a club. Ps. very-very bad album title and Sex O’Clock? WTF?
Tiga - Luxury [mediafire] // [ysi]
Wavves - Wavvves
Back to the indie-division, Wavves is a relatively new band and one of the ‘hottest’ upcoming bands. On the other hand, the 
music again falls under the irritatingly over-thought label. I love noise, seriously, but this version that this 22-year old ‘genius’ developed makes me wanna jump out on the window. Ironic art and uncomprehensible music-structures, yeah. Great. What should I do with it? Study it for the rest of my life? Or stand in the crowd at a gig, perfectly still while watching how the process of artistic creation happens live? Btw about live, I felt myself totally justified when I read about the events of the Barcelona show. Sure, I know the explanation, he is too young for success, drugs and playing before thousands of people. Who cares? Wavves’ music is very slow-paced, so slow paced that I am…pardon…’so bored’ I could die. The suffering over-effected vocals and distorted guitars don’t add anything to the effect either, this is again an instance of powerless songcraft that tries to hard to be something special.
Wavves - So Bored [mediafire] // [ysi]
And don’t get me started on the new Placebo…
June 21st, 2009 at 5:06 am
megnéztem/hallgattam a shoest, és azt gondoltam róla, hogy: “nem nagyon jó”, hogy “hypolt”, hogy “felejthető”, hogy “nagy” lesz pár “blogkörig”, és utána “megkerűlhető”, azt hittem, hogy tiga, egy “virálisra” “marketingelt” “terméke” ez, hogy “modoros”, “hatásvadász” és “szándékosan/indokolatlanúl” “obskurus”, majd mentem egy tetszőleges “világváros” “utcáján” “éjjszaka” és hallottam “magam” mögött, egy “víszhangos” “kopogást” a “vizes” “aszfalton”. “mi lehet ez a hang” gondoltam magamban, “tetszik ez a hang!”;”szeretem ezt a hangot!”
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
you’re a very angry person…i’m not coming back here. thanks for the mp3s tho…
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Grizzly Bear has produced one of the finest albums of the year!
“I bet the lyrics are moving and interesting, etc but one just can’t ignore all the mannerism that dominates the sound. It’s utterly powerless and therefore a failure”
What exactly do you mean by the term “mannerism”? Yes it has a style but so does everything in the world of music. And in this case…post folk-pop-rock works brilliantly.
placebo are shite tho!
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:22 pm
hey guys thanks for the comments
i’m not too angry btw, healthy angry
don’t take it too seriously anyway, opinions-tastes, etc
by mannerism i mean that the music has this over-stylized artificial sensitivity… that’s how i could put it
June 24th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
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June 25th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Dirty Projectors = total irritation. Thank you.
June 30th, 2009 at 10:53 am
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July 8th, 2009 at 4:04 am
I disagree with your general attitude towards these albums based on the fact that you rarely feature this type of music on your blog. If you actually have some sort of opinion about Grizzly Bear, it would be nice to see it developed. I mean, come on, Hercules & Love Affair are somehow a more popular tag than Grizzly Bear. Not that I am saying Grizzly Bear is gospel, or even Dirty Projectors.
But come on, this quote about Tiga “The album is full of {…} fashion-allusions (might be popular on the catwalks this year) and other meaningless glamorous projections” is ridiculous. As if being popular in the fashion world makes the music bad. Believe me, I do not like everything these bands have put out, but come on, you make such general statements, especially in a blog that is read by copious amounts of people. It would seem that you would take the time to edit your comments towards any album that brings into question whether you actually listened to the album more than once, beyond what pitchfork told you was “good”.
Now, I agree, there are many bands that have not listened to for a while because of their “hype” or their “1-10″ rating, but eventually, I gave them a chance. It is very obvious that these albums received no more than a skip through on your iTunes on some afternoon while you tried to discredit their “blog popularity”.
Meanwhile, the Japandroids lyrics you posted a while back? And now you’re hating on these albums for the lyrical content? (P.S. I like that album too, who knew?)
And yet, if I am generally wrong, and you actually disliked everything on these albums so much that you felt the need to write a “Stuff I hate #2″ post about them, then damn, you are sincerely missing out on a lot of what people are creating/producing these days, and for that I am sorry. Or maybe, I am not “enlightened” enough to realize what real music is.
As to your response to the comments, I realize that you are not actually angry about the music, but your criticisms come down pretty hard. So maybe, next time, take the praise from others, and your own initial response, with a grain of salt. This is all subjective, so don’t take anything I say as any more correct, but also don’t take anything pitchfork (or some blog) says as true either, and then, maybe, you can actually listen to the music.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I really enjoy the song Stillness Is The Move by Dirty Projectors and there are a couple remixes of it i like too. one with major lazers new shit. but yea i agree, there other stuff is kinda bizarre and weird. I am not to into it either but i did appreciate that song and I have been playing it A LOT lately. So i wouldnt say that I hate them, but i would agree with you for the most part. I think when i first heard there other stuff I wanted to like it so much that I made myself believe that I liked it. Now I am rethinking it lol.
July 11th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Awsome post! something outstanding in the always agreeing blogosphere
July 12th, 2009 at 5:23 am
thanks guys for taking the time and writing comments. this post now has the most comments i guess.