It's really not OK

[koganbot]

I made this post in this lj conversation, which was, among other things, about this jukebox conversation. But I think I add some interesting thoughts about what's going on in country itself, its own uneasy relationship with its musical vocabulary:

There was a lot of projection amongst Bradley and friends, obv., buying into their own pretense of self-righteousness, but for what it's worth, I don't think Lily completely pulls the music together. The tune is strong [by which I mean warmly beautiful, which the off-hand delivery downplays], the singing is strong [by which I mean authoritative, even while being off-hand, so the beauty sticks], it's a definite TICK, but the rhythm never settles into a groove and the steel guitar feels like an added touch, not integral to the music. Of course, that latter point (steel guitar, banjo, etc. not feeling integral to the music) is something I could say about a lot of actual country from the '00s, "country" signifiers thrown in to pledge allegiance to styles that the rest of the particular song is busily superseding. (And at this point I could go ten years without hearing another Johnny Cash shoutout or tribute, but now I'm running off-topic.)

And "music not settling into a groove" - to steal John Piccarella's phrase, it's a sort of "forced rhythm" - can sometimes be a virtue; I haven't decided yet if it suits "Not Fair." In country, throwing countryisms in as touches is occasionally liberating - as on the first Big & Rich album, where one point of all those touches is that they're somewhat arbitrary, that they're choices, not requirements, and so Big & Rich are signaling that they can and possibly will choose to do anything. But on many country records the touches aren't choices* so much as signifiers that are trying to run cover for the other musical choices that a song is making. The touches can be distracting, innocuous, poignant, pretty, etc., which varies from song to song, obviously.

*Well, the performers/producers are certainly choosing to use the signifiers, in that they could decide not to, but this doesn't feel like a happy choice.

Comments

[koganbot]

I don't know. Won't do it today at any rate, since I have other things I need to put my mind to, and one has to choose one's battles. Would probably delete the clause about "buying into their pretense of self-righteousness," since putting those guys on the defensive isn't going to help them to hear what I'm saying.

Of course, you have my permission to link this post there - and every right to link it whether you have my "permission" or not, and girlboymusic's as well, and I quite like what petronia wrote in my previous thread too, though these may also put some fellows on the defensive.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Weirdly, given how much Lily actively irked me in 2006 or whenever she emerged, I find myself oddly dispassionate about her now. I'm pretty much fine with her existence and what she does, I even like 'The Fear' quite a bit - I still think she basically sucks and her album is a bore, but she doesn't actively annoy me.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

You've survived your break up, then! See, we've all matured.