Catching up on my letter writing

[koganbot]

Dear male dudes in the Black Eyed Peas,

There is only one person in your group who can sing, and you are not she.

Sincerely,

A Fan


Dear male singer dude in the xx,

There may not be anyone in your group who can sing, but if there were, it would most assuredly never be you.

Sincerely,

Frank

Comments

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, there is not anyone in the xx who can sing. One of them just not-sings a lot worse than the other one. (Am really sad that their album is in the running for your top ten, too. I probably heard a couple hundred albums this year that sounded more interesting to me, the vast majority of which weren't worth keeping.)

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Or okay, maybe "interesting" isn't the right word. I can maybe see somebody arguing that the xx record is more interesting to, uh, ponder and think about than say Rodney Atkins's or Jason Aldean's 2009 albums, at least in the "what the fuck is in this music that would make anyone subject themselves to such tedium" sense. The xx are possibly doing something "new." (Possibly -- more likely, I've just ignored their precdents because they were just as boring to sit through.) But Atkins and Aldean, as mediocre as they are, still made better albums -- livelier, more songful, more fun to actually listen to. (Then again, I never cared about Aaliyah or Young Marble Giants, so what do I know?)

Btw, Frank, you should check out the album Flyleaf put out this year. I kinda liked it, and you liked their debut more than I did. (Anything to keep the xx out of your top ten!)

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

Aaliyah didn't suck, though.

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

Whereas The xx do, so it's a different situation, is what I'm saying.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

*headsmack* Had no idea this existed!

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Woops, forgot to quote the Flyleaf part.

[koganbot]

I had no idea the Flyleaf existed either.

(I own the Aldean but have yet to listen to it.)(By the way, has anyone else here listened to the BEP album?)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I had a similar experience with the BEP album -- the FUN on it seems to be underlined three times to make sure you know that's what it's there for -- not quite "turning fun into a genre," but the flatness of it is a little off-putting, even if I wouldn't call it BAD. Worst track on there, IIRC, is "Meet Me Halfway."

Xgua sez: "they party beginning to end, which as it happens is a far rarer achievement than signifying beginning to end." But they are signifying in much of it, which I think he kinds of hints at with his closer, "sure as showbiz isn't dumb underneath." I think I kind of want it to be a little dumber underneath, if that makes sense. "Lets Get Retarded" and "Push It" and any number of other party songs of theirs are a little dumb-dumb; and "My Humps" transcends the savvy-dumb trap by being such a one-off strange little thing, but most of this stuff just strikes me as a little to "in" on the Black Eyed Peas, if that makes sense. Needs more Fergie, not just singing but the overall sensibility that I think they really nailed on The Dutchess.

[koganbot]

It got into the Billboard top ten. Also, it apparently has nine bonus tracks, four on an expanded edition, two from iTunes, one from Amazon, one from Rhapsody, and one from Walmart. And it has a hidden track.

[koganbot]

OK, I'm six songs into the Flyleaf, and it could be a true candidate, even if the first words out of Lacey's mouth are "Unified diversity" and even if tracks 4 through 6 aren't as good as 1, 2, and 3. It'd be funny if this ended up battling with Brad Paisley for the tenth spot, since I spent several minutes this afternoon getting mad at the Christian bullshit near the end of the Paisley, and for all I know I'll get angry at Flyleaf for Christian bullshit too - not that I consider Christianity inherently bullshit, but Paisley made it seem like he was dealing with a hard spiritual issue that he was actually ducking; I don't have time to elaborate now; but I do recommend the Paisley album, American Saturday Night (the title track actually having a pro immigration subtext), has a nice sense of musical color, which he'd never really had before that I remember. Lacey Mosley still makes me think of Avril being jabbed by pitchforks.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

But no one listens to The xx for liveliness, songiness or fun! As I've said elsewhere, you have to already value certain qualities to appreciate them - stillness, minimalism, mood, stylisation - but if you're into all of those, which I am, The xx hit the sweet spot. I get why their album could seem samey or whatever, but I also know that - having ignored the hype for a while and with few expectations - when I finally heard them I was pretty awestruck.

Dude's voice is a lot better live than on record, where it acts as a really effective counterpoint to Romy's voice; like Cassie, neither of them will win any singing competitions but it works perfectly for what they're doing. xx will assuredly be in my top 10 for 09.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

stillness, minimalism, mood, stylisation

You're right that these usually aren't the primary things I'm listening for, but I can be won over on them -- I still think Pantha du Prince's album is one of my faves from the decade. Unfortunately for xx I would need to listen to the album again pretty intently to describe what it is about their atmospherics that don't do much for me, which is usually why I distance myself from convos about them (haven't listened enough to speak with any certainty on the subject).

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The interesting thing about The xx to me is that, notwithstanding the fact that I get why people might not like them, they've received plaudits from across the entire spectrum of critics. That happens pretty rarely, rarely enough that I think this is one of their strongest defences (when talking about the music isn't enough).

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Cumulative advantage or hivemind?