.:Well, The Arcade Fire is album of the year for Pitchfork and Tiny Mix Tapes. I guess I need to listen to it more, because a) I do like it and b) I'm just not hearing album of the year and I hate the feeling that I'm missing something.
One thing that intrigues me about music is that I can enjoy so much of the same music that my friends do and then disagree on something like this. For example I know there's a bunch of music that Dan digs on that I just don't get into, but I have immense respect for his taste & opinion because I know I can give him something like Broken Social Scene, or Sufjan Stevens, and he'll say 'Wow!'. Of course then there's 'My Morning Jacket', which he slammed. It's alright though, because for the life of me I don't quite hear the appeal of Autopilot Off, one of his picks for the year. I don't hate it, but, you know...
...if you wander over to I Do What I Can you'll see that I have very similar taste in music to Chris and he's given his nod to The Arcade Fire as well.
I haven't bothered putting together any numbered list yet and I don't know that I will. I think I bought about one-third the music this year as I did last year, and I could hardly give that the attention I should've. I don't know how I listened to so much music last year, but I couldn't get enough. This year is just different somehow. I've listed most of the stuff that I like from this year over on the sidebar, that's all from 2004. The album I find myself liking more than any other this year is the 2000 release from Clinic, Internal Wrangler. It came highly recommended from Pitchforks list of 2000's top albums. It only took a couple listens to adjust to, and now everytime I hear it I dig it more.
A final note on The Arcade Fire - if there's one thing I know about myself it's that if I don't get it at first AND it's as good as everyone says it is, it's probably only a matter of time before I'm hailing it as brilliant. There are plenty of examples of this in my past. I just need time.
2 comments:
I haven't bought anything else by Clinic yet, but I plan to.
It's also possible that TAF isn't album of the year. It might have to settle into, say, the top 3 for you.
It's certainly that good-but I think for groups such as Pitchfork, they have to de-personalize their choices for the sake of whatever they consider 'quality'. I've seen Mastadon's Leviathan for metal album of the year-and while it's a solid, adventureous record, I don't rank it that high at all.
Autopilot Off, for example, stuck with me-I could sing those songs. But I can't say that they'll be as influential or important even as Green Day. This might change-I saw them on tour opening for Poison The Well, a pretty graphic sonic shift, which means they may grow quite a bit as a band, but for now, they do what they do very well. Conversely-I can see how they would bore the hell out of anyone who's been listening to punk for 15+ years.
The last caveat is-the song may be great, but the album, not quite so much, as with A Perfect Circle's The Noose. That album wasn't so strong, but that song is a winner.
I've got a very strange need for pop hooks, that clashes pretty hard with my need for The Riff.(The turnabout is, I cannot listen to 'pure' metal-bands like Opeth or Dimmu Borger bore me to death-that's a pun!- and my favorite Slipknot/PTW songs have a real hook to them) But I pick those songs because they work for me...and I only have to meet my standard of quality, not some higher power.
Point I'm going for is; you aren't necessarily missing anything. You love what speaks to you, and maybe TAF doesn't speak very strongly right now, and it's ok if it never does.
(Just think-I learned a chunk of this lesson from Andrew WK. How fucking crazy is that?)
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