Girls - Album
First, you will inevitably have to get past the fact the haven't fucking heard of them, even though you think so (you're thinking of either Women or the Vivian Girls though). It's usually not the worst thing in the world to be blindsided by a new critical darling whose debut just dropped like a V2 rocket into your unsuspecting life. It happened with the Arcade Fire, it seems to happen so regularly these days. But there's something excruciating about it this time and you can't say why. Maybe it's that the big names act as if they've seen these guys coming for months now. Maybe they have, that is their job and all, but you can't help but feel cheated, that despite your best efforts, you're hopelessly out of touch and getting more out of touch each second.
This will be compounded by the the second obstacle: no one you know likes this album, or really wants to give it a fair shot. In fact, in some cases they don't even want to listen to it. You'll go to the record store and hold a copy of it in your hand and ask the clerk in all earnestness (not something you do often), "Should I buy this?" And you'll watch him struggle to be equivocal while you can tell what he wants to say is no fucking way man. This will influence your initial reaction to hearing the first ten seconds of the first four songs on your laptop speakers as you declare this to be the lamest thing you've heard this year.
Then comes obstacle number three: both Cokemachineglow and Pitchfork love the record. Each site alone is not to be trusted, Pitchfork for its breathless sense of importance, the Glow for breathless dedication to being contrary. Yet in the rare moments when they agree, they've been safe bets (Meriweather, Veckatimest, Embryonic). Intrigued, you watch their live video on Pitchfork (which was so obviously filmed months before their hit record dropped, is this some fucking conspiracy?) and despite yourself you think, these guys are pretty good.
You watch their music videos (pre the XXX nonsense) and read the interviews, and although there's enough to roll your eyes at, there's not enough to outright hate about them either. You are inevitably charmed by this secret insomnia fueled obsession with the band you declared unwavering hatred for just 36 hours ago. You will torrent Album and listen to it on your way to work for a week straight. It takes all of those days until you finally drunkenly declare that you love Girls, you pound the table spilling your beer and point your finger right in the face of a close friend and shout "Goddamnit, I want to be zeitgeisty!"
After this, you'll recoil in shame. You won't listen to Album for weeks. You will again feel cheated, feel that your love for this record was ill begotten and lame, more revealing of your own desperate desire to be relevant than your musical tastes. You come just as close to pounding another bar table at another bar and drunkenly declare yourself a sham, but decide against.
But then, the song "Summertime" will come on random on a freak warm November day, and you'll be lovestruck again. But for whatever reason, you won't listen to the rest of the album.
I've been meaning to write something on Girls for a long time now. And only now that enough html has been spilled on the subject do I finally feel like putting my two cents in. For what it's worth, Album contains some of the most likable and affecting songs this year. It also contains just as many charming but forgettable numbers. The record does sustain a mood of sunkissed (sunsoaked, sundrenched, sunbaked, sundried, take your goddamn pick) heartbreak, and yes, has a hazy, dare I say narcotic sound to it. But, about that, hm, ah, meh. Christopher Owen's talent for writing pop songs is strong but not nearly perfect. The band's strengths aren't in the woozy nightime songs, like "God Damned" and "Headache" or nor in the tongue-in-cheek brattiness of "Big Bad Mean Motherfucker". Girls is at their best when letting it all out, on "Lust for Life," "Laura," "Hellhole Ratrace," "Summertime," and "Morning Light."
When they're on, it's a great listen. And the hit or miss quality of Album is endearing, although a little disheartening. Disheartening because I worry about Owens being pegged as some sort of fucked up rock and roll savant. Not many reviews ever say anything about technique or musical ability, just about this broken soul and his triumph over pain. And although that makes good copy, it ignores a glaring fact that these guys are actually really talented and (for the most part) tasteful musicians. Ignoring their chops would be a shame because Girls absolutely nail a wide range of styles, all without losing coherence as an album. And, I'll admit begrudgingly, that Owen's vocal talent is unmistakable, especially during a year of mostly forgettable new voices (Longstreth and Vile aside).
It will be interesting to give this another spin next year and see how it holds up. It's unfortunate that instead of just being excited about these guys, I have to dole out my appreciation in measured amounts. But if it's good now, it will be good later, no?
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If you want to chase the essense of things which are conspicously hip you should always be ready for this kind of torture. This kind of war between yourself and preconceptions eventually gets really really tiresome, though. Like, at first its interesting and when you don't come up with any decent cultural insights about why it works this way it takes all the fun out of everything.
ReplyDeleteSo, i'm interested in this post. Not because of girls but because of your personal description of media outlets and percieved large scale opinions which seem to entirely ruin your relationshiop to music. I sure feel like its happened to me with other musicians, probably others can relate.
So is this an accurate way to describe the problem? And if so, is it important that we either transcend or wage regicide upon the ruling culture outlets? This too seems tiresome and uninteresting though. Perhaps its also problematic to conceive of a pre-existing "pure" musical experience which has been tainted by press and friends.
I don't know the solution, or if were grasping the problem right. All I know is that if you chase music far outside of what is conspicously hip it effectly delays having to deal with this problem. Metal heads don't EVER have this problem.
Chaz,
ReplyDeleteFantastic questions my friend. I can't say I can really answer any of them off the top of my head, but here are some quick thoughts:
I can't conceive of this "pure" musical experience, although it would be a helpful control scenario. When listening to recorded music, detached from the context of a performative context, my mind tries to fill in those blanks (if I'm listening intently). I want to know what the performers look like, how they did it, why they did, who they listen to, etc. At least these are often my concerns. A shallower way of listening is just a rush to deem something good or bad. My first listen was shallow, I deemed it shit. My second listen (informed by said video and interviews) was more forgiving. I took the music more on it's own terms than the terms of hyper-fad internet culture, and it held up for the most part.
On that culture, the Pitchfork culture (thought now pfork is really a lesser evil when you consider hypemachine or stereogum, et al) is an irrevocable part of my musical assimilation habits, at least for now. It was life-saving and essential in high school, annoyingly influential in college, and now frustratingly ingratiated into my life. I can ignore this, but I'd have to admit that it would sorta put me outa touch, since I haven't found a quicker (less lazy) way of staying 'current'.
That is to say, I'd vote for regicide, for the tear-this-shit down tact of pushing against the now solidifying internet conventions. This is sometimes how I feel about buying records, like fuck stealing music, I'm going to be a PARTICIPANT. But in the past I have discovered that in Nigel vs. Internet, I always lose.
I hope then that there are enough people in the world who are interested in a serious critical examination of music and culture, without the psuedo Rolling Stone style delusions of cultural relevance that Pitchfork has. IE, I don't consider having 30 second blurbs on ABC some form of success. I'd rather the bands take over the world, not music websites.
So I'm hoping for something more sensible? I know this flies in the face of "music as youthful and dangerous" but it least gives credence to music as "a serious artistic endeavor."
Leading to another black whole of discussion: Pitchfork as celebrity. Bands and albums being 'pitchfork approved,' which I suppose was the genesis of this whole problem. No, metal heads do not seem to have this problem. However, I am genetically predisposed to not like metal.
Also, as a critical point of contention, Girls says almost nil about the context in which a)he or b)the rest of us live. Maybe in a roundabout and pretend-it's-the-early-60s kinda way, which has its charm. But it does not um, excite the mind to the possibilities of music, trigger a new emotional or personal realization, say anything new or profound about humanity, nor does it make me wanna dance, be productive, fight, or make babies. So, I'm not really sure what the point of this music is, other than that of a narcotic (for which some of it works well), something that makes you feel good, at times intensely good, but ultimately empty.
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ReplyDeletealso this: http://chicagoist.com/2009/11/18/give_girls_a_chance.php
ReplyDelete