alright
brutal honesty as to the duality of my nature here
way back when i first heard about The Frames i also heard about bright eyes. i didn't realize at the time that bright eyes is really just one guy with a rotating group of support musicians. so the first time i sat down to listen to this album, i really enjoyed it. and i enjoyed it more and more each time i listened to it. the acoustic guitar is confident and unabashed in its retreading of well worn paths. the melodies are comfortable without sounding stale. and the fact that this is a pretty indie endeavor makes for some interesting turns in the song structure and instrumentation. when you hear slide guitar and sharp, clear trumpet on the same album, let alone the same song, you're definitely not listening to just pop music anymore. and i appreciate that. i look for that. but the most enthralling aspect of this album was the vocals. every line sung of every song is lent an amazing amount of gravity by the performance of the singer. and what are otherwise nice, face forward lyrics with solid imagery become earth shatteringly important when they are sung with such an emotionally wracked voice. even if you can't relate to the words, even if you can't understand them, they pluck the heart strings by how plainly the singer lays bare his soul in their performance. and that's a balance every singer-songwriter has to find, really; because shitty lyrics can sound great if they are sung with meaning, just like a shitty singer can still hold court with meaningful lyrics. and as a songwriter myself, i can respect anyone who can pull either of those off. so i listened to this album. and i liked it. i'd say, 7.8/10 kind of liked it.
then i found out who the "one guy" behind bright eyes really is
conor
fucking
oberst
now let me backtrack a little here as to adequately explain my disdain. and please know that all the quotes you are about to read are taken completely from memory, out of context, and without the permission of the parties involved.
sometime over the summer a friend of mine in a band read somewhere that they did similar kinds of music. after listening to some of oberst's stuff, however, and realizing it was nothing like the hard-rock/reggae they are mostly known for, he sent oberst an email that went something like this:
"i read that you were into reggae and hard-rock, but i can't find any of your stuff that really sounds like that."
oberst's personal reply:
"its called a joke, moron."
now
i can understand a certain amount of ego, and a certain amount of friendly competetive edginess between bands. but isn't the indie community supposed to be just that: a community? shouldn't oberst, who has reached a pretty admirable level of success as an independant artist have just a tad bit more respect and fraternal concern for an artist who is a few years behind him, and trying to acomplish the same thing??
i guess when the alternative press has been telling you you're a child prodigy all your life its okay to act like an entitled little know it all shit-head. i guess its kind of hard to stay grounded if you start to find musical success at the age of 14. which is also probably why you STILL WRITE MUSIC LIKE A FOURTEEN YEAR-OLD you juvenile little fuck.
so once i realized who this prick was everything changed.
the guitar went from "confident and unabashed" to "absurdly derivative."
the melodies went from "comfortable without sounding stale" to "boring and lazily constructed."
and the singing, most of all, went from "entralling and emotional" to "exploitive pandering," made even worse by obersts own claims that the songs are entire works of fiction. according to him, not one of them is representative of a personal experience. so all that heartfelt quavering in his voice is nothing but fucking theatrics.
and the oscar goes to?
the big fucking pussy on your right, conor oberst
thanks for the show, douchebag, but i'd be a lot more interested in hearing you sing about something that actually meant something to you. since, you know, that's what writing a song is all about.
so conor will probably keep borrowing chord progressions from bruce springsteen.
and he'll probably keep borrowing melodies from tv jingles.
and he'll definitely keep histrionically wailing like a 16 year old in her first high-school musical.
but you shouldn't buy his albums
or even download them ilegally for that matter
cause
you've heard it all before
and it's really not worth it
and on the slim chance conor, that you're reading this
go fuck yourself
brutal honesty as to the duality of my nature here
way back when i first heard about The Frames i also heard about bright eyes. i didn't realize at the time that bright eyes is really just one guy with a rotating group of support musicians. so the first time i sat down to listen to this album, i really enjoyed it. and i enjoyed it more and more each time i listened to it. the acoustic guitar is confident and unabashed in its retreading of well worn paths. the melodies are comfortable without sounding stale. and the fact that this is a pretty indie endeavor makes for some interesting turns in the song structure and instrumentation. when you hear slide guitar and sharp, clear trumpet on the same album, let alone the same song, you're definitely not listening to just pop music anymore. and i appreciate that. i look for that. but the most enthralling aspect of this album was the vocals. every line sung of every song is lent an amazing amount of gravity by the performance of the singer. and what are otherwise nice, face forward lyrics with solid imagery become earth shatteringly important when they are sung with such an emotionally wracked voice. even if you can't relate to the words, even if you can't understand them, they pluck the heart strings by how plainly the singer lays bare his soul in their performance. and that's a balance every singer-songwriter has to find, really; because shitty lyrics can sound great if they are sung with meaning, just like a shitty singer can still hold court with meaningful lyrics. and as a songwriter myself, i can respect anyone who can pull either of those off. so i listened to this album. and i liked it. i'd say, 7.8/10 kind of liked it.
then i found out who the "one guy" behind bright eyes really is
conor
fucking
oberst
now let me backtrack a little here as to adequately explain my disdain. and please know that all the quotes you are about to read are taken completely from memory, out of context, and without the permission of the parties involved.
sometime over the summer a friend of mine in a band read somewhere that they did similar kinds of music. after listening to some of oberst's stuff, however, and realizing it was nothing like the hard-rock/reggae they are mostly known for, he sent oberst an email that went something like this:
"i read that you were into reggae and hard-rock, but i can't find any of your stuff that really sounds like that."
oberst's personal reply:
"its called a joke, moron."
now
i can understand a certain amount of ego, and a certain amount of friendly competetive edginess between bands. but isn't the indie community supposed to be just that: a community? shouldn't oberst, who has reached a pretty admirable level of success as an independant artist have just a tad bit more respect and fraternal concern for an artist who is a few years behind him, and trying to acomplish the same thing??
i guess when the alternative press has been telling you you're a child prodigy all your life its okay to act like an entitled little know it all shit-head. i guess its kind of hard to stay grounded if you start to find musical success at the age of 14. which is also probably why you STILL WRITE MUSIC LIKE A FOURTEEN YEAR-OLD you juvenile little fuck.
so once i realized who this prick was everything changed.
the guitar went from "confident and unabashed" to "absurdly derivative."
the melodies went from "comfortable without sounding stale" to "boring and lazily constructed."
and the singing, most of all, went from "entralling and emotional" to "exploitive pandering," made even worse by obersts own claims that the songs are entire works of fiction. according to him, not one of them is representative of a personal experience. so all that heartfelt quavering in his voice is nothing but fucking theatrics.
and the oscar goes to?
the big fucking pussy on your right, conor oberst
thanks for the show, douchebag, but i'd be a lot more interested in hearing you sing about something that actually meant something to you. since, you know, that's what writing a song is all about.
so conor will probably keep borrowing chord progressions from bruce springsteen.
and he'll probably keep borrowing melodies from tv jingles.
and he'll definitely keep histrionically wailing like a 16 year old in her first high-school musical.
but you shouldn't buy his albums
or even download them ilegally for that matter
cause
you've heard it all before
and it's really not worth it
and on the slim chance conor, that you're reading this
go fuck yourself