Tag: Music

B.o.B. The Adventures of Bobby Ray

Matthew EilarLeave a comment

  • B.o.B  B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray Atlantic Records, April 27, 2010
  • This album is for: People who like the Kanye dominated style of pop/hip-hop/rap. People at a party looking to have a good time. People who want unobtrusive upbeat anthems for driving around with. Christian youth group leaders who want to show that they listen to cool music too (clean version only).
  • This album is not for: People who dislike rap and hip-hop’s assimilation into the pop machine. People looking for more challenging music than a feel-good sing-along. Anybody who hates any of the numerous guest stars on the album.
  • Key tracks: “Airplanes”  “The Kids”

Ignore the album cover, ignore the guest producers, ignore the guest artists. This is a big, shiny pop record. There’s still a big studio sound that marks big budget productions, and it’s here in abundance. This is an album built of hooks, and all of them are catchy as fuck.
I’m not saying any of this as if it’s a bad thing. There’s a place for these albums: upbeat, polished, and scientifically engineered to make you have a good time listening to it.

Memes

Matthew EilarLeave a comment

The Washington Post recently did a thing where they asked 12 people what they would “throw out” –things that didn’t need to be a part of the world any more. Joe Randazzo, editor of The Onion, contributed the answer “internet memes:”

What used to be an amusing byproduct of Internet use has mutated into something horrible: an insatiable parasite that impairs its host’s judgment, rendering it totally useless. Instead of acting as an organic cultural touchstone, the modern meme — from LOL, which hasn’t been used to signify physical laughter since 1997, to Lolcats — now sucks the joy out of our interconnectedness. It destroys uniqueness. Once an “enjoyable thing” becomes a “meme,” we stop enjoying the thing for its own sake, but consume and regurgitate our enjoyment of it as a symbol of hipness, as if to say: “I am aware of this thing’s popularity — therefore I, too, exist!”

I wish I had been able to articulate this thought when I was struggling with it a little over a year ago. What I was expressing then, but could not articulate, was a deep dissatisfaction with the emergence of music-as-meme. In this upside down world, knowing of something becomes equal to experiencing something. Depth is discouraged for breadth. Artists are crowned as kings, then discarded a week later.

It’s become an incredible power to want something . It’s become uncommon to have an aesthetic.

[This is the first time that I get to use the category “Memology” for something approximating it’s logical meaning.]

R.I.P. LAUSD Music

Matthew EilarLeave a comment

As a musician, and a classical one at that, I don’t feel like the world is obligated to support me. But it’s hard to watch videos like this and not think that the world doesn’t value what I want to spend my life doing.

Jónsi Go

Matthew EilarLeave a comment

Most of the reviews of Go that I’ve seen in passing mention how different it is from Jónsi’s work with Sigur Ros. I thought that I would have fresh ears because I’ve only heard like one of their albums (()? Vekatimest?). Still, this album is a big contrast from the music journalist shorthand for Sigur Ros’ sound; atmospheric, etheral, post-rock.

I’ve always gotten an art rock vibe from Sigur Rós, in terms of marketing and their place in the indie rock pantheon. Go is much more upfront about being conventional pop, in terms of songwriting. One thing that is retained from SR is the epic ambition of the songs. There’s a tasteful amount of glitchy production that, coupled with Arcade Fire-esque tom-heavy propulsive drums, give the upbeat numbers a kind of apocalyptic, end-of-the-world-party energy.

Go is a fun album. It’s impossible to listen to it without getting caught up in its ambition and energy.

But. [Read more for the old sad bastard view on this album.] Continue reading “Jónsi Go“ →

Jónsi Go

Matthew EilarLeave a comment

Most of the reviews of Go that I’ve seen in passing mention how different it is from Jónsi’s work with Sigur Ros. I thought that I would have fresh ears because I’ve only heard like one of their albums (()? Vekatimest?). Still, this album is a big contrast from the music journalist shorthand for Sigur Ros’ sound; atmospheric, etheral, post-rock.
I’ve always gotten an art rock vibe from Sigur Rós, in terms of marketing and their place in the indie rock pantheon. Go is much more upfront about being conventional pop, in terms of songwriting. One thing that is retained from SR is the epic ambition of the songs. There’s a tasteful amount of glitchy production that, coupled with Arcade Fire-esque tom-heavy propulsive drums, give the upbeat numbers a kind of apocalyptic, end-of-the-world-party energy.
Go is a fun album. It’s impossible to listen to it without getting caught up in its ambition and energy.
But. [Read more for the old sad bastard view on this album.] Continue reading “Jónsi Go” →