Cos nobody loves me, it's true, not like you do

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

- Do you listen to miserable music?

- Did you listen to more (or less) miserable music than when you were a teenager? Or is the balance still about the same?

- What do you 'get' out of listening to miserable music?

Definitions of 'miserable' open to interpretation, of course.

(Guess who was listening to the new Portishead album last night!)

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

- Not really any more
- Much much less
- Erm I guess when I was a teenager, a sense of emotional resonance?

I mean as miss_newham says I don't like it b/c it makes me miserable, and I'm not miserable in that way any more. Which is why I haven't listened to the Portishead album very much! With music like that, and Tori/PJ etc at their angstiest, you have to be really invested in the emotions they're hurling at you.

I do listen to a lot of sad/wistful/melancholic music, esp when I'm hungover or it's depressing outside, eg Junior Boys, Superpitcher...a lot of it is instrumental though, which means that the sadness isn't the only element by any means, though as Anna-Marie wrote about Akiko Kiyama (http://www.thelipster.com/articles/3140719), all minimal is secretly emo. Actually that kind of vague, unspoken sense of dread is something which crops up in a lot of my favourite pop as well - Cassie's 'Me & U' and All Saints' 'Black Coffee' spring to mind.

Listening to big emotional pop ballads like 'No Air' and 'We Belong Together' is more of a theatrical thing than immersing yourself in the unremitting bleakness of Portishead, they make you identify with the emotion without actually making you miserable. I guess the bleakest music I listen to on the regular is probably dubstep or something, doomy instrumental stuff.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Basically I listen to 'down' music now to soothe myself, to sort of cocoon me in a holding position until the hangover clears/the rain stops/whatever, rather than any I-feel-your-pain shrieky angst.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Yes - a lot of my emo-minimal listening is done on the tube/bus (ie vaguely oppressive situation that requires soothingness). This is partly why I asked the 'teenager' question, as I'm a lot less angry/lonely these days ('cos nobody loves me it's truuuue' doesn't really apply any more!) but to make up for it I'm a lot more anxious/stressed!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

yeah when you grow up you realise that there are so many more ways to be miserable than just the one stock nobody-understands teenage one! (you also understand that it really isn't the end of the world anyway, hurrah.)

also I totally agree with you about Beth sounding exactly the same: I think this may disturb me more than anything else, actually, because I'm just thinking...wow, in 10 years, has your life really changed so little that you're still this unhappy? I mean I guess she probably isn't, it's performative, but she really is convincing.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Perhaps her emo-ness now stems from frustration @ not releasing an album for so long :)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Haha I thought it sounded much more performative then and more convincing now. In fact when I heard her vox on P3 I thought "see, the wind changed and you DID get stuck like that!"

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I think her latest vocals sound *slightly* more gutteral than on Dummy but less so than on Portishead (saying that, I haven't listened to the earlier two for blimmin' ages - perhaps it's just the overall production I'm mapping her voice to?)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

This is actually totally right! Cuz thinking back to Dummy the bleakness was leavened when she purred or crooned or did ~jazzier~ stuff as opposed to the blues, and all of that has disappeared.

I never thought 'Sour Times' was that depressing, I mean the full lyric is "Nobody loves me, it's true / Not like you do".

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Having another listen now. I've worked out what's bugging me - P3 is way less hip-hop, more random electronica. The beats underneath aren't reeling in the widdley-woo like they should be.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I'm impressed that on the first couple of listens they actually convinced me that they hadn't changed at all. I only realised that, like, all the arrangements were completely alien and different later.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I never thought 'Sour Times' was that depressing, I mean the full lyric is "Nobody loves me, it's true / Not like you do".

Seconded. I found it soporific rather than sad.