The new tracks are struggling from alienation but haven't found a way to make the alienation a strength rather than an escape clause. I'm just as confused as last week as to whether the Tings Tings are a Tick Tick. They've clearly got something but I don't know if I want it. Maybe I should get the album just to work this out.
I have the same policy as Jeff on reissues, but it results in one of my rare "DON'T LIKE ANY"s for a week that I actually found pretty interesting. If "Rhythm Is A Dancer" hangs on for a month or so that might mean its presence is to be reckoned with. Surely there are some people hearing it for the first time? Not just tots but elders who were never part of the original target audience and are now seeing the advert? And of course the past is part of the present, but I still don't feel right ticking.
Alphabeat "10,000 Nights": The presentation is really weak. "Pop" in quotation marks. But Annie and Robyn and Teddybears STHLM are all in quotation marks too, but that doesn't mean they equate pop with the absence of all force and character. Is the problem with Alphabeat that they're committed to the weakness more than to the music? That seems like a dumb assumption for me to make. This is actually a good song, a vaguely Motown melody run through a toothpaste machine, given SAW fullness and then having the fullness bleached out, fullness changed to paleness. I Don't Get It! And I WON'T TICK IT.
Fratellis "Mistress Mabel": This is a weird combination of harried and jaunty. There is noise buried among the chords, as if doom were in the background ready to overwhelm it. But (1) the melody isn't a particularly interesting "it" in the first place, (2) the overall sound is unpleasant. But the sound is interesting enough for me to wonder what I might think if I were exposed to the band further, say if I were to start dating someone who loved them. This probably shouldn't be my main motive for getting into a relationship, however. TICKED NOT.
Zutons "Always Right Behind You": More quotation marks. This is roughened where Alphabeat are bleached out, but the result is similarly distanced. And the song is pretty good, and the slide has moments of bite in the instrumental break that have nothing to do with distance. TICKS ARE SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW BUT NOT FOR THIS SONG.
The Ting Tings "Great DJ": Voices not quite in sync, not quite musical, the result is somehow insistent. Closest to a tick, but... POLICY NOT TO TICK ON THE BORDERLINE.
Gusto "Disco's Revenge 2008": I'm listening to the Freemasons' edit. Where the rest of today's tracks sounded distanced, this sounds generic, but the arrangement isn't at odds with the power of the genre. Still, do I give a shit? NO TICKS FROM THE INDIFFERENT.
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timeasmymeasure
Special Alienation Week On The Charts
Date: 2008-05-27 01:27 pm (UTC)I have the same policy as Jeff on reissues, but it results in one of my rare "DON'T LIKE ANY"s for a week that I actually found pretty interesting. If "Rhythm Is A Dancer" hangs on for a month or so that might mean its presence is to be reckoned with. Surely there are some people hearing it for the first time? Not just tots but elders who were never part of the original target audience and are now seeing the advert? And of course the past is part of the present, but I still don't feel right ticking.
Alphabeat "10,000 Nights": The presentation is really weak. "Pop" in quotation marks. But Annie and Robyn and Teddybears STHLM are all in quotation marks too, but that doesn't mean they equate pop with the absence of all force and character. Is the problem with Alphabeat that they're committed to the weakness more than to the music? That seems like a dumb assumption for me to make. This is actually a good song, a vaguely Motown melody run through a toothpaste machine, given SAW fullness and then having the fullness bleached out, fullness changed to paleness. I Don't Get It! And I WON'T TICK IT.
Fratellis "Mistress Mabel": This is a weird combination of harried and jaunty. There is noise buried among the chords, as if doom were in the background ready to overwhelm it. But (1) the melody isn't a particularly interesting "it" in the first place, (2) the overall sound is unpleasant. But the sound is interesting enough for me to wonder what I might think if I were exposed to the band further, say if I were to start dating someone who loved them. This probably shouldn't be my main motive for getting into a relationship, however. TICKED NOT.
Zutons "Always Right Behind You": More quotation marks. This is roughened where Alphabeat are bleached out, but the result is similarly distanced. And the song is pretty good, and the slide has moments of bite in the instrumental break that have nothing to do with distance. TICKS ARE SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW BUT NOT FOR THIS SONG.
The Ting Tings "Great DJ": Voices not quite in sync, not quite musical, the result is somehow insistent. Closest to a tick, but... POLICY NOT TO TICK ON THE BORDERLINE.
Gusto "Disco's Revenge 2008": I'm listening to the Freemasons' edit. Where the rest of today's tracks sounded distanced, this sounds generic, but the arrangement isn't at odds with the power of the genre. Still, do I give a shit? NO TICKS FROM THE INDIFFERENT.