Inscrutable

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I'm trying (and mostly failing so far) to work out why I like New Order for the review of their reissues I'm writing.

What are the bands you love but find hard to write about? (Or, if yr not a writer, love without being able to articulate why?).

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I do often feel as though I'm running out of vocab to describe the house and techno I love...there are only so many ways you can say the same thing. Which doesn't apply to the music at all.

I could write reams about why I love Tori Amos but feel unable to hear her music through the ears of a non-fan, so have no idea how much sense any of it makes.

The token indie stuff I like...Santogold, Yeah Yeah Yeahs for example, I don't think i could explain why I like them and not other similar indie bands. I'm not very bothered about this.

Oh yeah often awareness of the Boney Joan rule can be a disadvantage: being able to articulate why I like or dislike a band, then suddenly realising I've used exactly the same characteristic in the opposite direction, and so it isn't the answer at all and I have more thinking to do.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

New Order meanwhile are one of those bands that last.fm is making me aware that I don't love as much as I thought I did (Girls Aloud and PSB also fit in here - I've been on last.fm for nearly two years now and none of them can have clocked up much more than 30 plays each, wtf).

[koganbot]

Santogold really puts herself on the line and has strong rasp and beauty in her voice, so is the opposite of the usual indie humble shuffling celebration of mediocrity, and she's got tunes too, even if I get the sense that she thinks melody is a sin that needs to be buried in dub in order to be indulged.

[koganbot]

Also, I think Santogold is unintentionally retro in a way I find appealing: she still finds the Clash a living presence, an influence to be mastered and pilfered rather than simply adored.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is true - plus of all the things to bury music in, dub is what I find most appealing anyway. Also, her production is excellent - the drums are so crisp, you can hear every single instrument and detail, it's not muddy like so much indie production.