Joe runs through every album on his iPod, mostly in alphabetical order, and offers some brief thoughts. Check out previous columns HERE.
Just yesterday, I thought to myself: "I give up on post-punk. If I read about a band being in the genres of 'post-punk' or 'shoegaze,' I'm not even going to bother anymore. I'm done." So, sure, this seems like a terrific time to talk about Adore Life.
Listening to Adore Life today, I sigh and I realize that I can't generalize when it comes to music genres. I really do like this record. I just... I don't love it. And I don't think I ever will, because of its post-punk tendencies.
Let's look at "Sad Song" as an example. (The title is a spoiler for this paragraph, maybe.) The beginning is a drone. The drone stops, and you have flat lyrics against just the rhythm section. When the guitars come in, we're in halftime and the guitar is playing long chords. It's just all so fucking depressing.
Clearly, Savages didn't set out to record a happy album, so I'm not saying they "missed their mark" or anything with Adore Life. I'm just saying that post-punk as a genre doesn't necessarily excite me in any way.
I also don't want this column to turn into me trying to convince myself why I should keep certain albums on my iPod despite not being crazy about them, but I can't help it here in this situation. Just grant me this exemption one time.
There are moments on Adore Life that, in my opinion, elevate the album above the typical trappings of post-punk. It opens on absolutely the right foot with "The Answer," a rollicking jam that doesn't let up. "I Need Something New" gets a boost up from a relentless drumbeat. "T.I.W.Y.G." is a straight-up headbanger.
But for every song like that, there's a song like the title track, just a fucking slog, or "Slowing Down the World," which takes its title way too seriously. Sure. There are ups and downs to every album. And I will grant Savages the benefit of the doubt here, and get past the low points (post-punk), and hang on to those high points (not post-punk).
At the end of the day, Savages are fucking badass, no two ways about it. There are moments of brilliance on the album that make me feel shit, make me feel fucking POWERFUL. Post-punk be damned.
Adore Life
Savages
2016
Just yesterday, I thought to myself: "I give up on post-punk. If I read about a band being in the genres of 'post-punk' or 'shoegaze,' I'm not even going to bother anymore. I'm done." So, sure, this seems like a terrific time to talk about Adore Life.
Listening to Adore Life today, I sigh and I realize that I can't generalize when it comes to music genres. I really do like this record. I just... I don't love it. And I don't think I ever will, because of its post-punk tendencies.
Let's look at "Sad Song" as an example. (The title is a spoiler for this paragraph, maybe.) The beginning is a drone. The drone stops, and you have flat lyrics against just the rhythm section. When the guitars come in, we're in halftime and the guitar is playing long chords. It's just all so fucking depressing.
Clearly, Savages didn't set out to record a happy album, so I'm not saying they "missed their mark" or anything with Adore Life. I'm just saying that post-punk as a genre doesn't necessarily excite me in any way.
I also don't want this column to turn into me trying to convince myself why I should keep certain albums on my iPod despite not being crazy about them, but I can't help it here in this situation. Just grant me this exemption one time.
There are moments on Adore Life that, in my opinion, elevate the album above the typical trappings of post-punk. It opens on absolutely the right foot with "The Answer," a rollicking jam that doesn't let up. "I Need Something New" gets a boost up from a relentless drumbeat. "T.I.W.Y.G." is a straight-up headbanger.
But for every song like that, there's a song like the title track, just a fucking slog, or "Slowing Down the World," which takes its title way too seriously. Sure. There are ups and downs to every album. And I will grant Savages the benefit of the doubt here, and get past the low points (post-punk), and hang on to those high points (not post-punk).
At the end of the day, Savages are fucking badass, no two ways about it. There are moments of brilliance on the album that make me feel shit, make me feel fucking POWERFUL. Post-punk be damned.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If this album sounds interesting, try this song: "I Need Something New"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stray Observations
- If you aren't familiar with what post-punk is (sometimes I don't even fucking know), I guess the wiki page is a decent place to start. Sometimes writing about it isn't enough. Just listen to a couple hours of, like, Ought or Parquet Courts to hear how much of a fucking drag some of this shit can be.
- Since I will probably never listen to Savages' first album, this is the only place we can talk about the GREAT SAVAGES VS. SUFJAN STEVENS TYPOGRAPHY BEEF!!
- This will be the first of many albums that we run through that I was convinced to give a listen to from Stereogum's Album of the Week column. I fucking love that website.
- FRONT COVER: A black-and-white raised balled fist against a gray backdrop. Sometimes album covers convincingly convey the feelings emoted in an album. This is one of those times.
- Not for the first time, I thought about how this album might be different if it was written and recorded a year or two later. If that were the case, I know toward which orange sexist creep that balled first would be pointing.
NEST TIME: After Laughter by Paramore
3 comments:
This is the wrongest take on Ought I have ever seen.
That one song is good. You know the one. "The Weather Song" (I had to look it up.) Other than that, ughhhhhhhhh. I tried man. Dreading when I have to write about More Than Any Other Day when I get around to it in like three years.
Oh shit, "Beautiful Blue Sky" is good too, despite itself. Monotonous and boring and somehow really good. The rest of the album forgets the "really good" part.
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