Versatility is overrated. Years of watching professional sports / political news coverage / the compression of business caused by capitalism has left the American citizen with the notion that one must not be one thing, but many. Jacks of all trades are preferred over masters of one.
This, of course, is how one created mediocrity and allows it to scale over a generation. The counter-corrective is to return to the elder wisdom possessed by the War on Drugs. Their goal is modest, their aim simple; they have set out to recreate classic rock through a mid-tempo studio wizard lens and they have, once again, for their third consecutive effort, achieved with great aplomb. So what if there is no variance in tone or delivery? So what if the ground is being retread? You think the lady who wrote those Harry Potter books got rich by flipping the damn script? You think Rothko got on gallery walls because he decided "I'm going to move away from colors and shapes?"
And lo, what do we have, when presented with an outfit that just does the one thing? A great fucking record! A record for all seasons! Put it on for anyone, the worst they will say is "it sounds pretty good, it's fine." Holy shit, can you imagine? What a fucking baseline! Pleasant, passive acceptance as the worst possible reaction! We should be so lucky that people would speak about us in such a way.
Be great at one thing. Be like the War on Drugs. Great record, totally predictable, I cannot wait to listen to it again, every couple of months until I am dead.
No comments:
Post a Comment