Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost — Part 1
Foals
Week 8: March 24-30, 2019
I don't think the overall assessment was wrong from me or from any of us—this album was probably good, and certainly not great. But I think my approach was wrong.
If I'm using these Friday morning spaces to briefly talk about something I learned from my experiences five years ago, then this can be today's. I feel like I approached this Foals album with the mindset of "this sounds like it would be on the radio station that annoys me, so I must hate it." That's pretty stupid. That's called forming an opinion before you get to know the music, and it's the sign of a shitty critic. Yes, I know, I lampshaded the fact that I was a shitty critic within the review, but that doesn't make it right.
How it should look is: "I seem to like/dislike this album, so now let me try to explain why." I think it would've been okay for references to 104.5 FM to be made (shout out to Pam for having my back and dropping the same reference in her review), but only as an explanation, and not a cause. Either "I don't like this because it sounds like music I dislike on that radio station" or "I like this despite the fact that it kinda sounds like music I would typically dislike on that radio station." Those are fine. What's not fine is "I don't trust myself to like this because it shares similarities to the music that annoys me on that radio station."
Brianna and Sam took two different approaches to reviewing the album—different from each other, but also similar in that the opinions were formed outside of the framework of giving this album a deep listen. Sam was turned off by the superficial qualities of the album (its length), which, yes, definitely speaks to our generation's inability to focus (this is something that I like to think Record Club goes a long way in fixing, if you're open to it and consistent each week). Brianna loved the album but only as a function to reach catharsis in a public setting, which is totally fine too (and, listening to this album again, I can imagine the ball she and her friends had at that concert).
I don't necessarily agree that an album should be approached either of these ways. But let's be real: I do that shit all the time. I talk a big game now but very rarely shy away from either of those tactics, and very often subconsciously allow myself to get wrapped up in context (both the album's context and my own life's context while listening). I'm just talking about the ideal here. The Art of Music Criticism. I'm still a shitty critic. I'm still working at it. And even if we're all just amateurs grasping at something to fill the page, especially there at the beginning of RC, then it's still supremely satisfying to get four people with four different perspectives and have them all publish within four minutes on the same Friday morning. That's the true beauty of RC, I think.
Were I to give a fresh opinion now, I'd say: I wish every band on ALT 104.5 sounded like this. I.e. I wish that they went balls to the wall with the synth loops and dance grooves. "In Degrees" fucking moves, man. This is good stuff, and has very little to do with any Twenty One Pilots bullshit that is happening over there. Did you know that they play Fall Out Boy's "We Didn't Start the Fire" debacle these days? Regularly?! So take your pick: did that radio station get even worse, or am I just generally better at finding a connection to music now than I was five years ago? Maybe both.
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