2008: The Year in Music

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Oooh, he tricked you into sort of caring. Sucka!

 

I think the problem with that review is that it kind of misses the point. Or rather, it gets the point, but tries to craft a "but if you look at this way it's different" argument anyway. "Girl Talk’s music works well in a party setting, and there’s a reason his shows devolve into mayhem—with a few drinks in your system and a room full of sweaty people, every new, recognizable sample is cause for fresh revelry" is totally accurate, and I'm not sure any understanding of the album needs to go beyond that. It's a dance album, and its primary function is to work at parties, clubs, whatever. Like I said, the "oh god" factor of putting something retardedly awesome like "Low" alongside "Sunday Morning" is about as close as this gets to any sort of statement--this dumb pop-rap hit is just as cool as the indiest band of all-time or whatever--if you even want to give it that much credit. Comparing/contrasting it with the Avalanches or DJ Shadow is doubleplus reaching for a critical anchor, as I think the only thing the artists have in common is heavy reliance on samples. I think it goes many steps above Jock Rock vol. 6 because the construction is a lot more varied and clever than that sort of Miami booty-bass masterpiecing, and because the source material is a lot stronger too.

 

And I get your concerns about how it's frequently repurposing rap music that the target audience would never touch into a more palatable/ironic form, but I actually genuinely like pretty much every song he uses in these melanges, so I could give a shit about appropriation. Shit is fun, and there is a bit of art in even conceptualizing and then carrying out a lot of these multi-song combos.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

Oooh, he tricked you into sort of caring. Sucka!

 

I think the problem with that review is that it kind of misses the point. Or rather, it gets the point, but tries to craft a "but if you look at this way it's different" argument anyway. "Girl Talk’s music works well in a party setting, and there’s a reason his shows devolve into mayhem—with a few drinks in your system and a room full of sweaty people, every new, recognizable sample is cause for fresh revelry" is totally accurate, and I'm not sure any understanding of the album needs to go beyond that. It's a dance album, and its primary function is to work at parties, clubs, whatever.

 

At the same time, though, I think that saying "It's just party music man!" is sort of lazy excuse-making. It's like those retards who'll defend even the most insipid Hollywood schlock because "it's just a brainless popcorn movie," as if being purposefully stupid/aesthetically worthless somehow excuses that same stupidity/worthlessness. I mean, it is possible to make music that works both as "club music" and as something that can be listened to/appreciated on a deeper level (cf. [insert huge-ass list of cred-building namedrops]).

 

And the thing is, I really think Girl Talk's basic idea of mashing up a bunch of super-recognizable samples could actually produce something truly worthwhile/interesting, but Gillis's shit is just too ADD and never lets anything ride out and coalesce into something meaningful. His music is an endless stream of "holy shit it's _____ & _____" moments and nothing else. It's like Stunin' With My Daddy/Sinead O'Connor is fucking great but then he goes and ruins it by mixing in T.I. and "Gettin Some Head." Why?

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Yeah. I agree that "PARTY BRAH!" is a weak justification, though it's certainly the attitude that informs the music-making and this (very small) genre, so I give it a little more credence than usual in this instance.

 

I think the best example of something meaningful and impressive that he's done is the Biggie/Elton John + other assorted scratching and beats on Night Ripper (not exactly a controversial opinion, I admit). There, he does in fact let it ride on out through 1) one of the best piano loops ever, and 2) one of the most famous/jubilant single rap verses ever, and the sum actually does vault the tone of its various parts to another stratosphere. Earlier on that same track, he also does the pretty remarkable job of turning two different Jeezy songs into one song with the help of "Fireman" and "Scentless Apprentice," and thus actually gives one of the more aggressive/gritty-sounding rappers of our time the sort of nasty and threatening backing track he should have more often. So, "Smash Your Head" is probably the best argument that the guy can coalesce really well and make meaningful things, but I agree that he sometimes undermines that sort of achievement with an insistence on keeping the mix moving. It doesn't lessen my overall enjoyment of the product, but the peaks can set higher expectations for the bulk of the work.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Hey Bruiser, you were right about The Bake Sale EP.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

I think the best example of something meaningful and impressive that he's done is the Biggie/Elton John + other assorted scratching and beats on Night Ripper (not exactly a controversial opinion, I admit). There, he does in fact let it ride on out through 1) one of the best piano loops ever, and 2) one of the most famous/jubilant single rap verses ever, and the sum actually does vault the tone of its various parts to another stratosphere.

 

But even there he has to go and almost ruin the whole thing by pitch shifting the "Tiny Dancer" chorus. It sounds really dumb and only serves to undercut the sincerity/beauty of the moment. It's completely unnecessary and basically indicative of everything I find off-putting about dude's music.

[Annabelle 0]

I think the best example of something meaningful and impressive that he's done is the Biggie/Elton John + other assorted scratching and beats on Night Ripper (not exactly a controversial opinion, I admit). There, he does in fact let it ride on out through 1) one of the best piano loops ever, and 2) one of the most famous/jubilant single rap verses ever, and the sum actually does vault the tone of its various parts to another stratosphere.

 

But even there he has to go and almost ruin the whole thing by pitch shifting the "Tiny Dancer" chorus. It sounds really dumb and only serves to undercut the sincerity/beauty of the moment. It's completely unnecessary and basically indicative of everything I find off-putting about dude's music.

shut up

ill agree the latest girl talk album blows, and his entire asthetic kinda sucks, too. but smash your head is almost as perfect as any "mash-up song" can be. but he did fuck up the weight on his latest album. boy, did he ever.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

but smash your head is almost as perfect as any "mash-up song" can be.

 

Nah. You can find better by just poking around YouTube for a few minutes. This, for instance, is like a million times more awesome than anything Girl Talk's ever done (though most of this guy's other stuff is terrible).

 

[Copper Feel 0]

I'm not sure exactly who is behind this particular mash-up, and in all fairness it does only feature two songs, but even so it certainly is good enough to merit a mention. Not that I want to derail the thread too much...

 

[Annabelle 0]

but smash your head is almost as perfect as any "mash-up song" can be.

 

Nah. You can find better by just poking around YouTube for a few minutes. This, for instance, is like a million times more awesome than anything Girl Talk's ever done (though most of this guy's other stuff is terrible).

 

ya

OK

[MFer 0]

I really enjoyed listening to the Untitled album (and I'm not the biggest Nas fan around). I felt like the 2nd half of it was stronger...would've been nice to see "Be A Nigger Too" on there as well.

[Guest The Elements of Style]

I'm avoiding Vampire Weekend as long as I can.

How about that, five months.

 

I'm kind of skipping around, and so far I don't think this is very good. I mean, it isn't actively crappy, but I'm underwhelmed. It's like, I dunno, yacht rock for graduate students or some shit. I have no desire to revisit Vampire Weekend.

[Guest The Elements of Style]

It's funny: when I said I was avoiding them, I didn't even know why except that they were being talked about a lot. With the name "Vampire Weekend," I thought it was like some sort of goth-glam Arcade Fire with like eleven people playing accordions and nonsense like that. Turns out it's just wispy Paul Simon bullshit. Fuck Brooklyn.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

Fuck Brooklyn.

 

They're not even really from Brooklyn, though. They rep the Upper West Side/Morningside Heights, which is even lamer/whiter [redundant???].

[Guest The Elements of Style]

Oh, I don't know. I just saw them mentioned as being from Brooklyn, so I went with that. So can we toss them in the Used-Up Blog Band bin with the Arctic Monkeys and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, or do people still think this thing has staying power?

[Annabelle 0]

i like vampire weekend a lot more than most bands pitchfork pumps up. why hate?

[Gary Floyd 0]

I really enjoyed listening to the Untitled album (and I'm not the biggest Nas fan around). I felt like the 2nd half of it was stronger...would've been nice to see "Be A Nigger Too" on there as well.

I think that the problem I have with the album is a similar problem I had with Hip Hop Is Dead: The production largely sounds lazy. It works on some tracks ("Queens Gets The Money") and Doesn't on others ("Make the World Go 'Round") Also, the album has both two potential best songs of the year ("Queens", "Fried Chicken") and two potential worse ("Sly Fox", "Testify"-ugh, I'm going to pretend that one doesn't exist for now.) It's not a bad album, it's just so-so.

[Guest The Elements of Style]

I mean, look at this:

 

This band is the absolute culmination of the 21st century concept of "indie." It can go no further: I thought they were pushing it with the rich white kids slumming it in Brooklyn, the blog hype, the token minority, but now they add Wes Anderson cinematography and the wall has been hit. It's all been building up to this, here it is, and now we just have to tear the whole thing down and dream it all up again.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I really don't like it. I found them tolerable when I first heard the album, but that's waned. Shit sounds like an antiseptic Maroon 5 b-side.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

Found this factoid on Vampire Weekend's wikipedia:

 

Lead vocalist Ezra Koenig and drummer Chris Tomson first collaborated as members of the comedy-rap band "L'Homme Run".[8]

 

Ugh

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

So far I'm pretty blergh on 2008 in music, there's been so false hopes (RATM reforming) and some nice hopes (Scottish Band Glasvegas - yeah they're from Glasgow).

[Mik 0]

I'm pretty sure Arctic Monkeys aren't in the same washed up category as CYHSY... their 2nd CD was pretty highly praised and sold quite well I think.

 

But CYHSY kinda fell off the face of the earth.

 

I put Vampire Weekend more in the latter group, personally. How much afro-pop can we all handle?

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

So its odd to hear about Americans talking about Arctic Monkies :S I worked in a record store when they firsted start to become 'known' and had people fighting to get a hold of their limited edition singles. We didn't know what the fuss was about, but then, most people in record stores don't know what the fuss is about anyway.

[Mik 0]

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/reco...artie-traumatic

 

Pitchfork's stellar review of Partie Traumatic. In case I'm getting the wrong page somehow, it's just a picture of two dogs.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Teraphonic Overdubs by Chris Joss may be my favorite album nobody talks about this year. It's got a certain cheese/chintz factor, but it also has the fake 60's/70's movie/tv score factor I love so much.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Wale's The Mixtape About Nothing may be my favorite mixtape of the year so far.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

If you go here you can get the new Walkmen album for the low low price of a $5.00 donation to cancer research. You should do this because a) it's a good cause and b) the album is pretty great.

[Henry Spencer 0]

I've listened to the new Portishead album twice, and it's really clicking with me in a way none of their other albums do. Steve mentioned earlier that it doesn't quite "jell", and I agree, but I think that creates a really compelling kind of tension that's hard to describe.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

Has Evil Urges by My Morning Jacket been mentioned? Killer album, though I think I still like Z better overall.

 

"Highly Suspicious" is the jam this summer, man.

[The Man in Blak 0]

I've listened to the new Portishead album twice, and it's really clicking with me in a way none of their other albums do. Steve mentioned earlier that it doesn't quite "jell", and I agree, but I think that creates a really compelling kind of tension that's hard to describe.

 

I've actually been revisiting Third recently as well and, while I stand by what I wrote a few months about the quality of each song from a songwriting perspective, there is definitely something about the tone of the album that's hard to quantify.

 

I hesitate to say that it has the best production I've heard in an album this year, but it's absolutely the most ambitious; they gamble with textures on almost every track and, when the songwriting actually provides a proper foundation to build upon, the results ("Plastic", "We Carry On", "Machine Gun") are compelling in a way that's entirely different from their other work and, frankly, a good distance beyond anything else that's been offered by anybody else in music this year.

 

I still think Dummy is a stronger record overall, but this is a much more artistic record and, given how easy it could have been for them to simply cash in and take another swing at their earlier aesthetic, it engenders a sort of appreciation or even admiration for the attempt, despite the inconsistent quality throughout the album (and, sometimes, even within a song itself).

[Angel_Grace_Blue 0]

I don't know how many people here have heard of him (Unless you really like Lil' Jon a few years back), but you need to listen to Bohagon and then buy his album Crunk in HD because it's one of the best rap albums I've heard in a while.