Down the rabbit hole. (DBO)

by stabbim , Des Moines, IA, USA, Monday, April 09, 2018, 12:53 (2203 days ago) @ Harmanimus
edited by stabbim, Monday, April 09, 2018, 13:01

re: Lorde

My understanding is it is a narrative/concept album

Interesting. I never thought of it as one, any more than any other album influenced by a breakup/coming-of-age time period. Although she has said the majority of it is about one specific house party, so I guess you could think of it that way.

re: TSwift

even some that are so g-by-committee can produce great music. I’ll give you that there is a plus to music that “feels real” but I don’t think that necessarily requires someone to play “singer/songwriter” for it to feel real.

There's definitely a huge grey area there for me. Some things are clearly too far towards the artificial side for me to stomach, others are less clear. Actually one of the first singers I ever got into when I was younger (I'll try to touch on the specifics if I ever get around to writing up my own thoughts) never wrote any of his own stuff as far as I know. That was before I really had any opinion on the subject, or even any knowledge of how music was made in the first place. But I appreciate that certain people who operate in a segment of the industry where everything's assumed to be manufactured (not always rightly) and thus COULD get away with it, don't do so.

re: AFI

I was introduced to them briefly with All Hallows EP/The Art of Drowning when I was first stretching my wings into less mainstream punk, jumping off from Minor Threat and Fugazi. But Sing the Sorrow is definitely when it clicked. AFI’s continued evolution still produces amazing stuff, though. Burials and the recently released Blood Album are both spectacular and identifiably AFI but bring their own identity.

Speaking of, though, basically everything Davey Havok touches is golden. Blaqk Audio, XTRMST, and Dreamcar are all great in their own right and identities.

Something I don't feel good about is that I didn't do a good job keeping up with AFI. Actually I didn't do ANY job of it at all. I was really into them in college, and then totally failed to keep up with anything they put out afterward (a big problem I have is music discovery/keeping up with new stuff - I need to touch on that too, probably). So my knowledge of them drops off somewhere around 2005. One of these days I'll catch up (is what I keep telling myself about that, and really ALL music).