Clean Bandit

Yes I think there is consensus around that point.

Leveraging all those years of music lessons! Demonstrating how to make pop music without disappointing your parents so much that they stop paying your rent!

Wait that song went to #1 wtf

like marcello i am an old'un, so not really audience of value, but i have a soft spot for coffee table friendly trip hop/ melodic house
(hello buzzin' fly !).
so, i gave these videos a spin.
one track in : loved it - i will buy this album.
two tracks in : not bad - i will probably buy this album.
three tracks in : ok, getting bored now - will buy this in fopp for a fiver.
four tracks in : bored. f*ck'em.

it's not about clean bandit being middle class themselves, it's the entire innocent smoothies keep twee and twee on vibe that they encapsulate

posh boys doing boring ~dark~ sub-burial tedium is always annoying but that doesn't mean this is any preferable

Best moment on any of their songs is the bit on A+E when she sings "I'm a come for you I'm a predator" and then follows it up with the weediest vocal noise imaginable.

also this moment is complete cringe

it'd be something you drink through a straw, man

― Internet Alas (wins), Monday, February 17, 2014 2:26 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol, can't tell if Tim missed the pun/point here or chose to respond as drily as possible

it's the entire innocent smoothies keep twee and twee on vibe that they encapsulate

― lex pretend, Monday, February 17, 2014 6:37 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark

if only dom could see us now

who?

He's probably out there rocking Belle & Sebastian and Hefner like he always was.

The thing about the whole Keep Calm & Put Up Bunting faux-nostalgia is that a significant part of it is about fear of black culture and that's clearly not what's happening here. Like it feels significant that Clean Bandit came up through the Black Butter stable, rather than through, say Wichita or someone. There's the fact that this is being rinsed on 1xtra and there's been minimal attempt to break them on 6music (despite them being spiritually pretty close to, say, Hot Chip).

Tbh focusing on the plinkiness of the verses overlooks the euphoria of the chorus and *that's* why this record is #1. Even the string flourishes in the intro function in a kind of MJ Cole way. So either there's some bizarre counterintuitive entryism in trying to break twee indie dance to a black British audience or there's something else at work here.

None of this is gussying them up or pretending they're anything they're not, like it's obvious they know what they are and what they can and cannot pull off, and generally UK dance scenes are at their best when they're at their most pluralist. (ie one Clean Bandit is fine, a rash of them would ruin everything).

Keep calm and keep the meme alive fellas

I mean "this band suck because of pippa's arse" really does seem to be the level here

If Dicslosure = Basement Jaxx then Clean Bandit = Groove Armada.

sub-carmody at best

xpost

Seems like they forgot to write a hook for this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40nFOYGVJtY

With the exception of Rather Be and the earlier singles, the album is DIRE.

I mean this was always a distinctly plausible scenario. Telephone Banking somehow manages to be even worse than its title suggests.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMKsR_wUSfA

Hey, this "Rather Be" song is rather all right!

i think it's lovely. sometimes when i hear it a little tipsy i get rather emotional.

they (recently?) put out another jess glynne collaboration and it is... not very good

yeah idk why i was hating on it earlier in this thread

dope song

Somehow I missed this when it came out at the beginning of the year but I've heard it a few times recently and have really fallen for it.

it's one of my most played songs of the year. i don't really understand how anyone could hate on it.

Ooh, there's a Pentatonix version!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPWPa-HMpj8

(Paging DJP.)

Wondering how popular this song has become in the U.S. after hearing it on the radio for the 2nd time tonight. Made it to #10 at one point and 23 weeks on the chart.

love this song

And, what do you know, just heard it for the 3rd time. My 13 y.o. daughter knows this song.

This song should be a hit everywhere.

it pretty much was

missed the top 40 in Japan but that's about it

ha that's perfect

japan rejecting the orientalism :)

this song is v boringly pleasant

the one dropped snare in the middle of the chorus is everything imo

I remember this song

was a good song imo

Rev otm

the one dropped snare in the middle of the chorus

It's almost not even a chorus. It sounds like a pre-chorus but then there is no chorus, just the vamping on the title words. I think it's a beautiful construction.

Oh, I just heard the dropped snare! You were talking about the vamping part as being the chorus.

That also suggests that the part before ("If you gave me a chance..." etc.) is a pre-chorus.

there's some interesting ideas going on in the newest single with jess glynne but i'm not sure if it really comes together as well as it ought to

i just think of it as a chorus with multiple parts. is it really a vamp if it appears with every single chorus?

I think so. I don't think the term is only used to describe situations where improvisation is going on.

The chorus is "No-no no-no / No place I'd rather be"

The rest of this album has faded but Rather Be sounds better than ever.

I played out a remix of this on Friday night as the last song of the evening and it was joyous.

I don't really get the 'boringly pleasant' tag it's been given. There are so many different hooks, and as is alluded to above, it's hard to tell which bit is the chorus. I also like the casual cheesiness of 'with every step we take/Kyoto to Dubai'. And the way the little 'dadalada-da-dah / dadalada-da-dah dah' vamp gets passed on from instrument to instrument. And that missed snare. And the way it drops out and comes back in with 'yeah-e-yeah-e-YEAH-E-YEAH-E YEAH YEAH!'. I like it all really.

oh and the almost-clumsiness of those club-marimbas on some of the phrases where they sound like a fumble, but it's def on purpose.

and the italo-house pianos and how they land and mimic the rhythmic pattern of 'it's a shot in the dark but I'll MAKE. IT.'

Can we go back to the "Chris Martin soundalike vocal"