EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints

Yeah, forgive me for that post upthread... trying to remember what I meant by "intimate yet impenetrable" and mostly coming to the conclusion that this is something else I've posted post-bong rip and intermediating between ilx/reddit/jewel staite's twitter.

Listened to this 3 times and am really unsure what to think. The songs are just okay... I've reread that Pitchfork review twice now and seemingly still can't figure what it is that warrants this to attain a BNM, and not just simply a decent rating.

presumably they did a quick show of hands for 'so do a bunch of us dig this record' and it turned out a bunch of them dug the record

alternatively, cthulhu

kelpolaris it seems you spend a lot of time mystified by pitchfork

I think if you make the sonic/aesthetic choices that she has you probably WANT people to think you're a bit on the inpenetrable side but the lyrics are so obvious and upfront they undercut that.

People bitch about indie rock all the time but I'd listen to a lot more of it if it sounded like this. I think it helps that the lyrics are casually brilliant and not just some afterthought.

This girl and Gowns are like JT Leroy to me.

^^
please elaborate

Exploitation of one's own backstory + extreme catharsis w/out any payoff, no comedy, no anger, no epiphany.

I think if you make the sonic/aesthetic choices that she has you probably WANT people to think you're a bit on the inpenetrable side but the lyrics are so obvious and upfront they undercut that.

this is an interesting read, maybe plays into owen p's JTL comparison? (which, ok, frankly i don't get. read sarah way back when and found it full of comedy and epiphany, no anger.) when it's working, i like california's combination of arty indifference and poetic directness. just as often, though, it doesn't work and feels simply "arty" to me - smart & well-appointed, but a bit empty. wish i found the music more engaging.

haven't heard the album though, and i'm interested enough to plan on it.

before or after the rapture?

after, of course

that's not fair. that's not fair at all. there was time now. there was, was all the time i needed...

[just noticed sysiphus - cool!]

except with the letters reversed

Exploitation of one's own backstory + extreme catharsis w/out any payoff, no comedy, no anger, no epiphany.

I couldn't disagree with this more tbh. I mean, I don't think it's funny but anger and epiphanies seem to be the backbone of it for me.

generally not what one thinks of when one thinks of j t leroy these days, i thought 0w3n was suggesting she was actually whitehouse and EMA was a fictional creation

i like this record! i think it could be seen as blank or po-faced in some way but i'm not sure it is. i don't know. i wonder if there is a dividing line between ppl who think "i've bled all my blood out / these red pants don't show that" is clunky and those who think it is funny

that's like my favorite lyric on the record

it's both clunky and (a little) funny. doesn't strike me as great.

i thought 0w3n was suggesting she was actually whitehouse and EMA was a fictional creation

yeah, but that's only a small part of "one's own backstory + extreme catharsis w/out any payoff, no comedy, no anger, no epiphany." the whole description just throws me, though erika = terminator makes sense.

she is quite tall.

heavily reinforced

She'll be back.

Sorry. Have SB'd self.

guys - she's not the terminator - i've met her parents. they were pretty cool.

I like the record and I don't really want to get into my reservations. I'm chuffed that people are going to bat for this.

Me too, and they really are: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/artist-to-watch-ema-s-spellbinding-noise-folk-confessionals-20110517

i don't want to be THAT GUY, but imo this record is complete dogshit and that it has so much critical acclaim is utterly baffling. I don't see how even the most generous music fan could rate this as any higher than "Deeply Average", and I guess there must be some sort of conspiracy to make it popular.. yeah

This is not good though, surely?

haha yeah its terrible we were all just saying it was good to prank u lol

you have to admit we had you going for a minute or so there bro... lol.

maybe u just like shit music lol

What's so bad apart it apart from it being hyped, merked?

It's growing on me after me initially only enjoying 'California'... sounds more Gowns-y with each listen.

I like this record. I love the song pitchfork had up awhile back, The Grey Ship.

However, after watching a clip of her performing at south by southwest, it's clear she she's taken a thing or two from the Billy Squier school of arena rock arm movement

I don't think it's terrible, but it's just really feels quintessentially mediocre to me. I'm not impressed with the production, the vocals are heavily indebted to an array of notable names/whatever suits EMA's voice; and I'm having a hard time figuring out what exactly is so cathartic about this album as a listener, and not the artist.

But is it just me or are a lot of new names popping up in this thread?

*not from the POV of the artist. "i wish he'd leave a mark..." is not nearly as effecting upon me as I is I assume for her to sing. I'm not lamenting the fact that I can't relate, or that I wish all music would be more associable. But that this album is being acclaimed for being a representation of an artist finally getting something off their chest.... I mean, a lot of music does that. The majority of it, actually.

the fact that it's hyped means nothing. That's just the vessel that pushed me towards it. But i really don't see what people are getting from it.. weak lyrics, unpleasant/emotion-free vocal performance, dull sonics, no.. songs. I'll admit it's one of the rare times i've popped out of my "alternative music"-free bunker and actually given a moment of time to the zeitgeist act, but this is the sort of thing that'll make me stack up another layer of bricks.

i don't want to dislike indie rock, but if this is the best they can do.. like, eurgh

yeah, like how some people poke their heads up and listen to one new rap album every 5 years or so. good strategy, imo.

You've lost me. Do you think this record is good or not? Does it matter that I don't really listen to this genre? So I can't judge it unless i've seen the context in which it's grown. That sounds like a whole bunch of bollocks to me

I have heard other "alternative" records in my life, btw

which ones?

Jagged Little Pill
Carry on Up The Charts

some others

er, you're kidding with those, yes?

no, he's right! credentials is overrated.

and gah, i said the dumbest shit upthread. forgive me. this is great, gorgeous song after song, album of the year, etc. every track from "grey ship" through "marked", beautiful in at least 3 ways. anteroom maybe = elliott bedhead smith, but shit, ANTEROOM!

said he was a fag
but you know he was a pretty man
don't you know they all look
pretty to me?

The more I listen to this, the more I like it, it kind of sucks me in with repeated listenings.

(funny because I wasn't that fond of Gowns, I bought it because it was getting so much love in the Plan B office but it didn't leave a lasting impression on me.)

But I think what I like about it is the ... blankness. That there isn't the expected "payoff, comedy, anger, epiphany" - there is this blankness which can be as much of a reaction to trauma as those other responses. And perhaps it's a bit voyeuristic to expect, as a listener, that you are entitled to payoff, comedy, anger, epiphany, whatever, rather than this fierce beauty and emotional blankness that she's chosen to portray - picture of her in a homemade "emptiness" t-shirt makes me think that blankness is an aesthetic choice as well as emotional reaction.

That there isn't the expected "payoff, comedy, anger, epiphany" - there is this blankness... And perhaps it's a bit voyeuristic to expect, as a listener, that you are entitled to payoff, comedy, anger, epiphany, whatever, rather than this fierce beauty and emotional blankness that she's chosen to portray

OTM, though i'd say that the blankness is primarily an aesthetic choice - or rather that, as a listener at a listener's remove, i have to treat it as such.

I like this record fine but I'm a bit surprised by the critical rapture (OK not surprised in churnalism buzz-band hype-cycle land) as it reminds me a lot of stuff like Edith Frost and Cynthia Dall. Guess that dates me, eh?

And Anteroom sounds to my ears like Pod-era Breeders.

love pod-era breeders! those are the best breeders.

don't think that anteroom is that similar, though. doesn't push the delicate fragility angle so hard, smudgier.

Well, it's all obviously an aesthetic choice in the same way that any art is an aesthetic choice. I don't know if the "trauma" (for lack of a better word, but the songs seem to be written from the point of view of people burned by drugs or burned by the fake promises of Californian libertarianism or small town small mindedness or just burned by love or its absence or just brutalised) is in her life or just in the situations depicted in the songs as characters, because I'm just a listener. But I'm aware that that blankness *is* a valid reaction or aesthetic choice to the situations described in the songs, rather than a failure to write the big epiphanic pay-off that some people seem to want.

But jeez ILX, complain if critics dislike something, complain if critics like it. Can't win, can you.

haha - one of my fondest memories of Erika is her t-shirt that said "You Can't Win"

It's gonna be her 'New Jersey'...

i was alone in the citaaay

Only one listen in, but aside from "So Blonde," where are the songs?!

This album makes me sad. I almost want to take back my support of Martyrs.

It is *because* of Martyrs that this album (so far) makes me sad.

I think I'm in love with her and all that I think she stands for. She just seems happy and so well adjusted and free and a real lover. She seems way more of a lover than a critic.
I like to play her music alone and play it loud, maybe with a pint or two. I love how there is a seeming disconnect between the sparse electronics and guitar and the richness of her vocals. I love the subtle changes within the songs. Some parts are so amazing that you wonder if they were happy accidents instead of immaculately sequenced. Have not been this big of a fan of an artists first two albums since Le Tigre or the White Stripes.

he's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

blonde

http://25.media.tumblr.com/9cd48e9a89876c2b37488e88bc6bc8a4/tumblr_n1ikrphI9h1todheko1_400.gif

I mean I know this song is not ~typical EMA~ but I have such a soft spot for summertime sunny day shoegaze jams that I just want to listen to it on repeat

guys what if this song is actually better than anything that Lush or Ride did

warm lush overdriven guitars with stoned reverby vocals, suneshine all around, crack open a beer and chill by the pool

song owns video owns vibe owns

this is one of those songs that like seems like it sounds like a million other songs but when I actually stop and try to think of other songs that sound like this w/ this vibe i just draw a blank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfkKIH6ggcA

2 yrs later and still blasting "So Blonde" for zenith summertime vibes

New album, Exile in the Outer Ring, out August 25!

the new song is good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7epnE7mxPM

I know nothing
Lasts forever
If you don’t love me, someone will

8-)

Love this new song!

I've not really followed her career deeply so I don't know if this is as strong or not compared to previous stuff but this new album is A+

Haven't heard the new one but Past Life Martyred Saints is still amazing 6 years later.

Goes for like $6-7 on discogs these days... what's the deal? Not that it's super indicative of anything except supply > demand but still... did it not age well for most people?

This reminds me that I once opened for her and Downtown Boys and she (and they) were extremely nice & cool

I see her albums pretty cheap in used bins a lot as well. but in general music by non cis male solo artists tends to have diminished resale value (with some exceptions of course)

I'm sure her somewhat avant leanings aren't much help either

i still give past life martyred saints a spin every now and then -- it holds up well, though California doesn't feel like as much of a standout single as it once did (for context, it came in at #3 on p4k's eoy singles list). I don't think i've played anything from the second album since the year it came out

perhaps "suffered" a bit from overexposure, always seemed kind of niche to me in its aesthetic

it's also quite dark so for me personally it's not something I listen to that much

I was very impressed with the theme of the last record. really enjoyed the interviews about the kinds of ideological conversations she would get into and how the best shows were always at the boundaries between the cities and the suburbs, she had her finger on something being able to address those issues without falling into easy condemnations, while at the same time not letting the evil off the hook. what she does isn't always a kind of pop music I intuitively get, but y'know local bay area family means I root for and I thought that last one was going to be her biggest

I hope she doubles down and goes further into it now that 2020's made all those issues even less ignorable

i know i gave the full album a spin at least once but i don't recall much about it. should try it again. "california" was/is tremendous

I listened to this again a few months back, and its still a very impressive record in the way that Fetch the Bolt Cutters is a very impressive record, though my enthusiasm may have dimmed a tiny bit.

PLMS takes me back to an alternate reality, somewhere in 1997, where this album sits comfortably next to Sonic Youth's Washing Machine and Cat Power's What Would the Community Think.

I think the description upthread of how she evokes both the best and the worst of the alternative 90's is otm. Her songwriting - like most of the songwriting of 90's alternative - leaves a lot to be desired, but she's great at evoking a past life. Problem for me with the follow-up albums to PLMS is that the clearer the production, the less evocative of nostalgia her songs get and her sound is all about nostalgia.