EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints

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"

I like this record a lot. Just bought it on amazon.

I'm a bit surprised by the critical rapture ... as it reminds me a lot of stuff like Edith Frost and Cynthia Dall.

― byebyepride, Wednesday, May 18, 2011 1:09 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

it reminds you of horrible stuff by edith frost and cynthia dall? are you saying that EMA is similar to bad things, or that the similarity is objectionable in itself? anyway, i get maybe cynthia as a reference point (blurry drones), but not edith - not that i'm terribly familiar with either.

PLMS sometimes reminds me of magik markers circa boss, but i hardly see that as a bad thing.

I'm saying I just bought it on amazon! Sheesh some people

o shit, eric's trip. that's what "anteroom" sounds like.

I have nothing against the similarity - which may not be anywhere other than my ears - and I've been enjoying the record, as I said. Just feeling old.

this is quite nice but it does baffle me that this gets so much attention when something like the tamaryn album was entirely ignored

This music is very epiphanic, in the strictest sense of the word... unless it means something totally different in pop music that I'm not aware of, like bombastic, emotiveness or something. I mean, it's purely subjective but I'd say this album's full of little moments of dawning realisation. A blankness of delivery isn't mutually exclusive to this. Also, a lot of these songs aren't necessarily about her right? Butterfly Knife is about some goth murder in LA I think, for example...

I honestly don't know what world I'm living in where this album is being labelled overrated, overhyped, etc. but I kinda like living there. Like, EMA is not even anywhere near Animal Collective's level of popularity, but this thread suggests that there is enough of a conversation going on somewhere to already produce something like a backlash. I'm honestly kind of baffled by it all.

this is quite nice but it does baffle me that this gets so much attention when something like the tamaryn album was entirely ignored

― imagine arse (electricsound), Wednesday, May 18, 2011 4:40 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

kind of hate these backlashy responses, no matter who the artist. tamaryn and EMA have very little in common, really.

get over it? "backlashy response" wtf are you even talking about? i like the record, it reminded me of tamaryn, end of story, why am i even explaining myself to you?

good question

This music is very epiphanic, in the strictest sense of the word... unless it means something totally different in pop music that I'm not aware of, like bombastic, emotiveness or something.

get you, but PLMS does tend to play its epiphanies pretty close to the chest, raymond carver-like. in pop terms, i guess that reads as anti-epiphanic.

I honestly don't know what world I'm living in where this album is being labelled overrated, overhyped, etc. but I kinda like living there. Like, EMA is not even anywhere near Animal Collective's level of popularity, but this thread suggests that there is enough of a conversation going on somewhere to already produce something like a backlash. I'm honestly kind of baffled by it all.

― jer.fairall, Wednesday, May 18, 2011 8:38 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

What is going on here? Why is Animal Collective being pulled into this? Why are the words "indie" and "alternative" being thrown around so loosely, as if these were things we've just encountered for the first time? If you're going to compare EMA and AC (for sole reason of being reviewed by Pitchfork), you should realize this is EMA's debut album and Merriweather Post Pavillion (that "overyhped, overrated" album most knowingly or unknowingly are referring to) was the 8th by the group. Also, they are, um, entirely different species of hype here. I won't even address how the comparison is like pitting Leonard Cohen against My Bloody Valentine.

dude, dont even begin to address it

tellem

you're going to compare EMA and AC (for sole reason of being reviewed by Pitchfork), you should realize this is EMA's debut album and Merriweather Post Pavillion (that "overyhped, overrated" album most knowingly or unknowingly are referring to) was the 8th by the group.

Exactly. AC were the recipients of a lot of online hype and fawning discussion, MCC topped the P&J poll, and yet EMA has already, a week and a day after her album was released, being treated, at least in this circle, as something "popular" enough to warrant backlash. Wasn't comparing anything to anything else; was just surprised that this discussion was already happening.

Ok, I'm getting you now. But mind you, this is ILM. She only has about 64k scrobbles on last.fm, which is abysmal. Not that I think it warrants comparison again, but AC has about over 46 million scrobbles. ~time will tell~

It's okay. I can't get excited by it.

I can't even write a decent sentence about it. I think maybe I've heard it all before? It's kind of trope-laden.

trope-laden

'Breakfast' sounds similar to Smashing Pumpkins' 'Mayonaise' to me.

osama trope-laden

as something "popular" enough to warrant backlash

it's received several fawning reviews already from "big" reviewers, surely that's enough justification to instigate a backlash? It doesn't really matter what the public think, or how long it's been out (old enough to be praised, old enough to be attacked), the fact that journos have latched onto it is enough.

I'm just puzzled as to why this has been picked out from the sea of noisy miserable songwriters and put to the forefront, because i see nothing remarkable there

gonna stop talking about it now. Not going to listen to it again, and from the looks of things it's been bypassed by most of the internet. Shouldn't trouble me again

thing is, you're basically just saying that you don't like it, which is fine. you're entitled to your tastes.

but you're bolstering the apparent import of your simple distaste by means of dull hyperbole ("this record is complete dogshit"), suggestions that there's something suspect about the praise the album has received ("there must be some sort of conspiracy to make it popular"), and nonsensical dismissals of the genre you believe it inhabits ("i don't want to dislike indie rock, but if this is the best they can do"). none of which amounts to a meaningful critique of what the album is or isn't doing. you're simply restating the obvious fact that merked don't like the EMA record. which again is cool, but hardly requires the fancy footwork.

But don't you see? Of course there's a conspiracy. Almost certainly involving the CIA, the IMF and the reviews desk of the NME. A bunch of critics all liking a record that some random poster doesn't really like? It's the only reasonable explanation!

um, excuse me, random poster?

i was heavily sedated when i wrote all that so you might want to take it with a pinch of salt. But i've already expressed up there what the record is and specifically what it isn't doing. I'm a simple man, and i see it thusly: are any of the parts worthy of note? Lyrically, song wise, sonically, in terms of personality or mystique or emotion.. no. Is it more than the sum of its parts? No.

I can see why most things are picked up by your mainstream-ish media outlets. I can see the appeal of an Animal Collective, or an Odd Future. But i can't see what appeals about this. It's not just a case of not liking it, it's that i don't get what makes it stand out. I suppose it must have affected some people, and more power to them. But not I

*cacophanous applause*

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

Yes! It's a great song. The whole album evokes a certain 90s-ness (in a good way) for me, if that makes any sense. In any case, I liked the album, and I think the critical praise it's getting is deserved.

i was heavily sedated when i wrote all that so you might want to take it with a pinch of salt

Swallow your own poison, kid.

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.