PALM my new favorite band

yeah i think it's the lack of variation, tunes or textural variety that gets me, comes off like irksome brash math-noodling with godawful tune-yardsy non-songwriting. the resultant limply hectic atmosphere may be enough for some of you (and the usually-imago-friendly max tundra, who called this his AOTY for some reason) but it falls on the wrong side of deeply infuriating for me and i struggle to see what new it brings to the table. it must be doing something right rhythmically - i guess i am quite resistant to bands whose shtick is polyrhythms - i wasn't convinced by horse lords at all, for instance - but this is like a sickly-sweet pop take on horse lords that accentuates everything i found unconvincing and ditches everything i found encouraging (for instance, horse lords at least develop their songs)

this sort of ogmor-on-mary-lattimore takedown is usually reserved for the 'dis hyped records' thread these days but i can't let palm be. my monumentally unpleasant take will doubtless deepen your collective determination to like this album but, as with julia holter, i can't let it lie as it's from a genre (experimental art-pop) that is supposedly my wheelhouse and yet each kudos it receives cuts into me like a personal affront

the resultant limply hectic atmosphere may be enough for some of you

this is why no one can stand you fyi

but fuck, i love polyrhythms in some contexts

*shrugs*

like who says shit like that? grow up

oh hi flopson. you're at least as big a cunt as i am fyi

I think Horse Lords bother me more because it's such a waste of a good band name when they're the musical equivalent of trying to eat like ten dry crackers at once

everyone on this board is an intolerable elitist just roll w/it xp flopson

for the record i don't _hate_ imago - he's good at championing a lot of music i like - but the aggrievedness, going on at length about not just a band but the absolute personal affront to music represented by anybody who likes said bands - yeah i definitely eyeroll about that.

being passionate about the music you like is a good thing. being as passionate about the music you hate is not.

this way we get everything out in the open and work through our issues. this will 75% end up with me loving palm in 2023

25% flopson and i meet to duel

this way we get everything out in the open and work through our issues. this will 75% end up with me loving palm in 2023

― imago

but there's nothing here that needs to be "out in the open", you don't like palm, that's fine, i honestly don't give a shit about how you feel about them, i just wish you wouldn't go around to the palm thread and drop these lengthy rants about how much you hate them, jesus that's what rym is for.

If I'd known I'd spark an argument I would've help my trap shut.

(I like Horse Lords, too.)

*ducks*

Kept not help. Sunday, eh?

you didn't spark an argument, macdara, imago is always like this

yet each kudos it receives cuts into me like a personal affront

― imago, Saturday, January 12, 2019 1:48 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you really need to stop taking other people liking things personally

I kind of appreciate that imago gets that invested in rock aesthetics and I do think he is coming from a place of wanting to challenge, engage, and appreciate. I'm loving this myself, though. Might try to explain later.

Imago my man you know I got love for you but it never fails to crack me up when you get on your speak truth to power schtick as if you're standing up to the cultural hegemony of, say, the Beatles except it's always a band like Horse Lords who literally only like 20k nerds like us on the entire planet even know who they are....as if a man can't go down to the pub for a pint without some bloke jabbering on about Horse Lords

I want to go to the Horse Lords pub

they only have a horse lords night once a month, the rest of the time it's all "dondestan"

"I kind of appreciate that imago gets that invested in rock aesthetics and I do think he is coming from a place of wanting to challenge, engage, and appreciate. I'm loving this myself, though. Might try to explain later.

― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r)"

it comes off to me as being in the grand tradition of the dave marsh school of criticism. i don't have any particular objection to dave marsh but i find his writing more valuable when he's talking about his favorite rock and roll records of 1962 than when he's attempting to review sparks records

Tbf imago hating Palm is more like Marsh working out why he doesn't like a 60s soul record when he lives for Marvin Gaye as opposed to Marsh bullshitting about latent fascism in every 70s prog record.

macdara you certainly didn't spark an argument, i was just being an asshole

sund4r why do u like this then, what are some ways in

I'm down with imago's takedowns fwiw

being passionate about the music you like is a good thing. being as passionate about the music you hate is not.

― Sigur Ros or Pomplamoose type shit (rushomancy), Saturday, January 12, 2019 4:20 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if you don't hate anything, you don't love anything

But there's nothing won't with a little filtering either. Unilateral negativity does tend to make the thread more about the poster than about the music.

if you don't hate anything, you don't love anything

― Paul Ponzi

great words of wisdom. similarly, can one _really_ call oneself a pacifist unless one's killed something?

i enjoyed imago’s post.

i mean god forbid somebody expresses an opinion on something they can’t quite get into. the post was thoughtful i thought, and i def don’t get the condescending vibes some ppl are picking up on here.

also sund4r otm re: marsh.

also let’s be kind to each other please, imago’s post was sincere and coming from a place of love i think

Imago, I'm trying to articulate it on a couple of listens. I was almost guaranteed to like something that got compared to both Mew and Horse Lords. I think a lot has to do with the way the tempo changes and stops and starts can feel almost viscerally jarring while the gentle, melodic vocal lines almost work like a balm. The guitar sound (with chorus, harmonizer, and short delay, I think, playing these mid to high-register staccato figures, with angular melodic choices) is really distinct and has similar sweet/jarring quality. They don't give you the kind of satisfaction in terms of formal development of songwriting that Mew do: they're doing something more aphoristic, like Wire did maybe?(Probably This Heat too but I don't know them well enough.)

Obv remains to be seen whether it stands the test of time but it is grabbing me rn.

Tbf imago hating Palm is more like Marsh working out why he doesn't like a 60s soul record when he lives for Marvin Gaye as opposed to Marsh bullshitting about latent fascism in every 70s prog record.

― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r)

i can accept that, but there's still no actual answer there. god knows i've spent plenty of fruitless time trying to figure out systematically why i like some things and don't like others, because it would save me a lot of effort listening to music i wind up not liking. there's no answer there. a large percentage of music is music i don't particularly like, which doesn't make it bad, which doesn't make other people wrong for liking it. there are so many other things for me to be upset, offended, and enraged by that hating music, most of the time, just seems like a fucking waste.

TS: getting riled up from hating music vs. getting riled up by other people hating music

it's a fair cop, i've been extremely cranky and irritable ever since i gave up on arguing politics and i'm definitely taking out my repressed hostility on this thread

been feeling a bit ashamed because the bit flopson picked on really was a little too much

I can kinda get imago's qualms. I have seen this band live twice and was utterly entranced both times, but when I try to listen to their records, I get bored. They are really good at building tension through repetition, and the tension seems to come across with much more power in a live setting.

xp no it wasn't. good lord. i like palm (i think i started this thread) but i enjoyed imago's post. good points, thoughtful examination trying to work out why they don't like palm or horse lords. it's interesting. imago is not turrican. come on everyone

tbh i am also weary of polyrhythmic rock bands on record, and i much prefer palm & horse lords live (though i think they've made great records - i just don't find myself reaching for them very often. unlike Don Cab)

but maybe if i was around... wherever tf don cab were from and was able to see them dozens of times i'd feel differently

some of you are being way too reasonable to me haha, I should have toned my post way down while still examining my misgivings

I can certainly imagine this lot being quite the force as a live band

what's to tone down? god forbid someone disagrees or tries to figure out why they hate a band you like... honestly perplexed at reaction to your post.

New album is growing on me. Not as immediate as Rock Island, the hooks are slightly hidden in the more maximalist production. I’m OK with that.

forgot this is where i beefed with flopson lol. sorry flopson

will give these guys another chance

Grateful for this thread revive. It's like ILM clash of the titans.

Also I will check out this band and report back with my beloved hot takes.

Ok so I listened to the new one and imago's "monumentally unpleasant take" on the previous album is still pretty much otm.