that's... not gonna work
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 22 April 2019 19:10 (five years ago) link
ft. brandon stosuy
― imago, Monday, 22 April 2019 19:12 (five years ago) link
can well imagine fantano expanding his empire to guest features actually
― imago, Monday, 22 April 2019 19:13 (five years ago) link
"PEOPLE WHO ‘REVIEW’ ALBUMS AND DONT MAKE MUSIC THEMSELVES SHOULD BE UNEMPLOYED"
A world where they only people who are "qualified" to consume music are players already exists
https://pcdn.columbian.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/618995-bitz-battle-lawyer-b-1024x767.jpg
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 22 April 2019 19:17 (five years ago) link
fwiw, I played music for a while and am now unemployed
― ebro the letter (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 22 April 2019 19:51 (five years ago) link
I'm not quite sure how anyone could read the sentence, "Her pledge to be “ARETHA FRANKLIN FOR THE 2018 GENERATION” is evident, if not quite actualized; this generation’s Natasha Bedingfield is maybe more accurate," as complimentary, and I don't hate Natasha Bedingfield. It's saying exactly what Cousin Slappy said on this thread.
― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Monday, 22 April 2019 20:14 (five years ago) link
It would also help, when talking about how bad the rapping on the album is, to quote some lyrics that are actually bad
― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Monday, 22 April 2019 20:20 (five years ago) link
The review seems pretty even-handed to me. Shoehorning Stacey Abrams in is dumb; someone should have cut that bit, but Pitchfork's editing seems kinda hands-off (the number of typos that get repaired in reviews as the day goes on is evidence of that). But the quoted rap lyrics are terrible - they do read like something an SNL writer would have Elizabeth Warren rap from a podium. And the general thesis - "the music can feel like a means to a greater end" and the description of it as "empowerment-core" - is an accurate reflection of the pop landscape in general. That's what the industry is selling this year.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Monday, 22 April 2019 20:38 (five years ago) link
It has been decreed that Gebrauchsmusik is ripe for a comeback.
― pomenitul, Monday, 22 April 2019 20:52 (five years ago) link
this is one of the things that absolutely drives me batty
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 22 April 2019 20:59 (five years ago) link
Here's the full verse from "Like A Girl", with the quoted lyrics connected to the rest of the verse:
Woke up feelin' like I just might run for PresidentEven if there ain't no precedent, switchin' up the messagingI'm about to add a little estrogenBuy my whip by myself, pay my rent by myselfOnly exes that I care about are in my fucking chromosomesI don't really need you, I'm Macaulay Culkin, home aloneBad bitch, diamonds in my collarbone (Yee, yee)Buy my whip by myself, pay my rent by myself
Here. by comparison, is a verse from "All of the Lights"
Something wrongI hold my headM.J. gone, our nigga dead!I slapped my girl, she called the fedsI did that time and spent that breadI'm heading home, I'm almost thereI'm on my way, headed up the stairsTo my surprise, a nigga replacing meI had to take 'em to that ghetto university (all of the lights)
Are these both examples of "bad" lyrics? Is one worse than the other?
― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Monday, 22 April 2019 21:10 (five years ago) link
Saying "this sounds like something SNL would have Liz Warren rap in a skit" completely ignores the context and sentiment of the verse and, interestingly, erases exactly the persona Lizzo is projecting onto the verse in order to make an entirely bullshit point. She is not literally talking about running for President and it's wholly disingenuous to make that comparison when the review knows damn well that the line is about self-belief and self-confidence.
Meanwhile, Kanye is rambling about how Michael Jackson's death made him beat his girlfriend.
― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Monday, 22 April 2019 21:14 (five years ago) link
voting both bad but ye bad is extra bad
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 22 April 2019 21:15 (five years ago) link
Kanye’s lyrics have always been horrendous
― blokes you can't rust (sic), Monday, 22 April 2019 21:24 (five years ago) link
Are these both examples of "bad" lyrics?
Yes. "messaging"/"estrogen" is a terrible rhyme, and so is "chromosomes"/"Home Alone." Kanye West is just a terrible lyricist, period.
Is one worse than the other?
Yes. Kanye's is worse. But that's to be expected. Lizzo has "Juice" and "Good As Hell," both of which I like a lot, so she can do better than this.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Monday, 22 April 2019 21:25 (five years ago) link
Perpetua going all Culture Industry with this take.
http://www.fluxblog.org/2019/04/lizzo-cultural-cartography/
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Monday, 22 April 2019 21:27 (five years ago) link
Also, sometimes bad Kanye lyrics are the best Kanye lyrics.
"president/precedent" is pretty poetry-slammish imo, which is not really my thing, but "estrogen/messenging" is a genuinely terrific off-rhyme. I like the x's in the chromosomes line though that's partly because it brings back fond memories of the first time I heart "Prophets of Rage." The bit about rent by myself etc. is the sort of lyric I connect with and feel a lot, it's so naked & real to me, lyrics that talk about how good it feels to put food on the table always get me. but I think most critics in 2019, when they talk about lyrics, are engaging "the narrative," you'll excuse me, not the lyrics.
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 22 April 2019 21:27 (five years ago) link
estrogen/messenging is a pretty cool slant-rhyme, actually, and inseparable -- like all lyrics -- from the vocalist's delivery.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 22 April 2019 21:29 (five years ago) link
ha, xpost!
I mean those lyrics are no match for these gems from Best New Track by Lil Uzi Vert Make it rain in the club like a nasty dayTold 'em that I'm comin', oh, no ejaculatePastry, pocket, boy, you not havin’ cakeFuck that overcoat and I swear your jacket late
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 22 April 2019 21:52 (five years ago) link
sorry have all of perpetua’s takes been declared irrelevant yet
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 22 April 2019 21:57 (five years ago) link
literally leaves a huge trail of garbage and slime and bullshit behind him whenever he writes
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 22 April 2019 21:58 (five years ago) link
literal lol at Lil Uzi Vert
― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:02 (five years ago) link
People are like “who is this crazy man on the bus giggling at his phone”
― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:03 (five years ago) link
TIL some people genuinely take pride in working to afford the necessities of life. it really does take all kinds!
― Simon H., Monday, 22 April 2019 22:04 (five years ago) link
Have you literally not heard any black music before
― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:06 (five years ago) link
Turn it off for five minutes Simon
― don't mock my smock or i'll clean your clock (silby), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:07 (five years ago) link
if you grew up with no zapatosyou'd celebrate the minute you been havin' dough
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:07 (five years ago) link
Technically I was responding to JCLC there but I'm happy to FP myself anyway
― Simon H., Monday, 22 April 2019 22:09 (five years ago) link
i judge all lyrical content by how it comes across when i read it written down
― dyl, Monday, 22 April 2019 23:22 (five years ago) link
kind of love how the discourse on this record has splintered a bunch of archetypal allegiances
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 00:12 (five years ago) link
new board desc obvi
― don't mock my smock or i'll clean your clock (silby), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 00:15 (five years ago) link
my reaction to this record on first pass was that shes exceptionally talented, but a few of the song types felt a bit "this is the amy winehouse type song; this is the bruno mars type song;" of major label A&R ... but I also have not spent enough time w her work to know whether or not there's a thematic connectivity that makes these costumes serve a wider narrative, & if that wider narrative is interesting, etc. ... that said she's such an evident talent that I can see really getting into a stage of her career where she starts leaning into the personal, idiosyncratic etc.
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 00:15 (five years ago) link
this is not the same, btw, as lamenting the Algorithms the way perpetua is ... why did so many poptimists go anti-poptimist as soon as it became about spotify instead of record labels? lol
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 00:16 (five years ago) link
if this album were titled "Songs For Lizzo To Get Super Famous By" I wouldn't be mad about it
― don't mock my smock or i'll clean your clock (silby), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 00:17 (five years ago) link
what's a "personal, idiosyncratic" song? Real question. Is there a gauge? A failed genre exercise is 'personal,' too, under this rubric.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 00:20 (five years ago) link
i mean, i dont think this is something that a critic (or critically thinking listener) can really get prescriptive about, i'm more theorizing a suspicion abt what lizzo project I'll end up drawn to personally than telling her what kind of music she should make ... rap music for me is partly abt small-frequency idiosyncracies of narrative style, of word choice, of flow & the subtle ways artists weave together a persona & style and how those two interact ... shes more of a pop artist so I'm not like shocked her music isn't as concerned w this
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 01:26 (five years ago) link
so like when she does her "Nebraska" lol
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 01:36 (five years ago) link
it is amazing how often the handwavy arguments about algorithms in today's music business could just as well have been applied to the machinations of radio since at least, like, the mid 80s if not even earlier
― dyl, Tuesday, 23 April 2019 01:36 (five years ago) link
yeah its exceedingly annoying!! suddenly after two decades of being a poptimist you decided the popular will is ... bad?? perpetua as adorno is just an unexpected turn
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 01:43 (five years ago) link
i honestly think its just abt getting old & the platonic idea of pop in 2019 being pretty difft from the platonic ideal of 'pop' in 2001
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 01:44 (five years ago) link
the Perpetua thing is really weird, like this is from 5 years ago, a project she did with a local Mpls singer Caroline Smith when she was just doing clubs here...this whole idea her vibe is engineered is odd to me having seen her come uphttps://youtu.be/vd4aLl6A_o4
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 01:52 (five years ago) link
or this her old group, The Chalice from six years ago, obv feels a lot more amateur but I feel like her vibe here is p much in line with her nowhttps://youtu.be/mFCPSnHk6P0
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 01:56 (five years ago) link
That let em say song feels like it wd be in the perpetua sweet spot tbh... she’s a v v good singer
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 02:15 (five years ago) link
Those are separate points
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 02:18 (five years ago) link
to spin off what dyl said about 80s radio Lizzo actually feels more like an old fashioned all around talented entertainer with strong pop instincts
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 02:43 (five years ago) link
― dyl, Monday, April 22, 2019 9:36 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
complaining about algorithms is the new rockism, and I'm not even being remotely facetious, all the same arguments have been ported over
anyway a) this album is good but not my favorite by her, so much of it feels like it's 75% there; b) I didn't view the review as mean in the slightest, the tone was very much "I like this artist but not this particular album, so I'm going to go slightly out of my way to temper every criticism with a comment about how talented she is, in the futile hope that this will placate the stans." or maybe I'm just projecting because I do that a lot in reviews
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 02:45 (five years ago) link
Natasha Bedingfield is just a highly tenuous and random name to drop in 2019 (seriously how many readers would even remember her?) And putting her in this context, especially up against Aretha, is always going to look like you're ladling on the damnation and sprinkling on a tiny bit of faint praise.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 23 April 2019 08:00 (five years ago) link
Also I don't think it's controversial to suggest that the boundaries of what does and doesn't constitute 'good rapping' (or good rap lyrics) have become so elastic over the last decade or so that it's OK to raise an eyebrow when a writer or publication chooses to start enforcing them in some cases and not others. And to interrogate the reasons for that.
FWIW I don't actually enjoy Lizzo's music that much and haven't felt the urge to hear this yet - but the review doesn't read to me like its meeting the music half way. It might be trying to meet the artist half way, or the message, or the fans, but that's not quite the same thing.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 23 April 2019 08:09 (five years ago) link
The Made in America festival in Philly was cancelled. Lizzo was the headliner.
― hardcore technician gimmicks are also another popular choice f (President Keyes), Wednesday, 9 August 2023 13:57 (eight months ago) link