When I said the other day that someone was going to miss the point and give this album a 6.5, this is the exact review I was envisioning. (I’m just sorta bummed that av club is the outlet running it; cause I like them a lot.)Long story short: they need a new guitarist.
What “point” did I miss?
You click “like” on my posts pretty regularly so I’m assuming you like me a lot, too, but I’ll let that one slide.
Oh, you’re brilliantly pithy at least a couple times a week it seems like.
I guess what’s irritating in this instance the fact that you pretty much start with condescension (“Brooklyn, amiright?” *self-loathing hipster peanut gallery applause break*) and then later falsely conflate the band’s vocabulary with irony. It’s a fairly common reading of the band and I think it almost always ends up framing them with an expectation that’s not really fair.
If anything, I was trying to be condescending toward the audience: the fact that the band has to pander toward certain indie-snob expectations while other, better bands (Paramore, for one) can’t get the time of day from those audiences is unfortunate for those listeners and, I think, limiting for Sleigh Bells. I don’t mind that the band’s a little gimmicky — it was a good gimmick last time.
Things is though, I honestly went into “Reign of Terror” expecting some dizzying tech metal runs and power chord riffs that somehow doubled the infinity guitars of “Treats.” By the third listen, however, I realized that I was hearing something entirely more gutsy. When you talk about “Stepping back to admire” a guitar chord, those are moments on the record where I get tingles.
Yeah, I just hear a missed opportunity and boring writing, especially with the veneer of the startling production style gone, which is why I was more impressed by the more intricate, ’80s pop-type songs. An A.V. Club C+ is a positive review, after all. Thanks for the feedback, though.
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rawkblog reblogged this from raptoravatar and added:
be condescending toward the audience: the fact...pander toward certain indie-snob...
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raptoravatar reblogged this from rawkblog and added:
Oh, you’re brilliantly pithy at least a couple times a week it seems like. I guess what’s irritating in this instance...
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