>The Arctic Monkeys set the British record for fastest-selling debut album of all times (yawn). This new improved version of Oasis and the Smiths debuted with Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, an album that was impressive for what it did "not" deliver as opposed to what it delivered: it did not deliver a single second of music that people had not heard before.
Rock is so fucking lame now. Its either muh experimental that isñt even rock or just rehashed shit.
i forget are artic monkeys teh bad ones, or is that snow patrol?
>The band's method suffers from at least two problems. Spoken segments serve no purpose and detract from the overall project. The dual attack of rock and roll and free-form noise loses some of its impact because the two formats are never "fused", only appended one to the other. Godspeed You Black Emperor's ambient/noise/psychedelic music is only limited by tedious repetition and a lack of emotional focus.
>The fact that so many books still name the Beatles as "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art. Jazz critics have long recognized that the greatest jazz musicians of all times are Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Classical critics rank the highly controversial Beethoven over classical musicians who were highly popular in courts around Europe. Rock critics are still blinded by commercial success. The Beatles sold more than anyone else (not true, by the way), therefore they must have been the greatest. Jazz critics grow up listening to a lot of jazz music of the past, classical critics grow up listening to a lot of classical music of the past. Rock critics are often totally ignorant of the rock music of the past, they barely know the best sellers. No wonder they will think that the Beatles did anything worthy of being saved.
>Bowie was a protagonist of his times, although a poor musician: to say that Bowie is a musician is like saying that Nero was a harp player (a fact that is technically true, but misleading). Bowie embodies the quintessence of artificial art, raises futility to paradigm, focuses on the phenomenon rather than the content, makes irrelevant the relevant, and, thus, is the epitome of everything that went wrong with rock music.
>>63076491
I agree with him that the spoken segments are kinda stupid, but other than that I have no clue what he's talking about.
>Yeezus (Def Jam, 2013), designed with an incredible number of collaborators, is a sloppy, awkward and amateurish work despite the impeccable fusion of electronics and vocals, the impeccable collages, the impeccable production.
>But sound quality is a technological, not an artistic, fact. Daft Punk are responsible for the robotic beat of On Sight and the monster riff of Black Skinhead (one of the catchiest "songs"): cool but nothing we haven't heard before.
>There are a few moments of pathos: the reggae-like cry of I am a God in a desolate post-industrial soundscape, the gloomy crescendo of the first half of Hold My Liquor (before the misguided synth orgy), the martial trombone fanfares of Blood on the Leaves, and... i struggled to find at least one more.
>But there are also embarrassingly trivial moments of both mashup and sociopolitical analysis (New Slaves, I'm in It, Blood on the Leaves, and Bound 2, which is simply a lame tribute to soul music) and there is certainly an unusual dose of filler (a four-song EP would have been more appropriate for what West had to say in this album).
>As a narrative experience, these stories may try something new but it's more a case of a populist bard desperately trying to find something new to say to his followers than a serious discussion on gender and race. As an aural experience, this album feels terribly old, like most granpas when they try to speak the language of their high-school nephews.
>Maybe this album was only meant as a self-mocking joke?
ethered
>The first impression with Bjork's music is always of something terribly trivial, obnoxious and, ultimately, boring. Just like the Beatles before her, Bjork has made trivial pop music enhanced with studio wizardry. It's the studio wizardry, not the music, that people buy. And the tv-friendly image, of course. Anybody who thinks Bjork is a genius should try to listen at least to Solex. Let your ears, not publicity, judge.
This teebeeahce
>>63076616
I don't know how you could possibly call Bjrok's music trivial or even pop. and obnoxious/boring is completely subjective. and also how can you claim studio wizardry when like 70 percent of what makes her music so good is her unique voice??
>>63076705
ehh aphex twin said the same thing about bjork. called her a business
>>63076732
and? I like Aphex Twin but I wouldn't really trust his opinion on other music, he's been known to blatantly lie just to confuse or anger people.
>>63076491
This one is just bullshit
>>63076705
Someone was triggered because his waifu was insulted :o
Bjork sucks
>>63076766
piero please go
>>63076766
she's not my waifu but she makes great music
what does scaruffi even think about rock nowadays
does he agree that rap is the new rock?
>>63076606
Confirmed pleb
>>63076616
what people don't want to hear is that this could essentially be said about Another Green World and Remain in Light. their still-fresh studio prettiness fools everyone into thinking that they're hearing state-of-the-art musical ideas, when it's just well-tooled older ones.
only once you recognize that can you move past those albums as being in your top 10/50/whatever and actually progress beyond them
LCD Soundsystem is the project of James Murphy, a member of New York's production duo DFA (Death From Above) with Tim Goldsworthy, who entered the disco-punk fray with the double-CD LCD Soundsystem (Capitol, 2005), an album that also includes all their early singles.
http://www.scaruffi.com/vol7/lcdsound.html
>>63076705
>I don't know how you could possibly call Bjrok's music trivial or even pop
I don't know how you could possibly call it anything else. She's the walking, talking definition of style over substance.
>>63076606
Fuck, I actually agree wholeheartedly with that
>>63077317
interesting how he gave 45:33 a 7.5
>>63076606
he didn't write this desu
>>63076237
The first rock kind you mention is actually cool though.
>>63076285
Bad
always, he's literally never wrong
>>63076491
accurate
>>63076683
where's this?
>>63076161
>salty old Italian claiming there'd been a band like Arctic Monkeys before
That's actually just horse shit. Say what you want about them, but their early output is one of a kind.
>>63080345
sup tumblr
>>63076161
arctic monkeys doesn't sound anything like oasis tho
if he called them a strokes + gang of four ripoff i'd probably agree
>>63076517
how are you enjoying your first day on /mu/
>>63076491
F#A#?
>At the sight of such mastery, Siberian Khatru is almost a joke.
Damn...
>>63076705
>le studio wizardry
Why are old people allowed to have an opinion on modern music? Scaruffi's a fucking dadrocker hack.
>>63076705
>>63082184
To be fair, the studio trickery employed by Scarufficore bands (such as Tortoise) is often more interesting than the studio trickery of Byork, Beatles etc.
>>63078661
Not him.
It is really, really cool. But it really isn't rock, so it's not what I want when I pick up a rock record, it's just called that, but it doesn't retain any element of it. Great, but not really rock.
my one gripe with Scaruffi is Spirit of Eden getting an 8 and Laughing Stock only a 7
is it because LS was just expanding on SoE?
>>63082385
I know he praised After the Flood as being a great track. He probably just thinks SoE is a better album overall, which I kind of agree with.
>>63080345
plex
>>63077725
You have no fucking clue what you are talking about. Bjork's music is beautiful and unique and emotional. I heard Kendrick Lamar released a new album, you should probably fuck off to the threads about him where you can post his meme lyrics in all caps.
>>63080345
Is this bait, Arctic monkeys are derivative as fuck
>>63082163
That's the best song on the album though.
>>63076491
he has such sheltered taste
>>63076517
This was the first one of these I read and I immediately left. That's literally every teenager's argument for not liking the Beatles.
>They're popular and therefore they can't be as significant as people say they are.
>I only like genres where the best stuff doesn't even sell well.
It's eloquently put teenage hipsterism.
>>63082269
Care to talk about the tricker Tortoise did?
>>63076606
I wonder what is his rating for TLOP
>>63083945
>>They're popular and therefore they can't be as significant as people say they are.
That's not what Scaruffi says at all retard. There are plenty of super popular artists Scaruffi praises. Bob Dylan for example.
>>63083945
No, he's saying that classical music and jazz music criticism is much more studied and researched than rock music criticism, and that the "best" rock music is more influenced by how commercially successful a band is than other factors.
>>63082385
It used to be an 8 too
http://web.archive.org/web/20030101085832/http://www.scaruffi.com/vol4/talktalk.html
>>63083935
>sheltered
I guarantee he's listened to at least 10 times as many albums as you mate
Spiderland (1991) was even more abstract. Its harmonic zigzags through irregular tempos, fractured melodies and discordant counterpoint were as disorienting as notes scribbled in an unknown language. Vapid moribund passages were inundated by sudden tidal waves of sound, or, better, given the glacial tone of the band's jamming, arctic quiet was shaken by icebergs cracking in the ocean. The whole album flew in a dis-organic manner, but still retained an odd sense of unity. It sounded like the stream of consciousness of a mathematician's brain as it was solving a difficult theorem.
if what your saying is that albums like Remain in Light or DSOTM or whatever else (albums which had a focus on production techniques etc) are bad as a rule then I disagree. I think Another Green world is notable for its very evocative and emotive soundscapes. It was the product of a "studio-as-an-instrument" production style but I think it has fantastic melodies as well as sounds.
>>63084095
how can one man be so based?
he also praised Rodan and June of 44. the man loves post-rock
>>63076616
Isn't "studio wizardry" part of the music? An important part of music is how it sounds, so why is that arbitrarity ignored for some reason.
He even uses this same argument when talking about radiohead.
>Radiohead are masters of the artificial. Their parable crowns a long tradition in British rock music of putting form before content, of concentrating on "sound" to the expense of "music".
BUT MUSIC IS MADE OF SOUND
He didn't shit on Since I Left You. So he's cool with me.
What instrument does he play again?
>>63085780
12 year old girls
>>63085780
>hurr you need to play an instrument to criticize music
fuck right off. you could play 14 instruments and you wouldn't be as knowledgable about music as Scaruffi. the dude has listened to and analyzed more than 20,000 albums in his life. can you say the same about yourself? no, because you're probably 14 so you haven't even lived long enough to do that and so you think that technical ability with an instrument matter when criticizing vastly different works of music.
>>63085735
there's a difference between sonic quality and musicality
>people accuse him of dad-rockery when he gave the most high ratings to albums released in the 90s than any other decade
>>63085836
Explain
>>63082163
Siberian Khatru is really bad in comparison. The first two pieces are these transcendental masterpieces of prog rock, and just after And You And I ends, Siberian Khatru enters with this clunky hard rock riff. It's so bad.
Daily reminder Scruff hasn't even listened to all the albums he has reviewed. Those Boards Of Canada tapes 'intended for close friends and family only' are the first ones that come to mind, but I bet he has done this trick numerous times.
>>63083946
I'll write something up, but this thread's about to die, so for now I'll just bump it by saying that you should go listen to TNT.
>>63079079
this
>>63076161
If you're expecting something new to come out of a guitar, you're bound to be disappointed.
>>63084026
Found the scaruffi drone
do you donate money to the italian pedophile from time to time?
The fact that so many Americans still believe it should be illegal to marry a 12-year-old only tells you how far America still is from becoming a serious culture. The Europeans have long recognized that the greatest relationships of all times are between male adults and female adolescents, who are the most biologically fit to produce offspring, as well as the most physically attractive. Followers of the Muslim faith rank the highly controversial Aisha over all of their prophet Mohammed’s other wives, who were far past the prime age for reproduction. Americans are still blinded by puritan values. Adult females are more mentally developed than adolescents (not true, by the way), therefore they must be the greatest partners. Europeans engaged in relationships with adolescent European girls in the middle ages, radical Islamists engage in relationships with adolescent Muslim girls in the present. Americans are often totally ignorant of the virtues of relationships with adolescent girls, they barely know the biological benefits. No wonder they will think that sexual relations with 12-year-old girls should be criminalized.
>>63083946
>>63086958
I mean just listen to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spi2CeY0Bis
The timbres they get out of their guitars (mostly through tape manipulation), the stereo panning, the electronic noise that starts at 1:50 and continually morphs in the background throughout the rest of the song?
Or this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLHpheqlWMo
If you listen really carefully, there are two subtle "jolts" at 1:36 and 1:39
When Scaruffi complains about "studio wizardry", it's usually in cases where the studio is used to make somewhat layered music sound less harsh, as opposed to enhancing the music artistically. (Of course he never elaborates, which is my main problem with him)
>>63077207
You're the pleb, Yeezus is garbage that only appeals to idiots who have never listened to industrial/experimental hip hop before.
>>63078602
He wrote it.
>>63085855
>Well Oiled: 9/10
>This is Not a Dream: 8/10
based
>>63085806
>hurr you need to play an instrument to criticize music
You do. After that your argument kind of falls off the face of the earth. Why did you leave the k-pop thread?
>>63083945
It's not that they're shit because they're popular, it's that they're shit and they're popular. You wouldn't know that they're shit, because they're popular.
>>63088359
okay so how many instruments do I need to play? if I play guitar, does that mean I'm qualified to criticize music with saxophone in it? or do I have to play every instrument I want to critique? do I have to be able to replicate an entire album myself to criticize it?
>>63076161
his entire TMR review is beautiful
Bricolage , 8.5/10
>>63088597
You need atleast basic understanding of music theory and it wouldn't hurt to know the very basics of what are required to play and perform on the most popular instruments. Added to this you need knowledge of music history and awareness of it's current situation if you want to actually criticize music without looking like a retard.
t. different anon
>>63089299
Scaruffi knows music theory though
Read his essay on Captain Beefheart
>>63089333
I know he does but my post wasn't really aimed at him I was just giving the anon the basic requirements for reviewing music without sounding like a complete oblivious fool.
I don't follow any music reviewers nor do I do it myself either btw
