I want it to be longer, louder, harsher, brasher, messier, wronger, less perfect; even if a bit less perfect; please. Please?
I want it to be longer, louder, harsher, brasher, messier, wronger, less perfect; even if a bit less perfect; please. Please?
http://www.v2benelux.com (Domino) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l1joxKzJ-k
This is perfectly enjoyable pop and bound to be a big hit and gushed over lots by smarter and more interesting, well-connected people than me. Why, then, can’t I enjoy it in a manner that the release wants me to? Well, maybe it’s because this over-the-hill provincial misfit just doesn’t trust these two tracks. Or, maybe it’s because I think there’s just not enough in the songs anyway. I’m left with the feeling that these recordings don’t squeeze enough out of the concept of what the tracks could be. Or even capture what the songs initially suggested to the band. Despite the nice balance of weirdo, “synthy” guitar noises on XXX especially (a bit glam and swoony in the way Eno used on his early, poppy solo LPs like Taking Tiger Mountain, or a bit like Michael Karoli on later Can LPs) or the grinding and growling Stranglers basslines, or the singalong melody, things are a wee bit mannered and well… safe. The voice tries to come over all suggestive, or above all the base excitements the band want to whip up but well, the result sounds groomed. A sonic unit of production. Fordism saving guitar rock. And I could be cruel and say Swarm is XXX speeded up albeit with a bit of tinsel, (courtesy of nods to Sparks or World of Twist) chucked in. I mean, it’s attractive, catchy, poppy “indie” guitar rock. With nothing else to worry or care about.
But I do worry. I want it to be longer, louder, harsher, brasher, messier, wronger, less perfect; even if a bit less perfect; please. Please?
Still, what do I know? I’m sure this lot will be huge. It certainly feels as it will be huge. And with pithy remarks like mine safely buried under a heap of adulation I’m sure The Bohicas will carry on regardless.