If Arcade Fire's best album Grammy last year and the nominations of Mumford & Sons and Bon Iver for best record this year don't signify the meaningless of the term indie rock, then I'm not sure what does. Like alternative before it, indie has become a catch all term for a large swath of music no longer separable from the mainstream, as it was in the past, by its unique lyrical sensibility, its small market distribution, its do-it-yourself production, or its devoted cult of followers. Everybody, in other words, lives in The Suburbs. Hipsters everywhere despair: the bands you knew were cool before anyone else are now taking home the industry's highest accolade (though Bon Iver and Mumford have absolutely no chance against Adele).
All of this to say that it is no longer possible to judge allegedly indie bands by a different set of standards: sorry Sufjan, it is no longer okay for your horn section to sound like a sixth-grade band concert. Indie bands need to be every bit as polished as the mainstream acts they are competing with. This is good news for The National, a very put-together "indie" band with lucrative commercial succeses, a dark, fully realized sound, and a fantastic baritone lead--Matt Berniger. Somehow or another, Berniger's reminds me of Leonard Cohen and David Bowie put together. The dark texture of his voice suits his subject matter well. In "Green Gloves," my favorite track, Berniger sings of love and loss:
Falling out of touch with all my
friends are somewhere getting wasted,
hope they’re staying glued together,
I have arms for them.
Take another sip of them,
it floats around and takes me over
like a little drop of ink in a glass of water
Not that the whole of "Boxer" is sturm aund drang. The last track, "The Gospel" at least hints at some kind of human reconciliation, perhaps in sharing small pleasures:
I got two armfuls of magazines for you
I’ll bring em over
so hang your holiday rainbow lights in the garden
hang your holiday rainbow lights in the garden and I’ll
I’ll bring a nice icy drink to you
Tracks like this one kept me coming back to "Boxer" again and again over the past two weeks. I wish the same were true of Rachel Ries and "For Only You." Ries may be a real indie musician--her record label, Waterbug, has a large catalog of folk singers/songwriters, but as far as I can tell, this is a pretty homegrown affair. That in and of itself did not make me dislike Rachel Ries. But I couldn't find anything original in her singing or her songwriting. She has a sweet, even beautiful voice, but I could hear a similar voice at any coffee shop on open mic night. The music did have a kind of comfort value, but in the end, remained anonymous and forgettable.
Note to both Erics: Eric A, don't make me diss another of Eric E's choices. Eric E: Sorry man.
Decision: The National, "Boxer."
Ummm...you do realize that the Sufjan album you're ripping on was recorded in his house when he was playing for crowds consisting of people he knew on a first name basis, right?
ReplyDeleteI demand a recount!
ReplyDeleteI like the Michigan record and I like Sufjan. My point is that indie artists are now being held accountable to higher industry standards, and that this is probably a good thing for fans and musicians alike, at least in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteOK. I had two points: 1) I'd still take a Picasso or a Van Gogh over a Thomas Kinkaide, even though Kinkaide's work is likely more skillfully executed (I'm not suggesting that Sufjan is Picasso) and b) Nate hates Sufjan for the same traits one would find in many of Nate's favorites, like Arcade Fire or the Decemberists...and this baffles me and III) I'll shut up now.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible, I think, that the rough-sounding brass in "Michigan" is deliberately rough. That might be particularly true on "Flint," since dissonance seems to be a fitting way of expressing Flint's hopelessness. And whether this is true does not take away from the overall success of the album, which I really like.
ReplyDeleteThat said, there are two basics that all former band geeks know: 1) play in tune 2) stay in time. So my irritation--which is minor but persnickety--goes something like this. "You are taking the time to record a multi-layered, sonically rich album, and you can't get the horns to tune up?"
Coming from someone who himself put up a SS album for DM'99, I must say that I find Sufjan's Michigan album completely unlistenable. Whereas I am really liking Boxer. Time I picked up a Kincaide before they're all sold out!
ReplyDelete