Bad opinions • Page 675

Instant Crush?
Jk I know what you meant

 

that song rules hard too

 

It was sloppy writing by SNL. The producer in question is supposed to be the band's manager Sandy Pearlman, but team SNL bought the BOC greatest hits instead of Agents Of Fortune so they used the name of the greatest hits reissue producer, Bruce Dickinson, instead.

 

Love Lana. She clocked all my exes in NFW the song

 

pyramids probably song of the decade. probably definitely.

 

Pyramids isn’t even the best song on that album

 

Yeah but there’s a difference between acknowledging the value of “pop” music and making constant mountains out of molehills. It’s like people can’t accept that the music they like may just actually be relatively vapid (whatever the fuck that even means as applied to music), so instead they have to make huge intellectual stretches in a way that makes it seem like they’re more interested in justifying their tastes than anything else. At which point it’s buying into the anti-pop philosophy anyway, but simply straining to come out against it nonetheless

Idk if that’s exactly what is normally meant when people talk about “poptimism” but it’s what I think when I see the term and regardless it’s one of the worst trends of the past decade

 

I like a metal band called Slugdge and all their songs are about slugs

 

Why do they always do this bullshit where they always put out the list well before the year/decade is even over. Like just wait a couple months jfc

I remember when D’Angelo released Black Messiah in like December 2014 and then a bunch of sites/mags included it in their 2015 AOTY lists as if they weren’t well aware

 

for me it's more how the pendulum has shifted in the other direction and you're only allowed to say nice things about pop stars or you're hater who should go fuck off and we're enabling them in a little cocoon and it sucks

 

fine, i’ll bite: what is?

 

As many ppl know I have many feelings about pop music. Idk what poptimism is but sometimes I kind of hate how social media and stanning have made things. Stans post ridic records their faves have broken which like aren't even a record lol. Like yaaaas my fave is the first Aquarius to hit a million streams while in the third week of July during a full moon!!! I also kinda hate when they do the opposite too and make their faves out to be constantly victimized specifically. There will always be ridic think pieces and social media posts hating on ur fave. Whining about not everyone loving them or how they can "never win" is just a waste of time. Of course not everyone will like what they do and you'll disagree or think that's dumb idk just keep it moving I guess, unless it's a clear racism or sexism thing or etc. And I don't think Whitney Houston vocals are a necessity (obviously, I love Britney) but it's odd when I criticize a popstars vocals and ppl are like "female singers don't all have to be Adele to have a good voice! They can be versatile like men!" Which I tooootally agree like yes that is true. But in some cases they just have weak vocals Not everything is a deeper thing.

Now I'll just go back to crying over my faves k thanx

 

I'm just like "do you really think *insert popstar here* really had a fantastic album front to back?"

Because it's ok if they don't. Most pop albums have some very weak tracks. We can say that Ariana Grande makes jams without needing to uphold her albums like they are a resonant document of our time and age. It's ok to just enjoy things without demanding that they are Important.

 

Of all the folks whose critical stock took a dive as this decade went on due to declining quality in output (from massive artists like Drake and Taylor and the Weeknd, to major indie artists like Chvrches and Arcade Fire, to people who had declining musical quality but also other issues affecting their standing like Kanye West and Sun Kil Moon) Father John Misty is the single most, ahem, mystifying to me.

Honeybear remains one of the best albums of the decade

Pure Comedy, and particularly the media circus surrounding its release, was clearly a turn off for many but artistically speaking the album was not panned at all. God's Favorite Customer was a well-executed palate cleanser.

It just strikes me as odd how within five years he went from a meteoric rise to such a big fall in the eyes of many, given his supposed crime was to make an all-in opus type album and promote it in an admittedly overbearing but also pretty entertaining and often humorous way.

I think FJM is a super talent and has a lot of great potential still left in him. And to reiterate, Honeybear is a masterpiece.

 

Honeybear is absolutely a masterpiece.

 

As someone who isn't super familiar with him, what exactly would he do that was so entertaining / humorous? Virtually everything I've ever heard from the guy makes him out to be either incredibly corny or beyond insufferable, like in a throwback early-00s-pitchfork kind of way

 

That’s mostly how I understand it too

 

The weird thing about poptimism is how we had to endure all those excellent pop albums being critically lauded (edit: I meant disparaged, my post is confusing otherwise), most often for sexist reasons. I guess people speaking out about it is more or less how it started, and I won't lie, seeing recent reappraisal articles felt good. Now it seems more... disingenuous? It's like only a few current pop stars get acknowledged and reap all the critical acclaim in wake of poptimism, while others still get the same tired criticisms that triggered the movement in the first place.

 

He isn't for everyone but he can certainly be very witty (including in his lyrics) and most of his humour is directed at himself or the media or society at large which is far more endearing than when people are just plain insulting. He has done post-concert Q&A sessions, for instance, which amount to basically stand-up shows, all just as a little bonus for fans at his shows. The fact he recreated Ryan Adams' version of 1989 "in the style of the Velvet Underground" was so absurd that I found it amusing (and impressive, he really nailed Lou Reed) and then, like fuck Ryan Adams so that too.
There are many other examples but it all depends on your tastes I guess.

 

Huh, that's actually super interesting. Never thought I'd actually get an answer to that lol

 

On the pop conversation, I don't listen to a TON of the genre but I still think Futuresex/Lovesounds is the best pure pop album front to back after the year 2000

 

I’m very slow to the punch on this one but the best song on channel orange is crack rock. also has one of the best opening lines of a song like ever. also completely disagree with anyone who says either of frank’s albums are overrated.

 

Pitchfork should stop using the classification “Pop/R&B” because it drives me nuts. Unless someone makes an album that actually does both.

 

I think the issue is more that a lot of people that rate Frank’s albums highly have heard like three other R&B albums in their life and many have actively put the genre down for the last 30 years. On top of that, they don’t seem willing to actually change that situation.

 

Fixed.