rock and roll fun
- It's much too late, and most of you already know this. But I still have to emphatically recommend Mates of State's Bring It Back, which was released earlier this year. I picked it up while I was in Seattle this spring, along with a few other MoS albums, which I mistakenly listened to first. "Pretty good," I thought, but I was tired of keyboards by the time I got to BIB. Big mistake. Worried about burning out on the Karmella's Game CD but still craving synthesizers, I put the album on during a drive back from Charlottesville and have been enamored ever since. We've been through a few too many album-of-the-summer discussions, I think, to open up old wounds. But oh, what could have been.
- Charles suggested that I listen to the I'm From Barcelona CD. "I think you'll like it," is what he said, which is what Charles says when he finds a CD that's slightly little too poppy for his own taste. And he's right, I do really like it. They're from one of those ex-Viking countries, and have way too many members, and make charming singalong-style music. It's pretty much right up my alley, and I'd recommend them. But not without reservations.
Generally speaking, I'm not very lyrics-focused. Mostly this is simply because I'm bad at picking them out. I value vocals for carrying the melody, for providing a percussive element, and — for what few snippets of meaning I can discern — for setting a mood. But it takes a lot of listens through an album before I start worrying about what the songs are actually about. I generally prefer for the lyrics to be clever, melancholy and/or impenetrable, but above all they have to be ignorable.
Sadly, IFB fails so spectacularly on the lyrical front that it demands your attention. I think it's mostly a matter of facility with English. Their American accents are flawless. But on the opening track they seem to have some difficulty distinguishing between gerunds and infinitives ("I could skip to wear clothes" probably ought to be "I could skip wearing clothes". I know, it sounds charming, but it kind of derails the song.). Other times they manage genuine sentences, but not good ones. Sample chorus: "I have built a treehouse / I have built a treehouse / No one else can see us / It's a you-and-me-house". Ugh. And let's not start talking about the track where the vocalist apes Dylan. It's admittedly not a lyrical miscue, but it's still deeply ill-advised.
Still, the instrumentation is great, and these guys are certainly capable of making wonderful music. In fact, the best track is the final one, which isn't in English. It does away with all the clumsiness and just makes something pretty. I'll have to see whether they've got any similarly unselfconscious releases.
- Me neither, for the record.
Comments
i still prefer "it's a human beehouse."
I kinda like their lyrics. Sure they are stupid, but I find it endearing. Like the song about Chicken Pox or Stamp Collecting. Also, because they are foreign I can't tell if they are being ironic or not. Take this video for example, does the lead singer always look like that or is it a joke? I can't tell. They just might be earnest Scandinavians, which I think makes the lyrics cute.
haha beautiful reflection bout Ifb man. Sweden is where they come from, me too btw.
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