mirage rock

Um, guys.....maybe we should have rethought the album title..

(vivisection provided by pitchfork)


"In a year of adjective-rock album titles, Mirage Rock is as telling of a descriptor as Celebration Rock. The difference is that Japandroids' intentions matched their achievements-- Celebration Rock was a winning testament to good times and good rock music at its most life-affirming. Mirage Rock, on the other hand, evokes an emptiness that couldn't have been intentional. Like an actual mirage, there is no there there on Mirage Rock. All the elements for a typical Band of Horses album appear in their right places-- Ben Bridwell's honeyed whine, the straightforward thrust of the guitars, the earnest hippie-dippiness of the lyrics-- and yet the music dissipates instantly upon impact. Mirage Rock is so lightweight and inconsequential that it really does seem more like an illusion than a record; it's wispy and indiscernible, as if the people who made it had no vision for what it should be."

Having listened to this the other day, I think they had a very specific vision: to make a Crosby, Stills & Nash album.

CSN? Didnt the Fleet Foxes already do that? Helplessness Blues....

Not the point of slavish imitation the way this BoH record does. Some of the tunes here make America sound like innovators with an original vision.

Quote

Mirage Rock is so lightweight and inconsequential that it really does seem more like an illusion than a record; it's wispy and indiscernible, as if the people who made it had no vision for what it should be."

"Wispy and indiscernible?" Damn. Sounds like my cup o' twee.

...

Don't think I'll buy it, however. Seldom in the annals of whatever-it-is-they-call-it-this-week rock have the wheels come off a band faster than Band of Horses.

The debut was killer. It's been Nothing But Diminishing Returns ever since.

What a bummer.

Wait, does this mean Yacht Rock is now officially dead (or did it only exist as a label given "retrospectively" to certain 70s/80s outfits)?

Yacht Rock is definitely a retrospective term. Loggins and Mcdonald had know idea they were going to rewrite the history book with such innovation.
They were just trying to write a good tune... not change the world as we know it.