Re: Son of Return Of The "Pre-Ordained Classic"

This past week I'm seeing it a bit with The National's new Sleep Well Beast.

Not a bad record to me at all but not nearly as thrilling as their Alligator/Boxer peak but I'm seeing some unearned, deceptive raves and "best of career" type stuff in Rolling Stone, SPIN, etc. for basically adding some EDM/Radiohead flourishes and not making a record that flat out sucks and still being good 10-12 years after those great records.

Maybe it helps if you record so rarely and ever so slightly redefine your established sound when you do come back.

Thoughts or are any other recent contenders for this kind of thing in 2017? LCD Soundsystem maybe? (Haven't given it a listen as of yet .......)

Yeah, the LCD Soundsystem definitely fits the bill. Of course, it was mostly LCD Soundsystem themselves proclaiming that it was a classic, as most hype about LCD Soundsystem is generated by LCD Soundsystem. (They have actually come clean about the fact that their "break-up" was mainly a marketing ploy in order to be able to put on a huge farewell show.)

The most irritating thing is that the album is indeed pretty damn great. I want to dislike LCD, but they stubbornly insist on making great records. Then writing their own press releases about how great their records are.

The hype over the new National album is kind of a head scratcher. I don't really see what all the fuss is about, but boy, there sure is a lot of fuss. My only explanation is that the previous album was kind of greeted as "Oh, hey. A new National album," and for this one, the press remembered "Wait, we're supposed to make a big fuss over these guys" and have joined in accordingly.

It's a perfectly good National album, but I don't really see what all the hosannas are in regard to.

The thing that's been most surprising and gratifying to me is the enthusiasm for the new OMD album. I suspect that this is the most amount of hype they've ever received stateside for any album. But people are falling all over themselves to praise it, which is cool.

I never thought The National were that interesting to begin with. LCD Soundsystem is a funny question, because I do think that James Murphy is genuinely gifted and the best LCD songs are really great, but they always struck me as so solipsistic — a lot of great LCD Soundsystem songs are about the experience of listening to other great musicians, or about the idea of being an older guy writing music for younger kids who don't appreciate their progenitors...

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I never thought The National were that interesting to begin with.

National
timing

LCD
indeed, the first that's listenable [and not euro beep and blips]; i.e. written. I hear Bowie and Pavement

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and while we're oot and aboot

Yawpers - Boy in a Well
maybe their best

Weddoes - Home Internationals
after all these years, they become experimental on the last coupla

War on Drugs - Deeper
certainly some nice trax so far

Pains of BPaH
probably not going to smack yr snack

The Fall
you know by now [ah]

Ted Leo
wow; see Nick Cave

Game Theory - supercalifragile
not what I expected; seems it was mostly unfinished

Grizzly Bear - Painted
I kinda thought this was the one getting pre-ord accs
but I was never fanning; sense of duty only

GBV- spell heaven
forget the other one and get this

Ty Segall - Shallots EP
each track worthy

Downtown Boys - Cost
they blend together...but OK, I get it now

Deerhoof - Mountain Moves
see The Fall

Broken Social Scene - Hug of Thunder
will be on most year-enders

Arcade Fire- Everything Now
quit being a TP band after the 2nd LP, with each worse than the last; that said, this is a step away from the horrible Reflktor, back to Suburbs

Alvvays - antisocialite
a bit too Raveonettes/Shop Assistants at first but then I heard the Besnard Lakes/Slumberland notes. it's asking for another spin

BTW -
I think zwirm's bulls-eye's epigrammatic re:LCD

And I was just going to say: every song is 3x as long as needed to be at their most effective