`Tales Of Us` - Reviews By Us

whisperit

Meanwhile, my feeling is that TOU will probably take its place alongside 7T as a very, very good album.

FM did the creative spadework, like sinking a new mineshaft into the hillside of human existence.

With BC, Alison and Will entered the shaft and discovered a vein of pure gold. They mined it with skill and produced something of beauty and wonder.

SN was put together from the tailings of that excavation.

With 7T, they found a new vein, less rich than the BC working, but still filled with wonder.

HF was something they did while taking a break from mining, probably while eating a cheese sandwich.

TOU is a return to the darkness - they're not doing anything as innovative as FM and the vein they are mining isnt as rich as BC. But its still capable of producing things of beauty.

That's enough for now. I have to get into the communal baths at the pithead before I stink the place out.

la_catalina

It's funny that some seem to think my arguments stem from me having something personal against the group. I don't. Why would I? I don't know them so.... And it's equally odd that some seem to think I'm being a bit bitter towards them. I'm not at all. If anything my (rather) passionate debate stems from a hope that they still might suprise me, and display the talent that they clearly have.
.

Hoping is a very positive activity and there's nothing bitter about it. Sell out or integrity aside, I do believe they have huge potential and it's frustrating to see them taking the easy option.

It's a myth that I only like Felt Mountain, as I got into them in 2005 with SN, however much I liked some of those songs it is Felt Mountains ingenuity that really proved to me how damned good they were.

I don't see what's bitter about that.

la_catalina · Post edited by la_catalina at 2013-09-18 11:45:39

Oh and Whisperit

I'm not saying old Vincent was indifferent to money - those new fangled paints in tubes weren't cheap, but in the letter he only states he needs money to make work, not works to make money.

No way am I against money, of course it costs shed loads to do things, but it's different when money becomes the driving force. And Vincent whether he had money or not, it didn't change his artistic expresion. That's integrity -

he lived in very poor conditions (I've seen his house in Arles) but he still pressed on..

It would have been much easier for him to play the conventional landscape painter or portraitist,he clearly had the skills to do that but he believed in his revolutionary views on colour and colour theory which kept him going.

But of course artists nowadays are more like managers, and less like craftsmen, so it's bound to change the way they work and what they produce.

It takes a very strong person to be able to resist market forces, and everyone has their price...

Sartori

la_catalina said:

It takes a very strong person to be able to resist market forces, and everyone has their price...

Everyone thinks they don`t until they or their children are starving , I`ll never pretend that I`ve never brown nosed to get overtime when I needed the money or went out of my way to stroke egos and say just the right things to get my promotion, I`m not selling out , I`m not discarding my integrity , just living with pragmatism . To point at others for selling out is to naively throw a stone in a glass house that you don`t realise exists .

la_catalina · Post edited by la_catalina at 2013-09-18 12:17:38

And as an English person living abroad, because I simply can't afford to live and make art in the UK any longer, I'm in a good position to say life in the UK is bloody hard and very expensive, with most people working stupidly hard and long to make ends meet!

I will say though that at one point i moved in very similar circles as Alison did and does, so it's interesting to see the different paths that were taken.

When I was at art school and had to attend the seminar on how to market yourself, I like so many others deliberately said fuck that and didn't go.

Yes, I'm not a famous artist now, but that was very much by choice, it was my way of sticking my two fingers up to the Thatcherite influences that were influencing and ruining the british art world.

I'm not living off my art right now, and I even spent all my money on a film that I was horrified with, and threw it in a box as soon as it was burnt on a dvd. I could have played the game (hell I went to White Cube openings with a guy who played in the Bad Seeds and I even met Lisa Gunning there), but again, I chose not to be part of something I felt would have tainted my work and destroy it from the inside out.

But no way am I bitter about it!

Sartori

Andy McCluskey (of OMD) had a bit of a post about their new album and a bands perception of wtf is happening and selling out , it has obvious parallels with Goldfrapp about "synths" . Paul is Paul Humphries his writing/band partner , DS is DazzleShips an album where they went in a different direction after a very successful album -

People often assume that bands have a clear idea of what is happening around them and in their musical careers. In truth, they usually do not. They are busy, pressurised, and just doing the best that they can in a strange 'pressure cooker' environment. We certainly realised that D Ships was a commercial disaster .. but did we really knowingly 'sell out" and try to only write 'hits'.. No we didn't. Did we abandon our purely electronic roots?. yes we did.. but that was as much to do with a genuine desire to try something different as much as it was to do with 'making a living'

Paul and I certainly now wish that we had a strong manager who had told us not to abandon our musically challenging principles and not to accept the pressures of the label for delivery times. That was the real changing influence .. our conceding to pressure to deliver when we had not been allowed time to fill up the well of ideas.

The second message he posted on the forum is regarding the music itself and how it is received -

Music is very personal and subjective. We don't expect everyone to like what we do.

One common mistake that listeners of all musical artists make is to overpersonalise the 'message'.
Just because a band wrote a song or an album that touched you once upon a time, it doesn't mean that they intended to. They were having a conversation with themselves and they accidentally spoke to you in a language that resonated for you. If they then have another conversation with themselves and the language changes and you no longer understand it or it doesn't touch you in the same way, do not be upset or offended: don't take it personally and don't 'blame' the band. They have not abandoned you or their 'ethos'. They just spoke differently and it didn't resonate for you this time.

If we do something and it doesn't work for you it is OK to say that it doesn't touch you. But don't tell us what we did and didn't do. Don't tell us what we were trying to achieve or how we were failing. You have no idea what you are talking about. And don't be angry that we are no longer speaking 'your' language. We never intended to speak to you in the first place. We were all just lucky that there was a time when we chimed together.

tattmaylor

^ nice quote, although surprised who it was from.

la_catalina · Post edited by la_catalina at 2013-09-18 14:01:39

Hmm interesting quote Sartori

I never considered OMD to be a purely electronic band, they certainly got thrown in that category, but despite telling Kraftwerk that " tomorrow we throw out our guitars and will only play synthesisers" they always had some guy there on bass or guitar didn't they?

For me, and I make great pains to say this is just a personal view, for me electronic music in pop can be traced back to Joe Meek, and that is a long time ago, and way, before Robert Moog had a product on the market, but Meeks studio processed treatments, and use of the clavioline, are, for me, within the spirit of the electronic age.

I'm saying this because regarding Goldfrapp there's no way I would advocate synths as a necessity for an edgy sound, synths are by now, 50 years down the line, no longer 'the future' in the they were back in 1974.

there's always new ways of using old instruments though isn't there?

thathurt

Im not forgiving him for giving us Atomic kitten. Taking that to the grave.

Sartori · Post edited by Sartori at 2013-09-18 15:20:06

The 'synths' mention is more referring to them a metaphor for 'trying something different', I`d add that their Universal album went back to using strings and orchestras and bombed . The quotes I`ve put are just from an artists point of view , they might or might not reflect Al and Will`s viewpoint . I`ve put them there for promoting objectivity purposes as another point of view and I saw no reason to rewrite the Bible by paraphrasing him .

Mmm , electronic music...to me I suppose its defined as a point it went from "thats just a bloody racket" to "oooh that sounds groovy" and the Human Leagues `Travelogue` and Tubeway Army got me hooked like a llama on a fishing line .

OMD - their live stuff always used guitar at some point (but not for the whole set) , otherwise you run out of synths or have to dabble in a backing track black magic - but arguably the better Electronic acts use a bass player when working live , I suppose it removes the metronomic sequencing aspect of electronic music and sounds much better . Gary Numan - when I saw him live - the bass guitar almost punched my chest in during Cars .

Sartori

thathurt said:
Im not forgiving him for giving us Atomic kitten. Taking that to the grave.

Hey , he gave those girls a career selling Iceland frozen nibbles and reality tv haha

thathurt

Oh id forgotten Iceland ads. Less annoying than Activia yoghurt ads.

Sartori

la_catalina said:

I'm saying this because regarding Goldfrapp there's no way I would advocate synths as a necessity for an edgy sound, synths are by now, 50 years down the line, no longer 'the future' in the they were back in 1974.

there's always new ways of using old instruments though isn't there?

I`d say synths or more precisely "studio technology" can reinvent the wheel , dance music throws up the bastardisation of genres to make a new sounding track despite it being just made from different parts in a different order and mangled with studio techniques to make something new . Caro Emerald , using a mix of jazz , swing and hiphop , old parts , sounds new (thats just an example , not a sales pitch haha)

Sartori · Post edited by Sartori at 2013-09-18 15:41:46

la_catalina said:

I'm not living off my art right now, and I even spent all my money on a film that I was horrified with, and threw it in a box as soon as it was burnt on a dvd.

As a reflective point , you did that film as it was what you wanted to do artistically at the time ? I`m trying not to put words into Al and Wills mouths but I`d say they are doing that , its only with hindsight that one can throw it in a box . I`ve done things like this myself and failed to regret them (learned a lesson but not regretted) as if I hadn`t , then it would be a regret .

There is another argument that this is their riskiest album to date but it would require an intense bit of thinking of how to write it .

A_is_A · Post edited by A_is_A at 2013-09-18 21:28:54

If longing had a sound it would be Tales Of Us, it’s the
haunting of things past that wrenches and seduces and that’s what I feel when I listen
to this album.

Tales Of Us is utterly bewitching! I’m sure it’s been said
before in other words, but I find it achingly beautiful. The autotune
generation might not appreciate it, but really who cares, I doubt they made
this album for them anyway.

I truly feel that if you can honestly say that you think TOU is a BAD album, you're:

1) Clearly did not sit in peace and quiet to really
listen to it

2) Have no actual appreciation for music, and or deaf

3) Have some personal vendetta against the band

-Skimmed thru some of the reviews and It’s curious to me that
the only negative reviews seem to come from fans who were always critical of
the band in the past, strangely, it seems like they’re only interested in
popping in here to give their continued negative criticism.?

Anyway, those are my two cents. I love this album, I think
it’s truly a thing of beauty.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories