Shruggism.

aye - the futureheads... produced by none other than andy gill... I'm gonna come out and declare my admiration for them. I listened to the album last night and really enjoyed it. there - I said it.

nothing new (of course) but they can write strong, interesting songs.... (*puts on kid jenson voice*) and that's something that will never go out of fashion. I think their massive success with hounds of love proves that. it's impossible to "reinvent" songwriting, beacause things have never stood still long enough for any kind of template to appear.

of course, as you get older, the other aspects of music making and an artist's being become familiar to you - arrangement, instrumentation, production, song topics, clothing, politics, behaviour... and these are the things that make you shrug. the issue is whether or not you let this get in the way of your appreciation of a musician or songwriter's ability.... of course I'd be lying if I said I never let this happen myself.

"the kids" love it (the cover version) and I must admit that it renewed my admiration for the original and made me appreciate it all the more.

hint said:

nothing new (of course) but they can write strong, interesting songs.... (*puts on kid jenson voice*) and that's something that will never go out of fashion. I think their massive success with hounds of love proves that.

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Am I missing something? How does a cover version prove you can write songs? Shurely shome mishtake

minusone said:

Am I missing something? How does a cover version prove you can write songs? Shurely shome mishtake

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nah - sorry. was a bit muddled... my point is that a strong song will always be a strong song and recognized as such. hounds of love is a strong song and has become very succesful after being covered by the futureheads, despite that fact that it is not new. you can shrug about it and say "why bother?"... but the fact that it's been so well received by people who may well have never heard the original is enough justification, I think. it helps the song live on... a kind of NME-friendly extension of folk tradition, I guess. which is kinda woebot's point, right? once a great song is out of that "pop window" to which woebot refers (i.e. over 15 years old) it's highly likely that it's being ignored by a large portion of the public, which is nothing but a bad thing.

my comment about their ability to write strong original material is separate - they can write good songs, so can kate bush (clearly a massive imbalance, granted)... in my opinion.

i love this term- "shruggism"- i think it captures what i feel about most new music these days- i like some of it, i can't even bring myself to dislike any of it- it's all shrug-worthy, even the really "good" stuff. it goes with getting old i guess...? maybe there should be some music that is purposely Shruggist? it probably exists already

aaah... go on...

it's always best to be sure of these things. you can shrug with confidence once you've heard a bit more.

Maybe forums, blogs, etc. help to foster shruggism, with all their cogitation over and discussion of the worth and function and context of all this music...

Not meaning to throw shit around, obviously here I am posting in such a forum.

i dont develop shruggism because the stuff i hear that makes me shrug is in one ear and out the other so fast i cant even recall it to shrug to later. my whole listening life is a constant battle between a premature cranky old man and a wide-eyed kid. when the cranky old man finally wins, i will simply take up turnip farming and be done with it.

but yeah, the futureheads rock.

(even if they sound like a barbershop quartet version of wire and ripped off the riff from "complete control" wholesale for one song.)

(shuddup old man they rool)

dubplatestyle said:

but yeah, the futureheads rock.

(even if they sound like a barbershop quartet version of wire and ripped off the riff from "complete control" wholesale for one song.)

(shuddup old man they rool)

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BULLSEYE!

They're alright, they're the best of the bunch that they're being lumped in with (Bloc Party, Killers etc). Yeah, nothing new, very Gang Of Four/Wire influenced etc, but they're not contrived. Nice lads too, I can vouch for that.

Man, I am gutted with the way "mainstream/alternative" guitar music has gone though. Coupla years ago, all bets were off. Honestly thought that maybe 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster or Pink Grease would become the big thing...it was looking possible for a while. Proper dirty fucking rockabilly influenced unhinged doomy shit in the case of the former and camp as fuck NY Dolls meets Sheffield electro in the latter. But NOOOOOO...it's a fucking Duran revival, via Britpop. Cunts.