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Don't know what is 'accurate' about this - since Freud famously said that ordinary, as opposed to acute, misery was the best we could hope for.

It's in the section on Bad Faith... he's trying to explain how we can deceive ourselves even though he regards the concept of the unconscious as incoherent. Interesting how Sartre's critique (the unconscious must be conscious in order to operate as a censor) in many ways leads onto Lacan's...

O come on, what is POST Joy Division about their sound? They might be post-U2, I'll grant you - the empty stadium bluster and preening egotism transformed into student union bragging and stroppiness. But rhythmic elegance? Dear god... Surely fidelity to the EVENT of 60s-80s rock would...

Surely some sort of record? The Verinder appearance/fight/flight cycle now so fast it's become imperceptible.

Yeh, Padraig, I think you should tone down your intelligent, thoughtful and interesting posts and get into the spirt of things round here.

That good, eh? Yes, they were a 'phenomenon'. Same as Artic Monkeys are a phenomenon. Yes, lots of people liked them. I'm sure there was a 'vibe' at Trad Jazz concerts too. None of this mitigates the fact that their jingle-jangle pop was a disastrous force of reaction. But Nirvana were great...

Well, me too! But isn't the point that a CULTURE in which there is no vanguardism is moribund. Or retro....

But that's surely different to AMs and FF, which sound like they could have existed 25 years ago (except that, certainly in the case of Franzzzzz, they wouldn't have made it beyond 3rd on the billl in the Hull Adelphi then).

But wouldn't the more compelling analogy with Shaky be the Arctic Monkeys? Except that Shaky at least revived music that was new once, whereas the AMs revive pop that was ITSELF not only revivalist, but which legitimated and normalised revivalism (Oasis and the Libertines). Occurred to me the...

Yes, I suppose it is. But reheating Tubeway Army/Adina Howard/Human League/SOS Band/Spandau Ballet I'll take that 'sadness' over reheating The Smiths/The Jam/Oasis/the Libertines any day of the week.

Think this is right about RS - part of the problem is that she has been so inappropriately marketed. Her appeal is GirlNextDoor not sex siren - she looked so uncomfortable in the LA Ex vid trying to vamp it up and she's never seemed happy since. But I don't think Kylie is a 'blank slate' that...

Yeh, I think that's the problem for RS - she's started from the patently manufactured context of S-Club (where she wasn't even the nominated 'proper' singer - stand up Jo O'Meara, just now plying her trade on rubbish reality TV show Just the Two of Us on BBC1). Now the next step from there is...

Yeh, I think the Spice Girls comparison might have highlighted part of GA's problem, actually - that people see them as the Spice Girls mark II, and there's a sense - I would say an unwarranted one of course - that GA are just a second-rate, secondhand version of the Spice Girls. But the...

ha ha, I guess I was pushing it there for reasons of poetic symmetry. :) Was also thinking about the oft-quoted and oft-repudiated remark attributed to Derek May re: the relationship between techno and motown. Wanted to make the connection between Simon's Adorno-observations on 'part...

I think Tim (Wrong Side of Capitalism)'s more recent post which touches on GA is also highly relevant - especially this bit: What is interesting about this is that something like 'Biology' is full of rock and roll references - that whole 'wicked game' section is driven by r and r-style guitar...

yes, it sounds to me more like a case of sad old hasbeens pretending to have invented a never should have been...

Surely if he really believes all that stuff, there's no additional problem with his being in the pay of anyone. If he doesn't believe it and he's diseminating it at solely at someone else's behest, well...

(part 2) Aha... a value judgement. What are records more worthy of being lionized than others, and what criteria have been used to make this evaluation? 'Less abundant today'... how are you making that judgement? Is it an objective judgement? It's not that I disagree with these judgements -...

OK... lots here. 1. "Mindless consumerist entertainment" = a lie we tell ourselves about other people's enjoyment. Not necessarily; it can be the way we describe our own enjoyment. If I spend a night watching poor quality television programmes, as I often do, I would not object to it...

well, I was, but, just for you, I think I'll keep it for oooh at least another coupla months. Every single page? I think you'll be able to avoid it if you look on MOST of the threads here actually. You are particularly safe on Dubstep/ Grime/ non-critical Indie threads.... 'Malevolent crystal...